Saturday, February 5, 2011

Steady As She Goes...

Well, still not being terribly strict, but am doing well enough to lose just a bit each week. I should really see what a week, or better yet 2, would look like really sticking to all the rules. Lost 1/2 a lb last week, 1 lb this week and just a smidge of inches, 1.25" over the 2 weeks. It's Super Bowl weekend and I SHOULD save my cheat day for tomorrow, but have already cheated some today and am making Fried Chicken and Bon Bon cookies tomorrrow. But Monday, will commit to the trifecta and follow my plans I've drawn up. This would be great, since I will be in a swimsuit in 2 weeks!

Starting Monday - - - -can she do it?!
Slow Carb diet - 4 meals/day x 6 days/week
Kiwi/KB/Ab training - 3x/week
Ice Age - ice water and shiver walking 3x/week

We shall see.....

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Depression

The last few days, I have been allowing myself a diet Dr. Pepper to combat my occasional desire to cheat. I realized today that my mood tanks after drinking it. This has been noticeable because I have felt consistently fantastic since starting the diet. I know all literature says diet soda is evil, but I hadn't expected it to cause that reaction. I am done with all soda, except cheat day and I'll drink the sugared kind then!

And I've dropped the PAGG (PAG for me) stack. TF is only doing it on cheat days. I'll do the same.

I've bought a 30lb ketttle bell and combined several of the 4HB workouts to come up with my plan. Did glut raises, myotatic crunch, cat vomit, and kb swings yesterday, my light day. Will do version of Kiwi's workouts Mon and Fri.

Soaked some lentils last night, so I have a stockpile to incorporate into recipes. LOVE sauteed scallions, tuna, lentils or black beans with curry powder. Added spinach this time, too. Will do chicken instead of tuna some days/week b/c of mercury concerns, but this is my daily lunch.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

I'll Take It!

Started the week fired up to make some great progress after the 2nd week slump, but got a little complacent. This is a persistent problem for me. I am not terribly overweight (or at all, some might argue), so my drive to put up big numbers in weight/% body fat/inches lost wanes periodically. I justify the handful of crackers (there actually pistachio nut crisps, so vastly better, right?) or the 1 slice of pizza with the kids, thinking, "This won't be enough to sabotage my losing something this week." I am not one to binge, so I feel safe having the little bits of cheats, knowing it won't cause me to domino. And I'm at a low enough weight that I notice small changes. As long as I'm feeling trimmer and noticing a downward trend on the scale and with my measurements, I'm good.

But that's BAD. I keep re-reading 4HB to try to bust through the complacency, because it's a slippery slope. I had just a few tiny cheats this week, not enough to totally plateau, but by Friday I allowed myself a cheat meal that night, extending my cheat day by a meal. I will NOT be successful, if this is how I roll.

So, I'll take the numbers I put up this week, considering my cheats. Back on track today, Sunday. Will shoot for nice numbers this week. Doing some 4HB reading, good grocery shopping and tweaking my exercise and meal plans today.

This week's stats:
2 lbs lost, 0% body fat (which makes no sense to me), 1/2 an inch (all in the waist - yay)

Monday, January 17, 2011

The Dreaded Week Two

I am a Biggest Loser fan. Every season's week two is fraught with plateaus and tears over inexplicable lack of progress, despite monumental efforts. I was unable to transcend their plight in my week 2. There are very good reasons for my lack of progress and some silver linings around my clouds, but the end of week 3 can't get here fast enough! I NEED to see something fantastic on the scale and the list of measurements soon, or Timmy-boy is going to lose me!

So the bad news is that I lost NO weight. It took me clear through Wednesday to recover from my cheat day damage. That was right in time for my cycle to start, so by the time I got to morning of the weigh-in, I was in Bloat City and had no chance and seeing anything fun on the scale. I told myself, "Not to worry. I'm sure you'll see your progress in your measurements." Apparently, bloating isn't just a perceived expansion of your body, especially your waistline, but an actual  one! I gained half an inch.3/4" was added to my waist, but I had a small deficit in arms and legs that brought the total down a smidge. More bad news is that I got several complaints from my husband that I stink! We narrowed it down to the garlic supplement I'm taking. Since I'm not sure getting skinny is worth being stinky, I've laid off that. I wonder if there is an allicin supplement that doesn't give me B.O.

The silver lining  is that I did see a full 2% drop in body fat. I don't get too overjoyed at that number, because of my less-than-stellar method of measuring it, which is to use that function on my scale. But, since that is the one measurement that went down this week, I'll take it!

Strategies for this week started with cheat day. I was apprehensive about going whole hog. I was actually shaking before lunch, due to not eating a big enough breakfast and letting too much time pass between meals. We did do a big lunch at Olive Garden (had a gift card) and had dinner out at our fave Yard House. We stayed up late playing poker, but it wasn't the huge snack fest like the first week. I wasn't hungry and didn't want to spend half my week making up for lost ground.

I'm planning on incorporating some thermogenics in this week. This should be easy, since it's frigid outside! I'll start with drowning myself in ice water and doing some shiver walks. I don't want to do ice baths, or even cold showers, though I may play with that a bit. I need to do at least 2 sessions of cross-fit this week. Only did one last week. I looked up the dosage of the PAGG stack. I'm upping my dosage on most all of it, either doubling the number of pills or making sure I take it as often as I need throughout the day to get to the prescribed MED in 4HB. I am, for the time being, changing to a PAG and AG stack, unless and until I find an alternative that won't make me reek!

Monday, January 10, 2011

Week 1 Won!

Well, had a great first week! 5 lbs met my hopes and exceeded my expectations.  I weighed in a full 2 lbs. less, so a 7 lb weight loss, but the starting weight was after I guzzled 3 glasses of water to measure body fat, so I did things the same this week to keep things apples & apples.

Really enjoyed my first cheat day, Saturday! I intended to start off with a protein-rich, albeit high-cal, breakfast, but went the doughnut route with my beloved Godiva hot chocolate instead. Lunch at Sonic, Pizza Hut delivery for dinner and lots of snacks and caloric beverages for Poker Night. I even baked a pie.

That said, I wasn't dying to make it to cheat day. I wasn't hungry and had almost no cravings. Having "fast food" I could throw together quickly was definitely key.

Need to drink more water this week and try some shiver walks. I think ice baths are a bridge too far for me.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Making Progress

Day 4 and I'm noticing some trends. I have a really hard time getting in that 3rd meal. For the last 2 days, I've looked up at the clock, noticed I'm late and popped a few nuts in my mouth. This is plenty to tide me over to dinner with the fam. I hope it's not screwing up my progress too much. The upside is that I normally have cravings for Dr. Pepper or something sweet in the early afternoon.  I did cheat twice yesterday, but not from a craving or hunger. It was more out of convenience and me justifying that the cheats were too tiny to be significant. But I realize that's a slippery slope, so  not going there today. Only 2 more days until i can gorge at wanton abandon! My cheats were 1 square of a Ritter chocolate bar (there were 2 sitting on the counter) and a spoonful of chocolate almond butter. This was a great find at Whole Foods. I got it for the kids, as a healthier replacement for the Nutella they love. It was a hit! Brand is "Jason's."

Another bad trend is that I have slowed up on my water drinking. Why is this so hard for people!? I like water, especially with the squirts of lemon I've been adding. I must just get busy. Having a glass handy wherever I'm at helps. I should put a few bottles in the car, or even one in my purse.

A good trend forming is the weight loss! I should NOT be weighing myself and the scale is not the best indicator of progress, but I just want a little peek each morning. It's motivating. I'll do all the measurements for the week in 2 more days. If this little trend continues, it's shaping up to be a great first week!

Monday, January 3, 2011

Day 1 Food

I ate as I should, for the most part. I was at the dermatologist for my second lunch, so I had some Brazil nuts (6) and a few forkfuls of sauerkraut. The latter was pretty awful - going to have to mix that with something in the future.Skipped the AGG, too because of the lightness of the meal. Will do PAGG with dinner. I am fairly confused on dosing on that. In his Damage Control chapter, he only did AGG once and PAGG was with dinner. In another section, he says to do AGG with bfast, lunch and dinner, then PAGG @ bedtime. Doing 4 meals a day, I will assume this actually means with the last meal. I am more comfortable taking supplements with food.

Felt pretty good today. I definitely did not get hungry - felt like I was eating too much, actually. I had no problem ignoring the leftover birthday cookie and the holiday cake opened right in front of me. My pre-diet trip to Whole Foods was handy. Just grabbed the right stuff when it was time to eat. Only cooked @ bfast.

I did slow down on the water consumption when I left for my appointment. Need to drink tonight and be more consistent throughout the day tomorrow. But great day 1!