Oct. 1st / 1 month / down 17lbs

I lost over three of these this month!

Well, it's been 1 month and my body is liking the better nutrition! My aches, pains and stiffness are disappearing. No surprise because all the foods I was eating were inflammatory (white flour, sugar, bad carbs). It is totally amazing -- so black and white -- in terms of the right thing to do for my body. 

As in the past, I have to treat my food issues like a real addiction so I did not eat any sugar and very little white flour products during the last month. Besides the Isagenix shakes, I ate lots of organic vegetables in salads (adding avocados, which I adore).

So it is going to be a long road back to where I was before (another 70lbs to go) but I have to do this. I know the way my body felt before (aging quickly) and know how I feel now. I want to be around a long time for my kids so I need to do this once and for all.

I know I am losing fat and not muscle because I am consuming the best protein. And last time I did this I got weighed periodically on an expensive body fat scale at the Dr office.  I have everything I need to succeed!

Sept. 1st, starting fresh

Time to cleanse... and cleanse... and cleanse...
It's been a long time since I last blogged and that's because I haven't been able to go more than two weeks without sugar. I tell myself I can have some in moderation but when you have an real addiction to something, that just doesn't work.

So I have been eating (lots of) really unhealthy food and have regained weight!! In the past I had seen friends gain weight back and thought that would NEVER be me. But I've always said, it's easy to lose weight but difficult to keep it off.


I "started" to eat healthy again on Sept. 1 and feel much better already. It's been only three days and I have a long way to go but I am determined to reach my goal of losing 100 pounds.

Everything I've learned is in this blog so I think I'll take the time and read it all again.
 
I am truly grateful to have the best nutrition in Isagenix and just need to eat that in conjunction with other healthy foods like I did before. And NO SUGAR, period. I also need to cleanse two days per week, I'm thinking twice a month, to get out all the junk I've accumulated.

I am going to just weigh myself once a month. So I will post back after Oct. 1 to blog results.

Almost out of the woods...

Last Sat. & Sun. I did a two-day Isagenix cleanse and felt MUCH better on Monday in terms of control over sugar (enemy #1) and I was fine all week. 

I was tested yesterday when I found myself alone in the same room with a huge tray of cookies. AND... I didn't have the slightest urge to take one. No internal dialogue at all and no physical cravings.

It's amazing when I don't have the toxic sugar in my body how easy it is to just pass up cookies, etc. and how impossible it is to pass it up when I do have sugar in my system. 

People say "wow, you have such great willpower!"  Has my willpower suddenly changed?? NO!  It is virtually impossible for my willpower to have any chance of working when the stuff is in my system. So don't beat yourself up for having no willpower -- you DO have willpower but it's being overridden by the addictive nature of sugar/fats.

60 Minutes - Is Sugar Toxic?

Tonight CBS 60 Minutes aired "Is Sugar Toxic?"  Anyone reading this blog already knows the answer to that :). Of course there wasn't anything new to me in that report (including that sugar fuels the growth of certain cancer cells) but it makes me understand again why it's been so hard for me to reach my goal.

The reason why I have not reached my goal yet is because each time I was within 10 lbs I broke my sugar fast and ate a small bite of something. The reason why I sabotaged myself is another issue.

Anyway, here is a link to the 60 Minutes segment 

Why is everyone on a diet?

If you saw the documentary FOOD MATTERS you'll want to see their new movie HUNGRY FOR CHANGE. 

Find out why diet soda makes you fatter... what substance we eat everyday is as addictive as drugs (if you've been reading this blog you know what that is)... what your fat is holding on to... what parsley and cilantro can do...

Last day (March 31st) to watch this free: http://www.hungryforchange.tv/online-premiere

Did you know that Total Blueberry Pomegranate Cereal does not contain ANY blueberries OR pomegranates. It does contain is blue dye! 

Learn more about the "foods" you are eating in this movie.

The road to 100lbs continues...

Last post I was doing GREAT... then on my birthday - Feb. 1 (turned 51) - my colleagues at work got me a cake :(.  They knew of my struggles with sugar but had seen me eating the cookies etc. over the holidays and didn't realize I was "off sugar" again - not their fault. I guess I should have preemptively told them to skip the traditional cake. Anyway, I could have refused it but I didn't. It would have created an awkward situation and is just like me to be empathetic.

So, again proof that I can't just have a bite of something without going back in to a cycle of sugar fixes. I struggled most of Feb., having great days of healthy eating then slips of sugar. Getting bored of this? So am I!

sweet but deadly

A year ago I remember seeing people who had lost a lot of weight with Isagenix gain a lot back and I would just shake my head and say "what's wrong with them?" "How could they do that to themselves, that won't be me." Well it's always been true that it's easier to lose weight than keep it off and that is because when people go back to eating "regular food" that regular food is actually junk and keeps us craving the real stuff (reference Dr Oz's quote below).

So I haven't had sugar in five days... so help me God if I eat any sugar again I will be back writing the same BS. 


The solutions is simple: (Isagenix nutrition) + (7-8 hrs sleep) - (sugar and most grains) = weight loss. Yes, exercise if I have time but I've seen after months at the gym last year that for me it's the food that matters most.

1 week no sugar

I am pretty much out of the woods now... we had a catered box lunch at work which included a giant chocolate chip cookie from Panera! My favorite... one that I would go out of my way to buy.  I put the cookie aside then brought two home for my kids. The cookies were in my bag on the 40 min. ride home and I didn't even remember they were there (they weren't calling out to me). So this is how easy it is when sugar is out of my system. I just can't tell myself that it's ok to have one bite because I would have eaten the whole cookie, then another, then would be looking for more sugar for the rest of the day. It's highly addictive, see my post from 11/1/10 on the book The End of Overeating.

Gave up sugar on MLK day so it's been a solid week and I've lost 10lbs (granted this was pretty easy to do coming off a week of crazy eating). Need to schedule a two-day cleanse, my friend just finished hers and was positively glowing on Facebook.

Three days no sugar...

It's been three days with no sugar and very little white flour (I had a little bit of rice pilaf and a few pretzels). But the key for me is not having sugar. Once I go about 5 days I'll be OK but it's getting past that point to get it out of my system so I don't have a relapse. 

I've already lost 7lbs in two days because I started drinking more water again and eliminated the bad carbs. Of course I AM able to have IsaDelight dark chocolates (about as much sugar as 1/4 of an apple or something like that) -- dark chocolate is mood enhancing, love it and these don't trigger sugar cravings.  Apparently they now have a milk chocolate version for people who don't like dark (for me the darker the better :)

Gwyneth Paltrow's GOOP Clean Cleanse

I am a fan of Gwyneth and subscribe to her GOOP email - newsletter from her www.goop.com site. 

I read a lot about nutrition so I was curious when her last newsletter touted Dr. Alejandro Junger's Clean Cleanse. I saw that it includes protein shakes (drinking a shake for breakfast and dinner and a healthy meal for lunch - just like Isagenix).  It touts some of the same good stuff as Isagenix (probiotics, digestive enzymes) but the ingredients in Isagenix blow these away!  If you do the research - looking up each ingredient and the source - I guarantee you'll agree that Isagenix is superior - nothing compares. 

The cost for the GOOP clean cleanse is  $425 for a 21 day program so it's considerably more than Isagenix. Also, I didn't see a money back guarantee like Isagenix has.

Although "cleansing" is an ancient tradition, most people haven't heard of it so the fact that she promotes it on her GOOP site helps educate people. Also, Gwyneth believes in clean eating and she is dedicated to her workout regime so I admire her for that. She always looks amazing and part of that is what radiates from the inside!

Dr Oz - "the #1 reason why Americans are heavy"

On page 99 of the January 2012 Oprah magazine, in an interview with Dr. Oz, he states that...

"The number one reason Americans are heavy: The brain, very smartly, wants nutrition. But the average American is eating empty calories. So you finish that 2,000 calories and your brain says, Keep going until you get nutrients."

Glad to hear someone confirm what we know from Isagneix - why Shakes, why Ionix? Because they are super nutrition and low calorie. End of story.