Time To Start

So our journey started on Monday, September 23rd with a 2 hour class.

Here we got to meet everyone else in our group, a total of 12 people and we got to meet all of the staff at the Anschutz Health and Wellness center that would be working with us during the whole process.

This included Dr. Jim Hill and Dr. Holly Wyatt, the authors of the book State of Slim and creators of the Colorado Diet.

We learned about how this would work over the next 16 weeks, what we should expect and what would be expected of us.

What a great group of people, everyone genuinely cared about our success and made it clear they were there to support us through the whole thing.

We had a special guest speaker in class that night.  

The show Extreme Weight Loss has been filming at the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center and had been working with Dr. Hill and Dr. Wyatt.  

One of the contestants on the show came to speak to us and show us first hand what can be accomplished while on this program.

She had been working for 90 days at the Center, but had been working to loose weight close to a year.  She started at more than 300 lbs and was in our class at under 200.  She lost 60+lbs during her 90 days in CO and could not be happier.  She was convinced of the success of this program and felt it had truly been a life changing experience.

We start in Phase I, reigniting our metabolism, eating foods that will work to get our body back on track and working the way it is supposed to.  

Phase I lasts 2 weeks.

Dr. Hill and Dr. Wyatt have a great analogy to explain how the body works, they call it Your Body, The Bathtub.

Basically, your body is a bathtub and the water level is your fat, water filling the tub is food and the drain is your metabolism.  You can turn down the faucet temporarily, but if you don't unclog the drain, your tub will still keep filling up with water.  The key is to keep the drain large and open and turn down the faucet to match.  This way you can lose weight and keep it off with the appropriate and have a better working metabolism.  

So you eat the right foods to control the flow into the tub, you exercise to keep the drain flowing and this will help your body do what is was designed to do.

This really helps give a mental picture to how this works and what we need to do to make corrections.  I like this analogy.

Eventually the idea is to work to have a flexible metabolism, meaning it has the ability to adjust to changing food intake and switch between carbs and fat for energy.  

So each week we have a food log to track what we are eating, not only so they know we are following the rules, but also to help us keep track and make sure we know what to eat. 

Food Log sample from Dr. Holly Wyatt 

They gave us a list of foods for Phase I

This includes lean proteins, Reignite Carbs and healthy fats.  
It might be a short list, but most of these foods I really like and it is only 2 weeks.  Just makes you get creative in how you prepare things.

I left class that night and went to the grocery store.

My first shopping cart

This was actually part of the first homework assignment, we had to send in a picture of our shopping cart to show that we had bought approved items for Phase I of the Colorado Diet.
Yes, we have homework!
We read chapters in the book, complete our logs, keep a journal, do our exercise everyday, each week there is something new.
The exercise part is very new for me, I have been known to walk, get on the treadmill and tried to join several gym's, but nothing has stuck with me.
That is why I thought this would be such a great program, we have to do the work, it's on us to get the outcome we want.
Yes we are accountable to the staff at the center, but really we are accountable to ourselves.
So to encourage us to do the exercise part, we get a free membership to the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center for our 16 weeks.
This facility is amazing and the staff is so supportive and welcoming, its hard to feel judged or out of place.
Each week we have to do at least 10 minutes of exercise 6 days a week and 5 of those day have to be at the center.  This will help to not only track what we are doing, but also to help build the routine of going to the gym or getting active each day.
Eventually we have to work up to 70 minutes 6 days a week!!!

I am excited to go through this with all of the wonderful people in the group with me and share this journey.  I am also excited to share it with you all.

Stay tuned for another post soon, I am trying hard to get caught up!