Re: Meh - Megan

I slept a LOT this weekend. I'm starting to feel more human. Went home sick from work on Friday and took a three and a half hour nap, then got massage therapy. Seems to have helped a bit at least. Cheated all weekend - back on the train today.

Got a bunch of good foods this weekend between costco, the farmer's market, and madison market:

costco:

• another 6lb bag of protein powder, this time CHOCOLATE so i don't have to suffer through the disgusting vanilla anymore
• 18 organic eggs
• turkey breast slices
• bananas 

Broadway farmer's market:

• 3 organic necatrines
• 4 organic apricots
• rainbow chard
• fresh carrots
• 2 of those little boxes of raspberries, 1 blackberry

Madison market:

• 1 organic fuji apple the size of your HEAD
• zucchini

Now if only I could get inspired to cook it.......

Meh. - Megan

Quick blog since I've been MIA -

Basically I was doing great, then I was doing fair, then I was doing poorly.

I need to get it together, this wedding that I am in is on Sept 3.

I started nazi-lockdown diet Aug 1. It's basically legitimate paleo, with finally cutting out the dairy.

Goes a  little something like this:

5 meals, 3 hours apart.

bfast: protein smoothie
snack: protein bar, usually coffee
lunch: meat and veg
snack: fruit and fat
dinner: meat and veg

So this went successfully for the first 3.5 days until last night I started feeling really crappy. Really lethargic. Like, death tired. I got home around 630 and sat on my bed and could have instantly fallen asleep. I was supposed to go do stairs but was too tired.

Sooo...... I bought myself pizza for dinner. and a wee bit of yogurtland. And? I felt a whole hell of a lot better.

The fitness director at work who has his MS in exercise science has talked to me about planned carb cycling days and their benefit for the replacement of glycogen, so I don't feel like it was a failure, really.

Don't think I felt better because of the "junk" food - I think I felt better because I needed more calories and fat added. That being said, I wasn't restricting calories very low, so I have no idea what the deal is. I was still at or above 1500 each of those days.

I had a long thread on my trainer's page between myself, him, and his wife about calories vs workouts - They're also convinced I wasn't eating enough. I'm beginning to resign to the fact that I simply don't think I will ever figure out what my body's trick is, since everyone is different and nothing is working. Either that or I'm just doomed. I'm really tired of fighting this.

Also: Kimmy - 1000 calories?! I am going to drive up there and smack you in the forhead. In the most loving way possible.

I feel crappy again this morning. I might actually be getting sick. Meh.

ADD: Oh yeah, it might be worth mentioning.... I've also been profoundly lethargic for a number of days now. I've been having memory problems for a little over a week. The lethargy... It seems to happen a few times a year, for no reason. Where I'm so deeply tired that I just don't think I'll ever snap out of it. It interferes with workouts, among other things. In the past when I've experienced this I've been questioned about everything from pregnancy to depression to anemia. I should start taking my iron again. Also, memory problems. I can't remember my plans, or what I did a few days prior.

Do you guys ever have this???

Psycho-Nazi-Paleo --Brigitte

It's the first of the month, and a Monday...seems exactly perfect conditions for a whole30 challenge for me!

The last one I tried didn't go as planned; I had an unexpected trip to California thrown at me (to help my best friend clean out her grandmother's house), which led to a frightening amount of crap being eaten. Also in the last few weeks I lived through several double shifts at work, and my husband's birthday meals. OINK.

So. Away I go.

I didn't eat til about 3:30pm today. Drank lots of water to make up for it, but was trying to give my body a chance to flush out whatever amount of junk it could before I started putting healthy stuff back in. Once I got home from errands and yoga, I chopped up the leftovers from last night's ribeye steak, and threw it in a pan along with two scrambled eggs. Topped with avocado, I can definitely say the first meal of the new month was a WIN. Tonight is my small group night, and I know I won't be home around the dinner hour, so I threw together zucchini hummus and a fruit/spinach smoothie to round out the next couple of hours.

Zucchini Hummus (shamelessly copied from www.fastpaleo.com)
2 peeled and cut zucchini
3/4 c. tahini
1/4 c. olive oil
1/2 c. lemon juice
4 cloves garlic
2 1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 Tbsp. ground cumin

Combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender. Blend thoroughly.

My review of above recipe: too salty. Too tahini-y. However...I rarely eat hummus by itself, and once I dipped cherry tomatoes into the mix, I liked it! Next time, though, I will cut back on the salt and tahini.
For my smoothie I combined fresh raspberries, frozen strawberries, a banana, a handful of spinach, and some coconut milk. Scrumptious :)

Now here's the real business.
I am going to post my measurements.
Egads.
This to keep me honest...and vulnerable, and accountable. Because I know I won't want to post the same numbers at the end of the month! This is NOT intended for any reason other than that.

As of August 1st:
Biceps: 11
Waist (at belly button, cuz that's where I'm widest): 33
Hips: 36.5
Rt Thigh (at the widest): 21.75
Rt Calf (at widest): 15

My upper body looks leaned out, muscular. The bottom two-thirds...not so much. Looking at those measurements, I see a recipe for heart disease (not enough difference between waist and hips)! Planning on this month changing these stats a bit.

Onwards and Upwards!

Plateau -- Kimberly

I was at the OB's office again this week and had the chance to spend some time talking about all of this--weight, Paleo, diabetes, you name it--with one of the doctors there who manages gestational diabetic patients. I expressed to her my dedication to kicking these pounds and this diagnosis...but also told her that I was concerned with how slowly it is going (considering that I normally conceive around my baby's first birthday). She was very encouraging. I told her that I am noticing changes still (the jeans I couldn't get on four weeks ago now fit totally normally) but that my scale is reluctant to change. She said two things: One: that losing weight is like quitting smoking---it is a LONG process, and Two: that she suspected I was in starvation mode. Apparently breastfeeding requires about 1000 extra calories a day and I've only been eating about 1000 calories total (ahem). I've been using my milk production as a gauge of whether I need to eat more, and Henry is nursing just fine and getting plenty to eat. But apparently my own body has shut down. Soooo, at doctor's request, I have now joined Weight Watchers, as they have a system to track nutrition for breastfeeding mothers--to monitor that I am getting ENOUGH calories to lose weight--AND I can continue to eat whole foods without caving to that prepackaged "diet food" garbage. Win-win....hopefully!

Pounds lost: 4.5

Yuppie. - Megan

My god.

It's finally happened.

I am a late-twenties Seattle yuppie.

I'm drinking sparkling water with lemon. I'm driving to Whole Foods for maximum variety of organic products. I'm turning up my nose at any produce that isn't labeled organic - and paying MUCH more for it. I'm hassling the guy behind the fish counter for the best wild choices. I'm staring in the condiment aisle to find the darkest bottle of olive oil labeled "cold pressed". I'm spending work hours discussing the best butcher to find local, grass fed beef with my office mate - And I get headaches at the same time every day if I don't have my espresso.

Oi.

(Almost) End of week recap, and true confessions - Megan

I've had a few things swirling around in my brains that I've wanted to share - Hopefully I can remember them all.

First and foremost, I would like to make note of the fact that the longer I do this, the easier it's getting. Yes, there's cheat days, and yes, there's small amounts of sugar usually each day (one or two hard candies, or a square of chocolate) - but for the most part, I feel as if my insulin has regulated itself impressively well after all this time. I think this is my 7th week now, not sure. So that's almost two months.

I'm cutting it because it's long ... follow the link below to read the rest of the post

an experiment -Brigitte

...so, it turns out, when I'm sucking at eating well I don't want to write here.

I forget sometimes this is a journey. (I forget this concept in the broader spectrum of my life, as well.)
It doesn't have to be perfect.
Sigh.
I want to be perfect at it.
I want to be successful.
I want to remember when I can hear the peanut butter m&m's calling my name how wonderful I feel when I ignore them.

This last week has been an interesting one in regards to the diet. I completed a 31 hour fast for the first time in my life last week. I did it for two reasons: my pastor had talked about being able to hear God's voice more clearly during a fast, and I ate total crap the weekend before, and felt the need to cleanse my poor body. And, I loved it! I mean, it totally sucked not eating dinner. Or a snack before bed. The first part of the day was easy; I often get running around so fast that I forget to eat until about 3pm or so. Once that time hit, I had to be conscious about my decision to not eat until the next morning.
Result: I will definitely be doing that again.

Other interesting thing. It was an emotionally turbulent week/weekend for me; whenever my brain gets a little wonky my food choices are the first to go. I either don't eat enough, eat enough but of pure crap, eat 2000 calories at breakfast and then, filled with self-loathing, continue the process the rest of the day...you get the idea.
And yes, I fell into this common trap.
BUT. I made better choices than usual. So: win.
(ooh...and, I didn't get drunk. Double win.)

Today? So far? (Because yesterday no longer matters and tomorrow isn't here yet...)
~Half an avocado for breakfast.
~a handful of nuts and berries for snack.
~(minimally) processed grilled chicken strips and a few pieces of dried fruit for lunch.
~two handfuls dried pineapple (unsweetened, organic) for snack
~hamburger patty, piece of bacon, a few sweet potato "fries" (dollop of ketchup included) for dinner

Definitely need to do better on incorporating more veggies. Need to be better about drinking my water. Reeallly wanting to start lifting again. (where in the heck am I going to find the time for that??!)

The reward??
On Friday, I bought the smallest size jeans I've worn in twelve years.
I guess I can stick with this after all :)

Final thought...
Would anyone be interested in doing a 30-day challenge with me? That's how I started this whole process, and I found I was much more willing to follow the "rules" when there was an "end-date".
Let me know!

To Megan -- Kimberly

I. LOVE. YOU.

I love that I can hear you speaking as I read your words, ha!

My scale is definitely flying all over too, but it's at its lowest point now again. Yay! The winning combination seems to be running, limiting my calories, and sticking to Paleo for the things I am eating. Having some weird side effects though and haven't been able to trace them to anything yet. I've been really dizzy all week, and late last night I felt suddenly like my head was too heavy to hold up on my own anymore. I figured it was just fatigue, and went straight to bed, but then it happened again this afternoon and freaked me out a little bit. I suddenly thought I remembered that dizziness is linked to diabetes (is that true?) so I took my sugar and it was TWO HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN. Good Lord. I have never been that high in my life. Panic! I had just eaten, but only a hamburger patty with a little bit of mustard and homemade relish sprinkled on top...have NO IDEA why it was that high. Is it normally that high right after you eat? I have no idea. I thought my machine was off, checked the calibration and retested: 190's. Yikes. I immediately went to bed (couldn't hold my head up) and within an hour post-eating I was 117. So who knows what that was all about. I have decided to start testing regularly for a while now and see if I need to call the endocrinologist.

Anyway. Crazy dizziness aside, I feel great today, like my body is adjusting nicely to the lower calorie intake.

Pounds lost: 3.5

Sugar Monster - Megan

ooooh it's been a rough one!

This week went okay as far as the Paleo thing goes. Thursday night I had a really hard cardio workout, and for some reason those are the ones that make me ULTRA ravenous - so Friday I wound up with some cookies and a PB&J for dinner. That's what I could find at work, and I didn't have the patience to deal with anything else. Plus I heart PB&J. That was cheat day.

I'm not sure why but i'm definitely craving the sugar more this weekend than I have in a bit. To be honest, I'm certain it's an emotional thing. I did a lot of - eh - "bleeding out the poison" as my friend Bre would say this week. I've managed to keep it under control, mostly.

I guess what I wanted to touch on is a few things - one is : TWO of my friends have now said to me (without provocation) that they've followed my/our suit (not necessarily the Paleo, but increasing the protein) and they've both exclaimed how much better & more satiated they feel. This is exciting.

Secondly is, it's amazing to me how much protein can kick the Sugar Monster's ass. I'll be honest, there were three - yes THREE nights last week that I ate an entire can of tuna for dinner (plus maybe some other stuff) because I knew if I didn't get protein in stat I was going to find an entire cake to eat. Furthermore, I've concocted my own version of a smoothie that keeps me full for - are you ready? - FOUR HOURS. This is guiness-book record breaking, people. Coming from the girl who's always ALWAYS hungry.

Ingredients:
6oz NF yogurt (sorry ladies I know you're not doing dairy...)
1/2c-3/4c frozen fruit - almost always berries
1 scoop whey protein (30g!)
1.5 tsp flax oil
Water/ice




It's amazing, and I've been having it every single day for breakfast - sometimes lunch instead. Toying with following your lead and adding spinach. We'll see. Two problems : one is sometimes I get bored with it but I'm remembering that it keeps me ridiculously happily full, and two .. I am SICK of my flavor of protein powder. Blech. But I  keep at it, because it's a 6lb bag I got at costco last novemeber when I got sick after being deficient of protein and iron and vit d and bla bla bla....

Which brings me to today. Today was rough. Went a little like this:

• 730am: Woke up STARVING, and still tired - but couldn't fall back asleep

• Bitched and moaned to myself about not wanting to go to the gym

• 845am: Went to gym. Did about 45 mins cardio/weights

• Came home - actually didn't make aforementioned smoothie. Since I have more time on the weekends, i'm trying for eggs instead.

• 10am: Scrambled 2 whole eggs, 1 egg white with cherry tomatoes and baby sweet peppers. Ate a stupid amount of cherry tomatoes while cooking.

• 12pm: Got two shots over ice from Starbucks, added my own SF vanilla and almond milk (hello, 50 calorie venti iced latte!)

• 1 or 2 (can't remember) : Lunch with mother. Hungry. Wanted everything garbage-y on the menu. Gave dirty, glaring looks at the 9 year old girl next to me eating mac and cheese with a side of fries. MAC AND CHEESE WITH A SIDE OF FRIES. Sigh. Those were the days. Ordered a seafood louie salad. Lettuce, cuc, tom, peppers, crab, prawns, 1 hardboiled egg. Got it with vinagrette instead of whatever crap it came with. Definitely inhaled that whole thing. Didn't order alcohol. Refused the bread the waitress offered. Go me.

• 330 or so HUNGRY again. Downed 16oz water to see if maybe I was just thirsty (i've been doing AWFUL at keeping hydrated lately)

• Still hungry. 
• 4pm: Began frantically text messaging everyone I knew to find a dinner partner. Nothing was working out.
• 5pm : At this point I was fairly certain I was going to die. Not that I couldn't live off of the fat reserves - no no, surely death was upon me. Here's the clutch - ALL I WANTED was yogurtland. I really gave it very serious consideration. Even though I have an official date with a coworker to go there tomorrow, I was going to go there for dinner tonight too. If not yogurtland, something equally as evil and sugary. The Sugar Monster was about .073 seconds from sinking his fangs into me.

• Decided to hell with waiting to find a dinner partner - began mowing on a bag of turkey jerky. Then 3 cups of leftover salad from dinner last night (i've been doing poorly at my veg intake too, so this is good) - then, I made my own yogurtland: 

6oz nonfat strawb yogurt
1 Tbs carob chips
1/2 C frozen raspberries
1/2 Tbs honey
Chocolate sprinkles


And? I couldn't be happier. This meal was approximately 29g protein - and the Sugar Monster has retreated with his tail between his legs.

GO TEAM PROTEIN.

My goals for this week that somehow I've been slacking on:

• No alcohol until the big pig roast BBQ on Sat (I'm becoming convinced this is a HUGE factor in my non weight loss)
• More water
• More veggies
• Probably should work on less food overall....

Anyhoo - on another note : Kimmy - my scale is not budging either. I finally bought a fabric measurer on friday and took my measurements, because my scale is ALL OVER THE PLACE. It's fluctuating wildly with a span of about 8lbs. I know this is not possible, so I'm trying not to rely on it. That being said, the most prominent/often occuring weight is actually the highest I've weighed in seven years - and would mean i've gained about 5lbs since starting this - and the closest to my weight when I was the biggest I'd been before. I'm also about 6 sizes smaller though. I've got a hell of a lot more muscle now.... STILL not fitting into the clothes that fit me 6-12 mos ago ... but...Brig says I look nothing like I did at the heaviest (?) so... it's getting there, I think. I hope.

Post-4th -- Kimberly

YES to falling off the wagon. But I feel good that I didn't totally overdo it for the holiday...I mean I definitely indulged last weekend, but had plenty of meals and moments that my willpower kicked in and I was able to make decent choices. Like eating a bowl of fruit for breakfast, instead of the french toast/cinnamon rolls/leftover brownies/homemade mochas that were being offered. Ugh.

Scale is still not budging. Which is frustrating because I feel like I am eating very little, and am exercising every couple of days...but I do still feel like I am getting results, so I'm sitting on that for right now. The pair of jeans that I couldn't even button last weekend I am wearing this week with ease. I'm thinking I need to try to hunt down my measurements that I took at the beginning of this experiment and use that as a gauge for a while until my scale wakes up again.

OH, and the biggest eye-opener is realizing just how crazy-many calories I was eating before. I snack enough while I am COOKING the dinner to make up for the actual meal. No wonder all of these baby pounds are sitting around!

Pounds lost: 3.5