IM LOSING 20 lbs. IN ONE WEEK-LEARN HOW IM DOING IT AND WHY

A HEALTHIER ME  

Easier said than done right?   

Losing weight is one of the hardest thing someone can do but its more difficult after becoming a mom or people who have a very busy lifestyle. Stress, anxiety, hormones and a variety of things can make a person overeat. Over the past years I have seen stress take control of my life and my weight and now my weight is taking control of my health. This is why I decided to work towards a healthier me and lose weight.

On top of that I was recently diagnosed with Acid Reflux otherwise known as GERD which is a condition in which liquid from the stomach backs up into the esophagus inflaming and damaging the lining of the esophagus. The liquid produces acid that is produced in the stomach. Now I know everyone gets heartburn every now and then but people with Acid Reflux is more severe and can even affect your quality of life if the symptoms are severe enough. If left untreated it can even damage the lining of your esophagus making it extremely difficult for your stomach to digest food and in extreme cases in can cause other conditions leading to death such as internal bleeding in the esophagus. Yes its that serious!! Believe it or not Acid Reflux is more common than you think and some people don't even know they have it cause not everyone will get symptoms.

Some examples of symptoms of Acid Reflux include

-Cough

-Laryngitis (loss of voice)

-severe heartburn occurring everyday 

-abdominal pain

-body aches and weakness

-regurgitation

-nausea

-ulcers

-strictures (scarring)

-esophageal cancer

-asthma

-inflammation of throat and voice box (larynx)

-fluid in sinuses and middle ears

While not everyone gets the same symptoms the internal damage to your body can be the same if left untreated. There is no cure for Acid Reflux but the Good News is that the symptoms can be treated and stop most of the damage it causes. While doctors prescribe medication that help the symptoms, they also encourage alternatives such as losing weight and changing the way you eat and of course exercise.

My main reason for wanting to kick Acid Reflux in the a** is my beautiful children. They need me to be around to help them grow into amazing individuals. Another reason is that Acid Reflux is not only affecting my health, its affecting my Dreams and my Goals. Im the one who gets very severe symptoms even when I take medication everyday but Im sick of depending on meds and frankly Im sick of Acid Reflux controlling what I do. Everything I do has to revolve around my condition. "I don't know if I can do that , I'll let u know if my voice comes back"  "I can't sing today because my symptoms are causing inflammation in my throat and my voice is raspy but I can sing tomorrow" ugh I hate that it controls my life and to tell you the truth in this cold world no one cares. You get replaced just as fast as you blink your eyes so I decided to take back my LIFE because according to Drake Everybody dies but not everybody LIVES and I decided to LIVE!!

Im hesitant to give out my current weight but I will do it for purposes of this challenge and to help people going through the same situation as me or just people that want to be healthier.

About 3 months ago I weighed 235, since then I lost  16 lbs.. leaving me at a weight of  219 lbs…My short-term goal is to get my weight below 200 lbs… Long-term goal is to get down to a weight of 135 lbs which is what Im supposed to weigh according to my height 5 "3 

I managed to lose 16 lbs at first by adding more protein to my diet such as fish and chicken. In addition, I added more vegetables and fruits plus eating apples helps with some of my symptoms not to mention I've been more active lately. You might be thinking "If thats working for you, why don't you just keep doing that and you will continue to lose weight?" Wrong..See the thing is YES I started eating healthier and YES I'm getting some exercise but lately I haven't lost any weight or gained any, its just stays the same which is not encouraging at all. It makes me want to go back to the old days of munching out on junk food..lol

I know I should be glad that I managed to lose some weight but the realization that I'm still in the obese category and over 200 lbs keeps ringing in my head like a song that you hate but you can't stop singing it because its always in your head. Yeah, like that!  Besides, another issue with being overweight is joint pain and loss of energy. I will do anything to get my energy back and be the fun active mom my kids loved. Like I said before its time for me to LIVE and I want to live my life with my family not just for my family! 

I've come across some diets such as the Atkins, the grapefruit diet, the protein diets, slim fast diets but none of them seem to work for me or if I do lose weight it will come back faster than it took to lose it. I think its the fact that we keep calling these diets DIETS!  Of course, I know we should call them for what they are but I believe our brain sends out some signals to our body to store food whenever we are on a DIET! Sort of like a psychological thing that if we consciously know its a diet, there's a possibility it might not work but if we see it as a healthily lifestyle or just healthy eating then maybe things can be positively different.  

Anyways, one diet that I've come across and I haven't tried yet is called "SACRED HEART DIET" (DIETA DE EL SAGRADO CORAZON) but Im going to call it " SACRED HEART HEALTHY EATING". I heard this 7 day soup diet also known as heart healthy diet is sometimes prescribed by doctors to patients with heart conditions 1/2 weeks prior to surgery. Supposedly you can lose up to 20 lbs. in one week. Really? Wow! This will satisfy my short-term goal! This 7 day diet is not meant for long-term goals but it can certainly give you a great jumpstart. Plus it also helps to cleanse your body from the inside.

The SACRED HEART HEALTHY EATING (sacred heart soup diet) consists of 7 days of eating mostly vegetable soup and fruits and tomatoes (Im not going to use too much of these for my plan since tomatoes makes my Acid Reflux worse), black coffee, no soda/carbonated drinks or alcohol, unsweetened fruit juice, tea, cranberry juice, etc..

The Ingredients for The 7 day SOUP DIET are as follows:

2 cans of chicken broth

3 green onions

1 package of fat-free soup mix

1 package of celery/a bunch

2 can green beans

2 lbs carrots

2 cans of stew tomatoes (I will only use 1)

1/2 cabbage (this is not part of the recipe but Im adding this since I love cabbage, its optional)

Directions:

Chop all vegetable into pieces and cook in water along with the soup mix until boiling then simmer until done.

You can add some salt and pepper to season but I recommend using Mrs Dash. It adds taste but without the sodium 

THE PLAN:

DAY 1 - As much Soup as you want, fruit but no bananas, preferred fruits are watermelon and cantaloupes (less calories than other fruits)

DAY 2- As much Soup as you want, vegetables but no beans or corn, baked potato for dinner w/butter

DAY 3- More Soup and as much vegetable as you want w/out any dressing/dip, no potato today

DAY 4- As much soup as you want, Skim Milk and Bananas (Im gonna go bananas today..lol)

DAY 5-  Soup again ( of course..lol) 10-20 ounces of beef and tomatoes (tomatoes can be canned or fresh)

DAY 6- Soup again (YEY! not :( ) but you can have as much beef as you want and vegetables (this I like :) )

DAY 7- Soup again, veggies, unsweetened fruit juice, brown rice

Ok so I have all I need to start right? Nope.. I still need to go to the grocery store to buy all my Veggie ingredients for the soup diet..this should be fun..lol..so today is DAY 0.. as the week progresses I will add more to this post including my weight loss if any and my energy levels. Once again my current weight is 219 lbs and my short-term goal that I plan on obtaining with this meal plan is under 200 lbs. (199 lbs. or less)

DAY 0:

Im going grocery shopping to stock my fridge with vegetables, fruits, unsweetened fruit juice, water. etc..&crossing my fingers. This meal plan will definitely test my will power and I will see how strong I am if I survive since I will mostly be eating veggies&fruits for one week..YIKES!! I don't know if this is even healthy but 1 week isn't going to kill me besides its healthier than taking diet pills or prescription drugs to lose weight.


DOES THE SACRED HEART DIET WORK? CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT THE RESULTS!