30 Days One Dress Size Challenge - Week One

What a Knowledgeable Nutritionist Can Do for you. 

I tried to do keto or simply no carbs no sugar for a year without systematic method developed by a professional, just reading online and getting confused by having to meet macros.

Started at 212lb on January 1, 2019 and got down to 200.5lb by mid June, but this was a very stressful year in family life and at work and I found myself being very discouraged by not getting into ‘onederland’ (below 200lb that is) and slowly but surely giving into cravings and scale being at 209 by the end of January 2020 (hence a year old pictures - just 3lb shy of starting weight a year ago), when I noticed a post with Deborah’s video shared by a friend of mine in my Facebook news feed.

I liked what I heard 'I will teach you what to eat and when to eat it'. That sounded so much better than trying to meet daily macros without any guidance!!! So I signed up!

 

These are the materials I downloaded once I signed up, but wait, there is more! For women who signed up for 30 day challenge Deborah and a group of her volunteers (customer service, practically, all of them went through the challenge and the 8 weeks program to beat menopausal weight gain) run on Facebook! There were over 10K of us for February 2020 (the pic if from a couple days after the challenge was over and some of of the members were already removed from the group).! What a great community of supportive compassionate women!

 

On day 4 I was down 1.5 lb from day 1, but I started a day after colonoscopy, so some accumulation of waste in the gut is expected which slows the scale down. Besides, I am 59 years old, which presents its own challenge regarding weight loss. So being realistic I hoped to arrive well into ‘onederland’ by day 30. Every mouthful is an act of self love!

I signed up for the program 4 days before my colonoscopy and 5 days before February 1st. Since I had to be on liquids only on January 30, I cooked broth from bones (see pic).

 

I used the leftover of that broth to cook soup from the print out, without meat and actually ended up with stewed vegetables rather than soup. I decided to use them as side dish for my meats.

I couldn’t have any fiber (read ‘free vegetables’) because my doctor had removed a couple of polyps and my gut needs to heal. I happily divided my veggies to trays so I don’t have to keep the pot in the fridge.

After I had a serving of veggies and meatloaf while watching Super Bowl I realized that I have no clue how much my veggies weighed. Came to 30 day challenge Facebook group and read again and again that ‘following instructions exactly’ means that I am supposed to eat exactly amounts of food listed in the booklet and not guess.

Makes sense - if we go to any doctor and get a prescription, we don't attempt to modify it, do we? NO, we follow it to the 't', of course. Eating right is no different. No worries, it was only day 3 for me, so Amazon I went and got myself a digital scale!!! So excited!

My lunch, snacks, and dinner got measured to the ‘t’. Amount of veggies looks like no more than 3 tablespoons, just the right measure of meat - on a plate that is 8.5 inch (or 21cm) in diameter. Berries and pineapple together make one serving of fruit, and Greek yogurt - one fat serving. I actually like measuring my food!

 

Oh, the scale is tiny- the size of my iPad mini. I just put it on the shelf with cookbooks. I planned taking to take my food and scales with me when I went to North Carolina for my granddaughter’s birthday the weekend of my first week of 30 day challenge!

* Disclaimer: If you click on any of the links in my post and go on a shopping spree, I will get commission. Just thought it would be fair if you knew. :-)