Share Your Story: Drug Free, Anxiety/Panic Attack Free, Digestion Issue Free, Insomnia Free

Need some motivation? Kimberly and Brandon share their amazing success with us today. Thanks to them both for sharing!

Kimberly’s story:

I remember when I was little I use to cry about my body and I constantly strived to perfect my image but nothing worked. I eventually gave up and just packed on some college weight and convinced myself that I was “not that fat”. I was never morbidly obese but I got up to a “tight” size 12 – should have been a 14 before I entered college. All of my sisters were fabulously beautiful and thin and I wanted to be like that too but I was not blessed with their genes! Don’t even get me started on family “black dress photo day”. I went to college and got down to a size 10 before my wedding and moved to Northern VA. About 4 years ago I started having anxiety and panic attacks. My doctor gave me Xanax and told me to take it whenever I feel an attack coming on. I took the medicine and it made me feel okay but not great. I quit caffeine and started changing small things in my diet. I started teaching and met some friends and became an avid runner. I completed my first half marathon in November and now I am coaching GOTR for my school.

Brandon’s Story:

He was a competitive swimmer and coach all growing up and thought that eating milkshakes and frozen meals was okay because he swam it off any way. He was thin while swimming but in college he stopped swimming competitively and began coaching and keeping the same eating habits. You guessed it, he gained over 50 lbs in 4 years. His last year of college he began having digestion issues and was constantly having to run to the bathroom. He was also nervous about going out or doing things for fear that he might have to use the restroom and there wouldn’t be one. He was always tired and not really motivated to do anything. About 2 years ago he started changing his diet with me but still took Motrin just about every day for migraines and took Lactaid pills to digest dairy.
I decided that Brandon and I needed to get healthy. We started going to the gym, eating a lot healthier (Medifast, Slimfast, whole grains, 100 calorie packs…ha!) and we even did a triathlon together. We both dropped weight and we were starting to feel a little better and I needed less Xanax. Last year I got diagnosed with Anemia and found myself getting colds, swine flu, headaches and I was constantly freezing and always tired but couldn’t sleep.

In November we had some friends begin following the Paleo diet. We thought they were crazy and we weren’t even willing to try or hear about it. Then 3 days before Thanksgiving (boo) Brandon decided that he thought we should give it a try. We jumped right in without researching or preparing. (I don’t recommend that, those 3 days were terrible.) But now we are loving our lifestyle change. We’ve lost over 90 lbs combined. Brandon went from a size 36″ waist to a 29″ waist. I went from a size 8 to a size 4. We are both medication-free and we have tons of energy. We sleep through the night and wake up refreshed. We spend our free time paddle boarding, running, biking, swimming, playing and trying new things. We rarely sit around. We’ve developed a love for new foods and I cook all the time. I have enjoyed sharing our story with people and have been blogging our changes since day 1. It has been neat to share our story with friends, family and strangers. We’ve even had the joy of helping others make changes and watching the transitions in their lives. We realized very early that it wasn’t about losing weight, it was about getting healthy and that is exactly what we accomplished. Drug free, anxiety/panic attack free, digestion issue free, insomnia free… The list goes on and we have no plans of going back to that.