30 Days to Feeling Fit

Today is actually the 7th day of Byron and mine's 30 Days to Feeling Fit. We are eliminating alcohol (a big one for us), sugar, dairy, white flour, high gylcemic fruits and starches, caffeine and pork. It has been interesting so far.

Why are we doing this? You may ask. Mainly health reasons. Since I started going through menopause I have gained about 10-12 pounds and have not had any success losing any weight. I have gone to boot-camp, walked for miles, watched what I ate. Everything!! So many people have had great success with the 30 Days to Feeling Fit program that I thought I would give it a try. I had tried in the past, but I was not 100% committed or 100% faithful. I realize now that this program only works when you follow it completely. You may make a few minor mistakes along the way, that won't affect your results but it is important to follow the program as closely as possible. I want to point out that Byron deserves the credit for instigating this. He knows how I have struggled to get this weight off and his blood pressure has been high. He had been reading about how alcohol and diet can affect your blood pressure and overall well-being. He suggested that we go "on the wagon" for 3 weeks. He wanted to see if it would affect his blood pressure at all. I suggested that since we were going to do that, we might as well follow the Arbonne 30 Days to Feeling Fit program designed by Dr. Barbara Beaty of Palm Springs, CA. She is an Arbonne Consultant and designed this program for her patients with excellent results.

The Burleson 30 Days to Feeling Fit was born! We started on Monday, January 9, 2012. We cleaned out our refrigerator from any holiday left overs and made a trip to the grocery store with the plan in hand. What is so nice about the program Dr. Beaty designed is it comes with a shopping list and recipes!

About the third day, I had a headache and Byron said I was irritable. I suppose from the lack of caffeine. Although, Arbonne has a fizzy tab that has some caffeine in it. I guess I was a pretty heavy coffee drinker. I like it strong and would happily make myself an espresso in the afternoon. YUM!

Going without sugar has been interesting. I didn't think I was much of a sugar addict, but today I noticed that I have a sugar craving. I was able to satisfy it with an Arbonne Essentials Chocolate Fit Chew. I chewed it very slowly to get a longer sensation of sweetness. Now I am sipping on an Arbonne Pomegranate Energy drink and that is helping as well. It is sweetened with stevia.

Today is Sunday and I made Byron and me a nice omelet with sauteed onions, peppers and beans with a side of avocado. It was quite delicious, but since I typically have an Arbonne protein shake for breakfast, I didn't get my sweet sensation fix.

Both the chew, energy drink and protein drink are sweetened with stevia primarily so the sugar content is low, but we get the sweet flavor.

Abstaining from alcohol presents its own challenges. The first few days I noticed that when I went into the kitchen to cook dinner I would miss my friend that glass of red wine. I am used to pouring myself a glass of wine and sipping on it as I cook dinner and listen to Adele or Nora Jones or some other favorite music. It is now Sunday, 7 days later and I noticed last night when I went to cook dinner, I didn't miss the wine. So that was an encouraging thing to me. Now, don't get me wrong, I love red wine and I plan to go back to it after this 30 days is up!

Going out to dinner has posed a bit of a challenge as well. More so for Byron than myself. Mainly, I suppose is because I am used to going out to lunch during the work week and ordering no alcohol and asking the waiter to substitute this for that and leave off the butter, etc. to accommodate my program. I just tell the waiter I am on a strict diet for health reasons and they are typically very helpful. Yesterday, however Byron and I stopped for lunch after the basketball game and so that is what I did. Byron was a little embarrassed because I asked the waiter to substitute so many things, but again I just smiled at the waiter and told him we were on a strict diet for health purposes and he was very helpful. Byron is used to having a beer with lunch on the week-ends so he was uncomfortable ordering water. Later in the car he told me that he noticed everyone in the restaurant had an alcoholic beverage. This amused me, because I didn't notice that. But, I was sitting facing the fireplace and he was sitting facing the crowd.

The results are encouraging even after just 1 week. I am down 5 lbs. and Byron's blood pressure is lower. I feel great too. I noticed that the aches in my knees are gone. That is really exciting because no one likes aches in their bones!!

Well, off to the park. It is a beautiful 60 degree day and I am going for a walk.
God bless, Mari