Plan B: Week one update

So it’s been a week since I’ve been following my “Plan B” weight loss plan. The results so far? Drumroll, please!

1.5 lbs lost, one inch off my waist and one inch off my hips. Yay! (Actually, I lost the pound and a half between Tuesday and Saturday, and have been annoyingly stuck since then. I know, I have to be patient.) Well, it’s obviously working, if not a little more slowly than I would have liked, and I’m encouraged enough to keep at it. A few random observations from week one:

• I’m quite proud of the fact that I’ve had no trouble at all meeting the “no sugar” part of the new diet.
• On the other hand, the “limit your daily intake to 3 servings of carbs” part nearly killed me the first week.
• Apparently, I’m a bit of a carb junkie. I’d say I was eating maybe six to twelve servings a day before this week. No wonder I couldn’t lose any weight.
• I’m now more miserly with my carbs than I am with my money.
• The first day, I was hungry to the point of being mildly headachy all day. The second day I started to find my rhythm, and I did pretty good the rest of the week. I went over on carbs one day and protein the next, and have not quite been able to keep up with my fruits or my fats. In fact, if it weren’t for nuts, I’d hardly be eating any of my five allotted daily fats.
• I only fell off the wagon once when we went out to celebrate a friend’s birthday (waves to Jojo) and the hostess put out chips and salsa. I managed to resist the cake but caved on the corn chips, then topped it off with a few delicious salt and vinegar chips. Heaven, and worth every bite. At least I kept it down to about a dozen chips. And the next night my mom brought over a Farm Boy Triple Berry pie for dessert and my knees nearly gave out in berry bliss when I stole a mouthful and the centre of the strawberries were still warm from the oven. I don’t think I’ve ever tasted such a delicious pie. And yet, I ate only that one bite. Yay me!
• I think the biggest shock to my system has been the two litres (eight cups) of water each day. In three pregnancies, I never had to pee so much or so vehemently. We were out shopping, going from one store to another one half a kilometer down the road. I felt the beginnings of a need to pee, but figured I had lots of time. By the time we made it to the second store three minute later, I was lecturing the boys as I parked the car about how we were going to go DIRECTLY to the bathroom and they were not to dawdle or so much as look around until we got to the bathroom and were we very clear on this because Mommy was NOT JOKING and it was VERY IMPORTANT. It was too close for comfort, I tell you.
• A couple of days in, the nurse from the clinic called me to ask how I was doing. She had called just as I was unloading the dishwasher while eating spoonsful of yogurt directly out of the measuring cup, and I mentioned this to her in passing as a way to illustrate that I’m having a bit of a hard time balancing the extra time I need to weigh and analyze and consider my food choices while still taking care of the boys. She gave me a bit of a speech about taking time for myself and if that means letting the baby cry for a couple of minutes, so be it. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. Yes, I do take time for myself. Yes, I have been known to let the baby work his way up from a fuss to a froth as I took an extra few minutes to get to him. But never so I could finish eating yogurt, for goodness sake. I save my “me” time for more important things, like going to the bathroom. Or, you know, blogging.
• I don’t really eat meals anymore, I eat off my checklist. I think ahead to what we’ll have as a family for dinner, reserve those food choices and then scan my list to see which food groups still have open slots and eat accordingly. One day I had 3/4 of a cup of dry multigrain cereal, a piece of cheese and a red pepper for breakfast. This is neither a sustainable nor normal way of eating, I’m quite aware, but for the next six months or so it will be okay, and I’m hoping over the long term I can meld new habits into a more moderate regime.
• I had said that I do not want to get obsessive about eating. I am so completely obsessive about my eating right now that it’s not funny. I suppose this is not really a bad thing, and I’ve always been a tad on the compulsive side anyway. Truth be told, I kind of like the beancounting aspect of monitoring my daily intake by making lists and ticking off boxes.

One and a half down, 18.5 to go!

Author: DaniGirl

Canadian. storyteller, photographer, mom to 3. Professional dilettante. View all posts by DaniGirl