No processed food, no bread, no dairy, make sure your in Keto, blend everything together as a shake, I’ve done it all, have you?!?
I found that a new and exciting diet would work well for me to start with. I would jump in with enthusiasm, buy all of the ingredients I’ve never heard of before and get to work on those new recipes. The weight would start to come off and I would be thrilled. Eventually, the novelty would wear off, I’d have a bad day, my girls would make cookies, life would move on and I’d snap back to my old ways.
We always hear ‘diets don’t work’ and I’m living proof of that. I find I like comfort and staying the same, trying to change too quickly, even when those changes are good for me, leads to self sabotage. Always looking for that One Thing that pushes those numbers down the scale once and for all, lead me to disappointment over and over.
Eventually I decided to love myself exactly as I was, regardless of what the scale said. Loving myself meant eating well, not junk food, getting some exercise and cooking good meals for my family. I let go of all the crazy dieting and my weight steadied, I was definitely overweight but comfortable in my own skin. This worked well for me until I ran into serious health issues.
After fighting Breast Caner, it was strongly suggested that my lifestyle needed to change. For me to live a long and happy life, I needed to lose weight and get moving, my body was not happy with the stress of the extra weight so it had to go.
My 28 Days Live Longer Plan was developed as I sat in my recliner recovering from another surgery. Exhausted from months of chemo, I couldn’t even walk my dog to the corner and back, how was I going to get my health back, it was going to have to start slow.
I tried to take into account that I’m 54, that I don’t like change, I always struggle to follow a meal plan and have little will power. I recognized that I had been eating good fresh food because I wanted that for my family, and it did steady my weight, just at too high of a number on the scale. Maybe I could just slowly tweak my regular habits and not scare myself into self sabotage and disappointment.
This is not a typical diet plan with lists of rules and meal plans. It is a journey that works on your health mindset each day for 28 days and then you start the cycle again. The hope is that this journey of eating well and exercising will happen so slowly and effortlessly that it will become a new normal, a new habit.
My doctors were thrilled with the plan, really I think they would have agreed to almost anything if they thought it would get the weight off, and so the next chapter of my health journey began!
Have I reached my goal, become a success story? I’ve just begun, and already I’m out of that recliner, able to take both my dogs for a walk around the block and to me that feels like success.
Follow along as I work my way through the next cycle of My 28 Days Live Longer Plan!
I’m excited to continue my journey and am so excited for you to join me and start living a happier, healthier, longer life.
