TMI Warning! This post contains highly personal details that may be disturbing to some. I know I am not the only person feeling these things, so I will share anyway. I will be as tasteful as possible and my intention is not to offend. I will mark the offending passage so you can skip it if you like. Thank you.
Exactly four weeks ago today, Dan and I completely changed our eating habits and began the Paleo lifestyle. Dan likes to research and so he dug up info on all kinds of diet changes and figured that this would be the best fit for our needs. It was easy to tweak so that we each could make adjustments for our individual health and the kids would not need completely separate meals.
I have to admit, after so many different diets and workout programs that were a bust, I did not exactly have my hopes up for great results. However, Dan's a great cook and started planning menus and helping more with the grocery shopping. This made it a lot easier for me to stick with the program since all I had to do was eat. :) Then Dan suggested that he take over the vision card with our food assistance.
My first reaction was, "NO! I MUST MAINTAIN THE FACADE OF ULTIMATE CONTROL OF ALL THINGS!"
I didn't say this out loud, and once I mulled it over for a second or two, I realized that this was doable. A week later, I couldn't thank him enough for lifting such a huge amount of stress off of me that I hadn't even realized I was carrying.
The first week was hard. I was crashing bad from the lack of carbs and was crazy tired. Add sugar withdrawals to that and you have one very grumpy Eeka. I started working out of my funk about the time Dan hit his. How bad were these crashes for us? Let's just say that if we hit these lows at the same time and there was no reasonable thought between us, someone would have been sleeping in the car! But, we've been through this type of thing before, so we knew it was temporary and we continued to work past it.
As we completed our second week, we were both finally back on an even keel and the worst of the physical cravings were over. We have been eating so much better since we made this change, mainly because we are starting with whole foods and cooking at home. We've spent far less eating out, even though our grocery bill has barely increased. Week three, we realized that we are eating far less food at one time, Dan's love handles had flattened out and his tummy had shrunk. POOP ALERT: The only change I had noticed in myself was that my poop was solid and floaty instead of mushy and sinking as I was used to. I was feeling better by eating better foods, but I was still breaking out the magnifying glass to try to find any sign of outward change.
***TMI***TMI***TMI***
On the fourth Monday of our new life, my period started. As I put in my tampon, I realized that it was easier to place because there was no longer an extra layer of fat guarding the gates. I have also developed heat rashes from time to time in the area where the lower tummy, a.k.a. front butt, overhangs my upper thighs. I realized that the size of the heat rash danger zone seemed to have decreased.
***SAFE***SAFE***SAFE***
Now, these changes were not apparent to anyone but me, so I was very afraid that I had made them up in an unconscious effort to create hope. I spent the week teetering between putting my faith in a false hope or giving up before I got too committed. On Friday, I went to the doc for labs and had myself weighed. When we started, I was 283 pounds. On Friday, I weighed 269 pounds.
I could not believe I actually lost 14 pounds in less than four weeks, just by changing my diet! I wasn't as strict with my food choices as Dan was and I hadn't put any effort into working out at all. When Dan and I decided to have a little one-on-one celebration, we discovered that without as much extra fat in the way, we fit better. :)
Today, we have completed four weeks. Tuesday, Dan will be weighed and have labs drawn and a blood pressure check.
Payton's going to help us get before pics, even though it's not totally before. By the end of the week, we'll know if our body chemistry is doing as well as our weight loss or if we need to tweak our foods a bit more.
It's amazing to have hope of real change in our future!
