Family of Four Loses a Whopping 450 Pounds Combined
When we set goals for ourselves, it can be very difficult to accept that the difficult changes we want to make will require a lot of time and effort. In a world of instant gratification, good old-fashioned hard work can seem irritatingly slow.
But many times, slow and steady wins the race. And if you want to make changes that will last, you have to change gradually.
When Sarah Bentley started her weight loss journey, she probably didn’t realize just how many people it would affect. As she started to become more picky about what she was eating and learned to scan labels, she probably didn’t know that she had also started on a journey that would change the health of three generations in her family.
She just wanted change. She wanted to stop being so tired, lose some weight and be able to participate in more family activities.
Bentley’s husband, David, wasn’t on board at first. He told “Good Morning America” that he continued to sit back and chow down on pizza right in front of her.
Then Bentley lost 50 pounds, and David decided that he wanted in.
“My energy was up and I was trying recipes and I had a lot of support,” Sarah Bentley told GMA. “In three months I was able to lose 50 pounds and that’s when my mother and husband decided to join me.”
“For my kids, that’s what really kinda kills me,” David Bentley admitted. “I felt like I was living off of the couch and I was just feeding them microwave chicken nuggets.”
For the entire first year, all they did was change their diet — that was still a Herculean feat in itself, but diet truly is the main contributing factor in gaining or losing weight.
“For me to make change in my family, I had to make change for myself,” Sarah Bentley said. But her change didn’t only spread to her children; her parents had been watching, too.
Around the time that David Bentley started watching his diet, Sarah Bentley’s parents decided to try, too. They’d seen Sarah Bentley’s transformation and thought they’d give it a go. After a while, they all added in different forms of regular exercise to help them shed even more pounds.
The result? Five years later they’re still doing well, and have lost a combined weight of 457 pounds. Grandparents, parents and children are in a much healthier state than they were five years ago, and they’ve turned their success into helping others meet their goals.
“We have meetings at our house and show (people) how to cut carbs and calories. It’s teaching people how to eat and how supplementation works,” Sarah Bentley explained.
She knows that a support network, whether from friends, family, others in the same boat, or an online community of some sort is key to making plans and sticking to them.
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