Love this Vivian Green quote.
Two years ago in August, my assistant Mallory was retiring and training my new assistant Mackenzie. At some point in their three week overlap, I had my annual appointment at the lady doctor. I had a major bone to pick with him that day. I had been steadily gaining weight over the last seven years, and the upward trend I was on was not a good plan.
I told him that I didn't understand the weight gain. I am a creature of habit to an almost comical degree---I have literally been eating the same lunch (chicken salad on lettuce or spinach) for the past
20 years. I was eating a modest breakfast and healthy dinners. Save for my glass of chardonnay at night and the occasional piece of dark chocolate following lunch, my eating habits were not riddled with indulgence.
My doctor took out my chart and showed me my weight fluctuation over the last 10 years---about 7 pounds give or take---Doesn't seem like a lot, but my clothes were tight and I was unhappy with that. For someone who had been "naturally" thin all of my life, it was not something I was willing to give up on.
I promptly went back to the office and told my two assistants that my doctor had just told me to live with being "fat and happy."
Here I was over the last couple of years---Thin by most people's standards but struggling to fit
into my clothes.
About a year later I was laying by the pool at Rivercrest next to a woman doctor I am acquainted with. I told her about my visit to the doctor, and how my doctor had told me not to worry---that slight weight gain was just part of getting older.
She asked what I ate on a typical day and I told her.
Breakfast: 1 Banana, 1 egg , a small glass of grapefruit juice and coffee with skim milk and Splenda
Lunch: Chicken salad on Spinach with no dressing
Post Lunch: A piece of Dark Chocolate
Pre-Dinner: Chardonnay and Crackers
Dinner: A protein, a veggie and a starch.
"You're starting your day with sugar," she said matter of factly.
That hadn't even occurred to me. My banana, grapefruit juice and coffee with milk and Splenda had
seemed to be a healthy, well-balanced breakfast, but come to think of it, fruit was sugar, fruit juice was straight sugar and the milk had sugar in it.
She suggested I try an egg with a tiny bit of cheese and a piece of regular bacon. She also suggested I switch to hot tea.
So I did.
Over the next few months, I cut out most all of my carbs and sugar.
For Breakfast I ate an egg, sometimes with a pinch of cheese, and bacon.
For lunch, I continued my daily chicken salad on greens ritual.
For Dinner, I cut out the starch I had been serving and instead served my protein with a vegetable and a simple salad, dressed with olive oil and vinegar.
I replaced my daily chocolate with Russell Stover's sugar free chocolates--which come in several varieties.
I still drink my nightly Chardonnay, but instead of crackers, I'll now eat a handful of nuts---the protein and good fats counteract the sugar in the wine.
The results have been so amazing.
I've lost 20 pounds over the last year. I am fitting into dresses I haven't fit into in YEARS.
I feel great, look better and have more energy.
All from making a few simple changes.
No carbs and no sugar.
As easy as that.
Here I am over the last few months.
And a picture from today!
This Kenny Loggins song reminds me of the Spring of 1979---I weigh only 8 pounds more than I did then at the ripe young age of 19. Imagine that.
No one tells this tall blonde she can't do something.
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