On Fasting

I recently watched a bbc documentary on fasting.  I was intrigued.  Lately I have been eating like a weight lifter which is great because I lift weights.  But also making bad choices and drinking (probably too much).  I sprained an ankle on 4 June to add to my situation.  At the end of the summer I was 160#.  That is 11 or 9 # over what I am allowed.  With that came a 215# PR on my deadlift and I hit my 120 on the bench and even 3 sets of 10 reps at 100#.  So basically strength wins totally happening.  But I know that although I have a lot of muscle I also have a lot of fat.  Now to find balance or refocus my goals or something.  I have a new short term goal to drop excess weight in the form of fat so I will be experimenting with my diet for the next few months clearly what I am doing is good for my strength but I need to adjust to drop weight.  

Some of these thoughts occurred to me while on my fast.  See my fast made me think. That is probably a good thing.  

So why fast.  I felt puffy, full, lethargic, gassy, and my body wasn't processing food correctly.  I rapidly gained the last 5 lbs of that weight during a cruise.  I decided I needed a cleanse.  Then I had to decide what kind of cleanse.  I tried a juice fast once a few years ago and weight came off for like 5 minutes.  I decided I could modify that to get some additional nutrients.  

I watched the documentary eat, fast, and live (I think) it's on YouTube and I decided it's worth a shot.  I need something dramatic.  I eat lots of veggies good meat not much bread or dairy already maybe I just need to do something dramatic to get my body to respond.  

2 plus day liquid fast it is.  Modified juice fast.  I drank water, detox tea, not senna tea though, juice (that I made one green and one red a day), juice plus shakes with coconut water, and broth both bone broth (I made) and organ stock (also homemade).  I fasted 62 hours or so.  I am about to break my fast but really not hungry. I walked, cleaned house, and stretched during this first fast and took detox baths both with a seaweed powder and rosemary essential oil.

I feel incredible.  I expected lethargy and hanger.  I got just good.  I feel really good.  I drank slowly and usually my meal would take about a half hour to an hour to finish.  

I will do this again.  I plan to incorporate several fast days into my week (2-3) and I think a couple vegetarian days and a couple paleo days.  I will have at least one day where I can just eat the type of foods I want at will but I want to play with the rest a bit and see how I feel.  

I thought fasting was nuts.  I love how I feel right now.  At one point I thought paleo and vegetarian diets were nuts.  I think it all has possibly a time and place in my diet.  I want to check it all out.  

Kombucha

Years ago (8 I think) I tried what I still think was Kombucha.  I was at s health food store on South Congress in Austin, TX.  I took a sip and what looked and felt like a jellyfish as it appears on the beach went down my throat.  I gagged and tossed it out.  I vowed never again would I partake of this disgusting product.  

Ha ha.  Fast forward to 2015.  I am doing all these things that are improving my fitness level dietary and physical training changes.  I feel amazing.  

A couple weeks ago I tried Kombucha again.  I liked it.  No jellyfish down my throat.  An enjoyable experience with an interesting flavor.  I have had digestive issues from gas to sluggishness over the years so probiotics are definitely a good thing for me.  Eating clean really does a lot all on its own, but probiotics can't hurt in addition to dietary choices.  

I guess my point is, I said never again then changed my mind as my physical needs and tastes changed.  

If there is something you tried in the past and thought never again, maybe try it again as your tastes and experiences change.  

March Madness Fitness Challenge

My coworkers and I decided to have a team fitness challenge for the month of March.  31 days.  31 points possible.  We get a point each day we participate in at least 30 minutes of physical activity.  

It's pretty cool.  

The activity can be pretty much anything.  Cardio, strength, flexibility you just have to move for 30 minutes.  The intent is to hold one another accountable and improve our physical fitness.  It's great to have people to encourage and motivate you to do better and to be better.  At the end of March the winner gets to display a super cool trophy on his or her desk for the month of April.  We'll start a new challenge April first.  I love it!  At this point my peers just want to beat me since I am already active on a regular basis and that's cool.  I enjoy motivating people to want to do better, even just to beat me.  

I decided why not share this cool experiment with more friends.  I opened a Facebook Group March Madness Fitness Challenge to do just that.  I am pumped, excited and super motivated to see the great results we will all have with consistency, accountability, and encouragement!  

Let's do this!

Whole30 Round Two

Round two of Whole30 has been so easy.  I am almost halfway through my 30 days without really thinking bout it.  Day 13.  I think I got some headaches from sugar or caffeine the first week, coconut butter is a great solution and I keep it close all the time.  I sleep great.  I am not missing my wine.  Full transparency, I think about wine occasionally and had at least one night where I was dealing with something that upset me and I thought for a minute this is when I want wine, Alfredo, and chocolate.  But I knew it wasn't what I really needed.  I needed to stretch, accept the comfort friends and family offered, pray and rest.  

I am doing 2 a days this round.  Before work on work days I stretch, walk or run and after work I lift or stretch.  I am taking time to rest as well, I need balance.  Yesterday I got my first massage in months.  It was amazing.  I needed the massage and full rest day.  Today and for the next 2 days I go pretty hard in the gym.  Tuesday I will run in the morning and rest in the afternoon.  

My body puffed up during the last week or two that I was off Whole30.  I was making poor nutrition choices, drinking wine and beer daily, enjoying cheese every day, and my veggie consumption was way down.  I also wasn't in the gym much for that whole month.  A couple times a week vice a couple rest days a week.  

For me, bread and cheese makes me lethargic.  I don't know how it affects you, but I have to listen to my body.  I cannot say that I won't make a deliberate choice to have dairy and bread in my life.  I mean come on, really.  But it'll be a treat I will deliberately make in order to enjoy the taste not like the last week or two before I went Whole30 this time, I was out to binge on baked goods, chocolate, dairy, bread, and wine or beer.  I don't understand why I wanted to do that.  It was a week and a half or two weeks of poor choices.  

The aftermath was terrible I did not like looking in the mirror.  I put on 3-5 pounds but that doesn't really give the complete picture.  I went from lean and pretty smooth in my clothes and without them to very puffy and fleshy.  I had rolls where they hadn't been before my binge.  It is shocking how fast my body swells when I make those choices.  It is back to normal after about an equal amount of time making choices that fuel instead of fill.  I want to see where I can take my body before my next Birthday.  

I want to continue 2 a days and primarily feed myself paleo until then.  But I won't do another challenge for a while.  I just want to maintain a consistent clean diet and exercise routine.  I have my first half marathon of the running season on March 1st.  

Another 17 days of my January Whole30 challenge and I am stoked.  I love broccolini, just tried it yesterday for the first time.  I also incorporated smoked oysters for a light meal in a pinch.  I re-discovered sauerkraut.  I am very excited about how this challenge wakes up my tastebuds introduces me to new foods and challenges my imagination and helps me to open up to options I hadn't considered for my diet.  There is so much you can do with your foods interesting flavor and color combinations, it's divine.  

I also feel so liberated from counting calories.  It's exhausting to always worry about calories in versus calories out.  How many calories are in the pizza and beer I just consumed and what do I have to do to work it off.  Booh!  I don't want to think of my food that way and I don't want my exercise to be punishment for eating.  Exercise is fun.  It makes me feel good.  It wakes me up in the morning better than coffee and transitions my day from MAJ Dufour to Bettye.  Exercise is its own pleasure, reward, therapy not a punishment.  Food is not something to feel guilty about.  Even *GASP* a cupcake or cookie with no redeeming qualities is not something to regret or feel guilty about.  It kind of ruins your enjoyment of the treat if afterward if you are going to feel guilty and bad about yourself.

I don't mean to come off preachy.  I am just learning about food and exercise using my body, hormones, emotions, feelings, sleep cycle, and energy level as my new scale for what to put in my body and how to exercise to get the best I can out of me.  

I am incredibly blessed to have the time, financial resouces, energy, and health to be able to conduct this science experiment on myself.  

Whole30 Day 30

I am happy to say, I feel great.  

Because, I travel today to see family I went ahead and finalized my weight and measurements and I am writing my final blog for this iteration of my Whole30 cleanse / recage.  

In total honesty, I think after my 3-6 hour drive to Pennsylvania I will have a glass of wine.  I will not feel guilty for that or anything crazy.  I made it.  I was able to analyze my relationship with food to include sugar, dairy, processed food products, fats, protein, vegetables, fruit, and alcohol during a science experiment I conducted on myself.  It was great and my diet choices are changed moving forward.  I have learned a better way to nourish my body and I really love feeling healthy.  

I lost 5 pounds and an inch and a half off my waist and hips (each).  That said, the scale is not a good indication of my success because I have muscular changes and more definition I have never had in my life.

I plan to take care of my body through the holidays but not to stress out about food.  If I want a quesadilla and a margarita, I am going to have it.  I just won't eat like that everyday.  My biggest dietary win is that I won't have the processed garbage like cheese nips in the house to binge on at 9 or 10 pm after I have had a few glasses of wine.  It ruins my sleep.  I like sleep.  It doesn't feed my body and it negates some of the energy I am spending in the gym.  

I don't have to have a beer when I get home from the gym.  Sparkling water is good, hydrates better than beer and supports better sleep.  I really like my sleep.  

Whole30 has been a wonderful journey for me and I plan to do a second round starting January 5th.  Why, you may ask - well I know I am about to totally mess up the reintroduction phase.  There is just no way I can foresee to do justice to reintroduction as I cross the threshold into the holidays.  I am ok with that.  I just really want to experience that phase properly so I can best ID what foods negatively impact me in a controlled environment adding one item and then another like the book says.  

I feel I learned many valuable lessons about myself and food over the last month but I think round two will be even more illuminating.  

For the next month, my blog will focus on holidays, social engagements, restaurants, bars, family, friends and fun.  I am sure food and exercise will slip in.  They are an important part of my life.  

Until next time.  

There is nothing I can do right now to make up for yesterday or perfect tomorrow; so I will just live today the best way I can so tomorrow's yesterday brings a smile.  

Bettye

  

Whole30 and cravings

Yesterday was day 26 of my Whole30 Challenge.  I can honestly say through most of this challenge eating paleo clean has not been very difficult.  I haven't felt like I needed to eat sugar, bread and cheese or die!  Got to have a "drank" now or freak out.  It is surprising to me but this forth week was the most challenging.  

Maybe not such a surprise.  It's the week of my "woman's curse" LOL.  I got a cold sore.  I had two major meetings to prep the boss for.  I didn't get the info to research so I could prep the boss till the last minute.  The info changed multiple times at the very last minute.  

I worked super hard in the gym Tuesday and Wednesday so Thursday I had to rest to let my muscles recover so they'd be ready to go.  Yesterday, I spent over an hour standing outside the Pentagon in heels, a skirt, jacket and short sleeve shirt waiting for the shuttle that never came.  It was 39 degrees out and I was not dressed for spending time outside in it. I cannot make this up.  Finally we called someone in the office to pick us up walked to the other side of the building on painfully frozen feet still in those heels where he could get us.  My muscles were super tight and I was exhausted from that adventure so I gave myself a second consecutive rest night.  I came home to warm up and eat.  Totally needed it.  Then I was in bed early and slept for about 10 hours.  I feel like I made the right choice.  

What amuses me is that the time spent suffering in the cold made me crave pasta, dairy, and wine.  The stress the day before made me want a glass of wine.   I gave myself sparkling mineral water in a wine glass and it totally hit the spot both days.  Last night bison and sweet potato made me feel amazing, better that the fettuccine Alfredo with wine would have, if I remember correctly.  

I look forward to making zoodles and paleo Alfredo sauce but I want to wait until I finish the Whole30.  I know it may seem silly because I think the recipe is compliant but it's also a substitution and I just want to give it a bit more time.  Can't wait bake some paleo friendly pumpkin protein bars!  

I think this is 30 days because you really need that long to face all the emotional ups and downs you face during a month long period.  I know that some people think I am doing a fad diet or extreme diet but unless eating good, delicious, healthy, whole foods is faddish and extreme I think this is a lifestyle I will really enjoy.  I will obviously drink when I want to, when not on a challenge, but I was drinking too many empty calories with dangerous sugars.  It was definitely negatively impacting all the work I was doing in the gym. I want to see the work I am doing in the gym reflected on my body.  The way to do that is to properly fuel my body with food that nourishes it.  

Yesterday was the first cupcake that tempted me.  It was the Sprinkled bacon on top.  Um amazing!  That said, I didn't eat it or feel deprived.  I had a yummy cup herbal tea and my breakfast of ground lamb and broccoli.  

I am excited that I looked some cravings in the face over the last couple days.  I am delighted that I was able to see them for what they were, an emotional response to negative stimulus, not a real desire for something sweet in the morning or a plate of creamy pasta in the evening with a glass of rich deep red wine.  I want to enjoy those foods and drinks when I genuinely want the food or drink not when it is my emotional knee jerk reaction to negative stimulus, stress, or whatever.  

I am blessed that I can separate a genuine food craving from an emotional knee jerk reaction that leads me to shovel food in my face or drink a bottle of wine.  I am grateful for my Whole30 experience.

Whole30 week three complete

Today was day 21 of my Whole30 challenge.  It was a good day.  I completed a 12K and didn't give myself the pizza and beer I normally give myself when I finish a fairly long race.  I even went out to brunch and didn't have my standard mimosa.  3rd weekend with no cheats or non-compliant treats.  

I am ready to finish the challenge.  It's great to do the challenge.  It's fantastic to kick bad habits and unhealthy food relationships.  I really feel like I am going to adopt a primarily paleo diet after this.  This challenge has definitely opened my eyes to how food makes me feel.  I feel so much better when I fuel my body with delicious whole foods lots of veggies and meat.  Bread hasn't been as tempting lately, cake, pie, brownies, cupcakes and other treats haven't been either.  That is not to say that I am not totally looking forward to a delicious treat when this 30 days comes to close.  I just have to decide what delicious treat I want.  

I don't know about weight loss or anything like that.  I guess, I will find out next Wednesday.  At the end of the day though that wasn't why I did this.  I wanted to see if I would sleep better, have less pain, feel more energized, have better wins in the gym and I wanted my digestive system to operate better.  I am sleeping better, my gym wins ROCK, I don't experience gas as frequently (it was pretty constant before to be honest), I feel great most of the time.  The real cool thing is I listen to my body either way though, sometimes my body wants / needs a day to do nothing but nap and rest.  I honor my needs. 

I don't think I recognized my needs very clearly before.  I definitely got out of the habit of fueling my body with high quality food.  I am excited to go out to eat but I really love the food I make myself so takeout crap is so much less appealing than it had become.  That's a good win.  

I have one more weekend with not non-compliant treats.  I know now it is really no problem doing it.  That feels great!  

Until next time.  

Bettye

My dinner tonight, ground lamb, a bowl of salad greens with lemon and olive oil, cabbage and cherries for dessert.  Yummers!