Losing Weight? Looking for some INSPIRATION?

Greetings Army Wife Network fans! A few weeks ago we put a call out on our Facebook page asking for any Army wives that have had success in their weight loss journey. We knew, come late January that those of you who made your "weight loss resolution" would need a little extra dose of inspiration!

We had many submissions and we are so thankful for the great responses. Here are two Army wives we'd like to introduce you to that have made amazing strides in their goals. They were so kind to provide us pictures as well. Thanks for being great examples Jillian & Jennifer!

Jillian's Story:
Hi, my name is Jillian, I'm the wife of an Army National Guard soldier who is currently deployed.
Over the past 7yrs (with 3 pregnancies in there) I've lost 167lbs. I went from a huge size 24 and 3XL in most clothes to a size 8/10 and medium in clothes. I've done it all through eating well and exercising, tracking food intake, being consistent and making it all a lifestyle change. The journey has been through ups and downs as I said, with pregnancies in there and just life in general. But now, I don't let "life" get in the way of being healthy. Its a priority and just a part of my daily life.

Jillian Comparison

Jillian After

Jennifer's Story:

My husband, Ryan, and I both embarked on a healthier lifestyle in January of 2008. Ryan needed to lose 100+ pounds to join the Army and I thought I would be a good and helpful wife by joining him on his journey. He had tried to lose weight before but where I do all of the cooking, it was challenging for him to fix and enjoy a salad while we were enjoying a pasta dinner.

My sister recommended a FREE website called www.sparkpeople.com and it didn't take me long to find a variety of healthy substitutes for our favorite meals and to get our new recipes entered in to our sparkpeople account. Since it was winter, we joined a gym until Spring and went as a team for workouts. I only went once or twice per week but Ryan went as frequently as he could. I like to say that I am allergic to working out since it makes me break out - in a sweat, lol. Honestly, though, I am not fond of exercise and prefer dance-type workouts so that I can 'trick' myself into exercising.

At first it was challenging to monitor the foods we were eating and we quickly found that the days we didn't take the time to record what we were eating on SparkPeople, we ate more than we were supposed to. After a couple of months, it became a habit to record each meal and portion and we had created a great menu to rotate and avoid the typical dieting boredom. We were both committed to not let it become a diet but rather a life change. We didn't ever settle for subpar foods and discussed ways to make sure that we formed healthy habits that would benefit the children, as well as ourselves, as we all grew older.

I am excited to say that by February 2009 I had lost the 52 pounds that I needed to lose in order to be smack in the middle of healthy with my BMI and Ryan lost 105 pounds! He has struggled with his weight since childhood. Almost a full year later, we have both managed to maintain our healthy weights and lifestyle. We continue to eat the same meals we discovered two years ago and enjoy trying new ones. When we encounter something we like that is not made with the best products, we substitute healthier meats and dairy products to reduce fat and calories. We regularly use ground turkey in place of ground beef and lower fat cheeses. Many of our meals include a variety of beans (kidney, pinto, great norther, etc) for protein. We've switched to skim milk and do not serve juices except for special occasions. By making these changes over the course of a couple of months, we did not encounter resistance from our 5 children and they always eat the same meals that we do. There are too many of us to serve multiple options at dinner time.


When friends ask how we did it, I am always proud to say, "with a lot of hard work." Losing weight should never mean that we eliminate any of the important dietary elements from our menus and should always be done slowly, a pound or two a month. It is unhealthy and usually short-term when people drop pounds using a new revolutionary weight loss system involving never before heard of roots from the Monkana Tree. Dietary suppressants are known to be unhealthy and cause undesired side effects and there are many 'natural' options that do not have sufficient research to convince me to put them in my body. Nope, we did it the old fashioned way; we ate less, we ate better, and we broke a sweat.

Jennifer Before & After