Final Thoughts II

Well Amy, it’s been fun!  Thanks for being a sport and taking this ride with me!  And congrats on your 2 pounds!  Here are my final thoughts (for now).  I also lost 2 pounds but then gained back a half leaving me with a net loss of 1.5 pounds for the month.  That was discouraging.  But that was also with little exercise other than dog walking and less than optimal health for the month and mega (job) stress.  I’ll take the loss…I just hoped for more.

I spent a lot of time in my head on Saturday wondering about good food and bad food and the realities of continuing long term with so few carbs.  It’s hard for me to demonize fruits and veggies and potatoes.  Oh, I love potatoes.

I came away from that talk with myself with an appreciation for what I have learned in the past 7 or 8 months of blog/book-reading & podcast listening.  I no longer look at soy as a health food.  I know why Crisco is bad for you and butter is good.  I know that food closer to how God made it is best for us, and that processed foods should not be our norm.

I’d like to continue to lose weight in November, though I know it will be a small and slow loss, as per my usual.  I’d like to maintain my loss in December so that I don’t end up losing ground before resolution-making time.  I’d like to eat real food keeping an eye on the carbohydrate intake, but not being dogmatic about it.  If I eat something sweet and delicious, I would like it to be something that my great-grandmother would have baked in her kitchen, or picked from her orchard (if she had an orchard!).  I would like to continue to spend the extra money to ensure that my meat & poultry are grass-fed/free range or at least hormone and antibiotic free.  I’m going to try to eat 3 meals per day and cut back on the snacks, and really, really work on my sleep.  

Thanks again to all of our readers (do we have readers??) for following along and as a final thought, I’d like to encourage others to try this – you never know what you might learn about yourself along the way!

Final Thoughts

Well, it’s over, and to be perfectly honest, I was horrible this past week! Too much Halloween candy.  And to make it worse, I haven’t been exercising AT ALL! Which is totally not like me.  But I wake up super early, get wrapped up in “work” aka Blogging, and I don’t stop all day.  I find it hard to pull myself away to exercise, or even eat for that matter.

Despite that, here are things I was true to:

I lost 2 lbs!  That may not seem like much, but those two pounds are actually ones that haven’t returned!  I started this experiment i think at 123, and I’ve been 121 for the last two weeks!

• I didn’t eat any whole grains the whole month!  This is a HUGE breakthrough for me! Even if I start eating oatmeal again, I don’t think it will be hard to never eat bread or pasta again!  I really think this alone has helped me keep the weight down, despite not exercising.
• I stopped killing myself with the cardio!  Well, it did help that the marathon was over, but I think I was finally able to let go of two pounds because I wasn’t “conserving” the fat for those long stinkin runs.

So, those are the two changes I’m sticking with, and I’m lightening up on the rest of the stuff.  Less grains and no bread… plus less long cardio sessions.

Thanks for the challenge Mindy! I couldn’t (or wouldn’t) have done this without you!

Too Sick to Blog

Ughhhhh….I am SICK!  My youngest daughter had this last week and the inevitable happened – I caught it!  I felt pretty good with a twinge of a sore throat yesterday but today…I have hit the wall! 

The good news since I checked in was a 2.4 weight loss on Saturday.  That’s VERY cool.  I did a brief Video Diary on Saturday.

Sunday we celebrated my dad’s 70th birthday and went out to eat.  I did great until we got home to the double chocolate muffins that I’d made in lieu of cake.  I decided that this might be one of those “kick up your heels” moments that Robb Wolf talks about so I cut one in half and ate it.  Then I ate the other half!  Arghhh!  It was so good!  I promptly wrapped those up to go home with my parents!  I can’t be trusted!

Today I”ve done fairly well with food until tonight when the thought of meat or chicken is nauseating!  So I had a warm 1/2 bagel which I really couldn't even taste…but it was comforting.  Sick trumps a perfect diet.

Day 5 – DONE

I’m done with day 5 of this experiment.  I’m less hungry than I was yesterday at this time due in part to my addition of some serious butter on my steamed broccoli tonight!  

Breakfast:  Mocha Smoothie; 3 hours later – 2 eggs over medium cooked in butter, 1 1/2 slices thick bacon

Lunch:  Grilled Chicken Caesar salad from McDonald’s, no dressing, (only ate a bit of the salad…it was gross); 1/4 cantaloupe with a couple blueberries.

Snack:  Handful of pistachios

Dinner:  Angus burger, steamed broccoli, a few bread & butter pickles (No sugar added), some reduced sugar ketchup, a square of Ghirardelli 86% Cacao.

Last night my sleep was horrible.  My daughter coughing up a lung down the hall, my husband’s Blackberry vibrating on his night table, and my almost-20-year-old burning the midnight oil on her computer.  Tonight it’s melatonin.  I have to SLEEP!

Looking for the Energy

I read Amy’s post with envy…this energy that she’s gotten from the few days of this eating plan.  I can’t get out of my own way.  I made myself go for a walk but I pushed through it…I didn’t find it enjoyable at all. 
Breakfast:  Mocha Smoothie (my last with whey protein as my tub of Jay Robb’s Egg White Protein Powder came in the mail today).  Some yellow peppers at the farmer’s market (see Video Journal).   Handful of walnuts on the ride back from Walmart.
Lunch:  2 Cage-free eggs fried in extra virgin coconut oil (EVCO), piece of Ghirardelli Midnight Reverie 86% Cacao (yum, one pc was very satisfying!)
Lunch 2: Nuked Hebrew National Hot Dog and handful of pistachios.
Dinner:  Dark greens salad with maple vinaigrette (just a smidge), 4 oz filet mignon on a bed of mashed sweet potatoes with some sautéed field greens with a glass of pinot noir.
I must elaborate on dinner.  Saturday night is date night in my house and so it has been a quasi-“cheat night” while I’ve been on Atkins.  Not that I’ve gone too overboard but there was the breaded whatnot or the “few fries” kind deal going on.  Tonight we went late (thus the lunch #2) because it was Homecoming and we had to drop off my daughter at the dance at school  and then we went out.

We went to Fifty South in Ballston Spa, NY.  This is a great place that we frequently frequent for breakfast but have only been for dinner a couple times.  At breakfast time, it’s a bustling “diner” type of place but at dinner it is a fine restaurant!  I’m going to have to Yelp! about this place because it’s THAT good.


I felt a little guilty about the sweet potatoes but ate them anyway because they were AMAZING and there was probably only about 1/2-2/3 cup and they complimented the filet so nicely!  The wine, don’t know why I had it.  I have 2-3 glasses of wine per year.  I’m not a big fan but thought that it might help me relax.

Speaking of relaxing, I’m giving myself a 6 out of 10 for sleep.  My body is in the bed long enough (on weekends) buy my quality of sleep leaves much to be desired.  Not sure what to do about that.
Two days “in the can.”

Here We Go!

Welcome to October, people!  It's day 1 of the Paleo 30 Day Plan and I'm pretty psyched. 

Breakfast:  A few walnuts & a Protein Smoothie (1 scoop Jay Robb vanilla whey, 1 heaping teaspoon cocoa, unsweetened almond milk, teaspoon instant coffee).  I only have a smattering of whey left and have ordered Jay Robb's Egg White Protein and was hoping that would arrive today. 
Lunch:  A salad from the grocery store salad bar with mixed greens, chicken breast, sugar snap peas, green pepper, cucumber, bacon, and a smattering of sunflower seeds and dried cranberries.  They didn't have olive oil so I put about 1T Italian dressing on it and added 3 chunks of cantaloupe.  Oh, and a diet Coke.  Cavemen had diet Coke, right?
Mid-PM:  About an ounce of pistachios.
Dinner:  Grass-fed sirloin and steamed green beans with butter.  1 "block" from a Chocoperfection Dark Chocolate Almond Bar. 
I'm not sure about the Paleocity of the Chocoperfection.  It's made with cocoa, cocoa butter, and chicory root.  It is about 8:00 PM now, and I'm hungry.  I don't have much to eat that's Paleo-approved and have already had 2 oz nuts today, so I will go to bed soon.
Thanks Amy, for posting up the fish oil calculator.  That's helpful.
I have decided not to log my food for these 30 days.  I log food compulsively but want to get away from that, so My Fitness Pal will be put aside for the time being as I just eat when I'm hungry.  What a concept!
I stopped at the farm today and got raw milk for the kids, 2 dozen eggs, the sirloin that we ate tonight and some grass-fed veal cutlets.  Tomorrow the rain will be gone here on the Eastern coast and I will go to the farmer's market to load up on organic fruits and veggies (mostly veggies).  For now I'm putting down the laptop and picking up The Paleo Solution to read more about what I should be picking up for food tomorrow and to start to ready my brain for sleep.  So glad tomorrow is Saturday and I won't have to get up at 5 AM.
My Video Journal

You can call me Betty

A (wo)man walks down the street,
She says, Why am I soft in the middle now?
Why am I soft in the middle?
The rest of my life is so hard!
I need a photo-opportunity,
I want a shot at redemption!
Don't want to end up a cartoon,
In a cartoon graveyard .....

I am trying to keep a "glass half full" attitude about starting to "go Paleo" tomorrow.  I have been on a low-carb lifestyle since the 2nd week of July and have lost some weight (for the gory details, check out my blog here).  I have been listening to Robb Wolf & Andy Deas' podcast for some time now, and wanted to get Robb's book,The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet.  It arrived last week and it is excellently written!  All of Robb's humor, wit and sarcasm are present in its readable style.  Very consumer friendly.  Anyway, I've been wanting to take the Paleo leap but have needed a push.  Today I emailed my friend, Amy and she was up for the challenge!  She created this blog and we invite you to follow our journey!

Amy's mentioned her love of grains.  For me, the challenge will be sweets.  Even on my low-carb plan, I've had (artificial) sweets and that will be tough to give up.  Cheese might be tough as well, as I've enjoyed cheesing up my meat and veggies in recent months.  But, glass-half-full, I'm looking forward to some increased fat loss (PLEASE!), less intestinal discomfort, better skin, and a general sense of well-being. 

So please add us to your readers, and cheer us on as we take on the persona's of our paleolithic predecessors, Betty Rubble and Wilma Flintstone, and go back to our pre-agricultural roots!  If Wilma and Betty could do it, so can we!