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Many of you who read my BlogHer posts are familiar with the struggles I've had with weight loss over the years. For the most part I've been successful, although it took almost two years to finally get rid of those last ten pesky pounds. But before I tell you my "how I did it" story, I want to share with you my "how I got there in the first place" story. I think it's just as important to recognize how and why we gained the weight, as it is to actually lose the weight. Don't worry, I won't bore you with all the details, but in a nutshell two things had the greatest contribution to my (rather rapid) weight gain of about 40 pounds.
The first was Prednisone. I have asthma, and when my regular treatments weren't working, the doctor would put me on Prednisone (usually for a few weeks). It worked, but the whole time I was taking it, I would feel like I was starving, and no matter how much I ate, I never felt full. Consequently, each time I was put on Prednisone I gained about ten pounds. Thankfully, since I've moved to Florida my asthma has been less frequent and less severe, so Prednisone has not been required.
The second, was the loss of my dearest friend to cancer. At the time I didn't realize how sad and depressed I had become, but I did discover that eating was comforting me, and I began comforting myself a lot.
Every overweight person has a story of how they got there, and that's why it's so important not to judge people based on their weight. Most people are not overweight because they are lazy with no willpower to control their eating, but sadly, that's still the judgment our society makes when they see them.
So, forty pounds later with uncontrolled high blood pressure (and other heart issues), I knew the only way I could get healthy was to lose the weight, and that was what I was determined to do.
Here's a little time-line of how I began to lose the weight (and finally did):
- About three years ago I started on my healthy eating journey, and I called it my Pre-Dieting Phase.
- I really never started an "actual" diet. I'm not the type of person who likes to feel deprived, and I wanted my outcome to be a healthy eating lifestyle change so I could actually keep the weight off.
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Then, about a year from the time I started my healthy eating journey, I had lost twenty-nine pounds. I thought that was pretty good, and hoped to lose a few more, but I knew my biggest test was going to be time ... Could I keep the weight off? Well, more than two years later I have kept the weight off but continued to struggle with trying to lose those last ten pounds.
Although I felt good about my weight and was happy with how I looked, my high blood pressure was still an issue. Technically, I could stand to lose another ten pounds to put me safely in my recommended BMI range, and I knew that even ten pounds could make a big difference in my blood pressure. So for the last two years, I've been doing everything I could to try and get those last ten pounds off, and it just wasn't happening. Although I was frustrated, I wasn't ready to give up (or try any unhealthy fad diets or diet pills). I was still determined to lose the weight in a healthy way so when it did finally come off, I would be able to continue to keep it off.
Well, I'm happy to say ... I finally lost those last ten pounds, and how I did it is quite a story.
It started when someone from Medifast contacted me about trying a few samples of a new product they had come out with -- it was soft serve ice cream. I wrote back and said I would love to try it, and jokingly
