My "Real Food" diet is working!! Before and After Pictures from Donna. PTL!!

 173 pounds on June 5th (5'2")  (Stomach all gone!!)

Hi everyone! I'm posting my first every "Before and After" pictures!  Rebekah is asleep and we do mother-daughter marriage devotions and tea  for an hour every morning ...so my blogging time is limited and since she's already asleep, I had to take this photo myself. Sadly, both pix are blurry, but I'll have her help me tomorrow for a better one. I couldn't use a flash in the mirror....so that's what the blur is all about.

  189 pounds on February 25 (5'2") 

I looked pregnant from the side because my stomach was so big. And it was so tight in the bust that I could barely get it over my chest.

But I think you get the idea anyway. I  added the  ruffle and widened the hips on this blouse on February 25th this year. I started dieting about a week after we started   this blog on April 11 and I didn't really start dieting until April 18th or so ...and I took this photo tonight, June 6th.  So this has been seven weeks of dieting. (Did I tell you I had no intentions of getting on a diet...I just started the blog...so we could all encourage each other. I thought I would never be able to get on a and stay on a diet again for the rest of my life!!)

I thought I'd post my update though it is belated. I've been so swamped with family responsibilities which absolutely must come first that I haven't been able to keep up very much. The Lord has really been working on me to keep my priorities straight and with that came a conviction to drop blogging or commenting if anyone in the family has a need or just requests that I watch a movie or play a game, or listen to their latest speech. That means a lot of interruptions! I've missed you all!

Anyway, I am still pinching myself...is this real? To think I fought giving up junk food all these years! My conscious has always bugged me about it ...but I just couldn't bring myself to give up the processed foods and snack foods and poor quality bread and tons of pasta.     I don't want to do anything to jeopardize my freedom to choose good quality food at every meal and go back to the old cravings..

I've been a prisoner to cravings for junk all my life and I literally have not craved a speck of junk food since I gave it up. I can smell it and look at it and know how good it would taste..and not eat it.  When you think of how much sense it is that natural food (all original recipes by God himself!) like vegetables, fruit, meat , and nuts is going to be good for you and that food made of man-made chemicals just might not be good for you, it makes me wonder why I never consider this!  (I had my protein powder/healthy carbs drink at lunch in a chick filet last week along with an orange and some nuts!)

All these years, I've been a prisoner of my appetites even when I was thin. Now, I'm free and I never feel the need to overeat.  I just want to say thank you over and over to the Lord that the way of escape was sitting there right in front of me....but my taste buds didn't want me to say NO to them.  I truly believe that someday, I will again be able to eat a piece of pizza or have icecream without it sending me into drug-like additive cravings, but I think my body needs to get completely healthy before that can safely happen.



I actually love water and fruit and vegetables now and lean meat...and I avoided them in the past. Even though I loved the taste of them..they were too much trouble to mess with and I didn't 'crave' them like I did toast, crackers, chips, and pasta.

Not only that but I have so much stamina and energy that I just can't believe it's real! The other night, I went square dancing with the children for the first time in several months. Normally, I would dance about two dances...then be exhausted and very over heated. So I'd rest and sit out a dance, then join the next one.  Even though it had been months since I'd danced...I was able to dance two solid hours with no breaks!!  I was so full of energy that I was wide-eyed all the way home even though we didn't get back from College Station until 1:30am.   I NEVER NEED A NAP NOW!  I have been off junk food since May 5th.  That's only ONE MONTH! And I'm healthier and more energetic than I've been in my whole life!

If I never lost a pound...I'd never go back to eating like I did. Now that I know what was making me feel exhausted, emotional, stressed, and addicted.  I look so different even after such a small weight loss that everyone who knows me wants to know what in the world I am doing. The crazy thing is it isn't that the weight loss is so large, but that my skin tone is wonderful, and I'm so NOT bloated. I've lost so many inches that the brand new clothes I bought a month ago don't fit. (Several inches too big in the waist.) I've only lost seven pounds this month...and that's good...but I look like a different person. That never happened when I've dieted in the past.

So when people ask me what I'm doing to lose weight...I tell them..I don't count calories...I don't weigh anything....but I also don't overeat--and I don't even feel the urge too.  I just always eat REAL food rather than man-made...i.e.a small piece of meat, a cheese stick, an orange or apple, broccoli spears in vinegar and oil, and an occasional cup of oatmeal or brown rice. The stomach monster seems to have been slain! Hurrah!

So, I thank the Lord every single day for answering my deepest heartfelt prayer...to not be overweight and to not be tired, sick, and embarrassed about how I look every moment of the day.  To look really trim even though I do still weigh 174...is just astonishing!  I never looked good at that weight before and I think it's because all the junk and chemicals are out of my system. I look and feel younger than I ever have...even though I am overweight. That's as big a miracle as I can imagine.  I have hope now and a future...even if it took three years to lose all my weight...I wouldn't care...because I've got most of the benefits of being thin..already!

There is no one I would more want to tell about what has happened to me than you guys. If you haven't considered giving up processed foods yet and are still struggling with a desire for food...please do give it a shot, even if just for a week or two. I wish I had known how much it would help years ago.

Keep up the good work ladies! I am so encouraged by your stories and hope mine helps you too.

Love,
Donna @ Comin' Home