Christian Homekeeping

• I ate 4 meals a day - yes MEALS; not snacks - I kept food going in every 3-4 hours up until 2 hours before I slept to repair my metabolism and keep my body well fueled.  
• I only ate 12 hours of the day, for instance I ate either from 10-10, 11-11 or 12-12 - it all depends on my sleep or what time I finally eat breakfast. So, say I eat breakfast at 11am, meal 2 would be at 3, meal 3 at 7 and meal 4 at 11pm. This not only helps your metabolism and blood sugar but it will keep you FULL and you won't need to snack in between; if you are eating enough at each meal.
• Each meal contained a protein, fat and carb.  I ate 50% carbs, 30% fat and 20% protein on average, though sometimes my carbs were higher.
• I aimed to get 4-6 vegetable servings a day and 1-3 fruit servings.
• I strived for at least 30 grams of fiber but usually it was 35g+ most days.
• I ate mostly complex carbs - 100% whole wheat bread, brown basmati rice, 100% whole wheat tortillas, beans, etc. (See list below)
• I ate 80% healthy foods and 20% other foods to keep life happy!
• I didn't eat fake stuff like all those nasty sugar alcohols (I used real cane sugar and raw honey for my sweeteners) and I eventually stopped eating those high fiber wraps that are just full of added fiber that wasn't naturally occurring.  I also didn't do any of those high protein gimmicks - you can't possibly metabolize more 30 grams of protein in one go!  Skip these fad things that will ultimately tax your liver and kidneys.  I stayed away from "diet" foods.
• I drank at least 8 cups of water daily and made this a priority and I also made sure I took my vitamins and supplements.

Here are some examples of actual meals I ate:

I had always been a mostly healthy eater but I also had treats and ate fast food often but still, nothing that made sense as to why I was obese besides the medications and a decade full of surgeries, trauma and miscarriages.  To my surprise, I was only eating 900-1300 calories a day and maintaining on that and I chucked it up to menopause slowing my metabolism down.  (I had a hysterectomy in 2015 and went through what felt like menopause a few years ago.)  I thought well, there's no way I could lose weight because I'm already eating so little and this is just the way I'm going to always be.  At least hiking helped me lose 15 pounds but it had now been 3 years and no more weight had come off.  By the way, the doctor said I now had the heart of an athlete from my 3 years of hiking!!

I joined Weight Watchers in late May of 2022 the week of my daughter's high school graduation to just give it one last try and I was in a size 18 skirt and 2X/3X top.  I seriously thought it wouldn't work and expected this would be my last hoorah showing that I'm doomed to a menopause body forever.  That first week I ate ALL my points, tons of zero foods and ALL my weeklies - I thought you had too LOL!  I remember cramming my face full and feeling like I was going to be sick from all the food and I spaced it into 4 meals a day to get all that food in.  I thought there is NO WAY this is going to work.  To my surprise I dropped 2 pounds that first week.  I figured that was just water and eventually this wouldn't work.  Well, it worked every week!  I also started weight lifting after being so inspired at the weight loss and because I was adding in more exercise, I earned even more points and I ate all those too!  I was living in some kind of dream - eating MORE and losing weight!?  I was now eating an average of 1500-1600 calories and losing weight.

In 14 weeks I had transformed my body into a size 6!