Making a Lifestyle change...

In January my husband and I decided to commit to the lapband journey as soon as possible. first we had to finish saving the money, at the beginning of March we knew the finances would come together I started drinking a protein shake for breakfast and lunch but I also started fixing healthier food for my family, march 21 I met with my Dr. and his staff and scheduled operation for April 5 at this point I had lost 8 lbs. I've always drank alot of water and cross my fingers that it wasn't just a bunch of water weight but I'm sure plenty was though

When we got home my DH husband and I threw away all junk food in the house, went to the store bought light mayo, lower calorie cheeses, yogurt, leaner meats, everything. we're making a lifestyle change, not just for he and I but for our kids as well. we have 3 daughters and a son 2 of my girls are teens and the third is right there. all of my kids have normal bmi's but 2 are at the higher end and I can see both of them copying my lifelong bad habits, not stopping when their no longer hungry, eating bc it tastes good or just bc their bored...NO it has to stop now.

We completely stopped eating out we started counting calories for each of their age groups and started teaching portion control. we're still eating all the meals we used to eat with just a few healthy adjustments, but still delicious. dinners now are no more than 500 cals. total, everything we put into our bodies are healthy. when snacks for the kids are allowed its healthy. and they have to drink water, water, water. don't get me wrong we've discussed that occasionally we will have some junk food, just not everyday and when we do we need to limit it. also we've discussed if we're craving something it's probably better to have a little than to eat a bunch of other stuff trying to curb the craving.

my husband has lost 12 lbs of the 20 he wants to lose and he stopped drinking soda. he says he feels better, he's sleeping better and guess what.. no more heartburn, my daughter's with the higher bmi's have lost between 3-7 lbs. we're going for walks and playing in the yard more. but it's more than that, Easter holiday my kids wanted their favorite holiday meal so I made a nice feast for them, still healthier but a feast none the less, usually they would have polished off most of the food, but not this time, they each had a small plate, they only ate half their chicken. everyone ate 1/3 of what they would have usually eaten eaten. They were full It's working!!!

then yesterday my daughter came home from school (and I talk about her weight bc about a month ago at school the class weighed each other, and my daughter's friends are petite and my daughter has been very small as well but lately, as stated above she was getting into some bad habits and she weighed about 10lbs more than her friends and some comments were made I don't think purposely to hurt her feelings but it did, I realized I needed to change my families habits) anyway she came home and said some people in my class today brought in some donuts, I thought about having one but I wasn't hungry and I had eaten dessert at lunch so I passed, I didn't care if she had the donut but she was proud of herself for recognizing she didn't need it, IT'S OKAY TO WALK AWAY. I also no longer make my kids finish whats on their plate. I know their bad habits are my fault

What I've realized is we needed a lifestyle change I'm proud of my whole family.

and I've got this, I'm sure there will be bumps but I have support and I'm excited about our future