Sexy Forever: How to Fight Fat After Forty (26 page)

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I am often asked, “Suzanne, how will I know when to move to Level 2?” I say it’s less of a move and more like a transition. The basic guidelines of the Sexy Forever plan will remain a part of your lifestyle, well, forever. You will continue to fill your meals with excellent choices of Protein with Healthy Fats and Vegetables. You will continue to eat whole-grain Carbohydrates as a rule, but now you might add some of those high-starch vegetables (like sweet potatoes, potatoes, corn, or carrots) on occasion. You will continue to eat fruit alone as a general rule, but now that your cells are cleaned out, you might enjoy dessert every now and then—perhaps a delicious low-sugar berry cobbler!

You will see that Level 2 is really very similar to Level 1, but with a little more cheating. If you think you can go back to eating processed food, fast food, and fake food, you will quickly watch all of your success slip through your fingers and you will gain back the weight you lost. Don’t let this happen to you! This is not a diet; it’s a way of eating that will keep you healthy and fit forever.

Now that you have achieved your goal weight, it’s not a license to stuff your face with churros, burritos made with white-flour tortillas, fried fish and chips, cakes, cookies, and pies. As you know, it takes much longer to lose the weight than it does to put it back on!

Here is the shift you need to make in your thinking. You have reached your goal weight. The body you now have is your ideal weight. This weight should not be the exception in the cycle of your life. It will be the rule. The roller coaster is over. The ride has stopped. Now it’s time to live your life. You now have the knowledge and the capacity to be Sexy Forever! This does
not mean that you live on a diet forever—who wants that? It does mean you have shifted your thinking and created a new lifestyle. You have achieved this goal because you have learned how to nurture your body with proper nutrition. You have learned how to eat sweets in moderation, with all-natural low-glycemic-index choices that do not throw you off the program.

Now that your cells are cleaned out (which you can verify because you are no longer thick through the middle), you may incorporate Protein, Healthy Fats, Vegetables, and Carbohydrates at each meal. You do not need to count a thing! Think of a traditional balanced meal, like protein with a lovely sauce, a starch, and a vegetable. Now select sensible portions and you have mastered Level 2. It really is not that difficult—it’s just a discipline you must adopt for life. Let’s take a look at the freedoms we will enjoy as we eat this way.

Adding a serving of Carbohydrates can now become commonplace, as long as balance and moderation are considered. Let’s say you are going out for Italian food. You will still pass over options like the meatball sandwich on the white roll, spaghetti with meatballs, or pizza. Instead, you will choose the steak, chicken, or seafood entree served with mixed vegetables, but now it’s okay to add the lovely potatoes that might come with it. Remember portions—continue to use the guideline of roughly ½ cup of starch when combining it with Protein and Fats. Have the dinner salad, too, and now you don’t have to be so concerned if it might have a touch of sugar in the dressing. If you are making mostly good choices, these small imbalances will not get in your way. Plus, now your world is open to enjoying those high-starch vegetables (carrots, corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes) on occasion. These are categorized as Carbohydrates, so take moderate portions, and use a bit of caution not to overdo it.

This is not a license to have a daily plate of french fries! That would not be a good choice. But you can enjoy the occasional half a baked potato or a small portion of baked sweet potato fries. Of course, a couple of times a year you might enjoy that slice of pizza, plate of pasta, or hot, salty fries! Or perhaps your body can handle that type of imbalance once a month. Just as you customized Level 1 with the quantities of food and choices that worked
for you, you will now customize Level 2—Lifestyle Phase with the treats that are most important to you. How do you know if you are making the right choices? Your weight! If you start to see the pounds creep up, don’t ignore it! Get on top of it right away and go back to making better choices.

For the most part, I still continue to eat my Fruit alone. Once you know the insulin response, you just don’t freely add fruit back to your meals. Now that you are at Level 2, the place you can loosen up even more is with the berries. Again, it’s that high fiber content. I do not think twice about eating berries with whipped cream after a meal. My system can handle it. Even better, I might have some dark chocolate fondue with strawberries! Yum. I might also have an all-fruit jam on my whole-grain toast or whole-grain pancakes. Yes, there’s natural sugar in there, but my system is clean and can handle it. I also will choose berries to top whole-grain tarts or to use as fillings in whole-wheat pastry crust. Or a berry cobbler—these are all good choices for those times when you choose to have dessert. In addition, you have likely come across whole-grain cereals that do not have any added sugar, but they use fruit juice as a sweetener. Again, you might try incorporating these during the Lifestyle Phase if you are bored with the other cereal selections. Just don’t overdo it! Keep those clean cells of yours neat and tidy so they continue to burn sugar as fuel!

For me, sugar is truly my Achilles’ heel. Once I start back on it, it’s like an evil demon that sucks me in and starts that addictive mechanism. A nibble becomes an occasional dessert, then a daily occurrence, and before I know it, sugar is back in my diet and I have gained five pounds. I will look at Alan and say, “I don’t know what happened—I have put on five pounds!” And my darling husband will say, “You’ve been eating every dessert in sight!” Ha ha. Watch out for this Evil White Sugar Witch! She will suck you in. Use her angelic counterpart—All-Natural SomerSweet.

That being said, you now have the option to add a little bit of sugar and not worry that your body will immediately store it as fat. This is the
benefit of the hard work you have done to clean out those cells. Once you have healed your metabolism and detoxified your system you should be able to handle a bit of an imbalance. Just don’t behave like me! Or else Alan will remind you that you are being naughty and you will be punished by putting the pounds back on!

I don’t worry about a little bit of sugar in sauces or salad dressings (whereas on Detox and Level 1 you should be vigilant about searching for hidden sugars). I will continue to have low- or no-sugar desserts. Dark chocolate is still your best bet. Chocolate flourless cake, molten chocolate cake, chocolate soufflé, chocolate torte—anything that has predominantly eggs, healthy fats, and chocolate! Other good low-sugar desserts are cheesecake, crème brûlée, mousse, and high-quality ice cream that is not filled with a bunch of candy. But if you are going to eat those desserts high in fats, again, do not add carbohydrates to that meal.