What's a Youatarian? It's my own phrase I have used when people ask me how I have lost my excess weight. I'm a Youatarian and live the youatarian lifestyle. Simply put, a Youatarian is someone that follows YOU On a Diet. For any YOAD followers out there that would like to adopt the phrase
for themselves, please feel free.

- Marshall (aka Orlando Tek)



Welcome to my blog!

Welcome to my blog!

My Story

In July 2006, I visited the doctor for a multitude of
ongoing medical problems and when I weighed
in I remember being 305lbs. That was the heaviest
I could ever remember weighing on any scale in my life.

My wife, also overweight, started some small changes
in her diet at that time and those changes made its way
through into my diet as well.

In September 2006, I watched my mother undergo
triple bypass surgey. And I always believed her
to be of modest health although she had passed
on a few of her problems to me including high blood
pressure and acid reflux issues. In her early 20's,
unaware of her high blood pressure problem, she
actually had a stroke, although not very severe.

My dad is a bit healthier even though being
12 years older than my mom, but he has borderline
adult onset diabetes and he had a stint put into an
artery a few years back.

Taking in all this information, It was then I decided
I needed to make some serious changes in my life
or I will be the next one on the heart ward not too
long from now.

It was Novemeber, 2006 and I was already following
the few changes my wife had made to her diet and we had
both lost about 15lbs in the last few months. Any
change at this point was a good change. We watched
a Discovery Health special called YOU: On A Diet featuring
the YOU docs and a few families incorporating YOAD
into their daily lives and showing their amazing progress.

The very next day, November 7th, 2006, my wife and
I went through every cabinet and cupboard in our
house and got rid of ALL the bad foods. We then
went to the grocery store and bought foods that
met YOAD and from that day we have not looked back!

We could not find the book at any local store so we
ordered it off Amazon. It took a few weeks to arrive
but we started cooking with only YOAD approved foods
using YOAD approved methods and we WERE seeing
results even before the book arrived.

From there it has been all downhilll. I have lost 110lbs
since starting on YOAD in November but about 125lbs
over the last 18 months total. Wahoo!

And most of my medical problems related to my weight
have now vanished including high bood pressure, acid
reflux and sleep apnea. I have much more energy and
I feel better than I can ever remember!

And its all thanks to YOAD!



Friday, September 28, 2007

Wal-Mart. The store we hate to love :)

I know..Wally World. Its loved by some,
hated by others, but tolerated by most.

We have many Wal-Marts in our area, most are
either Supercenters or Neighborhood
Markets. For those who are not familiar with
the Neighborhood Markets, it's the grocery store
side of a Supercenter put into a building.

We have found Wal-Mart to be instramental
when following YOAD. They have a lot of items
that are cheaper and YOAD friendly and other
items we like for the diet that just can't be
found elsewhere.

Coconut oil. Yes, I have spoke of it in lengths
before. We use coconut oil on the diet. We believe
its healthy and beneicial despite what the YOU
docs say. It's not a cheap item at most
stores. Other grocery stores have small,
10oz jars of virgin coconut oil for $15
and the refined for close to the same price.
Wal-Mart (and ONLY Wal-Mart) carries the LouAnna
brand that I believe is a 16oz jar of refined for
$3.00. We still buy the expesive virgin
for sautees, but for deep frying like french
fries or fish, refined is best because it has
a higher smoke point. BOTH are healthy :)

A couple of the Wal-Marts around us also carry
bison. We enjoy bison every so often and
it's healthier than beef. Bison is not
easy to find and Wal-Mart has the best prices
for it in town!

And then comes the conundrum of thier own brand of
100% whole wheat bread. When we go to other
local supermarkets for 100% whole wheat bread
without HFCS, we generally would be looking at
about $3 per loaf. A few of the Wal-Marts
around us carry their own brand 100% whole
wheat bread made with brown sugar (no HFCS)
that meets the diet and for less than $1.50 per
loaf. The trick comes in that in other Wal-Marts,
the SAME EXACT BREAD IN THE SAME EXACT PACKAGING
has HFCS in it instead of brown sugar. Ugggh!
Why would they do that? So, if you are looking
to find some YOAD friendly whole wheat bread and
want to check out your local Wal-Mart, check
the label to be sure it's brown sugar and
NOT HFCS.

Wal-Mart also has a nice produce section
and other items such as South Beach
Diet brand that are less expensive than
most other stores in our area.

So, we have to say, Wal-Mart is a store
we love for helping us afford the diet
and staying healthy!

1 comment:

Shannon's YOAD Journey said...

I agree! I shop at Wally World market & one of the local Super Centers, all the time!!
:-)
Keep up the AMAZING work!
Shannon