Weight Loss -- Long Explanation

I have been looking at blogs a lot recently. I think people are so interesting. I love people. One thing I've noticed is that there are a lot of weight loss blogs. I guess there are a lot of us who need and want to look an feel better, and I want to share what has worked for me.

First of all, let me give you some background. I have always been extremely health conscious. I ran Cross Country in high school and played other team sports. My teammates and I gave up carbonated sodas and I took myself off sugar for 6 months when I was a junior in high school because I could tell that I was eating it just because it was there and not because I even liked it. When my family went out to eat, I mostly chose the healthiest thing on the menu.

When I was in college I ate as healthy as I knew how. I remember one of my roommates and I got sores in our mouths from eating so much healthy sugary fruits we were so health conscious. Even so I gained those 5-10 freshman lbs. I found that if I just ran more, the weight would go away, and being as young as I was, life was good.

Then when I got married I continued to run and I started learning how to cook for real. I often produced sub-par meals trying to substitute out the fat and sugar. Eventually I learned to follow the recipe and instead of adapting recipes, to find recipes that were healthy to begin with. Each year of marriage I seemed to learned a little more about nutrition. I started cutting out the partially hydrogenated oils, the high fructose corn syrup and the preservatives and food colorings. It was frustrating to find that I had to make most of our food in order to avoid these things. It was also frustrating to gain 50 lbs. with each of my pregnancies. I followed the recommended pregnancy diets to the letter and I still gained 50 lbs. each time, which translated to 20-30 lbs. of hard core weight that I needed to lose after each pregnancy!!

But I was determined, and I was able to lose those baby pounds, but it was hard and it took will power. I would lose 1-2 lbs. per week. I would be really careful about portion size and count my calories and I would stay far away from any kind of desserts and I would run. I usually lost the weight in time for the next baby. I did that 3 times, and after the 4th baby, I didn't know if I could do it again.

I was extremely tired and had low energy and I just didn't know if I could muster that kind of will power again. And that's when my husband and I listened to Tony Robbins health program. I was extremely hesistant when I found out that Tony was mostly vegetarian, because I was already going against the grain so much in my political and educational views, I wasn't sure I wanted to be any more different that I already was. But Tony challenged us to just try it for 7-10 days. All we had to do was cut out meat, dairy, refined sugar and drugs, coffee, alcohol and eat more alkaline foods which are --you guessed it-- fruits and vegetables especially those dark leafy green ones. The drugs, coffee and alcohol was already taken care of being Mormon and having the Word of Wisdom, but the meat and dairy was new. Aren't they full of healthy protein and calcium after all?

Well, after one week of trying it out, we could never go back, we felt so much better. And now I was "weirder" than any one else I associated with in every respect. Oh well, I felt better. I started on a journey of finding vegan recipes my family would eat. It was really hard. I would spend hours to make this gourmet meal only to find that everybody despised curry. I would have 3 tiny kids asking me for food and I didn't know what to give them!! It was hard, but it was worth it. Two of my kids' eczema disappeared. One of them we thought was allergic to berries, turns out, it was the milk. I also started drinking a powdered green drink full of dehydrated wheat grass and vegetables and trying to follow the guidelines of the PH Miracle book since that was who Tony was working with for his health guidelines. That made a huge difference for me. I lost my baby weight in 2-3 months instead of 6-8. I didn't have to take a 2 hour nap each day. I was amazed at how much I could accomplish in a day. My breastmilk was so much thicker and satisfying to my new baby. It was great!! My husband did a Ph Miracle cleanse and lost 40 lbs in a month.

I had a another baby after that, but I was a little disappointed to find that I had some worries I hadn't had with my other pregnancies. It all corrected myself, but with all this work, I thought I shouldn't have any worries. Well, I was healthy and happy, but again I couldn't lose those last 10 baby weight pounds. I ate even less than before and exercised more and still no luck. Then I started to slowly gain weight and I knew something must be wrong.

So my husband offered to do another PH Miracle cleanse with me since it is really hard to make dinner and cleanse at the same time. That was really great of him. It worked for the first couple days, but then I could feel the same thing happening as before and I emailed Dr. Young to find out what he thought of it and he told me I was constipated. So I tried an Epsom salt flush and when that didn't help, I turned to Vicki Talmage since I had taken a raw food class from her months before. Refer to my cleansing post.

So this is a rather long explanation to say that for me, lots of raw dark, green leafy salads with kale, collards, chard, spinach, and dark lettuces have contributed to my new found health and weight loss. I weigh about the same as I did my freshman year of college before the freshman weight gain and my clothes are very loose, I really should go buy some new ones. I try to drink a gallon of pure water each day. I am working on growing wheat grass and I drink green smoothies. My colon has been cleared out, but it still needs help with herbs to flush through it. Eventually it will work well on its own. I'm getting better at growing wheat grass and I'm trying to also drink a quart of rejuvelac each day. My 2 year old is only other family member who likes it at this point, but I love it!! Baked beets, the red dye from the beets has helped to clear my colon and so has watermelon. These are from recommendations that Vicki has given me and they seem to have worked. Soaked almonds and flax seeds in the smoothies also help with energy. And the best thing about it, is that it is not hard. It doesn't require the willpower I used to have to exert because I can feel the difference and the old foods don't even tempt me. I have zero desire for any of it, because I know what it will do to my body.

So there you have it, my life long journey to learn to eat healthily. It's rather simple really. Just eat a lot of salad especially before you eat anything else and you will probably be able to tell a difference. I think weight loss needs to be more than just how you look, I think it should be a quest for true health and well-being. I am also happy to report that I now have friends who are as "weird" as me and as more and more people try it out and feel the difference, it will eventually become the new norm.

good luck and good night!!