14/01/2024
Okay!
Here we go!
Just wanted to share some progress with yall.
Read the whole story, or if you don’t want to just Scroll to the bottom for a list of things I’ve learned on my journey and some statistics from my journey and this post.
Don’t forget to reach out with any questions and to let me know if I can help you on your journey. I am still a distributor with and I’d love to help you!
First let me just say it’s amazing to see how far I’ve come and how close I am to my goals. I don’t have a number in mind or a body type in mind, I’m just taking care of myself.
The first photo is from January 2022. This is before I ever went to the gym, and before I started eating right, or eating what I thought was right.
I spent the better part of 2022 going to the gym 5-6 days a week and eating “better” but, in 2022 I actually gained weight, I went from the 240s to my max weight of 266 in September of 2022.
I also started taking testosterone injections due to low testosterone in July of 2022.
In ~August I left my job and I went to drive a semi truck, where I had already put on or I gained weight the 2 months I was training for this, around October I got off the truck and I started working at the County Line Dominos, where I was on my feet all day, but there was something else that happened.
I finally went to Evolve Nutrition and I tried some of their delicious products, and I started having a shake and a tea instead of pizza, or a pasta with an orange Fanta (if you’d ask my boss I’m sure my store always had an orange Fanta variance because I just drank them often)
After a while, I started noticing changes in my energy and my mood, just by being back in a store on my feet and replacing an unhealthy meal 2-3 days a week with this nutritious shake and this energizing tea I noticed changes.
From October 22 to January 23 I had lost 9 pounds and I realized that there was something in these products, but more so there was something in proper nutrition. Eating the right nutrition, our bodies really know what to do to get us to our best shape.
Sometime around December and January I had to travel to Arkansas to visit my father Harry Belyea who wasn’t doing his best, he had been diagnosed with dimentia and cirrhosis. Along the way to Arkansas I stopped at different Herbalife shops along the way, meeting wonderful people along the way.
My best friend at the time and I talked for hours on my drive (I miss her 😔) and we decided that we wanted to open up a nutrition club, after I got home from Arkansas, Heather messaged me, we had become friends as she is the owner of the club next to dominos and I would be there 2,3,5 times a week.
She messaged me and said HEY I think we need to talk and get you involved in this organization.
Which was funny because I was already thinking and talking about it. I was already wanting to do this and I sent signals to the universe and guess what? The universe answered.
So sometime in January, I believe or February I became a distributor with Herbalife USA and I’ll be honest I haven’t done as much as I aspired to do with it.
I oftentimes go ALL in on something and I then have to pull back.
Balance is an important word and I think balance will be my word for 2024.
So yall, I became a distributor, I was back working in a store with an amazing team, I was going to the gym, I was going to the FREE BROOKSVILLE FITCAMP as much as I could, I was all in!
In the business sense I didn’t produce, but that’s not what we’re talking about.
I was all in and the results were showing it!
I lost 2.3% body fat I gained 3.4 pounds of lean muscle in just a few months.
Sometime around June 2023 I went to Tampa Bay Medical Research to get a free liver fibroscan, when I was in the hospital in 2019 with Covid I learned I had non alcoholic fatty liver disease, so I figured why not go get a free liver scan, which revealed stage 3 fatty liver disease and stage 0/1 fibrosis. On the scale of 400 I scored a 363 fat density in the liver.
I wouldn’t qualify for a liver related research study, but the number one cure for fatty liver is weight loss.
Given my history of high cholesterol, high blood pressure, pre diabetes, fatty liver, low vitamin D and low testosterone I decided to go ahead with the weight loss study to help my other conditions.
I then started a weight loss drug in a 12 week research study with a medication similar to Monjauro manufactured by Viking.
This medication can cause mild to severe side effects luckily for me I don’t experience a lot of side effects unless I ate a lot, or ate fatty or greasy foods.
I loved my Herbalife shakes during this time, I used them almost everyday for the majority of the study, high protein, 27 vitamins and minerals and they kept me satiated and never irritated my stomach like other foods would.
I also went to the gym consistently 4-6 days a week for 7 out of the 12 week study until another huge life change came about that I’m not mentioning in this post.
This study was a massive success for me, in 12 weeks I had many medical improvements, after the 31st I’ll have exact numbers to share with you including an updated liver scan my blood pressure was down immensely, my A1C was down 1.4 points, my cholesterol improved. My liver enzymes were lower, my blood sugar was down, I lost 40.4 pounds, I lost almost 4” in my waist, my body fat % went down 7.2% my muscle mass was up 6.8% my BMI went from 32 to 26.4. I had major success with this study.
But it was just a small part of a lot of changes I made.
Once I got the results of the liver scan I ceased all alcohol consumption, I avoided sugar as much as I could and I ate better. I was more intentional with my nutrition and exercise.
I think that’s all the update I have for now, below are some things I’ve learned and my observations.
And some statistics on my journey.
1. Nutrition is more important than exercise.
2. The majority of calories are burned through basic metabolic functions, like breathing and your heart beating, exercise and working out make up a small percentage of actual calories burned.
3. Fun fact, most fat cells are expelled through breathing, not urine, not #2 you exhale most of your “fat” loss.
4. Sleep is probably the most important even more than nutrition, did you know, during sleep you burn calories? During the weight loss study I lost as much as .3 pounds in my sleep BEFORE my morning p*e.
There a lot of hormones and things happening when you sleep.
5. According to Jay Shetty lack of sleep will actually cause the brain and hunger hormones to cause you to eat more, your body will crave more snacks and graze more and your hunger hormone won’t tell you to stop eating.
6. Be responsible. But it’s okay to have a cheat snack or meal. If anyone tells you any different you don’t need that negativity in your life. I have maintained consistent progress and I responsibly eat whatever I want. Nothing is off limits for me. Follow The Fitness Chef he’s the best when it comes to this.
7. The craze now a days is all about insulin resistance which is HUGE in weight management. HIIT exercises show great help in regulating insulin and blood sugar spikes.
8. Don’t kill yourself with cardio. Cardio is important and has benefits. But weight training is better for burning calories and you get the added benefit of building muscle, and shaping body composition which will help you see more progress. Also recent studies show that weight training may be better or just as good for heart health as cardio is believed to be.
9. Don’t look day to day, you’re going to go up and down with your weight. And remember healthy weight loss is 1-2 pounds per week.
10. Get a scale that gives you your body composition. PICOOC makes a super affordable one that syncs to your phone. Sometimes you may see weight gain, but your fat % and muscle % are showing positive results.
11. EAT, EAT, EAT. Refer to tip number one. Nutrition is super important. Lack of eating is lack of nutrition. And without proper nutrition you won’t see as good of results.
12. There is no magic medicine, or food. It takes work and effort. It won’t happen overnight. You’re seeing 2 years of progress here in this post.
⬇️ 78 pounds from a peak of 266
BMI ⬇️ 8.5 points
Body Fat % ⬇️ 11.6%
Muscle mass ⬆️ ~20%
Blood pressure ⬇️ ~ 30/20
A1C ⬇️ 1.4 points
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