All Good!

Just a little update. Another week eating the Dr. A way, and three of those pounds I gained back are gone. Also, I saw a friend last night that I haven't seen in about six weeks. She asked if I had been losing weight, and I said I had lost a couple of pounds. She looked me over pretty thoroughly and said, "No, you've lost more than that. Your face looks so much thinner, and you have more definition in your waist." I took that to mean I actually have something of a waist line now, and thanked her. She and her mother asked what I had been doing, so I gave them a rundown of the Habits of Health and how I feel more energetic, how I haven't had heartburn in weeks, and how even my acne-prone skin is clearing up.



It's all good from where I'm sitting. Yeah!!! ~Juli

Confessional

I won't make excuses for myself. I fell off the wagon. I convinced myself that I was doing so great on Dr. A's program that I could cheat a little and it wouldn't make a difference. Well, it did.

I'll give you the nutshell version of my last 2 weeks: a funeral, field day, my youngest daughter's dance recital (I was class mom), last day of school, a birthday party and a baptism for my oldest. In all this, I kept very well to the schedule set up by Dr. A, eating small meals every 2 or 3 hours to keep my metabolism up, but I fell quickly back into my old habits. My food choices weren't healthy. And my great surprise was how tired I started getting again, every afternoon. I was a bit more short-tempered with my girls. I gained those 4 lbs. back. :o(

So here it is now, 4 p.m., my worst time of the day. I started eating the right way again this morning, and this is my witching hour, when I'm normally most tired, most hungry, on my shortest fuse. Today? I feel just fine! Better than I have in 2 weeks, in fact. I'm hoping I can quickly lose what I regained, but I've learned that I really can't expect a quick fix. The book is about changing to a healthy, happy lifestyle, not a quick fix.

~juli

bad news June

I did really well this month in my classes but in the recovery of all night learning and lack of exercise for 3 weeks, I gained 10 pounds....grrr. I did, however, lose 3 this weekend playing in a racquetball tournament (took 2nd...grrr). I know how important exercise is to my overall health and the desire was there but so were the rattlesnakes (again, grrr). I ate well and controlled my portions but am still struggling with desserts...it's ice cream season. I look forward to finishing my last 10 page paper so I can get back to reading about healthy choices and getting on a better foundation for my future.

When you fall down, get back up

Look, it wasn't my fault. Well, I guess it was. But we had driven 2 hours over to a co-worker's home on the Chesapeake Bay, and it was an office picnic, and then it was another 2 hours before the food was ready, and I was starving by that time, and it just would have been impolite not to eat it, right? I mean, the fried chicken, the baked beans, the corn on the cob, and -- and you had to have seen it -- a 7-inch high chocolate cake. It was just too much to handle. And then, realizing I really had blown it anyway, the hostess came around and insisted I have seconds.

Which explains why I have not made any blog entries in 2 weeks -- shame.

But that was 2 weeks ago, and I have been pretty consistently good about things since, and am now down 5 pounds from the 170 I started at, and am back on track. My wife and I have been walking in the evenings, and that helps, too.

I do have a couple of challenges, and one is drinking the right amount of water. That water is going to go someplace, and it means a lot of trips down the hall at work, past the receptionist, to the men's room, back past the receptionist, back up the hall, etc. And then there are the meetings, which sometimes come after 3 or 4 glasses of water. As I say, this is a challenge!
-- Hank in VA

Fumble!

Wow, crazy stuff happened to me this week. I am teaching a nutrition class right now and I gave my class an assignment to bring a dish that contained components of all the food groups. I have been doing very well with Dr. A's diet, but the day the students brought their dishes, I ate very badly. There were a lot of pasta dishes and white flour breads. I tried them all. It was at 8:00 in the morning too! I noticed that by 9:00 am I was feeling really "ramped up!" I felt drugged. Not sleepy drugged.....hyper drugged. I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off. I couldn't focus. I couldn't sit still. I was out of my mind. It dawned on me that I had indulged in many of the foods that Dr. A tells us to stay away from. I felt horrible. I felt like I had drank a pot of coffee. It took a good two hours for the effects of eating those foods that I have avoided for the past four weeks to wear off. Then....I crashed. I barely made it through the day, had to leave work an hour early, and was sound asleep by 5:00 pm.

I was blown away that my body reacted that way. It was almost like the foods I ate were toxic to my system. I'm glad it happened because I now realize the role that my diet was playing in the way I felt, both physically and mentally, prior to adopting Dr. A's dietary suggestions. I am amazed at the difference in my mood, the stability of my energy level, and the fact that I don't feel fatigued and stressed like I used to.....as long as I stay away from the "blacklisted" foods. I think the majority of the stress I was experiencing came from the physical stress that my body was feeling because the pace of my life hasn't changed one bit.

I stepped on the scale this morning and was pleased to see that I am down to 143 lbs, after breakfast, and fully clothed. I haven't really spent any time exercising either, so it's strictly the dietary changes that are producing the weight loss. I am pleased to announce that I am only 8 lbs away from my goal. The weight loss has slowed down to about a pound per week, but that is to be expected and I feel good about that pace. I am excited that I may only be 7 or 8 weeks away from my goal.

All of my other complaints have subsided. I feel great! I have been sleeping great this week too! Thank you, thank you, thank you Dr. A.....for giving me this gift. It has truly changed my life. More importantly, it isn't hard. I thought I would struggle, but after my feux pas this week, I realize the impact that diet can have on your well being.

Plugging Along

You know what I just realized today? I haven't had any issues with heartburn since I started eating Dr. A's way. Three weeks now, and not a single bout of heartburn! Usually I get a little heartburn when I lay down for the night. I would toss and turn, get up a half hour later, pop a few Tums, and then go to sleep. I haven't had any trouble falling asleep, and I haven't taken a single Tums this whole time. I'm stoked!

I'm adapting to implementing his tips into everyday life. I'm so on task at home, but we went away for last weekend (my family enjoyed the perfect summer weekend at Bear Lake.) We were with several other families in someone else's vacation cottage, and all the food they brought was absolute junk. Chips. Hot dogs. Nachos. Sugary soda. I brought a little bit of healthy food with us, but it didn't last me the entire weekend. I did indulge in one s'more (bad Juli!) but I didn't gain any weight back over the weekend, so now I'm down 4 lbs. total. If I eat exactly the way Dr. A describes in the book, he says we can lose 2-5 lbs. per week. I've been holding at 2 lbs. a week, which is healthy and definite progress! I'm going to focus more this week and see if I can lose 5. I can introduce exercise back in this week, since I've given my body time to adjust to my new reduced calorie intake. I'm hoping that will help me reach my goal to lose 5 lbs. this week, and finally get me under the 200 mark.

Wish me luck! ~Juli

Totally Geekin'!

Two weeks into Dr. A's program and I'm totally geekin' at how good I feel. I was unable to join the conference call because my husband was in surgery, but wanted to report that I am down to 145 lbs! 5 lbs in two weeks?! That's very exciting. The food changes have not been difficult for me at all. However, I am still struggling with making sure that I am eating enough. As I said before, it has always been a very bad habit for me to eat just once per day, if at all. So eating every few hours has been a huge challenge that I know I will continue to struggle with. I don't know why, I guess years of bad training, but I don't get hungry like most people.

I quit smoking about a week and a half ago, and strangely enough, have had no difficulty with quitting. I have no cravings. Sometimes I miss the "habit" of smoking when I am stuck in traffic, or have a stressful day, but not the nicotine. I feel very blessed for it to have been so easy. My caffeine intake has been almost nothing most days, and no more than two diet sodas on a bad day. I think the change in diet may be helping me with some of my other bad habits because I DEFINITELY feel better.

My goals this week are to up my meal intake to at least four times per day. I am setting the timer on my watch for that. If I can get myself consistent with four meals this week, then hopefully by next week I can get where I need to be. The only bad thing, in case anyone has any suggestions, is that my insomnia has definitely gotten worse. I think I have slept a total of three hours since Thursday, but I seem to have all my faculties and I feel great. Maybe I'm just getting old!

As far as challenges, I miss pasta. I miss it a lot. But that is really the only craving that I struggle with. I don't know what I can do about that. I wondered about whole wheat pasta, or spinach pasta, but I couldn't get clarity from the book. If anyone knows, please leave a comment.

Hope everyone else is doing well.