I don't know many women who never had to lose a pound or two in the course of their life. When I was young I was always skinny! Even when I had my children I never gained much weight at all, back then hip hugger's were in style and I could get into them as early as the day I left the hospital. I think it was because I walked walked walked everywhere! I loved it, most of us back then never thought twice about it. After 12 long long years of marriage and being told every day of it how fat I was, I smartened up and moved on. Oh did I mention I wasn't fat at all, I was 5ft 5" and weighed no more then 118 lbs at best, and I have the pictures to prove it.
A few years later I met my second husband, fell in love and got married. As the years rolled on and I got more comfortable, I slowly gained weight. I did the yo yo syndrome for over 20 years. Got a splinter in my foot, I got deathly sick, had many many surgeries but, ultimately ended up losing my lower right leg My husband and I decided it was the best thing for me to do.
Well being sick for almost 5 straight years and many of them very immobile and living on IV antibiotics, not only did I lose my leg but, I gained so much weight! To make a long story short, shortly after I had my leg amputated, my husband got severely hurt at his job of 32 years and was unable to go back to work. We both ended up retired and moving from New England to the South. It's funny we ended up here because we both hate the heat! After our first summer here and nearly dying from the heat and my weight I decided that this was it, I am not spending my last years heavy and struggling to get through each and every day. I was almost in a wheelchair 100 % of the time. I was out of shape and out of practice with walking.
So what diet was I going to do? All my doctors said it would nearly impossible for me to lose much seeing I was on so much medication, including a lot of insulin, and I had to pamper my one good leg. After all I wasn't young, I was 51 years old and had a lot against me.
So last New Year's Day My husband, son in law, and daughter's which all needed to lose weight desperately also said we do this together. Guess what? Everyone bailed on me within a week! I was so mad, it was then I said I would prove everyone wrong and lose all the weight that I felt I needed to lose with no ones help at all if that was how it was going to be.
I wasn't sure how I was going to do it. Over the years I lost 40, 50, even 73 lbs once. I tried Optifast, weight watcher's, the good old grapefruit diet, the cabbage soup diet, pills, shots, you name it. Let me tell you, if you listen to anything I have said so far, all the bribes, threats, promises of gifts, you name it, nothing is going to work unless you want to do this for you first! You can't do it for anyone until you decide your worth the effort! then and only then you'll find the will power. Because as much as we hate to admit it, we are the ones who hold the fork. So, I have to admit I still kept holding out for some miracle diet, I tried new things to lose 10 or 15 lbs only to gain it back and lose it again. Finally my husband said make small goals and whatever you lose every week be happy with it and eventually 2lbs will become 4 lbs and 4 will become 8 lbs and so fourth and so on, as long as you don't gain be happy your going in the right direction.
My husband had great advice but, he wasn't going to use that advice on himself. Steve has lost 90 to 100 lbs 3 times in the last 26 years always to gain it all back, why? I think because he just deprived himself of any thing good, so he finally would crash and go back to over eating.
Well I took his advice and me and my friend Lisa decided why not put our love for cooking to work, and find a way to reinvent recipes that would be healthier, livable, and honestly tasted good. Well, I have to admit we both loved food and wasn't crazy about eating the same foods day in and day out. So Memorial day came and instead of having one last pig out, we started our journey on that very day.
In a few weeks it will make one whole year, so far I have lost 73lbs and Lisa lost 53 lbs. We survived every single holiday and special occasion, we never gained back more than 2 or 3 lbs. We never deprived ourselves. We thought there really isn't any bad food, just some you really need to eat in moderation especially if you want to lose fat.
I wanted to show my daughter's that even though I had a lot of obstacles that anything is possible. In a few weeks once I get settled here I am going to post favorite reciepes that I took and made over to be healthier, tasty, and better for your waistline. I will call it Makeover Mondays ~
