Ideal Protein

So now we're trying to make a serious push to lose weight. Brent met a doc who owns a spa in Friendswood called Divinity Med Spa www.divinitymedspa.com. They have a program called Ideal Protein that we started on Friday, February 24th. We've already lost a little weight (our next weigh-in will be this Saturday).

The Plan
We went to the spa to weigh in and get our starter kits. Their machine said Brent needed to lose about 40 lbs and for me it said 60. Truly, my goal is 50 cause then I'll be back in the 140s. If I lost 60 I'd be back to high school weight, which could be scary looking. Side note: Did you see Angelina Jolie at the Oscars? She looked awful!! The kits they give you have two weeks worth of protein food mixes/bars/drinks, a few supplements including a multivitamin, a shaker to mix the foods/drinks, and a water bottle. They also give you packets of information to help you plan out your meals and such.

So each day you are allowed to have 3 or 4 Ideal Protein (IP) foods. There are restrictions on some things, like you can only have one bar a day. But one of those counts as your meat you have with dinner. So on a typical day for me so far, I've had a drink mix with breakfast, a drink mix with lunch, a bar for snack, and then our dinner. For breakfast, you just have one IP food, a multivitamin and supplement, and you can have coffee with splenda. For lunch, you get one IP food, and 2 cups of vegetables. There are more restrictions here. For example, I can't eat my favorite veggie in the whole world: corn. For snack, you get one IP food and a supplement. For dinner, you get 5 - 7 oz (I think that's the size) of a lean meat like pork tenderloin for example. You also get two more cups of vegetables, the multivitamin, and a supplement. There are restrictions on sauces but there is a brand of salad dressing and sauces that is fat free, calorie free, and sugar free that is allowed called Walden Farms. I've had the Balsamic Vinaigrette and the BBQ Sauce so far and they're awesome. You can find them at HEB.

The Science
You can read all about it at www.trantiendiet.com. It was created by a Vietnamese French doctor who specialized in diseases of the colon. Truly, the program just makes sense. And the appealing thing about it vs Weight Watchers (which I was successful on) is that it teaches you how to eat. The doc's main assertion is that if you are eating a balanced diet then you are not gaining weight but you are also not losing it. Your body burns sugars first and then fats, so you have to eliminate all sugars in order to be able to burn fat. After you've lost 90% of the weight you want to lose, you then go into the maintenance phase. Here you learn when you eat food A, you can't eat food B, but you can eat food C.

What This Means for Me
This is exactly the kind of thing I need. Cause I honestly can't say I know that formula. If I did, I wouldn't be at such an awful weight. I need to do this for so many reasons. I need it for my Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis. I need it for our kids so we can be good examples. I need it for me on many emotional levels. It's been tough, but I'm excited to see what this will do for us. I think it's a brilliant plan and even though it'll make social events tough for a while, I'm willing to make those sacrifices now so that I'll be here for as long as I need to be for my family and friends.