So I’ve been eating low-sugar (15g per day or less) and low-carb since the beginning of March, and during my most stressful week I was down 13 lbs from right after Christmas (not counting the 7 lbs I lost from eating clean in ’09). That stressful week weight was unusually low, and I knew it wouldn’t last. Sure enough, 3 lbs came bouncing right back on the minute I made sure to eat three meals and drink enough water. This is why I don’t put a whole lot of importance on the scale from day to day. Shrugging off the number is a sanity-saver.So stress is one thing, but what happens when I increase the sugar as I did recently when I went to my mom’s last week? She’d made dozens of cookies and had them in the freezer. Between the two of us, there was some cookie carnage. Like mother, like daughter – the difference being that I didn’t feel all that guilty about it since it was a choice from which I knew I could recover.

In any case, the damage when I got home was about 2.5 lbs. Not earth shattering except that I’m finding it hard to get back on track. Anybody have any secrets?

I feel a cleanse coming on….I’m off to the store to get some veggies (and even fruit!) for some juices. I feel like that’s good for a reboot. At least then I can transition back from white sugar to natural sugar to low sugar, and maybe my body will play along.

Courtesy of www.chesapeake-greenlake.com

This afternoon, I’m off to a walk around the lake with a friend. Since the weather’s been TERRIBLE in Seattle, this walk is long overdue! I think some fresh juice and a long walk are bound to make everything better.

So after I got home from grocery shopping tonight, I got an email from Farty Girl saying she couldn’t comment on my posts. I’ll get my tech guy right on that.

I was thinking it was a little strange I hadn’t heard from ANYONE in a while.

WTF WordPress? After I had nothing but nice things to say about you!

(Under the toasty So Cal sun, Deb is laughing at me right now.)

I’ll get that fixed and Portland Part Two will be up shortly. You’ve actually already read the best half, but I’ll give you the rest of the story….cuz I’m thorough like that.

Hmmm, thinking of what kind of prize I can send Farty Girl for notifying me. I’m gonna come up with something good!

I’ve been following this plan, loosely, for the last few weeks to see if it would work for my nutty, thyroid-goofy body. I’m actually really enjoying it, and, before the corn chip incident, I had dropped a couple of lbs to the lowest I’d been in 6 months. (I’m *this* close to getting into a new number bracket – the same one that the gorgeous Ms. Bitch Cakes is in!)

My boss has lost 40 lbs following the BFC, as we call it (terrible name really), since October. She and I had gone back to WW together but nothing was really clicking for her. She claims she had over 100 lbs to lose, but I just really couldn’t tell (plus it’s none of my beeswax). Anyway, if that’s true, she’s 10 lbs away from being halfway there!

My point is that TODAY I’m getting serious about this plan, and I’ve signed up for Jorge’s 6-week coaching plan for Women over 40. This is going to be tough for me, not because of the food options, but because I’m not that great at following someone else’s plan but I’m going to give it a shot because I’m ready to be done with this 25 lbs.

Jorge is a master marketer – I’ll give him that. But I think his plan of keeping sugar grams under 15 and carb servings to a max of 6/day is working for me. I believe that this plan, in conjunction with my T3 therapy, is the way for me to go. I certainly don’t think cutting down sugar is going to hurt me. It’s just amazing how much sugar is in everything! I’ve even had to give up my beloved Amazing Grass bars because each one has almost twice the amount of sugar (granted MOST of it is natural sugar) as is suggested for one day on the BFC plan! Fortunately CarbRite Diet bars have no sugar and are yummy.

So that’s the update. I am adding more veggies than Jorge puts in the plan because I love my spinach and believe I need the iron. I will miss my fruit, but I won’t miss the fat on my body. I’ll be posting my eats as much as I can. This morning, for example, I’ll be having a two-egg & cheese sammie on a 100-calorie Sandwich Thin. Wayyyyy less sugar than my old smoothie.

Happy Monday everyone!

Title brought to you by Chris. He seems compelled to say this every time I refer to Jorge which is fine because I feel like he’s cheering for me. Which he is, of course.

photo credit: tayarijones.com

You know I’m usually such a positive person, and I know most of you don’t want to read Debbie Downer posts during your precious blog reading time. But, to be honest, I’m having a really hard time right now and need some food blogger advice.

First of all, I’ve been counting calories with Calorie King, and the program originally noted that to get to my goal weight I should take in about 1250 calories a day. That’s about what my Weight Watchers points always added up to also. I have done it in the past (and lost weight), but it’s just not a doable calorie intake for me these days so I bumped it up to 1450 and figured I’d just lose weight a little slower. Tracking calories is a pain, I hate it, and, frankly, it hasn’t worked. I’m actually up a pound as of this morning.

My trainer said even 1450 calories is not nearly enough for me, and I’m not even that active so I just really don’t know who to believe anymore. I’m getting in about three exercise sessions a week and eating a variety of foods, still clean all-natural foods, and nothing is budging the scale. I’m still taking 130 mg of natural thyroid a day as well as L-Tyrosine.

I know none of you are doctors though some of you are nutritionists. I keep changing it up to see what will help: more protein, less grains, always lots of veggies, some fat in the form of nut butters, flax oil/meal, coconut oil – I’m just stuck.

Do I take up running? Do I find the time to sweat HARD every day to see if that helps? Food-wise, I feel like I’ve exhausted my options.

I know I need to be kind to myself: I have a full-time job, I’m doing this intense graduate program, I’m finding a few hours here and there to exercise, and I’m eating more nutritiously than many folks….but WTH???? If I’m going to give up dessert and alcohol and constantly consume kale and brussels sprouts while slaving away to Jillian, I wanna see some results, dammit!

I know our bodies are all different and I have an overriding thyroid issue, but any advice would be appreciated. Thanks you guys!

Updated to add: I can’t get the photos to load in Google Reader in Windows 7. So annoying. Even when I right-click Load Photos – nada. Anybody have a cure for that?