Back to Phase 1

Well, I finally reached my limit AGAIN.

I thought I was doing really well on maintenance.  I fully expected to gain 5 lbs or so getting my glycogen back in my body. Well, after seeing 146-147 on my scale and then jumping back to 152 for some reason my coach thought it best to phase me off. She thought my body was resisting and needed a change. Well, I stayed around 151-152 as I shifted into phase 2 and 3. I was okay with that actually. My clothes felt great although emotionally I wanted to weigh 143. I kept telling myself to get over it and take a rest and come back to phase 1 after 6 months or so.

Well..... I hit phase 4 and was doing great. I rarely cheated with sugar and I truly enjoyed bread in the mornings only. I ate fruit in the morning and added nuts, dairy and some other healthy options back in. Sure, I had some dessert now and then but I have yet to eat a full plate of pasta, rice or potatoes since phasing off. I thought that was a great thing since those foods tend to make me feel heavy, bloated, etc. I was super proud of myself.

So I got weighed twice at the clinic over the last month and I topped out at 162. WTF?  How the heck did I gain 10 lbs in 7 weeks? Like I said, I expected 3-5 lbs for glycogen and 1-2 lbs of muscle from exercise but I thought I'd continue burning more fat off. I actually gained almost 6 lbs of fat. I was so ticked off! My coach kept telling me at my last appointment that I had a 1.8 lb loss of fat and I was carrying about 4 lbs of water that morning but guess what? I felt awful and my clothes are choking me in the waist and my upper torso has gained about inch everywhere. I don't think that's what's supposed to happen when you're eating relatively healthy and exercising 3-4 times a week. I rarely eat refined/processed foods or sugars and I eat lots of veggies, protein and some complex grains.

I know when you look at the overall picture 10 lbs makes sense. That 5-7 lbs is glycogen. The 3 lbs is probably muscle and water and waste. But guess what? I feel heavy, bloated and uncomfortable. Something isn't feeling right.

My coach says that my body is more efficient and burning almost 1500 at rest. At rest means doing nothing but lie down and don't move. So technically, I'm supposed to have a minimum of 1700-1800 calories a day. Then when I exercise it's 2100. What the..... that seems like an insane amount of food! I'm trying to really figure that one out. It seems way off.  She said I was in starvation mode so my body was holding on to everything. I don't see how I was in starvation though. I was eating well and feeling good until about 2 weeks ago. I had finally hit 160 and felt like a huge whale. Seriously.... I feel heavy.

So..... what's next? Phase 1 for a minimum of a week and probably as long as . I am going to get back into ketosis and see what happens over the next few days. According to everyone that's done IP, when you flip back into phase 1 after being on maintenance your body remembers this and reacts very well. It jumps right into ketosis, even quicker than the first time (sometimes within 1-2 days rather than the 3-5 days it normally takes). The weight loss is supposedly immediate and quick. Not like 10 lbs of fat in a week but you will burn off the glycogen storage, excess water and lose maybe a lb or so of fat initially. Some people have larger glycogen tanks and I'm wondering if I may be one of those people. If that is the case, I really want to lose 20 lbs so I will be around 135-138 when I phase off and then I'll gain the 5-10 in glycogen. I would be happy to weigh 145-148 normally.

Yee gads..... the strict phase of this diet is easy BUT maintenance is really bothersome. I don't know what I'm doing wrong so I am trying to analyze my food journals (yes, I still keep a daily food journal!) and judge my caloric intake. I know I eat more on my exercise days so I am going to scrutinize everything and see if there were any hidden calories I was forgetting.

I really want to go low carb in the future so fats should not be a big deal. I keep wondering if there is something about my body that is resisting because of the fats I was ingesting. I'll experiment this week and hopefully figure it out.  In the meantime, I feel like I'm taking control over this and that is a good thing. I'm not obsessive but I want to just feel good again.

The 'real' life struggle with food

This one will be quick..... I definitely need to get on the bandwagon and post frequently though! I need to be accountable.

I've just had a 'bad' kind of week where I cheated here and there. I want to eat correctly but my sweet tooth is definitely active again. I'm not eating candy though... go figure. I can't handle that...I'll get a wicked headache so for that I am truly grateful!

I did manage bread, a little rice and gelato and some flour products (tortillas) these past 10 days. My weight is up about 3 lbs as of today but that, I guess is a normal gain. I'm not happy with it though. I really want to be another 10 lbs lighter but I'm thinking I HAVE TO EXERCISE. I started walking more and I'm going to do more barre work to lose inches. I can't be too hung up on actual weight # but on how I feel.

So that's where I am at today. I feel pretty good though and I'm not going crazy on food. I just don't feel like I'm as in contol of my intake as I would like to be. I've got a weigh in on Saturday so hopefully I can be a little more accountable to myself again!!!!

Week 34 finished and now in Phase 4 for LIFE

So it's official and I'm now in Phase 4 or what IP'ers call 'maintenance'. That means I'm at the point where I eat this way for the rest of my life AND I must incorporate exercise into it as well. I will be eating relatively clean most days and then attempting to go onto phase 1 after a binge or 'fun' day and once a year I fine tune my diet by going back into phase 1 for 2-4 weeks. Most people choose to do it in January after the holidays. It makes sense since that's when most people indulge in sweets/carbs the most.

I lost .2 lb of fat last week on my last week of Phase 3 but no inches. I was eating quite a bit: breakfast was huge. I almost found it to be too much but it's the only way you can get your pancreas to readjust without a lot of weight gain and shock. So breakfast is carb (like oatmeal, cereal or bread), protein (eggs), fat (butter, a piece of bacon), and fruit (another carb) like berries. If you saw my breakfast tray (and yes, I use a tray because I have so many cups or ramekins and plates for all my food!) you'd be overwhelmed. It's a lot of food but it really is necessary to eat. Lunch and dinner are still 'clean' but you separate fats from carbs. So the idea would be to eat protein and fats with one meal and protein and carbs with the other. It's a very European way of eating which makes sense since the founder of this plan is French. Yes, one will end up eating fats and carbs together occasionally (Like I DID last night!) but you eat super clean (phase 1 or a version there of) the next day and drink lots of water to get all that stuff flushed out.

Because this whole weekend was a huge celebration, I ended up using Sunday as my big cheat day (my first day on phase 4 too!). I was shocked at how easy it was to eat the forbidden foods. I really thought my body would say STOP! Guess what.... it doesn't right away. It will later on....when your belly is distended or your intestines get mad or however your body responds to these kinds of foods.
I ended up gaining 2 lbs from yesterday BUT I also know I hardly had any water so I just need to eat clean today and flush it out and also do my planned exercise. It will be gone by tomorrow if I follow the plan.

So yesterday's brunch was a breakfast casserole, spinach frittata, fresh fruit and mimosas. Now I haven't had alcohol (other than a sip of wine at Church) in 9 months so this was a little scary for me. I ended up not having one reaction to the sparkling wine so it seems watered down alcohol (and one glass) is enough for me. I don't want to tempt my body into taking all this sugar and gaining all these pounds back so that will be a rare indulgence. The rest of the breakfast was actually on task for a normal meal. I didn't have much dairy though.  I had a quest bar in the afternoon but no veggies. For dinner, Mark and I went to one my goal restaurants (Azteca) for Mexican food. I have 3 places I said I wanted to go after I reached goal so this was one of my big rewards. I ended up with carne asada, shrimp with rice and beans. Yes, I indulged in chips for the first time too. I ended up eating probably about 15 chips. YES, I COUNTED. I really wanted to enjoy the texture and taste and I did. That kind of scared me that I kept wanting more. I let myself have some fun there but after that I realized that beans and rice were coming (which I also haven't had in almost a year) so I stopped. The shrimp and beef were fab....I knew that was okay to eat so I enjoyed that. The beans were also an awesome treat. Super fatty but yummy. The rice....well, that tasted good but I found myself kind of shying away from it. I realized that rice really isn't a big deal for me (this is the Asian girl talking too!) and I can live without it. I also did not take any tortillas so that I could justify the chips and rice. I still feel bloated today because of it but I have no regrets. I enjoyed the taste and texture of everything. The thing is, your brain, your memory, your senses will NOT stop you from eating unless you consciously make the decision to eat only a specific amount. Your body will pay for it the next day so you have to remember that. The chips about drove me crazy because I did want a lot BUT I told myself I could have only so many. When the main course arrived I told myself to have only a couple of spoonfuls of rice since the chip quota was exceeded. That actually worked for me.

So now today is a phase 1 day and I will drink a ton of water. I don't expect to lose all 2 lbs today but I know I will lose it within a few days. The body will work with you if you feed it right. I'm prepping to make Wheat Belly (low carb/higher protein) foods and mostly sugar free treats from now on. Mark needs to lose about 50 lbs and we really can't afford to put him on IP right now so I'm going to just change the daily diet to make it work for the two of us. I know that he'll lose weight much faster (guys are lucky that way!) so I hope to have him at least 25-30 lbs down in 8 weeks.

I don't intend to stop blogging about this..... It is an ongoing program for me for life and I need to be able to see the progress (both forward and backward) so I can see the patterns and  stop bad habits from forming. I'm really proud of what I've accomplished and will continue to learn and adjust my ways.  Now that exercise MUST be a big part of my maintenance I am looking forward to running and biking. I'm going to get started on that shortly..... I still have another 10 lbs I'd like to lose but it will be more of a fat loss/muscle gain kind of thing so the actual weight may not change and it will be more of an inches kind of thing!

I'll be posting regularly...hopefully at least every few days! Thanks for staying on the journey with me!

Week 34 almost done!

So I'm now officially in Phase 3 but I'm fighting it.....

I couldn't manage to get started on Monday was supposed to start on Tuesday. I didn't have any yogurt or fruit plus I had a breakfast to go to on Wednesday which was most of what I should eat so Thursday is when I started a complete meal.

So today was a full phase 3 breakfast of eggs, bacon, oatmeal, yogurt and fruit. A LOT of food as far as I'm concerned! Even though my servings were small it was a lot to eat. It tasted great - but I wasn't super excited about the carbs. The fruit and yogurt was awesome though.

My last weigh in I lost .6 in fat and my coach said I was up 1.6 in water so technically I was really down more than I thought. The numbers are still higher than I want but I hope that they'll keep going down once I start exercising. That's something I'm supposed to start doing which I need to get on the ball with.

I'm hoping that I don't gain too much now that I'm eating more carbs and refilling my glycogen tank again!

Week 33 weigh in/Phase 2 & starting week 34

Well, no TOM. My BF decided to stay high BUT it showed 1.2% less than last week. What????? And oddly enough I showed a drop again on my scale this morning....what the????

I don't get my body sometimes. But at least I am still losing in very small increments. According to the measuring I was bloated and gained in the waist & hips plus I was wearing a padded bra (always adds) but in terms of weight loss I showed 1.6 lbs of fat gone but was retaining a lb so it showed a .6 total loss. Luckily, water weight is fickle and goes away so I get to count the full 1.6!!!

I'm still about 2-5 lbs over what I really want to land at because I'm going to start gaining water/glycogen again on phase 3 which is in 9 days! Kind of nervous...kind of excited.

I'm hovering in the 146 area although the last couple of days have been 147. I've probably been a little low on water so I'll attempt to hydrate a lot more today. It was a fun day yesterday as we went to a family friend's wedding and we danced a LOT! I probably did too much so I may be retaining for that reason. We'll see how the rest of the weekend goes and I start my second week of phase 2 tomorrow!

Week 32 ends & Week 33 begins

So it was as always an interesting week.

I have been super hungry....to the point where I'm making 2 eggs and a little bacon to fill me up. I should always know that this typically means the hormones are shifting and prepping for you-know-what....

I keep feeling like I'm on a never ending cycle with my hormones. I guess some of us go through this on ketogenic diets. Sigh..... oh well, I just have to deal with it.

I was starting to lose a little throughout the week and then on Saturday I went back up again a little. Not enough to really be a big deal though, as I still showed a loss on the scale. What really bugged me was that my body fat % went up more than 2% which always means that TOM is coming. I was so upset at my weigh in. After 32 weeks I think I had thought things would settle down and I'd find some sense of normal. Nope.... my body is doing whatever it wants and I guess there's still lots of hormones stored in my fat cells and causing me to have these long cycles and dramatic changes in my BF% readings.

I think my coach was pretty surprised at how upset I was. Even though I still lost 1/2" in my hips and 1/4" in my arms I was still furious. She was the one who said it was time for me to shift into Phase 2. I wasn't going to say it because I didn't want to do something based on anger. She was smart enough to realize I'd had enough and I needed a change. Phase 2 is still really similar to phase 1 so it's not that big of a deal. It's introducing more real food which if you think about it, I've kind of been doing since I seem to need more protein throughout my day. So now I am supposed to eat real food for lunch and dinner and only have packets for breakfast and snacks.That's a 2 week cycle. Then I shift into phase 3 when I start eating real breakfast but still have a packet for a snack. We're waking up the pancreas in phase 3 so that it's not in shock. I get to have very specific amounts of carbs reintroduced into my diet this way so my body doesn't freak out. I'm actually not too concerned about that..... I think I'm more concerned about reintroducing normal everyday stuff back in. I have had so little sugar and carbs that I'm wondering what it will be like to taste a dessert again. I can't go crazy or else I'll gain weight and have all the horrible problems I had before. That's NOT going to happen again.

So that's where I'm at right now...in my first days of phase 2. It seems strange to be on this path....of phasing off into maintenance! I'm hopeful that I don't screw things up....and I think I'll be okay but I'm a little worried to tell you the truth.  I just don't want those horrid cravings and the accompanying stomach pains to come back. I don't want to gain a lot of weight back.... so I'm tentative.... keeping the faith....

Week 31 weigh In & Week 32 begins....WHAT?

I can't get over this.... I'm 8 months into IP?  Wow....time has FLOWN BY.  I started this the first week of August when I was still doing my summer theatre camp job and I had just attended my cousin's wedding the previous weekend!

Where does the time go?

Okay..... well I had my weigh in on Saturday. I was having a pretty good week....losing a little weight almost each day as I weighed myself in the a.m. I ended up gaining a little back before weigh in but that was probably water. My results were:

1.2 lbs down (.6 of it being fat)
29.5% BF
Arm: 1/2 inch total
Chest: 1/4 inch
Thorax: 1 inch
Hips: 1/4 inch

According to the clinic it's 53 lbs. According to my scale it's 55 lbs (sans clothing).

I had my coach adjust the goal BF% to both 26 and 27 per cent to see what the total lbs of fat I would need to lose. So....I would have to lose 5.9 lbs or 9 lbs to get to those goals. Honestly..... I don't see where and how I could lose 9 more lbs so I'm going for a personal loss of 3-5 more lbs. Wherever the BF% lands when I hit that weight....I'm DONE with phase 1. I am a little frustrated with my BF readings because water weight and TOM (hormones) affect it dramatically. How the heck am I supposed to know where I am? According to the charts, 27% would be the bottom of 'acceptable for body fat and 26% would be considered 'fit' for my age. I figure once I get to work out seriously and eat a little more balanced 'real' food I can get to 23% (which is the bottom of 'fit' for my age group). If I get to 22% that's considered athletic/thin and I don't think I need to go there. My bones are big so I don't want to get too thin.

I had a crazy day of eating both Saturday and Sunday. I kind of lived it up a little. I've never really done that before but I think I'm getting tired of Phase 1. I had a bacon/cheese omelette for lunch yesterday (which was HIGH fat) and Saturday afternoon I had a chicken and beef kabob at a bridal shower and that night I had some serious piles of pulled pork at my cast party. I actually ate super clean beyond those extravagances and I only gained a pound. I'm sure I've got a little sugar, salt and fat that shouldn't be in my system so it'll take a day or two to get out and I should be back to normal.  I know I shouldn't have eaten these things but I needed to live in the moment and enjoy what was there. I have learned so much about diet and what to eat and what NOT to eat. I can tell when my body doesn't like something and I don't really want to make myself sick. Those days are LONG gone as far as I'm concerned.

So today I started at 148.7 which is about a lb higher than Saturday morning. Not too bad..... I am working on losing 2-3 lbs this week because I really, really, really want to get to goal by next week. I know that's pushing it since I have so little left to lose. This is definitely not like my first 6 weeks when I was losing 3-6 lbs a week!

I'm going for 145 at the minimum..... but I really, really, really hope I can make it to 142 or 143. That would be pretty darn awesome.

Just wanted to share pics from the weekend......

My SM Sheryl Dizon & my music director Rod Gray on closing weekend

My friend Jenn Buhl's bridal shower with (from L to R): Katie Richardson, Erin McKiernan, Jenn Buhl, me, Courtney Hood, Emileigh Kershaw