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!!!!!!