Day 294 - 296 - My first 2 Days on Phase 1

My first couple of days have gone great! My first day I had just 8 grams of carbs and my second just 15. Aside from feeling tired and getting up to pee a lot I have felt fine. 

This morning is the first morning my stomach has growled in protest of my 11am eating schedule. But I hope that will be a rare occurrence once my body gets used to my new eating schedule. 

I am down 2.2 pounds since Saturday morning! I know that is water loss. I know its water with the amount of peeing I'm doing. Lol! But it's still a great feeling knowing I'm trying to get healthy and what I'm doing is working. 

Day 294 Making Some Changes & Trying Something New!

Yesterday I had a good "off" day! I'm more then half way though my new carb book and I think I'm going to give their recommendations a try! It focuses on a low carb diet and why this is beneficial! A lot of what is said makes a lot of sense, to me anyway.

I had my off day yesterday and managed to stay under 50 grams of carbs for the day. This was my test to see if I could lower my carbs pretty easily! And I was successful!

Now that I've done that, it has given me some confidence that I could pull the very low carb diet off! According to the book I need to start with phase 1, because of my BMI being pretty high at 40. This means I have to stay under 20 grams of carbs per day. I will do this until I hit my next goal of 219 then go from there.

Intermittent Fasting - I discovered a way of fasting that suits me very well that I'm going to try. I tried fasting in the past. The 5:2 diet to be exact. You had 2 fast days (no food) then ate the other 5 days of the week. I couldn't really sustain that schedule. I did well at losing weight but it was just too difficult for me.

My new plan is the 16:8 plan. On this new intermittent plan you eat during an 8 hour period then fast for 16 hours. So basically, I am allowed to eat during the hours of 11am & 7pm. Which totals 8 hours and works with my schedule best. This is also supposed to help your body kick into ketosis, which is the result of eating low carbs, faster then just starting with a low carb diet. Ketosis is when your body turns to fat rather then carbs for energy. So you burn more fat and in theory lose weight faster.

I'm excited about starting Phase 1 today and am hopeful for some good results! I will keep you posted on my progress!

Thinking About Carbs In A Whole New Light

 I decided to watch a documentary called Fat: A Documentary & Fat 2: A Documentary. They made a lot of valid points about how carbs have played a large part in the obesity epidemic in the U.S. I think my generation was one of the first generations to feel the real harsh impact government recommendations and fad diets have create! The low fat diet craze, which started when I was a kid, prompted many companies to make foods high in carbs in low in fat. Carbs keep our insulin levels high which ultimately reeks havoc on our bodies and health!

There was one particular doctor that I really enjoyed hearing from in both of these documentaries, Dr. Eric Westman. I got a real sense that he knew exactly what he was talking about after working with low carb diets to help medical conditions and obesity for over 20 years!

I decided to purchase his book "End Your Carb Confusion". I like his ideas as he doesn't automatically say it's one way or no way. Lowering your carbs can be beneficial and does not have to be extreme!

In order to be in ketosis like suggested in Keto diets you need to stay under 50 grams of carbs per day. But with his plan he has 3 phases you can choose from based on your health and weight. He also said that some people respond to variants in low carb diets better then others and sometimes it's trial and error before you figure out what will work best for you. 

Phase 1: No more then 20grams of carbs per day. 

Phase 2: No more then 50grams of carbs per day.

Phase 3: No more then 150 grams of carbs per day. 

I pretty much tick off one box from the Phase 1 section and this is because my BMI is high. But in reality I am pretty healthy. I do think that lowering carbs would benefit me in the long run to help with joint pain and any concerns I have with brain function, due to my mom having dementia and my sister having memory issues, and of course weight loss which is my ultimate goal. 

I've been thinking this through and I don't think I am ready to go to 50 grams of carbs for a long period of time, let alone 20 grams! I think the only way for that type of plan to stay effective is if I can maintain that diet until I reach my weight goal. I want to see how I do if I keep under 100 grams of carbs per day while keeping my calories under 1300 per day. My off days I will still need to stay under 100 grams of carbs! So no matter what, I will need to watch my carb intake everyday, not just my on days. I will try this for a couple of weeks and see how it goes!

If I am not making headway with losing weight then I will commit to either 20 or 50 grams per day. Probably 20 grams to start until I get under 200 pounds. But for now, I want to see if cutting my carbs back to 100 grams permanently will be beneficial or not. So I am going to put one toe in the water and see how it feels! LOL! I do know on my off days I eat usually 300 plus grams of carbs which is a lot! Maybe keeping that under 100 carbs I will see better results. We shall see! 

I am excited to at least have some better guidelines for carb intake. I have always been lost at knowing what exactly is considered a low amount of carbs! I am a true believer in everything in moderation.  I feel that so many countries eat pasta, potatoes and rice and they don't have the problems we do with obesity. I also believe processed foods are another cause of the problems we have today and will do my best to stay away from processed carbs as much as possible! Another problem in America are things are not done in moderation. Moderation will always be in the forefront for me! Unless the results tell me otherwise when it comes to fat or carbs! 

Now it's time to stick to this new plan and track my results! Stay tuned. 

Day 291-293 Vacation Weight Gain Not Bad & Back On Track

 I have done an excellent job getting back on track the last 3 days! I weighed in the morning for the first time since I've been back from vacation and I am glad to report I only gained 1.4 pounds! I'm sure the last 3 days of better eating helped! But either way, I'm just glad to not have an extreme weight gain number! 

Now it's time to focus and get back on track to lose the 7 pounds I gained over summer! Which to me is still a win! I did so much better over the summer then I have ever done!! If I can get that seven pounds off in the next month, then I feel I accomplished my goal of maintaining over the summer! And that is an exciting thought for me!

I am just 17 pounds to hitting my next major goal of getting to 219 pounds! Slow and steady wins the race and I know I will get there! I have been looking into changing up what I've been doing a little and seeing if I can get better weight drops each week. I will go into that in my next post about changes I will be making to my carb intake!

All in all, I feel good and ready to get back on track. I am super motivated right now to continue my journey, get this weight off and keep it off for good!

Day 238 - 290 What A Busy Summer!!

I can't believe how quickly this summer has flown by! We have been busy since my last post with one staycation in July and a 10 day long vacation in August to visit my family in the San Francisco area. I have had major employee issues at work and have been picking up the slack with my very reliable assistant manager all summer long. 

Hopefully our staffing issues will get better and with school starting and summer coming to an end I can now focus on getting back on track. My last weigh in was August 7th and I was 235.4. My goal was to maintain, so I really can't complain about that number. My lowest weight before summer was 229.8 on June 11th. So I am certainly doing better then most summers!

I just came back from vacation this past weekend so I will not be weighing myself until this Saturday. I really just got back on track today, but I've done well today and hope to keep myself on a strict diet until Saturday. Hopefully I will not go up much more then 235! 

I did not track anything I ate while away in August but did a ton of exercise everyday. So I'm hopeful it won't be too bad on the scale Saturday! Fingers crossed! I will plan 2 off days through Labor Day weekend then go back to my 8 days on and 1 day off so I can drop some more weight. I would like to see myself get to 219 by Thanksgiving! Here is my weigh in from August 7th.