Thursday, March 29, 2012

Climbing The Ladder

Trying to improve your diet is like working your way up the rungs of a ladder...it is something that is best done at your own pace, a little bit at a time. When I look back at how far up the nutrition ladder I have come in the past 5 years, I can see that I wasn't the "healthy eater" that I thought I was.

When I re-opened Trim up 4 1/2 years ago, we sold Diet Cokes along with
water. I used Splenda like crazy (and had never heard of stevia), ate fast food several times a week and had a pantry full of low-cal processed snacks. I used canola oil, drank milk every day and thought only "tree-huggers" drank their meals from a blender.

Over the years I became exposed to eye-opening information from national
presenters at fitness conferences as well as highly respected doctors like
Dr. Joe Mercola...and learned some truths about health and nutrition that we never hear in the media.

It did not take long to kick the diet coke habit completely and I can say now that I truly do not miss it. In fact, the few times I have taken
a few sips, all I can taste is chemicals. I have replaced all products made with artificial sweeteners with Stevia, including protein powder.

Fast food burgers (and fried foods in general) give me indigestion now.
I can't imagine a world without Coconut oil (and my favorite snack of homemade popcorn with it)! I have no problem passing up grocery store bakery cakes - they taste so artificial. I still have a sweet tooth but keep packaged cookies, ice cream and candy out of the house to avoid temptation, although I love to indulge in the good stuff occasionally.

I recently went a few more rungs up my ladder when adding blended green smoothies to my daily diet. It is unbelievable how filling those things are and how much energy they give you - for hardly any calories but tons of nutrients! Another big change has been no more milk and less dairy in general...I think I was lactose-sensitive and it bloated my belly! One other big change is less animal protein, especially beef. Oh, and no more chicken liver - so full of toxins.

Our Detox Diet at Trim Up is all about educating and guiding participants towards a healthier diet that will have immediate and long-term effects on all body functions - including weight loss. It does take ALOT of motivation and discipline to follow all of the guidelines during the 4 weeks - it is not easy! But knowing how to eat and working to slowly make permanent changes towards those goals is a personal journey up the ladder.

It's one step at a time....