Client Interview: Suzette

[Author's Note: This one is special, it's an interview with my mom!  After some prodding over a long period of time, I got her into the gym with me... now she's down 32.5 pounds.  My dad jumped on the wagon as well and is down 14 pounds.  That's 46.5 pounds by simply eating like adults!]

Brandon: First question, what made you decide that you wanted to lose some weight?  Where there any special motivating factors?

Suzette: I wanted to be a healthier grandmother.  I had been working out some and getting stronger, but hadn't had any significant weight loss.  Brandon challenged me to a 30-day plan of eating only meat and vegetables, and I accepted the challenge partly to please him and partly because I figured I could do anything for 30 days.

B: What methods for weight loss have you tried in the past?

S: Low-fat diet, First Place, Weight Watchers.  First Place worked well for me because it gave me good guidelines of what/how much to eat every day.  It was a group effort with weekly meetings, Bible study and encouraging leaders. 

B: How much weight have you lost?  How long did it take?

S: To date, I have lost 32.5 pounds.  I started on April 15 and am still eating basically meat and vegetables, occasionally some fruit, no grains or sugar.

B: How difficult was it to lose the weight?  What kind of lifestyle changes were necessary?  Did it require a lot of sacrifice?

S: In the beginning, I felt like it was a lot of extra work.  I had to plan more, grocery shop more, cook more.  I felt like it was so much trouble--no wonder people lose weight eating like this!  It's so much trouble that it makes you not want to eat at all!  Since I committed to the 30 days, I stuck to it and the weight dropped quickly.  That was motivating. I found that eating only meat and vegetables was satisfying, and I didn't really miss eating the other stuff. It was much less difficult than I thought. 

B: What were the biggest challenges?

S: Since my husband is not a vegetable eater, I had to make two different meals and keep cooking things I had chosen not to eat.  It took more time to shop and to prepare foods from scratch.  Also, explaining to people that I'm choosing to only eat meat and vegetables was a challenge when other food items were available.  Sometimes it was easier just to eat a few bites of the other foods than to listen to the negative comments.

B: What lessons did you learn through the process?

S: I feel better when I eat better.  It doesn't hurt to not eat junk.  It works better with exercise (even though I haven't been able to go to the gym much during these 3 months for various reasons).  I don't do well exercising on my own--I do much better with guidance and direction from my fantastic personal trainer!  

B: Any comments you would like to add?

S: On the day that I reached 30 pounds, my non-vegetable-eating husband of 35 years decided that he's "in".  In the last few weeks, we've eaten a LOT of green beans and he has eaten vegetables that he hasn't eaten since I've known him...carrots, broccoli, asparagus.  He doesn't like it too much, but he's trying.  That makes cooking much easier!