In a blog post last week I announced my commitment to try The 21-Day Belly Fix: The Doctor-Designed Diet Plan for a Clean Gut and a Slimmer Waist.
Well…. I made it through the first week and feel great. I feel like I’ve gotten past whatever it was that drags me down. As promised by Dr. Taz, the author, I feel lighter, have more energy, am more alert and focused. If you follow the program you will go through a 3-week routine that will reprogram your digestive system, reduce inflammation and rev up your metabolism. Not to mention its a great way to jump start weight loss. The whole point of this program is that good health starts in your belly. You’ll learn about the good and bad bacteria in your gut and how digestive health affects everything in your body. Dr. Taz believes that if we pay attention to our gut health we can improve our moods, level of stress, brain fog, fatigue, pain and weight and she goes on to explain that if the wrong bacteria settles in our gut it slows down your metabolism resulting in weight gain or difficulty in loosing weight even though you’ve tried everything that should result in weight loss.
So, one week on the program and I not only feel great I am also thrilled to say that I am down 6 lbs at the end of one week. Now don’t get me wrong, The 21-Day Belly Fix takes a lot of discipline. You have to really want to do this. You are working with someone else’s routine and making it your own. There are four phases to the program: Detoxification, Rest, Rebuilding and Education. Once you assemble all of the ingredients such as apple cider vinegar, rice cakes, coconut oil, select fruit, green vegetables, rice protein powder, proteins and a few other items, it is not difficult to plan for and stick to this routine. I never felt hungry but I can’t speak for everyone on that point. I guess that depends on how much and what you eat all day. I was fortunate in that many of the requirements were already part of my daily routine like drinking a mixture of water and apple cider vinegar each day, sipping ginger tea and enjoying homemade fruit smoothies. And, there are many new practices and foods I learned about that I will continue to incorporate into my daily life. My only complaint is having to have rice cakes for breakfast. The first week you can have two and then when you add more food in week 2, you reduce this to one – but rice cakes taste like cardboard to me. I wish there was another option.
The food: I followed the program to a T and found myself not in want of food. Each morning for breakfast you prep your belly for the days intake. I loved the mid morning protein (fruit) smoothies and the lunch time green shakes, and happily sipped ginger tea in-between each course. Dinner is a simple preparation of vegetarian dishes that I really enjoyed. Its a great way to move beyond serving vegetables as s simple side dish to your main course. Vegetables are your main course and let me tell you – they are healthy and very filling. So far, I do not miss the meat, chicken or fish. I made a kale dinner sauteed in olive oil with onions and garlic, two kinds of kale, bell pepper strips, ginger and a finely chopped date – it was delicious. (I hope I can do that – you can use a date in the vanilla fruit smoothie so I took that liberty…). Another night I made a crispy sweet potato hash sauteed in coconut oil with onions and garlic – soooo good! And roasted butternut squash with sauteed kale. Being that its Fall there are so many enticing foods to choose from like butternut squash, kale, sweet potatoes, string beans, eggplant, delicato squash, and so much more. On day six – you can add white meat chicken, turkey or white fish to your vegetables. Yeeha!
A few tips: I found this was an easy routine to follow the first few days because I stayed home. The day before I started I shopped for all of the ingredients needed for the first few days and prepared my own meals. Eating in is easy. One night I went out dinner and ordered vegetables sauteed in olive oil so I was able to stay on track. Its probably a good idea to check the menu online before going to the restaurant so you can decide what you’ll have when you get there; best not be tempted when you are hungry. And surprise, surprise – I was happy sipping water with lemon, not missing my routine glass of wine with a meal.
Confession: I did fail on the weekend. On day six I had company and a dinner party for six. I was so happy to be able to add a protein to my dinner menu. One of my guests was doing the 21-Day Belly Fix with me. The food was no problem – we prepared and everyone enjoyed a chicken vegetable stir fry. While we were in the kitchen cooking, my guests enjoyed humus and tortilla chips with salsa sauce in the living room. I whipped up a Lemon Tarragon shrimp appetizer and delivered it to my guests as my friend and I enjoyed a cup of broth while we were cooking. As I’ve said before – you will not be hungry throughout the 21-days. But here comes the hard part and how I failed – a dinner party and wine. We couldn’t help ourselves. We enjoyed some wine and went back to the program the next day. If you want to take the 21-day Belly Fix you can order your book HERE.
