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.

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.

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