One month at Curves

I've been working out at Curves for a little over a month, and had my monthly weigh and measure today.  It's my "time of the month" so I probably should have put it off until next (I usually gain a few pounds of water weight during my period), but I was already a week late getting it done, so I didn't want to put it off any longer.  Only one pound lost, but I took off 4 inches!

Here are my Curves start stats (not too far off from the ones I did myself when I started the blog!)

03/21/11
Weight- 240
Bust- 46.50
Waist- 40.75
Abdomen- 51.50
Hip- 49.50
Thigh- 25.75
Arm- 14.50
Body fat- 40.90 (GAH!!!)

And today 04/27/11
Weight- 239
Bust- 46.50
Waist 40.50
Abdomen-50.50
Hip- 49.25
Thigh- 25.50
Arm-13.50
Body Fat- 40.80


-1lb
-4inches
-.10% body fat

For dinner tonight we had pan seared salmon and asparagus with maple-mustard sauce.  The mustard sauce is so easy to make.  It's out of my Betty Crocker cook book, but TF friendly.

For 2lbs of asparagus (cooked however you like it- for 1lb, half the recipe, of course)

2 TBSP real maple syrup
2 TBSP dijon mustard
2 TBSP olive oil

 Whisk together in a small bowl and drizzle over the cooked asparagus.  Yummy!

2 weeks

Two weeks, and one more pound lost.  I was hoping for a couple of more, but I had a hard time staying on the diet this past week, so I'll take one :)

My averages for the last 2 weeks are 2,213 calories a day, with 60% fat, 23% carbs, and 17% protein. 

So, positives and negatives-

Positive

• It definitely works, when followed to the letter!
• Plenty of calories so you don't feel hungry, even with eating 3 meals and no snacks
• Good, nutrient dense food that's all homemade; no processed "health food"

Negative

• Cost!  It's inordinately expensive, at least for me.  I think I've spent like $500 on food in two weeks, and I just do not have that kind of money.
• Time intensive.  Even as a stay at home mom, the amount of time necessary to follow it perfectly is a little overwhelming.  I can't imagine how people who work full-time could do the diet perfectly without being exhausted.  And, anything shortcut that cuts down on time (like pre-made ferments, kombucha, etc) increases the cost.

So, where does this leave me?  Hmmm.  I certainly plan to continue, but I'm going to have to make adjustments.  I just can't spend $800+ a month on food.  Coconut oil (high quality!) alone is ridiculously expensive, and if my husband and I follow the guidelines, we're supposed to be consuming 12 tbsps between us, just before meals!  And, even though I SAHM, that doesn't mean I'm home all the time.  With 4 kids, we're usually pretty busy :)  So, I also need to find ways to make it a little easier on myself.

Cost wise, here's what I'm thinking-

• No organic produce, outside of the "dirty dozen" (when available)
• Pastured chicken and pork, but conventional beef and lamb
• Keep eating eggs from my chickens, but supplement with conventional eggs when it's not enough
• Learn to make kombucha and ferments (time consuming, but kombucha is $3 or more a bottle, and ferments are $13 a pint!!!  Big money suck)
• Regular cheese instead of raw milk cheese

I'm not sure how to work with the time issue without increasing cost, any tips?

So, I'm going to try to do that (though I'm not sure what the heck to do for the rest of the month, since my food money is pretty much gone!!)  I'll certainly need to step outside of the recipes in the book to work with what I've got, but I'm going to do my best to keep to the basics; 2500 calories a day, 60% fat, 1-2 tbsps of coconut oil before each meal, fermented cod liver oil each morning.  I have found that as a nursing mom, I usually need a light afternoon snack (I usually do a couple ounces of cheese and a piece of fruit).

I also really need to start working out!

As I was chopping veggies for cream of vegetable soup this evening, I had to snicker at the reputation traditional foods has (especially Nourishing Traditions!) as being "meat heavy."  I've even seen people try to claim that NT tells you not to eat vegetables!  Too funny.  I admit my veggie consumption was never the best, but it wasn't awful, yet I feel like I'm eating more fresh produce now than I ever have!  And not nearly as much meat as I had expected.

Still feel like I'm spending all day in the kitchen, but I guess I'm getting used to it!

Here's todays stats!

Calories-  2,355
Fat- 155.5 (79.9 sat fat)
Carbs- 151.7
Protein- 100.1

59% fat, 24% carbs, 17% protein

1 week down!

One week down, and I've lost 3 pounds!  Which gets rid of my holiday weight, so hopefully I can lose another 2 or 3 next week and get past this 236 plateau!  I think 2-3 pounds a week is a good aim, since I am nursing.  That would be 8-12 pounds a month, not too bad.


Here are my averages for the week-

Calories- 2507
Fat- 173.8 (93.3 sat fat)
Carbs- 128.4
Protein- 114.6

61% fat, 20% carbs, 19% protein

Day 5

Oops, got busy and skipped over day 4 there, didn't I?  Well, don't worry, here's my stats for yesterday!

Calories- 2,647
Fat- 199.7 (92.1 sat fat)
Carbs- 78.7
Protein- 139.5

67% fat, 11% carbs, 22% protein

Cutting down on the coconut oil has helped a lot with the nausea.  I've been doing 1/2 tbsp before meals, tomorrow I think I'll try to up it to 1tbsp and see how it goes.  My husband commented last night that he feels like he's eating a lot!  It's 3 meals a day, no snacks, so the meals are pretty filling.

English Breakfast this morning.  Any diet where I get to eat eggs fried in lard, bacon, and then toast soaked in bacon grease and fried in lard is pretty freaking awesome.  We get our bacon from a farm just a few miles down the road, how awesome is that?

Lunch was some roast beef, parmesan shavings, and lacto-fermented pickles.  Yum!

We were out of town for dinner, but I was good this time and got a Greek chicken salad from McAlister's Deli.  They said the dressing was made from olive oil, I hope they were right!  I know you're only supposed to do the 3 meals and no snacks, but since my dinner was light, I was only at 1800 calories and starving.  Not good for a nursing mom, so I'm having another round of roast beef and parmesan along with some herbal tea to take my coconut oil, since I didn't get it in earlier.

So, including that, here are today's stats!

Calories- 2,218
Fat- 151.4 (65.5 sat fat)
Carbs- 97.3
Protein- 115.5


61% fat, 17% carbs, 22% protein

Day 3

I had a nice evening out to celebrate my husband's birthday.  I was looking at the menu and in my brain saying "okay, salmon, salad, veggies, yes" but then the waitress came and I opened my mouth and "chicken tortellini" fell out.  How did that happen??  Oh well, thankfully I did great for breakfast and lunch, so my overall calories and fat weren't bad, considering!

Calories- 2984
Fat- 170.4 (88 sat fat)
Carbs- 224.6
Protein- 141.7

50% fat, 30% carbs, 20% protein

Day 2

Lamb, nom nom

Day 2 was a bit hectic, we had our homeschooling co-op today (which means we're gone for 5 hours!) so I had to prep ahead. I made lunch (chicken salad with curried mayonnaise) last night, and then prepped tonight's dinner before I left (roasted leg of lamb with root vegetables...I LOVE lamb! But I discovered I am NOT a fan of turnips, yuck!)  I have a hard time cooking lamb.  It kind of scares me.  It's expensive and if you over cook it sucks, which just makes you sad and angry.  But it's hard for me to tell when to take it out!  I thought it was done and took it out for my husband to cut up, it was basically raw in the middle.  Gah.  Irritating, plus I was tired from a long day and hungry.  I threw my fork down on the counter and yelled "That's it!  I'm done!"  One fo those days.  But, my husband put the half cooked pieces back in the oven with the veggies that were cooking in beef stock, and it all turned out okay.  Kitchen hissyfits are sometimes necessary to preserve one's sanity.  At least, that's what I tell myself.

I also read elsewhere on the web that too much coconut oil can cause intestinal issues, if you're not used to it.  Which explains the awful nausea I had all night last night after consuming the EFLF recommended dosage of 6 tablespoons through the day!  I did 2tbsp today before breakfast and lunch and couldn't bring myself to do the dinner dose.  So I think tomorrow I'll reel it in and try 1/2 tbsp before each meal and see how I feel with that.

Tomorrow is also my husband's birthday!  So we're probably going to go out for dinner, but I don't think it will be too hard to eat something EFLF approved, thankfully.  I'll just have to restrain myself when it comes to dessert!

Today's stats-

Calories- 2,560
Fat- 168.5 (108.4 sat fat)
Carbs- 153
Protein- 121.8

57% fat, 24% carbs, 19% protein

Starting stats

Okay, this is hard for me!  But I'm putting it out there so that a few months from now when I've shed a bunch of weight and inches and I can brag about how much I lost :)

Weight- 239 (though I only gained 3 pounds over the holidays, so that's something, right??)

Bust- 47"
Bicep- 15"
Waist- 41"
Hips- 52"
Thigh- 26.5"

Doubling for biceps and thighs, that's a total of 223 inches!!  I will weigh once a week, but I'll only measure once a month.

I'm pretty sure I ate more for breakfast today than I ever have in my life.  Which actually isn't difficult, since I've never been good about eating breakfast, come to think of it.

Grapefruit with coconut sprinkles.  So pretty, but grapefruit is every bit as disgusting as I remember it being as a child!  I was hoping my adult taste buds would appreciate it, but apparently not.  It tastes fine going down, but the aftertaste is unmistakably vomit.  Not appealing.  So I think in the future I will substitute a whole orange, instead.

The bacon, eggs, and toast were delicious though, of course!