Monday, January 24, 2011

So the first day of the Carp Swap Diet wasn't too bad. I never felt full though, too used to eating much more. I changed up the menu a bit, since I didn't have all the ingredients.

For breakfast, I had 3 scrambled eggs (with just a bit of salt, and I used olive oil in the frying pan) and a piece of multigrain flatbread. I also had a green tea with one tablespoon of honey.
A couple of hours later, I had a handful of almonds for a snack - 25 almonds to be exact.
For lunch, I had a small can of lemon and pepper flavored tuna, and 2 pieces of bread, a.k.a. a sandwich.
I skipped my second snack, and for dinner I had the same as breakfast, minus the tea. It was a quick fix since I was too lazy to make anything else.

I've added up the totals for calories, carbs and sugars. According to the diet I'm following, I can only have 15g of sugars and 6 servings of carbs, which amounts to 120g. Unfortunately, I went over those limits because I put honey in my tea, something that I can live without.

My totals came out to:
Calories - 1,366
Sugars - 22.2g
Carbs - 126.22g

If I hadn't put honey in my tea, I would've been at 6.2g for the sugars and 109.22g for the carbs. Oh well. I won't be using honey tomorrow, that's for sure.

One last thing, I was 215.6lbs this morning :'( Here's to hoping that I'm 10lbs (at least) lighter a week from now.


Cheers!!

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Been quite awhile since I've updated my blog. Not a good start to my New Years resolution. Anyways, I'll use the excuse that my parents are away on vacation and I'm babysitting my brother. But of course, that's not the reason - I'm just being lazy.

So this last week has not been good, diet wise. I haven't weighed myself since my last post. It's almost been like a "diet vacation", although I haven't been eating that bad. Had fast food 2 or 3 times this week, which is never good.

I was at a friend's house today and saw a book there called The Belly Fat Cure by Jorge Cruise. I had never heard of him, but apparently he's famous, even been on Oprah's The View and the Dr. Oz show. So I started reading it and it doesn't sound half bad. I didn't know this, but apparently excess abdominal fat is linked to increased levels of daytime sleepiness and overall fatigue - something I very often experience. Belly fat is also linked to causing sleep apnea, and I was diagnosed with having mild sleep apnea in 2009. I was supposed to go back for another test in December 2010, but haven't yet. For all I know, it could be worse. Excess belly fat is linked to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, certain types of cancer, chronic fatigue, sexual dysfunction, adrenal burnout, sleep apnea, premature aging and immune disorders. That's enough bad things to make you think twice about what you're eating. It's amazing how having extra belly fat can cause all these things.

According to the American Heart Association and the National Institutes of Health, if you're a woman, your waist circumference should be 35 inches or less. And if you're a man, it should be 40 inches or less. To be more specific, you take your height in inches and divide it by two - this will be your ideal waist circumference. For example, I'm 5'4", which is 64 inches, so my ideal waist circumference is 32. In the book it says that you should measure the waist circumference by sucking in your belly as much as you can, then measuring around your belly button. So according to that measurement, my waist is 44.5 inches. I am clearly carrying around excessive fat, although I didn't have to measure that to know it. This also means that I measured my waist incorrectly in my first post.

In the book, Cruise presents us with a type of diet, one where sugar intake is very limited. According to him, "you can't get fat or stay overweight without insulin", which has been proven to push fat into fat cells. His diet is called the Carb Swap Diet. He's come up with a diet that is supposed to keep you away from foods full of sweeteners and processed carbs, which keep our insulin levels high. The daily foods that are in his diet will amount to no more than 15g of sugar and 6 servings of carbs (about 120g). He also explains the science behind the Belly Fat Cure, breaking it down to two parts: How Too Much Sugar Leads to Belly Fat, and How Too Few Carbs Lead to "False" Belly Fat. He explains earlier that "false" belly fat is trapped waste matter in the intestines, the result of a lack of good carbohydrates in a daily diet. So when you lose 4 to 9 pounds from your waist, only about 2 to 3 pounds is from true belly fat. When you think about it, that sounds pretty disgusting knowing what's in there.

Anyways, so I wrote all of this as an introduction to my next attempt at some sort of diet. In the book, there is a One Week Challenge where for 7 days you eat what is in the menu for that day. At the end of the day, you will have consumed only 15g of sugar and 6 servings of carbs. Depending on how religiously you follow the menu, you should lose 4 to 9 pounds every week. Listed are five different one-week meal plans: Carb Lover, Meat Madness, Chicken & Seafood, Quick & Easy, and Sweet Bites. They allow you to pick a menu that best fits your tastes and lifestyle, while still following the 15/6 rule.

He also has a "No-Excuses Day" menu, something a lot simpler than the other plans. This one is meant for days where you don't want what's listed in your meal plan, but you can also use it on a daily basis. It consists of:

Breakfast

Three whole eggs, sunny-side up

Two pieces of toast with butter

Snack

Small handful of walnuts

Lunch

Tuna salad on one piece of pita bread

Snack

One cup of cottage cheese sprinkled with an approved sweetener

Dinner

Grilled chicken or steak with sauteed vegetables

Half a cup of brown rice

*Also requires that you drink 8 to 10 glasses of water a day. For sweet cravings, chew a stick of gum.

The book consists mainly of recipes for the meal plans, including the lunch and dinner portions of the above plan.

So starting Monday, I will start this diet. Test it out for a week, and see if it actually works.Until then, I'll try not to eat too much junk food.

Hmmmm I think I have some chocolate cake somewhere in the kitchen... LOL

Thursday, January 13, 2010

Alright another day.. And not a good day. Stressed out with my brother and his homework..

So today I weighed 212.6 lbs.. Yup, I went up from 2 days ago. Not good. I know why I went up, although i'd rather not mention it here. Yes, it involved food. :(

I haven't had much to eat today, and i'm starving right now. Will probably eat a bit of the tomato soup that's on the stove, nice and hot.

Don't have much else to write today. Just checking in with the weight. My body measurements will be taken every 2 weeks, I guess. Will have to consult on what's best to do with that.

Peace out until tomorrow!

Wednesday, January 12, 2010

So I've decided to start a blog about my New Years resolution, my diet. Ya I know, everyone has that resolution every year, and they always fail at it. I know from experience. Every year I tell myself that this is the year, and after a month into the new year, I've already forgotten all about the diet.

But this year is different, for several reasons.

My goal for the last 3 years has been to become a police officer. I admit that I haven't done much about it, though. My effort at going to the gym and losing weight has been minimal. And I need to work on both to be able to apply.
If I had to run to keep myself alive, then i'd die within the first few minutes. I hate running. Period. The only time I don't mind running is in sports, like soccer. Otherwise, I hate running on the treadmill, or outside for that matter.
Compared to other women my age, i'm quite strong. I have no problems lifting weights, and can do quite a bit. Sometimes I tell myself that some of my weight is muscle, although I know most of it is just fat. One of those lies you tell yourself to hide the truth and give you temporary happiness.

I was away at a cottage for the new years weekend, and I knew it would be impossible to start exactly on the first day of January, so I started my diet on Monday, January 3rd.

I woke up that morning, and knew that time had come to weigh myself. Stripping down to nothing, I took a breath and got on the scale. 216.4 lbs. I shook my head in disgust. In the last 2 years, I let myself gain over 50 lbs. I never weighed myself until I noticed the changes in my body.

I forgot to weigh myself today, but yesterday I was 211.8 lbs. I dropped about 4 lbs in a week. I haven't gone to the gym since the wedding (October 2010), but I do plan on going once I get into a regular work schedule. Hopefully that'll be in a week or two. All i've done since that Monday was trying to eat less. I haven't really aimed for eating healthy, although I am reading into it and trying some new recipes. Right now it's just been sandwiches, and maybe something else once in awhile. I did crack once last week, and I went to McDonald's. I felt horrible after eating it, but what's done is done. The worst part came that morning when my husband found out I had gone to McDonald's. He found the bag in the garbage. I could see the look of disappointment in his face, which made me sad and angry at the same time. He's also trying to diet, and he told me that when I eat junk, it's like he's eating it too. That we're supposed to be doing this together. I cried that morning on my way to pick someone up for the airport. I let myself down, and I let him down.

So this is where i'm at right now.


Weight: 211.8 lbs

Chest: 41 inches
Bicep: 14 inches
Waist: 40 inches
Hip: 49 inches
Thigh: 30 inches
Calf: 18 inches
(I'm hoping that I measured these correctly)

Body Mass Index: 36.4 (Which, according to the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, makes me considered obese for my age and height)

So as you can see, it's bad. I went to my doctor yesterday and asked about being referred to a nutritionist/dietician. She said that I need to go in for blood testing, etc. Only if something comes up, like high cholesterol or diabetes, will the specialist accept me as a patient. The last time I went for testing (a few years ago) everything was good. Although back then I was a lot skinnier and lighter.

One last thing, before I finish today's post. The reason i've decided to make my "quest" public is because I think it'll help me lose weight quicker. If I know that people are reading what I write, and that they're now aware of how much I weigh, then it'll motivate me to shed the pounds. I don't want to be the fat girl at the party. And I want to start wearing sexy clothes, not just jeans and tshirts :P

See ya tomorrow!