Lost, Gone Forever

To date, I have lost 35 pounds. Yippee!!! I’ve never had to lose this much weight before – it’s funny to think way back when (when I was a lot smaller than I am now) that I thought I was FAT! Sheesh.

I’m 15 pounds away from achieving my first goal, which is the weight I was at (approximate) when I first started dating my husband. At the time I was very active with volleyball, playing 3x a week (I was slim and trim and didn’t realize it! UGH!) but soon that took up too much time away from dating! :) So I stopped. Meanwhile, I was eating crappy as usual and drinking LOTS of Mountain Dew. But that was the norm among my peers, for my lifestyle, etc. I was young still. Then one day I noticed in the mirror how bloated and “fleshy” I looked, had become. I knew I had gained weight but it wasn’t until that one day I actually noticed how much (no scale required) and was horrified. I didn’t do anything about it though. I just became comfortable, complacent, lazy, whichever. Hubby and I acknowledged later on that we needed to make changes, but again, not much success. The thought was there but the action wasn’t.

Fast forward to 2007, Hubby talked often about eating better. I would suggest eating more salads but that did not appeal to him! “Too cold” or “not filling enough.” Ha ha!

It was difficult trying to find healthier meals we would both eat and be satisfied with. Too often our dinner meals would be too fatty, salty, MSG-y, sugary (some of those condiments and sauces have a lot of high fructose syrup in them) and/or heavy. Not a good thing to have before bedtime. That’s the worst for me – eating those kinds of meals too late in the day so then I’d end up going to bed with all that food sitting in my stomach. Sometimes I’d wake up feeling so bleh because of that.

You know what I hate though? Is when you eat a huge meal where you’re so full you swear you’ll never eat again and then several hours later you find yourself starving like that meal never existed! Or you wake up starving. Ai-yai-yai.

Again, we’d talk about eating healthier. Hubby was feeling more and more out of sorts and discouraged with our current diet. Soooo, he then learned about eating raw, live foods (thanks David Wolfe). I had heard of it before, probably years prior – I think because there were celebrities who were eating raw, like it was the “new thing” but I could also be making this up.

For me, this finally meant SALADS! Hubby who was so against them before now loved them. A 180 degree turn in our diet.

We just started out slowly by incorporating a lighter, healthier dinner. We also cut out pop (no more Mountain Dew). These two changes made huge differences for us in how we looked and how we felt.

I’m sure this post is boring enough so I’ll spare you the step by step changes we made but boy have we made changes! We’re now eating some gourmet, dehydrating like crazy and making smoothies and juices left and right. Hubby has successfully transitioned to 100% raw and is not looking back. I’m about 80-100%. Depends on the day, week, my mood, etc.

Discovery of this new lifestyle has been life changing and possibly, life saving for us. The other important thing though is we are enjoying every aspect so far. I’ve eaten foods I never would have before and making things I never would have. I mean really…who knew we’d be eating raw pizzas and raw burritos and actually enjoying it?!

Along with this discovery are the many friends we’ve made in the raw community. The amazing support, encouragement, inspiration and motivation from everyone have made this journey more fun and easier. Outside the “raw world,” it can be challenging as not everyone understands but for me, most have been supportive, namely my family so I appreciate their love and support as well.

After I reach my goal (I’m not setting any dates or expectations to lose weight by – don’t believe in it as I think it puts too much pressure on), I will make my next goal, which I’ll keep to myself for now. I have 3 separate goals in mind but again, there’s no rush and each goal will depend on the previous goal and current situation. Bottom line is I want to be healthy and happy no matter what.