I am sick of my diets and eating habits!
In all my efforts with my health, something that I have never fully been happy with has been my diet! Yes I have had success with The Body Ecology Diet and with the Ketogenic Diet and with my very own Total Gut Makeover. But it isn’t so much the food itself that I am not happy with, it’s been the schedule. I am never hungry in the morning and this really messes up my whole day. I just don’t have an appetite between 6 am and 10 am and sometimes even make it all the way until 2pm and realize I haven’t had a proper meal all day.
But I recently read a book recommended to me by one of the members of my Estrogen Dominance Support Group on FaceBook called ‘Once a month’ by Katharina Dalton M.D.. When I read this book, it was like a big fat light bulb went on in my brain and shed tons of light on so many of my own issues surrounding eating and weight gain and weight loss.
Here is the gist, when a person doesn’t eat when they should, a drop in blood sugar causes a release of adrenaline, which automatically moves sugar from cells into the blood, raising the blood sugar level. However this spike in adrenaline over and over everyday, multiple times in a day can start to affect insulin resistance and weight gain can be a bi-product of this bad habit. Especially weight around the mid section.
Too Busy to Eat????
I go through very busy phases in my life and I can operate on adrenaline quite easily. But this is not a healthy habit. Recently I put on a bathing suit and caught a glance in the mirror and just about dropped to my knees with disappointment! First of all I am the skinniest fattest person I know. Legs like twigs with a spare tire around the center. It takes me a lot of focus and energy to keep weight where I need it and none where I don’t. Well I had a few months of not eating breakfast and living on adrenaline, WHAT was I expecting? It wasn’t just about how I was looking but I was also getting exhausted throughout the day. I was also aware that when I did eat I was sticking to high protein and high fat and not getting nearly enough green vegetables and really lacking in fiber! Not good for anyone in life and certainly not good for the Heathy Gut Girl’s image. How can I be Healthy Gut Girl when I’m bloated and sluggish.
My New Friends at Freedom Foods!
Thanks to my friends and Freedom Foods, I had a great reminder about how important it is to feed our good bacteria in our gut with prebiotic fiber and to get healthy starches in our diets daily. All of these high protein, high fat diets are all the rage and so many people are wondering why they are bloated all the time. These diets are lacking crucial prebiotic dietary fiber. And so was I.
Freedom foods invited me to try their 28 day reboot challenge. This original challenge was conducted over a 28-day period, from early February to early March, 2017 and involved 50 Freedom Foods’ Employees substituting their normal daily breakfast with Barley+ Muesli and having a Barley+ Muesli Bar each day as a snack. The collected participant measurements were analyzed by an independent researcher(Decision Design Behavioral Consultancy). After 28 days, participants experienced statistically significant reductions in body weight, body fat and body mass index (BMI), and a significant positive shift in feelings of anger. Simply by giving the digestive system high quality dietary fiber and our gut bacteria the food they need to thrive!
I am thrilled and inspired to take on this 28 day reboot!!!!
Here is a brief description of my daily plan:
I am having 3/4 of a cup of Barley+ Toasted Muesli for breakfast (which is the perfect amount of food for me in the morning) I’ll have it with homemade almond milk
Then for my first snack of the day, a Barley+ snack bar (what a relief to finally have a healthy snack I can rely on for 28 days and not have to skip eating!) Can’t wait to incorporate these bars into creative recipes that I will share with you too.
I will also drink 1/2 my weight in ounces daily in water, especially since my fiber is increasing, it’s important to get enough water!
I will have a sweet potato w/green veggies and a piece of fish or chicken for lunch
and for dinner a big bowl of soup and a side salad
If I get snacky I will do a protein shake.
I will also continue by usual workout routine which is walk 3 x per week, 2 to 3 miles (depending on my energy levels)
And low impact yoga 3 x per week.
Wish me luck and if you want to join me check out freedomfoodsus.com
