My Weight Loss Story

Losing Weight

By Whitney Evans

Part 1: Why I decided to make a drastic change.

When I started, my confidence was low. I was self-conscious about wearing certain shirts without sleeves or shirts with fabric that clung a certain way. Every time I tried on a pair of pants and had to reluctantly banish them to the back of the closet because there was no way I would be seen out of the house in them, another little piece of me died inside as I tried to make excuses or talk myself into believing it was okay.

Here’s a picture from my sister’s wedding. She got married in December of 2015. I was self-conscious in all the pictures… My husband, Jay, and I talked about needing to do something about our weight while on the trip for this wedding, but nothing changed when we got home…

I remember going to the doctor for my yearly check-up the following summer. That was six months after the wedding, and I had continued to gain weight. I’ll never forget crying to Jay when I left as I remembered the doctor telling me, “You’re a smart girl. If you want to be 120 lbs., you just need to eat like a 120 lb. girl.” He asked me about my eating habits. They were by no means good, but he actually said to me, “Chocolate chips go to the hips.” I cried and allowed it to affect me because I knew it was true. I knew I had to eat differently if I wanted to look and feel different.

A week after that delightful trip to the doctor we headed on vacation to Estes Park, CO. It’s a place

I’ve visited many times throughout the years. I love hiking, and feel like I could walk forever when I’m surrounded by the breathtaking mountains. This particular year was no different, but I felt more uncomfortable in my clothes, and I hated most of the pictures I was in. But it was vacation, and Jay and I didn’t want to unsuccessfully try a diet when we were surrounded by s’mores, camp food, and road trip food. When we got home, we resolved to try something different. In the back of my mind was also the fear of continuing to gain weight. I couldn’t stand the mere thought of reaching a weight or level of unhealthiness where I was unable to do the things I wanted to be able to do. I never wanted to be cut off from the mountains because I didn’t take care of myself.

Part 2: Implementing a weight loss plan.

At first, I tried eating a bowl of cereal every morning for breakfast, a salad every day for lunch, and a smaller portion of whatever I wanted for dinner. I also made a rule that I wasn’t allowed to have potatoes and chocolate in the same day! I was able to stick to it for the first week. I also tried working out every other day. We have some old Insanity videos with Shaun T. that I used as best I could. I remember feeling like I was sacrificing. I spent quite a bit of time still feeling hungry. I’ll never know how effective this would have been long-term because shortly after returning from vacation, my husband, Jay, got serious about the possibility of us trying a Ketogenic diet. Here’s us pre-diet on that Estes Park vacation. 

Jay also wanted to lose some weight. His best friend Trevor had been successfully following a keto (Ketogenic) diet for the previous six months with incredible results. Trevor had lost about 10+ lbs. each month for the last 6 months by eating bacon and steak. I thought Jay was crazy, but the more research I did, the more sense a ketogenic diet actually made. In a nutshell, it requires capping your carbs at such a low amount that your body is forced to burn fat instead of carbohydrates which produces ketones in your blood and puts your body in a state called “ketosis” hence the name. Fat is more satiating than carbs (it fills you up and leaves you feeling more satisfied). Fat also burns quite a bit “cleaner” than carbs. Carbs aren’t necessarily bad, and fat isn’t necessarily bad. My problem with weight gain was a result of eating too much of both carbs and fat. Your body will always choose to burn the carbs first because it is so much easier for your body to do. The fat ends up getting stored. If you eat as many carbs as I was, your body has a constant stream of carb energy and every bit of fat that I was eating was getting saved up in my body.

It felt completely wrong to eat everything with bacon and coated with butter, but after the first week, Jay and I were already seeing results. Some of the results were bad like crankiness and a bit of carb withdrawal. Others were good like drinking massive amounts of water and eating about a third of what I had been previously while not feeling like I was starving. Our keto diet consisted of mostly meat, cheese, a few vegetables, butter, and low carb wraps to replace all of our bread. We both eat about 20 grams of carbs or less every day. My diet break down is approximately 5% of our calories from carbs, 25-30% from protein, and 65-70% from fat. We also include cheat days every once in a while now that we are closer to our ideal body weights. This gives our bodies a chance to reset, work our metabolisms a bit harder, and make sure we can still process carbohydrates. They’re a nice thing to look forward to every once in a while too! Interestingly, potatoes, which were one of my favorite foods before the weight loss, aren’t a big temptation. Chocolate, on the other hand, continues to be an ongoing struggle to say, “No,” to at times.

Part 3: Tips and the reasons for my success.

Here are some of the factors that led to a Ketogenic diet being successful for me (in no particular order).

1) Rules – I am naturally a justifier… I can justify anything, so if I had just resolved to “eat better” nothing significant would have changed. A keto diet required me to plan exactly how much fat, carbs, and protein I would eat in a day. I measured my food in grams on a scale and didn’t go over a certain amount. It was a lot like budgeting money. If I ran out of carbs for the day, I didn’t eat that thing I’d wanted for dessert. Having a very strict set of rules gave me no room for excuses or justifying my way right into a Chocolate Extreme Blizzard from Dairy Queen. 

2       2) Measuring and Planning – Using a scale along with the My Fitness Pal app from Under Armor showed me that I had been eating about three times the calories that I should have been before I started the keto diet. Once we started, because my diet was so high in fat, I was able to cut my calories by 3 times and not be starving between meals. Now when I allow myself a day to eat what I want, I am reminded of why I need rules and why measuring my food is so important. When I don’t, I eat solely for taste, and I literally cannot make myself stop. When my food is planned, I know how much I will eat before I start eating, and I know it’s been planned to satisfy me and provide me with the energy and nutrients I need. I am able to stop when the food is gone and accept that it is what’s best for my body.

3       3) Home-made chocolates – I found a super easy recipe to make my own chocolates. They got me through when I wanted to give up. Home-made low-carb ice cream as well, but that takes a lot more work.

4       4) Team Work – Doing such an extreme diet seemed very daunting at the start. Doing it with Jay was a huge source of motivation. He wasn’t cheating, and that motivated me to follow the rules as well. He found an amazing recipe for mozzarella burgers with bacon and pepperoni that were delicious and got us started! Knowing that we were both in it together made all the difference.

5       5) Prayer – I prayed constantly, especially as I started to lose weight. I’m not saying I prayed to lose weight, although I did pray that God would help me turn around my relationship with food. I prayed that it wouldn’t be about me showing off my body or being obsessed with being skinny. I wanted to be healthy and be able to honor God better with my new weight than with my old weight. I wanted to be a better witness because food was no longer an idol in my life. I wanted it to be about doing what was best to take care of God’s temple. Now that I’ve lost 40-50 lbs., I can see that my relationship with food at times was trumping my relationship with God. I would idolize the big dessert I was going to have at a restaurant or the unhealthy tator tots I was going to eat for lunch on a Saturday. I would get angry at people if they took some food from my plate. I wouldn’t just jokingly get mad; I would actually let that control my mood and snap at people, even Jay. I honestly think that before, if there was one slice of pizza left and I thought a few people might want it, I would try to find a way to politely get that last piece over someone else. I would plot how to take it without looking rude and I would mull over why I should get that last piece over someone else… I was letting food come between opportunities for relationships with people. That’s not God’s will for anyone…

6       6) Results – I was able to see results so quickly! That kept me going because I saw that what I was doing was working. It gave me new weights and new goals to strive for. It doesn’t take a genius to know that success provides hope and is a great motivator! Not only did I see results; I felt results. I could stretch better, move better, jump higher, run and walk farther, wear old clothes again like they were new, work out with more intensity, and even sleep better!

        7) The Tattoo – I mentioned to Jay a few years ago that I thought it would be cool to have a tattoo like my video game character in Elder Scrolls Online. Jay asked me why I didn’t actually get one and I said I would want to be in better shape first. He jokingly told me to get to 120 lbs. and get a tattoo. When I started losing weight and realizing that that weight goal might not be so crazy, I decided that I was going to get to 120 lbs., and I was going to get a tattoo!

On the days when I didn’t feel like working out or when I was really tempted to eat something that wasn’t part of my daily diet plan, I would think about my future tattoo, and it motivated me to say, “No.” There were times I wanted to sit out a few reps in my work out videos but I made myself keep moving by thinking about that tattoo.

Part 4: Health Benefits

On June 17, 2016, I had my blood drawn at my yearly physical because I was curious how my new diet was affecting some of my other health factors. (I’ve heard of a keto diet helping some diabetics manage their blood sugar and helping some children who suffer from seizures to live normal lives without needing medication!) My results were almost entirely normal. I had slightly high cholesterol, but when I compared my results in June with my results from September 28, 2015 (about 2 months into the diet) I was shocked!

	September 28, 2015	June 17, 2016
Weight	141.4 lbs	116.4 lbs
HDL (Good Cholesterol)	45 (too low)	72 (higher than normal, which is actually a good thing!)
LDL (Bad Cholesterol)	124 (too high)	116 (still too high, but getting closer!)
Triglycerides	182 (too high)	109 (great!)
Glucose	94 (a 96 would have been considered too high)	67 (on the low end of the normal range)
Blood Pressure	125 (too high)	106 (just right)

Most of my numbers were in perfectly normal ranges, so I was happy to see that my body is reacting very well to this ketogenic diet. In fact, all the animal fat and bacon actually seems to be helping my cholesterol, blood sugar, and blood pressure!

Another health factor is my ability to exercise at a level I never have before. I made it through the entire 60-day Insanity workout program. Now I’m more than half way through the same program for the second time, this time with fewer rest days in between. I’m learning how to know when my body is legitimately hungry and when it is ready to sleep. I’ve gained tons of flexibility! I’m not self-conscious about my upper arms anymore when I wear a sleeveless shirt because there are muscles there that I’ve never seen on myself before! My previous push-up cap was probably 3… on a good day… if I did the push-ups where you’re actually on your knees. Now I can do more than 20 push-ups in under a minute! My resting heart rate is in the 60s, and I even feel like I breathe more comfortably. Jay and I have a vacation to Estes Park, CO, planned for July 15 this summer. Combined, we’ve lost close to 100 lbs. since we started last summer. We are so excited to hike the same and longer and harder trails without the extra 40-50 lbs!

Conclusion

Jay and I both feel stronger, healthier, and more confident. I’m so thankful that all of the above factors worked together to help me be successful. It hasn’t been easy, but it has been way more realistic than I ever thought it could be. There are still challenges, but Jay and I both want these healthier versions of ourselves to stay the norm and become a lifestyle rather than just something we did for a few months. For my mental health as well as my physical health, I want to continue to view food as fuel for my body rather than something that can control me and even hurt me if I let it.

Here is one final comparison of where I started and where I am now. Thank you, bacon!