I'm officially half the person I used to be!

The upper left corner was in 2009 when I got my workout buddy, the lower right corner is Nov., 2013

As of today I have lost 201 pounds!  I'm excited but sometimes it's hard for me to believe.  I think the one thing that I am so thankful for Weight Watchers teaching me, is to take it 5 pounds at a time.  When I first started WW January, 2011 I never thought I would be able to lose the weight.  My heaviest weight was 421 pounds.  When I started with WW I had lost some on my own and was down to 393.  I needed WW at the time for the support and like I said to focus on small goals instead of the big picture.

Since WW, I've gone on quite a journey of transformation.  By the end of 2011 I decided to go vegetarian.  I was never really 100% on it though.  I never really had a hard time giving up meat because I always had severe allergic reactions to meat.  So that was kind of a no brainer.

The following year I decided to take it a step further and go vegan.  OMG that was hard!  Cheese was the hardest to give up.  I put cheese on everything, including salads and veggies.

Then sometime in 2012 I discovered Dr. Fuhrman and the nutritarian lifestyle.  I tried it for awhile but never really could commit 100% for more than 2 weeks.  I always felt deprived.

In the summer of 2013 I found Julie Marie and www.protectivediet.com and never looked back.  I'm not going to lie and say that detoxing from sugar, oil, nuts, etc was easy because it was not.  But by this time I had decided to commit to myself to stick with it for 30 days and see what happens.  I felt so proud of myself after the 30 days and having lost 16 pounds that month that I decided to keep going.  It's only been about 4-5 months (can't remember exact day I started) since I've been 100% completely free of meat, dairy, sugar, oil, and nuts.  I know I'll be able to continue this for the rest of my life.

I feel so much better now since I have more energy and less headaches.  I don't take any medications at all.  I have been able to reverse GERD, Sleep Apnea, Depression, Migraines, and painful PMS.  I'm still working on arthritis but I have no doubt it will resolve itself in time.

I am so looking forward to turning 40 next year because I will be the healthiest and slimmest I've ever been.  I want to encourage all of you reading this to jump on board with www.protectivediet.com.  You won't regret it and I guarantee you will be able to maintain this lifestyle with ease.  And best of all, without taking diet supplements!

Best of health to you all!

6 months on Protective Diet:)

I have been on Protective Diet for 6 months Nov 8th and I thought I should say something about that:) I have not blogged in a while because life gets in the way! I will try to be better at it!

I am so amazed by PD everyday! The food is amazing and for once in my life my weight is not Yo-Yoing! If you have ever tried to loose weight you understand! Not only have I become heart attack proof I am loosing weight! I just got my blood work back a few days ago and all my tests were better than ever.  So I know everything I am putting into my body is healthy that is such a awesome feeling:)  Another thing I really contribute to PD is my confidence has increased so much.  Knowing I could do something and stick with it just amazes me.  Usually diets always made me feel like a failure because I could never stick with them but not PD! It has given me the confidence to do even more things in my life.  I don't know if that is weird to some people but when you are told you are stupid and can't do anything you tend to believe it.  You live that way because you begin to believe it.  When I say PD has changed my life I am meaning it and not just in my eating.  Julie is doing amazing things and trying to help so many people.  I am so blessed to be able to call her a friend!  I also appreciate my bff Denise because she has been such a great support! I don't know if I could of done it without her! She was supportive before she even started PD:) So glad we are doing PD together now:)

Julie started doing Live video lessons! Last night was a great class with lots of information to help me even go further in this journey! I am so glad she has started this now:) There is a small fee but worth it! I don't want to think about how much money I have spent on books and diet plans! Never again:) I found my lifestyle for the rest of my life:) I feel like if I can do it anybody can do it! So when I say PD has changed my life now you know how:)

Now I know what you are saying I can't do that! My family won't eat that.  Guess what my family does not do it either.  I had to plan ahead and make my meals for the week on Sundays.  As long as I do that I am good.  Even now I know how long certain foods take to cook so I may wait and cook something during the week.   I still cook for my family:) Last night I made meatloaf, potatoes, corn and mac and cheese.  I didn't touch any of it.  Also so many of the meals are cheap! You can make a huge crock pot of different kinds of beans and freeze them.  You can also do that with rice and other cheap things you can buy in bulk.  Most of the the stuff that is pricey you don't use a whole lot of anyway.  So it does not seem like you have this huge grocery bill.  I think the first time I went to the store probably was the only time I spent quite a bit.  I was trying to buy everything and a lot of it..lol  I am just saying it is very doable.  I committed to 30 days and it was a challenge.  There is so much food I said no to.  However when that 30 days was up it was not so bad so I continued.  60 days later I was like this is easy how am I still doing it.  Now we are at 6 months still in awe about it and wonder if its to good to be true.  However I have the labs, I am loosing weight and I have never felt better:) So no its not to good to be true, its just true:)