Weight Loss Journey

I know I’m late in getting pictures posted, but I finally got a few updated pictures of myself on the 4th of July where my hair wasn’t all frizzy. I haven’t been straightening my hair much lately, and by the end of the day….it doesn’t alway look the best.

I’m 201.5 lbs. Yay! I’ve lost another 1.5 lbs. since my last update.

My clothes are fitting me looser, especially around the hips. I seem to be losing the weight around the hip/thigh area. The tummy area is going to be the hardest to lose, I think.

I know it looks like we’re on vacation in these pictures, but we’re actually at a park on the 4th of July. The town where we live hosts a parade and picnic to celebrate Independence Day. The kids had fun scrambling for the treats and stuff that those in the parade were throwing out to those of us watching. The kids don’t get candy often, and they were thrilled to be snatching up suckers, gum, and jelly beans.

Afterward, we even got in a bit of exercise walking around the park and letting the kids burn off some energy by letting them run in the nearby tennis court.

We had a fun and memorable first 4th of July here in Georgia. We topped it off with watching the fireworks just a couple of minutes from our house.

But anyway, let’s get back to the point of this post. 🙂

Here’s how my weight loss progress currently looks:

Beginning weight: 220 lbs.

Current Weight: 201.5 lbs.

Goal Weight: 170 lbs.

# of total pounds I want to lose in 2012: 50lbs.

# of pounds to go until I reach my goal: 31.5 lbs.

Total # of pounds lost to date: 18.5 lbs.

How’s your weight loss progress going?

P.S. Thank you to everyone asking about how Elisabeth was doing and wishing her well. Thank you! Elisabeth is much better now. Her fever lasted 5 days, and thankfully it’s gone now and no one else got sick. Praise the Lord!

Many of you know that we’ve made significant changes to our diet over the past year and a half. We started with buying more organic produce and other food items, along with switching our meat to grass fed beef & hormone-free chicken. We also started drinking organic milk and bought organic butter, yogurt, cheeses, etc… We bought eggs that came from free-range chickens and cut out aspartame and as much MSG as possible from our diet.

All of these changes made a significant improvement to our health. I’m convinced of this. We’ve lost weight collectively as a family, feel better, and don’t struggle constantly with stomach issues.

But as we’ve continued on this journey to healthy living and as we strive to prevent diseases such as diabetes, cancer, and heart disease from attacking our bodies, we’ve come to realize that we need to go a little bit further in our diet changes. Over the last few weeks we have worked to transition our diet to one that is mostly meat & dairy-free. Instead it’s a whole foods plant-based diet where we consume lots of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains including pastas, rice, and breads.

The result so far?

I have more energy than I’ve had in a long time, and I lost 2 lbs. last week! That means my current weight is 203 lbs.

Here’s what my overall progress looks like:

Beginning weight: 220 lbs.

Current Weight: 203 lbs.

Goal Weight: 170 lbs.

# of total pounds I want to lose in 2012: 50lbs.

# of pounds to go until I reach my goal: 33 lbs.

Total # of pounds lost to date: 17 lbs.

I’m also mentally keeping track of how much weight I’ve lost post-partum. Elisabeth is 6 months old now, and since I’ve come home from the hospital, I’ve lost 45.5 lbs.

Here’s what my post-partum results look like:

Weight on the day I came home from the hospital: 248.5 lbs.

Weight 6 months post-partum: 203 lbs.

Total weight loss post-partum: 45.5 lbs.

I know I said I’d share a picture this week, but Elisabeth came down with a fever last night, and we had a rough night. I was up at 2am with a sick baby, and she had to be nursed constantly, so….this basically means I haven’t combed my hair yet. 😉 I’ll post a picture as soon as I can. Elisabeth is still sick, and I’m hoping this fever doesn’t last long or worse….spread to our other 4 children.

Its been way too long since I last updated my weight loss progress  (3 weeks, I think), but I’ve lost another 2.5 pounds! My current weight is 205 lbs.

We are still juicing and finding new, yummy ways to create delicious, healthy juices. The kids are drinking more juice, too, and I’ve started adding more carrot into their apple juice to ease them into the vegetable juices.

I mentioned in my goals post that we are transitioning our family’s diet into a whole foods plant-based diet that’ll include very little meat and only a small amount of dairy (mostly butter). We’ve made the switch to rice milk and almond milk for cereal, coffee, recipes, etc… That change was pretty easy.

The recipes we’ve tried for meatless chili, pizza (using vegan cheese), and vegetable soup were winners, too.

I’m planning on writing more about our diet changes and sharing recipes on The Sensible Mom in the future. 🙂

Here’s how my weight loss progress looks now:

Beginning weight: 220 lbs.

Current Weight: 205 lbs.

Goal Weight: 170 lbs.

# of total pounds I want to lose in 2012: 50lbs.

# of pounds to go until I reach my goal: 35 lbs.

Total # of pounds lost to date: 15 lbs.

Next week, I’ll share an updated picture of how I look.

How’s your weight loss progress going?

I lost 1 lb. last week! So that means I am currently at a weight of 207.5 lbs.

What have I been doing to work towards my goal?

I’ve been juicing. We juiced every day last week except for Wednesday (didn’t have enough produce to make our juices that morning) and Sunday. Ruben has been doing mini juice fasts for 1-3 days, and I’ve been simply drinking juice along with breakfast (typically organic oatmeal with or without cinnamon – no sugar) or lunch. I’ve also been drinking juice in the evenings, too, if there’s some still in the fridge. We always drink the juice on the same day that we make it.

I’ve not been counting my calories. I’ve started to count in the morning, and then I’ll just get too swamped or forget to keep track for the rest of the day. I think as long as I continue to lose weight little by little, I’m not going to count my calories. I do think that it was highly beneficial when I was counting, but we’re still working on getting into a good groove of how to do everyday family life, and we are STILL unpacking, so I’m going to let my goal of trying to count my calories wait for a slower season of life at the moment.

I’m also not exercising regularly – yet. I’m still trying to catch up on things I’m behind on, and I haven’t made it back onto the treadmill. I will though! I created schedules for the 4 oldest kids and myself, and I have scheduled exercise time. It just seems like whenever that time rolls around on the schedule, it isn’t a good time.

We did take a walk around the neighborhood last week, and that was fun! For a field trip, we are taking the kids to the Atlanta Zoo this week (we got 4 free passes from the local library), and we’re sure to get plenty of exercise there. We always do a lot of walking when we visit the zoo. We had season passes back in Illinois, and we’re thinking about taking the plunge and getting season passes for the Atlanta zoo, so that Ruben can take the kids once a week while I work. I’m still looking for balance when it comes to working from home. I haven’t found it, but we’re getting closer.

Anyway, enough chatter, here’s what my weight loss progress looks like:

Beginning weight: 220 lbs.

Current Weight: 207.5 lbs.

Goal Weight: 170 lbs.

# of total pounds I want to lose in 2012: 50lbs.

# of pounds to go until I reach my goal: 37.5 lbs.

Total # of pounds lost to date: 12.5 lbs.

On a side note, as of last Monday, I am 5 months postpartum, and I’ve lost all of my ‘fifth baby’ weight plus 6 extra pounds! I came out of the hospital weighing 248.5 lbs., and since I’ve been home, I’ve lost a total of 41 pounds! That’s hard to believe, but I am so thankful! I’m praising the Lord for every single pound lost.

How’s your weight loss progress this week?