This is your intervention.

Put down the chips. Toss the pound cake. 

Use this time at home RIGHT NOW to take the best possible care of yourself. Because in a few weeks, you will come out the other side of this global pandemic. 

Either living large.

Or, in tip-top shape from eating healthy and shifting your mindset. 

I’m here to help you choose the latter. 

For those of you who don’t personally know me, two years ago I lost 60 pounds—and I have kept it off ever since. Many have asked me how I did it, and my pat answer is always the same: “No flour. No sugar.” While this is the foundation of the way I eat, it’s not the whole story. It also means adhering to a strict daily discipline as well as giving up alcohol, as that counts as sugar. I have to admit, at first giving up the alcohol was the hardest part. But, oh so worth it. 

I started out my venture by thinking I could give up flour and sugar “for just one month”. Heck, I could do anything for one month—even eat a bowl of nails every day if someone promised me I’d lose the weight. I wanted this more than anything I’d ever wanted in my life. Because, my weight was affecting everything in my life.  Literally, everything.

Vacations were deemed good or bad, depending on how well my clothes fit or didn’t. Social gatherings were skipped or attended based on how I felt about my current weight. If I did attend, I felt social pressures to join my friends in binge eating and drinking— worried if I didn’t, I would no longer be accepted. Worst, I hated what I saw in the mirror and refused to throw away my “skinny” clothes, hanging on to the hope they’d someday fit. My self worth had dropped to the value of a bargain basement pricetag.

I’d had enough. In December of 2017, I decided this would come to a permanent end. I started my new way of eating and my new way of life.

After the first 30 days (warning: the first 30 days are not easy), I have never craved flour, sugar, or alcohol again. I feel healthy, happy, and like the little girl I used to be, not thinking twice about the way I look or how my clothes fit. They always fit. Every season. And that is a true miracle.

Here’s how I did it. I hope this helps you.

THE MENU 

1. This must be adhered to 100% with no deviation, using a digital scale rounding amounts off to zero.

2. No skipping meals. Remember the mnemonic: 301

• 3 meals a day
• 0 in between
• 1 day at a time

3. Your brain will try finding a way out of this with excuses. Don’t listen.

THIS FOOD PLAN WORKS.

(drag it to your desktop, or hold down on mobile and save it to  your photos)

YOUR BRAIN (The source of the problem)

You are not “big boned.” You are not “unable to lose weight.” Nor do you have special dietary needs to such a degree that you cannot stick to this simple food plan. These are all ways your brain works to retain its access to the daily highs it gets from flour and sugar.  Once you have it all out of your system—roughly 30 days—your body will feel better, your skin will look radiant, and you will feel the same indifference around food as you did when you were a child.

YOUR EMOTIONS (What you are feeding)

Stop romancing your food.

Food is not to be confused with happy nostalgic times of the past, social gatherings, or upcoming events to look forward to. Food is fuel for your body, that’s all. So take the emotion out of it.

Start to see the true source of your feelings and better understand your passions. It’s not the “food” that’s making you happy. Your true happiness is more likely coming from being with your friends, family, animals, nature, and savoring the daily moments of life. Give up your “relationship” with food, and trade it for a relationship with life.

The weight will not stay off until you shift what’s feeding you emotionally. Start by looking at why you are eating. Is it fear? Feeling emotionally empty? Is it a defense mechanism? Then look at what makes you truly happy. Again, it’s not the food. For me, I’ve been able to replace the “high” I once got from food with things that are much better for me.  I turn to sunshine, people, animals, scent, indulgent baths, music, dancing, creating things, writing, and figuring out technology.  These are my Go-Tos for “filling me up” on a regular basis. These are the things that without fail, always “light me up.” They were once my crutch early on when I had strong food cravings, but now that the cravings are gone, they are still the things I turn to every day.

So what are you waiting for?

Do it. Do it now.

The whole world can be falling apart, and I won’t deviate from this plan. Especially, not now. <3