Update: Weight Loss, etc.

Well, lately I’ve been too busy to update, but I’m in a good place right now, work-wise, so what the hell. I was gonna do a long update in one post, but I think instead, I’ll split it up into different subjects since it’s been so long and there’s a lot I could go into.

Anyway, weight loss … uh … it actually hasn’t been going that well. Before I went Primal, I was around 220-230. I eventually got down to around 180, which was great. I’d actually been 200+ for pretty much my whole adult life, so getting well below that was a huge accomplishment for me.

Unfortunately, the move to Sacramento (much as I’m glad we’re here) meant lots of stress and changes and … I kind of just said “fuck it” to dieting for awhile. Next thing I know, I’m back up to 200.

Once it got up to 209, I freaked out a bit and decided it was time to go back to trying to lose weight again.

I am kind of half-assing Primal some days, but I still keep all the rules in mind. For example, I don’t eat bread every day, and I eat my burgers with no buns, but I’ll make grilled cheese sandwiches 1-2 times per week. I also drink flavored sparkling water with artificial sweetener in it. Yah, not Primal, but not that bad.

Unfortunately, I am having to cut down on fat. When I first went Primal, I could have all the “good” fat I wanted and the pounds dropped off effortlessly. Now it seems that excess fat of any kind stalls my weight loss. I’m still technically doing HFLC, but I’m watching the fat.

I’m also trying to keep my calories around 1000. I don’t know if that’s healthy, but I feel okay doing it and it’s not that hard if I just have a couple cups of coffee for breakfast. ie: I don’t feel like I’m starving myself.

As I kind of indicated above, I’ve had to start looking at the numbers again. I can’t just magically lose weight on Primal anymore. I have to look at calories, carbs, and fat. It’s kind of a drag, but I’ve gotten used to it.

Anyway, all that seems to be helping because I’m below 200 again (if barely–I’m in the 199 range as I type this).

I think I’ll just leave it at that for now. My thoughts were already kinda scattered, but I think they’re getting worse  =P  Hopefully I’ll post more in a few days or so.

Potato Hack Diet, Day 1 (plus recipe)

So, I’m doing it.

I’m still having sausage and eggs for breakfast, but after that, it’s potatoes whenever I get hungry, tho I’m not being super strict even with that part, as I’ll explain below.

First, here’s what I made in advance for the next couple days …

Paleo Mashed Potatoes

Not much of a recipe, and I forgot to take any pics, but here’s what I threw together.

Ingredients:

• 4 red potatoes (they were the cheapest)
• 1/2 stick of butter
• 3T of coconut milk
• Spoonful or so of minced garlic
• Salt, pepper, onion powder to taste

Peel and chop potatoes.

Boil water and/or bone broth. I started with bone broth, then added water until it looked like enough to cover the potatoes. Once boiling, add the potatoes and cook for about 30 minutes or until potatoes are tender enough that they almost fall apart when speared with a fork.

Drain, then add butter and coconut milk. At this point, I used a stick blender to mash potatoes and mix everything.

Add salt, pepper, and onion powder to taste–seriously, I just eyeballed it.

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Back to the diet–traditionally, it’s supposed to be just potatoes, according to the info I read, but I have to put something on them. Also, I don’t want this to be a starvation diet (tho it’s near the end of the day, and I’ve only gotten about half my normal amount of calories in–not sure if that’s such a good thing, but I’ll see how I feel after doing this for awhile. I’ll quit if I end up feeling low on energy), plus I don’t want to suffer too much. Did that in spades with the Cabbage Soup Diet–never again! Anyway, in addition to potatoes, you can have only water, coffee, and tea to drink–that part I am sticking with. No sugar in my coffee, either, but I will continue to use Truvia.

For dinner tonight, I made Lemon Chicken with Potatoes, but I only ate the potatoes. Seriously craving something sweet right now, so maybe I’ll have some coffee in a bit.

Like I said, we’ll see how this goes. Unfortunately I don’t have a scale so I can’t really show my progress here, but I’m mostly hoping this’ll help with my junk food cravings.

EDIT – At around 10:15, I couldn’t decide if I was hungry or just wanting food. Came to the conclusion that I was slightly hungry and, since I had a very late breakfast and skipped lunch, decided to eat half a serving of mashed potatoes.

And now I’m craving sweets again. Had coffee earlier, think I’ll make some lemonade with Truvia this time.

ANOTHER EDIT – After midnight, and stomach is growling, so I’m eating the other half of that serving of mashed potatoes. I’ll probably be going to bed soon, but I HATE going to bed on an empty stomach.

Haven’t felt like updating / change in routine

So, yeah … there hasn’t been much in the way of “Ever-changing” with Dena lately (can I just go on record as saying I hate the name of my own blog?  XD  But I digress …)

Still in a hotel room. I have had a string of temp jobs since about January, and we got a nice tax refund, so we’re okay for now. Unfortunately, I am jobless at the moment, but hopefully things will look up again soon. Anyway, enough about that.

There is one change I could talk about–it’s something I decided to start doing while unemployed and now that we have our own space: I shower and make breakfast first thing in the morning.

My routine used to go like this: Wake up, get coffee and drink it while going on the internet for about 30 minutes, then spend another 15-30 minutes getting ready, then leave, and still feel barely awake once I got to work.

Now, it’s: Wake up, shower for about 30 minutes, make breakfast (which also takes around 30 minutes), then eat while going online, etc., for about 30 minutes, then spend 15-30 minutes getting ready.

As you can probably guess, it adds something like an extra hour to my morning routine, but I think it’s worth it–I’m pretty much wide awake once I get out of the shower. I still drink coffee, but I don’t feel chained to it anymore.

On the downside, being unemployed and having my computer set up on the kitchen counter is having a really bad effect on my eating habits–being bored/depressed and with junk food within arms reach, I’m just eating way too much junk lately. But tomorrow, I’m going to try something different, known as the Potato Hack. I just feel like trying a mono-food diet (somewhat) might help get me back on track with eating more responsibly. But I’ll talk more about that in a later post.

I also haven’t been exercising, but with California weather being so nice lately, I think it’s time to change that, so I’m gonna try to start walking again.

I don’t have a scale, but my mom does, so I try to use hers when I’m at her house and I think about it–the good news is that while I haven’t lost anything, I at least haven’t gained either, so things could be worse.

I think that’s about it for now. It’s 2 AM and I don’t have it in me to come up with a snappy ending remark  XD

For what it’s worth, I will try to update more (in case anyone still even reads this).

Entering the home stretch

Yesterday marked one week until the trip home.

Lately, I’ve been fixated on how much there is to do before the move (all the packing, etc.), but something about Lee taking our cat to the vet yesterday to have her checked out and getting a certificate stating that she’s fit to travel, and seeing the printed-out itinerary for the flight for the first time … suddenly it clicked that I’m finally about to go home.

Hard to explain how that makes me feel, other than overwhelmed–it’s kind of a combination of things: stress (haven’t exactly forgotten about the packing, etc.), worry, excitement. It’s kind of scary in that it’s not under the best circumstances–we’ve got SOME money saved up, but it’s gonna be tight for a while. We’re moving into an Extended Stay hotel which is gonna be overly expensive, but it’s our only option right now. We’ll both be unemployed at first.

But on the upside, no screaming toddlers and yelping (not to mention huge and hyper-active) dog to deal with. No more living in a house where I feel like I have to hide all the time just to avoid criticism.

Not to mention that I’ll have my own kitchen (well, kitchenette, I guess, but I’ll actually be able to use it) so I’ll be able to go back to cooking on a regular basis. Lee keeps trying to tell me that we’ll be living on ramen* to save money–uhh, I don’t think so. I can’t wait to try making bone broth. I figure I can make that, and maybe add some gluten-free rice noodles, some spices, and maybe come up with something similar to ramen–other than the noodles (because gluten-free anything is usually overpriced), it should be pretty cheap to make. I’m also bringing the Cuisinart (shipping it to my mom along with some other things I can’t live without for a few months) so I can make my own nut butter and stuff like that. So I’m definitely looking forward to that stuff.

*We both actually love ramen. I used to drizzle a couple of slightly-beaten eggs into the boiling water during the last minute while the noodles were cooking, then I’d drain out nearly all the water before adding the packets of seasoning–tasted awesome. Obviously, it’s not healthy, tho, so I try to avoid it now.

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Okay, my co-workers just surprised me with a going-away party–that was awesome. I didn’t mention here yet that tomorrow is my last day at this company. Yes, I’m typing this at work–too busy packing at home to update, and there’s pretty much nothing better to do around here anyway  =P

Oh, speaking of co-workers … I was throwing all my knickknacks into a box and one of my co-workers, who is really tiny, went “Take me witchoo, I’ll fit in the box!”

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To wrap up, not doing too great on the weight-loss front. Still eating too much chocolate and peanut butter (due to stress–not to mention that I just had pizza and cake XD). I also stopped exercising, other than my daily 25-minute walk (which is really more about escapism than health at this point, anyway). But I haven’t gained more than maybe 2-3 lbs., and I’m hovering around that number. So, could be worse. Definitely going to step it up again after the move.

I guess that’s about all I can think of as far as updates, for now. Next time I do an entry, it might be from Sacramento.

I keep thinking about the last line from the Red Dwarf pilot: Lister puts one arm around Cat (who is looking at him like he’s nuts) and doing a fist-pump with the other while saying: “Look out, Earth! The slime’s comin’ home!”

Wow, it’s been awhile

I haven’t forgotten about this place, it’s just a combination of there not being much to report, and I’ve been busy.

Again, don’t know how many follow my videos, but I’ve mostly been cranking away at the Game Den’s coverage of Silent Hill Downpour–I’m finally at a point where I can slow down a bit and breathe. Filming will be this weekend, and the videos will start going up on October 11th (it’s a 3-parter this year).

Anyway, regarding health and such, I did have a couple of landmarks. One is that I hit the 40-lb mark, so yay. The other is that I’ve discovered that my new size is 16–it used to be 20. Finally got some new loungewear, new jeans and a new hoodie, all of which fit (well, they’re a little tighter than I’d usually go with, but I’m still working on losing weight, so hopefully that means that I’ll get more wear out of them). Was getting pretty tired of slogging around in oversize clothes–I definitely feel better about how I look now. There’s also this weird psychological thing where I used to hold up an article of clothing and think, “THIS is really my size? It looks huge >.<“, but now it’s “THIS is really my size? It looks tiny o.O” which is funny because I’ve only gone down 1-2 sizes, but there ya go  XD

Oh, also moving time is approaching–probably about exactly in a month. Packing is another thing I’ve been working on that’s taken up a lot of time lately. Maybe I’ll try to talk more about that in another post.

I haven’t been doing fantastic on the diet and exercise front–I’ve been eating too much dark chocolate and pork rinds with Pepsi Throwback (it’s kind of depressing being in the “editing dungeon” so I need comfort food), and I haven’t been doing the Primal Blueprint exercises, just my usual walking. And as a result, the weight loss is slowing down, plus I’ve had headaches and stomach aches for the last couple days (off-and-on, not constantly or anything).

So I think I need to buckle back down soon. But at the same time, I’ve got a lot to deal with right now, so I am kind of just letting myself slack off.

I think that’s about it for now–mainly just wanted to post an update. Hopefully I can get back to updating on a more consistant basis soon.

Updates

There hasn’t been too much to talk about, since the change in plans regarding the move kind of stalled my life-progress. I’ve mostly been packing, capturing Silent Hill Downpour footage, and being obsessed with Red Dwarf lately. So not a whole lot going on.

But, today, I found myself looking over old posts and I realized there have been some developments (and lack thereof) in my routine that I figure I could talk a bit about.

Primal Egg Coffee – I actually stopped doing it, but not really intentionally at first. Basically I didn’t buy enough eggs one week to be able to do it, so I didn’t for that week … and for some reason I suddenly didn’t find myself famished by the time I got to work, and haven’t been since. So I just stopped. It was a little inconvenient anyway–I was willing to do it as long as it was helpful, but if I don’t have the need, no point it using that extra time in the morning that could be spent kicking back at my monitor. I still think it’s a neat thing to do, and I still recommend it if you find your coffee won’t get you through to breakfast time–but if you don’t need it … eh, no real point.

No Soap or Toothpaste – Still doing this. Still think it works well. My showers are a bit longer because I haven’t really come up with a routine, per se, if that makes any sense, but I’m just as clean as when I was using soap, so I’m good. Still using Shampoo and conditioner, but sparingly. I may try not using at least conditioner one of these weekends just to see what happens.

As for no-toothpaste, I think it might actually be an improvement there–I think MAYBE my teeth feel cleaner longer than when I was using toothpaste … but I could be wrong. At the very least, I’ve found I just don’t need toothpaste. Still use a little bit of peppermint extract, but that’s it–now I put maybe a drop in the cap, fill the rest with water, then dip the brush in that. A little harder getting the coffee taste off my tongue, but it’s worth it.

As for my face … I umm … really don’t wash it anymore, exactly. It gets plenty of hot water on it in the shower, but I don’t really scrub it or anything. Complexion has not really cleared up, but it’s not any worse than it was. In the morning, I mainly just give it a quick wipe with a hot damp washcloth. That’s it. It’s crazy to think I used to scrub the hell out of it with soap at night, and used witch hazel in the morning … and the results weren’t any better. I suppose it COULD be less oily–or else, maybe I just don’t notice now that I’ve come to terms with the fact that oil on your skin isn’t a bad thing.

Giving up Dairy – Kind of put that on hold for a little while … and I think I’m noticing a difference in my sinus problems–they never totally cleared up during the week or two that I was off dairy, but now that I’m back on it for a little while (the reason is dumb–I ended up with more dairy products in the fridge than I thought I had and I decided not to waste it) I think I do notice that it’s gotten worse again. So I do think that lack of dairy is a good thing, and once there’s no more dairy products in the fridge, I’m gonna try to at least mostly stay off of it.

Primal Blueprint Fitness – I’ve been mostly keeping up with it. Not much else to say in that area–I’m on … I think my third week of doing it? One week I slacked off, so it’s hard to say how much it is or isn’t helping. I don’t really enjoy it, but it’s quick and really just involves push-ups, squats, and planks twice per week, and some sprinting once per week, along with my daily 25 minutes of walking. I just power through it and get it over with. The sprinting is especially brutal, but I just do it and get it out of the way, and it’s done until the next week. So not too bad in the long run (so to speak =P).

I think that’s it for updates on earlier posts that I could think of.

Here’s a bonus random fun fact before I end this entry: I’ve been eating a small piece of cake every day because my birthday was Saturday, so how does my body react? Dropping that pound it was holding onto for the last couple weeks. LOLWUT?

Before and “During” pics

… since I haven’t hit “After” yet =P These are images grabbed from two different vlogs I’ve recorded.

Left was from a vlog filmed in 2010, but I was probably around the same weight up until October/November of 2012.

Right is from another vlog filmed yesterday (8/5/13). Film quality is bad because I didn’t bother trying to get good lighting, but you can get the picture anyway.

Up until now, I haven’t been able to tell the difference in how I look–seeing the video on the right was a bit surreal. I still have a long way to go, obviously, but it’s nice to finally be able to see a difference.

I Have Officially (Mostly) Given Up Dairy (For Now)

Actually, this is kind of an update to a previous post where I talked about hitting a wall (or at least a steep incline) with my weight loss.

I don’t plan to give up dairy forever, but I wanted to try cutting it out of my diet for awhile to see what happens. I figure after that, and especially once I get down to my goal weight, I can have it on occasion.

I ended up starting a week ago, with a couple exceptions–I did still have some fat bombs left that were made with butter, and I was continuing to eat those once a day, if only so they wouldn’t go to waste, and I did put a little butter on my steamed carrots for a couple days, but that’s it. Oh, and I had maybe a 1/2 cup of milk–one of my co-workers turned 50, and we celebrated with milk and cookies. I hadn’t had milk and cookies in ages so I decided to splurge a little. But I haven’t touched cheese in a week–I even got a regular (bun-less) burger from Five Guys, instead of the usual cheeseburger (it’s a weekly thing)–I put sliced avocado on it when I got home instead.

I also just made clarified butter, which I will now use instead of regular butter. Bit of a compromise, but it is supposed to basically take all of the “bad” stuff out that makes some people sensitive to dairy products. Fairly popular in the primal community.

I have also started doing the Primal Blueprint fitness routine (well, the push-ups, squats, and planks anyway–don’t have a pull-up bar). Meant to do it on Tuesday and Friday, but I was so full from the burger last night, I decided to put it off until today–haven’t done it yet, but I WILL. Probably shortly after typing this. But I also did a session of sprinting on Wednesday–all this along with my daily walking routine.

The result is that I lost 2 lbs this week! So yay–hopefully I can stay on track and go back to averaging a pound per week.

No improvement in my sinuses that I’ve noticed, but my husband had a very mild bug of some kind, which I think I had an even milder version of, so that may have cancelled out any good reaction from the lack of dairy.

Hit Another Weight Landmark

I am now down 35 lbs from when I started doing low-carb in November. So yay, and stuff.

Losing one pound per week lasted a hell of a lot longer than I thought it would, but lately it seems like it’s slowed down a lot. I actually looked at my front page on MyFitnessPal, and it said it had been 3 weeks since I’d last updated, meaning I didn’t lose any weight in all that time ;/  I guess it wouldn’t be fair to say I hit a plateau, but progress has slowed down more than I’d like.

I think my calories and carbs are at good levels–I don’t track my food every single day, but I eat more or less the same thing every day, at least during the week. I think one problem is that I’ve gotten into the habit of treating myself a little too often. Like grabbing a candy bar from the vending machine once per week is borderline okay, but I form habits really easily and I’ll end up doing it maybe three days in a row.

But even aside from that, I never was trying all that hard. All I had to do was avoid sugar and carbs most of the time, not even really bother exercising, and the weight seemed to just come off on its own, practically. I knew that would catch up with me eventually, and I guess it has, or it’s gaining on me at least.

As I mentioned recently, in that big update, I’ve been thinking about cutting out dairy for awhile. It actually wasn’t for the purpose of losing weight, it was an attempt to see if I was having some kind of mild allergic reaction to it. I’ve had sinus problems for years–I have to clear my throat a lot, and for awhile, I was getting a bad cold/mild-flu/sinus-infection-type-thing several times per year. Since I improved my eating habits, I think I’ve only gotten that sick one time, and I don’t wake myself up coughing anymore, so I think it’s not as bad as it used to be, but I’m still having to clear my throat a lot. Anyway, I’ve heard that dairy can trigger that sort of thing, so I’m gonna try to cut it out for awhile and see if my sinuses get better. I also have water retention in my feet–I’m kind of hoping it’s the cause of that too. But if cutting out dairy helps with weight loss, that’d be awesome.

If that turns out to be the case, I’m really gonna miss cheese XD  It was something I avoided for a long time while doing the low-fat thing back when I didn’t know any better, and getting to enjoy it again without any kind of guilt was a real treat. But it has become my go-to food way too much lately, plus I think I’ve gotten the novelty of it out of my system, and I’m maybe even growing a bit tired of it.

Haven’t decided if I’m gonna start next week or not, but I did manage to find coconut milk at the grocery store, so I can if I decide to, assuming I even like the taste of it and it goes well with coffee (never actually tried it before).

I need to somehow step up the exercise too–maybe incorporate weights. We do have some dumbbells. I just need to figure out what to do with them =P