SIX POUNDS DOWN. Blood pressure lowest of my adult life. Decaffeinated. Old jeans sitting on my hips. Dress that didn’t fit does. Drinking green tea. Sleeping through the night. Only one question remains: Who the hell is this woman?
Let’s be honest, it can’t be me. Can’t be, not this woman who more resembles my serene-ish older sister, Margaret. Can’t be me who stuck out her arm at my one-year anniversary with the OB-GYN surgeon, and got back a blood-pressure result that was the lowest in my adult life. That can’t be me on the scale, smiling. And that absolutely, positively cannot be me actually falling asleep in the bed, instead of making lists and checking them twice, alphabetizing them, and then reciting them backwards.
Except it is.
Among the lovely things about this diet is how easy it is to adapt. No, we didn’t buy all Dr. Hyman’s favorite brand of intelligent but expensive supplements, since many of the ones I already take fulfill all of his suggestions at a lower price. Yes, we did buy one item, and the protein powder for the shake he recommends, but I did so because it contains turmeric, one of the great defenders against inflammation. In future I may simply add more turmeric to a less-expensive, fructose-free, and organic rice-protein powder. (Note: I have been taking turmeric daily in pill form since reading a Johns Hopkins study a few years ago on its possible defense against Alzheimer’s disease, the illness that killed our mother).
Striking, too, about this diet is how I now possess a wonderful vegetable broth recipe, since it’s required for the diet (you drink it between meals). Also good is how you can cook ahead. I did: brown rice in a big pot, as well organic chickens, which I roasted three at a time. (Margaret, a longtime vegetarian, used beans or tofu for her protein.)
We’re on a diet, my sister and I. Same diet, very different sisters. And we’re joined by Margaret’s best friend, Erica, whose work we’ve seen her on TSP, and whose interview with her brother we read when we were just a young blog looking to define ourselves. Completely different from either of us, she’s having great success, too. There is magic in doing this together, as there is whenever sisters and sister-friends set out for shared success.
Share our success, sisters. I’m calling it peaceful health, which for me, it is. And it’s a first. And it’s only two weeks in, with great results already.
(Scales image from Apartment Therapy.)
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My update: Skinnybones over here lost 3 or 4 pounds, all of it that silly extra junk in the middle that even on my little body was a recently added waste of space, the midsection stuff women of a certain age talk about among themselves. Gone; just rolled back the time-clock a year. I am eating extra portions of all the foods on the plan, so I don’t lose any additional weight, for anyone who’s concerned. Now my goal focuses completely on health longterm. Exciting.
Ah, Skinnybones she’s calling herself here. Well, if you want to know my sister Margaret’s real nickname, read this.
Hi Marion, thanks for the update. I, too, take turmeric and ginger supplements daily. For a while I took Zyflamend, but it’s rather expensive. Sadly, I had no takers (not even a reply!) to my push to get my 3 sisters interested in trying this diet with me, so I may have to venture forth on my own…(but, I may only have the willpower AFTER the holidays. A New Year’s experiment in the making?)
Hi, Christine. Ah, sisters: Just when you think you’re sure you know what they really need for than anything on earth, they disappear. Harummmpppph. Well, you take the good care of yourself you need to take care, and maybe they’ll be so knocked out they will sign on in awe of your success. As a wise friend once said to me when I wanted my husband to do something I was sure would be good for him, “If you want to go to church, go to church.” I remember thinking that life could not possibly be that simple. I go to the gym. Religiously. My husband now goes, too, one day, simply starting out, and now keeping at it twice a week. Let us know how you do. Good for you for taking ginger and turmeric. You’ll live better, longer. And come back soon.