Tonia Haight Walker. Losing Weight Like a Bear

Comfort is something that has been elusive for many years.  For over twenty years, the only way that I have been able to cross my legs is by crossing my ankles. I was talking with Daniel the other day about how nice it is to be able to cross my legs again.  Just then my sixteen year old looks at me in surprise and says "I've never seen you cross your legs!"  Of course telling him that I had been for the last couple of months did no good.  He continued to say that he had never seen it.  Needless to say, he was shocked.  It is nice to be able to lean back and relax when I want and know that I will not be in pain for it.   It is the little things like this that keep me going and get me excited.  I no longer have to worry about if I CAN drive a vehicle.  I can sit behind the steering wheel of any vehicle now and have plenty of room to maneuver.   (Yes there is a dog laying on the rug under my seat.  It is one of his favorite spots to lie down at when I am resting.)

One year ago, sitting in a chair with arms on it was extremely painful and very embarrassing.  I didn't fit in any of them.  I remember one time going to Olive Garden with my husband and some friends and having to stand a wait at the table until they could locate a chair without arms.  My hips were so large that if I attempted to sit in a chair with arms, it was sometimes so painful that I would end up with bruises on my hips.  Forget driving a car like a Prius, I would, yet again, have bruises where the seat belt buckle was at.  I am a huge supporter of my children and their activates and sometimes this would make attending their functions very painful.  One such place is the theatre room at the local High School.  In the past under the leadership of the "old" band director, all performances were held in the gym.  It had bench seats and no backs to the seats.  When the "new" band director showed up, he changed all of the performances to the theatre room.  I wen

So instead of continuing my narrative this time, I decided that I would answer two questions that I have been asked many times since my first post. 1) How much weight have I really lost? 2) How did I do it?  So far, year to date, I have lost 117 pounds out of 200. Yes my goal is to lose at least 200 pounds. I will be less than half of my starting size. If you remember, I started at 375 pounds. When I finally get down to 175, I will no longer be considered obese. At that time I will then decide if I want to drop another 10 or stay at 175. I was 225 when Daniel and I were married.  I didn’t think of myself as over weight back then, and Daniel loved me for who I was. I was a lot stronger back then compared to now as well, but soon the weight piled on.  How did I lose the weight? My whole life I was told don’t eat the fat filled foods. “Eat the diet dressing for a salad.” “Don’t eat so much bacon, that much fat isn’t good for you.”  “Black olives have too much fat in them, don’t eat that m

This is a sad picture in many ways. This Is what I looked at my heaviest weight. My heaviest weight was 375 pounds. I had given up on ever losing weight because nothing I had tried had ever worked. I hated pictures of myself, so I always deleted the pictures that I wasn’t hidden behind someone. January of 2019 I quit eating pancakes and waffles and I quit drinking Dr. Pepper unless I was on a trip and needed something to drink.  In June of 2019, I found this picture on Facebook that a friend of mine had taken and shared. I cried when I saw this picture. I knew that I had to find something that worked. I started researching Keto in general and found that there are many versions of Keto, but the basic theme is low carbs. I started playing with the idea of less carbs and not fully committing to it yet when someone recommended that I look up a Facebook group “Eat Like A Bear”. I started reading all of the free information on the sight. The units were full of information. I read every story