Dieting

Every January 1st you hear people talking about, "I ate too much over the Holidays", and it's time for New Year Resolutions which always seem to include eating better, exercising, and maybe dieting. I dieted last fall. I'm never too much overweight, but I'll put on some extra fat and sometimes my metabolism is sluggish, even tho I'm doing a lot. Like I always figure I'll lose over the gardening season when I'm way more active ... but I didn't. Monte and me had gone to a Gary Morris concert at a small venue in Denver - it's one of Monte's favorite singers. When he checked out his website he saw a mention of having lost 100 lbs and a link to how he did it. Only because I trusted him did I carry on in reading the info from the site the link led me to, and I decided to give it a try. So I put a link on my sites too.

I lost 20 pounds in 4 1/2 weeks. I read everything on the site, and when I looked at the recipe/food suggestions, which I copy and pasted elsewhere for easy access, I said, "I can do this". Recipes are a great help when trying to lose weight, rather than just saying, "avoid this and this and this ..." Besides a very restricted amount of calories, there's a homeopathic spray, an amount for 50 days. My Grandmother was a homeopathic nurse, and I have some of her old books, and I understand the "science", which Monte says people would say it's not science, but it is. You're supposed to stop the homeopathic mouth spray and consume more calories. The site calls this phase 3a and b and gives more recipe suggestions and easing into eating for the rest of your life, which is the way we should be eating anyway - whole good foods! And it is the way Monte and me usually eat anyway. People who need to lose more weight, after doing phase 3a + b for awhile return to doing the spray and restricted calorie diet again, until down to where they want to be.

Like I said, I wasn't too much overweight. After 4 1/2 weeks I could tell my body had used up it's fat stores and was needing more food. I'd been eliminating fats/oils, so the body would eat up it's fat store. So during that time frame I drank tea every morning till about 10-11 when I'd have a couple tablespoons of my homemade yogurt mixed with 100 grams frozen strawberries partially thawed and a few drops of liquid stevia for some sweetening. Then I'd have a meat and veggie lunch and supper, weighing the raw meats at 100 grams, marinating them in Bragg's Liquid Aminos/apple cider vinegar and herbs and spices. I'd usually eat an apple in the evening.

Since there's an avoidance of oil/fats, I couldn't use my homemade supperfatted face and body creams - cold-pressed, extra virgin coconut oil is what I used, and Monte fell in love with it and is using it for his lotion now (it's also a great fat to cook with- tho I couldn't on the diet). No coffee - as it's got oil. No herbal teas with mint - as mint's got oil too. No alcohol - cuz no sugars. Since some little bread sticks and melba toast were ok, I figured I could use my homemade french bread, as it's got no sugar and oil/fat. I'd grind it into bread crumbs for sprinkling on the top of a meat when baking for a little extra nice flavor. I ordered some suggested "Miracle Noodles" made from yams with no calories, primarily fiber. So I was grilling the meat and having salad a lot. I'd bake fish or chicken breast over a veggie like kale, or cabbage, or asparagus ... I rolled asparagus in thin sliced marinated beef and grilled. I'd plan on extra meat for taking with me, or a hard-boiled egg, on days I was away from home. I got used to taking along a cucumber, or radishes, or celery for taking bites of. 

Anyway, that gives you an idea ... And it really wasn't too bad. Monte actually liked a lot of the stuff, tho he'd eat more. I stopped the diet about a week before Thanksgiving. So with Thanksgiving and having gone thru the month of December with all the holiday baking, company, parties, etc ... 'tis the season, I only gained back 5 pounds. So I'm still 15 pounds thinner. I'm wearing clothes I'd not worn for several years. My arms, legs and across the back are thinner. My abdomen is thinner, tho I want to lose a bit more and tighten things up with exercising.

I didn't exercise during the diet. With the calorie restriction I'd not have enough energy to. That was fine with me, cuz exercising is not something I enjoy. I'll occasionally walk, lift weights, do the treadmill ... but I'm not regular at anything, and traveling and company disrupts me totally! and that's the story of my life!! My friend Marty though, kept raving about T-Tapp exercising, "And only 15 minutes a day!!" Now that's something I COULD do! The problem with me is I've got so many things I'm wanting to do in my day, that an hour of exercising is not what I want to do. I checked into T-Tapp. And I'm regularly doing it. I love it. If it keeps me firmed up and it's something that I'll regularly do, cuz it's easy, then it's better than nothing!

Talking about good recipes ideas when attempting a diet ... Probably about twelve years ago my mom gave me the book "Protein Power" saying it's like the Atkins diet idea. I read it to understand the philosophy. I found a great cookbook that followed the low carb idea and that book is still a favorite of mine - The Low-Carb Cookbook, by Fran McCullough.  It, and that whole diet idea, helped me love veggies. I'd never been a veggie lover, and preferred the starchy veggies over others. When pregnant with my youngest I started enjoying salads. Then when trying the Atkins low-carb dieting idea, I fell in love with veggies. Rather than focusing on protein, I still to this day focus on veggies, and a lot of them in a raw salad form.

When you read the T-Tapp literature (Teresa Tapp), she talks about a God-made, Man-Made food plan - several days of God-made foods with a one day man-made food day in between. So 2-3 days of whole natural foods then an allowable one day of processed, preservative laden, fast-foods eating day. When you think of it, most diet and vegetarian foods are processed. I cook from scratch so I have control over my ingredients. I now think nutritive, phytochemical rich food.

So ... when making food choices, think simple (like few listed ingredients rather than the typical 30+!) and whole, close to the way God made it. And think COLOR - a wide variety!!!