30 Pounds Lighter, So Much Brighter

Over the past year, I dropped 30 pounds by changing four habits. Period. And while I’m not one of those people who needs to be thin, I do like to feel nimble and strong enough to do anything. How did I do it? I’m more than willing to share.

Let’s start with admitting that COVID pounds are evil. They sneak up on you and gather around your middle. They convince you – briefly – to move on to larger pants sizes and more comfort food. After taking time off in early July to recharge, I found I was more sluggish than ever and resolved to get a fresh start.

Photo by Diana Polekhina / UnSplash.com

Two things happened at once: the digital app Noom taught me that I eat to please others and a book on better digestion showed I fed my body in the wrong order.

Here’s what I’ve learned:

• I stopped eating fillers that don’t nourish my cells. Goodbye to bread, pasta, rice and potatoes. It turns out, I never needed you.

• I only eat within a nine-hour window every day. While I never snacked in the evening, eating late dinners didn’t give my gut as much time to adequately digest food overnight.

• I eat fruit only first thing in the morning then follow a plant-based diet for breakfast and lunch. That way, my body absorbs all those great nutrients easily without getting blocked by proteins.

• I take a probiotic in the morning with a good glug of water then have a digestive enzyme before lunch and dinner.

And I feel so much better. I have more energy and my thoughts are far more clear.

I’m also less lumpy and feel better about how my favourite clothes fit again.

When I look back, I realize we all pick up bad habits – some that trace back to our active ancestors who needed to pad their diets with carbs to stay alive during tough winters. The extra bonus has been how these changes have benefited my business.

Face it, carrying extra pounds by feeding yourself the wrong things in the wrong order is a lot like poor communication. If you never learn to rein in typos or leverage more nutrient-rich words, your scripts and written materials will be more blah. People who pad their documents with fluff don’t make them any better.

Now that I’m more alert and focused during the day – less encumbered by weighty mid-day proteins, I’m sharper and more alert to those niggling words that slip in and complicate sentences. I can more clearly see how paragraphs should be shuffled for more emphasis on your main points.

Give these habits a try. They aren’t based on selling you a book or any fancy protein powders. I honestly want you to thrive.

P.S. If you’re interested in finding out the name of the digestion book, I will share it. Just drop me an email at loisetuffin@gmail.com. I picked it up at a yard sale and found it extremely helpful.