I am honored to be blogging again for this great blog! My last post was when when I wrote about sugar free strawberry freezer jam. Thanks for having me back!! A little recap about me. I am a stay at home mommy that loves to craft, eat, exercise, budget {i know crazy huh!}, homeschool, and be with my family! I went to school and got a degree in Home and Family Living and to show for it I have a wonderful good looking husband, 3 beautiful kids and my blog where I write about The Things I Love!
Talking about dieting and exercise to some people is almost as bad as talking politics. It can get heated and people feel frustrated and not agree with you. So PLEASE don’t be offended about what I write and also know I am not bragging or saying I am some amazing person. It took a lot of hard work and discipline.
So to start, I know there are a ton of ways to lose weight. Seriously, I googled a Peanut Butter Diet the other day and guess what, there was one!!! There are so many different ways to lose weight. My sister and her husband did the Body for Life Diet
and exercise program and they did great. I have friends that did the HCG diet and did well. My sister’s neighbor swears by Bob Greene
and his cookbook (which I am considering buying because the recipes look great) and lost about 75 lbs doing it. There are also amazing workout programs like Insanity, P90X
, Jillian Michaels, T-Tapp, and good old Billy Blanks Taebo! So, as you can see there are a whole ton of eating and exercise programs you can use.
and exercise program and they did great. I have friends that did the HCG diet and did well. My sister’s neighbor swears by Bob Greene and his cookbook (which I am considering buying because the recipes look great) and lost about 75 lbs doing it. There are also amazing workout programs like Insanity, P90X, Jillian Michaels, T-Tapp, and good old Billy Blanks Taebo! So, as you can see there are a whole ton of eating and exercise programs you can use.
So, I will give you a little back ground about me. I grew up very active and never really had a problem with my weight. I wasn’t tiny by any means, just normal. I could eat a bowl of ice cream every night and it never affected me. My mom was the exact opposite, she weighed over 200 lbs my whole childhood and struggled every day with food. I remember when mom started losing all her weight, I was little nervous I would have the same problem. My mom looks amazing now, so go here if you want to read about her and her overcoming her addiction to food.
After I had my first child, I nursed her and got down to even smaller than I as before I had her. I thought how awesome it was to be able to eat whatever I wanted and be skinny!! Well I was wrong. After I had my second and gained 35lbs during pregnancy the weight didn’t come off. I nursed and nothing. I started eating a little bit better, but I was stuck at 165lbs. {I don’t think I have told anyone that, but who cares?!?!} Then my third came along and I gained the same and was again stuck at 165 lbs. Now I know that is not huge and that I was not considered morbidly obese or anything, but for my height-to-weight, the charts said I was overweight and I felt like I was.
I started eating better and exercising A LOT and did some races and triathlons, but still no weight loss. The weird thing was, I could also eat what ever I wanted and I didn’t’ gain any either. So I just told myself I needed to be okay with where I was, but I wasn’t 🙁 I prayed and asked God to help me figure out what to do. I had a bunch of friends doing the HCG, and I was a bit tempted to try that. I called my mom one day and just told her that I was thinking about it. She encourage me to do this program that she has been doing for the last year and a half. I decided what the heck! I might as well try it. My mom has been doing the 12 Steps Addiction Recovery Program in our church, and even helped write the manual. She also added this program with it, which they also use the 12 steps. It is called CEA HOW. It is for compulsive eaters {which I feel like I am, but only social, like at potlucks and such} It is also kind of a life long program for people that struggle with food addiction every single day.
Anyway, so I started the next day with this program. I found the eating plan that someone had posted online while searching the Internet. The real plan is a 12 step support group and you can join for free. But, you have a sponsor you get the food plan from. You call people and can also listen in on meetings over the phone, {which I did hear once and it was inspiring}. It is great program if you need major help with your eating. Here is a website where someone outlined the diet plan. Basically the gist of the diet is to get all the bad stuff out of your body. So you go off grains and sugar for a 30 days!! Yes, it was hard, but oh so worth it!! I am sure you are wondering “Why Grains?” Wheat is not bad for you by any means, but a lot of it can be. I didn’t really know this either, but grains are carbohydrates which actually turn to sugar in your body, and sugar is addicting and makes you crave more and more which makes you still feel hungry even when your not. Got it!
Go and read about the eating plan here. Or find a sponsor through the CEA How site and get the food plan from them.
I did it, I did it for 30 days and lost 14 lbs! After four years of trying. I was so excited! It was my birthday and Easter so I took a week off and then started another 30 days and lost 12 lbs!!!! Now I weigh 139! My goal weight was 145 because that’s what it says on the charts is a healthy weight for my height!! So a total of 26 lbs, and a lot of inches just from eating good and exercising. I am no barbie doll and I am no size tiny, but I feel good and I feel happy!
You can go to the website and see what to do after the 30 days. For me, it is going to be different because I got down to my goal weight and I am not actually in the program. For my mom, she will probably not EVER eat sugar again. She does eat grains now, but not a lot. She is amazing!! I was so grateful for the support from my mom and family to do this, but most especially for the help God gave me everyday to have the will power to do it. I have had people tell me that they don’t have enough will power to do it, and they are right, I couldn’t have done it with out God’s help everyday. He cares about us and will help us even with little things, whether it’s a small 5 lbs, 25 or even 97 like my mom lost. He cares that we are happy and that we take good care of our bodies.
You have to do what works for you. This is what worked for me along with exercising, and if you decide to use it, awesome! I think the major thing is just eating more healthy, watching your grain and sugar intake and the amount of calories we put into our bodies. I now know what I am going to do to get back down to weight after I have another baby! I have been off the actual eating plan for a little over a month and I had two days were I struggled and ate to much because of parties and such and I paid for it, I had major stomach ache and felt awful. I have maintained my weight and have been able to add grains to my meals. I also let my self have something sweet a few times a week, but have started to used mostly honey or agave
I have learned a lot from eating this healthy way. I know what is good and not so good for my body and that I need to watch what I eat. I have learned how to eat way healthier, and plan on doing that. I have also learned to stop or not snack as much, and also to stop eating after dinner. I have come up with a new plan for myself of how I want to eat, because I don’t want to have to “diet” the rest of my life, I just want to have a healthy eating plan. Every Friday on my blog I will post some ideas of yummy healthy meals, exercises, and also good ways to not feel hungry and get rid of that 9:00 pm food craving so come visit me there!
So here’s to healthy eating and trying to stay fit!!
Wow, how great for you! Very inspiring! I know I need to buckle down and take off the few pounds of post-wedding weight…but it is great to know that it can happen, even when you feel like it can’t!
this is good timing for me – I lost about 35 pounds a few years ago and was happily sitting at my ideal weight… and then I blew it. put back on 15 pounds which made me MAD – so I added another five to that.
I cut 90% of my carbs this week and ate mostly fruits and veggies…
and stood on the scale. 16 pounds over ideal… (I hate talking numbers because I’m so short that MY overweight doesn’t sound big to tall people)…
I can do this… I can. I’m not giving up this time either… (and not blowing it two years down the road!)
Great job, Kendra! You look awesome 🙂
Nice post, Kendra, and you do look great. It sounds like you and I are the in the same weight class! My “ideal” weight is 142…I hope to see it again soon! 🙂
I love to hear success stories and Kendra did a great job telling us how she did and and how she is sticking wtih it. Awesome and inspiring!
My husband and I are starting this diet next week (after we eat all the bread, I can’t bring myself to throw it away!). You have a lot of great, great info here, but I can’t seem to get to your blog through that link. I would love to get some of you ideas and recipes!
Great job! I am so happy that you found something that worked for you. Weight loss is the hardest thing to talk about…everyone does it differently. My method’s are similar to yours though…cut out the grains! 126lbs down…I can get the last 50. Thanks for the motivation and help with some new tips. Great post!
Thanks for sharing your story. I am also excited to start. This is the only way I can lose weight which is no fair, but I will be starting on Monday. Also, I would love to know what you ate for those 30 days. Thanks, your awesome!
Thanks for the great post Kendra- you look great!
I wrote about what I ate for the 30 days on my blog…go check it out thethingsilovemost.blogspot.com
Hmmm…I’ve been thinking about going off sugar for awhile, but had no evidence (yet) that it would do anything. I exercise for 1 hour 4-6 times a week for the past year and only lost 7 lbs. I still have 11 more to go until I’m not considered overweight. It is sooo annoying because I should be loosing it! I no longer have the excuse that it is baby weight, when my baby is almost !3I’m going to have to give this a try!
I recently went through a few months of digestive health issues and had to go through an elimination diet to figure out what food(s) were causing me problems. Turns out I am so sensitive to wheat that it is basically an intolerance. I have been having problems figuring out what to cook and what to eat that would make both of us happy and me being lactose intolerant since childhood only further complicates things at this time.
My fiance and I have been talking recently about how we want to make some changes to our diet, possibly join a gym, just basically get healthier and lose some weight since both of us have been varying degrees of overweight even since way before we ever met.
Thanks for this post.
This diet totally worked for me!! I wasn’t quite as strict as it intends one to be – I still ate corn and potatoes and used a lot of agave nectar. Oh, yeah, and I had sugar-free ice cream! And I cheated twice in my 31 day trial. But…having said all that…I still lost 7 pounds, I feel a ton better, my husband says I look better than ever, and, here’s the clincher…I fit in my pre-pregnancy clothes again!!!! Thank you Kendra, and Mariel and Jessica for this post!!!