Friend of Julie: Is this Program Hard?

My version of coffee

Following Julie's weight loss program has been an incredible experience for me. "The first three weeks will be hard", she told us. Hard? Not for me. None of this past year has been hard at all. Well, there was one hard thing: giving up coffee.

I gave up coffee, because I couldn't drink it without sugar; I preferred no coffee over coffee without sugar. Years ago, I reduced the amount of sugar in my coffee from three teaspoons to one.  I enjoy coffee with frothed milk or cream, but I can't handle it without sugar. So, I gave it up.

Fast forward three months after I started this program. I was visiting an old friend in my favorite coffee shop in southern California (the Pannikin in Encinitas),  and I decided to try coffee without sugar. I knew if anyone could make me a nice coffee without sugar, it was my favorite coffee shop. They did not disappoint. After that,  I enjoyed coffee with hot frothed milk or cream and no sugar. When I returned home, I began making frothed milk with my own gadgets, well at least on the weekends. Most days, I stopped at Dunkin Donuts for breakfast: french vanilla coffee with extra cream and no sugar, and a bread-less meat sandwich, which confused most employees for a while, but now they have my number.

That has changed. Thanks to a Christmas gift from a friend at work, I have a wonderful Aroma milk frother. I just two minutes, while my coffee is brewing, I have thick and delicious tasting foamy milk to add to my cup of coffe.  I use every drop of it and then do it again for my second cup.

Dunkin Donuts has lost one of their best customers and they'll never know what hit them. It's often difficult to get a coffee with lots of milky foam and this gadget does the trick every time. Bye-bye DnD.

Aside from giving up coffee, following this program has not been difficult for me. This is not to say I haven't had my challenges along the way. The challenges, however,  have been more about me getting in my own way than anything being hard.

Being tempted to get on the scale has been challenging. That urge comes and goes. This is a lifestyle change and eventually I will find my way to resolving this issue. It may not happen for a few years. Change sometimes takes that long.

Wanting the process to go faster is challenging. I know it is going to take as long as it takes and I continue to work with myself to remember this. Some days I'm better at this than other days. Sometimes weight drops off quickly and their are times when I'm maintaining my weight. This is all part of the process. Julie reminds us the weight didn't come on all at once and it doesn't come off that way either.

I know that when I reach my goal, and yes-I will reach my goal, my next challenge will be to maintain my weight. I also know maintaining it is not a whole lot different than what I'm doing today. The more successful I am today, the easier maintenance will be. I'm not kidding myself, maintenance will have a whole new set of challenges, but what I'm doing now will strengthen what I need to do to maintain my weight.

Eating meat has certainly be challenging. I disliked meat and I had to get over that. I have found I do like meat now.  At first I just liked how it made me feel. I felt full and satisfied and I know not being hungry is mainly due to the fact that I'm eating so much meat. My body has been craving meat all these years and the reason I became obese is because my body wanted more nutrition (meat) and all I heard was "I'm hungry".  Eating meat satisfies for my hunger.

Cooking was a challenge too. Not only had I been eating out for most of my meals, I no longer was eating anything I ordered out, so I had to learn new things to cook. I kept eating out, but more and more started making things at home. I found a good sausage patty that I can cook while my eggs are poaching. I place the patties on my plate and top them with an egg and I have a breakfast that tastes a whole lot better than DnD ever served me. The savings is nice too. Well, I will need a new dishwasher soon, but it's due to be replaced sooner or later anyhow.

Expanding my recipes is the latest challenge. But guess what? This is really nothing new. I was tired of my recipes before I started this program. Menu changes are a part of our life cycles. We want to change things up from time to time. This time, working this program, is no different. I'm going to find a handful of new recipes, cook them to death like I always do (meaning: cook them again and again and again), and then say I need more new recipes. Or, I'll do this differently too. But for now, a handful of new recipes is a good start.

How about you - what have been your biggest challenges on this program? What are your favorite program foods? Any new favorite recipes?

Have any of you tried making Julie's meat pizza?  It has hamburg for the crust and anything else you want on top.  It's yummy.  I haven't made it for a while either.  Perhaps Aime and I can make it again, make a video along the way, and mix the older video with the new - weighing less now than last time we made the pizza and that video.

Hey Aime---time to make another pizza??