Thoughts about quantities of food

I have been thinking a lot in the past few days about quantity. Dr. Berkley says that the quantity of food you eat in maintenance doesn't change drastically from the amount you ate while losing weight. 

When I was on Medifast/TSFL it was one of the first things I learned that the quantities I always thought normal and healthy are actually gigantic!

I remember visiting my cousin in The Netherlads gazillions years ago, when I was still young and single, in my early 30s, she had breakfast and a sandwich for lunch her main meal was dinner. I thought back then that she eats very little. Little did I know that she actually was more in the right direction than the three big meals plus snacks and endless lattes that I was eating. I never thought my coffee with low fat/non fat milk 3 and sometimes 4 times a day was contributing to my growing appetite and body.

I am trying to decide now if I am eating too little or too much and of what. I haven't been able to lose any weight in the past month. It is disappointing. When I was doing Medifast/TSFL I had a set routine. It was easy and pretty much predictable. I usually dropped about 2lbs a week unless it was the week of my period. I stalled here and there,when I got closer to 135 and the last 5lbs from 135 to 130 were very s l o w. I was doing C25K then and had to up my protein. 

I now have a good idea of the reasonable quantity of food for my body. There is that much meat/figs/eggs I can eat a day. So that's my protein and it is hard to overeat. It is actually sometimes hard to eat enough (if you go by Pinney/Volek/McDomald 40g recommended protein per meal). My other food staple veggies, are also not likely to cause overeating. Another point is that I eat from a salad plate, I fill it with protein and veggies. That's it. 

I do it 3 times a day. Hard to overeat. But..... There are nuts. I am not sure I overeat them. I am not sure they are the ones stalling me. I have had weight loss after I ate more than my usual nuts. I do eat small quantity 1 or 2 oz max. I had days when I didn't eat them at all and still didn't lose. 

Perhaps my body is still adopting to Keto. I am not sure. Perhaps it is hormones. Perhaps I am in peri menopause. 

Time will tell. 

I was down to my usual 147.4lbs this morning after yesterday's 149+. I remember that when I did cardio training I was advised not to weigh in the day after and thought perhaps my running had something to do with the scale gain. I now make sure to walk on days that I don't run. I do feel great! I will continue to figure it out.

Refuse to Regain

If the cultural forces that overwhelm us with food are like a flood, we must respond in kind. 

Dr. Barbara Berkley rule 1, avoid moderation.

Chapter 10 in Dr. B's book is very powerful for me. I also relate to her notion that the food attack and S foods are worse than drugs because drugs are not advertised and pushed on us on daily basis. Drugs are not mainstream while S foods are considered 'normal'. 

These are things I already know but she put it in good perspective for me. Now that I have associated it with drugs it is even easier to look at all the baked goods and desserts. 

My new strategy is plugging everything into My Fitness Pal. I am in the zone and in the flow. 

I think it has become a habit. For example I was at Starbucks Yesterday and tried the new Flat White. I plugged it in MFP and made sure to adjust the macros for the rest of my day. 

I don't like it BTW. Don't feel the coffee, it is basically whole milk. I will go back to my Americano with TBS of heavy whipping cream or just plain black. Maybe an occasional cappuccino. 

Who needs all this milk?

I think that I don't. Even though my nutriens where fine yesterday and I took a nice walk with my daughter I woke up this morning with 3 extra pounds! I got very upset when I saw 149+ on the scale. 

I am suspecting all this milk didn't do good to me. This is when 'a calorie is a calorie' proves wrong. I had 25g net carbs (47 total and 22fiber), 69g fat and 96g protein. 

My hormones are probably also contributing to the mix. I finally got my period after missing a month. 

I am just going to stick with my food template minus the milk and make adjustments. I will not reduce calories if anything I will slowly increase them. Especially now that I am doing the C25K. Running is great. My sleep is better just after one day of running. I am going to run again today. 

I will end this post with a recipe for a great carb free toast that someone on Ketogenic Dieters group on  FB posted:

1/4 cup golden flax meal

1 egg

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp water

pinch of salt

Mix and cook in microwave for 2 min. (I used a short mug, you can use a silicone bagel/donut mold), slice and toast

190 calories, 14g fat, 8g fiber, 12g protein 0 carbs

Add low fat meat and veggies and you have a great portable meal. 

I had it yesterday for lunch with leftover turkey hamburger as I needed to run out of the house to drive my daughter to piano lesson.

Off to run now. 

Surprising loss and first step to healthy lifestyle

This morning I stepped on the scale and saw a nice surprise. 3lbs loss. I couldn't believe it so stepped again, this time it was 2lbs loss only. I began to think something must be wrong with my scale so I tried few more time and moved the scale around but it was the same. So I am officially 2lbs down. Right after nuts disaster yesterday. 

I got up and went for a walk/jog, well basically I am back to C25K. I did a little less walking and a bit more short runs. After 3 sets of 1 minute I was getting slow so I ran 3 more 30 sec sets and walked in between. I got home streched and did some push ups just to work my arms. Enough with laziness and excuses. I don't like the gym but I have excercise videos at home, I spent the money on them and I need it. No more excuses. No more complaints in my head about how boring it is. Most of my day consists of driving so I just have to do it. That's it! Enough!

My husband decided to compete with me :-) he said that if I run he will too. So now he is out on a walk/run. He pushes himself more than I do but I remember it is very good for both of us. I think it affects our hormone levels for the better. 

Anyhow, Time for breakfast now and keep reading Refuse to Regain  :-) 

Ketogenic diet thoughts

I was doing pretty well or at least so I thought but after lunch I started to feel deprived. I couldn't stop thinking about nuts. I ended up giving up, resentment was starting to set in. I ended up eating nuts and a small pack of beef jerky. I skipped dinner and only had a slice if Swiss cheese, cucumber and quarter tomatoe. 

I went for a short jog and walk in the evening and am drinking hot tea. I decided to stop pursuing ketosis. I will go back to just protein, fat and low carb just from veggies and berries and keep track of my food on MFP. 40g protein is a lot and 20g carbs is too low for me. I want to be able to eat my veggies. I feel really deprived limiting food such as tomatoes and cauliflower. It is not sustainable for me and triggers emotional response so it seems. 

So my first non Whole 30 food was Swiss cheese. 

A bit of TMI...I am having gas. I suspect it is from the nuts. 

I am browsing through Dr. Barbara Berkley blogs and really found this one interesting. My main learning is to become an athlete. I am going back to walking/running. I am turning 46 in less then 2 months I have to establish this habit and keep it going. Especially since I still have menopause ahead. 

http://www.refusetoregain.com/2013/01/practical-weight-guidance-for-the-menopausally-challenged.html

Whole 30 Day 23 slight slip but generally getting better

Yesterday was day 23. Time really flies! This is totally doable as a way of life. I still haven't decided if I will still eat dairy after I finish The Whole 30. Should i go back to my Fage 2% or full fat with 1oz nuts for breakfast? Should I do it twice a week or only once? I am not tired of eggs for breakfast but it might get boring after a while. 
I think it is ok for me. I will give it a try in a week and see how i feel. I think that once a week will not be problematic for me. 

As I mentioned yesterday, i slipped with pistachios after my breakfast. I was listening to a book on tape and just let myself have a handful of pistachios that somehow grew into two handfuls and then few more. 
I know that it was wrong. They looked at me from the shelf. I should have just closed the door. I shouldn't have looked on that shelf to begin with. I should have just left the kitchen. Looking back it seems like self sabotage. I would have been better off going out for a walk. 
Which is another thing i really want to focus on. Daily walks. I am completely sedentary. I really need to move. It is not good for my health in any way. I am not aiming currently at running again or even getting back to T-Tapp or Callanetics or even dance workout. My excuse for quitting every workout I start is getting bored. It becomes monotone. I went on a walk with a friend on Tuesday but didn't really do much the rest of the week. 
I have to MOVE!!!!!! My body wants it. The whole "I am bored" is self sabotage and I have to just stop doing it. 

After I slipped with pistachios I had my beef sloppy joe for lunch with 2 squares of dark chocolate. I learned from Karen (GardenGirlKP blog) to incorporate 'treats' like berries and chocolate in my meal, I will do so with nuts too. I believe it will help eliminate my snacking mentality. If the food is part of the meal i do not need to snack between meals. 

I had my afternoon decaf coffee without coconut milk and was fine. 
By dinner time, around 7 I was ready to eat but not famishing. I had a hardboiled egg, with persian cucumber and yellow bell pepper, 4 Applegate Apple chicken sausages. I was still a little hungry (well, i am not sure if it was hunger or wanting some more food) so I had 1oz of beef jerky (I like Sophia's Survival Food) and called it a night with a cup of herbal tea. 

I am really inspired by Gwen from The Sunny Coconut. She is so committed. Thanks Gwen for commenting on my blog. Please feel free to be direct with me. No need to apologize. I want to hear the truth. 

Yes I realize that new habits take time to establish. I am committed and am in the mindset of changing. I think that i always had this pattern of realizing a damaging habit, wanting to change it, making the change few times or just once and then slipping. I have learned that it is normal. A couple years ago I read this book The Power of Habit http://charlesduhigg.com/the-power-of-habit/ and the author does say that people always slip. It is a game of few steps forward few steps back. You want more steps forward than back and with time the backward steps become less and less. 

I have never been good at setting goals and sticking to them. I actually do much worse when I set goals. But what works for me is just having a mindset. I also like to be different. So if i see others doing the same thing I want to stop doing it motivates me to stop doing it..... ;-) I like to be different. 

So here it is. Everybody snacks. I don't want to do it. ;-)