Day 123: Niiice...

Days remaining: 100
Pounds remaining: 123.5
Inches lost/gained this past week: -7.0
Pounds lost/gained this past week: -6.5
Percentage weight loss this past week: -2.32%

Total pounds lost: -29.5
Total inches lost: -28.5


The morning began with no apparent change;
my weight was staying inside a certain range.
And deep within, I thought, Grr... that is so strange?!
So, brooding aside, my new day to arrange.

Ensuring no duty received a shortchange,
the day with all it's tasks I to prearrange.
Yet later, my heart hoping for a sweet change,
upon scale I saw six pounds for exchange.

Those welcome results threw me for a huge loop;
news I could share heartily with my blog group.
That number erased from my sad eyes a droop
as I bounded from the scale with a loud whoop!

[And, yes, I do apologize for forcing you to experience baaaaaad poetry]

Day 113: Living the Miracle

Days remaining: 110
Pounds remaining: 130.0
Inches lost/gained this past week: -2.5
Pounds lost/gained this past week: -4.5
Percentage weight loss this past week: -1.58%

Total pounds lost: -23.0
Total inches lost: -21.5

Wow! This has been an amazing three weeks! Even though we are still doing the Candida diet, the weight loss I have been experiencing can be attributed to nothing short of miraculous! For fourteen weeks, I struggled to lose ten little pounds... ten irritating pounds which were lost and gained over and over for FOURTEEN WEEKS!!!

I would soar on the wings of anticipation and encouragement with each loss only to get depressed and discouraged with each weight gain; all dutifully noted and recorded at the end of each week. I fumed, I pouted, I vilified the scale, I overate, I complained... and then I prayed. Desperately, I asked for help sticking to a diet and exercise regimen and for a miracle.

Then one day, a friend prayed for me to experience miraculous weight loss. And I believed. The first week showed an 11.5-pound drop and the second week gave a 4.5-pound loss. I lost more in three weeks than I had lost in the previous fourteen!! God truly does answer prayers and has been giving the strength to stick with the eating changes we've made (and the increased level of exercise).

Now, in response to the number of people who have expressed concern over proper nutrition while eating according to the Candida diet, rest assured. Putting it the way I did makes it sound unhealthy - taking away wheat, yeast, sugar, dairy, and caffeine - but let's look at it from the side of "what can be eaten."

While on the Candida diet, basically meat and vegetables are what you get, with an occasional low-sugar fruit thrown in for good measure. Many grains other than wheat are acceptable: buckwheat, oats, quinoa, brown rice, amaranth, barley... all low-gluten. Fish, chicken, lean beef, and various fowl can be found in the meat area. The Candida diet supports healing and detoxification and is not a permanent eating plan and we will be eating this way until the end of July, the goal end of this Project.

So, to sum up. Basic hunter-gatherer diet. Lots of veggies and meats. Nice clean foods without a lot of processing. Easier to digest and, once you've eaten this way for a little bit, some foods that are bad for you actually taste bad (or not as good as you remembered). Sweet things become nauseating in some cases or taste chemically.

Turns out, Jason and I have very mild cases of candida overgrowth, so we're not anticipating remaining on the diet beyond the end of July. It is, however, suggested that for increased health and reduced risk of candida overgrowth recurring, to follow an 80-20 plan. For 80% of the time, eat according to the diet. The other 20% of the time can be "other foods" allowances. The 80-20 plan gives freedom and forgiveness for any slip-ups or conscious choices along the way.

An example? For some reason, I have recently fallen in love with soft serve and Starbucks ice cream and ice cold, juicy pears (not together). Unfortunately, the diet forbids dairy and frowns upon pears (they're in the 80% list, though). Solution: We eat according to the diet through the week proper and make a valiant attempt to do so on the weekends. If we do vary, we try to just pick one item to splurge on instead of going hog wild.

Does it work? The results are speaking for themselves!

So. God is amazing. Candida overgrowth is dying. No malnutrition is taking place.

Day 106: Diet Hard (Whee!): With a Vengeance

Days remaining: 117
Pounds remaining: 134.5
Inches lost/gained this past week: -2.75
Pounds lost/gained this past week: -11.5
Percentage weight loss this past week: -3.89%

Total pounds lost: -18.5
Total inches lost: -19.0

Well... let's just say the past several weeks have been horrible from the Project's point of view! I don't ever remember hitting such a diet low. This is the post I always dreaded would need to be written and yet knew would have to be shared to ensure Project integrity.

I'm not sure what happened, but I do know the diet was boring and I wasn't interested in finding out new and creative ways to enjoy low-calorie foods which led to a sort of funk and lethargy from which I never fully recovered.

In retrospect, it seems all the snow threw a curveball into everyday life. Snow, to me, bespeaks hot chocolate with whipped cream, fresh chocolate chip cookies, movies, lounging around - a holiday atmosphere. Unfortunately, these delights are not in line with gym time, reduced calorie eating, and gallons of sweat.

I wanted to quit so badly and then one day, I actually did. A pan of rice krispie treats with chocolate chips was way too easy to make and once I tasted them, I didn't stop. Mouthful after mouthful of buttery, chocolaty, chewy goodness went down accompanied with thought after thought of what I was going to have to say about this major infraction.

I think I just shut down. For weeks, the same 5-8 pounds have been lost and gained and I had not been able to drop below a certain plateau line; no matter what. All diets got tossed out the window and I did go back to eating whatever I wanted to eat... almost.

To my delight, I was okay with making more healthful choices and choosing the smaller portion sizes and enjoying them just as much as if I had eaten a much larger portion. Examples? Previously, I would have gotten a venti Java Chip Frappuccino and now I found myself quite content with a tall size instead. Skipping dessert, eating more veggies, cutting back on carb portions just a little, and scaling back subsequent meals after a large indulgence were all tactics I tried.

Soon, it became apparent to me that I needed to get a grip and do something drastic. Through various circumstances, it became clear that the next step was to go on the Candida Diet. What does that entail? Well... imagine a way of eating that removes all wheat, corn, yeast, sugar, dairy, most fruit, and (horror of horrors) caffeine. That is the Candida Diet.

So our whole family is now on the diet and yes, there are things you can still eat... it boils down to meat and vegetables and not much else. On the plus side, this diet is designed to kill yeast overgrowth. Granted, none of us have a serious issue, but this will kill that overgrowth and, we're hoping, will give us more energy and smaller girths as a result. Even Peter is seeing benefits, though I must admit to the difficulty in having removed Cheerios, crackers, mac and cheese, hot dogs, and bread from the little man's diet.

We started Monday (22 March) and I have already lost 11.5 pounds!! I'm back in the gym, am losing inches, and am newly inspired to get this weight off. I have broken through that plateau barrier I couldn't break before and am excited to see what will happen next.

It's not easy doing this particular diet, but I know it will do wonderful things for our family. Thank you, my faithful readers, for your concern and encouragement to get this blog back up and running. It really is because of you and your participation in my Project that I haven't given up completely and a major contributing cause to the reinvigorating of this blog.

Moving on!

Day 102: In a Slump

Days remaining: 121
Pounds remaining: 146.0
Inches lost/gained this past week:
Pounds lost/gained this past week: +4.5
Percentage weight loss this past week: +1.54%

Total pounds lost: -7.0
Total inches lost: -16.25

Day 95: Barely There

Days remaining: 128
Pounds remaining: 141.5
Inches lost/gained this past week:
Pounds lost/gained this past week: +3.5
Percentage weight loss this past week: +1.22%

Total pounds lost: -11.5
Total inches lost: -16.25

This week stank... huge slump... more details in more recent post... just wanted the data posted here to be consistent-ish.

Day 87: Just the Data

Days remaining: 136
Pounds remaining: 138.0
Inches lost/gained this past week: -1.00
Pounds lost/gained this past week: -2.5
Percentage weight loss this past week: -0.86%

Total pounds lost: -15.0
Total inches lost: -16.25

This was an amazing week... and the drop in weight FINALLY let me drop into a new weight zone, breaking the 5-7 pound range I was stuck in!

[This post has been WAY postdated. I felt it was important to post the data I had collected on that date.]

Day 79: Better Late Than Never

Days remaining: 144
Pounds remaining: 140.5
Inches lost/gained this past week: +0.25
Pounds lost/gained this past week: -1.00
Percentage weight loss this past week: -0.34%

Total pounds lost: -12.5
Total inches lost: -15.25

Well... this posting is waay later than I was hoping to post it, but I felt it was important to put up the results from the last week.

Progress is so slow and I'm thinking of shaking things up a little. It seems when the weight goes down, the inches go up and when the inches go down, the weight goes up. Granted, when there is a gain of around 0.25 inches, usually that means there has been a significant loss at a couple of measuring points.

I have discovered Zumba... a Latin dance workout that makes you work harder than seems humanly possible while twisting, kicking, jumping, and moving your feet and hands to a beat that makes time fly. Oh, and did I mention you can burn up to 1000 calories per hour!! That is unheard of!

Friday, I attended two Zumba classes back to back! Oh. My. Goodness. I barely made it to the end of the second class and was completely wiped the next day. And the next. The experience, however, was so (I hate to use the word) empowering. I felt energetic even though I couldn't think about moving around any more and had a neat sense of accomplishment.

Zumba feels like dancing - as it should - and, though the mirror tells me otherwise, I feel like I'm the most graceful and powerful dancer around. So far, so good.