My NRT practitioner recommended for me a drink called “Belly Fat Burner.” Here’s the recipe she gave me:

1 tsp ground turmeric

1/2 tsp ground ginger (to taste)

1/2 tsp cinnamon (to taste)

1 TBSP ghee

1/4 cup coconut milk

1 TBSP MCT oil

1/4 tsp organic yacon syrup (to taste)

Boil 8-10 oz water. Remove from heat. Steep spices in water for 5-10 minutes. Add ghee, coconut milk and MCT oil. Pour into a blender and blend until frothy. Drink.

I replaced my usual eggs-and-potatoes breakfast with this drink on Wednesday morning and again on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Because the last step is to whip it up in a blender (food processor for me), it goes down as an extra creamy hot milk shake. Well, that’s the consistency anyway. To me it has only a little bit of sweetness and that’s only because I increased the amount of cinnamon and yacon syrup (pronounced yah-CÓN).

I don’t like this drink. I have to increase the cinnamon by 100% and the yacon by 500% to make it palatable and unless I drink it hot, it feels greasy. I wipe my lips with a paper towel after every sip. Plus, if you want to make this drink a part of your life, you’d better like the taste of coconut. Fortunately, I love coconut, so that part works for me.

On the first day I choked it down and felt hungry within an hour. The second day, with some adjustments, it wasn’t as bad, and I felt hungry within two hours. It’s supposed to hold me until lunchtime, but do these weight loss recipes ever satisfy you like they say they will?

The third and fourth days, as I adjusted the sweetener and got used to the flavor, drinking it got easier, but I still wanted more food within a couple of hours. My NRT practitioner asked me to replace my morning meal with this drink, but I’ve also eaten at least a little bit most days.

Will this Belly Fat Burner fix my fatness? I doubt it. But it’s what else I’ve noticed that’s really interesting.

1. Depression symptoms – the week I started drinking this I’d been struggling with low energy, irritability, despondency, and zombie-staring . After a day of drinking this my mood improved and those symptoms have been gone ever since.
2. Skin – About three days in, my skin started to feel smoother and less dry.
3. Hair – On Saturday it sank in that even my hair was lying down better and feeling less dry. How is that possible? Hair is constructed slowly over months. How could a few days of any behavior make this kind of difference (unless it’s a topical substance you apply to the hair)?
4. Elimination – better. Enough said.
5. Hunger – I usually get hungry for an after-dinner snack around 9:00 p.m. or so. That need has been greatly reduced. I’ve also felt less hunger mid-afternoon. So while the Belly Fat Burner isn’t enough to fill me up for breakfast, it seems to reduce my hunger at other times of day. This is startling.
6. Sugar cravings – the part of me that always wants to nibble on sweets continues to oppose the part that doesn’t want sweets, but the part that doesn’t want sweets feels more powerful right now. (!!)
7. Other tissues – My lips feel different. The inside of my mouth feels slicker. My teeth feel slicker. Every part of my body that I’m aware of feels more moisturized.

This is weird. It’s actually grossing me out. My skin almost feels greasy right now and I don’t like it. Even more than usual, I wish I had a boyfriend who could confirm that my skin, lips and hair feel different from a week ago. I wish I had someone in my life who could enjoy the new smoother me because I’m not happy about this.

I’m also struggling with the reduced snacking. I’ve been using food emotionally for decades and a part of me is perfectly happy that way. This is what happened last night:

Sugar Seeker: Hey, it’s about 9:00 p.m. How about some cookies? 

Peaceful Part: No, thanks. I’m not hungry right now. 

Sugar Seeker: Popcorn? Chocolate-covered almonds?

Peaceful Part: No, I’m good.

Sugar Seeker: Hey! Seriously! It’s time to eat. What does hunger have to do with it?

Peaceful Part: Um…NO.

So I didn’t snack and it was hard. To keep Sugar Seeker from flipping out, I did a lot of blogging because I find writing soothing. It distracted me from whatever was making me want to snack and I got through the night okay.

What I’m saying is that there have been good results and icky, uncomfortable results, so today I didn’t make the drink. If a transformation is taking place here, I want it to happen more slowly.

The NRT practitioner has taught me that the spleen controls the lubrication of tissues, so these effects make sense. The spleen loves root spices like turmeric, cinnamon and ginger and it’s nurtured by the kinds of fats in this recipe. It’s excellent brain food and supports the spleen functions of lubrication, digestion and immune function.

I think of myself as being good with change, but these changes are freaking me out. I need to get used to this disinterest in junk food and new level of greasiness. But as weird as this is, I’ll resume making the drink tomorrow. I told my practitioner I’d stick with it, plus I definitely like how it’s helped my brain. My emotional stability needs all the help it can get, so I’m going to try not to feel freaked out by my skin and lips…

28 Feb 2021

Update 4/22/21: Drinking this for three weeks got my resting metabolism from 2-out-of-10, on a ten-point scale, to 10-out-of-10. And then I was able to stop drinking it, thank dog!

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