Packing up

I'm trying to pack up all our stuff for our Smoky Mountain vacation. We'll be gone for 9 days. I still haven't decided if I'm going to take the computer or if I'm just going to cut myself loose from the world the entire time. The lodge doesn't have television but they do have wireless internet (?). I'm on my way to the library now to pick up some good reading.

Thanks to Kache for coming to my rescue yesterday on her lunch break with a bottomless bag of bathing suits! It was like having my own personal shopper! I found two that look great on me. If she has 12 spare unworn bathing suits, I wonder what other goodies she has in her closet. Kache, two words: "yard sale." Let me know when and where and I will be there!

Well, Ladies, I have to go--much to do and not enough time to do it. I'll check in if I can!

What was the point?

After finishing up our week on the detox plan, I opted to NOT fall completely off the wagon. We had planned to eat at P.F. Chang's Sunday night, but I said, "No, I don't want to wake up Monday morning and be up three pounds due to salt. That would just really bum me out after all the hard work I've put in." DH agreed.

So, I just phased in eggs and yogurt, and we enjoyed some lean buffalo meat. Then on Monday, we had a family picnic, where I made some turkey subs with an olive tapanade dressing. The rest of the family brought super healthy salads and fruit. The only indulgence was a couple of oatmeal cranberry cookies. There were not  chips or foods heavy in salt. The next day, I ate out with my department and had a turkey wrap with cheese in a tortilla with no chips. The rest of the day was a normal on-plan eating day.

And of course this morning showed the scale back up nearly THREE POUNDS. I couldn't believe it! I went and got my tape measure and saw that my bust and waist are still down, but my abdomen (big belly roll) was back where it was before the diet. I tried on the pants I mentioned earlier and they were tight and uncomfortable again.

I can't tell you how disheartening this is. I can't eat LUNCH MEAT without gaining THREE POUNDS OF WATER?!?!?  Just imagine how much weight I'll probably gain on my vacation next week when I'll be eating nothing but the food the lodge provides. Gak.

The diet I was on last week was extremely restrictive and not sustainable. DH and I felt like a huge weight had been lifted when it was over. I can't believe that that's what it takes for me to lose weight. I CANNOT live like that! I just don't know what to do from this point forward. Should I just accept the fact that I'm going to be overweight forever? Settle in to a flabby size 12 when I should be a toned size 8?

It's been nearly a year and a half since I started trying to lose weight. I am tired.

Inch Report

Today is the end of my detox diet and I just ate the best damn tasting bowl of yogurt anyone's ever had. It's amazing how good something can taste (sugar, milkfat)  when you cut it out of your diet entirely for only 7 days.

I took my measurements to see if I had made any real progress. I suspected I had because some quick-dry capris I bought from a catalog a few weeks ago that were too tight seemed more comfortable when I wore them yesterday. I also suspected some inches lost because my poor boobs were looking more deflated than usual. Here's the result:

Chest: -1"
Waist: -1"
Abdomen: -3/4"

Not too bad for just a week. Of course, since most of that was water, I really have to be careful that I don't put it right back on.  I really feel I have so much further to go in my midsection. My waist is now 34", but I would like to see it in the 20s. My abdomen is 41.25", and I'd like to see it around 35". My hips are already at 39", which is pretty slim so the rest needs to catch up. My biggest goal is to see my abdomen smaller than my hips, like on a regular woman's body.  I think I would have to weigh in the 130s to have those measurements. :::sigh:::

In the "Progress ?" Department, I was trying on my bathing suit that I bought last summer to see if I could still wear it for our vacation. I knew it would be too big, but I thought I might could get away with it. Surprisingly, the one place where it just was huge was in the chest. The suit had pre-formed cups and I could look inside and see that there was room for a whole other boob in there. Shocking--and really not that flattering, I must say. Having my chest shrinking makes my large belly look even larger proportionally. Grrr. I guess I'm just not going swimming on vacation because I'm not spending another $75 bucks on a suit just for one week.

End of the Week Report

It's Saturday morning and I've survived almost an entire week of the UltraSimpleDiet. It's been hard, but I've lost 3.2 pounds. I believe about half a pound of that is fat. I think the DH has lost 13 so far and it really shows. His face has slimmed and he's already breaking out pants he hasn't worn in years. Instant results! For him, anyway. :::grumble, grumble::::

I think I'm at the point now where I've lost all the water and will start losing fat if I stay on it, but I really don't want to. However, I think I will compromise and step up to the more restrictive phase of UltraMetabolism, which allows more foods than this diet. I plan to stay off of all prepared foods for at least another week until we leave for vacation (I get all tingly just saying the word!).

Now that I have the scale moving in a downward motion for the first time in six months, I don't want to just toss progress to the wind. I'll give it another week. Plus, this week I should be able to hit the gym since we have half-days at work.

I have a plan for my return to the gym. I'm going to start lifting weights on my lower body only. I've discovered that any work I do--even in yoga--that involves my upper back and shoulders really causes me to knot up and have problems for days afterward. I need to build up my back and shoulder muscles slowly and gently.

The problem, I think, is that in yoga class, we often isolate a muscle group and work on it, which I think strains that group for me because the whole back area is weak. I'm going to start rowing again, which works the whole back at once. I'm going to go super gently at first--maybe only five minutes at a time--and slowly build up so that I can stop hurting my rhomboids and shoulder blades every time I do ANYTHING.

I'm going to start on my leg lifting today, as I am concerned about my general lack of fitness heading into this very active vacation. We're going to be hiking, and my legs are not in shape. In the past, it hasn't taken many sessions to notice a difference in my quads and calves, so I'm going to try to squeeze in at least three this week before we go.

FOOD RECOMMENDATION: Before I go, I must tell you about my new discovery, which is The Spice Hunter's Spring Salad Mix. It's an herb blend of dill, shallots, garlic, and chives that is good on just about every damn thing. The way we use it the most is to mix it with a little olive oil in a pan to get it reconstituted. Heat it up a little, then sautee your veggies as usual. We've found this technique good for tossing in pasta or eggs. It adds an amazing dimension of flavor.

Have a great Saturday everyone.

Day Three and a Three

Well, I saw a number on my scale this morning that I haven't seen in months: 3! That's right, 153.8. PHEW! I guess the Great Bloat Purge of 2007 is working. I'm down 2.5 pounds since Sunday morning. Of course, the DH is down 10 POUNDS now. Great Googly Moogly.

I'm still a little headachy and cranky and I really want this to be over, but I'm chugging along. I had a small slip yesterday afternoon. It was about an hour before I could go home and I was feeling a definite energy crash. I had no snacks left and felt like poo. And there it was: a Fun Size Twix. I ate it, and it was good. I felt better right away and was able to continue working until I could get home for my real snack, The Ultrashake made of silken tofu, frozen berries, soy milk, flaxseed, and macadamia nut butter. I did what I had to do--didn't want to risk another headache.

Well, Ladies, I have one more small set of papers to grade and I am FREE of grading for ten weeks! Woo! Of course, I'm not out of school for another week, but I'm free of students. Yay!

Here I go . . .

Day Two Detox

Well, Day Two was much better. I haven't been able to get off the coffee entirely. I still had a half a mug mid-morning to stave off the headache along with a banana. (You know you're eating in a crazy diet world where eating a piece of fruit is cheating.)

I included some leftover salmon with my lunch and found it much more satisfying. I enjoy eating such fresh food. However, I saw this morning that we're almost out of food already after stocking up just this Saturday. Man, it really goes fast when both DH and I are eating. I've never really experienced that before as he's not a big veggie eater. He likes them, but doesn't eat them in quantity.

Though I didn't feel horrible yesterday, I did notice that both DH and I were super cranky last night and found it best just to avoid each other. I hope that will have passed by tonight.

Well, gotta go work . . . type to you later.

Day One Report

Well, I didn't really choose the best day to start a Detox diet, but such is life. I had started TOM Saturday--the day I had attended two over-the-top out of town weddings. I think I ate three pieces of cake and lordknowswhatelse in a span of 24 hours. Basically, I ate everything I could eat.

So . . . from that lofty peak of sugar and alcohol consumption, I began a spartan diet of restriction starting at lunch on Sunday. The fall was harsh and painful. All day yesterday I had a headache and was so fuzzy-headed that I couldn't type--AT ALL. It was funny, really. I would think coherent thoughts, but jibberish would come out of my fingertips. Even though I'm on a strict deadline for grades, I couldn't grade much of anything. I had to leave school after lunch and go home for a nap.

I thought about nothing but food all afternoon and kept calling DH to see how long it would be before he got home so we could EAT!  Jeez--it's like the bad old days of dieting again. Glad I'm only doing this for a week!

The good news is that I lost 1.2 lbs of water the first day. Yay! Crossing my fingers for lots more . . .

UltraSimple

Greetings All! Today, we're (the DH and I) are starting the one-week UltraSimple Diet. This is a plan created by the same doctor who wrote the Ultrametabolism plan that I follow. It's a quick-start detox plan that is supposed to purge my body of all bloat and inflammation, thus kick-starting my metabolism.

The plan involves drinking a home-made broth, smoothies, and eating meals of brown rice, veggies, and lean protein. It's very basic. There's a long list of foods we cannot eat. I'm hoping to drop at least three pounds of bloat I've been holding on to.

There was a preparation week that I skipped (because I'm already on Ultrametabolism) but my husband did. He had to cut back on caffeine, and cut out alcohol, sugar, and white flour. If you can believe this, he lost SIX POUNDS! Just in the preparation week! And according to my Ironman scale, that weight was ALL FAT!

I'm so happy for him, but it just seems so unfair sometimes how easy it is for men to lose weight. But, hey, if it gets him to see the benefits of cutting out the junk, I'm all for it!

Well, I've got to go grade the last mountain of papers. See y'all in a few days!

That Time of Year

Well, Ladies, it's that time of year when Ashley goes bye-bye. It's the last regular week of school and I'm over my head in papers and projects that have to be finished before Friday. Then I take off to two out of town weddings on Saturday. Next week is exams and more high-speed chaos at work.

I have been holding my own in the diet front as you can see by my 15-day weight chart. I've completely giving up tracking on SparkPeople as I simply don't have the time right now. I've started just tracking some estimated exchanges in a notepad at home for now. When school is out and I have time to enter in all the specialty foods I eat, I'll revisit the online tracking.

Hope to find a little time here and there to type to you all, but I don't hold out much hope for the next couple of weeks. I will check in periodically, however. Wish me luck!

So Lame

Yep, that's me. Lame. Though I managed to drop over two pounds of water weight in three days, I am still eating too many yummy salty carbies. It's SO HARD TO LET GO.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not cutting out all carbs, I'm just trying to eat different snacks . . . and I suck at it. Yesterday, I did good all day long, and I was craving heavy carby food so bad by dinner time that I wound up ducking into Pei Wei as I was out shopping. I had the best of intentions, mind you. I got myself some low-cal Thai chicken spring rolls and some tofu fried brown rice for DH. Naturally, when I got home, half my dinner wound up being fried rice! Later, I mindlessly started munching on some black bean chips before I stopped and reminded myself that I have five pounds of strawberries in the fridge!

Tracking is harder than I thought. A lot of food is in the SparkPeople database, but at least one or two items I eat a day isn't . Sometimes I just don't have time to look it up and enter it in--like the Pei Wei last night. I'm especially unmotivated to do it if I know I probably will never eat that item again--like that tofu fried rice last night.

With my DietPower software I was very motivated to track every morsel because the program was constantly assessing my metabolism and adjusting my calories. Plus I could track patterns over time. There was a reason to be thorough. Now, however, if I don't fully track for the day, who cares? There are no immediate consequences. So, I lose some "SparkPoints" WhoopDeeDo.

The only good thing I managed to do today is not eat the donuts in the teacher's lounge. I must pay for the fried rice first. Must . . . .PAY!!!!

I've got to get a few pounds off me before I have to wear this dress to a wedding in a couple of weeks. I tried it on last night with my new strapless bra and was slightly mortified by the Jane Russell Effect. I asked my husband if my boobs were simply too huge and distracting in the dress and if I should take it back. His response was, "Well, you've got boobs . . .is some other dress going to change that?" Why can't husbands just turn into women for a few moments when you need a fashion consult!