My Health & Weight Loss Journey

What you can accomplish when you have the right mindset, and some determination (with no excuses), is incredible.

Several have asked me about the weight loss journey I started Fall of last year. First, let me say that I had tried to take on weight loss MANY times before, so I’m most inclined to share what I believe was the real difference.

Getting started

Like I mentioned, I’ve tried just about everything under the sun to lose weight over the years. If there is a fad diet out there, I I have probably tried it. Now in my 50’s, I had basically given up on the idea of losing weight. I had decided that I was going to just love this size I was now in and stop obsessing over it. I wasn’t happy about it, but I’d decided to give up on weight loss.

Each time I got involved in a ‘plan’, I may lose 2-5, maybe even 10 pounds, but I did not stick to them and always gained that weight (and then some) back! Can anyone relate?

Focus on health

So instead, I decided to focus on my overall health and “feeling” better. Women tend to hit a time in life where everything can feel out of whack. (I suppose men do that too, but I’m speaking to the women on this one). I had tried hormone pellets, lots of vitamins, and anything else my doctor told me might help me feel better. Instead of feeling better, I felt like things were getting more disrupted!

A friend of mine told me about an ND that she saw and loved. She studied the eyes. It’s called Iridology. I had never heard of it, so thought I’d make an appointment!

I’m SO glad I did. She took one look at my eyes and told me I had a dairy allergy for starters, and needed to cut all dairy. Truth is, I didn’t even realize how much dairy I had each day.

Since I wasn’t eating cheese all the time, I didn’t think I had to make a lot of changes. But then as my day went on, I realized so many of the things I was eating contained dairy! My creamer in my coffee, my cottage cheese I had with fruit at breakfast, my yogurt at lunch, and so on. Since it wasn’t cheese or milk, I didn’t even consider that as dairy. Wrong!

Hormones

One of the biggest things that cutting dairy did for me was help balance out my hormones! I had horrible female challenges for the last two years and just figured it was part of menopause and aging. Until I cut out the dairy! Suddenly my hormones were not an issue any longer!

I still can’t believe it sometimes. That a food allergy could cause such havoc in the body. But my ND explained it all to me and the lightbulb came on. If you’d like to learn more about my ND or Iridology, I’m happy to share her info. She is local to my area, but perhaps her website could be helpful.

As I started feeling better

One of the other things my Iridologist told me was that I needed to cut back on the sugar intake! I didn’t love that idea at first, because there is sugar in just about everything! BUT, I decided to at least do it a little.

Truth is, I can talk myself out of lots of things. Or in to. So when my husband wants ice cream after dinner, I easily gave myself permission to have some too. Even knowing the sugar wasn’t helping me.

I remember hitting a point where I was feeling much better ‘mentally’…cutting out dairy seemed to be the winner here! I just needed to buckle down and eat better over all. Maybe, just maybe, I could actually drop a couple of pounds now. I just needed to figure out the best plan of attack.

I even remembered some things a coach had taught me earlier in the year about the “plate” and the things to eat on it. I knew a few things for sure, but was needing something more.

Perfect timing!

It’s always amazing to me that when you are ready, and I mean really ready, the right things come in to play. A wonderful lady I had known for several years and I ran in to each other at a get together and she was sharing with me that she was working nearby as a weight loss coach. Seriously…Perfect timing!! We set up a time and I went in to talk to her.

She shared the plan with me, and asked if I was REALLY ready. She said that I have to be ready and want this, because she can’t just want it for me. I assured her I was all in!!

You have to be ready!

All the programs in the world won’t help if you are not ready to focus. I was determined to do everything I needed to do to make this work. My mindset was ready!

The reason it works!

In this particular program, it’s great because you eat real food. No packaged meals, which to me, teaches us more about what we can eat as well as things we should avoid. The other thing I really like about this plan is that you get specific amounts of food each day. So it’s not left to guesswork. When she says you can have fruit, she gives a specific list of the good fruits you can choose from, and the amount you can consume.

Like I said, no guesswork. There is a list of exactly the things you can eat on a given day, as well as the things you want to avoid eating together. There are certain things that have more sugar than others, etc., that I never realized before.

BUT…truly, the most important part of this plan is the encouragement and accountability Kathy gives. Kathy stays very connected to me and gives me the encouragement I need constantly.

As with anything, there are times that you may be traveling or in a situation where you are a little worried about your food options. Kathy always talks me through it and builds up my confidence as I am going in to a situation. Truly the cheerleader I need to keep me on track!!

Kathy actually makes me feel like I’m more important than just being one of her clients. Everyone that I know that goes to her would say the same thing. She is SO good at what she does, which makes this process so doable! She has a real gift.

You don’t have to be local!

The cool thing too is when I did have to travel, I could just text her. She actually has a lot of people that work with her now that are out of state! It’s fun when you get to be here and can see her in person, but she makes it so easy where ever you are! FaceTime, texting, calling…there’s no excuse!

Hard work has paid off!

So here I am, nine months later, and so happy. I have dropped from an XL to a S in tops. From a 14 to a 7 in jeans. My knees and back don’t ache anymore! Exercise actually feels good instead of hurts. lol

Please know…I do not share this to brag (though I will admit I am proud of myself!)…I share this to say that if I can do it, you can too. I share it in hopes that it may encourage someone that has been thinking about it.

If you need some help like I did, Kathy is fantastic! As I mentioned early on, I actually tried ‘eating right’ many times, and even though I may have lost a few pounds in the first couple of days of trying, I never stuck to it. I needed Kathy’s encouragement and accountability.

Back to mindset!

But back to mindset…you have to decide that you are ready and determined. You have to be willing to make a few sacrifices for the time being, and you need a great accountability partner that will keep you focused and on track. And drop the excuses! Excuses just make us feel a little better temporarily, but do nothing for us in the long run. It took me a while to figure that out, but now when I hear myself start to make an excuse, I catch myself and say NOPE! Not doing that!

Actually, this can relate to just about everything, don’t you think?! It definitely related to my weight loss journey!

Shoot me a message!

If you’d like to learn more about Kathy, send me a private message. I have her contact info, but prefer not to make it public here since it’s her cell phone. By the way…I’m not a paid spokesperson! I am just so happy with the results that I want to share with anyone who can relate to my journey and could use a little help!

What ever journey you are on, I wish you the best! And share with me! I love hearing from you all!!

XOXO