Friday, April 17, 2015

10 More Days and 10 More Days and 10 More ....

Just a little update on my 10 days.

So, after my initial 10 days ended, I did another 10 days.  I followed the diet completely and did my walking workouts more often than not, and I lost 2 additional pounds. 

That puts me at 6 pounds lost since March 23.

So I figured I might as well keep going and decided to do ANOTHER 10 days.  So far, I'm 6 days in and I'm fluctuating around 1 pound lost.  I say fluctuating because in the last 3 days the scale has been doing up and down things and it hasn't settled on a number yet but I feel confident that I'll end the 10 days down more.  I HOPING for 2 pounds but I'll honestly be happy with any amount because, sadly enough, this is the most weight I've lost since I can remember. 

What have I been doing?  I've been following the diet about 99% of the time.  I've been eating grain, dairy, white potato/starchy vegetable and sugar free.  I say 99% because I have allowed for a tiny bit of honey to be used in a recipe I've been making the last 2 weeks or so.  I also just started eating sweet potatoes to help keep my carb count up.  Believe it or not I have been having a hard time eating ENOUGH carbs.  Never thought I'd say that.  Overall, as time goes on, I am NOT finding this hard at all.  Well, at least for right now I'm not.  All I know is that I'm so happy that something seems to be working that I'm more than willing to do this for however long it takes.

I've also been going on walks every week.  I'd say about 4 days a week I'll do a very fast, moderate effort 30 minute walk.  Just to give you an idea of intensity, they are usually with hills and require some effort.  It is not, however, the hardest workout I've ever done in my life.  My next step workout wise will be adding in some circuit training (think 30 day shred kind of workouts).  I'm hoping to start that either today or this weekend.

And that's it.  April 21st will be day 10 of my current cycle.  It will also be day 30 since I began.  I'll let you know what happens.  My goal is 8 pounds total!




 


Thursday, April 2, 2015

The Blood Sugar Solution: 10 day detox Final Results

Yesterday was my 10th day of the detox.  And I'll tell you, I was so in the groove with this thing, that I hardly remembered that it was the "last day". 

So in 10 days, I lost 4.0 total pounds, 3 1/2 inches off my bust, 1.5 inches from my belly button, 1.5 inches from my hips, and 1/2 an inch from my thigh.

Those are the only areas that he instructs you to measure.  But I added 2 areas of my own, my natural waist (I'm naturally short waisted so my belly button is definitely not my waist) and my ribs (area right beneath bust).  Oddly enough, I lost ZERO inches from those 2 areas.  I say oddly enough, because I definitely felt like I had.

In all truthfulness, I did not do every protocol that he asked.  I tried very hard but there were a lot of steps each day and honestly I just didn't get to them all.  I wrote in a journal and did detox baths most of the time for the first half, but once the weekend came I was so busy I completely forgot about them.  I NEVER did the breathing exercises that he suggested mainly because I always remembered them right as I was falling asleep and at that point, I did not care.  I did NOT use any of his recipes because the few I did try, I did not like at all.  I also did not take every one of his prescribed supplements, particularly the PGX he pushes pretty hard.  My own NP has me on supplements and most of them are the ones he recommends but I didn't want to stray from anything she's doing just because a book told me to.  I also did not walk/exercise 30 minutes every day.

Now for the things I DID do.  I stuck to his dietary guidelines the entire time.  No sugar, no grains, no dairy, and no starchy anything.  For breakfast I did a detox shake.  For lunch, I typically did a salad or soup of my own making that followed his guidelines and for dinner I had protein and veggies.  I also got my 7-8 hours of sleep per night.  That part was easy because I usually always get this much sleep if not more.  I love my sleep.  I also had a support system.  My fiance did the entire thing with me even though he has zero problems with blood sugar or weight.  So if I had doubts or was having a bad day, I had someone to talk to.  And while I didn't do 30 minutes of walking every single day, I did do 30 minutes most days.

Conclusion?
I absolutely think that if you follow the diet protocol, get your sleep, and walk (or get exercise) when you can, you'll get results, whether it's feeling great, losing inches, or losing pounds.  Or maybe even all 3 (like me!).  Everything else that is required is definitely helpful especially if you are a person who is crazy stressed out but if all the work looks overwhelming just stick to those 3 and do your best with the other stuff. 


Now what?

At the end of the book, he recommends some strategies for once you finish the 10 days.  I've chosen the 'Super Advanced Plan' (a fancy name for what I've been doing the last 10 days).  So I will continue to avoid processed foods, sugar, dairy, gluten/grains, starchy vegetables, and most fruit (I'm allowed berries or kiwi in the morning).  I'm also supposed to continue with the 30 minutes of exercise, the breathing breaks, detox baths, journaling, tracking, hydration, 7-8 hours of sleep, and hefty list of supplements every day.

That's a lot of stuff right?  Let's see, I definitely want to do my best to get in 30 minutes of walking every day and to get my sleep so I will focus on those.  The breathing breaks, hydration and tracking stuff I probably won't worry with.  I don't like tracking my measurements every day because I tend to let that kind of stuff get inside my head.   The detox baths are awesome and help me sleep so I will try to get as many in as I can but I don't personally feel the need to have one every single night.  What's left?  Oh the journaling.  I didn't journal the whole 10 days the first time so I want to try to do that for the next 10 days.  In the book, each day he lists questions/topics for you to consider and to write about.  Some of them are very thoughtful subjects so I WOULD like to try to do that.  And finally, the supplements.  Again, I will only take what has been prescribed to me by my doctor.

And that's it.  I'll report back in 10 days so we can see what happens when you continue.  Hopefully it's good stuff.



























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30 Days to ... by JH is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.