Many of you have heard me mention Dave Ramsey. He is a man that Eve & I have learned a ton about handling our finances & to that length we are sure that we will completely change our financial future for the better thanks in large part to Dave. We listen to his radio program as much as we can & on one such occasion he mentioned this book called Fit For Life by Harvey Diamond. He had mentioned this book that was written in the late '80's as good book for getting into shape & being healthy. In short being fit & healthy for your whole life. I wrote this book down & didn't actually check it out from the library for several weeks later near the end of the semester.
Now let me rewind here for a few moments if I may. During high school I weighed around 150 & some change. My Dad used to jokingly refer to me as "Stick." Several years later I bulked up & added some muscle so I wasn't so sickly looking which I was thankful for. Well in the years that followed my weight slowly went up. I was a distance runner in high school so that led to my physique being what it was. After high school I didn't run as much & slowly found myself in a place where I didn't really run at all. Then I really wasn't working out very much & before I knew it some of my clothes weren't fitting as well as they used to. In fact most of my clothes were tight. This was a new experience for me & one that I didn't particularly enjoy. I stalled by stating I would diet & lose weight instead of buy newer & bigger clothes.
Three summers ago I got onto the scale & I weighed a tiny bit over 200 lbs. I had never weighed this much before & frankly I was concerned. I tried a few different diets & managed to get my weight somewhere in the mid 190's. I continued to stall with buying clothes until a year ago when I accepted this was the "new me" & that like all other adults I would forever be this size. Deep down I knew I wanted to lose weight but I was beginning to become discouraged. Then comes along Dave Ramsey & this diet book plug. So I check this book out from the library & within a day I had read the entire book. What the author said made sense to me about eating primarily foods that are naturally occurring: fruits & vegetables. The book goes into some detail about eating nothing but fruits & juice in the morning until lunch. For lunch most days would be some kind of veggie lunch or a light meat with a salad. Dinner was the main time to eat meats & other heavy food.
Typically this is what a normal day looks like for us: For breakfast we'll have an assortment of fruits & berries such as strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, mellon, pineapple, & orange juice. For lunch I'll have a sandwich with light meat & a salad or a salad with light meat. For dinner I'll have a small portion of meat with vegetables & a salad. The book is full of delicious recipes & guidelines for eating in a normal day.
I am thrilled to say that I have lost 15 pounds over the last few months & have been able to maintain this weight loss. I've been able to wear jeans in a size I never thought would be possible again. My sister-in-law bought me a pair of these smaller jeans for Christmas & I was thrilled they fit when I tried them on. Eve has been also following this eating plan & she has also had similar results
All this is to say that if you would be interested in losing weight & keeping it off it can be done. I knew that I didn't want to be 40 years old & have a pot belly. I've heard it said that obesity is the main cause of all health problems. If you are at all interested please check out this book. When we are eating strawberries, blueberries, bananas, & orange juice we don't feel like we are "dieting" per say. This hasn't involved some health club membership or expensive meal plan. Granted we do spend more at the grocery store especially in fresh produce but the best foods to consume are that ones that are not processed at all. Now don't worry I am NOT turning into a vegetarian. I love meat way too much!
This has been a lifestyle change & I pray we will continue to follow this new eating plan & remain fit for life for the rest of our lives. Oh one last thing: while doing this plan I rarely exercised. I lost this weight by really modifying my eating habits & having goals. Once again the book is called Fit for Life & is by Harvey & Marilyn Diamond. Enjoy!
That is awesome! I'm happy for both of you! But watch your fruit intake, I don't know if the book pointed it out or not, but there is a TON of sugar in fruit, which we all know turns to fat once it starts to break down in the body. I only say this cause a LOT of people think "fruit diets" are awesome, cause they love fruit and can get away with eating all that they want. lol. I'm also going to see about checking that book out at the library, it sounds interesting!
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