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
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!
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