Welcome To Krocks In The Kitchen!
All About Brian & Jessica
Written by Jessica Krock
We met in December 2006 (via good old MySpace) and the rest is history! After a few years of dating, we started our first weight loss journey. We have both struggled with being overweight for a majority of our lives and together, we finally figured out a way to do something about it. By counting calories, using portion control and working out at gyms regularly, we were each able to lose over 100 pounds! I was pretty close to my goal weight, and Brian was on a good path towards his.
We got married on November 5, 2011. The next day, we left for our honeymoon in California. We spent 10 days eating all of the things we had restricted during our weight loss efforts. When we got back home, we moved in together and started our new life. However, that life did not include any more significant weight loss. I like to say that we went on our honeymoon and sort of… never came back. Over the next 6 1/2 years, we both gained all of the weight we had lost back… and then some!
In June 2018, we were both are our highest known weights. Brian tipped the scales at 514 pounds, while I was at 285 and inching closer to the dreaded 300 pound mark. Brian came home from work one day and told me about this diet Kevin Smith used to save his life. He was talking about Penn Jillette losing a bunch of weight the same way. He said something crazy about eating nothing but potatoes for two weeks! I was pretty desperate to lose the weight again and figure out a way to sustain a healthy lifestyle. I was depressed and disappointed in myself for gaining all of the weight back. I was afraid Brian wouldn’t live to see 40. I was in a very dark place, and the fact that Brian was so excited to try this crazy potato thing gave me hope.
I started researching what Penn Jillette and Kevin Smith actually did to lose weight. While some people think they lost weight eating nothing but potatoes, that isn’t exactly true. The two weeks of potatoes were used to reset their bodies, minds, palates, etc. It was a harsh way to transition from eating the “Standard American Diet” to eating a whole food, plant-based diet. I read Penn’s book Presto!: How I Made Over 100 Pounds Disappear and Other Magical Tales as we started preparing for our two weeks of potatoes. We had no idea what was in store for us.
Even when we started the two weeks of potatoes, we still weren’t sure what the heck we were supposed to do after that. We knew it was vegan. We knew we wouldn’t be able to use added salt, sugar, oil, etc. But that was about it. So we did a lot of research during those two weeks of eating nothing but potatoes. From what I could tell, after the two weeks of potatoes, Penn Jillette followed a whole food, plant-based diet for the most part, so we decided to stick with that.
We have been following a whole food, plant-based diet since July 8, 2018. We have lost a total of 240+ pounds combined! Yes, we have lost this much weight in the past, but this time is different. This time we have taught ourselves a new way of eating that is much healthier and easier to sustain.
People like to ask us when we’re going to be able to eat “normal” food again. We will never go back to eating the way we used to eat. As hokey as it might sound: This is not a diet – it is a lifestyle. We know if we go back to our old ways, we’ll gain the weight back again. The best part is… we don’t want to go back to how we ate before! We actually enjoy food more now than we did before. We have a better relationship with food. We feel like we eat MORE variety now. Eating a whole food, plant-based diet has opened our minds and palates to a new world of food that we would not have given a second thought to before.
Our journey has just begun, but we hope to share the rest of it with you! We get so many questions and people who are curious about our weight loss. We thought making this website and our YouTube channel would be a great way to share the knowledge we have learned throughout this process. Our hope is that we can help others learn the things we wish we’d known years ago.
NOTE: We are not doctors or nutrition experts. You should consult your doctor before making any changes to your diet. (Read More)
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