Week 8

When we started week 8, I was on the last few days from being sick from Tonsilitis.  The Tonsilitis part cleared up in the first week, but I had this crazy reaction from the throat lozenges that lasted for another week. My mouth and throat felt like it was on fire and made it extremely hard to eat. I had to change my diet for those last four days.  I switched to drinking some store-bought diet shakes and eating sugar-free puddings and some ice cream. 🙄  Andrew made me some soups as well.  I was worried that I would gain weight during this time but at this point, I needed to eat something and had to do what I had to do.

By Friday, my mouth and throat were back to normal and I could eat again!!!  Just in time because Sunday was my BIRTHDAY!

Saturday was a great day for us.  We have been wearing our clothes as long as possible. We decided that we wouldn’t buy any new clothes until our current garments looked so ridiculous on us that we couldn’t justify wearing them out in public anymore.  Andrew’s jeans were at that stage and so we headed to the store!

Andrew went down four pant sizes!!  Andrew was so excited while out shopping, I’ve never seen him so happy to go clothes shopping.   He was telling everyone (I mean EVERYONE)  how much weight he has lost!  Next, we headed to a store for me.  I hadn’t lost as much weight as Andrew, but it was my birthday weekend, so I wasn’t leaving without a new outfit.  I went down one pant size and I probably could have gone down even one more size, because after wearing my new jeans for a day, they did stretch out and become loose.  We both went down one shirt size as well!!!

We only bought one outfit each, so we are going to have to pull out the sewing machine and see if we can tailor some of our shirts for the meantime.  We still have a long way to go, so we don’t want to spend money on clothes that will not fit us in 3 months! It’s time to get resourceful or visit the thrift store!! 🙂

Later that evening, I celebrated my birthday with the family and had a wonderful time.  They showered me with some lovely gifts and Andrew made a really nice dinner.  Steak and Ribs!  Since it was my birthday, we decided to have some Ribeye steaks.  These are not your leanest cuts of meat, but they are oh so lovely.

In the past, we would have bought one steak per person and they would have been huge and cover your entire plate! Not the right portion at all. History was made and we only bought three steaks and cut them in half!  I can’t describe the joy I had.  This was a huge breakthrough in our health journey.

We also had some ribs that we bought before July 4th, so Andrew pulled those out of the freezer and cooked them.

Here is a picture of my plate.  Look how small that steak is!!  That is a 4oz steak and the one rib was about 1 oz.  The rib might have been a little over 1 oz, but hey, it’s my birthday!   Those ribs were sooooooo good that I didn’t even eat all my steak.  I went back and got two more ribs!!

When we started our health journey, I knew my birthday would be coming soon.  I love cake and I could probably eat all the cake if I were left alone with it by myself.  So, for weeks, I debated if I would have one slice of cake or have nothing on my birthday.

In the end, I didn’t have any cake for my birthday. We did buy some cupcakes for the kids and for my birthday candle. I watched them eat those cupcakes and I didn’t miss at all not having some cake.

The kids have been eating healthier these past 8 weeks as well and we have not had any sugar sweets in the house the entire time.  They all commented on how rich the cupcake was and that it was too much for them.  That was nice to see how all our taste buds are changing.

Confession Time– I did have a 1/2 cup of Blue Bell Ice Cream – No Sugar Added for my birthday treat.  I don’t even know how the nutrition count compares to a cupcake, but I believe it’s got to be a lot better than a cupcake.  Anyway…it is my Birthday!!

Monday comes and it’s time to weigh in.  I’m still a little nervous about what the scale would say since I was sick half the week and then had ribs and ice cream for my birthday.  😬

Drumroll, 🥁

I lost weight!!!!!!  I had lost a total of 26.8 lbs since I started on the journey on June 27th!!  Andrew has lost 50.2 lbs since he started!   😌  What a relief!!! I didn’t gain any weight and I actually lost 1.6 pounds that week.  I’m sure being sick did contribute to my weight loss and balanced out me eating some ribs and ice cream!!  But, I don’t care; I’m going to take it as a victory!!

Another victory for Andrew is that he said GOODBYE to weighing 300 lbs!  Way to go Andrew!!!  These last few pounds were slow to come off, but as his wife and health coach, I kept encouraging him that this day would come and it did come!!!  Setting new goals now and can’t wait to see him blow them out of the park!!! 

Week 9

As week 9 rolls in, I’m feeling so much better and my energy level is getting better.  After being off plan for a few days, I noticed that my energy level did drop and I was feeling tired in the afternoon.  So it’s important that I really focus and stay on plan.

Andrew’s blood pressure and blood sugar levels are remaining at an all-time low and he was able to drop 3 medications.

For our week 9 weigh-in, I lost another 2.6 lbs!!  YES, I will take that.  My total weight loss is 29.4 lbs.  I’m so close to having lost 30 pounds!!!  Andrew did gain a few pounds this week but we believe that was due to his medication that he just came off.  One medication that he’s off is a diuretic, which its main job is to remove water from your body, so now that he’s off that, I’m sure that he’s retaining some water.  We know that once this medication is out of his system the weight loss will continue!!

Thanks for following our journey. Sharing our story to the world is not easy and posting our pictures is WAY out of our comfort zone.   We realize the struggle is real for many and we wanted to document what we are doing for two reasons.

One, to help hold us accountable!   We are at the beginning of our journey and we know that we have a long road ahead of us.

Two, we want to encourage others to help take their health back!  It’s never too late!

The hardest part about starting this journey is just saying YES to a healthier YOU!!