For Christmas 2021 I asked for the Second Nature program. Here’s what I think about it so far.
February Update: I believe in this program so much now, that I’ve become an affiliate. So if you’re looking for a Second Nature discount code, enter DANDELION or dandelion (case doesn’t matter) at the checkout. You’ll get 50% off your first month with the program.
Disclaimer: I will earn a small commission from this, but I would never recommend something I don’t believe in.
What is the Second Nature program I hear you ask? Well it’s not a diet program per se, but instead a healthy eating program designed to change habits. The most similar mainstream program is Noom which you might have heard of from its extensive online and social media advertising. They are structured in quite similar ways but Second Nature is less focussed on calorie counting (though I feel this is important to understand to help with portion sizes etc.) and takes a lower carb approach. Anyway this is not a comparison between the two, just how I’ve found it so far. The prices are pretty comparable.
I’m not new to going low carb for a while, it’s just that the habits haven’t stuck. For the first time ever I’ve been unhappy enough about my weight that I feel I really need to do something about it. I thought some accountability was the way to go so looked up all the usual weight loss culprits. I found Second Nature through some extensive Google searching. It definitely wasn’t high up in the Google rankings at that time. I looked at it ages ago, thought it sounded great but decided not to do it because stingy me didn’t want to pay the weekly fee. Fast forward around a year and I’m still unhappy with my weight. I happened to calculate my BMI one day and found I was borderline overweight for my height. Big bummer for me; although note that BMI may not be the most useful measure so consider other things too. On a catch-up with a friend the issue happened to drop into conversation and she mentioned that she used Second Nature and she saw the weight drop consistently off since she started. She showed me her weight loss in graph form, and I love a graph so I was sold! That and she is happier about her eating habits and general fitness attitude too. So still not wanting to invest in myself I asked my dad for the program for Christmas and he very kindly obliged!
So here we are. Officially the program (or ‘course’ as my dad calls is – I love that!) started 3rd January, but because of supermarket timings/holidays I actually started on 31st December, meaning I’m 6 days in when I write this.
What I can say so far is that I am pleasantly surprised by it all. I was a little sceptical on the basis that I’ve done a lot of reading around what we should be eating and why. Firstly I find the app amazing! I think it is one of the best apps I have ever used and I’ve used a good few. Everything is very intuitive and easy to use; the meal planner, the journal, reading daily articles, the trackers etc.
They send you recipe book and handbook; the recipe book doesn’t have everything online, but if you prefer a book then it keeps everyone happy. Personally I didn’t really feel that they added anything but others have mentioned it was useful. I would say that a lot of the information they have given up to this stage can be found online. They just structure it in a way to make sure you read it all. I’ll say more about the recipes in another post, but in general there is a fantastic selection and I’m aiming to stick to their ones for the majority of the program.
I’m glad I don’t have to calorie count because that is so time consuming. I do think it’s worth doing a little bit of research into how many calories it is that you might need and are actually eating, because I do feel that some of the portion sizes are aimed at less active people (like me). My first day was about 1400 calories and that is on the low side… One thing I would say, is I’ve been trying to go by energy levels rather than hunger and apart from one day where we had a late lunch, I’ve not felt tired at all in the same way I would get hangry on my previous eating habits.
Our coach is also very helpful. I was a little concerned that a lot of the messages are a little scripted but as time goes on I can see that this is not the case and she is engaging with everyone and chatting through specific concerns. I would say that 90-100% of the group are women which is quite interesting and looking at the profile pictures around 20-50 years old.
I do find myself in the kitchen a lot, so if you really don’t enjoy cooking, perhaps go for pre-prepared veg as much as possible to cut down on timings. Chopping, cooking, preparing… I find it a little challenging making sure that all the members of the household happy. Both 3 year olds and ultra runners aren’t going to survive on copious salad and vegetables… Therefore the variety of food I have to cook at any one meal is immense! Yes you can pre-prepare some stuff but there’s still a lot of cooking and chopping to be done! The meal planning does help here though, in that my husband gets more meat as I remember to defrost it from the freezer in good time.
One thing it recommends to give up is caffeine, although it goes onto say that one before midday is OK. I have a really good habit already with my coffee so I must admit that I haven’t given it up. I only have 3-4 a week, strictly before midday and I also generally, don’t let myself have one, though not always, when I’m tired. Instead I associate it with doing something that I’d like to have a little boost or a nice relaxing sit down with a TV series or book. That way when I have it, I really appreciate it. And that’s what Second Nature is all about really, it’s retuning the rest of my eating habits so that I eat less, at appropriate times and I then appreciate it more. Emotional eating is one of my biggest problems and it’s that I want to overcome by the end of the 12 weeks.
All in all so far, I would highly recommend the Second Nature program, only time will tell if I manage to stick to it throughout and more importantly, beyond. If you have any questions, pop them below and I’ll do my best to answer.
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