My story thus far...with lots of pictures!

If you're new to this blog, let me introduce myself; 

Hi! My name is Autumn and I am a 43 yr old mother of 6, my eldest is 9 and my youngest is nearly 6 months old.  

I'm writing this blog for YOU, because if you have found this blog, you must be interested in the things I am here talking about (weight loss, HCG, pregnancy, family, motherhood, diabetes, and pathways to health and ultimate vitality)...and I'm writing this blog for ME, because I need somewhere to vent all this great information, because not everyone wants to listen to me talk about this subject as much as I want to...and I am motivated because If I can make these positive changes and shape my life into the life I want, then you can too!

I was terribly worried that I was following in my mother's footsteps in that I gained 60 lbs or more with each pregnancy and could not get the bulk of that weight off, no matter what I tried, and then gained more weight with the next pregnancy.  My mom never was able to lose her pregnancy weight gains. I saw myself following in her footsteps to a future of ill health, and for some time it seemed unavoidable.

Then, 2 yrs ago I discovered HCG and Dr Simeons Pounds and Inches Protocol, (actually using HhCG, the homeopathic version of the hormone) and was able to shed 65 lbs in 4 months.  For that spray go here.

It was life-changing in the best way. Through following that strict, healthy protocol of only eating certain wholesome and healthy foods while completely avoiding anything processed, or anything 'not on the list', I learned that my body was capable of burning off a pound of fat each day, and that my body was not broken, and that it was NOT MY FAULT that I was overweight.  I also learned that vitamins can actually work, that magnesium is vital to my body's ability to function properly, that unprocessed sea salt is very different from the pure white stuff, that we don't need to be afraid of salt, or of fat, and perhaps most importantly, that I was capable of creating a positive, transformative change with each and every accumulative step I took each day.

I also learned that the spray made my body exquisitely sensitive to certain foods and that even a small taste outside protocol could have big consequences, but that knowledge helped keep me on the straight and narrow.

On the website that supports the particular spray I use, I read hundreds of personal stories, and made new online friends by the dozen, with all of us going through the same transformation, all using the same protocol and spray - I learned so much, and was profoundly changed.

If you'd like to as me questions about this homeopathic HhCG spray, send me an email and I'll respond right away - just scroll down and look for the link with the blue hydrangea flower picture on the right hand side of this page ---->  You can also order it here.

After the birth of our 6th child I had another 50 pounds to lose, and by using the HhCG and following Simeons Protocol again, I have only 10 more pounds to go till I reach my goal.   It is SO empowering and exciting to know I have control over my weight; it is a real departure from the feeling of hopelessness that used to hang over me!  I think I actually enjoy my children more now, which is so sad really, because I did not know I was resenting them or blaming them for my inability to lose weight, but I must have been.

One big reason my weight was in 'locked-on' mode was because of the hormonal changes that occur with pregnancy and breastfeeding.  Happily, I no longer feel like my pregnancy weight gains are 'locked on', because I have HhCG to 'unlock' my fat stores.

Another reason my weight was 'locked on' was due to eating too many sugars/starches and  avoiding fatty foods. Now I try to keep sugar and starchy carbs to an absolute minimum for me and my family. AND, I eat fatty foods!  All the time! Every meal, in fact! Ha! I feel absolutely devious and yet eating fats with your low carb/hign protein meals is the best way to feel sated and get your body into 'un-locked' mode.  It's a pretty delicious way to live too.

During Phase 3 I learned a lot about metabolic hormones such as insulin and ghrelin and adiponectin and leptin - all the known metabolic hormones (more is learned all the time so you need to stay tuned-in!) - and these days I'm reading about our medical community and issues that my mom is dealing with...I've only started reading about thyroid and iodine, inflammation and arthritis, and potentially devastating statins and how CoQ-10 can help...I read a LOT and I will include sources whenever it's applicable.

Dr Mercola's site and newsletters are filled with good natural health info; I'm always learning something there that leads me to new ideas and information - for example now I know when Nature offers up vitamin D and now I get my family outside to soak it up!  Before, I was doing it all wrong- sigh.  Before reading Dr Mercola's articles I usually had us outside at peak UVA times, which increases skin cancer risks(!) instead of peak UVB times which increases Vitamin D! -  Yikes.  Well, now I know. 

Mothering magazine is a great source for information and articles about parenting, breastfeeding, co-sleeping, etc. I was sorry to see them go out of print, but their online archives are fantastic and founder Peggy O'Mara is still involved in making it a relevant and reliable source of good, solid and up to date information.

Pathways to Family Wellness, a printed magazine with an online presence, is another wonderful source of information about achieving natural health and vitality for everyone, with a focus on family.  Recently there were several articles on homebirth and interviews with midwife Ina May Gaskin that were just wonderful.  I discovered this wonderful magazine in a chiropractor's office.

I hope to help my mom to regain her health, and help my father-in-law avoid knee replacement surgery, help my kids grow up healthy and strong, help my husband and I to live in health and vitality forever, and really, I wish health and vitality for everyone(!)  

So, I'm writing this blog for YOU and me, because if I can make these changes and shape my life into the life I want, then you can too!

All the best to you!

xox 

Autumn

Mom and Dad on their wedding day

Mom and Dad some 45 yrs later, before statins and before 'official' diabetes diagnosis

John and I on our wedding day

Mom and my 5th baby Lucy

Me and my 4th baby Olivia...

Me turning into my mother, standing with my slender sisters...(one of which was pregnant at the time, and still looked great, while I looked Big!)

Me and my family in 2002, before Mom's health crisis, before I had kids

Me now, with 6th baby Veronica, half-way back to my ideal weight - photo courtesy of 4 yr old Olivia

:D

Feb 15, 2012 172.2 lbs

Happy Valentine's Day! (ok, a day late, but I was BUSY!)  2nd day on spray and had to make Valentine's Day special for my family!  A love note for each kid, a love note for Mr (who I adore, btw, those are MY Valentine flowers he brought me there behind the cookies!  Primroses, my springtime favorites!), a big lasagna dinner, cookies with everyone's initial, and, oh gosh, an enormous heart shaped tin of chocolates for Mr and mini heart-shaped boxes of chocolates for the kiddos.  Sweets for the sweet!  And the kids all brought home candy from school too.  We were swimming in sugar - funny, because my Mr and I both know sugar is the enemy - but we're willing to allow the kids a sugar rampage a few days each year - Halloween, Easter, and Valentine's are our big sugar blitzes - and now, the day after, all that has not been eaten has been whisked away - either to Daddy's workplace or to, er, the bin.  :) Gotta protect the young'uns from themselves!
Here's the thing, I'm only on Day 2 of Phase 2, and I had only been spraying for 4 days, yet I was able to cook basically all day without even being tempted.  Cool, huh?
I did not indulge in even the tiniest taste of all that Valentine's feasting, instead I had my P2 meal (tomato salad with vinegar dressing, and a cottage cheese and strawberry smoothie, sweetened with stevia) and relied on the spray to dull my appetite.  It did.  I'm SO proud of myself, but really, it wasn't that hard.  I just made the decision not to taste anything, and the spray allowed me to stay on course.  I will only eat protocol foods, and I will do what Dr Simeons says and I will be nearly to my goal of 50 lbs off by late spring.  Gosh, maybe even by Easter (April 8th).  If not, then by Mother's Day (May 13th).  Won't that be awesome?!  Oh I am so excited!!!
If you want to drop weight yourself, email me for the link to the product I'm using and I'll email you back lickety split and we can lose this weight together! :)

Why do we get fat?

Ah spring! Spring seems to be finally here in Michigan and with it comes Mother's Day.  Last year, on Mother's Day, my family took me kite flying.  And what should have been a perfect, most fun day in the warm sun and spring breeze, surrounded by those I love and adore, was muddied by my focus of hatred toward my own self.  I hated my fat self.  I hated what I was wearing, (fat clothes for a fat person), I hated how I felt (fat and lumbering across the field) and I hated how I knew I looked to my family and my slim in-laws.  I knew I looked like a fat person.  I was a fat person.  I weighed 200 pounds.  At 5'5" tall I qualified as 'obese'.  Not good.

I asked my husband, and my father-in-law, to take pictures of me and the kids that day, flying kites.  I NEVER allowed anyone to take my picture anymore but enough was enough.  I remember thinking 'I need to document this day because this is the end.  I am GOING to lose this weight.  I CAN'T live like this another day, hating everything, hating myself, resenting that I had to leave the house and show my hateful self in public. This is IT'.

Here's a picture from that day -

The thing is, I did not gain all that weight because I ate tubs of ice cream and whole pizzas.  I never did! I never allowed myself big indulgences! I did have some chocolate, but never more than a few ounces per day.  Maybe one scoop of ice cream per week.  I never was a big soda pop drinker.  But maybe I'd get a sweet iced coffee a few times per month (maybe 3-4 per month, tops) while out running errands.  I tried to eat 'healthy' in general.  I am not a glutton or a slothful person.  I tried 'real' dieting, and stopped eating cheese and quit eating bread.  But heck, I was nursing, and nursing mom's are supposed to burn up an extra 500 cals per day! I felt I was trying to lose weight, trying to be 'smart', trying all sorts of different approaches to losing weight, trying just about everything and yet despite everything the weight seemed glued on.  Stuck.

I mean, you must eat to stay alive, so quiting eating is not an option, although many days that would feel like it should be an option, and some days I would go for hours and hours without eating, out of some idea that thin people must eat even less than I did - and the next day? I'd weigh the same.  It was beyond depressing and frustrating, it was debilitating.  I felt hopeless and full of self-loathing. 

My weight was stuck.  My body was maintaining 200 lbs.  Why?

And THAT, my friends, is the entire mystery: Why do some of us get fat and why do we stay fat?!

Because of all I have learned during and after this weight loss journey I have been on, and because of all my cyber friends who have shared of their experiences on the My Fat Cure site (now called 'Ketomist'), I can tell you I think I know the answer: hormones.  Metabolic hormones.  Not sloth, not gluttony, but hormones that control those behaviors and can transform even small portions of healthy foods into fat.  This is true.  Believe it.  You can read more here and here and here and here and here.

 If we got fat simply because of gluttony and sloth, I would not have been fat.  My mom would not have become fat. My neighbor would not have been fat. (My neighbor just finished her 3rd round of Ketomist spray and has shed 63 lbs to date!!!)  If we got fat because of gluttony, then gastric-bypass surgery or bariatric surgery would 'cure' us and result in lots of skinny people running around with tiny stomachs and tinier wardrobes - not lots of still-fat people who now feel the need to eat for 12 hrs a day and puree their food to try and fit it in!  These are people who have taken extreme and drastic measures to try and stop what they percieve as uncontrollable hunger.  But WHY are they SO HUNGRY?  Because of hormonal imbalances.  Leptin, ghrelin and insulin hormones all surging in the bloodstream and no lap band is going to be able to stop them.

(During the mandatory 5-6 weeks on a clear liquids diet while recovering from the above surgeries, you will lose some weight -but if you drink liquid, sugary Jello, or 7-up, Sprite, or even diet soda pop along with your basic broth soups, you can expect your metabolic hormones to remain all messed up, and your hunger will be as great as ever, only now you can't get enough food into your body to chemically satisfy your body's need.  Not to mention that now you won't even be able to swallow an aspirin or share a meal.)
(Please please please do not surgically alter your body to try and lose weight.  It is a terrible mistake.  You do not have to believe me, just please try the Ketomist HhCG spray before considering anything so drastic.)

Fat people are not thin people.  What can work for thin people (ie: eating less, exercising more) did not work for me because I was fat.  Being fat, or becoming fat is the presenting symptom that your body is malfunctioning.  Being fat is the result of the metabolic hormones in your body malfunctioning. 

You are not fat because you have no 'will-power'.  You are fat because your body is malfunctioning.  You have no will-power BECAUSE will-power comes from your hormones.   And when your hormones are out of whack, you simply want to feel better.  Maybe you feel like having something sweet at the end of every meal.  Maybe you feel like having something sweet to drink during the day, like sweet iced tea, or a mocha latte, or a pop.  Maybe you feel like you may 'pass out' if you go too long between meals.  You may get shaky.  You might feel like you need to start -and end- your day with a nice bowl of cereal - cereal's healthy, right? (It's not! I'll write about the evils of cereal some day soon, but for now, just know that eggs are a much better choice and look for my blog on 'why' another day)

By the end of the day, you think wow, maybe I should have/could have made some different choices today, but all-in-all I did not do too badly, right?  But then you realize that yet another day has passed and you weigh yourself the next morning only to find you are either still just as fat, or fatter.
I'm not saying that these food choices don't add up - because of course they do, it's just that they don't add up like you think they do.  Your food choices add up by causing real, undeniable feelings of hunger and cravings. 

These "feelings" that dictate food choices are real.  These feelings are actually hormonally caused! Your body is sending out signals- sometimes desperately - because it needs  - your body is trying to balance all you have eaten and sustain your life(!) But if you are fat, or gaining weight, then that's a sign that your body is not burning/metabolizing the food you are eating like it should and is storing it instead.  This is a major malfunction, but it's a survival tactic and, forgivable.  Your body craves or 'needs' something sweet because it has been storing fat and now it is desperate to continue and in order to continue storing fat, your body needs another something sweet, or starchy, or both. Your body is locked in 'fat storage mode' because of the cycle of hormones, which are aided with the food choices you make each day, which are determined by the hormones.  And once you are in the fat storage mode cycle, good luck breaking free! 

But you can break free of the cycle of gaining weight and getting fat and staying fat.  It's not your fault this has happened, it is your body's fault and now your body needs some help.  I'm not saying you can't starve yourself or exercise yourself thin, because of course you can.  If you were trapped on a desert island, eventually you would lose weight, as long as you lived long enough. The problem is, in starving, or over-exercising, the body eats itself, muscle first.  The body would rather hold onto it's fat stores and 'eat' muscle - even heart muscle - isn't that crazy?  Crazy but true. 
What you need is the key to unlock the fat stores.  Because they really ARE locked. With hormones.  And the Human Chorionic Gonadatrophin hormone (HCG) can and will unlock your fat stores.

If the basic premise is wrong, then the solution will be wrong.  If we get fat because of gluttony, then a tiny, surgically created stomach should cure us.  But if we do not get fat because of gluttony, then a tiny stomach is a big surgical mistake.  If, on the other hand, we get fat because of a hormonal imbalance, then a hormonal solution makes sense!

So forgive yourself.  You can get the weight off, you just need some hormonal assistance.  The homeopathic version of HCG (HhCG) will do it for you.  I lost nearly a pound per day.  My husband lost more than a pound a day.  You can lose 30 pounds in a month(!).  It is NOT too good to be true, it's simply true.  And the very best, most important part is that your metabolic hormones take that time to stabilize and normalize and begin to function properly - so that when the weight is gone, your metabolic hormone levels (of insulin, ghrelin, leptin, and others) can keep you in fat-burning mode, instead of in fat-storage mode, even if you have been in fat-storage mode 'forever'. 

And once you become a thin person, you can live like a thin person - doing all the things that thin people say to do in order to stay thin: eat in moderation (because you will feel like it!), and you can eat what you want (because what you feel like eating will continue to balance you - once you are balanced!) and exercise - Because you will feel like it and it will feel good AND because you won't blow out your knees, now that you are no longer carrying an extra 20/40/60 or more pounds! 

This really can be the last 'diet' you ever go on.  It really CAN BE PERMANENT!  You just have to follow protocol and take the spray for the 26 day minimum and your metabolic hormones will have no choice but to start burning your fat stores as fuel instead of adding to them.  For real and forever.

This year's Mother's Day, I am SO looking forward to flying kites with my family!!!  :D

Click here to read more about the homeopathic HhCG Ketomist spray.