Four Months!

Okay, it is time to show some progress here. This was me 2 years ago almost at my peak weight. I gained another 10 lbs. or so after this was taken.


Here is how I look now. It may be hard to tell from the photos, but I think my face looks a little thinner. My stomach definitely doesn't stick out as much.

It has been 4 months since I went 100% raw! Wow. Even I am impressed. But I do need to put this into the context of what I have done with diets in the past. Typically I could always do 6 months of any kind of weight loss diet and then it would start to fall apart. With one plan, I stuck it out for a year, but there was a significant decline in my compliance after the 6 month point. So I will get really excited with my progress after I have maintained this for over 6 months.

So what have I accomplished? I have let go of 24 lbs. (33 pounds total) and at least 11 inches from specific measuring points on my body. I have gone down 2 sizes in my clothes...from a 24 to a 20. Now by any standard, these are not banner results, but there have been a lot of other changes that have made this well worth the effort...like the lack of a lot of constant pain in my body, more energy, and a significant shift in my overall outlook on life.

But the slow weight loss has been very frustrating. My diet has been easily sustainable, so I haven't fussed over the number on the scales too much. Now I am wondering if I could tighten things up a bit to see if I can get some faster results. Over the next few weeks, I am going to be looking at what steps I can take that won't be so radical that they cause me to swing back the other way and start craving and binging. Baby steps. It will be small changes that I can make easily that won't be too demanding on my regular routine. It is time to modify "My Plan" and see what else I can do.

I have also continued to do my Body Flex but have not been doing it daily. I go for short 20-30 minute walks on the days I skip the Body Flex. I think I can probably do at least 30-40 minutes of the walking and maybe find a more advanced version of the Body Flex. I have also been thinking of going back to my all-time favorite...yoga. Until now, getting up and down off the floor has been too challenging to think about doing it, but now I think I probably could.

On Friday I had:
Breakfast: Green smoothie with mango, banana, orange, and spinach.
Lunch: Broccoli/Bok Choy Salad.
Supper: An Asian inspired salad with marinated kelp noodles, baby bok choy, celery, yellow bell pepper, carrots and red onion. The marinade was tamari, extra virgin sesame oil, lemon juice, garlic and ginger root.

On Saturday I had:
Early Morning: Honeydew melon.
Breakfast: Muesli with almonds and walnuts, chia and sunflower seeds, goji berries and dates, apple and banana with almond milk.
Lunch: A small amount of the leftover broccoli/bok choy salad.
Supper: More of the Asian salad with kelp noodles.
Snack: A couple of power balls.