A Taste of My Childhood

Senses can be like a time machine. A picture can transport you back to that wonderful vacation from so many years ago. The feel of a warm blanket can make you long for those crisp evening’s at the mountain retreat. A song can tele-port you back to middle-school, and make you relive your first heartbreak. And the smell and taste of certain foods can make you a kid once again.

This past weekend was Lee’s and my first travel experience since transforming our lifestyle to one of clean eating and more healthful foods. We kicked off the Fast Metabolism Diet on January 6, and we’ve seen great results so far. Our 4-week program ended on February 2, and we’ve been in ‘maintenance’ mode since. Maintenance mode is where we gradually introduce food items back into our diet. For the most part this past week, we’ve stuck to FMD compliant and phase specific foods. However, wrapping up a weekend in South Florida and having breakfast with my mom as we prepared to drive back home, we kinda’ fell off the wagon.

You see, Cuban food and Fast Metabolism Diet don’t go well together. Versailles Restaurant and Fast Metabolism Diet REALLY don’t go well together. How can you possibly stay on plan with a breakfast buffet that includes a plethora of items that are not plan compliant? Bacon, fried eggs and scrambled eggs (both of which I am sure are prepared in butter or grease), sausage, picadillo, cod fish fritters (yes, for breakfast), and so much more.  I think if nutritionist and FMD author Haylie Pomroy stepped into that restaurant, her heart would seize. Furthermore, the restaurant has it’s own bakery. I am proud to say that both Lee and I avoided all the baked goods …. with one little exception.

I believe in Heaven, and I believe that in Heaven, there’s an unlimited supply of Cuban toast. I have no idea how Cuban bread is made, but I am convinced it involved magic. Take that magical baked good, slice it in half, lather it with butter, and press it and you get one of the most divine breakfast foods ever. Couple it with traditional Cuban cafe con leche, and I’m instantly a kid again sitting at my grandmother’s house, watching the men of the family play dominoes while their wives talked about whatever it was they talked about. Having the Cuban toast with my breakfast this morning was a visceral experience, and although I knew full and well the food was not good for me physically, it was also a heartwarming and joyful experience. The fact I got to share it with my kids made it that much more special.

I guess the moral of the story is twofold. For starters, it’s okay to indulge a little every now and then. Being disciplined means knowing how to do things in moderation, and although I am proud of the changes I’ve made in my eating habits, having a moment of extravagance can be somewhat liberating. Secondly, there is something healthy and endearing about reminiscing on good times. It uplifts the soul and strengthens the heart. We learn from our mistakes and we build upon our experiences. Looking back on those happy building blocks reassures us of the strength we possess. So if you ever want to go back in time for a bit, find that special something that will set your senses on fire, and subsequently warm your heart.

Geeking Out

I’ll admit it. I’ve been accused of being a fan girl. Sometimes Oftentimes merited, I’ve been known to have an un-manly reaction to meeting a celebrity or performer.

The same is true with Geekdom. In the world of social media, it’s not uncommon to have something you post on Twitter be re-tweeted by someone famous. It’s kinda’ cool when you’re able to connect on Facebook with someone of note, be it a celebrity or local personality, and they happen to mention you in a post. That’s the cool thing about social media and the power it has to make the world a little bit smaller.

On Sunday, I marveled when my friend Amber (aka @MissDestructo) had one of her tweets RT’d by Drew Carey. I thought it was way cool, and I think it’s something people plugged into the blogosphere secretly wish for one day. A step up in Interwebs recognition and perhaps – just maybe – the cornerstone of the big break we’ve all been hoping for. It’s fair to say those are geek-out moments, and they are definitely few and far between.

As you may know, my wife and I have completed our first round of the Fast Metabolism Diet. I wrote about it at the two-week point of the 28 day program, and then again yesterday following our completion of the plan. As usual, I shared my post across various social media platforms. My goal is to get as many possible eyeballs on it as I can, only because I love to go over my WordPress stats and see not only how many views a particular post has received, but also the various countries around the world in which my blog has been read. (I still don’t understand how someone in Bahrain stumbled onto my blog, but that’s the beauty of the Internet).

When I tweeted out my link, I happened to include the Twitter handle for Haylie Pomroy, the nutritionist that designed the Fast Metabolism Diet. My hope was that she’d read the post and know how much Lee and I appreciate her work, and how her diet has literal transformed us in one short month. It was a digital ‘tip of the hat’ to her, and my way of saying thanks. What happened next was something I was not at all prepared for.

Clean and Lean http://t.co/w6ZDd96jt3 via @danaCreative This family inspires me #fastmetabolismdiet

— Haylie Pomroy (@hayliepomroy) February 5, 2014

That teenage squealing you just heard? Yeah ….. that was me.

Weighing In

2 weeks. 14 days. 336 hours. 70 meals (including snacks). At least 1750 ounces of water (that’s over 13.5 gallons).

The result: 17 pounds (actually 16.5, but I like to round up).

That’s right. I’ve dropped 17 pounds in two weeks simply by eating food. There has been some exercise activity thrown into the mix, but not a whole lot. The result of my weight loss has been primarily me jump-starting my metabolism by changing the way I eat.

It all started around last summer when my wife came home and told me her friend Alyson did the Fast Metabolism Diet and lost about 15 pounds on the 4 week program. I quickly allowed the information to go in one ear and out the other as I was too busy thinking which pizza place I wanted to go to for dinner. Fast forward to December when we visited our friend Renee at her house for dinner. She had prepared for us a delicious meal, but it was quickly apparent she would not be eating with us. When we asked her about it, she reached into the freezer, grabbed a bag, and said, “This is my dinner.” Perplexed, we asked her what was going on, and she proceeded to tell us about how she was doing the Fast Metabolism Diet. She then went on in great detail about how the plan works and what foods she could and could not eat, etc.

Enjoying my second serving of rice, I didn’t give it that much thought. My wife, however, was sold. She was excited about a weight-loss program that involved cooking and eating and not starving or killing yourself with work outs. The next day, Lee bought the book and did research online. She dove into the program, becoming a near expert in a matter of weeks. She sat me down and gave me the high-level overview. All I remember saying was, “What do you mean you can’t eat bananas?” Then, with her birthday approaching (12/30), she took my hand, looked me in the eyes, and said, “THIS is what I want for my birthday. I want to try this ….. and I want you to try it with me.”

I don’t want to paint the picture that I was forced into the Fast Metabolism Diet. I had been wanting to do something for quite some time, but I didn’t know what exactly. I’d had some success before with low-carb diets. I have friends who swear by Paleo (and have lost lots of weight as a result). I didn’t want to join a gym, but I knew I needed to get more active. Sharing in this program with my wife would be a good starting point.

What I didn’t expect was a complete lifestyle change. In reading the book, author Haylie Pomroy explained why all the other diets don’t necessarily work, and if they do, why people tend to gain the weight back so quickly (as has been the case for me). The best part of it all is that she explained it with science. She talks about how stress – yes, stress – is a factor to gaining weight. Haylie explains how the liver, adrenals, thyroid, pituitary and your body’s substances (white fat, brown fat, and muscle) are all players in your weight loss efforts. She uses anecdotes and analogies that are easy to understand and make lots of sense when you stop to think about it. But fundamentally, I think the message of her book can be summarized by saying our bodies are not designed to process chemicals and artificial substances. Feed your body good, clean (i.e. organic) foods and the benefits will be almost immediately noticeable.

The diet, however, is not without some drawbacks. Firstly, it’s not exactly cost effective to eat clean. Organic produce, cage-free chicken, nitrate-free beef; they all tend to be higher-priced than their non-clean counterparts. A loaf of sprouted grain bread can be almost double the cost of a loaf of whole wheat bread. And because the program runs for 28 days, there’s a LOT of food purchasing going on. Then there’s the preparation. To this I give all the credit in the world to my wife. She’s spent hours and hours over the weekends and throughout the week preparing meal plans, cooking, and making sure we have all the necessary foods we need for our snacks, etc. I can see where a single mom or a busy traveler would find it nearly impossible to make the required meal schedule (eating within 30 minutes of waking up, and then every 3-4 hours thereafter until bedtime) work for them. For us, it hasn’t been easy, but I can honestly say it has been worth it.

Still, I recommend Haylie’s book to everyone, whether you’re looking to lose weight or not. There is so much valuable and enlightening information in its pages. For me, the whole experience so far has been a crash course in eating clean, and it’s opened my eyes to all the things I was doing wrong for all this time.

As I am now at the half-way point of the program, I am really looking forward to the next two weeks and the end result with regards to my weight. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt this good, and I look forward to feeling even better. And if you could lose weight by simply eating better foods, why wouldn’t you give it a try?