Bring on the Bacon & Weigh-In

Weight:  238.2 lb

Week Loss:  -3.8 lb

Total Loss:  -36.8 lb

Hello 230's!! How I've missed you.  The first week of The Eat Clean Diet was GREAT. I felt so good. I was eating a lot and wasn't hungry.  Everything was clean, healthy and filling.   I am super happy with my weigh-in. 

I had planned on having a Cheat Meal on Saturday afternoon.  But the thing about Cheat Meals is that they are slippery little suckers...and this cheat lunch spilled over into dinner...and then over to the next day.  Once I eat healthy I can ride that train for a long time.  But once I break the seal with one cannoli it turns into three with an ice cream cone on the side.  

I am not willing to give up my cheat meal. Sorry no.  Can't do it.  And I don't think I should. It's something I must learn to do. Because I am not going to go through my whole life never having a treat.  And I need to learn how to do it without wrecking my whole weekend and falling flat on my face.  Speaking of falling flat on my face, at least it was face first into THIS....

Holy Trans Fat, Batman!!   Yes, that is a BACON SUNDAE.  I felt like they should have ID'd me or something before selling it to me.  This thing was amazing.  Bacon and Carmel and Fudge, Oh My! Why do people do drugs when Burger King will give you one of these suckers for $2.59??  I guess even crack heads want to look good in a bikini. I certainly can't blame them. 

I am more determined than ever this week.  This is it. This is going to work.  I can feel it.  It's been a rough road but it will be worth every drop of sweat and tears.

"The steeper the mountain, the harder the climb, the better the view at the finishing line."  --Unknown.

Eat Clean

Remember my last post where I was sure I found the best diet ever?  Yeah, scratch that.  What was I thinking? I am not a calorie counter. Never was. Probably never will be.  I felt scared and nervous and anxiety-ridden the whole time.  It didn't mesh. It didn't feel right.

That's why I was super excited when I got an email from my local library that the book I had requested was on hold and waiting for me.  On a previous post, I received a lot of great feedback about a book called The Eat Clean Diet by Tosca Reno.  The book itself was really nice to read with nice glossy pages and lots of color. (Is it sad that i don't read diet books or cookbooks with dull pages and no pictures?)  It's pretty short too.  It includes a 2 week sample menu and some recipes.  But most importantly, it included a lot of info that made me say, "Yes! That is SO true."  Eating clean is the way to go. 

There is no fluff to it.  No gimmicky promises.  This is a long haul, long term, long lasting way of eating.  It's all about giving your body what it needs to perform at its best.  There is no calorie counting, but makes you aware of calories.  You eat 5-6 times a day and each meal ends up being around 300 calories.  You build your meals with 1 complex carb, 1 lean protein and veggies.  A serving of protein is the size of your palm and a serving of carbs is the size of your fist.  Easy. Then of course there is the obvious emphasis on exercise (including 3-4 weight lifting sessions) and drinking at least 64 oz of water. 

There were certain things that just stood out as TRUE...

• All calories are NOT created equal. 

• Getting enough sleep is just as important as getting enough exercise.

• Weight training is a MUST.

• Crap food tastes great because it is MANUFACTURED to taste great.  Clean food will not give you the same "party in your mouth" experience.  But after a while you will enjoy it more and not crave the crap as much.

• The biggest meals should be at the beginning of the day and the lightest at the end.

I started my day this morning with weights (upper body). All my food is packed in my cooler.

Breakfast:  Smoothie (pineapple, unsweetened coconut milk, chia seeds, rolled oats, plain greek yogurt) and a hard boiled egg. 
Snack1:  Apple with 1 T natural peanut butter 
Lunch:  Salad (chicken breast, baby spinach, artichoke hearts, asparagus, cukes, carrots, 1 t olive oil, 1 T apple cider vinegar)
Snack2:  Tuna in a mini whole wheat pita with green beans on the side.
Dinner: Salmon with 1/2 sweet potato and steamed broccoli
Snack 3: orange with 1/2 c unsweetened kefir


My exercise plan is to do weights 3 days a week and 45 minutes of cardio 3 days a week.  I feel so good about this.  I am not expecting huge numbers to be falling off the scale.  But this is something I can do long term.  I'm done losing 10 pounds fast and then gaining it back just as quick. Let's do this RIGHT. 

Weigh-In:  242 lb
Waist: 45 inches

Walk in the Woods

Even though I was rebelling against anything healthy or active, my friend (who is having weight-loss surgery a week from tomorrow) made me go for a walk with her.  Ugh.. being supportive can be such a drag.

We live around the block from each other so she picked me up. Then about 10 seconds after getting on to the main road she turned into this obscure little street that I have driven by a zillion times and never noticed.  I was just about to ask her where she was taking me when I saw this....

What?  A trail? Right around the block from me?  Sweet!!

We started walking and I was shocked by how absolutely awesome this place is.

There are waterfalls.  And a creek. 

These huge weird mushrooms grow off the trees.

Mmm....grilled portabellas anyone??

This bridge was so nice..in the middle of the woods.

We took a break to enjoy all the "artwork"...

Angst-ey teens.....so deep...

I absolutely loved how odd everything was...like these stairs.

And this narrow bridge.

It felt so nice to be outside. Walking. What a cool discovery!  I'm so glad I ventured out.

Shiny and New

My library trip proved very fruitful.  I went through the entire Health/Fitness section of my public library.  (Holy Fad Diets, Batman!)  These were the ones I decided were worth a closer look.

I actually went through all of these books and read two of them cover to cover.  A few people commented on my last post about The Eat-Clean Diet by Tosca Reno.  My library didn't have it in stock so I had to order it. I can't wait to check it out.

I truly believe calorie counting is the way to go.  I have never ever counted calories.  It terrifies me. Seems so scary.  But with MyFitnessPal it is worth a try.  That website is the best.  I decided to do the Curves Eating Plan.  This is the low down:

• 3 phases:  1 Week=1200 calories, 3 Weeks=1500 calories, 2 Weeks=2000 calories  (The idea is to diet for a month and maintain for 2 weeks. Keeps your metabolism up and teaches you how to maintain.)
• Pick either High Carb or High Protein.  (I decided to start off with the high carb.  This means 137 g of carbs and 91 grams of protein each day.)
• Exercise at least 30 minutes 5 days a week.  (My workout schedule is 45 minutes of cardio 3 times a week and 45 minutes of weights 2 times a week.)

I know this will work.  It will be a major challenge though.  I was getting about 1200 calories on the Fat Smash Diet but this is different because I need to spread my out my calories like this..

• Breakfast: 200 cal
• 2 Snacks: 100 cal each
• Lunch/Dinner:  400 cal each

 I also have to make sure that I get the right ratio of fat/protein/carb.  If it weren't for MyFitnessPal I wouldn't stand a chance! It took me a while to figure it all out but in the end I am happy with what I came up with.  (Don't I sound all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.  Ah...the hope that comes with a new diet.)

I made a bunch of steel cut oats with blueberries for breakfast.

Don't they look adorable in these mason jars?? I got the idea from this "Refrigerator Oatmeal" recipe which I will post all about later.

I tried to make my lunch super yummy and veggie packed.

Pretty, huh?

One of my snacks is a smoothie with plain unsweetened kefir and mango.  I put the kefir and mango in the little canister and brought it to work like that.  I'm leaving the blender base in the break room for super easy convenient snacks!

I need to find something that I can stick to long term.  And I need to learn how to maintain.  I really hope I found something here!! Cheer me on :-)

Just a quick hair photo... made up this weird bun. With the summer heat I need my hair off my face!
 
Kinda cool!

Fairy Tales and 5K's

Breaking up with Scale was a bad idea. These last few weeks without him have been horrible.  Oh, sure, at first it was fun and liberating.  But it turns out he was right about everything.  This weekend I went crawling back.  Sure he had some nasty things to say... hello 240's....but we are going to work through things together. 

The truth is, I don't believe I can will do this.  I just don't.  I love love love eating food.  Logically I don't understand it. What is so wonderful about taking an item mashing it between your teeth and swallowing it?  Why is that action my very favorite thing in the WORLD to do?  Yes, it often tastes good.  But a lot of the times that's not even the case.  I can't make sense of it.  I work so very very hard.  And then I throw it all away Every.Single.Time.  I really think this whole thing is a bunch of crap.  Pointless. Ridiculous. 

I have done it all and I don't want to do any of it again.  I know that the Fat Smash Diet really works.  Works WONDERS.  I just did it recently and I don't flippin' wana do it again.  Not now.  I decided to track calories on MyFitnessPal....but holy crap people! 1200 calories is really hard to stay at.  I am going to the library tonight to (once again) go through all the diet books on the shelves.  If any one has tried anything that has worked or can recommend anything I would love some advice.  I need something I haven't tried before.  Only something shiny and new will work when I am feeling like this.

Really I know that my problem isn't on my plate...it's in my brain.  I binge and overeat.  I don't know why.  Maybe I wasn't held enough as a baby...or maybe too much... or maybe I just like having a party in my mouth.  I don't know what it is but I need to fix it and I feel like I can't do it on my own.  I looked up Over Eaters Anonymous.  It's a 12 step program.  How's that for "bottom of the barrell"??  I found some in my area but none are at times that I can make. 

Maybe I should just try duct tape......

It's sad to think that this past month I really was on the ball with exercise and yet still gained 5 pounds.  It makes me sick to think that if I could have just dragged my fat butt away from the ice cream aisle that I could be down to my mini goal of 225 pounds.  Exercise does not compensate for the binge. I weighed in at 240.8 pounds.

I'm not sorry that I kept up my exercise though.  I do feel fitter, if not thinner.  In fact, I walked 2 5K's in May.  The first one was not timed...but the second one was.  The last 5K I walked was in 2010 and my time was 01:01:22.  This year my time was 55:58.  I shaved over 5 minutes off my time!! I really pushed myself.  Yes, I know that's still really slow, but it averages to about 3.3 mph and that is really great for ME.

I had some cute stinkin' hair for the 5K too!! And that always helps.

They both look this this from the front.

Just a side dutch braid.



This one is a dutch braid with a bun.



And this one is a dutch braid wound back and forth across my head.

I hope when I go scavenging for diet books I find something that cons me into believing again.  Because it's great to believe.  Even if it's in Fairy Tales.  Cuz that Fairy Tale where I can actually get control of my eating has one very Happily Ever After ending.