DoingTheCaveman

Passing the first goal, and so finally some pics

First another before before photo. 

BEFORE WEIGHT LOSS (17 stone):

The best way to record your journey is surely by a photo record, but of course I didn't want to put up pics at the beginning.  Since I've hit a goal this week I thought it was finally time that I should come out with a few before and afters.  Yes finally.  Only to find I have managed to mislay the worst of the worst and the ones I'm about to show you aren't me at my heaviest.  I see if I can unearth more another time.  So here we are (2005 - top, following illness and i'm not sure if you can see at the top but this is when I started to lose my hair).  In blue t-shirt Turkey 04)

 

APRIL 2008 (13 stone 12 pounds):

TODAY - OCTOBER O8 (12 stone 9 lb), excuse the bad smile:

A meaty week

I've worked hard this week and was so disappointed this morning when I expectantly jumped on the scales and - once again - the dial just shoot round to exactly the same place.  I've taken on some more physical activities at work which has entailed quite a bit of moving and lifting, plus speed up the general pace of my life. I've been on the exercise bike for over an hour every night along with some bodyweight exercises and I feel that I'm long overdue some more weight loss.

Possible problems:  As I said the other day maybe I have been eating quite a bit of fruit.  Additionally, my diet over the last few weeks been more plant based, plus eggs, nuts and seeds - I'd cut back quite a bit on the meat. 

Action:  Next week I'm going to go to the opposite extreme, and just eat meat, maybe some eggs, mushrooms and maybe a little salad or greens, but otherwise no carbs, nightshades, nuts, seeds, or fruit all week.  This may make a difference next Wednesday.

February's progress

I've just arrived home and my face is tingling.

I walked along the seafront today and although it's a cold and windy day the sun was shinning.  When I had to turn back I didn't feel that I'd expended my excess energy so, following some inspiration from an individual this week, I decided to run.  Yes, as no one was around, wrapped up in my cashmere coat, scarf and gloves, I ran home.  It wan't a full out run but at a scouts pace.  I was surprised to find myself enjoying the experience, it's probably the first time as an adult I've run for the pure hell of it.  But, even this little run today, wiped out the bad memories of hockey and cross country running in the snow.

It also confirmed how far I still have to go and that I still have so much more weight than I can comfortably carry.

Anyway, back to the title of this entry - February's progress.  Apart from last week's diabetic news my weight's *still* the same.  Grrrrh.  To try and get the loss going again I'm going to try and step it up in March.  So, as well as endevouring to start exercising again, I'll be cutting back again on portion sizes and also cut on fruit sugars - I'll eat fruit if it's replacing a meal but otherwise I'm going to stop snacking on fruit.

Actually, It's a shame I don't have a camera at the moment since I'm sitting here lunching on a bright green concoction that I would previously have regarded with 'extreme' suspicion; a smoothie made from 200 gm spinach, 1 banana, 2 kiwi and 1/2 mango (4 portions).  Very tasty it is too.

Anyway to close, a good start to March and a plan.  Let's see it makes a difference and gets those scales moving down again.

***ONE INCH***

I________I

Here is an inch.

Measured my waist today and I'd lost another inch.

Looking back at a December entry (22nd) I had a 40" waist and the last time, a month or so ago, it was 39". 

Today it was 38". 

So I've almost lost 10" on my waist.  BUT those bloody scales still won't budge!!

The turtle will get there

OK, lets face it my weight loss over recent weeks has been a tad slow.  However, *this* journey isn't simply a measurement of weight - it's about both the external AND the internal.

So, I'm pleased to announce my exciting news ...

I am no longer diabetic - well that's what my doctor said today.   

I won't delude myself, I know that once you have that diabetic diagnosis it can never be shaken off, no matter how well it controlled.  However, today's Hb A1c (3 month average blood sugars) has finally taken me into the normal range for a non-diabetic... thanks to the caveman diet.

All other investigations and blood pressure were also completely normal :)

I have to say, this clinic visit was a little overwhelming.  The doctor and nurse seemed a little over excited and bombarded me with questions about diet, lifestyle and management. 

I know, to the outsider it's must seem so strange - abstaining from foods we've learnt to regard as natural and normal.  But, in reality so many *normal* foods are adapted into our diet and with catastrophic effect, as I well know. 

I am still a work in progress; I still have a great deal of weight to lose, general fitness to improve and lost time to catch up.

Today though, I've come a step closer to one of my goals - being off ALL medication.  Actually, I admitted to my doctor today that I have, over the last couple of months, been misbehaving with my medication and have been more or less off it anyway!  I don't recommend this.  Coming off drugs *should* be done under a doctor's supervision.  From today though, with my doctors blessing, I'm going to start weaning on half of what I was *sometimes* taking :) 

BTW.  I'm always compliant with the BP medication.  It's just that for a while I'd noted that whether or not I took medication made absolutely no difference to my blood sugar monitoring, hence the self-prescribed wean.

January's progress

Remember the loss I reported mid-month, well since there's been no further progress. *Sigh* 

But, I do think someone's sabotaging my scales!!!

By this I mean physically I do feel as if I've lost weight.  The little things that most people take for granted have become so much easier to do.  For example, if something fell on the floor previously I'd have to psyche myself up before attempting to retrieve it - not laziness just pain.  Most worryingly for me my knees would shriek and it would be a huge effort to rise from a crouching position.  However, now I can easily swoop down, or crouch and rise without any effort at all.  Personally I feel a bounce has returned to my step, so I can now easily nip in and out of small spaces or run up steps - taking them two at a time (when no one's looking)!

I've received a number of positive comments this month.  On Thursday a colleagues said "you're melting away", to which I replied that she must be mistaken, I hadn't lost any more weight this month.  "No, no" she said "your trousers are really loose, maybe your fat is redistributing, but you've definitely lost weight".

Does fat redistrute, or is it my scales?

Well what's for February. 

1. I still have that 1/2 stone to lose to get to my first goal but I do know what I have to increase the exercise side of things to get there.  With my life upside down at the moment what's fallen to the wayside has been exercise -- it simply ain't happening at the moment. 
2. I see my general practitioner this month for my annual review.  I'm a little worried as my sugar may have crept up a touch.... there's only been the previously stated blip but I have eaten a lot of fruit over the last couple of months, not forgetting the dates.
3. Today I added another goal, and an ambitious one...

Over the last few months my eyes have been turning to a bright shade of green. Last year my sister moved to Devon and has been learning to surf - yes right through our British Winter!   I simply can't wait to join her.  Today, I was parked near the sea and someone out there kite surfing (which they do on our South Coast). Wow, the speed and the jumps, it looks so exhillerating.  Yes, I know you don't *have* to lose weight to have a go but you do have to sqeeze into an unflattering wet suit!

Liquid gold

.

I have *stuff* going on, it's not great so there's not much writing going on this week.  A little light relief after the weekend entry, and thank you to MS for taking the pic and for keeping up my replenishments of Argon oil, sometimes known as liquid gold 

For Argon I'd be up that tree too - this is my ultimate caveman diet treat.

BTW, I couldn't resist and had a sneaky mid month weigh in:  86.5 kilos/188 lb/13stone 6 lb.  So since my end of December weigh in that is a 6 lb loss. 

Counting sheep & update

A wee update on the week.  I've received fantastic news - my solicitor phoned last night to say that Miss *-* has backed down on everything.  So, I spent the afternoon signing papers and hopefully it should all be OK now.  This means that should the sale fall through, for any reason, there should no longer be a problem selling (apart from the state of the housing market) - Phew.

I do feel a little guilty about calling Miss *-* a witch in the heat of the moment (only in the blog of course, but I don't like that).  I may go and see her tomorrow with some flowers to keep things amicable. 

This week's taken its toll in a few ways though. Normally I sleep well but I've had only a couple of hours each night and panicking in the knowledge that work is only a couple of hours away. Also, I simply couldn't face the exercise class I've been taking (good job I didn't make those resolutions) and didn't have the inclination for spending time on food preparation.  Therefore, the week's been pretty much like the first few weeks of paleo, and I've SO moved on from there.   I've also had a strange craving for salt, where that's coming from I don't know.

Decembers progress & handling Xmas

You may recall last month because of illness I'd had a marked loss and then re-gain shooting all the way back up to 14 stone 6 lb.  When I weighed in this morning I was initially disappointed, I was 13 stone 12 lb.  Then I looked back to November's entry and cheered up as I calculated that the loss was 8 lbs. Who wouldn't be satisfied with a plateux for December, but I lost and wasn't expecting to so it kind of makes up for the slow progress.

Handling Christmas eating Paleo:

There were some minor slip ups.  I have an advantage because I choose not to drink apart from at Christmas when I usually allow myself a single cream liquor (that's it's the only thing alcoholic beverage I miss), this year I forgot my treat! I did enjoy a couple ++  chocolate liquors.  This weekend I was at my parents with guests and there was a cheese board afterwards, OMG I haven't had cheese for months and I mustn't have it again, it's so moorish, so tasty - I found it really hard to stop. 

Christmas dinner itself was not too tricky on the Caveman diet.  My family are onboard with the diet and supporting it.  Everything was pretty much the same as usual - I could eat turkey, roast parsnips and vegetables, the stuffing was homemade with nothing packaged added and so was the gravy.  We didn't have chipolattas (I don't trust sausages/processed meat) and had cranberries just stewed cranberries without the sugar (for me only)!!!  Christmas pudding I did have.  I had featured this in and had decided that I would allow myself Christmas pud, although I'd planned to make a Caveman pudding (this didn't happen unfortunately).  The only other difference was that pudding was seperated from the meal so we had dinner in the afternoon and then desert for our evening meal (we'd usually have had a sandwich type of tea in the evening). 

Well it was a pleasant day but wasn't left feeling that I'd overdone the day.  Over the rest of the break I stayed on track, and when others were snacking on crisps and chocolate I roasted chestnuts in the fire, but with a little salt (and that's not Paleo).

The main point I'd say was that I handled the slip ups differently.  In the past when feeling guilty about deviating from a diet I'd try and fast in order to level out the damage and inevitably this leads to a binge.  This time I made a point of eating as usual.  The reasoning being that the slip ups were just 'empty calories' and if I didn't give myself something more nutritious any compensatory fast would lead to craving and then consuming the first thing that I saw.

Finally some shopping

As of yesterday I'm on my Christmas break and don't have to return until 7th January - YIPPEE.   By becoming Miss Antisocial  I've managed to get through the last couple of weeks with my diet unscathed. For me the this year the strategy I'm taking is avoidance - I want to step positively into 2008 without regret. 

Over the the last few weeks I've had some further comments about my weight loss - that I'm starting to look like 'me' again, and my face is leaner. 

Personally I feel that quite a bit of weight has gone from my back and shoulders. I have also starting to notice that my curves are reappearing.  So, although I'd decided to try and make do with my clothes until I'd lost a more weight necessity forced me to shop for some jeans today, only to find that I haven't dropped just one dress size but several.  Previously I was forced to wear 24/26 (UK) and sometimes even a 28.  Today however I was able to purchase jeans at 18/20.  They're still not the best fit, but this time it's not that they're too tight.  Instead I had to compromise with too much material in the legs for a snug fit at the waist.

Given today's changing sizes I've taken my measurements - shame I didn't do this from the start! Actually my waist measurement was done at the doctors Jan07 and it was 46 inches.   Today's measurements:

Waist 40",  hips 48", back 38", thigh 24", calf 17"

I'm thrilled there's nothing that makes a woman happier than a decreasing dress size!!