My NutriMirror Story

With the new year, lots of people are looking online for "diet" websites and stumbling across NutriMirror.  This time of year, the regular users of NM who journal a lot like to post encouraging messages for the  new people.  NutriMirror really is the perfect tool for learning to balance your nutrition and get your body to a healthy weight, which is perfectly and enjoyably sustainable with the continued use of the NM tool.  It is SO EASY.  Seriously.  It is easier than anything I've ever done related to weight loss, and it has totally changed the way I look at food and nutrition and what is worth eating and what isn't.  And it is free.  There are no strings attached.  It is free.

This is what I posted on NM as my message to newbies.  If you aren't already a member of this incredible website, I urge you to check it out.  Once you get your nutrition balanced, learning to do that by eating foods you love, you will be in total control.  It is the new way forward. 


The other day, Cascadelady suggested that some of us who have reached our goals could post our stories. I love this idea. So here is my story.

On June 21, 2009, I attended my very first yoga class with a friend. I am 5'4" and I weighed 200 pounds. This was not my highest weight; my highest weight was 215. Over time 15 pounds dropped off somehow, certainly not through any focused effort on my part. But try doing yoga when you weigh 200 pounds. It was really hard. Some of the positions were impossible for me not only because I was so out of shape, but because I was so fat that parts of my body would only bend so far before it ran into other parts of my body and could go no further. At the end of the hour, as we lay supine in bliss, a voice in my head said "I don't have to be fat." This was where my journey to health really began.

Greg and me, on our 20th anniversary in Nov 08.  I weighed 200 pounds.

Over the next two weeks I watched what I ate. I restricted my calories, ate a bunch of salad, and lost 5 pounds. A friend had lost 100 pounds on Weight Watchers (she has since gained some of that back) and she told me that logging her food had really helped her. So on July 4, 2009, I went to google and searched on "food logging" (or something similar) and several sites popped up. First I joined the Biggest Loser's Bob's site. I tried logging, but the site was slow and hard to use.

Back to google, and this time I clicked on NutriMirror. When I got to the welcome page and saw that this website was going to help me balance my nutrition, I knew I'd found the right place. I had always wanted to eat healthy, but I did not know what that even meant. I was so excited to find some hope with the NM website. I joined, poked around the site, wrote a journal, and began logging my food. I noticed that someone had replied to my journal. Cool! By the end of three days 23 comments had been made to my journal. I was so inspired by all the kindness and good thoughts!

I had figured out that if you click on someone's picture, you get to look at their food logs and their "about me" and I had been reading them. Wow, all this happiness about eating good food!

The members' stories were very motivating to me. I knew that I was doing what they were doing (going for green, eating enough calories, getting some exercise) and that I would reach my goal, too. My mindset quickly switched from "losing weight" to "eating like these people eat and having the same results."

NM was very good to me during my weight loss phase. I started seeing results on the scale almost immediately, once my logs were green consistently. By August 4, I had lost 12 pounds! Here is my monthly weight log from that time:

July 4:  weight 195 (sadly, I did not take a photo of myself when I first joined. I was fat)

August 4: weight 183

183 pounds.  From a size 18W, to size 14 jeans!

September 4: weight 175


175 pounds


October 4: weight 165




Around 168 pounds, size 10 jeans!

  
November 4: weight 157   (Thanksgiving, followed by Christmas.......no picture)

December 4: weight 151


151 pounds (crazy hairdo attributable to high winds!) (this time)

  December 31: 145 GOAL!!!

What is the deal with my boobs in this photo?  Stupid camera phone.

Weight had just melted off of me. But I had known that would happen, so it was no surprise.  I was doing everything right - eating enough calories, keeping my logs green, drinking plenty of water, getting some exercise.  Weight loss was inevitable.  What was really fun was all the non-scale victories (NSV) along the way. The first time I realized I was crossing my legs at the knee! The first time I walked a mile with my dog Sadie, without having to stop every 10 feet to catch my breath. The first time someone noticed my weight loss. The day I tried on my hippie jeans from high school (40 years ago) and I could actually button them! The day the Chico's saleslady called me a "tiny little thing"!

I went onto maintenance on 12/31/09, and continue to log daily. My percentages on my home page (the little stars at the top of the page) have been at 100% from day one. The bars on my home page are normally all green (currently I'm fixing the red that I indulged in over the holidays). I continued to lose weight after switching to maintenance and finally stabilized at 133 pounds.




NM Spokesmodel     133 pounds  Size 4 jeans these days

 The thing about NM is, it just makes so much sense. Eat to fuel your body (don't starve yourself); get your logs green (give your body the nutrition it needs); log everything you eat and look at how it affects your nutritional balance. Eat mindfully. Before a meal, see where you stand nutritionally. Need more calcium, more vitamin A, less fat? Then eat to address that. One of my favorite activities during my weight loss phase was playing with my food log. What could I eat for dinner that would result in all my bars being green? This made for some interesting meals sometimes, but since I was mindful throughout the day of my nutritional balance, it was usually easy to end with a green day.

To anyone who is new here, I encourage you to just keep logging. Over time you will find that your tastes really change. As you begin to experience the NSVs that tell you your body is really changing, things get really exciting. Between my tastes changing, and seeing my body thank me for all the nutrition by releasing the no-longer-needed fat it had stored, my excitement continued to grow.

If you are eating the right number of calories (which NM conveniently calculates for you) and getting your logs green, it is inevitable you will lose weight. So don't let weight loss be the focus of your journey. It's like if you are driving a car. If you know the tank is full, relax and enjoy the scenery. Once you are able to find pleasure in the food choices that bring you to balance, you have entered the NM mindset that brings confidence and sustainable weight loss.

Welcome newbies! Read journals, eat green, and talk to us!

Please join our rapidly-shrinking and growing family!

http://www.nutrimirror.com/