Fad Diet vs Way of Eating ?

 I've tried many of them. Probably too many to even remember but yes, I've been a regular visitor of the fad diet. Some have "worked" and many have not. I put "worked" in quotations because even though I lost the weight while I was on the diet, I could not sustain the diet and ended up quitting and thus gaining the weight all back and then some. 

Of all the Fad Diets that I've done, I've only had success with 2 of them. The first was Weight Watchers back in 2003. I started the diet after I had my second son and when I was able to really focus on myself. I had 1 year of maternity leave from work so I could dive deep into books, blogs, community forums and do all the research that I need to be successful. It worked. I lost the weight and felt amazing. However, when I returned to work, the weight started to creep back on. I was back working downtown with an hour commute each way and often too tired to make healthy lunches or even healthy dinners. Working a full day and then having to become "mom" when I got home meant that I didn't make time for myself to go to WW meetings or take care of myself. Little by little the lbs crept back on. 

The 2nd "fad" diet that I have had success with was the Keto diet. At first, my goal with this diet was to remove the sugars and white foods from my diet (rice, flour, bread etc) in hopes that it might kick start some sort of lb droppage. I started the Keto diet on my birthday in 2018.  There were ups and downs and I've fallen off so to speak a few times as well, but for the most part, I have kept the weight off with this diet and not only that, it's honestly been the easiest diet that I have ever done. I'm not even going to call it a diet anymore, it's a way of eating for me. 

The issue for me now is that I've stalled. I've been at the same weight for almost a year. It wavers up and down a few lbs but pretty much the same weight. 

I do have a few lbs that I want to lose, mainly for health reasons in that I do believe I can get off my bp meds if my weight drops by another 10-15 lbs. That's all I want!!! 10-15 lbs!!! It's so hard though. 

On the weekend I started reading the book " The Obesity Code - unlocking the secrets of weight loss " by Dr. Jason Fung. Yes, Jason Fung is a supporter of intermittent fasting and keto, which was likely why I chose to read his book. I'm only a little ways into it but it's opening up my eyes about weight, weight loss and how our bodies function.  After dieting for the majority of my life, I do believe I'm an expert on the subject. I believe I know how to diet, it's just putting the plan into motion that is often the tricky part.  The main focus on this book is how insulin works in our bodies which I have NEVER really paid attention to. I have to admit, I've always only thought of insulin as an issue for diabetics, but that is not the case. It's opening my eyes a bit. 

Maybe this book will help provide me with the answers or at least some hints on what I can do to drop the last few lbs and even if I can't drop the last lbs, maybe I'll learn other things to help me lead a healthier life. 

Being A Mom

It was Mother's Day yesterday and I had a lovely day. The boys spent the day at home and we hung out in the backyard and just chatted and shared stories. 

My eldest made me breakfast in the morning and then we went for a walk with the dog. My youngest did the grocery shopping with hubby and I absolutely loathe grocery shopping so that was amazing!!  

Being a mom has been the greatest gift I could have ever received. I love my boys more than anything in this world and cannot imagine a day without them. I hope and pray for the day that they have families of their own and I can be a grandma to babies. 

Being a mom has not always been easy though. Growing up my boys were easy and I was so thankful for that. If anyone had warned me before I had kids, that when they hurt, you hurt 10x as much, I wouldn't have believed them. If they told me that when they leave in their car or with their friends, there is a pit in my stomach that worries about them until they are back home safely under my roof, I would have thought they were crazy.  Knowing that I cannot do everything for them, to make life easier and that they have to learn to succeed and fail on their own, is very hard to do. 

Although my boys are both just starting their adult lives I hope I have given them the tools to function on their own and be good humans. I hope I have taught them the following:

• respect everyone
• it's ok to not always win (succeed) 
• successes and failures in life are just lessons
• keep close to family 
• appreciate what you have and not what you don't have
• never compare your life to someone else's
• you never know what someone else is going through so it's not fair to judge them
• make good choices 

 My mom died when I was young - only 24, but every single day of my life I try my best to do and act the way that she expected me to. 

If I'm a fraction of the mom that she was to me, I think I'm doing a pretty good job. 

Monday Musings in May

Welp, my plan to not focus on the number on the scale, seems to have back fired slightly. I'm not off the rails just yet, but I do see a familiar downward spiral in motion that I need to get control of right away. 

A few weeks ago, or maybe even longer than that, I decided that I was not going to worry about the number on the scale anymore. It can be an obsession of mine and I know that I need to be happy with myself, regardless of the weight or the number. Things started off well. I was moving more, loving my body and how my clothes fit. Not worrying about the number so much. I still weighed almost daily but I honestly did not care if the number fluctuated. I just accepted it going up or down. Funny enough that it stayed within a 2 lb range. 

But as history has shown, if I don't worry about the number, my pea brain seems to think that I can just let stuff slide. I stopped tracking my food intake and then started allowing snacks and treats and SUGAR back into my life.  It all went down hill a few weeks ago when we took a few days off of work and went out for lunch, then dinner, then it was hubby's birthday..... 

I need to reign it in cause the number on the scale was something scary!! 

May is typically a good month for me but also can be very challenging with son's birthday, mother's day and my birthday to wrap things up at the end of the month. For these reasons, I am going to pull out the old food tracker and get back the control of my eating and drinking. 

I don't want to set a goal of X number of lbs to lose because that is just a disaster for me typically and if I don't lose X, then I'm a failure even though I know well enough that I cannot control the number on the scale. 

So my goal for this month is to continue my home work outs and to go back to tracking food. I know there will be a few slip ups with the upcoming celebrations this month but that's ok. As long as I'm in control for the rest of the days, I should be fine. 

One day I might be able to not care about the number on the scale, but for now, I need it for accountability and that's ok. 

Summer Bucket List

To make this summer a little more exciting, I want to create a little bucket list of things I want to do or achieve this summer.

Some are health driven and some are just for fun. 

1. Paddle board in the ocean. I've never paddle boarded in our ocean, only been on a lake, but I want to give the ol' Pacific a try this summer.  The ocean freaks me out a bit mainly cause ours here is not that vibrant blue that you picture in your mind when you see the ocean. Ours is dark, a little grey and scary. 

2. longish bike trips. We have ordered our ebikes and I'm so excited to get them. I want to take a trip to  White Rock Pier (33K) and then eventually vancouver island (90KM). Hopefully the bikes are not too delayed. They were supposed to arrive mid may, but now looks like mid June. :(  We have vacation booked the last week of June, so hopefully we will have by then. 

3. Park Picnic with the family - this one seems simple enough, but it's so hard to drag the family out to the park for a picnic. I need the girlfriends to be there too so that they will agree with me and force the boys to come. Haven't done a full picnic in years, but I want to this summer. Even if it's just once. 

4. Okanagan wine tour - this one all depends on whether or not we will be permitted to travel this summer, but if we are, this is on my list! I've always wanted to do one.... but never gotten to it. We've gone to a few of these but not in an actual tour. 

5. Build our home gym. I haven't returned to the gym since Covid hit last april and I'm not sure if I will return. We took my car off the road as I really don't need a car during the day and I would only be insuring the car to actually go to the gym. I am starting to get into a rhythm of working out at home but I would like to setup an actual gym in the garage. It's going to take some planning and some money but I think it will be great. 

Day after Vaccine

Did I get a placebo?? Seriously, not ONE side effect? 

I mean, I'm not complaining but..... so weird. 

I did weigh in this morning and I was 169.8 Been hovering around that for a few weeks. Haven't been working out as much either but I feel good. 

Thursday and Friday off to celebrate the hubs 50th birthday.  In a pandemic. Should be interesting 

Emotions

So many emotions today.  Must be that time of month..... 

I had some serious fear this morning regarding my Covid vaccine appointment. I managed to get an appointment after they opened up the age group yesterday, for this morning.  The only vaccine that is available for my age group is the AstraZeneca vaccine and that vaccine has had reports of blood clotting and even some death. But the reality is that there are risks with all vaccines and medications. 

I did end up getting it and now I am feeling happiness that I have an opportunity to try to protect myself, my family and my neighbours. 

Somedays the news affects me more than other days. I have anxiety today about the news. Today I pray for the Floyd family, Minneapolis and the entire World....

Hoping tomorrow is a day of peace, serenity and healing. 

Newish Goals

 I've never actually published my monthly goals but they are always in the back of my head. The calendar turns and I immediately think.... this month I'm going to do x. X usually meaning "lose ?? number of lbs".  At first the number was big (ie lose 10 lbs). Then I realized that losing 10 lbs is actually not easy, so the number would change to 5 and that eventually became "I'll be happy with just a 2 lb loss".. 

But after spending the last few weeks concentrating more on my health and movement, I have strayed from "caring" what is actually on the scale. Yes, of course the number is still important and although it's not the only measure of my "health" it is a measure of it.  So I can't get rid of the scale all together, at least not yet. I do hope one day I can become less reliant on it and not feel that it's the only thing that keeps me accountable. 

So I decided for April, I'm not going to care what the scale says. I will still keep track of it but my goal for this month is to become stronger. I want to increase my cardiovascular strength and my physical muscle strength.  I'm still not comfortable going to the physical gym but I have enough equipment here at home to get in a good strength workout. 

My step count has increased daily and I'm getting 3-4 "sessions" at home as well. The sessions might be a quick 10-20 minute HIIT or a 30 minute muscle focused workout. So far, I'm feeling good. 

I did end up going to my GP to review my blood work and as expected he wasn't happy. He said he's not ready to recommend any medication as he believes I can control with lifestyle. He's not a fan of the Keto diet, which I completely expected, but I don't care. I feel better than I have in years and I have been spending a lot of time researching blood work results on a Keto diet and it all makes sense to me. I will continue what I'm doing with some small changes in my food (ie. Using plant fats instead of animal fats for cooking, and reduce my red meat consumption). 

I do think activity will better my numbers overall. I have already seen a dramatic decrease in my blood pressure over the last 2 weeks since starting my exercise regime. 

So my goals are really the same, about overall health, but with much much less focus on the number on the scale. 

Oh and I did exchange my too big clothes for smaller clothes. Can't wait to make another trip (sans hubby) to the mall so I can get some cute spring/summer items.