Results & The Things Everyone Can Agree About

1. Water is good
2. Vegetables are good
3. Refined sugar is not great
4. Oxygen is important

Those seem to be the only four things that the nutrition community can agree upon. And that’s with the third one being debatable and that fourth one being a joke. So really, there’s only two things we can agree on. Are eggs good? Does butter raise the good kind of cholesterol? Do we need carbs for energy? What minion of Satan marketing executive made up the terms ‘superfood’ and ‘foodie’? Whoever you are, you superfood-curating foodie, I hate you.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I found myself back at the lowest and worst junction of weight loss. This is where I’ve completely faced the consequences and results of my recent bout of not caring and subsequent weight gain, and want to do something about it, but haven’t yet started.

This is the worst part because before this, I was eating terribly and had gained weight, but didn’t care and/or was in denial, so it was okay in a way. Past this point, I might still feel like crap about the gain, but will have lost a couple of pounds and feel like I’ve really started to do something. But the in-between of these two things? When you’re on the bottom between the twin peaks of weight gain and accomplishment? They suck.

I tried to figure out where to start. I’ve been at this point, even written about it here. Last time, I decided that I needed a slap in the face, to cut out the food groups that I couldn’t control myself around, so that hopefully, eventually, I could come to a middle ground of sustainable weight loss and maintenance. I’ve written about going to the other extreme to find moderation. God, that’s depressing to think how I’ve been on this exact pathway.

In the end, I decided to try a modified kind of Whole30. Why Whole30, a “cleansing health food plan” that I genuinely think is mostly fear-mongering pseudo-science? I’m… not quite sure. It was something that cut out carbs and sweets, the areas where I have the most trouble. It’s really similar to Atkins, except Atkins is a diet and Whole30 is some kind of “reset” that most people end up losing weight on.

On Whole30, you can eat: meat, fish, eggs, vegetables (including potatoes), nuts, oils, and fruits

That means you’re supposed to cut out: Dairy, legumes (so peanuts too), grains, soy, sugar in any form except fruit, and alcohol. I might be missing some stuff for the 30-day plan, but that’s the gist of it.

I’m not following it perfectly - I’m still having a teaspoon of sugar in my coffee, and haven’t cut out soy sauce. But other than that, it's been good. I'm eating a lot of meat and vegetables, mostly. The hardest part has been breakfast. I don't think I'll ever be able to face meat for breakfast, so it's either eggs in some form, or a banana with almond butter. I miss my yogurt.

How they see my sugar consumption, I assume.

This weekend wasn't great though. I had some sweets at a wedding and then some more crap at a BBQ we went to yesterday. I was angry at myself, trying to remember that guilt is useless, and focus on 1) how I’ve been doing pretty great otherwise and 2) It would have been 10x worse. So far it's mostly working.

I have just under two weeks left, and I’ve really been digging this whole not-tracking thing. I’ve know I’ve spouted tracking as my personal good path to weight loss, but at this point I like cutting out some foods more than tracking all of them.

Weight update:

	Start	2 Weeks	Change
Weight	182.6	177.6	5
Lbs. Fat	70.9	68	2.9
Lbs. Muscle	Unsure	63.8

A cool five pounds in two weeks! I’m really pleased with that, which is a weird feeling since it’s overlaid with enormous annoyance that I’m back in the 170s. But moving on, and down.

Weekly Weigh-In: Ten Pounds Down

I kind of want to make a list all of the things I didn’t eat this week - the apple cider donuts brought in by a coworker, the candy in the office bowl, the muffins, bagels, and croissants from today’s “welcome to the firm” breakfast for a new lawyer, even more meeting food, the office candy - because I’m proud. It was in part due to my low/no sugar goal, and partially because I’m feeling motivated. My new rule made it much easier to say no because it took the choice out of the matter. Somehow I forgot about habits and default settings, those automatic answers we have to offers of food and only-available-for-the-next-twenty-minutes cat scratchers.

Last week’s weigh in below.

	6/8/2014	8/4/2014	8/12/2014	8/19/2014	8/26/2014	9/3/2014	9/10/2014	9/17/2014
Weight	191.2	184	183	182.6	181.4	182.8	182	180.4
Pounds Fat	82.7	74.5	70.4	72.5	71.8	73	71.7	72.1
Pounds Muscle	67.3	68.2	66.4	66.8	67.3	67.2	67.5	64.4

I’m happy to be down, especially since that makes an official ten pound lost, and twenty from my highest weight! However, still annoyed because I “should” really be into the 170s by now. I’ve tracked every day, and I’ve added up all those calorie deficits. But the 170’s continue to act as a bitchy PR girl at at opening, refusing to let me in. At the end of August, when I said my new goal was get into the 170’s in September, I thought I would knock that out within a week and work on the next goal. But nope. By my estimates, if my BMR is 1850, I should be down 14 pounds, to 177. But after I whine, I keep going, because nobody said weight loss is supposed to be linear.

Still hitting up the gym 4-5 times a week. I've skipped Zumba the past couple of weeks since my buddy is out of town, but we've still had a regular Sunday workout. I am definitely stronger than I used to be - yesterday I did 15 repetitions at 45 pounds of the overhead press. Two months ago, I could barely push out ten repetitions at 25 pounds! The tops of my arms are definitely firmer.

Looking ahead, there will be a couple of challenging occasions. Tomorrow we’re off to Michigan to visit my in-laws. It’s the Jewish New Year, which means that we celebrate and eat a lot. J’s two siblings will also be there, which is wonderful. It also means no MyFitnessPal tracking, no weighing food, and no gym.

I’m going to focus on the next decade - the elusive, bitchy 170s nightclub - that I’ve been trying to get into for what feels like forever. This holiday can get me further to my goals, or take me further from them. My current plan is to choose one unhealthy thing at each meal - at the main part and dessert - that looks especially wonderful, enjoy it, and choose healthy options for the rest of the time. I’ll limit snacks to fruit. Since I don’t snack now, I’ll know that if I’m feeling snacky in Michigan, it’s probably something other than hunger. And I’ll remember that as amazing as food is in general, nothing I am offered, no matter how delicious, will be the last time I am able to eat that item.

Pants Progress and Low Sugar Breakfasts

I’m finally feeling out of my rut, actually motivated instead of just going through the motions. Proud that I kept slugging along, even when it was the last thing I wanted to do. Perhaps the new challenge of cutting out (most) sugar has helped, or maybe motivation really is like a wave, and if you can ride out the low points and keep going, you’ll get to a high point again.

Today, I had a great, wonderful moment. It had to do with pants. Over the last six months, I’ve only been able to wear one pair of pants to work; the other days I wear skirts or dresses. My other pairs of pants either don’t button, or look obscenely tight. Even the pair I actually wear to work doesn’t fit quite right, and they’re definitely not flattering. Today one of the old pairs fit me! Actually fit, not just “can technically button” fit. It’s one of the first concrete proofs of weight loss that I’ve had, scale be damned. At work, I may have looked like I was wearing regular black slacks, but they were victory pants today.

It inspired me to finally take new progress photos, and created a page for them next to the "About Me." I aim to update it once a month.

In other news, the no-sugar challenge has been going well, and having this idea in my head that I’m doing this has made it much easier to bypass the candy at work. Today there was a huge platter of pastries next to my desk, and I didn’t have any. This is a huge accomplishment for me, since even during great weight loss weeks, I still usually “spend” 100-200 calories on little bites from these.

However, you know what has a lot of sugar? My breakfasts, it seems. When I decided to omit sugar from my diet (with the exception of morning coffee), I was focusing on work treats and extraneous evening snacks more than breakfasts. However, since I’m trying to cut sugar during the day, I figured I may as well make some effort to have less sugary breakfasts.

I’m not creative with breakfasts: virtually every morning, I either have a package of Quaker Instant Oatmeal, microwaved with milk, or a flavored Greek yogurt. My oatmeal gets 25% of its 160 calories from sugar, and my yogurt of choice brags a full 30 grams per serving - so about 20% as well.

On Sunday, I made homemade oatmeal. It still has some sugar, but about one-third less than the packaged kind. I’ve been eating that for the last couple of days. Other days I’ll try Cheerios and milk, frozen waffles with peanut butter, or rice cakes with peanut butter and no-sugar-added jelly. They’re convenient, low sugar, and will get me to lunch, and I’m definitely open to other suggestions. However, I’m less inclined to have eggs since they have such a strong smell, and I prefer to torture my coworkers in other office-fun ways anyway.

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