For those of you who don't know my mom, they broke the mold when they made her. Seriously, she is smart, beautiful and a hardworker. She's overcome so many challenges but still faces the day with love and optimism. Her whole life she has been fighting the battle with her body weight. I'll let her write a post one day all about this as its sad that when she was "skinny" she was still told to lose weight. Makes me want to go back in time and punch people in the face! Ok off topic. Mom works 6 days a week close to 50 hours a week so any changes needed to be simple and not time consuming with cooking meals. Luckily, she also has an amazing chef who cooks healthy, nutrient dense meals.
When I started eating Paleo / Primal, my mom started to also. Since I'm a practitioner in nutrition (I'll be done school in June), I've learned how to do functional assessments and evaluations that can target the reason why the body still isn't losing weight, not making performance goals, and having other systems. What I have learned personally and by others I have been helping on their road to success, is that changing the diet just isn't enough.
It's not just about weight loss, change in diet, or training more. It's about healing those systems we have done damage to all those years by eating processed crap and foods we have sensitivities to. If it was just easy as to switch the foods everyone would be doing it and having long term results. Often times the change in diet helps and you see drastic differences but then people plateau or have other symptoms going on.
What needs to happen is to address body systems on a bio-individual level. Providing supplements that will uniquely help each person to get their body system back to working optimally is the end goal. Food alone won't correct this; supplements for a course of treatment (for a lack of a better word) is the route for success.
So back to my mom and her road to wellness. I completed some assessments and found that her digestive (which is the route that most of us need to address first) system wasn't working optimally. Through Lingual-Neuro Testing, I provided her with supplements to aide in digestion. Her diet was pretty much the "Paleo" diet with some twists. Her results just after 17 days are amazing. Mom lost inches everywhere. Total inches lost from measuring hips, waist, chest, biceps and upper thigh is 6.75 inches! In her waist alone she lost 2 inches and hips 1.5 inches! Writing it still gives me chills of excitement. I could see her face was thinning out but 2 inches in 17 days is crazy!!! What is even more important is that mom had been having severe foot pain for the past 6 plus months. Doctors couldn't figure out what the crippling pain was from (no surprise there!). I kept telling her I bet I can get rid of the pain. Man we should have placed a wager. She went from having debilitating pain getting out of bed in the morning and barely being able to walk after a full day of work in pain to having no pain. No pain!! I think she even forgot about her foot pain because I had to ask her "how are your feet doing" and she smiled "I have not pain". All of these changes were in diet and supplements alone. Mom hasn't started the physical exercise component yet. Part due to the poor weather and that her personal trainer hasn't been getting up at 5 am. I really need to find a facility that opens at 5 am so we don't have to train in the living room.
So what was her diet like. Again, this is different for each person so I don't want to make recommendations and then you follow it without consultation as we don't know how your body will adjust or work to what her recommendations are. I can tell you she ate some kick ass meals cooked by yours truly. Friday nights are "Filet Fridays" as I have dubbed them, she had had avocado chocolate pudding, meatballs, buffalo chicken, meatza, homemade Kung Pow chicken and a bunch more (recipes to be posted). Lots of veggies are included plus a special whey shake from Biotics. She reports not feeling hungry, increased energy, not groggy upon waking up and no afternoon slumps. She's been challenged by seeing others at work eat cookies and sweets, chicken cheesesteaks, Chinese food and some of her other favorites. And yes we have had a pint of Ben & Jerry's hanging out in the fridge that has gone untouched along with some other tasty looking items. Hey you gotta challenge yourself!
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| My beautiful mom and I Christmas Eve 2012 |
It's not just about feeling good about how we look in the mirror, it's about having a healthy body on the inside and not having symptoms of illness.
If you, a friend or family member, wants to address any health issues or to focus on weight loss or athletic performance, let me know. My goal is to help everyone have the knowledge and access to living a healthy lifestyle.
Oh and if you see my mom, give her a high-five for all her hard work, change her eating behaviors and not giving up even in moments of weakness.
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