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Hi, Jennifer.<\/p>\n
Hope you are enjoying your family over the Christmas break. I know we won’t have many more trips with the whole family so I’m soaking it up.<\/p>\n
I’ve thought of asking you many questions recently. I saw you liked The Daniel Plan<\/a> [on Facebook]. Have you tried it? It’s by Rick Warren and some other doctors. I really want to lose about 20 lbs and find that I’m stuck….<\/p>\n Susan<\/p>\n Hi, Susan.<\/p>\n The book reading, that is. I’m happy to report that the weight loss did happen this year — at least the first forty pounds of it.<\/strong><\/p>\n Want to know how I did it?<\/p>\n I swore off sugar for six months<\/strong>. From the day I turned fifty in April until the day my son got married in October:<\/p>\n I didn’t worry about added sugar in things like peanut butter or natural sugars in fresh fruits, but I avoided all cakes, candies, pies, ice cream, granola bars, sugary cereals, and other treats loaded with refined sugar<\/strong>. Having a six-month time limit really helped me remain committed. As a bonus, once the six months were over, many of the things that would have tripped me up before had largely lost their appeal and were no longer even a temptation… so I haven’t bothered trying to reacquire a taste for them! <\/li>\n I’ve never been fond of sodas or sweet tea, but I love milk and orange juice. However, I gave up drinking those for six months, too (although I would occasionally have a cup of milk on whole grain cereal or in a fresh fruit smoothie). It’s amazing how many calories you can guzzle when you reach for anything besides water to slake your thirst.<\/strong> I stopped doing that, and am still very careful about it, although now that the six months are over, I do allow myself a little orange juice with my Sunday bagel and enjoy a small cup of milk whenever I eat a little chocolate.<\/li>\n A minimum of eight full glasses a day was my goal. I would occasionally add a squirt of lemon or a slice of cucumber for flavoring, but I usually drank my water straight from the tap.<\/strong> Since I’m prone to get bad headaches whenever I become dehydrated, drinking lots of water is a no-brainer for me. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Those few simple changes were all it took to shed 35 pounds. <\/strong>No exercise. No other dietary changes. And I’ve lost an additional five pounds since the wedding, even after adding a little sugar back into my diet (and despite the holidays).<\/p>\n But at this point, I feel like I’ve lost about as much as I can without increasing my activity level.<\/strong> At fifty, I have such an efficient metabolism that those last stubborn pounds are going to hang on even through faithful calorie counting and drastic dietary changes, unless I add some regular exercise to my routine.<\/p>\n The only thing that I’ve ever had any long-lasting success with — at least in recent years — is TTapp’s Basic Workout Plus<\/a>, so that’s my plan for the New Year: Just 12 minutes a day for 5-6 days a week. <\/strong><\/p>\n Even running that marathon the year I delivered #8 didn’t give me the results I’ve gotten with TTapp<\/strong> — I lost more toenails than pounds logging all those miles!<\/p>\n If you’re interested in learning more about TTapp (named after it’s creater, Teresa Tapp), you can Google the moves on YouTube<\/strong>. The exercises look deceptively easy, but they really get my heart racing. Just give these Hoe Downs a try and see if they don’t do the same for you:<\/p>\n
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<\/a>If I liked The Daniel Plan<\/a>, it was from a looks-interesting-I-should-check-this-out point of view rather than a tried-it-and-have-personal-success-with-the-plan. My husband bought the book a couple of years ago<\/strong>, and I keep intending to read it (in hopes it will help me lose weight), but that hasn’t happened yet.<\/p>\n\n
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