That was a look!

The Magazine my story ran in.

The dreaded "Before" picture!

The "After" picture!

I'm guessing there are only a couple of you that have any idea of what my life used to be like, oh say, 13-14 years ago! I gave birth to Sabrina in April of 1994. By that next winter, I was a mess. I had gained a lot of weight being pregnant and still had about 30 extra pounds on me. Being someone that never struggled with my weight growing up, not only was I a mess physically but emotionally as well. I was having panic attacks, depression and an over-all feeling of being sick and tired.

I was raised in a home where my parents (mostly my mother) tried to feed us healthy food. She never bought chips of any kind, the only cold cereal we ever got was rice krispies, corn flakes or grape nuts! She made her own tofu (I can still remember the smell of warm soybean curds being strained through the cheese cloth!) Anyway, you get the idea. I didn't eat the best as a teenager (who does??) and my dad would constantly remind that some day it would all catch up to me! "Yeah, whatever dad. I'm so much smarter than you right now........"

He was right! It was when I hit my lowest point that I called my parents in Utah and flew with my two little girls to their home. They had met someone at a Health Fair that they thought could help me. I went and had a Live Blood Analysis with Dr. Robert Young. He was a microbiologist. He showed me my blood, said a lot of stuff I couldn't understand, showed me some natural products to take and sent me on my way. It was that day that I knew if I didn't do what he said, I was going to die much sooner than I had planned.

Now I'm leaving out many details to this whole story for the sake of time. The meds the doctors tried to give me, the diagnosis they pronounced on me, the times my very best friend would come sit at my home with my girls when I couldn't get out of bed because of my panic attacks/depression, etc.....oh yeah, I was a mess!

Anyway, I went back to my parents home after the blood analysis and for the next 10 days, I did exactly what Dr. Young had told me to do. It was the hardest thing I have ever done. There were a couple of days that I thought I was dying, my dad thought I was dying and I could hear him in the other room talking to my mom. He couldn't stand to see me suffering and thought I should stop what I was doing.

What was I doing? I was doing a full body cleanse. I was nourishing my body with only green, pureed veggies and taking different herbs to cleanse different organs in my body.

After 10 days, the light returned to my eyes, I had lost 30+ lbs.!!!! I felt like the old me, but way better. Scott flew in to see the girls and I. He could not believe what had happened in just over a week! To be honest, I looked a little like a Holocaust victim (I do not mean that in any way disrespectful, just about the only visual that matches how I looked!) I went from 145lbs. down to 115lbs.! Dr. Young had told me that my body would regulate my weight after the toxins were eliminated and so I would probably gain a few pounds. He was right. I did. I went back to 120-124 and stayed there for the next 4 years. I got pregnant with Tanner then but because of the way I was eating, I was back at my pre-pregnancy weight within months after giving birth. I maintained that weight for another 5 years when I got pregnant with Savannah!

Now, to explain the pictures with this post.....In 2003, First Magazine For Women contacted Dr. Young (who by this time had a thriving business with amazing nutritional products) and wanted to do a story on him. They asked for a couple of "before and after" people that could provide testimonials for his theory. He remembered me and the next thing I knew, New York was calling, setting up the interview and scheduling the photo shoot.

The sad part of this story is that I was out running errands the day they called and said they needed the before picture emailed to them. I asked Scott to go through our pics and find one to send them. Not surprisingly, he couldn't find any of me from that time in my life. He then asked his mother (who lived with us). She found one and they sent it off. When I got home and saw the one they found, I thought I was going to die! That was the most humiliating picture I had ever seen! What was with the braids? And those clothes? They were Scott's. I didn't have any that fit me......

Now if any of you are actually still reading this, thank you. I didn't mean for it to go on and on.....I should have broke it up over a few days.

I'm sure a few of you will be shocked to know all of this about me. It's not a part of my life that I enjoyed but the knowledge I learned through this whole experience has left me a better person. I would not have traded it for anything. I'm one of those people who you pretty much need to hit over the head to get me to make changes. You can't just tell me, I need to see it, experience it for myself. I learn way better that way.

In the next post I will show you what I do for exercise. I think that will be a much shorter post but very interesting.......Stay tuned!