This year’s MDA Weight Loss Wars challenge came at the perfect time for me to remain focused and stay motivated. I have never had issues with my weight until I approached the age of 50 and since then it has been a struggle. And with the weight gain, other areas of my wellbeing became effected – high blood pressure, heart issues, pre-diabetes, my good cholesterol was bad and my bad cholesterol was good, and my stamina to walk  even short distances became a struggle. Most nights I couldn’t sleep which is terrible for your health, and my days were filled with hot flashes that never went away so I’m not sure you can actually call them flashes! I was taking 11 medications just to function. I went from a healthy active person on zero medications to an overweight, heavily medicated person and my body was crying out for help. If you were a part of the Weight Loss Wars you know that your real name isn’t on the list of participants, but your code name is. My code name was “Mother of the Groom”. What better motivation does one need to remain focused other than the fact that your only son was getting married and you know your photograph would forever be documented in an album somewhere until the end of time!

While it is true a lot of your body make up is based on genetics, I’m a true believer that one can overcome that excuse. Both my parents had high blood pressure, were diabetics, had strokes and heart attacks, and ended up on dialysis. I was also my parent’s caregivers and attended many of their wellness check with their doctors. I learned that the state they were both in could have had a better outcome with some dietary modifications. My parents were born in the 1930’s and were both southern born and raised, which meant lots of butter, bread at every meal, and it’s shameful not to have a piece of pie of cake for dessert every night. Once I realized that kidney failure is a direct result of long time uncontrolled high blood pressure, diabetes, and the absence of remaining active it was easy to have that mental focus of not wanting to be in a dialysis chair three days a week and 5 hrs each day. What piece of pie is worth that?!

 I’m also a very competitive person. I am motivated by wanting to improve myself and to better myself every day – it drives me….and I’m sure if you asked my husband he would finish that with it drives him crazy. But I think on top of all the things I mentioned above, I have to say the biggest thing that kept me motivated was how much weight my goal really equated to. I have two small dogs – the boy dog, JoJo, weighs 24 lbs and the girl dog, Maggie, weighs 14 lbs. When I started my journey around Christmas 2023, my goal was to lose 40 lbs. If you add both my dogs weights together that almost equaled my goal of number of pounds I wanted to loose for a healthy BMI. When I pick up JoJo my thoughts are always how heavy he is! I cannot carry him for very long distances before I’m ready to set all that weight down. I can carry Maggie around a lot easier but she still weighs a lot! That is a very VISUAL image – not just the actual space they occupy but the energy it takes to pick them up and hold them. Now that I’m at my goal weight I can pick up either one of my dogs and it blows my mind that I was carrying all that extra weight around on a daily basis. It affected the way I walked, the pressure on my back, the distance I could comfortably walk, and the way I could (or couldn’t) BREATHE!

Now on to how I did it! Every single day I remained diligent to my restrictions. I measured every bite that went into my mouth. I also ate low calorie and low fat foods. I did not cook with iodized salt or oils and predominately would use an air fryer. I drank 128 oz of water a day and nothing else. For breakfast I would eat 6 oz of an apple and a hard-boiled egg. Lunch consisted of 6 oz of lean chicken, turkey, fish, shrimp, or flank steak, and 6 oz of vegetables such as lettuce, cabbage, asparagus, onion, celery, radishes, cucumbers, tomatoes, or spinach. I used a lot of Mrs. Dash which comes in lots of varieties these days! My afternoon snack would be 6 oz of strawberries or oranges, and dinner would be 6 oz of the same meat and veggies as lunch. I did not ever deviate and I made no excuse of “well it won’t hurt this time” or “I deserve it”. An interesting by product of my new healthy choices was that food tastes so different to me now. A simple plain tomato is like an explosion of flavor in my mouth! Food from a restaurant such as a piece of meat tastes like it is swimming in sodium and I can barely eat it – and if you didn’t know, you can request your meat at a restaurant to have no seasoning! It is possible to eat healthy in a restaurant – I would order a side salad and plain chicken meat with zero dressing. In addition to my food restrictions, I also walked 6 – 9 miles a day with my supportive husband and my beloved pups which kept me focused two ways – we all needed the exercise and the reminder of how heavy and big those pups were!

The weight just fell off – and in the end I lost a “JoJo and a Maggie”!  I was excited to get out of bed every morning to weigh myself because I knew I was discovering the old me with every pound that disappeared. I am off most of my medications now and walked that road with my doctor supporting and guiding me. I am no longer pre-diabetic, my cholesterol is in check, and the most exciting news is I have a beautiful new daughter (in-law) that I welcomed to my family. I hope that any of the above messages inspires you if you find yourself in a similar situation of trying to find the healthy YOU!

Wishing you good health!

 “Mother of the Groom”