Weighty Update

Just in case you've been wondering how my weight loss efforts have been going, I thought I'd post and update on it.  I decided about the middle of last week to try cutting out all carbs for breakfast to extend natural morning ketosis, and eating only at meal times (three times a day) in the hopes that cutting out mindless/emotional/boredom eating would help me lose some of the extra 20 pounds I'm carrying around.

Sticking to the eating plan has been very easy most of the time.  I don't feel hungry between meals much, and when I do, I drink water or flavored seltzer.  And of course I'm still eating the low carb whole foods I've been eating for almost a year.  I haven't even been eating low carb treats much.  Just meat, eggs, dairy, veggies, and fruit.

I thought I was actually losing weight at first.  I started at about 183.6 and quickly went down to 182.2.  But it started creeping back up, and I'm back to 183.6 today, so I guess that's a bust. 

Worse, I've found myself really tired this week.  Kind of devoid of pep.  Now, this could be because it's in the 90s with like 300% humidity, and since we live in western NY, AC is a luxury not a necessity.  But something tells me that it's more than just the heat and humidity.  I've been waking up groggy and tired and with the distinct desire to go right back to bed.  And this morning, I was so hungry that I ended up eating a big cup of yogurt with breakfast with some fruit in it.  I had a really big lunch, too.  It's like I can't get full today.

I'm feeling a little discouraged.  I want to be slimmer of course, but I don't think it's worth it if I have to feel tired and ravenous all the time.  This is how I used to feel on a low calorie vegetarian diet, and that was a horrible way to live. 


Maybe I should give it a few more days and see how it goes.  Maybe I should try eating more at meals to keep from getting hungry.  I dunno, honestly.  I just keep hearing a voice in my head that says that 20 pounds overweight isn't that much, considering I've already lost 90 pounds, and I shouldn't be worrying about it.  Yes, I'd like to hit that magical 100 pound mark.  I'd also like to be in the "normal" BMI range.  But those are just numbers, afterall.  The body doesn't know what those numbers are.  All it knows is if it's sick or healthy, and my body is definitely healthy. 

Some Thoughts

I ranted a little bit the other day about how I really wanted to be skinny sometimes, but that I'm afraid to try anything extreme to actually get there for fear it would hurt my body or, should I get pregnant, my baby's body.  I got a lot of advice and some well wishing from folks, and I thank you all for your concern.  That was really touching.

I've been thinking about it a little bit, and I decided that even though I don't want to do anything extreme, such as cutting calories or trying to get into nutritional ketosis, I think I will make some changes.  I'll admit that I've gotten a little lax in my eating habits.  I don't mean to say that I've started eating bad foods regularly; I'm still grain, soy, gluten, seed oil, and sugar free most of the time.  But there are times where I find myself emotional eating, or worse, boredom eating.  Yes, I'm eating good foods, but the fact that I'm eating when I'm not actually hungry?  That's probably not good, right?

My thinking is that I'm going to try doing the No S Diet again, which basically means no snacks between meals, no seconds, and no sweets; of course, I'll still be eating the healthy low carb, whole foods that I already eat, only less often.  I tried this method before, and it does seem to help.  I only stopped doing it because I had a lot of emotional stress at one point that sent me right to munching between meals.

What I like about this plan is that if I get hungry between meals, I drink a glass of water or seltzer, which is very good.  I oftentimes get so full at mealtimes that I don't have room left for water, and I don't always remember to drink it between meals.  And drinking lots of water, aside from aiding digestion and being cleansing, also helps with a woman's fertility by increasing fertile cervical fluids.  There's your fertility lesson for the day.

I also am going to try having a 0 carb breakfast to keep the natural morning ketosis going until lunchtime.  I told a commenter that I already eat 0 carbs for breakfast, but I remembered later that this isn't actually true.  I usually have 1/2 a cup of plain full fat yogurt, or 1/3 a cup of cottage cheese with my eggs and bacon.  So I'm going to cut the dairy out in the morning and see if that makes a difference.

I do want to lose more weight.  At 185 pounds, I'm not skinny; I'm not exactly fat (I wear size 14 pants and large shirts), but I have rolls and flab I would love to get rid of.  But at the same time, I don't want food to become an obsession.  I actually enjoy the carefree relationship I have with food right now.  I know what I can and can't eat, and I eat what I want.  I don't lose any weight, but I'm certainly not gaining back any of the 90 pounds I lost.  So that's why I don't want to go into full diet mode.

When I look back at the time I was on a low calorie diet, it's worrying.  I was so obsessed with food at that point that it was all I did all day long.  Reading articles, tracking food, counting calories, denying my deep gnawing hunger.  When I think about it now, it almost seems like an eating disorder, or at least the beginnings of one.  The last thing I ever want to do is become so obsessed with food that I start hurting myself or my family.

That's why I'm only taking small steps.  I'm healthy right now; I'm fit, active, happy, and strong.  I don't want to do anything that might jeopardize that.

No S Diet Progress

I started eating a low carb version of the No S Diet about two weeks ago, in an attempt to stop my in-between-meal hunger and the snacking that followed.  So I thought it would be a great time for an update.

Just to recap, on the No S Diet, you basically just eat three square meals a day with no snacks, no sweets, and no seconds.  The first two days I was on the diet, I decided to pretty much stuff myself at meal times in hopes that it would help get me through to the next meal.  For the most part, that worked, but I did still feel a little hunger.  Also, I realized that eating that much actually gave me unnatural amounts of energy and made me incredibly hot (which sounds great, but actually having a ton of energy you don't know how to use can be uncomfortable).  So by the third day, I decided to tone it down a bit and eat what I would have normally eaten anyway. 

The results?  By the third day, my in-between-meals hunger had completely gone away, and I'm not eating any more at meal times than I was before.  I'm completely amazed at how quickly my body was able to adjust to only getting food at meal times.  I did backslide on the day of and the day after Chad and I did the Reese's portion of our N=2 experiment.  Eating so much sugar made me so hungry that night, and even the day after, I had those same in-between-meals pangs that I used to get.  But by the next day, I was good to go again. 

I'm really curious to see if this will affect my weight.  I've actually put on weight since I started, but I know from experience that that's just a normal part of my menstrual cycle and it'll go away in a few days.