305 lbs. Hitting the Century Mark

I took this screenshot Saturday morning, May 7.  I am excited to say that I have passed the century mark on my weight loss.  It is an exciting goal that I’ve been trying to reach for quite some time.  I’ve been very close the last month with my weight tottering up and down.

I was not expecting to hit it that day.  The evening before was very dark and stormy personally.  Seeing these numbers Saturday morning was like a rainbow after a destructive and devastating storm.  Yet, I am saddened that I cannot share this exciting news with the one person that has been my biggest cheerleader this past year.

By Lori Camper

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305 lbs. My First Juice Steadfast

I decided I was going to abstain from food and drink juice only for 60 days.  I’m calling this a steadfast because that’s exactly what you have to be.  You have to be firm in belief, determined, and adhering.  Could I do it?  What kind of results would I see?

After watching Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead I was firm in my belief.  I saw how jucing worked for Phil and Joe, so I was convinced it would work for me too.  I was determined to do this and to stick to it (adhere) and make it work.  Sixty days out of my life was a very minute amount of time, and I thought it would certainly be worth it if I saw the results Joe and Phil saw.

My steadfast took place during the early summer.  This has become my favorite time to juice.  This is the time when fruits and vegetables are in plentiful supply and at their best.  They are easy to find and the farmer’s markets are in full swing.  I also think that the colder the juices are the better they taste, so that makes juicing during the hot months very pleasant.

This was also a time that I didn’t have a lot of activities on the calendar.  That made it easy for me to concentrate on juicing and sticking to it.  I didn’t have a lot of activities, dinners, or special events to go to and I didn’t host any either.  We had one potluck dinner at church.  Howver, I was putting the church directory together, so I used the time that everyone was sitting down and eating as an opportunity to talk to the people I needed information from.

After a couple of weeks, the hunger and want for food vanished and my steadfast became my way of life.  I was fortunate not to have any withdrawals or cravings, but sometimes I did want to eat simply to have something to chew on.  I was too scared to eat.  I read horror stories of how people went right back to eating normally immediately after a steadfast and ended up very sick or in the hospital.  I knew better than that.  No matter how tempting something might have been, that was enough to keep me from giving in.

Overall it went well and I lost somewhere around 50 pounds.  People were noticing, and I got lots of compliments on my skin.  It did look better than ever.  I was excited and flying higher than a kite.  It did work for me, and I got the results I wanted.  For the first time in my life I believed my weight was something I could control.

By Lori Camper

305 lbs. Juicing Plan B

It didn’t take long to learn that we had no clue what we were doing. Our first shot at making juice was a disaster as far as flavor. It made us realize that what came out of the juicer was not necessarily going to taste like what went into the juicer. It also made us realize that we couldn’t just throw anything into it and expect it to be palatable.

After the orange juice disaster, we found some recipes and tried some juices. We found a recipe for green juice and made it. It was ok, but nothing that we were crazy about.

It was clear that this was going to be a long adventure of trial and error.  This was not what I was hoping for.  I was ready to jump in feet first and get started with this now!  I did not want a delay no matter how short it might be.

My daughter and I did some experimenting with juicing while she visited.  I later consulted with Tamara on what were some of her favorite recipes.  I planned to start my first round of juicing after she left.

I was anxious to find the real me that I had been hiding all these years.  Looking back, I now see that God brought people into my life when I needed them.  He knew when I was ready for a change and brought people and circumstances into my life at a time that I was ready to listen and willing to make changes.

By Lori Camper

305 lbs. The Juicer Arrives

It was finally here! The tool that was going to change my life! I was excited to have this huge box sitting in my living room. However, it was an extremely busy day. My daughter was arriving from out of state that day for a visit. I wanted to open the box so badly and take a peak but didn’t feel like I had the time to do so. What would people think? What would my daughter think? Was she going to tell everyone that her mother had lost her marbles?

My daughter finally arrived. She walked right into the living room with this big box sitting in the middle. She said, “What’s that?” I said, “A juicer.” She said, “I’ve been thinking about getting one of those. Let’s open it up.”

It was Dumber and Dumbest from that moment on. We got the juicer out of the box and figured out how to put it together and turn it on. We didn’t have anything in the house at the time that we could put through it, so it just sat there. We didn’t have a clue what to do with it.

The next day my daughter decided she wanted to try making some orange juice, so we stopped at a stand on the side of the road and bought some fresh fruits and vegetables. We bought a bag of oranges to make orange juice. It was going to be fresh; it was going to be delicious. It was going to be the best orange juice we ever tasted—golden nectar from Heaven. We just knew it!

We took the oranges home and then debated on how to juice them. Should we peel them? What about the seeds? I had watched videos where Joe Cross didn’t peel his lemons or limes, so we sent the oranges through the juicer peeling and all.

There it was, our little pitcher of golden, sunshiny goodness. We couldn’t wait to take a taste of the best orange juice on the planet. We poured a glass of juice for each one of us. We took a drink. It tasted like . . . battery acid!

We definitely were not off to a good start. All I could think of was the money I spent on these yummy oranges that were now going into the trash. It was now time for Plan B—if only we had one!

By Lori Camper

305 lbs. The Moment that Changed my Life

I was leaving the building after church one Sunday morning, walked around a corner, and came face to face with someone I hadn’t seen for a few weeks.  We’ll call her Tamara.  Tamara is a little older and wiser than me.  She is one of the women in our church that I feel thinks like me–one of the women I’ve gleaned from.  Tamara looked great and I told her so.  She told me that she had lost 50 pounds through juicing and recommended that I watch a movie called Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead.

I was intrigued.  Juicing was not something I was completely unfamiliar with.  Neither was fasting.  I had known people throughout the years that juiced and did juice fasts or juice and soup for periods of time.  But, they did this for health reasons.  This was the first time I had heard of using juicing as a method to lose weight.

Could this work?  Could this work for me?   I needed to lose a lot of weight, and the thought of losing it quickly was exciting to me.

Naturally, I went home and immediately forgot the name of the movie.

The next week I asked Tamara again for the name of the movie.  I made a note of it this time.  I went home and started Googling.  I could not find a place to watch the movie without paying for it.  I finally got my hands on the DVD.  I’m not sure where it came from.  Either Tamara loaned it to me or it came from the library.

I sat down very late one evening and watched the movie.  It was definitely inspiring.  I was pumped and ready to give juicing a try.  Joe Cross’ story was inspiring and amazing.  I believe he lost somewhere around 90 pounds in 90 days.  Could I do that?  Would juicing work for me like it worked for Joe?  Even more inspiring was Phil’s story–a truck driver that parked his truck and went and stayed at a resort to concentrate on juicing and regaining his health.  My husband had a truck-driver friend that reminded me of Phil, so without saying anything about Phil, I recommended that he watch the movie.

I didn’t know anything about juicers or juicing, but I knew I wanted to get started.  I let my fingers do the walking on my keyboard and started looking for the same juicer Joe Cross used in the movie.  My fingers did lots of walking, as it was sold out almost everywhere I looked.

I finally found a place that had the juicer in stock.  It would take it a week or so for me to get it and I had to pay a little more than other advertised prices, but I wanted to get it in my hands before the excitement wore off.

I know all of these events sound very insignificant.  But, this is where it all started.  This is that one snowflake that created a snowball that started the avalanche that changed my life.  If Tamara had not taken the steps to lose 50 pounds herself, I would probably weigh even more than 305 pounds today.  Juicing has changed my life and saved my life, and I have Tamara to thank for introducing me to the world of juicing.

By Lori Camper