Day 8: Down 3.2 pounds!

One week and I've lost 3 pounds! Pretty good considering I wasn't doing this Paleo Challenge with the express purpose of losing weight. I wanted to get back to healthy eating and feeling better, but I'll take the weight loss too. Though I'm now at that point in my weight loss that has tripped me up over and over again - right on the border between the 130s and 140s. See numerous previous posts where I get to 140 or 141 and then disappear for months. It seems like there's a mental block or something that stops me right at this point. I don't think it's a physical plateau. I've got plenty of fat left to lose, and with my height and build I could comfortably be down in the high 120s, so I don't know what it is. It's something about seeing 139 on the scale that freaks me out. Part of me gets really excited and thinks I can take a load off since I'm in the 130s. Part of me is scared. Of what, I don't really know. Something for me to discover, I guess. I'm hoping I can break through the damn barrier this time and keep gradually and healthily getting to a stable weight my body and I are happy with, and feel better, sleep better, and have energy again. Wish me luck!

Day 7: Kill All the Things

My first Whole 30 pretty closely followed the normal timeline. I was fine, then had major low-carb hangover, then was majorly pissed off, then exhausted, then cravings and dreams, then amazing energy that led me to do another month and a half of Whole 30. This time's been a little different. Immediately on Day 1, I was having major cravings. Not good. Maybe I just wasn't mentally or grocery prepared. I still wasn't sure the day before if I was going to commit to it, but Day 1 rolled around and I made the good choice. I was super, can't-keep-my-eyes-open on Day 3, and Day 5 I strayed. I went to the movies and out to dinner, and while I stuck to gluten-free, I definitely wasn't Paleo. I was back at it yesterday, Day 6, which was fine.

Then today, Day 7, I felt really strong against cravings, but also like I wanted to Kill All the Things. I ran errands with my parents and everything was annoying me. EXCEPT when they got frozen yogurt from Costco. I thought it would be really hard to resist the Costco food court (cheese pizza, anyone?), but I was totally fine. There was a moment when we drove by a McDonald's and I could almost taste a Big Mac (which is weird, because McDonald's is not one of my craving triggers, and I rarely eat there), but didn't really give it a second thought.

A good breakfast probably helped. I made these honey muffins from Civilized Caveman Cooking Creations. Yum! I bought more ingredients and plan to quadruple the recipe tomorrow and refrigerate the leftovers for breakfasts for the week. I know, not Whole 30. I may as well just call this 30 days a Paleo Challenge, because it's definitely not Whole 30. Oh well, I'm happy with it. Snack was roasted pumpkin seeds. Late lunch was a lettuce wrapped sandwich. And dinner was BBQ chicken breasts, sweet potatoes, pineapple, and spinach.

Breakfast!

 

Lunch Wrap

 

Busy crafting!

After dinner I got busy crafting and making mayonnaise using this recipe. I've tried to make it before with other recipes and failed. Multiple times. Or I thought it smelled weird so I threw it out. But not this time. This time, it was perfect. I followed the recipe to a T and came up with this beauty that I get to snack on all week

The perfect homemade mayo

 Ok, time to have a square of dark chocolate and try not to kill anyone before bed.

Oh, and another potentially related side effect of Day 7- brain fog in the form of choosing the wrong word while speaking several times. Electron instead of electrolyte. Utility instead of utensils. Things like that. Weird.

Back at it

Well it's been a few months of ups and downs. The biggest up? I finally got hitched! B and I got married in the Bahamas surrounded by our closest family and friends. It was an absolutely perfect day and week.

The downs aren't nearly so bad as the ups were good, but I've slowly been straying from Paleo (and any sort of good eating) again. I keep trying to remind myself that it's all a process. A journey. There probably is no end point to this journey - it's something that I'll be working on for my entire life. I figure as long as I'm making more good choices than bad, I'm doing alright.

So after wedding prep, moving, a week-long wedding and a week-long honeymoon cruise, all filled with fabulous (non-Paleo) food, it was time to get back on track. As of June 3rd, I'm on a modified Whole 30. Modified to be slightly less strict than a traditional Whole 30. In my past 2, I've found that being so strict tends to bring up some food-related neuroses and disorders from the past, so I'm just trying to be smart about it. Still no grains, no dairy, no legumes. Some pre-packaged food (mostly in the form of a Primal protein shake), Lara bars, mayonnaise. I will probably make a paleo pancake, which is expressly forbidden on a traditional Whole 30. I'll eat out and probably won't check to see if my steak is grilled in soy oil. So sue me. It's still a whole helluva lot better than what I've been doing in the past few months. And it's part of the journey.

Anyway, have to wrap this up because the Day 4 Brain Fog is hitting pretty hard right now.

Days 1-3: feeling pretty good, except some tiredness at the end of day 3. Day 4: so. tired. foggy. etc.