Hot Diggity Damn!

This past week has been interesting, to say the least.  I began the Whole 30 program with the hope that it would help me lose the weight that has not wanted to come off...at all...for weeks.  I wrote a couple weeks ago about my health related issues that I felt were inhibiting my weight loss, and when I found the Whole 30 program, I was hopeful that it would be the answer.

Well...

Before I began the program, I weighed in (on Sunday) at 255.8 pounds. (I had gained between my last weigh in.)  I weighed in this week at a whopping 247.6 pounds!!!   If my really crappy math skills are correct, that is a loss of 8.2 pounds!!!  I literally stepped on and off the scale 3 times just to make sure I wasn't seeing things.   I am sure a lot of this is water weight, and I don't expect huge losses like this on a weekly basis, but I will take it!

For anyone who is interested in the Whole 30 Program or primal eating, I thought I would give my impressions so far..

THE FOOD
I am not going to lie.  There are times (especially in the beginning) where I miss eating things like bread and rice.  Things like not having a sandwich as a "go to" lunch or not having a side of toast with my eggs is just bizarre for me, but I am getting more and used to it.   I know this is early on, but I am to the point where I don't really miss sugar all that much.  The only hard thing is that there are so many foods that have sugar in them -- foods that we would never even suspect.  That is the part that makes the lack sugar hard, but not the lack of candy bars, surprisingly.  

My mindset towards food is changing too.   In the past, I have been a volume eater.  I thought I needed huge portions to be satisfied.  I have found that I can put smaller portions on my plate and be totally satisfied with that.  I am no longer at the point where I want to be stuffed.  I want to be satisfied.  I don't want to be hungry anymore.  Once that satisfied feeling hits, I am happy and can stop eating -- even if there was just a little bit on my plate.  That is a BIG DEAL for me.  

What are some of my favorite foods?

I love making stir fries.  I did a great one loaded with chicken and veggies and made a sauce with a little orange juice, chicken broth, and cashew butter.  It is really tasty.

My favorite thing right now is cashew butter.  Granted, it is high in calories, but I enjoy eating it with celery and use it for my stir fry sauces.  I have actually become a little too obsessed with the idea of making my own nut butters.  Here is proof:

I forced my poor husband to have an entire conversation with me about the joy of making your own cashew butter.  He tried to seem interested.  I'll bet he really does think it is "neato."  hehehe

THE WAY I FEEL

I feel great!  I always felt so bloated before, and now I feel like has stuck a pin in me and I am slowly starting to deflate. I feel more alert and have so much more energy!  It is incredible.  I can't wait to exercise this week and see if my energy during my runs, Jillian videos, etc is greater.  I only got in a few days of workouts this past week (I will explain.), so I am interested to see the difference.

The downside to all of this is that I got the dreaded carb flu or keto flu.  I didn't even know this existed!  I was miserable because my body is having to process all this healthy stuff and saying, "Say whaaaaa? You think you can just put delicious sugar and bad carbs in me all those years and I am just gonna take that?!! Pfffffft."  If you don't know what the Keto Flu is, apparently it is your body's reaction when it is forced to burn ketones and actual fat instead of glucose.  Cause, you know, glucose is in abundance when we load up on sugar and other carbs.  Basically, your body is forced to produce new enzymes to do things differently, which makes us feel flu-like symptoms.  During the day on Thursday, I was miserable...mostly due to extreme nausea.  I found that eating more protein really helped me feel better, and I felt a million times better by Friday.

I am really glad I decided to do this!  It is challenging, but is getting easier each day.  I am linking up with Motivation Monday today, because I feel so great, I can't help but be motivated!