A Year In Review

2015 was the year of Caitlyn Jenner, Pope Francis, the man bun, and for me, the life-changing experiment that was 12 in 12.  A few days from now, we will unveil 2016, a blank canvas waiting to be painted. I find this both exciting and distressing at the same time. On the one hand I feel the excitement and rush of new possibilities! On the other hand, the uncertainty of an unknown future fills me with dread. The only thing that quells the anxiety is to ring in the New Year with a resolution, which makes me feel like I have some sort of control.

According to Statistic Brain Research Institute, I am one of 45% of the population that make New Year’s resolutions, and guess which one tops the list… weight loss.  Not only does the diet industry know this, they count on it, and they cash in big as a result.

Do you think it’s a coincidence that Oprah not only bought shares in Weight Watchers just before resolution season, but has also become their celebrity spokesperson? And how about all those new diet claims lining the shelves in your favourite bookstore this time of year? With the sheer volume of plans, I could have kept my experiment going until I became a centenarian! And it doesn’t stop there. Not only is the next season of NBC’s The Biggest Loser set to air on January 4^th (just a few days into your resolve), but ABC is launching their new reality weight loss show called, My Diet is Better than Yours, a few days later.

“There are thousands of diets promising to help people lose weight, but choosing the diet that will actually work is a different matter. Our new format sets out to narrow the choice by selecting six diverse and revolutionary diet plans and, for the first time ever, testing these methods on TV in a real life experiment.”  

– Chris Coelen, My Diet is Better Than Yours

SOUND FAMILIAR!!!!!  The show is Searching For My After’s 12 in 12 experiment, but with a honking budget and commercials! But I digress…

Where was I? Ah yes, New Year’s resolutions… perhaps you’re looking at adding weight loss to your resolution list. Maybe you too are looking with abject terror at the filled to bursting fitness section in your local bookstore. Maybe this is your first time on this website and you have no idea what I’m talking about. Well don’t worry… I’ve put together a summary of each of the plans I tested during 12 in 12, highlighting my stats, my likes and dislikes, and the lessons learned while I was on them to help you narrow down your search.

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Month 1: The Start Here Diet Pounds lost: -9.4 % weight loss: -3.70 Liked: Excellent plan to ease back into dieting. Disliked: Eliminating trigger foods cold turkey. Lesson Learned: Even a small step is a step in the right direction!

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Month 2: Weight Watchers Pounds lost: -6.8 % weight loss: -2.78 Liked: No food is off limits. Disliked: Weighing, measuring, calculating, and tracking, every morsel was tedious. Lesson Learned: Learned to recalibrate portion sizes.

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Month 3: Paleo Pounds lost:-9.3 % weight loss: -3.91 Liked: Very simple to follow. Disliked: Got a bit constipated eating protein at each meal. Missed whole grains. Lesson Learned: Pre-historic (aka pre-processed) rules!

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Month 4: Eat Right 4 Your Blood Type Pounds lost: -4.5 % weight loss: -1.97 Liked: The app listing your beneficial-neutral-avoid foods was handy when I went grocery shopping, or planned a meal. Disliked: Still craved foods on my avoid list. Lesson Learned: One size does not fit all.

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Month 5: The Mediterranean Diet Pounds lost: -5.3 % weight loss: -2.37 Liked: Loved the social aspect of the plan, and looked forward to having dessert once a week. Disliked: Pushed the boundaries and ate more cheese, bread, and olive oil than I should have. Lesson Learned: Enjoying a meal with family and friends makes the food taste better : )

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Month 6: Whole Food, Plant-Based Pounds lost: -4.5 % weight loss: -2.06 Liked: The most ethical and humane of all the plans, plus I pooped 3 times a day – whoohoo!!! Disliked: Never felt full. Lesson Learned: Mother Nature knows best and provides everything we need.

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Month 7: The Biggest Loser Pounds lost: -5.4 % weight loss: -2.52 Liked: 1,500 calories a day is very doable. Disliked: Dreaded exercise – didn’t enjoy the monotonous machines at the gym. Lesson Learned: Progress, not perfection.

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Month 8: The 8-Hour Diet Pounds lost: +2.8 % weight loss: +1.53 Liked: Fasting gave my body a chance to recharge. Disliked: Only plan I gained weight on – you can’t tell a food addict they can eat whatever they want because they will! Lesson Learned: Make time for rest.

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Month 9: The Hormone Diet Pounds lost: -6.6 % weight loss: -3.12 Liked: My sleep improved tremendously – yay! Disliked: Most expensive program at $700 for the month (naturopath visits and supplements). Lesson Learned: We must make adjustments for different stages and phases in life.

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Month 10: Twelve-Step Program for Food Addicts Pounds lost: -5.9 % weight loss: -2.88 Liked: After eliminating flour, wheat and sugar, my taste buds were alive and food tasted better, and I didn’t get one hot flash when I was off sugar! Disliked: Restrictive – made eating in ‘real life’ situations (i.e. dining out, meetings, etc.) tough. Lesson Learned: Live life one day at a time, and meals one bite at a time.

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Month 11: The Gabriel Method Pounds lost: -2.2 % weight loss: -1.10 Liked: Meditation exercises and being in nature grounded me : ) Disliked: Guided visualization felt like hypnosis. Lesson Learned: Question and challenge limiting beliefs.

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Month 12: A Course In Weight Loss Pounds lost: -1.9 % weight loss: -0.96 Liked: With every lesson, I went deeper within myself and reconnected with God, and the real me : ) Disliked: Felt a bit new age. Lesson Learned: Self-love conquers all – even a plate full of Oreos.

Don’t let the diet industry spoon feed you – test the plans out yourself!  You might find one suits you perfectly right off the rack, or you might have to tailor one by combining your favourite elements from a few of them like I did.

I hope it helps you narrow your choice, and you don’t have to be on a reality weight loss show to find out!

And The Winner Is…

I want to thank all of you for your words of encouragement and support throughout this experiment. Being accountable to you during 12 in 12 helped me stay the course, and for that I am truly grateful. The objective of the experiment was to find the right diet for me, and I believe I have done just that.

I doubt I would have come to my conclusion had I not tested a variety of plans. Each offered clues to what my body liked and disliked, and what practices I’d commit to given my lifestyle.  The experiment also helped me identify areas of imbalance, such as not getting sufficient rest, and ignoring the mental, emotional, and spiritual issues that led to me becoming obese in the first place.

Throughout the experiment, I was asked several questions, but two came up repeatedly – how do you stop cravings, and what diet works best? If I had the answer to the first question, I’d be rich! Personally, whenever I tested plans that had me eliminate sugar from my diet my cravings subsided dramatically.  As for which diet worked best, the answer varied depending if you meant which one gave me the best results on the scale (Answer: Paleo), or if you meant digestively (Answer: Whole Food, Plant-Based), or for my lifestyle (Answer: the ones that kept it simple). What I can say with certainty is that there is no ‘one size fits all’ diet because we are all different.

When I started this journey, I thought I would find the answer by simply connecting the dots.

Instead, I found the answer where the dots interconnected based on the criteria I valued most.

Therefore, the winner of the experiment is not any one diet entirely, rather a combination of several plans that resonated with me. I call my personalized plan, THE BEST OF THE BEST, and this is what it will look like.

Meal Plan

My body responded best to Paleo on the scale, but my heart, conscience, and digestive system wants to be Whole Food, Plant-Based (WFPB).  As contrary as that sounds, I will be doing both, the term for which is FLEXITARIAN – go figure!

Therefore, I will:

• Adhere to Paleo’s protocol of not consuming grains, dairy, or legumes when I eat animal proteins.
• Aim to have a WFPB meal at dinner, allowing me to digest more efficiently before bedtime.
• Snacks will primarily be fruits, nuts, and seeds.
• Both Paleo and WFPB omit dairy and flour, which is doable for me, as I do not tolerate them well.
• I won’t be weighing and measuring my food – it’s not always practical, and I hated doing it. I will however, gauge portion sizes using the hand technique.

What about sugar?

When I tested plans that had me cut sugar (Twelve-Step Program for Food Addiction, Paleo, WFPB) I saw tremendous benefits. I stopped getting hot flashes, my cravings subsided, and I was able to taste the subtleties in foods again. However, diets anchored in ‘always’ or ‘never’ are my downfall, leading me on a self-destructive path of binges and regret – I feel like I failed, and ultimately fall off the diet bandwagon.

Therefore, when it comes to sugar I will:

• Allow myself one teaspoon of sugar in my morning coffee.
• Adopt the practice of enjoying one or two desserts a week, like in The Mediterranean Diet. This way I won’t feel deprived, and will be less likely to binge.

Rest

As someone who suffers from insomnia, I know firsthand that a tired body doesn’t burn calories as well as a rested body.

Therefore, I will:

• Aim to get a minimum of 7 hours of sleep per night by continuing with The Hormone Diet’s protocol of powering down devices 2 hours before bed.
• Refrain from eating after 7 PM, not only to aid digestion, but to recharge my cells.

Supplements

Several plans recommended supplements, however, The Gabriel Method’s regimen worked best for me.

Therefore, I will take:

• One probiotic daily
• Two digestive enzymes with breakfast
• Omega-3 once a day
• One multi-vitamin (that includes vitamin E) and a multi-mineral.
• In addition, I take Vitamin D during the winter months.

Exercise

If I were grading my efforts during 12 in 12, I’d flunk myself when it came to exercise. I only incorporated regular physical activity when I tested The Biggest Loser and The 8-Hour Diet; otherwise, it was hit or miss. I think it’s because I hate the monotony of the machines at the gym.

Therefore, I will:

• Channel my inner child and start playing again. Along with getting my 10,000 steps in a day, I’m going to participate in fun activities like hula hooping, jumping on my mini-trampoline, belly dancing, and going for walks along the lake to keep me active.

I don’t want to dread exercise, I want to look forward to it. Hmmm, maybe the next phase of the journey will have me testing various exercise plans!

Feeding My Mind and Spirit

Lastly, the mental, emotional, and spiritual lessons I tackled in the last quarter of 12 in 12 had the biggest impact on me. That’s why my customized plan will devote the same amount of time for soul work as for physical activity. I must exercise both for optimal health!

Therefore, I will:

• Delve deeper into Marianne Williamson’s A Course In Weight Loss. Taking my time to work through the 21 spiritual lessons.
• Continue with the meditation and visualization exercises from The Gabriel Method. However, I will be recording my own morning and evening tapes, personalizing them for my needs.

 

And so my friends, this concludes 12 in 12. However, the journey continues! I invite you to join me in the new year here on Searching For My After, where I will continue with The Best Of The Best chronicling my next step towards a happier, healthier me. SIZE 10 HERE I COME!!!!

 

What A Difference A Year Makes

A year ago today, repulsed at my 253.8 lbs. self, I decided to give dieting one last try – I vowed to get to my goal weight once and for all, or resign myself to a life of stretchy pants.  Equipped with an album full of before photos and a library bursting with diet books all proclaiming to have the solution to my plus-sized problem, I set off on a quest for my after shot, which has eluded me in the last three decades of searching.

As with any expedition, I needed a guide to help me navigate along the way. In my case, I enlisted twelve such experts in the past year, each claiming they knew the route to the size 10 Shangri-La that my size 22 self, sought. Each guide took me through the scenic and diverse landscape of the diet and exercise world – some covering familiar territory, others foreign.

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Month 1 – Tosca Reno, creator of The Start Here Diet asked me to (1) dive inward and identify my emotional triggers for overeating, (2) uncover my hidden foods and eliminate them, and (3) ease into exercising by moving a little.

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Month 2 – I attended weekly Weight Watchers meetings and used their unique accounting system, which assigned a point value to food and exercise. Everything had to be weighed, measured, and tracked, before I could eat it.

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Month 3 – Paleo channelled my inner CaveMare and had me eating like my hairy knuckled, grunting forefathers did before me. Brontosaurs burgers – good. Grains, dairy, legumes – bad.

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Month 4 – In his plan Eat Right 4 Your Blood Type, Dr. Peter D’Adamo categorized the foods and exercises for each of the four blood types as either beneficial, neutral, or avoid. My ‘O’ blood type meant saying au revoir to crispy bacon and my morning cup of joe.

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Month 5 – The Mediterranean Diet had me returning to my cultural roots, enjoying unprocessed foods and beverages from Italy and the surrounding region, as well as incorporating simple daily activity, like walking, and social interaction to boost mental and emotional health.

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Month 6 – I joined forces with the beautiful and inspiring Michelle Riccio of Tit Happens, who coached me through the Whole Food, Plant-Based Diet. We ate ‘face-free’, unprocessed, unrefined, nutrient rich fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and healthy fats.

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Month 7 – My friend and fitness trainer, Nikki Kamphuis, got me moving when I tested The Biggest Loser 30-Day Jump Start program, which models the hit show’s format of eating a 1,500 calories a day, coupled with daily exercise.

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Month 8 – The creators of The 8-Hour Diet, had me watching the clock, stating I could eat whatever I wanted within an 8 hour period, so long as I ‘ate my eight’, and started my day with a minimum of 8 minutes of exercise.  Outside of these 8 hours, I had to fast.

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Month 9 – Toronto’s own Dr. Natasha Turner claimed I could optimize my fat burning potential with The Hormone Diet. I went to her clinic for one-on-one care and was given a customized a food and supplement plan which addressed my hormone imbalances, as well as my unbearable hot flashes.

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Month 10 – I attended weekly meeting at various Twelve Step Programs for Food Addicts, a fellowship that has members abstain from addictive foods containing flour, wheat, and sugar.

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Month 11 – Jon Gabriel, creator of The Gabriel Method guided me through visualization and meditation exercises claiming they would turn off my FAT Programs.

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Month 12 – In A Course In Weight Loss, I worked through Marianne Williamson’s 21 spiritual lessons designed to address compulsive overeating by replacing fear with love.

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I want to thank all my guides for navigating me to today’s weigh-in. In the past year they’ve helped me cover more ground than any previous attempt, bringing me closer to taking my after photo, which up until now, seemed as plausible as taking a selfie with Sasquatch.

When I stepped on the scale this morning, my eager little fat cells cried, “Are we there yet?! Are we there yet?!”

“At 195.2 lbs. No. Not yet, but we are halfway to after”, I replied. And that’s okay. In fact, that’s great! The point of 12 in 12 was to test a variety of diet claims to see which worked best for my body and my lifestyle.

In my next post, I will share just how my body responded to each plan, and which I will I continue with for the rest of this journey… and look at that, just in time for resolution season!

A big thank you to the talented Jennifer Wood for taking my final before and halfway to after photos, the gifted Nathan C. Younger for his fabulous illustrations, and the compassionate Ann DeLuca, my life coach, who help me work through the last quarter of the experiment, which delved into the mental, emotional, and spiritual landscape of this journey.

If you enjoyed this post, or found my yearlong experiment interesting, please share!

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Results for A Course In Weight Loss (the final plan of 12 in 12), click here.

For my Week 52 Food Journal, click here.

 

The Missing Ingredient

Like most young girls, I learned to cook at my mother’s side.  She’s a wonderful cook, so you would think that I would be too. Wrong. No matter how much I try, my dishes never turn out the same as hers. Mine taste rushed, but hers taste like comfort. I asked her what I’m doing wrong and she explained that I neglect to add the key ingredient… LOVE.

Really? Love?! And where, pray tell do you find ‘love’ in the grocery store? Is it in the spice aisle between the garlic salt and mustard powder? “How do you add ‘love’ to a dish?” I inquire. “Ah! Much to learn, the young generation has”, she replied, sounding much like Yoda’s Nonna.

As I pondered her comment, I began thinking of all the things I do love…. I love God. I love my daughters. I love my family and friends. I love traveling. I love laughing. I love writing. I love going for walks along the lake. I love my church. I love movies. I love seahorses. I love organizing. I love birds. I love sock monkeys. I love my city. I love disco. I love curling up with a good book on a rainy day. I love volunteering. I love the free samples at Costco. I love playing Yahtzee. I love jumping on my mini-trampoline. I love Curious George. I love to give big momma bear hugs. I simply love to love, so when I learned that compulsive overeating was an act of self-hate, it knocked the wind right out of me. All this time I thought I was comforting myself with food, but instead, I was abusing myself.

Wow! This revelation got me asking myself, do I love me? I meditated on that for a long while and came to the sad realization that I don’t.  The more I thought about it, the more it disturbed me… how can I have sooooooooooo much love to give, and not direct an ounce of it toward myself? Messed up, right?!

Addicts experience levels of self-loathing that cut to the very core of our beings, and we punish ourselves with our substance of choice.  We’ve come to believe the lies we tell ourselves… I’m worthless, I’m stupid, I’m not good enough, there’s something wrong with me, etc.

Where did these beliefs come from? For me, I’ve accumulated them throughout the years, ingesting them in the form of binge-foods, and I now carry the consequences, not only on my hips, thighs, and butt, but in my spirit as well.

In order to free my spirit of the weight it carries, the final plan in my yearlong experiment goes to Marianne Williamson’s, A Course In Weight Loss where she guides students through “21 spiritual lessons for surrendering your weight forever”. How’s that for a claim?  I’ve never been on a diet that addressed my spirit!  And get this, the key ingredient to her method is… LOVE!

This course is not about your relationship with food; it is about your relationships with love. For love is your true healer.

-Marianne Williamson, A Course In Weight Loss

Each plan I’ve tested throughout 12 in 12 requires a lot of pre-work, and this month’s plan was no different.  Sometimes, I must read and study a book or guidelines (The Start Here Diet; Eat Right For Your Blood Type; The Mediterranean Diet); attend meetings (Weight Watchers; 12-Step Program for Food Addicts); invest in equipment (The Biggest Loser), or supplements (The Hormone Diet), or purchase specific foods (The Caveman Diet; Whole-Food, Plant Based Diet); create visualization tools (The Gabriel Method); or keep my eye on the clock (The 8-Hour Diet).  A monumental shift in my spirit has already occurred as a result of my reading A Course In Weight Loss, and I haven’t even begun to do the assignments yet! What’s wonderful about the plan is that Marianne tells you exactly where to find the love and how to incorporate it into your life.

This course is not so much about your relationship to food as it is about your relationship to your Creator. In healing your relationship with Him, you heal your relationship to yourself; and in healing your relationship to yourself, you heal your relationship to everything.

– Marianne Williamson, A Course In Weight Loss

To learn more about the plan I’ll be following for Month 12, click here.

The Results Are In

To find out how much I lost last month when I tested The Gabriel Method, click here.

Yikes! My iPad is Making Me Fat!

I just discovered that my love handles might not be Nutella-filled solely due to lack of willpower, but the result of lack of sleep as well. One of the big culprits keeping us from getting all our Zzzzzzzs is our electronic devices. Before portable gadgets came along I used to read a book to unwind before bed, but now I curl up with my beloved iPad and surf, pin, like, friend, comment, and play all sorts of mindless games. By the time I finally set my device aside, I’m so wired my eyelids have forgotten how to function, and I end up looking like those creepy dolls whose eyes don’t shut anymore, or at least not in unison. My device might be powered off, but I’m not. I just lay and stare at the ceiling, or worse yet, the alarm clock.

Ever since Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, our internal clock, known as our circadian rhythm, has been out of whack. Before then, we took our cues from the sun… we got up when it did, and when it slipped under the cloak of night we slipped under our blankies for a long replenishing snooze.

When God said, “Let there be light,” I don’t think He wanted us to abuse it like we do. We can summon this miracle with a flip of a switch any time of the day or night, and as a result, we’ve messed up our body’s biorhythm so much so that it affects us on a hormonal level. The blue light emanating from our electronic devices boosts attention, so it actually is beneficial during daylight hours, but that’s not what we need just before bed.

“Sleep deprivation perpetuates a vicious cycle of excess stress hormones, reduced sleep-inducing melatonin and low growth hormone.” Dr. Natasha Turner, The Hormone Diet

What’s worse, if you get less than 5 hours of sleep per night, or suffer with insomnia, like I do, cortisol, the stress hormone, elevates significantly making it even harder for you to lose weight. Studies show that sleep deprived subjects have an increased appetite and tend to crave high-calorie, high-sugary foods… hence, my Nutella-filled hips.

That’s it! I’m grounding myself. NO devices after 9 PM, since it’s recommended to power down two hours before bedtime. Wowser! My inner child just threw a ‘but Mom!’ hissy fit as I typed that. This might be harder than giving up carbs when I tested Paleo, or BBQ ribs when I tested the Whole Food, Plant-Based diet. Giving up a food group during 12 in 12 just means bidding adieu for a month, but banning devices a few hours before bedtime must be a forever thing if I want to improve my health and waistline. And you know what they say, “An Apple device a night keeps the doctor prescribing sleeping pills.” No, they don’t say that. I made that up because I’ve popped a sleeping pill every night for the last 5 days and they’re not working anymore.

This is going to be tough. I feel like Rose letting go of Jack’s hand in the frozen Atlantic (as she hogged the wooden door she floated on), that fateful night the Titanic went down. Oh iPad and iPhone, will my heart go on without you? I’m not sure… hopefully I’ll get rid of the dark circles under my eyes, and my thunder thighs might get downgraded to a tropical storm if I follow through on my device diet.

Note to family, friends and acquaintances: I apologize for not responding to you via cyberspace after 9 PM, Toronto time going forward. However, if you do get a response after that time you know that I caved and am a slave to Steve Jobs’ ghost.

For my Week 36 food journal, click here.

I Do Declare, I’ve Got A Perpetual Case Of The Vapours!

When Maya Angelou said, “A woman in harmony with her spirit is like a river flowing,” she must have been referring to someone who wasn’t going through menopause, because if she was, that poor woman would have jumped into that river to cool down!

I love everything about being in my 50s… freely dispensing the wisdom I’ve gained through the years as I stroke my ever sprouting chin hairs, revelling in the euphoria of hearing my adult daughters proclaim, “gee mom, you were right all along”, and discarding life’s superfluous baggage so I no longer sweat the small stuff. However, the only thing that gets me shvitzing these days are these darn hot flashes. If I ever earned the right to be called Hot Stuff, it’s now! I get up to two dozen a day, and take it from me, all you want to do is strip down when you become a walking fireball. Unfortunately, you can only get a certain amount of naked before you’re charged with indecent exposure. My employer, for example, frowns on nudity in the workplace, even if it is for medical reasons. What’s a hot mess to do?!

All day long, I’m peeling down to my tank top and tying up my hair. Up and down, up and down – I do this everywhere, in meetings, at the grocery store, at church – it’s become my routine and nobody notices anymore. And don’t think the furnace shuts off when you hit the sack – the night sweats bring their own joy, like soaked jammies, sheets, or partner. Ugh! There is nothing lady-like about this. Thank goodness for air conditioners – I happen to keep my thermostat set at ‘iceberg’.

Menopause stems from an imbalance in estrogen, progesterone and testosterone levels, and although it’s a natural and inevitable part of aging, it does wreak havoc on a woman’s body. Symptoms, in addition to hot flashes include insomnia, mood swings, fatigue, depression, irritability, racing heart, headaches, joint and muscle aches and pains, hair loss, poor memory and concentration, and weight gain. AND. WEIGHT. GAIN. For heaven’s sake! I used to be able to lose weight a lot faster when I was younger – heck, just a few years ago, the weight was dropping off and I was doing less than I am now to tip the scale in my favour. I feel like I’m swimming upstream in wet cement. I don’t think the good Lord thought this through when He designed the sexes – it’s kind of one sided don’t you think? We get periods, PMS, pregnancy, labour, delivery, stretch marks, hemorrhoids, hysterectomies, and now this. What are men cursed with… 5 o’clock shadow?

Since there is no denying I’m going through “The Change”, I must consider my age and stage when it comes to my next plan. The Hormone Diet, by naturopathic doctor, Natasha Turner, addresses just that. The beauty of the plan is that it doesn’t focus solely on menopause, it can be customized address whatever your hormonal imbalance may be.

The Hormone Diet lays out a fool-proof plan to balance your life, one hormone at a time. But it is more than just a diet book. Along with advice for weight loss, Natasha Turner provides recommendations for an anti-inflammatory detox, nutritional supplements, exercise, sleep, stress management, toxin-free skin care and natural hormone replacement, along with a personalized diet plan – all incorporated into a complete 3-step wellness program focused on the essentials of hormonal balance for lasting health and fat loss.

Dr. Turner is an authority on hormonal and digestive concerns and is a frequent guest on Dr. Oz, and The Marilyn Denis Show. What makes The Hormone Diet the perfect plan to test for Month 9 in my 12 in 12 experiment is that, (1) my hormones are clearly out of whack and screaming for attention, and (2) Dr. Turner’s Clear Medicine Wellness Boutique is located in Toronto, so I’ll be working directly with the experts for relief and results.

To learn more about The Hormone Diet, click here.

The Results Are In

To find out how much I lost (or gained) last month when I tested The 8-Hour Diet, click here.