My 6 week start-up! 1-17-09 to 2-27-09

1/17/09 The Beginning

Well, I am nearly though my 6 week start-up and I FEEL GREAT! I wish some of you knew me before I started this plan. I had the worse SAD (Standard American Diet) diet of anyone I know. I would have donuts every morning, a candy bar for a snack, burgers or tacos for lunch and again at dinner and probably DQ for dessert! I did that most of the time! I was eating constantly. I tried Weight Watchers so many times, but it didn't address my cravings, and I ended up eating all my points in junk! I tried Atkins, the Southbeach Diet, and Nutrasystem, (back in "the day"). I tried to just "quit eating sugar" cold turkey, but that didn't work. I thought I was a failure, because my sugar addiction has won the battle against my will power every time. I didn't want to be fat. I didn't want to crave chocolate, but I did. My weight was so out of control that I didn't see myself ever losing any weight. How could I if I couldn't win the sugar battle?

Well, I had been a dieting failure so many times that when 2009 rolled around, I decided not to even include that in my resolution. I decided I would commit to "getting healthy" and not worry about weight loss. I was looking for a web sight that offered an online support system as I tend to really get a lot out of those types of supports. I happened upon Peertrainer.com. They had support for all types of weight loss diets, but what happened to catch my eye was their support center for a group called "Eat to Live". I discovered that this book taught about nutrition, which fell in line with what I wanted. Well I ran out and bought the book "Eat to Live" by Dr. Joel Furhman and read it in no time flat! I loved what it said, and I was excited about starting the plan. I decided that I would start after my next pay day which was January 15th. After I finally got to the grocery store, I was ready to start on the 17th. (or so I thought) I had the veggies. I had the fruit. I even had some recipes, but my first week was like repeatedly walking into a wall like a wind-up toy. I wasn't organized enough. But I slowly got the hang of it. And the best part is that I LOVED the food! I was already on the ETL plan for several weeks before my "Eat for Health" books arrived. These books were also written by Dr. Fuhrman but they were newer and included a cook book. I read those books cover to cover also. I had to giggle when I read Dr. Fuhrman's suggestions in his new book about being organized and really ready to start on the plan when I thought about how I struggled my first weeks.

The Dr. Furhman plan was all about "nutrient density". The whole point of this plan is to consume foods that have the highest nutrients per calorie. This meant eating a completely plant-based diet; fruits, vegatables, nuts and seeds, and beans - No meat, no dairy, no cheese, no ice-cream, no butter, no yogart, no pasta.... I had to change the way I looked at food. I had to come to the conclusion that those foods are poison to me. It couldn't be about what foods I couldn't have. It had to be about the foods I COULD have. Dr. F says that your tastes will change the longer you eat this way, and eventually you will come to prefer this style of eating over the SAD diet I was eating before. I held onto this idea with a high level of faith that it would be true.

The book instructed everyone to eat 1 pound of cooked vegetables, and 1 pound of raw vegetables PER DAY. WHAT? Who can eat this much? Well, as it turns out, one pound is not as much as you might think. For instance, one potatoe or tomato can weigh a pound. That's not too bad. I shocked myself by being able to snarf down my two pounds fairly easily. I as glad. This was going to be easy! Well, with one exception. I am expected to eat TONS of greens; collard greens, kale, mustard greens, turnip greens, greens, greens, greens. I HATE GREENS I hate everything about them. I try and try to eat them. And I wasted tons and tons of them because they went bad as I ignored them in my fridge. But after 5 weeks on my initial 6 week start-up plan, I started making green smoothies. That's right; GREEN smoothies! They are greens blended with fruit, and maybe some nuts and/or soy milk. I have had one every day (almost) since my 5th week. The only days I have missed are the days I had a big salad as my greens. I started out using Romaine Lettuce. It wasn't as bad as the others. This week I bought Kale. My plan is to add a bit of it to every smoothie, gradually increasing the amount I add until I am down to only Kale and fruit. That's the plan, anyway.

One of my favorite parts of this plan is that you can eat nuts or seeds every day. I love nuts. I ate them even before this plan. The trouble is that I am only allowed to eat 1 ounce a day, which is barely a small handful. I started out eating too many nuts, and they were salty. (salt is a big no-no when you are trying to attain excellent health). Since my start-up, I now eat the allowed 1 oz (usually), and they are naked almonds instead of salty peanuts! The ETL plan also suggests that you eat very little oil. I started out using oil to saute' a bunch of stuff, and coat veggies for roasting. Now I rarely use oil.

The ETL plan has been a huge blessing already with regard to my health. Before I started the plan, I had reflux. It got so bad toward the end that I woke up on more than one occasion to stomach bile coming out my nose! (and that hurts like a &^%$#) That ended the day I started! I was SO HAPPY about that. Also before I started I had this weird sickness where I would wake up nauseous 3-4 days a week, and would throw up. It would last for several hours, and then go away. I didn't even realize this had completely disappeared until Tammy pointed it out to me!! I have also seen my skin change. It is softer. I don't really know the reason for this, but it did change. I have been told I have a "glow" now. That's nice!

By the end of my 6 week start-up period (which ended on the 27th of February), I had lost 20 pounds! I lost the first 15 in about 3 days (lol... it seemed that fast) but since I have slowed down. That's fine with me. Weight loss is lovely side effect of this whole 'healthy" thing... so I'm happy for any loss! I have so much energy, and I have NO CRAVINGS. I am a true testament to the statement that cravings are your body's way of trying to get you to eat nutrients. Once I was eating correctly, the cravings were gone. I went from this sugar slave to being in control of my future!

I have learned SO MUCH in the past 6 weeks. I have to say that learning all of this information has had kind of a big learning curve because I had to relearn everything I thought I knew. But it's been a wonderful 6 weeks! Dr. Fuhrman has saved my life. I sincerely mean that. This is usually the point in a "Diet' that I quit. My sugar cravings would have gotten the best of me. But I feel SO EXCITED about this eating plan and I can totally see myself doing this for life!

In the past 6 weeks, the only food I put in my mouth that wasn't on the plan was some honey mustard dressing when I was at my mom's house. It was the lesser of all the evils, and I had it on a salad. Otherwise, every other thing I ate was good for me. As I mentioned before, sometimes I over ate some things, and I have a lot of refining to do, but I feel good about how I have stuck to it.

Well, my plan is to start journalling what I eat on a daily basis to help keep myself accountable. Feel free to post your feelings or suggestions!