10 things that I’m gonna do list. Part duex!

About 30 days 6 MONTHS later I can say I actually did a few things on this list. Lets discuss!

1. Infuse KettleOne vodka with something tasty. Like blood orange from the farmers market.

Nope. Didn’t do it.

2. Make coconut flour pancakes that make me like pancakes. They really don’t do anything for me.

Wow! I made this recipe from my favorite paleo blog, Nom Nom Paleo. Just the name should make you want to visit.

3. Sew the toddlers’ long sleeve shirts into shortsleeves rather then the cut off white trash version.

Yeah, what a colossal waste of time. She certainly doesn’t care how she looks, the trees and birds don’t either. And that is who is seeing her right now…

4. Do something with this sad mop of hair. It was a cute cut until the blowout needed to be washed. Now it’s a frizzy mess. WTF?

Didn’t do anything until last month. My sister is a freaking master stylist. It now looks SO GOOD. She did a thing she calls “Kardashian layers” or hidden layers. I’d post a pic but then… I’d have to take one. And we all know that is not happening.

5. Join a wine club. Oh please, can I cram this into our already (overspending) budget? Someone help!

Ha! I did join one. Currently loving it.

6. Exercise for a week straight without stopping because of extreme soreness or groin injury from first attempt at sprints. Really tho?

I did SEVEN days straight of T-Tapp’s 15 minute workout. It didn’t do much. But I may start again.

7. Do just ONE pull-up. Just ONE.

Nope. Can’t do push ups either. Hahahahahahahhhahaha.

8. Write more on this blog about important stuff like lists of things I’ll never do.

Look ma! I’m writing on me blog!

9. Lose 20 pounds by December so I can gain it ALL back in December once pregnant. Pointless?

I *gained* 10 pounds in 2 weeks. No joke. My thyroid hates me.

10. Eat Paleo/Primal. Stop. Eating. Junk! Track results somehow? People say “You look great” how can that be? I lose nothing on the scale. My measurements, the same. Strange?

People aren’t saying I look *great* anymore. What happened? :cries:

Ray Peat: Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis Diet = Sugar. Yay!

So trying this today after reading a bit and I feel fine, not that different from Primal (Mark’s Daily Apple) because guess what people? I never gave up dairy! I had lots of OJ and ate some white rice. Screw it! I need some variety for one, and Peat says lettuces have lots of toxins, even the organic variety.

The rules as I understand them:
Do not eat any processed foods (duh), wheat (duh), legumes, oils or ANY foods that contain a high level of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Ok, makes sense. Guess my Trader Joe’s chicken sausage is out. Like I didn’t already know that. Hubster got me a food grinder so I am going to make my own meat grinds!

It appears that the main thing is to food combine. Sugar with protein. This is intriguing especially because it means one of my favorite snacks and something I ate my entire pregnancy. Apples and cheese! But this is *not* a weight loss diet. It’s a diet to *heal* and get the metabolism where it should be in order to start losing weight. This is starting to really make sense to me. Primal and Paleo were supposed to help me lose and didn’t so I give up on that front. I’m going to try this for a while and see what happens. It’s really just Primal with less focus on vegetables and more on fruit. I’m fine with that, obviously. I’m a fruit-a-holic.

My temperature throughout the day sure is interesting. Broda Barnes says he would diagnose (don’t quote me, this is how I understood some random article online) patients literally by their low temps. Mine was pretty low all day today. All day. Before eating, after eating. Low. Even after running around town on errands. Makes you wonder…

Temp: 96.2 at 12:15pm. (before eating)
Temp: 97.0 at 2:25pm (after eating)
Temp: 97.3 at 6:55pm (before eating)
Temp: 97.6 at 8:16pm (after eating)

Pulse: 82bpm (taken at 8:12pm)

Temps below 98 degrees are considered to have a problem with their metabolism. 85bpm on average is a normal resting pulse. I’m low on both. According to Ray Peat, I must be hypothyroid even though Kaiser says I’m not. Yay.

I’m doing a strength-training workout for weight loss (haha, what a joke!) and it’s kicking my ass. I also am T-Tapping and trying to get some walks in with sprints here and there. I will not be intermittently fasting because I am trying to get pregnant and taking care of a toddler during IF would not be fun, I’m sure. However– some mornings I’m busy and don’t get around eating until 1-2pm so I guess that is fasting, isn’t it? Yet I lose no weight! And I refuse to blame the red wine. So don’t even try it.

Wish me luck. Again.

T-Tapp + Primal 21-day Challenge: Day 8-12

Why haven’t I written? Well… things have been BUSY very BUSY. And you know what? I’m really not seeing any results like the book claims and am highly annoyed by that fact. I’ll keep doing it for the full 21 days but it’s not looking good. My pants aren’t loose, my eating is the same (maybe a little worse) and quite frankly, I don’t find the workout that challenging or am very excited to do it.

Should I step it up to a 45 minute workout? Sure. Do I want or have time to do that? Nope. Not this month. The bootcamp I did is 7 days straight and a few weeks of every other day to lose two dress sizes. I know these things take time so I’ll keep on keeping on.

But right now I’m pretty disappointed…

T-Tapp + Primal 21-day Challenge: Day 7

I did it! 7 days in a row and I hate to say… It was sort of easy. For some reason I was expecting results. Like I maybe lost and inch or something. Nope. Ugh. Why do I bother? I know, I know. Give it 4 weeks. Well, more like 3 but yeah, I’ll try to wait to re-measure then. It’s so discouraging hearing stories about ladies who lost 3 inches the first week. That clearly isn’t happening to me.

I realized today how much I’m craving baked goods. Jesus Christ! Lets just say gluten-free baking is fun and easy and wow… Really good! I was surprised by that quite frankly.

So I decided to to get some good grapes instead of candy/baked good. I didn’t buy more sugar and pumpkin purée to make chocolate chip pumpkin muffins though I wanted too. Oh yes I did.

I’m noticing a lot annoying things. Like putting on jeans that fit pretty comfortably last year are annoyingly tight. Even though just looking at pictures from me last year to this year it’s obvious how much “weight” I lost. Weird!

Tomorrow I get my first day off. Looking forward to it. I was primal all day except for the sweetened condensed milk and potato chips at Starbucks. Ooops.

T-Tapp + Primal 21-day Challenge: Day 4-5-6

So today and yesterday were pretty uneventful. One crappy thing I am noticing… My parts are fitting rather… tightly. After 5 friggen days of T-Tapping and MOSTLY primal, this really irks me. I have been eating more sugar, fine. But this workout is supposed to help with getting rid of inflammation. Is it working? I don’t feel like I’m going THAT off the rails. Do I really have to be *that* careful to see *any* results? Wouldn’t that be totally effed up? I mean, it’s Dec. it’s hard to resist baked goods. Especially the gluten-free variety.

Yesterday and today’s workout wasn’t needed as I was doing the 4 days in a row/every other day. Now I think I’m going to go for the 7 days in a row and see what happens by the end of Dec.

Food-wise I’m doing good. Except for the ice cream my damn hubster brought home and the random baked good. Yes, I will be having honey in my coffee and maybe even some sweetened condensed milk (organic from Trader Joe’s! Squeee!). But I feel like I’m well within the 80/20 rule.

Please let me see some results soon!

T-Tapp + Primal 21-day Challenge: Day 3

T-Tapp Basic Plus Workout:
Getting faster at this now! I only really have to make sure my form is correct. Still– the workout DVDs sure would help. I don’t want to pay however! I got a comment from another fellow blogger saying she lost 9 inches. WOW! I really hope I see that kind of success. I have a pair of jeggings from American Eagle I am dying to get on, and they are one size smaller then I am currently.

Primal eating:
Eggs scrambled on top of chorizo (Sprouts doesn’t add anything weird!) with kale, carrots and bell peppers. Some green Trader Joes’ salsa on top. YUM!

Lunch:
Oh dear. Sonic cheeseburger wrapped in lettuce. Tarot tots. And the kicker? Didn’t really taste good.

Dinner is orange chicken and cauliflower rice. So effing good.

T-Tapp + Primal 21-day Challenge: Day 2

Worked out first thing this AM (ok, it was 11am whatever haha) and feel GREAT.

T-Tapp:
It really does feel good. But it’s freaking hard. And I’m sore. Two more days? Hope I can do this! The plan is to workout 4 days in a row, then every other day for the remainder of the 21 days and re-measure. I even made a cheat sheet in Illustrator of the moves since I’m so poor and can’t afford the $30+ for the DVDs. I’m very good at maintaining form (hello YEARS of Yoga/Pilates) so I think I got that portion down-pat.

Primal eating:
Oh Mark Sisson. How am I supposed to get outside for 15 minutes when it rained the whole damn weekend? And play with my beautiful 3 year old? She’s all about daddy right now. And I’m working a lot. Whew! Why am I doing a challenege in December again? Oh yeah, I have lost all my marbles. I remember now.

Breaky:
Scrambled eggs on top of Sprouts no-crap-added pork breakfast sausage with butter, olive oil, coconut oil, spinach, bell peppers, green onion and garlic.
A gluten-free chocolate chop cookie and one gingerbread cookie. I stopped myself though of course, I wanted more.
Coffee with honey and half-and-half

Lunch:
Might skip it. So much to do today!

Dinner:
A shrimp pesto artichoke and spinach sauté with cauliflower rice.

T-Tapp + Primal 21-day Challenge: Day 1

T-Tapp Basic Plus Workout:
My first workout took twice as long as it should have taken. Understandable, as I am being cheap and doing it from the book and free internet clips. It. Is. HARD. I’m pretty sore today but looking forward to it? Weird. That like, never happens. But I am DETERMINED to shrink a bit before the end of the year.

Primal eating:
Went a bit off the rails. Had some honey in my coffee (yes, I did today too!). Gingerbread cookies. Not the gluten-free variety either. We decorated our Xmas tree yesterday. So that means I had… you guessed it. Wine. It was a great evening. I even made a handmade decoration, listened to the Nutcracker. Life is good.

T-Tapp + Primal 21-day Challenge: Ramp Up

Oh here I go again! Are you excited? Here’s a run down of what I’ve tried in regards to diets/workout plans. I’d say I have had a interesting journey so far, and I think my thyroid hates me.

As you might have guessed, I’ve been struggling with weight loss since about 13 when I decided I was fat. I wasn’t, mind you. I looked like a typical 13 year old losing that last bit of pre-teen chub. My mom said I was beautiful. Boys were really noticing me. But no, I didn’t have big boobs (something I love about myself later in life, who needs that backache?) and NO my size jeans weren’t 8, more like 12. A BIG DEAL to a 13 year old. And a 25 year old… who wore mens jeans size 38. This is where the real journey started.

Weight Watchers 2005:
Lost 75lbs and hit goal in 2007. Size 20 to size 10-12.
Had a baby in 2009, gained it *all* back.

Tried Weight Watchers again in January 2011:
Lost NOTHING. Size 20.

Tried Paul McKenna’s “I Can Make You Thin” in March 2011:
Lost about 5 pounds. Size 20.

Tried calorie counting via MyFitnessPal until around December 2011:
Lost nothing. Was starving. Size 20.

Gluten-free transition April 2012 when I discover Mark’s Daily Apple:
Lost maybe 5 pounds. Look like I lost more, my sister says… Size 18.

Whole30 August 2012:
Complete utter fail. Never finished one and never will. I love dairy too too much. Sorry.

Primal 21 Day Challenge September 2012:
Lost nothing but looking better, feeling amazing. Lost a few inches off my waist and pants fit better. Dropped a size since I transition to gluten-free. I like the Primal program the best so far. Size 16-18. Workouts consist of kettlebell routines, bodyweight workouts and lots of walking. Some sprinting as well. I think Mark is a genius.

Harcombe Diet in October 2012:
Lost nothing. Size 16-18. Phase 1 is a detox for 5 days. No caffeine, dairy, sugar, processed foods and even some vegetables (potatoes and mushrooms). Will never do a super-low-carb diet ever again. Even just 5 days of it. I was EXTREMELY tired and moody. Felt very deprived and ended up binge eating on the 6th day after discovering I lost nothing. The book claims you’ll lose 5-10 pounds the first phase which is 5 days. Stupid me paid 8 bucks for the Kindle version and felt stupid for believing it! I wish I could throw the book out the window. But it’s the Kindle version. Delorted!

Now?
Primal 21-day Challenge + T-Tapp workout bootcamp thingie:
This T-Tapp book sure has lofty claims as well. But as you can tell… I’m willing to try anything. This one is meant for people with auto-immune issues. Highly rated and even an awesome infomercial on PBS. We will see what happens, stay tuned.

Weight-loss Woes

Will I *ever* lose any substantial amount of weight? Or do I just need to accept myself the way I am? You’d think that giving up grains, most sugar, processed foods and now dairy would have told the body to do something. Nope. I’ve been gaining and losing the same goddamn 2-3 pounds every month. It’s getting old, let me tell you.

Here’s some background on the body I once had. I miss it dearly…

In 2005 I headed to a Weight Watchers meeting and was impressed. I signed up. I lost 75 pounds. It took a damn near 3 years to do it. But I did it. Then in 2009, I got pregnant. Miscarried at 8 weeks along. Was devastated. Wanted a baby even MORE. Got pregnant again, it took. She is now 2.5. I still weigh the same amount I did when I gave birth to her.

After being diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, I started to see what my thyroid was (and was not) doing. And that was regulating my body weight. I was eating as little as 1500 calories and lost nothing. And we are talking 6 weeks of HARDCORE calorie counting. I then decided to ditch the iPhone App madness and eat a paleo/primal diet. I love it, I must say and don’t think I’ll ever return to grains. I’ve been cutting dairy out, significantly in the last 2 weeks. I drink my tea/coffee with no sugar. No splenda. No stevia. Straight up. The indulgences I partake in are (you guessed it) wine in the evenings (not every evening!) and dark chocolate. I did this on Weight Watchers for 3 years. I drank heavily back in my mid to late 20s. I lost the weight then. What GIVES?

“You just need to exercise!” Ooooh of course I do. Yes. Well I’ve been walking/biking every day, run after a 2yo, go hiking on the weekends. What’s that then? Isn’t that exercise? It’s exactly the kind Mark Sisson (Mark’s Daily Apple) suggests here. Why can’t I just lose a few pounds? I go down a pound or two, but only when I’m not ovulating and the obvious menses. I seem to weigh less right BEFORE menses. But all in all, the same weight. Day after day, week after week, month after month. I give up! (not really, just love to complain about it. Shake my fist at the sky, that sort of thing).

Will a cross-fit type circuit training really work for me? Will sprinting even ONCE a week break my bodies’ love affair with extra belly flab? Any suggestions, people?