Merry Healthy Christmas!

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December 23, 2012 by UtahMan&Wife

Seasons Greetings from Utah! It’s been a long time since we updated the blog. We are happy to report that things are going great for us. We are enjoying one the best Christmas gifts we could ever ask for: Health! [and skinny jeans]

UtahMan: My final LDW (last dosage weight) in mid-October was 190.2. I have continued to maintain, and currently I’m at 188.2. I’m off all of my high blood pressure meds and all my blood sugar levels and cholesterol are fantastic. Last Tuesday night we had a formal Christmas party to attend. I pulled out the old tuxedo, “dusted it off”, and we had a good laugh when I tried it on. Hard to believe I wore that tux just last Christmas. So, off we headed to the local Men’s Warehouse where they did a great job measuring and fitting me into new duds (shout out to our cool salesman Randy). I have to admit, it was pretty surprising to find out the huge change in inches!   [Guess someone at the thrift store is going to to find a really great deal on a nearly-new tux.]

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WIFE: This past week I finished Round 3 – my FINAL ROUND! I weighed 200 lbs in May. My goal weight was 140 lbs. I’m thrilled to report that I’ve exceeded my goal and am currently 136 lbs. In 6 months I’ve lost more than 60 lbs and have transformed from a size 16 to a size 6 [guess 6 is my “lucky number”] I’m actually wearing my 18 yr old daughter’s skinny jeans in the ‘after” photo below because the smallest thing in my closet was an 8 that was baggy. My daughter rolled her eyes and told me that it was “just too wrong”. She decided to gift me these jeans since she was “sort of creeped out” to wear them after her Mom had. 😛

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BOTH: We’ve had an amazing journey. Of course, this is really only the beginning of our new healthy life. We have new goals and plans for 2013. Like, ramping up our exercise and maybe entering a few 5K or 10K races (we are already signed up for the New Years Day “Commitment Day Race”). When we launched our weight loss “experiment” in June we never imagined we could reach this kind of transformation in such a short amount of time. It’s really amazing. We have learned so much about eating healthy, and what works and doesn’t work for our individual bodies. We have detoxed ourselves from sugar, starches, and other ‘crapola’, and we’ve developed a passion for fresh, real foods that taste incredibly delicious now thanks to renewing our taste-buds  As we have mentioned in the past, we are big fans and proponents of the Paleo/Primal lifestyle for maintaining long-term weight and health. It’s pretty simple. No sugar, starches or processed junk. All you want to eat of protein [like poultry, beef, eggs, seafood], good fats [like coconut oil, butter, bacon, olives, avocado], veggies [any and all] and fruit [any, but esp. berries, apples & citrus]. We use natural raw Stevia as our sweetener of choice (LOVE it!]. Although strict Paleo folks are anti-dairy, we think it’s OK to include moderate amounts of white cheeses, cottage cheese and unsweetened Greek yogurt. We also include small amounts of natural peanut butter, and we love Sunbutter (made from sunflower seeds). Nuts and seeds of all varieties are a great choice for snacks and additional good fats. (Sadly, Wife has a tree nut allergy, which sucks – but seeds are OK for her).

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Funny side note: Wife has a friend who is a television anchor for a local station who recently took notice of our transformation and wants to do a story on us as part of a “January health series” for the morning show. Yeah, that’s weird. It makes us a little nervous, too. I mean, we aren’t “health experts” or anything, we’re just average people who have made a bunch of healthy choices and changes this year (and lost a butt load of weight). Apparently, that’s exactly what the producer wants. We thought about how we wouldn’t have any of our weight loss and new health this year if it wasn’t for someone who freely shared with us what they had been doing. So, maybe we owe it to people to “pay it forward”. If we could help even one person change their lives, get off their medications, eliminate their obesity, and have new health and freedom this coming year, then I guess it would be worth embarrassing ourselves a little.

christmas paint (Photo credit: cassie_bedfordgolf)

In the meantime, we get approached constantly by people who have noticed our “amazing changes” and want to know what we did, and what we are doing now to maintain. We tell them. Some just nod and change the subject. Some people say “oh, I could never do that!”. Some show true interest and say they’ll contact us to get all the info. Most don’t call or email us back. Maybe the longer we go on maintaining, and looking and feeling good, people will see it’s “for real” and want to make some changes, too. And, we are making some inroads to influence others to make healthy choices. Wife’s co-workers have vowed not to bring any sugary treats to work beginning in 2013. For tomorrow’s big family Christmas Eve dinner, Wife’s sister plans to steam up two batches of chicken and beef – without any added sauces – and asked us to bring the salad. People we know don’t even offer us dessert or treats anymore because they know we don’t eat them, which makes life easy. One of UtahMan’s coworkers gave him a giant tub of homemade kettle-corn as a Christmas gift. She said “I know you aren’t actually going to eat this, but I still wanted to include you. So, you have my permission to just go ahead and regift it!“

🙂 he he

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas, and a very happy and healthy New Year. [You can do it!]