Wheat Belly Book

I've been wondering about my huge and growing gut. At Christmas, I sat on the sofa at a friend's house and could barely get up. All my fat heaved upward and pushed my chin up, pressing all my fat up against my trachea, making me feel like I would soon suffocate.

As I come across books I'd like to read, I put them on hold on my library website. When they are ready for pick-up (some take weeks), I never really know why I wanted it, but I  usually still thumb through it.

Wheat Belly by William Davis, MD is one of those books.

As far as my digestion goes, I don't really have any reason to go gluten-free (I'm so grateful), and I've reduced my grains significantly over the past two years. Reading this book makes me wonder if I really need to eat wheat at all, since the wheat I'm eating isn't really WHEAT.

I'm going to cut out wheat as much as I can and see if that helps me lose weight. What would I cut out? I occasionally eat a tortilla and several times a month eat some kind of noodle. I don't each rice or bread very often.

If you'd like to see what I do eat, you can see my daily food logs HERE.

All the Exercise Program Posts

From my previous blog, here's some of the posts on "exercise". When the Lord told me to walk to the mailbox, I had no idea what perfect exercise walking would be for me.

There are 50 posts about exercise on my previous blog. I'm going to select a few of my favorites.

Three Days in a Row March 2013
Higher Desire November 2012
Walk Adjustments August 2012
Difficult Week July 2012
Shin Splint Pain May 2012
Walking Comparison Then and Now May 2012
Walking Daily February 2012
First Walk January 2012
Walk to the Mailbox Each Day January 2012

In April 2012, the Lord told me to "Get Strong".

Get Strong April 2012

I started with buying a Shake Weight because I thought an "arm workout" would be a good place to start...and it really was for me, because at that time I couldn't do too much with my shoulders.

I've looked at many different things, but I think I finally know what I'm supposed to do. Here's a few things I've tried (at least once):
Shake Weight
DDP Yoga
Walking/Hiking
Dancing/Salsa/Zumba
Rebounder/Mini-Trampoline
T-Tapp
10 Minute Trainer
Les Mills Body Pump
Biking

In my continual search for activities I can actually do without hurting myself, I've researched (and purchased) a handful of exercise DVDs. Until recently, I really didn't realize that exercise can be put in two categories, cardio and strength training. I think I finally know what He means by "Get Strong"...I think it actually means lifting weights. I'd like to figure out a way to do that at home, though I'm considering joining L.A. Fitness for a few months and see how it goes. This journey truly has been a process!

All the Product Posts

I've had some challenges come up over the past two years which have made me look at certain foods I eat. Even though I like to eat the foods I like, sometimes there's a way to make adjustments so I can eat MORE!

The Chocolate Problem December 2013
Newman's Own June 2012
Milk Substitute May 2012
Today's Salad-Bacon May 2012
La Tortilla Smart and Delicious May 2012
Fiber Supplement January 2012

I still use these products, but I've switched to Silk brand unsweetened Almond Milk because my store no longer stocks Pacific brand. I'm okay with it because the Silk has a creamier consistency that I like a lot.

All the Salad Posts

A few months into my weight loss journey, the Lord finally said something about what to eat! He told me to have (at least) one salad every day.

Salad Update August 2013
Hope November 2012
Today's Salad-Extra Dressing May 2012
Today's Salad-Bacon May 2012
Hike-Squires Lake May 2012
Need to Eat Extra Calories Tonight May 2012
Today's Salad-Day 3 Diamond Cutter May 2012
Today's Salad May 2012
Weekend Hike-Camano Island State Park May 2012
Today's Salad-Hungry May 2012
Today's Salad-All Green May 2012
Eat One Salad Per Day May 2012

Today's salad status...here's the recipe that I pretty much eat every day now and I still LOVE it!

I keep my salad stuff in a box in the frig. Making a fresh salad with this many ingredients every single day demands some organization! I have a lightweight plastic bowl I use to mix up my salad. I hand wash my bowl every single day before eating my salad so it is clean and ready for the next day. I put that on the scale.
60g butter lettuce (packaged)
20g baby fresh spinach (packaged)
60g chicken breast (cooked and frozen in pre-measured zip bags)

3 or 4 snap peas pods (put on plate for slicing)
1 hard boiled farm fresh free range egg (put on plate for slicing)
1 large stalk organic celery (put on plate for slicing, pre-cut and stored in glass dish with water)
40g organic cucumber which is about 1" thick slice (put on plate for slicing)
Trim ends off celery, cut and dice everything on plate, dump into salad bowl. Then I'll use the plate to serve myself the salad after it's all mixed together.

Almost done!

12g pre-chopped red onion (I should probably upgrade this to organic)
35g pre-chopped red pepper (organic red peppers are usually $5 where I live, they are delicious, but over the top pricewise for me!)
7g sunflower seeds
5g pre-chopped Craisins (regular or low-sugar)
45g Newman's Own Lite Balsamic (the world's BEST low everything but high taste salad dressing!)

Then I mix it all up and dump all that goodness onto the plate and EAT! I'm best if I eat it before 2:30pm so I don't get too hungry or too close to dinner.

347 calories
 17 fat
 25 carbs
 30 protein
 13 sugars
 7 fiber

Simply delicious to eat every day and so satisfying I don't get hungry for hours!

All the Chocolate Posts

Boy have I struggled with chocolate. I used to eat candy every single day and more, I considered it a vital nutrient! No more refined sugar/candy/chocolate was one of the first directives the Lord gave me. After two years, I think I have a sustainable solution.

The Chocolate Problem December 2013
A Word About Peanut Butter and Chocolate May 2012
Cut Out Obvious Refined Sugars January 2012

Today's chocolate status includes eating it when I want-in moderation. But no sugar. No matter how I sliced it, even if I eat tiny chocolate chips, the sugar invades my system and causes me to want and crave more. Very dark chocolate has way less sugar and doesn't do that to me. It's OK. I get the creamy texture and the filling fat along with that chocolatey taste.

I like Ghiradelli 86% Cocoa Midnight Reverie chocolate squares. And I love our local Theo Chocolate in Fremont. I love that they operate using organic ingredients and fair trade cocoa beans. We took a tour of their chocolate factory recently...and visited their STORE at the end of the tour. They have a lovely 85% pure chocolate bar that is exquisite! I love the texture, not quite as smooth as the Ghiradelli (it doesn't have all the emulsifiers in there), so it gives me a little variety. I eat one or two squares when I'm craving something a little sweet usually in the afternoon or after dinner. I don't eat milk chocolate anymore, only the high percentage dark chocolate, unless it qualifies as a "treat", like when my daughter makes chocolate chip cookies.

Sunday Weigh In #1 of 45 in 2014

My scale just doesn't tell me the same number each time I step on it! I'm going with this number and I know that what I'm looking for is a TREND, I don't care so much about the number. I'd like to see under 220lbs by the end of March.

Today was 227.1

All the Water Posts

When I started this weight loss journey, I asked God to tell me what to do. I didn't want man's wisdom because it didn't work! One of the first things He told me to do was drink more water. From my previous blog, here are the posts that document my process in making this a daily habit.

Sleek Water System January 2014
Another Way to Track Water Intake October 2013
I've Got It! August 2013

Ten Glasses! August 2012

This Morning's Walk-Heart July 2012

A Word About Water May 2012

Keep Walking Keep Drinking March 2012

Water March 2012

Food, Exercise and Sleep

I'm looking back over my previous blog. The Lord was very specific about the following things:

Morning Walk
More Fiber
More Water
No Sugar
Less Calories
More Sleep
Get Strong
Daily Salad
Half Dinner

If I had to categorize them, it might look like this:

Morning Walk (exercise)
More Fiber (food)
More Water (food)
No Sugar (food)
Less Calories (food)
More Sleep (sleep)
Get Strong (exercise)
Daily Salad (food)
Half Dinner (food)

That is very interesting. Food, exercise and sleep for good health. Thank you Lord for being the Author of life, everything we've found as humans just reinforces the truth that You've established

My friend Christi, encouraged me to focus on the areas where I need to be more consistently obeying what the Lord has told me to do. I will be overcoming (and losing weight!) when I'm obeying.

Which areas do I need to surrender more?

Morning Walk (exercise)-yes, I recently recommitted to a daily walk, either treadmill or outside
More Fiber (food)-I'm getting plenty of fiber from my cereal and other foods, I can really SEE it now that I'm using MyFitnessPal
More Water (food)-I only seem to have trouble with this when my normal routine is disturbed *
No Sugar (food)-the only thing that really needs work here is our family dessert nights *
Less Calories (food)-tracking on MyFitnessPal is really helping me see, so I'm in process with this and don't see it as needing action
More Sleep (sleep)-*
Get Strong (exercise)-I can see how I can fit in strength exercise MWF, so this is in process
Daily Salad (food)-this gets done if my routine isn't disturbed, could take a salad on Wed shopping nights *
Half Dinner (food)-well. *

This is a good way to evaluate where I'm really at, I can put the principles into three different categories:

WHAT'S GOING WELL (+):
So here's my focus for Cycle One:
Here's what I feel really good at:
morning walk
more fiber
less calories
get strong

NEED A LITTLE TWEAKING (/):These areas need tweaking:
no sugar-I need to find a solution to the family dessert nights
more water-how can I make sure to get my water when we're out and about?

NEED IMPROVEMENT (-):
These areas need attention:
sleep
half dinner

New Cycle Calendar

I had a brainwave today. I recently have found I like "quartering" a sheet of paper to keep track of my weekend activities. I put Friday in one quarter, then Saturday in another and Sunday in another. Why not quarter my Cycles into four weeks and have a focus for each week? This made me realize I have to adjust my dates! This is going to better coincide with my Sunday weigh-in dates, too. It looks like there's actually going to be 11 Cycles, which is just fine with me.

I just had the thought while typing, that it might be easier to just have my Cycle be the calendar month. That is just going to make this all a whole lot easier.

Here's the adjusted Cycles for 2014.

Cycle 1: Feb
Cycle 2: Mar
Cycle 3: Apr
Cycle 4: May
Cycle 5: Jun
Cycle 6: Jul
Cycle 7: Aug
Cycle 8: Sep
Cycle 9: Oct
Cycle 10: Nov
Cycle 11: Dec

Walk Around the Pool

This could be a huge game changer. We had a sun break earlier, so I went outside to take in some sunshine. I decided to walk around the pool we have in our backyard. Now, it needs to be noted, that our pool is full of...GRAVEL. It isn't anything fancy, but the pool deck IS similar to a sidewalk!

I measured around the pool using MapMyWalk.com (I don't have access to those cool apps that do it for you) and the distance is about .03 miles. That means if I walk around 34 times, that would be one mile. This seems completely wacky, but I just might do it. If I got a manual hand counter (again, some apps might be useful here), I could just click each time I went around (there's a spot I pass over that would make this really simple).

If I went around 17 times, that would be a half mile. That seems so doable...I could do this any time, day or night, light or dark, and as long as it isn't icy, in pretty much any weather without much concern. I could probably rig some kind of shoe cover so my feet don't get wet through the mesh on my shoes which would allow me to walk in the rain.

Hmmmmmmm, I don't know if it would be too boring, but we have beautiful views of pasture (and my future veggie garden) from the pool area. Might be worth a try! The fresh air would do me good! When I rode the Razor scooter around, I did notice that there's a slight slope toward the east, that means that I'm walking UP one side and DOWN on the other, which as slight as it may be, gives me an incline one way!

I went around maybe six times and it really felt GOOD! Hmmmmmm...

UPDATE 02/26/2014: I decided to remeasure the pool with a tape measure. After all the math, it turns out that I need to walk 41 times around for one mile, I can round that to 40. Today (after walking one mile on the treadmill) I walked around ten times, that's 1/4 mile. Awesome.

Treadmill Boredom Solution

Ta dah!

I've been thinking about this problem all day and finally came up with a solution. I was able to put the laptop up on the shelf behind the control panel on the treadmill, but I had a hard time seeing and hearing. So. Enter this little portable DVD player! I didn't know the treadmill had a book shelf. I tucked the DVD player into the shelf and it is surprisingly sturdy, I don't feel like it is going to fall off.

So, I'm totally ready for tomorrow's walk!

I think what I'm going to do is reduce my speed and extend my time. Drop down from 2.3 to 2.0 and go for 20 minutes instead of 15 minutes. Then next week I'm going to try to get up to 30 minutes at the 2.0 speed. With a movie to watch, I should be good to go!

Another option is a "treadmill desk" which would be putting a loose shelf over the arms of the treadmill as a place for the laptop. That could work, too, in case it turns out I don't like the way this setup works.

UPDATE 02/19/2014: Um, this worked, technically. But I could barely hear the dialogue. That's a total bummer. I did put the subtitles/captions on, but I'd really like to HEAR the movie. What's next?

UPDATE 03/06/2014: I've gone back to using the laptop on the shelf with speakers plugged in. I can get the sound up higher than the treadmill motor and actually enjoy most movies. I am also experimenting with listening to my iPod and having something to watch (silent), too.

UPDATE 03/30/2014: It was too cumbersome to set up each day for video...but I'm finding that if I increase my intensity, it isn't nearly as boring! My vision was to walk at a "normal" pace and put in miles, but if I work harder and not longer, well, it isn't boring at all! I keep bumping up the speed and when I got to 3.0, I wanted to RUN! So, I've been doing my jogging shuffle along at 3.0! FUN! And if I ramp up the incline, that keeps it more exciting. I've been doing 15 minutes...5 slow warm up, 5 fast/run, 5 cool down. Not bored.

Some Before Photos

These were taken April 2012. This was the first time I really saw myself for what I am...morbidly obese.

This was taken in October 2013.

This photo taken the other day. My belly sticks out so far! I'm eager to start losing!

Tool-My Fitness Pal

I'm REALLY liking MyFitnessPal. I was concerned it would be really burdensome to track myself, but it's actually really kinda FUN! It is sooooo easy to lie to myself about what I'm really eating. Even though I have a pretty good grasp on calorie content, it's a whole new thing to get to dinner and have my diary tell me "you have 302 calories remaining". I think it's going to be really cool to look back on my diaries after I've been doing this awhile!

UPDATE 03/06/2014: I'm LOVING this! I track everything that goes into my mouth and it's really easy to keep track of my exercise, too. It's like a "mini reward" to input my activities and food! I think if I had STARTED my journey doing this, it would be very different. It is a TOOL for me, it is not a way for me to try to govern myself, as in the past when I've tried to "diet".

My Boring Treadmill

I stopped walking outside in Nov 2013 because it started getting dark and started rebounding inside. I feel like I need to start walking again now that it is getting lighter again in the morning, but it's been so wet. When it is raining, the rain goes through the mesh on the tops of my walking shoes and my feet get wet pretty fast.

We bought a treadmill off Craigslist about two weeks ago. I've done it a few times and I like being able to track my speed and mileage! But it is sooooooooo boring to trudge along. I found that I was "dreading" it because of the boredom factor, so I'm trying to think of ideas to help that. I'm going to keep adding to my list so when I need new ideas, they'll be right here.

Right now I'm doing 15 minutes at 2.3 speed setting and no incline. Since I haven't been walking, this is plenty for me right now. That turns out to be only 1/2 mile! I'm still doing about 10 minutes of health bounce on the rebounder and Fitness Blender's Easy Warm Up Cardio Workout, which I can do!

Things to do to bust the treadmill boredom:
-YouTube "Let it Go" from Frozen
-Watch a movie
-Watch travel or virtual exercise DVDs or YouTube
-Listen to music (I think I need something visual on the treadmill even though the iPod works well when I'm outside)
-Listen to an audiobook while watching a travel video

It turns out that it is very difficult to watch a movie because I can't really hear it over the sound of the treadmill. I'm thinking I might have to listen to the iPod and watch travel videos...?

My choices are:
-music
-audiobook
-soundtrack

Hey, look at this! A treadmill desk! Now THAT would be amazing! I could do Facebook and surfing all while walking...hmmm.

First Post

I've been on a weight loss journey for two years. I've made lots of good changes like drinking more water, walking/exercising nearly everyday, and eating better, but I'm feeling ultra desperate to make the changes that will result in losing 100 pounds in 2014. I've spent the past week digging in and getting serious about what I need to do to burn the fat.

I have been blogging about my weight loss journey for two years on another blog. I've recently felt like I'm entering into a new season in my process and decided to start a whole new fresh blog.

My plan for the year is to take the remaining months of 2014, four weeks at a time. That gives me ten cycles of four weeks each, taking me to the end of 2014.

Cycle 1: Today through March 15, 2014
Cycle 2: March 16 through April 16, 2014
Cycle 3: April 17 through May 17, 2014
Cycle 4: May 18 through June 18, 2014
Cycle 5: June 19 through July 19, 2014
Cycle 6: July 20 through August 20, 2014
Cycle 7: August 21 through September 21, 2014
Cycle 8: September 22 through October 22, 2014
Cycle 9: October 23 through November 23, 2014
Cycle 10: November 24 through December 31, 2014

My plan is to increase activity, decrease calories and increase food quality. This means upgrading my daily exercise and nutrition while decreasing the amount of food I consume.

I've tracked myself in the past using a spreadsheet, but I think I'm going to try MyFitnessPal and see if I like it.

I've ridden my bike twice in the last couple days (that were sunny and not pouring rain) and I nearly had a heart attack from the workout! But I like being outside with the wind in my hair! I also bought a resistance band to do some workouts on YouTube.