Not every day is awesome

Well, first setback. I posted bad numbers this week although I'm still following the diet very strictly. I lost some inches, but I wasn't impressed with those numbers when I had gained weight, lost muscle, and lowered my hydration level. I really didn't expect a setback this early in the game.

To make matters worse, I have to start doing cardio 3x a week in addition to the Tuesday/Thursday group classes. I loathe exercise in all its forms save for training for a sport (like lacrosse or field hockey). Since I can't train for one of those teams in the poor shape in which I currently exist, I have to do boring, old, treadmill/bike workouts.

So WiO isn't a magic fix. I knew it wasn't from the start, but I still had hope that I'd continually lose. I felt a bit patronized by Kris (not her fault at all though) because she seemed so impressed with my numbers anyway. I'm a "tell it to me straight" kind of person.

My new goals for this week are to get my hydration back up by drinking at least 125oz of water a day, do my cardio 3x a week, and go to both weekly workout sessions.

More words on cost - in addition to buying the MRP for $80 a week I had to buy Udo's oil at $42 for 32oz, and I'll have to buy the flour and sweetener separately if I want to make my own bread/muffins/cookies, or I can pay to buy the pre-made ones at Elevate. This is the shadiest thing I've seen so far, and it really isn't that shady. I do think WiO should post the prices of their other products and the products you need to buy in order to properly do the program.

Fish and houses

I'm back from my night away from home. Boy what a day. I successfully kept to the protocol. I brought my almond milk, Udo's oil, WiO MRP, and snacks with me.

My friend Jenny has a 6 week old baby and I held her for quite a while, and my arms were weak afterwards. I'm definitely still adjusting to this ketogenic diet. After I had some nuts, and then my shake, I felt fine. Dinner was a ginormous salad with tilapia and about 4 cups of lettuce.

I helped Jenny with her house. She, her husband Jeff, and the rest of her family have been working on this house from start to finish (save for pouring the foundation). I didn't actually do anything hard, just some edging and handing Halee (one of my best friends and Jenny's sister) mud and grout for tiles.

I'm exhausted. This was quite the eventful Saturday. Here's to the weekend!

Train gone sorry.

Well, I was definitely sore today. My quads and glutes were all, "Hello Laura, we are not happy with you!" -- of course, this is for their own good. Sitting and standing, not the funnest thing today (funnest is a word now).

I'm heading up north to see my best friend and help her paint her sister's house. This is my first weekend not at home or at my parents' house, so I'm packing all the stuff I need to make my shakes on the go. In other news, I tried to make curry again, and failed horribly. Too much coconut milk and too much curry - also, "salad shrimp" are horrible. Don't buy them!

Also, everyone at the fitness class last night was amazing! They were all super nice and had helpful information on what it was like to be on the WiO diet. I'm looking forward to Tuesday's class, but I am also really nervous because it was definitely more work than I was expecting...but that's going to be good in the long run...hopefully.

So much to say!

Okay, so I have procrastinated on my blog writing. I'll get around to working on that (lame joke count 1).

Tuesday -- nothing much to report. I had the largest salad I've eaten at home. I wasn't planning on eating all of it because it was a daunting task, then suddenly it was all gone. My weigh-in was the next day.

Wednesday -- Weigh-in day of sadness. Today was the first day I had some serious hunger. It was quite uncomfortable, but I think I know the reason. I did a service project at Orem Elementary school with my coworkers (and a bunch of other people from UVU). We painted the asphalt with cute hopscotch snails, very hungry caterpillars, and repainted the four-square and regular hopscotches. This was in the sun and required actual movement, so I got pretty tired pretty quick.

I went in for my first consultation and weigh-in. The scale I'd used the time before was broken, so Kris (Rich's assistant) weighed me on a different scale. It was horrible. I'd lost three pounds, but my body fat had gone up 1.5%, my muscle mass down 5lbs, my metabolic age had gone from 50 to 90, and my hydration only went up .2%. I was super disappointed. I went home and maybe ate a whole jar of baby pickles -- they were delicious. I got a text saying that my original scale had been fixed and I should come and re-weigh-in Thursday before my first group fitness class.

Thursday -- Holy crap working out with Rich and Caleb (the intern) was murder! We did squats, lunges, planks, jogging, walking up hills, and this weird rubber band team thing which involved one person running with a rubber band (a big one) around their waist while someone behind them added resistance. I was figuratively dying. I couldn't do the floor abs because my tailbone pokes out too much and it hurts way too much for me to handle at the moment.

Thursday - the re-weight-in -- Glorious day of days! I was reweighed on the original scale (by Lindsay who works at Elevate) and the numbers were much, much more to my liking. I lost four pounds, 1.8% body fat, 4" off my body measurements (neck, shoulders, bust, waist, etc.), and my hydration went up nearly 2%. I was super happy and made Rich look at my file after the workout of doom and he also seemed super impressed.

Thursday - the dinner -- My mom had told me she'd been cooking her broccoli with sour cream and curry powder, so I decided to try it (I love vegetables when they are in a yummy sauce like curry). I didn't want to use a lot of sour cream because it does have carbs in it, so I grabbed a can of coconut milk I had in my cupboard. Coconut milk, at least mine, has NO CARBS. After that I went nuts, coconut milk, curry, garlic, a touch of olive oil, cinnamon, broccoli, and chicken. When it was warm I had to add sriracha hot sauce. I devoured this lovely dish with great joy. Only 2 carbs added to the meal that didn't exist in the broccoli already. I've found a new staple dish.

I'm feeling like I can commit to at least one more week of this. Small goals, right?

Costs, the nitty gritty so far and updates on feelings

So I just read the receipt for my first WiO payment. Here's the breakdown:

1 MRP Vanilla  --  $80
1 Udo's Oil (32 ounce) --  $42*
1 Blender Bottle  --  $10
1 Flavoring - 1oz  -- $9**

*The Udo's Oil I received was 8.5 ounces, but I was charged for the 32 ounce. I'm going to bring this up at my next meeting
**Rich mentioned that he thought the flavorings were just $3-$5 each, but really it was $9

It looks like I'll have to buy the smart flour and smart sweetener. I may ask what a comparable sweetener would be because the sweetener in the MRP is stevia. I'm fine buying my own truVia if I can. I'm also considering buying my Udo's Oil online because it is less expensive as well.

------------------------------------------------------------------

I was pretty hungry today for about an hour. Some of that hunger came from not having as much water as I needed to. I felt fine after eating, full even, and I made it to dinner just fine. I get a bit bored with the food, but I'm trying to learn that I can be excited by things other than the plethora of food out there.  There is also a plethora of plethoras out there, a plethorasaurus if you will.

Any bloggers reading - what do you do in order to keep yourself from getting bored? Bored eaters - how do you combat that need?

Taco, taco, taco

Today was a great Mother’s Day. I made tacos for dinner. My mom loves tacos, and I can make them without needing her help. As a 27 year old female, I am just beginning to learn how to cook on my own…awkward.  The tacos were totally kosher with the WiO protocol because I had a taco salad (no tortillas, but everything else). It was glorious and filling, olives, avocado, sour cream, cheese, taco filling, homemade ranch dressing, hot sauce, cilantro, and tons of lettuce.

I am coming up on one full week on the diet. I should have a meeting with Rich on Tuesday to discuss my progress, but I haven’t heard from him about setting up a meeting. I’m going to call Elevate and set one up regardless of if he gets back to me in time.  Here’s to hoping I’ve lost some inches and body fat.

I ran out of peanut butter flavor extract yesterday, but the shakes taste fine without them.  I’ll probably do the next week without any flavorings to see if it doesn’t get too boring. Ooh, I just remembered that my doctor should be calling me tomorrow with the results of my blood panel. I wonder how my levels have changed in the last week.  I don’t know how often I’ll be getting my cholesterol and blood glucose levels monitored. I’ll let you know as soon as I know (well as soon as I get around to writing a blog post about it).

On an unrelated note, I got home from my parents' house and realized I'd left my purse at their house (it's 1.5 hours away). My father drove me down because he has a conference nearby tomorrow morning. No house keys, no car keys, no wallet -- I had to have a neighbor bring a ladder and get into my house through the screen door on the second floor.  It was very conspicuous.  Luckily I have great coworkers who will give me a ride to work tomorrow and a great mom who is going to take the train from her house to mine just to bring me my keys.  Love you mom!

Home for Mother's Day and ramblings on eating disorders

Well, the paper Rich gave me explaining how I should feel during this first week on the protocol is very accurate.  It said that days 3 and 4 are the hardest because my body is using up the last of its glucose stores. I slept for eight hours, then woke up for a shake, slept for another five hours, and had another shake.  I'm still not experiencing the ravenous hunger I usually get when I am eating a calorie restricted diet, and that is really good.

I'd like to talk about a quote that's been making the rounds on my friend's Facebook pages. The quote is "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels." This is a pro-anorexia quote. It's on most pro-ana and pro-mia websites. Google the phrase and you'll see how connected it is to those eating disorders. Please, don't use this phrase to describe what weight loss has meant to you or what you are trying to achieve through weight loss.

To be honest, I never want to be skinny. That term does not have healthy connotations associated with it. Think about the word "skinny" - does it bring to mind anything close to what a normal person (woman especially) could, would, and should look like? No! At least for me, it brings to mind Twiggy, Kate Moss, and any other sickly thin model that acts as a eating-disorder inducing role model.

Thin, slender, healthy, curvy, sexy, hot, the list goes on for defining exactly how a woman's body should look. Maybe the label women really need to look for is this one - happy.

It's about the money, money, money

I realized today after gazing at the WIO Facebook page that I hadn't included any information on the cost of this diet. In the current economy, cost is super, super important – therefore I am writing a blog entry about the cost of WIO.

Amanda L. Grossman has a great diet plan cost comparison chart here: http://blog.chron.com/frugalconfessions/2012/01/comparing-diet-program-costs-which-program-is-most-and-least-expensive/

When I looked at other meal replacement programs, WIO lines up with them pretty nicely. Make sure to keep that in mind as you experience the same sticker shock I did when I ran the following numbers.

The initial consultation fee where Rich would have done biomarker testing would have been $150, but I chose to go to my primary care physician because it would be free.  I've noticed that WIO in Sandy and WIO at Elevate in Orem have free testing periods fairly regularly.

After your initial consultation I went home with a week’s worth of MRP powder, a bottle of Udo's oil, a bottle of Real Salt, peanut butter flavoring extract, a shaker bottle, a membership to Elevate’s gym, and the promise of group exercise training and an exercise plan. This set me back $141 (I’ll let you know the breakdown after I go back for my consultation next week).  Starting next week I’ll be paying $86/week to cover the gym membership, exercise training/plan, another week’s worth of MRP, and two bottles of flavor extract to make my shakes extra yummy./

After I left Elevate I drove to Target. I probably spent 15 minutes walking around the produce section as if it were completely new to Target. I am NOT a fresh veggie eater. I also had to keep reading the list of approved foods and looking for them on the shelves.  Of course this was easier said than done when you consider that I probably only like 25% of the vegetables in existence, let alone the limited list of low-carb veggies allowed in phase I of the diet. 

I ended up buying organic lettuce, spinach, a cucumber, frozen broccoli, and frozen cauliflower. After that I bought meat, meat, and more meat. I bought hamburger, roast beef, shrimp, and turkey burgers. I also bought two containers of almond milk to use in my shakes.  As for condiments, I spent 10 minutes figuring out which salad dressings didn't have added sugar, red wine vinegar, or balsamic vinegar, and then I got a tub of tzatziki sauce, a bottle of pickles, and a can of olives. The whole grocery trip set me back about $60.  However, I’m pretty sure what I bought will last me for more than a week.

I love going out to eat.  I love food. Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Indian, Italian, German, American, Mexican – these aren't just languages for me, they are exotic and glorious different types of food. Since starting the diet I haven’t been out to eat once (I don’t count the salad bar at work, I’m not packing a salad when I can pay $2 for one on campus). I normally spend around $200 a month on restaurants between meals, drinks, and tips.

I also love math, so I’m going to lay down some math for you.  If Laura spends $200 a month on restaurants and $150 a month on groceries, how much money does she spend a month on food? Answer: 200 + 150 = $350.  If Laura spends $86 dollars a week for the WIO diet and $30 a week for groceries, how much will she spend in a month (i.e. four weeks)? Answer: 86x4 + 30x4 = $526. 

To make a long story longer, I’m spending roughly $175 more a month on food and fitness. Basically I pay $175 for a month’s worth of diet coaching, group exercise, and a gym membership. It’s kind of staggering to look at the numbers written out like this, but I’d rather my wallet shrink along with my body than have my wallet and body stay fat.

Nutritional information and ingredients on the MRP shakes

Bonus post! Here's the nutritional information and ingredient list on the vanilla WIO diet MRP (meal replacement protocol) powder.

Nutrition facts:

Serving size: 50.4g (2 scoops)

Servings per container: 21

Amount per serving:

Calories: 160

Calories from fat: 40

Total fat:               4g                5%

Saturated fat:         3g                15%

Unsaturated fat:     1g

Trans fat:              0g

Sodium:                70mg           3%

Cholesterol:           60mg           20%

Potassium:            230mg         7%

Total carbs:           13g              4%

Soluble fiber:         7g                31%

Insoluble fiber:      1g               

Sugar:                             2g               

Net carbs:              6g               

Protein:                 21g              44%

Vitamin A – Beta carotene:       5000IU        100%

Vitamin C:                               60                100%

Vitamin D – 3 Calciol:              400IU          100%

Vitamin E Tocotrienol:             30IU            100%

Vitamin B-1 Thiamine:             1.5mg                   100%

Vitamin B-2 Riboflavin:            1.7mg                   100%

Vitamin B-3 Niacinamide:                  20mg           100%

Vitamin B-5 Pantothenic Acid: 10mg           100%

Vitamin B-6 Pyridoxine:           2mg             100%

Vitamin B-9 Folate:                  400mcg       100%

Vitamin B-12 Cobalamin:                   6mcg           100%

Calcium:                                  333mg         33%

Phosphorus:                              116mg         12%

Biotin:                                      300mcg       100%

Iodine:                                      150mcg       100%

Magnesium:                             15mg           100%

Zinc:                                        15mg           100%

Selenium:                                 70mcg         100%

Copper:                                    0.5mg                   25%

Iron:                                         2.7mg                   15%

Manganese:                              2mg             100%

Chromium:                               200mcg       167%

Molybdenum:                           75mcg         100%

Ingredients:  New Zealand whey proteins (osaltes – concentrate), lacase enzyme, lipase enzyme, protease enzyme: [alanine, arginine, aspartic acid, cysteine/cysteine, glutamic acid, glycine, histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, proline, serine, threonine, tyrosine, tryptophan, valine – protein fractions: beta-lactoglobulin, glycomacropeptides (GmP), alpha-lactoalbumin, immunoglobulins (lgG), serum albumins], vitafiber ® (isomalto-oligosaccharide, proprietary blend: natural, ester flavors, vanilla powder, non-dairy creamer (coconut), soy lecithin, potassium gluconate, calcium lactate, ayurvedic blend: [amaloki, cinnamon powder, ashwogondha (patented blend), schizandra, haritaki, gymneme sylvestris, guggul, ginger root, turmeric powder], phaseolus vulgaris seed extract, MCT’s (medium chain triglycerides), demineralized polyphenols – ascophyllum nodosum, focus vesiculosus, trace minerals concentrace ®, magnesium oxide, potassium citrate, guar gum, konjax root, iodine yeast, ascorbic acid, stevia, lohan, chromium yeast, d-alpha tocopherol, manganese yeast, zinc gluconate, selenium yeast, retinol palmitate, niacinamide, d-caPantothenate, lactospore probiotic ®, copper gulcanate, biotin, pyridoxine hCl, riboflavin, thiamine mononitrate, molybdenum yeast, cholocalfiverol, cyancobalomin, folic acid, glucomannon, xanthan gum, guar gum, ascorbic acid              

Strange happenings

Well miracles happen.  This morning I went to chug down my shake and for some reason it suddenly tasted wonderful.  I mean I've done a 180. Yesterday I barely tolerated them without gagging, and today they're amazing. Also, I managed to not cook the turkey burger until it resembled a tan hockey puck rather than glorious meat. To top everything off, I stir fried my broccoli and it tasted much, much better.

I was much less hungry between lunch and dinner than I was yesterday.  I'm thinking that is a good sign. For the first time in two whole days I feel like I might be able to handle this. I'm not allowed to weight myself, so I don't know how my body is balancing out.  My goal is to lose between 0.5% and 1.0% of body fat a week.  To be honest, I could care less what I weigh so long as I'm losing fat and gaining muscle.

In other news, I've had my cat, Bear, on a diet of actual portion sizes of her food, and she has lost enough weight to actually clean herself. Does she do this new found activity in private?  No. And speaking of privates, she is currently cleaning hers two feet away from me.

A word on Abercrombie's CEO explaining that he didn't want fat women to shop at his store because they weren't cool...that is NOT cool. I've been in an Abercrombie store, anorexic-thin women and pseudo-hipster men. Meh, I've never like their clothes anyway.

More words -- exercise (okay I get that "exercise" is one word). Rich told me that I shouldn't exercise this first week I'm on the protocol (what the WIO people call the diet) because my body is switching from using glucose for energy to glucagon. I'm hoping the same thing happens with exercise that happened with the shakes and veggies. I absolutely loathe exercise.  I've never enjoyed it.  I don't get the endorphin rush, and I actually don't feel better for going to the gym. To be honest, I think most people don't love the gym, but they say they do because it's expected.

Anyway, I've got one more shake to drink before I go to bed, and when I wake up it will be FRIDAY!

Day two: Shakes and what not

Today was my first full day on the WIO diet.  I had a shake for breakfast, a shake and a salad for lunch, a turkey burger, shrimp, salad, and broccoli for dinner, and a shake before bed. I can stomach the shakes, but they are a bit sickeningly sweet right now. The WIO information says that the taste gets better, right now I'm hopeful but also doubtful.

The biggest hurdle today was eating to live not living to eat.  I get that now. Stuff may not taste good to me right now (broccoli anyone), but the purpose of eating isn't only to enjoy what you are eating.  I'm eating for the nutrition to run my body, not as a fun activity.  Perhaps in the future what I like to eat and what I should eat will fall more in line with each other.

Speaking of eating - I cooked a turkey burger today.  Well it started out as a turkey burger and ended up a slightly burnt turkey flavored hockey puck. I don't own a meat thermometer or the possess the skills necessary to cook something as complicated as a turkey burger. Honestly, I was glad for the solid food that it may have well been a fresh, local dive burger.

This morning I was super energized, but I think that is because I actually ate breakfast.  My energy wore off in the late afternoon and I was pretty hungry when dinner rolled around...and it rolled around without rolls! (I'm allowed one horrible pun per post). Although I say I was hungry, I have to admit for how little I seem to be eating, I'm not near as hungry as I thought I would be.  That's a plus.

I've also upped my water intake.  I'm peeing like a pregnant woman. Water is good for you right? My hydration levels are 10pts below where they need to be, and fixing that takes a lot longer than I thought it would.  I've been going nuts on the water for three days now and I've only moved up about .5pts.

Summary:  Shakes necessary, protein yummy, salads everywhere, water good

Day one: Introduction and basics

I’m Fat Girl Typing and this is my blog about my adventures on the WIO diet. I’m 27 years old, 5’6”, and as of today I weigh 251lbs.  I have a metabolic age of 50 and body fat percentage of 50%.

My goal: Get healthier, gain muscle, and lose 30lbs before August 10^th when I go to Disney World with my brother and his three kids.

I heard about the WIO (Your Weight is Over) diet from my PA, Todd when I brought up that I was thinking about preparing to try to get bariatric surgery for weight loss. Todd asked me to give the guy name Rich a call about the WIO diet because he’d had patients see success in the past and hoped the same for me.

Here’s some background on the WIO diet. It’s a low carb, high protein, high fiber diet.  It’s also uses a meal replacement protocol (MRP) shake.  It’s designed to put your body into ketosis (no real relation to ketoacidosis), and it is designed to combat metabolic disorder.  There are four stages to the diet, and I’m in stage I right now. 

In stage I, I’ll drink 3-4 MRP shakes, have a couple of salads, and 4-7ounces of protein every day.  The shake is made up of almond milk or coconut milk or soy milk or Hood milk, water, MRP powder, ½tsp of UDO oil (an oil containing omega 3, 6, and 9 fatty acids), and an optional flavoring.

As a fat person, I consider myself a lay expert about weight loss. Friends, coworkers, even well-meaning strangers are quick to explain the basic tenants of calories in, calories out whenever given a slight segue in a conversation, and I also know the basics of most fad diets (though I don’t do them, that’s why they are a fad), and more mainstream diets like South Beach or Atkins.  I get nutrition. I understand what needs to be done to be healthy, and I think there are many roads to get there.

Here’s some more background info on me:  I’ve been overweight my whole life (genetics and a very deep, personal, emotional connection to food played the biggest role). Growing up fat was one thing, but that fact that I am super nerd and was a teacher’s pet did not lead me to create a close personal relationship with peers (thus the connection to food).  My weight started spiking in college with a meal plan that included all-I-can-eat tater tots. Months of severe depression led to emotional eating, and a final diagnosis of chronic severe depression solidified my existence as a morbidly obese individual.

More information on my health and lifestyle: I don’t have diabetes or high blood pressure. I’ll let you know about my cholesterol, insulin levels, etc. once I get my blood panel back from my doctor.  I have a sedentary lifestyle (currently I am typing this from my comfy bed; one of my two cats is kneading me in order to seek out weak points (credit for that last part goes to TheOatmeal.com).  I have a sedentary job that involves much typing, glorious typing, and learning.

Back to WIO --

Today I met with Rich Hart at Elevate fitness in Orem, Utah.  I drank my first MRP shake (vanilla with peanut butter flavoring).  It is definitely NOT the best thing I’ve ever tasted, but I think I can stomach it.  I paid for my vanilla MRP, UDO oil, shaker bottle, and peanut butter flavoring.  My weekly cost for the program is $80 and includes fitness coaching, a workout plan, gym membership to Elevate, and group training with other WIO clients and Rich.  There is a $150 blood work fee, but I avoided that by going to my doctor to get my blood work done.

Rich explained to me about what to expect the first week on WIO.  He gave me a list of when to drink my shakes, and when to have the steak and salad (protein and veggies). I took that list and went straight to the grocery store to buy food on the “safe” list (I’ll ad d the full list in another post).

First, I do not care for most vegetables. I’m a fruit, potatoes, grains, and meat kind of woman. I’m a “beige and meat” eater; think of your average plate of food at a buffet – beige roll, beige potatoes, and meat (which may also be beige, chicken nuggets, country fried steak for example).

Vegetables and I have a tenuous relationship. Unfortunately, vegetables are a backbone of this diet, but the WIO diet wants above average vegetables, the heavy hitters, the spinaches, the broccolis, the kale, the cucumbers of the vegetable world, not average grains masquerading as vegetables (corn anyone), and vegetables so fruit-like they may as well be fruit; I’m talking to you tomatoes – I mean, really, a “grape tomato” a “cherry tomato” you must really want to be a fruit, oh wait, technically you ARE a fruit.

Back to the grocery store, here I am at Target contemplating the vegetables I can possibly will myself to eat.  I end up with a couple bags of spinach, some romaine lettuce, a cucumber, frozen broccoli, and frozen cauliflower. I picked up some Wholly Guacamole which isn't on THE LIST because it didn't have any carbs.  I’m waiting to hear back from Rich about if that was a no-no.

Protein is a big part of a ketogenic diet like WIO, so I had a plethora of meaty goodness to choose from. I bought shrimp, turkey burgers, hamburger, roast beef, and I have chicken breasts in my freezer at home. My cooking skills rank at recent college grad, single level, so although I could’ve bought a larger variety of sea and land creatures I stuck with the few things I know how to cook enough not to kill me.

Philosophical moment: Rich says that this is about a lifestyle change, not just weight loss. That’s super important when it comes to long-term weight loss. I want to get healthy and weigh less and I want to stay that way. I’m a food addict and I will always have that part of me no matter how healthy I become. Rich believes in the mantra – eat to live don’t live to eat. I live to eat, but I’m not sure if I only want to eat to live when so much of my life is tied up in living to eat.