I’ve been invited to speak at my clinic’s Ideal Protein open house, which is open to the public for anyone investigating the program. I cannot believe I’m actually one of “those” people. An “after” person, or at least “successfully in progress” person. I’m honored to be asked to speak.
Although it’s informal, I thought I would write down some thoughts of what I might share.
1. I recommend the book “Suddenly Skinny: A Weight Loss Survival Guide” by Freya Taylor. Love this book. Several things have touched me in the book that I use in my everyday thoughts now.
Some of these things are:
- A restaurant is a vessel of ingredients. Most of them will be more than willing to make what you want exactly how you want it.
- “Yes, I eat like a freak now” (and so what?)
- All of the popular, successful programs work….for someone. But they probably don’t all work for you. Find the one you can live with and work it.
- Choose your hard. It’s hard being overweight, it’s hard losing weight, and it’s hard maintaining weight.
2. When I’m craving something bad it’s because I’m actually hungry. So I eat something. Something on the plan.
3. There are so many positives, they overshadow any negatives (and there really aren’t any negatives).
Some of the positives (for me) are:
- I’m completely off of blood pressure medicine and the dosage of one of my meds for high triglycerides was cut in half. I go for another blood draw at the end of September, and I can only imagine that I will get more good news.
- I’ve lost 47.9 pounds since May 30th, 2012. That is 75 days. That is .64 pounds per day average.
- I sweat like a “normal person”. More about that below.
- Obviously, I’m in smaller clothes.
- I feel better about myself, and am embracing my girly nature by enjoying looking nice, wearing makeup, and wearing some heels occasionally.
- I have not had an antacid since day 4 of the program.
- I have had to take an aspirin maybe 6-8 times in the 75 days. Aspirin for headaches used to be almost every day thing for me.
- I have more energy
- I no longer get drowsy in the afternoon
- I still don’t like morning, but when I’m up, I’m up. And I’m busy.
- I have almost no gastro-intestinal “issues” whatsoever (tummy aches, etc….)
So more about the sweating. My whole life I’ve been someone who sweats. A lot. And I sweat from my head. My armpits and palms are completely dry, but I look like I ran through a sprinkler because of the sweat from my head. Although I knew the weight contributed to the problem, because I sweated more at X+100 pounds than I did at X pounds, I felt it wasn’t completely weight. I know we are all different, but I could be around people who outweighed me at my heaviest and I would look like a drowned rat, and they would be dry. I just figured I was “lucky” (not).
So even at a 47.9 weight loss, I’ve been this weight before just a little over 2 years ago. And I still sweat like a pig 2 years ago. But I noticed this time, at about 25 pounds ago on this diet I can actually go shopping and go for a walk, and not sweat any more than anyone else. I cannot tell you what a miracle that has been for me. Sweating, especially for a woman, is completely embarrassing. You feel so un-feminine, and you feel like a spotlight is just shining on you “LOOK, I’M FAT!!!!”, as if people didn’t already know.
My coach thinks I must have a either a gluten intolerance, or a dairy intolerance that causes my sweating. We’ve decided that when I phase back into the foods I cannot currently eat (carbs, sugars, dairy), we are going to do it one at a time, so we can isolate the culprit. Sounds like a great idea to me. Doesn’t necessarily mean I won’t ever eat the food group I have an intolerance for, but at least I can be aware and plan accordingly. Like “I have an important event 2 days from now….guess I’ll avoid dairy until then” or whatever.
So that’s all I can think of for now. Yay Ideal Protein!!!!!!