Shrishtees Journey Page

Shrishtee Hits 70 lbs Gone in 3.5 Months 

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In Her Own Words

Carlene asks each of our ladies who do before and afters that when they win our 50 lbs in 3 Months Challenge. They answer the following questions to share with the world. Here are Shrishtee’s answers  in Her Own Words:

1. Tell us about yourself and where you were physically and mentally before joining RFBC:

I’ve been overweight and attracted to high-fat high-sugar and salted foods for as long as I can remember. I reached 200 pounds at the age of 13 or 14, and kept getting bigger by continuously using food for reasons unrelated to hunger or nourishment. I tried all kinds of diets early on, many unrealistic, before my aunt suggested going to an organized weight loss program with me (with weekly meetings and weigh ins). This worked very well for months and I went down to the 180s, until a trip abroad triggered the fat brain mentality and, at 16, I quit the diet and returned to the cycle that would characterize the next 15+ years: binge, despair, get motivated to try a new diet, lose some weight, trip and fall, eat without self-control. I quickly went over 200 pounds again. I became vegetarian at 18 and later vegan for ethical reasons, but this also led me to discover great diets and ways of eating that could improve my health, including low-fat raw diets.

Just before I discovered RFBC, I had been successfully dieting on my own (with a cooked, low-fat whole food vegan diet) for 2-3 months. Things were going well until I compared photos of myself at 268 pounds (my peak weight) and photos of myself then. I was underwhelmed by the small visual changes. I had started morbidly obese and still was. This was taking so long! Soon after this, I gave in to my food addiction. As I returned to those bad eating habits, I felt desperate. How would I ever be able to reach a healthy weight quickly? And then, as I had started planning a month-long water fast, I saw before-and-after photos on Pinterest that led me to RFBC.

When I saw this program, I felt like my prayers had been answered. The more I read, the more I thought this diet had been made exactly for me! I already believed that eating raw was ideal for health, I had lost a lot of weight from that organized weight loss support group in my teens, and I am an all-or-nothing kind of person. I had hoped to lose weight on my own, but now I realized this accountability and support might be just what I needed to reach my goal. I read everything available to the public, got a free membership then read some more. With hope in my heart now, I started planning to join the Rawk Starz Diva program soon. First, I finished off or gave away all of the cooked food from my previous diet, as well as anything else that wouldn’t be acceptable on the new program.  Then I tried to register to start RFBC in early April 2019, but waited too late and there were no places left! I finally registered in mid-April and started my Diva journey on April 30, 2019.

On my initial weigh in, I was happily surprised to find that I had maintained most of the weight loss from my previous diet! I thus started at 249.8 pounds. This further helped me start on the right note.

2. What have you learned the most about yourself and your relationship with food since starting RFBC?

A lot of the daily topics resonate with me, and I’ve learned more still from my fellow divas. I love how the forum has made us reflect and analyze ourselves.

This sounds strange, but the lesson I learned from Carlene that probably helped me resist temptations the most is to feel free to enjoy the smell of off-plan foods! My husband’s food can smell wonderful sometimes, and I ask to smell it almost every time, shamelessly! I’ve come to enjoy the smell on its own 🙂

I’ve learned to be more patient with the scale and to trust the process. I’ve reflected on excuses I’ve used to cheat on diets in the past.

Through the process, I have also realized that my emotional eating can be just another habit, one which has less and less of a hold on me the longer I ignore it. It feels empowering to be getting out of its grip!

3. What Physical and mental health benefits have you noticed since joining RFBC?

“It’s going to get worse before it gets better” is a motto I’ve used on previous diets, and I believe it was most applicable to my early experience on RFBC. Even after the expected detox, I would feel nauseous at least once daily for many weeks. I had no appetite. Despite having eaten high-fruit raw diets in the past, I really struggled to eat the daily serving of seeds and the low-glycemic-load fruit.  As for the exercise, I was fit enough to walk for one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening right from the start, but my heart rates were too low and I had no energy left afterwards. My energy levels had been decreasing for years, way before RFBC, and these two hours of walking now meant I could do very little else for the rest of the day.

But it got so much better! Carlene supported me and figured out how to tweak my diet so that my worse stomach issues would go away (turns out hemp seeds and too many oranges caused this issue for me). I also found ways to eat chia seeds and occasional pumpkin seeds without issue. I found out which fruits I liked best, and developed a routine that works for me! I realized not that long ago that I actually didn’t feel nausea anymore! I see my food as fuel, but I also get to enjoy it most of the time now. As for my energy levels, I have been able to be more productive than I have been for years. I’m finally able to do more than just sit on the couch in my spare time – so despite walking two hours a day in the fat burning heart range, I feel more energy than I have in years!!!

Mentally and emotionally, I feel more stable and more confident than I have been in ages. The habit of using food as a crutch in difficult times, which is a life-long habit, is losing its hold. Food doesn’t even come to mind now in most of those situations.

I feel such hope for my future and my health. I have a condition and problems I want to heal through weight loss and healthy living, and I have dreams and hopes for my life that will be even more attainable once I reach a healthy weight!

4. What have been some of the biggest highlights of your journey?

I woke up one day to see that I could actually see my clavicle and definition in my shoulders! That, and many other physical changes have felt so motivating!

A colleague left for a three-week vacation and apparently could barely recognize me upon her return! 😉 Because my face has changed a lot through this journey, the changes have been noticed, and I love the reactions I’m getting!

The biggest moment for me yet is the most recent: I am officially below 200 pounds again. I lost 50 pounds so far with RFCB, and I’m almost 70 pounds lighter now than I was on November 1st, 2018. It is just incredible.

5. What advice would you offer your readers and newbies at RFBC so they might enjoy your type of success?

First of all, if you’re in a similar dieting cycle as the one I have been in, you need to ask yourself why. On-and-off dieting puts our bodies in a roller coaster and worsens our health on the long-term. I asked myself a while ago if I were willing to just give up dieting and live the rest of my days obese. There was no doubt as to the answer: NO. I would never feel fulfilled or completely successful if I didn’t achieve my dream of being thin, healthy and comfortable in my own body!

Think of this as your new part-time job. I went all-in with this program: I put aside my personal projects, let my husband know we wouldn’t be spending as much time together because I would wake up earlier to walk and go out to walk after work (that was before I got a treadmill). I came to it as prepared as I could. This is the time to focus and remove any unnecessary distractions, such as information on other diets. Blinders on!

Just start. It can be hard to motivate oneself to exercise or to eat some plain healthy food when you’re just not hungry, but you must push through if you want the best results – and especially if you want to build new, health-promoting habits. Anytime I didn’t want to walk and wanted to rebel against the rules I had agreed to follow, I would tell myself: just start. I would, and most often than not, that particular battle would be over and the walking would be easier than anticipated!

Food is fuel. You don’t enjoy the food? No appetite? So what- You must still eat it! This is a lesson I had to learn very early on myself and it’s invaluable 🙂

Don’t create precedents. I know this from all of my years of dieting: If I give myself an inch, I’ll eventually take a yard. Boundary lines cannot be blurred. For me, and I’m sure for many others, starting a diet with unhealthy foods still in your system is MUCH harder than staying on a diet you haven’t deviated from. Eating one bite of unhealthy food will derail me. Not walking my two hours daily (without an unquestionably valid excuse) will derail me. I need to stay on track and perfect on plan.

Keep RFBC in your thoughts! The first thing I do every morning is to access the RFBC website while I’m in bed or to look for emails from RFBC or Carlene. I listen to the audio before (or during) my first walk – it helps motivate me and lets me think about the day’s topic. At work, I will read from my fellow Rawk Starz Divas and participate in the forum on my morning break or lunch break, and I’ll get back on the forum once I’m home. If you don’t feel motivated to walk, there’s no better cure than to listen to an audio from Carlene! It gets you in the right mindset and pushes the fat brain away!

This program WORKS. I have trusted in this program and done the work, and now I have lost 50 pounds in 2.5 months and went below 200 pounds for the first time since I was 16! It is more than I ever thought possible before seeing the RFBC success stories. I hope I can inspire others the way those before and after stories inspired me to start this amazing journey!!!

Shrishtee’s 60 lbs Gone Before and Afters

 

Shrishtee’s 50 lbs Gone Before and Afters

Shrishtee actually won our 50 lbs in 3 Month’s Challenge in 2.5 months. Winning gave her a free month of camp. Because she opted to show her face in her before and afters she received a second free month when she won the challenge.

Shrishtee’s 40 lbs Gone

 

Shrishtee’s 25 lbs Gone