Choose To Lose – Revisited

I have written a number of posts about various programs and fitness mentors that I really like. Among those is Choose To Lose – The 7-Day Carb Cycle Solution by Chris Powell. If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you know that I took a stab at this, but it was right after my first Whole30, and I had a problem adding back carbs without eventually losing it (not weight) over sugar.

Now that I have been over 102 days, Whole30ish and without sugar, I feel like I can take another look at this program. The behavior element is in check now. I don’t feel like I need to push the envelope, or indulge in a full day “cheat” like the program offers you the opportunity to do. I realize this element was added into the program to make it a more sustainable program, but after Whole30, I don’t feel like I need “cheat” meals or cheat days. I do take “choice” meals from time to time, and we do take a “choice” day once a month. No cheating…just good, healthy choices that veer from our norm of Whole30 eating.

I thought I would have to forget the Choose to Lose program for good since I don’t eat grains, legumes or artificial or natural sweeteners, but after taking another pass at reading the nutrition section of the book, I see that you eat meat and fruit for breakfast (or meat and a starchy carb-sweet potato will work well here). Well, I can do the meat and fruit. No problem. On low carb days, it is meat and vegetables, and I do that every day. I feel like I can really do this! Incorporate both my Whole30Life way of eating and carb cycling–at the same time.

You may ask why I am wanting to try this again. Even eating Whole30 for over 100 days, I haven’t experienced weight loss to a degree that I feel I should be. Whole30 reduces your meals to just 3 meals a day. According to Choose to Lose, you need 5 meals a day (2 are snacks of course), to keep your metabolism stoked. I believe that people who are already near their ideal weight can do the 3 meals a day (Whole30) and still lose weight, but years of stubborn weight gain and a sluggish metabolism is just not responding to it. It’s time to try again.

Today, I stopped in at Curves and had her measure me again. For the most part, I am unchanged since January. Even given my awesome eating and recent added movement. It’s time to try something else that will not throw everything that I’ve accomplished to the wind but instead will build upon it.

I plan to incorporate the workout in Choose to Lose as well as the Wii Fit Plus running and yoga. I also accomplished a 1 mile walk for charity under 20 minutes. I am already planning to participate in my second one and I am marking them down on my calendar to become that “benefit walker/runner (eventually)” that you love to hate! 🙂 I actually want to start training, so I can reduce my time. Couch-to-5K has been suggested to help with that, so I will look at adding the app to my phone, so I can have some help in building the number of minutes that I jog instead of walk.

So my health fusion is growing. I’ll get my green back on with my green thickies soon. I do miss them. I need to prepare my sweet potatoes in advance for quick/easy morning use. If you’d like to know more about my health fusion, take a look at the categories section. I have more about it there.

I will also be looking to raise money for my Health Coach certification. It’s $600, which pays for the books, helps and tests. I do have a GoFundMe tab above if you would like to help me make that happen. I would greatly appreciate your help of any amount.

A New Me – In Several Ways

If you’ve been following my blog, you know that Chris Powell challenged the negative undertones in my blog through his book Choose to Lose – A 7-day Carb Cycling Program. I haven’t removed everything from my blog because I do want this to be an accurate account of what has happened throughout my journey, but the old tagline is gone. For those who haven’t followed from the beginning, they’d be able to read back and see that at one point, I felt that something about me wasn’t “special” (hence the tagline, “But It Ain’t Special.”)

Actually, Chris helped me to see that my body is just doing what God designed it to do. It is being efficient and storing unused fuel for reserves in the event I need it. Considering the fact I had not been active before now, it was a lot of fuel to store. Changing that one thought process has opened up a whole new world to me. I allow myself now to feel athletic when I am going to workout. I allow myself to feel like the health conscious person I am as I carefully select what I am going to eat and feed my family.

Our society, or at least the American society, has geared everything relating to good health to accommodate the fit and athletic. Clothes for most obese people can’t be purchased in a sporting goods store. This is one point that obese people really battle with. To someone who already is suffering from a negative perspective regarding his/her life, not being able to find appropriate workout clothing or gear to accommodate your size sends a message that “you’re too fat to use these items.” I am so glad that Chris Powell doesn’t view it that way. 

Chris sends the message that we are all “athletes in training.” If you want to be an athlete (or at least have the health of one), then you do what athletes do. You eat what athletes eat. I have been liberated from my own negative thoughts. I have worked along and along with my negative self-talk. It is pretty much in check, but I think sometimes I am a little too open and honest on the blog, and in reality, it is me speaking negatively about myself. I’m all about owning the truth, but it’s totally different when you’re making changes in our life and the status quo is no longer the way to define you.

All of that being said, I decided it was time to reinvent myself a little. I made a few changes to the blog and the theme is a little different. Through small changes here and there, I believe that I will get to where I need to be. You can, too. I hope you enjoy my new virtual home.