4 weeks and counting

I am two days away from completing 4 weeks since I began my primal journey. Since I began I have convinced 5 people (wine club and Herman) to join me. There is something invigorating about explaining the science to people and seeing their interest in making the change. I find it satisfying and rewarding. I feel like I have become somewhat of an expert on what is allowed, not allowed, the general ideas and the overall principles behind going primal. It feels great!

What doesn’t feel great is after breaking a plateau, making up for lost time from cheating during the river trip and 4th of July, I cheated again and found myself half way back to day one. The worst part is after cheating I didn’t feel as amazing as I imagined I would from indulging in french toast and nachos. I avoided the scale for a day knowing it would be bad, but I assumed it would be 2lbs bad, not 4.5 lbs bad. So here I am about to begin week 5 with what I consider little to no progress on the scale. However, I do FEEL better. My goal of 22 lbs lost before school starting is really starting to seem unattainable. That is so sad to me! This week to get over the plateau (before I went rogue) I tried a short intermittent fast as well as adding sprints to my work out. I felt so accomplished after both.
Okay! Enough of my whining! Here is the plan – for today and tomorrow and I going to skip lunch and make sure I work out in some way or fashion. Preferably a good day of sprints tomorrow and maybe some weights today. For week 5 I am cutting out two things – honey and nuts. I am going to strive to keep my carbs under 50 grams per day for the week. I use fitday.com to track this for those who are interested. There is also an app for it too. If you look at the carb curve when you keep your diet between 50-100g/day you should have effortless weight loss. When you go below 0-50 that is when your body is considered to be in IF mode and can lead to ketosis. Ketosis is just when you body turns over to using ketones instead of sugar. If I can do this then this next week should really jump-start that rapid weight loss again. Now that Herman is onboard (for the most part) it should also be easier to be good. At the end of the day I need to remember that cheating is NEVER as fun as it seems like it will be.

Back on the wagon

I know this title generally refers to someone who is an alcoholic or addict of some type, but I found it fitting for how I feel today. Yesterday’s actions allowed to to gain some groin of the progress I had already achieve and I’m back at the weight I was pre-river trip! Hallelujah!
After work yesterday I came home and cleaned, worked out which was a little intense, made dinner and even tried a cocktail I found on Seaside Kitchen’s blog. Needless to say I’m feeling less discouraged and am still quite motivated to make this work. Even my boyfriend is more inclined to eat paleo since he knows I won’t buy the sugary, carb loaded crap he so dearly loves.

So for my analytical, number craving mind here is my progress. In 3 weeks and 1 day I’ve lost 7 lbs. it’s not a ton, and and it isn’t double digits like I’m craving but it’s more than I have lost in that period of time doing anything else. All in all I feel good and in the end that is the goal. Of course looking good naked or LGN would be nice to!

Fat Adapted

In my attempt to ground myself in all things paleo/primal I went to my favorite site to catch up on some missed daily posts while out of town.  This one was posted on July 4th and talked about having a fat adapted body compared to a sugar adapted body.  Those who are fat adapted can go longer period of time without eating, even skip a meal, they are able to reserve glycogen stores for times when really necessary and often times miss the moodiness associated with a lack of food.  Sign me up!  I know it will take a lot of time and a lot of discipline on my part, but doesn’t that sound fantastic?!?

A friend who has been paleo for 3 months or so is doing really well at just saying no to carbs.  So much so even her ability to enjoy sweet foods has changed greatly.  I’ve realized this may be a harder link for me to break since I generally like sweeter coffee, cider, sangria all of which have a lot of sugar.  Woe is me!  LOL not really, but I want results and I want long-lasting energy without needing to eat ALL the time.

Here is the article if you are interested.  http://www.marksdailyapple.com/what-does-it-mean-to-be-fat-adapted/#axzz20AE8PttQ

End of week 3

Well I’m at the end of my 3rd week, today begins week 4 and I just say I am extremely disappointed with myself. Last week I wrote about the post-cheating blues after hitting the 10 lbs mark and then quickly rebounding back to the 7 lb mark. Well this week didn’t help that either. Wednesday was 4th of July and a surprise birthday party for my boyfriend. The party was a back yard BBQ and was full of amazing proteins, yummy pico but also potato salad that was so good as well. Being so ridiculously hot outside I chose to drink sangria and white wine. I skipped dessert, but it didn’t make a huge difference. Fast forward two days and we all left for a weekend at the river. Tortillas, chips and salsa, bread on a sandwich and freebird nachos was how I rounded out my disaster of a diet for the weekend, not to mention the alcohol! Ugh. I want to smack myself. All that instal two weeks of progress has been reduced to a lowly 1.6 lbs lost. I could scream I’m so frustrated!!!!

Okay enough about what went wrong right? Here is the plan. As little alcohol as my social calendar can allow. Shouldn’t be too hard this week, I think. I have wine club Tuesday and a wedding shower Saturday so I’m gonna do my best!!!!!! I am really going to watch my honey and fruit intake. I also am going to do my best to work in more veggies. Above all else I MUST not cheat! It doesn’t even taste that great anyways.

There is my ramblings for the weekend. Here’s to a much better week. I am dying for double digit sustainable progress so let’s see what I can make happen.

Day 14 – the post-cheating blues

Yesterday I had a fabulous pool party to attend and for days before I was stressing about what beverage I was going to partake in while there.  My experiences with cider this past week eliminated that choice, liquor isn’t prefered especially because I shouldn’t have the mixers that I want, so sangria ended up being the choice.  I showed up to the party and lo and behold there was a large pitcher of homemade sangria that was delicious!  The fare that was offered was full of great proteins, fruit chutney and salad options so I felt like I was sticking to my primal guns the best way I could, while still having fun.  I was even getting a chance to talk to people about my new obsession and how I was seeing amazing results in the first few days.  Everyone was so interested and so encouraging.  Perfect right?  Everything was fantastic until about 10pm.  At that point we had missed what they cooked for dinner because of a conversation that needed to be had.  By the time we were done I was starving and ready to go.  On the way home all my boyfriend and I could talk about was hamburgers and mexican food.  At this point it was 11pm and nothing was really open. When I said I might as well go home and cook something, my loving boyfriend said to me, “Baby, you have been so good this week, why don’t you just have a little cheat meal?”  Taco Cabana here we come!

I inhaled my food because I let myself get far too hungry and I enjoyed those tortillas, chips and queso and potatoes!  When I woke up this morning and weighed myself I was so sad to see that I had put back on 2.4 lbs for my one day of partying.  Although I know the primal blue print encourages you to live the 80/20 rule, I was still so incredibly disappointed in myself.  I have still made progress and I am still doing good overall, but I was a tad upset.

Either way I am back on track today and all will be okay! It is nice to know that sangria doesn’t make my head spin like some other beverages, especially because we have a river trip coming up this weekend!

Tomrrow I will update with my second week progress.