21 Months of weight maintenance on 11-3-2013
Highest Weight: 187.4
Current weight 116.4
Goal weight range (113-117)
Months in weight maintenance: 21
Years to reach this point : 40 years
Height 5'1"
Age 47
Menopause: Yes! first year.
Thyroid disease: Yes! Balanced out since 1997
Horizontal stripes: only occasionally
What's working now:1. Daily weighing
2. Observing upward trends
3. Connecting the dots of the upward trend to inflammation related to food
4. Connecting the dots of the upward trend to colder weather
5. Keeping calm and reversing the trend, effective processes, root causes.
6. Clarity to connect the dots
What did not work in the past
1. Not weighing in until I was 10, 20, 30 pounds over weight
2. Not stopping to look at trending
3. Eating inflammatory foods
4. Blaming myself when the WW weighers LOVED to point out my 1-2 pound colder weather gain.
5. Stopping going to my weigh ins at WW because I did not have a good sense of self, self esteem and strong sense of "This is what I need to do, yes my weight is higher, it's normal OR yes, I ate some high inflammation food, it will take a few weeks for my gut to heal"
6. Brain clarity to ditch the blame and choose effective problem solving
The October 2013 scoop.
1. I intentionally and unintentionally challenged myself with some food to see if I could tolerate certain foods. I use the scale as a "poor man's allergy test" and If I see an overnight spike (not due to hormones or a salty meal) I am 90% certain that it's inflammatory for me. I'm done testing and will eat low inflammatory in Nov 2013.
2. I weigh more 1-2 pounds in the winter months, when it's cold at night. I weigh less in the summer or when I'm visiting warm climates or sleeping conditions. This is normal for me. I observe that trend and move on to other things.
Long story short: inflammatory foods
A. Pork- No can do bacon. No, no, no....
B. Spaghetti squash, pumpkin, butter nut squash, and maybe carrots. No, no, no.
C. More than 1 or two egg yolks also = inflammation
D. A-C = more hot flashes and less quality sleep
E. Licking the back of envelopes- the gum has gluten. Did you know? I walked around with "gluten belly" for a week this month on the adhesive lesson.... grrrrr. Nothing like feeling 3 months pregnant with a gluten baby. DARN it.
I'll be attending next weeks Gluten Summit- free daily presentations from Tom O'Bryan. I love his "don't do gluten in moderation" theme. I'm a living n=1 case study on this.
Also, I'm more committed to doing an Auto-Immue Protocol in Jan 2014 (or sooner). Loving Amy Myer's Podcasts on thyroid and avoiding gluten and dairy- I'm also living an n=1 case study on this.
That is all....
Look at the 1 year weight graph below. Great data. Weighing in daily gives me a good way to connect the dots and make some value based decisions. Valuable tool in my weight maintenance practice. Also in overall good health. I'm committed to keeping a low hs-CRP, good lipid profile, and good metabolic blood work overall. Onward.
You're rocking the horizontal stripes! For me sugar = hot flashes. No sugar, no hot flashes.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Susan!!! It's amazing how much the type of food matters. Good to know. I wish others would be open to experimenting themselves.
DeleteLovin a few horizontal stripes! We've earned the privilege! :)
ReplyDeleteGreat (obviously scientific approach) research/work. You rock at this, and it speaks strongly to my OCD Virgo self. Even though I'm not a scientist like you. It inspires me. :)
I never thought about cooler weather causing weight gain! Interesting concept!
Structure always works better for me. Gwen, if you are logging your weight or have the data to log it, I'd love to hear if you pick up any key learning. Thanks for stopping by
DeleteYou have done brilliantly Karen.
ReplyDeleteI notice you say that daily weighing is working now. There always seems to be two sides to this argument. Perhaps a bit unfair of me to ask as I don't weigh myself at any regular intervals, as my weight and size has been stable these past years.
But why do you find daily weighing helps? Would it not be better to say weigh each week?
I'm only asking ....what do others find helps most?
All the best Jan
Hi Jan, I think in terms of placing QA (Quality Control) and batch sizes- (Okay, the lab scientist in me is totally geeking out... ) Basically in regular terms, one week is too long for me. The emotional/binge eating brain is there, just below the surface and my mind starts to play the game.... " Oh, I don't weigh in officialy for another week, so I'll eat this grain free cookie and spend the rest of the week "working it off" or "hiding it on the scale". What really happens is I've just made a deal with the binge devil and I could be off track for days, weeks, months.
DeleteSigh.... The daily weighing is just the right frequency. Plus I would miss the immediate spikes of the inflammatory food and it would take longer to ID it.
Love your question. :) I should probably make this a whole blog post at some point. The graph smoothness would be better for overall trending and I could make incorrect decisions on food- that would be the negatives on the daily weighing for me.
I can see why daily weighing is for people who may not have the emotional/binge component.
I did not know that spaghetti squash and pumpkin could cause problems for people, but then I'm not able to eat a long list of fruits and veggies just because they give me a really bad stomachache. I'm able to eat processed food, hot peppers, corn and cabbage with no outward problems, but cannot get away with eating bananas, honey, blueberries, broccoli and several other things without paying dearly for it. Too bad we can't pick what upsets our tummies as I would pick ice cream, mayo and the like. :(
ReplyDeleteCaron, my gut health really changed after I went grain free and mostly processed sugar free. Stomach aches, gas, bloating. Once the inflammation healed then I could test what food worked for me- no on dairy and pumpkin let's say..
DeleteBut cabbage I could not eat before I healed my gut. Now without dairy doing a number on my intestines- cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower are green light go.
I love the 30 day elimination diets (think Whole30 ( The Whole 9) or 21 day diets (Practical Paleo). Long enough to both heal your gut and the reintroduction of food was 100% revealing on what was okay and what I could tolerate with a good gut bacterial going on.
I suspect that I reacted because of the inflammation and getting out the inflammatory really opened up a whole new food world to me. I own a copy of the book "It Starts with Food" by Melissa and Dallas Hartwig but I lead it out to co-workers so often I have not had it at my house for more than 1 week. That book does a great job of explaining gut health and the hormonal changes to non-scientist types. :)
Good luck and keep trying things. I had no idea gut health played such a big part in my weight control.
Lend... I lend the book out.... need more coffee..
DeleteKaren
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for answering my question.
And yes to quote you " Love your question. :) I should probably make this a whole blog post at some point."
I think it could be an interesting blog post for the future......I'll look out for it
Take care
All the best Jan
Hi Jan! Just wanted you to know that I've done a longer post about daily weighing.. deeper reasons why. Very great topic. The post will publish around 2am PST, US- so probably Monday afternoon/evening for you? Thanks again for asking your questions...
DeleteYes!! I woke up thinking about this today in the morning. It's hit blog post worthiness!!! LOL. I'm off to do home projects but look for a post in the next few days.....
ReplyDelete