ANNIVERSARY MONTH: It was 10 years ago this month that I knew I had taken off 100 lbs. They are still off!

POST #833
Ten years ago, on October 2, my birthday, I realized that my clothes were rather loose.  I ultimately took off @100lbs.

So, now, it has been 10 years that  I have kept the weight off.  I hope you will understand if I reach around and pat myself on the back.  Yeah, I’m proud.  Today, instead of wearing a size 22, I am wearing a size 2.

 

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THEY SAY YOU’RE LOOKING TOO SKINNY

I’ve just watched an interesting video from Philip McClusky—wait, stop! Before you watch the video, read here first.  This video inspired me to write out something that I’ve been feeling, thinking for quite some time.

I used to weigh 225 pounds.  I got there by forgetting what I knew about nutrition, at least as far as it concerned me.  I mean, I could still counsel my nutrition clients and see them through to the goals they had set, but I was just “big-boned” (there are so many other euphemisms for “huge”, “a whale”, “fat” – even my orthopedist avoided the “FAT” word by telling me that I was a “big girl”).

One day, I just got it all together – a combination of raw and low-carb, and the pounds came off.  It took me a year to take off 100 lbs.

I will start by saying that I was extremely fortunate to be in the care of a wonderful chiropractor at the time.  When she noticed that I had lost some weight (I’d gone from a size 20 to a size 12), I asked her to tell me if she thought I was getting anorexic-looking, and she agreed to do so.  (to this date, she has never told me that I look too thin).

Be that as it may, when I dropped below the teens in sizes, I started to hear from close friends that I looked sick. Fortunately, I was sufficiently goal-oriented (and sane) to notice that those who complained about my looks were still where I had been when I started my journey down the scale.  (It seems funny to me that people would never dare tell someone that they have put on a ton of weight and look awful, but they think nothing of telling you that you are too skinny).

My only fans were my chiropractor, my mother, and my sister.  Even my PCP suggested that I was too thin (we are talking here about a rail-thin, unhappy-looking middle-aged Korean from Korea woman).  I challenged her, telling her that I would like to be as svelte as she was, and she told me that American women can’t do that (oh racist so-and-so… I bit my tongue so hard it almost fell off)

My best friend stopped talking to me.  That could have been that I was just so excited about being skinny (I was about a size 4 when that happened) that I was talking too much about clothes and trying to get her to try what had gotten me to where I was (last I saw of her, she was a square – about 5ft tall and 5ft wide)

My other good friend, who had put on a lot of weight right around the time I had (call it weight-opause), was incredibly graphic, showing me where I had lines on my face that she thought shouldn’t be there, even though her beefy face had the same sort of lines.

I finally learned to say to people who complained that “I looked good” (my assessment of what I saw in the mirror), by saying that I looked to thin, or I looked sick, “Thank you.  I’m working on this.”

That became fun, as their  critical faces became confused.

My chiropractor never said a word about my being too thin until I put some pounds back on and she asked me what that was on my stomach.  (Bless her soul, she understood my paranoia, and had found a way to tell me that I was “going back to hell” if I didn’t turn things around)

I took off 100 lbs 10 years ago.  I have had most of them off for all that time.  About 2 years ago, I drifted up 20 lbs. and it has taken me that past 2 years to really get them off. (interestingly, in the time that I have been fighting those 20 lbs, I have had comments about how I had put on weight)

So, here is my take on how these things go.

When you start to lose weight (if that is what you want to do), the people around you who are heavy are going to complain to you, and criticize your efforts.  (you just have to keep your head on straight and remember your goals)

If you lose weight and meet your goals and are happy, then, if you put on 10 or 20 lbs, people around you are going to complain about that.

Face it.  Your body size is what you want.  You cannot expect much support when you are taking off weight, unless you are working with a kind friend who has already gone that route (then you may find yourself dealing with a drill sergeant), or a nutritionist.  Even doctors are scary territory – if you take off a lot of weight without their permission, they can get weird on you. (the interesting exception for me was that my PCP’s husband, who was also in the practice, and whom I occasionally saw, asked me how I had taken off the weight because he wanted to take off some weight)

If you want to take off some weight, do it, knowing that you are right. Don’t listen to anyone else.  (People around you who should take off weight are going to be critical, because you are doing what they want to do, or because you are changing and they are not). What you need to understand is that there are any number of saboteurs out there who don’t want to see you succeed, for whatever reason. They may be in your own family, they may be your best friends, or whatever.  Just be aware that they are out there, and recognize when they step in.  Don’t let them stop you.

Get with a doctor who understands the work  you are undertaking and already thinks you need to lose weight.

A raw vegan diet, particularly one high in protein and low in carbs, really can help you lose weighteasily and quickly.

Ani Phyo’s 15 DAY FAT BLAST

Well, I did finish Ani’s 15-day Fat Blast… I guess we can see that I am not the person to give you day-by-day updates.  I liked it well enough… As I have previously mentioned, I did email Ani Phyo to ask her if I had to do the varied diet, or if I could stick with one thing, i.e., one breakfast smoothie, or one evening soup, etc.  I never received an answer from Ani Phyo (which fact has made me like her much less – always, before, when I have approached a raw vegan book author with questions about the recipes In the book I have bought, they have been very helpful.

Anyway, I just pretty much stayed with the blueberry shake throughout the whole 15 days.  Sometimes I did do a banana shake, and, in the last days, I did a banana-blueberry shake, based on both shakes.

I ate spinach salad until the spinach I’d bought started to wilt. Then I made a big spinach/sauerkraut salad.

I liked the tomato soup, the coconut tomato soup, and the red bell pepper soup, so I stuck with those.

When I was finishing up, I went back and read what Ani Phyo  included after the diet info.  There, I found a lot of the usual – eat what you want to when you want to. Ha!  This seems to me like a disclaimer. You eat what you want to, and you will not get the results promised in the title.

By the middle of the Fat Blast, I found I needed to add a laxative tea at night.  Things just weren’t moving through. I was eating things which were suggested, and I was using a blender, as opposed to a juicer, but needed some additional help to perform my morning ablutions.

I am happy to tell you that I came down  to suing two or three of the shakes pretty much exclusively. 1    I found that the blueberry shake, and the banana shake worked well for me throughout the diet. A big reason there was finances.I just really didn’t have enough money to add in all of those lovely ideas that are suggested in the program.

Regardless, I did stick with the *idea* of the program, and I did lose at least one size (I don’t have a scale, so I can’t tell you what the 9weight equivalent was – I just got into my jeans and did not have to hold my breath to close them. I was able to put on a couple of dresses and not look like I was selling something.  In one case, I was able to wear a dress I’d received as a gift, for the first time. Whoopee!

Since I am a veteran Master Cleanser, the whole time I was going through this Fat Blast, I felt a strong desire to do the salt cleanse.  I think that was why I finally went to the laxative tea in the last days. I avoided using laxatives or the salt cleanse during the first part of the diet because I wanted to know how the diet worked.  My experience, in the end, was that I needed a little more excitement to move me, so I finally resorted  to the laxative tea.

Should you do this diet?  I’d say yes. If you have enough money to eat all the things on the diet, it will be fun (all of the recipes are easy to prepare).  If you adhere even moderately strictly to this diet, you will lose at least 15 pounds.

ANI OKEN’S NEW BOOK — ANI’S 15 DAY FAT BLAST

POST #744
I don’t usually get excited about raw food nutrition books (count the books I have not talked about), but Ani Oken’s new book, ANI’S 15-DAY FAT BLAST is an exception to my rule, primarily because she recognizes everything that I have always held true (basically, if you want to lose weight, you need to amp up the protein, eat low-carb vegeables and fruit, and also include ample fats (of the good kind).

Just yesterday, I received ANI’S 15-DAY FAT BLAST, by Ani Phyo.  I inhaled this book.  Okay, I read what I thought would be interesting, then went back and read the beginning, then went back and read through the end.  What a great book!  I already knew most of these things, but the way in which Ani has put them together, as well as the shopping lists and recipes makes the book a must-have for my purposes.

Interestingly, the beginning of the book reads like one of those obnoxious ads you get from the self-styled gurus of raw (you know who I mean), with the long come on, the emphatic sales talk  (but wait! I already have the book in my hands—I don’t have to read through all this to find the exorbitant price!  Realizing this relaxed me enough to be able to read through the intro and be more receptive to the plan).

My take is that this is sort of like the Master Cleanse, only with food.  The plan starts with a short juice fast (the  yummy looking recipes for smoothies and soups make it look zipless; you’d be hard-pressed to feel deprived at all). After that, you add in more solid food taken from a list of fat-burning, metabolism-boosting vegetables, fruit, and superfoods).  The recipes are all right there, and, according to the book, won’t take but a few minutes to prepare.

Master Cleanse is easier (no thinking about what to prepare; only one recipe), but this plan seems like something you could fall into a pattern with and sustain easily over a protracted period of time – there’s plenty of variety.  I’d even venture to say there are more recipes in Ani’s 15-Day Fat Blast than I would normally use at home in a month.  Actuallly, there are 80 or so recipes in the book, which make it worthwhile even if you just want another of Ani’s wonderful recipe collections.

I’m off to write up my shopping list, so I can start right away!