Tuesday Food Entry

In Ketosis?  yes

Breakfast- veggie juice, 3 boiled eggs
snack- 2 cups of coffee with 1 tbsp butter, heavy cream, vanilla extract, stevia
Lunch- 2 slices of Bacon and eggs scrambled in grease
Snack- slices of cheese
Dinner-1/2 cup miso broth (sodium helps the transition to ketosis)  Salad, spring mix sprinkled with cheese, annies dresing tomatoes and two slices of bacon
1/8 cup cream, butter, stevia, coconut oil and vanilla extract mixed together

Sleep- ok
Feel- ok. A little off. Derby practice was good, but my body couldn't figure out how to handle the endurance portion.

♥Exercise- 2 hour derby practice. Good endurance but other than that exertion was mild.

I calculated the carbs for the juice and decided to spread out my juice over more time (like the whole day)

Monday Food Log

Breakfast
2boiled eggs and cup of green juice
2 cups coffee with cream, butter, coconut oil

Lunch:
3pc bacon 3 eggs scrambled in bacon grease

Snack: 2 pcs beef jerky

Dinner: Salad Bar, spring greens Lots of cheese and bacon, Blue cheese dressing

Snack: small amount of butter, cream, vanilla extract and stevia mixed together. Delicious,  but could only eat a few bites.

♥For exercise I made up a workout. I concentrated on legs. I also worked on arms. Took an hour.

Sunday Food Entry

Breakfast: 2 pc Bacon, 3 eggs scrambled in bacon grease. One glass green juice
2 Cups coffee with cream, butter and coconut oil
Lunch: 28 oz green juice and no-tortilla enchilada
Snack: Carne Asada
Dinner, had guests: Beef Strips stir fried in butter with spices and broccoli, served with salad.
1 more cup of coffee with cream, butter and coconut oil.

I always use omega-3 eggs, grassfed beef and grassfed cheese and butter. Most food is organic.

Ketosis!

 I have abandoned many of my former beliefs about nutrition and retained many and am now eating a Ketogenic diet. I say it that way because I am not on a ketogenic diet in the sense that it is something I intend to do to lose weight and then come off of.  As long as I continue to see health benefits from it, I hope to remain on this ketogenic diet indefinitely. Since this blog was started my weight has ranged from 235-239 on the high end, almost exactly where I left off after having Penelope- which is a little disappointing because I did manage to get down to about 207 after over a year of training and fairly restrictive dieting (it was gained back in maybe 6 months, most significantly adding on during a 3 month break from roller derby). Since I started eating a ketogenic diet I have lost about 10 lbs (weighing in at 228 this morning, even though I started my period today and USUALLY gain about 10 lbs the week of my period that comes off week following my period). That is pretty exciting!

That said, I am going to wait a little longer to celebrate, because several of the times I have tried something new my body reacted really strongly for the first week, and then realized that it was losing weight and without me making changes to my eating and exercise habits I would quickly gain it back.

I do feel extremely optimistic, because I checked my ketone levels today and I am in KETOSIS! Woot! What that means, is that there is no sugar left in my body to be used as fuel and now my body is burning fat and using ketones for fuel. I was not sure I would make it, as I am still juicing and even green veggies have  carbohydrates.

I would like to add, that in addition to that I am feeling super awesome... at least for the most part. The past several days I have had some moments in the afternoons when I feel hot and sleepy, and another odd feeling that I do not really know how to describe. It usually happens after lunch or after my afternoon snack and passes in 1-2 hours. I have read that these can be normal and are often more severe when the body is transitioning into ketosis. If anyone has ever transitioned from eating primarily processed foods to eating a clean diet it is a similar experience. I am not really sure what causes it, but I always see it as my body cleaning out the junk.

I am pretty excited about all of this, and  How We Get Fat by Gary Taubes. I still have a few chapters left because my reading time is so scarce, but I plan to write more about it when I make it to the end. Then I will need to find a new book to read. I was thinking about reading a book on vegan nutrition for a well balanced knowledge, but I am more interested in Paleo and Ketogenic lifestyles.

Some info about Ketogenic Diets (this woman is awesome... and she is like, 46, which I could not believe):

Food and Exercise Journal entries

I had these written down, but did not get a chance to transpose until now...

••Saturday••

Breakfast: 2pc Whole foods black Forrest bacon, 3 eggs scrambled in bacon grease, Topped with green chili and organic grass-fed cheddar cheese

Snack/part of breakfast: Drank 2 cups of coffee, both with creamer,1tbsp coconut oil and 1/2 tbsp butter ... (spread out over about 3 hours until lunch)

Lunch: 28 oz green juice and slices of cheese

Snack: BIG plate of no-tortilla enchiladas Shredded chicken with grass fed cheddar cheese on top and green chili- also super easy to make.

It is 9pm and I am not hungry at all. I will not be eating more tonight.

♦exercise- very low intensity roller derby practice.

♥Ketone level: moderate

••Friday••

 Breakfast:
2 1/2 boiled omega-3 eggs, glass of green veggie juice (made from a very wide variety of veggies)

Snack/part of breakfast: Drank 2 cups of coffee with creamer and butter... (spread out over about 3 hours until lunch)

Friday Lunch: 2 eggs scrambled in butter sprinkled with organic cheese and a spring mix salad (about 2 cups topped with annies organic goddess dressing and organic cheese)

Friday Snack: (same as lunch)

Additional food: Drank an additional 28 oz of green juice.

Friday Dinner: 80/20 %  Grass fed hamburger... large-ish cooked rare, no bun, pickles, wrapped in romaine lettuce (not used to eating meat this way :/ )  salad  (about 2 cups topped with annies organic goddess dressing and organic cheese)

♦exercise- Rock Climbing with Adam and Autumn

••Thursday••

Thursday Lunch:
Lunch 3 scrambled eggs cooked in bacon grease with cheese sprinkled on it and a salad (spring mix annies organic goddess dressing, cheese)

Thursday dinner:
2 pc Whole Foods Black Forrest Bacon (only one carb for both slices! I was shocked)


♦exercise- 1 hour speed skating class at roller skate city

Food and Exercise Journal

Last night- Roller Derby practice- 2 hours Breakfast- Green Juice, 3 boiled eggs, coffee with grass-fed butter in it. Snack-3 slices of bacon. I have not had lunch yet, but I am thinking I will probably cook up some scrambled eggs in the bacon grease I have left from that snack, sprinkle it with grass-fed cheese and also eat a spring green salad.

Thoughts on Nutrition

I have sort of derailed my journal because I am reading a book "Why We Get Fat", and my mind is blown. I am going to continue to record what I am eating, and the exercise I am doing, but from this point forward I will be doing things a little differently, and my goal will be to FINALLY eat enough and stop starving myself for the sake of conventional wisdom and a lifetime of misinformation in health and nutrition. I only have a little time to read (usually the evening before bed) so I am not finished reading it yet (although I have been listening to constant debates, webinars, podcasts, etc. about the theories in the book since I started it), and I am sure I will continue to be dumbfounded by the revelations but I just can't help wanting to talk about it NOW. I mentioned earlier that I would share my opinion on what an optimal human diet is after the past 5 years of independent recreational research I have put in to it. Since I had my first child, Autumn, I have been unable to lose weight, and not through lack of willpower, determination, or effort. Because of this I have been reading as much about nutrition, fitness and weight-loss as I have time for between my children and husband, my business and playing roller derby. I am so obsessed and fascinated with it that I occasionally daydream about becoming a nutritionist. Before reading this book, I felt that the best possible human diet consisted only of raw organic produce (as local as possible) and lean, grass-fed and free range meat (basically animals that eat the diet they are intended to eat) and the portion should be ¾ live food to ¼ lean protein. I enjoy being active and felt this was necessary to be fit and healthy. I thought grains of all kinds should be avoided all together and think that sugar and white flour are poison. I also thought that occasionally treating oneself to thinks like sugar and white bread was ok. “Everything in moderation” as we have been told so many times before. I have been eating a lean low calorie diet for the past 5 years and getting plenty of exercise so I know there is more to being overweight than eating less and exercising more, and I started this blog to prove to drs, nutritionists, etc that I was doing what conventional wisdom tells us to do to lose weight. I still think organic greens, and animals that eat their natural diet are great, and more than ever I think that refined sugar and white flour are poison, to the point that even though I have always loved these things, the idea of eating them is currently revolting. I will wait until I finish “Why We Get Fat” to explain the actual changes in what I think is an optimal human diet, what changed my mind, and how Gary Taubes put the nail in the coffin for me when it comes to refined sugar, and flour, and most carbohydrates. ♥ Erica

Food Journal Entries

Dinner last night: 4oz steak and big green salad Breakfast: Eggs and green juice Lunch: Chicken and salad Snack: Green juice and protien powder I calculated my calories from yesteday and it came out to less than 1600 calories. According to the book I am reading, that is bad news. I am going to work on increasing my caloric intake to at least 2000 calories a day of meat and fresh fruit and veg.

Weekend Entries, and Today's Workout

I didn't keep this up well over the weekend so lets see what I can remember. 

•Friday• night we went to whole foods to buy our groceries and I ate a salad and some chicken tikka masala from their hot and cold salad bar. It was Valentines day and my sweet husband bought me some candy. I ate three of the sees chocolate he brought me over the span of the day. In the evening Adam and I worked out for about 40 min, doing a variety of things, sit ups, push ups, trying to pull myself up on the pull up bar and throwing the medicine ball around. 

•Saturday• I had green juice for breakfast with 2 1/2 hard boiled omega 3 eggs. I went to roller derby practice for three hours, which is great exercise and left me exhausted. I had another bottle of green juice that I drank during my practice, and had two small tortilla sized chicken wraps/tacos when I got home. I took Adam out to dinner to a local steak restaurant. I got the Filet Minion and ate it with a salad. We both got a chocolate torte for dessert. 

•Sunday•

Sunday we had bacon and scrambled omega-3 eggs sprinkled with organic cheese and fresh Green juice. 

For lunch I ate two more small tortilla sized chicken wraps (home made shredded chicken, avocado, greens, cheese on a small tortilla) or soft tacos. I ate one more of my valentines candies in the afternoon. For dinner we had curry chicken (no potatoes, etc) with a salad. 

This morning I did these videos:

I repeated this standing ab workout 3 times, as suggested. I did not feel much of  a burn from it and tried to tighten everything. I did add the weights when suggested. I am curious how it will feel tomorrow. There was a lot of time spent talking instead of working out. I wish it would have done the three reps instead of the one, and then done them faster since the exercises had already been explained once. 

I followed that with this KILLER arm workout. I had to use 8 lb weights instead of 5 lb weights, since I do not have any 5 lb weights. Usually I can switch out 8 for 5 lb weights easily. This one I could barely do with the 8 lb weights. I loved it. By the end I was absolutely sure I'd exhausted my arm muscles. I definitely want to do this one again! 

•Today•  This morning I had 2 1/2 boiled eggs  with green juice. After the workout above I had a snack of an apple and the tiny bit of leftover curry chicken (about 1/3 a breast) we are low on some of the ingredients for our juice, so I will probably not be having any more green juice today. There are plenty of veggies for salads or wraps, so lots of healthy food, just not some crucial juice ingredients. 

Dinner and snack posts, Exercise

My afternoon snack was green juice.

For dinner I had a salad fresh field greens, spicy shredded chicken, salsa, avocado, egg, carrot (no dressing) and one flour tortilla

I went to a speed skating class in the evening.

After the class I drank some juice and rolled up some chicken and lettuce in a tortilla for a post-workout snack.

Breakfast and Lunch

I am still feeling sick from last night. I ended up vomiting. I don't get migraines so I am not sure if that is what I had last night.

This morning I ate my two and a half eggs but skipped the juice until this afternoon. For lunch I had my plain Greek yogurt and fruit parfait and three more boiled eggs. I have been drinking my green juice this afternoon. I am still feeling sick.

Lunch and Dinner entries/ecercise

I was going to wait until the morning to put this in, but I was woken up by a headache on my left side accompanied by nausea.

For lunch I had some shredded chicken, and fruit mixed with unsweetened Greek yogurt. I had an apple in the afternoon.

I went to roller derby practice from 6:30-8:30 and I did not have time to eat dinner so took a big container of green juice with protein powder. I ate some cheese when I got home.

Breakfast This morning and Dinner from last night... And what I am reading now...

Dinner Last Night:
3 Tacos: Home made shredded chicken, Avocado, Salsa, Lots of Greens, Cheese, In a homemade blue corn tortilla shell.

Breakfast:
2 1/2 Boiled eggs, Fresh Green Veggie Juice, and in a little while I will have some coffee.


Last night I started reading "Why We Get Fat" which my brother read a few years ago and suggested.

Which you can buy here: 

http://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Fat-About/dp/0307474259/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1392217967&sr=8-1&keywords=why+do+we+get+fat

I was planning to read a book Called "beyond paleo" that I bought a little while ago, but I couldn't find it. I bought this around the same time, and have not read it either. While I was looking for it, I realized that I have read A LOT of fitness and nutrition books in the last few years. From what I have read, it seems that vegan and vegetarian lifestyles are not really healthy (that it is possible to do it well if you are doing it for ethical reasons, but if you are doing it to be healthy there is no point) . I have only read the first chapter of this book, but it seems like that is where this book is going, Too. I think when I finish this book, I am going to go ahead and go out of my way to find a book that supports the health benefits of a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle. I feel like I have a decent grasp on nutrition (and  in a future post I will explain what I think is an ideal human diet from my current research). Realizing how one sides most of the books I have read are makes me think I may not know as much as I think. Honestly, what is and isn't healthy changes so much it is hard to know what to think. 

♥Erica

Snack Entry

Afternoon snack:
Fresh green juice (and tiny bit of protein powder)  and an apple.

Lunch Entry

Green Juice with very small portion of raw protein powder (we put one scoop for 4+ servings of juice) 12ish oz , 2 slices of grass-fed cheddar, 1/2 of a fruit and Greek yogurt parfait a friend made (yum) (maybe 1/2 cup or so)

What it's All About.

I saw a picture of myself that was taken this weekend, and it made me cry. Things just got REAL.

This is the picture:

I am the one in the dark green with the jeans. I know I am overweight, but I have not seen a picture of myself in a while. I usually feel like I am healthy, so it is easy to forget that I am also about 90 lbs overweight. 

This was me, right before I had kids, when I was in the best shape of my life:

I was hardly slight, at 5'2" and 145-ish pounds and a size 8, but barely recognizable to today's me. 

So, how did I get here? 

I gained all of my extra weight when I had my two children, the youngest is now 2 1/2. I gained 100 lbs with my first Daughter. It was stressful and terrifying. I asked the Gyno about it several times and she just said "You can just lose the extra weight after the baby is born"

After about 2 years of effort with no success, I had an emergency surgery to remove my gall bladder that had crystallized. Within about a month I lost 40 lbs and was finally starting to feel ok again. I decided to have another baby and got pregnant again about 6 months later. I had miscarriage, but in the 6 weeks I was pregnant I gained 60 lbs. Seriously, WTF. 

I told my new gyno, and he suggested going on a low glycemic diet when I got pregnant again a few months later. During that pregnancy I took the drs advice and I gained a normal amount, most of which came off during labor and the few months after, but now I still weigh around 235 lbs from the other pregnancies. 

Since penny was born I have:

•Read countless books on fitness, nutrition, and weight-loss

•Spent over a year working out 3 times a week with a trainer

•completely changed my diet, which now consists primary of lean protein and raw organic produce (including fresh green veggie juice 1-3 times a day) 

•exercised 3-6 days a week including both strength and cardio workouts

•Been tested for lots of things, including but not limited to diabetes and hypoglycemia 

•Started meditations and visualizations

•Lost 20 pounds over a year and a half

• Stopped playing roller derby (but still exercising) and gained 25 over 2 months (no, I am not pregnant) 

When I explain this people seem to imply that I am lying. Sometimes they do not say they think that but I can just tell that they question my efforts by brushing me off and saying "it's hard to lose weight". I lost weight many times before I had kids, and yes, it IS hard, but it has never been this hard. 

I feel like I have been consistent. I feel like I am healthier and happier than I have ever been, except that I am fat... REALLY fat. At this point sometimes I feel like I am fat enough that it is more important to get down to a healthy weight than to do it in a healthy way. After being told enough times that the scale does not lie, I think it is time to document my efforts. It will either ensure I am consistent, or it will (at least sort of) prove I am if I try talking to a doctor or nutritionist about it again. I am hard working, and I take good care of myself. I deserve to be fit and healthy, and I will succeed. 

What I want:

Honestly, at this point I would be satisfied if I got down to a muscular 160-170 lbs and THRILLED to be back to my pre-baby weight of 145. Since I am only 5'2" I really think I can do better than that. I think my ideal weight is 125-130 lbs. and a size 4-6. To get there I need to lose 100+ lbs (weighed in today at 135) and I am wearing a size 18, so I would need to lose 6-8 dress sizes. 

This is another derby skater, and has always been a motivating image and an ideal body: 

That photo is from ESPN and you can read more about the shoot here http://espn.go.com/espnw/body-issue/7053967/suzy-hotrod

At some point I want to be able to do a flag:

(image from recordsetter) 

But I don't even know where to start. 

I want to be able to do pull-ups, and chin ups, and not just one, but sets of them. 

I want to be the best roller derby player I know. 

I am have a degree in fashion design and i hate shopping for clothes. I want to enjoy buying clothes again. 

I want to feel confident in all things, and I want to love myself for the first time. Ever. 

I want to succeed beyond my wildest dreams and do things I have not even thought of yet. 

I want to be able to run for miles, and enjoy it. 

I want to be a positive role model for my children. 

I wan to feel comfortable in a swimsuit. 

I want to be inspirational to others. 

I want to stop hiding from the world. 

I want to be happy and healthy, and live this way for a very long time. 

I want to be the absolute BEST version of 

ME. 

♥ Erica

Breakfast Entry

•Green Juice (fresh squeezed veggie juice)
• 1/2 boiled omega-3 eggs
•Supplements (probiotics, vitamin d, flax seed oil, super- enzymes)
• In an hour or so I will drink some coffee with cream (after the juice digests a little so I don't kill the micro-nutrients)

I have been having this same breakfast for over a year. It is satisfying, and I feel wonderful from all the nutrients I get from this meal. I love the taste of green juice now, but it did take some getting used to in the beginning.

Food Journal Entries, Lunch, Snack, Dinner

Lunch: Green Juice with Protein Powder (Raw Fit, much less than suggested amount) and an apple

Snack: More Green Juice (with protein powder, much less than suggested amount) and beef jerky (locally made, made of salt and beef only) 

Dinner: Salad pictured above. It was organic spring mix and shaved carrots topped with leftover baked chicken (about 1/2 a breast) one boiled egg, and sprinkled with organic cheese. Olive oil and vinegar dressing. I also had a piece of toast and Adam made high-quality hot-chocolate and I did indulge and have a cup of that.

I feel satisfied, both with my choices and ... well... physically nourished. I would be happier if  I'd passed on the toast and the hot chocolate, but I am not disappointed in myself.

Todays Workout, Breakfast entry

This first video was an arm and core workout. I did it with 15 lb weights and did the hip raises from my feet. This workout did not feel like I was doing much when I did it, but now that I am done I am suprised to feel shakey. I kind of love that, when it comes to workouts. I will probably do this again, but I may need to invest in bigger weights. 15 lbs was good for this time, but when I was working out with a trainer I did many of these exercises in higher reps, with heavier weights. 

Since I had clearly spent all my muscle glycogen with he first video, I decided to follow it up with a cardio routine. I Chose this dance aerobic video. I remember my mom's Denise Austin Videos from when I was younger, so I am not sure if this video is REALLY old, or if she just has aged pretty well. Some of it seems dated, and some seems very current, so it is hard to tell. 

So, I am not sure about this one. I do like Denise Austin, I love her unique voice, and find it very calming and encouraging, but even after doing a workout, this did not seem to be that tiring. Part of that, I have no doubt, is that it was the first time doing it. Unfortunately, I am not a dancer, and feel a bit like an uncoordinated slob when I do workout videos. Sometimes it feels like I spend so much time trying to figure out the moves that the workout is severely compromised. SO, I think it would be a better workout, IF I do it again. At this point, the chances of doing it again are fairly slim. I did not love the music, and the routine was fine, but not fun enough for me to do it again.

Tomorrow I will be doing derby, so I am not sure I will do a video also.


FOR MY FOOD JOURNAL ENTRY:
 •Breakfast (right after workout) :
2 1/2 boiled omega-3 eggs and a glass of fresh squeezed green veggie juice.

•I had one cup of coffee with cream before my workout, and I plan to have another now.

Exercise and Food Journal

Friday- Climbing 2 hours With Adam
Saturday- none
Sunday- Roller Skating For 2 hours at the rink. Skated as fast as possible and low as possible.

I have decided to also start a food journal.

Sunday
•Breakfast: Green Juice (fresh veggie juice), Scrambled Eggs, 4 slices bacon
•Lunch: Green Juice
•snack: 2 pc organic white bread (boo... white bread) and 2 slices grass fed cheddar
♥ Skated for 2 hours
 •Snack: Green Juice with raw protein powder
 •Dinner: Grassfed 95%  Lean Hamburger on wheat bun with pickles and  Salad (spring mix, shaved rainbow carrots, olive oil and vinegar)

And, I am about to do my workout, So for motivation:

Today's Workout

Standing Abs: 12.5 min

The production quality on this video was low, but it was an excellent workout! This would be a great one to do every day!

Arm Sculpting: 12.5 min

I liked that this workout worked all muscle groups in my arms. I went with the 3 lb weights she was using, but they were WAY too light for me. My next size up is 8 lbs, and I may try that if I do this one again. I thought the instructor was cute and encouraging, but was hoping for more of a burn. 

Leg and Butt Sculpting: 10 min

For some reason I can not make it show up so I will link to it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QECX7YvzF_c

This was a surprisingly killer workout! I will definitely do it again! I also loved the instructor. 

I probably should have followed up with some cardio since I had already burned off all my glycogen stores, but I had to get to work. 

Every day is a new day, and as someone said, the journey of 1000 miles starts with a single step. 

Take your first step towards a better you, today.