I started this blog almost a year ago to document changes when on the Clean program for 21 days – to see if I could find my X factor. Although I learned a lot during the process – it just didn’t work for me. The blog has morphed into both my personal journey and self-discovery as well as random fun and observations in general.

I’m hopefully that I’ve found my X factor – almost a year after I started this journey.  During the Spring Transformation at Bootcamp there was seminar with a Nutrionist that I went to see (and was encouraged by my trainer to attend).  I listened, took notes and even made changes starting the next day – moving from small meals throughout the day to 3 meals per day.  I promised myself I would make an appointment to go see the Nutrionist.  It probably took me a month to finally make the call and he is in high demand so it took a few weeks to get an appointment.  My first appointment was May 7th.  I weighed in at my heaviest ever (maybe someday I’ll share).  He gave me simple things to focus on:  Hydration, 3 meals a day (and make them things I enjoyed – ‘no dirt and grass’ – things to chew), have at each meal – protein, carbs (30 mg) and veggies and no fruit (he was treating me as a diabetic) and if I was hungry between meals go for protein first.  He also wanted me to find an exercise I enjoyed.  That was easy – I had bootcamp.

The first two weeks I did pretty well – well balanced for all three meals, getting at least 2 bootcamps in a week.  I even got a workout in while traveling (historically I take my workout clothes and sneakers and never use them – the workout is the lugging of the suitcase in the airport 🙂 ).  Then I had a challenge – weekend leadership conference – I did pretty well with my food selections and still enjoyed some libations with friends in Happy Valley.  I was hit with a stomach bug that derailed me for a few days and took me awhile to get back on track.  I started noticing major fatigue in the afternoon that I just couldn’t explain – that was really starting to worry me.

Fastforward to yesterday – my appointment and review of the past month.  We talked about how I was feeling – especially the fatigue.  We discussed what I had changed in my diet – I had added bread back to my diet as I love a sandwich for lunch – think that is what is driving my fatigue.  For the next month, I’m going to experiment – either selecting lower carb bread or bread type items for lunch or swap my lunch / dinner options – dinner for lunch and lunch for dinner.  We’ll see how it goes.  The end of the appointment is the weigh-in – I’m pleased to announce that I dropped 6 lbs!!  We were both very pleased with the results.  I will never see that ugly unnamed number from above.  I’m still on a HIGH from it.  I’ve tried many things in the past (JC, WW, SB, Clean, NS, etc – it may have worked for the short-term – but always felt I was missing something).  I can honestly say I didn’t feel that this passed month.  I went out to dinner, I shared dessert, had cocktails, enjoyed a BBQ over Memorial Day, had a hot dog and beer at a Phillies game.  I enjoyed life and I’m enjoying this lifestyle change that seems to be working for me.

I go back for my next follow-up mid-July – stay tuned for updates.

Have a fabulous day!!