Change...before you have to

 

This blog was started many long years ago as an accountability tool.  My "middle age bulge" had become too significant to ignore and I needed some way to motivate myself to move toward wellness.  I chose a public blog as my way of making a commitment and being honest about the challenges and successes of my weight loss journey.  After a couple of false starts trying to use exercise to lose weight I was introduced by a friend of mine to the Ideal Protein program.  

I will never forget the day I began Stage 1, stripping my diet of carbs, sugars and a whole bunch of "restricted" foods.  It sticks in my memory because that was the day we broke ground on the new Fort McMurray International Airport with then Premier Stelmach.  I had a raging headache all day.  The next day, and the many days that followed, I was fine.  Over the next few months I dropped from over 200 pounds down to under 170.  

I kept using Ideal Protein products long after my program was finished and only stopped when I started noticing some issues with my finger and toe nails.  I'm honestly not sure if it was the products or my adapted diet that caused the issues, but I decided to return to a "normal" way of eating.  I also drastically reduced the amount of cold salads that I was consuming, as there was one theory that cold veggies might have contributed to what was happening with my nails. 

In the lead up to our move from Fort McMurray to Okotoks and in the two years of living in our new community, I have generally speaking thrown caution to the wind and consumed whatever my heart and stomach desired.  The result has been inevitable weight gain.  

Backing up to our first days in Okotoks, I noticed that there was an Ideal Protein  shop not four doors down from our new home.  I filed that fact away in my brain, knowing that one day I would knock on that door and get back on the wellness train.  I went through that door yesterday.

I'm not really sure why yesterday was the day, except that I had an inclination to reach out and find out if that Ideal Protein shop was still in business.  I found their website and sent them an email to arrange an appointment.  My thinking was that if they returned my message it would be the universe's way of telling me that it was time.  They got back to me on Sunday and I popped in for my first visit yesterday.

A lot has changed with the program in the 10 years since I first went through it.  The big change is a technological one.  There is an Ideal Protein app that allows me to track my journey.  I stepped on the scale in the shop and all the biometric results were automatically uploaded to my app.  Super cool.

This will be my first full day on the program.  My goal is to get down to a size that allows me to wear the clothes I purchased when I was near my smallest.  That means I need to drop 20-25 pounds.  Wish me luck.