Wednesday, May 7, 2014

SLOW and steady wins the race.....?

I've been on this VLCD for a while and am feeling great. I actually don't feel hungry and I don't feel deprived. I find that planning is my best friend. I typically eat one big meal a day and the other 2 meals I either do Roca Labs or a protein shake or something. If I know I have a work lunch or it's Cinco de Mayo then I plan ahead. I time my Roca Labs approx. 45min to an hour before my big meal and depending on when that meal is, I snack on nuts or whatever low calorie thing I want (honestly, if I want some Oreos and my calculation only allows me to have ONE....I'll take it! Don't deprive yourself! It's the worst thing to do while on a 'diet'). My energy level did dip at first but now that my body is used to it, I don't feel it at all! I even forget to eat!

And we've recently had a big life change. We rescued a puppy! She is a 10mo (?) old Yorkiepoo (we think) and she wasn't in a terrible home, but it definitely had the potential to be. We named her Sophie. They had big dogs and a few little kids that would do terrible things like stick pencils in the dogs' nose or whatever. AND they had no intention to spay her! She is about 6lb and in maybe her 3rd or 4th heat cycle, it's not safe for her size to have puppies! Especially because they just open the door to let the dogs do their business and roam their unfenced yard.....dangerous for a female in heat. So we took her in, she's loving our fenced yard and Chewy is loving her company. We're getting her spayed as soon as we both find a day off together (besides Mother's Day, who spays their dog on Mother's Day?! It's an oxymoron). So I've been busy! Housework and running around with 2 puppies about 1 year old and a 15 year old senior dog is exhausting and definitely calorie burning.


Anyhow, my one 'big' meal a day is working great. It gives me something to look forward to as well as allows me to plan around it. For example, I knew ahead of time we were making steak fajitas for Cinco de Mayo, and after some research, I simply wasn't happy with the calories even whole wheat tortillas have. So I decided to do a fajita salad! I eat fajitas for the filling anyways! Let me tell you, it was beyond delicious. And I didn't have to worry about not getting enough of my Cinco....I had a ton! The steak was on the grill and the peppers were steamed then finished on the grill, only some seasoning and barely any oil. And it was so flavorful I didn't even need dressing! So I find even though a VLCD sounds depressing, I'm actually eating very well and am relatively happy and stuffed most of the time. Planning is just key.



The fajita salad lasted me a couple days, then even when the fiancé brought home Chinese take out last night, I wasn't even hungry enough to nibble on more than a couple pieces of Mongolian Beef and some tofu. I did end up a little higher on calories yesterday than I planned, but 537 plus some incalculable puppy wrangling and obedience class (BTW Chewy passed with flying colors!), I'm still at a good place.




In terms of progress, I find I'm definitely an inch-loser rather than a weight-loser. Maybe I'm building muscle or whatever. Here are the measurements:

Arms: 1.5" off
Waist: 1.5" off
Chest: same
Hip: 1" off

Weight: yo yo-ing between 170 and 172lb.

Nothing major, not the numbers I had hoped for in weight loss, but I've only been on the VLCD a week or so, I'm hoping my body is just getting used to it. Cuz all these inches has came off in the last 2 days.

Today: Roca Labs & black coffee for breakfast (diuretic); turkey and egg white salad on whole wheat bagel for lunch (SOOOOO EXCITED!); walking during lunch; puppy wrangling; Roca Labs or protein shake for dinner if I'm hungry.

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Yo-yo Effect

I FEEL better....clothes fit better....but why am I not losing weight?! Again...my OCD google research begins.

I've been keeping up with almost an hour of walking a day (in 70-80 degree weather no less!) plus either housework (it's surprising how many calories MyFitnessPal app says it burns!) or Taebo for an hour or two a day. My calorie intake has fluctuated but I try to keep it at about 800 net calories.

Yesterday morning I weighed myself and almost threw a fit! 175.5! WTF! Woke the fiancé up and everything! I know I didn't eat the best Monday night but there's no way I ate 2.5lbs worth!

Yesterday breakfast: Body by vi shake; Roca Labs

Yesterday lunch: Body by vi shake; walked for 50 minutes

Yesterday dinner: Lean Cuisine @ 280 calories when I got home then took our puppy to obedience training and walked approx. 15-20minutes there (we were learning to "heel"). Came home and did 2 hours of housework/cleaning (392 calories??!?!?!)

Yesterday late dinner: I realized at this point even though I wasn't hungry (thanks to Roca Labs), I was NEGATIVE net calories. I wasn't going to chow down on a Big Mac of anything, so I made a turkey and egg salad (no mayo, about 300 calories).

Net calories = 157...........bad I know, but I honestly had no idea housework was an "exercise". Now my house will probably be spotless!


This morning I weighed myself again, 173.5lb. Confusion. I lost 2lbs in one day?


My OCD googling came up with the "yo-yo effect", which basically means that many of us will "gain weight" at the beginning of any workout routine. Whether it is water retention or the fact that muscle is denser than fat. Somebody like me that doesn't have any muscle besides vital organs (hahaha, I kid.....but practically), may be quick to gain some muscle definition when I start something like Taebo. This means I will lose quick (the 3 lbs I lost off the bat), then bounce back up (the 2.5lbs I gained between Monday and Tuesday), and finally will begin to lose a substantial amount of weight once my body catches up (the 2lbs I dropped between Tuesday and now).

I know the scale is not the best way to keep track of one's weight loss process, but without giving myself a headache with all the math or getting the calculation done by a personal trainer, I'll just settle for this yo-yo effect, which makes logical sense. Here's a couple articles I found:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/83598-why-you-gain-when-starting-a-new-workout

http://exercise.about.com/od/weightloss/f/gainingweight.htm

All of the reading material I've found says slight "weight gain" at the onset is normal and common, then between the range of a week to a month or so (they all say different time spans), my body will catch up and I'll see the weight drop significantly. Given I don't have all the time in the world to wait....the 800 calorie diet I'm on should help speed things up.

I've already found myself more able to keep up with Taebo!

So I'm crossing my fingers ~

Today will be an off-day (from Roca Labs) for me. I've scheduled my off-days this week to be today (Wednesday) and Saturday. Today work is taking us out for a belated Administrative Professionals Day lunch and then the fiancé and I have dinner plans with friends. There's no point for me to waste my expensive Roca Labs when it'll either be impolite/rude or weird for me to eat 1/4 of what I ordered or I simply just want to enjoy myself today. Since we're going out for lunch I won't be able to walk, but I plan to do more housework (laundry, so prolly not as calorie-burning) and Taebo + Wii tonight Fit to compensate. Saturday I'll be with family and will be going to a friend's kid's 1st birthday party, so no point in trying then. Sunday the fiancé is gone most of the day so I'll be home alone and should have no problem doing Roca.

Monday, April 28, 2014

Starvation mode myth

Starvation mode is the oh-so-popular belief that if you restrict your calorie intake so much then your body will conserve every calorie you consume as well as slow your metabolism down so much you'll actually GAIN weight.

After learning about the HMR diet (a physician monitored diet program, mainly used for those morbidly obese or awaiting weight loss surgery), and how physicians restrict patients' diets down to 500-800 calories a day, I was confused.....How can a clinically approved and monitored diet bring someone down that much to lose weight but you supposedly have the opposite effect when you do it alone? So I googled the crap out of it.

Of course there are contradicting beliefs, but the majority of what I found is that "starvation mode" (at least in the sense of "normal" weight loss) is a myth. Yes it is true your metabolism will slow, but there is never a point where your metabolism will slow enough to compensate for your calorie deficit and more. Any caloric deficit equal weight loss, even just by 10 calories. It essentially kicks in when a person has no more excess body fat for the body to use. Somebody at my weight will lose weight very fast on a VLCD but as my weight vs. body fat ratio changes, my weight loss will also slow. It's the same concept where a 400 pound person can go on Roca Labs and have miraculous results whereas someone like me isn't going to have results remotely comparable to theirs. One mile for a 400 pound person equals a much higher calorie burn than a 200 pound person. I'm probably not explaining it clearly, here are some articles:

http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/starvation-mode/

http://www.nowloss.com/starvation-mode-myth.htm

I'm not discrediting people who believe in it, I too, believed in it just a couple weeks ago. But now that common sense has kicked in, weight loss simply means you burn more than you take in.

Anyhow, after my rant on starvation mode. I have now put myself on a VLCD ( ~800 net calories a day....NOT gross) with much success!

I've been drinking 2 Body by Vi shakes a day for breakfast and lunch, I just mix it with the frozen mixed fruit I got from Costco. I snack on nuts and I have a sensible dinner. "Sensible".

I just realize I am the kind of person that doesn't do well with deprivation. I get grumpy and feel deprived and discouraged. I still need to have "normal" food. So I stocked up on Lean Cuisines, they average about 300 calories each and is actually delicious and hearty enough for me to feel like I'm having "normal" food. The portion size is small but Roca Labs makes me full-ish about 2/3 the way through anyways.

Just this weekend I followed Roca Labs instructions exactly and stopped for 2 days after 5 straight days.

Saturday: Body by Vi shake for breakfast; leftover Mongolian Grill for lunch; 1 hour of Tae Bo and fish tacos for dinner. We were at a auction fundraiser thing for the Rotary Club that night, so fish tacos was the healthiest option I could do without ordering a 'salad' and pissing everyone at the table off. Lots of veggies, small pieces of cod, and the fattiest thing was probably the tortillas, which I didn't finish. I inconspicuously picked out the filling as much as I could.

Sunday: Body by Vi shake for breakfast; French Onion soup & fish and chips (didn't touch the chips) for dinner. I was wayyyy over my calories so I did 35 minutes of Wii Fit and 45 minutes of Tae Bo afterwards.

Again, weekends kill me. But I am also very accepting of the fact that if I'm going to 'cheat' and overeat then I need to own up to it and exercise it off so my daily NET calories is where I want it to be. Both weekend days I over-ate and didn't make the best choices, but both days I exercised and brought my NET calories down to at least 900.


Sidenote: I went to see my seamstress last Friday and my wedding gown is already falling off!! The chest area is gapping like crazy (you could seriously fit a couple kittens in there), and the waist area is so loose she had to grab at least 2 inches at the zipper for it to fit correctly! YAY~~~


So I am proud to announce, in the 5 days I have been on a VLCD (remember, net calories, which is AFTER exercise)....I've lost 3 pounds!!!

3 pounds in 5 days isn't bad! At this rate (yes I like to calculate this stuff)....I'll lose 18 pounds a month and by my deadline (3 months to go), I'll lose 54 pounds!! Which brings me down to approx. 122 pounds!! yay!!!

It honestly hasn't been difficult keeping around 800 calories a day, the Body by Vi shakes really do fill me up. I usually have it on the way to work, then around 10am or so I get hungry and I'll have my Roca Labs, then I'll have another one around noon to 1pm after I walk. I look forward to dinner but I plan it out and I get to snack on nuts if I get hungry. So really I'm not starving and barely staying alive. I really do have energy and I feel as satisfied as one can feel while trying to lose weight for their wedding.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

One month mark

Sorry I haven't been keeping up with these blogs daily. I've just been busy with wedding stuff, you should see my living room!

Anyhow, I've been really good keeping up with my Roca Labs everyday and eating at least 1000 calories a day. I also walk at least 30minutes a day. Been keeping up with my protein shakes, lean and greens and.......NO CHANGE!!!

WTF?!?!

I'm pretty discouraged. Only 6 pounds in one month. I've stayed at 175lbs for a week or so. Given I did fluctuate a little and stumbled on calorie intake and what not, but I had wanted to lose more. Not only did I do my Roca Labs, I also added other health related things like protein shakes and walking, which I never did before. I make better choices even when eating out and I feel like I've really changed my lifestyle even after just one month. But I really need to lose more than the tiny 6lbs a month. So the 4 month period I have before the wedding, 6x4=24lbs. That's not ok....that only brings me down to 157 in 4 months. Especially with all the effort and money I'm putting into this.


That's why I'm exploring additional options. I'm looking into Medifast again (the food is disgusting to me but it did work for the short period of time I was on it), the HMR diet and Body by Vi. All of those are meal replacements. I'm hoping with their controlled portions and intake, plus my Roca Labs, I will be able to lose more. I am able to get a small lot of the HMR diet off Craigslist and 4 bags of Body by Vi within the next couple days. I was thinking I would follow the Body by Vi and use it as 2 meal replacements and eat one HMR meal as my last meal. Snack on veggies or nuts and what not.

AND I'm going to wake up earlier to either jog in nice weather or do some Taibo or Zumba or Wii Fit on rainy days in additional to walking during lunch when I can. So hopefully the added cardio plus the controlled food intake will help me!


Feeling pretty dang discouraged right now :(

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Discipline

Through some testing, I realized I do have self discipline! hahaha

Saturday: Roca Labs for breakfast; Lean Cuisine plus protein smoothie for lunch; take out Chicken Teriyaki for dinner - I ate all the chicken, little bit of salad and rice. Exercise: I was babysitting 2 kids all day....didn't need formal exercise

Sunday: late start, NO ROCA LABS; Fish & Chips for brunch (peeled off breading and had little bit of fries); 1 Chobani yogurt, 1 corndog for dinner

Monday: NO ROCA LABS; Lean Cuisine for lunch; 10-piece chicken nuggets and some potstickers for dinner

Tuesday: NO ROCA LABS; Lean Cuisine for lunch; Chicken Alfredo for dinner (half portion). Exercise: walking 30 minutes

All in all, I do have some self-discipline! I went off Roca Labs for about 3 days (instructions says 2 days) and kept my portions just as small as I normally would! Given I didn't make the smartest healthiest food choices but I was happy and satisfied AND didn't get there by overeating. That's what's important.

Weight: Lost another pound! Down to 175lbs. Didn't measure myself though. unsuccessful

_________________________________

Wednesday Breakfast: Hydroxycut & Raspberry Ketone; Roca Labs; UNSUCCESSFUL kale celery and apple protein smoothie (I tried 2 blenders and it was basically green shredded kale/celery protein water) I drank all the liquid and dumped it. (maybe too much fiber?)

Snack: 1 serving (28 whole nuts) of Planter's Nutrition Mix (only 160 calories and 7g protein)


Planned Wednesday Lunch: Chicken & egg white salad, maybe on toast?

Planned Wednesday Dinner: we're eating out, so I'll have to try for a salad or appetizer. Maybe sliders? Small and easy to control portion but still filling.

Exercise: probably none, it's raining cats and dogs today. Maybe some Slim in 6?


Overall I'm pretty happy. I realized I can still keep my portions small even without Roca Labs, so now one nightmare is over (I was seriously having dreams of altering my wedding dress to fit after Roca Labs but then ballooning back up before the wedding and not be able to fit in it). Now I need to get back on it and get some more serious weight loss going!

7 more days to ONE MONTH of ROCA LABS!!

Friday, April 11, 2014

First YouTube video!

Yay! Yesterday night I made my first YouTube video documenting my Roca Labs experience so far. I didn't go into too much detail cuz I didn't want it to be 10 minutes long, but it was a good start. I realized how easy and quick it was so from now on I might be more inclined to make more hahaha ~
 
 
Breakfast: strawberry banana protein smoothie (OMG delicious and so filling)
Lunch: half Costco blueberry muffin
Dinner: half cup of kale, cucumber protein smoothie; 1.5 cups of roasted brussel spouts and mushrooms, (plated) lean cuisine meatloaf and mashed potatoes
Snack: handful of local tortilla chips
Exercise: brisk walk for 30minutes
TOTAL: 970 calories after exercise

I know it's under 1,000 but I was sooooo stuffed! My fiancé felt my belly and he even said it felt like a rock. Lunch left me unsatisfied, the stupid muffin was so high in fat and calories I couldn't bring myself to eat more (especially after my fingertips were all oily and gross....ewwww). So I got hungry and snacked. Tip: don't eat fattening baked goods that you normally crave for as an actual meal, could be a big snack if you're REALLY craving it, but the fluffiness of muffins and probably other baked goods DO NOT make you full. They only give you tons of calories.

Here's a picture of my dinner: it was HUGE and I could barely finish it, but the dang thing was only a little over 500 calories >_< delicious though 


The protein powder seems to be doing me good, I wasn't actually hungry at lunch but knew I had to eat, it's also a very healthy way 1) make your smoothies creamier 2) add a large amount of protein 3) make your smoothie a lot more filling. I really do recommend adding a GOOD protein powder to your Roca Labs program.

NO WEIGHT LOSS today! But that's ok. I measured myself though (tried to be as accurate as I could, but self-measuring is never too trustworthy): Chest: 44"  / Waist: 40"  / Hip: 45.5"


Tomorrow: 2 Hydroxycut & 1 Raspberry Ketone; half purple dose of Roca Labs; kale cucumber banana strawberry protein smoothie for breakfast; egg white & chicken salad (maybe on wheat bread); dinner undecided....but I'm kinda craving McDonalds....maybe a wrap or something? We'll see how many calories I still have leftover after lunch and walking.

Weekend: I plan to buy another personal blender to keep at work so I can make smoothies during lunch too. And I also have about 1.5 hours of free time on Saturday morning (between waking up with the fiancé when he leaves for work and my usual Saturday babysitting gig) I will try to do some jogging or at least walking :)

Thursday, April 10, 2014

One happy gal :)

*background music "Happy" by Pharrell Williams*

I am one happy gal today! So yesterday I brought my actual calorie intake up to 1163 with a big dose of lean protein and I FELT GREAT!!

Breakfast snack: handful of natural local tortilla chips ~ 60 calories
Lunch: tuna and egg salad (no mayo, 2 farm fresh soft-boiled egg from the microwave provided all the liquid I needed to mix it altogether) ~ 310 calories
Dinner: leftover Zuppa Tuscana soup, 4.5 pieces of lemon pepper tilapia by the future hubby plus the leftover 1/3 serving of spaghetti ~793 calories
Exercise: 45 minutes of walking
TOTAL: 978 after exercise (still low I know, but I was sooooo satisfied!)

I STRUGGLED to eat all of this! Lunch was delicious and very healthy, I suppose I could've just used egg whites but I need to get the calories (AND the eggs were literally farm fresh from my boss' chickens THAT morning!). Even though it was a small bowl, all the lean protein in it filled me up for the entire afternoon. I didn't even have to take my afternoon reinforcement dose of Roca Labs!

I came home hungry and had the leftover soup right away. Then we took the puppy out for about a 15-20minute walk before coming back to make dinner. Through miscommunication, we thawed wayyy too many pieces of tilapia, but it worked out, cuz I need the calories, especially from such a lean healthy protein!

Let me tell you, I STRUGGLED to eat all of it. I could've stopped half way through but I knew I needed it and it was truly a good source of nutrition and energy.

A pleasant surprise, after emailing Roca Labs about believing I couldn't lose weight as fast as others because my original intake wasn't as high, I actually got A CALL FROM A COACH! Her name was Roxie and she was very nice and informative. She says I should focus less on the pounds and more on the inches. She says although it's still a bit early to tell, but I may be the 'inch losing type' vs. the 'pound losing type'. I told her I did noticing my work slacks fitting a little differently, and all my extra fat feeling more.......soft? blubbery? She says although Roca Labs will make me feel full much quicker, I still need to get the calories in. Eat more, healthier and more often to keep my metabolism going all day she says. She also says I absolutely must have at least 1000 calories or else I'll probably even gain weight. She admits it's true that those who consumed tons of unhealthy calories to begin with will lose much more and faster than I, but she says my weight WILL COME OFF. Don't give up! She even said I can check back in at the end of my first month (in about 1.5 weeks) and ask for her specifically and we'll catch up on my progress. Who says Roca Labs has bad customer service?!

All in all, I lost half a pound in just one day! I know, it's teeny tiny compared to others but for me, that's good. Especially considering how stuffed I felt. So I'm down 5lbs in 19 days, that puts me at 176lbs. I'm very happy, I'm back on track, losing weight and feeling VERY satisfied. This isn't a diet at all!

I'm going to start a protein powder tomorrow. I went to Walmart (yes I'm cheap) and actually found a really high quality one! It's called the "Body Fortress Super Advanced Whey Isolate".



It's only got 130 calories each scoop, 0.5g of fat, 1g of carbs, <1g of sugar and a whopping 30g of protein! It's like a fancy pancy expensive health store protein! It's basically pure protein. It was about $22-23 at Walmart. I'm very happy with it and got it in the Vanilla Crème flavor so I can use it to blend with my morning smoothie (which I plan to do from now on so I can have my metabolism start going before lunch, which used to be my first meal).


Tomorrow: 2 Hydroxycut & 1 Raspberry Ketone; half purple dose of Roca Labs; strawberry banana smoothie w/ 1 scoop of protein; as much as I want of a Costco blueberry muffin (I know it's bad but it's going to rot if I don't eat them); stuffed peppers for dinner!