Kerry'd Away

Week #10

Weight Lost This Week: 0 lbs

Total Weight Loss: 14 lbs

Mood: Exhausted

Well, I did it. I made it through the Easter season without being tempted to buy a bag of jelly beans. Typically I’ll buy at least one bag of the SweeTarts and one bag of Starburst jelly beans. I managed to resist, though, which is saying a lot! Super-concentrated sugar like that is my downfall. I don’t have the will power to be able to only eat a few at a time; once I get going I can’t stop!

This week I was tempted to pop a few pieces of candy into my mouth, but I managed to somehow resist the urge. I do have candy in my house, and I know right where it is, but I have been able to behave myself. I honestly don’t know how I’m managing to do that. I keep having thoughts of jelly beans and pasta and gluten free pizza running through my head. Even though I’m allowed to start adding a little bit back in I haven’t been brave enough to start on the pasta or bread. I’m afraid that once they hit my tongue that it will be all over and I’ll gain back every pound that I’ve lost.

Speaking of the weight loss, I definitely have noticed it. It’s just a bit discouraging that I’ve been on this diet for ten weeks and am only averaging about a pound a week. I know that’s a healthy amount of weight to lose and it will be easier to maintain, but I was really hoping to have averaged about 2-3 pounds a week.

There’s not much else to report this week. It was busy so I feel like I’m still trying to rest from everything that was going on. I love the fact that spring has finally decided to peek its head in, but now comes allergy season and all of the sinus issues attributed to that. Can I survive my sugar control diet while being grumpy due to stuffy sinuses??

Week #9

Mood: Stressed!

Weight Loss Week #9 – 3 pounds!

Total Weight Lost – 14 pounds!

Mood Update: Still stressed, but with a smile!

Mmmm… doesn’t that look yummy? No?! Are you sure?! Yeah… this was my fail this week. Usually I like to show pictures of things that I can take pride in displaying. This week I decided to show you that even I have some food flops. Big ones. I believe that I mentioned last week that I had a food epiphany regarding black licorice flavored gummies. On Saturday I had some time so I thought that I would do some creating in the kitchen. Except, I misplaced the recipe that I was going to try. Since I couldn’t find that I decided to try a different recipe for Paleo Egg-not Pudding. It had a simple list of ingredients (all of which I already had) and it didn’t seem too complicated. Yup. Riiiiiiight….

I will give this another try at some point, but not right away. I’ve been doing a lot of reading about how good for you gelatin is and how we don’t get enough of it in our diet. I gathered a bunch of recipes, most of which require the use of a blender and lots of boiling down of berries, and now I will have a terrific excuse for needing to chew on my gummy treats. Once I attempt to make them. It might be a while before I try that again, though.

I’m very happy with my weight loss this week! When I stepped on the scale I had to stare at the dial for a minute to make sure that I was reading it correctly. It was very early (I try to hop on it when I get up before I feed the cats), and I wasn’t sure that I was completely awake. I even half-stepped off the scale to make sure that I was seeing the correct number. I was! It hadn’t gone up like I had expected.

This week I must confess that I had to taste a little of the carrot cake cupcakes that I made last weekend. I shared half of one with Jay and it was delicious! Except, about a half hour later it felt like a rock in my stomach. I could hear my stomach poking at it and saying, “What kind of junk are you dumping in here??!! I just got this area all cleaned up and then you bring something like THIS in?!” I didn’t have any more after that, but that was mainly because I made my mother-in-law take the rest of them to work with her. lol

The other reason why I was surprised to have lost weight is because this was a VERY stressful week. By the time that I got home from work on Thursday I’d had enough. I burst into tears and I could feel that all of my muscles were tense and on edge. It took a while, but I eventually calmed down that night. Luckily I have a husband who lets me rage on and on until I have exhausted myself. Usually he’s just happy that he’s not the reason for my rage!

So, that’s how this past week went. I don’t really have any goals for this week. It’s Holy Week so I’m not going to have a whole lot of chance to cook or prepare many meals. There will be more stress, too, but hopefully without any break downs!

Week #8

Mood: Tired with a headache

Weight Loss Week #8 – 0 pounds

Total Weight Loss – 11 pounds

*sigh* Another week without seeing the scale budge at all. It’s a bit discouraging. Jay says that I need to just take it one step at a time and not get discouraged by this, but all he has to do is look at a treadmill and he loses 10 pounds. Curse his inherited metabolism of a hummingbird!

Actually, this just proves that I can’t rely completely on a change in diet to shed the weight. I need to do some exercising. Which, for me, is easier said than done. After a long day at work I would rather sit in my sewing room than hop on a treadmill or sweat to the oldies. I have been doing research on treadmills to figure out what I want and how much it’s going to cost me.  A year at the gym would technically be cheaper, but would I be more willing to use a treadmill that’s in my house as compared to having to drive to the gym?

In the meantime, I keep making new discoveries on the food front. Did you know that Chobani makes a line of yogurt that uses Stevia as the sweetener instead of sugar or high fructose corn syrup? They have a raspberry lemonade flavor that is FABULOUS! It’s the perfect blend of sweet and tart. I have been subbing this in for my serving of fruit during the week when I eat lunch.

The weird food thing that I noticed this week hit me yesterday. Once in a while I’ll get a craving for something sweet like gummi bears or M&M’s. What I’ve really been craving this week, though, is meat. It sounds so strange. I’ll be playing the piano at home and suddenly I’ll have the biggest craving for any kind of meat. I keep sliced turkey breast on hand and a couple slices of that usually helps. But doesn’t that sound strange? Who gets cravings for meat??

Week #7

Mood: Tired, but happy about a productive day

Weight Change Week 7: 0 pounds

Total Weight Loss: 11 pounds

I’m disappointed that I didn’t lose any weight this week. Although, I have noticed a little bit of a trend. The weeks that I’ve really hit the peanuts and cashews hard are the weeks where I don’t lose any weight. So, I guess that I will lay off of them for a bit and see how it goes. It could be completely unrelated, or it could be the catalyst. We will definitely have to see.

I am also going to partially blame it on the fact that I had a mudslide last night at dinner. I have to admit that I’m still scared to re-introduce the stuff that I’ve been cutting out of my diet for the past month. However, my Nutritional Therapist said that I could have one to celebrate… so I did. I am very disappointed to admit that it was not nearly as satisfying as I had thought it would be. I told Jay that it just tasted… sweet. It could have been how the bartender mixed it, but I really couldn’t distinguish any of the flavors in it. I tasted the oily flavor of the whipped cream, but the rest of it was just… sweet.

You know, maybe it’s kind of like how you build something up in your mind about how good it used to be, and then when you experience it again it’s a bit of a disappointment. I guess that’s the way that I’m feeling about this whole sugar thing.

And again, my brain has recalibrated itself. This is a bit scary for me because never in a million years would I have expected this to happen. Here’s what happened: I was thinking about the bag of gluten free black licorice gummies that a friend had given to me last weekend. I was trying to determine if I would have the will power to eat just one at a time. You see, I LOVE black licorice and it’s hard to find it in a gluten free form. As I was contemplating this it suddenly hit me. I have a recipe for Paleo gummies (they use stevia as a sweetener, not real sugar) and even though it calls for orange flavoring I could always swap it out for anise flavoring and I could make my own black licorice gummies! Also, if I don’t add any coloring to it I can make black licorice gummies that won’t turn my mouth blackish blue! I actually became excited at this prospect!

The first food that I’m going to begin to re-introduce is potatoes since I had to give them up due to their starchiness. Today at my parents’ house I had a baked potato and it was good. Much more satisfying, actually, than the mudslide last night. Some time this week I will make a batch of tater tots. Mmmm… tots!!

Oh, and last week the grocery store had my favorite gluten free pizza on sale, so I bought one. I have it in the freezer and I’m waiting until I can add in the gluten free bread again. But it’s on hand.. waiting… 🙂