My Healthy Weight Loss Journey

Have you ever had a story that your friends keep asking you to share? Well, I’ve recently had quite a few ask me how I’ve lost 25 pounds since last November (yes, another pound since 7 Ways to Reinvent Your Health and Fitness). So, I guess it’s time to share my story…

Although I’ve been fairly consistent about working out (Jazzercise, aerobics, weight training) most of my adult life, I usually used videos at home that were created by and designed for women specifically. It worked for most of my 20s to keep my weight constant and to stay active. But, in my 30s, after that car accident, I wasn’t able to return to the same level of exercise even after a year of rehab and physical therapy appointments. So, by the time I hit my 40s (yes, I still have a hard time saying that about myself!), I knew that if I didn’t do something about my weight, I was definitely going to regret it.

Start with regular exercise

The first thing on the agenda was to revamp my workout routine. I needed to find something that my husband and I could do together. He had played sports outdoors through much of high school and college and really didn’t enjoy working out in front of a video. I still wanted to be able to work out at home but it had to be something that appealed to both of us. Working through the same program would help us to motivate each other and also give us a chance to share our workout time. After much research, RUSHFIT was the perfect answer!

The RUSHFIT videos show both men and women working out and are easily adaptable to fit any level of fitness. RUSHFIT is designed as three 8-week programs: beginner, intermediate, advanced. And, as a mixed martial arts program, requiring only a few weights and the set of videos, my husband was definitely intrigued! So, we started the beginner 8-week program in early November together. This was going to be the best holiday present we could give to ourselves and to each other. Can you imagine a holiday season where you don’t gain any weight but instead are losing it?!

Although my husband and I diligently followed the workout routine for the entire eight weeks and attempted to change our diet and nutrition habits to conform with those recommended in the RUSHFIT program, we had a hard time making all of the recommended changes. We knew that we were seeing results from the workouts (feeling stronger, building muscle, seeing more definition in our arms and legs), but we were still eating some foods that we knew were not helping us to reach our goals.

Watch what you eat

By January, we were even more committed to making changes in our diet. We kept thinking that if we were making an effort to work out so intensely and seeing amazing progress with only the workouts, how much more drastic our results would be if our nutrition habits were the best possible. Although we’ve always been health-conscious and have tried to eat what we thought were the right foods, we were learning more and more about the effects of certain foods on weight gain and loss. The information was both shocking and life-altering.

Although I had come across J.J. Virgin through my direct selling experience years ago, she released her new book (The Virgin Diet) around the same time that we were looking to make some serious dietary and nutrition changes. So, we started the RUSHFIT intermediate 8-week program at the same time as we started The Virgin Diet.

As the basis for this diet, there are seven things you eliminate for 21 days. After those three weeks, there is a four-week process of reintroducing four of those seven items back into your diet, one at a time, to see if your body reacts to anything. The only thing that we noticed during the reintroduction phase was a reaction to gluten. Neither my husband nor I felt sick or anything so serious; we simply felt more tired the nights that we reintroduced that back into our diet.

I am not going to tell you that it was easy to follow that regimen for a total of seven weeks (three weeks for the main part of the diet and then four more weeks to test different foods). I was definitely ready for the test period to end. We were counting down the days on the calendar!  However, what we learned about ourselves and the effects that we saw with the lower numbers on the scale were tremendous.

And as hard as it was for us to eliminate certain foods from our pantry and our regular shopping list, I knew that there was no going back to what we were eating before we started this entire journey. There was simply no denying how much better we were feeling physically and the results we were seeing in the mirror. It’s amazing to me how much better I felt about myself, and life in general, when my jeans were comfortable even after a meal and not just before one!  By the beginning of March, we were really on the way to reaching our goals.

At the time the intermediate 8-week RUSHFIT program was ending, we were no longer eating processed foods and had made significant strides toward our weight loss goals. However, with the return of warmer spring weather, we were no longer wanting to hibernate for the winter and we needed to have realistic goals of eating out and about instead of in our home kitchen all of the time.

So, for me, it was back to the drawing board. I spent some time researching more about diet and nutrition and came across The Holford Low GL Diet and The 9-Day Liver Detox Diet. We attempted to incorporate information about the glycemic index (from J.J. Virgin’s book) and glycemic load (from the Holford books) into our daily habits. We also decided to do the 9-day liver detox. Since we had successfully completed a diet regimen for seven weeks (with the Virgin Diet), we knew we could handle one for nine days!

Gluten-free comfort foods

Although the lessons we had gained from all of these combined resources (eliminate all processed foods, choose a lighter glycemic load, maintain a constant low blood sugar level without spikes) were making positive changes in our lives, I felt like I was missing out on my comfort foods! I no longer felt the pull to stop by the bakery and pick up a fruit pie, but I knew there had to be a way to eat healthier desserts and baked goods, and I was on a mission to find that.

Enter the gluten-free world of baking! By this time, I had come across a few cookbooks mentioning how to replace wheat flour with gluten-free flours, such as tapioca starch, potato starch, rice starch, etc. My husband and I delved into the baking world with gusto, making chocolate chip cookies, zucchini bread, pumpkin cheesecake, all with gluten-free flours…until I started reading Wheat Belly and Wheat Belly Cookbook, both by William Davis, MD.

In his books, Davis explains the negative effect of gluten-free flours on your blood sugar level, claiming that those gluten-free substitutes actually raise your blood sugar even more than wheat flour. Given his experience as a cardiologist with thousands of testimonials from his patients, I was inclined to believe him. And after experimenting with his suggestions, I can say that I have experienced amazing results from following his diet regimen.

So, based on his books, once again, it was back to the drawing board! We finished off the gluten-free flours in our kitchen pantry and now exclusively use the items recommended in the Wheat Belly Cookbook and The Virgin Diet.

As I write this almost a year since my husband and I started this healthy weight loss journey, we are living wheat-free at home and doing our best to be wheat-free out and about in the world. I’ve noticed that my hands aren’t stiff when I wake up in the mornings, something I noticed happening a few years ago. Also, between the RUSHFIT videos, working out as often as we can (we still haven’t successfully completed the advanced 8-week program) and my weight loss of 25 pounds, I no longer have that intense back pain that I had daily after that accident seven years ago. And all of these changes have helped me to deal with the stresses of this year (e.g., serious illness in our extended family).

My husband and I are still not eating in restaurants as much as before, choosing to make most of our own meals without processed foods, but we are reintroducing healthy desserts, too. We’ve had a delicious key lime cheesecake, pumpkin pie, and various biscuits. The Wheat Belly Cookbook even has recipes for a gluten-free pizza crust that we plan to attempt soon. We are still experimenting with how to eat out and about as we enjoy the warmer weather or when we are on the road traveling. We’ve lost more than 58 pounds collectively and haven’t been this happy about the numbers on the scale since college!

Every once in a while, I may still indulge with a bag of non-GMO salt-and-vinegar potato chips, but it is nowhere near what I was doing last year at this time! We’re planning on repeating the RUSHFIT intermediate 8-week program in October, in hopes of tackling the advanced one during the cooler weather of winter. Here’s to another holiday season of healthy weight!

With the upcoming holiday season, we plan on not making a fuss when we get together with family and friends who don’t share our new-found healthy eating philosophy. Yet, it’s definitely easier to stay on this track when I feel as good as I do! And if this story helps you to take the first step toward your own goals, please tell a friend about my blog and send a happy comment or two into the blogosphere for me!