Ann, I wish you the best in your efforts! You can read my journal for a lot of helpful stuff that I've shared over the past few years. Just click on the JOURNAL button at the bottom of this entry.
I don't do exactly what Dr. S says b/c I have customized the plan to my own life, which is exactly what everyone should do. I don't drink much caffeine at all. I tend to only have it once in a while and usually in the form of jasmine tea either white or green. Sometimes I do have a cup of coffee, but VERY rarely since caffeine sends me to the moon!
I eat well 95% of the time, and the rest I enjoy a treat now and then. I have never given up Mexican food since it's part of my life
, altho I have given up the chips 99%. Once in a great while I will have the lady bring a very small serving of chips with bean dip and salsa, for instance. Then I'm good for a year!
But when I eat MexiFood, whether at home or out (which is about 3-4 times a week), I do order things that have been fried such as tostados which the corn tortilla is fried. And sometimes I eat chimichangas (fried burritos) with no rice, just meat and cheese. I always order a la cart, no rice and beans, but will still eat beans that are ON the items. I do eat beans once in a while, but I just don't have that much room to eat all that anymore. RE chimis--I don't do that often since I can't eat wheat (think flour tortilla) without paying for it a bit the next day or even that night. I have a gluten intolerance.
RE alcohol... I do have a few sips of non-alcoholic wine (Ariel) now and then. But when I cook with wine I use the real stuff since it's only $2 a bottle at Trader Joe's! The alcohol cooks off, so I don't worry. I chose not to drink alcohol when I became a Christian 17 years ago, long before I started eating healthy, so this is not an issue for me to worry about. Your mileage may vary.
I take a LOT of supplements
, but things that I have worked out for myself, not that I have read in SP books. I have taken most of these for a long time, but have added a few others here and there such as the L-Lysine and MSM this past year, and the year before I added Alpha Lipoic Acid, but the rest I have taken from the beginning.
I currently take 9 sups in the morning (see below), then vitamin C crystals (from Trader Joe's, dirt cheap) with lunch in my beverage, and sometimes at breakfast too). At lunch and also at bedtime, I take a Costco Kirkland brand Calcium Citrate, which is cheap and you get Vitamin D, Magnesium and Zinc, all VERY important for those of us who've been overweight and are eating lower carb.
In the morning I take one each of these, despite the fact that some of the brands recommend more than one--I figure one is better than nothing--and cheaper than 2!
Since my husband ALSO takes these, it can be very expensive, but well worth it:
1. Chromium GTF (Glucose Tolerance Factor) (This is NOT picolinate, but a better and more expensive form of Chromium, I use SOLGAR brand.)
2. Super B-Complex from Costco (Nature Made).
3. Coenzyme Q10 from Costco 50mg.
4. Flax Oil Capsule from Trader Joe's.
5. Potassium Gluconate 550mg from Costco (Nature Made).
6. Alpha Lipoic Acid 100mg from Trader Joe's.
7. L-Lysine 500mg from Costco (Nature Made).
8. High Energy Premium Performance Multivitamin & Mineral Supplement Kirland Brand from Costco.
9. MSM 1000mg from Costco (Nature's Origin brand).
I joke with my husband that I'm looking for more and more sups to take, like I'm on a mission to have 1/2 cup of sups to take daily. He just looks at me like I'm nuts, but we both know I'm totally joking. The good side is that I need to drink half a bottle of water just to get em all down!
I also try to get some
real Flax seeds on daily in something, either sprinkled on salad or into other items. Real is always better than supplements, but supplements are just that--to supplement the real stuff. TIP: A friend of mine recently told me about a FLAX MILL which is used like a pepper mill but made just for flax, so I plan to get one of those this weekend if I think of it. It's made by OXO.
I think my number one *tip* for getting healthy with whole foods would be to LIVE your life and not think of this way of eating as a diet, but rather a lifetime plan! Otherwise when you do eat something that you have *forbidden* yourself from, when you think of it in those NEGATIVE terms, you will not succeed!!! But if you think of this is as a lifetime change, you can have that crappy stuff now and then and not get all freaked about it, you will have made it a success for yourself.
In the very beginning I avoided any kind of processed sugar so as to rid my body of the cravings. And it worked! I did not 'self medicate' (I hate that term!) as Dr. S advocated in her 2nd and 3rd books. I just avoided the sugar. But as I healed, I eventually was able to eat a little honey here and there. And now I even use a little black molasses to sweeten things that I bake, just a Tablespoon or two and that's it. But if I'm not careful, this can make me tired, and when ya get tired you can get cravings and even stall your weight loss.
Weight loss is a GREAT side effect of eating well. But I started to naturally lose more weight about a year ago. I just stuck with it and didn't let the loss be my focus, just one day at a time eating well. And I didn't even hafta focus on the eating, it comes naturally when you ONLY have GOOD STUFF around you! Purge the house and go for it!
I hope this helps you, Ann. As I said above, read my journal for the details along the way. If you get bored, there are others who have journals to read also.
AND DON'T GET CAUGHT UP IN EATING PREPACKAGED FAKE FOODS like low carb bars and Atkins bake mix crap. That stuff is FAKE food and will be just as bad as eating potato chips. Eat whole foods, avoid processed foods, you will do AWESOME!
Forgot to add that I have exercised from the beginning. It started out that I was swimming, then eventually I began walking around, then I got a new treadmill and began *hiking* on it using the incline feature. So in the warm months (April to October) I swim, then I walk the rest of the time. I also began bicyling, but it's a little harder for me. I have built up my legs and stamina however, in the past few months and am ready in March to try bicycling a little more seriously again. You have GOT to mover each day. I only seriously workout 30 mins a day, that's it! But I do move a lot otherwise, especially on weekends.
--Betty
