On March 13, 2019 I had smoked my last cigarette.
I could finally call myself a non-smoker after 40 years of the bad habit. This was my first step to starting a healthier life. I had just turned 55, had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, insulin dependent diabetes and was at least 60lbs overweight; I was more than ready to start making healthier changes in my life.
In the first 2 weeks of not smoking, I had already gained 5lbs; already being overweight, I knew I had to do something before this got out of hand. After a visit with my doctor, he revealed that my A1C levels to measure my diabetes were wildly high coming in at 9.2% when the normal percentage is around 4-5.6% for someone without diabetes, and my bad cholesterol and blood pressure were veering dangerously high on their own. My doctor wrote me some prescriptions to help control my cholesterol and blood pressure and admonished me to control my sugar intake.
I was proud of the fact that I had quit smoking, but I was ready to start taking my eating habits more seriously.
Being a single woman who works full time, I had always found it easier to zip through a drive-thru or order take-out. If I bought the ingredients to cook a meal for myself, there was always so much food I would end up wasting. The time it took to prepare a fresh meal was exhausting after a 9-10 hour day of work; not to mention, I had no sense of portion control, so I ate what I wanted when I wanted.
On Easter Sunday, while visiting with my niece at her home in St. Pete, she told me about a place she had found called Fitlife Foods where they prepared meals for you to aid in any health goal you might have in mind. To my surprise, there was a location near me in Sarasota and that very next day I bought my first Fitlife meal; little did I know how big of an impact that was going to have on my life.
The gentleman in the store was helpful as I picked out four meals to try. I still remember my first Fitlife meal I fell in love with…the Greek Meatballs! Ginny, another Fitlife team member, recommended that I meet with the Fitlife Wellness Coach, Ashleigh. In just a few days, Ashleigh and I connected to discuss my goals and how to achieve them while working around my busy schedule. She educated me about macros, something I had never heard of, and how tracking them would aid in my weight loss goals. I really felt like she really took the time to get to know me and my needs.
Each week, Ashleigh and I would plan out my lunch and dinner for Monday- Saturday as I usually gave myself a “cheat-day” on Sundays. She even helped me plan out some healthy breakfast ideas I was going to prepare for myself at home each morning. Shortly after enjoying my meals, I was eventually able to cut out my cheat days all together and I strove to eat clean 7 days a week; I found I was much happier and had way more energy when I avoided those cheat meals as much as possible.
Fast forward to my 3-month follow up with the doctor, my A1C dropped from 9.2 to 6.8, my cholesterol and blood pressure levels were back down to a point where I didn’t need to take any medication to regulate them and to top it off, I had lost 16 pounds! My doctor looked at the test results in his hands and was stunned! “What have you been doing?” He asked me. I told him that I started eating 2 meals a day from Fitlife Foods. He was shocked to find out that Fitlife meals alone had greatly improved my health in such a short period of time.
Today, since eating Fitlife Foods, I do not take blood pressure or cholesterol medication and I only take 10 units of regular insulin morning and night; my fasting sugar counts have even dropped down to be in the “pre-diabetes” range and I may not even need to be dependent on insulin much longer! Not to mention I have lost over 31lbs! I plan to start exercising and my goal is to lose another 34lbs and beat diabetes altogether.
Fitlife Foods has forever changed my life. The food is fresh, tastes good and there is no waste; they even take care of the environment by allowing me to bring back my containers to be recycled. The people, what can I say, they are the BEST! You can have a great product but without good people, you won’t have success.
I want to say thank you to not only Fitlife but to Ginny, Aliyah, Ashleigh and Marinna; I’m so happy to have you all in my corner! I love being able to go into the store to see these ladies; they have become a huge part of my support system and they are my greatest cheerleaders, I couldn’t do it without all!
