What Have You Done for YOU Lately?
I have been a slacker for the past few weeks, my scale has went from 228-223 for 3 weeks up and down up and down and I am getting annoyed HOWEVER, it's ALL my fault. So, I can only be mad at myself. This week I am eating less carbs- yep I am that person who doesn't count on MFP. Again- slacker. I am addicted to carbs! So I am cutting back the carbs majorly, and it's making me go crazy but thats okay- I just have to get used to it. I am upping my protein to where I should be so that helps.
I also went shopping a little last night to prep for my Vegas trip in 3 weeks. I bought a pair of kapris SMALLER than my last pair!
ALSO I bought a BRAND NEW 2013 SUBARU IMPREZA for myself! I have to work 2 jobs still but thats okay!! My night job is flexible as ever so it works out perfectly to where I can have a life and still focus on myself and my health! =)
OK Slacker sounds like you have a plan. Upping protein will help with feeling full longer, but it won't address the "carb addiction". I would suggest keeping some almonds on hand to help sooth the urge. Instead of reaching for a cracker or something crunchy eat a small handful of almonds. It satisfies the crunch plus it will give you a good dose of healthy fats that also helps with the eating urgest. Cutting back is good but you want to try to re-train your brain to be happy with almonds or walnuts are good too instead of chips or cookies, etc.
Tracking on MFP really helps you to see where you are.
Great on the smaller sizes.
Congrats on the new car!
My go to carbs are reduced fat wheat thins. I used to have just a FEW with string cheese. Mistake! Now its forget the string cheese I want crackers. I even got to the point I bought a box to leave in my desk at work. WTF. Not how this new me is supposed to be. LUCKILY it isnt cookies or chips, but its like crack- it can always lead to that, BAD.
Good idea with the almonds/walnuts! That I will do now. I will get my butt over to the Asian Market/fruits and veggies place (they sell them for cheaper than Shop Rite) leave the container at home and bring a little to work.
I will get my butt back on MFP for sure. I wanted to be down to 215 by Vegas BUT it's only 3 weeks 2 days away so I am not sure how that will happen. But on the brighter side I am still over 100lbs smaller than my heaviest =)
Diet is 80% of weight loss, Gym is 20%. I am not sure how much you would need to lose to be down to 215, but 3 weeks is a long time with the right way of eating. Assuming you are following the standard low carb diet that is prescribed with VSG, most doctors and patients do it incorrectly. They call it a ketogenic diet but they say to eat low fat. You are trying to get your body to burn fat so you have to eat fat to get that process going. If you are eating low carb you should not be eating low fat. Of course you should not be eating wheat thins either. There is a cracker made by CrunchMaster that is made from seeds which is a nice alternative to wheat thins (I like 'em too, triskets too). But they are not for you for sure. Throw them out. A true ketogenic diet is something like 40% protein, 45% fat, and 15% carbs. Adding almonds to your diet will help but stop eating low fat, use 2% or higher yogurts and cheese, etc. You will feel satisfied and you won't want to snack. Couple that with some low impact cardio like walking for an hour a day and you could hit your 3 week goal.
That is so helpful. My NUT isnt that helpful unfortunately. I didn't even bother to go see her for my last F/U because she just asks the same things- what do you have for your meals? And tells me what I can and can not eat! That doesnt help me. So I use this site to look at what others eat and try to use that. It's hard for me to exercise- yes I kept debating on a gym and I just dont know if I can make the time with 2 jobs- I HAVE to work that 2nd job so i can pay for my car payment and half insurance. But I did buy a cardio max workout video that I plan on doing at home, plus I have some hand weights to start with. Hey, its better than nothing!
OK, I can make this super simple for you.
1. Protein First, every meal, no exceptions. Proteins are meat, eggs, cheese, fish, some bean (not the best source).
2. If you are still hungry after you eat your protein, then leafy green veggies or cruiciferous (lettuce, cabbage, brussels sprouts, broccholii, zucchini, etc.)
Cook all your meals on the weekend and put them into containers that you can just grab and eat in the portioned size you need and you will be on track all week long.
Eat on a schedule. Within 30 mins of waking up have your protein shake. Try to get 30g of protein within 30 mins of waking up and that will lose you 5lbs a month just with that.
3. Exercise. You don't need a gym. Walking 30-60 mins a day is all you need to do to burn fat. Unless you are really into exercising the gym will cause you to fail to exercise. It is just one more thing you have to get into your car and go to to do. The tapes are great, but you have to watch them, you feel dorky, etc., etc. Walking is simple. You open your door step through and you are doing it. If you get to the point where you are walking regularly and want to step it up, then think about a gym, a bike, the tapes, etc. When you walk, carry your hand weights and swing your arms. You will be amazed in just a two weeks how much your arms have toned up. It doesn't take a lot to get your body pointed in the right direction. The best fat burning exercise is low impact cardio (i.e. WALKING).
Make things as simple as you possibly can and you will be very successful. If you have to think about them, they become a chore.
Here is something to consider. If you eat the crackers and then protein. First you won't get as much protein so your muscles will suffer. Second, your digestive tract will get the crackers first they will go through the pyloric valve first. When they get there your liver is going to shoot out a giant blast of insulin (make your more hungry and fires off the signal that you are getting easy to burn fuel), since you are not using the energy from the carbs the giant blast of insulin tells your body to go ahead and store those easy to burn energy bits as much much much harder to burn fat energy bits for use at some later date. Since it is already storing stuff as fats, along come the proteins and your body is already stacking the fats up and it starts to process the protein and goes, hey this is too hard we just had an easy job lets go ahead and just store this as fat.
Now if you do it the other way around your body goes to work processing the protein, it doesn't get any insulin signal to store as fat so it processes and dumps. Its working very hard to process those proteins and fats that usually come with meat proteins. Along come the carbs (hopefully from veggies, but lets just say they are from crackers. Your body gets the carbs and a much smaller blast of insulin because it is working very hard and it doesn't want to store it wants to burn. So it gets the carbs and you get a small blast of energy and it dumps some if it because it is not in the storage mode.
So just switching the order of what you eat will help, but changing WHAT you eat will turn you into a burning machine. Now to really amp it up the hardest thing to burn is fat. When your body burns fat it is very very very inefficient and lazy about it. In fact when it burns fat it really only burns half the fat calories and dumps the other half. This is what Ketosis is. You use a calorie, dump a calorie. When you are in Ketosis you will notice that your urine gets a bit darker even if you are only drinking water. This is because you are dumping calories.
Nutritionists, especially in bariatric offices, don't tell us this because they figure you were fat so you didn't care that much about nutrition in the first place so all the details are not important. They also don't make a whole lot of money if they educate you.
