How I Went From Size 18 To A 6
Two years ago I retired after 34 years of government service. While not working was going to be a major life event, I had plans for making even a bigger change. I had every intention of losing weight and getting in shape. My daughter was getting married 10 months later, so I had time to lose the weight slowly and safely.
I succeeded in my goal; my only regret is that I should have taken measurements. When I started reinventing myself I had heard the key words: reduce calories and increase exercise as well as things like you can't lose fat in your chin without taking off weight overall. Being an analyst at heart, I started slowly but researched continually. I researched diet tricks, metabolism boosters, exercise regimens, fads, and facts. I quickly realized that being post-menopausal added an extra problem to overcome. I started slow, especially with the exercise, making sure to avoid injury. I logged my exercise on an Excel spreadsheet.
The spreadsheet included my weight, my BMI, percent of body mass lost, etc. As the weight began to melt away and I started to purchase smaller clothes, I inserted comments on my spreadsheet to mark the point in time. The comments would include positive and negative notes, such as bought smaller size jeans, have a sizeable muffin top but the jeans buttoned without effort. These kinds of notes became a way to look back and remember what was happening when. It became very important to me. About 2/3 of the way through my 10 month journey I saw a piece on Dr. Oz regarding how to break a weight loss plateau. He recommended a sundae or parfait of sorts made with Greek yogurt, fruit and Matcha Green Tea.
I had never heard of Matcha, so I researched it first. I found out what it was, where it came from, and whether or not it had any benefit. After analyzing the information, I had to find out where to get it. After compiling the necessary ingredients, I whipped up parfaits for my husband and me. The reason this concoction works is because it tastes and smells so nasty, you never want to put anything in your mouth ever again.
For several days after this experiment I could barely stand to eat anything; the memories would come back and about make me gag. I was able to add 2 cups of Matcha Hot tea with breakfast every morning. It was a lot like learning to drink stewed grass clippings, but my spreadsheet showed a 20% increase in weight loss when drinking the tea. In the end, I have totally reinvented my diet. I no longer eat “4 legged meat”, and eat only fresh vegetables and fruit. I seriously limit my carb intake. I lost 65 pounds in 10 months, and went from a size 18 to a size 6.
