I four short weeks 20 pounds lost me. I am so excited!
I went to see my favorite doctor. He’s a chiropractor and nutritionist who does CRA or Contact Reflex Analysis. This is a fascinating process of asking the body what it has and what it needs in terms of nutrition – vitamins, minerals, etc. The body cannot lie. It is incapable of only speaking the truth during this process. I found that I was severely protein deficient, my immune system was low, my heart and lungs were tired and I had leaky gut, which is a sickness in the small intestines where it allows all of the bad stuff to enter the bloodstream. Nothing gets filtered out. Also, the vertebrae in my back and neck where beyond subluxation. I was an exhausted, physical mess.
The solution was to start taking supplements that gave my body the nutrients it needed to heal itself. AND – a change in diet. I could not eat bread or wheat for that matter. The daily Coke-a-holic in me had to disappear immediately and I had to focus on eating three meals a day with protein and vegetables and fruit had to replace cake, cookies and donuts. At the job, we keep a steady supply of cookies. People bring donuts in to share regularly and during winter storms they buy us lunch always with some kind of dessert. The refrigerator stays stocked with soda – Coke being one of them.
Initially, I walked around looking and thinking about food and saying to myself. “I can’t eat that.” “I can’t eat this.” But, then I decided to have a mindset change and started looking and thinking about things that I could eat and saying “I can eat this! I can eat that!” I have never been a fruit eater. It was nice to discover how tasty fruit really is. I think pears and cantaloupe are my favorite thus far.
After I made the mindset change, it was easy to look at donuts and cookies and not want them. The mind battle and struggle with temptation was gone. I also eat “mindfully” now. Looking back, I realized that I would just shove cookies in my mouth not thinking about it – moving on an impulse that I just wanted to eat something. The days when we had donuts and/or bagels at the office, I would eat them all day long – for as long as they were there. I was a sweets demon! At lunch, sometimes I would go out and buy tuna grinders (and by the way, I can’t eat tuna fish because I 
had too many heavy metals in my body that were not being flushed from my system and tuna is heavy in metals) or Chinese food (which is actually a healthy choice). But if I did not go out to get lunch, I rarely brought my own and would just eat junk and junk food throughout the day. I didn’t think about it; I just ate. Now, I only eat free range chicken and fresh vegetables. I have always enjoyed salads, so now I had the pleasure of creating super salads which included bits of advocado, radish, mushrooms, etc.
I cook my food twice a week to ensure I can bring a really tasty lunch of my own creation to work every day. I purchase organic salad dressings that are exciting to me. The doctor says to stick with olive oil and vinegar, but I allow myself nice salad dressings. My meals have become exciting to me again. I truly prefer not to eat meat but have to do more research on protein substitutes.
The result of all of this is that my body is healing. I am feeling better and I am living a little bit more consciously by thinking about what I am eating and why I am eating it. I eat three meals a day and keep dinner a little lighter than the early day meals. I don’t feel like I am missing anything by not eating the cookies. I do have “dessert day” every Saturday where I allow myself a slice of cake or a few cookies.
My greatest challenge in all of this was and is not to drink Coke. It was my morning coffee and at times it was an entire meal. I think about it all day, every day, but I am able to to just think about it and to let the thought go.
This has all been very fun for me at this point and along with all of the health benefits, 20 pounds lost me in four weeks. I am so excited about that. I can put my belt on the third hole again, where previously it was on the last hole. My goal in this diet change was not to lose weight but to help my body to heal. The weight loss was a natural result of good, healthy, mindful eating.
At this point, I am down to 145 pounds. Ten more pounds and I am back to my standard weight of 135 lbs and comfortably in my size tens. I am anxiously waiting for the doctor to tell me that my back is well enough to start doing aerobics again. Right now, all I can do is walk, period. No other exercise than that. I know that once I’m back to the jumping jacks and leg lifts, etc., that the balance of the weight that I would like to lose is simply going to melt away and I can start firming back up. Hopefully, you are inspired to take a look at your own eating habits and can start approaching your food mindfully. And, hopefully, you can find a doctor that does CRA in your area and begin your own journey to full health and wellness. Any other success stories out there? I would love to hear them. – Tomaca