Weight Loss Journey-It’s been Two Weeks

It’s Been 2 weeks Since Starting My Healthy Weight Loss Journey

The first thing I want to talk about are the NSVs (Non Scale Victories) The reason I want to focus on those is because they are much more important than just losing pounds. Health isn’t just about burning fat. It’s about how your body works, how you feel, how you look. And when I say look, what I mean is that you no longer look like a sick person or an unhealthy person.

If you remember, in the last post I mentioned that all my joints were inflamed and when I would first wake up in the morning it would be hard to move. I needed a jump start, ya know what I mean? Well, that’s almost gone! With starting at 100 pounds overweight my knees are under a tremendous amount of pressure. It’s not to the point where I have any chronic issues, but often they get stiff first thing in the morning or when I sit for short periods of time, especially while driving. I no longer wake up needing a pully to get me out of bed, I just get up! They still get a smidge stiff if I sit for too long without movement but not nearly as bad.

The best NSV of all is that my head is out of the “fog”. Man, is it great to be mostly out of the mental “fog”. I say mostly because I swear I’m still recovering from the antibiotics I had to take for dental work done AND I’m in PMS mode. That’s always fun, haha.

Other NSVs to note:

• Jeans are not as tight (I wouldn’t say they are the right fit yet but they will be soon)
• Shirts are not as tight around mid section and arms. (being tight around my arms drives me insane!)
• Pretty much zero bloat
• Less water retention overall
• I know this may sound ridiculous, but my hair appears a little darker. Maybe it’s the lighting but you help me decide by looking at the before and after pictures below.

What I was doing before the focus on health?

Whatever I wanted and none of it was very good y’all. It’s not much to be proud of in terms of health but here’s how I was living life:

• Eating out, mostly fast food, about 5 times a week…sometimes more
• Oreo after Oreo after Oreo….cOoKiEs!!!!
• Loads of chips and junk food
• Very sedentary
• Staying up half the night watching tv
• Skipping meals and then making the next meal bigger to “make up”
• Not drinking water at all
• Drinking caffeine more often than should (this is a big no, no for me. It makes me extra moody with headaches)
• Can we say pizza and wings?! Mmm, mmm
• Sweet tea, sweet tea, sweet tea, please…yes, make it an extra large…yes, I’ll take one to go

What am I doing now?

I won’t keep you in the dark any longer. Now that we’ve seen 2 weeks of results it’s amazing what they body will do in such a short time to rejuvenate. We are designed to repair ourselves if we fuel it with the right nutrition. I’m not going to dig any deeper into that subject because I’m not certified in any way. I know my body and what is changing and what happens when I feed it foods it should have.

What I’ve changed:

• Drinking a minimum of 64 oz of water
• Eating 5 small meals a day and 1 bigger meal for supper (we’ll talk about this below)
• Going to bed at an earlier time and getting more sleep

Simple enough right? It really has been. When I decided I could not lose weight and get to a healthier state of being without help I decided to look for a “tool”. As I mentioned in the previous post I’ve used this tool before and it works. I never made it to goal because I got pregnant both times and had to stop and there is a waiting period if you are nursing. I used to look at this as a diet or a quick, weight loss system. Not anymore. I wanted to lose weight, I didn’t want to buy bigger clothes and I wanted to do all the healthy things (I have the knowledge, we have a gym basically in our garage so I have all those tools). Will power I said, I don’t have the willpower or the motivation, Well, I had a pastor once that repeatedly said that you don’t get motivated TO do it, you get motivated BY doing it. Like the motto, “just do it” and the motivation comes with action, not the other way around. However, I couldn’t give myself that final push to do anything and it was easier to eat more Oreos, right? I talked with the hubs and we both decided that we are no good together without a tool of some kind, a plan if you will, to get us on the track we want to be. Together we decided to both use this tool, with a health coach and a community of others using the same tool to talk about struggles, triumphs and successes. You may have heard of it before and you may have even used it yourself. It’s called Optavia. First, Let’s talk about results!

The 2 Week Results

In fact, let’s take a look at the difference right now. Top pictures are the day I started. Middle pictures are after completing Week 1 and the last set of pictures is after completing Week 2.

My results have been amazing. I started at 257.4 lbs (that’s about 100 pounds over weight for me).

First week: weight in at 252.4 for a 3.8 lbs loss

Second week: weighed in at 247.1 for a 6.5 lbs loss

Total weight loss in 2 weeks was 10.3 lbs Can I get a whoop, whoop

Isn’t that amazing? And not common for me to lose that much in one week but I’ve been extra serious this time and am determined to get all the way to goal with no major obstacles. (crossing fingers)

I won’t get into the details of starting inches etc, but I will report that I’ve lost a total of 4.75 overall inches.

The reason I am measuring as well as weighing is because on the off chance that the scale doesn’t move I will know easily if the girth has been reduced, LOL. Often during the monthly cycle I fluctuate and I don’t want to be discouraged by hormones and water retention if the scale doesn’t move one week.

What is Optavia?

• It’s a plan created by a Dr. Wayne Scott Andersen
• You eat 5 Fuelings (snacks) a day plus 1 lean and green
• And it’s about learning healthy habits starting with getting rid of the extra body fat and learning how to incorporate many habits into your life to change it for good and be optimally healthy

I bet you’re wondering what fuelings are. They are basically snacks that you eat every 3 hours starting within 30 minutes of waking. They are called fuelings because food is meant to fuel our bodies, not satisfy our emotions (believe me I’ve been doing it wrong for a really long time). Some of the fuelings you just open the package and eat and others you have to add water and can bake or pop in the microwave. Super easy and the food macros calculations have been done for you so that you have the right amount of protein, the right amount of low, but good, carbs, etc. Perfect for my body to start using my extra fat stores as fuel as opposed to the Oreos I was eating. A lean and green is a meal, usually supper for us, of a certain amount of protein and veggies. Which can be tough for a southerner to do cause, man, you just said no starches at supper! What?! It’s totally worth it though, I’m a witness to it. Is it still hard? Absolutely! But I’m not alone, the hubs is doing it and I have several support groups online that have been wonderful.

This isn’t a sales pitch I promise. I just believe in this because it helps ME! The hubs, Rich, did sign up to be a coach, but for now it is mostly to get the savings and have access to resources for learning that you don’t have as just a client. I’m introverted, very much so, I’m much better off behind a computer so it’s highly unlikely I’ll ever be a coach. No way I’m talking to strangers on the phone {stranger danger}. Shoot, I don’t even answer the phone unless it’s my momma or Rich so there’s also that, haha. Anyway, I wanted to be totally transparent about that. Not a sales pitch even though we could technically take clients if we wanted but we aren’t looking to build a business doing that. We have a family business, I have this blog and YouTube, plus homeschool, 6 kids…that’s all I can squeeze in. (shew, I’m tired just telling y’all about it)

Let’s Talk

Do you have a challenge or success you want to share?

I’d love for you to comment on this post and feel free to share anything you’d like. Also, share on your favorite social media sites. I love meeting new people…you know, as long as it’s online (none of that in person stuff) LOL just kidding…sort of.

Glad you are joining me on this journey! xoxo