Week 4 – Put A Ring On It

Believe it or not, I’m now 25% done with this challenge.  Time is flying and I’m starting to settle into a routine.  I’ve been dairy free now since May 12th and this week I really got tested when we took the kids to the beach and then for pizza.  I knew full well I couldn’t eat any of it, but I felt strong enough that I could go with them and be okay smelling the sauce, cheese and bread.  I’m not gonna lie to you, it was hard.  I was tempted, but I had resolve that I wouldn’t introduce the dairy back into my system, because I knew it could be very painful afterwards.  (Both mentally and psychically).  Hello stomach ache!  Honestly, I won’t do that to myself again though, because there’s no honor is being miserable watching your kids and hubby eat pizza.

What I’m realizing with this challenge is that in the past I’ve been really good a doing stuff about 80% of the way.  I’ll study and do homework 80% of the time.  I’ll get to the gym 80% of the time I’m supposed to and I’ll eat well 80% of the time, but that’s not enough if I want to achieve my goals.  I’ve basically lived my life inside the Pareto Principle, that 20% of my efforts will result in 80% of my results. Over time, I’ve used it as shorthand to describe everything in my life.  Usually with the emphasis on, no one is perfect, and I can’t do everything 100%.  So, I’ll just focus on 80% compliance on pretty much anything.  It keeps me stuck in the same place and it’s really just about my ego trying to keep me safe.

I did a boot camp challenge back in Oct/Nov and I never truly followed the eating plan (though I did a lot of workouts and won the “attendance” award) because of my ego.  “I’m a health coach, I KNOW what to eat.  I don’t have anything new to learn here.”  Just 6 short months later I’m finding out I have food sensitivities and everything I was eating was pretty much incorrect.  Now, that’s a blow to the ego.

Week 4 Results

Weight: 190.2 (-7 since start, 0 change since last week)

Workouts: 3 (Boot camp 3 days in a row!), 8 total since start

Cleanse days completed this week: 1 (5 total for the challenge)

My “original” wedding band fits again

Non-Scale Victory: My wedding band fits again!! Truth be told, I’ve been wearing my “pregnancy” wedding band since 2011 and I was never really able to go back to my original wedding band which is way more sparkly!  When I got an upgraded engagement ring on my 5th anniversary, I was pregnant with Daphne so I wore it, but was never able since then to wear it with the original wedding band.  I tried it on yesterday, and it fit and it’s comfortable and it looks amazing!

What I want to be acknowledged for this week:  Seriously just letting go of my ego and really submitting to my coaches who are the experts.  All the best coaches have coaches. People like Richard Branson or Oprah have at least half a dozen for all the different areas of their life.  I will continue to utilize my coaches and stop making it all about my ego!

Book I’m reading this week: Power Vs. Force, by David Hawkins

Progress Report, Month One

Mostly to remind myself, here’s what I committed to at the onset. 

• 16 cleanse days  – 5 done!
• No dairy – done!
• No gluten – 1 hot dog bun, but otherwise done!
• 48 workouts – 8 done, I should be at 12 for the month so need to catch up
• Read 4 books on personal development – 2 done!
• Write a blog post on my journey every week – done!
• Introduce at least 10 new people to this lifestyle – 2 done!

Goals:

• Lose 25lbs – 7lbs done!
• Ring in my 35th birthday at my lowest weight since 2009 – not sure what the exact numbers are but I’d say 185 would be the goal for this.
• Assist my clients to lose a total of 50lbs (combined) – 9lbs so far!
• Not obsess over every pound on the scale – done!
• Have fun! – done!

Creating a World Class You

Posted by Ran Isner

This past Saturday I was at a team training event for the nutritional cleansing business my wife Marie and I own and we had the privilege of receiving some out of this world content from the incomparable Andy Murphy. Andy coaches people that are in the top of their game from multi-millionaires to professional athletes to TV and movie actors and producers.  What he specializes in is Neuro Linguistic Programming, also known as NLP. What it is, and I’m probably over simplifying it, is re-wiring our neural network to create new habits while sort of deleting the old ones. It is safe to assume that all of us have habits that we have created over the years that never really served us to begin with but they have given this false sense of security and comfort that we have been resisting to change them. Procrastination is a major one for me. I am a master procrastinator and it’s no joke, seriously I have mastered the art of procrastination and the crazy thing is that I have become comfortable with the anxiety and stress associated with it because it was familiar and safe. I KNOW!!! THAT IS CRAZY!!! But our minds are weird like that. I have this dialog with my mind and sometimes it goes into this shakespearean monologue rationalizing why I should procrastinate, saying “there’s enough time for you to do this” or “there’s enough time to call this person” or ” you can wait to do the dishes” and so on and so forth, you get my point. So what Andy was teaching us is that these habits can be  changed and new habits can be formed. Once we become conscious of our behavior in that moment, we are able to interrupt that behavior or thought and program a new behavior.

Andy’s sole purpose is to help people become their “world class” selves and his moto is that he wants to be able to assist people in reaching a point where they no longer need him  because they have become “world class”. To me “world class” means that I have created habits that set me up for success and allow me to perform at my peak level.

Andy also covered the subject of immersion. What he means by immersion is that we immerse ourselves and content conducive to becoming “world class” and surrounding ourselves with people who are like minded in their goals and purpose. I understood the concept of that before listening to Andy but I always considered that as “work” and in the past that always equaled no fun. I couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact that “work” could be fun because it meant that I was growing as a human being and how exciting that is. That has shifted since Saturday. I have been reading the book The War of Art with much interest and been listening to calls by some of the people I resonate with and all of a sudden I have this thirst for knowledge and growth and it is so exhilarating. My energy is up and I am a lot more productive.

A new habit I have been working on is Andy’s Morning Immersion System. I wake up every morning and I become aware of what thought comes to my mind, once I achieve that, I interrupt that thought, take 5 deep breaths and imagine coming home at the end of the day and something amazing happened. I have been doing it for two days now and I can honestly tell you that it sets the tone for my day. It allows me to present and accept things for what they are. I have noticed that I am more in tune with myself and am much more calm.

I have required this breakthrough for a long time and now i am in the space where I can lay the groundwork to becoming the “world class” me.

Week 3: I Did It!

You have 100% success when you can say I did it! I learned that yesterday at my team training while listening to the awe inspiring Andy Murphy. I also learned that we can interrupt and redirect our thoughts and by doing so, we are rewiring our brains to create new habits. As you all know I am all about crating new habits because the old ones ain’t working no more and if I am going to light myself on fire, new habits are required.

I did it! is going to be my mantra. Why? because I want to have 100% success. Success doesn’t mean perfect, success means it’s done. I want to accomplish things and not procrastinate because nothing beats the feeling of saying “well that’s out of the way!” I mean it! not having to worry about doing something because you took care of it already? I’ll take that any day.

Andy Murphy gave us an amazing tool to use on top of all the amazing tidbits he sprinkled throughout the day. He gave us the Morning Ignition System. When you wake up in the morning, tune in to your thoughts and become consciously aware of what it is you are thinking at that moment. Once you do that, take five deep breaths from the belly and after you’ve done that, imagine coming home and something amazing has happened. I am making this my morning routine to kickstart my day.

I acknowledge that in this 3rd week i’ve noticed that the excitement has worn off a little and that my old habits are forcing their will on me and that’s because I choose to let them. I choose to isolate myself and drift away with thoughts of inadequacy because it absolves me from being accountable. I know I’ve spoken about this before but until i break myself of it I require to keep reminding myself why this is happening so I can interrupt those thoughts and redirect them. I require to rewire my brain so that those thoughts are not the first ones to pop up, but rather thoughts of YES AND! as we say in the acting world.

I require to immerse myself with content that pushes me to greatness and surround myself with people that see greatness in me. In order to play at this high level I have to practice these habits constantly and in order to become”world class” as Andy calls it, I require to able to say I did It!

Week 3 results:

Weight:154.4 (-0.8 lbs since last week, – 2.3 since start)

Workouts: 1 ( went biking )

Cleanse day completed: 2

Book I am reading: The War Of Art by Steven Pressfield

What I want to be acknowledged for this week:

I want to be acknowledged for being on the court and not giving up.

Week 3 – Big Shot

As I was contemplating starting this entry yesterday, I thought, “I won’t know what to say until I see how much weight I’ve lost/gained”.  I realized then, that defeats the whole purpose of taking this on as a holistic challenge.  It’s not just about the weight, is it Marie?

So, yes, I am up this week. But I’m really pleased actually, because this week I didn’t cleanse at all so I know that it’s normal to rebound by 1lbs or so.  In the past, I’ve used cleansing unwisely as a way to “correct” bad eating over a weekend or after a night out.  But that was never really the point of cleansing or a good idea.  If you’re gonna go out and eat nachos and pizza then you’re cleanse day is gonna be hella rough.  Plus you’ll never lose weight that way, you’ll just maintain – IF you’re lucky.  Cleansing is meant to be part of a healthy lifestyle, not a quick fix.

Plus last week I’d reclaimed my lowest weight since giving birth to Daphne, so I was walking tall and with a little big shot swagger.  Previously, I would self sabotage at this point because I’d be filled with cockiness and feeling so proud of my 189lbs.  I’m proud to say this time, I didn’t go overboard and I truly stayed the course.

I also really got into my workouts this week making it a priority to  do 3 for the week.  I spend 3 days in a row at boot camp and it was great.  I definitely struggled a bit at first after not being there for 10 days, but by class 3 I was back in the groove.  No doubt my bullet journal is helping in this area since I get to mark off each workout on a chart.  My inner first grader is excited to add a sticker to my chart!

A page from my Bullet Journal tracking Workouts

On Friday night I finally got to see Billy Joel in concert!  I’ve always loved his music ever since “We didn’t start the fire” came out!  I bought us tickets back in December so I’ve been looking forward to it for a long time!  Unbeknownst to me, my husband also bought tickets for a concert in March (with better seats).  When we showed up for the concert in March though we realized we’d had the wrong night and we’d actually missed it!  I was so disappointed!  Ran had an out of body experience when the usher told us the bad news.  But I said, “don’t worry, we’re still going in June!”  It was such a fun concert, Billy sounded amazing and he played all my favorites.  I’m so glad we were able to experience it!

 

My Old Navy Size 16 jeans from right after giving birth are finally going in the recycle bin!

 

All the Size 16/14 pants going buh-bye!

Another thanks to my bullet journal, I wrote down last weekend the task of “putting away the winter clothes”, which also meant “taking out the summer clothes”.  It was a proud moment for me when I went through many items from summer 2013 and was able to purge the too big, keep the items that fit again (!), and create a clearing in my drawers and closet that left me feeling refreshed.  Never underestimate the power of cleaning out your closet, it leads to wonderful feelings!

Week 3 Results

Weight: 190.2 (-7 since start, +1.2 since last week)

Workouts: 3 (Boot camp 3 days in a row!), 5 total since start

Cleanse days completed this week: 0 (4 total for the challenge)

Non-Scale Victory: Ate out at an Italian restaurant, and managed to find something gluten and dairy free and still enjoy it! Plus I didn’t overate just because I paid for the meal (which is something I used to do because I felt guilty about eating out even though I was full already).

What I want to be acknowledged for this week:  Now when I wake up in the morning I don’t go straight for my phone and to check Facebook.  I actually get my morning started without it and I feel so much lighter.  Looking at bad news on line or other negative stuff really gets to me first thing in the morning, and since I’ve stopped doing that I find myself cuddling with my kids more, being less cranky and just enjoying mornings more in general.  I’m gonna keep it up! Plus, I have a less likely chance of dropping my phone in the toilet!! (I went there! LOL)

Book I finished this week: Organize Your Life, by Susan Sly

Week 2:Why Am I Doing This?

Posted by Ran Isner 

With my second week of the “Light Yourself On Fire” challenge coming to a close, I understand how much consistency is a crucial part of this.  I promised that I would talk about my ulcerative colitis condition but, I felt that my soul wanted me to address this issue first.  

I know where I am concerned, I tend to think short term instead of long term. If I start something and I don’t see results right away I get discouraged and I go into negative self talk. It’s as if I know I’m going to fail anyway so I try to give myself an out. I’ve encountered that in a couple of instances, one of them is the writing of this blog. Even though I  have been consistently writing it, and it’s received some traction, meaning that some people have been reading it but not as much as I would have liked. Basically, I set up an expectation in my head and when I didn’t meet it, the negative self talk came creeping in. This really aggravates me! Why am I doing this? so people could pat me on the back and say how amazing I am basically making it all about me? Or am I doing this to inspire others to live a life they love? 

Then there is the issue of gaining weight back. I went up 5 lbs since last week and I feel shitty about it. Again, this is going back to consistency. I had great results and then I let myself off the hook. The reward for the great results are the results themselves! You don’t quit! You keep going because this is not a short term thing, it’s a long term thing and that requires consistency!

I said that this is about responsibility and accountability and the one thing I require to focus on is consistency. Writing this blog is practice for me as I am honing new skills and also teaching myself not to be attached to a result. If I want to be an advocate of self love and letting one’s self be truly expressed I require to be consistent because there is not quick fix for this, there is no instant gratification, there’s just consistency and work.

As you’ve probably gathered by now, consistency is my white whale but I am determined to land myself that elusive creature.
  Here are this week’s results:

Weight: 155.2( +5.0 since last week, -1.5 since start)

Workouts: 1 (I pulled a groin muscle and I feel like an old man).

Cleanse days completed: 0 ( I am cleansing biweekly).

Book I am Reading: Love Louder by Preston Smiles.

What I want to be acknowledged for this week:

I did my first Facebook Live all by myself and I wasn’t worried about how it looked. I am all about being on the court and in action and it doesn’t matter how I look.

 

Week 2 – Silent Night

A few weeks ago I made a decision to stop putting on Netflix at night while I fall asleep.  It sounds silly, I know. But I’ve listened to a shit-ton of Frasier, 30 Rock, Cheers and Mad Men while I attempt to fall asleep and I started to wonder if maybe that wasn’t the best way to get a good night’s sleep.  So I stopped.  Cold Turkey!  No more Frasier, Niles, Jack, Liz, Sam, Diane and Don Draper.  Bedtime with no noise to distract me.  It was freaky at first!

Me and My Spirit Animal, Frasier Crane

After about a week, I started to like it. As I lay in bed and thought over my day or dreamed about my goals, I started to feel calm and peaceful.  It was as close to meditation as I’ve gotten and I felt like my sleep was more pure.  One of the areas where I’d like to transform in the next 16 weeks is in the way I wake up every morning.  Week days, Ran gets up before me and starts getting Dylan ready.  Then at some point he plops Daphne on me on the bed (not for any reason except she’s impossible to keep in one spot) and I wake up to madness.  I’m not setting an alarm (I don’t need one, I have children jumping on me) but in a way that’s worse.  I wake up to chaos every day instead of my dream scenario of waking up before my kids and having time for morning pages, a workout and a cup of tea.  (This has never happened in my life, but I still dream about it).  So I figured getting to bed earlier and with higher quality sleep might be a good start on waking up more refreshed.

In terms of my eating habits this week, it was a good week.  I did have heartburn again, which was a little concerning since I’ve given up all the foods I thought were causing it.  I think I’ve identified a new problem – fried foods. Which I don’t eat often, but I did this weekend at Applebee’s (you try finding something else gluten and dairy free that you actually want to eat) and afterwards I had that awful feeling.  I also noticed that I was eating more meat than I’m used to and I started to dial that back as well.  I don’t like that feeling either.

All in all a great week, starting to get the hang of this new way of eating!  I’ve also matched my lowest weight since giving birth to my daughter Daphne which I haven’t done in about 3 months!  Ready to break on through to the other side! I was even happy to see my cheek bones reappear in pictures.  At first, I was a little discouraged I *only* lost 1 lbs and then I saw the cheek bones and I realized, it’s not all about the scale.

Week 2 Results

Weight: 189 (-8.2 since start, -1.0 since last week)

Workouts: 2 (Boot camp, Bike Ride)

Cleanse days completed this week: 2 (4 total for the challenge)

Non-Scale Victory: Worked my first vendor table by myself at A Day of Joy and did it without major overwhelm or anxiety.

 

Me & My Table at A Day of Joy

Book I’m reading: Go Pro, by Eric Worre

What I want to be acknowledged for this week: I want to be acknowledged this week for starting my bullet journal and making it a priority to get organized in my schedule.

 

Bullet Journal Workout Tracker

 

16 Week Tracker

 

The Upper Limit

Posted by Ran Isner

I heard somewhere that 95% percent of people who reach their upper limit will quit whatever endeavor they are pursuing at the time. What is this upper limit you ask? The upper limit is when you reach that point where you either quit or push forward. Let’s be honest, most of us will quit when we reach that point and why? Because we are afraid of breaking new ground. Breaking this new ground and being in this new space can be terrifying because it is unknown and we tend to not want to live in that space.

There have been many times in my life where I reached that upper limit and I quit because it became difficult. I started learning how to play piano and I quit because I had to practice, I did the same thing with my guitar lessons. I quit gymnastics in 9th grade because I had to practice harder, I was a national champion for crying out loud! But when the going got tough I quit.

That was my ego talking, it wanted to keep me safe so it told me “Ran, why even try? You know you are going to fail anyway so why don’t you save yourself the trouble and quit now” Keeping me safe was me not believing in myself and I had many reasons to believe in myself. I came to this country to study acting and I graduated with honors. I uprooted myself, traveled half way across the world, studied in a language that was not my native tongue and accomplished what I set out to do I reached my upper limit and broke through it.. The screwed up thing is that I never gave myself credit for it because that’s how little I thought of myself so I was completely oblivious to what it was that I had accomplished.

The challenge is a complete departure for me as I am completely holding myself accountable to of all of you so when I reach that higher limit I am fully committed to breaking through it. instead of fearing what’s possible once I do, I am embracing it and am open to wherever this journey takes me.

The bottom line is, this challenge is my journey of self discovery, it’s about focusing on the process and not the result and it’s about allowing myself to fail because failing means that I am on the court ready to play and not watching from the sidelines. Peta Kelly says her dialog with her ego goes like this “fuck you for sharing but thanks for caring” I know you want to keep me safe but me being safe will not give me what I want in life.

As of right now I don’t have a clear idea of what that is but I know I’m going to have a fucking good time.

 

The Week 1: Results, results!

The moment of truth has come! The first week of the “Light Yourself On Fire” challenge  is in the books. You would think that I would be nervous about sharing my results with you but to be honest I am FRIGGIN’ excited! It’s all about the journey right? 

After Marie got the results of the food sensitivity test she took with her naturopath Dr. Selassie I decided that I should take it as well. Seven years ago I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colotis (stay tuned for my next blog for more on that) but now I think that I might also have some food sensitivities because even with the Colotis something doesn’t feel right. I will talk about the results when I get them. But I digress, I promised you the results each week and now I deliver them to you, transparent and accountable.

Weight: 150.2 (-6.5 since start)

Workouts: 1

Cleanse days completed: 2

Book I’m reading: Love Louder by Preston Smiles

What I want to be acknowledged for this week?:

Having an amazing idea for this challenge that literally kept me up at night! (more about that soon).

Week 1 – The Devil Within

 I am very proud to announce that week 1 of the Light Yourself On Fire challenge is over.  It was a hellish week because no sooner than deciding that I am going to embark on this challenge did I contract food poisoning followed by either more food poisoning or a stomach bug.  In short, I spent 6 days either with fever, chills, nausea and/or diarrhea.  It seemed the devil within me was not happy!  It wasn’t exactly the rockstar way that I wanted to start the challenge, but nothing in life is ever perfect, so I went with it.

It’s been about a month since I started with being dairy and gluten-free and it’s really starting to become second nature.  We had a bbq on Friday night and I was fine not eating a bun with my hot dog and I even found black bean chips at Costco that taste amazing.  I was able to still eat and have fun without feeling like I was missing anything.  My new staples are hummus and avocado to add creaminess since I can’t have cheese.  I am also going to try and make some vegan/gluten free pancakes this week to have on hand for snacks.  Not being able to have eggs is a little tougher, but thankfully there are tons of vegan resources online to draw from.

All in all, I’d say it was a great week (despite being sick) because I managed to get a full 2 day deep cleanse in and lose a whole buncha weight!

Week 1 Results

Weight: 190 (-7.2 since start)

Workouts: 0

Cleanse days completed: 2

Non-Scale Victory: Sang at my family reunion and wore a size 12 skirt and got several compliments on how nice I looked.

Book I’m reading: Organize Your Life, by Susan Sly

What I want to be acknowledged for this week: I want to be acknowledged this week for not giving up when my body was so clearly not in the mood to start a challenge.  Also, for spending time with my husband working on our time management and our goals.

 

 

 

I Get To Choose

Posted by Ran Isner

Life is all about choices. The choices we make tend to affect the direction our life goes, hell it affects literally the very next moment. Our reactions to events that occur to us and the way people occur for us are a direct result of our choices. This subject fascinates me, it really does, I mean why do we make the choices we do?

To be more specific, I am fascinated with choosing to be negative vs. choosing to be positive. I heard one of the presenters at the event last weekend say that we are conditioned to observe and notice everything that might be wrong because that’s how cavemen protected themselves from their predators. We are conditioned to be in a state of “fight or flight” because those were the only two options. That makes complete sense, doesn’t it? Can we agree that most of us choose to be safe rather than take risks? We will allow negative emotions dictate our choices. People choose being negative over being positive. Most people will choose to complain over being grateful a large percentage of times. People will tend to look at what they don’t have and complain about it rather than take stock of all the things they have accomplished and are grateful for. We spend so much of our energy and focus on everything that’s going wrong but we never stop to think that maybe we choose for it to be that way. Being negative is a choice and looking at life through that lens is a choice so the question is “How has that worked for you so far?”

A lot of the choices I’ve made in my life came from a negative place. They came from a place of guilt and unworthiness. I was afraid of what people would think and deprive myself of joy because I would feel guilty that I am placing myself over the people I love and the really screwed up thing is that I would then resent those people for depriving me of that when they had nothing to do with it, it was all me. That resentment lead to anger and for a long time I was really angry and I refused to admit it. What I came to realize was that I was ashamed of being so angry because deep down I knew that I chose to be angry and the reason is that I didn’t have to take responsibility and I didn’t hold myself accountable.

The bottom line is that it never worked for me. I held on to the guilt and the unworthiness because it allowed me to be a victim and when you’re a victim it’s easier to cope with things and for me being a victim meant that I could blame the whole world and not have to look inwards and be accountable.

I am trying something new. I choose to be positive, I choose to hold myself accountable and I choose to be grateful for all the good  in my life and there is so much good. I have an out of this world wife who has been encouraging me to see the greatness in myself every day. I have two beautiful children who teach me what love is every moment I spend with them. I am learning to accept what’s so, not good, not bad, just so. I am part of a Facebook gratitude group where I write 3 things I am grateful for at that given moment and I actually take the time to “smell the roses”.

I now know that I get to choose how my life goes and choosing things that nourish my soul and choosing to be grateful feels way better than choosing to feel guilty and unworthy. By no way have I mastered this practice but now I have the gift of observation where I notice that I get angry or frustrated or choose to feel guilty or unworthy and at that moment I can transform it.

I am grateful to have this platform where I can share and be as open as I can about my journey and I am grateful for you for being a part of this journey whether you are aware of it or not.

I love you and I will see you next week.

Ran

Week 0 -Throwing Down the Gauntlet

Ok, so here’s the deal…

This is Me, at 197.2lbs.  Just typing that number is making me sweat.  But I vowed as part of this challenge I would publish my weight, so here goes.

Just 6 months ago, I was 189lbs, so I don’t know wtf happened, but here we are.  The past 3 months I have been struggling with some weird health stuff, like stalled weight and heartburn.  I went to a few different doctors and they didn’t have any insights for me except – take pills and learn to live with it.  As a health coach, this was not acceptable to me.  Plus, the pills weren’t even helping with the excruciating heartburn.  I’d never even had heartburn before (unless I was pregnant) so this was truly a case of my body telling me something like “You’re NOT okay Marie, go figure out why you don’t feel well and your body stopped losing weight!” I mean, it literally had to shout at me, because despite my efforts to listen to my body, I just wasn’t getting it.

My goal weight has been 150lbs for years.  The last time I weighed 150lbs was in 2003, so for a while, I didn’t think it was even possible to get back to that weight.  In 2015, I released 30lbs after giving birth to my second child, so I was happy about that progress and the scale was moving in the right direction, but then, it stopped.

Now I’m basically back at square 1 – starting from my previous “highest weight ever” (not counting post baby).  For a while I was depressed about it, feeling like I hadn’t progressed at all.  But then I took a step back and I was like, “Ok, you lost 30lbs of baby weight. That’s good.  You started working out a lot more.  That’s good. And you built up your business 4x more than the year before.  That’s good too. Some things are going well, so you have to celebrate that and not be so hard on yourself.”

Then through working with Dr. Patricia Pimentel Selassie, I learned something I never knew before.  Me + Dairy = No Bueno

Wait a second.  Isn’t this blog called “My Love Affair With Cheese”?  Why, yes, yes it is.  I love(d) cheese.  I love(d) dunking cookies in MILK.  I thought those string cheeses were harmless.  I ate 2 organic eggs a day because it’s a healthy protein.  Turns out, for 34 years, it was not agreeing with me.  I have a food sensitivity.  I’m not gonna lie and pretend like I didn’t cry when I found out.  I did.  You guys, NO MORE PIZZA.  Think about it, you’d cry too!!

So this food sensitivity is not enough to actually get sick and throw up but just enough to cause heartburn, stall weight loss and make me feel moody and sleepy.  So yeah, I had to give all that up when I found out a few weeks ago.  Now we are in the “repairing my gut” phase which could take from 7 months to 2 years.  Ouch.

The silver lining was that my company just released two new dairy free shakes that are heavenly and are basically saving my life right now.  Timing is everything.

After we attended “The New Way Live” it became so clear to me that now was the time to really commit this 16 week challenge, which we’ve named the Light Yourself On Fire Challenge and get really transparent with myself (and you all) about what it’s like to be a fat health coach.  Now that I know about the food sensitivity, I feel like there’s hope again that I could get to 150lbs and maintain it.  I’ve struggled since 2008 with these weight problems and it’s been long enough.  Now is my time to light myself on fire and rise from the ashes like a phoenix (which is ironic because this occurred to me in Phoenix)!

A coach of mine said I was a food addict and that all addicts lie.  About how much they drank/smoked/ate and how frequently.  So this is my pledge to you: NO MORE LIES.  No more half truths and cropped pictures that don’t show my belly hanging over my pants. No more pretending like everything is okay on Facebook when really I want to eat a box of Oreos and cry in my bed.  Just raw and real.  Because I’m in recovery now and lying is a gateway to my addiction.

LIGHT YOURSELF ON FIRE CHALLENGE, A 16 Week Transformation Journey

Here’s what I’ve committed to:

• 16 cleanse days
• No dairy
• No gluten
• 48 workouts
• Read 4 books on personal development
• Write a blog post on my journey every week
• Introduce at least 10 new people to this lifestyle

Goals:

• Lose 25lbs
• Ring in my 35th birthday at my lowest weight since 2009
• Assist my clients to lose a total of 50lbs (combined)
• Not obsess over every pound on the scale
• Have fun!

As Ran and I spoke about in our Facebook Live last week, we are inviting anyone to join us on this journey.  You don’t have to become my client – it’s not about that.  It’s about linking arms and reaching our goals.  Send me a message to be included in the challenge group we are putting together and light yourself on fire too!

I’ll be posting my weekly progress reports every Thursday – stay tuned!