Day 14 on The Virgin Diet

The Virgin Diet

I started the program on 1/2/18. Even though my weight is up and I do want to reduce, I started this program because I was not feeling good physically and I have been in a lot of pain the last quarter of 2017, maybe a little longer. My low back, my neck and shoulders, my hips, the bottoms of my feet first thing in the morning hurt like they are terribly bruised, and I was not sleeping without the help of sleep aids. I was going to the gym, and that hurt, too. My weight kept climbing, my workouts were getting more painful - even yoga, and it just seemed like I was continually looking for some kind of pill to take to help make the pain go away and make me feel better. It wasn't working. I spent the last 2 years attributing all these negative changes to menopause, which is real, but I don't think it's the whole picture. My best friend had referred me to JJ a number of years ago and I finally made the choice to look at what I have been eating and see where that takes me.


Here I am two weeks in and I'm happy to report that I am feeling really good! My aches and pains have not gone away but I have not had any hip pain in the last 4 days, my feet still hurt in the morning when I get up, but way less, and I have been sleeping for the last 3 nights without the over the counter sleep aid I normally take. I also didn't disclose initially that last year my doctor prescribed me a low dose of phentramine to help me lose some weight. It has not really been effective with weight loss, but it has given me a boost, sort of like most people think of their morning coffee. If I missed a dose I was pretty useless, I would literally sit on my couch doing nothing. Nothing, not scrolling social media on my phone, watching television, nothing, just sitting. The first time that happened, I came to present time and realized I had not taken the phentramine. I went upstairs, took the pill and got about the rest of my day. I'm sure the stimulant was contributing to me not sleeping, that's kind of a no-brainer, but I didn't want to stop taking it because even though I wasn't losing weight, I wasn't gaining it either. As of today, not only have I not taken the sleep aids, I've also not taken the phentramine, and guess what? I feel great! I'm not feeling lethargic or like I'm going through any kind of withdrawals, in fact, I haven't had any of those kinds of symptoms at all. I thought for sure I would feel some side effects of cutting out the sugar, but there haven't really been any to speak of. I don't miss the alcohol at all, but I do miss my coffee with cream and sugar. I can do a natural sweetener like Stevia or Xylitol, but nothing really replaces cream in my coffee. I've had coffee with the Xylitol and a coconut cream and it's just not the same. I'm just going without for now.

With all of that said, on January 1, 2018 I weighed 184.4 lbs. I started the program on 1/2/18 and this morning I weighed in at 175.9, that's down 8.5 lbs. I also measured and overall I've lost 4 1/2 inches. The weight and inches is absolutely great, but even better is that I am not mentally foggy, and I am feeling better physically. I'm excited to be able to reintroduce some foods back in because I want to see what my intolerances are, and I don't know that I can give up sugar forever. That remains to be seen, but for now I'm hopeful, very hopeful that I can work on living the rest of my life eating more healthfully, feeling physically better, not taking a litany of medications, and getting older without growing old.

Welcome 2018!

Ringing in the New Year at my 2nd highest weight. Not for long!

I love my life, the ups the downs, all of it. Those of you who know me, know I have struggled with my weight and body image my entire life. It seems redundant to keep resolving to make changes when the fact of the matter is, I make changes every day. I don't wait until January 1 of any new year to start, I start when I feel ready to start. With that said, as I get older I am noticing that some things are not adjusting as easily as they used to, or that aches and pains are getting more intense and actually inhibiting my daily activities. I've been looking at the effects of the onset of menopause and thinking that indeed that could be creating some of the drama in my body, but I think it's also time to really look at what I am eating and how it is affecting how I feel.

Today I started the 21 day, phase one cycle of The Virgin Diet. This is the idea that I am eliminating the top 7 body food-intolerances (sugar, soy, eggs, peanuts, dairy, corn, and gluten) so I can be completely free of them so in phase two, when I start to add them back in one at a time, I can see what my body does and how I feel. I'm really ready to make this change and I will document my journey, honestly and for better & worse. Feel free to follow along and chime in, I would love to support you in whatever you are planning to achieve this year. Happy New Year!

 

Thank You Barilla Pasta!!

This is a little bonus post, you all know I had a blast being a part of America Cooks with Chefs back in December and January, right? Well, a few weeks back I got a BIG box in the mail and it was chock full of all kinds of fun pasta stuff. Check it out, a Calphalon pasta pot, lots of Barilla pasta including some of their special collections, a lovely pasta serving bowl, wooden utensils, a pasta tin, a cheese grater and a spoon rest. Oh, and lest I forget, a years supply of Barilla pasta! Yes, 52 free boxes of pasta! That's alotta pasta.

Some of the things I learned through my time with America Cooks and Barilla is that pasta will not make you fat, excess calories will. Pasta is a good complex carb food. When you pair pasta with high fiber vegetables, lean protein and healthy fats, you get a healthy, filling meal.

Pasta is good for you and the planet. Plant-based foods including pasta have a lower environmental impact. Barilla pasta is non-GMO, I know this is important to many people.

As soon as I opened my box, I immediately decided we were having my favorite pasta recipe for dinner, Mason's Funky spaghetti but I make it a little differently than he does. We used the bucatini which is like a thicker spaghetti noodle and it has a hole in the middle, yes, it's hollow!

The recipe is super simple, lots of color cherry tomatoes, olive oil (just a splash), fresh chopped garlic, basil, salt and pepper. In Mason's version, he crushes all of this together with his hands. My preference is to give it a few whirls in my food processor, I don't like it puree'd, but a more fine, consistent chop. I add my hot al dente pasta right from the water into my tomatoes and mix it all up with a bit of the pasta water - it's SO good! I eat it for dinner hot and then I dream about having lunch the next day and eating it cold.

Finally, our little family of three does not need all this wonderful food so we gave some of the coupons for free pasta to our local food bank and we put together a lovely Barilla Pasta basket for Mason's fifth grade class at what else, his schools annual spaghetti feed fundraiser! The basket brought in almost $80! Thank you Barilla and America Cooks with Chefs! I am just 7 lbs away from my weight loss goal with Weight Watchers and I love that I don't have to eliminate pasta to get there, I do however have to keep my portions in check. It's a small price to pay to be able to eat my favorite comfort food.

You can learn more about America Cooks with Chefs and Barilla Pasta by just clicking on the links. What is your favorite pasta recipe, I would love to know!

Off And Running!

Happy Monday!

January is almost half way over, okay a third of the way but today is the 11th and that's darn close to the 15th which to me is half way. Just two weeks until we leave for Denver for the SIA trade show. I can't wait! I just know this is going to be a huge success for us. We will have some challenges this time because we weren't blessed with a corner booth and being so new, we don't have a strong database of retailers to market to. That list is precisely the reason you do a trade show like this one! Next year we will have the list of attendees and we can market heavily before the show. I'm not worried, between Dave, Mike, and me, we can pull those buyers in and get the orders. After the ABC show in September, we have high expectations. I'll let you know how it goes when we get back that first week in February.

This weekend was a nice mix of uneventful and productive. Saturday, Dave played in a game tournament all day and Mike came up to the house and installed a replacement stove top for us. Thanks Mike, you're the best! Katie came to see us (up visiting from Monterey), and Cris and Taylor came for a visit, too. I had planned to clean, but visiting was just so much more fun! I even had time for a little nap. Sunday found Dave in Mason's room giving it a complete overhaul. Out with the old, broken, and no-longer-loved, and in with the vacuum, dust cloth, and all purpose cleaner. We also gave our closets and drawers the once over, and I easily gathered up two garbage bags of holiday stuff for GoodWill. I feel another round of "Give Away Ten A Day" coming, and it's a welcome feeling. I took Mason to get a haircut and he needed new pants, he's grown an inch and a half and gained six pounds just since October! (Dave's gained 8 pounds and hasn't grown an inch! Dave)

Today Dave and I are starting a local Biggest Loser contest here in Auburn. Dave is doing it more to support me, but I know he wants to get back on the exercise bandwagon, too. It's a twelve week program and the person who loses the biggest percentage of body weight wins. We will meet and weigh in every Monday night and if you gain weight, you have to pay $1.00 per pound. At the end of the twelve weeks, there will be a first, second, and third place loser, or winner. I feel like, here we go again! But I also know that different things motivate us at different times. We work every day to get that hour of exercise in, or eat more healthful foods, but some days we succeed more than others. If nothing else, this will be a fun way to get back in the swing of exercising and being more aware of how and what we are eating. We all plan to ski after the SIA show in Denver, so building some strength and dropping a few pounds can't hurt! I hope you are all off to a great start for the new year and if there is anything I can do to inspire or motivate you, please do speak up! I want us all to have the best year of our wonderful lives!