When I grew up I kept hearing ‘You will gain weight in your 40^th and 50^th. It’s just what happens. There is no way around it. You just live with it. I heard it from my mom and my aunts and my grandma. They all had been slim in their 20^th and 30^th but now in their 40’s and 50’s they had gained 20 – 40 pounds they didn’t need or want. My sister just recently visited. Same as me, she is in her 50^th and she told me that she gained about 15 pounds a couple of years ago without changing anything in her daily routine. She is active all day running her coffee shop; she eats healthy and she still gained the 15 pounds and 3 dress sizes. She said ‘I can’t do anything about it. It’s just how it is.’

When I got into my 40^th I was curious…would I get the pounds? From my teens on my weight always ranged between 136 and 150 pounds. I am 5.7’ and 136 pounds feels really good. You might think 150 isn’t really overweight but for me it feels that way. It means I am round around my hips and belly and I can’t wear the clothing I really like. When I look at myself in the mirror I see a wobbly layer covering up who I really am and it just feels wrong to be hiding. When I weigh 150 pounds I am also 1 or 2 dresses sizes bigger. And then last but not least…if I made it from 136 to 150 pounds, I could easily make it from 150 to 170 and so on. It is really alarming.

This is where I am different from my sister and my aunts. My sister told me that ‘without changing’ she had gained the pounds and my aunts hadn’t changed anything either when they had gained their weight. They just kept living the same way they had lived before. I am different in the way that when I am at 150 pounds I am about ready to change anything really quickly to get to my lower weight again. And the one thing that my sister and my aunts didn’t want to do – change – is what is doing the trick for me each time. And each time it’s a different change that helps me get to my weight.

In my 30^th I lost weight by starting to eat 5 – 7 times a day and smaller portions. But even with eating smaller portions more often a day I gained weight again in my 40th. So I bought a horse and up’d exercising to 5 times a week. At 49 I gained weight again even with eating smaller portions and riding 5 times a week so I started to working out with Ilana (check her out at Enerjoy Fitness in Scottsdale – she is the best). I added 2 – 3 workouts a week and started writing a food diary which Ilana reviewed every week. My weight dropped from 150 to 142 pounds but I was stuck there and couldn’t get to the 136 pounds I really wanted. So I did a juice and protein shake diet with multiple hydrotherapy sessions. My colon felt cleaner than ever and I got to 136 pounds. Being so clean helped me stay under 140 pounds for over a year. But then I gained weight again and got close to 150 pounds once again. So Ilana put me on a strict 1600 calorie a day food regimen and later Ilana introduced me to Isagenix which helps me stay at a great weight – not where I want to be but great.

All this said, it’s not just one change, it’s many changes that I have made and all the changes that worked for me I kept on doing. I never went back on them. I am expecting to have to do many more changes and I am so glad I have people like Ilana who help me. I also have to thank Bernadeane and Jim Strole again since they both inspire me to constantly change and live better. Change for the better is great and it is so overlooked in our society. Staying the same is so much more common but no-one wins anything with it. We don’t progress in our body and feeling good is so wonderful. It can never be valued enough.

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