4 Months into Maintenace and the 90 day opt out

4 months into weight maintenance:
There are no magic fairies, just good old fashioned work

• 1.5 Pounds below my maintenance goal
• 73.6 pounds lost and kept off for four months
• Ave walking per day is 8,000-11,000 steps

Short term goal met:

• 90 day opt out, as described in Refuse to Regain book, by Barbara Berkeley, MD = complete 

What worked

1. Using 90 days to get my food and exercise routine down pat
2. Tracking my weight daily.
3. Tracking my food daily, if I wanted to remain below goal
4.  Eating Primarian/Paleo 90% of the time
5.  Using Medifast or other gluten, mostly sugar free treats for the other 10%
6. Walking at least 45 mins per day
7. Reading weight maintenance & Paleo/Primal blogs for more learning

What gets in my way

1.  Too many almonds, pecans, or macadamia nuts
2. Too much time sitting on some days
3. My own stressing out over the perfect time to exercise
4. Dairy, causing some inflammation (as best as I can tell)
5. Lack of strength training.

The next mini- goals

1.  Maintain for 3 months, over summer
2. Build strength training in 2x per week during the summer
3. Maintain balance with my long term work goal that will keep me studying! (which means balancing my study time with cooking, exercising, family, and you know the drill.) 

The next long term goals:

1. Sign up for the National Weight Loss Registry in Feb 2013
2. Work goal complete by Dec 2012

Tracking vs Not Tracking food- the 1-2 pound difference

60 day outlook. Tracking vs Not Tracking

Okay, here's what my last 60 days of weighing daily looks like on a graph. Each white line on the Y axis (up and down) is 5 pounds.

Tracking my food on My Fitness Pal is from 3/21 to 4/14 or so. There is variation and what looks to me to be cat ears!!!

From about 4/15/ to 5/17 or so I did not track my food. I had enough experience with eating Primal/Paleo-ish, day -to-day cooking and eating, life stress, and blind trust,  confidence to give not tracking my food to take a month long break.

Only a 1-2 pound gain, that was sustained over the month. Once I started tracking again on 5/17,  I've gone back to the lower side of my maintenance range.

This whole month long experiment was to give myself a test of the robustness of my new normal and I must say, I passed!!  Awesomeness. My clothes don't fit any difference and as long as I stick to my new, normal way of eating, I can safely not track, if I choose.

What it also may mean to me, is that if I need to loose weight, I will likely need to track my intake again. Really nice to know that I've got that range of control and choice right now.

Weigh Daily = Weight Maintenance Sucess

3 months and one week into maintenance.  Staying steady at a 73 pound loss. About and pound an half down from my goal weight.  "Within normal tolerance and meeting my own acceptability criteria, no shifts or trends noted" says the scientist within me. LOL.

I have to say that daily weighing has been hands down one of the best tools I could use in maintenance. Some of my maintainer friends weigh in daily, and at first, I thought it was too number focused. After reading Refuse to Regain (Barbara Berkeley, MD) and reading more maintenance blogs, I did find a sub group of maintainers that weigh daily.

Right now, I like to look at the points on My Fitness Pal graph as "data" and take a step back from it. Is the spike cause by eating too many macadamia nuts, almond butter, or a salty meal? Normal hormone variation? Stress eating?  No real good reason at all? Catch up from last week? Some of it correlates, some is a mystery. Always will be.

Anyhoo,  I have been able to take a few steps back, look at it as data on a graph, assess what's going on and most importantly move on from it no matter what. Because too much analysis = paralysis. Life goes on and is not about the number on the scale.

I do want to nip any corkscrew, slow shifts, or (heaven forbid) rapid ascents in the bud. I really liked this article on the Refuse to Regain site Pivot, Corkscrew, Ascent: When to Panic   I've done both the corkscrew and rapid ascents. Neither are fun or good. So I'll stick to my daily weighing habit.

How often do you weigh in? What do you do if you've shifted or trended up?

Almost 3 month maintenance check-in 4/30/2012

Almost month 3, but not quite.

Weight: Exactly at maintenance- 72.4 pounds down

Holding steady. Feeling great.

I had excellent success cooking and eating on a short vacation. Things that helped me stay on track were:

1. Bringing my own food
2. Finding a Farmer's Market and buying farm fresh eggs, heirloom tomatoes
3. Staying in an affordable hotel, with kitchenette, to make my own breakfasts and snacks
4. Taking time off for myself.
5. Hiking and walking for exercise (that was my time off)

It's all good. And much easier to hike in the heat with 72+ pounds off. Still eating mainly Primal/Paleo with a few Medifast Meals thrown in for my 10% of my diet that isn't Primal/Paleo.

My 90 days of Opting out, as described in Barbara Berkeley's "Refuse to Regain" book will be over May 25. I have to say, things are going so well, I don't see any reason not to continue. The Primal template seems sustainable. Excellent!!

Crustless Breakfast Quiche- Customizable!

Crustless Breakfast Quiche- Customizable!

Base:
1/2 cup light (or full fat) coconut milk ( I used Thai Kitchen)
5 eggs

Customizable
4 asparagus spears, with stalks trimmed, then trim into small pieces
1/2 cup red onion
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
4 slices pre-cooked bacon (I used Kirkland)
salt and pepper to taste

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Add the coconut milk and eggs to a medium bowl and mix well.

Now comes the fun part- add in what you have on hand or your favorite egg friendly add-ins, chopped up in pieces. I used asparagus, red onion, garlic, and bacon.

Mix all ingredients in the bowl. Spray or grease the pie pan and pour in the egg/vegetable mixture. Bake for 35-40 mins or longer, until the center is set.

Refrigerate left overs. I'll test the freezability of this recipe soon.

Serves 4 slices.  Nutrition :Per myfitnesspal.com and my ingredients and using light coconut milk 
 For 1 slice:

Cals- 158g

, Carbs 3,g Fat

11g, Protein

12g

, Sodium 269mg

, Sugar 2g, fiber 1 gram

Weight Maintenance 2.5 months

This is week 10 for my weight maintenance, post Take Shape for Life and eating a Primal/ Paleo style diet.

Weight:
Holding steady at 73.4 pounds lost and maintained
Variation is +/- about 3 pounds or so during a week
I did have 5 days at my highest weight maintenance zone this last week, but have dropped down.

Plan:
90 day Opt out from the book Refuse to Regain by Barbara Berkley, MD.

Basically, I eat 90% Primal/Paleo diet template, sticking on the leaner side of things, except I use healthy fats like avocado, coconut oil, macadamia nuts, and occasionally almonds. Lots of protein, veggies, 2 fruits a day, and limited healthy fats and oils.

 My customization of the template of Primal/Paleo:
I also added in some whey protein for an occasional smoothie.  For sweeter items- dried fruit- dates, golden raisins, some 85-90% chocolate- a very small amount, and finally a Medifast Meal here and there.

Upsides of life: I feel great and like I can maintain long term, added in light weight training over the last few weeks, trying new recipes like a Crustless Breakfast Quiche (recipe to follow)


Downsides of life: some work and life stress, but nothing that I can't face. Lots of time cooking and meal prep, and washing that mountain of dishes that results. ;) And, nothing that I haven't chosen to deal with by overeating. Total choice, just a lot easier by having had opted out by not introducing non-primarian foods. I'll finish my 90 day opt out period May 25, 2012 and go from there.

Life is good. Totally committed to my new normal and way of life. Just happy I'm finding the new way sustainable.

Second week of maintenance

The second week of maintenance went well. Here's the run down

Feb 3, 2012- Started Transition

Feb 19th, 2012- decided to hold off on adding dairy and added 4-6 oz of extra protein, dropping my Medifast Meals to 3 packages a day.

March 3, 2012- Knew I wasn't going to add back in wheat or grain and decided it was day 1 of Maintenance. Decided to try a 90 day opt out as described in "Refuse to Regain" by Barbara Berkeley, MD. Follow the 12 tough rules as best as possible and eat Primal with a lot of Paleo Recipes.

Weight has been +/- about 2 pounds on either side of one certain weight ( about a pound and half down from Feb 3, 2012.

Week 1 of Maintenance = total struggle and experimenting time with food and snacks, 1 Medifast Meal a day

Week 2 of Maintenance = easier and have my "go to" snacks down pretty well. Still trying new combos. Medifast Meals every other day or so, sometimes every day.

I've been trying lots of new recipes and I'll post links to my favorite blogs and recipes. I'm feeling great and rarely have cravings. Occasional times where I'll over eat nuts or the snacks or meals are larger than I'd really want to have, but easy to dial it down and trouble shoot.

I credit the lack of grains and the structure of having the 90 day opt out of non-Primal foods and the willingness to cook, pack and experiment with my meals to see what works.  Totally keeps me on track.

Egg wrap with flap steak,tomatoes, peppers, and smoke seasoning

Since I'm eating more Primal/Paleo friendly meals I needed a some variety to my breakfasts. I was also looking for a way to use South African Smoke seasoning blend from Trader Joes. So I created an egg wrap with some yummy breakfast contents I had on hand.

2 oz- Flap (Flank) steak
1 tsp olive oil
South African Smoke seasoning blend (Trader Joe's)
1/2 yellow, red, or orange bell pepper
 1 egg 2 egg whites- beaten

3/4 cup of sliced Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes (Trader Joe's)
Cilantro,
Squeeze of lime or hot sauce (if desired)

Heat the olive oil in a pan, sear the flank steak in the oil and season with the Smoke seasoning. Cook until desired done-ness.  Set aside.  Saute the bell pepper, set aside.

In the same pan, pour the egg into a thin layer. As the egg cooks (mine looked like a yellow pancake), loosen the edges, when you feel brave, flip it over to the other side, until done.

Place it on a plate, add the steak, sliced tomatoes, cilantro, hot sauce or lime, and more seasoning, if needed.  Grab a hot cup of coffee and enjoy.  This breakfast is tasty and filling.

Goal 40 weeks and the first 3 weeks of transition

I reached my goal on February3, 2012. That's 40 weeks from my May 3, 2011 start date.

Total loss was 72 pounds. Ave weekly loss was around 1.79 pounds per week. I was sooooo happy to have lost to the middle of my healthy BMI range. And I feel fabulous.

I've kept on track and gotten through the first 3 weeks of maintenance just fine, with about 2 pounds lost or so.

Here's what's next

1. Change it up a bit and week 4 will be the additional 4oz-6 oz protein
2. Move more, already starting to walk more. Add light strength training in next week.
3. Hold off on adding dairy for now
4. Never add back in wheat/gluten. Staying grain free.
5. Practice the 12 Rules in Refuse to Regain book (Barbara Berkely, MD)
6. Make & pin more recipes from Everyday Paleo cookbook (by Sarah Fragoso)
7. Plan my spring & summer garden.


Plan right now is to move into a Paleo/modified Paleo or Primarian diet- blending the two books listed above in steps 5 & 6 and finding the right balance. Probably going to always have some Medifast bars around for the times where I want a bit of chocolate or am on the go and need something for a quick hunger fix.

Life is good.