Mama Veggie Quest: Before & After

This week, I’m honored to share a guest post with you written by my first-ever nutrition “client” (guinea pig? 😉 ), Mama Veggie Quest. Since her last post, 85 Pounds and Counting, this all-around-amazing lady has lost 25 more pounds. That puts her total weight loss at over 110 pounds. Go Mom!

However, her journey has been anything but a straight line. Like many of us, she struggles with emotional eating and the challenge of eating healthy in a junk food world. Yet on a nourishing plant-powered diet, she’s shed the weight. It hasn’t just been yummy food that’s kept her going, though. She’s also drawn on 5 habits that help her persevere even when the going gets tough. In fact, that’s exactly why I’m sharing her post now. During the holidays, food is everywhere and emotions—both happy and sad—run high. Here’s hoping her top 5 tips help you and me both stay (mostly) on course!

Greetings from Mama Veggie Quest!  I hope all has gone well for you over the past months and that you are happy and veggie healthy!

Since my last post, I have lost an additional 25 plus pounds bringing my total weight loss to over 110 pounds. Currently I am hovering right at 160 pounds and I am working through a period of maintenance while I cope with several losses in my life. First and foremost was the death of my beloved father, James G. Frederick, in early May. By the end of June, I had lost another 5 friends and family members. It was a heart-wrenchingly tough time for the whole family.

If I had given into old habits, such traumatic stress would have caused me to reach for simple-sugar foods for comfort and caused a lot of weight gain, particularly since friends and family conveyed their condolences with enough cookies, cakes, and pastas to cover every flat surface in the house. Gratefully, I had the following action steps and tools that helped me remain rock solid. Perhaps you will find some of these tips helpful too.

5 Tips That Helped Me Lose Over 110 Pounds

1. Meditate/pray and keep a grateful heart

I won’t pontificate here, just recommend that you take a few minutes every morning to be grateful for the blessings in your life. I know there is a lot of bad stuff going on; everyone else (your neighbors, friends and news outlets) will remind you non-stop of this. Thankfully, a special time of meditation and prayer can lift you up and set a peaceful tone for your day. A blessing in itself, yes?

2. Record, record, record

Truly, I do understand how difficult this suggestion is. Recording seemed beyond me at first. For several weeks, I hated taking the time out of my life to log into MyFitnessPal and go through the process of recording everything I ate. But writing it all down has been a major tool in my “heathy me” toolbox. Not only am I able to see how much I am eating, but I can determine how much protein, fiber, sodium, etc., I am taking in. This encourages me to eat for health, not just weight loss. Looking better AND feeling better has made me stick with recording. Now, it’s just second nature to take a few minutes after each meal to log my food. (Just ask my friends who have watched me whip out my cell phone to enter my lunch right at the restaurant table! I do take a bit of ribbing on this one, but I am the one losing weight.) So, take this one for a test drive to see if it works for you.  🙂

3. Coaching & accountability – It’s about your healthy beautiful self (you gorgeous person, you), so reach out for support

This has been such a valuable support for me that I am now in the process of becoming a Certified Health Coach! Having a helping hand to keep me on track and listen to me whine (yes, dear friends, I do whine from time to time) has made a huge difference in helping me stick with the program. My coach is there (THANKS AGAIN, LEE!) to talk with me and to help me walk through the process…it’s wonderful to never feel alone.

4. Include exercise

Okay, this is a major weak spot for me. I struggle with the exercise part and often feel I am related to a slug. 🙁 But ever so slowly, I am ratcheting up my exercise. I can now RUN up the stairs and can lift around 35 pounds easily. And, I can walk for a much greater distance and at a faster pace! Just this degree of increased strength and mobility has made my life so much more fun! I may never be the Iron Nun, but I am determined to stick with the program and nip at her amazing heels! 🙂

However, I urge you, if you are like me and haven’t done much exercise in the past, to take it slowly! I have the tendency to overdo it and have to back off. Ugh, this slows down the process and can be painful!

5. Set reasonable personal goals—remember, the tortoise won the race

I have saved the most important for last. Your wonderful self, if you listen, will tell you what you need to do. PLEASE, don’t try to eat an elephant in one big old bite! When I started out, I wanted to run away from 272.8 pounds, and I did. But soon enough, my body wanted to slow down and it did. Connie went see-sawing up and down, and frustrated herself terribly. Finally, I decided that the tortoise really did win the race and slowly tackled getting healthy, not just losing weight. And, by conscious and careful goal setting (losing weight in tiny increments and exercising in small steps) I am loving life again. My current goal is to hold my weight where it is. I feel great and am pretty darned happy to hang out in the lower 160’s for a few months. We will see what the future holds regarding any further weight loss.

Feeling great as I approach 68! Join me! Let me know at constancefcrosby -at- yahoo -dot- com if I can help you. 🙂

Connie, AKA: Mama Veggie Quest