Hello readers!

First off, a sincere apology to Sarah, whom I did promise this article up sooner, but with the extended lockdown in Victoria. I hit a mental health wall and my brain refused to compute (more about this in a seperate post) so instead of forcing it to comply, I just took a week off from me as much as I could. (To be honest I think my brain enjoyed the break).

The 28 days of my program actually finished at the end of May and I decided to get some booster weeks in given my momentum this time round was less exciting – I lost 5kg in the month, less than the around 10ish kg I lost last time round, but it is quite well documented that I did have some stress eating bubbles thanks to car issues and moving back into mask land and now lockdown 4.0 which seems to be creeping towards the 2020 version of extensions.

However, I digress. Back to the booster weeks of the Aston Rx program. It essentially follows the same process as the original 28 day program, but you do have a few extra foods added in. The recommendations for supplements remain – probiotics, glucose regulator, tri-fibre etc – but the timings for meals get adjusted based on the intermittent fasting profiles. For example today, which is day 36 of the program, supplements and brekkie have been advised for 10-11am because we are skipping lunch. and then dinner is marked down for 5-6pm. I know there has been some interest in how the meal breakdowns work – I won’t post actual screenshots here as I’m not sure if that is breaching the programs copyrights etc, but bear with me as I talk you through how it works.

On your dashboard, it’s broken into a few areas. There is a informative blog article to start with, explaining the reasoning behind various program concepts, whether it is how insulin resistance affects the body, how intermittent fasting works or why the permissible food list is so. As you scroll down, there is a list of special instructions, effectively the do’s and don’ts of the program. These include ensuring that you leave 5 hours between each meal and that you do not eat after dark. (Which is a bit of a challenge given that it’s dark at 4pm now, thank you Melbourne Winter). You are also not allowed to snack and caffeinated drinks need to consumed before midday. Herbal teas are acceptable all day as is bone broth and they contribute to your daily three litres of fluids. The bottom of the page is your menu planner, broken down into supplements (6-8am), breakfast (6-8am), lunch (12-1pm) and dinner (5-7pm).

An example of the breakfast menu planner would read as thus: 2 eggs (poached, scrambled, fried, boiled), 1/4 small avocado, fresh or dried herbs to taste, 1 and 1/2 C allowed plant foods (and you can hover over this to find out what is allowed) and unprocessed fats as required (butter, EVOO). There is a drop down menu that allows you to change the protein including bacon, ham, haloumi and cottage cheese to name a few. The amount allowed will change when you select your chosen protein and there is no major restriction on how you cook things. For me, I find eggs easier in the morning and I was a fan of omelettes (with a little pure cream through it for lusciousness) filled with mushrooms, capsicum, spanish onion and spinach to get me through the program. I only seasoned with salt (Maldon Sea Salt, no less) and used organic, unsalted butter to cook.

Lunch protein options include the following: 80g cooked tuna / salmon or 100g raw tuna / salmon, same weights for chicken, pork or beef; 1 hard boiled egg; or 30g feta. (These are choices of, not added together). This is paired with 2C of allowed plant foods and then either lemon juice or apple cider vinegar to taste. What I usually do is split the options of a hot and a cold lunch option. For a hot lunch, I would make cauliflower rice (although I am lazy enough to just randomly chop up the bulb rather then grate it) with diced onions, enoki mushrooms, chicken mince, spring onions and shitake mushrooms. Seasoned with salt and cooked in butter. My cold lunch option would be a slaw of red and green cabbage, red onion, celery and spring onions and dressed with the Aston Rx mayo recipe (found on the site) which I would add a little more garlic too for extra bite. For the protein, it would either be a can of tuna or sardines, leftover steak or some roast pork pieces. Both options are easily prepared and I would usually do enough to last a week including dinner if I was being lazy.

Dinner is usually the same protein portions as lunch, but the plant food portions reduce to 1 and 1/2C. My super lazy dinner is often wombok (chinese cabbage) and pork or beef in bone broth. It’s warming, satisfying and super delicious but also light enough that if I eat closer to the ‘end’ of the allotted time, I don’t feel heavy or weighed down.

The other major change to my routine, is moving away from my trusty white chocolate mocha with either soy or oat milk in the morning, and sticking with a long black and pure cream. There is a difficulty in maintaining this when not at home or work as cafes normally use commercial cream which has some glucose in it, but I’m not going to deprive myself too strongly if I want a coffee when I go out. I have found that removing sugar from my diet (in the form of chocolate and candy etc) has made me feel a lot better; less bloated and less weighed down and some of the belly accumulated through sedentary post surgery life has reduced somewhat too. That being said, the occasional ice-cream, whilst frowned upon by the Aston Rx team, is something I won’t say no too.

I hope this has cleared up some of the mystery surrounding how the Aston Rx program works, and even though I tend to rebel in places, I still think it’s a great program and super easy to follow. In the past I did look to options such as Muscle Chef (when I did the F45 challenges) or Lite n Easy, but I don’t really like pre-made food unless I have made it. I like the freedom to make what I want to make, and as I like my own cooking, I can eat the same dish 5 days in a row without any issues. For me, time is something I seem to be eternally short on, so I like tasty, nutritious food that takes very little time to cook, and Aston Rx allows me to do this. Admittedly I have not help up my end of the exercise component due to lockdown and I’m still working on recovering gut issues following a very intense virus/bug I caught a few weeks ago, I still feel bright and alert on this program. I’m looking forward to getting another blood test to compare pre-program makers but I won’t be taking one til about October as that is the timeframe I have marked out for the full weight loss.

For anyone interested in more, have a chat to the team at Aston Rx – they are super friendly and supportive. Also, I am not in any way affiliated with the program nor do I have any financial interests. I write about my experience from my perspective because I know when I was looking for information, I couldn’t find anything that wasn’t sponsored and am hoping a little independant thoughts can help you make a decision as to whether or not you want to proceed.

For now, I’m off to stew out the last (hopefully) two days of lockdown by catching up on work admin. Stay safe, be happy and get vaccinated if you can.

B