As the alarm went off at 3:00am, I quietly moaned, “oh no, how can I still be so tired?” My eyes teared up again with emotion because I was so exhausted. With personal training clients from 4:30am to 11:30am and then again from 4pm until 9pm, I needed to be strong and healthy. I was the picture of health and success, but I was suffering – terribly and was sinking ever deeper each day.

Three pots of coffee a day were just enough to keep me functioning, but the phones were turned off and the blinds closed after I got home because I couldn’t bear for people to see how poorly I really functioned and how sad my state of energy and health were.

At the time I was a typical “bodybuilder.” I ate lean protein, low fat and nearly no carbohydrates, plus, I’m embarrassed now to say, I took stimulants – ephedra and caffeine for their fat-burning effects. I was lean and cut. I looked fabulous, but I had no natural energy whatsoever. I kept my calories so low that I was ravenously hungry all of the time. But the fat-burning supplements kept my appetite at bay—at least during the day.

I had to allow the stimulants enough time to wear off each night so that I could sleep. But as soon as they wore off, hunger came to life. I would have to eat in order to get to sleep and would wake up every night, again tortured with ravenous hunger.

As I finally realized that something was wrong, in addition to realizing that I was simply starving, I reached out for help and learned about adrenal exhaustion. I had all of these symptoms:

• excessive fatigue and exhaustion
• non-refreshing sleep
• overwhelmed by or unable to cope with stressors
• feeling rundown or overwhelmed
• low stamina, slow to recover from exercise
• difficulty concentrating, brain fog
• consistent low blood pressure
• extreme sensitivity to cold

The overwhelming natural solution that I kept running into was that that in order to recover, I had to change the way I ate. Although that sounded incredulous to me, I bought and followed the direction in “The Metabolic Typing Diet” book, which indicated that I was a “very strong protein type.” I needed lots of extra dense (fat-laden) protein and other fats – that which I had been avoiding. I was amazed when after shopping based on my “type” and eating my 1st meal, my energy skyrocketed! Over the next few years I experimented with some more changes such as looking further into the “Eat For Your Type” (The Blood Type Diet) based on one client-acupuncturist’s insistence that I would feel even better eating for my “O” blood type – which, interestingly, directly corresponds with the “protein type” of the other program. She was right. The “Metabolic Typing Diet” was too rigid for me. I missed the greater variety of foods which eating for my blood type allowed.

Several years later I started running regularly and with some distance. I found that I could use food to fuel my body so that I could run as long as I wanted to without getting tired and so could fit in more running clients--which of course, I ran with. I was running as many as 15 miles a day on many days of the week and I felt amazing. I seemed to finally have my energy deficit licked as I was performing at a high level without any of the previous symptoms.

But my energy was fueled by a “typical runner’s diet” of processed carbs which break down easily for fuel. I was intentionally eating white flour bagels, bananas, jam, sugary yogurt, granola, M&M’s, energy (candy) bars, crackers and peanut butter, and more on a regular daily basis. Although I worried about how this went directly against what I had learned, I felt amazing – better than ever. As you can imagine, I loved that I was “getting away with” all that candy and junk food. I kept right on until “whammo!!” I was hit with sudden and terrible insomnia, acute heart burn, and a changed (stronger) heart beat which led my doctor to prescribe a heart monitor. I went from better than ever to fearfully wearing a heart monitor!

The insomnia lasted for 2 months. It progressed from waking up each night at 2am for an hour, to waking up every single hour of the night with a bladder that begged to be emptied, even though it wasn’t at all full. I was fully waking up as many as 8-16 times each night to needlessly use the bathroom and I was, again, beginning to fail from the exhaustion caused by lack of sleep.

Again, I searched for a natural solution. I found that extremely acidic urine will cause the bladder to work hard to expel it so that it doesn’t harm the bladder itself (like battery acid would). Extreme bodily acidity is caused by, among other things, an excess of any or all of the following:

• diet
  • white flour (refined grains)
  • non-caloric sweeteners
  • coffee and black tea
  • chocolate
  • carbonated beverages (even water)
  • many nuts
  • most meats
  • jams and jellies
  • most dairy
• intense exercise
• excessive stress

After using a pH test strip, I found that my body actually was extremely and dangerously acidic.

Interestingly again, as soon as I adjusted my diet back to what was advised for greater alkalinity and balance – mainly all natural with loads of mineral-dense fresh vegetables, my heart beat immediately (the same day) returned to normal, my heart burn disappeared, and I got the first good night’s sleep in 2 months.

After nearly a decade of learning critical lessons on “how” to eat for health, and from my own and my client’s frustration with not being able to find a “pick-up” solution loaded with really healthy options, I decided to create a meal delivery service that would deeply serve these needs.

Today, pictured here at “40-something,” my Healthy Meal Delivery service exists to help naturally sculpt lean and healthy bodies. It includes comprehensive healthy and energy building combinations of filling and flavorful gourmet-style, menu-driven meals that are home delivered. As time goes by and I hear more customer testimonials as well as experience my own amazing results, I am convinced that this healthy consumption is even more powerful that I ever imagined it could be.

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Do you struggle with meals? We can help by delivering freshly-prepared, age-defying, body sculpting meals to your door each week. Check it out here: http://thebodysculptress.com/meals.htm.

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Do you want a comprehensive and inexpensive home program that really works?

Pick up your "Live Your Dreams" package, the very one that Diane uses, at the main The Body Sculptress (SM) web site.