September Food Check In
It has been a month, okay almost a month, since I wrote about the initial results of my food change. Other than a few cheats–like that rice craving that caused me to cave–I’ve been doing well, and not missing it. Mac even suggested that we go out for sushi a couple of days ago, and I passed*. I was craving pasta yesterday. I made vegetable soup. I’m over it today.
I’ve lost a total of 17.6 lbs. That 4 lb weight gain I had overnight never disappeared overnight. Nevertheless, I lost it in August, slowly. Despite that, the jeans that I moved down to now need a belt. I can’t yet take them off without unbuttoning them, but I can pull them down onto my hips. I searched my closet, and I have a stack of 6 pairs of pants in my target size, I have no pants at all in the next size up, which will be the size I’ll need soon. I have no idea why I don’t have any. Where did they go? I’m going to hit Kohl’s Labor Day sale, both for my kids and to at least grab me a couple pairs of pants. If weight loss stalls, I’ll get more. They also have exercise clothes on sale, and after picking up running again, I’ve learned the value of having clothes that wick the moisture away as opposed to cotton. I’m going to need some smaller of these as well.
In running news, I can run for 29 minutes straight. I’m confident that I can run for longer, but the program I’m doing has me running for 25, and then I pick up speed to push my heart rate up for as long as I can stand it. My program has switched to 28 minutes starting today for the next three runs. Then I have to run for 30 minutes for three days. Then I’ve completed the program. My last heart rate test, I hit my max heart rate at 180-181. When I started this program in July, I had the max heart rate of a 55 year old. The max heart rate for my age is around 185. I pace myself for my long runs around 171 without any pain. It took from July 2nd to get where I am.
My future plans for running are to do a Week 10 and run 33 minutes for three days. Then I was going to go back to Week 1**, running at my max heart rate. Then I’m just going to run a 5K every time I run.
*We already have a sushi date for Sept. 14th, so I’d rather save my cheat for then.
**Week One is this: Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes. This was difficult and I thought it was never going to end when I started in July.
I feel like I missed something. What is the food plan?
Right now I’m off of white flour, all breads/baked goods, and sugar. It’s eliminated cravings for me.
I’m eating the Primal Blueprint route, which eliminates all grains: no wheat, no rice, no soy, no corn, no oats, no barley, no sugars, no grain anything. I’m also avoiding starchy foods like white potatoes and beans, since that just converts to sugar. I’ve never felt better ever, nor have I lost weight this fast before. I have never in my life not had sugar/carb cravings. Even during the work contest when I eliminated what you did, I still craved it all of the time.
I also added fat back into my diet. I ditched skim milk for 2%. I saute my veges for my eggs in butter. Oh, and I eat eggs. And bacon. I now eat until I’m full instead of until my plate is empty. I don’t get hungry again until about the appropriate meal time instead of being hungry about 1 hour after eating. My afternoon tiredness is gone. My daily irritability and mood swings are gone. I’m watching myself melt back into a healthy weight without counting a single calorie.
It wasn’t a very hard change for me because I already avoid almost all packaged goods. It took about three weeks before my cravings were gone for good. Totally worth it.
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-101/
Wonderful; that’s really awesome!
I feel so much better without the processed carbs too (although for me, potatoes or peas/corn can be very satisfying at times.) Without going into too much gory detail, my “insides” also seem to like this way of eating.
I have issues beyond the physical craving (which I am addressing with an Overeaters Anonymous sponsor, 12-step work, etc.), but I must agree that cutting out the grain-carbs makes a huge difference in terms of hunger levels and physical cravings. Just a 180-degree difference.
Keep up the great work!
Thanks! I have a friend who started this, and her reoccurring GI issues have tamed quite a bit as well, much to her happiness.
Good luck with you keeping it up too!
You should try donating blood and then contracting salmonella, I lost 10 lbs that way!