This is what transformation looks like

This first week, I heard often from Julie, Natalie and Courtney about how much they missed their routines. Every one of them said, “This is really hard because I'm a planner.”

All of them moms, they crave the predictability of a routine telling them what they need to do and when, their lives organized to the brim with the general demands of family life.

It was just a scramble, this first week. We grocery shopped morning and night to replenish our protein supplies, dropped everything in the middle of the day to eat one of our six meals/snacks, fought off cravings, tried to adjust our palates to this new combination of food, and struggled to break old habits (I kept expecting dessert after my meals, which is, of course, prohibited during Phase I).

The pilot group for the State of Slim met for the first time last Monday night. I think we were all excited, but also felt overwhelmed from the start, when the State of Slim entourage escorted us into a conference room lined with cameras from Extreme Weight Loss (the ABC show is filming their fourth season at the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center; one of their participants gave us a motivational speech that night).

Dr. Wyatt at one end of the table, Dr. Hill at the other, they ping-ponged inspiration, encouragement and hard truths at us: this diet would change our lives forever, but first we would have to change the way we thought about things; losing weight would only be half the battle because we must transform many areas of our lives to make a permanent change.  

We learned about the diet as a whole and then they laid out the next two weeks: we would restrict our diet to only the foods they said we could eat, in specific combinations (more about that in my next post). This included the leanest proteins, low-density veggie carbs, “reignite carbs,” and healthy fats.

Class let out at 8 p.m. – commence the diet. We went our ways, each overwhelmed by the task at hand, and pretty hungry. Immediately, we had to go to the grocery store and buy lots of unfamiliar food (e.g. whey protein powder, steel cut oats, PB2).

“All I wanted to do when I left that class was stop at Taco Bell,” Julie told me. She didn’t, of course, but it would take three full days before she could share a healthy meal with her family.

On Tuesday, she battled a migraine (she hadn’t had one in 13 years), which made food and the gym unappealing. Despite that, and with the added challenge of cooking for three children and a husband, and working late several nights, she still made herself eat six times a day, and exercised.

“I just went slow.” Then she laughed, and quoted the doctors: “This is all about keeping my promises.”

From the outset, it’s pretty clear that the Colorado Diet is not about substituting this for that, maybe skipping dessert and that extra beer. After hearing Julie, Natalie and Courtney’s stories of last-minute adjustments, and given my own challenges, I’ve begun to understand what this first part of the diet is really about: turning our lives upside down, shaking them out and reorganizing them in a whole new way.

At first, I wondered if the others were frustrated or mad, or thought the whole thing ridiculous. Were they asking too much of us? None of the four of us was super psyched about the food we had to eat, and I could feel their exhaustion, the kind that comes from reacting to unpredictable circumstances.

But then, I quickly reminded myself: this is what a transformation looks like.

New routines will come soon enough.