Holidays and an Eating Frenzy

Well I just got back from a few days away at a little beach town with my partner and two of our good friends. It was lovely. There were so many eagles and hawks and ravens flying around and the beach would stretch for miles when the tide was out. We collected sea shells and had a camp fire on the beach. And it only really rained on us for a few mins here and there. It was a lovely trip.

Now the eating, well it's funny my friends are big eaters. They have the opposite problem to me they are under weight so eat tons of high fat foods. Not bad fats, not junk foods, but still high fats. So for the first night I managed to stay pretty much on track only eating about 150 calories over my goal. But the other 2 days I ate around 1800 calories each day! Crazy I haven't eaten that much in months and months. But you know what I don't feel guilty about it at all. I know that for the next 4 days I have to eat on track and work out each day to get back to balance, but yeah it's worth it right. It was so nice to go away and just not worry to much about every little thing. I know that I can work hard now and balance it out so what's the harm. Except of course that my belly was a bit upset on those nights, too much food for me! We'll I'm off to the gym for some cardio and then to a yoga class.

Hot Yoga and Sunshine

What a lovely day I had today. I can't tell you just how great it was:) I went to my first hot yoga class today since starting the Bernstein diet (I was just way to scared of collapsing in class while I was on the diet). It was wonderful. Having lost almost 40 pounds has completely changed my yoga practice, I was able to hold every pose and felt incredible! I even was able to do headstand yesterday for the first time in years. I am just trilled! It is amazing to me just how much easier everything is without that extra weight on me. After class I treated myself to a lovely lunch on a patio in the sunshine, I had a really yummy salmon and beet salad and drank a whole liter of sparkling water. Then I happened into the body shop and won a $100 shopping spree, it was like the world was saying everything is going to work out alright:) Got to love the good days!

Getting off of the Bernstein Diet

Well here I am what 3ish weeks off of the diet. I felt great for the first week or so and then well I felt pretty horrible. When I ended my time at the clinic the nurse had told me that if I started eating other foods off of the maintence sheet that I could stop taking potassium. So as I started eating potatoes and bananas I cut back on the potassium. I guess the combo of too low salt and too low potassium had me feeling like I was going to faint and that I wasn`t getting enough oxygen to my brain which in fact happens when your blood pressure drops. Anyway I went to the Doc and got a bunch of tests done, I should get the results next week. But I really feel that it was cutting the potassium and salt back so much. I have started taking potassium again and can tell you that I don`t feel like I`m going to faint anymore. Now I think it`s just going to be a balancing act until I can truly be off of the supplements and living the healthy life I want. I can`t tell you if going on that diet was worth it or not to me. In so many ways it gave me the tools and motivation I needed to stay on this path. But in so many other ways it is just plainly unhealthy. You have to be soo careful.

Chewing Gum and Cravings

I wanted to write a quick post about chewing gum. Since I started this journey it's become a big part of my life. I know it's funny but it really has saved me. I have found that when I want a snack, just something to munch on I will reach for a stick of sugar free gum or a sugar free mint and I am satisfied enough that I don't want for something else. Personally I enjoy cinnamon gum and mints and I also have gotten into fruit flavored gums. It really helps kind of like quitting smoking, lol. I guess eating can also be an oral fixation. Regardless if you are like me it works.

Yoga

What a difference. I forgot what it was like to be able to do certain poses in yoga. Tonight I did a Pilates workout at home and then started to do a few yoga stretches all of a sudden I was able to do poses I haven't been able to do in years. I was able to do the Bow (Dhanura-asana) when before I could only do one leg at a time. I also was able to do the Plow (Hala-asana). I can tell you it feels amazing:) Absolutely amazing!

Salt and Blood Pressure

So as you may know I wrote a blog post about salt and weight loss/gain a while back. Since I found out about how salt effects the water levels in our body I have been super good about cutting the salt way down. I guess to far down as now I seem to have low blood pressure. Now when I was on the Bernstein diet I had low blood pressure which is kind of to be expected as you are eating such little food. Anyway when I stopped the diet I figured my blood pressure would normalize unfortunately it hasn't. The funny thing is and I didn't put this together until now that when I cut the salt way down I started having this near fainting dizzy spells where I would feel as though I wasn't getting enough air. Not very fun. So I finally go to the Doctor as I keep having these bouts and low and behold it's the salt. I guess it was just one to many things for my body to manage and even though for the normal person less salt is much better I guess for me I need to up it at least until I get back to normal. I still think less is better, maybe just at a more gradual pace. As for now I just had some salt, it is yummy so there could be worst things. One day at a time...

2 weeks since ending Bernstein

Well it's been 2 weeks since I ended the Bernstein diet. I feel fantastic, my energy is great and I have lost 3.5 pounds since stopping which is excellent. To recap you need to burn 3500 calories to burn 1 pound of fat. By figuring out your BMR you can figure out how many calories you need to be eating to lose a pound. I am aiming for 1.5 pounds a week so I am consuming 1200-1300 calories a day and am exercising 2-3 times a week. That's for my body, everyone is different. Women should not eat less then 1200 calories a day and Men not less then 1500 a day, unless supervised by a Doctor. But again we are all different heights so it is really a unique number to each of us.

I am happy that I did the Bernstein diet, it is a rapid weight loss diet and it does work. But wow it was a weird experience that I am happy is behind me. It gave me the tools I needed, and I now feel that I can't fail in this endeavor.

Documentary on Milk

Milk in the Land.

http://www.pbs.org/pov/notesonmilk/photo_gallery_watch.php
you can watch it online until the 21st of April:)

Last year my partner and I went to http://stonesoupfilmfestival.blogspot.com/ and saw a bunch of different movies on food. Movies about our soil, our seeds, and yes milk. All the documentaries we saw were interesting and worthwhile to watch but "Milk in the Land" although the most artsy film was the one that stuck with me the most. If you have some time free I recommend watching it.

Energy

Energy... It is amazing to me. When I was on the Bernstein Diet I had NO energy, I was so cranky and moody and really had no energy. I would be exhausted after work and my job is not that hard. Not to mention working out was out of the question, I had to drink caffeine just to function.

Now what has it been just under 2 weeks since I ended that diet and my weight is continuing to come off, I'm allowed to eat things like pasta again and I feel great! I actually have energy again, I can work out or even just go for a walk without feeling like I am going to faint. Even my blood pressure is back to normal, it was low while I was on the diet. All I can say is this feels good. We really can have it all. (in moderation anyhow)

First Night Out and Foodmares

Wow so I just woke up from my first food nightmare. It may have been because last night I went out for the first time in months and had a beer (which as I side note has 150 calories) and split some lovely fish stew and had a few pomme frites. Anyhow I don't know if it was because I had gone out and was not feeling guilty for enjoying myself at all or if it was unrelated but this is what I dreamt. I dreamt that I started eating sugar again, you know that refined crap they put in everything, anyway I was eating it and I couldn't stop eating it. In the dream I remember thinking "I just should never have started again my body can't handle sugar" as I lent over 3 different cakes and devoured them all. It was horrible, I couldn't stop! In my dream my addiction was soo severe. Anyway I woke up and assured myself that no I will not start eating sugar again, no way this freedom from it is to great.

I love being sugar free!