Weigh In Update

Hello everybody.

It's been a few weeks since I have last posted on here.  I wasn't expecting to take a break, it just kind of happened!

So the last we spoke, I was just finishing up my Whole30 and I do have additional comments on that whole experience but I'll have to get to that in another post.

First, a couple of things have changed since the last time and I hope they will only impact me POSITIVELY.

First and foremost, I got engaged!!  It happened a couple days after my last reported weigh-in.  So we've been in a whirlwind of excitement over that.  I kind of lost track of blogging as were being doted on by our friends.  No, we don't have a date set yet but off-handed it's looking like next August or September.  In any case, things just kind of got real on my weight loss efforts.  I've always envisioned myself losing all my weight before I got married.  But you know, that was always in the future.  Well it looks like the future just caught up with me.  GULP ;)

Wanna see my ring??  I didn't want to go with traditional so we went with black AND white diamonds in a non-traditional setting.  I love it!  It's crazy sparkly.  And oh how I love sparkles.

Secondly, I quit weight watchers.  I had been thinking about this one for a while so it wasn't a spontaneous decision.  Over the last 8 months, I have been tracking my food and trying my best to lose weight and what I found was that, for me, the quality of the food completely outweighed how I tracked the food.  And lets face it, money is tight for everyone right now.  It doesn't officially go away until mid-September but I've already switched back over to my LoseIt application.  I was an original member of their premium program so it only costs me $15 a year to continue with that.  So I'll save over $200 for the year with the switch.  I'm in a hard save mode since the engagement so every little bit helps.  Besides, it'll be a nice little experiment.  My theory is that I won't see a major difference in my weight loss.  I think it's the balance of everything that dictates whether I lose weight or not.  I don't think it has anything to do with the method of tracking.  Meaning, if the quality of the food I eat is at its highest (whole foods) and I get in my workouts (ugh) then I'll lose.

In any case, it's nice to change things up.  And it's SUPER nice to get that money back each month.

And thirdly, I signed up for a 5k in November.  It's actually on my birthday!  For the last 3 years I've always done a race and I haven't done one this year so I decided to find one and this one happened to be on my birthday so I signed up!  It's the Hard Rock Cafe 5k and this one is in Hollywood running down the boulevard.  I haven't done a race in Hollywood yet so I thought it would be interesting.  Plus, it's a nice little incentive to keep me working out.  The competitor in me hates Hates HATES to do less than her best.  I started training last week and I'm proud to report that even though I haven't run since last November (my last race actually) I was able to eek out 2 miles without any major difficulty.  

And finally the moment you've been waiting for.  Since my last weigh-in I'm up 5.8 pounds.  And I'm sheepishly smiling as I'm typing this.  We've been in celebratory mode for 2 weeks in a row AND in 3 days we leave for the east coast to see my family.  The original plan had been to do the Whole30 then take a weekend off then hit it again so we'd be prepared for our beach vacation.  However, he had other plans.  He asked me to marry him and so our plan turned into:  do the Whole30 take a weekend off, get engaged, then CELEBRATE CELEBRATE CELEBRATE!!!

In all honesty though, while I don't regret my celebrations because we've just experienced a major life event that DESERVES to be celebrated, I do, however, feel yuck yuck YUCK!!  I tried on some things last night to start mentally packing for the upcoming trip and to my chagrin, things weren't fitting so well.  Especially bathing suits.  I was kind of depressed last night but after getting a good night's sleep I woke up with a little perspective.  I decided to stop stressing, get back on track, let you guys know that I was still alive and enjoy life right now.  Our last celebratory event was Sunday night so my body is still working out some of the gunk that I ingested and I know that I'll easily drop most of those 5 pounds in a few days.  It's just hard to work through the mental aspect of it sometimes.  You know?  So I've been eating lost of vegetables and chicken this week and trying to get in my workouts. 

And that's what's been going on.

I have a lot more to talk about but those will have to be in future posts.  They include:  engagement plans, vacation plans, racing plans, and Whole30 afterthoughts to name a few.

Hope you guys are all excellent!!

Today's Menu:
B:  paleo breakfast casserole
L:  chicken zoodle soup
D:  chicken salad on top of giant salad

can you tell I made a lot of chicken this week?  :)

Weight Watchers Weigh In: Week 47 & Whole30 Results

I haven't been this happy to see a Friday in a looooooong time.

Only because my Whole30 is officially over (HOORAY) and tomorrow is pizza day.

It's the little things in life.

Weigh in:  +/- 0

Awww.  I was hoping for at least a little loss.  I even stuck to the rules of my Whole30 til my weigh-in. 

Oh Well.  I will say one of the best things about doing a Whole30 is that when I would have a weigh-in, I didn't sweat getting on the scale.  At ALL.  Simply because I knew I was eating pretty darn perfectly.  So whatever happened on the scale, I just chalked it up to my body doing it's thing.  I didn't really care because I was already working out and eating as clean as humanly possible so there was nothing left for me to tweak!  

Add that one to the list of good things about the Whole30 folks.

Now what I did this week:

1.  I earned around 18 AP.  I did SIX Jillian Michaels workouts.  And I kicked butt every single time.

2.  I ate 214 points.  WOO HOO!! Finally got that total up to where it should be.

3.  Water is officially my beverage of choice these days!  In fact, I haven't had a soda at all this year.  My boyfriend actually pointed this out to me last night.  I wasn't really a big soda drinker to begin with but still, I think that's excellent.  I'm a big proponent of never drinking soda regardless of your weight.  I have one family member who had a giant soda problem.  He would go through a case of diet dr. pepper like every day or two by himself.  BY HIMSELF.  He never had a weight problem in his life but he now has a neurological disorder that his doctors attribute to over-consumption of artificial sweetener from the soda.  Something to think about.

4.  What I ate?  I ate what I was supposed to eat.  Breakfast casserole with veggies, zucchini noodles with a seafood tomato sauce, steak with veggies and mushrooms, salads, fruit, almonds, ... you get the picture.

And now for my Whole30 results.

I don't really know how to handle my Whole30 results.  The rules of the program are you are NOT supposed to weigh yourself during the entirety of the 30 days.  I obviously didn't do that and continued my weigh-ins as per usual.

That's where this gets tricky.  If I had done the program to their rules, I would have weighed myself on the morning of July 9 (Day 1) and logged that number (which I did) and then waited until the morning of August 8 (Day 31) to weigh myself again (which I also did).  And If I had followed that protocol, the numbers would have told you that I lost 10.2 pounds in 30 days.

But I didn't do that.  I continued my weekly weigh-ins.  I started the Whole30 on Tuesday July 9th but the tricky part is my last "official" weigh-in was Friday, June 28th so while I was blogging I used that last "official" number as the starting number.  So if you go by my blog posts, I lost 3.2 pounds in 30 days.

Which is right?  Both I guess.  It just depends on how you want to look at it.

I know most people are going to try the Whole30 for weight loss even though a lot of the success stories in the book are from people who have body ailments that get healed (tendonitis, skin problems, digestive issues etc.).

I know one of the reasons I wanted to try it was because people were spouting about losing upwards of 15 pounds in 30 days.  How can that NOT be motivating?  In any case, I thought it was important to give you both sets of numbers.

I don't care which one is accurate because I lost inches.  Which, for me, is more important.  A 10 pound weight loss matters not if you don't get smaller in the process.  So because I lost inches, I don't care if it was 10 pounds or 3 pounds, I still lost the same amount of inches.  But don't forget, I was doing my Jillian Michaels challenge at the same time so I was working out too.

Here are the numbers:

Start
Chest: 39.5
 Ribs:   32.5
Waist: 33.5
Hips:    41
Belly Button:  34
Upper Thigh: 22.75
Leg @ Knee: 17
Left Arm: 12.75

End
Chest:  39 
Ribs:   32
Waist: 32
Hips:    40
Belly Button: 33 
Upper Thigh: 22.5
Leg @ Knee: 17
Left Arm: 11.25

Total inches lost:  -6.25"

And here are the pics:

The area I lost the most from is probably the least recognizable from the pics.  It was from my waist and hip area.  My hips aren't as wide now and my waist is a little more defined.  I know I lost inches from that area because I can fit into pants that didn't fit prior.  And the difference in my clothes is pretty amazing so I figured the pictures would definitely reflect that but I don't think it's as noticeable in a picture as it is to me.  No matter.  I'm pleased to be able to add some pieces of clothing to my wardrobe that were previously too tight!

And there you have it folks.  Nothing too major for me.  But as a disclaimer, I've never lost weight quickly or easily.  It takes me longer than an average person to lose weight.  It's something I've had to learn to deal with over the years.  I don't always deal with it very well but I do my best to work with what I have. 

Case and point.  My boyfriend did the Whole30 with me.   We ate the same foods every day except he would add in a couple pieces of fruit or extra protein to pad his calories because he eats more than I do.  We both also workout usually 5 days a week.  However, he does ride his bike to work 5 days a week so in addition to his regular workouts, he automatically gets in the extra cardio from his bike.

His Whole30 results?  He lost 20 pounds.  And he needed to lose maybe five.  When I first heard his results I was, of course, jealous.  But after some time, I decided to use his results as encouragement.  I did the exact same things as he did.  I ate the same food, I got in my workouts.  Therefore, my results were the best that my body could give me.  I was already aware of my body's sluggish metabolism (it's documented somewhere on this blog - I had it tested YEARS ago and they told me it was -18% slower than it should be).  I am acutely aware that I've always had a hard time losing weight so I should be proud of my accomplishments.  I didn't cheat on the diet.  I ate as perfectly as a human being can eat and I did my workouts when I could.  And no, I didn't lose 20 pounds but I lost some and I lost inches.  So, I am very happy with my results.  I mean, hey, I could have not done anything at all and gained weight during that time.

Right?

So, we're taking the weekend off and then I'm going to hit it again.  I'm going to do an almost Whole30 as best I can until we leave for vacation at the end of the month.  And after vacation, we're going to be at it again until I get to where I want to be.  And he is determined to do it with me until I reach my goal.

Isn't he the best??

Have a great weekend!

Whole30: Days 22 - 28 and Final Thoughts

Today is Day #29.

ONE MORE DAY TO GO.

This last week has been the hardest.  I went from feeling amazing to feeling like I'm crawling thru mud.  It's completely due to me not eating enough.  Don't worry - that is all explained in the novel that is below.

But first -

What I ate:

Breakfast:

egg casserole:  spinach, mushroom, onion, sausage, coconut milk (I generally made a variation of a breakfast casserole for each week)

Lunch/Dinner: 

chicken pot pie soup:  chicken, coconut milk, mushroom, peas, carrots, red pepper, onion, garlic, shallots, chicken broth

sirloin steak with mushroom gravy and sweet potato fries

bacon, lettuce and tomato wraps (in lettuce)

plain old scrambled eggs

salad, raw vegetables, chicken, oil and vinegar

apples (BONUS:  apples taste like candy to me now.  CANDY!)


And while I haven't officially completed my Whole30, I'm going to go ahead and give my thoughts on this whole process.

I'll be honest, it was both good and bad.  For me, it was a seesaw of good and bad.  Some days the bad outweighed the good.  And some days it was worth it.  And honestly, it still changes from day to day. 

I'll go over the good first:

1.  How can eating wholesome foods be bad?  Short answer:  it can't.  So 30 days of eating a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, nuts and grassfed meat was pretty awesome.

2.  You get a sort of pride when you eat healthfully.  And when you're doing it 100% of the time for THIRTY days.  Well, they should make a t-shirt for that because I think it's an amazing accomplishment.

3.  In an effort to mix up my menu, I turned to foods I never have cooked before.  Trying new vegetables is always a plus in my book.  I tried kale, parsnips, and turnips to name a few.  Some were more successful than others.

4.  I learned a few things about my eating habits and how I can tweak my pre-Whole30 diet to be a little better.

5.  Consciously cutting out sugar is a good idea.  When you're mindful about not using it, you find that it's really not that big of a deal and you're really better off eating less of it.

6.  My body shrunk.

And now, the bad:

1.  It was, of course, hard. 

2.  I didn't feel I actually needed to do it once it was underway.  In January of this year, I did my elimination diet and this was basically the same thing.  EXCEPT, I only took out gluten.  This took out the entire grains category.  I already know I have problems with gluten, dairy, soy, and a little bit with corn (it makes me have crazy cravings).  And after I learned all of my new food limitations I was already eating with those in mind.  I rarely ate out, got fast food, or ate anything processed.  I had been doing that for 6+ months and I had such a handle on it, this just felt redundant to me.

3.  I felt deprived.  Mainly because of #2.  I already had my food problems identified and I knew how to manage them and eat around them.  I read the book, I understood their reasons for taking out certain foods, but once I got about 3 weeks in, I really, REALLY felt like I didn't fully agree this process was right for me.  I do agree that if I had been an individual who had been eating a Standard American Diet then this shock would be necessary, but I'm not that person.

4.  If I didn't know how to cook and didn't have my previously learned knowledge about cooking dairy free and gluten free especially, I would have been screwed.  I get why people quit.  You HAVE to get creative to keep things interesting.  Unless you're the type of person who likes to eat just a protein and veggie (and believe it or not some do), you'll get bored and you'll get cranky.  Quick.

5.  I also didn't agree with the not using Whole30 approved foods to make fan favorite dishes (you know, dessert, pizza, pancakes etc.).  I feel the best thing I learned from my first elimination diet was just this.  I taught myself how to make dishes that were "normal".  In fact, I tried hard to modify my favorite dishes to keep them in the rotation.   I often felt like an "outcast" because I couldn't eat normal foods.  When people invited me over, I was happy I could bring something that looked and tasted normal - and little did they know it fit into the strict confines of my diet.  Furthermore, this one thing is mainly the reason I have continued eating this way this whole year.  If I want pizza, I have a great grain free crust that really hits the spot.  It has 3 ingredients in it.  And I top it with the best ingredients I can find.  If I hadn't taught myself how to do this, I would rely on getting a gluten free pizza from a restaurant.  And just because something is gluten free does NOT mean it's healthier.  I'm sure it's laden with soybean oil, processed cheese, and all kinds of other not good stuff.

6.  I did not eat enough.  Plain and simple.  This happened to both myself and my boyfriend.  I don't know the science behind it but the last week my energy dropped like a brick.  And I realized, I wasn't averaging enough calories to even have my body function normally.  This is actually both good and bad.  It's good because it shows you how hard it is to overeat on wholesome foods.  They are so filling and much lower in calories than say, a Big Mac.  But at the same time, it was bad because I found it hard to eat ENOUGH calories to even get me through my workouts.  I'll admit this last point is driven by the deprivation I was feeling.  I'm sure I could have stuffed my face with anything to get my calories up, but the bad thing was I didn't want to eat.  At all.  I just started to hate eating food.

and lastly ....

7.  I think it sets you up for a binge.  Especially because of reason #5.  I'm actually afraid of this.  I went to the forums to see how many people were dealing with this and guess what, there are TONS of posts about being afraid.  And rightly so.  Never before this year have I wanted to just throw caution to the wind and eat ... well ... everything.  I've written before about how this year I've had such a handle on my eating.  I don't feel that way right now.  I feel like if I allowed myself, I could have 2 weeks solid of just eating.  I've already made a firm plan for the upcoming weekend to help me with this.  I'm allowing myself pizza.  It's the one thing I think both of us really want so on Saturday (we finish tomorrow) we're having pizza.  And yes, we're both afraid that it'll be like opening up pandora's box.  However, we've agreed that no matter what happens, come Monday, we're starting back up again with our healthy eating habits. 

CONCLUSION: 

While it appears I had mostly negative things to say about this I'm happy I did it, although I probably won't be doing it ever again (as written).  But I've been wanting to do it and I did it.  And most importantly, I finished.  So of course that makes me happy.  I also learned a lot about how my body reacts to certain foods.  What keeps me full longer and what doesn't.  I learned about some new veggies which is awesome.  On the down side, I kind of feel like I messed with a good thing.  I was in a great place with my eating, weight loss and such.  I had a handle on my cravings, on my food choices and my overall relationship with food.  This was truly a learning experience.  And in case you're wondering, yes, I would recommend people try it out.  It may be the thing for you.  And again I would like to stress, while at times it seemed it wasn't for me, I never would have known unless I tried it.  Such a weird thing isn't it?  I'm spouting that It made me unhappy but I'm supremely happy I did it and made it all the way through despite my personal findings.  See what I mean?  Seesaw.

I said I wouldn't be doing this again but only not as written.  I have tried to read up on grains and there is validity to what they say about grains but I've also read the counterarguments.  I, personally, don't think wheat is ever a good idea but there are other whole grains out there that I wouldn't be opposed to eating on occasion (basically rice).  Cutting out gluten permanently for me was honestly not a big deal.  The beans argument also isn't a big one for me.  I actually rarely eat them, however, I won't purposefully not eat something tasty and healthy if it has beans in them.  And dairy.  I don't eat it every day or even once a week.  It's one of those once in awhile things for me and it will continue to be that way for me.  And alcohol, again, I'm not a big drinker but every now and then I like to have a hard apple cider or a glass of wine.  And finally sugar.  There is no argument from me.  Sugar is not good and I definitely will try my best to keep it out as much as possible and choose my battles when it comes to indulging.  As far as processed ingredients, they have been out and will stay out!

So there you have it. 

Again, I encourage everyone to give it a try.  And if you need ideas for recipes give me a shout.  I have a ton.

Also I'll post my before/after pics and measurements once I'm officially done.  Also I have some thoughts on the weight loss aspect of this program because I feel like most people do it for that ;)

Today's Menu:
B:  egg casserole:  spinach, mushroom, onion, sausage, coconut milk
L:  chicken pot pie soup:  chicken, coconut milk, mushroom, peas, carrots, red pepper, onion, garlic, shallots, chicken broth
D:  maybe some sashimi!

Weight Watchers Weigh In: Week 46

Happy Friday one and all.

I come to you with a raging headache that no amount of medication seems to be touching.  However, I am so dedicated to write this blog post I am foraging past the pain and misery in order to bring you this week's weigh in.

Actually, since nothing has worked so far to make it feel better, I figure I might as well do anything and everything I can to distract myself.  And since nothing but a nap is going to help at this juncture (and I'm still at work so that's out of the question), blogging is all I have left.

So blog I shall.

Guess what I woke up to this morning?

Water pouring out of both the sink and dishwasher thus flooding my kitchen and dining room.

Huzzah!

Good times.  Although I was in a mad panic trying to get it to stop, I'm thankful I went out there when I did.  The water was just about to hit items that would have been seriously damaged or ruined had I not intervened.

But we managed to get it all fixed.  Hopefully.  It just made for an exciting Friday morning.  Well, not really exciting.  More like exasperating.

Weigh In:  -0.6 lbs

Weekly Round-up:

1.  I earned around 12 AP.  That is from 4 workouts.  4 awesome workouts.

2.  I ate 172 points.  Now folks this is way too low for me.  I had a rough week with food.  I do this every now and again and I wish I knew why.  I just get in this funk where NO food sounds good.  The thought of food even makes me sick.   I just have to force myself to eat and honestly it's not fun.  Hopefully I'll come out of this soon.

3.  Water.  I love it!

4.  What I ate:  I am still on my Whole30.  Tomorrow is day #26.  I'll be honest, although I'm tickled pink with how I look and feel, I will be more than pleased for this to come to a close.  I'll give my full opinion after it's over but know this:  Day 30 can't come soon enough.  Anyway, some of the items I ate: steak and eggs, chicken pot pie soup, kelp noodles with seafood sauce, and spinach salad with chicken breast. Blackberries, almonds, and sweet potatoes also made an appearance.


And now I have to go workout.  I don't want to, but I'm going to do it anyway :)

today's menu:
B:  coffee + handful of almonds (with a flooding kitchen it was all I could grab)
L:  house salad + chicken
D:  chicken pot pie soup