Goals!

Goals are funny things. Depending on who they are important to, they can be important to us, or others. They can be extremely gratifying to achieve, or leave you feeling a little blah or even let down. Today, I’m on the gratifying end of the scale, and pleasantly surprised to be here so soon, in one area. In several other areas, I’m still working toward those goals.

Last fall I found a really cute tee shirt in a freebie pile. It wasn’t my size at all, but it was totally my colors and my style. Given that it was about a size and a half too small, I figured it could be my visual reminder of goals of getting healthier by losing some weight and getting more fit.

That didn’t really work out for me. Seasons changed, and all of the seasonal clothes, including my new cute tee, got put away and replaced by cold weather clothes. I completely forgot about it until the seasonal lothes made the rotation again.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, and I found my cute shirt again. It still didn’t fit.

That was May 23rd. Today, mini-goal achieved, I’m wearing that shirt!

I’ve lost enough weight to feel and look comfortable in a shirt that I couldn’t even put on three weeks ago. Not only that, but there are some other signs of improved health that I’m noticing since starting this new diet/life style, such as:

• Certain symptoms of being anemic have gone away. I will need to get blood work done to verify this, but I believe my anemia is improving.
• I have reduced my need for caffeine. In fact, I have enough energy now that I could probably cut it out completely, if that was my goal. (It’s not. I enjoy tea and coffee far too much to totally quit caffeinated beverages.)
• My legs are taking on a more flattering shape. I have ankles, rather than the dreaded cankles, now. And my calves and thighs are definitely slimmer. I still fit into the same pants I was wearing three weeks ago, but they fit differently than they did when I started this adventure.
• I am already stronger and more flexible than I was at the beginning of this.

That’s just a handful of the benefits I’ve noticed from following the Hot Belly Diet.

While I don’t actually feel deprived, there are some minor challenges with this plan. They are:

Eating socially.  – Whether it’s going out to dinner, or a potluck at work, keeping to the diet can be tricky if you aren’t cooking your own food. There’s not much you can do about potlucks, but you can make it easier on yourself when going to dinner with friends, if you research your local restaurants for places that serve diet approved foods.

Prioritizing your time.  – Technically, the breakfast options on this diet are oatmeal with fruit and nuts, scrambled eggs with veggies, or a smoothie, with recipes included in the book for all three options. I will admit that there have been a couple of days where that 20 or so minutes for fixing breakfast were spent getting a little extra sleep. On those days, a couple pieces of fruit from the approved list were my breakfast. I’m not too stressed about those days though, since I made healthy choices, and getting enough sleep is part of the overall lifestyle laid out for you in this diet.

The timing of everything. – They lay out the ideal times to eat, exercise, and sleep in this diet. And that’s great, if your job is 9am – 5pm, Monday through Friday, and completely predictable in the daily course of events. I don’t have a job like that. I work odd hours, in a completely variable field. While this diet may work better if you adhered to the suggested times for everything, I’m here to tell you that it still works even if your personal schedule doesn’t sync up with what the diet suggests.

Overall, though, the Hot Belly Diet is pretty easy to follow, and turning out to be quite effective for improving my health through weight loss, and gained health through balanced nutrition and exercise.