Weekly Weigh In - 162.5!

Half a pound down from last week! Whoo!

Although with this Polar Vortex BS means we're shut in and we're all not keeping to our diets, so we'll see if it holds up!

Wednesday Weigh In - Still trending down!

Still trending down! Also still not yet in the 162s, but it's probably because of the cold--I'm hardly moving this week and sleeping a lot because its chilly and dark this winter, but since it's still going down, so I'm happy!

I've been fully GF again all month, except for one slice of pie that I just needed to have, and I'm feeling better. Even with all the heavy winter food!

Wednesday Weigh In - 163.4

Not the 162 I was aiming for, but lower than before so I call it a win!

Wednesday Weigh In - Starting A New Year Edition

Okay, for the last month and a bit between Thanksgiving and New Years, I tried less and less hard to keep on the GF diet. I'd done a whole month on, then most of the month after that, and I had proven to myself that it is something useful and healthful to myself--and then the holidays happened and I was doing okay until Cooking Making Day. And Cookie Swap Day. And I decided that Family Traditions going back to years before I was born are more important than feeling at my absolute best through the holidays, so I made cookies. And I ate them. And they were as delicious as I remembered.

At first, they were excellent because of what they were--we traditionally make Tollhouse Chocolate Chip, Oatmeal Scotchies, Peanutbutter Thumbprint and Sugar Cookies*. And we made all of those in one massive pile of cookie making that went from 4pm to 2am and it was like old times. 

And then, as we ate our ways through them and the gluten started making me feel baseline funky again, and I saw how they were affecting me, they made me really want to go back on the Diet and then figure out how to make the same cookies in a GF way. So over the next year, regardless of how well I manage to stay 100% on the Diet**, I'll be trying out various GF recipes that claim to be the same, and I'll document them here. It'll help me totally relearn baking, which has been an annoyance to me--I mean, I've been baking since I was 8 on my own, and since I was 5 or 6 helping my mom, and now all of a sudden I don't have that instinctual knowledge of how it works--GF baking is way different and a lot more...chemistry than regular baking. So I have to learn it all over again, and Cookie Day will be a good way to do that.

I was expecting, after Falling Off the Wagon for so long, to have regained all the weight I lost and to have gotten way sick again, but I only gained back some and only got a little sick. I mean, I have a harsh cold now, the first I've had since I went off, and I'm blaming it on the gluten because I'm feeling gross and uncharitable, but that could be coincidence. I can definitely tell that I'm not Right--the greasiness and flakiness has come back to my skin, made worse by winter weather, the problems getting to sleep and staying asleep are back, made worse by holiday stress, the foggy brain is back, the motivation and energy problems, whatever. But none are as bad as they were before, so I think I've retained some of the good I did, and I'm hoping that means it'll be easier to stay on.

So here's my goals:

• To beat a month and a half totally GF--and then to beat whatever that score is
• To only Fall Off when I have already told myself it's okay--when there's birthday cake, or at traditional family gatherings, or when I'm not in control of my food, and not just because it's a Tuesday and I'm lazy
• To use GF living as a jumping off point and to gradually healthy-up the rest of my life, over the course of probably more than this year, but to also make headway this year
• To lose the weight I gained and to keep losing until I'm somewhere closer to A Healthy Weight--or, even better, my Goal Weight, which is 30lbs less than where I am now

These are sort-of New Years Resolutions, but they're also the goals I've had since I decided to figure out what's wrong with me back last summer, so I think they'll be okay. I just might require reminding every once in a while, so I thought it's a good time to document them here, in a public forum, right?

What're your health goals this year? Or even just this month?

Notes:

*We use the same recipies, my mom, my sister and I, from an ancient cookbook handed down from the 50s when my mom got married and copied when we all moved out, and yet they're all a little different. Like, I use butter in my sugar cookies and my sister uses Crisco; when did that mutation happen?

**I'm focused, but weak-willed; I'll probably fall off more than once over just not wanting to impose on others, let alone when I'm just too poor to afford the special food I need or when there's no other option, or when I'm just craving something so bad that I just say "fuck it" and eat a pizza.

Wednesday Weigh In - 163.4! On a food-based holiday week!

It's only two tenths of a lb down from the previous weigh-in, but you know what? It's two tenths down in a week with Thanksgiving and three birthdays--and the birthdays all had cake which is a) one of my main weight-gain weaknesses and b) off the GF diet. I'm basically only making exceptions in the diet for cake these days, and it seems to be doing alright! I didn't lose much, but I most definitely didn't gain!

My bro and I decided that we were going to check out the local Korean market, and when I was there I bought a tub of miso--delicious, delicious, live-food, protein-and-umami-filled miso. Which makes rice even more delicious!

You know, I used to say that I could live off rice. I guess I'm proving it!

Wednesday Weigh In - Right before Thanksgiving!

I'm down another pound! Rice-and-veg-based, wheat-free diet for the win!

If I survive Thanksgiving without getting all of it back I think I'll be okay until Christmas, and then after New Years I have some plans for tightening up again and getting back on track.

How're you guys?

Wednesday Weigh In - 164.9

I broke the 165 barrier! Just a little, but enough that it counts!

I think it's the wheat thing. When I stick to the diet, the scale ticks down, slowly but surely. I mean, Halloween was full of candy and I've been living off of chocolate-covered potato chips the last two days, but I've been better about checking for wheat and it's going down. I don't know if that'll work forever, but it's working now!

Wednesday Weigh In - 166!

I'm down almost four pounds since ten days ago when I started this new diet! I knew that I was feeling less puffy, but four pounds! That's way more than I was expecting!

Yesterday, my brother bought my mom and I lunch at his favorite bagel place. I decided to test it; I was nine days without gluten, lunch was free for me, and it looked amazing. It was delicious. I ate half a sandwich. And then I had a stomach ache and was queasy for the rest of the night. So I guess there is some real sensitivity!

But I also guess it's working and doing good things, so I'm re-committed!

Wednesday Weigh In - 167.8 lbs!

Still unflattering, but over a lb down from last week, and considering that I've been sick the last three days and trying to finish a novel under deadline, and so haven't been exercising as much as usual. Maybe stress burns calories?

Anyway, still down on the chart, so still good!

Any of you trying to lose weight? How're you doing?

Wednesday Weigh In: 169.1 lbs

Wow, that first picture is blurry! But you get the idea.

Anyway, weight is up a little from last week, I believe, but I've been working out almost every day so I'm going to assume it's new muscle growth and not more fat. According to various fitness sites I did research on, it can take six to eight weeks before you get a real significant fitness change, so I'm not too upset about it right now.

I made a chart that covers eight weeks, and each day I note what I did and periodically how much I weigh, and then at the end I'll see whether there's any change.

I started doing some of the exercise routines on Blogilates.com. She has something set up for every day but I just can't handle every day; so far, it's been about every other day or every third day, and I do notice that I have muscles that show!

In between, I do yoga or the randomly-generated workouts in this app I have on my phone, and maybe twice a week I walk three or four miles with my mom and my sister, so I'm much more active than I was. I do feel like I could be more active, but I'm still at the point where I feel it the next day pretty strongly, so I'm easing into harder workouts.

How about you guys? What do you do to track your fitness? What's your routine look like?

Wednesday Weigh In - 168lbs again

How annoying. And sort of embarrassing. I just got back late last night from a two day family vacation where I did not count calories and ate whatever I wanted because it was a vacation and that's what you do. 

But this comes after several weeks of not really sticking to my Thyroid Diet, and not walking or exercising as much as I was before, and the result is that I'm up two pounds from last week, which is three pounds from when the TD was working. And I'm all puffy. And I'm sunburned, which doesn't help me feel well and balanced!

But this is just another example of falling off the wagon and getting back up. I seem to be always falling off the wagon, but I'm also always getting back up, and each time, I try to learn something from my failures. This time, I now know that if there isn't a set schedule, I won't stick to one, and if there isn't accountability, I'll slide.

So I'm back to posting these terribly embarrassing pictures here. And I made a workout schedule to hang next to my writing / blogging schedule. I've found some new things to try, workout-wise, too, so I'll get back to you on that when I see if 1) I'm even capable of the proposed workouts and 2) whether they make me want to die or they make me feel better.

My friend Sy lost a lot of weight and is getting into fabulous shape and I'm inspired (and competitive) to do something useful with myself.

So lets get back on this stupid wagon.

Wednesday Weigh In - 166

Up again! Which is why I've decided to switch methods. I'm drinking apple cider vinegar for clogged lymph nodes, and it's meant to help burn fat, too, so there's that. I'm cutting out and reducing the number of snacks during the day--it's gotten out of hand again. I'm getting more activity already, so that should start paying off soon. And I'm doing what I can to get back to yogurt breakfasts and soup and salad lunches. All things I know have worked for me in the past.

Stay tuned!

Wednesday Weigh In

Only a day late!

Wednesday Weigh In - 166

Up a pound! I guess it's back to water-reducing tea, oolong, and salads! Which, to be honest, I really should be doing anyway. The salad part, anyway.

Goal for the next week: Get that pound back off, and get another one off, too. We walked three miles in an hour today, and burned almost four hundred calories, so I think that's a good start.

Wednesday Weigh In - 165

All sweaty and gross post-three-mile walk, and the same weight as last week, but I haven't gained any! I call that a success.

Wednesday Weigh In - 165

I'm down two pounds!