Today was weigh-in #3, and I lost 3 lbs. but got no measurements as neither Jo-Ann or Jane were there. (As I understand it, Jo-Ann was at a conference and Jane told me last week she is changing jobs, to a managerial nurse position. Congrats to her.)
I was a bit disappointed by the loss being just three. I understood that after the first big loss, the pace would settle down some, but they tell me on average it's 3-5 lbs. per week for women, and my plan has been to be on the upper end, i.e. five per week. That would get me to my goal by Sept. 1.
But I also had been expecting it to be more because of how I now look. I have begun to love seeing myself in the mirror. My hair looks more luxuriant, I think because it frames my face more thickly since there is less face to make it fade to insignificance. My face looks younger, because it's harking back to years ago when I weighed less. My shoulders are more square. It's like watching myself grow more attractive. It's the most incredible thing. I also feel lighter, and that it is easier to move, and move fast, but I had already noticed that, the first week.
So are my eyes deceiving me? Is it all IP-style placebo effect? Measurements would tell, but that wasn't happening this week. The three-pound loss made me think I was cheating more than I knew at the trade show and caused me to make myself wrong in all sorts of ways. But at the same time I hadn't lost that much, I was noticeably more slender. How was that possible?
I was stymied, and telling myself nasty things about myself, until I remembered something that happened with Melissa in the beginning few weeks.
Her and Marv's coach is rather more technologically-advanced than mine. She has machines. All manner of gizmos, no doubt costing astronomical numbers of dollars, that measure all sorts of internal things, somehow. Including your muscle mass.
What happened with Melissa was: in the first week she lost both fat and muscle. But in the next week or two, she began to gain the muscle back, and in fact her muscle-mass began to exceed the baseline after that, due to the huge intake of protein.
Now if you know about dieting, or about how a fat person swims as opposed to a muscular person, you know that muscle weighs more than fat. Thus if you lose fat and gain muscle, you will lose weight, but more slowly, and you will gain svelte disproportionate to the small poundage you're shedding.
So I think that must be what happened to me this week. I can't think of any other explanation.
Another fantastic thing that has happened since I started the diet, and, I think, because of the diet, at least in part: every now and then I get hit with the most positive, happy, everything-is-going-wonderfully mood. I feel inspired, expansive, free, capable... amazing. I can't say I've never had this before, as I have in recent years, but now it is more intense and much, much more frequent. In fact this morning, or maybe it was yesterday, I was in a funk, thinking about how my Google Analytics are sucking and how I'll never get a readership and so on, when I whined via IM for a bit with a dear reader/friend, and suddenly I just flipped over into that incredible positive. It was like a switch. I've never felt anything like it in my life.
Again, not something I expected.
--
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Fly the IP skies (Day 15)
I am writing in the air, though of course I won’t be able to post until I’m back on the ground. I’m on my way to Vancouver for a trade show, this weekend.
But before I get to that, I’ll make up the gap a little bit. I recovered from the stomach flu fine, though it seemed like forever until I got there. Last Saturday (Day 8) I could stomach absolutely nothing but half a double chocolate protein bar. Jo-Ann told me that I should log “everything that went into my mouth” on my journal, so I naturally felt that should include everything that came back out, being a cheese and spice omelet and a peace mango drink, not necessarily in that order. (I know, TMI, I am a homeopath and so have a strong stomach.) Sunday I gradually began to gain my strength back, but still only managed a little lettuce and one protein package.
Monday morning… I have to make a confession. I cheated. I ate an avocado. I take full responsibility for that action. I make no excuses. Well, all right, I make one excuse: I’d hardly had anything to eat the entire weekend. Two excuses. It was going to go bad if I didn’t eat it.
With all that privation and only a small cheat, I figured that my weight would drop another substantial amount on my Thursday weigh-in, and actually feared that somewhat; it would mean I had lost muscle. There was no way I didn’t on the weekend, the only mercy being that I knew it was probably not very much as the almost-fast had been only two days. The most interesting thing is that Jane (who has been coaching me in Jo-Ann's absence) told me I didn't lose weight because I wasn't taking in enough water. Not taking in enough water influences how fast you lose? I had no idea.
Alas… or perhaps to my relief… my weight dropped only two pounds. A bit of a bubble-burst, but I could still say I dropped 14 in two weeks—a pound a day—which still sounds impressive. It also was a short week, six days.
The reason for that, of course, is that I couldn’t come for weigh-in on Friday because I’d be travelling. Leading to the whole thorny question of, how to manage the Ideal Protein diet while on a trip?
Jewel, the receptionist at Medi-Spa, when she found out I was going back on my first consult, actually suggested that I not start until after I came back. I brushed that off. “I’m going to go on other trips while I’m doing this,” I told her. “I have to learn to manage these things.”
So, I am in the air, and blessed with a very decent excuse to turn down anything that resembles airplane food, which, as all you flyers out there know, barely resembles food.
What I did was think out carefully where I’d be for each meal, and plan/purchase IP and other foods that would be possible. On the plane, for instance, I can do no preparation at all and couldn’t bring liquids either, so I’ve got several bars in my laptop case, which is my carry-on bag. At the hotel I am assuming there’s no microwave, so I will be able to do cold mixing only, with the shaker that I stuffed into my suitcase. For the dinners, I will negotiate with the waiter. “Two cups veggies and eight ounces of meat only.” I expect that is going to be tough, as I’ll have to look at the whole menu to find the IP-compliant stuff on it.
--
I was too busy during the weekend to blog more, sorry. Now back and into the regular routine. About travelling during IP Phase One, I have learned:
1) For lunch, it's really hard to find two cups of compliant cooked veggies as a dish on a restaurant menu. However there are lots of Greek salads. Practice saying it with me: "Hold the feta and the balsamic." Olive oil, of course, is cool as long as it's not too much.
2) Dinner is easier. "Hold the potatoes/rice/pasta." Or combine a salad and a meat appetizer. Because it was a coastal city I kept ordering seafood as my meat portion, and in a little Greek restaurant called Maria's I had a garlic kalamari dish that was to die for. I mean, it melted in your mouth, and the sauce was awesome.
3) You have to carry bottled water to keep track of how much.
4) Getting your daily salt is easy--you just carry it with--oil not so much.
5) In the whirlwind of travel, you'll lose track of all the pieces and forget things. It's a PITA, really. So it goes, compensate and go on.
I had one thing happen on the weekend that was very heartening... for the first time, I saw my weight loss. I was walking past the mirror in the hotel room when I noticed I was narrower front-to-back in the tummy. Then I went into the bathroom and looked at my face in the bathroom mirror, and saw it there, too. My eyes and cheekbones and mouth were just ever-so-slightly more prominent.
Instantly it all became worthwhile.
--
I was too busy during the weekend to blog more, sorry. Now back and into the regular routine. About travelling during IP Phase One, I have learned:
1) For lunch, it's really hard to find two cups of compliant cooked veggies as a dish on a restaurant menu. However there are lots of Greek salads. Practice saying it with me: "Hold the feta and the balsamic." Olive oil, of course, is cool as long as it's not too much.
2) Dinner is easier. "Hold the potatoes/rice/pasta." Or combine a salad and a meat appetizer. Because it was a coastal city I kept ordering seafood as my meat portion, and in a little Greek restaurant called Maria's I had a garlic kalamari dish that was to die for. I mean, it melted in your mouth, and the sauce was awesome.
3) You have to carry bottled water to keep track of how much.
4) Getting your daily salt is easy--you just carry it with--oil not so much.
5) In the whirlwind of travel, you'll lose track of all the pieces and forget things. It's a PITA, really. So it goes, compensate and go on.
I had one thing happen on the weekend that was very heartening... for the first time, I saw my weight loss. I was walking past the mirror in the hotel room when I noticed I was narrower front-to-back in the tummy. Then I went into the bathroom and looked at my face in the bathroom mirror, and saw it there, too. My eyes and cheekbones and mouth were just ever-so-slightly more prominent.
Instantly it all became worthwhile.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Stomach flu (Day Eight)
Uuuuuuuuugggggghhhhh
Errrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhh
Blecccccccchhhhhhhhhh
That about sums it up. Nuff said.
Errrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhh
Blecccccccchhhhhhhhhh
That about sums it up. Nuff said.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Results (Day Seven)
Today was my first weigh-in.
But before we get to that... another keeper! This time using one of the IP protein-pack foods.
Karen's IP Plain Omelet with Mushrooms and Green Pepper
(All my recipes are for single servings, as you might have gathered; multiply them to serve more.)
1 packet Ideal Protein Plain Omelet
chopped white or brown mushrooms \
chopped green pepper / totalling 1/4 cup
1/2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 tsp chopped garlic
sea salt & pepper to taste
Saute the mushrooms and green pepper in the oil till lightly cooked in a small frying pan. Add garlic and pepper and saute a little more, just enough to cook the garlic and activate the pepper. Mix IP omelet in your shaker as per the instructions, adding salt. If you can pull off an omelet, sprinkle the rosemary evenly around after you've poured the omelet mix into the pan and before folding over. If you just scramble, as I do, just throw in the rosemary and scramble.
This recipe would work with eggs as well. I switched from IP Cheese and Spice Omelet to Plain for two reasons: 1) that left me more free to spice it up my own way and 2) it's fewer grams of carbs, 3 as opposed to 7. What I find is that the plain one is so similar to real beaten egg that with seasonings, it's hard to tell the difference. Take a bow, Ideal Protein food designers.
I actually went to the weigh-in before I came up with this omelet, because I had to fast for the bloodwork, which I did on the same trip into town. The lab opens up nice and early, so I took advantage of that. The only hard part was being somewhat ditzy due to low blood sugar and lack of sleep. I floated into Medispa early and made my best attempt to grok their recipe books, memorizing recipes because their recipe books are expensive as everything else, as I waited. And then came... The Big Moment.
Baseline, remember, was 243 lbs.
Today the scale tipped at 231.
I was gobsmacked. I knew I felt a little lighter on my feet; I knew also that I was wearing a ring on a finger where it hadn't fit last week. I had tried not to have a figure in mind, to make a prediction, of how many pounds I'd shed... but I guess you can't help it. I had expected to lose five... maybe eight. I was afraid I'd fine it was all for nought and I'd lost hardly any, maybe two or three. Twelve, I did not expect.
I know a lot of it is the water weight that always sloughs off at the outset of any diet. I know that my tummy measurement did not change, though I lost an inch around the chest... though that sameness might be because my period is coming up, and I usually bloat somewhat, perhaps offsetting the loss. I know I know. I don't care. I am triumphant. It takes all the edge off the cravings, even though they were baddish again today, forcing me to wolf romaine lettuce.
I am ecstatic. I knew this thing worked. Now I really know, as only living something can make you know.
This was also the day we took my "before" picture. "After" one coming once I've attained my 100-lb. goal. So this isn't a true "before" pic, it's "before minus 12 lbs."... but at this weight it's not that much of a difference. I purposely got her to take it in front of the shelf of IP foods.
--
But before we get to that... another keeper! This time using one of the IP protein-pack foods.
Karen's IP Plain Omelet with Mushrooms and Green Pepper
(All my recipes are for single servings, as you might have gathered; multiply them to serve more.)
1 packet Ideal Protein Plain Omelet
chopped white or brown mushrooms \
chopped green pepper / totalling 1/4 cup
1/2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 tsp chopped garlic
sea salt & pepper to taste
Saute the mushrooms and green pepper in the oil till lightly cooked in a small frying pan. Add garlic and pepper and saute a little more, just enough to cook the garlic and activate the pepper. Mix IP omelet in your shaker as per the instructions, adding salt. If you can pull off an omelet, sprinkle the rosemary evenly around after you've poured the omelet mix into the pan and before folding over. If you just scramble, as I do, just throw in the rosemary and scramble.
This recipe would work with eggs as well. I switched from IP Cheese and Spice Omelet to Plain for two reasons: 1) that left me more free to spice it up my own way and 2) it's fewer grams of carbs, 3 as opposed to 7. What I find is that the plain one is so similar to real beaten egg that with seasonings, it's hard to tell the difference. Take a bow, Ideal Protein food designers.
I actually went to the weigh-in before I came up with this omelet, because I had to fast for the bloodwork, which I did on the same trip into town. The lab opens up nice and early, so I took advantage of that. The only hard part was being somewhat ditzy due to low blood sugar and lack of sleep. I floated into Medispa early and made my best attempt to grok their recipe books, memorizing recipes because their recipe books are expensive as everything else, as I waited. And then came... The Big Moment.
Baseline, remember, was 243 lbs.
Today the scale tipped at 231.
I was gobsmacked. I knew I felt a little lighter on my feet; I knew also that I was wearing a ring on a finger where it hadn't fit last week. I had tried not to have a figure in mind, to make a prediction, of how many pounds I'd shed... but I guess you can't help it. I had expected to lose five... maybe eight. I was afraid I'd fine it was all for nought and I'd lost hardly any, maybe two or three. Twelve, I did not expect.
I know a lot of it is the water weight that always sloughs off at the outset of any diet. I know that my tummy measurement did not change, though I lost an inch around the chest... though that sameness might be because my period is coming up, and I usually bloat somewhat, perhaps offsetting the loss. I know I know. I don't care. I am triumphant. It takes all the edge off the cravings, even though they were baddish again today, forcing me to wolf romaine lettuce.
I am ecstatic. I knew this thing worked. Now I really know, as only living something can make you know.
This was also the day we took my "before" picture. "After" one coming once I've attained my 100-lb. goal. So this isn't a true "before" pic, it's "before minus 12 lbs."... but at this weight it's not that much of a difference. I purposely got her to take it in front of the shelf of IP foods.
 |
| April 13, 2012 - down 12 lbs. |
--
Let's get serious (Day Six)
I guess I couldn't post this yesterday. I got through Days 3-5 okay, but Day 6, it was as if my body was saying to me, "Okay... this has been a nice little departure... can we get back to normal now? Let's get serious... I WANT SOME BREAD."
Maybe I am a carb addict after all.
The worst times are from about two hours after breakfast until lunch, and about two hours after lunch until dinner. It comes up fast; one moment I'm fine, the next I have a thought of eating, and there it is. Previous to Day Six it was momentary and I could dispel it with a cup of tea or another spate of work. Yesterday it didn't go away, and it became a matter of toughing it out, focussing on work so as not to think about food, then eating the subsequent meal desperately.
I really hope this goes away. I don't want to get into that whole cycle of fear and desperation that I have before with other diets. I guess I have to nip it in the bud mentally with some effective self-talk, if it does.
I know something that will help: RESULTS. I have been feeling a little lighter on my feet... or at least I have been imagining I do. Not sure whether it's real, or wishful feeling. Today is the first weigh-in, so we'll see.
--
Maybe I am a carb addict after all.
The worst times are from about two hours after breakfast until lunch, and about two hours after lunch until dinner. It comes up fast; one moment I'm fine, the next I have a thought of eating, and there it is. Previous to Day Six it was momentary and I could dispel it with a cup of tea or another spate of work. Yesterday it didn't go away, and it became a matter of toughing it out, focussing on work so as not to think about food, then eating the subsequent meal desperately.
I really hope this goes away. I don't want to get into that whole cycle of fear and desperation that I have before with other diets. I guess I have to nip it in the bud mentally with some effective self-talk, if it does.
I know something that will help: RESULTS. I have been feeling a little lighter on my feet... or at least I have been imagining I do. Not sure whether it's real, or wishful feeling. Today is the first weigh-in, so we'll see.
--
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
The nature of the addiction (Day Five)
"9. Realize that you are addicted and once you quit ... You will hurt!"
That was the final point on a page sent to me by Melissa and Marv's Ideal Protein coach, on how to use visioning to succeed on the diet.
I liked the visioning part. I do have a vision, made up of a combination of how Melissa looks now, how I look in old photographs and how I remember feeling when I weighed less. I don't need to bring it to mind often, or put an image representing it up on my fridge, or repeat words expressing my commitment to it every day. It's just there, real and compelling.
I didn't like that last point. My life has had much too much of the negative in it. I am all too good at accepting the negative; the last thing I need is more training in that. I need training in accepting the positive.
Turns out it's wrong anyway, at least if it's true that Days 3-5 are the worst. Discomfort this is, yes. But it's not pain as I measure it. Not even compared to previous diets. I do not have any constant gnawing hunger distracting me from my work or other thoughts, as I've had previously. I get cravings, but it seems easy to dispel them either by taking a swig of tea or thinking about something else, or both. In fact, really, they go away of themselves. I've never felt like I had to really struggle to dispel or ignore one.
A change in emotional state? Maybe. Food and emotion are very bound up for me. There are some foods that are deeply comforting; I am sensitive to taste as a rule; I've always counted eating delicious things as one of the chief pleasures of life, and I have turned to that pleasure often when nervous. But then the last attempt was only three and some years ago, and I had made a lot of improvements in emotional state by then, so I don't think that's it. I think it's exactly what Dr. Tran says it is: insulin dysfunction being regulated.
And something else, which I think I'm putting together after creating two keeper recipes and having the same mood afterwards both times--a general sense of goodness and contentment, a strong feeling of "all is well."
When I tried the Carbohydrate Addict's Diet, I was sure I was addicted to carbs. When Shirley said to me sharply once, "If you're addicted to anything, it's fats," I thought that might be true. When I have felt the need for that one little zap of chocolate late at night, I have wondered if I am addicted to chocolate. When I gulp one cup of tea after another, it's natural to think I'm addicted to tea... though there's no difference in the inclination whether it's caf or decaf.
But I don't feel carb cravings other than the ones from habit, 'I should be having bread/toast now'. I don't feel fat cravings except for particular, habitual fats. Others seem to think these things will oppress me, and I feared it somewhat myself; but they don't. And I'm not at the stage yet where the hunger is supposed to go away.
I think I get it: I am addicted to flavour. And texture. The sheer sensory pleasure of deliciousness. It's that I take emotional comfort from.
It explains it all: the way the addiction seemed variable or all-encompassing while I was eating what I wanted, the lack of severe cravings while dieting, the reason I am so desperately motivated to be creative with the diet... the feeling of contentment after I hit on a keeper recipe.
Oh and previous failures. You know what happens when you cut down the amount of food you eat? Everything tastes better and more intense. So you want to eat more of it! I struggled with that every time.
What is beautiful about this is: I don't have to give up this addiction to do the Ideal Protein diet. I just have to satisfy it within its restrictions. And the restrictions are very light when it comes to the tools of the craft of flavour: seasonings. Nor does an IP meal ever leave me feeling like it wasn't enough, which every meal did on past diets (except the Reward Meal in the CA diet).
Woo hoo! Off to allrecipes.com!
Ingredients
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon dried parsley
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon1/2 tsp olive oil
2 teaspoons garlic powder
3 tablespoons lime juice
Easy peasy!
§
P.S. : MmmmmmmmmSMACK! Keeper!
--
Quest for flavour (Day Five)
I got hit with something of the nasties last night. My sons are home now... no longer may I eat IP in blessed isolation. They're home and they're eating bread and cereals and cookies and chocolate and all kinds of other things I like.
Last night it was burritos. I love burritos. All the ingredients were laid out as usual... the tortillas, the meat, the tomatoes, the grated cheese, the sour cream, the avocadoes, the salsa. They've been on a Mexican food kick for a few months, and I joined them in it, so I can imagine very vividly what all those things taste like. It was really hard to walk by without nibbling a pinch of cheese or a spoonful of avocado. I did it though.
"Stay away!" Jo-Ann told me firmly when I recounted this to her on the phone.
"I did!" I answered. "I'm just whining!"
"Whining is allowed," she reassured me. Good, because I imagine a fair amount of this blog is and will be exactly that. Karen's IP whine-and-dine blog.
Today's lunch was 50/50. The banana pudding, thumbs down... even with copious cinnamon and nutmeg added. I like sweetness at lunch but not quite that much and the texture is meh. Never was a big pudding fan.
However... another keeper! Would rosemary and sesame oil work together on delicate veggies, I wondered... only one way to find out.
Karen's IP-Compliant Rosemary Triple Veggies
Zucchini \
Eggplant |--- in whatever proportions you like to total 2 cups chopped
Cauliflower /
1/4 tsp olive oil
1/8 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp chopped garlic
2 tsp dried rosemary (though I think fresh would work better)
sea salt and fresh-ground black pepper to taste
Saute the veggies in the oil, searing, then add the seasonings and a little water to simmer down the cauliflower. (Or start it first). Serve when all is tender. I think this would be good with mushrooms, too.
Somewhere in my cupboards, long buried and forgotten... lies the Moosewood Cookbook. I might well hit that for further inspiration.
--
Last night it was burritos. I love burritos. All the ingredients were laid out as usual... the tortillas, the meat, the tomatoes, the grated cheese, the sour cream, the avocadoes, the salsa. They've been on a Mexican food kick for a few months, and I joined them in it, so I can imagine very vividly what all those things taste like. It was really hard to walk by without nibbling a pinch of cheese or a spoonful of avocado. I did it though.
"Stay away!" Jo-Ann told me firmly when I recounted this to her on the phone.
"I did!" I answered. "I'm just whining!"
"Whining is allowed," she reassured me. Good, because I imagine a fair amount of this blog is and will be exactly that. Karen's IP whine-and-dine blog.
Today's lunch was 50/50. The banana pudding, thumbs down... even with copious cinnamon and nutmeg added. I like sweetness at lunch but not quite that much and the texture is meh. Never was a big pudding fan.
However... another keeper! Would rosemary and sesame oil work together on delicate veggies, I wondered... only one way to find out.
Karen's IP-Compliant Rosemary Triple Veggies
Zucchini \
Eggplant |--- in whatever proportions you like to total 2 cups chopped
Cauliflower /
1/4 tsp olive oil
1/8 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp chopped garlic
2 tsp dried rosemary (though I think fresh would work better)
sea salt and fresh-ground black pepper to taste
Saute the veggies in the oil, searing, then add the seasonings and a little water to simmer down the cauliflower. (Or start it first). Serve when all is tender. I think this would be good with mushrooms, too.
Somewhere in my cupboards, long buried and forgotten... lies the Moosewood Cookbook. I might well hit that for further inspiration.
--
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