Dieting and Kindness

Today on a WW group I belong to on FB someone asked a simple question about water and/or juice fasting.  I was dismayed by all the negative comments and just downright meanness that came out of these people.  I commented recommending a couple documentaries (Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead (FSND) and The Science of Fasting) and shared a little bit of my experience with fasting.  Those of us who fight our weight should know how hard this is and that not everything works for everyone.  I'm sure we all know someone who lost weight on any of the major diets out there and you might have tried some of those diets yourself and not had the same experience.  Our bodies react to food combinations differently and being hurtful to each other is not the sort of diet community I am looking for.  I told my hubby when I hit post that I wondered how many flames would be shot at me.  I've had issues with this group several times over the last few months so it might be time to hit that leave group button.  This mama don't need more drama!!

That post is also very timely for me.  Hubby and I started a 15 day juice fast with FSND this week.  Today will be our first juice only day.  We spent the week having green smoothies for breakfast, salads for lunch, and vegetable soups for dinner.  I lost 4.1# over the five days and my hubby lost 7#. I feel so much lighter and less bloated.  My digestive system is singing and my sleep has been better.  It's not an easy thing to do but I'm finding that I'm actually not that hungry but more so it's my mind that I am fighting.  I feel like I'm winning that war by keeping my mind on what matters most.  I remind myself that what I want in the moment is not what I want the most.

I'm trying to refocus my thoughts on non-food related things.  I've been spending more time reading for fun (reading Outlander #8 right now), watching movies with my hubby (we are on a Marvel Universe adventure to watch everything in chronological order - yep we are such geeks!), and crafting (making cards, scrapbooking, and crocheting is on the agenda).  I've also been doing some yoga each morning (check out Yoga with Adriene on YT!), getting to the gym twice a week to work on cardio, and finding small ways to incorporate more movement into each day.  I've also started getting the yard ready for summer and have plans to do a big clean in our crawl space.  We are hoping to move this summer back to my husband's hometown so getting that crawl space cleared out now will definitely make that activity much easier when the time comes.

Well...gotta get going and get those jars filled with wonderful juice!

Losing DietBets and Trying New Things

This morning is a little sad because I've lost another round in my current Dietbet. I'm at 201.1 and I needed to be at 192.8 so it's not something I can hop on the treadmill and meet. This is my second 6 month diet bet and the first one I won every single round. This one I've really been struggling and it's caused me to obsess over the scale. I'm trying to move to a more healthy place with weight loss and just health in general.  Not 100% sure how that will look but I'll work my way through it.

I'm still fighting the foot thing and that has me down a little bit as well. I have been able to get in 30-40 minute walks each evening so I'm glad for that. It seems that my running shoes are really causing me problems but that when I put on my hiking boots I'm able to do more. I think I'm going to contact my doctor when we get back from vacation and see what can be done. I'm still doing the calf stretches on the stairs and the frozen golf ball massages but I can't tell if they are helping. No quick fix for this issue is what I've come to understand - ugh!

On the eating front we are transitioning out of juicing and I'm going to try using Weight Watchers SmartPoints program (on my own because they are wicked expensive). I know that I feel better when I eat a South Beach type of diet but SB is way too free flowing for me and I overdo it on portions. However, my research on the WW SP program looks like they are moving more toward a SB stance on sugars and their resulting carbs. They are still really low on the good fat side of the house but I can always use the extra points I earn for fitness (30 minutes of walking is 5 points) to incorporate more fat. I bought an inexpensive tracker app for my iPhone and I like it so far. It's called iTrackBites and it was $3.99. I haven't purchased any of the extra guides yet but I'm thinking about it. Last night I just went through my kitchen and scanned the barcodes of some of the items in my salad and it worked for all of them except the code on the avocado. It was 4 points for the half an avocado I put on my salad - yikes!! See what I mean about the good fats? I was surprised to see that my juices run about 10-12 points each. The fruit is free on the program but I guess when you juice out the pulp it increases the points value. It sort of makes sense that if you are throwing out all the insoluble fiber your body will use the energy quicker but it's still disheartening. I have a days worth of juice still in the fridge and a days worth of juicing produce on the counter. My original thought was to finish off the juices that are already made and then I will peel all the oranges we have left and freeze them - I love eating frozen orange slices on a hot day. However, when I shared that plan with my hubby he really wanted me to juice what's left and continue with juices for another day or so for breakfast and lunch. He really loves the juices and does really well with them. We will still eat a healthy dinner of solid food. Compromise is the name of the game! :-)

I would love to get to a place where I am eating a healthy diet, exercising by doing things I love, and maintaining a healthy weight. I know I will get there but the journey is really hard!

Changes and Disclosures!

Well...I am on day 19 of a juice fast (the last 8 without any coffee at all!!) and I've lost a little over 10# which is great.  However, I have been pretty miserable the whole time.  Not really all that physically miserable but emotionally worn out.  While juicing has done incredible things for me I have come to realize that I need to do something more sustainable and easier on my psyche.  I've done South Beach in the past and have really liked it.  The losses are definitely going to be slower this way but that's ok with me.  I miss so much about eating real food and it's been a huge struggle to either be going without real food while I'm juicing or having another juicing fast looming over my head.  I am finishing off the last of my juices today and tomorrow starts some new eating patterns.  I am definitely going to try to make the majority of my food fall into the vegetable category but it's time for some real food again - you know, the stuff that tastes really good and you have to chew?!?

So that's the changes part of my title and now comes the hard part - the disclosures!!  I've been very hesitant to share my weight on this blog but I've recently realized how much I get from the blogs of people who share where they started, where they are, and how they got there.  Hopefully by putting myself out there I can maybe inspire someone else like I've been inspired by others.  So...here goes...

My history prior to January 2015 when I started this blog is written about in this post:  http://gabbyspersonaljourney.blogspot.com/2015/01/first-post.html.  The highest weight I referred to there was 262 pounds (yikes!).  I got down to 206 on my wedding day and that has been the lowest I've been since 1999 when I got down under 200 for my sister's wedding.  I've already written about how I started to gain some of the weight back after I got married in 2013 and what I've been doing since then.  And that brings us to today...when I weighed in this morning I was at 207.6.  I'm getting really close to One-derland again and my next DietBet goal is 205.5 but unfortunately I have to meet that tomorrow.  I've been struggling the last week on the juice fast by staying right around the 208 mark.  I'm planning on a long walk with my husband tonight and crossing my fingers that some of this latest plateau is some water weight that will come off between now and tomorrow.  However, I'm not completely living in fantasy land - I definitely understand that tomorrow might be my first ever unmet weigh in on my DietBet journey.  If that's the case, I can't promise I won't shed a tear or be sad but what I can promise is that I will not give up.  I have goals and I plan to reach them!!

Here's my plan over the next month to reach my DietBet goal of 199.2 by May 9th:

Follow South Beach phase 1 for the next two weeks and then slowly introduce phase 2 foods
Do not go to bed until I have at least 7,000 steps on my Garmin
Drink at least 84 ounces of water a day (3 fills of my water bottle)

First Transformer Complete!!!

Well...I did it!!  I met all the goals on my first DietBet Transformer!!  I made it by the skin of my teeth (.5 to spare) but I made it!!  I officially lost 24.1 pounds in this six month DietBet challenge.  That makes my total loss 44.1 from my highest weight!!  I'm super happy with this!  And I did it even though during this DietBet I had Thanksgiving, Christmas, a 12 day vacation to Disney/Universal, and numerous business trips!  In the past that would have been an open invitation to putting on at least 10 pounds and most likely more.  The key to my success is definitely juicing and the support of my husband.  I never would have been able to stay on the juicing train without him.

I'm going to sign up for another Transformer right away so I don't do any backsliding.  I'm not sure what day that starts but hopefully it will be this week.  I'm also going to have to really get back into working out.  I have no real excuse for not doing it other than lazy butt syndrome (LBS).  LBS has gotten me into more trouble over the years than I care to admit and I need to banish it from my life!!

I started to write here that I wanted to get to my goal weight by the end of the year but I just did the math and that would be setting myself up for failure.  I think instead my goal is going to be to continue with DietBet on a continuous basis and that should put me at goal around October next year.  It sounds so far away but it seems so much more doable than my normal way of setting goals that usually leave me feeling like a failure.

I don't have the grand total on what I won during this DietBet but I'm guessing I will have about $325 in my account.  I spent $125 to join the bet so that's a $200 profit!!!  I'll have to give some thought to what I'm going to do with my winnings to celebrate.  I'm leaning toward some sort of jewelry that I can wear and remember how it felt to meet my goals.

Juicing - Day 24

We have been doing pretty good with juicing!  We did end up buying a new juicer so I guess my first piece of advice is to buy the best juicer you can right off the bat.  We bought the Breville BJE820XL Juice Fountain Duo Dual Disc Juicer from Amazon.  We haven't used the smoothie disc yet but I plan on trying it out later this week.

We have been juicing the majority of our meals but eating full meals every few days.  We are both feeling great!  I've lost 10# and the hubby has lost more than that - he can't remember off the top of his head right now.  Isn't that crazy how us girls can tell you to the tenth of a pound exactly how much we've lost?!?  Or maybe that's just me and I obsess about it too much!  I'm absolutely thrilled with how the weight is coming off.  In the past I would be lucky to lose a pound a week and I'm averaging almost .5# per day and I feel fantastic.  The first few days were rough but I think that was mainly the caffeine withdrawals.  There are some juices that we absolutely don't like but we have found a couple that are real winners.  Here are the recipes for the two we really like - this makes two servings each:

Green Citrus (Green Juice)
4 Oranges
4 Apples (I like to use Fujis)
4 Handfuls Spinach

Orange Dreamsicle (Orange Juice)
1 Pineapple
2 Oranges
3 Apples
6-8 Carrots

ps...the hubby found his weight loss - 13.1# as of October 31st.  He did have to go out of town for a week last week so he wasn't able to juice much and he hasn't weighed himself yet.  He looks thinner to me!!

Time to Reboot!

Hubby and I watched Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead on Netflix last week and it really resonated with us both.  So...we went to Whole Foods today and spent our son's inheritance on lots of good organic produce and tomorrow we start!  Here's what our kitchen looks like now!

It was quite the chore to get everything to fit - yikes!  This is just 8 days worth of produce and I don't think I could have fit anymore than that.  We are planning to do the 15 day juice fast to start and then see how we feel about lengthening it.  We both take allergy meds and have some digestion issues as well. We are hoping that through this fast we are able to get those allergies under control and alleviate those digestion issues.  The research I have done is really promising that the ailments we suffer from don't have to be addressed with pills.  It would also be great if we lost a little bit of weight along the way!  We've been doing well eating mainly South Beach phase 2 foods but I think the fast will take it up a notch and shake our bodies up which is great since I am still in my DietBet - I won the last round by the way!!

Tonight I went ahead and made our breakfast for tomorrow and Monday.  It doesn't look like much but it smells amazing!!  It's called Apple-Berry Bake and it consists of 4 Fuji apples cored and chopped, 2 cups of strawberries that I sliced in half, about a cup of home dehydrated raisins, 2 teaspoons of cinnamon, and 1 teaspoon of nutmeg.  I covered it with foil and baked it in a 375 degree oven for 45 minutes.  This will serve us breakfast tomorrow and Monday.

We have five days of eating and juicing and then it will be 10 days of juice only after that.  I'm really excited to get to day four since that is when everyone says it starts getting easier and you experience loads of energy.  I can't lie though - the lack of coffee is going to be brutal those first few days!!  I feel for my husband dealing with me.  Luckily I've already started cutting back to one cup a day for the last week or so.  I'm still not looking forward to that part.

Ok...off to finish my last glass of wine for quite some time I think!!  But...wine is made from grapes so doesn't that make it a fruit?  ;-)