Happy New Year!
Despite my lack of posting in 2013, I feel it was finally a decent, healthy year for me. My youngest turned four in December and is really a preschooler at this point - however, my baby/toddler weight is still here. I'm only about 8 pounds from where I was before I became pregnant for the second time and 18 pounds away from my ultimate goal from pre-pregnancy.
So, I'm not done yet!
As I had mentioned, I had been reading quite a few diet and lifestyle books last year. I even tried Dr. Furhman's Eat To Live nutritarian diet for four months. While I felt great I didn't lose any significant amount of weight from it. And honestly, I really missed protein. And eggs. And cheese. I'm glad I ate in that manner for the time I did because it really made me love salads and eat more vegetables. Bottom line, it wasn't really for me.
So, fast forward - err, I mean, rewind back to late October and November of 2013. I had seen a lot of people trying Paleo diets and some other friends on social media had posted about something called The 21 Day Sugar Detox. I looked into it and decided to try it and bought the e-book on November 3rd. I joined the Facebook page and joined the challenge that started on November 4th. It definitely was hard avoiding sugar and gluten and wheat. Some of the changes I made that have stuck since doing the 21DSD - as it's commonly referred to - are:
1. Drinking my coffee with cream or half and half only. No stevia or any other sweetener. (I use a small amount now since I'm on a new diet - more to come on that soon!)
2. Constantly reading labels and not being tricked by food companies.
3. Eating more vegetables and using them in unique ways. For example: Cauliflower can be used as "rice" or crust for pizza.
4. Using more spices for flavor in lieu of sugar or salt. Many health advocates have been calling sugar the new salt for quite some time and I see why. There is sugar in EVERYTHING. Even places where sugar shouldn't need to be added!
5. Trying new recipes and adding them into our regular weekly menus.
I had lost a few pounds on this program and felt my body changed shape a little bit. I did not lose as much weight as I'd have liked (obviously) but was pleased with how it really altered my taste buds and made my cravings for bad carbs go away. A lot of other people on the Facebook challenge group had some really great success. I think the problem for me was I'm already eating pretty healthy foods and was really not consuming a ton of sugar before - maybe more so in the form of fruit sugars. But sugar is still sugar.
Where does that leave me now? Trying to find a program I can stick to long term. I think I may have found it. So stay tuned for my next update over the next week!
~Carly
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