Erica's Weight Loss Progress - 60 Pounds in 2013!

When I began my clean eating journey in January 2013, I had no weight loss intentions. I was frankly fed up with my chronic illness and being sick all the time. Conventional medicine wasn't working and I was desperate. I had prayed time and again for healing. Finally I prayed for wisdom. And I whole-heartedly believe that God led me down this new path of healthy living and eating. I found a lot of great information on herbal and natural remedies for my chronic illness and I quickly kicked out almost all of the conventional medicine I was taking (which was actually making me sicker).  I was already on a pretty restricted diet, with a list of food allergies as long as my forearm. I was living with and working for clean eaters. So I followed their example and quickly realized how much better I felt.

By July I had lost 41 pounds

Even as the weight started to come off, I still did not change my focus. I wanted to be healthy. I wanted to wake up every day and be able to get out of bed. I wanted to really start living. And so I did, for the first time in years!

November 2013, after Christmas tree hunting in the mountains for 2 hours!

As the months went by and I got healthier, I continued to kick it up a notch. I really began to dig into the lifestyle of the Weston A Price Foundation. I found new way to eat clean, kicked more crud out of my diet, and got creative in the kitchen. As Donald explained in his last weight loss post, he joined me in the clean eating lifestyle in September. There's just something special about having your spouse team up with you! Having him along on this journey with me for the last 4 months really kept me going and gave me new inspiration.

Of course I fell off the band wagon a few times this year. Late summer was particularly hard because I was working an extreme amount of hours (50-60/week). My eating went down hill and I started getting sick again. We prioritized and kicked a few of my shifts out. I was able to get back on track, but it took a few weeks before I started feeling better. Then in late September and through out October, my weight loss plateaued. I think I only lost 3 pounds between the two months. It was a great reminder of why I was eating clean; it still wasn't about the weight loss, it was about being healthy. It was also a great lesson on sticking out the plateau! As I'm sure many others on the weight loss journey have experienced, plateauing can be quite the discouragement.  I can't tell you what changed, but one day I started losing weight again! Between November and December, I lost another 10 pounds!

I wasn't aiming for 60 pounds in 2013, but boy am I excited about it! I was finally able to track down some of my measurements from before I started losing weight...holy moly! This year, I have lost over 50 inches throughout my body!!! 8 1/2 inches in my waist, 8 inches in my hips, 3 1/2 inches in my upper arm, just to name a few. I've gone from buying 3XL shirts to L and XL. I was in size 20 jeans last year and now I am tantalizingly close to size 14!

I am now 20 pounds away from the weight I was when I graduated high school, which is my next goal. But I'm not going to stop or change what I'm doing when I get there. I figure my body will stop when it's at the weight that God designed my body to healthily live at and I'm satisfied with that!