Husband, wife lose 135 pounds together: Their secrets for staying on track on vacation
Shandra and Gerald Redwine have lost a combined 135 pounds over the past four years.
Their secret?
“We are a team,” Gerald Redwine told “GMA.” “So for me it was [to] support my wife and support my family, so it’s easy, honestly.”
The Michigan couple’s weight loss journey began when they decided to start a family.
“I said, ‘I need to lose weight first,’” Shandra Redwine recalled. “I was at least 100 pounds overweight.”
Shandra Redwine started by going to the gym every day for one month. She was joined by her husband and they next focused on improving their nutrition.
“I joined Weight Watchers for a couple months and learned how to eat and saw even greater success with that,” she said. “So we just kept rolling with it.”
Shandra Redwine lost 60 pounds in nine months. She managed to maintain her new weight after she had the couple’s two sons, now ages 1 and 4.
She’s since lost an additional 55 pounds and Gerald Redwine has lost 25 pounds total.
With summer in full swing, the couple revealed how they have kept off the weight even while enjoying vacation.
Here are their three tips, in their own words.
Tip 1. Stay near a kitchen
It gives you the ability of knowing that at least a good percentage of your meals are going to be on track with what your intentions are.
Tip 2. Preplan your meals, including snacks
Just like any normal busy week at home, while on vacation we plan our meals and snacks ahead of time and prep for meals as much possible. This means making sure each meal has healthy meats and protein as well as veggies.
We always make sure we have some grilled chicken or pre-prepped snacks and salads so that we never have to make a bad choice. We buy all of our favorite snacks [and] put them in little baggies or containers.
Tip 3. Stay active
For us, that means taking our running shoes along with us on vacation. We alternate going on our own or we take the kiddos in the jogger. We always try to stay active with them and do lots of family "adventures and exploring" as well as swimming, playing ball, etc.
Bonus tip
We allow ourselves to have a few treats here and there, depending on the situation. We might have s'mores by the bonfire or mom's special vacation treats, but just one and not all day and definitely not all week.
