Eating Clean and The Dreaded Plateau.

In search of some kind of relief from this weight loss plateau I've been having I've been reading and buying all sorts of books for inspiration. Almost eight weeks of skimming 140-142 after being down to 137 on a great week were tough...

I've turned to a semi-diet guru and a fitness guru for my last push to get down that last ten pounds. Which is much harder than I anticipated it would be, as well as how hard I was warned it would be.

I went to the bookstore, I looked at all the fitness books they had. I was stumped as to where to go. So I chose the woman with the physique I'd most like to have. While I think this is strange, it's kind of nice to have something to aspire too. There's also a girl at the gym who works out on Monday nights with me that is also some quasi-inspiration as well. Also strange to me, but hey, I have to have goals.

So I chose Jillian Michaels. You may know her from the Biggest Loser. And despite my participation in a namesake program at the YMCA, I've seen the show for ten minutes once in my life. I was unfamilar with her and her style of fitness.

So I bought Making the Cut and read it and was intrigued by the excersises and learned some fun new things to do with my balance ball and free weights. Now I'm waiting for 30 Day Shred to come in the mail so that I can feel more confident in doing some of the excersises. I'm definitely a visual person so seeing someone else do it is helpful.

The diet part was hard. I had become so restrictive and rigid with the structure and content of my diet that I think it was the main cause of my plateau. I kept cutting back and taking away more, depriving myself of food. I wasn't helping any cause and I was gaining weight and probably losing some of the muscle mass I had built. Who knew I had to eat more to lose weight?

I guess it comes back to the breakfast principle. Eat more, lose weight. Eat less, stay the same or gain weight.

I found a book that seemed to follow the principles I set for myself in the way I reinvented the way I eat. It's called Clean-Eating. I like to compare to Atkins only in basic principles and then add a heap of common sense and good nutrition.

It's a protein based diet that doesn't deprive you of whole grains and complex carbohydrates. Instead the protein and the whole grains work together to ramp up your metabolism along with excersise and you burn fat naturally.

I was skeptical! But following the diet for about a week and drinking plenty of water I'm definitely seeing a change in the scale and in my weight. Dropping the last bits of sugar and processed flour from my diet and eating more protein I lost about five more pounds. So I broke my platuea.

Yes, it's extreme. But I have to rethink things now that I'm more fit. I need something that's more of a life plan than a diet.

I gave up diet soda almost two weeks ago and I haven't looked back. I still have my coffee though. Sadly I need it to live! But I did give up the last bastions of granulated, refined sugar and switched to agave nectar. And by now I'm using less and less of that. So eventually (maybe) I'll be able to kick this sugar habit for good.

That's it for now! I'm trying to update more for my own records. Not that anyone reads this anyways.

I'm totally guilty.

I neglected my weight loss blog tracking my progress. I didn't blog about my ups and downs. *sigh* I lied.

But!

I did manage to get to a working weight of 137.5 lbs. as of today!

Now how did I manage to go from my last posted weight of 172 down to 137.5 in since August? Hard work. Lots and lots of it.

I signed up for a personal trainer at the YMCA, and he showed me how to do weight training. Twelve weeks later I do three weight training sessions a week. Six days a week of cardio.

I spent twelve weeks building up the muscle strenght in my arms, legs, back and core. I spent most of that time walking on the treadmill burning fat at 4.0 mph. Now I run 5.5 - 6.0 mph on the treadmill for forty minutes a day.

I'm fully into yoga now. It was a hobby before, but now it's a lifestyle and a personal obsession for me. I'm involved in my practice three times a week in formal classes, and every day at home working on poses and learning more about myself.

I'm in sort of a weight loss plateau at the moment. I have been for five weeks. I'm hovering above and below 140 lbs. I'm working on beating the stasis and really getting down to my goal weight of 130 lbs.

My only fear about the weight loss is gaining it back. I always say that I was fat for so long and now that I've felt the confidence and energy of being thin and fit I never want to go back. I'm a tad troubled at what I would do to stay thin, but I don't think I've hit that point yet.

Food is good! I'm working on eliminating most of the meat from my diet and sticking to lean sources of protein. Also I'm working nuts, oils and dark chocolate back into my diet for their health reasons (although I'm struggling a little bit because of their calorie and fat content).

I think I'll start to post recipes here of things I've worked on and created.

I'll post some of my workouts for posterity. And some of my future goals and hopes for my fitness (like marathons! cycling! skiing! and various other intense things).

Ack!

I've been so busy! But not so busy to stay on the diet and excersise every day.


I'm back to running every day (except Monday as a rest day). I've gotten my endurance up to run 85-90% of two and a half miles. Then I add in a 1/4 mile warm up and cooldown. Three miles total.

I've taken up a Bikram (Hot) Yoga class once a week, maybe moving to twice a week. The first session was intense but rewarding. I had a great time and felt great afterwards. I am so sore today, although it's becoming more common and less bothersome the more I excersise.


The family and I are joining the YMCA to use the gym and pool facilities. As well as take some occasional fitness classes.


I'm down to 172 lbs. Considering I started at 193 lbs almost three months ago, my progress is great! Or so I say. I'm down two pants sizes and all my clothes are fitting better. I'm now well out of the obese BMI and into the overweight BMI.



Now I need to stop worrying about day to day weight gain. The half pound to one and a half pounds up and down is discouraging, I just need to learn to ignore it and worry about the net weight loss.

Still taking Alli, still can't tell what it's doing for me. But I guess that's a good thing. Apparently it works steadily and you're not supposed to notice if you're losing weight healthily and steadily.

I'll check in later with more details.

Hooray!

The knee fracture is on its way to mending. I need to take it easy for the next two weeks or so.

I'm picking up an official yoga class sometime next week and I'll return to walking three miles every day on Monday. I'm excited to get back to working out. The two weeks of being lazy felt awful...

I did stick to my diet and it's still going well. Still taking the Alli capsules before meals. I have missed one or two, and I blame that on letting myself get too hungry and distracted before the meal.

Josh and I are both joining a gym so I can use the eliptical machines to run and put less stress on my knees and get a more efficient work out. We just need to narrow it down to which gym.

I need to weigh in for my Wii Fit or it's going to belittle me.

Absence Explained!

I fractured my tibia from all this running and not resting business. Too much stress on my little bones after too long an absence from physical activity.

So I didn't get it looked at for over a week. I walked, excersized and worked on a fractured knee. Explains a lot of the knee pain.

Next time I won't be so stubborn and go to the doctor when I'm in pain.

One week of total rest and then at least two weeks of taking it easy puts me one month behind on my activity scale and is really deppressing.

I did lose one pound. So I'll just stick to the diet and maintain for now. The doctor said as long as I don't put weight on my left leg I can do upper body stuff like crunches and strength training so I may do that.

I'll update with something useful when I have it.

New landmark to walk to.

Made a nice recipe for virtually fat free vegetable soup. I'll post it later today. That way I could actually put two or three tablespoons of parmesan cheese on it and still be well under my 15g a meal limit for meals.

Walk to the junior high and back in forty minutes. 3 miles. Once my left knee feels better I may try to jog half and walk half and work up from there. I like walking to landmarks, it's easier to track the distance.

Work tonight, so that's easily another 12,000 steps maybe more to add to the current 12,646 I have in for the day already.

Down another pound. Since yesterday. Day three of the Alli and I haven't noticed any side effects from it, but then again I keep well below the fat limit they set out. I just have to work on my caloric intake for the day. I have to tweak it down about 200 calories.

Off to work!

Yet again.

Monday was doughnut and coffee day at work. Sigh. I didn't give in, but it's almost like peer pressure. I had fat free yogurt and low fat granola instead.


After doing a vast amount of research I started Alli today along with my diet and exercise routines. It was such a tempting promise and after reading all of the FDA information on it that I could find, I decided to do a one month trial to see if I can get any results. I was skeptical of taking any kind of diet aide, but once I looked at the meal plans and saw that what I was doing matched what they required and you could lost 50% more weight, I was sold.


My first big disappointment came yesterday as we ordered out from Chili's and I couldn't find a thing on the menu to satisfy my dietary confinements. So I went to Subway and got a sandwich. I'm sure there are some restaurants I'll be able to get take out from eventually.


Alli allows 15g of fat per main meal. That being three meals a day. And two 3g fat or less snacks a day. I'm averaging 10g or fat or less per meal. So now I have some wiggle room for sure. I'm not sure of the side effects, but I'm certain it will definitely be an impetus to not eat fatty foods and save myself from embarrassment.


I've lost 2.2 lbs in four days bringing my total weight lost for seventeen days to 9 lbs 2 oz. For the first time in over a year and a half I will weight less than 180 pounds.


My "husky" clothes are fitting better than ever, I don't feel bad about wearing clingy shirts. I'm standing up straighter and I can (for the first time since college) can touch my toes. I feel slimmer.


Walking/Running every other day until my joints get used to the pressure of the whole thing. I've been inactive in that way for so long that my body is not used to it. I walk a lot at work, I'm always up and moving, lifting and running around. So my body is used to that, maybe not so much a structured workout.


I watched and am now set up to start the yoga DVD I bought, and once I feel confident enough I'll start taking classes at the local studio. It's convenient and affordable.