First Post

So this is my first post. I have been preparing to start my diet, again.  My start date is January 6th. I have done a lot to prepare so far. First and foremost, I am under the care of a Weight Loss Specialist Doctor and have been for a couple of years.  I have successfully already lost about twenty-five pounds so far. But even more amazing, the doctor tests my total body composition every time I'm in his office and I have lost a total of more that fifty pounds of fat! So, some of that has transferred to muscle.

Second, this time around, I am seeing a weight loss therapist. She has had me think about mindful eating  and really make a plan for starting my diet. I have started a journal and she's given me a few writing assignments. Things like…

Write down things you thought when you were successful on other diets.
Make an argument to yourself about what you would say to yourself to get yourself to go off the diet and then argue to try to stay on it.
Write down the reasons why I am doing this.
Write about caring about myself and building a compassionate, kind, and caring self.

I have also set some small and larger incremental goals along with some non-food rewards for myself.

I guess I should tell you a little about myself… I am 37 years old. I have been overweight since my late 20's because of mixture of depression medications. Also, I have type II diabetes due to the weight and the medications. It's not a healthy mix and this weight loss is a matter of life or death for me.  My doctor has simply asked me, "Do you want a stroke or a heart attack?"  I can honestly say at 37 years old, neither sounds appealing.  At my heaviest, I was around 260 pounds. I am now more around 235. I'll have to get an exact start weight to be more precise about this.

I also thought starting a blog might help keep me inspired and motivated to keep going. I've had trouble staying the course before. I seem to do okay for a few weeks at a time, but it's back to the old habits of eating.

The diet my doctor recommends for me is a modified version of The Duke Diet.  It's a No Starch, No Sugar Diet. It's a challenge to eat this way and even more of a challenge to maintain.  The key to this diet is to PLAN!  Make a PLAN, Stick to the PLAN, and Keep PLANNING! You have to know for the entire week every morsel of food that you are going to eat, for every meal, for every snack. So, I've already made my Weekly Meal Plan for the week I start my diet. I have recipes in hand. I just have to do the grocery shopping and I'll be set!

The idea is no starches and no sugar, so your body goes into ketosis. Ketosis is when your body starts to use the stored fat in your body. This is great! Use up the fat in your body- great way to get rid of it! You just have to STAY in ketosis by continuing not to eat any starches or sugar.  This is the hard part.

I guess I'll keep getting ready! I'm almost getting excited. I have a couple of Pinterest boards that will be good resources if you want to try a diet like this. I share those at a later time!  'Till next time! XO, Jen~