Week 9 began

Wow.... I'm usually better about posting at the beginning of the week! I didn't even think about it since I posted my official WI results from last week.

As I said before, it was a crazy week or so. I didn't lose like I thought but my strange aversion to lettuce really cost me some loss and I have learned a valuable lesson. I know that I really need the fiber that salads/veggies provide and the benefits are actual weight loss. You'd think lettuce/greens would be a 'zero' but only Iceberg lettuce counts as an actual freebie in IP menus. All other lettuces have more calories and fiber and far less water content so they really help the body move the excess fat we eat out of our intestines and colon. That means less gain and more loss in the long run if we are eating correctly.

Well, my TOM finally decided to show up! It's about 2 weeks late but I have to take into consideration that I had the longest period of my life the last time (almost 3 weeks). Because IP attacks our fat storage for fuel it causes all the hormones that are stored in those fat cells to release into our blood stream and it wreaks all kinds of havoc on us. I'm not saying it's painful or anything but women tend to either have irregular cycles, get pregnant easily, go into menopause sooner depending on your age and your history. Go figure..... it's just part of the deal though and I'm willing to put up with it since I am having huge success with this program. I was berating myself this past week because of my slow loss and my major ups/downs in weight and I had forgotten that I've lost over 25 lbs in less than 2 months! Who does that on any regular diet? NO ONE. Yeah.... I'm happy again. I think I'm doing a great job.

I will openly admit I allow more fats in my diet than I probably should. I don't consider myself a real cheater since I do watch what I eat so much. I have a coconut creamer (It is coconut milk, 1 egg, 1 tblsp of vanilla, 1-2 tblsp of coconut oil blended together. Makes a week's worth) that I use in my coffee that is very high in fat but I only allow myself 2 tablespoons of it. It does not seem to affect my losses at all. I eat an occasional piece of bacon or 2 at a meal, maybe once a week. I eat hamburger once a week. Higher in fat, yes.... but I eat chicken and fish more often than not.  I allow myself a teaspoon of peanut butter once a week.

The great thing is, I don't cheat with sugar, bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, flour or the other things I always craved so much. Mark and I stopped at Wendy's one night after our show to get dinner for his mom. There were French fries in that bag (one of my BIG weaknesses) and I was wondering how I would handle the smell in the car ride home. Well, I stuck my head in the bag and took a huge whiff just to test myself and I honestly thought I would get sick from the greasy oil smell. YES, I ACTUALLY THOUGHT FRENCH FRIES WERE GROSS for the first time in my life and I wasn't even sick!

That was a huge revelation for me. I realized that I really don't like French fries. Now, if I go on a cheating bender after I go into maintenance I bet I'd like them again until I get a really horrible stomach ache but I finally could smell the grossness that is oily, fried foods. I need to try to remember that moment every time I get tempted.

Because this is such a game changing moment in my life I am really making efforts to study up on Paleo, gluten free, no sugar, and low carb cooking so I can really be prepped for the lifestyle change once I achieve my weight loss goals. Because Mark is not on IP (I wish we could afford to both be!) I am going to do my best to get him on it via real foods I make for him. He's pretty psyched about the gluten free/no sugar dessert cookbook I got because he will benefit most from that!

So week 9 begins with me 27 lbs down (and that's even with some water weight from TOM) so that's pretty darn good!  I know I'll fluctuate so I'll try not to weight myself too much this week if I can help it. I'm sure I'll be going up and down 3 lbs and I need to remember that is NORMAL. ;-)