Dieting Wins.

As most of you know, I have been using The Belly Fat Cure by Jorge Cruise for over a year now. Following the simple guidelines of keeping sugar- be that added or natural like fructose in fruit and lactose in milk- to 15 g per day and keeping carbs to about 120 g per day I have lost over 20 pounds and easily maintain it. I will never be considered "skinny" because I am very curvy. You may say, my cup (bra cup that is) overfloweth no matter what my weight. My waist was within the "BFC good" range (below 30 inches) even at my heaviest because I have always had an hourglass figure. For me, my tummy wasn't really a problem except for the pooch-- below the belly button- which is something I had even in high school. I have an extremely large ribcage- pre-adolescent I would be teased about "What is that?" because my ribs stuck out further than my chest. So even though I am only 5' 2"- I am not exactly a "petite." I actually prefer to wear regular length jeans because the rise fits me much better than short/petite ones and my legs are proportionally longer than my overall height so regular jeans are just a bit long on me. Much of my weight is in butt and thighs rather than waistline, so I wasn't expecting much from a diet that is aimed at Belly Fat. I am so happy I found it though because it really has made a huge difference in my life.

The thing I like about the belly fat cure is that it doesn't count calories nor limit fats. Counting calories would be too hard to keep after and I gotta say, I like butter, cream and fatty foods so I would feel deprived (or maybe even depraved) if I had to watch those things. Now the only sugar I use is sugar scrubs. He he he. A surprising thing that I've noticed is that I have not gotten sick-- this may be purely anecdotal evidence but I have not had a serious cold or flu this past year even when my kids and hubby have had them. Rather surprising seeing that I don't eat fruit because of the high sugar content and most people think of vitamin C as being THE cold prevention key.

Here's my own thoughts on why this works for me.
I'm starting to look at food as what it's purpose was in an evolutionary sense. High sugar foods like fruit was only available in late summer/fall-- a time when one would want to put on extra fat before winter. Another high sugar food is milk- before homogenized milk, people really didn't drink milk-- but cream/butter stores much longer. Bacteria tends to thrive in sugary stuff-- it's their food too. So to me sugary foods tended to spoil quickly so they were to be eaten at a time when one would want to put on fat. Also, the most sugar fruits seem to come from tropical areas-- wouldn't have been available like it is now. Even my own mother (in her 60s) talks about how an orange was a treat- usually at Christmas time- because she grew up in a small village in Germany.
Human breast milk is high in fat 4.5% (whole milk is 3.25%) and carbohydrates (mostly lactose.) The brain is mostly fat- over 60% so fat is essential for it's development and infancy is a time of rapid growth so high sugar/carbohydrates would make sense to fuel that rapid development.  People become lactose intolerant AFTER infancy- those that aren't lactose intolerant evolved from people that dairy farmed... makes sense huh? So high sugar foods like milk wouldn't have been part of the diet of most adults- but products that stored longer like butter, cream, cheese, etc would have made that food available more than the high sugar foods.
With refrigeration, food coming from all around the world and other such advancements we have foods that are available to us all year round that wouldn't have been part of our evolutionary diet. Plus there is a surplus of calories- US produces 3500 calories per day per person. Some foods that do store well- nuts, grains, starchy food like potatoes. Meat (& fat) would have been available- smoking and salting preserve these, plus one can hunt year round but only grow food when the weather permits. So to me, probably coming from a colder climate heritage (European decent) high sugar foods would not have been available to my ancestors all year long so I shouldn't probably eat then either.
Something I noticed was that I felt like getting through winter without gaining weight was a win. Since food production isn't limited in winter like it must have been for ancestors, if I was able to maintain weight during the winter months, I felt like I was on the right track. I think that the human body still tries to conserve fat during winter because it's hard to overcome all that evolution. Once spring and summer came and I was doing more physical activity because I enjoy being outside for a workout rather than inside, I would lose some weight and tone up without diet change. Like body says "OK it's summer- food supply will be OK- don't have to hang onto the fat right now." So to me- looking at food in this way makes sense of why my body can handle fats, proteins and such but can't take an overload of sugar without putting on fat.

 When I first started the BFC I noticed that I was losing a lot in the belly area- even though I wasn't in horrible shape there. For a while, finding pants that fit was NOT FUN. I already had an issue with finding pants that fit butt and thighs without having gaping waist and the quick loss of belly fat made this issue even worse. After a year, I am seeing slimming of thighs, butt and even a little off the bust- so that things are getting more proportional. I was even able to find skinny jeans to fit me.  am very close, w/in 5 pounds, of my HS weight- didn't think of myself as "fat" then.  Not bad for someone who will be 43 next week. I get a treat doing laundry sometimes  because I actually have to  look at the size of pants because I can't readily tell if they are my pants or DD's (and she's tiny IMO.) My size is only one larger than hers. My body imagine has finally had a breakthrough last week when DD & I went shopping for prom dresses. I took photos of her in various gowns and I was in the background of mirror in some of them and I didn't think "Wow, look at how big I look." I still think of myself as looking like I did a year ago. I guess that's why I'm always shocked when people talk about how thin I look now. Like yesterday the other assistant track coach says "Did you lose weight?" then goes on about how he wouldn't normally ask a woman that question but I'm a friend and it seems like a significant amount of weight that I lost. As he put it "I just looked over at you and thought where'd she go?" Most times I see him, I am usually wearing a coat or scarf or baggier clothes but yesterday I just had on a form-fitting long sleeved tee and jeans. In much clothing I look "bigger" because I do have to fit to my chest- still wear large/extra large tops- whereas my butt/thighs are mediums and my waist is actually in small size.

 So when I told him I'd lost over 20 pounds and that YES it was INTENTIONAL-- I am not sick or anything- it felt pretty good. Right now I am definitely maintaining but I am hoping that I will tone up/let go of a bit of the fat on butt and thighs this spring/summer. I definitely get more physical activity in the warmer months. As it is, I do try to get a little bit in during track practices. Like the other day the sprinters had to run 100 M, ten times. I was in charge of this on my own while the coach timed some 400 M sprints. So I would run the kids and then run down to the other end to time. I definitely see a big difference in that aspect too. I am able to run more and have less aches and pains than I did a year ago.
These are the Rocker Skinny jeans I found at Old Navy. They are a velvet spandex but still only size 4 even with my thighs and butt issues.