Thanksgiving Measure Up!

        Ho Hum...kinda feeling wishy washy right now.  I wasn't exactly reasonable for Thanksgiving.  Oh well it's in the past, all I can do is focus on the future right?  Needless to say I ate and ate and ate and ate.  I didn't do air squats or tricep presses or any physical activity.  I just sat on my ass and ate anything and everything I wanted.  I felt like I really needed a trap door in my stomach to let out all the crap I ate.  That sounds so gross...but wouldn't it be handy?  Anyway  I weighed myself Wednesday, the day before my off day, since I was going to be away from home.  I was at 222.4...awesome!  8.5 pounds total loss so far.  I am pretty happy with that.  I measured myself this morning:

              Start 11/4               This Week 11/24            Loss        

           Right      Left               Right        Left      Right     Left
Arm     42.5      40.5                42.5            40           0          .5
Leg        77         77                   75           75.5          2           1.5
Waist         97.5                               93.5                        4
Hips           120                               117.5                      2.5

Total :      454.5                              444                       10.5 cm

Very Cool!!!  My waist and my hips are going faster than my legs or arms...which is typical for me.  I usually lose in my face first, then my waist.  I know what a blessing...but my problem area is my legs.  Anyway I really am motivated by these measurements!  My next off day will not be until December 1st...one week from today, so hopefully by then I will have gotten over the Thanksgiving spoils and maybe have lost a pound or so.  I will be happy if I am the same with all the crap I ate!!  I think I had 4 pieces of pie (2 pecan, apple and peach) And they were SO good.  I do believe that I make the BEST pecan pie EVER!  I love food so much...I plan for my off days.  I love that about this eating plan!

I am pretty close to a month on the 4HB diet and I don't feel hungry or deprived.  I don't get cravings (except for chocolate sometimes), and when I do eat carbs my gut tells me somethings wrong!  The sugar it seems to handle ok, but the gluten laden flours give my lower gut a punch and I get some rip roaring gas!  (Gross I know!)  So maybe that is a sign that I am getting a little gluten intolerant...who knows.  I am planning on doing a digestive system cleanse when I am done nursing my 8 month old.  I think that will help my metabolism too.  

Cheers!!!

Finishing up Week 2...CM Loss!!

Its Sunday 11/11/12. I'm finishing up my second week on the Slow Carb Diet.  I weighed myself yesterday morning, before my off day.  I was 224.8.  So that is a total loss of 4.8 pounds in 12.5 days.  Okay I suppose, when I started this diet I was very lofty at thinking I would lose 5 pounds a week.  As I have researched and read what others have attained, women usually don't lose as quickly as men.  OF COURSE they don't, why was I fooling myself?  But I had a nice bonus...I wore a pair of jeans last night that made me feel like a sausage stuffed in a casing last time I put them on.  Not that they were loose or anything, but they weren't uncomfortable!  Yay.  So I need to go measure my self and see how the centimeters look.

Here are the measurements:

                      Start 11/4               This Week 11/11            Loss        

           Right      Left               Right        Left      Right     Left
Arm     42.5      40.5                42.5          40           0          .5
Leg        77         77                   75           76           2           1
Waist         97.5                               96.5                       1
Hips           120                                119                        1

Total :      454.5                              449                       5.5 cm

Cool!  That is something to be happy about.  2.2 inches...yes I am all about numbers.  I think Tim is right.  Tracking is motivation, even the smallest increments in the direction you want to go is motivating.  So slowly I'm heading to my goal of 20 pounds by Christmas.  I think I can do it.

My husband asked me if I thought the ice packs in the evenings were helping.  I really don't know, but I figure it can hurt.  I tried to take a cold shower last night...not so nice.  I even backed the water off slowly and I couldn't stand cool water, let alone just cold water...burrrrrr!  The past 2 days have cooled off, so me and my family are huddled around the pellet stove right now.  It doesn't get too cold down in these parts, us desert rats like our warmth!!

I had a good off day yesterday   I didn't feel sick last night like I did last week.  I had my slow carb breakfast and the rest of the day didn't really think about what I ate.  I made pumpkin cinnamon rolls which were so yummy.  Had fried chicken breasts for lunch and had red enchiladas, beans, rice, chips and salsa for dinner.  It was so great.  Oh and chocolate cake for dessert.  I had a couple s'mores sometime in between, not as good as on the campfire...but the propane flame did its job.

So far I am pretty happy on this "diet".  I think I like it better than anything else I have done.  It seems more doable on the long term.  Especially for a ranchers wife that like her meat and beans.  It works for my lifestyle.  My husband and boys love meat and beans so I don't have to cook anything special for me.  My husband is Type 1 diabetic, and this diet is great for his blood sugar maintenance.  I think he eats better when I eat better.  So far so good...happy, satisfied and looking forward to more motivating results!

Till next post....  

It's Chile not Chili!!!

Just thought I would give a little update on how things are going.  I feel like I am doing pretty good.  Although I do have to admit that I had one square of a lindt chocolate bar...maybe an ounce?  It was pretty tasty.  Probably shouldn't have done that, but oh well.

I feel pretty good, good energy and I have not been hungry really at all.  I started my ice packs on Monday like I said I would.  We will see what it does.  I am going to weigh on Saturday instead of tomorrow and do my off day Saturday too.  I have a Enchilada Dinner benefit to go to Saturday night, and enchiladas sound pretty dang good!  I love red chile.  For those of you who don't know what that is, it is a sauce made from red hot New Mexico chile's.  Not that nasty canned enchilada sauce...gross as Hell!  The state question (yes we have a state question) for NM is "Red or Green?" Chile that is...RED baby all the way for me.  (and since I am a chile snob, it is chile with and "e" not chili with and "i"!!!)  Chili is like texas chili beans, or gringo chili as my husband says.  Basically tomatoes, meat and some chili powder...good but not what I'm talking about.  So get yourself some Hatch, NM chile...red or green, and culture you palate   Your taste buds will thank you (your ass may not)!   Anyway off my Chile soapbox.

Although I have been incorporating chile (green) in to my slow carb diet.  It is a high powered veggie...has way more vitamin C than an orange...bet you didn't know that!!!

I have set a goal for myself of 20 lbs of loss by Christmas.  I am aiming for that mark.  I am going to reward myself with one of these awesome handmade silver bracelets (HappyGoLicky on Etsy) that says "DETERMINATION"  So hopefully this blog will help me get there!!!

Looking forward to my weigh in and measurements in a couple days!

Day 8 One week weigh in

Well I'm not over joyed this morning.  I am at 228 this morning.  But not gonna let it get me down.  I am positive that it is water weight after my off day Saturday.  I was so thirsty yesturday I think I drank over a gallon of water.  I guess its from my carbs and sugar on Saturday.  It doesn't help that I think I might be a little sick...kinda have a scratchy throat and sound like a man.

I have decided to do my weekly weigh in on the morning before my off day.  That will keep me positive I hope!  So my next weight day will be Friday morning (11/9/12).  I am working my day off back to a Thursday, so that Thanksgiving can be my off day.  I don't know if that is ever done, but why not?  So I will do Fridays as day off for 2 weeks then Thursday then go back to Friday then Saturday.  I think that is fair.

I am going to start doing ice packs tonight.  I will do an ice pack on my neck and shoulders for 30 minutes each evening this week.  Hey...it can't hurt to try right?  I really don't think I can stand a cold shower and know that I would freeze my nipples off if I tried to do an ice bath...it makes me want to scream like a banshee just thinking about it!!!

Til next post.....

Measurements Day 7

So I promised measurements...here they are.  I am a week into the Slow Carb Diet.

I measured in centimeters.  The more increments there are, the bigger the loss looks right????  Mind games...they work!!

            Right      Left
Arm     42.5      40.5
Leg        77         77
Waist         97.5
Hips           120

Total centimeters, drum-roll please:   454.5

Wonderful, hopefully it will go down next week.  I really need to put a pic don't I?...maybe.  Not too sure if I want to go there yet.  Maybe in a month I will do a before and after.  I think I need a little more confidence than I have to put a yucky picture of me for the world to see.  Well not that anyone is really looking, but potentially it could happen right?

Day 6 First Off Day...Ugh!

Whew, well that's all for my first day off.  I was really looking forward to it, but right now I kinda feel like hurling!!  I weighed in this morning...226.4.  Down 3.2 lbs in five days...not too shabby, that's what 0.64 lb average daily loss.  I am going to measure tomorrow and post it.  I still haven't found a place to do my fat % yet.  I want to still though.  I'm guessing I'm about 35%...that sounds disgusting, over 1/3 of my body is fat (GAG!).

So what did I eat today:

      9 am or so

• 2 hard boiled eggs first and a couple glasses of water
• 2 1/2 biscuits, sausage gravy, and a fried egg...YUM  (by the way all my food is HOMEMADE!)
• Coffee with cinnamon and a 1/2 small glass of OJ

     1 pm

• 1 apple
• 1 pop tart (only one...my husband ate the other one)

     Between 5pm and 7pm

• 4 pieces of halloween candy...snack size
• Brownie batter (like a few finger licks...this stuff is like crack its so addicting, well I think its like crack...I don't really know)
• Linguine Alfredo with grilled chicken and home grown tomato salad
• 2 brownies

It's 9pm, we ate dinner at 6pm.  I am still stuffed...ugh!  I am surprised, but I am actually looking forward to getting back to my beans, veggies, and protein.  Don't get me wrong...those brownies were damn good!  But I am pretty sure once a week is plenty.  I didn't eat any chocolate, and I don't want any right now, blah!

So I hope I didn't over do it.  I did 40 air squats 2 times today, maybe that helped.  I guess I will see Monday morning!!!