Whole30

One of my goals for the new year was to give Whole30 a whirl.  What is Whole30 you ask? It is a nutrition program developed by Melissa and Dallas Hartwig to "reset your health, habits and relationship with food." (pg. 2, The Whole30: The 30-Day Guild to Total Health and Food Freedom).  Check out their website here:  http://whole30.com/

Basically, you eat meat, seafood, eggs, vegetables, fruit and natural fats. You do not eat sugar (not even "natural" sweeteners like Stevia), alcohol, grains, legumes or dairy products. They ask that you do not weigh or measure yourself during the entire 30 days. 

I had intended to begin in January, but I've taken my time mentally prepping for this experience.  I also cleaned out most of the dairy products and other no-no items that would be glaring at me every time I opened the refrigerator.  

Since I have been low carbing for a year now, some aspects of Whole30 should be fairly easy. But dairy seems to sneak into just about every low carb recipe.  And where once potatoes were verboten, now they are allowed, so a bit of a mind-bender to get over. My goal is that this 30 day "reset" will break the plateau I've been on for several months and give me some new insights that will help me move my "health, habits, and relationship with food" in an even more positive direction.

So today is Day 1 for me - or so I had intended it to be. Since February is a short month, I figured I'd just start a couple of days early.  Lunch went fine until I had some celery sticks spread with sunflower seed butter (which is technically approved in limited quantities). I read the label after the fact and saw "dehydrated cane juice" listed as an ingredient.  Wah-wah...start over.  So even though the rest of my day was Whole30 compliant, I'll do the right thing and call tomorrow my official first day!   Even though I was disappointed that I made that simple blunder, it was a good reminder:  always read the label BEFORE eating the food, duh...

Here is what I made for my dinner this evening:
http://melaniemitro.com/recipes/whole30-sloppy-joe/#.WJFNS1MrLIU

I served my Sloppy Joe over basic cauliflower rice rather than a potato. It was delicious! I'll try it with potato next time and see which way I like it best.  

Tomorrow I plan to try my hand at making homemade mayo using this recipe:
http://thehealthyfoodie.com/fail-proof-home-made-paleo-mayo-whole30-compliant/

If I don't die of salmonella, I'll let you know how it turns out!

Lazy Day

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yep6gusOqAE&list=RDyep6gusOqAE&index=1

Ah-h-h...Lazy Day....

So we arrived in Ft. Myers last night, and the minute I stepped out into the FL evening, I felt this gigantic AH-H-H..moment. I took off my sweater and felt WARM!!!  I guess I'm getting old, friends, because this is the first winter I actually WANTED to be here.  It was so cold up in Michigan and I was pretty ANXIOUS to get down here to spring-like weather.  The grass is green, flowers are in bloom. Yes, it's warm and balmy and, well, it's FLORIDA in the winter-time...pretty darn nice.  That in a nutshell is why the old farts retire down here and why the smart, young folks relocate here after college!!!

Anyway, I digress...

So "Lazy Day" takes me back to those sunny, hippy, 60's when I was young and slim and skippy- happy.  I kind of felt that way after meeting up with our good long-time cousin-friends down here in Ft. Myers.  We had not seen them in several months and I got some pretty nice kudos from my girlfriend about my weight loss.

Now let's be real girls...other girls don't usually like to be left behind in this arena.. you know what I mean.  They're happy for YOU but they are unhappy for THEMSELVES...and sometimes that old green-eyed monster emerges...well, I didn't pick up that vib from my pal.  I got compliments last night as I removed my cover-up to get into the hot tub and revealed my -30 lb. self as I entered that cauldron of bubbling who-knows-what???!!! Yep, there are some crusty old men frequenting that hot cesspool on a regular basis down here, so I usually avoid it like the plague...but not last night...and it was worth the compliments, believe me!

So tonight, my gal-pal and I planned a little shopping excursion - (due to being preempted by some football game the guys just HAD to watch, apparently)...and, anyway, I did need to buy some new shorts since my former shorts were not doing my new weight loss any justice ... so, again with the compliments from my "sista."  Now I know for sure she's real curious about how I pulled this off, right?

And finally she asked how I did it.  I thought I had told her...yes, just basically low carb!  Cut the carbs, find replacements...."what about alcohol?"....well, yeah, there is NO replacement for alcohol!! I basically don't drink at home any more!  That seems to end the discussion for some people.  But if you can get by that BIG thing - and it is a BIG thing for some people - then you can be a low carb success story yourself.  Wish I had made that connection 20 years ago...  It was definitely the STALL in my many unsuccessful weight loss efforts in the past.

Am I drinking during my vacation?   Yeah, a little.  But it's not the occasional drink that is a problem. It's the every night "mother's-little-helper"- the "elephant in the room" that becomes the elephant in your jeans!  So get tough and get it out of the house.  Yes, breaking up is hard to do, but some things are worth giving up!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbad22CKlB4

New Year's Re-commitment Resolution

The girls and I kicked off the new year with a support group lunch at The Corner Bar.  We had become pretty lax with our regular meetings the past few months and we missed the accountability factor!  We decided to meet once a week on Saturday mornings, even if only for a half hour, to check in and get a dose of encouragement for the week ahead.  I believe this "support group" is the driving force behind my successful weight loss this year.  If you feel you are the lone wolf out there desperately trying to lose weight - get a friend or a spouse or a child on board with you.   Or go bold and form a group in your community.  You know there are others out there sharing the same struggles.

This is a perfect lead in to mention my middle daughter and her personal success story last year. She was always the "thin" one in the family.  We all wondered whose genes she inherited...

Well, unbeknownst to me and Daughter 1 and Daughter 3, while we were beginning our weight loss journey together, Daughter 2 was beginning a journey of her own (she lives in another town). None of us thought she needed to lose weight, but she began working out, eating low carb, drinking Shakeology, and has become a Team Beachbody coach.  You can meet her here: teambeachbody.com/rachelbronsberg
Team Beachbody coaches are great for support and encouragement - join one of her group challenges!

Over the course of the last year, Daughter 2 has lost 32 lbs. - not to mention has become super fit!  I guess we all have room for improvement.  Let's face it, we all know where we should be personally to look and feel our best.  If you are 75 lbs. overweight, you look at someone who is 20 lbs. overweight and think to yourself, "she doesn't need to lose weight!" But that is for each of us to determine.  The goal is to be healthy and feel good mentally and physically.  You set your own goals - and remember -

https://goo.gl/images/rPdWoh

New Year - New You

Welcome  to G.G.'s Low Carb Journey!  If you found my blog, you must be on a journey of your own.  I hope you find encouragement here.  I will be sharing my own thoughts on the low carb lifestyle I have chosen, and links to websites I have found helpful.  Of course, I am not a medical professional - I'm a gigi!  (That's "grandma" to my grand-kids!)  I don't give medical advice; I just share what worked for me.

2017 begins the second year in my low carb journey.  Actually, Feb. 2 will mark the end of my first full year of  this way of eating (WOE, as they say). To me, it's now a way of LIVING. Looking back, I wish I would have started blogging a year ago.  But the reality at that time was, I didn't know if I could ever get back to a healthy weight. At 62, I found it tough to even lose 5 lbs., let alone the 40 or more that the docs would say I needed to lose.  My cholesterol was way too high, and I am on medication for hypothyroidism.  I found reasons not to exercise.  I liked baking cookies "for the grand-kids."  Yeah, you know I ate them, too. I guess I just had come to accept the achy joints, the extra weight, as all just part of the aging process.  I was in DENIAL, friends.

Then a day in late January of 2016 my youngest daughter called me on the phone in tears after feeling humiliated during a visit to the chiropractor for nutritional testing.  During the course of the conversation I said, "you know, we should join a support group or something...no, we should form our OWN support group!"  My oldest daughter also lives in our town.  The three of us were all struggling with the same diet issues.  We all had weight to lose.  That moment our journey began - and it began together.

We met regularly each week to share ideas, struggles, suggestions, recipes.  We never weighed in, we didn't disclose our "starting" weight.  We all knew we were overweight and we all knew how much we needed to lose.  We didn't need or want the embarrassment of "weighing in" required by many weight loss groups.  We were meeting to encourage and support and share ideas.  We each decided on our own plan to tackle the weight and we shared our plans for each week.  I decided to go "low carb" and the girls eventually took that direction also.

I did not approach the low carb plan as some do, following Atkins 2 weeks of induction, then adding back this or that carb, etc.  I began slowly, knowing I was making a change for the long term.  I didn't care if it took me a year to lose the weight.  From the beginning, I told the girls this was not going to be just another diet for me, it was going to be a new lifestyle!

What I found was that eliminating a couple obvious culprits in my eating routine is what jump started the weight loss.  We each know - if we'll admit it to ourselves - what the culprits are in our personal diets that prevent us from successful weight loss.  For me it was SUGAR - yes, sugar in all it's evil forms held me in it's addictive trap.  OK, and WINE...I liked my evening glass/cup/goblet/carafe  of wine...too, much!  There, I said it - true confessions!   But let me add, losing that one bad habit jump started the journey in a big way!

The next change I made was logging into www.myfitnesspal.com daily to record my meals and exercise.  The more I logged the meals the more I realized how many carbs I was consuming per day. I began keeping my carb intake as low as I comfortably could - usually between 20-50 per day.  Logging my daily exercise encouraged me by showing me how many calories I was burning. I also kept a hand written journal where I tracked my daily weight and meals.  This way I could easily look back to see where I may have slipped up at one point and/or what was working well.  Some people choose not to weigh themselves each day, but for me it is a motivator to stay on track and a reality check. Personal preference...

Long story short - I lost 20 lbs. in 3 months and became convinced that I could eat this way for the rest of my life.  After that initial 20, the weight came off more slowly, and as of today, I have lost another 10 lbs. - so 30 total over the course of the year.  My goal is ultimately to lose another 10-15 lbs. this year which will be my goal weight.  In the meantime, I feel so much better - and happier - and my cholesterol dropped roughly 45 points!  Oh, and I might add that "Grandpa" is pretty complimentary these days - bonus!  This is what I got for Christmas:
www.hsn.com/products/victoria-wieck-14ctw-absolute-bypass-band-ring/8139432
I call it my "celebration" ring.  After all, successful weight loss is a reason to celebrate!