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I’ve been pretty public about my struggles with getting my weight to go back down since having a hormonal shift two years ago. I’ve worked on it for months and planned and tried, only to have trouble sticking to what I knew I needed to do. I have finally gotten over that hump, and I’m doing a 90-day challenge to help me stay motivated and accountable.
What is working for me right now is a low-carb, paleo plan without sugar, eggs or white potatoes. About half of my diet is non-starchy veggies, and I am generous with the fat. I have discovered, much to my dismay, that I might have an egg and white potato sensitivity and that sugar jut doens’t work for me in any form. I have eliminated them from my diet, and I expect that I will need to trial a completely nightshade-free diet soon. Time will tell. But for now, I remain on tomatoes and peppers. And I use stevia when needed.
I began the challenge 3 weeks ago today, and so far I have dropped about 12 pounds. I have also noticed that my inflammation issues have greatly lessened- I believe they may have disappeared entirely. I expect that the weight loss will now slow and it will take longer for each pound to come off. I’m ok with that. Slow progress is still progress.
I found found that I feel best when I eat veggies at every meal. This has meant, along with the elimination of eggs from my diet, that I’ve had to be creative in finding veggie dishes for breakfast. These days I’m eating a ton of baked veggie casseroles for breakfast, and a paleo wrap, zoodles or salad for lunch. At dinner, I create a main dish that we all can eat, then I create some veggie sides we’ll all eat, and a side that the rest of the family can have. For example, tonight we’re having almond and arrowroot-crusted chicken fingers, with a salad. I’ll have a big salad, they’ll have smaller salads. I’ll put some french fries on the side for the kids, and a little ketchup.
Challenge
The challenge is to work on your weight for a 90-day period using whatever method you find that works for you, be it real food, paleo, low-carb or another way of eating. We have a support group for the challenge that you can join here. We will be starting another challenge soon- I will post about it when it starts.
Here’s a full list of what I am doing for my own challenge:
- Nettle, red raspberry leaf and peppermint tea daily. One quart of infusion made into tea.
- Paleo diet, strictly grain and sugar-free and no egg, corn or white potatoes.
- No more than 65g carbs a day, as that is where I personally feel my best.
- Drinking half my weight in ounces of fluid daily.
- Fermented food at each meal to aid in digestion.
- Supplements from It Works: Complete Nutrition Pack, Regular, Relief, Hair Skin and Nails.
- Supplements from other companies- an additional probiotic, milk thistle and Liver Life to support hormone balancing.
- Eight or more hours of sleep each night with a consistent bedtime.
- Eat three meals a day, plus any needed snacks.
- No eating after 8pm.
I am also Instagramming my challenge, posting pictures of what I’m eating, my weight loss progress and more. You can also meet Marissa, the stray kitty who recently adopted us just before giving birth to the world’s most adorable litter of five kittens. You can follow me at forloveofadventure.
Change
A lot of weight loss is about controlling your thoughts and actions and ridding yourself of unhealthy habits. I found myself in some unhealthy patterns, including eating late at night, skipping breakfast or lunch, and other habits that were detrimental to my health. I am actively taking steps to remedy those issues and to make sure I’m eating three full meals a day.
I found that, for me, not eating a meal when I wasn’t hungry was a fast track to damaging my health. Routinely skipping breakfast or lunch was stressing my body. When you have metabolic problems, you can’t rely necessarily on hunger cues to know when you need to eat. I see what happened to my health, and I see my female friends doing the same things- stretched too thin and skipping meals, and I am concerned for their long-term adrenal and hormonal health. Time will tell if my concern is unfounded.
I’m also looking at my options for exercise to help me gain some muscle mass. I’m considering T-Tapp, but with my knee trouble I’m not sure what I should do. I will likely start by just doing a daily walk. I plan to begin Taekwando this Fall. My children attend and they love it. A dear friend has been encouraging me to go for a black belt, so I’ve decided to take the plunge.
Other lifestyle factors have been at play, too. Having a consistent schedule that would allow me to eat meals as I should has been a huge help. And reduced stress has played a role, too. I’m also now under the care of a chiropractor who does Applied Kinesiology and has been helping me make decisions.
Retire and Re-Wire
As part of the changes we are making, we have decided to retire Jeff from his day job. Now that I am in the top 1% of distributors for It Works, it costs us money for him to go to work each day instead of working with me. So we will retire him and each of us will work about 20-25 hours a week from home. This will give us substantially more family time, less stress, and time to better care for our health while earning a substantially better income.
We are also considering a move to RV-living for a year before the kids reach the age of high school. We are debt-free except for our mortgage, and we don’t really want to stay in our current home permanently. We have floated the idea to sell this house, spend a year or more in an RV touring the US and road-schooling, then return to Asheville to settle down in a home that we do want to spend the rest of our lives in.
It is, currently, a plan in the working stages, that we aren’t sure we’ll go for. As we both have aging parents, plans can always change for their sake. But even if plans change, Jeff will still be retired and we’ll have the freedom to do what we want to instead of being constrained by money and a job. To that end, we are doing a very serious decluttering of the house and trying to pare down, in case we do decide to do it. That will make the transition much less stressful.
That’s all the news in my corner of the world. I hope you’ll come join me in my quest to get healthier and live a less stressful life.
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KerryAnn, you might be interested in this blog: http://cindybsims.blogspot.com/
It’s written by the wife of my former boss. When he retired a couple of years ago they sold their house, put everything into storage, bought an RV and took off with their dog. Not quite the same as your situation as they have no kids. They focus on parks and recreational areas and do a lot of hiking. The pictures are gorgeous!
Thank you, Betsy! I’ll take a look.
Hi KerryAnn,
Your plans sound awesome! And it’s great to read about husband and wife team working together – your kids are the luckiest! 😀 I hope you all the best in all your endeavors.
I was just reading some of your old posts on oxalates in my search for handling low oxalate myself. I was wondering how your oxalate diet has gone? Have you stuck with it? Did you find lasting improvements? Thanks!
Marcella, I was unable to stick with it. The diet gave me marginal improvement over having to have a very bland and extremely restricted diet, so I decided to take another route.
Have you considered duck eggs? My understanding is that those who are allergic to chicken eggs can usually eat duck eggs. We just tried them recently and they are *amazing*!!!
I’m glad you’re putting more of the pieces of the puzzle together. My wife Kate has been on an anti sulfur diet lately because apparently she under methylates, and it’s been helping her out tremendously! Who knew?!
Thanks for sharing your experiences, KerryAnn! I’m sure there are lots of women out there who are in the same shoes as you are. Changes are part of our lives so we have to face and enjoy them.