My Fasting Challenge: Day 2

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home-gym-set-up

After cleaning my basement I started setting up our little workout area. It’s not much, but I’ve got plans!

Yesterday I felt a surge of energy coursing through me. I’ve read that you feel more energetic during a fast. I have to say this is the first time it’s happened to me. Hoping to go for a walk, I was thwarted by the rainy weather. So I turned my attention to my house. Mounds of laundry, dirty floors, clutter and dust – none of it stood a chance against me.

Energy Level Goes To 11
I spent a chunk of the day cleaning the basement, where the husband and I are setting up a very small home gym. We’re not buying machines. We’re using resistance bands with the possibility of buying dumbbells and kettle bells. I planned to do some work with the bands yesterday, but it turns out I got a different type of workout. Read More

7-Day Fasting Challenge: Day 1

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fork-plate

So far just one little hiccup on the first day of my 7-Day Fasting Challenge. Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhoto.net and aopsan.

My last meal was 5:00 pm dinner on New Year’s Eve at a local steakhouse. That means I’m not eating again until 5:00 pm Saturday, January 7. As I’ve written before, the primary goal for the fast is to help my body shed wonky cells before they go rogue on me. Its just one little tool I have to prevent my cancer from coming back.

However, if the fast knocks me into ketosis (fat burning mode), I’m not gonna complain.

First Weigh In Of 2017
The morning of January 1 I decided to hit the scale, something I haven’t done since my surgery (6 months + 2 days ago). I gave myself time off from the scale since I was juggling with a few things:

  1. Endometrial (uterine) cancer discovered during fertility treatments
  2. Surgery to remove it
  3. Recovery from a radical hysterectomy
  4. Surgically induced menopause
  5. Radiation therapy
  6. A leaky bladder thanks to the radiation

The last thing I needed to do was step on a scale. Read More

Top 10 Reasons My Weight Loss Resolutions Always Failed

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What is the #1 resolution people make on the 1st of January each year? Weight loss. Unfortunately 88% of those resolutions don’t even make it out of February.

I have made my fair share of failed resolutions at the start of each year. Always vowing that this year would be different and I’d finally lose weight. After careful thought, here’s the 10 reasons why my weight loss resolutions always failed.

Savor The Victories No Matter How Small

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skinny-jeans-2

Post-surgery victory this morning. I can officially fit back into my skinny jeans!

Since surgery I’ve dreaded trying on my skinny jeans. Mostly because of pain. Abdominal surgery isn’t fun and thanks to the hysterectomy, it takes my body a long time to rebound. Everyday at 2:00 p.m. my waist starts bloating and the area around the incisions start getting sore. At that point off go the yoga pants and on goes the oversized cotton dresses.

Once I could start wearing pants again, I’ve stuck mostly to yoga pants. Soft and stretchy, what’s not to love. I also never got around to tossing out my size 16 jeans. They are big on me, but at least there is comfort around the waist.

But those 16s, nearly 4 months post surgery, helped me put off the inevitable. Sure my yoga pants are size 14, but they do stretch.  I’ve put off trying on my pixie pants or skinny jeans (the Holy Grail for us fatties).

With the stress of recovering from radiation, dealing with menopause and the 10 extra pounds, the last thing I wanted to do was add another thing to worry about. But putting it off just added to my anxiety. In the back of my mind I knew I’d have to try getting into my regular clothes. The anxiety was there, I just chose not to recognize it.

Well this morning I opened my closet and realized I need to do some laundry. The only pair of pants left hanging were my size 14 skinny jeans and pixies. I have a lot of errands to run today. And on this cold, windy morning a dress just doesn’t cut it. It was time to bite the bullet.

With the slightest of  hops and jumps, I got them on. The big bonus was buttoning the skinny jeans without sucking in my gut (woot!!).

I know that I’ll rip them off in a few hours, but this was a victory and I’m going to savor it.

Weekly Weigh-In: My Pity Party Is Over!

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oct-1-weight

My 3 month sabbatical from stepping on the scale is over. Thanks to a lot of self-pity and too many sugary desserts, I’m up 10 pounds. Time to kick my LCHF way of eating into high gear.

Sometime during the last few months I made the decision to cut myself some slack and not worry about stepping on the scale. Since I was dealing with my cancer diagnosis, giving up on the idea of getting pregnant, surgery, radiation treatment and recovery, the last thing I needed to focus on was stepping on the scale every week.

Of course that meant I probably wasn’t as diligent with my diet as I should have been. Oh, sure, I always cooked low carb, high fat foods. But we ate out a lot and I wasn’t my diligent self. And more often than not I’d order desserts — something I never do.

I fell into the old habit of rewarding myself with food.

But I wasn’t really rewarding myself. I was feeling sorry for my lot in life. I justified those tasty sweets with the idea that it was “OK to live a little … I have cancer, after all.”

Ugh!

I really felt the wrath of my bad eating decisions. And I don’t mean the 10 pounds I put on. Read More

Be Happy, It’s Saturday!

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coffee-owls

I woke up actually feeling like Espresso Owl. Why? I finally had my first awesome night’s sleep in about a week.

I feel like a weight’s been lifted. My doctor gave me the all clear to start working out again.  My healing is moving along nicely. I just have a few sutures that haven’t dissolved yet.

While I still need to take it easy, I can resume my training for a 10k and start lifting weights. Heck I’m even allowed to go swimming or take a bath.

I haven’t done anything for 7 weeks. Ugh! I’m so happy I’ve made a habit out of being active. I just can’t sit still anymore. It won’t be difficult to get back into the swing of things. The hard part will be the slow and gentle pace. My inclination is to go as hard or fast as possible. Not too bright. Last thing I want is an injury or screwing up my still healing abdominal area. I must be the turtle, not the hare.

But this weekend I’m focused on food prep, making meals for the week and a special project with the husband (minds out of the gutter!).  I’m spending part of this beautiful morning gearing up to run the gauntlet that is Saturday grocery shopping. May my Espresso Owl energy stay with me.

Which morning owl are you?

Recovering From This Weekend’s Carbopalooza

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tape measure fork

Six weeks since my surgery and I’m officially getting back into the healthy eating business. Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhoto.net and Mister GC.

This weekend the hubby and I visited some friends at a cabin in West Virginia. We haven’t seen them since my diagnosis and they thought it would be a great chance for me to rest, relax and heal. Before going I made the decision early to not sweat the food choices and it was a good decision.

The food was home cooked and tasted great. I ate low carb when I could but I didn’t beat myself up if I strayed. I mean, when a cute 12-year-old offers you (a fellow baker) a brownie she made herself, it’s hard to refuse.

Now that I’m back at home I decided to start the week with a two-day fast. What better way to kick this weekend’s carb monkey off my back and jump into ketosis?

Following the fast I’m doing a pretty simple ketogenic food plan that’s high fat, moderate protein and very low carb. This is a real test as I’m significantly lowering my carbs and limiting my protein and dairy. I’m still eating 20g of carbs daily, but I’m counting total carbs rather than net carbs.

Oh and of course no alcohol or coffee either.

You can check out my menu for this week. I’m still tweaking it…why not as I have 2 whole days to finalize it. I’m not thrilled with the total carb count for Friday’s lunch, but hey I really do want to work in an awesome ketogenic BLT! Maybe Friday night’s dinner becomes fat and protein only.

That might work.

 

Changing Up The Diet

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fat bomb 2

Fat bombs are back on my menu as I look for ways to increase healthy fats into my diet.

Since I now have a target weight and start radiation treatments in the next 30 days, and feel it’s time to do some tweaking to my diet. I’m still eating LCHF, but I’ve decided that once my body is in ketosis, I need to consistently stay there for a while. So basically I’m moving to a ketogenic diet.

Embracing Keto!
We’re still in the early stages of studying the impact of ketogenic diets on cancer, but the results are very encouraging. Eating a diet that’s high in fat, a bit restricted in protein, and very low in carbs switches the body from running on glucose to ketones. Cancer thrives on glucose, but it can’t live on ketones. In fact, some studies have shown it to shrink tumors.

Of course, those studies were done on mice or terminally ill cancer patients using a ketogenic diet that’s around 90% fat, 7% protein and 3% carbs. I’m not doing that. I’m shooting for 75% fat, 22% protein, 3% carbs. Considering my diet is now 65%-70% fat, it seems doable.

Ketones, Insulin and Calories…Oh My!
I’m making a few tweaks in my diet. But changes are also coming to what I track. Read More

Good News On Cancer Battle

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genetic_testing

Thanks to known family history, I’m going in for some genetic testing to see how predisposed I am to other types of cancer.

I went in for my post-surgery follow up with my oncologist and he had great news for me: the cancer didn’t spread. My pathology report came back clean. My cancer was Stage 1a, Grade 1.

Stage and Grade Translation
So what exactly does staging or grading cancer mean?

Staging is related to the size of the tumor and how far it spread. Grading is how doctors describe the actual cells. In my case,

  • Stage 1a – The cancer stayed in the uterus lining but just barely started pushing into the uterine muscle.
  • Grade 1 – The cancer cells look like normal cells and are not growing rapidly.

My oncologist isn’t recommending any radiation or chemo. Basically the surgery cured me and there is less than a 10% chance of the cancer coming back. I’ll still need “aggressive” follow up, visiting my oncologist every 6 months for check ups rather coming back once a year. However… Read More

First Time Cycling In 30 Years

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bikes

Out of the shed and into the living room! We keep our bikes 10 feet from our front door now. Yes, it makes the space feel a little cramped but the convenience of quickly hitting the road is too alluring.

This weekend my husband and I took our bikes out of the shed for the first time in 5 years. Other than 4 flat tires, lots of dirt and cobwebs, they were in pretty good shape. Makes sense since we only rode them twice.

Failed Attempt 5 Years Ago
We purchased the bikes in 2011. We were both much heavier and this was our solution to losing weight. Pretty typical of overweight folks who are sedentary and suddenly get the urge to “move more.” Instead of a treadmill (our Love Shack is too small) we opted for two 8-speed bikes.

Of course my excitement gave way once the rubber hit the road.

The last time I was on a bike was middle school. Peddling wasn’t as easy as I remembered. And my balance was gone. I kept thinking I’d fall and break something. I was gripped with the fear of falling and had zero confidence in myself.

So I came up with loads of excuses to get off the bike. Read More