ViSalus: My Story
It boils down to two simple things: Health and Money. Seemed like a pretty easy decision to me! At a later time, I'll delve into the financial side of things but for me, that was secondary to the health benefits.
Right up front, I'll admit that the goal for my first 90-Day Challenge was to lose twenty pounds. My wife and I welcomed our first child, our daughter Jade, in September. ( !!! ) Naturally, I put on some "sympathy weight" during this pregnancy. In fact, I actually put on plenty ofweight during the first three months of the pregnancy and Cam didn't gain anything at all. Oops! I usually ate what my wife ate (including those late-night fast food trips) and she had trouble with nausea in the beginning, so it was pretty easy to pick up a few pounds here or there.
Now let me back up a bit... When we first got married three years ago, I thoroughly enjoyed all of my wife's cooking. So much goodness, and she cooked all of my favourites. Giant steaks, creamy mashed potatoes, home-made pizza...yum! We always made sure we had nutritious meals with plenty of veggies but it was the portions that did me in.
After about six months, I hit my top weight ever and we decided it was time for a lifestyle change. There's no big secret to losing weight. You hear it everywhere you go: Eat healthy and exercise, right? Step One: We cut our portions in half, replaced the sugary juices with water, had fruit instead of desserts, and lessened the snacking on chips and other goodies. Step Two: We hit the gym. And by that, I mean that we hit the gym hard an average of three times per week. We usually did an hour-and-a-half session starting with cardio, then focused on strength training for different muscle groups, and finished with extended cardio. And if that wasn't enough, we also did morning or evening walks around the neighbourhood on the non-gym days.
And what do you know - it worked! We put on muscle, cut the fat, improved our overall health and our daily habits. Cam trained me from scratch at the gym since I was entirely inexperienced, while she had been hitting the gym regularly for many years. Simple things like breathing the right way during reps were difficult for me but I eventually figured those things out.
Returning to the present day... I put on my own "baby weight" but this time my wife needed to focus on growing baby. Her pregnancy symptoms prevented her from exercising so hitting the gym together wasn't an option. I really had no desire to hit the gym by myself (ugh!) but I definitely needed to do something. And along came Visalus... *cue inspiring music with stringed instruments*
I experimented with the meal-replacement shakes at first. I used it for breakfast during the weekdays but that was it. I understood that using the shake to replace one meal was just the "healthy maintenance" plan and not intended for weight loss. Eventually, I started using it for both breakfast and lunch each weekday - but again, I ignored it on weekends since I enjoy breakfast food and I always like cooking for my wife. Plus, I still had chips and whatnot for snacks when we watched movies together. I did that for one month, and actually lost five pounds in my first week (which is not uncommon).
Eventually, with support from Cam, I decided to get serious about losing weight. On July 11, I started the recommended 90-Day Challenge just as prescribed. Replace breakfast and lunch with the Vi-Shake. Have a small, healthy snack mid-morning and mid-afternoon. And finally, eat a normal dinner with sensible portions and skip the snacks entirely afterwards. *poof* The pounds started dropping off more quickly. Just as promised, I have averaged the healthy weight-loss pattern of 1-2 pounds per week.
I have to confess that I did eat fast food for lunch still when we were on the go, and there were a few all-you-can-eat Sushi and Dim Sum dinners in there. Surprisingly, that didn't stop me my weekly progress. It was nice to know that I didn't have to be so strict about eating, I just had to be sensible.
More importantly, it was easy to do. Yes, laziness was an important factor to me. As in, I like to be lazy (or "efficient" as I prefer to say). Staying at home is much more attractive to me then busting my butt and sweating buckets at the gym by myself. Throwing shake mix and orange juice into a thermos for lunch gets me out the door faster in the morning before work. And now that our baby has come along, who has time to prep a properly nutritious meal anyway?
And somewhere along the way, we also saved money on our groceries.
So how did it work for me in the end? I did my measurements again on October 10, exactly 90 days after I started. I went dropped from 218 pounds down to 198, which is the lightest I've been since I started dating Cam more than 4 years ago. I also lost 3 inches from my waistline, 2.5 inches from around my chest and 1 inch from my hips. Hey, I even had to go down a notch on my belt. Yep, it worked for me!
In my case, Visalus is delivering on it's promise. ViSalus even surpassed my expectations for the 90 Day Challenge, which actually surprised me and motivated me to tell others about it. That includes you, Dear Reader. Everyone knows that it's important to have good health so hopefully my story can help motivate you to focus on your health once again. Pick the right solution for you: Hitting the gym, walking or bike riding, changing your meal plan at home, whatever you prefer. And if you're interested in Visalus and would like some more info then please be sure to contact me to find out more!
