To Resolute or Not to Resolute?

I’ve mentioned before how much I dislike New Years resolutions. It feels fake. Everyone makes all these grand resolutions, but I see very few people who actually make any changes. It takes a lot of will power to change your life, especially when it comes to physical changes and losing weight. The changing of the number of the years since Jesus was born does not really create a catalyst for a life style change.

I imagine that more people make healthy life style changes after a heart attack than after the year changes.

Now that’s a catalyst.

Regardless, I like the principle behind it. I try to live that principle every day, and to be the best version of myself. I’m trying TODAY to change the things I don’t like about myself, because as the saying goes “Tomorrow never comes”.

I truly do not think that New Years is a time for making declarations about how you’re going to drastically change your life and from now on it’s all spinach and 5 gym sessions per week. I do really enjoy bucket lists and parodies though. So in lieu of life changing alterations about losing 100 pounds and actually sticking to that budget you make every couple of months, here is my list of things I will do in 2013.

1)      Catch up on all the seasons of Game of Thrones and Dexter
I waste so much time watching reruns of Big Bang Theory and Friends, when I could spend my mindless TV time watching newer, trendier programing. This would also give me something in common with all the co-workers I don’t talk to.
2)   Continue not catching up with old friends
I think that maybe people fall out of your life for a reason. Let them stay there, with happy memories of who they used to be. If you start talking to them again, you may find out they got worse, or maybe they got better and they you’ll feel like crap for losing touch with someone awesome, and maybe even doubt your own awesome! Best to leave them be.

3)      Play more games on my cell phone
My angry birds score is not going to improve itself
4)      Get/Make more outfits for the dog
He looks so cute in clothes, plus it really irritates him. It’s a double win. Maybe he’ll think about his new sweater next time he wakes me up at 6am on a Saturday to let him out to chase a bird…….

 On a more serious note I have to say I’m so proud of my Mom. She started the Advocare 24 day Challenge on the 26^th of December! She did not wait until after New Year’s festivities, she didn’t even wait until all the delicious Christmas leftovers were gone. I’m so proud of her and I know she is going to do amazing!

I think it’s especially great that she started, given that I just finished. She knows that I lost 10lbs, so that’s a contributing factor to her decision, I’m sure. But she was also my sounding board for all my frustrations. Advocare is hard. And I did not sugar coat anything about it when talking to her. I wanted her to know exactly what she was signing up for. She doesn’t even have a buddy! I’m so proud of her and I know she’s going to see great results!

Updates still to come about Red Velvet cinnamon rolls I made over Christmas (they weren’t perfect, I want to tweak the recipe before posting), and all the fun stuff that’s happening this week while Baby Brother is visiting!

Red Velvet Cinnamon Rolls ----- Round 1

 

Lessons From Advocare

Tomorrow is day 24 of Advocare. I say GOOD RIDDANCE. This time I have really struggled with sticking with the plan for the last 10 or so days. I think it’s for a multitude of reasons but here are the two main ones.

Firstly I’m much happier with my body than I was the first go round. I’m still working on it, but for the most part, I think I look great. I now have a much better understanding of why Roommate can’t be on a diet for even an hour. Now that I like how I look for the most part, it’s really tough to deprive myself. Yes, skinny tastes better than chocolate, but if I can have skinny and chocolate, you better bet I will.

Secondly, after the first 12 days, my weight loss stopped completely. I lost 10 quick pounds, and I’ve camped out there. I tried increasing my work outs, to no avail. Not eating the foods you want, working out consistently, and being dizzy every time you move with any speed is only okay if you’re losing pounds. When you’re plateaued, it sucks and does not feel worth it.

Not that I’m in anyway sorry I did Advocare. I lost 10lbs, which is not something I want to discount, I also feel good, I feel clean and more energized. Advocare reinforces some really important habits, and I will probably do it again. Below are some of the most important things I learned (or was reminded of) from doing Advocare.

Will Power

I know it’s cliché to say, but it’s so true. When you practice will power you have more of it. Walking past the candy dishes and pretty much everything that roommate eats is hard at first, but it does get easier. I know that on Thursday, when I can eat anything I choose, I will still be making healthy choices. Those healthy choices will involve more cheese, but they will still be healthy. It is no longer hard for me to walk by store bought treats and little silly candies that I don’t love. All those little calories add up, and they aren’t worth it. I’d rather save those calories for something I really enjoy.

 Mindfulness

This is a Buddhist principle that I think should be applied in all aspects of life, but Advocare really brings it to the front in terms of nutrition. It makes you mindful of your body, and how different foods make you feel. It also makes you mindful of what you’re eating and when. On Advocare you only eat fruit (sugar) and carbs in the earlier part of the day. When you’ll have the rest of the day to turn those sugars into energy and propel your body. Then your body won’t turn that sugar into fat. Apply that to life off of Advocare – the bowl of ice cream before bed doesn’t sound so worth it any more

Portions

This was one I definitely needed a reminder about, and I’m so glad that I did Advocare again if only for this one lesson. Advocare is very strict in terms of weighing and measuring everything. By doing this for 3 weeks, I now am able to eyeball a serving portion, and cut out excess unnecessary calories. One of the days last week, I was making my lunch in our café. I was having chicken and brown rice and spinach. A serving of a starchy carb like rice is 4oz. It’s about a half of a cup, a little smaller than the size of my fist. It just so happened that a co-worker was having rice and meatballs. Because of advocare, I know that she could have a lot of meatballs, since her body can’t store that protein as fat, and she should cut down on the rice, since any of those carbs not used quickly as energy will be stored for use as energy later, as fat. She easily had 4 servings of rice on her plate and maybe 5 meatballs. And probably didn’t even realize how incorrect her portions were. Again, mindfulness, Advocare taught me what a serving size is, and also to be aware of it.

 Side bar – next time I have Thai food, I will ignore all of the above. Curry requires that I eat copious amounts of rice. But at least I will know!

 

 Purpose

This one should be obvious, but I think our foodie culture often pushes this out of our head. The point of eating is to give your body fuel. If it tastes great and you love it, bonus! But that’s not the point of eating. I am often guilty of making food choices not based on my physical needs, but on my emotional ones. I’m having a rough day, I’m allowed a cupcake to cheer myself up. I worked out extra hard, I’ve earned that pasta dish.

 That is not the point of food. So I make new rewards, and they don’t have to be expensive. I’m having a rough day, I call my mom and pout about whatever is making me unhappy. I worked out extra hard, well, for me that sometimes reward within itself. Being able to actually complete an unassisted pull up makes me feel like a bad ass. And that is quite the reward. If I want a tangible reward, I go shopping, a lot of times at the goodwill. I get to dig the racks, cure my shopping itch, find something great and rarely spend more than $20.

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I’m nervous about going off Advoare again, but not for the same reasons I was last time. Last time I was worried that maybe all the weight loss was just water weight, and that it might all bounce back. That didn’t happen, and this time I’m confident that I weight loss I saw was fat loss, and that if I go back to my before Advocare habits, I will go back to my before Advocare weight loss, which was just maintaining.

My concern is that I dropped 10 pounds so quickly and have stayed camped out right there. I’m worried that I’ve hit some sort of a wall and I’m not going to lose any more weight at all. And I definitely want to lose about 10 more pounds, and tighten up my stomach and my triceps.

I’ve wanted my whole life to have a flat stomach and now that I’m so close, I’m paranoid that it will forever be just out of my reach. Rationally I know this isn’t true. We can shape our bodies into anything that we want. But irrationally I worry that I just don’t have that shape, and genetically I will never be able to achieve this. Because of genetics’ roommate eats only sugar and carbs and has a flat stomach.

Are my genetics going to prevent me from doing this? The real question is, am I going to let them?

I know that only time is going to answer this questions. I also know that it’s only going to get harder from here. I’m the smallest I’ve been as an adult. That means that fat that’s left has been there a very long time. So I shouldn’t expect it to fall off as easy as the rest did.

I know about healthy eating habits, I know how to go to the gym consistently, and I know how to stay positive. So now I just need to apply everything I know, as well as some serious core exercising, and look forward to that flat stomach I’ve always wanted.

 

Silver Linings as I see them

 “There will always be a part of me that is dirty and sloppy, but I like that, just like all the other parts of myself.”

 That is a quote from Silver Linings Playbook. I went to see it with roommate a few weeks ago, and it’s one of the best movies I have ever seen. It feels real and raw, and *spoiler alert* it shows that life doesn’t have to be a fairy tale to have a happy ending. It’s definitely one of my top movies, and I think everyone should see it. Be warned that it is shouty, and there is a lot of profanity. But isn’t that how real life is?

 I loved Jennifer Lawrence’s character Tiffany for how flawed she was, and how she embraces those flaws that she can’t change and changes the ones that she can. I think the quote above really sums it up. She is flawed, and loves herself, all of herself. It’s that love her flaws that makes her perfect. Not that she perpetuates the flaws, or embellishes them. Just that they are there, and she loves them, along with all of herself.

 I think that I can learn a lot from this attitude, especially with all the changes that I’ve made in my life in the past year. I’ve devoted a lot of time to changing all the things about myself that I didn’t like, and along the way, I think I may have tried to change some things about myself that I did like, because I thought that I should. This movie reminded me that everyone is flawed, and it’s those flaws that make you unique, and it’s your uniqueness that makes you who you are.

So be the best version of you, but never stop being you.

   Now to change pace entirely; a quick update on the Advocare front. I think this time has been harder than the first time I did it. Firstly because before I was doing it with 2 incredible women that I worked with at the time. Their support, and ideas and presence made it so much easier. When I saw both of them in the kitchen, making the same food and the same faces as me, it was reassuring, like a team! I really look up to these strong women, and I didn’t realize how heavily I had leaned on them. I have a partner in crime again, but the physical distance made it surprisingly harder. She’s not here, I don’t’ see her in the kitchen; the people that I do see in the kitchen do not understand why I am eating plain brown rice and chicken. Plus it was her first time, so I’ve felt that I’ve had to be stronger and not waiver, so that I could support her.

I’ve also had a lot more food cravings than I did before. The last time, I remember having cravings at first, then settling into a routine and not having much trouble. This time it’s been the opposite. At first I felt good, and watching roommate eat fast food in front of me was no big deal. But in this last week I’ve really struggled. It has taken all of the will power I have not to cheat the diet. I actually had to ask Roommate that if she went and got Taco Time on Sunday, to not eat it in our house. Which is terrible, roommate is not on a diet and I never intend to push my eating habits on other people. This was my decision, and roommate shouldn’t be punished for it.

This was almost a picture of taco time beef tacos. Yum!

Luckily, we are in the home stretch now, less than a week to go. I’ve lost 11lbs, but I’m surprisingly unhappy with that. I dropped the majority of the weight in the first week and a half and haven’t dropped anymore, despite increases in my workouts. Regardless I’m sticking with it, through the end, and hoping that the stall is a short plateau and that when I do my final weigh in, I’ll be pleased with the results.

Or maybe at the end, I'll just have to find the silver lining

Long Time Gone

Life has been crazy busy and I have not been making this blog a priority. I do not intend to make that a habit! The whole point of the blog is that life is crazy busy and I need a record of it!

Thanksgiving was exactly as wonderful as I hoped. Actually it was better, for 2 reasons. The first reason is that usually we have lunch with my Dad’s family around 12pm, which means setting an alarm and getting going in the morning, so that all 4 members of my family and also all of the food, are ready and at my Grandparents by lunchtime. This year we didn’t have to be there until 5pm, which meant a leisurely morning of watching my cousins and brother play football, letting the dog run to his hearts content and then watching the parade and sappy movies with my mom. It was a perfect day.

The second best thing about Thanksgiving was that my besties, Roommate and the Third Amigo, came down to OR to see me on Friday! We had such a fun girl’s weekend! Friday we sat around and watched tacky Hallmark movies, then had leftovers at my grandparents, then went and saw twilight, then went to a super classy Salem bar. All bars in Salem are equally classy and amazing, so I don’t think a name is required.

Saturday we went shopping, then had all my mom’s family over for a game night and a ton of delicious food. Third Amigo and I ate as much carbs as possible, because Monday after Thanksgiving, we started Advocare; more about that later though.

In the spirit of piles of carbs, we went to my favorite Salem breakfast spot, Word of Mouth. It is the best place ever. I know this is hypocrisy, but it may be better than Luna Park. Maybe. I had a breakfast burrito, roommate had cinnamon roll pancakes and Third Amigo had a sandwich. The restaurant also comp’d us a Red Velvet Pancake. Yes, that’s correct, Red. Velvet. Pancake. We left on a sugar high, and it was GLORIOUS.

Sunday night Roommate and I had Ezell’s chicken, as is my tradition before starting Advocare. Then Monday morning, it was back to work, and back to thinking about what I eat. All the time.

Third Amigo and I are doing the Advocare 24 day challenge. This means 24 days or no flour based carbs, no refined sugars, no alcohol, pretty much nothing delicious. It also entails eating 5 meals a day (mostly protein and veggies, with fruit and healthy fats here and there), eating this much protein for me is hard, since I’m not big on protein most of the time. Also, this diet keeps you full. All the time. It is one thousand times harder to eat food you don’t like, when you’re also not hungry.

Today is day 12, so we are halfway done. The first 10 days are the hardest for me, after day 10 you can start eating greek yogurt as a protein. I take full advantage of that fact. Also, starting on day 11, you get to have a really yummy protein shake in the morning. It tastes like a chocolate milkshake and makes me very happy.

Three facts are getting me through this diet and keeping me on track.

Fact 1: When this diet is over, I have a super-secret fun surprise planned for Roommate and Third Amigo. It will be epic.

Fact 2: I leave to go home for Christmas the day after we finish

Fact 3: This diet works. When I did the diet before I lost almost 12lbs. This go round, as of day 12, I am down 10.8lbs. This is not water weight; this is not a yo-yo effect. I’m down two belt notches and I fully intend to stay there after we are finished. At the start of this diet I was between an 8 and a 10. I hope to finish as a size 6. As of today, my size 10 jeans are downright baggy and my size 8 skirts are fitting a little loose.

I’m planning on posting again before Christmas, with the final results of Advocare and also an account of the super awesome amazing time I will be having with Roommate and Third Amigo on the 19^th. I also have a recipe for Red Velvet Cinnamon rolls that I plan on creating as soon as Advocare is finished! They are the only thing I can think of that could possibly be better than a red velvet cupcake or pancake. I’ll make sure to post on if they live up to the hype!