My incredible shrinking mom

I hope my mom doesn’t kill me for this post, but I’m pretty darn impressed with what she’s been up to. Ever since high school when my mom was deathly ill (literally), and the doctors pumped her up with prednisone (which we later discovered she is allergic to), she has had trouble with her weight. She was always pretty tiny, and suddenly she was Violet Beauregarde. Below is a picture of my mom from my brother’s wedding last September.

She had tried several diets to no avail. She actually put ON weight on the South Beach Diet. She and some friends even hired a personal chef/nutritionist to prepare their meals for them and still the weight would not come off. In fact, she just kept expanding with no little Oompa Loompas to take her to the juicing room! Her arthritis kept her from exercising, and her weight was bad for the arthritis. She was sick and miserable and couldn’t figure out what to do.

I’m not going to give you her top weight because I want her to still like me. Let’s just say it was more than she was willing to weigh. So she looked around for a solution that was simple and effective. She doesn’t like to cook, and her job kept her very busy. So it needed to be prepared foods. She has loads of food allergies (to about 1/3 of the food allergy list which includes things like onions unless they’re well cooked and green beans) so it needed to be allergen-free. She has multiple chemical sensitivities, so it needed to be natural.

What she found worked wonders! In 3 months she lost 30 pounds without exercising! She maintained her weight through the toughest part of her year, end of school when the seniors are working to finalize graduation, the juniors are beginning their college application process, and parents have the gall to send delicious, homemade peach cobbler and homemade ice cream to the school (my mom’s biggest weakness. She admits to having a serving when such delicacies made their way to her office, yet she put on no weight).

This picture is her in July of this year. Down 30 pounds, she was back on track to continue losing. I took her to a conference where I was the photographer and left her in charge of our booth. Thanks in part to her new size (and in part to the great meal plan that’s full of protein and includes a wonderful vitamin regimen), she was able to be on her feet for 12 hours a day for 4 days straight! And she’s nearly 61!

But the best part is that since getting back on track in July, she’s lost nearly 10 more pounds despite a ridiculous amount of traveling (13 days between July 14 and August 14) and an incredibly packed schedule! The last picture I shot just yesterday. Can you believe how much slimmer her face is! That’s less than a month later! And the rest of her is significantly slimmer too! (It’s hard to get a full-length shot. She’s not a fan of those yet)

The best part is, she’s never hungry so she doesn’t have to work at it! She even had to make a deal with her boss at school to remind her to eat before the cafeteria closed so she wouldn’t accidentally work through lunch! Her biggest trouble was snacking, and she just doesn’t do that anymore because she’s full. And the secret is, this plan leaves your muscle so your metabolism doesn’t fall off. That means that you can continue to eat a reasonable amount of food after you get off the plan and not pack all that weight back on!

So I just wanted to brag on my mom for a minute. She made a commitment to lose the weight and she’s doing what it takes to do just that. All she does is drink a protein shake for breakfast (blended with fruit in her case), a regular lunch and a meal bar for dinner. If she does get hungry, there are snack bars. If she gets tired, there’s an energy tea with green tea extract. She’s fast approaching her goal and when she does, I’m going to put up two full-length shots side-by-side so you can appreciate all her hard work!

Full disclosure: I can totally vouch for the deliciousness of the bars, especially the blueberry almond meal bar and the chocolate snack bar (if you heat it, it’s like a brownie). Mom prefers the peanut butter chocolate chip meal bar and the peanut butter snack bar. I think the strawberry shake is the best while mom prefers vanilla mixed with blueberries. I prefer the green tea and it definitely works. Mom likes the pomegranate tea, which is funny because she actually dislikes tea and was slow to try it.  Of course, you could buy the whole kit and try a bunch of products at once. And if you follow these links and buy these products, I make some money which I would appreciate. Feel free to email me if you have any questions about my mom’s story or any of these products.