One-week Challenge!

We started Jorge Cruise's One-Week Challenge today.  Richard is joining me in this, so he measured his waist (which is, of course within the right circumference for his height).  We measured according to Jorge's recommendation, at belly button level, parallel to the ground, and sucking in as much as possible.  This is in contrast to the way I've been measuring which is with relaxed belly, and no sucking in, but still at belly button level. 


My waist circumference measured this way is 42 inches (my goal circumference is 33.5 inches - which is half my height in inches - the general rule of thumb for women is <35 inches, and for men is <40 inches).  I weighed in the morning at 203.4lb (so have lost a lb this past week.)


The One-week Challenge of the Belly Fat Cure is to eat 15 or fewer grams of sugar per day, plus limit our servings of carbohydrates to 6 each day.  One serving is 5-20grams, Two is 21-40g, Three is 41-60g.


We started our morning with Jorge's 8 minute belly flattening exercises, which we are adding to the challenge.  He prescribes belly toning exercises on Mondays, Wednesday, and Friday, upper body exercises on Tuesdays, and lower body on Thursdays.


Then we ate our delicious breakfast of a Mediterranean omelet (we used Egg Beaters since that's all we had on hand because a couple of the college boys were home for the weekend).  I am now used to cooking our eggs in olive oil (I've done this for over a decade) so did not cook them in butter as Jorge suggested.  I used kalamata olives, spinach, green onion, and garlic as the veggies (all "free" of countable sugars and carbs), as well as feta cheese (also no counts for sugar or carbs) and a couple fresh basil leaves from my herb garden.  One slice of Udi's Whole Grain Gluten-Free toast (1 gram of sugar and 1 carb count), drizzled with a tsp of garlic olive oil accompanied our eggs.  Richard makes the best stevia matcha lattes using matcha powder, unsweetened plain Almond Breeze (also "free"), and stevia to sweeten, in our cappuccino maker.  It's a good start!


So far, it's not that much different than our usual breakfast, except where we might have had two slices of toast, we agreed we'd have only one, considering the sugar/carb content, even though it's pretty low for that particular bread.  Also instead of using red peppers, which do count in the sugar and carb total, I used the "free" veggies: spinach, garlic, green onion.

Snacks that are free of sugar and countable carbs that I am going to implement today:  celery stick with natural (no added sugar) almond butter, and a whey protein shake mixed in with unsweetened chocolate Almond Drink. For lunch we plan to have tuna sandwiches on low-carb gluten-free bread, and dinner is going to be tuna steaks with a salad and healthy carbs (brown rice, etc.) as we have any allotted left.

We will likely go on our usual four mile walk into town and around the lake today, and have done a lesson in A Course in Miracles.  I am attempting to keep EFT in mind as or if any sugar cravings arise, so I can tap them out and move on happily.


Looking forward to feeling even better and better, and am excited to see how much sugar has been an issue, even with our pretty healthy current diets. 

To Great Health and an Energized Day! 

Belly Fat

Awhile ago my husband told me about a show he watched where Wayne Dyer was talking about an eating plan where you could eat only 20 g of sugar each day, along with other nutritional foods like protein, vegetables, and complex carbs, with the result of quickly losing extra belly fat.  I have kept this in the back of my mind since he told me about it, always thinking that 20 grams of sugar is not very much, and it must be pretty hard to stick to something like that.

As it turns out, it is The Belly Fat Cure, which allows only 15 grams of sugar, including the natural sugars in fruits and vegetables, so doesn't allow much extra anything in terms of sweets, unless one uses products with my favorite sweetener, Stevia.  I am aware that most of the world is already aware of this eating plan before I am  (even with Richard's knowledge of it) due to my lack of interest in commercial television and ads of any kind.  Suddenly I am aware of all aspects of the Belly Fat Cure because it seems like a reasonable path on which to experiment since one of my recent decisions is to cut any extra and hidden sugars from my diet.  I ordered three of his books that describe the eating plan, and so far, have been very impressed with Jorge Cruise's presentation of the data, and his ability to make it sound "simple".  In his book, The Belly Fat Cure: Discover the New Carb Swap System, I have enjoyed his visuals for foods and items that are good for your belly (those that help reduce belly fat) "Belly Good", and those that increase belly fat, therefore "Belly Bad".  Examples below: 

Our beloved Zevia soda is on the Belly Good side, all other sodas on the Belly Bad

Belly Good items include most of the items we have already switched over to, including gluten-free bread items

Belly Bad: all added sugars and artificial, man-made sweeteners; Belly Good: Stevia products

Healthier chip and snack items on the Belly Good side, and traditional, even Baked Lay's! on the Belly Bad side

 One of the books I bought is Jorge Cruise's 8 Minute a Day exercises specific to reduce belly fat.  Since this is the key area where I store extra fat, this plan seems to make sense.  I will continue my aerobic and cardiovascular workouts, but will add these toning exercises in. I can accommodate my wheat-free status with this plan, and my desire to decrease saturated fats (even though he doesn't emphasize this in his plan), and really become aware of the hidden sugars in everything I eat.  Our plan is to begin full force Monday and give the plan a whirl, the One Week Challenge, and meanwhile through the weekend, continue to observe and investigate the sugar content of the foods we eat normally, and decide how we are going to modify them further.  I am excited that there are more and more stevia-based products on the market from which to choose, and that this plan looks doable.  I will check in Monday morning with the stats (the main measurement for this is the waist circumference, but I will also be tracking my weight), and more of our plan.  We have prepared by doing our grocery shopping for next week to have on hand the food and items we will need to be successful.  Two of my boys will be home from college this weekend, and we want to remain flexible, food-wise while they are around.

It is pretty exciting to think that stevia is getting this amazing promotion.  This is one of the most exciting aspects of this discovery for me.