July Monthly Weight Loss Weigh In {Rebecca and Dan}

Halfway through the year!!!

We have made it 6 whole months and we are still going strong. Last month Brittany did a 6 month picture collage which showed 5 months of weight loss plus our before picture. So many of you were so sweet to comment and encourage us, or tell us of your own successes and progress. I just love the community of support that has been created here. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of you! 

Many people ask if we are following the meal plans or what we are doing exactly. I wanted to answer that as best I can. Many of you know that we started a clean eating (jerf) lifestyle 4 years ago and lost a lot of weight! If you look back at January’s blog post you will see how thin we were at the end of that year! At the time (before Instant loss was created by my daughter), we had found The Daniel Plan book which has meal plans and recipes in it and we used it as a guide to eating real food. This made changing our eating habits and switching everything over to a completely different way of shopping, cooking and eating so much easier and gave us yummy recipes which made sticking to it so much easier. We had great success! 

We got derailed when we had the traumatic loss with the stillbirth of Brittany’s son Elias. We struggled for 3 years trying to get back to it, never completely going back to all our old eating patterns but adding in enough bad ingredients and bad habits that the weight crept back on little by little until everything we achieved had been sabotaged. Dan even had a hospitalization during that time with mysterious gastric issues that they never figured out even after countless tests. 

We were encouraged watching Brittany loose all the weight she lost. Seeing the community she created and having access to all her yummy and convenient recipes, gave us the inspiration and motivation we needed to try again with the accountability and transparency of telling our story to all of you! Over the last year we had started trying her recipes and learned how to cook with the Instant Pot. We also learned something new that The Daniel Plan never offered: convenient, quick and easy meals that use many similar ingredients and that you could whip up quickly. That was a game changer, sustainability! 

The meal plans are helpful in so many ways. Not only do they give you so many yummy recipes but they do the meal planning for you. They give you options and snack ideas and every other recipe isn’t fish!!! (We aren’t really a fish kind of family!) When you are changing your lifestyle, having a guide like that is often crucial. It is a lot of changes and there is a huge learning curve. 

Since what we did was somewhat similar before, we had the benefit of familiarity with all the new ingredients, where to shop and what to shop for. We had been experimenting with many of Brittany’s recipes from her website and meal plans for many months before we started. So when we started again, back in January, with a commitment to cut out all the bad stuff (mainly grains, sugar, most dairy, fried foods and DESSERTS), we were equipped with everything we needed!

So we use her recipes more that anything else because they ARE so yummy, and convenient and easy! All keys to success and sustainability! But we also use other favorites from The Daniel Plan, The Wheat Belly Diet, and other recipes I find on clean eating sites on FB. All the recipes I choose follow the same guidelines and principles. I just look over the ingredients and recognize if they are all good real food and choose the ones that are. Sometimes I, like Brittany, choose what I’m going to make for dinner or even meal plan for several days based off the ingredients I have in my fridge that will spoil if I don’t use them. So we don’t adhere strictly to the meal plans but we use many of the recipes and all the same principles. 

It is invaluable to have a guide like Brittany’s meal plans, recipes and shopping lists when you are starting out and learning, I can’t stress that enough. We never would have learned what we did 4 years ago and stuck to it as long as we did to achieve success if it hadn’t been for a meal plan guide.

Brittany’s meal plans add a component that we didn’t have back then, quick and easy cooking with more variety. Her recipes are easy with more of them and her cooking methods are more convenient. 

I can’t wait for her cookbook!!!! It is loaded with so many incredible new recipes and a few all time favorites! I have had the pleasure of getting to taste a few of her masterpieces! Also she has included new meal plans with all new recipes. Y’all are going to love it!!! 4 more months!

Brittany has created hundreds of recipes between her website, meal plans and now cookbook that there is something to replace everything bad we all used to eat, so you never feel deprived or feel like you are giving anything up! She provides so much variety of yummy, easy and convenient alternatives to the unhealthy American traditional diet! Success is possible, but more that that, sustainability is possible! 

I started out on January 1st at 250 lbs. My goal is to loose 100 lbs. I am happy to announce I’m halfway there at the 6 month mark weighing in just below 200 on July 1st! It feels amazing to be back in the 100s!

We wish you all an incredible 4th of July!!! Let’s all head into the summer and the second half of the year with renewed determination and inspiration! Because y’all know what comes after summer! My fav: fall and the holidays! So now is not the time to ease off the accelerator. Let’s go! We can do it! Together! 

Here are our numbers:

DAN:

257.8 pounds
-2.3 pounds for June (-41.2 pounds total)
-4.75 inches (-34.75 inches total)

REBECCA: 

199.6 pounds
-6.6 pounds for June (-50.4 pounds total)
-7 inches (-40 inches total)