The insides of some homemade Almond Joys - seriously way better than the store bought if I can be so bold. The finished bar was never taken. They disappeared so fast. :)
How did I ditch the nasty word DIET??? My journey has been a long one like most people I know. I've tried the grapefruit diet, Tops, Weight Watchers (several times), Atkins, diet shakes diet, liquid diet, fruit diet, cabbage soup diet, raw vegan diet, exercising like a mad woman, the just buck up and eat less diet, and many more. Some worked well for a time, some (most) were hard for me to stick to longer than hmmmm an hour!!! Ok I usually (note the word usually!) made it through a couple days. I especially liked eating raw vegan, I felt great but it was hard to stick to and you can imagine eating out and at friends was near impossible. I'll write about raw another time. Other than eating raw I couldn't wait to be down to the weight I desired so I could eat "normal" again. Of course I was thinking this on day 1 with months and months to go! Yikers!
My goal is not to diss other ways of eating. I just want to share what has worked for me. I have more weight to lose but the first almost 40 lb. loss (stay tuned for loss updates) was soooo much easier than any other plan. I'll walk you thru what I'm doing. I hope and pray this blog will be helpful to you and others.
My last and I can confidently say my final weight loss journey starting officially the beginning of December 2011. I know it seems presumptuous to say final, but read the above. I'm a weight loss diet tryer outer expert. I was struggling with every diet I tried usually within the first day or two. Wondering how am I going to keep this up long enough! And I didn't. I lost quite a bit on some including the divorce diet. Sadly some of you may have had that experience. Spouse leaves, pounds fall off as you desperately try to feel good about yourself again or feel like you look good enough for the dating market. Yep I was at a pretty good weight for awhile but it was a struggle. I worked out like as mad woman. I ate pretty healthy, thought I was doing great by not overindulging but it was a struggle to stay that weight. Glad that time is over.
Enough about my past history. Here's my skinny. :) I lost about 15 pounds from just cutting back on quantity. I have to look back on how long that took as I lost some before I got serious in December. My stomach had shrunk a bit (always helpful). This worked pretty well, I still had cravings but my husband had been dieting since Sept. 2011 and it's always helpful when you can lose with a partner, This was his first time (or at least his first serious time) trying dieting. He was struggling but he was muscling it through. I'll tell you sometime what he ate, it was boring and regimented. He was hungry all the time.
Then came mid January when we heard of this nutritionist Maria Emmerich from River Falls WI. Nutritionists in my experience were as follows.
Nutrition college professor - She was so heavy the woman struggled to get to the front of the auditorium, hard to buy what she taught sadly. I remember nothing.
Hospital nutritionist - had a sandwich with white bread and a diet coke on her desk when I saw her. Really?? Then she proceeded to preach the USDA food pyramid. More on that sad chart at another time,
Needless to say, when I heard about Maria I was very skeptical. I talked to Bill (my now thin healthy hubby) he thought it was a great idea to go and listen to what she had to say about metabolism at a class. Okay, I'll go listen to her but hey, I've tried just about every diet, she will teach me nothing. Besides, low carb? Did that, done that. Thanks to him I went.
Listening to Maria I thought hmmmm sounds interesting. She's smart, she's thin. She's been eating her self named "healthified" low carb way for 7 years, I think. BUT she's thin! What the heck does she know! :P She then showed a before picture (very heavy) of herself and explained her struggles in the past. Sounded like mine and lots of my friend's struggles too. Okay, I'll listen more attentively.
Side note here: I'll talk about Maria quite a bit. Know that I am not selling her, getting paid by her or anything. This is just my story and she is part of it. She just said to me, she gave me the tools, but I made the changes. :) I'm very thankful for her guidance.
Ok, back to the metabolism class. She had some books, we bought one on desserts (love desserts!). Oh and she brought treats to eat. They were tasty. Bill then said, "let's hire her". My Bill said this. Before I go on, know that she gives a lot of info on her blog for free and I will share other resources that are free or cheap so you can do on your own if you like. I don't want money to get in your way of health.
My husband is down almost 60 lbs. his goal is to stay between 55-60. He looks amazing. His energy is way up. Cholesterol and blood pressure way down. Below the recommended levels. He just bought a bike. No big deal right. Wrong, this man used to be allergic to exercise. ;) Side note: As I was editing this post the day after I wrote it He is down past 60 as he dropped 3 lbs. today! Amazing after losing so much and at his goal. He's thrilled, looks like he can add some more wine back in! haha
I am down almost 40, daily stomach aches gone, big energy drop I had most afternoons... Gone! Energy is steady all day. As I write that statement I'm so thankful. I was so tired most days before HLC. If any of you experience low energy or drops you know the pain.
Back to the start of the "healthified" low carb (HLC) way if eating. I can't call it a diet. I don't feel like I'm on a diet and this is how I plan to eat for the future. I'm not hoping I get to goal fast so I can eat "normal" again. I love. Yes love what I eat. I don't count calories. I've never been good at doing that anyway. I eat cookies, brownies, ice cream and more goodies. :) Yesterday I ate two poached eggs and veggies with hollandaise. Nummy. The other day I had a lobster salad for my birthday lunch and I had salmon over spaghetti squash with sautéed spinach and onions. These were all dinners out at restaurants. I often ask for substitutions as most restaurants serve high carb, low veggies. But most are very willing to adjust the meal. I traveled last month, ate out several times, ate amazing delicious meals off the grill, celebrated my birthday and still lost 8.8 lbs.
Oops I was going to talk about the start of eating HLC. The first week was difficult, I craved bread, carbs, sugars in a big way. I don't want to discourage you but I want to tell you the way it was for me. Bill found it easy right away. Here's hoping if you try this it will be easy for you. Check out the labels, sugar, wheat, corn, soy are in almost everything. I wish I had made some of the sweets right away. I know it would have helped me at the beginning. After I made some of Maria's Protein waffles and Mocha Fudge Cake I was fine, they satisfied my cravings for bread and sweets! I used the waffles as bread. They go great especially with egg and chicken salad. I wish I had made them earlier.
Here's what I follow now and Bill followed until recently. Now he's at goal he is experimenting with adding more carbs to see how many he can eat to maintain his weight and not gain. I eat about 4 carbs per meal, breakfast lunch and dinner. I eat about 3 carbs per snack, morning and afternoon. I try not to eat after 7pm to give me a few hours to digest before I turn in. I try (not always succeed) to drink lots of water. Hard for me as I am rarely thirsty.
What do I eat? As I'm writing this I'm thousands of miles in the air returning home from a workation in Arizona. For lunch at the airport I ate a chef's salad (took the croutons off and the ham. I don't eat pork but that's my personal preference not part of HLC, a story for another day. I didn't eat the dressing either. It probably had sugar and sulfites which I'm allergic to. I don't mind eating a chefs salad without dressing as there are so many tasty foods on it and I'm used to a "dry" salad with my sulfite allergy. On the plane I ate the peanuts. I have nummy homemade HLC chocolate chip cookies in my bag and candy bars (I'll tell you about these nummy bars later). But after the salad and peanuts I am full. I get full faster than I used to. Yay!
I eat as much as I want of most vegetables. I do adore vegetables but my husband was allergic to anything green. Haha Now he likes vegetables more and more. He makes them for himself! This is a miracle, let me tell you.
I eat onions in moderation and have started eating more scallions/green onions because they are lowering carbs.
I eat root vegetables rarely. Carrots, beets etc. except turnips which are fairly low carb. I am sure I'll be able to add more in when I don't want to lose anymore. I love root veggies.
Herbs, spices, garlic and ginger!! I can't think of any that in stay away from. Garlic and cinnamon are great help in weight loss.
Meats. They are all in. I love duck, eggs, beef, lamb, poultry, fish and seafood. I think fish is very important to eat if you like it. If not I would definitely recommend taking omega 3. I take it anyway as it helps burn calories. I like that. :D
Dairy - oooo I love cheese. This one has a story to it. Before eating HLC, dairy upset my stomach (even more than my almost daily stomach aches). Sometimes after eating cheese I would be in great pain. After starting to eat HLC I didn't eat dairy (which duh I shouldn't have been anyway because of the pain.) My stomach aches vanished. Then I added cheese back in. Still no stomach pain. BUT the weight loss stopped. Insert big sad face here. So I decided I had to take Maria's advice and take dairy out again. I have been having a little bit here and there. Note chefs salad with swiss cheese above and sausage with feta cheese in sausage below. I know I'll be able to add more in when down to my goal. If you love cheese have hope, Bill has eaten cheese I think every day. :)
Fruits- oooo those wonderful delicious sugar filled treats. Mmmmmm. Well I didn't eat fruits for the first couple months now have added some berries in. Are fruits healthy? They beat out a candy bar any day but they are high in sugar and carbs. I'm treating them as a dessert not as something I eat every meal or day.
Full bodied delicious wine, rich dark beers and delectable martinis -- ahhhh sadly I've had to cut these out to a bare minimum. By that I mean I've had 5? glasses of wine since mid January. The first two times I had wine the weight loss stopped for 4 days. So I decided to abstain for awhile. This week I had one glass of red on my birthday and I lost almost 2 lbs. for the week so I'm thrilled. You'll just have to see what your sweet spot is.
I try to drink lots of water. I also take supplements - more on that later as this is a long post. I just wanted to give you some background.
If you stop losing lighten up on the carbs, wine, fruit, or others.
Sound simple enough? For me it's fantastic.
More later.... Let me know what you try and how you're doing!!! I'd love to hear all your comments and questions.
I truly wish you the best on your health journey.
My easy grilled breakfast of zucchini and spinach and feta sausage. Mmmmmm
