Erica's Weight Loss Update 4/16/14

Life has gotten incredibly busy for us recently! Since February, I have been traveling at least a few days every month. It's just one of those years where several big events are taking place at once and we're excited to be involved! We have a couple of friends getting married, a couple friends graduating, a few events with our young adult's group, Flash Point. Right now the traveling every month is scheduled through August. In some ways it's nice to be this busy, especially since Nevada life tends to run pretty slowly, and it's just nice to see the people we love more often. The downside, extra little things like our blog get less love.

I am currently getting ready for another WA visit and leave on the 20th (this Sunday). My best friend Katie K is getting married in July and I am her matron of honor! We've gabbed about boys since I was 12 and I am incredibly happy that she has found the love of her life and that I get to be part of celebrating this amazing time with her! Of course, big events like this always inspire us to lose weight and try to fit into a smaller dress size ;) Well, I am no exception. I tried to just not care for a while, but eventually I was honest with myself.

Of course, with all of the travel, plus people coming to visit us, its been very hard to stick with our clean eating. I've probably gotten off track and back again more times in the last 4 months than I did in the entirety of 2013 (how's that for honest?). Needless to say, I haven't lost any pounds since the beginning of February. I've put on a few and then lost them again, but I haven't dipped under my lowest recorded weight. With that has come some discouragement, especially since I have some goals for the wedding.

Harley at 16 weeks (March) on a hike

Despite my lack of pounds lost, my body has been up to some subtle changes that I didn't even notice until just the last week! We got a puppy (Harley) at the end of January (this is not a "squirrel" moment, I promise. It relates to the weight loss ;) Well, we quickly found out this adorable little puppy is one of the most high energy dog breeds and needs intense exercise...EVERY DAY! That's what we get for not doing enough of our homework. When we came across that tid bit of info, I looked at Donald and said, "Jesus just tricked us into exercising everyday..." As much of pain as Harley can be, he's becoming very good for our health! As a result, I have picked back up rollerblading and biking, and together Donald and I have been hiking and taking long walks. I am almost to the point of exercising every day. There are definitely days where I plain don't feel like it, in fact that is most days. I usually have to convince myself to get out there, more so because it's what Harley needs. Just this morning, I dragged myself out to go bike riding with Harley (only our third time) and we went 2.6 miles! It felt great and I can't wait to keep adding up the miles!

Hiked for 3.5 miles and climbed up 1000 feet (March)

Back to those subtle changes...somewhere along the way, all that new exercise really started to add up! I posted this on my Facebook last week:
"The last few months I've struggled to lose weight (pounds) and in some ways it's been discouraging. I've constantly tried to remind myself that my goal has been and needs to continue to be being healthy. In January Donald and I were doing a little clearance shopping when I came across a $3 dress. It was a steal, but it was also a size 12. At that time in I had been consistently losing at least 1-2 pounds a week, so I bought it hoping I'd hit size 12 by summer. The dresses I had bought in Spring 2013 were size 20's! This was definitely a leap of faith purchase. After the last several months of the scale not budging, I saw the dress in the back of my closet today and decided I might as well try it on to see how close I was to being able to wear it. Incredibly enough, IT FIT!! Such a great reminder that even if the scale doesn't show it, the inches can still come off!"

This was an incredible victory after several months of discouragement! That's 4 dress sizes in less than a year! To further add victory, we did a little shopping last weekend. I decided to try on some smaller sizes after having success with my size 12 dress. I purchased my first size 14 pants and my first medium shirt!! I can't tell you when the last time I bought a medium shirt was...I'm almost positive I have never bought a medium as an adult! And the last time I bought 14's was before Donald and I got married.

I decided to come home and take my measurements after that shopping trip. The last time I had taken measurements was at the beginning of January. I measure 8 points on my body; the normal thigh, upper arm, waist, etc., plus a couple of my problem areas where I tend to gain weight the most. In almost every place I had lost an inch and in few I had lost as much as 2.5 inches!

This has been so encouraging and really inspires me to stick with the healthy eating and exercise! Donald has been doing well on his weight loss also and recently hit a big goal! He'll be sharing about it on the blog soon, so look for the link on our Facebooks =)

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!

Donald's Weight Loss Progress - 30 pounds in 10 weeks!

I have spent many years of my married life unhappy with my appearance and no matter what I did nothing helped me lose weight. I did various diets that didn't satisfy my body and had little-to-no effect on my appearance. Eventually I gave up on wight loss all together. I figured if I was going to be fat all my life, "I am going to enjoy myself." That's kind of a sobering thought at this moment. I have not only gotten healthier over the last 10 weeks but I have dropped 30 lbs and I have never felt better!

Now let me give you a bit of background. I love to camp and shoot things and get out in nature. I enjoy watching football and rooting for my team (GO HAWKS!). I have a real desire to know how to provide for my family without having to spend money on everything we do. I am not a lazy guy; I never have been. What I mean by this is that I work hard.

I was a furniture mover for all of my marriage (6 years) until we moved to Nevada. Basically that was a standard workout, 5 days a week, for 6 hours of my usual 8-10 hour work days.. What I found though is that no matter what I ate, I stayed in a general weight range due to the type of work. So my diet consisted of burgers and fries and whatever else seemed to fill me up. I had no regard for the quality of food that I put in my body. It is satisfying for a while to give in and not care, but ultimately terrible for you! So after 6 years of eating this way regularly, I hadn't noticed the weight that I had put on. To be completely transparent, I went from around 275 lbs when I first got married to my highest weight of 410 lbs after moving to Nevada.

I gained 135 lbs. I literally put on a person. I was shocked and disgusted with myself; I had let it all go.

So the light at the end of the tunnel! I began to watch my wife lose weight. I heard that she was sticking to the Weston A Price Foundation diet consisting of whole organic foods, raw milk and cheese, healthy fats, as well as some other foods. I was very skeptical of this new "diet" (which I now consider a lifestyle). I watched over a number of months as my wife dropped over 50 lbs. HOLY COW, I was so impressed and still am!

At this point it was do or die. If I was going to try this way of living I had to make a decision and look at it as a challenge. I started eating what my wife would eat, whole healthy foods, with a good amount of animal products, like meats, fats, and bone broths.

At first I didn't notice a whole lot of difference. I felt better for sure; more energy, happier. Then it began. I started dropping weight like crazy. My body was finally getting all the nutrients that it needed to operate normally. No more grease and junk to make it run like a car with three cylinders (haha).

Over the last ten weeks, I have gone from 410 lbs to 379 lbs!

I am now so impressed with myself and how I have accepted a challenge that is making a huge difference in my life! It has been a great journey so far, with a ways to go, but I am up for the challenge! You will see various posts from me on how I eat hearty meals, still lose weight, and enjoy it! Look for many BBQ posts, homemade sauces, and much more that make this way of life awesome for guys too!