My Weight Loss Story
For years, and I mean almost my whole life, I’ve struggled with weight issues.
Yay, I am that kind of person that goes up and down on the scale, even when I am eating incredibly clean! Let me repeat that. My weight goes up and down even when I am eating clean, organic and wholesome healthy foods.
What in heaven’s name was I doing wrong? You better believe that I have thrown myself into every health book out there. I have worked with holistic practitioners, integrative medicine doctors, and even spiritual advisors.
It wasn’t until I started to remove toxins from my life (with this book: Natural Solutions for Cleaning & Wellness) and when I stumbled upon this incredible book (Medical Medium) that all the AH-HA moments and lightbulbs went off. I finally discovered how to start healing myself. THIS WAS HUGE!!!
The book that changed EVERYTHING for me.
I recently picked up the book Medical Medium. You guys, this book is INCREDIBLE! It is a very spiritual book and connected with me on so many different levels!
Let me first tell you that this is NOT a book review and I am not making money from this company to sponsor this book. It is just the book that has helped me start my healing journey.
This book isn’t like any other health book that you have read, I can promise you that. In fact, it actually goes against the grain. Sounds just like me!
I have been looking for answers to my health issues for years. I knew it was more than just about “losing the weight”, it was figuring out what was going on internally that was going to make the difference.
After reading this book, I had the answers to what was going on with me and the solutions to help my body heal. Pretty powerful stuff!
What I am suffering from….
After doing a ton of research, reading this book, and visiting quality integrative medicine doctors, I’ve come to the conclusion that I am suffering from the following:
- I Have Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV), a toxic overload of heavy metals, and I have the streptococcus virus that is wreaking havoc on my system.
- I am also suffering from adrenal fatigue, thyroid issues, and have a sluggish or fatty liver.
- I suffer from eczema, rosacea, and achy joints (especially in the knees) which I suspect is arthritis. I have had these ailments since I was a teenager. These are strong indicators that something is wrong with my internal health.
This might seem scary to many, it was scary for me too, but your body has the amazing ability to heal itself if given the right foods.
It was time to start cleansing the toxins out of my body. I started this by doing a 28-day raw fruit and vegetable cleanse. My body will take time to heal, anywhere from 3 months to 18 months, I am okay with that. I’ll be sure to keep you updated along the way.
What I didn’t Eat…
Giving up meat, cheese, eggs, corn, nuts, and dairy for an entire month was nothing that I would have ever considered doing! Sure I already stay away from wheat, gluten and eat minimal grains, but I love my cheese and meat.
I was a firm believer that you needed protein (preferably from animals), fat and carbohydrates at every meal. This is what balances your blood sugar, right?
For me, the eggs were actually feeding the viruses in me, and the meat (more specifically the fat in the meat) was making my liver even more sluggish. I needed to eliminate them both for a 28-day raw cleanse. Keep in mind that eliminating meat is only for the 28-day cleanse. I am not becoming a vegan or a vegetarian, this is just for the cleanse.
I was in this cleanse for the long haul so I gave it a whirl, even though it went against everything I believed.
What an incredible experience this was. I learned a lot about my body, my beliefs, and I had plenty of Ah-Ha moments throughout this cleanse.
What I Ate…
Here is what a typical day on this cleanse looked like for me. I eat over 2000 calories every day (not that I count, I do NOT). This is not a cleanse that you should feel hungry on. If you are hungry eat more. If you are not, don’t eat. I found that I was eating every hour and a half.
All ingredients were organic. I should note that I gave up drinking coffee and alcohol for this cleanse as well.
- Upon Waking – I drink a very large glass of lemon water. This helps detox the liver.
- Pre-Breakfast – 16 oz pure celery juice (freshly juiced, I have this juicer).
- Breakfast – smoothie of 3 bananas, 1 1/2 – 2 cups wild blueberries, 3 dates, 1 tsp Hawaiian Spirulina (this stuff is incredible for your health), 1 tsp barley juice powder (Want energy? Barley juice powder gives you tons of natural energy and helps detox heavy metals too).
- Mid-Morning – fruit (apple, orange, pear or melon), celery sticks, 3 dates (I eat until I am full)
- Lunch – smoothie 1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, 2 handfuls of spinach, few leaves of kale, 1 tsp Hawaiian Spirulina, 3 dates, 1 large orange, 1-2 apples, 1-2 cups mixed fruit
- Afternoon tea – I choose from one of 4 different herbal teas that specifically help with my ailments. Licorice root, dandelion root, nettle leaf, or raspberry leaf.
- Mid-Afternoon – coconut water, mangos and more fruit if still hungry (I eat until I am full)
- Dinner – Mixed green salad with shaved carrots, cucumbers and tomatoes and a huge pile of homemade guacamole.
- Evening Tea – I choose from one of 4 different herbal teas that specifically help with my ailments. Licorice root, dandelion root, nettle leaf, or raspberry leaf.
- PM Snack – banana, apple or pear (I eat as much as I want until I am full)
I use to think that I had to limit my fruit intake. But clearly you can see that I was wrong. Eating fruit is imperative if you want to reverse your health conditions.
Symptoms & Side Effects of My 28 Day Raw Cleanse
Week 1 of the Cleanse
The first week was tough, I am not going to lie. The first couple days were great. I had all sorts of energy! But after about 3 days, my body started to heavily detox. I had these symptoms:
- irritability
- insomnia
- blood sugar issues
- pain throughout my body, muscle soreness
- exhaustion
- extreme headaches
- flu-like symptoms
But after day 7, I started to feel better. I lost 10 pounds in the first week, which was most likely excess water weight.
Week 2 of Cleanse
The second week I feel I started to turn the corner a bit. I had a different set of symptoms.
- extremely tired
- intense dreams
- blood sugar issues got better, ate more frequently
- notice my joints and knees started to hurt less
- I started to break out on my face
- my rosacea started to fade a bit
- my eczema began to be less inflamed
I took extra care to get extra sleep and listen to my bodies language. I took several naps throughout the day and went to bed at 9 PM every night. I also added an hour massage every day to my routine. I have a massage chair, so this is how I afforded to do that. I lost no weight this week.
Week 3 of Cleanse
Wow, what a difference one week can make. I am excited to be at the half way point of this detox. I noticed that I am now craving cooked food, gosh a baked sweet potato sounds so good at this point. I have an excellent amount of energy and have continued with my massages but have dropped them down to 1/2 hour sessions per day. My extreme exhaustion has disappeared and I am feeling reenergized. Here are the symptoms from this week.
- intense dreams
- no blood sugar issues
- joint pain has 80% disappeared
- eczema is 80% cleared up
- rosacea is 80% gone
- energy has returned
- mental clarity is extremely good
I lost 3 pounds this week, making it a total of 13 pounds. I have struggled with rosacea and eczema my whole life and I am absolutely amazed that after 3 weeks BOTH are disappearing.
Week 4 of Cleanse
I am in the home stretch! Week 1, I didn’t know how I was going to do this for 28 days. It is starting to be a new normal for me, and what once tasted bad (like the celery juice each morning) is now tasting much better. Here are some symptoms from this week:
- vertigo (first time ever in my life I have experienced vertigo! I know, this is part of the detox)
- blood sugar issues are gone
- joint pain is gone
- rosacea is gone
- eczema is gone
- mental clarity is extremely good
- energy is great
I lost another 2 pounds this week making my total weight loss for this 28-day cleanse 15 pounds. I am shocked that my rosacea, eczema, and achy joints are gone, and I mean GONE — 100%! The celery juice was incredibly beneficial for these ailments.
My Transformation After 1 Month!
Take a look at the picture above. Those pictures were taken 2 months apart from one another. The one on the left was taken on New Year’s Eve and the one on the right was taken Feb 26, 2016. There is only a 15-pound weight loss but the transformation is HUGE.
I removed the inflammatory foods from my diet and my body naturally started to reduce its swelling. My eczema is gone and so is my rosacea. My joints no longer ache. Your body is capable of doing amazing things!
Here is what I looked like after the 28-day raw cleanse. Sorry for the selfie, but it’s all I had.
Where do I go from here?
This journey is not over, in fact, it has just begun. Healing takes time. I am ok with this. For once, my focus is on healing and moving forward in life knowing that I am working on being the healthiest that I can be.
Now that the 28-day cleanse is over, I won’t be going back to eating meat or eggs for every meal, I simply couldn’t heal doing that. Am I saying meat and eggs are bad for you? No. They just aren’t right for me while I am trying to heal.
What I am doing for next month is keeping with this routine and replacing my dinner from time to time with a piece of lean cut meat or fish and fresh cooked veggies. I am adding more cooked veggies throughout the day. I am looking forward to my first cooked meal that is for sure!
I will also continue to use natural solutions to remove toxins from my life. I strongly believe that this has played a HUGE role with my healing success.
So stay tuned…I will keep you posted at the end of next month, promise!
My Healing Journey Series
Hey there! I’m excited that so many of you wanted more posts like this! So…I decided to create this into a series of posts. It will continue to grow so be sure to come back!
If you’ve had a hard time losing weight, or if you’ve ever suffered from a number of illnesses that no one knows how to heal (like thyroid or adrenal issues, rheumatoid arthritis, depression, anxiety, leaky gut syndrome, ADHD and much more), then you might want to invest some time in this series. Here is a list of my current posts on my healing journey.
- My Healing Journey – My Weight Loss Story
- My Healing Journey – How To Start Your Emotional Healing Journey Plus A Free Life Changing Course!
- My Healing Journey – How to Naturally Heal Anxiety
- My Healing Journey – Removing Heavy Metals From Your Body Plus A Healing Smoothie Bowl Recipe
Update: 2 Years Later…
Hey everyone! I’ve been asked on numerous occasions to post an update on my weight loss journey.
So here it is: My Weight Loss Story Update
And if you’d like a current picture, here’s that too!
One Final Note & A Book Offer…
Earlier I mentioned one of the books that had a HUGE impact on helping me to heal. For a limited time, I’m offering this book to you with FREE Shipping!
Are you ready to…
If so, get your hands on a copy before they are all gone!
Was this the food you ate every day for 28 days?
The food I ate in this post was a sample of one of the days, I didn’t switch it up too much though, so it is pretty close to what I ate every day for 28 days.
Hi I am 17 years old and suffer from eczema eversince I was 3 years old. I’ve now been looking around on the internet for other solutions than all those creams and cortisone treatments that never helped for a longer period of time, when I discovered Anthony William and then your story about healing eczema.
But my question is if you would recommend that 28 day cleanse to a teenager that only weights 97 pounds? My goal is not to loose weight but to heal from eczema.
Thank you for your time!
Alexia
Hey Alexia,
Your body should only normalize your weight on this cleanse. If your weight is ideal it most-likely won’t change much. The key is that you are focusing on highly nutritional fruit and veg with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants etc. to help cleanse and boast your organs (including skin), clear toxins and super boast your immune system to allow healing of any post viral, bacterial issues lingering in the system. I have been on the cleanse for chronic fatigue and skin issues with great results. My weight is pretty stable and hasn’t changed much apart from water weight loss from swelling. I think you can’t go wrong with fruit and veg! ?
Hey Alexia,
My daughter suffered from Eczema most of her life (she’s 25 now), and has resolved it (without drugs or creams) through switching to an anti-inflammatory whole foods plant based diet (she’s studying dietetics at uni).
I’ve been so impressed I’ve also switched to a WFPB diet, and I am not going back, despite being a meat eating farmer all my life (middle aged male). It’s a lifestyle change not just a short term fix.
This sounds like a real challenge! You might consider doing a how-to booklet to show exactly what you ate, the budgeting of your items (it sounds expensive!), how you managed your hour-to-hour energy levels (important when you have a day job!), and things like that. Also I would love to hear a follow-up on how you are doing!!!
Those are all great ideas Kathy! I plan on doing a follow-up post monthly so stay tuned for that!
Hey Kathy! Here is month 2 of my healing journey: https://wholelifestylenutrition.com/health/naturally-heal-anxiety/
Congrats on your successful weight loss journey. I have also shed my post baby weight (40pounds) by taking an herbal tea mummy magic weight loss tea. It also stimulates breast milk, so best for breastfeeding moms.
Thanks for sharing your journey. It sounds quite amazing and you look great. I’m going to look into the book your recommend.
It is an eye-opening book and is an easy read! Let me know what you think!
I had purchase the Medical Medium book but haven’t had the time to really look at it yet. I found the time to read your weight loss story and I’m motivated to give it a go. You are an inspiration and congrats to your new lifestyle.
Thanks Terri! I’m excited that you already have the book. It is a super easy read. I just read the first three chapters and then read the chapters that I thought I needed focus on. You can jump around and read it as little or as much as you want. Do keep me posted!
I’m enjoying reading about your road to recovery. It is a great guideline for your readers, and me, to work on our own healing. I look forward to learning/reading more on your journey and how your ailments/immune system is responding. Thank you for your post.
Awe thanks Debbie!
Hi Halle,
After reading your success on the 28 day cleanse, I purchased the book Medical Medium. I read it from cover to cover and loved it! Great story and excellent information! I didn’t pursue any blood tests but decided to give a cleanse a try. My goal is to loose 10 lbs, have more energy and just feel happy and healthy. Day one I had a horrible headache, probably from not having my bulletproof coffee. Headaches were much better next two days and now gone. I had to nap almost every afternoon in week one. On to week two and feel great! I miss cheese the most. Thanks for the book recommendation!
Hi Suzanne!
I missed cheese and eggs so I totally understand! Happy you found this information useful. Please do keep me posted!
HI! I have enjoyed reading about your progress. I purchased the book and started the cleanse one week ago.
I have a question. What do you think about the lack of protein in this diet? The book doesn’t really address this at all other than he doesn’t think the body needs animal protein because of the fat content. I understand eliminating protein for the cleanse but long term worries me. Carbs are great for energy but our cells and muscles need protein. What do you think?
Hey Sarah,
We get a lot of digestible protein from the plant-base diet. That being said, I haven’t eliminated animal protein entirely. I have my dinner meal with an animal protein on most days. I encourage you to listen to your body through this process. I too thought we needed a lot more protein in our diets, but after making this gentle switch in my diet, I feel amazing with less animal protein. Could I have been eating too much of animal protein in the past? Not sure, but what’s working for me now is eating less…so I will follow that until my body tells me differently. We are all different and have different needs, so learning your bodies own language is so very important! Do keep us posted with your journey!
Hi Halle, I’m thinking of trying this as an adjunct to my treatment for Lyme disease. How long did your vertigo take to go away? Also, have you been able to keep the weight off? What has been the long-term effect?
Hi Laura!
My vertigo went away pretty quickly, but I do believe we all heal at different levels. In regards to keeping the weight off, yes I have kept it off. I will say this — following this plan can be challenging, but the rewards are huge. I modified my plan to add meat once a day and it has been working for me. Have you read Anthony’s book yet (Medical Medium)? It talks about lyme disease in great detail. Do keep me posted on your journey.
Thanks Halle, I have his first book on order and it should come soon. I’m excited to see what he says about Lyme!
It’s a pretty eye-opening book…I think you will enjoy it!
It is a pretty eye opening book as you say yet you continue to eat meat, fish, eggs, dairy and the very things that are making your body sick, I don’t get it at all…
I will never go back to eating Animals because my body is healing more and more every day and if I went back, I’d become very ill again. It’s not worth it in my eyes. Now I am a fully fledged Vegan and I have gone from Dialysis to 50% Kidney Function, but if I was to go back my Kidneys will fail. It is worth thinking about and I am so happy I am saving the life of an animal also that’s what’s important in my life now.
Good luck though with whatever you decide to do Halle, but quite truthfully the benefits of being Vegan is just amazing for our bodies.
Stay well…
Hi there. So glad you are doing well. I am curious – do you think that animal products are bad for everyone or only bad for those with kidney issues?
Good question, I’d love to hear from Nancy on this as well. I think if you are on a healing journey, limiting animal products might be beneficial. I personally feel better eating less animal products — at most once a day. Everyone’s journey is different, however, and listening to your own bodies language is key.
Wow Halle. This is amazing.
You must feel great.
So two things….
1. What does he think about people who do or may have sugar issues doing this cleanse?
2. How did the weight loss stay off after you were done and how are you eating now? I’m really intrigued by this.
Hey Adrienne! Yes, I do feel great. I have continued on this journey for a year now, and feel so much better than I did a year ago. Healing takes time though, so I will continue on with a modified version — including cooked food and meat usually for one meal. In regards to your questions, I too wondered how my blood sugar would fluctuate on this cleanse and the key was eating often, like every 1 1/2 and that help with sugar issues. There will be an adjustment period, but after a week and into the second, I didn’t notice any blood sugar issues. In regards to the weight loss, I did not gain the weight back — even after adding meat back into my diet and changing to a modified version. I did not lose any more weight either, but I really wasn’t trying to and didn’t put the focus on losing weight, but more so on healing internal and once that happens…the weight should naturally fall off.
Hi Halle,
This is so insightful. Thank you for sharing your journey. I just read Medical Medium. The book was life changing. I am a very picky eater (child like taste buds). I have found it much easier to consume veggies through juicing. Do you think that could be an option as a replacement way of getting veggies as opposed to eating them as a entire meal? He talks about the cucumber juice but doesn’t mention much else about juicing as an option on this cleanse…TIA!
Rebecca
I think you’d lose some of the beneficial fiber that will be left over in the pulp after juicing. If you can not stomach eating veggies though, juicing would probably be your next best option. He stresses a lot of fruit as well so hopefully, you can load up on the fruits too!