Assessing the Problem
So I know that when one has a problem, the first think one must do is find the root cause. So, I have been assessing all the reasons why I could be gaining weight. Not exercising enough is obvious enough, but I needed to spend more time analyzing my diet.
As many of you know, I have been following the Ultrametabolism eating plan, which doesnt count calories or have exchanges. It's more focused on what types of food to avoid and consume. The book does have meal plans, however, so I decided to take a closer look at those. I sat down with a pen and paper and marked up an old fashioned WW-type exchange chart with the items and noticed something very interesting.
The Ultrametabolism plan has about the same number of exchanges as the pre-points WW. The only difference is that the dairy is all in the protein exchanges. The other thing I noticed is that in the meal plans, starchy foods like breads or rice are only consumed at breakfast and dinner. There are starches at lunch, but they are usually in the form of beans. Snacks are always fruit and nuts or some kind of veggie spread on nut crackers. The only real difference was in the fats. Ultrametabolism allows way more fat--as long as it's the good kind, like avocado or olive oil or nuts.
After looking at my chart, I started to see where I am going awry. I am eating my fruits as desserts, not as snacks, because they are too difficult to eat between classes. I've been relying on starchy snacks--however healthy--to get me between meals. At the end of the day, that totals up to probably two extra exchanges of carbs per day than the plan is recommending. I'm sure if I ate fewer carbs for breakfast, a carb snack mid-morning would be no biggie, but I'm eating the recommended breakfast and the carb snack. That's the problem.
So, I started tracking my food yesterday on Sparkpeople.com. It seems to have a decent tracker and database. It gives you a mealplan for the day, so your exchanges are already spelled out for you, then you just substitute what food you actually ate for the one in the plan. That way you can count calories and see how many exchanges you've burned through. I know that by following Ultrametabolism, my exchanges won't match up perfectly with Sparkpeople's, but that's OK.
I headed to the grocery store to try to put my new plan in action. I didn't buy any starchy snacks. I bought a ton of fruit, which I'm going to try to prep today and portion out to make eating it more convenient.
On the fitness side, I've committed to either walking 20 minutes or doing yoga every day. I need to do something, and those seem to be things I can tolerate for now. I went to yoga this morning (I've been taking a class about once a week) and the instructor complimented me on the alignment of my standing poses--twice--, which was awesome because I was really struggling with them due to my loss of leg strength. People should not underestimate the impact of a well-timed compliment. I was feeling totally demoralized (which I'm sure she had no clue) and she really made me feel like I had something to hold onto. It's a lesson that I, as a teacher, need to keep in mind more often.
So, that's where I'm at for the moment. Thanks for all the words of support after my last post. Wanda is right that I do need more in-person support, but I just don't have it other than my husband. We work with what we got, you know?