We Looked at the Scale and Were Startled. So We Made a Vow

Back in December 2021, my husband Brendan and I decided to buy a scale. Neither of us had weighed ourselves in a while, and we knew the pandemic’s effects were weighing on us, both physically and mentally.

Getting on the scale, I was alarmed. My weight had risen to 200lbs, and my husband’s 240lbs. We both had always been active growing up and into our 20s, but now we were 30 and our bodies were starting to change.

Fast forward to May 2022, I had dropped 20lbs and was trying my best to switch my diet and exercise regularly, as I found that just taking the dog out for his daily walks was not doing the trick.

At this time, my husband kept putting his efforts at losing weight to the side. He would constantly say: “I’ll start on Monday.” And like most people, when Monday arrived, nothing different would happen.

My in-laws came from Pennsylvania for a visit here in Houston. It was the first they had seen us in a while, and we were excited to show them around. Turns out, we were more excited to eat everything in sight.

His parents suggested trying the “keto diet”, as it can quickly shed pounds. But, I’m Type-1 diabetic, and keto is not a healthy option for someone with risk of high-blood pressure and other issues. It was out of the question for both of us.

We spent the next week eating food across Houston, and my desire to diet ended.

The scale we bought needed the batteries replaced, but I never got around to changing them because we were focused on buying our first house. The stressful, time-consuming process was an easy excuse for us to not focus on ourselves.

Months went by and neither of us had stepped on the scale. I had stopped eating healthy and working out and we were ordering take-out more and more frequently, thanks to the convenience of delivery apps. We were sleeping and taking naps a lot.

We finally bought our home in September 2022 and the broken scale from our old apartment got its batteries replaced. I was 220lbs, and my husband 250lbs. But this didn’t motivate us to start dieting.

And then everything changed on March 6, 2023, when my husband found out he was the recipient of an all-inclusive trip to Maui at the end of May, based on his performance in his sales job in the technology industry.

On that day, my husband and I weighed in on our scale. We both knew we were nowhere near any shape to go to one of the most beautiful places on Earth and enjoy ourselves properly.

I weighed 225lbs; a startling number. I had gained back the 20lbs I lost, plus an additional 25lbs. It was the heaviest I had ever been. Brendan weighed in at 260lbs, also his heaviest.

We both looked at each other and vowed to start our weight-loss journey, together, that very day.

I quickly began planning our dinner that night, thinking about all the vegetables I would include and carbs I would cut out. As a Type-1 diabetic, I have been counting carbs for my entire adult life, so this part was easy. It’s basically the way I should have been eating my whole life, I just forgot how to be intentional about it.

That first night I made my now go-to recipe, Egg Roll In A Bowl, a low-carb option full of flavor and veggies. From there, normal dinners for us included grilled chicken, sweet potatoes and a green vegetable.

As summer was upon us, shopping at the grocery store was delightful. I was eating the fruits and vegetables I had always loved, but just forgot they existed. As the one who shops for and prepares our meals, I knew I needed a game plan for grocery shopping, and I wanted to keep it simple.

I eliminated the middle aisles of the grocery store. To this day, that is one of my biggest tips for anyone trying to eat healthier. Wasting money on food that isn’t satiating and provides little to no nutritional value is a lot of what us Americans buy these days.

I always had a stigma that eating healthy would be expensive. But it saved us money. I no longer bought expensive processed foods, and focused on the good stuff.

Whilst we don’t strictly eat organic, switching our diet to include mostly whole foods was the game changer. Last night sugar cravings disappeared. Our desire to eat salty snacks, like potato chips, was nearly eliminated. We began to feel good about ourselves rapidly after making these small dietary changes.

Buying whole foods requires you to be mindful of your eating. I did want to be wasteful, so I made daily efforts to prepare the food. Luckily for me, I love getting creative in the kitchen, so I remade our favorite recipes, but healthier.

Instead of eating Philly cheesesteaks on a roll, I turned them into stuffed peppers or a salad. This allowed me to feel in control and satisfied about what we ate. I still included the cheese, but used less.

In the beginning, we used fasting, and lived in a caloric deficit. For two people who consumed thousands of calories on a typical day beforehand, this change got our metabolisms back in action

By the time of our Maui trip, my husband and I were both down 40lbs each. We were ecstatic about our results and even more excited to be feeling good about ourselves going to Maui.

But that was just the beginning. Shortly before Maui, we decided to join the gym. We had belonged to gyms before and would go for about a month, and then never return, and forget to cancel our membership so keep paying for it for the next year until we finally realized.

My husband suggested checking out the local Life Time Lake Houston gym. I knew nothing about it and was initially skeptical. It cost far more than any other I had gone to, and feared we would waste our money again.

But we had been consistent with our dieting efforts for the last two months, so I decided we could go check it out. Since that day, we have never looked back. Joining the gym was the ball that kept moving our progress forward. My husband and I, both 34, truly needed it to propel us to our goals both physically and mentally.

Brendan quickly got into the Pickleball leagues offered through Life Time, and I began strength training and cardio. I’m not one for fitness classes, I tend to enjoy the me-time I get at the gym. But my husband works from home, so getting out of the house to be active was tremendous for him.

One of the biggest challenges was managing my diabetes. Diet and exercise play a huge role in the way my body processes the food I eat and the way it can affect my blood sugars. I still use old-school methods to control my diabetes, giving myself daily injections of insulin from morning until night, so I need to be hyper-aware of where my blood sugar is at.

With a new diet and exercise in my daily routine, I experienced many high and low blood sugar episodes that I needed to control and monitor.

I started my journey in March taking 50 units of my long-acting insulin, Lantus, and as of today, I have managed to decrease that amount in half. I now take 25 units of Lantus, and far less of my short-acting insulin, Humalog—a huge win for me.

For Brendan, his biggest challenge came late at night, when he would find himself going to the snack closet and eating endless amounts of food. Sometimes so much he would feel sick.

I can’t say what exactly stopped this from happening for him, but I think transitioning our bodies to not rely so much on the carbohydrates and sugars we were so accustomed to eating had a lot of do with it.

Brendan and I have been together since 2013, and in the last decade I have never witnessed the two of us be so committed to the same thing, other than each other. We relied heavily on each other for moral support and motivation of getting up and going to the gym consistently, until the point where we are now—it is just a habit for us.

It’s the most healthy habit we have ever adopted and one we wished we had done sooner. Getting the trip to Maui motivated us in the beginning, but now the results and the feeling of being a healthy person is what motivates us every day.

As of right now, I am 165lbs, down 70lbs from my peak. Brendan is at 210, down 50lbs from his.

Now the holidays are upon us and food is plentiful, we are allowing ourselves a few indulgences, but staying mindful and intentional about everything we do.

We have also eliminated alcohol from our diet, to which I credit a lot of my husband’s weight-loss. He typically would pour a whiskey on a Friday night after a long work week.

Nowadays, we have begun incorporating carbs back into our diet, because they are essential to your body’s energy levels and proper nutrition, and we have focused a lot on eating protein, which is vital to your body’s ability to recover and build strength after exercising.

Today, I am focused on being able to do my first pull-up. Since the journey, I have been able to reach down and touch my toes for the first time in my life (I was never flexible, even as an athlete), and do my first push-up.

I have also started focusing on my mental health, and have incorporated mediation into my daily exercises. Brendan’s next steps are to get stronger by lifting more weights, and improve his Pickleball game.

We are both feeling the best and strongest we have ever felt and can’t ever see ourselves looking back.

Ashley Evans lives with her partner Brendan Roche in Texas. They are members of the Life Time Lake Houston gym.

All views expressed are the author’s own.

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