6 Things That Helped Me Lose Over 100 Lbs And Keep It Off Over 10 Years

6 Things That Helped Me Lose Over 100 Lbs And Keep It Off Over 10 Years

I want to share 6 things that helped me lose over 100 lbs and keep it off over 10 years, now.  I know I have mentioned my weight loss journey before, but I wanted to revisit it and offer these simple changes and suggestions that worked for me to lose my weight and get healthier.  

I know many people right now are struggling with their body weight and with leading a more active life with a healthy diet, making healthier choices and lifestyle decisions. Hopefully, my story helps motivate someone to take their overall health more seriously.

The beginning of the new year is always filled with ways to improve on our lives and make better choices.  So we always look at how we can save more, eat better, lose weight, exercise, have healthy habits overall, and so forth. 

We often start off strong, but then life gets in the way, and we start pushing it till next time, then we slowly but surely lose our drive to accomplish those new found goals.

A few years back I was over 100 lbs overweight but thought I was healthy as a horse.  I ate what I wanted which included many carbs for me, sweets were not my problem, carbs were they had a huge impact.  I could eat a potato mashed, fried, run over with a car, I didn’t care, I just wanted them! 

One day I had to chase a dog as she flew out the front door in pursuit of another dog.  In the next few weeks I felt like something wasn’t right with my foot and I began to notice it had a small protrusion on one side.  

I finally went to the Dr. who told me I have torn my Achilles Tendon almost completely in half and would need surgery to repair it.  Great!  That’s what I wanted to hear! (insert sarcasm here)

I was sent to get my pre-surgery blood work done, and that’s when it all came crashing down.  All of the carbs, extra weight gain, and no exercise or physical activity came to a head when a few days later, the phone rang, and the nurse told me I couldn’t have the surgery because I had Type II Diabetes.  I was in shock. 

You see, I had lost a husband to this disease years before, and I know how devastating the disease can be and what it can do to your body. It can cause all sorts of health conditions

Health Problems Diabetes Can Cause

• High stress levels
• Lower blood pressure
• High heart rate
• Metabolic syndrome
• Vision loss
• Kidney failure
• Heart related issues
• Loss of extremities

I went back to the Dr. to see if they made a mistake.  Here’s a dramatic recreation of the conversation.

Dr. – “No mistake, you have it.”  
Me – “No, I don’t”
Dr. – “Yes, you do.”
Me – “Well, I am not keeping it!”
Dr. – “Ok, let’s do that.” 

My determination was far more than just a “New Year’s Resolution” type determination.  This was a “Oh my goodness, I have let it go too far!” determination.

The first thing I did was read everything I could get my hands on and began to use all of that knowledge and effective ways I found to try and formulate a weight loss plan that worked for me not just some fad diets and things like intermittent fasting were not for me. 

I feel that the most important thing I did was find something that worked for me.  Something I could essentially do for the rest of my life and on a regular basis without feeling like I was losing out or not “normal”. 

I wanted to be able to hang out with friends and family and not feel like I “couldn’t” have something or couldn’t enjoy myself because of restrictions.

With dietary changes and Diabetic medicine the Dr. gave me, I was able to get my blood sugar under enough control that I was able to have the surgery.  After the surgery, I had to be in bed for quite some time AND lose weight. 

I knew the weight loss was key to allowing my body to function the way it was meant to in the first place that my current weight gonna work.

I knew it had to be a lifestyle change to have the health benefits to get rid of Diabetes and weight and keep them both at bay for the long run.  I also knew if I chose to lose it with exercise, especially regular exercise, I wouldn’t keep it up for the rest of my life, so it would end up coming back.

That meant an exercise routine was out.  I know I NEED to exercise I just don’t, and I know I wouldn’t do it with any regularity, so again that was out as part of the solution for me.

Portion sizes were big for me; I had to look at my food intake and portion size to learn portion control. I chose to eat the correct portion sizes. So, I bought a food scale, weighed the protein for my meals, and ensured I didn’t eat too much, or snack between meals.

This is the easiest way to avoid thinking about calorie intake, burn calories, and focus on eating fewer calories. It is a great way not to work on your calorie deficit, which is always a good idea since it’s such a pain.

One thing I read was that when your brain tells you you’re hungry, be sure to check with your stomach and make sure your brain is telling you the truth.  lol  When you pass a bakery you may have just filled up on lunch earlier, but the smell from the bakery makes you say “Ohhhh… I am sooo hungry…”  When in fact you are quite satisfied. 

You smelled the fresh bread and your brain told your stomach you were hungry, but if you stop and think and listen to your stomach you would find that while you could probably eat more, were you actually hungry?  No.

Here are 6 things I learned that helped me lose over 100 lbs.:

1. Your waist should be no more than 1/2 your height in inches.  So, if you are 5’5”, that would make you 65” tall, so your waist should be no larger than 32.5”.
2. Don’t be fooled by your sense of smell into thinking you are hungry when you’re not.
3. It takes 2 weeks to make a new habit, you can teach the brain anything new in 2 weeks.
4. Belly fat is called Omentum and it squeezes your kidneys and that causes high blood pressure. It poisons your liver and causes high cholesterol, it also blocks insulin which causes Diabetes.  All of that is caused by belly fat!
5. A growling stomach isn’t a hungry stomach,  it’s just your stomach acid digesting what’s in there!  So, truly – don’t laugh – but how many times in my life have I sat there and heard my stomach growling and said “I MUST be hungry!”  lol  What a joke!  I didn’t feel hungry, but, if my stomach was “talking”, well then I MUST be hungry and just don’t know it!  lol
6. Watch a skinny person eat.  They don’t eat it if it doesn’t look good – what?!  lol  That one helped me a ton!

Side note:  one day after my surgery, my older 2 sons got some fast food and came over and sat with me and ate and talked.  I watched one of them (they are both thin, but, one is really thin) like a hawk, and then something incredible happened!  

One of my sons bit a piece off of a french fry and threw the other half in the trash!  I stopped him mid-sentence and demanded to know why he would throw away a perfectly good fry! 

He looked in the bag at the fry and said because the other side was brown…  WHAT?!! I saw it, it was brown, but it wasn’t molded or dirty or stepped on (I’m not sure, in the past, that any of those situations would have kept me from eating it!).  I was shocked! 

I have watched him closely now when he ate and basically if it is not pretty, he won’t eat it!  If it doesn’t taste good he won’t eat it!  ANDDD… if he isn’t hungry, he won’t eat it!  What?!  all of this was foreign to me!  I mean I HAD to clean my plate!  Bad, good, or ugly, the job had to get finished and I was your girl!

Using what I had learned in 6 months with a good portion of that long time spent in bed recovering from my surgery and unable to exercise, I lost 60 lbs and was able to stop taking medicine for the Diabetes.

It’s been over 10 years now and I have maintained my successful weight loss of over 100 lbs and I don’t have Diabetes anymore (my Dr.’s words), and I don’t feel deprived of anything!

Whatever your health goals are make realistic changes to your lifestyle, ones you can maintain without feeling deprived.  You’’ll be less likely to give it up!