Running to Stand Still

This week’s progress:  +2.4 pounds

Total loss:  87.6 pounds

Last week, I decided I’d go meatless for a week, just to see if I could do it.  I did.  I made it through the entire week, but it was not without its difficulties.

I had a difficult time feeling full all week long.  To me, the feeling of fullness after eating is important, because that’s my body’s physical signal to stop eating.  Even on days where I ate foods full of fiber and drank lots of water, I couldn’t get full.  Consequently, I ate more. 😦

I had a tough time managing my blood sugar due to all the starch I ate.  There were a couple of times during the week where I could feel my bg dipping, and there was little I could do about it.  It was an unexpected side effect of my change in diet, and the main reason I will not go meatless again for a prolonged period of time.  Because I teach and have to be “on” all day for 8 hours each day, I can’t have periods of time where I get dizzy, foggy or otherwise incapacitated.  I don’t want to scare my students, and I don’t want to be out of commission for any period of time during the day.

I was getting bored with my food choices.  You can only eat oatmeal or eggs/papas for so many breakfasts before it gets old.  I’m pretty sure I’m going to swear off those things for a bit so that I can regain my taste for them.

I didn’t eat all that I’d planned to eat due to lack of time management.  I thought my meal planning efforts would pay off in the end, but they didn’t.  I ended up working way more hours at school last week than I’d intended to, so that meant a lot of late nights at school and not as many early mornings at the gym as I’d have liked.  I am not a “cook-ahead” type–I prefer my food to be hot and fresh as soon as I eat it.  I don’t want to warm it up in the microwave to eat it if I don’t have to.  There is just something better about a meal that’s been prepared and assembled prior to you eating it.  It’s one of the reasons I’m not a fan of leftovers or microwave meals–I refuse to eat Lean Cuisines or suchlike.

This week will be better, and I will get back on the horse and ride.  To celebrate my week of meatlessness, I’m fixing ribeyes with zucchini planks, brussels sprouts with walnuts and a baked potato for me.  The potato will be one of the last starchy foods I eat this week, as I’m cutting back on my white starches this week in order to see how cutting back on my processed carbs helps/hurts me.  I am fixing zucchini and caramelized onion pizza tomorrow night, so truly that will be the last of the processed carbs I eat.  I think the biggest part of my problem was that I ate quite a lot of starchy carbs in an attempt to feel full, and didn’t exercise as much as I’d have liked.  When you consume a lot of starchy carbs, your body stores the excess as glycogen in your muscles and liver.  After about 72 hours, if you don’t use that stored glycogen, your body figures, ‘oh hey, you’re planning on keeping this around a while.  let’s make it into something you can keep a long time.’ and begins converting it into fats.  Perhaps that’s what happened.  It could also have been water retention due to the excess glycogen storage.  Who knows?

Weight loss is one big science project, and I am an ongoing experiment.  There are times I get tired of being a lab rat, and today was one of them.  I feel like I’m running in place just to stand still, and it’s so frustrating.  Maybe this is the first real plateau I’ve hit in this process.  I just wish there was something I could do to break through it, but I’ve got to consistently and constantly experiment to find out what the hell it is.

This week, the plan is to cut back on meat to 4-5 days a week.  That’s something, right?  Also, I am walking in my first race.  Saturday, to begin my BirthWeek, I’m participating in the Eagle Run 1-mile fun run/walk that my school district is holding.  I figure I am doing a 5k in May, so I should prep by doing smaller races first.  I have been road testing two pairs of shoes I bought 3 weeks ago:  a pair of Asics Gel Fortitude, and a pair of New Balance Minimus Multi-Sport Shoes.  I think I’m going to be doing my 1-miler in my NB’s.  I absolutely love how I feel like I’m barefoot in them, and I can feel the ground directly under my feet.  I feel more sure-footed in them, and hey, they look awesome!  I’m going to give them a try at this race next Saturday morning.  I’ll be sure to report back on how I did in them.

I also bought a Groupon for boxing classes.  I told myself when school started that once I hit my -100 pound goal, I’d take classes.  I’m not close, but why wait?  If I like it, I’ll go back and take more since the gym I’ll be going to offers a package deal:  10 classes for $65.  Not a bad deal!

Hopefully this week will be better than next…it has to be.