With a plan and hard work you can accomplish anything, wouldn’t you agree?
Friday February 19th marks the one year anniversary of the start of my weight loss journey and healthy eating.
A year ago I was miserable and unhealthy. I had constant stomach issues and aches. In the evenings I didn’t want to lay on the couch with Raymond to watch TV as my entire body was in this weird pain. I was always frustrated and in a bad mood and dark circles had cast a big shadows under my eyes. If you have read my about me page, you know that I battled chronic IBS-C for years, a good week would have been to have more than one bowel movement.
Over the years I have gained and lost weight, when I moved to GA in 2003 to start graduate school I weight 110 – 115 lb, by the end of my first semester at Tech I was in lower 120’s and by the time summer rolled around I was in the 130’s. Most of the weight gain was due to contact eating out, very unhealthy choices and lack of exercise. I graduated from Tech in March of 2006 and took a job with a Cosmetic’s company in North Carolina as a Process Reliability Engineer, I had 3 shifts of operations that I was responsible for and Christmas production starts in March. This meant working long hours and eating a lot of fast food, but because of the long work hours and constantly walking around the plant I managed to keep my weight steady in the 130’s while eating not very healthy. It is important to mention that as a graduation present my mom bought me a Breville Juicer. The juicer sat in the box for the next 3 years.
On July 1st, 2006 Raymond proposed and all of a sudden I had a motivation to lose weight but I didn’t actually do anything about it because of our move to Texas and searching for a new job.
In January of 2007 I decided the IBS meds are not really doing anything for me and decided to stop taking them. That’s when my Dr suggested removing 3/4 of my colon to help shorten food’s residence time in my digestive system. In hopes to look slimmer for our wedding I joined the gym in my office building and started working out every morning. I also started measuring and weighting everything that I was eating to control my portions. By the time the wedding rolled around I had lost 10 lbs, from 132 to 122, but still didn’t feel that great and had problems with my IBS. The day before our wedding I had a gallon of the colonoscopy medication to help me have a bowel movement so I won’t be so miserable on our big day and to solve the dark circles I invested hundreds of dollars in skin care and make up to help me mask the unpleasant shadows.
Once back from our honeymoon, I fell back into my old habits and slowly stopped going to the gym and by the time January rolled around I had gained all of the weight I had lost. I actually had a couple people (guys) at work ask me if I was pregnant. I tried cabbage soup diet, the low carb diet, the low protein diet… you name it I tried and none of them worked. In November of 2008 I joined weight watchers hoping to lose the unwanted weight. I continued to December and realized even though I was eating within my points I was gaining weight… by the time the holidays rolled around I was 136 lbs.
On January 27 2009, I went to work looking like I always do, but after lunch I felt like my cloths feel tighter. I asked a co-worker if I look any different and she said that I looked bloated. I made an appointment with our GP to find out what is going on, his first comment as soon as he walked into the room was “when did you get pregnant?” We talked about the things that I had ate that day, as I went through it he told that some preservatives can cause bloating. We also talked about my IBS and the things that I have tried to help me have a bowel movement. He said “unfortunately we don’t know what causes IBS, and there is no real medication solution for it, yes there are drugs out there that can help some, but it is a trial and error. We give you a drug if it works great if it doesn’t we go to drug B, and C and so on”. He told me “your best solution is to eat as fresh and you possibly can, avoid things that come out of a box, a jar or a can as much as you can”. I went home took bunch of gas-x hoping the bloating would go down as we had a fundraising event to attend.
January 27, 2009 – Notice my face and belly
Yes that is Steve Slaton (running back for WVU and now the Texans)
I started buying more fresh fruits and veggies but still didn’t have much of a plan of action. I knew I had to add exercise back into my routine. I decided to sign up for Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, which is a 39.5 mile fundraising walk. On February 19 2009, I signed up for the walk. I figured training for the walk and actually accomplishing the walk would be a good start to a healthier lifestyle.
On the same day I joined Myfooddiary.com, an online food journal program that keeps track of your daily eats, weight, exercise and tons of other things. Logging my eats everyday helped me realize that some of the things I thought were healthy were not really healthy. It also helped keep track of my calories, Fat, Saturday Fat, Trans Fat Cholesterol, Sodium, Carbs, Sugar, Fiber, Protein, Vitamin A & C, Calcium and Iron. I learned that I days I ate balanced, meaning I got a green for all of the 14 categories were the days I felt great and satisfied.
Here is my stats on 2-19-2009 when I joined MFD;
Weight = 136.6 lbs
Waist = 29 inch
Hip = 40 inch
I went through our pantry and fridge and threw away;
- anything that had HFCS in it’s ingredient list
- canned veggies & fruits that I occasionally used
- easy made dinners such as Mac & Cheese, quick fix sauce packets
- chips and other junk food
- fake sweeteners
I made the following changes;
- switched from regular bread to Ezekiel bread
- added Almond butter to my diet
- added raw, unsalted nuts to my diet
- fixed my sugar cravings with dates and raisins
- started eating 5 meals a day, breakfast, a snack right at 9:30, lunch, snack right at 3:30 and dinner
- I drank minimum of 64 oz of water
At the end of February I was at 132.4lbs. This was very promising, between training for the Avon Walk and making healthier eating options I was losing weight. In March I joined a Green box challenged on the MFD forum, the goal of the challenge was to get as many green boxes as you can in a month, which meant getting all or most of the above categories green every day. I also started spinning 3 days a week. At the end of March I had reached 128.4 lbs and was walking 20 miles a week.
In March I;
- started spinning 3 times a week
- replaced my regular bread with ezekiel bread
- started reading Raw Food Life Force Energy by Natalia Rose
April rolled around and I was excited and ready for the big walk event. This is what I said about my experience in my journal;
This past weekend (Apr 4th & 5th), I walked 39.5 miles in the fight against breast cancer, and with support of my wonderful friends and family I raised $2605. Together we raised $1.8 million here in Texas.
When I signed up for this walk in February, I really didn’t know what to expect and now I can say I am so glad that I signed up. I heard so many different stories as why each person is participating in the walk. I met a guy from Boston, he is walking all 9 walks this year in honor of a 13 year old BOY who was diagnosed with breast cancer and recently went through a double Masactomy, the lady in front of me, a survivor, was diagnosed for the 3rd time last spring. I can go on and on about all these wonderful people and how they are affected by Breast Cancer.
Here I am at the end of first day – 26 miles
Finishing the 39.5 mile on the 2nd day
In April I decided to give up meat and became a vegetarian. At the end of April my weight was down to 125 lbs and I was feeling great. I really looked forward to my workouts and started weight training with a girl I knew from the gym twice a week.
Here is my stat for the rest of the year; at the end of
May – 123.8
June – 120.4
In GA for a wedding – see the difference in my face?
In June I gave up eggs, as I got really sick after having an omelet at Flying Biscuit in Atlanta, NOT because their food was bad, but because my body was having a hard time digesting the egg.
July – 119.8
August – 116.8
September – 118.2
October – 115.4
November – 116
Thanksgiving in MA – My sister & I
In November I started blogging and started under Orange Truffle and in January I realized that I now eat to be healthy and have become very conscious of the things that I am eating so I changed the name of my blog to Nutritious Foodie to better represent the purpose of my blog.
December – 116.4
January – 115
February – 114.6 My goal is to maintain here 114-116 lbs, which looks like I have been doing since October.
My stats today are;
Weight = 114.6 lbs (Lost 22 lbs)
Waist = 26.5 inch (Lost 2.5 in)
Hip = 36.5 inch (Lost 3.5 in)
This year I am signed up to the MS-150 in April and have been training for it. Those of you who have been reading my blog have read about couple of my training rides. I will continue posting about my training, the MS-150 event and all of my eats!
- Gelareh
