Changes

Changes I’ve noticed since going Primal:
-My hair doesn’t fall out in clumps anymore, no split ends either.
-Virtually no gas. I always thought it was the vegg that gave me gas, not the grains!
-Less hungry
-A lot more energy
-Weight is coming off easily and steadily. I’m at 149.4 today…I’m fasting, so I’ll be less tomorrow. Yay!

 

I’ve gone Primal

I’ve been gettin’ my Grok on these past two weeks and lovin’ it. I am now at 153.6 lbs and ready to lose some more!
I’m in the middle of packing and getting ready to move, so my workouts have been erratic.  I did burpees and couldn’t even do the full 4 minutes (Tabata sprints)  because I thought I was going to throw up.

Awesome.

 

Calories, calories!

I am pretty surprised how low my calories are for today. I swear that I am not trying to starve myself…I’m just not hungry! I even feel guilty for not eating enough.

Wait….wtf?!

I didn’t even know that was possible! I’ve spent so many years of my life feeling guilty for pigging out and now I feel guilty for not eating the appropriate number of calories some smart person(s) figured out that I was supposed to eat.

Crazy.

I had moments of light hunger, but when I’m working I can’t just get up and get something to eat, I have to wait for my break. When my break comes, I’m not hungry. I’ve eaten half my usual dinner, I’m at 1136. I even worked out for a half hour today.

What I find very interesting, is that I once believed that I HAD to eat. That I could not survive without food. If I did not eat I could not workout, I wouldn’t have the energy, I’d get cranky, I’d get the shakes (not anymore since I don’t eat very many carbs). Now that I have been fasting regularly, I see that none of that is true. In fact, I have quite a bit of energy without eating, I can do my workouts, play with my son, go grocery shopping without going crazy….food has lost it’s control over me (except for Ben & Jerry’s, dark chocolate, anything chocolate, pizza, fresh baked bread loaded with butter and strawberry jam, the real fruit kind, not the garbage loaded with sugar, empanaditas, sweet potato quesadillas (mmm), pizza, pizza, pizzaaaaaaa……).

Ok, so I don’t have total control over food. I’m still a bit obsessive sometimes. I’d like to just fucking relax and not worry about what I eat. Which I do sometimes, but usually I get obsessive over my fat rolls and how they’re not ever gonna disappear if I eat this one bar of chocolate. *rme* I catch myself doing this shit all the time and it’s a bad habit that I’m trying to break. I keep thinking that if I never cheat and eat perfect that I’ll miraculously wake up in the morning with all my fat gone. It’s amazing how strong our beliefs are. The most difficult part is pinning them down. Once you’ve caught it, it’s easier to catch each time that belief comes up.

I’ve eaten clean for months at a time, tried different diets, exercised like a fiend lifting and cardio, cheated only on weekends, no matter what my ‘method’ is, I always lose the same amount of weight. It’s gonna come off when it wants to and that’s that. It’s coming off steadily, 1-2 lbs a week and you’d think I’d be happy with that.

I think I read too much Cosmo as a teenager and it’s warped my brain.

I’m looking for a nice healthy attitude about food. I am quite happy with intermittent fasting, I don’t have to worry about what time I have to workout in the morning because I have to eat so many hours before working out and blah, blah, blah.

I wonder what it will be like when I reach my goal of 135 lbs. Will I be satisfied? Will I keep going, obsessed until I’m so lean and muscle-y that you could bounce tennis balls off my tight, flat stomach?

I really liked the Leangains’ post from March 30th, The Secret Benefit of Being Lean. Like Martin says, it’s an itch that needs to be scratched, and once you’re there, you’ve got a lot of time on your hands!

I don’t know that I want to be super lean, I just want to be able to not have to suck in my gut all the time. It will be such a relief! For as long as I can remember I’ve always been self conscious about my stomach….maybe if I had been working my TVA’s I wouldn’t have felt so self conscious. In fact, I only found out a few months ago that I had TVA’s. I thought all I had were abs!

 

Energy

Yesterday I felt like I had no energy! I felt unusually hungry when I got up that morning and felt like I was gonna starve. In fact, I was a tad jittery, which usually signals a carb withdrawal. Weird. My workout was cardio and it was pretty pathetic, I did 20 mins including stretching. Usually it’s 45 minutes including stretching.

Today I feel pretty normal, I don’t break my fast until about noon. I feel slight hunger here and there, but if I drink some water the hunger will go away. This is only my 2nd week fasting this long. I started out fasting for 14 hours, and now I’m usually at 17 or 18, depending on when I ate dinner the night before. I don’t usually go past noon to break my fast. No particular reason, it’s just a rule I’ve given myself. Some days I feel as though I could keep on fasting, even after my workouts, but I have this belief that I have to eat. I don’t really. I’ve got quite a bit of fat on me still so I could definitely survive! ;0) I used my hubby’s fat caliper (why he needs it, I dunno, he’s got almost no fat at all) and figured I’m about 28%. *sigh*

Today I’m working my shoulders and arms, one of my favorites. In fact, I love lifting weights. I hate cardio, it feels so pointless to me.

 

Changes

Tim’s plan was a great start, but just not for me right now. My body seems to not lose weight when I eat carbs. I am still tweaking my diet, but it is very low carb, under 30g a day, I have added a 1/2 hour workout 6 days a week and I have also included intermittent fasting, 16-20 hours a day.

My calorie intake is a tad low I think and it’s something I’m working on. Also, I feel that my nutrient intake is lacking as well, a work in progress. This week I plan to head on over to FitDay and plan out my meals to include more raw foods and/or fermented foods. As of now, it’s all cooked.

As of Saturday April 3rd I was 157.2 lbs. I’ve tried to wean myself from the obsession to stand on the scale every morning. I was so excited to be losing weight I wanted to check every day, but then it got ugly and I started freaking out if I didn’t lose weight every day. I know, I know….I went totally nuts and thought I lived in some weird alternate universe where I could lose weight by willing it.

Anyway, I’m feeling better now (no rubber room with rats..rats, I hate rats) and generally feel content with checking the scale once a week.

My goals remain the same as they ever were: lose fat, get strong.

 

Un Stuck

Ok, I got stuck because I wasn’t eating enough. With my new work schedule I was eating only 2 meals a day with 1 snack. As soon as I added a 3rd meal the weight started to come back off. Although, I cheated last night with a couple beers and half a lindt chocolate bar…mmmm. I’ll skip my regular cheat day on Saturday, I want to catch up from last week!

 

Stuck

Dang it, I’m stuck! I’m at 166 today, Friday I was 165. I stayed 165 all last week and i haven’t budged!

Well, I read in Tims’ blog that other women have had this issue and eventually it’ll drop off. It’s just frustrating though…I want it NOW!!!!! Veruca Salt said it!

 

Happy New Year!!!! Round 2, Day 1

Well, over the holidays I didn’t have very much self control with all that yummy junk around, the good news is that I didn’t gain anything and I’m still at 169.5 lbs. Today is Day 1 of Round 2 and I’m looking forward to more tangible successes.

I’ve been a stay at home Mom for quite some time, but starting the 4th I’m back to work full time. *sigh* I’m not looking forward to it really. It’ll be great to have more money and to get that stupid credit card paid off and out of the way finally, but I’ll miss my little guy, my hubby and my free time.

I’ve set up a schedule for myself that includes a 1/2 hr of workouts 3x’s a week…I’m notorious for starting and never completing workout programs & schedules, so we’ll see how it goes. I’ll just keep on truckin’. My first workout day is Sunday and I’ve got to get my office cleaned out so I can actually workout in it!

 

Day 23

I had a bit of a hiccup …I had to take the car into the shop (ouch!$) so was unable to buy what I needed to follow the diet. Dang it, I was at 168!! So I had to eat what was in my pantry…rice. Ah well. This week I’m back and I’m at 169.5 and looking forward to a steady weight loss of 1/2 a pound a day, by Saturday I should be at 167. That will leave me with 22lbs left till my goal of 145. After that I’ll set a new goal which includes HIT workouts twice a week.

This  hasn’t been the most successful month, but it isn’t the diet’s fault, the diet works beautifully as long as it is followed!!! Life just got in the way when the going got good. Ah well, keep on truckin’.

 

Day 16

Today is day 16 and once I got it together, the diet went quite well. Here’s a summary of the past two weeks:

• On Saturday, Day 14, I came in at 170.
• My first week wasn’t  true to Tim’s advice, so I suppose I should just toss it out the window, but this is after all, myexperiment in food.
• Wednesday, Nov. 25th (Day 4) was when I discovered my scale was wacky if I put it on the rug, so who knows what I really weighed, but when I tested it out a couple times on the tile I was coming in at 172.
• I’ve still been weighing myself every day out of curiosity and I noticed that when I cut out my protein shake altogether and ate a light dinner: a chicken leg and plenty of veg, without the beans, my weight started to drop. I think that unless I plan to do some sort of cardio in the morning I shouldn’t bother with the night- time carbs. Also, even though I just used water instead of milk with my protein shake, there was something in that mix that was holding up the weight loss.
• I’ve been eating 1 oz of cheese with breakfast every morning and still losing weight. Yay!
• I haven’t really been working out aside from my usual stuff: chasing and carrying my 26lb toddler around, running up and down the stairs, cooking, cleaning and a little yoga here and there.

So, finally my first week was just screwing around and nothing came of it. My second week I screwed around a bit less and the 2nd half of that week I really cleaned it up and actually lost some weight. This morning I weighed in at 169.5 and yesterday was my cheat day. Sweet!