Day 3

Today I tried eating out. I really didn't want grilled chicken as I know I'll be making that a lot at home, and I don't wanna burn out on this, so we went to a place where I could get something else.

Well, first of all, I had a banana and omelette muffins topped with salsa for breakfast. Then some almonds midmorning. At lunch, I met some friends at a little bakery cafe near work. I got a roast beef sandwich with cheddar cheese (took the bread off, so just dairy), plus a small salad with light ranch, and an apple. The roast beef there was SO flavorful, that I could probably make that truly Paleo next time if I wanted to with no cheese. I don't know that I'll WANT to...lol but we'll see. This afternoon was some raisins and another handful of almonds. Dinner tonite was another test. We ended up at Spring Creek BBQ with my aunt. I had a child's portion of beef brisket with a touch of sauce (not Paleo), plus green beans and half an ear of corn on the cob, plus some pickle slices. Corn isn't TRULY Paleo, but it's borderline, so acceptable enough in limited quantities, same with green beans as they are legumes. But it was either that or salad. I also brought in a banana for D and I to split. I totally avoided the bread there which is AWESOME. This evening, I had a cheese stick (dairy).

Today I felt better than I did last night, and it was nice not have to go back to work all sluggish from a ton of carbs. So yay for that. Now to remember that when I'm at the worst of my cravings!!! lol

Day Two

Today was an off day as my little man is sick so I had to stay home. It was pretty tough, considering we had to go get my son some antibiotics (he has strep), and on the way home, I kept thinking we needed to stop somewhere for food. But...I kept reminding myself that there WAS food at home. Over and over and over...reminding myself...lol

I think for now, I'm going to consider it a perfect day if I can steer clear of all bread/grain/pasta. Again today, I did add in some dairy and a bit of sugar, and I'm content with that. Once I get used to this, I'll tighten it up more.

Ok so...breakfast today was a banana. After the hospital visit, I had two scrambled eggs, two slices of turkey sausage (I'm saving the leftover omelette muffins for work the next two mornings), and a spring mix salad. For an afternoon snack, I had some unsweetened apple sauce. Dinner was a big salad with tomato, and a slice of cheese. This evening, I had some more diluted juice. I have a feeling that salad is going to be a MAJOR item on the menu for the next few weeks as I navigate this!!

On a side note, I have had a nasty headache this evening. It feels like a caffeine headache and I wonder if its due to carb withdrawal. It's interesting though, to see how my body reacts to this new diet.

Day One down

So today was day one. I was woefully unprepared since I just decided this last night. So, my stop on the way to work, was to Smoothie King. I got a Caribbean Way (strawberry, banana, papaya) smoothie with NO sweetener (can't have sugar), and an immune booster. I also grabbed a little package of turkey jerky and dried apples to munch on til lunch.

At lunchtime I went to the store and it was HARD! EVERYthing I usually eat is carbs or dairy or sugar laden. But I ended up ok. I originally was going to add in skim milk, but I ended up getting dark chocolate almond milk. It's SOOO good and creamy! The rest of what I got was salad stuff, fruits (bananas, raisins, no sugar applesauce), tuna, sliced turkey, and almonds. However, I did veer from True Paleo, by getting single serving broccoli and cheese cups (dairy), and Zesty Italian Light dressing (sugar). But I'm ok with that. It's minimal.

For dinner, I hit up the store again before getting D. I needed eggs, veggies for the house, more salad stuff, different meats. And ended up cooking for dinner. I had come across a recipe for omelette muffins that looked really good. (See below) I didn't make them True Paleo again as I did add a dash of milk. But otherwise they are paleo. We also had roasted asparagus with some (NonPaleo) ranch dressing to dip in. I figure at least we ate it...lol And I had some 100% juice cranberry juice this evening, but diluted with water as its pretty strong...lol



To fill up 9 muffin cups, I used 4 eggs, 2 turkey sausage pattys crumbled, about 1/2 cup of crumbled frozen spinach, and a dash of milk. Scramble it all together and then pour into greased muffin cups. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until firm. I topped them with salsa. Yummy!!

So day one is down, and I think I stuck within the 80% compliance. I need to keep finding super easy recipes!

On a side note, I did weigh in today, and it was NOT pretty :( I've gained back almost all the weight I had previously lost. I won't be weighing again til the end of this though.

Let's see how long this lasts

I've been hearing about the Paleo diet a lot lately, and my trainer sent me info on it with info about it supposedly helping with the none too kind Aunt Flo. Well, I decided to give it a try, at least for 30 days, which will put me to the day before Thanksgiving (yes, that was on purpose). My motivation is...well, to GET some motivation. And I figure if I go hardcore for awhile, it will be easier to stick with it. Maybe this will give me some much needed energy that I've been lacking for awhile. I definitely feel sluggish all the time with my high fat, high carb diet and I can NOT get out of it!

So the basics of the Paleo (aka Caveman) diet. I can have oils (no transfats), lean meats, nuts, seafood (yuck), fresh fruits and veggies, and eggs. No sugar, no carbs, no fun.

HOWEVER...I'm allowing two additions. Hence, the Not So Paleo name. I will be allowed Zesty Italian Light dressing, esp if I'ma be eating lots of veggies...and iced tea. Mama needs her caffeine!! lol I won't be having sweet tea though. Just my usual morning glass of iced tea with sweet n low. I'm ok with that much artificialness.

Let's see how this goes! I can't say I'll be perfect at this. A) I so rarely cook, that this will take some adjustment. B) We're used to lots of fast food. Yeah, I'm not gonna be perfect but I'm aiming for 80% compliance.

Frustrated

So my body hit that 299 mark, and I hit a wall. It's not budging. Everyday these last two weeks, my weight has fluctuated between 301 and 297, and it will NOT get moving downward again. I've been good at calories too. There has been a day or two where I went up closer to 2000 cals, but even then, that's still under what I CAN have. For the most part, I've stayed around 1400-1500 calories, and have rocked at making sure to calorie count EVERY SINGLE THING.

Granted, my exercise has REALLY lacked in motivation, but it seems to me that the weight should still be moving?? We've had some good swimming days and usually that keeps it moving. It's very very frustrating and this morning, I seriously considered chunking my scale against the wall. Would it have done any good? No, not really. Would I have felt better? Nah...but man, I thought about it.

In the meantime, I'm holding on to the hope that it WILL move again. I refuse to give into the cravings and go back to where I was just a few short months ago. And I keep telling myself, this is only temporary, this is ONLY temporary.

This better be only temporary.

I shouldn't have doubted

I was REALLY starting to doubt that I would hit the goal that I set. Esp since my weight stalled out not long ago at 310, BUT it got moving very quickly again, and this morning, the last day of the month, I'm pleased to announce that I weighed in at 299.4 lbs! Nailed it!

What definitely helped a lot was being able to start swimming this weekend. We spent two full days in and around lakes and loved every minute of it! We found a lake near us with some really good parks and swim beaches, so we very well might be enjoying that more than our local pools this summer. It's cheaper too!!!

Some goals met, more to go!

I'm excited to announce that I hit the minimum fundraising goal for my 3 Day Walk!!! We had an awesome Pure Romance party this past Saturday as a fundraiser and that topped me over the $2300 mark. Woohoo! This means I can actually get checked into the walk, however, NOW I hope to actually be physically able to do the walk.

My foot is still constantly aching, with occasional stabs of pain. Last week, I walked every single day, at least 20-30 minutes, and had a ton of pain in the evenings. So this week, I'm trying a new strategy. Last night, we ended up walking 50 minutes total (did about 2 miles), and the pain while walking was no worse than having done just 20 minutes at the time (the pain over night and this morning though? Yowza.). SO...I'm going to try completely resting it today (will do my trainer workout tonite which keeps me off my foot for the most part), and then tomorrow do another 2 or so miles, as far as I feel I can go. I'm hoping that this might strengthen it a bit more. Or it could be a huge fail. Ya never know until you try. I was really losing motivation for walking, so it feels good to have some sort of "plan", if nothing else.

As for the headaches, they still come and go. In fact, Monday and Tuesday of this week were especially bad for that. I REALLY need to take my doc's advice and go back to my TMJ doctor. Once she mentioned that, I started paying more attention and yeah, I HAVE been grinding my teeth more, making my jaw pop more (it pops everytime I move my mouth, but it's becoming habit to MAKE it pop while idle), and she thinks it could be causing the headaches.

So there's my update. I don't know if I'll hit the goal of being under 300 by Memorial Day, but darn it, I'm doing my best to accomplish it. My calories have been really good lately. I've had a few minisplurges, but nothing to derail me, they were all very much controlled, and I feel good about them. And if I don't hit that goal, it's ok. It's not going to stop me in this.