It's a body, not a math equation

After my stellar results of last week I was expecting really big things. I thought that I could count on two pounds loss per week, minimum, if I were fasting twice a week. (I mean, more like four pounds, right? But conservatively estimating to manage my own expectations.) I was projecting forward how long until I reached my goal weight...

It's Thursday, and I haven't lost an ounce this week. In fact I'm up four tenths of a pound. And mathematically, that doesn't make sense at all. Because even on my eating days I'm eating reasonable portions. I'm not making up for calories I didn't consume during Stops. I'm drinking lots of water. I'm exercising every day faithfully—cardio, strength training. And I'm already stalled in week two of the new program.

But I'm not disappointed. I'm not discouraged. I know that it's a body I'm talking about, not a math equation. The math says I should drop fat at a steady rate. But the body is doing what it does. Possibly it's trying to catch up with the renewed emphasis on strength training: I've been faithful with it at times, and I've slacked at times. I'm just coming off a few months of almost no strength training, but with a history of good strength training. Maybe the muscles are rejoicing in my diligence and in my new heavier weights. Or maybe I just have to wait a little longer. Though we all want instant results, sometimes the body takes a while to catch up to the new behaviors.

Besides, my harshest critic (that would be me) could see a difference in the flatness of my belly this morning—a visible change!—and my pants are fitting differently. I can be encouraged by other indicators of change, if the number hovers unmovingly.

I'm in the last four hours or so of my fourth Stop. I feel fine. And I'm willing to wait for the results, and not panic because they're not instant. Onward and downward!

----------------
Now playing: Crowded House - Something So Strong
via FoxyTunes

It's not so bad

Finished my third Stop an hour ago. Nothing really to report this time—it was pretty manageable. Did strength training again this morning. Was quite hungry by the time 24 hours rolled around, but not ravenous. I ate a little snack and I'll have lunch in another hour.

Once upon a time when B went in for one of his many GI tests to figure out why his intestines were so wonky, he had to do a clear liquid fast for 48 hours before so his colon would be empty. I remember the second 24 hours well, and the effect the all-liquid diet had on his bodily functions. I've been sort of waiting for something similar because all I do is drink and drink and drink and drink water for 24 hours. I figured this has to have some cleansing effect, on top of the weight loss. I probably won't keep you up on that part of it (yes, I hear the choir singing hymns of thanks) but I thought I'd mention that I was right.

----------------
Now playing: Oingo Boingo - Just Another Day
via FoxyTunes

End second Stop

This time I made it 26 hours.

I ate an early lunch yesterday about 10:30 a.m., and then started my Stop. (Hee.) The first few hours, until about 5:30 or 6:00 p.m. were ROUGH. I really struggled, and just about posted ten or more times saying, "This isn't an easy method of weight loss, anyway! Much sacrifice involved! Difficult!" I hadn't had enough sleep the night before which made me sort of spacey in the head—I couldn't concentrate, and I was even a little dizzy. Plus I was very faintly crampy and felt drained. It made it difficult for me.

But after I got dinner cooking I caught a very short fifteen-minute nap, and then I was busy all evening with a church meeting and other things. It made the rest of the fast last night much easier. I slept fine, woke fine, jogged this morning—no problems whatsoever with energy levels, I went as far and as fast as I ever do—showered, got ready, and though I could have had a quick snack at the 24-hour mark before we headed off to homeschool drama group I still felt fine so I kept going. We got home around noon and I ate lunch at 12:30.

So it was a hard beginning, but a breezy, easy end. Yesterday I was wondering if I could keep this up twice a week, today I'm saying, "Not so bad!"

Official weigh in tomorrow morning. :)

----------------
Now playing: The Candy Skins - So Easy
via FoxyTunes

So Fast (har har)

I'm on my second Stop now. Today is only day four of the program for me, but I've already gained something from doing this: self control. It has been so much easier for me to eat proper portion sizes, and (even better) to resist sweets. Yes, I have some in the cupboard. But if I can skip three meals, I can just keep myself to one cookie. Or no cookies. It's a fabulous, powerful feeling.

Had a good strength training workout this morning. I can feel a difference with my [wimpy] heavier weights. I almost couldn't do 12 reps of overhead presses. Heh, take that puny muscles! I shall make you lean and mean!

----------------
Now playing: Sheryl Crow - Strong Enough
via FoxyTunes

Couldn't wait :)

Stepped on the scale this morning though I weigh in only on Saturdays (said very sternly to self).

152 pounds.

Halfway through the week. Have already lost two pounds.

SQUEE.

----------------
Now playing: R.E.M. - Shiny Happy People
via FoxyTunes

First Stop

I didn't quite make it 24 hours.

And I'm okay with that.

I fasted dinner last night and breakfast this morning, and snacks. I did a strength training workout today—and despite the fact that I haven't done weights in a while, it went well. I bought new weights last Saturday, so I was lifting heavier for some of the exercises than I ever have. (New weights = 8 pounds. Yes, I'm wimpy! I also have 10-pounders which actually weigh 11.6 pounds. That's my heaviest. *blows nails*)

Around 11:00 am, which was the 20 hour mark, all I could think of was what I'd eat when I broke my fast, and what I'd eat after that, and what I'd make for dinner... So rather than fixate and obsess, I decided I'd just have a small but healthy meal—one cup (measured) of the vegetable soup I made for the family last night, and one small whole wheat roll. I'm actually still hungry, so I'll have lunch in an hour or so.

I was mentally very much hungrier than I was physically. I drank plenty of water (almost a gallon) in that 20 hours, and I was able to handle the physical very well. But my mind was tapping me on the shoulder so to speak, reminding me that if I weren't fasting, I could eat this or do that.

I'm not going to lie, one of the best parts of the Stop was the religious. I decided, as long as I'm not eating, I may as well make it count for something. So it was a great 20 hours on two levels. I consider it a successful first Stop. I managed a full workout on an empty stomach (which author Brad Pilon promised I could), and I'm not at all discouraged. Quite the opposite. We'll see what effect it has Saturday, on the number on the scale.

I plan to do my second Stop for the week on Thursday afternoon/Friday morning, after 48 full hours of eating healthy foods.

----------------
Now playing: Kansas - Carry On Wayward Son
via FoxyTunes

The next jog along the path

I'm starting my first fast today, and I'm really pretty excited about it. I've been excited since I found this, because it feels sort of like the missing link in everything I've read/learned/done. This is definitely more extreme than anything I've done in more than a decade to lose a few pounds, I've been a slow-and-steady sort of girl who doesn't even label my efforts a "diet". Even this I look on as a personal science experiment, willingly undertaken because the claims and backing data were so intriguing. Because we have regular monthly fasts as part of our religion, and because I don't want to set an unhealthy example for the children if this experiment turns out to be a bust, I'm going to call my fasts "Stops" for the time being, to differentiate. I just finished a 100-calorie snack, and now I'm on a Stop until about 3:00 tomorrow.

Introducing: Eat Stop Eat (and me!)

Hi. I'm Alyson. I am:

• 40 years old (born September 1968).
  
• a stay at home mom, to
  
• seven fabulous (intelligent, handsome, delightful...) children (products of seven full-term pregnancies), and I
  
• homeschool the K-8 graders. My eldest went to high school this year.

This is the story of my weight, so I guess I'll let it all hang out (ahem).

• I gained about 20-30 pounds every pregnancy.
  
• Sometimes I lost all the weight postpartum, sometimes I kept 10 or so pounds.
  
• Baby number seven was born 1.5 years before my 20-year high school reunion. I managed (quite easily) while I was breastfeeding him to lose all the weight, and was back to my pre-seven-pregnancies weight about six months before the reunion. *face-cracking grin*
  
• I lost it primarily through food diaries and tracking calories. Because I was breastfeeding a baby I added 500 calories per day to all the recommended amounts, and I lost steadily and well. (Huge thumbs up for all the tools at SparkPeople.com, without which I never would have counted calories or learned so much about my eating habits.)
  
• I've always been an exerciser—mainly walking, aerobics, a little weight training. Not long after baby seven, I took up jogging for the first time.
  
• After the reunion (June 2007) I gained a few, maybe three, pounds on a family vacation. Then weight started creeping on last November (2007) around Thanksgiving time, and by January I had gained a total of ten pounds.
  
• I didn't lose it, mainly because I didn't cut back on portions or cut out yummys. I made halfhearted attempts here and there, and one good attempt that was thwarted by yet another family vacation. Darn road trip snack foods!
  
• Then I decided to stop weighing myself and go with other indicators of weight loss. (Bad idea. Five more pounds gained, woohoo.)

So that brings me to present day. Well, it brings me to two weeks ago. I was looking at pictures and didn't like what I saw, especially when compared to how I looked at my high school reunion. It was time to get serious. I attacked my cardio (a combination of walking and jogging) more faithfully and more regularly, and I started the difficult process of gathering my willpower into a cloak around me so I could resist evil cookies and treats. I have such a sweet tooth.

And then I found Eat Stop Eat, just crazily came across it one day. I have somewhat of a hobby of reading information about diet and exercise. I feel pretty well informed, though I still occasionally come across something "new" that revises my opinions a little, or gives them more depth. Years ago research might send me off my path in a wide zig, only to head back toward the path later on another zag; but but the longer I've studied and read the more my path has narrowed and my philosophy has developed. I believe in a healthy, varied diet (meat-free in my case, my reason for being vegetarian is another topic), not too high in fat. And after multiple pregnancies I believe, very strongly, that there is no magic bullet in weight loss. It comes down to burning more than I consume, whether that deficit is created by eating less, exercising more, or some combination.

In the last year I've discovered a few zigs which were not in line with the adages and pat advice one usually hears in the magazines or talk shows about weight loss. We're always cautioned against eating too little lest we trigger "starvation mode" where the body clings to every cell of fat and every calorie consumed; but I don't think that starvation mode is as easily entered as the dire warnings, and I don't believe metabolisms are as easily destroyed. We're told to start with an easy amble, and to work our way up to longer and more strenuous walks or other heartrate-sustaining exercise finally adding in a little strength training; a week's worth of intense research convinced me that strength training is far more important for burning fat (and only fat, not muscle) in weight loss than cardio/aerobics is.

But the difficult thing for anyone who wants real results in weight loss is the whole, well, food thing. How often do we hear, "You've got to EAT to LOSE WEIGHT!" and our brains think, don't we have to not eat? Eat less? Cut out certain things?

So quite by accident I stumbled on Eat Stop Eat, which advocates (1) periodic fasting, 24-hours twice a week, to create a calorie deficit, and (2) strength training, to preserve muscle mass and keep the metabolism stimulated. I can't cite all of the studies and sources I've read (I never keep those sorts of paper trails, I just learn and keep it in my brain and add to it without being able to deliver proof), but Eat Stop Eat is right in line with what I currently believe. Eat less. Exercise more. Metabolism isn't in dire danger. Self control is imperative.

So here's the new plan:

• Healthy, controlled eating, with
  
• Two 24-hour fasts per week.
  
• Cardio 3 days per week (I love it!), two days of intervals and one of steady-state probably (that's always open to how I'm feeling and my inclinations).
  
• Strength training 2-3 times per week.

You see, I'm just an average gal. I'm no gym rat. I don't even have a local gym—I'd have to drive 40 miles to get to one, and due to money and time restraints that just ain't happening. So I have my running shoes, I have my system of keeping warm in the autumn and winter outdoors, I have cardio DVDs for when the weather sucks too much, and I have hand weights and this fabulous DVD for strength training. (Seriously, read the reviews on that thing. Overwhelmingly positive, and I add my five stars. So worth the $10 to get six workouts.) I can only give it 30-45 minutes per day, that's all I have. It has to be good enough.

Problem: I haven't been able to actually buy the Eat Stop Eat e-book yet. I've just had to stitch together from the free emailings I signed up for at the site, an audio interview, and reviews of other people following the plan what the program is, until the next paycheck. Ack, $30 is holding me back.

But! I am not holding me back anymore!

----------------
Now playing: Muse - Bliss
via FoxyTunes