I started Physician’s Plan because at 318 pounds and 50 years old, my health was starting to fail. My bones and joints ached all the time, particularly after a 12-hour nursing shift. I had to take the elevator because my knees couldn’t take the stairs carrying all that extra weight and I would become winded and sweaty from very little exertion. I was always bloated because my diet consisted of a lot of salty, fatty foods and I was eating at least three times the calories I should have been. I didn’t like the way that I looked in or out of clothes and it made me feel self-conscious.

I started this weight loss journey to be overall healthier. I wanted to have the ability to be more active in my daughter’s life and also at work. I want to be an inspiration for my daughter and show her she needs to be healthy while she’s growing.

The biggest challenge I faced during my weight loss journey was kicking the desire for fast food, junk food, soda, and especially sweet tea. The convenience of fast food was probably the hardest for me, but I overcame the urge to eat those things by always having some type of healthy snack at my side. Giving up sweet tea and soda was hard for the first week or so…I didn’t realize caffeine had such a hold on me! I overcame those sugar cravings by drinking a gallon of water a day to make sure I wasn’t thirsty.

The day I turned 40, I was the heaviest I had been in my life (other than pregnancy, and we all know that number doesn’t count).  The scales read an alarming 155 pounds. I knew it was time to do something, but I didn’t know where to start. Being a vegan made things a little harder. Squeezing uncomfortably into my size 8 pants (knowing it was time to move up to the 10’s) meant it was time to get back down to a healthy weight.

Life seems to come in phases, some of which can be more difficult to navigate than others. Life after school, in between 25 and 30, can feel like limbo. “What am I going to do next?” “What life goal do I need to check off the list?” “Are my ducks in a row?” “SHOULD my ducks be in a row?” As a twenty-something, finding the answers to these questions can be exciting, but it can also be stressful. For me, stress = weight gain. While balancing work, friends, family, school, etc., personal health and fitness can be a struggle to keep up with. Enter the oh-so-relatable me:

George Lemacks knew he needed to lose weight, he was walking with a cane and got winded walking a single flight of stairs. It wasn’t until he saw his mom successfully shed some weight that he decided to take action. He explains, “My Mom had been doing Physician’s Plan for a little while and was having success.”

George reached out to the Physician’s Plan team in Charleston for help, the same team that supported his mother’s weight loss journey. Says George, “Physician’s Plan has been great. The staff is friendly and encouraging and makes the whole process fun. The nutrition counseling is a big help. Once you learn how to eat it makes making healthy choices so much easier.” The team formulated a weight loss plan customized to George’s weight loss goals and medical profile. The plan helps to speed up metabolism, curb hunger, improve health and increase energy. Says George, “Physician’s Plan is the easiest way to lose weight that I have ever tried. It has been so easy for me to stick to the program.”

As an employee of Physician’s Plan Weight Loss & Wellness for 3.5 years, I provide patients with nutritional counseling and other tools for weight loss success. I recently began my own journey with Physician’s Plan as a weight loss patient because my weight was contributing to some back problems I was having. After talking with the other weight loss coaches at Physician’s Plan, I became motivated and made a commitment to improve my health and normalize my eating habits. I also told myself I needed to lose some weight to see if that would help with my back pain.

You may recognize her smile if you are a patient at Physician’s Plan Charleston. Summer is part of the Physician’s Plan team that helps patients with customized individualized weight loss plans. She’s a perfect fit, as she is an example of how the Physician’s Plan weight loss and wellness program works. She states, “I started the plan in June so that I could feel better about myself and also empower others to get healthy and happy.” And empowering others is just what she is doing, by sharing her story of a 45 pound weight loss in 4 months with Physician’s Plan.

Thank you to all our patients who shared his or her Healthy Selfie with us! We love seeing how our patients stay active, healthy, and motivate on a day-to-day basis. At Physician’s Plan Weight Loss + Wellness, we work with our patients to create a plan to achieve personal weight loss and health improvement goals. Real results are not only possible, but they are sustainable with the right plan. Make a commitment to your self-ie and get healthy with us!

Be sure to “like” us on Facebook and Instagram to join the conversation and follow other patients on their journey to good health.

Chelsea as a person and the plan she set our for me was the key to my success.  If it wasn’t for the support, understanding, encouragement and love she gave, I would NEVER have made it this far.

A Florence patient for one year, she celebrates losing 82.1 pounds in 2017! Thank you for inspiring us to be happy and healthy this new year.