Happy New Year blog readers! I have some delightful news! My book, No Salads Required! How I Lost 159 Pounds WITHOUT Salads, Celery, Sit-Ups, or Surgery and How YOU Can Too! is now available for sale at Target.com! As a former Target employee, this makes me very happy indeed. I received a lot of support and encouragement from my coworkers at Target, when I was losing weight, so it’s especially nice to see that Target is now offering my book on their website.
If you don’t have my book yet, I really encourage you to buy it! Not only is it full of extremely helpful tips on weight loss, it’s also full of humor, recipes, and some really fun poetry about weight loss which I think you will greatly enjoy. There is also a group study guide in the back of the book which is perfect for book clubs and other groups of people who enjoy reading and discussing books together. You will also be happy to know that my book not only comes in the traditional paperback and hardback formats, but it is also available as an e-book that can be read on your phone, e-reader, or any other device you can read a book on these days.
You can also still buy No Salads Required! at Amazon.com, BarnsandNoble.com, Christianbook.com, Google.com, iTunes, Westbowpress.com and many other places that sell books online. Another convenient way to buy my book is to request it at your local bookstore. Most bookstore owners will be delighted to special order it for you even if they don’t have it on the shelf when you come in.
I also have a special note of both thanks and encouragement for my readers all over the world. Thanks to all of you, my weight-loss story has reached people in seventy different countries! That being said, I realize that many of you reading this blog post are not in the United States, so I want to be sure to let you know that many of the online outlets that sell my book ship all over the world, so feel free to order it and have it shipped to wherever you might be. If one distributer doesn’t ship to your country, try another! If you really want a copy, there is probably a way get it.
I also want to wish all of you wonderful success in meeting your weight-loss goals in 2018. May this be your year to see all your dreams come true!
One of the greatest things you can do to keep yourself healthy, lose weight and improve your memory is to drink enough water! Yet it’s one thing that many adults neglect.[1] I am sure most of my readers know that the human body can only survive for a few days without water[2], but what many of you do not realize is how much water you need to keep every part of your body running at peak performance.
This photo was taken before my weight loss. I weighed 281 pounds.
In my recently published book, No Salads Required! How I Lost 159 Pounds WITHOUT Salads, Celery, Sit-Ups, or Surgery, and How YOU Can Too! I quoted Don Colbert, MD, who recommends that everyone weigh themselves and divide the number of pounds they weigh by two and drink one ounce of water for every pound of half their weight. [3] For example, if you weigh 100 pounds you need to drink fifty ounces of water per day. However, if you live in an area where the weather is hot or if you are doing a lot of exercise you can feel free to drink even more water than Dr. Colbert recommends. According the The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Losing Weight, “It’s practically impossible to overdose on water.”[4]
It’s also important to understand that you need to drink the right amount of water whether you feel thirsty or not! Doctor Colbert says: “As we age, our bodies signal for thirst tends to decrease, which may be the reason why some elderly people don’t drink as much water as they should. Their water reserves are typically lower, and their vulnerability to be more dehydrated tends to increase.” [5]
Fox News recently reported a story in the news about this very topic. Meatloaf, the famous rock singer and actor, who is 68, collapsed on stage due to “severe dehydration” during the end of his concert in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on June 17, 2016. The story went on to say that he was taken to the hospital and at the time the story was published was “responsive and recovering well”.[6]
You don’t have to be famous to suffer from dehydration either! A recent example of this problem recently arose in my family, when a senior citizen, who we love very much, was found unconscious on the floor in the middle of the night and ended up in the hospital. She received excellent medical care from the hospital staff and after running every possible test on her to make sure her heart and other body organs were in good shape, her doctor concluded the reason she had fainted and fell on the floor was that she suffering from the same problem as Meatloaf. The irony was that she was attempting to fill a cup of water to give herself a drink when it happened!
I have talked to her since she came home from the hospital and she says that now she is drinking enough water every day she feels “much better”. This should not be surprise considering that every part of the human body needs water to work properly.[7]
You will also be interested to know that proper hydration can help you reduce your weight. Dr. Colbert says, “New research shows that being dehydrated may cause your body’s fat deposits to increase. Dehydration can contribute to an inefficient metabolism by affecting body temperature. When you are dehydrated your body temperature drops slightly and causes your body to store fat as a way to help raise or maintain your body temperature. Also, as some savvy dieters know, drinking water reduces your appetite by giving you a full feeling. “[8]
I made it a point to hydrate myself while I was losing 159 pounds in fourteen months and I think it really did help me. I should mention though that I did not lose weight by drinking water alone. I also ate healthy foods, exercised every day, and took nutrition products.
Water can also help you to improve your memory! Colbert states that new research shows that even humans with damaged brains can grow new brain cells, providing they keep their bodies properly hydrated. “Your brain loves water,” he writes. [9]
Of course, there is one challenge many people face when they first start drinking enough water. Colbert says “During the first few days of drinking more water than your body is accustomed to you are running to the bathroom constantly. This can be very discouraging, and it certain can interfere with an otherwise normal daily routine. Take heart; it’s really your body’s way of getting rid of excess water and toxins. You are flushing out your system.”[10]
To sum it up, that old legend about “The Fountain of Youth” really has something to it. Drink water faithfully every day and you will find yourself feeling healthier and better no matter how old you are!
SPECIAL NOTE: Those of you who want to purchase my book, No Salads Required! How I Lost 159 Pounds WITHOUT Salads, Celery, Sit-Ups, or Surgery and How YOU Can Too! may order it from my website at www.howilost159pounds.com or from almost any bookstore. It is available in paperback, hardcover and e-book formats. Get your copy today!
[1] Don Colbert, MD. The Seven Pillars of Health. First Ed. Lake Mary, Florida:Siloam,2007,6
[2] Susan McQuillan, M.S., R.D. and Edward Saltman, M.D. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Losing Weight, New York, New York: Macmillan,1998, 132
It is my delight to invite all my blog readers to visit the new website my publisher has created to help me promote my book! The address to the website is www.howilost159pounds.com and the name of my book is No Salads Required! How I Lost 159 Pounds WITHOUT Salads, Celery, Sit-Ups or Surgery and How YOU Can Too!
This is the “before” photo from the cover of my book. I weighed 281 pounds when this was taken.
The book describes the story how I lost 159 pounds in fourteen months, and also explains my easy-to-understand weight-loss program in a format that includes humor, poems, advice on how to lose weight successfully, and some of the delicious recipes I enjoyed eating while I was losing the weight.
The website features a description of my book, my author biography, my “before” and “after” photos and the opportunity to order my book directly from the website. I also have included a link to this blog on the site and direct links to some recent blog posts. The site also includes sharing buttons so that you can follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and Pinterest, and also, share my new website with your friends on social media.
The media page is where I will be posting upcoming events where I will be doing motivational speaking and signing books. If you click on the “Read More” button below “Upcoming Events” you will find a place where you can follow my page via email and also leave me a message, if you would like.
You can also click on the “Read More” button below the before and after photos displayed on the media page and see a larger collection of before and after photos that you can click on and see them in a larger version and also see the credits for the talented photographers who took the photos.
I want to take this opportunity to thank the special people who took these lovely photos of me and also the hard working designers at WestBow press who made this website a reality! I hope you all enjoy it!
Losing weight and keeping it off takes a lot of time and effort! The good news is that you don’t have to do it all by yourself. In fact, you may be surprised how much your friends and family are willing to help you. You can also join a support group for people who are also on a weight-loss journey. Many communities already have groups like this who meet on a regular basis to both encourage one another in developing healthy habits and to talk through the problems that the group members used to try to solve by eating. If you don’t already have a weight-loss group in your area, now would be a great time to start your own!
This is me prior to my weight-loss program. I weighed about 281 pounds at that time.
I recently lost 159 pounds in fourteen months and I have to say that the help and support I received from my friends and family really contributed to my success. Their support has also been helpful as I work at maintaining my figure. In fact their help was so important that I have included a whole chapter about it in my new book, No Salads Required! How I Lost 159 Pounds WITHOUT Salads, Celery, Sit-Ups or Surgery and How YOU Can Too! The chapter is called Gathering Support and in it I discuss variety of ways that my friends and family helped me as I was undergoing radical transformation. I also included a Reader’s Discussion Guide in the back of the book for groups who are reading my book together and want to meet regularly to discuss both the book and also how the members of the group can support each other as they work toward reaching their own weight-loss goals.
One of the most important things my friends and family did was believe in me and encourage me! The two shining heroes in this regard were my parents. I share a home with them and I can’t begin to tell you how helpful their encouraging words and hugs were as I started down my new path to better health.
Mom and Dad also volunteered to assist me in practical ways like keeping the house clean, buying groceries and doing most of the cooking so I would have time to exercise faithfully every single day.
My sister has also been very supportive and encouraging. I really appreciate her prayers and kind words. She also gave me a wonderful recipe for prime rib with rosemary and garlic, which you can find in the recipe chapter of my book.
My neighbors were a great source of support too. From the moment I stepped outside to start my fitness walking program, people who lived nearby started encouraging me, and the more I stuck to my plan the more interested and supportive they became. And my support didn’t stop there! As my weight loss became readily apparent I received lots of encouragement from coworkers, my doctor, friends from church and even my mailman!
Besides prayers and encouragement, one of the most helpful things some of the women from church did was to clean out their closets and give me clothes that I could wear as I was rapidly changing sizes. This saved me thousands of dollars and also really inspired me to stay on my weight-loss program.
While I am on the subject of generous gifts, I also want to mention a beautiful used treadmill one of my neighbors gave me. She had seen me walking by her house every day for 6 months and she knew I would make use of it when the heavy summer lightning storms started in my part of Florida. I am SO thankful for that treadmill! It really was helpful as I worked to reach my weight-loss goals. Of course all used things wear out eventually, but I am happy to say I got a LOT of use out of that treadmill before I replaced it with a brand new one that I am still using today when the weather is uncomfortable for walking or when I need to do my walking after dark.
Another friend who showed me great kindness and support was Marsha Kemp, owner of Marsha Kemp Photography in Tampa, Florida. Marsha was so excited about my weight-loss story that she made room on her busy schedule so that I could hire her to take my “After” photos that you see on my book cover and various places on social media where I promote my book. She took them with loving care and really brought out the best in me!
You can also see some of those lovely photos on the website for my new online store where I am selling autographed copies of my books! The link to the store is:
I hope someday to offer autographed books to my international readers as well, but for the time being I encourage all of my blog readers who live around the world to buy unsigned copies of my book from westbowpress.com, Amazon.com, barnsandnoble.com and other online stores that sell books internationally. If one of these web sites doesn’t ship to your country, please try another one! These days you can buy books from almost anywhere!
Those of you with e-readers will also be happy to know that the e-book version of my book is only $3.99 US dollars, which is a wonderful deal! Be sure to tell all your friends about it! Maybe they will all want to buy a copy, read the book together and use the Reader’s Discussion Guide in the back. Not only will this be a lot of fun, but it could be the beginning of a wonderful weight-loss journey for all of you. I wish you the best of success!
Hello readers! Happy New Year! In honor of 2016 I have written a special poem that only can be found on my blog! It is a celebration of the opportunity all of us have to start the New Year with new, healthy habits that will lead to a beautiful and healthy figure.
This picture was taken a few months prior to the start of my weight-loss program. I weighed 281 pounds at that time.
As many of you know, I started a weight-loss program in January of 2013 that lead to my losing 159 pounds in fourteen months. It was a lot of work, but I am VERY glad I took that first step, because without a beginning I would not have been able to have the results I wanted so much.
For those of you who want to know more about how I lost the weight, I have written a book that explains the program I designed and followed, and also includes poems, humor, recipes, suggested meals, advice on exercise and everything else you would want from a weight-loss book. It’s called No Salads Required! How I Lost 159 pounds WITHOUT Salads, Celery, Sit-Ups, or Surgery, and How YOU Can Too! You can order it from http://www.westbowpress.com, Amazon.com, and anywhere else books are sold!
And now, here is the special weight-loss poem that I wrote for YOUR enjoyment:
Poem for 2016
A New Year is beginning
A chance to start afresh
And usher in new habits
That lead to happiness!
And when you take the first step
And the next one after that
Never stop believing
That one day you won’t be fat!
You CAN change your eating
But do it on your terms.
Pick heathy foods that you enjoy
Not ones that make you squirm!
And when it’s time for exercise
Do something that you like.
Some people go out walking
While others ride their bike.
The trick is to choose something
You want to do each day
Something that burns calories,
But also feels like play.
And as you get stronger
You can also try new sports
This is not only healthy
It’s so you won’t get bored!
And while you’re at it
Invite a friend or two
To join you when you exercise
That’s lots of fun to do!
And soon you will discover
You all are looking better
And that you really do enjoy
The time you spend together.
And before you know it
The months will disappear
Taking your fat with them
That will make you cheer!
And when the New Year comes again
You and your friends will pose
For a smiling photo
In your new small clothes.
New Year’s Eve is coming soon and with it is coming a golden opportunity to reevaluate the way we are living our lives and to resolve to make changes in our habits so that we can be happier and healthier. One of the most popular resolutions people make is to lose weight. Of course, resolving to lose weight and actually losing it are two very different things!
This photo of me was taken shortly before I started my weight-loss program. I weighed 281 pounds at the time.
As a person who has lost 159 pounds in fourteen months after 32 years of being extremely overweight, I definitely know the difference between just talking about weight loss and taking the necessary steps to reinvent myself into the slender person I really wanted to be. For years I would talk about “doing something about my weight”, but it wasn’t until recently that I figured out exactly how much weight I needed to lose to get the figure I really wanted. It was at that point that I also made a specific plan to change my eating, start an exercise program, and begin taking some weight-loss and nutrition products that my friend encouraged me to try. The result was a healthy “new me” that my doctor was very pleased to see at my next appointment.
Of course, when a person is as successful in losing weight as I have been, a lot of people are interested in how I did it, so I have written a book for the purpose of both answering that question and entertaining you at the same time! The book is called No Salads Required! How I Lost 159 Pounds WITHOUT Salads, Celery, Sit-Ups, or Surgery, and How YOU Can Too! You can order this book from my publisher at westbowpress.com and anywhere else books are sold. It’s available in hardcover and softcover and also as an e-book. I encourage all of you to order it, but while you are waiting for your book to arrive, here are some tips from my weight-loss program to help you get started:
1) Set up a realistic food plan you can live with!
At the beginning of my weight-loss program , I made a list of the healthy foods I wanted to live on and I also decided what I did not plan to eat no matter how healthy it was. For example, I don’t like celery at all and I am not much of a salad eater, so I decided not to bother with those foods and create a menu for myself based on healthy foods I did enjoy eating.
2) Pick an exercise you really like and do it every day!
I love fitness walking, so that is what I selected for my exercise program. It was simple, enjoyable for me, and I already knew how to do it. I do understand however that a walking program isn’t the right thing for everyone. The key is to pick an exercise that is right for you and to do it consistently. For those of you with injuries, I recommend a visit with your doctor or a physical therapist, so you can get help selecting an exercise appropriate for your personal situation.
3) Make weight loss a big priority!
This means planning healthy meals and exercise every single day no matter what else is going on. It may also mean making some hard choices and setting aside some favorite hobbies, TV shows and movies for a while, but I guarantee you that the results will definitely be worth it!
4) Keep reminding yourself why you are losing weight in the first place!
One of the most important things I did daily was to remind myself what my new life would be like after I reached my goal weight. For example, I would think about the beautiful clothing items and boots designed for thin women only that I wanted to be able to wear some day. I also looked forward to career and relationship opportunities that are available only to women who have reached a healthy weight. Another thing I would reminded myself of was my desire to be able to comfortably sit in a restaurant booth and airplane seats without a hassle and my dream of looking in the mirror and at recent photos of myself and being happy with the woman I saw there.
It was actually passionately wanting all these things more than anything else that helped me stick to my weight-loss program. Yes, I would sometimes be tempted by foods that I had decided not to eat anymore, but when I compared a few minutes of enjoying eating those foods with all the happiness I hoped to experience when I reached my healthy new weight, the decision not to eat those foods instantly became much easier!
5) Ask God for help!
You may never have prayed for help to lose weight, but I encourage you to do so. God loves every one of us and is able and willing to help with every problem in our lives if we ask for his help.
6) Surround yourself with supportive people!
You will find weight loss much easier if you surround yourself with supportive people who will cheer you on, pray for you and do practical things to help you, so that you have more time to exercise and do the other things you need to do to lose weight.
You may even decide to buy some copies of my book for your friends and start a No Salads Required! support group. You and your friends can read a chapter every week and then meet together on a regular basis to discuss what you have been reading. I wrote the reader’s discussion guide in the back of the book especially for such groups. There are plenty of questions designed to promote stimulating conversations and even a special poem I wrote for the enjoyment of the people that will be using the guide.
7) Don’t let discouraging people upset you!
I did have a friend who thought my weight-loss program wouldn’t work unless I had a weight-loss surgery. Well, I knew that a surgery wasn’t the right thing for me, so I just set out to prove him wrong and I was very successful in doing that! I also decided to ignore people who said I had “lost enough weight” when I became the same size as they were even though I was nowhere near my goal. Just because my friends were not ready to lose their own extra weight didn’t mean I had to stop losing mine. If anyone told me it was “time to stop” I just said that my doctor was watching over me and that they had nothing to worry about. That usually solved the problem.
8) Never stop believing in yourself!
No matter how unsuccessful you may have been with weight-loss in the past, 2016 can still be your year to succeed! I was extremely overweight for 32 years before I lost 159 pounds and if I could do it, you can too!
9) Be sure to have lots of fun along the way!
Eat healthy foods you like, always look at the bright side of life, and make sure you keep yourself entertained while you exercise. When I first started exercising on my treadmill, I made it a point to listen to my favorite music, so I wouldn’t get bored. Recently, I have set up my TV and DVD player in front of my treadmill, so I can watch TV while I exercise. This really helps me stick to my program!
10) Write journals of your weight-loss journey!
From the first day of my weight-loss program clear up until today, I have been weighing myself every day and keeping track of my weight and body fat percentage, so I could see my progress, keep track of my ups and downs, and remind myself to get back on track if I find I have made some bad food or exercise choices.
I also keep track of the various things that happen as the days go by, especially the funny stuff and the heart touching moments. I eventually used my early journals to help me write No Salads Required! You may want to write a book someday too and the notes in your journals will really help. I even used those notes as inspiration for the weight-loss poems I wrote for every chapter of my book and those poems really have made my book unusual and fun to read!
I hope to continue to use my journals for future blog post ideas and for things I haven’t tried yet, but would like to do such as writing lyrics for a weight-loss song that could become famous. If that dream comes true all my blog readers will be among the first to know!
Well, I hope the tips I listed will give you some encouragement. For more encouragement read my book! I think you will really enjoy it!
It is with great joy that I am able to announce that my brand new weight-loss book is now for sale online! The title and subtitle of the book is No Salads Required! How I Lost 159 Pounds WITHOUT Salads, Celery, Sit-Ups, or Surgery, and How YOU Can Too! and, you can currently buy the hardcover and softcover versions of the book from my publisher’s website, westbowpress.com, and also from Amazon.com. The e-book will be available soon and I also look forward to announcing when the book will be available from other stores.
This is the “before” photo from the cover of my book. I weighed 281 pounds when this was taken.
No Salads Required! tells the story of how I lost 159 pounds in fourteen months including some of the funny moments that happened along the way. Also included is my easy to understand weight-loss program, so you can try my successful program for yourself! You will be especially happy to know that you can eat bacon, fried chicken and BBQ ribs on my program if you want to! The food part of the program includes lists of fruits, vegetables and protein foods that you can select from and design your own meals. I also have included a chapter with thirty preplanned meals to help you get started and a chapter that features some of our favorite family recipes that I ate while I was losing weight.
No Salads Required! also offers advice on exercise, asking God for help, surrounding yourself with supportive people and making weight loss a priority. I also have included a reader’s discussion guide for people who are reading this book as a group and meeting regularly to discuss it. Whether your group is a book club, a therapy group, a church group, a weight-loss support group or just some friends who enjoy reading books, I believe the questions in the guide will open the door to some thoughtful and stimulating conversations.
I also put something in my book that I think the readers of this blog will especially like! Poetry! There is a poem in every chapter as well as the introduction, the conclusion and the readers discussion guide. The reason I think all of you will enjoy these poems is that every blog post I have written that includes weight-loss poetry has been met with great enthusiasm! You will also be happy to know that I plan to include more poems in future posts.
My readers from all over the world will also be happy to know that westbowpress.com and Amazon.com both ship worldwide, so you can order my book from almost ANYWHERE you happen to live! I also have an update on the topic of where all of you are from. When my book was going to press there were people in 28 different countries that had learned about my weight-loss story. Since then, the list has grown to 35 countries! I want to thank all of you for your ongoing interest and support!
I also would like to share that my publisher has given me a goal that I hope many of you can help me reach during the next twelve months. If I sell 500 or more copies of my book through my publisher’s online bookstore, westbowpress.com, some wonderful doors may open for me that could include more stores carrying my book on their shelves and the opportunity to write more books in the future.
I also would like to invite all of you to share your thoughts on my book in the comment section of this blog and to write reviews for No Salads Required! on the websites where you buy my book. I would love to hear from each and every one of you! May you enjoy my book just as much as I enjoyed writing it!
On January 25, 2013 I started on an exciting 14 month journey during which I completely refashioned my figure. I lost 159 pounds and learned to really love exercise and healthy food, but before I was able to achieve any of that, I first had to admit to myself that my obesity was a problem and to weigh and measure myself so I could determine what my weight loss goals would be.
Now for those of you reading this, who have never been extremely overweight, a simple trip to the bathroom scale may sound like no big deal, but for someone as heavy as I was, the very thought of stepping on a scale was extremely intimidating. The good news is that the day I finally did weigh myself I had already committed to start a weight-loss program, so I knew that my current size and shape was a temporary condition and that knowledge changed everything! Suddenly, stepping on the scale felt more like the first step of an exciting journey instead of a step toward doom and gloom.
This photo was taken just days before I started my weight loss program. I weighed 281 pounds.
Once I discovered that I weighed 281 pounds, the next step was to measure the various parts of my body so I could see how many inches I was losing. This project was difficult to do alone, so I asked my mother to help me. We wrote down all my starting personal statistics into my journal, which I faithfully kept the whole fourteen months while I was losing weight and every day after that.
At the time, I thought I was just making a few notes, but today I see just how important that journal actually was. It was the written record of my exciting journey that I eventually used as the starting point for my writing upcoming book, No Salads Required! How I Lost 159 Pounds without Salads, Celery, Sit-Ups or Surgery and How You Can Too! which you will be able to order online and from bookstores later this year. My book includes my personal story, the details of the successful weight-loss program I created, recipes, a few poems and plenty of humor. Even if you don’t need to lose an ounce I think you will enjoy it.
Once I knew exactly what my physical condition was, my next step was to decide how much weight I wanted to lose. In the past, I had set goals I thought I could achieve fairly quickly, such as losing thirty pounds. Unfortunately, in my case, losing thirty pounds did not make much of an improvement in my life or appearance and I ended up gaining the weight back. With past weight-loss failures in mind, I decided to set my goal to have the healthy, attractive body I had been longing to have for years. This was a huge goal, but I knew the results would be worth all the effort it would take to achieve it.
The next thing I did was to put together a weight-loss program that perfectly suited my personality. I made a list of healthy foods that I knew I would enjoy eating, started a walking program that I knew I would be able to stick to, and tried some weight-loss and nutrition products that my friend recommended. You can read the specific details of my weight-loss plan in my book, but the point I want to make here is that I designed my program to be fun! Not only was I starting a weight-loss journey that would lead to a happier life in the future, I also wanted to have a good time along the way.
Guess what! It worked! Not only did I radically change my figure, I also had such a delightful time losing weight that I went everywhere with a smile on my face. As my shrinking became apparent, friends, neighbors, coworkers and customers began to really press me for information about my weight-loss program. Not only were they impressed with the results I was getting, they also wanted to be part of all the fun! I had family members and neighbors who started fitness walking with me on a regular basis.
These days I am still having fun, but now I am working to maintain my new figure and to be a supportive person in the lives of those of you who are starting your own fitness journey. I wish you all the best of success!
Personal Update: Many of my regular readers have noticed that I took a few weeks off from blogging and I just wanted to share what I have been doing during that time. Our family moved to a new home in the Tampa Bay Area and we have been devoting a lot of time to the process of unpacking and adjusting to our new community. I also have been making final revisions to my book and I look forward to announcing a release date in the near future. Stay tuned!
One of the most surprising things that I discovered while I was losing 159 pounds in fourteen months was finding out how interesting my weight-loss story was to people all over the world. Currently my weight loss story has traveled to twenty-six countries and I am always curious to see where it will go next! The truth is that no matter where people live, everyone wants to be healthy, more attractive and to have the opportunities that are given to people who have a slim figure. Because of this, when somebody is successful losing weight, people want to know how they did it!
This was taken shortly before I started my weight-loss program. I weighed 281 pounds at that time.
Of course when I started my weight-loss program I didn’t have the slightest idea that anyone other than my immediate family would be interested what I was doing. I just wanted to be thin again! However, much to my surprise, my neighbors, coworkers, friends from church and friends online became fascinated with my weight-loss journey as they saw me getting thinner. In fact, they expressed so much interest that I have written a book that describes my personal weight-loss story and everything I did to lose the weight, so that my readers can try it. The name of the book is No Salads Required! How I Lost 159 Pounds without Salads, Celery, Sit-Ups or Surgery and How You Can Too! It will be available from Amazon.com and other stores in late summer or early fall of 2015. The following is a quote from the book that describes where and how my story traveled:
“Well, my first eight weeks flew by fast, and I was nowhere near slowing down. Instead, I was developing a following! Some of my neighbors even started walking with me from time to time. My Chinese neighbor, Yuwen, her American husband, Joe, and Yuwen’s sister, Yufen, walked with me often. Most of the time, they would bring Joe and Yuwen’s baby daughter, Sophia, along in a stroller. This family had been doing fitness walking long before I started, but when I got to know the ladies and they saw how quickly I was losing weight, they started walking even more. As we walked together, we developed a lasting friendship. Sometimes, my parents would join us too, especially in the evening. Yuwen and Yufen eventually became so excited about my weight loss that they called their family members and friends who still live in China and told them all about it. My story had officially gone international!
As time has gone by, my story has traveled to several other countries, thanks to the enthusiasm of my neighbors. America, my neighbor from Colombia, shared my story with her family members, who still live in her home country, and Ngwashi, my neighbor from Cameroon, found my story so inspirational that when she went back to her home country to attend her brother’s wedding, she made it a point to share my story with all her friends and family. “I told everybody!” she said. She also has shared my story with people she knows who live in Zambia, the Gambia, Nigeria, Israel, and the UK.
One especially encouraging arrangement Ngwashi has is with her niece, who lives in the UK. Every day while Ngwashi is walking around our neighborhood here in Tampa, she is on the phone for an hour with her niece, who is also walking somewhere in the UK. Ngwashi says these daily phone calls are very helpful for keeping both women entertained while they walk and motivated to keep walking every day. Ngwashi also spends a second hour a day walking around our neighborhood, and she is usually on the phone with other friends and family members. She says they all refer to their daily fitness walking as “our walk to ultimate beauty.” She recently told me, “Shelley, you don’t know how many people you have inspired!” Of course, she is doing her share to inspire those people too!
When I finally shared my story on Facebook, my friends in Canada and Australia also learned about it, and later my friends who live in India learned about it too. My story went even further after I started blogging. In my blog posts I have been sharing my personal weight-loss story, giving tips on how to succeed at weight loss, and also promoting this book. Much to my delight, my blog has attracted readers from several of the countries mentioned above in addition to Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, Denmark, Slovakia, Ukraine, Latvia, Russia, South Africa, Venezuela, Singapore, Taiwan and the Philippines. When you count the United States, the story of my weight loss is now in twenty-six countries that I know of, and it’s possible that after this book is published, my story could go many other places in the future. I am excited to see where God will send it next!”
I share this information about where my story has gone not to brag about it, but to bring up the fact that people all over the world are working hard to either lose weight or maintain a healthy figure, which means none of us who are dealing with this issue should ever feel alone! Instead we can make use of the internet to stay in touch with people who are also on weight-loss journeys and share success stories that will bring each other encouragement.
It is my hope that my weight-loss story has brought encouragement to you. Now it’s your turn! Do you have an encouraging weight-loss story to share? Feel free to post it in the “comments” section and share what country you are from. I look forward to hearing from you!
One thing we all have in common in this life is that everyone has their share of troubles. The good news is that we don’t have to face them alone! I believe in a real and compassionate God who hears my prayers and is available and willing to help me solve my problems, even those that are deeply personal or too embarrassing to discuss with anyone but God, and that includes the problems I used to try to deal with by eating.
This photo of my mother and I was taken just a few months before I started my weight-loss program. I weighed 281 pounds here.
Prior to my recent loss of 159 pounds, I thought eating was the answer to everything. I ate when I was happy, sad, under stress, confused, lonely, frustrated…the list goes on and on. The sad thing is that all that eating didn’t solve a single problem! In fact, it created many new ones for me. I am five foot two inches tall and prior to my weight-loss program I weighed 281 pounds and my hips were five feet around. As a result, I had considerable problems buying clothes, fitting into restaurant booths and airplane seatbelts, trimming my own toenails and tying my own shoes just to name a few.
The strange thing was that I had gotten so used to dealing with all these problems that starting a serious weight-loss program didn’t really occur to me until January of 2013. Yes, people did drop hints that I should lose weight and my doctor recommended it, but I didn’t pay attention to any of those suggestions until God did a miracle in my heart and helped me not only to be willing to change my lifestyle, but also to be willing to trust him with all my pain and problems in a way that I had never done before. The wonderful result was that I have become a whole new person both physically and spiritually!
I am so thankful for all that God has done for me that I have written a book to share my personal story and the weight-loss program I designed for myself, so that other people can find hope and help. The name of the book is No Salads Required! How I lost 159 Pounds without Salads, Celery, Sit-Ups or Surgery and How You Can Too! It will be available from Amazon.com and other stores in late summer or early fall of 2015. My book contains all kinds of helpful advice about choosing the right foods, planning meals, exercise, and some poems to make it more fun, but I think the most important chapter is chapter 6. It’s called “Asking God for Help”. The following is a quote from that chapter:
“One of the things I have learned to do in recent years is to turn to God and not to the refrigerator when I am upset about something. One excellent example of this is my loneliness and deep disappointment about not being married. For years, I tried to solve this problem by eating, but that never did any good. I finally have come to understand that the only way this is going to get any better is if I talk to God about all the deeply personal details of my situation and ask him to heal my broken heart and either send me a husband or fill me so full of himself that I am okay with walking alone with him the rest of my life. As of the time of this writing, I don’t know which he is going to do, but I know he is healing my heart just like he promised to do in Psalm 147:3 (NIV), which says, ‘He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.’ In my case, my heart was in pretty bad shape when I asked him to help me with it, but he has done a lot of good work in me so far, and the project continues.”
I know that each person reading this has at least one, possibly many problems that weigh heavily on their heart and I am not suggesting that even with God’s help that they will all disappear instantly, but I can tell you one thing. If you turn to God with your problems, you can at least start getting some help with what is really wrong. He really does love you and he also has infinite power to change things, which is a lot more than all the ice cream in the world can possibly offer.
Yes, eating can make you feel better for a few minutes or maybe an hour, but it’s definitely not a long term solution. Here is one more quote from No Salads Required! on this topic:
“No matter what problem you are going through, God is the one to ask for help. He really is the only person who knows what to do about it anyway! He may do a miracle to help you, he may send just the right person or people to walk beside you and give you the benefit of their experience, or he may take you out of the situation by putting you in a different job or moving you to a new city to get away from a bad situation and start over. He also might provide some other answer that fits your need perfectly, but rest assured he will help you.”
Of course, starting a new habit of turning to God instead of eating is something a person has to learn with practice, just like playing a musical instrument or learning a new language. It doesn’t happen all at once, but if you keep working at it, you will get better. I am in my second year of maintaining my new figure and I sometimes still catch myself thinking of what kind of snack would make me feel better when a problem comes up, instead of immediately turning to God. The difference now is when I do catch myself doing that, I shut the refrigerator door, and go find a place where I can talk to the one person who loves me more than anyone, my savior, Jesus Christ. He is always there waiting for me and he is available for you too!
Shelley A. Sonnenberg 