Good week

It was a great week in terms of my weight loss journey. On Sunday, I started a new diet which I anticipate will turn into a new lifestyle.

It's been nearly a week and I'm down in my weight! It was so nice stepping on the scale and seeing either weight loss or a steady weight.

I don't want to post my weight until Monday when I do my usual weekly update. Remember that I'm no longer taking whatever I weight on Monday and using that as my weight. I'm averaging my daily weight throughout the week and using that average as my final weight.

To help better track my daily weight, I created an Excel spreadsheet. I'll print out my copy and keep it in the bathroom.

But, I've made the spreadsheet available for you if you want it too! Click here to access it, then from there you can save it to your PC. If you enter your weight into the spreadsheet, it'll calculate your average weight loss each week (after your Sunday weight in).

Sticking with the plan this week wasn't difficult at all. Honestly, it wasn't.

Anything I was craving was eaten during my 60 minute dinner (along with the salad and veggies).

Just to give you an idea of what I ate during my breakfast and lunches during the week, here's what I did:

Breakfast: McDonalds sausage egg mcmuffin (minus the mcmuffin), sausage egg and cheese biscuit (minus the biscuit), Hardees low carb breakfast bowl (I had McD's 4x during the week)

Lunches: Hardees little thickburger with cheeseburger (minus the bun) with tomatoes and mayo plus a salad, Taco Bell taco salad (didn't eat the shell) plus a bean burrito (without the tortilla), Imo's side salad (my absolute favorite salad, YUM!), Red Robin mushroom'n'swiss cheeseburger (without the bun) plus a side salad with Ranch dressing, and Texas RoadHouse pulled pork with green beans and a side salad with french dressing

Dinners were crazy! Here's what I had:

Sunday: Salad with fresh veggies (lettuce, mushrooms, grape tomatoes, cucumber, sunflower seeds, bacos, french dressing and cheese), Fried chicken, 1 Cup steamed spinach, ice cream cookie sandwich

Monday: Chevy's Mexican restaurant- side salad with apple catalina dressing, soft beef taco with sour cream, and 1 Cup of corn tomatilla (I needed to have more veggies, but we were out and I didn't bring any with me). I drank iced tea that I sweetened myself with the pink stuff. We stopped and got ice cream cones on the way home (still within the 60 mins)

Tuesday: Bowling night so I stopped by Imo's on the way to bowling and picked up a side salad (with their house dressing), I brought veggies with me and ate those (mushrooms and cucumber). Then at the alley I got a pretzel with cheese and a beer. No dessert that night b/c I didn't leave the alley until almost 10pm. I normally would have stopped for a dollar cone on the way home, but I was passed my 60 mins.

Wednesday: Work dinner- salad with ranch dressing, salmon and green beans, plus two Suntini martinis (YUM). No dessert.

Thursday: Salad, Pot roast with corn bread muffins, fresh veggies (cucumber and califlower), ice cream sandwich for dessert.

Friday: Salad, califlower, Little Caesar's pizza (one piece of pepperoni) plus 3 breadsticks and 1/2 Dr. Pepper (I couldn't finish the soda, it was too sweet!). For dessert I had 1/2 roll of Thin Mints (girl scout cookies) and a glass of skim milk (I can only have milk during my 60 mins meal which is probably the most difficult thing for me because I LOVE MILK and used to drink 3-4 glasses/day).

See how eating healthy during the day can pay off in the evening? As long as I eat during the 60 minutes, I can eat whatever I want so long as I start with a salad and eat veggies.

I don't plan on writing down everything I eat each day, but I wanted to give you an idea of how I'm doing this.

A few challenges thus far:

• $$- I can't keep eating out for breakfast. It's about $4 to get the breakfast sandwich and the bottle of water. I need to plan ahead and hardboil some eggs and cook some bacon so I can just take that with me in the morning.
• Lunch with Mr. O. I don't mind spending the usual $6 on lunch and getting whatever I used to get, but taking away the bread, but Mr. O doesn't like spending the $6 and then not eating everything. We eat lunch together almost every day (we work in the same building), so it'll be a challenge to find places to eat that aren't expensive but that also cater to a low/no carb meal. I'm also a creater of habit, so I could easily eat the same lunch 2-3 times/week, but Mr. O can't do this. Maybe he and I will need to plan a few days where we don't eat lunch together!!
• No drinking milk at night. Like I said earlier, I'm used to drinking several glasses of milk/day, but milk is something that should only be consumed during the 60 min reward meal. It hasn't been terrible, but out of habit, I tend to grab a glass before I head to bed, so breaking that routine has been a little difficult.
  

Surprisingly, I'm NOT hungry throughout the day. I worried that I would want to snack at work, but I don't keep any snacks there, so I can't cheat plus I'm not hungry throughout the day.

I am a little disappointed that I haven't had more energy. According to the book, people that live this lifestyle almost always get a big energy boost after a few days on the diet. The reduced carbs has positive anti-inflammatory affects on the body and that usually leads to more energy.

I haven't been any more tired, I was just hoping for more energy when I get home after work.

I still haven't been good at taking my Vitamin D! DANG IT! When I don't take it consistently, I feel so down. Sarah left a comment on a previous post suggesting that I take the pills when I take my watch off at night. I might need to do that; although, I usually don't wait until bedtime to take off my watch. I'm pretty inconsistent when it comes to taking it off.

Alright, this post is long enough! Just wanted to share what I've learned this week with you!

I can't wait to weigh this weekend and then post the weight on Monday!!

Day 2

Today is Day 2 of my weight loss strategy (low/no carb breakfast, low/no carb lunch, and whatever I want for dinner in 60 minutes, plus a salad and veggies).

Yesterday I had 2 eggs for breakfast. For lunch I had tuna fish and lots of veggies (pickles, olives, etc). Last night during my 60 min meal, I enjoyed a piece of fried chicken, a 2 cup salad topped with lots of veggies, 3/4 cup spinach, and then an M&M ice cream sandwich for dessert.

Seriously. Who eat fried chicken and ice cream sandwiches on a diet?

I DO!

Although the book cautions against getting too excited over daily weights, I am down 2 lbs since Saturday :)

Today I had a sausage egg mcmuffin (minus the mcmuffin) from McDs. For lunch I had a salad from Imos (those are my favorite). Tonight we went to the local Mexican restaurant where I had a salad, a beef soft taco, and 1/2 of the tomatillo (sweet corn thingy).

Of course, we stopped and got dollar cones for dessert.

I ate everything in exactly 60 minutes.

So far, I can definitely keep up with this. Knowing I can eat whatever I want during dinner makes the light lunch much easier to handle.

The key to dinner is: you MUST eat everything within 60 mins and then NOTHING more the rest of the night. You also have to eat a salad FIRST and then balance your high carbs with an equal amount of veggies. It's not difficult.

I'm really optimistic :)

I'm an addict

If you're like me and you can spend HOURS on the internet *hangs head in shame*, then chances are, you've ended up at a website or a blog and you honestly can't remember how you got there.

You started at Becky's blog, then clicked on a comment that Heather left, now you're at Heather's blog and you click on one of her sidebar blogs that looks interesting and 10 minutes later, you end up at Kevin Bacon's blog (6 degrees of Kevin Bacon..get it?).....

That happened to me earlier today and I'm so glad it did! I somehow ended up at Tara's blog and was very intrigued by her approach to weight loss. Apparently, she's an addict. A Carbohydrate addict. She raves about The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet, a book by Drs. Rachael and Richard Heller.

Always the skeptic (and researcher), I immediately Googled the book and read mixed reviews. Everything from, "I've kept off the weight for 5 years!" to "this diet sucks and I've put back on the weight I had lost."

Basically, it's the same mixed reviews you hear with any diet.

What has me interested in this lifestyle is the science combined with the low-carb approach. When I read this excerpt, I related:

"It seems like an uncontrollable craving at times. I think I should be able to control myself but I don't. I know I'm not weak-willed. I keep most other aspects of my life together- but not my eating."

The approach to this diet is: consume high-protein, low carb meals for breakfast and lunch, then eat whatever you want in a 60-minute period for dinner.

The Basics: Your body releases insulin (the "hunger hormone") a few minutes after you begin eating a meal. How much insulin is released at this time depends on what you ate during your last meal. If you ate a meal higher in carbs, then the first round of insulin release will be significant. The second round of insulin your body releases occurs about 90 minutes after your meal and the amount released is based on what you ate during the meal. Again, if you consumed a meal higher in carbs, then the second release of insulin will be significant. An entire biological process occurs with insulin, glucose, etc but the end result is this: "an excess of insulin remains in the bloodstream. As insulin levels fail to drop, the brain levels of serotonin fail to rise..." and the body thinks its hungry again.

Here's how it works: By eating high-protein, low-carb meals for breakfast and lunch, your pancreas releases the right amount of insulin. When you eat your Reward Meal (whatever you want at dinner) and you eat it within 60 minutes, then the first round of insulin your body releases will be appropriate (based on what you ate earlier in the day) and because you're done eating in 60 minutes, the second round of insulin released will be minimal and you won't experience the sugar drop that most people feel after eating a high carb meal.

Interesting, huh?

I've read about 1/2 of the book and I'm very curious and will probably take this approach.

I've studied insulin resistance and the science is the same. Too many of the complex carbs results in increased insulin being released. Too much insulin circulating in the blood over time makes your body less resistant to it and then the problems begin.

As excited as I am about this, I approach it with caution. Afterall, it's a "diet" that should develop into a lifestyle, but aren't all diets like that??

We'll see!

The Strategy Room

As most people do, I've studied many weight loss strategies.

While on vacation, I went to Borders, grabbed a few weight loss books and parked myself in a comfy chair for a few hours. I read part of the "21 Pounds in 21 Days." I didn't realize it at the time, but the author is Dr. Roni, who has been on Howard Stern several times. She's Robin's colon cleansing doctor. Needless to say, it was a very interesting read.

I am NOT shoving something up *that* end, but in reading what Dr. Roni has to say about detoxing/colon cleansing, she made a lot of sense. (Side note: She claims that most people have several pounds of poop waste collecting in their colon. SEVERAL POUNDS. Just sitting in there. Being Disgusting. And Stinky.)

The other book I picked up was The Core Diet. I had previously taken the hormonal profile and according to this book, my adrenals need my attention first. According to the Women-to-Women website:

The basic task of your adrenal glands is to rush all your body’s resources into "fight or flight" mode by increasing production of adrenaline and other hormones. When healthy, your adrenals can instantly increase your heart rate and blood pressure, release your energy stores for immediate use, slow your digestion and other secondary functions, and sharpen your senses.

My profile indicates that my adrenals may be overworked and therefore, negatively affecting my cortisol levels:

Sustained high cortisol levels destroy healthy muscle and bone, slow down healing and normal cell regeneration, co-opt biochemicals needed to make other vital hormones, impair digestion, metabolism and mental function, interfere with healthy endocrine function; and weaken your immune system.

I've also been a follower (and HUGE fan) of Dr. Bill Davis, a Wisconsin Cardiologist. He spends so much time educating readers about various factors that contribute to heart disease and he's one in a million. Literally. He's one of the good guys in medicine. He's not paid big bucks by drug companies to pimp their product. He's a genuine, very down-to-earth, and reasonable man and a fantastic member of the medical community.

Dr. Davis is a true believer in eliminating wheat products from the diet. He explains the wheat addiction cycle:

But wheat addicts immediately know who they are. They are the ones who can't resist the warm dinner rolls served at the Italian restaurant, need to include something made of wheat at every meal, and crave it every 2 hours (matching the cycle of blood sugar peaks and valleys, the "valley" triggering the craving). When they stop the flow of immediately-released glucose that comes from wheat (with blood sugar peaks that occur higher and faster than table sugar), irresistible cravings kick in. Then watch out: They'll bite your hand off if you reach for that roll before they do.

Break the cycle and the body is confused: Where's the sugar? The body is accustomed to receiving a constant flow of easily-digested sugars.

Once the constant influx of sugars ceases, it takes 5-7 days for metabolism to shift towards fat mobilization as a source of energy. But along with fat mobilization comes a shrinking tummy, reducing the characteristic wheat belly.

When you consume too much wheat (or any wheat according to Dr. Davis), your body gets all of its energy from the constant supply of wheat. When this happens, you body doesn't ever burn stored fat for energy. Excess "energy" that your body doesn't need then gets stored as fat and the cycle persists.

Eliminate wheat and after a few days, your body adjusts and begins obtaining it's energy from your fat storage.

Followers of Dr. Davis comment and attest to their success stories when they completely eliminated wheat from their diets.

He also recommends intermittent fasting in the form of significant caloric reduction for a period of 3 days by eating only vegetables. He has a great post on how to spice up the diet during these few days (dip veggies in hummus, salsa, bean dip, etc). One can expect to lose about 1/2 lb/day while "fasting."

In addition, there is the ever present argument about which physical activities are best for weight loss: cardio vs. weight training. Cardio is very beneficial for your heart, but weight training helps sustain long term weight loss because it increases your metabolism by creating more muscle.

Wheat or no wheat. Veggies. Fasting. Hormone imbalances. Cardio vs. weight training. Small but continuous meal eating. THERE'S SO MUCH TO THINK ABOUT.

Whats my strategy?

I'm not sure. That's what I'm figuring out.