ITG Diet Blog

      When you’re packing your gear for the beach, starting up your grill or doing something else fun this summer, you might feel a lack of motivation in sticking to your diet/healthy lifestyle. The good news is summertime is the best season for fresh vegetables and opportunities to exercise outdoors.

These five ideas will help you stick to your healthy lifestyle change and goals:

Enjoy Fresh, Fun Outdoor Meals

Summer is a great time to have a picnic. You can put blankets in your backyard for an al fresco meal. For a picnic in the park, you can pack a wide variety of crunchy vegetables, chilled soups, a big salad, and a protein/cold cut lettuce wrap. 

And while you're at it, why not prepare a refreshing ITG beverage to enjoy with your meal? While on Step One, serve our Wild Berry Drink Mix or Strawberry Banana Shake. After your meal, play an outdoors game with your family or friends; it's a great way to squeeze in some exercise after a meal, get in touch with nature, and socialize.

     Last night I saw an old friend that I haven’t seen in a while.  She had heard through mutual friends about my weight loss success, but this is the first time she saw my transformation with her own eyes.  She asked the first question everyone asks, “How did you do it?”  I proceeded to tell her about the program.  She was very interested because, of course, she is on a “program” of her own, to lose weight fast (what woman isn’t?).   And she wanted to see how ITG compared to her “program.”  I get this all of the time, at first I get excited to help someone else feel the way I feel about myself and my success, then they start talking about why they couldn’t succeed on the ITG Diet.  Excuses.  First of all, most people use the cost as a crutch why they couldn’t succeed.  And the other top excuse I get is, I couldn’t stop drinking. 

I arrived at my mother’s house about 1:30 to start prep work for our Mother’s Day healthy dinner.  Darel, my step-father jumped up to help.  He was slicing cucumbers for us to have for snacks while we played Chicken Foot, my new favorite domino game.  While we were playing he mentioned that he was experiencing a problem with his vision, it was kind of blurred.  I was very concerned and immediately started drilling him with questions.  Do you need to check your blood sugar?  Blood pressure?  Blurred vision is not something to mess around with, especially with a type 2 diabetic with heart stents.  He checked his blood pressure and it was extremely low 88/45.  He takes high blood pressure medication daily.  We put a call in to his Cardiologist to let him know what was going on and for him to advise us on any further action.  When the doctor called back and spoke to Dad he immediately started asking questions, just like I had.  This is when he told the doctor that he has changed his diet recently.  He quit eating fruit, started eating more veggie and healthy dinners.  The doctor told him this could be the culprit of this low blood pressure.  He advised him to only take one half of his high blood pressure medication the following day and follow up with his primary doctor.

Last week I experienced some great news.  My mother wanted to start ITG Diet!  She has seen 30 pounds fall off of me by just changing my eating habits, and she was ready to give it a try.  After the initial excitement wore off I began to realize I would be her Wellness Coach.  My excitement feeling changed to a bitter sweet feeling when I realized her success depends on me coaching or teaching her the program and her following my instructions (listening to me).  I have no problem coaching strangers and giving them some “tough love”, but my Mom? I know that weight loss will improve her health and will make her feel better.  So I just have to bite the bullet and Coach her as a dieter, not my Mom. (yeah, right)

Some of her first weeks comments about being on ITG Diet and my reply in red. 

I recently fell off the wagon because of various social engagements so I wasn’t following Step 3 like I should have been. I realized that I had put on 12lbs! I saw my fellow wellness coach Tina Sly losing weight steadily every week and looking fabulous. I thought to myself what I am doing? “Besides the fact that summer is right around the corner and I want to still look good in my pink and white striped bathing suit.  I need an ITG Diet Tune Up before this gets out of control. So that’s exactly what I did 3 weeks ago.  I started back on Step One so I could reel it in and cut the carbs and start losing these extra LBS!”

     I had big plans for my "vacation" eating schedule, see I planned to go off ITG Diet while I was in San Antonio for my sons Graduation from Basic Military Training United States Air Force.  The excuse I gave was that he had been deprived off all of his favorite foods for the past 8 1/2 weeks (just like me) and I wanted to make sure I got him all his favorites while I was in town, and  I decided I would join him.  I came up with this plan months ago, that's what helped me make it through the last 6 weeks on ITG Diet.  I went off of program for 2 weeks, I was only in San Antonio for 5 days but I planned in some time off program while at home.  Plus who can start a diet on a Wednesday, I needed a weekend off of program at home with my friends.  You know what that meant time for some Wine & Spirits.  Oh how I enjoyed eating drinking and being merry!  Until my belly started to hurt because I ate too much, and a hangover comes with fewer drinks than it did before.  My body has changed but my mind had no problem going back to BDT, before diet Tina.  This is what I went off program for? This is what I say I miss?  I'm sluggish, no energy or motivation what so ever.  I think its official...I fell off the horse.

    My goal weight was 150 lbs for my son’s graduation from Basic Military Training, United States Air Force,  April 4, 2014, an 8 1/2 week program that I think every young American should attend but that's another story.  My starting weight was 180.8 on January 6, 2014.  That’s a goal of 30.8 pounds in 13 weeks.  I didn't reach my goal but I did get very close.   My weight April 3, 2014 was 152.4 pounds, total loss 28.4 pounds, 2.4 pounds off from my first goal weight.  Did I fail?  Not at all, I proved to myself and you, that ITG Diet works and I can succeed at it.  And if I can succeed on this diet, anyone can succeed on it, including you.  Go ahead give it a try.

  
December 13, 2013                March 21, 2014
I wasn’t going to post any photos until my goal date picture of me and Travis at his Graduation April 4^th.  But I couldn’t resist when I stumbled onto this photo that was taken December 12, 2013 for a FB post announcing my employment with ITG Diet.  The other picture was taken this morning March 21, 2014. 

This week’s loss 2 pounds…. I know as a wellness coach that the average woman loses 2-3 pounds a week on ITG Diet, a 2 pound loss is a good week.  But, (everyone’s got one) the dieter in me still seems to get a bit discouraged with the same 2 pound weekly loss.  My Wellness Coach, Maria, could tell I wasn’t as pleased with my weekly 2 pound loss, that’s when she suggested we update my measurements. 

I received my first letter from my son at Basic Military Training, he said he is going to try his best to make Honor Graduate to make me proud of him.  I replied to him (by mail) that I was going to try to reach my goal weight prior to graduation to make him proud of me.  If this doesn’t motivate me to lose this last 10 pounds nothing will.  Graduation is April 4, exactly 4 weeks from today.  I have lost a total of 20.8 pounds since January 6 which is 9 weeks on ITG Diet.  These great results didn’t include any exercising.  Time to step it up and add exercise into the mix of this diet. 

I have tried every kind of food and diet plan. I have had to watch my weight my entire life. I have always meticulously watched what I eat and have done many things such as Weight Watchers, HCG, etc. This last year I even tried going Vegan and gained 15 pounds, then tried juicing and gained 10 more pounds. It seemed whatever I did my weight kept going up. I did HCG but gained it back…been on weight watchers…with extremely slow weight loss. I became Vegan trying to be healthier (Forks over Knives theory) and it did the exact opposite for me. I gained 15 pounds and my blood sugar and cholesterol went up. I had become borderline diabetic.

2014 promises to be a healthy one for my patients.  I feel positive about the future because we keep moving toward factual medicine and we’re discarding many of the misunderstandings that persist in mainstream America today. 

While just about everyone knows that being overweight can lead to health problems there seems to be a disconnect on how best to get control of our weight in a healthy way.  This is where our weight loss program  comes into play.  You’ll often here ITG refer to the science behind the plan.  This science  is lacking in many other plans.  It turns out that just about every diet can make you lose weight, yet the questions become, “What weight did you lose?  Just fat?  Fat and muscle?”  Is it science based or is it a ploy to get you to buy their products?

  Hi it’s me again, Maria one of the wellness coaches here at ITG Diet. I am just doing a follow up to my earlier testimonial blog about my journey with the ITG Diet Plan. I have been successful on step 3 maintenance with proper eating and exercise. One thing I notice is that it is always a thinking game…the maintenance part of a healthy lifestyle. If you’re really going to eat right and be conscious of everything you put in your mouth then you got to always think. Is this good for me? Does it have enough protein?  How much sugar is in it?

   My husband, Mike, wrote a blog recently that explained how we entered the weight loss business and referred to my personal experience with the program.  Surprisingly, Mike’s account of how we got into this market is accurate.  It’s a bit personal for me so I was sensitive to what he was saying.  Yet, he’s right… I did lose weight fast, I did notice remarkable improvements in my menopausal symptoms and I was amazed with the results I experienced when I started the ketonic body program to lose weight based on science instead of emotion.

Happy Valentine’s Day to all my “single ladies” dieters!
I want you all to know that building a network of friends and a community of followers among the diet community gives me as much pleasure as losing weight does.  My Valentine this year is ITG Diet!  What a Blessing ITG Diet has been to me.  I thank God every day for the new love of my life! I love ITG Diet!  I know this year my Valentine will give me the best Valentine’s Day gift ever.

     I figured with my son leaving for US Air Force I should start preparing for empty nest syndrome. (Empty nest syndrome is a feeling of grief and loneliness parents or guardians may feel when their children leave home for the first time, such as to live on their own or to attend a college or university.  It is not a clinical condition).   A very close relative to Empty Nest Syndrome is Emotional Eating.  I can already see myself being weak and falling off my low carb diet.  My son is my rock, it’s been me and him for 18 years, now it’s just me.  Will I make it? I want to succeed, but our emotions are very powerful.  You know what they say “Keep your friends close but keep your enemies closer.”   Time to do some research and study this new enemy in my life.   Where to start? ITG Diet Health Article  “Are you an emotional eater?” 

Some of you know me while many more of you know my wife, Laurel.  Those who know us can see that we’re passionate about ITG Diet and often wonder why we focused our business on health issues related to weight control.  Passionate is the right word for it because we entered this industry for personal health reasons. 

We’d both struggled with our weight as we worked our way through middle-age even though we were in the medical industry where, one would think, we’d have the advantage of readily available knowledge to guide us in weight control.  It turned out that the myths, false claims and magic promises were as confusing to the medical professionals as they were to the rest of us.  Then we purchased an integrative medical clinic in 2005 and saw how the medical providers on the inside viewed overall health and weight control.  The messages these professionals receive is an array of some old school and outdated philosophies, some new wave unproven ideas, many false promise and a little bit of science.  The science attracted us.

As you all read in last week’s blog, my son is leaving for US Air Force Basic Training on Feb. 4.  I am having him a farewell party with all of his favorite foods, since he won’t be having any of them for the next 8 ½ weeks or longer. When I asked him what favorite food he wanted me to make for his party, I should have sat down first…lol   my stomach tied up into knots when he said, Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Then he realized what he was asking of me while on ITG Diet and said, “Should I pick something else, Mom?”  No Way! I can do this……I think…

     Have I told you my biggest pet peeve with ITG Diet? Well the exclusion of Wine and Spirits of course.   My spirit is vodka…I miss her so…lol

The same day I started the ITG Diet, January 6^th,  my son joined the US Air Force. Yesterday he tells me his recruiter called and he will be leaving for Basic Training Tuesday February 4th.  What? Is this really happening? So quick? Once the fog cleared from being in shock, I thought to myself, I’m going to have a drink tonight at my GF’s daughter’s 21^st bday party. Then my next thought was, you’re on a diet silly, NO DRINKING!  Here I am at Day #13 and I thought I had a good reason to cheat. 

  Last thing my ITG wellness coach, Maria, said to me on Friday at 5:00 pm day #5 of my ITG Diet was, “the best advice I can give you for your first weekend is to stay busy.”  She told me how it could be a few tough days ahead.  My routine was about to change.  I got used to getting up and coming in to the office.  Surrounded by supportive people and approved food choices.  How could I fail in the perfect ITG Diet setting?  Home all weekend doing house work and laundry…How could I not fail?   See I started on a Monday and was at work most of the day for days #1-5 but days #6 and #7 will be my toughest days… home alone with Me! (yikes) … “Stay busy, Tina!”