You know what they say about weight loss bloggers that don't post

When a weight loss blogger stops posting it's almost always a bad sign. Boy, is that ever true for me!

Tonight I looked back at my draft posts from the past week. These were posts I wrote, but could never actually make myself hit the publish post button. They had titles like "Disappointed", "Depressed", "Struggling". Each time I'd write about my life and re-read it, I'd think to myself, who would want to read this depressing stuff? If you weren't depressed when you started reading it, you'd certainly be depressed by the time you were done reading it.

I've had a bad few weeks. Actually it's been more like a bad few months. Okay, several bad months. About a week ago I seriously was considering the following:  divorcing my husband, quitting my job, and completely giving up on ever trying to get to a healthy weight. I wanted to run away from everything, including myself. Definitely bad times.

I'm not getting a divorce, and I'm liking my husband a lot more this past week. I'm not quitting my job. Even though it sucks the  life out of me at times, it's not a bad job. I love the company I work for and the people I work with. I like the work I do for the most part, I just need to figure out the life-work balance thing.

Weight loss or lack thereof
About getting to a healthy weight and how I've failed. Where do I start?

The last six months of trying to lose weight has not been successful. Almost every day was perfect from the time I woke up, all day until about 9 or 10 p.m. Then I just throw away an entire day's hard work and binge. Maybe it wasn't always an actual binge, but it was always too much food.

Usually I'd overeat healthy food, but a few times I bought candy or some other junk food and ate it late at night, alone. I probably did that four or five times in the last three or four months. Mostly I'd eat too much fruit or too much chicken, or some other healthy food but in a large quantity.

The last two weeks my exercise, the one thing I was good at doing, went south too. I was going to the gym at least five times a week, but most of my workouts were a struggle. I knew it was my 180+ weight that was making everything so difficult. A few weeks ago I was up to 187. I still went to the gym, but my eating wasn't good.

I've been going to my Weight Watchers meetings but not weighing in, and I stopped getting on my own scales at home. Not weighing every day is really a dangerous path for me.

Fortunately, whatever had been going on with me seems to have passed. Like my mom use to always say when I was having a difficult time in my life, this too shall pass...and it always does.

On Saturday I started tracking my food again and counting calories. I'm still struggling with the new Weight Watchers plan, the zero Points for fruit and most vegetables doesn't seem to work for me. I'm doing a hybrid of Weight Watchers, where I'm trying to follow their healthy eating guidelines, but also counting calories. When it comes down to the bottom line, it's really about the calories.

This morning I stepped on my scales at home. 182.2. Not much I can say about it. True, it's just a number, but it's also an indication of how poorly I've been doing with my goal of getting healthy.

Fun news
Tomorrow I get to meet Roxie in person. She's here in Seattle for a workshop. Grace, another blogger, and I are meeting Roxie in downtown Seattle for lunch. I consider both of them great bloggers. I met Grace last fall at a Geneen Roth workshop and loved her. I just know I'm going to love Roxie too. I've been following both their blogs for a long time. I want to be them when I grow up (make that if I grow up).

Big Climb update
Five days until the Seattle Big Climb on Sunday. Obviously I'm not going to lose the twenty pounds or even the ten pounds I wanted to lose before the event. I've stopped beating myself up about it. I can't change my past behavior so there's no purpose served by crying about it. I screwed up. Plain and simple.

In preparation for the Big Climb, I've been climbing the stairs at the Sea-Tac DoubleTree on my lunch hours. Last week on Tuesday and Thursday, and again today. Fourteen floors, climbed six times, or 1,350 steps. I don't take the elevator down, but walk down the stairs. It takes me thirty minutes for up and down fourteen times, and burns 230 calories according to my Polar heart rate monitor. Plus I've been doing the StairMaster at the gym almost every day. I keep thinking it's going to get easier, but it's still a killer every time.

Tomorrow after lunch with Grace and Roxie, my plan is to climb the stairs in the downtown Sheraton, 34 floors. If I climb it twice it'll be 68 floors, comparable to the 69 floors in the Columbia Tower for the Big Climb on Sunday. I'm sure it's going to be a challenge but I want to see if I can do it without passing out. :)

Thankfully my workouts are back to normal. I feel stronger and have more energy. I'm starting to feel like my old self.

My plan
My plan for the next week is to keep exercising, keep tracking my food and get back to daily posts. Even if my life isn't going perfectly, it helps to write about it. I'm back.

Best low fat cheeses

These 8 supermarket picks look gourmet and taste decadent.

Cheddar

Cabot 50% Reduced Fat Cheddar Cheese with Omega-3 DHA (70 cal., 5 g fat per oz.) fulfills 20 percent of your daily omega-3 needs. ($3 for 6 oz.)

Vegan

With its rich cheddar flavor, it’s hard to believe that the Galaxy Rice Block (70 cal., 4 g fat per oz.) is dairy-free. ($4 for 8 oz.)

Goat

Coach farm Reduced Fat Medalions (45 cal., 3 g fat per oz.) are made daily at a small dairy farm. ($5 for 4 oz.)

Swiss

Weight Watchers Gourmet Cheese Wedges in original Swiss (30 cal., 2 g fat each) serve up calcium and fiber. ($3 for 6)

Jarlsberg

The Jarlsberg Lite Fresh-Pak (70 cal., 4 g fat per slice) melts into gooey perfection on sandwiches. ($5 for 8 oz.)

Spreadable

Serve the soft, creamy Alouette Light Garlic & Herbs (50 cal., 4 g fat for 2 tbsp.) with melba toast. ($6 for 7 oz.)

Feta

Sprinkle Athenos Fat-Free Feta (35 cal., 0 g fat per oz.) on salads and pasta dishes. ($3 for 5 oz.)

Blue

The Laughing Cow Light Blue Cheese Wedges (35 cal., 2 g fat each) have 70 percent fewer calories that the regular kind. ($3 for 6)

Gluten-Free January Survey Data, Part II: Health Effects of a Gluten-Free Diet

GFJ participants chose between three diet styles: a simple gluten-free diet; a "paleo light" diet diet that eliminated sugar and industrial seed (vegetable) oils in addition to gluten; and a "paleo full monty" diet that only included categories of food that would have been available to our pre-agricultural ancestors. The data in this post represent the simple gluten-free diet group, and do not represent the other two, which I'll analyze separately.

To get the data I'll be presenting below, first I excluded participants who stated on the survey that they did not adhere to the diet. Next, I excluded participants who were gluten-free before January, because they would presumably not have experienced a change from continuing to avoid gluten. That left us with 53 participants.

For each of these graphs, the vertical axis represents the number of participants in each category. They won't necessarily add up to 53, for several reasons. The most common reason is that for the questions asking about changes in health conditions, I didn't include responses from people who didn't have the condition in question at baseline because there was nothing to change.

Question #1: What is your overall opinion of the effect of gluten free January on you?

Participants had a very positive experience with the gluten-free diet. Not one person reported a negative overall experience.

Question #2: Did you note a weight change at the end of gluten free January?

And here are the data for people who described themselves as overweight at baseline:

Two-thirds of people who were overweight at baseline lost weight, and only one person out of 37 gained weight. That is striking. A number of people didn't weigh themselves, which is why the numbers only add up to 37.

Question #3: Before January 2011, did you have a problem with intestinal transit (frequent constipation or diarrhea)? If so, did your symptoms change during the month of January?


Responses are heavily weighted toward improvement, although there were a few instances where transit worsened. Transit problems are one of the most common manifestations of gluten sensitivity.

Question #4: Before January 2011, did you have frequent digestive discomfort (pain, bloating, etc.)? If so, did your symptoms change during the month of January?


Digestive discomfort was common, and the gluten-free diet improved it in nearly everyone who had it at baseline. I find this really impressive.

Question #5: Before January 2011, did you have acid reflux? If so, did your symptoms change during the month of January?

Acid reflux responded well to a gluten-free diet.

Question #6: Before January 2011, did you have a problem with tiredness/lethargy? If so, did your symptoms change during the month of January?
Lethargy was common and generally improved in people who avoided gluten. This doesn't surprise me at all. The recent controlled gluten study in irritable bowel syndrome patients found that lethargy was the most reliable consequence of eating gluten that they measured (1, 2). That has also been my personal experience.

Question #7: Before January 2011, did you have a problem with anxiety? If so, did your symptoms change during the month of January?

Anxiety tended to improve in most participants who started with it.

Question #8: Before January 2011, did you have a problem with an autoimmune or inflammatory condition? If so, did your symptoms change during the month of January?

Autoimmune and inflammatory conditions tended to improve in the gluten-free group, although one person experienced a worsening of symptoms.

Question #9: If you ate gluten again or did a gluten challenge after gluten free January, what was the effect?

Just under half of participants experienced moderate or significant negative symptoms when they re-introduced gluten at the end of the month. Two people felt better after re-introducing gluten.


Conclusion

I find these results striking. Participants overwhelmingly improved in every health category we measured. Although the data may have been somewhat biased due to the 53% response rate, it's indisputable that a large number of participants, probably the majority, benefited from avoiding gluten for a month. At some point, we're going to compile some of the comments people left in the survey, which were overwhelmingly positive. Here's a typical comment in response to the question " In your own words, how would you describe your January 2011 experience" (used with permission):

Amazing! I would recommend the experiment to anyone. I felt completely more alert, and less bloated. When I ate some gluten at the close of the experiment, I felt gross, bloated, and lethargic.

I think it's worth mentioning that some participants also eliminated other starches, particularly refined starches. Judging by the comments, the diet was probably lower in carbohydrate for a number of participants. We may try to assess that next year.

Corn, Okra and Tomato Stew

(makes 4 servings)

Ingredients:

• Low-fat cooking spray
  
  


• 1½ cups frozen okra, sliced
  
  


• 1 cup frozen corn kernels
  
  


• ¼ cup lean ham, chopped
  
  


• 1 (14.5 oz.) can stewed tomatoes, undrained
  
  


• ¼ cup fresh basil, shredded
  
  


• Salt and pepper to taste
  
  

Preparation:

• Spray a large-size saucepan with low-fat cooking spray. Add okra, corn, ham, tomatoes and basil then bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, uncovered and simmer until okra is tender (about 15-20 minutes).
  
  


• Add salt and pepper to taste.
  
  

Make 4 Servings:

Weight loss recipes Amount Per Serving(¼ of recipe (220 g)): 98 Calories, 5 g Protein, 20 g carbohydrates, 4 g Dietary Fiber, 1 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 5 mg cholesterol, 328 mg sodium

Chipotle Chicken Soup

(makes 3 servings)

Ingredients:

• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
  
  


• 1 onion, chopped
  
  


• 1 tbsp olive oil
  
  


• 12 oz. skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into cubes
  
  


• 1 (14½ oz.) can low-sodium chicken broth
  
  


• 2 tsp chopped canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
  
  


• ¼ tsp salt
  
  


• ½ tsp sugar
  
  


• 2 cups chopped tomatoes or 1 (14½ oz.) can diced tomatoes
  
  


• ¼ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
  
  

Preparation:

• In a Dutch oven, cook garlic and onion in oil over medium-high heat until onion is tender (about 4 minutes).
  
  


• Add chicken and cook for about 2 minutes.
  
  


• Add chicken broth, chipotle peppers, salt and sugar.
  
  


• Bring to a boil then reduce heat. Uncovered and simmer for about 15 minutes.
  
  


• Transfer from heat and add tomatoes and cilantro.
  
  

Make 3 Servings:

Weight loss recipes Amount Per Serving(⅓ of recipe (431 g)): 237 Calories, 31 g Protein, 12 g carbohydrates, 2 g Dietary Fiber, 7 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 66 mg cholesterol, 323 mg sodium

How the other half lives... or... What I wouldn't give to have THIS report!

The other half of me - my brother - came up the other weekend. On the way to our house he stopped at a service station and after having a Burger, chips, coke (full fat!) and 6 dunkin' donuts, jumped on those pay per weigh scales that these places have. He was obviously fully clothed and also in his coat.

How the other half lives...


Yes, that's right. Even after a full meal and loading him down with his clothes, he is underweight with a BMI of 19.5. He also has only 12% body fat.

I, on the other hand, have the fat index of a pork scratching.

How is it possible to be the complete opposite of my ever loving brother? It reminds me of the poem Jack Sprat...

Jack Sprat could eat no fat
His wife could eat no lean
And so betwixt the two of them
They licked the platter clean

 
Yes, it is indeed the conundrum of my life.

Chilled Melon Soup

(makes 4 servings)

Ingredients:

• 1 large cantaloupe, peeled, seeded and cubed (about 4 cups)
  
  


• 2 tbsp honey
  
  


• Juice of 3 limes
  
  


• Pinch of ground cardamom
  
  


• ¼ cup fresh mint, chopped
  
  


• Sliced strawberries for garnish
  
  

Preparation:

• Place cantaloupe in a microwave-safe container and microwave on 50% power until lightly soften melon (about 2 minutes).
  
  


• Transfer melon to a blender then add honey, lime juice and cardamom, cover and blend until smooth. Pour melon mixture into a bowl, cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving.
  
  


• Serve with mint sprinkled on top of each serving and garnished with strawberries.
  
  

Make 4 Servings:

Weight loss recipes Amount Per Serving(¼ of recipe (414 g)): 243 Calories, 11 g Protein, 47 g carbohydrates, 8 g Dietary Fiber, 3 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 363 mg sodium