I was surprised

 Part of the 75 Hard challenge is to set up a diet plan for yourself and follow it religiously.   The term diet does not mean a diet in the negative weight loss connotation.  The rule to set up a diet plan is just saying to set up an eating plan for the time frame.   It does not have to be a plan that will encourage your body to lose weight.  It could be something as simple as limiting how much soda a person drinks, or cutting alcohol or going sugar free.  Anything!  I have one follower on my youtube channel that decided to do the 75 hard along with me and for her diet plan she simply made the rule that she has to track her food each and every day.  It doesn't matter WHAT she eats, she just has to track it. Sure she is trying to keep it under a certain caloric goal, but her plan is to TRACK.    For me though, I decided to set up a diet plan that would 'encourage' my body to lose weight.

I decided that my goal would be to stay under 1500 calories!   I could do that, no problem right?    Well let me tell you, at the beginning it was tight!  But I quickly settled down and got used to eating the fewer calories.  And the first week or so I lost big....I lost 5.5 pounds!   And then I hit a week where I actually gained! I gained 1.5 pounds!  What in the world?   I was working out, religiously.  I was drinking my water, religiously.   I was keeping my calories under 1500, religiously!  There should NOT have been a gain!  Yet, I was staring at the scales and seeing a gain!

I knew that something was dreadfully wrong so I looked deep and here is what I found.

1. I remembered that I typically do not lose at the 1500 calorie mark.   I tend to lose at 1400 and below but my calorie count that week was always JUST below the 1500 mark!  Yes, that seems low.  HOWEVER, I do not weigh my food all the time.  I do it here and there to 'recalibrate' my portion sizes.  But I don't do it all the time.  So I look at it as the lower caloric goal is my trade off for not having to be anal and weigh everything!  Plus, I share my food with pets.   Just this morning I had a banana and some peanut butter.   The dog ate a bite or two of banana and some of the peanut butter and the bird got a slice of banana and some peanut butter!    So my figures would be all skewed should I be weighing my food.  So I just figured out through trial and error where my calories need to be for my non weighed and animal shared meals.   (And man, now I feel guilty because I didn't give the crabs anything!) 

2.  Carbs.  I love them!  OH my word to I love my carbs!   However, I have long known that my body does not love carbs....or rather maybe my body loves carbs a little too much and those carbs stick with me! I have found that I can handle one serving of a complex carb each day.  That means ONE serving of a bread or potato.   Not two...not three.    In that week where I gained 1.5 pounds I was eating an undue amount of carbs.   Ok, maybe undue amount was a bit overdramatic, but I was eating  more than the one serving that my body 'allows.'    

So I was totally able to identify what the problem was that had led me to gaining weight that week and I vowed to make the changes for the upcoming week.  However.......

Yeah, the changes didn't happen.  I was drawn to the kitchen where I made homemade bread.  Then I made homemade English muffins.   And if that wasn't enough I then made homemade pretzels!  Of course I ate some of my baked goods!  Of course I did!   I was out of control!   Until I realized what was happening.  I was drowning in grief.   I was coming up on the first  anniversary of my mom's  death and subconsciously I had sought out comfort.  (You can read how I managed the week after her death and see a picture of my mama here.)  Comfort for me is baking.  Comfort for me is carbs.  In my grief as the anniversary approached, I was drowning myself in both.

I am proud to say that as soon as I realized what I was doing that I was able to turn it around.  The baking and carb-fests ended and I got back to the basics.    I weigh myself daily and I had seen the scales slide upward during those few days of grief laden indulgence.   I HOPED to turn it around enough to show a maintain on the scales for my official weigh in day (which is currently set at Wednesday).

I was SO surprised to step on the scale on Wednesday morning.  I didn't maintain.    But I didn't gain!   I actually LOST weight!   I lost 3.1 pounds!  I lost enough weight that I recouped my 1.5 pound gain from my official weigh in the week before AND added another 1.6 pounds to that loss!   GO me.

So a few things that I learned from this:

1.   The calorie thing that I talked about earlier in this post really does hold true.

2.  Carbs are the devil....for my body.  But thank heavens I CAN indulge once a day!

3.  Diet soda.........I'm not sure if this is a coincidence or not....BUT, when I turned things I accidentally stopped drinking my diet soda in the evenings.   My plan has been to drink water during the day...and if I am done with my required amount of water at the end of the day then I can indulge in a glass of diet soda.  When I turned the ship around in terms of my eating, I somehow just stopped getting my glass of soda.  IT was accidental really.  I was just not finishing my required (for the 75 Hard challenge) water early enough to allow myself that glass of diet soda.  Could the diet soda be part of that amazing weight loss (because seriously....  I officially lost 3.1 pounds, but in reality I had gained an extra pound before I turned it around....a pound that never was counted in an official weigh in.   WE are talking substantial weight loss in just a few days.  Coincidental?   I am not sure....but stay tuned, I will be keeping an eye of it!  

Little bit of this and a little bit of that

Ok, I'm not quite ready to be up and celebrating yet....but I realized this morning that my heel (plantars fasciitis) has not bothered me at all this week.  I even did zumba on Monday night without it taped.  I wore heels to work yesterday.  I have done everything wrong this week and I've been pretty good.   SHhhhhhhh  like I said, I'm not quite ready to celebrate, but dare I hope that things are looking up on that front????   I'm still going to keep my tape handy and tape the foot at any twinge and also if I do a double 'high impact' exercise day. (ie double zumba sessions.....or a run followed by zumba, etc).  Precaution!

My arm is still hurting, but other than while I'm sleeping, it's not to bad.  My main deterrent this week from exercise is this sinus pressure, accompanying headaches and the sniffles.  I'm basically miserable.  Of course last year I ran through this crap. Hmmmmm, does that mean it's an excuse right now?????


My eating has been pretty good this week.  One day at a time.  I can't look at the long week right now.  I've failed so may times when I do that.  So right now, my plan is to win one day at a time!

Water...well, I gave up the diet soda that had crept back into my daily life.  However, I replaced it with.....NOTHING.  OOPS.  Working on that too!

The sound alone

Yesterday I got home and my husband had left me a ‘good will gesture’ in the refrigerator.  He left me two of the 1 liter bottles of diet Pepsi.  I’m touched that he thought outside the box and got me something.  However, I haven’t had diet soda in ages.  I haven’t craved it either.  I sent him a thank you text and pushed the drinks to the bottom and back of the refrigerator.  I went into the living room and got settled in to watch the hockey game (Washington Capitals versus the New YorkRangers….game 5 of the playoff series).  I was fine with my water.  I don’t crave the diet soda.  I can see it and be surrounded and it doesn’t phase me.  I’ve been only drinking water for ages and I’ve been utterly fine with that.  However, KNOWING that there was ice cold diet pepsi waiting for me in the kitchen was more than I could handle.   It didn’t take me long to cave in to the pressure though. Yes, before long I was sucking down a diet soda.  In fairness, I didn’t even complete a whole bottle and left the second one safely in the refrigerator.  I thought all was done with it when I went to bed and subsequently woke up this morning.  I prepared my protein shake (my normal breakfast when I work in the morning is a smoothie or a protein shake that I sip on at work while I’m waking up) and filled my water jug for the day ahead.  There was no thought of diet soda.  I was done with it one diet soda…the first in a month or two was not a bad thing and would have no ill effect, right???

 

So I’m fine.  Not even thinking about diet soda or even regular soda.  But then my coworker twists the cap on his drink.  Shhhhhhhhh  Yes, if you drink soda you know the sound.  That sound of a new drink being popped open echoed through the office.  My mouth started to water and I could TASTE the effervescent drink in my mouth.  I could feel it tingling and burning as it went down my throat.  I actually reached for the bottle of diet soda sitting beside me……only there was no diet soda sitting beside me.  MY hand connected with the handle of my water jug.  I fell back to earth and realized how quickly the fat little mini me (that bad influence that helps bring old habits to the front and whispers in my ear to eat bad things and to skip exercise)  that resides inside me can pop back to the surface.

 

I’m ok.  I’m pounding the water and I’m not going to cave and drink that diet soda that is left in my refrigerator…..at least not anytime soon. 

 

On a similar note, my husband (who really is pouring it on thick….trying to make amends by his ‘giving’ not by correcting the issue though) is going to take me to lunch todaysince there is a brief lull between the end of my work day and the beginning of his work day.  He was leaning toward Mexican.   I started to put my food into my tracker.  My weight is down by only a half pound this week (and in fact it was up by 2 pounds the other day…but was back down this morning).  That doesn’t give me a lot of wiggle room in order to still show a loss tomorrow morning.  It also give me NO wiggle room if I want to hit the 30 pounds gone in 2013 on my official weigh day (tomorrow).  I really like Mexican food though…REALLY like Mexican food.  I swallowed down the thoughts of how good Mexican food tastes and texted my husband.  My text read… “Instead of Mexican can we do something else…..the calories are a bit high at Casa G’s and I have a big weigh in tomorrow.” (in fairness, since I don’t eat meat I end up eating a LOT of cheesy dishes at Mexican restaurants)  He texted back ‘sure’, so I’m not sure where we are going.  But I will rock wherever we eat! 

My habit

For the last few months I've had a love affair with Crystal light. It started this summer with the Pom-tini flavor.  I was so sad when I learned that Pom-tini was only a seasonal temporary flavor.  However, I quickly discovered that Cherry Pomegranate was just as good.  I took my water to work, but I drank copious amounts of crystal light at home and on the weekends.  I did purchase some small packets of crystal light (the kind that goes into bottles) for work for those days when water just doesn't cut it.   I thought I was doing great.  I was drinking LOTS of liquids.  It was nothing for me to drink a pitcher of crystal light a day, and on weekends when I was home, sometimes two!   Yet, I always woke up dying of thirst (when I drinking enough water I'm not that way) and while there were no signs, I just have felt deeply that the Crystal Light Habit needed to be checked.  Today I decided to look into it.  I always vaguely knew that Crystal light had aspartame, and I always vaguely knew what aspartame does to the body...but here is  nice simple description....it is from the Livestrong Website... 

One of the criticisms of using aspartame-sweetened foods for weight loss is that the sweet taste still tricks the brain into thinking it's hungry. This hypothesis would lead to a triggered effect in the body that would release digestive enzymes and insulin, actually increasing hunger cues and potentially causing a person to eat more. But consistently, past research did not draw this conclusion. Scientists studying this issue saw that consuming aspartame did not increase insulin, increase appetite, or increase eating and drinking more calories overall.

Despite this previous evidence, two new research studies  from the Texas Health Science Center paint a different picture. They showed that the waistlines of people who drank diet soft drinks increased 70 percent more than people who didn't drink diet soda. They saw that people who drank diet drinks had a greater likelihood to be overweight. The blame is placed on the brain triggers instigated by the sweet, calorie-less taste experience. Two other recent brain studies demonstrated this effect, showing that the body does seek out calories after eating no-calorie sweeteners such as aspartame

So while I have a pitcher of Crystal Light in my fridge (and more to make) I will be limiting my intake and focusing on my water.  Oh yeah, Diet soda?   You are also on the way out.  I've gone without many times before and I find that I don't miss you (and actually like going out to eat and saving the couple bucks by ordering a water!).   I know that the first few days will be difficult, but water really is so much more refreshing!  (in fairness, I didn't always think so...but I grew to LOVE it!)  

I am 16.7 miles into my virtual trip cross the united states.  :-)   I'm making use of that exercise bike that is in the living room!  :-)

Feeling Blah!

I got home from work and I just feel plain and simple blah. I feel like I want to (going to) cry. I just feel on edge and yucky! I don't like it at all. SOOOO where does that leave me with exercise????? I haven't done it yet if that's any answer. I did however put on my exercise clothes when I got home....but I'm thinking it may be a no go tonight! That sucks! I soo want to eradicate my little gain!

I get this free mag All You in the mail...got the September 28,2007 issue in the mail today. They had a little blurb that's worth re-writing onto here.
Don't Rely on diet soda to lose weight :Low calorie soft drinks alone to not help shed pounds.
If you are working to cut calories, diet soda is probably n ot your friend. The more diet soda you drink, the more likely you are to gain weight, researchers have discovered. For reasons that are still unclear, the risk of becoming obese increased by 41 percent for each can of diet soda a person drank a day.

I just thought that was interesting. Don't know how in the world that study can be true. THe only thing that I can come up with is that people that drink diet tend to be overweight or know that they are prone to being overweight to begin with!

OH well.......still feeling blah.......