I can't believe in one week's time I'll have been doing this for 2 months. It actually feels like I've been doing this forever in a way. I guess that's good because I know that the low carb lifestyle is going to be a permanent thing for me.
As always, I wake up at least 2 times a night to use the bathroom (not old age, this is the 120-140 oz of water I drink in a day!) and typically once I wake up for the morning I go again and then weigh myself for the official weight of the day. I figure, all the excess water is gone or used up by my organs for whatever it needs and I'll be my lightest of the day! Hey, it works for me!
So officially I now weight 177.6 which means I've lost 25.5 lbs. I need to do an official measurement of everything but honestly, I know I'm smaller since I'm starting to drift more and more into size 10's & 12's again! Still, my hips and mostly my waist are holding out on me so I'm really in between sizes. In a looser cut dress I'm a 10 or 12 and the fitted ones I'm a 12. Pants and tighter fitted shirts are still a gamble and need to be tried on but I'm not complaining! I am getting farther and farther away from that dreaded size 16 that I was for over a year.
I am finally in a place where I realize this success is not elusive but won with determination and will power. I had a really awful weekend (last week) with that fight I got into with my MIL which affected my eating and my loss. Everything I lost weight-wise went out the window and I retained and gained. Isn't that awful? Our bodies feel the stress (think about what a stressful society we live in - people are moving so quickly and constantly worrying about things) and it does the very thing we don't want it to! When you think back to primitive man, they would stress over being prey, going hungry, being prey, going hungry, winter/cold, where to get water, etc., and their bodies would try to hold on to every pound it had so he could survive! That's what happened to me.... first I realized I shorted myself on food. I ate at weird times, in a rush, didn't eat enough and made my body think 'something's up - gotta store up some fuel since Trina's stressing out over something' and I gained almost half a pound. That's how finely tuned the body is! I did not know this until I put my body into this very careful and clean eating lifestyle.
So I ended up losing all of last week's gain and then some once I decided to not let stress (or my MIL) ruin my efforts. I lost 3 lbs of fat last week, gained .25 in muscle and 1.5" off my hips, thorax and thigh. That's saying something! And because my weigh in is actually earlier than my week finishes I get to count today's personal weigh in so I actually lost even more weight than my coach saw. I tend to lose around a pound 2 days after my weigh in...I don't know how or why other than maybe it's that stupid stress thing? I do relax quite a bit after I leave the office. I am an overachiever and tests and other things we use for accountability are the ultimate competition for me. I want to succeed all the time. Part of my genetics.... silly Asian mentality. ;-)
You know what is super cool about this diet? IF, and I say a huge IF you follow this plan 100% and do not cheat (specifically the carbs, occasional splurges of fat seem to accelerate the loss - I am living proof of that!) you will lose on the average 3-5 lbs a week (women). Men lose up to 7 lbs in a week. So if you're losing 3 lbs a week you are losing almost .5 lbs a day. What is fascinating to me is that I see .5 almost everyday. Sometimes it's not but typically I do see .5 on the scale every morning. That just blows my mind. Some people are a freak of nature and lose more. Those very obese people with 100's to lose will lose 10-15 lbs a week in the beginning and sometimes continue losing 7-10 lbs or 3-15 inches within a week's time. Eventually, the body does adjust and comes down to the normal 3-7 lbs a week but it keeps losing. We do plateau occasionally and then have to mix it up a little (changing our highest carb meal, cutting our extra treat, add a little fat, a little more exercise, etc.) but that's normal. As we get closer to our goals we will slow down and lose a pound or less, maybe just lose inches that week, etc. I do know from reading about other people's journeys even those plateaus seem to induce a huge loss after a little stall. Typically it's 4-7 lbs. It is absolutely crazy how well our bodies respond to this way of eating. So why aren't more people eating low carb?
If you do this without the medical supervision it's obviously cheaper. You do end up eating more carbs but as long as you really plan well, it's doable. I'm glad I don't have to worry about that just yet. I really like having the accountability to myself and my coach, writing in my food journal (who knew I would totally love doing this????) so I can figure out what went wrong or right, and not having to count carbs right now. Eventually, that becomes part of the maintenance and I'll do fine but until I get to my 23% body fat goal (or at least close to it) I will keep on doing this. I have a hunch by the time I get to Thanksgiving weekend I'll be there or really close. I do intend to indulge on that day although it won't be a crazy amount of carbs.... I am really looking forward to things like that turkey, roasted veggies, gravy and cranberry sauce though. See? Even my attitude toward stuffing and potatoes has changed. I will eat a little I am sure of it. But I don't necessarily want a huge pile like I would normally want! The idea of that slice or two of turkey breast covered in gravy and roasted brussel sprouts are what are making my mouth salivate! I will then go through 2-3 days of super clean eating again to get back into ketosis and hopefully be in Phase 2 or 3. I am psyched, because it means by the time we go to San Diego for Christmas I will probably be at the size I was always meant to be. My mom would be so flippin' proud of me if she could see this. I know she'd probably be doing it with me if she could see my glucose numbers (which I'm still waiting for....hurry up GH and get my test results online!) and prove once and for all that diabetes is beatable.
Oh my... did I mention my cholesterol is so much better than last year? I have to put down my numbers from a year ago to today. I'm not perfect yet but I am out of the woods thanks to IP. Okay, here's the list:
2013
Cholesterol 214* (normal is 100-199)
HDL Cholesterol 50 (normal is 40-120)
Chol/HDL Ratio 4.3 (normal is 1.5-5.0)
Triglycerides 180 (normal is 40-249)
LDL Cholsterol 128 (normal is 30-129)
2012
Cholesterol 257*
HDL Cholesterol 35*
Chol/HDL Ratio 7.3*
Triglycerides 428*
LDL Cholesterol 166*
So my cholesterol still needs to come down 15 more points to get into normal range but DAMN I brought it down 43 points! Check out the rest! I am super proud that I brought everything else into normal range! Especially my triglycerides! 428 to 180? DAMN!!!! So losing around 18 lbs at the time of my physical brought about that result. I am totally willing to go back after I phase into maintenance to see my numbers again. Yes, I would be willing to go back for a freaking blood test to prove that I was completely out of the danger zone!
This blog turned into a much longer one than I expected but I guess I had a lot of things to get off my chest. I'm really proud...really happy to see the good things that are coming from this program. If there's anyone out there reading this I hope I have encouraged you to take the first step and go to an information meeting. I still have about 25 lbs to go (depends as it's really my body fat percentage I'm going for) and I'm hoping that 8 weeks will take care of that. Actually, since phase 2 still shows weight loss it might happen a week or so sooner! I'm half way through the initial journey it seems and I couldn't be happier. I look forward to eating ALL real foods again but I'm totally okay with what I'm doing to lose this extra fat on my body. There's the difference - I don't care what I weigh as long as I'm getting rid of the bad fat and getting all my numbers into a normal range. That's really the ultimate goal!
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