{how I lost it}

A lot of you have asked how I lost my weight last summer so this is it. Definitely not easy or luxurious but it worked for the reason I was doing it. I ended up losing 40 pounds in 4 months. I am not on it anymore but really watch what I eat - including sugar, carbs, and pop!

(Disclaimer: I am not a doctor nor do I claim to be of any medical profession. This is all based on my personal experience without any research or scientific proof to back up my results otherwise. I have heard that this diet is not good for long amounts of time so please be responsible. Really, I can’t explain why I did it the way I did do not expect me to answer any questions.)

First of all, I want to tell you that I was honestly not trying to lose weight. I was having some headaches and other symptoms that were preventing me from doing my daily activities and I knew that I had to change something. After doing some research on the internet and basing my symptoms on other people’s symptoms, I decided to treat myself for candida (a yeast in the body).

The most influential website that I found was http://www.healingnaturallybybee.com/. I would encourage you to read the whole website before started. There are a lot of tips and suggestions that come in really handy. She includes symptoms, food lists, and recipes. There are also some die-off effects that you need to be aware of.

This is my basic plan:

Food: meats and vegetables – no sugar or processed food – no corn or potatoes (starches) – very little carbs – no fruit – no dairy

Breakfast: 1 or 2 eggs

I learned to get really creative with how to eat an egg – over easy, omelet, sunny side up, with pico de gallo or homemade salsa (yum!), hard-boiled, poached, scrambled, etc.

Lunch: soup and salad

Pea soup, lentil soup, and chili were the main soups I got from the ordinary grocery store. I tried to stay away from anything more that 5 grams of sugar/serving.

Trader Joe’s has the greatest natural soup with very low sugar – tomato and black bean were my favorite

Low-fat refried beans and tuna were staples

Salad - usually with a bean or meat on top – no cheese or croutons – extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice for dressing

Salad wrap – meat, beans, or tuna with cooked or sautéed veggies

Eating out: salads were the easiest for obvious reasons but they usually had to be special ordered as well. Fast food – hamburger or chicken sandwich with extra veggies (I did not eat the bun)

Snack: snack peas – available only at Basha’s and Whole Foods. I ate so many boxes of these and love them. Whenever I am at Basha’s I still pick up a couple containers to snack on. I added these to my salads as well.

Pork rinds – did not like at all before this. I ate these with homemade guacamole and salsa!

Dinner: Pretty much was a big portion of meat (chicken, steak, fish, pork, turkey, hamburger) - usually whatever I cooked for the family without adding everything and adding it to salad. I tried to make things from the website that my kid’s would eat also.

What I did for a sweet tooth and other cravings – great article here: http://www.healingnaturallybybee.com/articles/help5.php

Bee’s Electrolyte Drink - nasty at first but I learned to love it and crave it.

Chocolate – Trader Joe’s has an excellent low-carb chocolate in milk chocolate or dark – helped me sooo much!

Coconut oil – eat a tablespoon whenever craving something sweet

Magnesium – for chocolate cravings

Drink – water and tea, I almost always added lemon juice

Supplements: I could not afford a lot of supplements but I do feel that the VIBE supplement drink I got toward the end helped me a lot. I still take this.

I took a multi, probiotic, and vitamin c throughout the whole process.

Exercise: I did mild exercise on the wii using wii fit usually 2-3 times a week. We also went swimming 2-3 times a week during the summer. We usually take walks to the park or around the block once or twice a week as well.