Yup, I’ve lost over 100 pounds now! I feel like a brand-new person who is now eternally grateful for the body I was given. I was completely disrespectful to myself for far too long, but my body, soul & spirit are a team now. I’m not *quite* to my goal yet, but I will get there. Patience. Consistency. Perseverance. Kindness. Love. Gratitude. God. There is no real ‘secret’ to my success, I just had to do the work and do it consistently. I know that sounds lame, but there is just no other way to put it. I was completely estranged from my own body – like it was just a shell that I was forced to live in, not an intricate, complex and beautiful part of me that the Lord created perfectly. So, this is where I am going to share with you my journey, and how I have adopted a realistic, yet effective nutrition and fitness lifestyle for myself in 50’s. My motivation? I want to LIVE. In every way. I had a ‘come to Jesus’ moment – literally – and I want to be as fit & healthy as possible in order to fulfill my purpose and destiny. Everyone has a purpose and a destiny, or you wouldn’t be here. Period.
So, me being me, I combined elements from many different programs and drew my own conclusions from years and years of research and figuring out (the hard way) what works best for the unique person that I am. What I do may not work for you – we are all different – but I’m hoping I can share with you some of the credible methods I’ve learned, bust some myths we’ve all been taught about how to lose weight and get healthy, and at the very least, provide some inspiration and motivation! It CAN be done, but it does require some change, some work and some learning. I am quite happy with my lifestyle now because I am going in the right direction; continually tweaking my plan to keep it effective and sustainable. The main elements I’ve incorporated include the Ketogenic Lifestyle (maintaining the body in a state of ketosis, burning fat as fuel instead of sugar by limiting carbohydrates and increasing healthy fats), Intermittent Fasting, and stretching/strength training.
I prioritize sleep. I get bloodwork done regularly (by a naturopath) and take supplements where my diet is lacking. I drink electrolytes DAILY. (I use LMNT) I track my calories (how many I’m eating) on the My Fitness Pal app – for free, and I track how many calories I’m burning on my Garmin Fitness watch. I miss days, but if I don’t track honestly on a semi-regular basis, I get off track. I keep track of my macros (Protein, Fat, Carbohydrates) on the same app to manage my ketosis when I’m in it. Note: I take breaks from being in ketosis. When I’m not doing a stringent ‘Keto’ diet, I focus on high protein and whole foods. I have a number of conditions I deal with, which makes my strategy different from others. I have Hashimoto’s, Insulin Resistance and a Metabolic Disorder. My cortisol is non-existent (I was highly stressed for too many years, and my cortisol hormone stopped working. Not good.) I am also going through Menopause, which is super fun. I have sensitivities to certain foods (yeast, gluten, etc.) so I have to be mindful of that. I am off all prescription medications now – and my blood sugar is excellent. I was pre-diabetic for a while and that scared me because I watched my dad die a slow death from Type 2 diabetes.
It is extremely important to note that I give 100% of my success to the Lord. He created me, and I can’t even breathe without Him, so I have to tell you that it is NOT just eating healthy and exercising. I had to face some difficult truths about myself before anything worked. You can diet like a champ, and know every single thing about nutrition and fitness, but if you can’t look deep inside and make changes there, you will forever be ‘dieting’ and unhappy. The physical things I do now for health seem effortless compared to the battle that I fought within myself for years. I’m not saying that losing weight is easy, but I am saying that it will be less of a struggle once you are set free in your soul. No, I’m not some sort of self-help freak (I’m a Jesus freak, lol!) – I’m an overcomer. This whole persona I had going on of being angry and depressed all the time had to STOP. I made it my life mission to find out WHY I was feeling this way. I kept thinking I felt so bad 24/7 because I was fat; that all my problems would vanish if I could just lose weight. Nope. I hated my weight – that’s true – but it was not the root of my problem, it was just one of the consequences.
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