Week 8: 21 Day Primal Blueprint Challenge

Welcome to the end of week 8 of my 25 Pounds Lighter, Tighter and Brighter in 5 Months Challenge.

I started out at 163 pounds on December 30th 2013. Today is February 23rd, 2014, and my handy-dandy solar powered scale read 157 this morning! 

So in case you are just tuning in to my challenge, I will summarize the progress in the past 8 weeks.

At end of week 1: 

- 162.5 pounds

At the end of week 2:

- 161 pounds

- Went on a bread break

At the end of week 3: 

- 158.5
- feeling pretty excited!

At the end of week 4:

- 163

- Over did it on peanuts
- Running on little and poor sleep
- hormones
- retaining water

At the end of week 5:

- 163

- Over did it on roasted almonds

- Needed to make sleep a priority

At the end of week 6:

- Skipped official weigh-in
- Made sleep a priority, slowed down and relaxed more, meditated (3x3) more frequently.

At the end of week 7:

- 160.5

- Started 21 day Primal Blueprint Challenge but had three cookies and a slice of marble cake at Seedy Saturday so decided to start over again.
- Started having some commercial organic, local dairy in the form of cheese and butter

At the end of week 8:

- 157 pounds, feeling a stinger back and legs, a little tired and wanting to stay in bed this morning, sore eyes.

= Started day 1 of 21 day Primal Blueprint challenge on Tuesday, February 18th.

As you can see from the above, I started gaining momentum again after deciding to go in the Primal Blueprint Challenge.

I learned about the Primal Blueprint from my health coach training program at the Integrative Nutrition®.  I had learned and experimented with many dietary theories before joining IIN®, but this was one I had not heard of before. It is similar to paleo, GAPS and Nourishing Traditions. 

What is the Primal Blueprint?  To me, it seems like a way of life that promotes peak performance and health in humans based on lifestyle principles in the last 2 million years.  You can find out more here:  http://www.primalblueprint.com/About.

To begin this 21 Day Primal Blueprint Challenge, I've eliminated four things out of my diet:

1.  grains and grains products
2.  processed sugar (except some maple syrup on Sunday)
3.  industrial oils (trans fats, canola oil, etc.)
4.  legumes (beans, peanuts, lentils, etc.)

Avoiding processed sugars and industrial oils is pretty easy.  Over the last 5.5 years, I've been systematically removing these.  The sugar was the first to go.  And then I started learning more about oils and fats.  Not all fats and oils are bad for you.  And just eating fats does not mean you're going to put on fat!  This is quite the myth.  However, eating the poisonous industrial oils would likely cause you to put to fat - your body is very smart in storing the toxins away from your vital organs.

Next week we'll take a look at what there is to eat once grains, processed sugar, industrial oils and legumes are out of your diet.

Thank you so much for reading.  As always, I appreciate your questions and comments.

To a blessed day, in health and happiness,

Week 7: portion sizes

Happy Family Day!

I am glad to have this special statutory holiday to be with my family.  So what did we do? Well, I prepared food and we are.

I did my weigh-in, and it was 160.5 pounds :). Two weeks ago, it was 163, so I am back on track.

http://youtu.be/_iD_KHx7A_I

How much is enough? How much is too much? Depending on who is telling you what, it may be quite confusing.

I grew up with a food pyramid that promoted grains to be the largest food group in one's daily diet. I guess that made sense seeing that it was the cheapest food group.

But you know what? I always are too much of it.  It is really easy for me to eat several helpings of rice, pasta and noodles.  And of course if you had some good quality bread and butter, I could probably eat half the loaf in one sitting!

Growing up, my great grandmother would just eat a half bowl of rice with the accompaniment (side dishes), and she never overrate. She also lived to be almost 100.  

In my research, reading and experience in dieting, I have learned of different ways of measuring protein sizes. One way is actually weigh everything. Another is to eat a plan that was written by a dietician for a weight loss clinic. Another is to track what you eat by points.

One that I found success with was the "Fit for Life" diet. Essentially, I could eat as much fruit or as little fruit as I wanted until an hour before I would eat lunch. Then for lunch I would eat a base of raw leafy greens and vegetables with cooked veggies and either a protein or a starch. Proteins and starches were not to be combined in one meal. For example, meat and potatoes or rice and beans/chicken would be a no-no.

I loved this because I would be able to fill up on as much raw and cooked veggies as I want :)

More recently, I have learned of a way of using your hand to guide your portion sizes. I learned it from being a doTerra independent product Consultant.

Since every person's hands and stomachs range in size, I found it to be quite helpful. Also, you would always have your hand to measure with whereas you may not have your points guide or a scale for weighing.

So you would open your hand wide with your fingers all stretched out. Imagine drawing a circle all around your opened hand. That much is how much greens and veggies would be on your plate. 

Now fold your hand into a tight fist. See that? That's the size how much complex carbohydrates you would have on your plate such as a potato or rice.

Now open your hand again. This time just  look at the size of your palm. That is the size of your protein portion such as fish or steak.

So, that is the hand method.  

Yet another method that works well for me is eating from my thermal food jar, salad container and mini jar (for the protein and dressing).

How do you portion size your meals? How does that work for you?

I would love to hear from you!

Join me again next week when I write about the Primal Blueprint challenge.

Thank you for reading. Have a blessed day!

Kim

PS here's a picture from Seedy Saturday when I was helping my friend at Turtle Back Hollow sell some delicious sprouts.

Week 6: Slowing down

It is now Saturday morning 12:48 AM... I'm still up from Friday.

I am glad to report that this week, I have been able to restore some equilibrium by prioritizing my sleep.  In my previous post, I was getting up in the middle of the night to take my son to the bathroom.  The lack of quality sleep may have affected my weight loss efforts.

Click here to watch this week's video: http://youtu.be/y8mnbHfq-20


Last week I was feeling tired, irritated, bloated, fat and a little sick.  So, I make it my intention and goal to make SLEEP a priority for this week.

Sunday evening, I went over to my mom's house for Chinese New Year celebration.  Like most times when I go to her house, I overate.  Actually, I wasn't as bad as I used to eat, but I did get a stomachache.  Thank goodness for the motivation.

All the way home in the car I felt a my stomach weak.  It carried on into the next day, Monday.  So, I just fasted until lunch time.  Even then, I had only some veggie sticks, no hummus or other starches or fats.

A co-worker was very kind to make buttertarts for our group, so I decided to take a look at them.  I wasn't going to eat them, but as I was looking, the more curious I was at how they would taste.

I took one for my last break of the day.  It was so sweet (I rarely have such super sweet desserts)!  But I had a remedy; I dipped my veggie sticks into it to balance out the sweetness!

I took another after work to enjoy with my raw veggie sticks.  I so enjoyed sitting there and paying attention to the yumminess of the experience.

By suppertime, though, I felt better and had some bone broth.

Tuesday, I had a headache from the back of my neck and ociputal area.  Ironically, I decided to buy a pastry from the European bakery.  I ate it with my raw veggies.  Then I  did cortices (a BodyTalk technique) on myself.  From there I started to feel better.  In fact, by the time I got home, my headache was completely gone.  After washing my hair, I felt much better.

Interestingly, all Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, I kept going to the toilet releasing lots of liquid from my body.  Actually, I felt that I was getting less bloated.  The releasing of water and toxins continued throughout the week.  Friday started with getting my period.  What joy!

I ended the week by buying one more buttertart and eating it with my veggies... if that weren't enough, I took a sampling of pizza from the supermarket.  It was not very tasty at all, but appreciative of the free sample.

Overall, I feel better this week.  I feel that I am lighter and less bloated.

Next week I will talk about portion sizes - what is appropriate? How do you measure?

Thank you for joining me. Again if you have any comments, I would really love to hear from you!

Here's to the best version of yourself,

Kim