The Closing Chapter

Happy June!

Don't you just love a new month? I know, me too. Clean slate, fresh start, new virtue, new energy. It's a field of all possibilities.

I mean doesn't that image just crack your heart wide open? It's like heaven. This is what I imagine nearly every single month as I flip over the page in my calendar to the next new month. Endless possibility. I love it. Last month I chose to RECEIVE as my virtue because I find it difficult to take even a simple compliment, this month I am choosing AUTHENTICITY as my virtue. 

Yep, it's pretty much Shamandment number 1, Be Shannon. So there I am, the girl who imagines her life as a valley of wildflowers in the foothills of some mythical mountain at sunrise. Or is that sunset? Either way, wildflowers under sherbet skies. How's that? That's me. The dreamer.

So as we embark upon this new month it felt fitting to bring to a close the chapter in my life I have lovingly entitled My Solution. You can read the entire story HERE.

After four weeks on the AHS, what conclusions have I come to? Adding more fat to my diet has definitely helped me out with the sugar cravings. I'm a week away from 70 days sugar free. I'm talking super sugar free, no honey, no maple syrup, no dates, no crutches. Honestly, I'd have thought that just that on it's own would have made me shed the weight in no time. He Who Shall Not Ne Named has been vegan since early February and he would have thought that the weight would have just dropped off his frame too, but no.

So what are my physical results then? In terms of weight, the jury was out on that because of the scale conundrum which you can read about in my previous post. It's not good. Not good at all. I weigh exactly six ounces less than when I started four weeks ago according to my original scale with new batteries. Boo! Seven pounds still to lose. But on the positive side, Dr. Dave did deliver on his promise to shrink my mid-section. While he hasn't exactly earned the title of Muffin Top Slayer for outstanding performance, (that championship belt still belongs to Ms. Tracy Anderson), he did deliver results. I lost 1.5 inches off my midsection. The rest of my body remained, to my chagrin exactly the same. Hips, thighs, chest, arms, et al, no change. So effectively I think the real changes occurred within. Or at least I hope they have. I am imagining my internal organs having a bit more room to breathe with some of the fat gone.

I do have a greater sense of well-being, I am no longer dominated by cravings apart from the odd one during PMS, and I think I have found a stable and sustainable way to eat... now all I have to do is figure out how to lose 7 pounds without fucking everything up. Insert a worried emoticon here why don't you.

In answer to my Big Why? The things I had to list as reasons for doing this?
A) Mental freedom from being dominated by sugar cravings. Check.
B) Converting my body into a fat burner rather than a sugar burner. No clue apart from perhaps my slightly smaller waist? So maybe a Check?
C) Want to unwind all the damage of years eating like a teenager. It's definitely a start. So Check.
D) Radiant health, loads of energy, mental clarity and freedom from pain. I'm going to go with Ish. Check-ish. I feel slightly better but feel like I still have a ways to go.
E) Vanity, I have always wanted to rock a six-pak. Don't wanna be abcentric no more. Sadly, 1.5 inches off does not a six-pak make.

Four-ish out of five ain't bad.

It was a fun experiment and I think the reading and research I've done this past month will inform many future choices and hopefully I will continue to gain clarity and energy and drop the last few pounds without driving myself mad.

And yes, I owe you a post on WHEAT dammit. I know. Just find your way into the valley of flowers for now, for that's where you'll find this dreamer as she hammers out the last third of this new movie called LIFE WON'T KEEP.

Big hugs.
Shan