In Transition....

The past month has been a roller coaster when it comes to any sort of routine, workout or diet.

First off, it was my birthday. I put any semblance of the Ideal Protein diet on hold for two weeks and gained three pounds. Very frustrating considering it took me three weeks to lose a mere three pounds, but totally worth it because I ate what I wanted and enjoyed myself.

Just as I was finding the motivation to get back into my routine, I received the fantastic news that I got a job in Telluride and quickly had to pack my belongings and move to Durango within a few days.

I've been home for a little over a week now, and have been able to maintain my weight (not gaining weight, but fluctuating within a three pound range) by trying to eat well and working out at least 5 times a week. I'm still 20 pounds away from the goal weight I set for myself when I started Ideal Protein. But I'm enjoying myself and having fun.

It will be so much easier when I am moved into a place in Telluride and can get back onto a regimented eating and diet plan. I can't do Ideal Protein because it's too expensive and there isn't a 'dealer' in Telluride, but I'm thinking of buying the Mayo Clinic Diet book and following that. It focuses more on changing eating habits instead of instructing readers to eat certain amounts of certain foods and certain times of the day. The Mayo Clinic is a reputable health organization (or whatever it does...) and I thinks it's totally worth it to give the diet a shot.

If I wanted to be hard on myself I could beat myself up for eating the eggs Benedict I had for breakfast (with a mimosa) but I'm not going to do that. I had a lovely morning with my best friend and I wouldn't exchange that for anything (not even the calories in Hollandaise sauce).

Every article I read anywhere about weight loss, fitness and dieting emphasizes the concept of self-love. It's not healthy to base my happiness or self-worth on how much I weigh. Granted, that's much easier said, than done in some cases, but I'm trying really, really hard to love myself the way I am right now. Today. (Although I don't love the massive sunburn I have on my entire back from sitting in a hot tub for far too long yesterday.)


And with that I will try to muster up enough energy (the sunburn is making me feverish) to do some yoga and practice some self love.

The Dress Came!

On a different note, the bridesmaid dress came in the mail on Thursday!

After the suggestion that I incorporate more cardio than the original suggestion of strength training most of the time I decided to try jogging. This should impress you the reader because I have always despised running. Even in elementary school before I got hip and boobs. The last time I went for a 'jog' was when I was in 8th grade volleyball and could actually run half a mile without walking. In high school, the only running I ever did was to run to catch a bus or fake run when we had to 'run' the mile in PE classes. (I walked 90 percent of the thing, only running when I had to pass the teacher who was keeping time.)

The weather was gorgeous on Thursday (still in actually) and I walked briskly to a nearby park and began running short distances interchanged with brisk walking. The park is very big with a nice path meandering through it, so I would set a marker in front of me and run to it and then walk a bit.

It totally kicked my ass, but it wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be. I certainly am sore today (and was in bad shape yesterday!) but plan to stretch it out in yoga tonight and do it once again. The little excursion took about 35 minutes and once I get used to that I think I will increase my time to 45 minutes and then to an hour.

Ok, back to the dress. I came home and was stretching and heard the fed-ex guy come and deliver it and was just THRILLED. I wanted to try on the dress immediately, but waited until I showered to try it on.

I love how it looks on me. So much better than the original brown that we tried on. I know that picture isn't the best, but I was in a rush to get it up before leaving town. (It looks loose in the upper back because I didn't zip it up all the way, just clipped it at the top.)

I am disappointed that it's a size 10 because of my original goal, but with my bust size, I can't risk getting an 8 because the 10 was snug across the chest, and I want to lose weight elsewhere, not in the chest. :) I am glad to have it hanging in my closet for the next 98 days (yes Holly is counting down) as my motivation and reason for this dieting and exercise. Hopefully I'll have to alter the rest of the dress to bring it in.

I went to Greeley Thursday night and hung out with some of my favorite people. My friend Leah kept saying I looked great, and my friend Kytt said he could notice the weight loss in my face. Again, these are things I have a hard time seeing personally, but the complements feel great and I know they wouldn't make that up.

I've been in Boulder since Friday morning and have done fairly well sticking to the protocol. Granted I probably have had much more protein than normal, but I'm now back to the protocol today and had my fun for the week (with the occasional cheating).

Thursday night in Greeley I had some nachos. Carbs!!! yes I know, but I was drunk (Vodka and diet coke!) and needed something in my tummy before going to bed to help it feel better in the morning. Friday morning was ROUGH. Not because I drank excessively, but because what I did drink was probably a shock to my system which has been treated very well as of late. After breakfast and taking my vitamins I felt much better and was much more functional than I thought I'd be.

That motivated me to not drink excessively last night at the Gregory Alan Isokov concert I went to in Boulder. I took my brother out for lunch and we went to Whole Foods and I went straight to the salad bar and Chris and I split a sushi pack where I ate just the sashimi and gave him my rice. I love salad bars, especially Whold Foods'. I just have all my possible foods laid out there and can create a yummy salad with very little effort.

We went to dinner for my friend's birthday, and I will admit, I had trouble figuring out what to eat, but I had wok seared broccolini and Thai fishcakes with salmon and herbs in panko bread crumbs. The fishcakes were probably a bit excessive, but they were yummy and much better than nachos for sure. My drink with dinner was phenomenal. I had vodka, orchid liqueur and soda water. I'm sure there was some sugar in the orchid liqueur, but not as much as most beverages and it was absolutely amazing. It's very refreshing to have two drinks and stop there and really just enjoy the drinks for the taste and company you're with, rather than going for the cheapest drink and getting drunk. I also had some popcorn last night after the show with flax seed oil and salt and pepper. Soooo delicious! Popcorn is not technically permitted, but it's a good thing to 'cheat' with because it's plant based and high in fiber.

I'm hanging out in Boulder for another hour until I can go to playlist yoga at 5:30 at my cousin's studio. This week's music: Michael Franti!! At my request. :) I'm going to stretch out the tension that remains from the run, and tomorrow do both cardio and strength training with my new found routine at the neighborhood park. Maybe in the near future I won't walk the majority of the time, but for now, it works and it really good my heart rate going.

Welp, that's it for my rambling for today. If you read this further down, I thank you for reading about my mundane life in which I'm so obsessed with what I eat. Also I guess I should thank ANYONE who bothers to read this blog in general. It's a good outlet to get things off my mind or chest, and a good way to occupy my free time.

Off to Michael Franti Yoga I go!

In response to my last post.

My dad sent me the sweetest email in response to my most recent post expressing my frustration that not only made me get over the situation, but realize I need to weigh myself in the morning. Long before I consume 64 ounces of water.

Kathrine,

It was definitely the water. I can loose 3 pounds simply by running on a warm day. That is 3 pounds of sweat that I loose while running. 64 oz of water weighs 4.4 pounds (2.2 per quart). I remember because I wanted to know how much a quart or a gallon of water would add to my backpack.

You're doing great. Don't let a little water get you down.

Love,
Dad

Thanks Dad!

Not pleased with this week's weigh-in.

So I was waiting until tonight to post a blog because I thought I'd have good weight loss results to report from my weigh-in tonight. But I did not. I only lost 1 pound. Which compared to the 3 and 5 from the previous weeks was devastating and really pissed me off. Not only did I make a fool out of myself in front of my chiropractor and her staff by crying and blubbering like a dumb girl, but I also cried at a bar (where I didn't drink anything) because I met up with a friend immediately after my weigh-in.

Everyone keeps saying, well it's good you still lost 1 pound, but I don't care, I'm still pissed off and frustrated. This week, of all the weeks, was my first week of sticking to the protocol almost 98% instead of the first few weeks where I cheated once or twice. I ate what I was supposed to eat and even avoided gingerale when I had a horrendous stomach ache because I didn't want the added sugar. I had good work outs. I took all my vitamins. I worked out (not as hard as previous weeks.) My only cheating was a little bit of goat cheese and 1 thin mint girl scout cookie. I cheated much more previously and saw better results.

I'm so frustrated with this, because the diet is really starting to add up financially, and I think to myself, it's worth it if I see the results on the scale. I could lose a pound a week by eating fruit and carbs. I could lose a pound by going to the freakin' bathroom. 1 pound weight loss in this situation is unacceptable and I am pissed. The point of this strict diet is to lose 3-5 pounds not just 1. I could be doing that at home on my own.

My chiropractor was equally puzzled. She looked at my food diary and saw nothing out of the ordinary. Her suggestions were as follows:

• Get more cardio (my least favorite aspect of exercising...it hurts my feet and I can't afford a gym to use the elliptical and don't have my bike up here with me.)
• Weighing in in the morning instead of evening (I HOPE that was my issue this week. I drank all 64 oz of water before the weigh-in and water weight could play a factor, but 4 pounds worth?)
• She also gave me a chart of veggies and their carb count and wanted me to readjust what veggies I ate. Some have lots of carbs in em.....news to me. I was just eating the veggies on that stupid permitted list.
  

In my defense I did weigh myself this weekend and in the morning with no clothes on (well tank and shorts) I had lost 5 pounds. But she won't record what my scale says of course because the baseline is their scale.


Anyways, I'm not sure what else to say tonight. I'm frustrated. Stressed out because of other things and tired. And my eyes hurt from crying and being so emotional and irrational tonight. I went from feeling really great about myself to feeling super discouraged and pissed off...shitty. I still ate my stupid ideal protein meal that was unsatisfying because I still don't want to mess this up and then made the mistake of watching the biggest loser on NBC. Not a good idea.

Dress Shopping

Went dress shopping with Stephanie for our maid of honor dresses. annnnd I tried on my first green dress since I started dieting.

Not my favorite style at David's Bridal, but I did think it was a good photo to document my progress with my diet. I posted the yellow one too, because I thought it was really cute on me, and I didn't know yellow was a color I could pull off. Who knew? The yellow one I might buy just for an awesome cocktail dress if I get one of the job's I'm manifesting. (See my Girl in the Green Jacket Blog.)

An example of the Ideal Protein Diet

So a lot of people have been asking me the specifics of this diet. In a nutshell I say "Atkins with additional protein supplements." The first phase (the one I am in now) requires three packets a day plus lean meat and veggies and a shit ton of vitamins and supplements. So here's an example of a day's menu:
Breakfast:
Glass of water
wildberry yogurt IP packet
vitamins: multivitamin, potassium, fish oil, probiotics

Lunch:
-vanilla pudding IP packet (My absolute favorite IP food-tastes like cake batter)
-2 cups of chopped cucumber, radishes, and celery with splash of vinegar, mustard, italian seasoning and sometimes 2 oz of tuna or a slice of deli ham
-I can also have unlimited salad but not the biggest fan of zero calorie/zero carb dressings so I refrain unless I want to have a spinach salad with olive oil and vingar (and spinach is part of my allotted veggies.)

Dinner:
7 oz of shrimp
1 cup of chicken broth
2 cups chopped green peppers and okra
garlic
splash of olive oil
cajun seasonings
more vitamins: multi, calcium, magnesium, and something else I can't remember off the top of my head.

and somewhere in there I have a third IP packet that has been a hot chocolate mixed drink or pink lemonade. If I'm super hungry still I can add protein or veggies. So usually I just grab a slice of deli ham.

So it boils down to this: 3 packets, 4 cups of approved veggies (which is A LOT!!!), 5 oz of chicken, beef, pork or 7 oz of seafood, and unlimited salad. It's not too bad, but it is amazing how much I miss fruit and sweet things that aren't artificial. But I'm getting by, and the result of losing 8 pounds is motivation enough to keep going because I know it's working and it's worth it.

Two Weeks Into Ideal Protein

So I went with IP. I figured out how to cover the initial costs, and now I'm two weeks into it with only a few slip ups. The most exciting news to report is I've lost 8 pounds so far. Three the first week and five the second week. Add that to the 4 pounds I lost prior to starting IP and I've lost 12 pounds. I don't see it yet, but I'm starting to feel a difference in the way my pants fit, and at this rate, I'll definitely see a difference in another week or so.

As they warned me, the first few days was really hard. My body craved all the food I had been eating that I had to eliminate (mainly, cheese, fruit, carbs, POPCORN, wine and bread) and I was very tired. I did slip up the first week by making the mistake of buying girl scout cookies that I thought I'd hide, and I ended up eating half a box on Valentine's Day because I was alone, and felt like chocolate was a good substitute for a date. That's why I only lost three pounds the first week. The second week I treated myself to some popcorn and cheesy toast after a night of vodka and soda waters at a concert, and still lost 5 pounds by getting back on track immediately, and working out.

I'm not supposed to work out really hard on this diet, because that could fatigue my muscles...and the point of this is to burn my fat stores and no eat away at my muscles. The first 10 days or so I was really good by working out 5 times a week with a variety of pilates, yoga, strength training and going to the gym in Durango. But spending two days in the car interrupted my routine, AND I got really really sick to my stomach last night and stuff am hurting so I've only gotten 2 1/2 (the 1/2 is 10 minutes of pilates I did to focus on my abs)workouts in this week. Uhg. But I think I'll get back into the swing of things this weekend. If my tummy allows it I'll get a good 30 minutes of my pilates/strength training/yoga routine in tomorrow, and then I'm off to hip hop yoga at Soul Tree Studio on Saturday. My cousin is now teaching a pilates/props class at the studio on Monday nights that I fully intend to attend.