a 5 lb creep-up regain cure that seems to work

 Call it Ava's  version of the 5 day  pouch test - without dieting .  U guys know I HATE  and mistrust diets   because I'm convinced they slow the  metabolism ...  starvation eats  up hard- earned muscle and then then fat  comes back on when U inevitably stop  dieting .. a vicious cycle .  

THe  PROBLEM  with my way   of thinking is  what the heck  do U do with the regain poundage ?  

I've been feeling  more than a little pissed off lately because I  have  a spare tire .   Oh yeah ,i know its from not running ..and i KNOW  what to do about it .   Sometimes though my life doesn't let me  exrecise like that ...  and anyway  I SURE  do feel entitled  to  feel in CONTROL of my weight after  all I've been through without an hour of exercise a day .  

So I tried some  little tweaks ...  they turned out to work GREAT /

1)  drink LOTS of water  
.  I don't  exactly know why but it DOES slim U down ...  

2) take magnesium and D  in Ur calcium .   The magnesium qand D  and calcium combination may have some  slimming  properties .... many people just take calcium ..or calcium and D. ( like in Citracal )  I noticed I was getting leg cramps  .. and fatter .   I switched SOME  of my calcium back to  Posture-D  - and immediately saw the difference .  

3)  Tonalin along with  my flax seed  and evening  primrose oil in the mornings works GREAT .   Again its  just essential oils ...  but it seems to be a very effective  product .  NOT ur usual diet  industry hype .  

4) ashwagaranda  and red yeast rice combination in the morning .    Funny when  I ran out of red yeast  rice is when  my body started to go hay wire .    The combination  is used as a pre-diabetes controller /limiter in  Indian  herbal medicine and also  Chinese  herbal medicine  which are  somewhat related  .  Its  been used for thousands of years and is  safe and side effect free.

 It really  seems  to control  my  sugar cravings super well  ...  and just  cravings for food and more food in general .  I'm not really  sure  why..but I also  think it drives excess water  out of the cells  ... and reduces that  " pre -diabetic  fluffy  look " ...

core exercises  also  help  even if done casually because they  stimulate  turnover in the bowels ... 

lastly  .. Ive been getting up and making a  huge pot of fat free  vegetable  something with the stuff from the  garden ...  and snacking on that  .    

NOt only is it super tasty  ...,  but in the end I have lik three very fresh ready-made salads and / or low cal  at my  fingertips  in the fridge  at any given time .   Right now I have fresh tabouleh with  garden tomatoes ,  squash  stew  and  green bean  stew ... 

just  hits the spot  so well on these ninety plus degree days !   then  .. for protein I have a  LOT  of  chai tea and coffee  ( or just the shake  made with a bit of frogurt )  ... YUM !  

eating light  ...  anyway  thats MY high -fiber high tech  pouch test and thank God  its given me my bikini body back  ...  

Sounds delish! Can I come stay with you!

The boys here are not great veggie eaters, but I do have them for myself. Cant wait to be able to get more from the local markets. Got berries, lettuces, some small cukes and herbs.

Thank you for posting this. 

I am at the top of my self allowed weight now and feel like I am getting a little muffin top these days.  I need to stop the carbs and the nighttime endulgences I have been allowing - I've been pusing it and letting some old habits of eating in front of the tv creep in.  I may try some of your suggestions too...  I don't want to let the scales creep up past this so, I need to go back down at least 5 -7 lbs or so...  I can do it, I just need to be dilligent and just do it.  I need to go back to when I was deciding what to eat, I'd say to myself, "what's the best choice for my body" and do not think about anything else.

Thank you, I needed to read this today.

I especially like the veggie part.  Can't wait until I have a little more stuff coming in.  Blueberries are about gone, spinach is gone, beans aren't in yet.  Ate my first tomato yesterday and it was heaven.  Can't wait until more are ripe.

Great plan Ava!  I'm not much on all the supplements because many tend to make me hurl, even at 16 months out.

When I got back from Spain, I was up a few pounds from eating way more carbs (bread) than I'm used to.  We ate from the markets and bread w/ham and cheese was a staple.  When I got home I filled my fridge with organic salad fixings, watermelon and bags of organic cherries.  I've been living on all of that.  The organic avocado's are quite good this summer.  Fresh salads and fruit pulled off the few additional pounds and took another with them for good measure.  I'm going to continue eating fresh for the summer.  I've been using Quest bars to help supplement my protein as I'm just not into meat right now.  I haven't been eating cheese since Spain which is probably also helping.  Toasted almonds on my salads also add protein.   I do eat meat, just not three times a day the way that I was.  I'm not quite ready to go back to vegetarian or vegan but at least this summer I can partake in lots of fresh vitamins and minerals.