since you've been gone.... may i introduce the 4 hour body

i mean... since i've been gone =) it's been yet another whirlwind month of client orders for my other biz - Joie de Vie Design, and mixed in with those orders i've taken some much needed personal time to tackle some cleaning and organizing projects around our place {with a lot more work left to be done}.  another fun challenge that's been thrown into our everyday life mix is that a few weeks back my hubs and i decided to make a huge lifestyle change, i had been reading tim ferriss' book the four hour work week {which was recommended to me}, along with ferriss' newest book the four hour body... which the hubs and i have both been reading and a week and a half ago began the journey to a huge lifestyle change for us!

not to bore you all to death with the details, but i think there comes a time in most people's lives when they aren't satisfied... not satisfied by a job, not satisfied by your lifestyle, not satisfied by your health {or lack thereof}... you fill in the blank.  well, we decide that we had grown a little complacent in the way we eat and the overall lack of a healthy lifestyle.  needless to say we started reading the four hour body and realized we needed to make the lifestyle change it talked about...  so now we are living the "slow carb" life!  if you're interested in knowing more about the four hour body diet and lifestyle here's a blog that we enjoy and find really helpful.

this is probably boring some of you at this point, but i feel that posting this is a means of accountability for me and a few posts ago i shared with my readers the 101 goals i hope to accomplish in 1001 days, this new lifestyle change is what i hope will be the means to accomplish a few of my personal lifestyle/weight loss goals.  to show you little of what this change entails here are some photos of a few slow carb meals...

pork chops w/ asparagus and zuchinni

rotisserie chicken {from costco} w/ red spilt lentils and asparagus

the costco chicken makes dinner super easy and quick

and in honor of st. patty's day today...

a corned beef brisket {in the crock pot}, some cabbage and carrots... this is one of my favorites!

basically the rules are as follows:

• nothing white - no flour, no sugar, no rice, no processed carbs period!
• eat as much protein as possible - eggs, egg whites, chicken, pork, beef, fish {organic when possible}
• eat as many veggies as you want {we happen to love asparagus, carrots, baby spinach, celery, green beans, brussel sprouts, and cabbage}
• eat slow carbs - beans, lentils, edamame, any kind of legume {really helps with filling you up}
• drink tons of water, have limited diet beverages {such a killer since i'm a diet coke addict}
• follow these rules 6 days a week
• here's the kicker - make one day a BINGE DAY, yes i said binge day! you can pig out on anything and everything you want, sugar, carbs... you want it, you eat it {sounds like a dream right? if you do it right it will leave you with a killer food hangover that makes you yearn for the clean eating of the other 6 days}

and that's it folks - doing this for a month and you can see great fat loss results... which is what i'm testing right now....

and to bring this all back to my point in sharing this with you all... i'll be using myself as a guinea pig to test this "diet" or as i like to call it "lifestyle change" to hopefully be able to recommend to my readers and the brides out there following along!

ps. if you'd like more insight into the 4 hour body lifestyle, here's another great post about it!