One serious PIGGY!

So yesterday's questions from my FB post were these:

Where did he start?

• Dave's weight loss pursuit started at 425 lbs. He was a 4X Hanes T-shirt...pushing into a 5X with a 48" waist. He only wore t-shirts & shorts from Wal-Mart because the plus size clothes at CasualMaleXL were too expensive.

How serious did he have to be to make progress?

• Dave gave up all the bad foods. He was a frequent pizza eater, hamburger & fry kind of guy. Mounds of ribs, bowls of chili beans w/ a side a of mac salad at bbqs. He loved those super burritos filled w/ beans, rice, meat, sour cream, and cheese. 
• He says, "the pain had to become greater than the pleasure"...and after plantar fascitis developing in his feet, and his blood pressure moving up a bit...he realized that his weight was beginning to affect him physically, beyond just being big. Doctor visits were nearing his list of 'appointments for the week'. 

What simple things did he add to see progress?

• He first began with measuring out his food and keeping track of points as we did our home version of Weight Watchers. 60 lbs. came off in 6 months.
• Cutting fried foods, pizza on the weekends, drinking more water, and not eating whatever he wanted at family bbqs.
• Once he plateaued - working out was the next step. 

What things did he have to sacrifice?

• He sacrificed going along w/ what everyone else was eating.
• For a couple of holiday seasons, while everyone else was having stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie - he was eating his lean meat and veggies.
• Once he started working out, he sacrificed fun in the eve to sleep to get up at 4:30 to go to the gym.

How do you keep yourself motivated for such a long weight loss goal?

• Dave's #1 motivation was for Daniel, our 1 yr. old (at the time he made the commitment) to never know him as an obese dad.
• Then for the journey...and what kickstarted it overall: PRAYER!

The power of a praying wife is an amazing motivational tool in a marriage. When you see your spouse committing a behavior that you disagree with, does not glorify God, and puts his life in jeopardy, you better believe that prayer will work. I believed that it was not God's will for my husband to die young from preventable disease. So I prayed.

My prayer journey started as soon as he put weight on in the first couple months of our marriage. I prayed that he would have the desire to work out again, that he would have self-control. That's why when he said he needed to do that 'carb-depletion' in May '06 - I joined him. Because I realized, as I am praying and Dave is showing desire, I, his help-mate, needed to FULLY SUPPORT HIM!

Because I ended up pregnant in the midst of that, I could not continue on w/ the no carb/protein-fat only diet...and it seemed to go downhill with his eating from there. Fortunately, I did NOT give up. I prayed for 2 years for David to have the desire to lose weight...among a ton of other things, I prayed:

• God give David a love for his family that he refuses to eat himself to death.
• God give David the self-discipline to say 'no' to bad foods.
• God give David the desire to healthy and fit.
• God convict David when he wants to binge eat bad foods.
• God send people into Dave's life to speak to him about his weight (since he's not receiving from me.)

As a response to my prayer, toward the end of '07 after we had Daniel...a friend of David's went to him, with tears in this man's eyes, and said, "what are you doing to yourself?"..."I don't want to see anything bad happen to you (death) because of your weight!"...and then his friend just left, crying. This got Dave's attention because his friend was a man of few words, so when he spoke, Dave listened.



"Big"...is an understatement...as Dave looks at
this pic now...he says, "Dang, I was huge!"

Immediately following this conversation, another good friend of Dave's came to him and asked, "Man, Dave what are you doing? You're getting big buddy..." These were friends speaking truth in love...and were greatly used by God to get Dave's attention.
It was after these friends reached out to Dave that he realized he had to do something...and he began to take ownership of the idea that he HAD to lose weight...or else. Or else, he would die at a young, premature age from preventable disease.

At the beginning of '08, he had a couple of family members who started going to Weight Watcher's meetings, and Dave saw how easy they were losing weight...just by portion control. Since I was persistently & fervently praying...I was eager to join him when he showed the desire to start measuring out his foods.

I'll never forget...it was Easter '08 and I said to Dave, "So I have to know what you weigh to come up with the points you can eat..." His response, "Okay, I will tell you...but you have to promise me you will NEVER tell ANYONE..." I gave him reassurance that my lips were sealed...and then he said:

 "I'm about 425 lbs."

I had never known his weight before...tears welled up in my eyes...and I said, "Dave, this is a 911 emergency that you lose weight babe...we have to do something NOW!". The next day, we BOTH (since I had baby weight to lose) started measuring out our food & counting our points...and the lbs. started to drop for both of us.

What's next? Personal Workout Update

Read his story @
http://www.thislittlepiggywenttothegym.com/

My husband and I are in this wilderness. We have seemed to always struggle with our weight. He, obviously more than I, but nonetheless, we both have always been on this mission to lose the weight. We often have said over the last few years of marriage, "I gotta lose some/this weight". (And we really did.)

Recently we started working out at home together, with the Insanity dvd workout program. We both have eaten good. In fact, often times I tell Dave, our splurging is better than some people's diets. Needless to say, and honestly, we did not follow the Nutrition Plan to a T. However, our bodies have still transformed, our strength has definitely increased, and our endurance has seriously improved.

Don't get me wrong, we watch what we eat. We eat the right foods, and don't over indulge. And we're pretty satisfied with ourselves.

But something has happened mentally in us. Our minds & attitudes are not obsessed with the numbers on the scale.

Be honest, there are some of us who want to weigh in daily to see if what we ate yesterday has affected us...and then we plan our eating for the day, based on the number, right? Just admit it. But Dave and I are in this place of that thinking shifting. We have reached destination: satisfaction!!!!

Today is our last day of week 7, with one more week of Shaun T.'s butt kicking Insanity left. So we're now looking ahead to "what to do next?" What is our goal?

We talked and have come to the conclusion that we're happy with our weight. We have finally met the goal & most common New Year's Resolution of 'lose weight'. Weird feeling I tell ya!

It seems like a lifetime of struggling, a lifetime of always eating and working out to LOSE WEIGHT NOW! But after this season of life of being determined to lose the weight...we've finally arrived to that point of a healthy weight, healthy cardiovascular health, and contentment with reaching this goal.

Now, I'm a big proponent of goals and have seen in my own life and others' that if we are not progressing toward a goal, we are probably digressing, right? So Dave and I cannot go into cruise control with this contentment. We cannot eat what we shouldn't, miss workouts, and lose the success we have had over our bodies.


I told Dave that we now need to push our muscles and body to change, grow, and transform as much as we can. We've lost most of the cushion that hides the muscles, now let's beef up the muscle to lean out more.

So how? A new workout regimen is around the corner for us. I feel like some P90X w/ a side of Turbo for cardio & some Insanity every now & then to challenge us. The strength training of P90X is what our bodies need to grow in strength & muscle. The cardio & calorie burning of Turbo will lean us out to see even more definition. And physically prepare us for P90X2 releasing in January 2012!Finally, we're no longer at the defeated place of 'if I could just lose 5 more lbs.' We were both there most of our lives. And it has taken us time to get here (Dave - 3 years, me - 19 mos.), but we finally got here. Now we get to 'have fun' & push our bodies to the limits w/ endurance & strength training. I'm so excited!!!!

When we put our bodies in an environment

to change & adapt, it will.

This plan will work when we continue to work out daily & eat healthy foods! Ain't no Thanksgiving turkey & stuffing on the horizon going to derail me! My sights are set on seeing what this body can do! Can't wait!

Do you REALLY push yourself?

Do you really push yourself? Yesterday's list of reminders may force someone to push themselves against the grain with their daily time-management alone.

(View this quick check off list here: http://flexandgetfit.blogspot.com/2011/06/reminders-for-week.html)

But are you one to challenge yourself to go beyond what you are comfortable with? Do you force yourself to stick to standards and limits? Or do you just do what you want, what feels good? Do you indulge yourself in anything and everything you want? Are you responsible?

Somewhere along the way, self-indulgence has been glamorized. What a shame, perhaps this mentality is why 65% of America is overweight and obese. Perhaps this is why there were more than 200,000 foreclosures in April of this year alone (this seems to be the monthly average). People were unwilling to stay within guidelines of their finances and overextended themselves.

I'm not here to point the finger, but to sober the general population to the idea that people are just not pushing themselves hard enough in areas that are affecting their personal lives...and has had a negative effect on our economy as well.

You ask, "how does me being overweight affect the U.S. economy?" Google it. Think about all the people who are receiving public medical aid for conditions that are TOTALLY preventable through diet and exercise? Diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol. Now, we have 33% of American children who are overweight or obese. Childhood obesity is on the rise, only to be followed by a rise in childhood cases of diabetes. AND IT'S ALL PREVENTABLE!!! (Stay with me...)

Here's the solution, it's kinda a no-brainer - PUSH YOURSELF TO BE YOUR BEST! Period. Make yourself get up every morning and exercise. I don't care if it's a dvd program, a trip to the gym, a 30 min. walk around your neighborhood, a bike ride on the bike trail or jog....JUST GET MOVING! It will also take you pushing yourself to have SELF-CONTROL and tell yourself 'no' when it comes to things that are not healthy.

I am passionate about this stuff because I believe that we have gotten lazy about the things that impact our homes. Overeating, overspending, overcommitting, over - you name it! I want you to want more for yourself & I want to see you push yourself to get there, to achieve it!

I laid awake at 1 in the morning thinking about this...and I have to get it off my chest today. I hope you hear my heart: I want MORE FOR YOU! Let me know if I can help.

Been wondering what it is that I eat? Here it is!



Here's what logging your food &
counting calories + exercise does for ya!

In the last month, I've talked about measuring out your food as per serving size, and logging it. Another component to losing weight is counting the calories. With my workout program, I was given a worksheet to help me figure out how many calories I need for my size. So often we try to do a 'one-size-fits-all' regimen, and I don't think that's realistic for us to try. So often are people deprived, which sets them up to binge eat and this starts the crazy cycle all over again.


Last week, I was asked what I eat throughout the day, so I thought I would share what my food log looks like with you today. Note: I am 134 lbs. If you are heavier, you will need a little more calories, if you are smaller than I, you will need less. However, NEVER GO BELOW 1200 CALORIES. I've seen a 'cleanse formula' recently that gave you 1000-1200 cals. per day, but it is made to do for 2-3 days ONLY, not a long-term regimen of less than 1200 calories.

Below is my message that I sent to a friend:

My days are like this:
first thing: coffee (2): 20 cals. total (was 40, but started using 1/4 cup. almond milk for crmr.)
breakfast: mini- bagel w/ 1/4 cup cott. cheese:160 cals. (or 1 cup cheerios + 1/2 cup milk: 120 cals.)
after wkout: shakeology 150-190 cals. (Depending on whether I use almond milk or water.)
lunch: salad w/ chicken & very low-cal drsg. & apple or banana: 270 cal. (or a wrap w/ the lowcarb ww tort: 230 cals.)
snack: carrot sticks dipped in cott. cheese (w/ spices), or 5 prunes, apple wrapped in ham lunchmeat = 100 cals. or a fib. 1 bar (but trying to give those up- 140 cals)
dinner: 1-2 pc. ckn breast, 1/2 cup beans or rice, ton of veggies: 450 cals. (You can make this stir-fry ckn bowl, or fajitas, or in a salad, or just plated up.)

and if there's room in the cal. budget & I need a little something else, 1/2 cup of nonfat yogurt w/ 2/3 cup of blueberries =120 cals. Or a shakeology pop = 25 cals.
Grand total is: 1330 (without the yog.) - 1450 (with yog.)

I use a lot of the same foods and eat diff. ways. I try to avoid diet sodas, but usually drink tea w/ stevia in the early afternoon for a little caff. boost. But only 2 cups of coffee in the early a.m. (which I'm trying to cut back on) and then some early p.m. tea...water the rest of the day, with dinner, all day running errands.

I love cheese, but cannot lose weight w/ it in my diet. I love bread, but have to sub the mini-bagels or mini sandwich thins in for it.

I watch the sodium for the most part. The thing we're cutting back on is the BBQ sauce, we haven't been measuring this out and I'm sure I'm over my cals by at least 100 on bbq sauce alone. We sub bbq sauce w/ spicy salsa too! We use black beans a lot, instead of pinto, great on a salad...mix 'em w/ corn - YUM!

You have to eat to lose weight. You have to get rid of that borderline starving-mode of eating. It will keep your metabolism stagnant if you don't put in more. You cannot be afraid to eat. You just have to eat good, nutrient dense foods...add a ton of veggies. When I have a wrap, I have a ton of tomatoe & greens. And one thing I don't do is count my lean green veggie calories. Those are free to me, because the more I eat, the fuller I am and the less likely I am to reach for the cheese or fiber 1 bars....my biggest hurdles.

Another tip: Drink water like there's a water shortage coming! Try hard to stay away from a bunch of diet sodas and other fake sugary drinks. Do your own research, I've heard it keeps you from losing weight. Plus, most diet sodas have sodium, which leaves you looking puffy.

You've got to look at the long run. PERMANENT weight loss is a marathon...no shortcuts, just adapting to healthier foods and getting super creative with them. It took you how many years to gain weight? So many people want to lose all the weight in a few weeks/months, when it took years of bad habits to get to where they are. You have to stick to eating healthy for a long time and it's worth it. You WILL get an acquired taste for the veggies and less fat in your diet. Just give yourself a chance to break the bad habits of eating bad.

All you have to lose from this commitment is weight and health issues...what you have to gain is a healthy body, more energy, good sense of well-being, and a slimmer body. It's a WIN-WIN when you give up the BAD! You can do it! Hang in there...it's going to be worth it. Just commit at least 6 months to see what kind of results you get. And when you are feeling better and looking better, it will be easy to commit to doing it for a year...and then you'll want to eat this way for the rest of your life!