Hit the Reset Button!

When I ask people who have taken our Living by Design 8 week course what one of the most valuable concepts they came away with, the majority talk about the concept of hitting the RESET button!  I actually literally made a RESET button to have for myself as a visual!  What is a RESET button?  I'm glad you asked! In your journey to healthier eating (whatever that is!) we all stumble off course.  Whether a snack we didn't mean to eat; a whole meal that was 'off plan' or a whole day.  No need to beat yourself up or throw in the towel.  Hit your RESET button and keep going.  I even suggest taking a moment to evaluate what need was met in eating 'off plan'.  (Notice I don't say 'cheating'... there is enough shame and blame in the world, especially in the area of weight loss!  Hmmm... probably another blog post just on that!)  Anyways, don't wait until Monday morning.  Don't wait until next week.  Hit the RESET and move on.  You got this!  And you are worth it!

I also wanted to start sharing some of our favorite resources.  I'll be honest, we have STACKS of books that we have read; documentaries we have watched; recipes we have tried etc..  We are trying to narrow it down to what we feel is the 'best of the best'.  I'll try to share some of these in my blog.  Since I love to cook and bake, I thought I would start with a couple of the cookbooks that I LOVE!  

I just picked up this one this week.  Simply Keto by Suzanne Ryan.   It has jumped to the top of my list just based on her initial chapters chronicling her journey as well as her amazing explanation of the science behind the ketogenic/LCHF diet.  I've tried a couple of recipes and both were amazing!  Looking forward to cooking/baking through her recipes!!

This cookbook, Craveable Keto by Kyndra Holley,  was my 'first love'!  (In the area of keto cookbooks that is!!) Her journey and information is also excellent and the recipes have all been a hit!  The Zuppa Toscana soup recipe is worth the cost of the book!  I have made the lasagna recipe many times and unsuspecting company has not even been aware that it is keto!!  My daughter in law borrowed my copy and also made several of the recipes... even leaving stickie notes on them with their reviews.  (All positive!!)  

To be honest, I had gotten into a rut with cooking.  Especially the day to day 'what's for dinner' dilemma!  I find myself LOVING cooking again and excited to be trying new recipes.  And the food is amazing!  We've actually stopped going out to eat because we prefer (and crave) what we've been making at home!  I call that a win!

Next time I will cover an introduction to a website that is probably the single most valuable  online resource that Steve and I have used in our journey.  

Stay tuned.....

Doing a medical 180

When Janice talked to me about becoming a health coach over a year ago, I thought she would be great at that and gave my wholehearted endorsement…little did I realize that it would change my life and completely change my approach to medicine.

Part way through her training she came across “The Obesity Code” by Jason Fung and asked me to put my “doctor hat” on and read this book critically. Let’s just say I was VERY skeptical. “Sure” I thought, “Someone’s cracked the ‘code’ on obesity…just another fad diet.” But then as I read, Dr. Fung covered major medical studies I had been familiar with for years, and he started talking about diabetes reversing and even taking people off their insulin. Whoa. I have to be honest; in over 30 years of practice I never took patients off insulin (unless maybe they had gastric bypass or something as drastic) and I was never trained that diabetes was reversible. Could it be?

Intrigued, I set off on a major review of the science. If this was real (which I doubted) there should be proof. Plus, it has to be safe. What I found was astonishing. In the 40 years since we embarked on the “low fat diet” as being healthful, the science has been quietly stacking up to show that we had probably just made a big fat mistake. Fat was not the villain we thought it was and by replacing fat with carbohydrates we were going from the fire pan into the fire. We actually had made things worse. Indeed, obesity has gone from 15% to almost 40% and over 70% of Americans are overweight. Diabetes has gone up an astonishing 900% in this same time interval!

For the past several months I have been instituting this new low carbohydrate lifestyle change with patients and many are coming off their insulin and other medications, lowering blood pressure, losing weight, and a host of other healthy benefits. I have been totally amazed! I don’t have a drug that will do this!  With Janice providing the ongoing support and practical guidance, I am excited to get this message out to more people. Change is possible IF we live as God designed us to!

I thought I would start out by introducing myself and my journey to becoming a health coach.  My husband Steve and I have been married 35 years.  We have 3 children who all married wonderful spouses! And 8, soon to be 9 grandchildren.  We are in a very sweet season of life!  We both want to do what we can do to stay healthy and active to enjoy these years as much as we can!!  A year ago I decided to enroll in a health coaching course and see what God would do with it. It has changed everything!!  Not only for me, but for Steve as well!

As I started my course, a good friend also told me about intermittent fasting and how it was helping her lose some weight.  I decided to try it.  I stopped eating after dinner (usually around 6) and wouldn't eat until lunch the next day.  (Sometimes not until suppertime).  I ate healthy meals.  The 20 pounds I had been trying to lose for 5 years was slowly coming off.  And I felt amazing.  I had more energy; no afternoon slump and felt like my thinking was clearer.  Combining that with the habit change techniques and nutrition information I was learning I started to see how helpful this could be for so many people!

I then heard about a book called The Obesity Code by Dr. Jason Fung.  As I read it I realized this was explaining the reason why what I was doing with the time restricted eating and intermittent fasting was FINALLY working! (After spending my whole life trying every diet in the book and doing crazy exercise routines).  It's not about calories in/calories out.  It's not about moving more and eating less.  It's all about lowering insulin and working with how God designed our bodies to handle fats; carbs and proteins.  (Which we've been doing all wrong!!)  After reading the book in March, I handed it to Steve and asked him to put his doctor hat on and tell me what he thinks.  (He's a board certified Internist and Pediatrician).    He was skeptical (at best!!)  But said he'd read it with an open mind.   


What happened after he read the book has been amazing.  He's totally changed how he is practicing medicine in the area of metabolic diseases.  But I'll let him share that with you in the next post.  

Stay tuned.....