#11 How I Lost 5 Pounds in 10 days Naturally!

It's all my husband's fault... I mean, inspiration

Losing extra pounds is a ubiquitous quest in modern humans. I think we can all agree, we’ve been there, or perhaps are there at this very moment. As healthy as I am at 51 years old, I was surprised to see my weight going up over the last year.

I noticed my scales creeping up in numbers and my mid section creeping out. Some of my favorite college clothes (yes I still have them) that I’ve been able to wear for multiple decades were now presenting me with that undesirable muffin top.

May walks in Hill Country

The Scenerio

Surprisingly it’s actually possible to be a sort of a fat skinny. Years ago, at 5’ 4” I was about 115-120 pounds in college. I was 126 pounds when I conceived naturally at 42 years old. Now, however I was simply starting to feel a bit puffy as I rounded out at 138 pounds.

But how did I get here? I am healthy. We eat healthy, organic, and GMO (genetically modified) free as possible. I read labels incessantly. We take a litany of longevity supplements. So, what’s the deal with this change?

The main culprits, I believe, have been the reduction of my quantity of exercise days, in conjunction with the increased consumption of sharing in all the snacks my daughter inhales throughout the day. She needs it all, not me. In other words, being a little more sedentary and eating probably more than plenty has begun to accumulate on my body some unwanted visceral fat.

My Husband’s Path

Through our decades together my husband has chosen to eliminate alcohol from his life to clean up his system. Over a year ago he started this cleanse and has kept it up. He feels so much better on a daily basis and enjoys this as his health baseline. I still enjoy my red wine and some fun mixed drinks on occasion.

His next step involved increasing his workout program to accomplish a new goal in personal fitness. With a young daughter, both of us want to be fit and active to enjoy all the physical activities we do with her. Plus with my husband's work from home lifestyle he wanted to be sure he balanced that physically stagnant time on Zoom with a burst of physical activity. He's got his weights and resistance bands all set up and away he goes. No excuses.

Hiking in the Texas spring heat

A History of Fitness

In the past, prior to having our daughter, when we got together over 20 years ago, we were both avid hot yoga athletes going to 90 minute classes of 105 degrees at least 3 times a week. We were lean and strong. We also loved mountain biking and long distance road bicycling.

My husband came from a childhood of wresting, baseball, football, martial arts, and motor cross and always managed to integrate some form of exercise into his life as he matured. He even road his bicycle across the United States.

I grew up with a triathlete mother who inspired participating in local runs on a regular basis. I was also on the track team in high school then moved into road cycling in college years. Then came my love of yoga.

After I had our daughter, I kept in great shape going on walks and hikes all the time. Carrying my daughter on hikes meant I was packing an extra 40-50 pounds, (including my daughter, the backpack, our food, and supplies), and also taking advantage of great elevation gain in the Washington state mountains. Additionally, breastfeeding for 2 1/4 years kept me burning calories with gusto. I still incorporated some hot yoga here and there, yet my primary focus was our daughter and I fit in my exercise around raising her.

Packing my daughter for hikes in Washington state

Sliding out of Rhythm

With my daughter in the spotlight who is now about to celebrate her 8th birthday, I had let myself slide a little bit out of my preferred physique zone. We homeschool year round and our days are full of projects and activities for her growth and education. Over the last year, especially being in menopause, the scales have started tipping into my personal danger zone because I haven’t focused enough balancing my own health with everything else I do in family life.

I hit my threshold of discomfort the other day and did not want to see the scale numbers rise anymore. We had gone out to eat at a restaurant and I maxed out at 140 pounds on the scale after dinner. We all felt overly full from the meal and considered there might have been MSG in the food that made us feel excessively full and extremely thirsty. That was it for me. Home eating is so much better because we can control all the ingredients.

That was also the defining moment for us both to reduce our dining out occasions to almost none. We already cook most meals at home, yet now with our clear focus to reach new goals, eating from our own supplies consistently was going to give us the ability to track everything. Plus steering clear of chemicals, hydrogenated seed oils, conventional and GMO ingredients, fillers and toxic ingredients often found in restaurant food is key in supporting health. With all the organic and GMO free food at home, we were already set for success.

My Husband and His Excel Spreadsheet

That night my husband set up a excel spreadsheet and began his journey of calorie deficit tracking. Not only were we going to always eat healthier from our own supplies, but also, my husband wanted to track how much was he was consuming and reduce the caloric intake to total less than his caloric burn rate. His goal was to lose some extra pounds while supporting the muscle growth from his workouts.

Although there are apps for tracking this information, my husband was happy building his extensive excel spreadsheet (because he enjoys that sort of thing which stems from our entrepreneurial lifestyle), read labels on everything we used in our cooking (which is usually my gig), using measuring spoons and cups for all ingredients used in meals from fresh produce to proteins, oils, and spices. As I observed what my husband was doing, I somewhat copied his efforts but didn’t measure everything as detailed. I did cut back on my portion size, cut out snacks, waited for my stomach to grind and growl before eating again and quickly felt and saw changes.

Enjoying My Texas Hill Country Walk - 3 3/4 miles and 550 feet elevation gain

Losing 5 Pounds Naturally

In combination with calorie deficit efforts there are a few other things we have been doing that has helped us ramp up to slim down: