Plateau From Hell: Battling My Body’s Set Weight Point

3 Comments
weekly weigh in april 30

Not the progress I was expecting this week. I’m up a pound. Time to rethink my tactics.

Bleh! I was expecting a loss this week and instead I’m up a pound. What’s really frustrating is I’ve been bouncing between 182-185 pounds for a year. One. Freaking. Year.

Rethinking Tactics
I recently finished reading The Obesity Code by Dr. Jason Fung. Regular readers know I love Dr. Fung’s blog and his online lectures. A review of his book is coming soon (hint, you should read it!), but right now I’m looking at shaking up my intermittent fasting tactics for one simple reason — changing my body’s set weight point.

It’s believed that our bodies have a set weight point. When a healthy person’s weight goes above or below that set weight, the body compensates — slowing or raising metabolism, increasing hunger or satiety hormones — and works to get back to that person’s set weight point. Read More

Attempting Homemade Broth Again

Leave a comment
broth 3

Success! After my first failed attempt at making broth, I finally succeeded. This lovely vegetable broth is destined for my tomato soup!

For the last few weeks I focused on getting back into the kitchen. We’ve been eating out way too much for my liking. The pounds I lost recently is a clear sign that good things happen when you control the ingredients.

So this week I was making a tomato soup and decided to try yellow heirloom tomatoes as they finally appeared at my grocery store. I was determined to make it from scratch but that meant making my own vegetable broth. Ugh!

My previous attempt at making my own broth didn’t go that well. I used my Thanksgiving turkey carcass. The actual cooking was just fine. It was the storage where I ran into problems. Once I let the broth cool, I ended up dumping it into freezer bags.

  • First problem – I’d have to thaw a whole bag rather than just what I need.
  • Second problem – When I did thaw a batch it tasted like it sat in a plastic bag in the freezer for about a month.

I ended up tossing the broth. Read More

Weekly Weigh-In: Down 3; Lowest Weight In 25 Years!

Leave a comment
weekly weight april 16

After losing 3 pounds this week I’m officially at my lowest weight in more than 25 years. Woohoo! 170s here I come!

I’m down 3.1 lbs. this week, weighing in at 181.4. That’s the lowest number I’ve seen on the scale for more than 25 years!  I finally feel back on track and have my sights set on saying hello to the 170s very soon.

So what worked this week? How about putting a stop on nibbling on cheese, seeds or nuts between meals. Anytime I walked into the kitchen I asked myself, “Am I hungry?” Presto! No more snacking. Don’t get me wrong, it took practice to get me into the habit of asking myself that question.

Instead I kept my focus on drinking water. The last couple of weeks I made a big effort in drinking my daily 90 ounces. Since I only use 24-ounce Tervis Tumblers, it’s pretty easy to track. As long as I fill those tumblers up 4 times a day I’m all set. This week I was hitting the mark.  Sweet!

Plus I’m finding I’m not that hungry. One of my consistent problems is not recognizing my hunger and satiety signals. I know that decades of bad eating really does mess with those hormones. But ghrelin (the hunger hormone) and leptin (the satiety hormone) do correct themselves over time with eating healthy, real foods. My hunger signal is working just fine. But it feels like my satiety signal is finally kicking in.

I’m noticing two things that might signal my leptin levels are normal again: Read More

Skipping Breakfast Doesn’t Lead To Weight Gain

Leave a comment
eating same thing for breakfast to lose weight

I now eat “breakfast” after noon. Why? because that’s when I actually get hungry, not when I first wake up.

Since I was a child I believed in importance of eating a big breakfast first thing in the morning. It helps keep weight off, gave you energy and keeps you focused mentally. But is there any truth to eating in first thing in the morning or is it a myth to get us to keep eating?

The New York Time’s Well health blog recently tackled the question of whether skipping breakfast leads to weight gain. Now lots of studies show that breakfast eaters are leaner than folks who skipped the “most important meal of the day.”

But, as Well points out, the problem is that these were observational studies. Meaning none demonstrated a clear-cut cause and effect. Observational studies by definition cannot state a “finding” as an actual fact.

As with most nutritional observational studies, there are hundreds of other factors that contribute to what makes people thin or fat. You know, like what someone actually eats during the day rather than when they eat. Read More

Diabetes Crisis In California

2 Comments

Scary piece from the LA Times. Researchers estimate that 55% of Californians are either diabetic or pre-diabetic. While pre-diabetes is preventable (70% of pre-diabetics develop diabetes) more than 90% of pre-diabetics don’t know they have it. This is a wake up call if there ever was one. Too bad the reporter failed to pick up on a significant fact.  The article states: “Rates of diabetes have increased more than 175% nationally since 1980 (emphasis mine), according to federal data.” Sure enough that’s the same time the obesity epidemic started.

Hmmmm…..maybe it had to do with the introduction of this:

Read More

Cutting Dairy, Fasting Lead to 5+ Lbs. Drop

5 Comments
after thanksgiving

After my post-Thanksgiving weight gain, I got back to the basics that helped me lose 140 lbs. Plus cutting back on dairy and some needed fasting improved not just the number on the scale, but my energy level and mental clarity.

By the time my 2 Thanksgivings (with lots of wine)  ended, I gained 4 pounds. Ugh! When I stepped on the scale November 28, I temporarily left the 180s, weighing in at 193.2 lbs.

Oh hell no!

Since then I’ve redoubled efforts on my healthy eating habits – menu planning, eating only when hungry, chopping and prepping the meals in advance, minimizing eating out, and tracking everything I eat. Oh and drinking water…lots of water.

Yep, I got back to basics. Read More

My Top 10 Kitchen Staples For Weight Loss

Leave a comment

low carb plateI always get asked about what I eat to lose and keep the weight off. So I decided to put together a list of foods you will always find in my kitchen. These are my staples for weight loss. Since June of 2012, these foods have always been in my home – day in, day out. These are the only foods I am willing to make a special trip to the grocery store for. Yep, they are that important to me.

Here’s my list: Read More

How Dot’s Getting Her Weight Loss Groove Back

6 Comments
Well after not really trying to lose weight, I'm at 185 lbs. this morning - the same weight I was at my physical earlier in the year. Time to take a look at my goals and refocus my efforts after a 3 month mental break.

Well after not really trying to lose weight, I’m at 185 lbs. this morning – the same weight I was at my physical earlier in the year. Time to take a look at my goals and refocus my efforts after a 3 month mental break.

Well since August I’ve struggled with my push to drop my last 30 pounds. My tracking is spotty at best. Weighing and measuring food? Almost non-existent. How about counting carbs? I keep a mental record, but if I’m not measuring my serving sizes or tracking what I eat, how good can my carb counting be, right?

Yet, I feel fine…and a little guilty.

Time To Re-Think My Goals
As of this morning I weigh 185 lbs. So I’ve lost 4 lbs. since my doctor told me I was healthy and didn’t have to drop anymore pounds.

Now, I don’t believe for a second that my body is at its set point. I think I mentally started coasting once my doctor told me I was healthy and didn’t need to lose any more. After all, I started this adventure in 2012 to get healthy. The weight loss was a great side effect.

But that got me thinking: Do I need to reconsider my goal?

When I shifted my thinking from weight loss to getting healthy, the weight came off. Yes, I track my weight loss on this blog, but the overall goal was health.

Well, I’ve done that. Now what? After my physical, I never asked myself what’s next. I just thought “happiness” is my new goal. Crap!  What does that even mean? I just thought I can drop 30 more pounds and be happier. Why 30? I have no clue. Read More

Tracking Net Carbs – Great My Fitness Pal Hack

Leave a comment
Found a simple hack that allows My Fitness Pal to calculate net carbs for me. So this app lives another day!

Found a simple hack that allows My Fitness Pal to calculate net carbs for me. So this app lives another day!

There are two ways to track carbs — count the total carbs or net carbs (fiber subtracted from carbs). Neither is right or wrong. It’s just a personal preference. I started this journey counting net carbs. Lately I tried counting total carbs but I’m switching back to net carbs.

My biggest hang up is tracking. The easiest food tracker app is My Fitness Pal. But like most food diaries it’s too focused on calorie counting and favors the low-fat diet.  Both are useless when you go low carb.

Thankfully Lynn at the Traveling Low Carb blog has a great ‘keto hack’ for My Fitness Pal. The hack allows the diary to track net carbs for you.  It took me less than 2 minutes to install.  Easy peasy!

Oh, and be sure to check out Lynn’s blog too. It has great trips for those of you who travel or eat out a lot.

Weekly Weigh-In: Nothing!

3 Comments
Despite the travel over the last couple of months and lots of stress eating, I've stopped gaining weight. Time to get back to basics and become a fat burning machine.

Despite the travel over the last couple of months and lots of stress eating, I’ve stopped gaining weight. Time to get back to basics and become a fat burning machine.

The good news is I’m holding steady despite a pretty stressful week. The bad news, I saw a bad habit – stress eating – come back with abandon. Ugh!

So this week I’m going back to basics. I’m working on a simple menu – just tried and true meals without a lot of moving parts. So plenty of eggs, steak, healthy fats (in the form of sauces, avocado and butter), and some leafy greens.

I’m also starting to cut back — way back — on my coffee intake. I was up 8 cups a day and my water intake dropped significantly. Of course, with each cup of Joe I added 1 teaspoon of heavy cream. I ran into problems with cream before. When I cut back, I started losing weight again. This time I’m limiting myself to no more than 2 cups of coffee (all decaf by the way!). While this limits my cream too, I’m still going to try to enjoy drinking my coffee black.

Time To Get Moving Again
Since the end of August I haven’t been able to exercise as consistently as I like. I know that exercise doesn’t cause weight loss, but I tend to eat smarter when I’m working out. When I don’t workout, I start feeling restless and that can get me into trouble in the kitchen.

I’m headed back to my parkour gym this week. After my first 2-hour class, I haven’t been back due to my travel schedule and just too much going on at my house. My plan is to take the 90-minute intro to Urban Fit (weight training) and the parkour class for folks over 35.

Oh, and despite the cold weather I’m walking everyday.

Lots of muscle soreness is headed my way this week.  Yay!