It started on Facebook when a fellow writer and friend Michelle Douglas was bemoaning not fitting into her jeans.
Then when I returned from my Spanish holiday, having eaten too much, and my daughter returned from finishing her Masters and decided she too need to lose her dissertation podge, I knew I had to join in.
So we have been healthy in the morning, at lunch and for the snack. Supper is whatever my husband makes (this is in the interests of marital harmony) and there is no alcohol. At supper we are not eating (as a general rule) gluten. Special Occasions are by their very nature exempt from this,
I started this method of eating. at the end of September.
The things I have discovered:
1. Yes even if you are exercising, it does make a difference what you put in your mouth, particularly as you hit menopause.Healthy choices have you feeling better and the excess weight going off.
2. Not having refined sugar or gluten has really helped my lymph oedema. (This is annoying in the extreme. I do like bread, cakes etc)
3. Eating this way is fun and I am not getting as hungry.
4. Spiralizers are fun.
5. Menopause does thicken your waist. Irritating in the extreme. It does become harder to shift from that region.
I have continued with the tomato juice in the morning. It does help with menopausal symptoms, including anxiety. I notice if I decrease it/skip it. And sometimes (like yesterday) I needed to up the dosage to include a glass at night.
I am now fitting into my size 8's again, having given them up as a lost cause when the weight piled as menopause really started to bite.
I have continued on my Tracy Anderson re-do for my exercise but have lowered it to a half hour of the muscular structure and a half hour of the dance cardio 5 x plus a longer session of the dance cardio on the 6th day. It remains challenging but is more do-able than the first go round. Exercising is part of my life now.
So now in the menopausal time, making the right choices with my food does make a huge difference. Prior to the menopause hitting, I was able to be far more liberal with my food consumption as my exercise kept everything in check.
