I went through a lot of emotional and mental struggles in the few years following our wedding with work and school and I learned that I'm an emotional eater. Food is my coping mechanism. I gained the 30lbs and 30 more.
Ironically, after having a baby I was down 20 of the second 30. After twins, 20 more pounds. Being pregnant, I was losing weight (I still joke that I just need more kids to lose more weight!). Having kids turned my focus to them and I ate better and exercised more and all of that. I had no problems maintaining where I was post babies.
Then, we moved cross country. Money was tight, our house we were renting was FAR from civilization which meant it cost more to go places and meet people. I stayed home. I probably got a bit a depression. I ate junk... I mean goldfish... Wait...
I've never been a huge soda drinker and we never purchase 6 packs of anything. The kids aren't fed on potato chips and candy. True junk food is rarely in our house but kid friendly, not the healthiest but at least they will eat it options were and still are available. I have a picky eater. He will devour the spinach and mozarella pasta sample at Costco but refuse it at home and only want honey nut cheerios. He will try a bite of a strawberry and then hand over the rest. It's a constant battle and more often than not he wins unfortunately. It's either he eats goldfish or we fight... as a parent you learn some battles aren't worth the war.... This though was contributing to my poor eating. Why buy veggies if I'm the only one eating them became my mantra... and my waist line and overall health has suffered.
I'm also not for gimmicks. I tried Slim Fast once- gained weight. People always suggest weight watchers- I don't want to count points (I HATE Math! why would I add it to my food). I don't mind reading labels and checking for added sugars and things so I tried Whole30- a paleo type "lifestyle change" for 30 days this passed summer. I felt better, had more energy but the weight wasn't coming off. Super depressing. My sister, Tetiana posted that the company she works for was doing a "24day challenge." It's a variety of vitamins, supplements, protein shake things, energy drink, etc.... that you do for 24 days. She asked me to try it. At this point, I had nothing left to lose.
So, Aug 2014 I started my 24day challenge. Pretty simple. Take a pill at the designated time and eat healthy. I didn't use the energy drink. I didn't supplement meals with shakes. I ate- food. Real food. The weight was literally falling off and it's steadily been falling off since. I use 2 advocare products- Catalyst and MNS. There are many many different products; even skin care and you can ask her for more details on them as I haven't tried them to review them.
I haven't "dieted" or even exercised. I've tried to eat healthy as often as possible and that's it. No skimping, skipping or get slim quick schemes. It's been working and yesterday I was feeling down so I put my old jeans on- the ones from the summer before the 30lbs lost. I put my old jeans on OVER my new jeans. I was wearing 2 pairs of jeans at the same time. It felt like one of those crazy weight loss commercials with the before and after pictures. SO...I took a picture. I posted it on facebook and over 100 of my friends "liked" it. Over 20 friends commented. 5 friends PM'd me about how I've done it.... Thank you everyone for all of the encouragement. It's sooo motivating! So... here we are. I'm trying to get myself in a place to add exercise and push myself to really get the weight off. Life has been hectic so I'm hoping that in the next few weeks I'll have less chaos making more time for me to be healthy. The boys love to exercise and have been talking about that and healthy living at preschool so it's the perfect time to get back to walking and doing family exercising.
So, if you want to learn more about Advocare you can check out Tetiana's website https://www.advocare.com/130730836/default.aspx , email her tetiananina@gmail.com or call her 562-217-1270 and she will happily answer any questions you have and get you started on your weight loss journey. Thank you again for all the encouragement!!
