When we returned from our two weeks of cruising in February 2018 we committed to changing our way of eating. We both knew we had been eating too much of all the wrong things, both for our weight and our health. We had planned on this prior to the cruise and had rid the house of anything that wasn’t allowed on our new WOE (way of eating).
It was surprisingly easy, especially since we both love protein. Stu’s biggest challenge was giving up his morning cereal/oatmeal that he ate with fresh strawberries and blueberries – every day. Mine was chewy candy and salty chips, my downfall.
We documented our process and progress in this blog post along with the before/after photos below.
Stu: BEFORE Dec 2017 ~ 40# loss ~ AFTER Oct 2018
Donna: BEFORE Feb 2018 ~ 29# loss ~ AFTER Oct 2018
So where are we now, two years after our start? Doing well. We haven’t lost much more but we’ve gone on two cruises, spent our 10th anniversary at Walt Disney World eating fabulously, and added a few things back into our diet.
BUT, we have maintained through all this! Yup, no major weight gained back (I’m up 3-4# due to being so inactive as I wait for a resolution to my prolapse issues). Plus, we’ve had a second round of annual checkups/bloodwork and still able to stay off any new medications. All results were good.
We’d both still like to lose a little more. My goal is 125# and Stu’s is 170#. We know that realistically we will have to increase our activity to accomplish this. Stu has already started thanks to the motivation from his Apple watch (activity tracker). Weather permitting, he is walking the #2doods up to three miles a day. He is increasing his time on the elliptical daily, too.
Oh, and yes, belly fat is the hardest to lose and we may never lose it all. But we both feel much better and have both had to buy new clothes. An expensive side effect…lol. But it’s all good and we know we’ll never go back to our old way of eating.
For anyone interested, our original post had a lot of tips for anyone interested in getting started. I also have saved a lot of low carb recipes on the CopyMeThat website; most have been tried, some will be but sounded great.
So wish us luck as we head into February, several days of eating out while driving, followed by 14 days of cruising with never-ending food available, then a couple more days of eating out while driving home. That said, Stu plans to walk a lot on the ship and I’m hopeful I can use the recumbent bicycles in the gym to help me since walking gets uncomfortable.
2 thoughts on “Less of us…”
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Is the Cruise Food buffet style? That’s the time to take a teensy portion of something – a bite or two – that you have banned from your regular diet. Makes it easier if you can indulge yourself with an extra – say fifty or a hundred – calories.
If you make a treat at home, or buy an entire item at the store, then you can feel compelled not to waste it. But if it is just there for the taking in a small quantity, it makes the process doable.
Virtual hugs,
Judie
Yes and no – it’s your choice. We do stick pretty close to our WOE (way of eating) but we do splurge on a few things like strawberry cheesecake from the coffee shop and a nice steak dinner with a baked potato.