Week 12 - How to be Slim

This week I wanted to try out some of the methods I saw from a YouTube documentary I recently watched on "How to be Slim". The day before I did this I ate a fatty fast food cheeseburger which made me put on just over a pound the following morning.

After putting on a good pound of weight I started my day with a fair amount of 1% milk in my All-Bran cereal after taking my 2 One A Day gummy vitamins (and I did not workout before or during this diet experiment). For lunch and dinner I had made a big pot of chicken and vegetable stew (which had chicken broth, water, chicken on the bone, mushrooms, green beans, stewed tomatoes, sriracha, pink salt, thyme, ginger, garlic, cinnamon, and black pepper just to name a few of the ingredients), and I did consume all of it by the end of the day (it was surprisingly filling). I also ate 2 slices of Ezekiel 4:9 bread (which I found a bit chewy, healthier, and denser than your average bread), drank some water throughout my day, and had a tiny bit of vanilla muesli to snack on. When I got home I had about half a glass of 1% milk with about a tablespoon of raw shredded coconut with a few tablespoons of milk chocolate carnation instant breakfast. Then I got plenty of beauty sleep, and the results the next morning during my weigh-in... unchanged.

The next day after eating normally on my diet again... I dropped a pound. In my opinion, even if you're consuming low-fat dairy the people in the study consumed a liter a day so to me it seems they aren't really losing extra fat but rather all the fat from the dairy. No one in the video study noted having lost any weight during the dairy consumption and unlike the rest of the video they didn't show a before and after x-ray of their body fat. I personally use to consume mass amounts of dairy before this year and it noticeably didn't contribute to any significant weight-loss. Not to mention when women in Africa want to get bigger before there wedding day (unlike most Americans who want to be slimmer), they seriously sit around in hiding drinking gallons of milk (whole fat I'd wager), and it seriously does work to make them bigger. Also if it's the calcium helping people to consume less calories, than people on multivitamins with calcium should also experience weight loss, and I don't recall seeing those pill bottles claiming to help anyone lose weight or reduce fat. Not to mention I have met people who switched out milk for non-dairy options and they actually started losing weight.

Overall I don't think I'd go out of my way to consume more dairy but I feel a regular healthy diet with proper portions and a normal amount of dairy consumption should allow for weight-loss in general.

Week 11 - Q and A

This week I wanted to take time to answer some questions on my new lifestyle, and if you have anymore questions feel free to drop me a comment below.

Q: How often do you workout?
A: I workout 2-3 times a week which happens right after I wake-up and before I eat. I like to have at least a day between each day I workout, nothing consecutive thus far.

Q: Do you workout your upper body?
A: I am going to start getting into this very soon and do around 5-10 minutes of lifting before I do my walking. It is actually important to lift before walking.

Q: Do you eat before, after, or both on the days you workout?
A: I've read it's actually better to workout when you wake-up and do it before you eat, otherwise you're just burning off the food you just ate. I also find I sometimes get tired after eating or get indigestion if I eat before I workout. I do however drink a bottle of water during my workout/walk. If I did eat before I exercised then I would just eat a small piece of fruit or granola bar.

Q: What do you eat after you workout?
A: I'll usually have a breakfast shake since it can be quickly digested after a workout and contains lots of vitamins and such, or I like to have some type meal with a lot of protein like eggs, meat, etc.

Q: Do you take any pills/supplements?
A: I do currently take 2 One A Day gummy vitamins a day, and if I didn't have trouble swallowing large pills I'd prefer taking them in pill form. I should be taking an iron, D3, and thyroid pill daily but I've yet to get a blood test done this year. I am hoping since I now eat healthier and I'm taking some form of multivitamin that my blood test and blood pressure will have improved.

Q: Do you ever have any cravings?
A: I didn't have any real cravings until this week to be honest and I was craving things like... chocolate, coconut water, almond butter, and diet coke. I eat all of those things now but on a healthier level (whole food type almond butter and dark chocolate), with the exception of soda as I try to stay away from that.

Q: Is there anything you can't eat?
A: I'm allergic to sour citrus fruit and it's seriously hard to avoid lemon in foods because people throw lemons into your glass of water, squeeze it on your seafood, sometimes its hidden in processed foods like tv dinners, salsa, guacamole, chips, teas, etc. I've also noticed I can't drink tea or wine, but it's because I have GERD.

Q: Since you can't eat sour citrus fruits (lemon, lime, orange) how do you get Vitamin C?
A: I do take a multivitamin as I mentioned before but lots of other healthy foods contain Vitamin C in general. I do buy some organic canned papaya in pineapple juice as papaya actually contains more Vitamin C than an orange. I've found that Camu Powder is an awesome superfood if you're really lacking in Vitamin C (although I'm not lacking in it).

Q: Is there any organic packaged/pre-made health food you don't like?
A: Fruit juices. They always taste kind of stale to me so, I'd much rather blend together fresh fruits (it's more beneficial that way).

Q: How do you stay motivated?
A: Just keeping a blog like this one or even being on a site that allows you to track weight or share your weight-loss results can help give you motivation. Looking at photos of slim figured people or seeing stylish clothing being worn that I could never wear because of my size. Being single for a long time now and questioning if it's really because of my weight. Wanting to take better care of myself on the inside. Not wanting people to look at me assuming that I'm lazy just because of my weight. Overall I stay motivated to do this because I want to be healthier and be the best me that I can.

Shamrock Shake

I have seen a ton of shamrock inspired shakes trending this year, and this one is an old simple recipe of mine for creating a healthy mint "shamrock shake" which is absolutely perfect for St. Patrick's Day. This recipe is even tasty if you have the Carnation Instant Breakfast in milk chocolate. You could also try using just any type of powdered vanilla protein shake mix if you don't happen to have what I used to make this one.

1 Packet -  Carnation Instant Breakfast, french vanilla
1 Cup - Milk (or similar)
1/2 Cup - Ice, crushed
1/8 Tsp - Pure Mint Extract
10 Drops - Food Coloring, green *Optional*

Add all the ingredients into a blender, blend until combined, and serve in a glass. I topped this drink off with a dusting of raw shredded coconut(extra fine) and a sprig of fresh mint.

Happy St. Patrick's Day Everyone!

Week 10 - Learning Process

These past few weeks have definitely been a learning experience for myself. Now that I eat healthier I do feel that my taste buds have perhaps changed a little bit, but I also find lots of organic foods which I enjoy eating and combine into my daily meals. I don't eat completely organic and personally I think it's a lot of non-sense to an extent, but I do mainly try to eat wholefoods and also incorporate some amount of superfoods into my daily diet.

Having lost over 15 lbs now, I feel like most of the weight-loss I've gone through this year has been because I don't really eat fast food and drink soda anymore. The little bit of exercise I do every week I do feel helps the weight-loss move along. I'm not in a contest to lose weight rapidly and this is not a fade diet for myself, and I feel the slower you can lose weight the slower the weight tends to creep back on which is why I mainly aim to lose 1-2 lb a week now, but I don't strictly force myself to really lose a definite amount regardless of what goals I may try and set for myself on here.

I knew about calories and counting them before, but I didn't take much into consideration of the quality of foods I would eat in order to provide my body with real nutrition. For example, a person can eat 2000 calories from fast food cheeseburgers while another person can consume 2000 calories from vegetables. A body that eats healthier is going to process foods more efficiently, where a fatty diet is going to cause poor bodily function and fat buildup overtime. Although you can still gain weight from either diet it's how your body is gaining this weight that really transforms it internally. You also shouldn't stress over the scale everyday, weight fluctuates constantly whether you just ate, had a lack of sleep, went to the bathroom, worked out, etc. If your weight hasn't changed at all within a months time, than you probably do need to make some more changes to your life to get results and/or seek help from a doctor, and I would recommend getting a blood test and testing your blood pressure just to make sure your body is getting the vitamins and such that it needs.

Some movies that helped change my outlook on food last year was one available on Netflix called "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" which my cousins had told me about. The movie "Food, Inc." is another interesting food movie on the meat we eat. A popular movie for those that eat fast food is "Super Size Me" which shows a healthy fit guy turn his life into a fast food diet. One last movie I want to mention that isn't completely about food is the movie "The Cove" which is based in Japan (what's really in that can of tuna?). If anyone has any other interesting health or food related movies then drop me a comment below.

Skin Detox Bath

Skin is the biggest living organ on your body so it's very important to treat it with care. If you have a yellow coloring to your skin this can help to remedy that, and it can help to detox the body. Raw Apple Cider Vinegar (make sure you use RAW Apple Cider Vinegar for this) has cleansing and skin healing properties, and it works better for detox when combined with epsom salt. Epsom salt contains the magnesium which our bodies need but don't always get, and it can help with minor aches and pains. I like to use Dr. Bronners liquid castile soap in lavender (although they do have the mild unscented variety for those with allergies and/or sensitive skin) because this is made up of natural oils which breaks down dirt and body oil on the skin. I usually like to do this detox right after my workout as the pores are more open from sweating. I like to do this detox bath at least once a week, but you could probably do it up to 3x a week if you wanted although try to only exfoliate once every week or every other week to allow new skin cells to heal and redevelop after exfoliating. Also, if you suffer from a few lingering pounds than this may help you sweat a little bit more off and help to tone up your body.

1/4 Cup - Raw Apple Cider Vinegar

1/4 Cup - Epsom Salt
1/2 Tub - Hot/Warm Water

1-2 Tbsp - Dr. Bronners liquid castile soap

Add all the ingredients to a hot running bath and close the shower curtain or door to try and retain heat and steam from the hot water which will further open the skins pores. Cleanse/soak for around 15-30 minutes (or longer if you like). Submerse as much of yourself as you can in the tub water, you may need a cup to pour tub water over yourself. Use a natural loofah with some more of the soap to exfoliate the body and remove dead skin cells. Massage your legs and such to help relax the muscles. Drain tub and shower off with cool/cold water to seal the skins pores closed, and then dry off.

Try to avoid too much sun exposure after the detox bath. If skin feels too dry after the cleanse use an organic skin moisturizer like olive oil, coconut oil, etc.

Week 9 - Goals

For the past two months now I have been setting weight-loss goals for myself and it was a little bit of a downer to not meet my February goal, but I do feel it is important for myself to continue to lose some amount of weight every month. That being said I think this March is going to be my last official big weight-loss goal because I do want to get down to my ideal "fat weight" (as I call it) since that's the weight I was at for many years until these past few years had taken its toll on me (and I am going to do my best to meet that goal this month). By April I think I am just going to try and set permanent weight-loss goals, which will be me trying to lose 3-4lb every month but ultimately I'd like to lose at least 40lb this year.

From my heaviest weight I'm actually down about 18lb now, which puts me around 5lb away from my ideal "fat weight" goal. Honestly until I get under 200lb (which really shouldn't be much longer now) I don't feel like I have really lost any weight. That may not make sense to anyone but I feel like when you're a certain weight for so long that people just get use to seeing you as that weight, so for me I feel a bit unchanged still. Maybe that's because I can now go back to my old clothes fitting properly and it's my old self... which isn't where I want to stay in terms of my weight-loss because according to my BMI I should weight at least 145lb to be considered "healthy".

Do I ever see myself weighing 145lb? Definitely not, I guess because that weight seems very far away from where I am now. I also realize that a lot of people no matter how hard they feel they work toward their weight-loss goals they may never actually reach their calculated BMI. Even if I weighed 145lb, I am a fairly curvy woman (hourglass type shape) and at 5'4 I would probably only get down to a size 12/14... unlike most people who seem to get down to a size 6/8 generally (and I'm currently an 18/20). I don't think I have weighed 145lb since I was probably 14 years old, and I have never been considered slim or skinny through my entire life really. If I ever did reach 145lb that would be amazing, and the least amount I should ever weight would be no less than 124lb.

By now you're probably wondering what my exact heaviest weight was, or perhaps you can already figure it out by this post. So I tell you what, when I reach under 200lb (or 199.9lb to be exact) I will share with you my heaviest and starting weight of 2014. Until then, keep coming back for more of my healthy lifestyle changes for 2014!

Happy Fat Tuesday Everyone!

Banana Oat Pancakes

These thin pancakes taste a lot like banana bread and make for a tasty breakfast option. Credit goes to AlishaMarie on Youtube for the original recipe I based this off of (although I did make some minor changes).

100 g - Banana
1 Large - Egg
1/4 Cup - Whole Grain Oats

1 Pinch - Cinnamon, ground
1/4 Cup - Berries *Optional*
1 Tbsp - Organic Honey *Optional*

Add the banana, egg, cinnamon, and oats into a blender, blend until combined. Set stove to a low-medium heat. Pour about 1/4 Cup of batter into the heated skillet. Flip pancake over using a spatula once the edges look matte (pancake should be golden brown on the underside) and allow the other side to cook until golden brown. Once cooked plate the pancakes. Top with some honey and garnish with some berries of your choosing.

Nutrition Info without berries or honey added.