smithmom77
My journey -- 4 years out
Jun 20, 2013
At 5'4 my highest recorded weight, I was 258 pounds. That was the weight taken at my annual physical with my general practitioner – who was at least 300 pounds himself. I wasn’t sure how he could help me but I felt that I had run out of options. I had been to Weight Watcher six (yes six) times. I had tried: The Blood Type, Sugar Busters, Body for Life, Fat Blocker, GI, The Maker’s, You on a diet, Scarsdale, Mayo clinic, Eat-only-grapes, Atkins… the list goes on and on. I was tired, and sick. I had to have a blood test in order to be considered for bariatric surgery. The blood test showed what I had suspected – at 31 years old, I was borderline diabetic, had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high triglycerides and my stroke number was more than 5 times what it should have been. I decided to have Roux N Y gastric bypass.
I had to go through a series of meetings and consultations. Had what felt like a million pre-tests run. Finally, on 4/21/ 2009, I had my surgery. Over the course of a year, I lost 90 pounds of my excess weight. I was steady at 165 pounds. I knew I needed to lose more and I had more energy than I had at 258 (who wouldn’t). I also started to watch the scale start to creep up. Instantly, I reverted back to my old ways – get thee on a diet. I counted every calorie, gram of fat, ounce of carbs. I lost a pound, gained two; I lost two pounds, gained one back. It was maddening! Had I gone through allllll of that only to gain it back? Would I be banished to a life of low fat micro-meals, protein shakes and calorie counting?? I ended up gaining almost 20 pounds back in my efforts to loose weight – again. Enter my newfound lifestyle…
After some convincing from friend (angel) a who had switched her entire family to this lifestyle, I decided to give it a try – for 30 days then I HAD to have my protein shakes. The first week was hard. The second week was BLISS! I felt a burst of energy that I hadn’t felt in what seemed like YEARS. At the end of my 30 days, I stepped on the scale and discovered that I had lost 15 pounds! WHAT??!? You mean I feel great AND lost weight? I had to stick to it. Among those lovely benefits are these:
- My skin has cleared up – I was a lifelong sufferer of eczema. I have noticed that my eczema has been under control WITHOUT the use of corticosteroids! This has to be a new record for me!
- The tendinitis in my Achilles has vanished
- My asthma - gone!
- My hormones are back in check. Prior to being Paleo, my cycle was so out of whack that I was told that I would be on the pill for the rest of my life. NOT! Now it’s like clock work – and not a cramp in sight.
- I wake up before the alarm clock daily – with energy to spare!
- I am currently a size 2/4 and the scale says that I have successfully lost over 125 pounds – and kept it off! I am on this bandwagon for LIFE!
