Brittney's Journal- Thanksgiving Afterthoughts

Hello all,

I hope you all had a FANTASTIC Thanksgiving! I can't wait to catch up with everybody over the next two weeks!

This Thanksgiving was really a day of reflection for myself. It wasn't just being grateful to be surrounded with friends and family but, I found myself astounded by the changes the ITG Diet Plan has helped me correct over the years and, how it has also created better habits for my family and friends too during the process! I hope this blog post can inspire you to keep on with your health journey!

Thinking back, I can remember my fridge being stocked with soda's and juices, I always had a bottle or two of wine in the house and I ALWAYS had snacks for guests. These snacks consisted of the usual unhealthy items like ice cream, cookies or whatever high carb and sugar item was on sale at Publix or given to me by friends or family. I was consuming huge amounts of sugars, carbohydrates and alcohol on a daily basis and, in all honestly, I felt like crap all the time. Not just my body but my mind too. I was at my heaviest weight (197lbs and I am only 5'2"), feeling slow, lethargic, less motivated, moody, achy all over my body and, of course, my IBS spasming was so flared up all the time, it was impossible to live normally and function without a bathroom near by. I just got to a breaking point where I knew something needed to give. I needed to be able to socialize normally and LIVE NORMALLY AGAIN. Is it so much to want to feel good everyday? I definitely didn't think so. I just knew something need to change.

So my journey begins. For years, I tried to be "Gluten free", "Lactose Free", whatever "free" diet was out there to really help my IBM calm down but, when I say nothing worked, I mean, NOTHING WORKED! Everything made me feel sick. From my fancy $100 protein powders, $80 weight loss supplements, energy supplements, professional portion control meals and more. It didn't help me. If anything, it made me feel more desperate for a solution. It made me feel more frustrated that I couldn't figure out what my body needed. I couldn't bring my weight down for more than a few days at a time and I wasn't feeling great still. I was missing something. 

Fast forward a few years. In 2017, I started working at Vero Orthopaedics as a front desk receptionist. I have ALWAYS had a passion for health and wellness since I was about 14 years old dealing with both forms of IBS and stomach ulcers and working with vitamins and supplementation for over 5 years but, in 2018, when I was offered the coaching job for this program, I immediately said yes. Not only was this my favorite field (health and wellness) but, it was a balanced eating system that brings your weight down AND helps you keep it off without using their products for the rest of your life. I loved the vegetable list and the lean meat selection that the ITG program offered AND I absolutely loved that they focus on carbohydrates, sugar's and sodium NOT JUST CALORIE INTAKE! Needless to say, I jumped at the opportunity to learn more and to help people live healthier. So, I decided to give it a try. I wasn't going to stand behind a diet without tasting everything first and, of course, trying it myself!

I remember the first few days of starting the ITG program in 2018. The first four days were horrendous due to my LOVE for sugar and detoxing from it but, I knew it was going to be a process. My detox was brutal and I found myself daydreaming about cotton candy clouds and dancing cheese burgers. I had a goal though and I knew I could make it through. To this day, I am so proud of myself that I showed restraint and did not cave in to my cravings. After the first week on the new eating plan, I had less ingestion and I was noticing that the achiness in my body was fading. I told myself there was NO way that the diet could have affected me that quickly so I just told myself it was just a placebo effect and kept going with what I was supposed to do. 

Weeks two through four of the ITG Diet is what impacted me the hardest and most positively. I noticed my energy was up without high amounts of caffeine, I noticed I had more positive thinking and, I was not having as much spasm attacks in my stomach. It was unbelievable! I didn't know if it was the water intake, the vegetable intake, the possibility that the vitamins and minerals on the ITG Program were helping or, all of the above. The point was, at the end of my two month weight loss journey, I was down over 30 pounds and feeling better than I had every felt in my adult life.

Now, back to Thanksgiving Day this year, I couldn't help but be fascinated by the differences I had influenced in my family's eating habits. I took a look at my grandmothers fridge on turkey day and I couldn't believe that there was almond milk, fresh vegetables, fresh fruit, homemade dressings, no Lean Cuisine meals were in the freezer AND they had frozen meats and vegetables with no sauces or dressing! It was so great to see and I honestly couldn't believe that they had made so many different changes to their eating habits. I love my family and I don't expect them to have to eat the way that I choose to eat but, the fact that they made small changes to our "normal Thanksgiving foods" and their eating style blew me away. 

This was such a great reminder for me. A reminder of "WHY" I chose to start eating less sugar and carbs, eating higher amounts of vegetables and proteins and, drinking my water everyday. Over time, I guess my family was able to visibly see my changes and how I am feeling and thinking now. I saw Stevia at their house instead of Sweet N Low and, they even had Walden Farms products! This was a great reminder that all great things take time. Time to adjust, time to relapse a little, time to reflect and, ultimately, time to commit yourself. Don't give up. Keep trucking on and you'll be so surprise a few years down the road about how many positive changes you've made and impacted others to make! Keep your head down and focus on your goals. Who knows where you'll be in a year!

-Brittney Casalina

ITG Coach Extraordinaire