Losing weight the baby-friendly way

Okay, so I weighed myself this weekend and I'm back up to 181.5.  Boooo!   At least I'm not back up to my weight of 195, but I don't like the direction I'm going.  (I had gotten down to 165.)  I had been doing so well, but for the past 2 months I've been doing fertility treatments after a year's hiatus from the last time.  Those hormones really mess you up!  I'm positive they had something to do with the weight gain.  :-/

Anyway, the new diet starts tomorrow.  I was going to do the whole low carb thing that worked so well before, but eating a lot of meat is not good for fertility.  SO, here's what I'm going to do:

Eating - 
1.  Eat lots of salads with a lot of mixed veggies.  (Like grape tomatoes, arugula, spinach, radishes, broccoli slaw, etc.)  and dress it with lemon juice and Canola oil.  (Canola oil has omega 3's in it, which olive oil doesn't.)

2.  Put a half cup of beans on the salad for protein.  Beans are supposed to increase fertility and it helps to limit meat.

3.  Only one serving of fruit per day.  (To reduce sugar.)  I will start the morning with my rice-protein powder shake and include blueberries in it.

4.  NO sugar, honey, artificial sweetners, etc.  (Sweets are my big weakness.  It's so much easier to keep the calories down if I just give them up altogether.)

5.  Eat one serving of full-fat dairy per day.  (Amazingly enough, this has been proven to increase fertility.)  I will make my yogurt with whole milk this week.  This way, I won't go for the ice-cream with all the sugar in it.

Work-out - 
1.  Two afternoons per week:  Curves gym (interval training) - 30 minutes

2.  One night per week:  Zumba! - 1 hour - (Gonna check it out for the first time tomorrow.)

3.  One night per week:  Indian Dance - 1.5 hours - (my latest passion!)

I have been bad about working out lately.  It's so hard to feel like working out when the fertility hormones make you feel horrible and bloaty.  My boobs are insanely sore and I feel like a stuffed sausage.  I've decided I don't have PMS, I have PMMS (Permanent Mexican Meal Syndrome).  You feel as if you have eaten a big disgusting Mexican meal.....all the time!  Even when you first wake up and haven't eaten anything.  I'm sick of it!  I'm going to take a break from it for the next few months and try to get my weight and health under control before I undertake IVF.  

Stupid 'ol hormones and falling off the wagon

So, I did really well on my grain-free, sugar-free diet last week and lost 2 pounds.  This week, I was terrible and totally fell off the wagon.  (I don't know what I weigh now, but I'm afraid to get on the scales.)  Not to make excuses or anything but this past week I found out that my last IUI didn't work and I've now started a new cycle.  (Fertility stuff for those of you who are fortunate enough to not know what an IUI is.)  I have to inject hormones into my belly every day for 14 days or so of each cycle.  I also am craving carbs like CRAZY.  I don't think this is a coincidence!

I asked my doctor if the fertility hormones cause weight gain and he said, "No.  But they can make you want to eat more and THAT can make you gain weight".  Ummm......is it just me or doesn't that mean the hormones make you gain weight?

You know what else?  These stupid 'ol hormones give you nausea and morning sickness.  (Not to mention hot flashes!)  What a mean trick!  It seems like you should have morning sickness and be pregnant OR not have morning sickness and not be pregnant.  To have morning sickness and NOT be pregnant is just plain mean.  I feel like God is laughing at me sometimes.

I think going through fertility is rough because it forces you to face the issue every day.  When I wasn't giving myself a shot everyday and going in to have an ultrasound and my blood tested every 4 days, it was easy to focus on other things and forget about it.  These IUI cycles just kind of shove it in your face and make it hard to ignore.  

Anyway, sorry to be tiresome and to keep harping on about this but it's hard not to.  This is the biggest thing going on in my life.  It's the first thing I think about when I wake up and the last thing I think about before I go to sleep....and all the times in between.  If you're wondering what I'm thinking about when I'm stopped at a red light, it's this!  My hope is that someone else going through infertility might feel better knowing that someone knows what they're going through.  I also hope that this might help those who have never had fertility issues understand those who do. 

Diet and Progress

I stopped posting my menus b/c I don't think anyone is all that interested.  You get an idea of the things one eats on a no-grain, no-sugar diet, right?  Basically, I'll eat the same thing this week with minor variations.  (Like I'll have lamb instead of steak and this week's soup is lentil instead of chicken.)  I posted 5 days worth of meals if anyone wants to try this diet.

When I weighed myself at the gym on Saturday and my weight was 176.  (Down from 178.)  Okay, so 2 pounds isn't much but I'll take it!  Plus, I did cave in and eat some rice cakes.  This coming week, I'll be more careful about grains and I'm sure the weight will come off more quickly. 

No-grain, no-sugar diet - Day 5

What I ate -

Breakfast:
shake (with rice protein, ground flax seeds, almond butter, cocoa nibs, and soymilk)

Mid-morning snack:
sunflower seeds
green tea

Lunch:
Greek chicken (take-out)
cauliflower
mustard greens
sauteed eggplant

Afternoon Snack:
none

Supper:
omlet (with kalamata olives, tomatoes, green peppers, nitrate-free pepperoni)
salad (with 1 slice roast beef, spinch, arugula, olive oil, and lime juice)

How I felt -
Much better than yesterday.  Kinda blah though. 

No-grain, no-sugar diet - Day 4

What I ate -

Breakfast (4 pts):
1 egg, fried in olive oil
Baked butternut squash w/cinnamon (I just can't seem to get enough of this breakfast!)

Mid-morning snack (2 pts):
4 parsley lemon-pepper shrimp

Lunch (5 pts):
Homemade chicken soup

Afternoon snack:
none

Supper (8 pts):
2 rice cakes
almond butter
green tea

Total pts = 19

How I felt -
Terrible! Had a headache all day that turned into a migraine in the late afternoon.  Couldn't eat much b/c of the accompanying nausea.  I gave in and had the rice cakes b/c it was the only thing I could bring myself to eat.  Will get back to the no grains thing tomorrow. 

No-grain, no-sugar diet - Day 3

What I ate:


Breakfast  (4 pts.):
1 egg, fried in olive oil
baked butternut squash with cinnamon
(It was so good yesterday that I had to have it again.)

Mid-morning snack (3 pts.):
handful of pumpkin seeds

Lunch (5 pts.):
salad with spinach, arugula, 2 slices of roast beef, olives, palm hearts, roasted red pepper, olive oil, and lemon juice

Afternoon Snack (10) pts.):
1/2 avocado
2 slices of turkey
2 vinegar-free pickles (I like Bubbies Pure Kosher Dills.)
flax seed crackers
almond butter
green tea with soymilk
(I was starving when I got home!  Apparently, that salad wasn't filling enough.)

Supper (8):
grass-fed steak (fat cut off)
creamed spinach


Total:  30 pts.


How I felt:
MUCH better today!  I had more energy than usual and had a very productive day.  (I notice I don't need a nap when I stay away from wheat.)

No-grains, no sugar diet - Day 2

What I ate -

Breakfast (4 pts):
1 egg, fried in olive oil
baked butternut squash with cinnamon (I baked it last night.)
Green tea w/soymilk

Mid-morning snack (2):
plain, homemade yogurt

Lunch (5):
homemade chicken soup
Green tea w/soymilk

Afternoon snack (5):
flaxseed crackers with almond butter
dandelion tea w/soymilk

Supper (12):
Turkey patties
salad w/olive oil and lemon juice dressing
1/2 avocado

Total pts = 28

How I felt -
Crappy.  It's sugar withdrawal symptoms.  It takes about 3 days for sugar to get out of your system.  The last time I gave up all sugars, I felt like I had the flu for 3 days.  This time, it's not as bad but I did have a headache and nausea all day.  I can tell you from experience that the first 3 days of giving up sugar is the worst.  If you can make it 3 days, then it becomes a lot easier.  You feel better and you won't have cravings.

Day 1

Today is my first day of being back on my diet of no grains or sugars.  (No fructose or lactose either.)  My weight today was 178 pounds.  (Blerg.  Up from 165 in June.  :P)  I hope to track my success with my blog.  Plus, for those of you out there that want to try it, you can use my meal ideas.  (*Note:  I was on Weight Watchers for years so I still add  up points in my head when I do this diet.  The points listed are my estimates.  Nothing official or anything.)

Breakfast (I estimate about 8 Weight Watchers points):
Shake:
1/4 cup almond milk
1/4 cup coconut milk
1 T rice protein powder  (The starch has been removed and the protein extracted.  You can find it at health food stores.  Whey protein would be an alternative.)
2 T flax seeds, ground  (I grind them in my coffee grinder.)
1 T cocoa nibs, ground
about 1 t of chopped fresh ginger  (this makes you almost feel like there's some kind of fruitiness to it.)
1 T almond butter  (I can tolerate small amounts of nut butters, but not nuts themselves.  Strange.)

Blend with a splash of water and ice in a blender.

Mid-Morning Snack (I estimate about 1 Weight Watchers point):
4 sauteed shrimp with lemon pepper and parsley (I got them pre-prepared at Whole Foods, then froze them in tiny, individual tupperwares so they're ready to go.  If you can tolerate nuts, I say eat nuts as a snack!  They travel well.)


Lunch (I estimate about 8 Weight Watchers points):
Salad with arugula (rocket), 2 slices of turkey, 1/2 avocado, roasted red peppers, kalamata olives (vinegar-free), palm hearts, lemon juice, olive oil, and salt.
Green tea


Afternoon Snack (I estimate about 3 Weight Watchers points):
1 hard boiled egg
2 T black bean dip
celery sticks
Dandelion Tea

Supper (about 5 points):
baked fish (cod)
steamed broccoli
artichoke leaves
olive oil dip:  with lemon, parsely, oregano, salt, and garlic

Total points = 25

So far, so good!  :-)

Getting back on the wagon with chicken soup

Lately, I feel the need to get back on the diet I was on when I lost all that weight.  Because I've been bad.  This summer, I ate all kinds of things and gained 5 pounds.  Not too bad, right?  Well, then some friends of mine came over for a girlie weekend and I ate everything bad for four straight days and gained 8 more pounds.  Seriously!  EIGHT pounds in four days?!?  That's just not right!  It's not like I was stuffing my face either.  I just ate unhealthy things at every meal for four days.  It's crazy how my body puts on weight all at once like that.  On the plus side, my body also loses weight all at once like that too.  I just need to get in the zone.  Since that weekend, I have not gained any more weight, but I have not lost any either. 

Everybody is different, but I cannot lose weight as long as I eat sugar and grains.  Even if I consume very few calories.  (crazy, right?)  It was almost a year ago that I went on a modified Candida Diet and lost 30 pounds.  I ate mostly meat and veggies.  No fruit, vinegar, or sugar, and very limited starches.  (Like 1/2 cup of rice per day at the most.)  This week, I'm getting back with the program.  To kick start it all off, I'm going to eat NO grains at all.  Then, I'll add 1/2 of rice per day next week.  I will post what I eat every day just to prove it can be done.  To add a further challenge, I must avoid nuts because I have discovered that they make my migraines worse.  (There goes my favorite snack food!)

Today being Sunday, I thought I'd make a big pot of chicken soup for lunches this week.  It's a good, filling, yet healthy meal that you can make and freeze in individual tupperwares.  Just as convenient as a processed TV dinner, but way more delicious and healthy!  Here's how I make it:

Chicken Soup

Ingredients:
whatever chicken parts you want   (I use 2 legs and 2 thighs b/c I think it makes a better-tasting soup)
1 or 2 carrots, sliced
1 or 2 celery ribs, sliced
1 onion, chopped
1 bay leaf
thyme to taste
salt to taste
here's the cool part:  You know those veggies that you have in your fridge that are about to go bad?  The ones you bought with every intention of eating them but it just didn't happen?  Chuck 'em in the soup! 

Directions:
Put everything in a big pot.  Pour enough water in to cover.  Simmer for 1 hour over medium  heat.  Cool, strain, then cut the chicken off the bone into bite-sized chucks.  Remove bay leaf.

It's nice to have this soup on hand for a quick meal or snack when you need it. 

Weight Loss

I'm going to discuss here how my body loses weight (and gains it).  It is different than most conventional wisdom on the topic.  For instance, they say it's best to lose weight slowly over time.  Also, I've heard it said that you can't gain a significant amount in only a week or so.


My Body and Weight Gain:
In the week before my wedding (almost 7 years ago!) I found out that YES you can gain a significant amount of weight in less than a week.  When it got to be a week before my wedding, I had already had the last fitting for my dress and I thought, "Whew!  One week can't make much difference so I can just eat what I want!"  So I ate whatever I wanted that week.  Plus, I was stressed and carbs are something I crave when I'm stressed.  Um....well... let's just say my dress was really tight on the wedding day.  It had fit perfectly 5 days earlier, and on the day I thought I wasn't going to be able to zip it up!  (I sucked in and did, but talk about stressy!)


My Body and Weight Loss:
As you can see above, my body gains weight all at once.  As I later found out, my body also loses weight all at once.  Fast forward to September 2009.  My Functional Medical Practitioner put me on a Yeast-Free diet combined with the Specific Carbohydrate Diet.  This means that you either take the Yeast-Free diet and remove all the grains and potatoes from it; OR you take the Specific Carbohydrate Diet and remove the fruit and honey.  Basically, you can only eat meat and veg.  No grains, starches, fruit, or sweeteners of any kind.  Also no dairy because of the lactose (dairy sugar).  If you're thinking this is a crazy, impossible diet - you're right!  (Kinda)  My husband calls it "the worst diet in the world".  I found that after 3 days, it got much easier.  After a week, it's almost automatic.  Once you get used to making all your meals with weird ingredients, it's really not hard at all.

This diet is a corrective diet and is not intended to be used indefinitely.  I was also put on a lot of vitamin supplements for a few weeks before I started this diet and I believe they REALLY helped me stay on it.  I didn't crave things because my nutritional needs were being met.  Also, I got off of all the addictive substances I was on (like caffiene and sugar) before I started this. 


Well, I lost 20 pounds almost over night.  It was crazy!  It came off all at once over a span of about 2 weeks.  People thought I was ill!  I know conventional wisdom says that this is unhealthy, but I felt good doing this and my body became healthier overall.  The other 10 pounds or so came off over the next month.  I never lost this kind of weight on any other diet.  When I was on Weight Watchers, I was eating WAY less calories than I was on this diet but they were from a lot of sugar and processed foods.  This is a real foods diet and you cannot have processed food on it.  (NOTE:  This is NOT in any way like the Atkins Diet.  A lot of people think it is but it's not because you don't count carbs, you can have as many veggies as you want, and things like bacon and animal fat are not allowed!  Also things like Atkins bars and other products are forbidden on this because of all the terrible chemicals that are in them.) 

When I was on this diet, a typical day's food was the following:

Breakfast:  
Ultra Shake (rice protein, almond milk, nut butter, ground flax seeds, flax oil, and ginger)
OR 1/2 avocado with raw flax crackers

snack:  a handful of any kind of raw nuts (except peanuts)

Lunch:  
canned salmon with frozen broccoli and lemon juice
or leftover supper
or chicken soup

snack: raw flax seed crackers with nut butter or tahini
OR veggies and black bean hummous

Supper:
any kind of meat with any kind of veg
(example:  lamb chops with asparagus and kale)


As you can see, this is not a low-fat diet!  In fact, it is very decidedly high fat.  BUT - the fat is all good fat and comes from healthy sources.  I couldn't believe how well it worked.

Today:
I now realize that I need to go back on this diet for at least a week or two.  Right now I weigh 165 pounds and need to lose about 30 more.  My weight has stabilized and I haven't lost any more for a few months.  This is because I eat more carbs now.  (Not bad carbs like white flour and sugar!)  Just things like rice cakes, quinoa, gluten-free bread, brown rice, millet cereal, etc.  This is fine for maintenance, but I'm finding that in order to lose weight I must reduce carbs.  I recently read that a high-protein and good fat diet sends your body a "dump fat" message.  On the other hand, a high carb diet sends your body a "store fat" message.      

Cheating:
Over Christmas, I ate all sorts of things.  BUT - I didn't gain any weight because I made sure that whatever I ate was real.  If I ate a piece of cake, it was homemade with no artificial chemicals, transfats, or high fructose corn syrup.  We were in Greece this Christmas so I ate things like Baklava, tsoureki,  and candied oranges.  The good thing there is that bakeries in Greece do not use commercial chemicals and additives the way they do in this country.  Things are still made with real ingredients.  I KNOW this is why I could eat all those things and not gain a single pound back.  So:  If you're going to cheat, make sure it's REAL!

I'm sure everybody loses weight differently, but this worked for me.  What has worked for you?