Week 15 – Tracking: Plan Wins Over Resolutions

It used to be an annual habit for me to set a resolution to lose weight.  Didn’t work, but I finally found a way to make goals happen, whatever they may be.

I took some time in 2015 to set up my written purpose.  What did I want to accomplish?  What did I want to have in my life?  And I began to read it to myself 3 times a day, with emotion and feeling, realizing that I only have this one life time to be Day Boswell.  What is that going to look like?

I heard the words loud and clear, multiple times a day, “I have abundant energy and drive to complete …”  One night I recognized the conflict I had created for myself.  I didn’t have any energy and my goals weren’t manifesting.  It was all I could do to feed myself after work, then crawl into bed before getting up way too early to start all over again.  My weekly review of goals and objectives was sorely behind, and I was getting discouraged.

As Mark J explained in the Master Key class, consider what’s getting in the way of you having the life you want.  Get rid of it — get some support or gain some knowledge to get you over that obstacle.

My lack of energy was getting in my way!  The countless number of doctors I had seen over the years meant well, but their advice wasn’t working.  At 5’2″, you can imagine that being as heavy as 180 pounds was not healthy (at my heaviest), and wasn’t contributing to a higher energy level.  Exercise and diet, exercise and diet.  Easy to say, easy to do — yeah, whatever.  I DID get more fit, but it took a very long time to get down to 160, then 150, where I hovered for years, not being able to make any further progress.

So I sought a different solution.  I let “God”, the “Universe”, whatever you want to call it, guide me to a solution.  I stumbled across  this website,

and decided to give the good doctor a call.  First of all, I was amazed that Dr. Rues was quickly available for a phone conversation in person.  Then, I was impressed with her different approach, the deep questions she was asking me about my health, about where I wanted to be.  She asked me to begin keeping an eating diary that I would bring to our first visit to review.  After the first day of that, I was already embarrassed.  “I’m not showing her a whole week of junk food and sugar.”

So I immediately starting adding vegetables, healthy grains and lower fat meats.  And I cut back desserts and snacks to be more occasional, not daily.

Our first visit was not the lecture I expected, but a joint game plan on how to make improvements, what alternatives and replacement foods, and how much, might work better for me.  I left with a new eating plan that was designed for ME, not the general public, and a blood test order that included pages of tests to be done (they took 6 vials of blood at the lab).  She even suggested some very simple “movement” additions to my day, a 7-minute workout and and when I could fit it in during the day, adding a 15 to 20-minute walk.  I was already doing 2-3 workouts a week lasting about 45 minutes. I just needed to add more.

Changed my eating so I could show her (and me) that I was really ready for change and made sure to get at least 80% of the other tasks done while I waited for my next visit when we would review test results.

Then, CHANGE.  Three weeks later at the next visit, 5 pounds had dropped off, and yes, I HAD noticed a bit more energy in my day.  Then the test results gave me the truth I had really needed to improve my health.

“You don’t eat an extraordinary amount of sugar compared to the rest of the population, but for you, it’s enough that I would think you might have low level diabetes — but you don’t.  I thought you might have blood sugar issues — but you don’t.  But if you don’t stop eating sugar NOW, you might very well lose the function of your kidneys,” she said.

Well, she certainly got MY attention.

She made some additional changes to my eating plan and recommended a series of supplements, suggesting we would try this first, then consider medication if any more serious issues wouldn’t disappear.  I graphed out the plan so I could track it every day and record how I felt and how my body was functioning each day.  She specified 3 servings of cruciferous vegetables every day as part of the 7-9 servings of vegetables I need to eat every day; reduced meat to one serving a day and added more plant protein; more water; more tea; and the big kicker – no more than 2 grams of sugar a day — SUPER challenge.  No more than a handful of berries, basically.

In just a few weeks, the weight starting dropping off, and it kept going.  I found I wasn’t hungry, and I wasn’t needing snacks to tie me over until I could have a meal.  I couldn’t eat all the food on the plan in a day – I just got too full!

And today — YAY!  I am hovering at around 130, and the weight is still disappearing at a nice healthy rate.  None of my clothes fit (hooray).  Mom took me to pick out some pants for Christmas and I was SHOCKED to find out that the size 6 was too baggy (I had been used to size 12 forever), so I got a nice pair of slacks in a SIZE 4!!!!!!  My energy levels have almost doubled, and 90% of my blood test results have improved in a major way.

My kidneys are no longer in trouble, and I never suffered any symptoms that would have let me know they needed attention.  I am so grateful that I found a way to make not only my health better before there were issues, but to use the same amazing tools to make my entire life better.

How are you doing on your 2016 plan?  Keep track.  Keep focused.  And if you run out of steam, call Dr. Rues for an appointment, or I can refer you to the Master Key System class for awesome advice in multiple areas.

Blessings Be!