Setting Your Weight: Part Three

WEIGHT OPTIMIZATION COURSE

THE EXPANSION PROTOCOL

Managing weight during your 'pauses' can be challenging due to hormonal changes, reduced metabolism, and other factors. This HOPE Course delves deeper into specific strategies for maintaining your bottom, healthy, happy, ideal weight.

What is the "Expansion Protocol?

You've probably heard of the elimination diet. It involves systematically eliminating specific foods or food groups to identify sensitivities, allergies, or intolerances.

The opposite of an elimination diet could be described as an inclusion or expansion menu. I prefer to call it "The Expansion Protocol."

"The Expansion Protocol, in contrast to an elimination diet, focuses on broadening the variety of foods after consuming the Meso-Menu that finds your healthy, happy, bottom, ideal weight."

The Expansion Protocol has a twofold purpose

Identify what foods cause an inflammatory response.
Rebuild your microbiome.

The Bottom Weight

We first discover our bottom weight by eating the Meso-Menu that keeps our insulin levels low. We eat this menu until we no longer lose weight.

The Stall Buster Menus

We know we have reached the Bottom Weight when we try at least two Stall Buster Menus, and we don't lose any more weight.

Normal BMI Weight

The bottom weight is usually within the normal BMI for your height. Women's bottom weight is generally in the lower portion of normal BMI for your height, and men's bottom weight is usually in the upper portion of normal BMI for your height. Recall that your BMI does not differentiate with gender.

The Bottom Weight Room

We next chose a room within which to maintain our weight. In our previous example, we decided on a room with a floor of 135 and a ceiling of 137.

Setting Your Weight

Once you have a bottom weight room, the key is to stay in it for as long as possible. The longer you remain in your room, the more difficult it will be to leave it.

For example, I weigh the same as in high school and have maintained that weight for twenty years or more. I can go out with my buddies, eat pizza, drink beer, and not leave my room. My weight is set.

I am not saying it is okay to eat unhealthy foods. However, eating insulin-spiking foods will decrease my health and life span. Please remember that your health span is determined by how long you can dance, and your lifespan is determined by how long you live. For example, my mother is in her mid-nineties. She is still alive, but she can't dance.

From Hell to Heaven and then back to Hell

"Doc, I've been eating the Meso-Menu for three months. I have found my Bottom Weight and have chosen a room. Now what?"

You're a clean slate once you've achieved your bottom weight by consuming the Meso-Menu. If you eat something you are sensitive to, allergic to, or intolerant to, your reaction will be much more severe than when you ate those foods before you started The HOPE Protocol.

Before eating the Meso Menu, you were in Hell but didn't know it. All you knew was that you could feel better. Then, you started eating the Meso Menu and discovered how well you could feel. I liken this state to how Heaven feels. You felt amazing! You felt like you were walking on air, always smiling and surrounded by love—oh, so much love. Then, you quit the HOPE Protocol and returned to your old ways. You fell back into Hell.

"Hell is much worse the second time because you now know what Heaven is like."

Since you have probably not been this clean since birth, now is the best time to test for food sensitivities.

The Expansion Protocol

To test for food sensitivities, you'll need to add one food group per week that you've avoided during your HOPE journey to your bottom weight.

"If you have a sensitivity, allergy, or intolerance to a food, it will show up on the scale."

When you are sensitive to a particular food, you will retain water, which will show on the scale as a gain in weight.

Retained water represents an inflammatory response caused by eating a food you are sensitive to. The more sensitive you are to the food, the more weight you'll gain.

It is not unusual to gain 1 to 3 pounds after eating a food that you are sensitive to.

We will test one new food group each week. For example, in week one, you will begin testing seeds.

We will start with the food groups to which I have found the least sensitivities and end with those with the most sensitivities.

Each week, we will test three different foods within a food group.

How To Test Your First Food Group

You should start with Flax seeds, which are filled with phytoestrogens. Now that you are at your bottom weight and within your normal BMI, it's time to work on elevating estrogen naturally.

You start by testing a teaspoon of Flax Seeds on Monday. Most of my clients sprinkle the flax seeds over their meso-vegetables. You can use ground flax seeds if you like.

On Tuesday morning, if you gain weight, flax seeds fail the test. If you did not gain weight, flax seeds pass the test and become part of your Weight Maintenance Menu.

We do not test any seeds on Tuesday.

You then add a teaspoon of sunflower seeds on Wednesday. When you weigh yourself on Thursday morning, if you find no weight gain, sunflower seeds pass the test and are now part of your customized Weight Maintenance Menu.

We do not test any seeds on Thursday.

On Friday, you add a teaspoon of pumpkin seeds to our menu. On Saturday morning, you weigh yourself, and no weight is gained. Pumpkin seeds pass the test and are now part of your Weight Maintenance Menu.

I have used sunflower and pumpkin seeds as examples, but you can test any seed. Other seeds you can choose to test are:

Chia Seeds

Hemp Seeds

Sesame Seeds

Poppy Seeds

Pomegranate Seeds

Watermelon Seeds

Quinoa (it is a seed, but we consume it like a grain)

Rebuilding Your Microbiome

Did you notice I had you only test a teaspoon?

As you journeyed to your Bottom Weight, you were limited to the Meso-Menu of clean animal proteins and high-fiber vegetables. Your microbiome has narrowed significantly, and you currently only have active cultures within your gut that digest animal proteins and high-fiber vegetables."

The microbiota that digests seeds has become dormant. If you eat too many seeds, you will most likely have a digestive upset.

"Eating only a few seeds is essential to awakening the microbiota that digests seeds. When you first test a food you haven't eaten in a while, eat small amounts, or eater beware."

After a particular food passes the test, you can increase the amount you eat of that food, but only in small increments. For example, you can eat two teaspoons of the seeds that passed the initial test the next time.

Flax seeds become your Hormone Replacement Therapy for estrogen, and in most cases, my clients find that it is the only supplement they need to improve the adverse side effects of having low estrogen. A teaspoon to a tablespoon daily will usually suffice.

The HOPE Menu:

In the next course, Setting Your Weight Part 4, I will discuss how to methodically add the remaining food groups. Following the guidelines is essential for correctly setting your weight within the room we have decided to maintain.

The expansion protocol will discover the best Weight Maintenance Menu for your physiology and personality that maintains your Bottom Weight Room.

"The Weight Maintenance Menu is a customized menu designed for your physiology and personality."

Lose weight! Feel great!

I offer a free introductory coaching program to help participants achieve sustainable weight optimization. This program includes:

Daily Accountability.
24/7 Personalized Support.
Step-by-step guidance via the HOPE Email Course.
Pre- and Post-Program Consultations.

How to Participate

If you text "I am interested" to 209-345-9799, I will enroll you in the free week of coaching and send you the first course, which we can discuss in your initial consultation.

Final Thoughts:

Weight optimization is a lifelong journey, but you can achieve and maintain your ideal weight with the right tools and support. Remember to consult with a licensed healthcare professional before starting any program, especially if you have underlying medical conditions.

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Hormone and Weight Optimization

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Have the body you wish to Have

THIS WEEK'S US-IE

Holidays and Grandchildren--Heaven!

🦃 Doc Mac

Disclaimer:

The statements in this course have not been evaluated by the FDA and should not be considered medical advice. Always consult a healthcare professional before beginning any new diet or exercise program.