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Justin & Lauren Shelton: Weight-Loss Heroes

Between the two of them, this couple lost over 500 pounds. How’d they do it? Excerpt: In February 2012, we looked to a physician’s assistant named Lynn at a local medical center. She gave us some great guidelines to start with. That night we cleaned out our cupboards and started from scratch the next day […]

Between the two of them, this couple lost over 500 pounds. How’d they do it? Excerpt:

In February 2012, we looked to a physician’s assistant named Lynn at a local medical center. She gave us some great guidelines to start with. That night we cleaned out our cupboards and started from scratch the next day at the store. We cut out salt, breads, grains, oils, sauces and high-fat meats. We began eating a high-protein diet with lean meats and a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables. We only ate out on very rare occasions; I can count on two hands how often we have eaten out in two years!

We started small with exercise, but slowly started to increase it. Now we go to the gym, on average, six days a week and try to do something fun and active in the evenings and on our day off. Also, we knew we always had each other at our best and worst of times through this journey. It would have been so much harder without each other’s support.

In other words, low carbs. That is the only thing that has ever worked for me. Keith “Temple” Trotter, whose wife used to be a frequent commenter on this blog, writes of his own huge weight loss on CNN’s iReport site. He’s working on a book about it, and looking for a publisher. Excerpt:

One day 3 years ago a picture showed up in my Facebook time-line that shattered my world and started me on the path of my weight-loss journey. This was my ah-ha moment, but I wanted my story to be different.  I knew I wasn’t going to spend the rest of my days eating out of a box, and I certainly wasn’t about to try and throw my 386 pound frame at 90 straight days of  increasingly intense and insane levels of physical exertion when I had just spent the last 90 days on the couch blowing 40-50 bucks a week on the finest grade cheesy poofs, beer, cheap cheese/lunchmeat, and soft white bread.  It was going to take time and there were going to be a lot of false starts along the way.

My journey truly turned the corner when my 6 year old daughter caught me crying on the stairs one day.  I hated feeling and being weak.  I hated myself for letting my body go and it manifested itself in hours of crying and engaging in emotional violence against myself. She asked me what was making me so upset all the time and I responded that I was ashamed for getting so fat and out of shape. I let her know how hard it was to do the simple exercises that left my back, legs, and neck hurting so badly.  Now my daughter has a great and ever present smile, but she wasn’t smiling, I could see that she was thinking hard.  She then put her hand on my shoulder and said “Remember when I kept falling off my bike daddy and skinning my knees?” I said “Yes babygirl I do.  You would cry and cry and I would hold your hand until you felt better.”  She then asked me, “Do you remember what you told me about the next time?  You said the next time I wouldn’t cry so much, because I already knew it was going to hurt.  I already know what it feels like, so it won’t be a surprise and after a while it wouldn’t even hurt anymore.  I could take chances and fall all I wanted after that.  You already know it’s gonna hurt right daddy?” With tears in my eyes I looked at this wise and wondrous young 6 year old and said simply “You’re right baby, I do. Thank you for reminding me.”

Keith’s website is here.

Do you have an encouraging weight-loss story to share? Please do. I find I’m once again in a bad place re: weight gain, this entirely because of the enforced indolence caused by our friend Mr. Epstein-Barr.

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