I Rolled My Eyes When They Said I Could Lose 3 lbs a Week. I Cried When I Lost 19 Lbs in a Month

My name is Heather Gray. I’m 42 years old. I’ve have struggled with my weight after having my five children. Each time I had another child I’d add 7-8 lbs more. I tried everything to get the weight off. “Eating right”, buying all sorts of cookbooks, ordering exercise tapes, going to the gym, Weight Watchers, Isagenix, Medifast, and starving myself. If worked really hard, I might get 1/2 to 1lb a week. I lost 20 lbs in 6 months on one program. I diligently counted points and attended weekly meetings. I was so proud of myself--but I seemed to plateau and I got discouraged.

I thought, “I guess this is how I’m going to be.” I didn’t recognize myself in the mirror and I wasn’t happy. I asked, “Why can some people lose weight and I can’t.” Defeated, I gave away some of my skinny clothes thinking I was beyond hope of getting back to where I was. I came up with a lot of excuses for my weight. “I’ve had 5 kids. I’m 42. You just can’t lose it after a certain point. I have thyroid problems. I’m at risk for diabetes--that makes it tougher. My busy schedule. I’m tired. It’s hard to fit everything in. People will have to accept me for who I am. I have to accept myself.” All of those excuses were true, but it didn’t change the fact that I needed to lose weight.

My husband, Dr. Jon Gray, ordered some blood work on me and found out that my triglycerides were 300 (very bad--high risk for stroke and heart disease). I was also insulin resistant and headed for diabetes. That’s not good. I was going to be like a lot of Americans--on a lot of drugs and still have the same problems.

Someone approached my husband about introducing another medical diet into our office. We had been through that before and had gotten mediocre results. We only introduce programs and products into our office if we try them ourselves first. He said, “Heather, this makes sense. I think this is going to work.”

I rolled my eyes and made fun of the model on the front cover, but I said I would try it. I lost 6 lbs my first week and 19 lbs my first month. Not only that, it came off in the right places. After the first week I had increased energy and didn’t have the exhaustion late in the afternoon. I didn’t have the cravings for sweets and breads like I used to. I was finally getting off the blood sugar roller coaster. My triglycerides dropped to 167. I started feeling more control of my life. I lost 40 lbs in 3 months and 31 inches. I went from a size 16 to a size 10. (I even had to give away some of my “thin” clothes because they were too big.) I got back to the weight I was in college. I felt so empowered. I was finally the person in the mirror I remembered.

The best part is I am helping other people get similar results as myself.