So…I’m REALLY not a slacker. Even though I haven’t written in about 2 months. Life got crazy–as it always does–and I allowed it to get in the way of my fitness goals–as I always do. So I’m trying it again. I’m about a month into it, actually, so really I’ve only been “slacking” in writing about it for the last month.
I started “Take 2” a little heavier than my first attempt; not that I’m too terribly surprised. My first weigh-in for this round was on June 19th and my weight was up to 170. I didn’t “officially” weigh-in when I re-started my fitness program on June 29th; I just went with the 170. Then on July 6th, I joined a “Biggest Loser” challenge at my gym. I had to pay $34 and all but $5 goes into the pot. Everyone who participates pays the same amount and at the end of 12 weeks (September 28th–exactly 2 months from now!), the person with the largest percentage of pounds lost and the person with the largest percentage of inches lost will split the pot. Way cool. Each week, we meet for nutrition class and our weekly measurements & weigh-ins. It is put on by a family that sells Herbalife. I was very skeptical to try it out at first but my husband agreed to try it with me and so far (5 weeks into it), we both really like it. My scale and the one at the gym are different (of course) so I have mostly been ignoring the number at the gym and sticking with my scale at home. I don’t measure myself in inches at home so I trust the weekly gym measurements. So far, I have lost 11 pounds and something like 12 (or more–I’m going on memory alone!) inches. For the first time in my entire history of dieting, I am able to actually SEE the results of my work. I’m trying really hard to get to the gym 5x/week but I’m not beating myself up over it if I don’t make it. I even went on a small trip out of town and lost almost 3 pounds instead of gaining it! That has never happened to me before!! So I am feeling motivated and excited and truly believe that this is the last time.
I recently read the book “Skinny Bitch” and it did a number on me. I have been an off-and-on vegetarian most of my adult life with about a year or so of being strictly vegan. I’ve always sort of “believed in” that way of life–the vegan lifestyle–but found it very difficult to maintain. I started adding eggs & fish to my vegetarian diet a couple years ago in an effort to increase my protein intake. I don’t believe our bodies really NEED a ton of protein to survive, but I know that it is a very helpful component to successful weight loss and that is why I added it. What I’m doing now with Herbalife requires me to meet the following daily requirements:
- 100 grams of protein
- no more than 1,199 calories
- a minimum of 80 ounces of water
Now, as a vegetarian who eats some fish, it was very difficult for me to imagine eating 100 grams of protein a day and staying under 1,200 calories. With Herbalife, they recommend replacing two meals with their specially designed protein shakes made of whey protein that comes from soy isolates. They are PACKED with vitamins & minerals while keeping a low calorie count & a high protein count. When combined with a cup of skim milk, a basic shake is only 170 calories and 18 grams of protein. I usually add some extra protein, fruit, and various other ingredients to change up the flavors. Because of my husband’s funky schedule, we wake up late and go to bed late which also causes us to eat pretty late. We still snack in between, but our normal schedule has been looking a bit like this:
Breakfast: 12:00 pm-ish
Snack: 3:00 pm-ish
Lunch: 6:00 pm-ish
Snack: 9:00 pm-ish
Dinner: 12:00 am-ish
Last week’s food journal looked like this: Food Journal.072610
Here is an example of one of the shakes I made: a chocolate banana shake. I make them for two, but I’m only including the nutritional & quantity info for one:
- 1/2 cup “Over the Moon” chocolate milk
- 2 scoops French Vanilla Herbalife Nutritional Shake Mix
- 1 scoop Herbalife Dutch Chocolate Protein Drink Mix
- 1 scoop Herbalife Personalized Protein
- 1/2 banana
TOTAL: 295 calories, 27g protein
So, getting back to “Skinny Bitch”, I was really angry when I read it for a number of reasons. One of the reasons was that I like that I’m finally in a routine that seems to be working for me and the last thing I want to do is switch to something else. The other reason was that I agree with EVERYTHING they say in that book (and have for a long time) and almost ALL of it goes against this routine I have right now. I read the book in one day–mostly because I was so riveted and convicted that I couldn’t put it down. When I was done reading it, I had laughed out loud, sobbed, and made the decision I need to resume the vegan lifestyle. When my husband came home from work we discussed it at length and he is totally onboard but thinks that we should use this time and this current routine to “get me skinny” and then slowly (he really emphasized slowly…) make the switch to an all-organic, strictly vegan diet.
We currently have a shake for breakfast, a salad for lunch, and a shake for dinner. So, when the time comes, we probably will start by swapping our morning shake for an all-natural fruit smoothie and begin cutting the dairy out of the rest of our diet. Dairy will be the hardest. We can easily swap the piece of fish we’ve been throwing on top of our salad for an all-natural veggie burger. In fact, we both usually prefer it that way anyway but the fish is higher in protein…blah, blah, blah. Our next step will probably be switching to healthier, all-natural salad dressing and other condiments instead of the “light ranch” variety we are currently enjoying. Also, adding things like nuts, seeds, lentils, and beans bit by bit. Since our evening shake has been so extremely convenient, I imagine it will be the last to go. I could be wrong, though–we may decide after cutting our morning one that cutting our evening one is just as easy.
The biggest problem I had with the all-vegan thing previously was that I still was consuming monstrous portions and I was allowing myself to eat as much pasta, rice, potatoes, and whole grains as I wanted. In the beginning, I lost a bunch of weight but I think it is because we were eating meat right before we switched to vegan (for a brief 2 years in the middle of vegetarianism I returned to eating meat). I think I compensated for the lack of a “focal point” in our meals by increasing the portions. And they were ridiculously out of control; my husband and I could split an entire box (1 pound) of pasta in one sitting. So, of course, when I went back to just being a vegetarian, my portions were still WAY outta whack. The reason we switched to vegetarianism when we did was that we were on the road for 3 weeks in a row–constantly eating fast food. It was too difficult to stay vegan when most of the time the only thing we could eat was an order of fries. And of course, since that was all we could eat, didn’t we eat WAY more of them than we needed. Another thing I did at the time that I thought was smart & helpful, etc., but that I think turned out to be highly detrimental was that I would take my favorite Food Network recipes (usually a far cry from healthy) and I would modify the ingredients so I was eating the vegan version of them. I could probably publish an entire gourmet vegan cookbook from the recipes I invented and modified to my own version, I have so many.
In January of this year, I started with a trainer and switched to a program of eating about every 3 hours and keeping my calories under 1,200. But I was usually just eating a bunch of diet junk food like 100-calorie packs of Oreos or Cheez-Its and high fiber (and high fructose corn syrup-packed) cereal bars and low calorie (and high aspartame) yogurts. Oh, and Coke Zero. So I wasn’t really getting in a lot of food that was good for me. I’m proud of myself that I’ve been eating a salad every day for lunch–pretty much since we arrived here for my husband’s job. I’m also thankful that I’ve been enjoying it so much!!! Currently, my meals & snacks (outside of my shakes) consist mostly of fruits, vegetables, Chobani yogurt (oh my gosh–it’s a MUST-TRY!!!), almonds, veggie “meats”, Laughing Cow cheese, and lean fish. And nothing to drink but water (a bunch!!) and an Herbalife herbal tea. So I can see progress in my eating patterns over the last five years. I see a shift from eating “what I CAN” to eating “what is GOOD for my body” and I think that is a huge difference that will help make this transition much easier. I also think that my husband’s suggestion of really easing into it rather than just switching one day will make it go much more smoothly. I can’t be thankful enough that my husband is as supportive as he is and as willing as he is to go along with my constant changing of our eating habits. I’m also thankful that with regard to the vegan lifestyle in particular, he isn’t merely “going along with it”. He firmly believes it is what is best for us. So that helps tremendously.
I will try to remember next week (Tuesday) to write down the results of my weigh-in/measurements so I can post them. My goal this week is to lose 2 pounds and at least 3 inches. Last week I lost 3 inches (total) just in my abs & hips. Woo-hoo! Keep it coming!!! I keep hearing “slow & steady wins the race”. I’m not even in it for the money, really; I just want to be skinny!!!
I'm Gettin' Skinny 
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