Guest Author – Catherine Gordon, A.C.E.
Goodbye sugar and grains, hello life…
I was put on my very first calorie restricted diet by my pediatrician when I was eight years old. I will never forget the question he asked me as I sat there on the examining table, sad and ashamed of myself, in 1972.
“So Cathy, how would you like to count calories?”
And so it began. I remember being allowed eggs only twice a week after that. I also remember changing to skim milk, and eating a lot more cold cereal. What I remember most is being hungry.
Maybe some of you reading this can relate to how awful it feels to have other people watching and controlling what you eat. When I was nine, I remember having to sneak past the door to the family room, so that I could get to the kitchen where I would steal cheese out of the refrigerator, because I hadn’t gotten enough to eat at dinner.
Think about that for a moment.
I was nine years old, but I wasn’t after cookies or ice cream, although I would have snarfed those down if I could have gotten a hold of them, I was stealing
cheese.
Now it wasn’t cheese that had made me fat in the first place. I remember distinctly that my favorite binge food was white bread of all things: sometimes with a potato chip chaser.
Now, 41 years later, I have enough experience, and I’ve done enough research to know that I am addicted to sugar, and the foods that turn quickly to sugar in my body. Although sugar and food addiction are not yet officially recognized by the The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, progress is being made by researchers worldwide in understanding compulsive eating behaviors like mine.
In the photo above, you see a small fraction of the books I have read on my search for a cure to my overeating and obesity.
Yes, when I became pregnant in the year 2000 I was already overweight. I ballooned up to 205, and after I delivered my son in 2001 I was obese at 5’1” and 185 pounds. I was able to get down to 165 pounds through calorie restriction and at least 7 hours of cardiovascular exercise per week, but at that point I began to yo-yo between that weight and 155 pounds.
I found a solution…
I was obese for 7 years, but in 2008 I found a solution. I discovered an exercise program called
Turbulence Training that turned everything I believed about fitness upside down. At the same time, I fully committed to a way of eating that took me from obese all the way to my ideal goal weight of 117 pounds in the course of 18 months. Perhaps the best part is that I have never been more than 10 pounds away from my ideal weight in the past 5 years since I reached my goal.
Permanent recovery from obesity is rare, and I attribute my success to a profound eating and lifestyle change. I became an A.C.E. certified personal trainer, a certified Turbulence Trainer, and I opened a fitness studio in my hometown of Sonora, CA. Now, seven of my students have been finalists in the TT Transformation Contests as well.
Just a few months ago, I was accepted into the National Weight Control Registry, which requires a documented weight loss of over 30 pounds that has been maintained for at least a year. It has been five years since my transformation, and it is time to share the eating strategy that was instrumental in by 68 pound weight loss, and that is helping my clients, friends, and family members reach their goal weights as well.
The eating strategy I’m writing about is called Sugar Freedom.
The Sugar Freedom plan eliminates all forms of sugar, all grains, and all “Factory Fats” from the diet.
By factory fats I mean any fat or oil that has to be chemically processed in order to prepare it for human consumption. For example, you can squeeze olives to make olive oil or churn cream to get butter, but soybeans and rapeseeds have to be chemically processed to make soybean oil and canola oil, respectively.
Why does Sugar Freedom eliminate sugar, grains, and factory fats?
Well, in most of the books you see in the photo above, it is the elimination of these toxic substances that returns the body to health and a normal weight. But from the point of view of a sugar addict and compulsive overeater like me, taking sugar, grains, and processed oils out of the diet brings a relief from food obsession that is sweeter than any cookie, cake, or candy in the world.
Sugar Freedom is a way for you to discover any and all of the foods that are standing between you and your authentic, ideal self.
After as few as three days of Sugar Freedom, your appetite will ease, and you will know what it feels like to eat according to your natural hunger cues: not the obsessive need to get your next “fix” or “hit” from hyper palatable foods.
How will this happen? You will be encouraged to eat organic vegetables, meats, full fat organic dairy, and natural fats until you are satisfied. The idea is the trade some “Variety for Satiety” in order to get your body burning fat instead of storing it.
After three days on what I have named the “Three Day Sugar Strike,” low sugar fruits like berries and Granny Smith apples are re-introduced in moderation. This is the Sugar Freedom Phase of the eating plan, and it continues until you reach your fat loss goal.
Finally, you are encouraged to add back foods like organic dark chocolate and baked goods made with coconut or almond flour to enhance your permanent eating style.
In all honesty, my most important motivation to write Sugar Freedom came from the fact that, when I was struggling with my weight, I wanted desperately to find a woman over forty like me who had overcome obesity and food addiction. More importantly, I wanted to know exactly what she ate to get lean for good. I never did find that woman. What I did find was the courage to write The Sugar Freedom Diet myself.
So now, I hope that I can reach more and more women and men like me, who have struggled with food obsession for years. With Sugar Freedom as a template for permanent change, you can find the foods that nourish and satisfy you, lose fat, gain vitality, and live your life to the fullest.
Catherine Gordon A.C.E. was named Certified Turbulence Trainer of the Year for her work with her clients at Gordon Studio in Sonora, CA. She is a member of the National Weight Control Registry, and the author of The Sugar Freedom Diet. Her website is www.sugarfreedom.com.
In the photo above, you see a small fraction of the books I have read on my search for a cure to my overeating and obesity.
Yes, when I became pregnant in the year 2000 I was already overweight. I ballooned up to 205, and after I delivered my son in 2001 I was obese at 5’1” and 185 pounds. I was able to get down to 165 pounds through calorie restriction and at least 7 hours of cardiovascular exercise per week, but at that point I began to yo-yo between that weight and 155 pounds.
