Blue Zone Journey

I am starting my Blue Zone Journey . Click the botton below to learn more about what that means!

Blue Zone

After so many years of trying so many different diets, plans, workouts, you name it and nothing seems to work, I have continued to study in hopes of solving the problem myself. But let me start at the beginning of this story. When I was in my teens until the age of 30, I was under weight and could eat anything I wanted, whenever I wanted and not gain a pound. After the age of 30 everything changed and since then until now at the age of 56 years, I have consistently gained 2lbs every year which has now led to me being overweight and desperately trying not to become obese.

I have tried all kinds of eating plans, and I am the person that is truly honest about what I am doing. I weigh and measure everything, every time and I have even kept a food journal to share with trainers etc. and you know what? I can't tell you how many people, trainers, nutritionists, friends, etc. who come back with the words "Well, you must be cheating." It rips your heart from your chest every time someone judges you, especially when you know you are not cheating, and you are following all the steps in each plan to the tee.

Usually it goes something like this: I begin the plan and for the first 3 to 4 weeks I seem to lose about 3 to 5 lbs. Then it just completely stalls, and I think "it's okay. Stick to the plan and it will begin again with weight loss." But it rarely does and then you have been trying for months and have only lost 5lbs.

Then I get the people who try to tell me to stick with it because muscle weighs more than fat. I may be doing cardio and lifting very light weights so I can tell you, from firsthand experience, it is not because of muscle being built up. I am no heavy weightlifter. I am lifting light weight 5lbs in each hand, and that is not going to make such a difference that I don't lose weight for 4 months.

It's extremely frustrating. I even visited my GP a few months ago and said, "My Dad thinks I am obese!" My doctor turned to look at me shocked and said, "Hop on the scale" and pointed to the floor where a small digital scale sat. I stepped on, he took the calculations and said I was 10lbs overweight but not obese. So, I said, "Okay, what can I do? What do you suggest? I have tried so many things and nothing seems to work!"

You know what he said to me?

"It's very hard and might be impossible. Women's bodies are very complicated, and it could take years if you can get the weight off at all. All I can suggest is following the Canada Food Guide."

Are you kidding me? The Canada Food Guide that tells us to eat all kinds of food that I could not possibly hope to lose any weight off of? Listen, I portion size, I walk 3 times a day and get a minimum of 15,000 steps a day and I am now lifting light weights and trying to incorporate more movement with my vintage stationary bike. It does have a tension control so there is resistance when I ride. I also stand most of my day and walk around all day long withing my Vintage Beauty Parlour.

It was so frustrating once again. I can't even get help from my doctor. No one knows why women have such a difficult time. It is all down to hormones. I am through menopause so things in my body are different. Some women are very fortunate to never have to deal with this weight gain, but I will tell you, I can see when I look at my ancestors, my aunties, my Mum, that our bodies are all the same. This is a genetic issue.

So, I found THE BLUE ZONE because, well, I am past the halfway point of life here on earth and I want to try to live healthy and as long as I can. I have always been athletic, and I eat fairly healthily, but my weakness is sugar. However, I am really happy to share that I am off of refined sugar. I don't eat it at all anymore. Nor do I get cravings for it. I do not eat bread and am only having 5 bites of quinoa, potatoes and possibly brown rice. The 5 bites concept comes from another book I have read and am trying to follow the plan which is called The Metabolic Diet. I am a Mixed Burner based on this book and so I am trying to portion size and eat according to this plan at the moment.

I am now also trying to incorporate the information I am learning from the Blue Zones. I will try to keep a log on this blog to let you know how things are proceeding for me.

I eat 5 times a day. Lots of veggies, 5 bites of carbohydrates that are unprocessed if possible 3 x a day with main meals Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. The other two meals are snacks and I do not incorporate carbs with those. I eat fat but moderately and only certain fats. In the book I shared above there is a food outline that I simply stick to. However, soon I will be changing over to the Blue Zone Challenge and will try to eat completely vegan for one full month! I hope to begin that no later than October 1st, 2023.

There is a great Netflix series right now called "Live to 100" and the man who started investigating the Blue Zones who has written several books is the host.

I will stop here for now and update you on what is going on with me and the diet as often as possible to keep the posts a little shorter and possibly inspire you to join me on this journey to live a long and healthy life!