15lbs In 3 Weeks –My True Story

If you are reading this and you are one of my clients then you know about a personal health struggle I dealt with last year into early this year. If you are not one of my clients, then let me sum it up for you in 2 sentences: I had the worst possible case of Valley Fever (a respiratory fungus infection) you can get, it spread throughout my body for over 18 months and caused all kinds of health problems. While I was going through all of this I was physically unable to work out AND due to some early misdiagnosis, I was under extreme mental distress because I thought I had been dealt a near death sentence.
I am happy to say, I was properly re-diagnosed, have been on medicine for 3 months now and am at about 90% of normal.
I’m telling you this because during all this, I’ll admit it…I put on some weight. I’m human. But now that I’m feeling pretty darn fantastic I have been on a mission to get back to my old self and my old body…. the body I had a couple of years ago before all this drama started. The body that actually fits the clothes that are in my closet (can you relate?). I am 100% determined and dedicated and I have lost 15lbs in the last 3 weeks.
Ya for me me! But I’m not telling this to you to brag, I wanna share HOW I did it with you because you all have stuck by me and supported me through the good times and my struggles. I know that some of you are having struggles right now so it’s my turn to help you.

I’ll be breaking down my strategies and journey all week starting with the food (I love the stuff).
So first let me assure you I did not starve myself, starving yourself DOES NOT WORK. In fact, it actually makes you hold on to the fat you already have and store some more for good measure.
Besides that, how long can you actually stick to an eating plan that has you hungry, grumpy and depleted all day? It’s not realistic and it’s certainly not healthy.
But I’ll admit, I haven’t always thought this way, even during my career as a trainer. I never thought my clients should starve, but I didn’t fully recognize just how much you can really eat and get lean. You see, while we often focus on weight loss, it’s really about FAT loss (however, if you do have a lot of excess fat then you will see significant weight loss as well).
Your goal is to starve the fat off of your body and keep your metabolism boosting muscle. Your muscle needs food. Period. You gotta eat enough. I can’t stress that enough. I know this freaks most of you out but let me offer this as evidence: During my sick period I probably ate about 1200-1400 calories a day and every week I continued to gain fat and weight really, really fast. During the last 3 weeks I have eaten no less than 2,000 calories a day (some days as much as 2,800!) and have lost 15lbs. Now I am not saying that YOU personally can eat that much I’m just saying, starving is not the way to go. It’s miserable, it’s annoying and you don’t even get the results you really want. So I ask you; what’s the point exactly?……
Still not convinced? Think back to all the diets you’re tried in the past where you ate 800-1,000 calories a day. Did they work? Did you stick to it long enough to reach your goal. Were you able to keep the weight off?
The other really cool thing about my eating plan is that I had 1 day each week to eat whatever my little heart desired. I had my large McDonalds (full-sugar) Vanilla Iced Coffee (OMG! Did I just openly admit that?!), sometimes bacon, white bread (gasp!), nachos, Enchiladas and ALWAYS, ALWAYS a dessert……Always 🙂
But I’m not trying to push some crazy fantasy diet on you. It was not always easy. I had to plan, prep and stick to my guns…. I had to talk myself off the edge of “cheating” more than a few times (especially at that time of the month) and I had to sit back and re-evaluate what it is I really wanted daily, sometimes 2 or 3 times a day.

A few other things I did:
• I journaled -Even though I had a written plan of what I was going to eat, I still wrote down the actuals. Sometimes it was a dead on match to the plan, sometimes there were slight deviations.
• I knew my “go-to” filler foods if unexpected hunger struck. I always knew what I could get if my metabolism was extra fierce one day and I needed more calories.
• I still watched my portions –I weighed and measured EVERYTHING I ate or drank.
• I learned my own personal set of tips and tricks to get over cravings and potential slip-ups (I’ll share those with you too)

• I realized that I HAD to develop patience. I want to be back to my old self yesterday! I’m sure you’ve gone through that too. Wanting results NOW. But I kept telling myself that every day I stuck to my plan I was making the needed progress. All I had to do was work the plan and wait for reality to catch up to what I know to be the eventual outcome.
As I’m entering my 4th week, it is getting easier and the fact that I can fit into some of my clothes again is added motivation. “Nothing tastes as good as fit feels.” You’ll feel that way too once too-tight clothes start to get comfy again and even loose.
Ok, that’s enough for today. Tomorrow I’ll actually share with you my food journal for a day and you can check out what I ate. I’ll also share some of my tricks of the trade for fighting that sweet or salt tooth.
Salu!