Two weeks down, yeehaw!! I’m so proud of the participants in this program. It takes a strong person to recognize the desire and manifest the ability to make a change. It takes a team to keep it going. Yay team! I’m hearing reports of weight loss varying from 2-4 pounds so far – just from dropping fast food, stopping the sugar overdose, and getting out to walk. Way to go!
Exercise Goal: Walk 20 minutes at a brisk pace. Do this 5x’s during the week.
Ok, so you’ve got a routine by now. Whether it’s a morning stroll, a lunchtime romp, or an evening walk in the park, you’re finding a way to fit in your fitness, and that’s fabulous! We kick it up a notch this week with a more brisk pace. We’re still not race-walking just yet, but do start to seek out a more brisk pace. If you covered two laps around the parking lot in 20 minutes, try for 2 and a half laps, or maybe 3 by the end of the week. Set a goal for some distance so that you can judge your progress with increasing your pace. If you have a pedometer, check how many steps you normally take in 20 minutes, and take more! If you’re ready for more of a challenge, continue this pace on your inclines. If that’s too much, don’t sweat it – just sweat!
Nutritional Focus: Drop the cheese.
You’ll have to realize three things right up front. 1) I won’t apologize for my strong opinions about cheese. 2) I am here to help you, not hurt you My intention is not to make you uncomfortable and begin feeling as if something is lacking from your currently perfect life. My intention is to make you more comfortable than you have ever been and to help you realize how such simple changes can have such rewarding results! 3) I’m going to ask you to open up your mind for at least the next couple of weeks and think – really think – about this whole cheese issue. Suspend your disbelief. Suspend your old beliefs and all the messages you’ve learned your whole life. There’s a chance they’re wrong. This whole cheese issue is one most people never stop to think about, and once you do, you may surprise yourself with your conclusions.
As I’ve discussed previously in this blog, cheese is a wonder drug. It’s addictive, pleasureful, and powerfully soothing just like most drugs. And it sure is a wonder we ever started eating it in the first place… Here are the facts:
- Cheese is the leading source of saturated fat in the typical American’s diet.
- Cheese (all dairy) is a leading cause for heart disease.
- Cheese (all dairy) is perhaps the most potent carcinogen known to man.
- Cheese is made from the breast milk of another species. We not only feed it to our growing children, we drink it as grown adults.
- No other species consumes breast milk as adults.
- No other species consumes breast milk of another species.
WTF are we thinking ?!? Please do take the time to educate your newly opened mind. Read about it. Think about it. For the next two weeks, remove cheese from your diet. All I’m asking you to do is seriously try it, but also learn why I’m so passionate about it! There’s are a ton of reasons. If going cold turkey seems too drastic, another option is to take the next 4 weeks to wean it out slowly with the intention of permanently kicking the habit. I must warn you though, I’m not kidding when I say that cheese is addictive. Like quitting smoking, some people find it easier to go cheese-free by weaning off slowly and some find it easier to go cold turkey. You know yourself better than I do, so choose whatever is going to make you more likely to achieve success.
I should take a moment to clarify – in an ideal world, you’ll eventually drop dairy completely. However, for the purposes of this 6 week initiative, I’m trying to tackle the biggest problems most people face. Since it takes 10 lbs of milk to make 1 lb of cheese, and since cheese is the most commonly feared dietary change, I want to grab the milk-free bull by the horns and tackle that which is going to improve your life the most drastically, the fastest. The articles below tackle both cheese and dairy. You can adapt to your own purposes!
Who Re-Moved My Cheese
Consuming Dairy, Naturally
How to: Going Dairy Free
Calcium: The myths and the magic
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