Like many busy middle aged women, my weight had crept up over the years of rushing around juggling work and home life in spite of practicing a reasonably healthy diet and lifestyle. I have always been focused on nutrition and natural approaches to health and wellness. I was a vegetarian for 13 years, used herbal medicines since my twenties, studied meditation in university, eaten organic food as much as possible, and generally been what you’d call a “health nut”. I even practice and teach a natural method of birth control based on fertility awareness. So, body literacy and self-care have been solid foundations in my entire adult life. Working in a pharmacy gave me an understanding of blood sugar and fat storage, and I had been selling supplements that claim to help with weight loss my whole career, but applying this knowledge to my own life had never seemed to make much difference. Why was I overweight and feeling old in my early fifties? Like anyone else, a combination of factors were at play; stress, alcohol, lack of exercise, night time snacking, too many carbohydrates, not enough protein, and so on. In this respect, my story is no different from most privileged middle class ladies with access to the normal indulgences of our all-you-can-eat western culture.
When my employer, Tammie Toriglia decided to bring the Ideal Protein weight loss program into our store as an extra service we would offer, I was mildly interested. When she asked me to try the program myself, I was surprised and slightly embarrassed, but mostly curious in an academic way. I approached it as an experiment with me as the subject. Luckily we were able to hire a coach who already knew Ideal Protein and Jenn taught me what I needed to do. I started Phase One of the program in the middle of January 2015 and found it was easy to follow the instructions; I just did what I was told and did not cheat. Keeping a logbook and checking in for weekly weighting, measuring, and coaching were important to keep focused, but it was not difficult to lock in to the routine of eating as instructed. Mostly I just went on with my life. At first, I didn’t pay much attention to the numbers and didn’t get too invested in the changes that were going on. When I went below 200 pounds for the first time in over 10 years, I took notice...
When my employer, Tammie Toriglia decided to bring the Ideal Protein weight loss program into our store as an extra service we would offer, I was mildly interested. When she asked me to try the program myself, I was surprised and slightly embarrassed, but mostly curious in an academic way. I approached it as an experiment with me as the subject. Luckily we were able to hire a coach who already knew Ideal Protein and Jenn taught me what I needed to do. I started Phase One of the program in the middle of January 2015 and found it was easy to follow the instructions; I just did what I was told and did not cheat. Keeping a logbook and checking in for weekly weighting, measuring, and coaching were important to keep focused, but it was not difficult to lock in to the routine of eating as instructed. Mostly I just went on with my life. At first, I didn’t pay much attention to the numbers and didn’t get too invested in the changes that were going on. When I went below 200 pounds for the first time in over 10 years, I took notice...