***DISCLAIMER*** I’m not a doctor. I am not any kind of replacement for your doctor’s advice. This is my personal experience and hopefully by reading it, you will know what questions to ask your doctor. Whatever you do, get a doctor you TRUST and ask all the questions you want. Their expertise is invaluable. Also, this is NOT SPONSORED. This is my true and honest experience. Also, this “headline” is meant to be funny… Yes, I lost 50 pounds in the first month of Whole30, but that does not mean that would or should happen for anyone else. It was just my experience :).

“Lose 50 pounds in a month!”

We see headlines like this at the checkout at the grocery store and can’t help but pick up the magazine… If you’re overweight or have ever been overweight, you can relate to the desire to lose a large amount of weight quickly. I know I did.

I bought so many pills, paid large amounts of money to different diet programs, counted calories, counted fat grams, counted carbs, ate whole grains, yogurt, or whatever they said I needed more of in my diet, I would give my all on the latest Jillian Michael’s videos, and starved myself, all in the name of losing weight.

And you know what happened? I would do all of this work, spend all of this money, have all the hope in the world that what I was doing was working, and then when I hopped on the scale it would maybe show 1 pound lost in a week. Or it might even show a gain. It didn’t make sense. It was discouraging. And I would eventually find myself eating whatever I wanted because, what difference did it make?

Recently, I was giving an interview and I was asked how much weight I lost in the first month. I had to go back to my fitness app to see…

50 pounds. I began cutting sugar and processed foods out of my diet on October 8, 2015 weighing in at 346.4 pounds and by early November, I was under 300 pounds for the first time in YEARS.

This time the difference was this:

I wasn’t trying to lose weight.

I wanted to be healthy.

There’s a big difference in those two mindsets. Losing weight seeks to get you into that bathing suit or that cute little dress. Being healthy, gets you a longer lifetime and more time to play with your grand kids. Being healthy lets you live your life to the FULL, instead of just trying to survive every day.

I challenge you to change your mindset. Focus on HEALTH instead of weight loss. Focus on eating foods that are scientifically proven to fight free radicals and give you the most micro-nutrients. Cut out foods that are scientifically proven to cause inflammation and chronic illness like sugar, dairy, and wheat. Try the Whole30 program. 30 days of eating clean, and just see how your body responds! Read “It Starts with Food”. Notice the non-scale victories you have like walking across a parking lot and not getting out of breath, or bending over and not feeling like you’re going to pass out (this is one I still think about every day!).

If you’re ready to take the Whole30 challenge, let me know so I can pray for you! Giving up bread, sugar, and dairy is NOT easy, but I promise it will be worth it!