Hey everyone, thought I would give you an update! I am 33 days into my health behavior challenge, and 26 days into my liver "detox"/paleo challenge. It seems like much longer than that! This past week I noticed that I felt hungrier, and was getting some cravings to eat junk. I heard back from my naturopath and here was her response:
"- re: thyroid hormones: they are normal on labs, but hormone resistance means that the tissue doesn’t get the hormone because inflammation from the diet and other sources can block it, causing thyroid symptoms with normal labs.
- I don’t have a number for carbs for you to hit. Generally if you take in less carbs that you burn then you will lose weight. but I want to make sure that you aren’t hungry (where the fat and protein come in). I’m ok for you to eat some grains in moderation (quinoa, wild rice, teff, amaranth, brown rice, some sweet potatoes).
- because we are going for an overall diet change, a cheat wont’ alter the metabolism unless you do it all the time."
Pretty simple explanation, but I basically took this response as a "go ahead" to cheat if I REALLY needed to. Unfortunately- I did. :( Friday night I went out with classmates, and although I told myself earlier that I wasn't going to drink, I decided I would have a "paleo" drink (it's called a NorCal margarita, which was created by one of the Paleo "founders", Robb Wolf). Of course a night of drinks isn't complete without fast food, so I got Wendy's afterwards. More details are in my journal posts below.
Anyway, I've been back to my clean Paleo. Feeling good and fit, but the scale hasn't budged. :/ I really don't get it!! On a positive note, I went shopping today for new khakis and I now fit into a size 16 really well. :) Maybe come time for my next clinical in November, I'll be in a 14 or even better, a 12. It may be slow, but I'm making progress. I'm feeling good, I'm motivated and things are looking up.
This week I'm going on a backpacking trip to 20 Lakes Basin, which is right by Yosemite National Park. I'm super excited!! Although it's not the actual park, the scenery should be just as beautiful. We are staying in a campground Wed night, then meeting about 30 other people Thursday morning to start our backpacking trip. I believe it's a 12 mile loop around some lakes...supposedly easy/moderate terrain. It will be 2 nights of backcountry camping. I've been dying to get out backpacking again!! Hopefully I meet some cool people who I can go on more trips with. :) My dilemma is food for the week. I bought some dehydrated food today at REI, and although it's gluten-free it does contain some corn starch and soybean oil, and "extra" stuff that's not so great. I'm making beef jerky right now in my food dehydrator, and I'll bring nuts, dried fruits, Larabars, and some almond butter. I should stop at Whole Foods to get some dehydrated vegetables, too! I just hope that I can stick to eating this stuff, and not "cheat" during the car ride up and back.
Here are my latest journal entries:
Day 18 (Fri, June 14):
Still feeling good and motivated. Had a busy day today with school, a student
physical, and studying, so decided to take the day off from workouts. I did walk down to the beach and walked in
the sand a little bit, for about a mile.
That is a bit of a workout because it’s up and down some steep hills and
also walking in sand is somewhat difficult.
I started a new batch of bone broth using marrow bones, that I’m cooking
on low in the crockpot for at least 24 hours.
Hopefully it will gelatinize, and taste good when it’s finished. Overall, things are going well. I’m feeling strong, energetic and
motivated. At my physical in the student
health department, the nurse practitioner mentioned that I was in the
overweight category according to BMI. I
hate the BMI scale, it doesn’t consider muscle vs fat ratio. I told her that I do exercise and I eat a
paleo diet, which she seemed to be ok with, although she did ask me about my
red meat consumption. It is frustrating
that health practitioners don’t agree with paleo because there isn’t any
research on it yet. I’m hoping that as
time goes by, more people who have been living on a paleo diet will report the
great health they’ve received from living this lifestyle, and that it will be
enough to trigger a paleo movement in our society, and get people knowledgeable
about it, and change the way we think about the foods we are eating. It’s the media and pharmaceutical companies
that drive what we eat. We just believe
them without even testing things for ourselves.
I’ve read books, personal stories, and many articles. I was at first a skeptic, too, but now I’m a
big believer. My blood test results will
prove my case for paleo.
Day 20 (Sun, June 17):
Today I spent studying for my midterms this week, and I
also had to go back to urgent care to have my wound re-packed. This has put me in somewhat of a
predictament. I have to keep re-packing
the wound for maybe two weeks, and I am not supposed to get the bandage
wet. Therefore, I guess I need to avoid
getting sweaty, because I have to be careful taking showers, as to not get the
bandage wet. So I’m not sure what to do.
I want to exercise, but I’m afraid of
getting sweaty. This wound has me really
freaked out, because I get queasy/scared easily. I have to have my roommate re-do the dressing
for me everyday. L On the other
hand, I have 3 midterms this week and a lot of studying to do, so maybe it is
best if I stick to some easy exercises where I won’t get sweaty- like a short
walk or just some low-intensity strength training. As for diet, today I didn’t eat enough. I did make pork tenderloin, which I had for
lunch. I also made another batch of bone
broth. I’m making one more batch with
the bones that I have had in the crockpot since Friday. My first batch is in the refrigerator and
turned into gelatin- which I believe means it’s full of bone goodness!
Week 4
Day 23 (Wed, June 19):
Well the past few days have been a little stressful
(comparatively speaking, since I’m not one to normally feel stressed). I have my wound on my mind, as well as the
fact that I’ve not been able to exercise in four days. I also have midterms this week, so I’ve been
busy studying and preparing for them. I
noticed that I gained a few pounds this week.
I’m hoping it is because I gained some muscle weight due to my strength
training that I started doing again last week, although it seems too soon to
see results that quickly. I did lose an
inch from my waist, but I gained half an inch from my thigh. The numbers on the scale aren’t important;
it’s inches/how my clothes fit, that really matter. I need to always keep this in mind. I decided to email my naturopath with my
current concerns and questions, so hopefully she’ll be able to provide some
answers for me. I asked her if my
calorie intake was too low, and if she thought that that could be hindering me
from weight loss. I also got my
bloodwork results in the mail, but unfortunately she did not test my
cholesterol. I was really curious to see
my numbers! I guess I will have to wait
until my next visit with her in 4 weeks and have her test it then.
Day 25 (Fri, June 21):
Well I’m glad this week is over. I’m feeling a bit upset with myself that I
haven’t exercised in a week, though. I
could have at least done a short run or some lifting, but I didn’t. My wound is now looking very good. The doctor
said it closed up very quickly, so I was really happy to hear that. Now I can relax and not worry about it
anymore!
Last night I fell asleep at 7pm and didn’t get up until
6:30am the next morning. Today I ended up
taking a nap this afternoon instead of going for a run. I guess this week really mentally wore me
out. I emailed my naturopath doctor with
some questions that I had about how
things were going, here are some of the important points to note in her response:
“...In regards to a low calorie intake, you are correct in that a low calorie
intake will gain more weight, especially if you are low in saturated fats.
Saturated fats have to be high to heal the metabolism to start to lose
weight. I don’t have a specific number for you to reach for, but listen
to your body. Generally what you typed
sounds great for the diet. Good job with implementing so much! Most patients
don’t implement as much as you have. Make sure that your getting plenty of
veggies, and use the fats to get the calorie content up. I have had a few patients who notice that if
they go cold turkey on removing all grains (rice, quiona, etc) that they do
retain weight, so watch for that too.
Regarding the weight gain: it’s more from water retention from the beer
and salt from eating out [from two weeks ago]. Water weight comes and goes
fast. Muscle weight will be a more gradual incline. Take a picture of yourself
in a swimsuit now, and then again in 4 weeks. You want to compare how you store
the weight, which is more important than the scale. You are being treated for both liver
congestion and inflammation in the gut that is causing thyroid hormone
resistance and weight.”
I had mentioned to her that although I lost some weight
the first week, I had gained a few pounds in the second week. I guess this was because the beer and bad
food that I had eaten a couple weeks before that had started to show their
effects on the body. That goes along
with the idea that I’ve always noticed of things taking a few weeks to “show
up”. I also asked her if my calorie
intake was too low, and if that could possibly cause me to hold onto my fat
storage. I guess she is saying that I do
need to try to get more calories in, in the form of saturated fats. That’s something a regular doctor would never
tell you! I’m not sure why she says when she mentioned the thyroid resistance,
because she said that all of my thyroid hormones look fine. I am emailing her back in regards to that.
Today I also decided to buy some of the herbs that she
recommended- probiotics, turmeric extract, milk thistle, and resveratrol. I found them all for good prices at Whole
Foods, so hopefully they will be effective enough for me. Back to workouts
tomorrow!!
Day 27 (Sun, June 23):
Had a pretty good weekend. I ran on Saturday morning and this morning I
finally got back on my road bike for a bike ride. Felt really good to be back out on the
bike! I think I felt a bit lighter,
too. Nothing else to really note. I may have dropped 2lbs this week, which is
good. Hoping to lose more in this next
week. To get more calories and fat into
my diet, I’m now putting a tablespoon of coconut oil into my bone broth.
Week 5
Day 30 (Wed, June 26):
This week I’ve felt pretty tired. I haven’t been exercising like I had wanted
to due to more midterms and feeling a bit unmotivated to work out. I think I’m feeling frustrated that I’m not
losing any weight. I emailed the
naturopath back last Friday about it, but still haven’t heard back from
her. I still think that it’s due to the
fact that my carb intake is around 150 grams per day, which is considered
“weight maintenance” by Primal Blueprint
standards (a book written by Mark Sisson, which is a similar diet to
Paleo). Tomorrow is my last midterm, so
I’m looking forward to having some free time to cook and exercise. I’m trying to make plans for my days off over
the 4th of July next week. At
the moment, it looks like I’m going to be joining a Meetup group to go
backpacking/camping near Yosemite, which I am super excited about!! If I do go, I’ll have to really think about
what I’m going to bring to eat. I’ll
have to make beef jerky using my dehydrator.
I haven’t made jerky in over a year.
I’ll probably end up eating a lot of jerky and nuts, maybe some bars
that I found that contain nuts and dried fruits. I’m not sure if I could find any dehydrated
backpacking foods that are gluten-free and paleo-friendly. For dinner I decided to order chicken lettuce
wraps from a Thai restaurant I went to over the weekend. I am pretty sure it’s paleo! Later this evening I noticed some bumps/skin
irritation on my forearms after taking my gummy multi-vitamins. They may contain gluten? I’ll check
later.
Day 33 (Saturday, June 29)
Bad news- I “cheated” last
night. Although I really wanted to not
feel like I had to drink when going to a bar with classmates, I ended up
drinking. I heard back from my
naturopath, who told me that “cheating” won’t undo all the good I’ve done, so I
guess that made me feel like it’s ok if I do have a little bit of alcohol. So I ended up drinking “paleo margaritas”,
which are made with agave tequila, lime juice, and club soda. After a few of those, I wanted fast food on
the way home, so I got a baconator and fries from Wendy’s. See this is why drinking is no good. It leads me to want to eat fast food after
I’m done! I woke up early in the morning
with some stomach cramps, congestion and runny nose, and had to go #2. I felt guilty and gross. During the day today
I actually felt pretty good. Climbed the
sand dune and felt good, then was at the beach most of the day. I did notice that I had a little bit of gas,
though. Otherwise, not feeling any
effects of the gluten I consumed in the burger, or oils from the fries. I’ll be curious if I lose weight this
week. It seems whenever I do eat junk,
it stimulates my metabolism to burn more fat.
So maybe it is good for me to eat junk every now and then? I hate feeling guilty, though. It just makes me want to eat clean
forever. I’ll do my best to do so!
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