oops.
So previously I was working on the 21 Day Fix eating and work out plan. That didn't happen.
Most people in the new year begin weight loss resolutions. For me weight loss is a constant goal that cannot begin with a new year. It is eternally on-going. With my trip to Europe looming 5 short months away, the size of my pants causes fear for myself and my neighbor on that 12 hour plane ride.
12 hours to Rome.
on a bus for 5 days throughout Italy.
5 hours to Poland.
on a bus for 5 days throughout Poland.
3 hours to Germany.
12 hours to Boston.
I want to lose weight to be healthy, sure, but I also want my butt to fit in the small European seats. I want to keep up with my guide as I hike through the Tatras. I want to feel like I am not the "fat American".
So I have a new plan.
Chris Powell, best known for his show Extreme Weight Loss, has written books on diet and fitness and the diet plan he puts all of his super sized clients (like me) on is called "carb cycling". Carb cycling combines alternating days of low carb and high carb in order to keep your body in a fat burning stage. With most low carb Atkins-like diets, the body starves for carbs and while you might lose fat quickly you also lose a lot of muscle and your metabolism slows to a halt so that when they reintroduce carbs, most people gain the weight they lost back rapidly. With carb cycling, so Chris Powell says, a low carb day puts you body into fat burning stage. The following day the body receives carbs so it is never starved and will continue to burn. This process of manipulating your metabolism combined with exercise that also burns calories will result in (*hopefully*) quick losses of fat while keeping lean muscle.
Every morning I begin the day with a breakfast of egg whites, turkey sausage and a veggie of some sort (broccoli or spinach) scrambled, along with a carb- usually sweet potato and onion home fries (no oil, just a little non-stick olive oil spray) or, like this morning, an apple with cinnamon.
On low carb days, the remaining four "meals" consist of a protein and a fat, along with as much vegetables as you can stand. I am a pretty picky eater, so I can't stand many vegetables, haha.
One of my favorite low carb meals is a dish I make with ground turkey, onion, diced tomatoes (no salt added), zucchini, and (sometimes) yellow squash. All together, with some salt, pepper, and lots of chili powder and cumin. YUMMO. I use a little bit of olive oil when I saute the onions, but otherwise it is very low in fat. I add some cheese to it for my "fat" portion of that meal. Snacks include non-fat greek yogurt mixed with natural PB and choc. protein powder (watch out for carbs in the protein powder! I have one that has 2g carbs and one that has 17g carbs) or canned tuna with onion and celery and full fat mayo. To be honest, I haven't gotten too creative with my low carb snacks because I am not a big fan of many vegetables. I could have raw squash with some chicken and ranch dressing. Or a spinach, tomato and ranch salad with some chicken. I need to do some experimenting. More often than not I just have a protein shake. Maybe some olives.
On high carb days you have carbs and protein at every meal, but little to no fats. This is more difficult than it sounds. You have have whole wheat pasta, but no butter or tomato sauce that contains oil. Right now one of my fave lunches on a high carb day is a chicken, tomato and spinach sandwich with fat free mayo on whole wheat honey oat bread. Snacks can be strawberries and a protein shake, or cottage cheese with a few raisins and some Go Lean Crunch.
Currently I am only on my third day- my second low carb day- but so far so good. :-)
For exercise Powell recommends doing what he calls "shapers"(squats, push ups, sit-ups, mountain climbers, etc) first thing in the morning on a low carb day (when you have energy from the carbs eaten the day before) and 30 minutes of HIIT 6 days a week. Due to the way my schedule is, I have decided on only of 5 days a week with a rest day Wednesdays (trivia night!) and Sundays.
One of the best parts of Powell's plan is that once a week you have a "cheat" day where you can eat anything you want, as long as you strive to stay withing 2200 calories. My cheat day is Sundays.
So, I don't weight in until Saturday, but I feel good so far. Ask again in a week or so. :-)
My starting weight at the beginning of this new plan was 312.6lbs. Considering that means I only gained 5lbs over Thanksgiving and Christmas, I'm not too upset with that. I am still 25lbs down from my highest weight that I was at this time in 2013 before I began Ideal Protein.
When I think of my life towards the end of IP- my size, my accomplishments, how happy I was in September and October of 2013- I want to get back there. The fact that I let myself go- again - makes me mad. It makes me sad. The fact that -again- I let something out of my control completely shatter my heart and sense of self when I had worked so hard to get it back after the last time, makes me mad and sad. And embarrassed. but those are all feelings that I need to give up to God.
I was reading The 7 Secrets of Confession by Vinny Flynn and one of the things Flynn talks about is forgiveness- obviously. Confession is all about forgiveness. Asking for it and recieving it. (Christianity is ALL about forgiveness, but thats a whole other post.) But one thing we all too often forget is to forgive ourselves. We make mistakes. We let emotions lead us down paths that God would not have wanted for us, and many times we go to Him and ask for forgivness, but we cannot forgive ourselves. When in the Bible it says
"If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained."(John 20:23)
perhaps it isn't jut about a preist's power to offer absolution on behalf of God, but about our own ability and need to forgive ourselves.
I can eat right and I can exercise, but until I properly forgive myself and offer up my pain to God, the chains I carry will show up on the scale.
So here is my goal, unrealistic perhaps, but here it is regardless. I want to fit in my size 16 jeans when I go to Europe. That would mean I need to lose about 50lbs by then. 10lbs/mo should not be impossible for me, but it will be difficult. With hard work, determination and lots and lots of prayer, anything is possible.
