Meet Renee Lost 50 lbs And Is Grateful To CFC For Great Health!
Hello! My name is Renee, and I am 37-years old. I am married to my best friend, Ben and we have 3 children ages 7, 5 and 3. I’m a federal employee for The Department of Education and a Doctoral Candidate at The University of Wyoming. I love spending time with my husband and three kids, and we like to explore as often as we can.We have lived all across the country for my husband’s job, so we enjoy seeing the different parts of the country, and exploring anytime we can. Our family currently resides in Washington states but we’re originally from Pennsylvania. My husband is a Division-I College Football Strength and Conditioning Coach, so our lives are very busy and we have had to move for his career. He is the strength coach, or the coach that oversees and directs the football team’s workout programming. As a family, we are pretty involved and invested in his career, so we love college football and being a part of the community and programs in which we have been to.
For fun, we like to explore the new areas we have lived in, and try to give our children experiences where they are exposed to different cultures, ethnicities, cities, and geographical areas as often as we can. We currently live by some great lakes and rivers, so when it is warm we like to get on the water and just let the kids be out in nature and burn some energy. We have a trail behind our house, so we try to get on the trail a few evenings a week as a family. Some of us run, some of us walk, but it is a time for us as a family to get outside and be together.
I started following CleanFoodCrush back in February of 2021 and haven’t looked back.
The Defining Moment That Inspired Me to Take Action
My dad passed away in late 2020 from liver cancer that stemmed from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. As a result, my husband and I were prompted to get life insurance plans, and completed the medical physicals. My liver levels were elevated, and I was concerned that I would end up like my dad and leave my children way too early.
I knew I needed a change, and I knew I needed to take control.
My husband has coached numerous NFL players, and has a vast knowledge of diet and exercise. I had every advantage, and a weight room and diet plan at my fingertips anytime I needed. That just wasn’t enough for me. I wanted to take control of this and do it my way, so I would stick to it.
So I started to research some diets and meal plans and stumbled across CleanFoodCrush 30 Day Clean Eating Challenge, and knew immediately that this was going to be my first step and my first investment into the lifestyle changes I wanted to achieve.
I had limited time and limited opportunities to shop for ingredients, read and cook overly complicated recipes. I still needed to feed my family and have them eat the meals.
I was coming off of breast-feeding
I was juggling three kids under the age of 5
A husband who works 80-100 hours a week
Without any family near or family support
We were in the midst of COVID
My dad who was my best friend had just passed
I was working on my doctoral program
and just being mom.
Not only was the weight on my body, but it was on my shoulders.
I was stress eating from my grief,
I would eat in the middle of the night, sneaking the kids’ snacks
I was finding it hard to cook with the limited time I had and
I wasn’t able to find enough time to meal plan let alone plan for a grocery list, etc.
I really had the stacks against me to fail.
My plate was already full and I was overwhelmed, but what I found was that the CleanFoodCrush 30-Day Clean Eating Challenge was simple enough for me to allow it to just become part of our lives.
Thanks to the Challenge
I have lost close to 50 lbs to date. I began at 180 lbs, and now I’m in the low 130’s.
The recipes,
The shopping lists,
All in one spot,
was MAJOR for me.
Some of my favorite recipes are the muffins, our kids love them too! We love the salads. Protein Shakes. And the dinners are always a win.
The Challenge took off so much pressure to figure out what I needed to eat, and what to buy.
The meals and recipes were also family friendly enough where I could cook for all of us instead of multiple meals, where one was for me and my husband, and another for the kids.
It also gave the kids the daily intakes of vegetables and fruits that they needed and changed the way they ate.
We really wanted to integrate this into our lifestyle so that we could model to the kids how to properly eat and cook so that they would not be like me and trying to sort out and learn it all at 35.
We figured if it was part of their lives as “all they knew” as children, that maybe those habits would become part of their everyday lifestyle as they grew up.
We wanted to teach them how to really practice the 80/20 rule in a functional way:
where body image is not tarnished
weight and pounds are not the gauge or measure of success
to make better snack choices
to ask the question whether they were actually hungry or just bored and looking for something to do.
It really has become more of our lifestyle than a diet plan, and our children are learning proper nutrition.
We’ve reduced so much of the bagged snacks, processed foods, and introduced fresh food, vegetables, fruits, healthy fats, and better options for them.
It has not only been tremendously rewarding for my husband and I but also to be able to provide and teach our kids such a vital part of our existence. Everyday I have a gratitude list where the first item is always the health, wellness and safety of our three children as well as us as their parents. There is no bigger blessing on earth than our health, and you can see how big of a blessing that is everyday when you witness how many people struggle with their health.
IF there is something we can do to promote and provide a healthier lifestyle, like 30 Day Clean Eating Challenge, then why not do it?
Back in February 2023, I started with 30 Day Clean Eating Challenge first to jump start my health, fitness and nutrition journey.
I never looked at this as a diet, but a lifestyle.
It also prompted me :
To begin working out.
My headspace was clearer
My brain was no longer in a fog
I could see life and my goals, and what I wanted to accomplish so very clearly after starting this plan.
I started working out doing strength training and cardio 4-5 times a week, for at least 40 min.
Even still in a state of grief, I was dealing with the loss of my dad better than I had been and felt by starting this journey I was honoring him.
I was taking the loss of my dad due to his health and diet and transformed that pain into the motivation to stay on the program, exercising, and in general becoming the best and most powerful version of myself. I knew that if I wanted to withstand the next trials and sufferings that come in life, that I wanted to be the strongest version of myself-not only physically, but mentally and emotionally.
I had no idea that this journey would transform my life in every single way.
It is not a journey that ends, it just keeps evolving. I am still growing, I am still evolving, elevating, and so much of that was initiated because of me taking the chance to start the 30 Day CleanFoodCrush Challenge.
I talk about the Challenge to a lot of friends, and I just encourage them to invest in themselves.
We can be so quick to help others, and offer solutions, and fixes, but often it is a deflection so that we don’t have to look at ourselves and the ways we want to improve our lives.
I would say,
Take the opportunity to invest in yourself, invest in your health, invest in your future.
Don’t take your health for granted, show your appreciation and make yourself and your health a priority.
Lead your children by example, don’t waste the precious time that you have any longer.
You will never regret it, and you will truly start to see how capable you are to change all aspects of your life. This is just your starting board, the possibilities are endless.
Renee
Ready to Get the Tools and Support That Helped Renee Succeed? Come and Join the Challenge!
The post Renee’s Journey to a Healthier Self: 50 lbs Down and Still Going Strong first appeared on Clean Food Crush.
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