Project Red Dress, Part 2 -- The Results Are In! (What I Lost and What I Learned)

Uncategorized Feb 25, 2015

Well, THAT was fun!

If you’ve been following my blog, you’ll know that ten days ago I embarked on Colin’s 10 Day Fat Burn and Cleanse as a kick start to stepping up a notch my personal commitment to optimal health.

Of course, my new little red dress – and the way I wanted it to fit –  was the spark to my motivation. It bothered me that the sleek lines I had taken for granted for all my life seemed to be absent from the image reflected back to me by the mirror in that department store fitting room. (Thank you, Christmas butter tarts.)

Thus, Project Red Dress was born.

Just in case you, too, have a deep desire within you to take YOUR health to the next level by incorporating this cleanse into your plan, I’m sharing my (very positive) experience with you. . .

This low calorie, very nutrient-dense cleanse was actually a relatively easy one to carry out – with quick, very encouraging results.

Unlike with other cleanses I’ve done in the past, I experienced very stable blood sugar levels throughout and increased energy as side effects. How cool is THAT!  Also, I was concerned that the little bit of caffeine in the green tea would mess with my already challenged sleep patterns. (Had a lot on my mind lately…) But guess what: even from Day 1, I started sleeping better, not worse!

Neither did I get any of those really stupid cravings nor “I’m starving” feelings. Yes, I did kind of drool over my husband’s dinners – EVERYTHING smelled so yummy! And there was the one evening I spent reading cookbooks in a warped attempt to vicariously experience what I was missing. . .

But that’s okay. There’s something spiritually enriching to step away from and go without that which we can so easily begin to take for granted. Eventually, as I sipped on my lemon water…shake… green tea…or vegetable juice, I became more mindful of the many who go to bed every night without even that.

By Day 6 I realized that I had underestimated the amount of Miessence Complete Protein  I had in my existing stash, and by Day 8 I’d even run out of my back-up rice protein powder, too. (Oops… poor planning.) So, technically, I guess you could say my 10 Day Cleanse inadvertently turned into a 5 Day Cleanse.

Nonetheless, I carried on for the remaining days with all the other features of the cleanse – the copious amounts of water, lemon, green tea, freshly pressed vegetable juice, psyllium, garcinia cambogia, and the Miessence Berry Radical antioxidant, InLiven probiotic, and green powder. However, it was at this point that I reintroduced other protein sources such as fish, legumes, eggs, seeds and nuts.

Still, after only five days, the scale showed a number five pounds lower than when I’d first begun – and stayed stable for the remaining five days of the (sort of) cleanse. My waist size decreased by two inches and my hips, by one. (Okay, okay, for those of you who need more details, this translates into a present weight of 134 pounds, a waist of 26 inches and hips of 37 inches.) I took before and after photos of my bare midriff but I shall spare you those graphic images. . . You’re welcome.

This changed my waist-to-hip ratio from .74 to more respectable .70. That’s better. MUCH better, actually, because researchers have found that a ratio of ≤ .73 is, among other things, protective against breast cancer. In fact, women with a waist-to-hip ratio greater than .81 have a sevenfold increase in likelihood of getting breast cancer. I know I wasn’t that far off before, but it’s a dangerous, slippery slope. . .

By that same token, the risk of breast cancer is lowest in women who have a body-mass index (BMI) of ≤22.8, which is around where mine is now hovering. Did you know that in premenopausal women, a BMI ›31 can increase risk by 54%, while in postmenopausal women, a BMI ›28 increases risk 126%!

For all you gents out there, I wish not to leave you with the impression that all this “weights and measures” stuff affects only women’s health. No, sir.   According to Michael D. Jensen, M.D., an endocrinology specialist at Mayo Clinic, a man’s waist measurement of more than 40 inches is an indication of an unhealthy concentration of belly fat and puts him at greater risk for heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, stroke and cancer. This is serious stuff. Worth thinking about… and acting on, too, if needed.

So, anyway, that’s my story. Or at least the first chapter. Now that my knee has fully healed from that nasty fall I took on a patch of ice in December, and it’s no longer a minus zillion degrees out there, I have no more excuses for not breaking in my new pair of runners.

Enter: Project Red Dress – Phase TWO. Stay tuned…

Live well...stay well,

Marian

 

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