I’ve been a personal trainer for ten months now, and I’m still struggling with my own weight. Last February, I started eating animal proteins again. It was my two year anniversary of being a herbivore. Let me give you a little back story to help shed light on the topic.

Three years ago I felt run down and tired all the time. I started doing research and found ties of lethargy, cancer, and overall lack of health to animal proteins. I went hung-ho and got rid of all animal proteins, processed foods, processed sugar, oils, and salt. I felt an immediate difference. Then toward the end of January this year, I started feeling tired again and just plain unhealthy. I knew that I wasn’t doing the herbivore thing right anymore. I had run out of time to plan and cook my food beforehand. I decided to go back to eating animal products, but I also made the mistake of putting processed items back into my diet. More animal products and processed foods definitely means more calories. When you increase your calorie intake, but you don’t increase your exercise, you tend to put on a few pounds. Hence, my dilemma.

I’m certainly not overweight. I would hate to be an overweight personal trainer. That would be an oxymoron, and I would be a hypocrite. But being a personal trainer is completely different from being a nutritionist. I know about what exercise does for the body, and I know the basics about what food does for the body, but I’m still working to get it right. I’d like to lose weight and get my body fat % down, so I’ve been doing some reading on the subject.

One book that I’ve really liked so far is The Women’s Health Diet: 27 Days to Sculpted Abs, Hotter Curves, and a Sexier You. Their approach is that this isn’t really a diet; it’s a lifestyle. The food is very reasonable, and there is a lot of it. I stopped doing to process foods again, and the only sugar I do is a glass of chocolate milk after a long workout. Surprisingly, I stepped on the scale today after only five days of following their plan and found myself at -2 pounds. With that encouragement, I’ll be trying just a little harder to follow through and work out. I haven’t felt deprived. I haven’t craved anything. I do have to plan a little better, but I simply decided that my health and how I look is more important to me that 15 extra minutes of sleep or 20 extra minutes of scrapbooking at night.

As I get older, quality of life just seems so much more important to me. I’ll keep you updated on the progress.