AS TOLD BY DARLENE...

"After years of eating whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted, we were overweight, tired, and disgusted with ourselves for years of poor choices.  David in particular was having major health problems, many related to his weight which had reached a very unhealthy 362 pounds.  He had Type 2 diabetes, severe daily heartburn, swollen legs from fluid retention, sleep apnea, and heart disease with a double bypass surgery in 2006.  I lived in fear that he was going to collapse and die, and many family members and friends had expressed concern for his health as well.  He couldn’t walk up the stairs without gasping for breath.

 

I had been steadily putting on weight since the birth of our second child in 1992.  What finally got my attention was when my weight hit the 200 mark at a doctor’s visit in March 2013.  Somehow I’d justified being in the 190s for quite a few years, but seeing 200 on that scale shocked me into reality.  David had his “aha moment” when he saw a picture I had taken of him target shooting and he couldn’t believe the really big guy in that picture was him!  We knew we HAD to do something or we were on a fast track to illness and early death. 

 

It was just before the July 4th holiday when a Facebook friend from our church posted a link to Bella Nutra.  We had noticed many of our church friends losing a lot of weight through the Bella Nutra program.  After talking to some of them and checking out the stories on the Bella Nutra Facebook and web pages, we decided this would be the perfect time to call.  It turned into a life-changing decision. 

 

We talked to Fred, signed up using our Flex Spending Account, and started the program.  David was very skeptical about it, thinking that he would not be able to follow the plan and maintain his blood sugar levels.  He was dosing approximately 200 units of insulin every three days through a pump.  The results were nearly immediate for him, and simply astounding.  Weight began to fall off him and his blood sugars began running low.  Within a month, he was totally off his insulin pump and taking only oral medication for his diabetes.  His heartburn completely disappeared and he stopped taking that medication.  His legs stopped swelling and he came home with energy to spare rather than just flopping into his recliner for the evening.  His doctor took him off several of his heart medications.  He is scheduled for another sleep study because it seems the weight loss has improved his sleep apnea too.  When we reached the official end of our Bella Nutra program, David was down a whopping 98 pounds and 48 inches.  Unbelievable!  His doctors are astounded at his turn-around.  They were recommending stomach reduction surgery for him!

 

For me, progress was a lot slower.  Because I’m a female over 50 and in the middle of menopause, my weight seemed so slow to budge.  I had many days of frustrating plateaus, in spite of eating exactly according to plan.  David would weigh in down 3 pounds, and I would be up 3 ounces! Not fair and super frustrating!  Lisa, our wonderful mentor, continued to encourage and remind me that I couldn’t compare myself to my husband and I couldn’t expect to reverse in 12 weeks what had taken me 20 years!  I stayed determined and the results finally began to show.  By the end of the 12 weeks, I was down 35 pounds and 28 inches.

 

Bella Nutra provides a wonderful support system that includes weekly phone calls and daily emails and/or text messages that build in an important measure of accountability I’ve never seen in any other program.  Lisa shared so many great food and general health suggestions.  She was our cheerleader for every success and our encouragement to keep going for every setback.  I also love the Bella Nutra Facebook page with great recipes and inspirational quotes.    We had tried other methods with pre-packaged foods, or counting calories, or fat, or carbs, but we always ended up back where we started when we stopped the “program.”  We are confident that this time is different.  We have committed ourselves to NEVER going back to the old way.  We have not yet reached our goal, but Bella Nutra has taught us how to approach food correctly, “eating to live, rather than living to eat.”  Now we make choices that fuel our bodies well and provide good nutrition.  It sounds cliché, but eating the Bella Nutra way has truly become a lifestyle that we know we can maintain for the rest of our lives, not just a diet that we do for a little while and then resume the old habits that landed us in trouble in the first place.  We buy real food at a regular grocery store and we still eat out.  It’s a real life way to eat and live!

 

We are both still losing and reaping the health benefits that come from eating well.  We have already been able to enjoy experiences with our family that we could never have done a few months ago – hiking in our beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, biking at the beach, riding Segways at the Gettysburg Battlefield.  Now I don’t have to worry about being one of those “unusual sized” individuals who won’t fit in the harness for rides at the amusement park, or tell my kids I can’t do something with them because I’m afraid to try due to my weight.  I’m looking forward to one of my bucket list dreams – riding in a hot air balloon!  It feels great to finally take control of our food choices and realize the positive impact on every area of our lives.  Thank you Lisa, Fred and Bella Nutra!  I sincerely believe you saved our lives!"