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!”