In my 20s, I was fat, exhausted and desperate to lose weight. Even
though I was 40 pounds overweight, I was much more concerned with
fitting into the clothes in my closet than I was about my health.
I had gone from being an extremely fit teenager to being a somewhat fit
college student to a 40-pound overweight working woman. I still
remember turning down company get-togethers and blind dates because I
was so uncomfortable with the way I looked. Desperate to lose weight, I
tried just about every diet available.
Unfortunately, none of
the diets satisfied my craving for good food. On each weight loss
attempt, I'd lose a few pounds only to give up and gain all the weight
back and then some.
It wasn't until I realized that fad diets weren't a viable solution for me that I started to work on a solution. After years of failed attempts to lose weight,
I finally found a way to drop all 40 pounds and keep it off for good — in fact, I've been at or near my goal weight for nearly 20 years! The solution wasn't about depriving myself of treats or starving myself. The solution was simple:
clean eating.
I
started by eliminating excess sugar, processed foods and artificial
sweeteners. I also quit eating anything with chemicals or preservatives.
When I finally found a way of eating that had me dropping the
pounds quickly and allowed me to eat good food (like fish tacos with
mango-avocado salsa,
kale and maple-roasted sweet potato salad,
3-bean chili and even
gluten-free, dairy-free triple chocolate brownies), I knew I'd found my weight loss silver bullet.
I know what it feels like to be overweight and unhappy but I also
know what if feels like to finally fit into a smaller size pair of pants
and smile when you step on the scale. I wish everyone who is struggling
with their weight and feeling hopeless, like I felt, could know what it
feels like to finally lose all the excess weight.
I know what
it's like to lie in bed and cry, thinking you'll never lose weight. I
know what it's like to turn down invitations because you have no clothes
that fit. But I also know how great it feels when the weight starts
melting off.
If you've just about given up on ever reaching your
goal weight, if your tired of depriving yourself of good food and if
you're tired of seeing the number on the scale creep up rather than
down, clean eating may be just what you need to jump start your weight
loss and once and for all reach your goal weight.
Now that
I'm in my late 40's, I believe the most important benefit of being a
healthy weight and eating a clean diet is countering disease and keeping
your body working well and healthy. But I can't lie: I also love the
feeling of fitting into my skinny jeans!
Whether you pick up a copy of the,
The Healthy You Diet, (and/or join me for the free
Healthy You Challenge) or embark on another clean eating program, I hope you'll give clean eating a try.
You have nothing to lose but your excess weight!
Photo Credit: Sheri Kendrick
I'm
a physician. An orthopedic spine surgeon to be exact. I'm also a wife
and a mother. In all three roles — doctor, wife, and mom — there's one
prescription that I always advocate: eat more real
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