Fast food, fat body. Not any more.

(This Dear Darcy is from a phone call. Shirley approves the below writing and is so tickled about her weight loss and energy gain. She wanted me to share with you. Here you go! – Darcy)

Dearest, dearest, Darcy, I’ve known you forever and I read your blog. The advice you give for dogs has always been right on for my dogs, I changed them to raw food years ago and they have perfect health and weight. Soooo….I thought I would take your advice for myself. You have never mentioned my weight to me, taking me just as I am. You’re the best.

I didn’t tell anyone I was doing this because if I failed, I didn’t want anybody to think I was weak. Guess what? It wasn’t easy but I gave up fast food at Micky D’s. The hardest part of giving it up was that’s where I had lunch with my co workers every day, it’s just down the block. I did keep thinking about the food for about five days, I think that might be the addictive factor in my case. I started taking my lunch to work with me and I get to eat more food at this meal than I was eating of junk but that’s not the good part. I’ve lost 10 pounds in two weeks! All I did was give up the junk food! That’s all! I mean I was still only walking only a few blocks a day to get to my car and the office.

I am one of those pretty obese people who you see when you look around at Micky D’s. You’d mentioned in your blog that we should look at the other people who are frequenting our favorite eating places to see what we might eventually look like if we keep eating there. I started looking around and I saw people just like me, please God, do I really look like that? I’d stopped looking the mirror years ago.

I am a well educated woman with a good job. I can’t believe that I didn’t know fast food was going to make me look like this or even that it was the culprit, the reason that I am fat. What was I thinking!

I gave up a breakfast and a lunch, Monday through Friday, at the fast food place and traded it for a breakfast at home of anything I want (no cold cereal, you’d said that it wouldn’t satisfy me and you are right about that) and a large lunch that I make myself (no processed food). If I get hungry between meals and sometimes I find that I do, I don’t think about going for fast food, I reach for an apple or I sit down and eat some real, non processed food. Dinner is the same as always. A crazy thing these past few days is that I don’t snack after dinner any more, either. I don’t want it. I drink a glass of water and go to bed. I’m sleeping better, too.

Two of my co workers have started eating with me at work. They have started losing weight, too. It happens so fast! We’re all happier, we laugh easier, I find that my mind is more clear, and today we’re going to start walking together.

Finally after all of these years of killing myself and getting bigger and bigger, I have energy again. I feel like going out and doing something that doesn’t include eating! I have to say that the first five days of giving up the junk was really, really hard. My fast food lunch was never huge, it was only a sandwich, fries, and a diet soft drink but I did it every day. Breakfast was usually a muffin sandwich and an apple pie, they are so little, how could they make such a huge impact on a body? I often felt like I needed more food, I was hungry again shortly after eating, but I didn’t want to look like a pig. I don’t know what they put into that stuff, I do know that I was addicted.

I woke up this morning for the first time as an adult without bad breath. I pulled my pants on and for the first time in twenty years, I went to the second hole on my belt. When I stepped on the scales, I had to call you and let you know and tell you what’s happened with me. Please use my story on your blog. Maybe it will give someone else hope and the will to give up fast food.

I am so happy to be on the right track to getting fit again. I’ve ordered my Callanetics DVDs to start toning this poor old body. You are the best! Love you! Shirley

Dear Shirley,

I am so happy for you! It’s amazing, isn’t it, the way the food industry has tricked us into getting sick. It’s like a conspiracy, the food makes us fat, then we need to go to a doctor to get well and they give us drugs to fight the effects of bad food, but after more of the same food, the doctors can’t fix us. Heart disease, diabetes, kidneys that don’t function properly, liver ailments, acne and bad skin, allergy symptoms, fatigue, weight issues, out of shape bodies, minds that don’t work right any more…it’s so awful. I am so proud of you for taking a stand against them, they’ve been sneakily cheating you out of your life for years.

I’d suggest that you start slow on the walking and do  what you feel comfortable with while doing the Callanetics. We talked about this, if you try too much to start, you might feel that you’re getting too tired and quit. Start with a couple of blocks of walking, then build that distance as you feel you want to. With the Callanetics, at first you might feel like your muscles aren’t doing what they should but they are, they’re just so deep inside under fat and they’ve been weak for a long time. I do dance and tone with Callanetics five times a week. Even for me, after years of being lazy, it took about two weeks for me to feel my muscles working and then, hey!, there they are! It’s such a great feeling to know that my muscles are still under there and they want to be fit and shapely again. Like I said, the first thing to happen was that my butt lifted and so quickly. I laughed with you about this, my behind almost looks like a teenager’s butt again. It tickles me to no end!

Remember that every person has their own fit body. Getting into shape and finding our comfortable weight doesn’t mean that we have to look like Madonna or a cover girl, although you’ll find you can do that over time with good eating habits and Callanetics. It’s pretty amazing. The goal should be to be the best that you can be, a healthy and fit you. To have energy and want to get up and go do something besides eat.

I gave up my scales a long time ago because I don’t think weight is a good indication of fitness. Losing the fat is fabulous and right. What difference does it make what we weigh if we’re fit and lean? Weight is one of those lying things that magazines have tricked you into worrying about. It’s what sells magazines and weight loss products that don’t work. People spend billions of dollars hoping that finally something is going to work to lose fat and get fit. The only thing that works to get people into shape naturally is eating a nutritious diet and moving. You’re proof perfect of the diet and as you move, you’ll find that you win. Nobody can lie to you ever again, at least not about your health. LOL!

If you gain weight with the Callanetics while you build and tone muscle, and you probably will at first, you might find that discouraging. Muscle weighs more than fat so stay off the scale for the next few months. Use a fabric tape measure instead. Do it today, write down these measurements and date it. Measure around your neck, upper arms, bust, right under the bust, belly at the button, belly 3 or 4 inches below the button, hips at the widest spot, upper thighs at the largest spot, and 4″ above your knee. Don’t cheat, don’t pull it tight, you want an accurate reading. You can do this every day but once a week will give you the best high and the most noticeable changes. You might see that the measurements go up for the first few weeks especially in your belly and hips. Delight in that because it means that your abdominal muscles and your butt are doing what they should. Soon enough the measurements are going to decrease and that’s when it gets very, very exciting.

If you have a day that you don’t want to exercise and eat right, do it anyway. As soon as you’re doing it, you’ll find that feeling of pleasure knowing that you are capable, strong, and beautiful while you care for yourself and your body. Having friends to share this with is excellent. Support and love make it even easier. You didn’t get this way in a few weeks, it’s going to take a while to get rid of it. Keep your mind in the good place and know that you are changing and love yourself every day. Start looking in the mirror again now, it will start loving you back very quickly.

I love you, too. GBG – Darcy