Changing Directions

After a trip to the doctor, who looked over my blood work and listened to my concerns, I have decided to change directions in my efforts to lose weight. I am going to change to a high protein/low carb approach.

I went grocery shopping on Sunday and did really well that day. Today... not so good. However I already have my food prepared for tomorrow. Here's what I packed:

Breakfast: Strips of orange and yellow bell peppers wrapped in turkey slices and a string cheese
Snack: Celery and PB (with no sugar)
Lunch: Parmesan chicken and a big salad
Snack: Whatever celery and PB I have left
Dinner: Steak and brussel sprouts with parmesan cheese (this is the plan, its not made yet though)

I always do better with a plan, helps me stay on track. I also plan on going to the gym and spending an hour on the elliptical. :)

Green Smoothie Fast Day 2,3,4

Hmm... I thought I blogged about day 2 but apparently I didn't! LOL

So... I never successfully went a full day without eating food-food. But I did successfully go 4 days of having green smoothies for everything but dinner! And I even stayed on target with my calories.

I felt awesome! There was no peaks and valleys blood-sugar wise, I wasn't bloated at all, and had tons of energy!

Not here's the bummer.... I didn't lose anything! I went down 2 lbs from where I was at the beginning of the week, but those were 2 lbs that I had gone up from my lowest weigh in so far.\

I'm feeling incredibly frustrated. All this busting my ass for like 2 months and I have a 3 lb total loss to show for it?! WTF? I am looking better, not like down-a-pant-size better but I can feel a difference, and the scale shows nada. I'm getting pretty fucking fed up.

I'm going to try to do a 1 day water fast on Sunday. (we'll see how that goes :S) And then I plan on getting the green smoothie fast going again Monday, and maybe I will even get the dinner thing worked out.

Green Smoothie Fast Day 1

I made all my smoothies the night before.

From left to right: breakfast, am snack, lunch, pm snack, dinner, night time snack.

The first 2 jars have these ingredients:

-2 tsp raw apple cider vinegar

-2 tsp raw maca powder

-1/2 TB agave nectar

-2 cups spinach

-1 banana

-1/2 cup pomegranate

-1/2 cup raspberries

This one was good. I am still getting used to the maca taste though. It left me feeling very satisfied and full of energy.

The second 2 jars have these ingredients:

-2 tsp raw apple cider vinegar

-1/2 TB agave nectar

-4 baby carrots

-2 leaves lettuce

-1 cup spinach

-2 clementines

-1 pear

-1/4 cup pomegranate

-1/2 cup raspberries

These were good too, but I could taste the carrots a little more than I intended too. I felt good still after having these.

Around 4pm I started to get a raging headache in addition to my massive cold symptoms and I had an hour of intermittent mental arguing over whether or not I should go get a coffee. I didn't end up getting the coffee but when I went to the grocery store to get a couple more things for smoothies I got dinner there too :( It was just too much with the cold symptoms... I caved for the comfort food.

So obviously I didn't drink the last 2 jars. I am saving them for tomorrow.

All in all I would say today was pretty successful. I am planning on going the whole day on just my green smoothies tomorrow though. :)

Frustrated and Stepping It Up a Notch

So after a weekend of screwing up... Damn the weekends! I have such a hard time with the weekends. If anyone has any tips for stopping weekend bingeing (overindulging) feel free to share them!

Back to my point... I'm fed up! I have decided that I am going to go full-time green smoothies for 4 days. Nothing but green smoothies. I have the produce, I like the smoothies, I will still be getting enough calories... So I'm going to give it a try. I even went and bought some more mason jars so that I can make all my smoothies the night before.

I'm intrigued by water fasting and am considering doing a short one but I don't want to do it during the middle of the week you know?

Anyway, I'm not too worried because I feel good ad satisfied when I drink green smoothies, but I get so tempted by "feel good" foods (emotional eating). I'm hoping I can combat that with having all the smoothies already made. Also I worry about the detoxing symptoms... Maybe not worried, but definitely not looking forward to them! LOL We will see how it goes!

Fasting Day 5 & 6

Day 5

Started well with a green smoothie but before lunch time even hit Mostest's school called and I had to go pick him up because he was not feeling good. We then went and got some comfort food (bad I know!) and snuggled and rested the rest of the day.

Day 6

Breakfast: Spinach (they didn't have any kale at the store! The horror!!), banana, pineapple, raspberry smoothie

Snack (treat): Soy raspberry mocha glacier with sugar free syrup

Lunch: Honey crisp apple, clementine, 3 TB cashews

Dinner: 6 inch subway melt with broccoli and cheese soup and a reese's sticks as a treat

Total calories: 1731

Exercise: I worked out with a friend today and she introduced me to the cross training setting on the elliptical machines! :) I did 6 miles in 65 minutes and it was haaaaard with all the different stuff the machine was telling me to do!

I actually felt really good today. I didn't feel woozy at the gym and I had energy throughout the day. I'm really starting to feel a difference in my body but I'm too scared to get on the scale! LOL

Slight slip-up but back at it, Fast Day 4

Okay... so I had a 4 day "slump".... Boo! That is what I have to say about that.

I had soda, cup cakes, chinese food, I even had McDonald's chicken nuggets. (Makes my stomach turn now just thinking about it.

Here's what I noticed during these 4 slip-up days:
-I felt physically sick
-I felt super bloated
-I felt stuffed
-I feel emotionally sick
-I felt worthless
-I felt weak

I just felt generally awful! Now today, but on my fasting/cleansing groove I feel great! A little "cleansing" effect on my bowels but what can you expect after 4 days of eating like crap and then getting back at it?

Fast Day 5

Pre-breakfast: 3TB raw apple cider vinegar with water

Breakfast: Kale, banana, pineapple, raspberry smoothie

Lunch: Honeycrisp apple, cashews, raisins, clementine

Snack (treat): Soy raspberry mocha glacier with sugar free syrup

Dinner: 6 inch sweet onion chicken teryaki at subway, broccoli and cheese soup, 6 squares of orange peel dark chocolate bar (soooo yummy!)

Total calories:1575

Exercise: 6.5 miles in 65 minutes on the elliptical on the hilly setting. I felt weak-ish and my knee was being weird so I lowered the "level" and didn't push myself as hard as usual. But I still did it!