February Food Challenge: 28 Days & Nights Of Paleo

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February if Paleo month for me. Yep, I'm unleashing my inner cavechick and taking the Paleo Diet Challenge.

February if Paleo month for me. Yep, I’m unleashing my inner cavechick and taking the Paleo Diet Challenge.

Beginning in February I’m going to dig deep to find my inner caveman woman and take the Paleo Challenge. For the month I’m going to follow a Paleo food plan, while staying within my 32 Weight Watchers daily points.

Since I went low carb nearly two years ago, I’ve been Paleo-curious. Not one to follow popular trends, I’d kept my distance. But after reading The Paleo Primer, I’m excited to give it a try.

So What Exactly Is This Paleo Craze?
As best as I can tell, there is no one absolute Paleo diet.  Some plans limit fruits where others don’t. Likewise, dairy is banned on some but not others.

But there are a few consistent rules across plans. Grains and legumes are out. So is sugar. You want minimal processed foods. So when it comes to dairy, raw gets the thumbs up. Meat and seafood should be grain-fed or wild-caught.  And everything is organic.

So What Can I Eat?
The Paleo Primer, by Keris Marsden and Matt Whitmore, offers some great recipes that looked easy to prepare. I’m all about easy when starting with a new food regime!

The foods outlined in The Paleo Primer include:

  • Grass-fed meat and free-range poultry
  • Eggs fortified with omega-3
  • Wild-Caught Fish
  • Fats & Oils
    • Cooking: extra virgin coconut oil, coconut butter, organic ghee, grass-fed butter, lard, beef drippings, and goose or duck fat
    • Eating: Avocados, coconut, olives & olive oil, Animal fats
    • Dressings: extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, macadamia oil
  • Dairy — Organic or raw heavy cream, grass-fed butter or ghee, Greek yogurt with live and active cultures, kefir with live and active cultures, raw milk
  • Nuts (limited)
  • Vegetables – locally grown, other wise organic
  • Fruit – limited; however lemons, limes, avocados, and berries on regular basis
  • Raw honey

For the most part, it’s not that much different from when I was eating 20g of carbs a day. But I also wasn’t working out as much as I am now. Thanks to my more intense workouts, I’ve added grains — steel-cut oats, barley, quinoa — back into my diet. Something that isn’t allowed on Paleo.  At least the Greek yogurt and berries I added back in are OK.

Will Paleo Fuel My Workouts?
I’m worried about whether I’ll have enough energy for my workouts. I needed to up my carb count from 20g to 50-100g a day, depending on the type of workout. Less than 50g and my metabolism plummets.

I’ve scanned a few things on the Paleo blogs related to slowing down on exercises, but I need to do a bit more investigation to figure out what that means.

Clearly, my post-workout protein shake is a no-no. That’s a tough pill to swallow, but I’ll figure out something. I’ll need to closely monitor my energy levels and prepare to tinker with my food options and when I eat.

The Cost Of Healthy Eating
The other difference – the potential hit to my pocketbook.  Organic foods, grass-fed meat, wild-caught fish, raw dairy…when reading the list of foods, I swear I could hear a “cha-ching!” sound, loud and clear.

So part of this little experiment will look at the costs of low carb vs. paleo. I’ve come across lots of articles on the cost difference of eating healthy vs. non-healthy foods. But I haven’t seen much on the cost of healthy vs. organic healthy.

After the first week, it’s possible I’ll make some changes to the types of foods I buy to avoid breaking the bank. Yes I want to get healthy, but you know a banana, organic or not, is still a banana.

As for Weight Watchers, I’ll need to do some research about the points value of some of these foods. I can’t image lard will have a low point count.  When eating low carb, I spend a lot of points on non-lean meats. I found I’m much more satisfied with non-lean cuts and lose the desire to binge or graze on food.  I’m wondering if Paleo’s grass-fed and organic cuts are more Weight Watchers friendly.

Time to start working on my menu.

Bikram Yoga – What Was This Fat Girl Thinking?

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I know there are folks who love hot yoga...I am not one of them. Image courtesy of samarttiw and FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

I know there are folks who love hot yoga…I am not one of them. Image courtesy of samarttiw and FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Does spending 90 minutes in a 105-degree room at 40% humidity with 25 people sound like fun to you?  Me neither, but the other night I gave Bikram Yoga a shot.  What I didn’t think about was the effect on my high blood pressure. Bad move, Dot.

During Bikram Yoga, or hot yoga, you go through 26 poses in 90 minutes. The challenge for folks with high blood pressure is heat raises your heart rate and that increases blood pressure.  Since the room is sauna-like, dehydration is another challenge. When you’re dehydrated your BP spikes.

I prepared for class 24 hours in advance by drinking a lot of water – approximately half of my weight in ounces.  I’m on medication to control my BP and it’s improved over the last year because of my weight loss. So I thought my biggest challenge was acclimating to the heat. Ha!

Walking into the studio was like hitting a wall of heat. I’m talking lava hot! It was hard to focus on anything, as the heat was so oppressive. Once the class started, I settled in and the first 15 minutes were OK.

After that I slowly became a hot mess over the next 75 minutes. Sweat kept rolling into my eyes. I got more and more fidgety. I kept telling myself, “I can’t do this…it’s too fricking hot. I’m going to die from heat stroke.”

Trying to focus my mind on the poses and not the heat, I started making slower and more purposeful movements. The heat worked wonders on my muscles. My stretches were deeper than in my regular yoga class and my right knee felt great. Unfortunately we had to turn over on our stomachs.

That’s when the wheels fell off!

After Cobra pose I started feeling a little overwhelmed, dizzy and sick. I could feel a headache coming on and my stomach was rumbling, and not in a good way. At that point I stopped doing the poses and rested. At that point I should have left the room, but didn’t. It still hadn’t dawned on me that my blood pressure was spiking.  I thought I was pushing myself too hard in the heat.

The rest helped and I pulled it together for the last 10 minutes of stretches.

When it came time for us to rest at the end, I immediately got up, quickly folded-up my mat and towel and escaped the furnace.

Ah, a hallway never felt so good. I stood still for a few minutes basking in the glory that is room temperature.  By the time I walked into the locker room to peel off my wet clothes, my headache started receding and I felt steady on my feet.

I left, exhausted and in desperate need of more water. By the time I got home the headache was gone and my stomach felt fine. But the next morning, my injured knee swelled to the size of a small grapefruit and was painful to walk on. What the heck was going on now?

A friend told me I might have over-exerted myself – apparently an issue with hot yoga. The heat warms up the muscles, allowing for the deep stretching. The problem is people do too much and end up with injuries. I did notice I could do things in hot yoga I couldn’t do in my regular yoga class. Great!

Clearly hot yoga and high blood pressure is not a good combo. I might try Bikram again, but not until I’m at least 50 pounds lighter and off the BP meds. So in the meantime, it’s back to regular yoga for me.

Crock Pot Chicken Curry With Cauliflower Rice

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Delicious and filling. It didn't take much for this low carb/low point chicken curry dish to fill me up.

Delicious and filling. It didn’t take much for this low carb/low point chicken curry dish to fill me up.

Snow bound in my home, I got a hankering for some curry chicken. I pulled out the crock pot and started chucking ingredients inside. No recipe handy, I made it up on the fly. Because I track what I eat, I wrote everything down.

It was delicious and filling — I left food in the bowl!  I plan to make it again, but will try to work out a way to thicken-up the sauce. I don’t want to use flour — too many carbs. Maybe more yogurt. It cooked for 3 hours on high, so next time I might try 7 hours on low to see if that cooks out some of the water.

Crock Pot Chicken Curry With Cauliflower Rice
Net Carbs: 7
Weight Watchers PlusPoints: 3
Servings: About 8

Ingredients

  • tomato sauce, low carb, 15 ounces
  • 1/2 c chicken stock
  • 1/2 c coconut milk
  • 2-3 tbsp curry powder
  • 1 tsp ginger
  • 1 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp garam masala
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 1 lbs. chicken (boneless, skinless, fat trimmed)
  • Garlic, 2 cloves, diced
  • Onion, sliced
  • Green Bell Pepper, diced into medium-sized chunks
  • Cauliflower
  • 1/2 c Cilantro, chopped + several springs
  • Greek Yogurt, plain, fat-free

Directions

  • Combine tomato sauce, stock, milk and spices in crock pot; mix well.
  • Add chicken, garlic onion and peppers; use tongs to coat chicken, onions and peppers with sauce.
  • Heat on high for 3-4 hours or low for 7-8 hours.
  • About 30 minutes before curry is done, core the cauliflower and remove the green leaves.
  • Using a hand grater or food processor, grate the cauliflower.
  • Heat a skillet on medium (no oil or water needed as the cauliflower has enough water) and add the cauliflower. Stirring constantly, cook 5-7 minutes until cauliflower is tender.
  • Once cauliflower is tender, mix in 1/2 cup of cilantro.
  • Turn off the crock pot and stir in the yogurt, mixing well.  Serve over the cauliflower and add a couple of sprigs of fresh cilantro.

Do You Have What It Takes To Lose Weight?

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Weight loss isn't about will power. It's about having a sense of urgency and believing in yourself.

Weight loss isn’t about will power. It’s about having a sense of urgency and believing in yourself.

I’m reading Weight Loss Boss by David Kirchhoff, CEO of Weight Watchers (review coming soon!) and ran across an interesting factoid about the two common attributes of people who successfully lost weight.

According to Weight Watchers’ own research, regardless of weight loss program, those who were successful:

  1. Had a sense of urgency (weight loss was a top priority)
  2. Believed in themselves and in their ability to stick with their plan

That spoke to me.

I’ve tried losing weight for the last 25 years. My latest weight loss journey is successful because I was in a good place, mentally.

My horrendous physical gave me the sense of urgency I needed (point 1). While I never view fear as a “good place” to be, it was the swift kick in my size 28 pants that I needed.

And once I stopped dieting and focused on changing my life, I knew I’d succeed (point 2). Sure the weight was coming off, but it had done that before — only to come back with abandon. Once I read Why We Get Fat, my path became clear, and I just knew in my shrinking gut that this time I’d drop those hated pounds and finally get healthy.

If you’re trying to lose weight but it’s not a priority (remember, just saying it’s a priority doesn’t make it so), you might lose a few pounds. But, down the road, you’ll find them again and a few of their friends, too. I know I did.

On the other hand, if the urgency is there, you’re less likely to give up in moments of self-doubt. Believing in yourself may take time. It took me about 3 months after my doctor’s visit to find the right tools and plan (low carb variation of Weight Watchers) that gave me the confidence and belief that I could do it.  It really is about finding your groove.

Do you have what it takes to lose weight?

Yeah. You do.

Yep, My Knee Is Messed Up: I Tore The Meniscus

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What my knee should look like. Image from the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons.

What my knee should look like. Image from the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons.

The good news from my doctor I didn’t tear my anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). However, during those blasted jumping jacks I tore my meniscus. So you won’t see me doing any running or squats for a while.

Brief Anatomy Lesson: The meniscus is cartilage in your knee-joint. The cup-shaped meniscus rests between the femur and tibia. The meniscus sits between the bones to distribute weight and to improve the joint’s stability.

Most likely a piece tore, is still attached and folded over into the cup, adding more pressure to my knee area. As my doctor described it, it’s sort of like having grit in your gears.

That explains my knee pain, the constant swelling and all the popping and clicking noises I’m hearing.

I've torn my meniscus. It looks like the torn flap is causing my knee pain. Sort of like grit in the gears. Image from the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons.

I’ve torn my meniscus. It looks like the torn flap is causing my knee pain. Sort of like grit in the gears. Image from the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons.

My doctor assured me that in 90% of cases, after a few weeks and some TLC, the problem fixes itself.  If it doesn’t clear up, that means a meniscectomy. Basically an orthopedic surgeon drills a little hole, trims the torn cartilage, cleans out the area and I’m as right as rain.

For the next few weeks I’m following the RICE protocol:

  • Rest – So no squats, lunges, burpees, walking, running, jumping or zumba (sigh)
  • Ice – Ice packs on my knee 20 minutes at a time, several times a day
  • Compression – I’ll wrap my knee in a bandage to help prevent more swelling
  • Elevation – To reduce swelling, I need to put my leg up higher than my heart

I’m also on anti-inflammatory meds for pain and swelling.

As for my lower body weight training, I’m looking at weeks of leg extensions. That’s hot.

Mercifully, I still have my spin class. My doctor thinks the movement will help my knee. Likewise, I’m cleared for yoga and my morning stretches. Swimming is now on the menu. I’ve thought about it for a while and since I need to limit the weight on my leg, perhaps the time has come to get that bathing suit. Ooooh….Cannonball!!!!!

There are days my knee feels great. Then I’ll over do it and pay for it the next day. So taking it easy is the mantra for the next few of weeks.

So no more 100+ minute spin sessions.

My Weight Watchers Presentation Ignites Passion To Help Others

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My little dog and pony show went well at Weight Watchers. I'm looking forward to more speaking opportunities. Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici and FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici and FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

My Weight Watchers talk last Saturday went great, but something unexpected happened.  It sparked a passion inside of me — helping others take control of their weight loss journey. I absolutely loved sharing the hard lessons I learned over the last two years. The question is, what to do with that passion?

How Did My Speech Go?
Initially, I thought I’d have 5 minutes to recount the lessons learned over the last 2 years. Turns out our leader turned the whole meeting over to me — 60 minutes — to tell my story. I had no problem filling in the details of my outline.  The entire experience lasted 90 minutes — 30 for my presentation, 30 for Q&A, and another 30 for post-meeting questions.

Because it’s the beginning of the year and all that entails (New Year’s resolutions, Weight Watchers membership deals), it was a packed house.

I came with a ‘before’ photo and kept my iPad handy so I could refer to my notes. Surprise surprise, but I didn’t even need the notes. I felt very much at ease in recounting my tale, warts and all.

There were great exchanges during the Q&A period. I’ll posting the questions and my answers in the coming days.

Back to the presentation: there was one question I wish I’d answered differently. Someone asked if I had children. “No, I have a husband,” was my retort. That got a lot of laughs but clearly it was hard for her to relate to my weight loss journey….I mean, I did quit my job to get healthy.

After the meeting (it’s always after!) I realized I should have told her it didn’t matter whether I had kids. If she really wanted to lose weight, then nothing would stop her from doing it. In hindsight I wished I’d followed up with something like:

“I’ve been a Weight Watchers member on and off for 25 years. I use to say things like ‘Yeah, but my job…’ or ‘yeah, but my family…’ Now, I understand those were just excuses because I was afraid of failure. The only thing stopping me from losing weight was me. Kids or no kids, job or no job. I had that epiphany too late in that my health got so bad I had to quit my job.”

Sigh…hindsight is truly 20/20. Well, that’s how you learn. Something to tuck away until next time.

Other than that, I really feel the presentation went well. The response was overwhelmingly positive. A few ladies told me they really liked how I ended it: by stressing the idea of putting your own health first.

New Found Passion
I loved the opportunity to talk at my Weight Watchers meeting and I’d love the opportunity to speak with other groups in the future. The presentation really stirred something in me (and not because I got to talk about myself). The passion to help others with their weight loss started about the time I began this blog. The presentation kicked that passion it into high gear.

This week I’ve found myself looking at nutrition courses at the local college and the criteria to become a personal trainer. Hmmmm….I’m not sure the world is ready for that!

I really love marketing. But the thought of doing the same-old-same-old isn’t appealing. That’s the old me…the fat me.

Maybe this is my midlife crisis. If so, then “woo hoo!” for midlife crises.

Whatever it is, there’s no denying the idea of helping others on their weight loss journey has stirred a passion in me that I haven’t felt in a long time.

A Little Weight Loss Motivation To Kick Off The Week

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dot2trot lifiting weights

Stop waiting to change your life and just do it!

“We live messy lives and those who stop waiting for perfect are the ones who reach their goals.”

— Roni Noone of Roni’s Weigh

This one is going up on my board. There is no spoon such thing as perfect. If I waited for the right time to start changing my life I have no doubt that I’d weigh 350 pounds today.

The time is now!

Oh, Roni’s Weigh is an awesome blog by the way. You should check it out.

Weekly Weigh-In: That Damn Peanut Butter

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I'm up 3 pounds this week thanks to dipping a spoon into the peanut butter jar a few too many times.

I’m up 3 pounds this week thanks to dipping a spoon into the peanut butter jar a few too many times.

When I woke up this morning, I instantly knew the scale would show movement in the opposite direction. My bad knee swelled during the night. That along with incredibly sore abs and arms from my new upper body training meant I’m retaining some water.

When I walked into my Weight Watchers meeting I expected to be up a pound.  Not the three the scale showed.

Sigh…

Confession:  It’s not all water. I think the peanut butter has something to do with it too.

Our Old English Sheep dog has to take a pill with every meal. To make sure she actually eats the pill, we smear it with peanut butter.

The first time, I finished a workout and I needed to eat something. So, before I prepared the pill, I dipped the spoon in the peanut butter jar for some quick protein.  Well, over the course of the week, that little dip turned into a full-blown peanut butter monkey on my back. Before feeding Peekabu, I would take a little taste…or two. OK three, no four tops.

I just couldn’t help myself.

Well that’s not true. I could have, but it tastes so good when it hits the lips.

I think I need to let the husband feed the dogs for a while.

What Do Zombies Have To Do With Weight Loss?

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I don’t know, but I’m a Walking Dead fan and this is just too damn funny. Enjoy!

Book Review: Born To Run

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This book will not only entertain you, but inspire you to run for the sheer joy of it.

This book will not only entertain you, but inspire you to run for the sheer joy of it.

Before picking up Christopher McDougall’s Born To Run, I was training for my first 5K. I finished the book last night with my right leg elevated and an ice pack on my knee and all I wanted to do was go out and run an ultramarathon.

Born To Run starts with McDougall’s quest to run without pain and it leads him to the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico. The tribe is the keeper of a lost art — running for hundreds of miles without rest or injury and loving every minute of it.

Whether you are a runner or not, it’s a fascinating and funny tale about runners and the art (and science) of running. While the book builds up to the greatest 50-mile race you never heard of, I really enjoyed the science part. McDougall takes you to the research labs of Harvard seeking an answer to the theory that humans were in fact born to run.  And it takes a modern-day rabbit to unlock our understanding of Homo Erectus and why we survived and the stronger Neanderthals didn’t.

The book also dives into the shoe vs. barefoot debate and shows how today’s running shoes actually increase your chance of injury. Thanks for that Nike!

It’s a great, fun read that shows you that happiness is right at your feet, literally.