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The Four Hour Body Four Week Update!

I can’t WAIT to share photos and stories from last week at ALT with you, but first I figured I needed to share my Four Hour Body update!

Back in December, I had a breaking point. There are many cooler terms for what happened, but the reality was that I broke. Somewhere between my desire to just be able to buy a dress off the rack at Anthropologie and watching “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead” followed up by “Food, Inc.” I ended up deciding that it was time to follow the lead of many other people I knew that had lost 40-60lbs and buy a copy of Four Hour Body.

I won’t lie, it wasn’t easy at first. The first few days are rough, and I consider Day Four to be “hell day” for most people. I don’t know what it is, but I bet it has to do with your body just freaking out because you haven’t been giving it all those starchy carbs for four days. But by Day Three I had noticed that without gluten (wheat), my allergies that I’d been battling for what seemed like forever were pretty much gone. GONE! My inflammation was down too, and since that was a huge, huge goal of mine, it made it easier to stick with it and just plow through.

Which brings us to today. I’ve lost 10.4 lbs, and I’m pretty damn happy about that, especially since I was traveling for 8 days last week! Now I’m moving towards my next goal, to have lost 20 lbs by WPPI in a month! (Which is completely possible in my mind if I stick with it.)

In the past month, I’ve heard every excuse under the sun from other people. You all realize that *I* have been using those same excuses for about 10 years now, right? Yeah, they are bunk. Stop it. You guys are always tell me things like, “I could give up (one item), but I could NEVER give up (another item)!!!” (Fill in the blank with flour, rice, potatoes or sugar.) Look, I loooooooove things made with flour. Matter of fact, my mouth is watering just typing that sentence. A good biscuit? I’m all over it. How about some well made tortillas? Divine! But the fact is, eating flour, sugar, rice or potatoes raises your blood sugar, causing your insulin to spike, causing you to get FAT. So if you don’t want to be fat, try giving them up. 30 days. It isn’t going to kill you, I promise. It is just 30 days – you can do anything for 30 days! But STOP giving me excuses for why you couldn’t. And don’t tell me that you can’t do it if you haven’t TRIED to do it.

Carbohydrates from starchy foods are what are making you fat. It is that plain & simple. Cut them and you’ll lose weight.

Things I have learned throughout this in no particular order:

  • After Day Four (aka HELL DAY), my normal cravings for carbs stopped. Feed your body enough meat, vegetables & beans and it will stop craving starchy carbs, the cheap whores of food.
  • If – and only if – I haven’t eaten enough or it has been too long, I then crave carbs. A few cashews or almonds stops the craving, and eating makes it go away completely.
  • Any time I eat gluten, I wake up congested the next morning. Have issues with allergies or inflammation? Try it.
  • Speaking of inflammation, did you know that Type II Diabetes and High Blood Pressure are both related to inflammation?
  • I stop losing weight when I eat cheese. Every time. Skipping cheese from now on.
  • I also seem to stall when I eat fruit. I have been doing one “binge day” a week (I prefer to call it a free day) and I save potatoes, fruit and cheese for that one day a week.
  • I can lose weight while I travel if I have control of my own meals.
  • I can stay steady at my weight loss while I travel when I don’t get to choose my own meals.
  • Gluten-free options are still full of starchy-carbs. (Cheap whores!) Ok on that binge day, but not ok the other six days of the week.
  • Binge days make me gain a pound normally, but ultimately I lose even more by the end of the week following. Plus they keep away the mentality of dieting sucks.
  • Veggies are my friend. I especially love a good spinach salad.
  • I’ve tried new foods and it didn’t kill me. People! This is a big deal for me!!!
  • If I “listen” to my body and eat as much as I want of meat, beans & vegetables, I will eat enough.
  • The biggest thing I’ve learned? I CAN DO THIS.

    At least three times in the past seven years I’ve tried to lose weight on a rather big scale. My goal was to lose 5lb a month – 1.2lb a week – and keep it off. It is all documented here on the blog. Every single time, I was miserable. Dieting in the modern meaning of the word SUCKS. I’m NOT on a diet. I am eating to lose weight. But I plan to keep eating this way for a loooooooong time after I’ve lost the weight. Because it doesn’t make me miserable and cranky. Who knew?!? A diet that won’t make you miserable!

    It brings it all back to what diet is supposed to mean – what you eat. Your dietary needs. Not the four letter word that diet has become!

    I’ve bought new jeans because my old ones don’t fit. The belly fat that has been plaguing me for years is melting away. All I have done is changed what I’m eating. Meats, beans (legumes) and leafy green vegetables. Lately I wake up craving meat or a salad. My how things can change in four weeks!

    10.4 lbs. I can hardly believe it. I don’t think I ever got past losing 10-15 lbs in all the times I’ve tried to diet in the past few years, and it was always an uphill battle to get there. Try this. It works!

    By Christine

    Christine is an Avenger of Sexiness. Her Superpower is helping Hot Mamas grow their Confidence by rediscovering their Beauty. She lives in the Heights in Houston, Texas, works as a boudoir photographer, and writes about running a Business of Awesome. In her spare time, she loves to knit, especially when she travels. She & her husband Mike have a food blog at Spoon & Knife.

    9 replies on “The Four Hour Body Four Week Update!”

    This is a great post, because yes, people always say “I couldn’t live without ___!” Truth is, you (they) totally could. Just limit your (their) exposure to that item to once a week and the rest of the time you (they) can eat for energy and not for pleasure.

    When I realized I was lactose intolerant, it took me a while to accept I could no longer have cheese without feeling like death. But it became as simple as “I can’t have that” and accepting that as fact. I only feel deprived sometimes, when I can’t eat a regular pizza. But I got used to it.

    I think eating well (and by that I mean healthily and with purpose, instead of mindlessly) is more important than whining about all the deprivation. I like to think of it as opening all of my mind to the things that are tasty and I would love to eat, instead of the limited list of things I can’t eat.

    Anyway, LONG comment but HOORAY for you and your accomplishment!! 🙂 And thanks for sharing your mindset to others who might have been resistant to the idea but who may now try it because, as you say it’s not that bad once you push through the first sucky days.

    I read this blog post at 5:30 AM this morning along with black coffee and scrambled eggs with spinach and lentils… all those items (including the time) would have been unimaginable 18 months ago.

    I have also heard lots of excuses too from others: too busy, too hard, can’t go without XYZ… Excuses are simply excuses.

    After you go without carbs your body starts to change. I remember buying candy bars on Wednesday to eat on Saturday. It was similar to your hell day feeling. It hurt in both brain and body, but it will lessen.

    Fast forward: I woke up this morning and had a huge craving for juice. I took the juice out of the refrigerator set it on the cabinet and said to myself “If I still want juice after eggs, spinach, lentils, a large glass of water, and coffee, I will have juice.” Of course after I finished those other things, I put the juice back in the refrigerator without drinking it. Keep in mind that today is cheat day. Although, I did eat some rice for lunch and a protein bar and banana on my ride today.

    By the way, I just watched this TEDx video. It is not quite 4HB, but still worth considering how much your diet impacts your body http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TEDxIowaCity-Dr-Terry-Wahls-Min

    I wish you continued success. It is attainable.

    I just found your blog and started reading it. I love how you said “I’m NOT on a diet”. I believe that diet is a four letter word the way it’s used today, but it really is just a word to describe WHAT I am eating. If I keep this in mind it makes changing my ‘diet’ to good-for-me foods that much easier. I CAN DO IT and You can too! Thank you for the pep talks.

    Way to go Christine on the 10.4 pounds…keep up the good work.

    You make a good argument for cutting out carbs altogether. I agree with you that it really helps you lose the weight. But it is sooo painful.

    What you’ve done with the “things I’ve learned” can teach us all a lesson in that if we just sat down and listed what we know in our hearts works for us, either based on past experience or advice like yours, and keep a running tally to account for all those “lessons”, …that can go a long long way in winning the battle.

    Hmmm this is intriguing. I’m finding that I crave carbs a lot less than I used to too. I have managed to skip the bread at most meals. I do like brown rice with my asian food though, and it seems like it outta be pretty healthy as long as I don’t eat to much? My whole thing is having meat and beans and veggies that are super convenient and ready to go…and with some flavor. If I could figure that part out maybe I could do this.

    I ever got why the first few days were so bad (it was the whole 1st week for me) I think its strange but the longer you live healthy the easier it is to do it. I think it might be a little to do with not wanting to waste the effort already invested in the last few weeks and if that effort is just a few days it does not seem as much of a waste?

    Congratulations on your success Christine. I need to loose about 15 lbs, but I’m finding it impossible and it’s making me a little miserable. What you say about coming up with all kinds of excuses is true, I think I’ve used them all.

    The video “Why you got fat” is very interesting and goes to show that just reducing calories isn’t the answer, I think this has been a problem for me.

    Thanks for this post. I am one of those people who says ‘I can’t live without carbs’ but I’ve been trying to lose weight by switching to wholemeal versions. It’s working but slowly and I’ve been thinking about cutting them out all together.

    Your idea of saying do it for 30 days is great as it mentally makes me think there would be an end in sight if I hate it so why not commit to try it for 30 days.

    I’m going to do it…

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