Holiday Weighty Blues

The season where cheat days become weeks and pounds come attacking at night as they sneak into the fat crevices of your body, aww the holidays. How they come and go, but leave you with a special gift of being 5 pounds heavier. Yup, that was my holiday week and I’ve paid severely for it. 

It first started off at work, company lunch where they had an endless amount of food. But I was brave, and was able to only eat the non carb items. Yet, I was to find out that was only the first wave of the food that were to come. Then all of a sudden as the days were to progress, customers were sending us baskets full of candies. 

I was like, “oh I’m fine” and I walked away. But the problem was that there were white chocolate candy there and I do like white chocolate. 

But I refused and walked on. However I couldn’t resist forever, because the baskets were placed in an area where I have to walk by, like all the time. So each time I passed by them I was taunted, mocked, like if it was the ring from Lord of the Rings

It was calling to me, and I could resist it no longer, Arrrggghhhh! Get them away from me! As I ran away. But the next time that I walked by them, my boss decides to say the most horrific thing to me he said, “would you like a chocolate? It’s for everyone.” And I looked at him with loathing in my eyes and said, “sure.” As I reached in the basket to pull out the bag of white chocolates and sat at my desk and took the first bite…….. I wept. White chocolates, you got me again. Arrggghhhhh, but they were so good, how could I be mad at them. After a few pieces I tried to put the bag down, but failed to not take another bite. It was hard, but then I realized what I had read before about sugar. It's like a drug.

It keeps calling me back. It gives you cravings and it makes it strong. I remember on Christmas day all my nieces and nephews were playing in the house and all of a sudden, one of my aunts pulls out a big bag of candy and says to the kids, “who wants candy?” 

And all the kids look up and see the bag and run to her yelling, “me, me, I want candy!” That’s how I felt having the bag with me.

I felt like I was powerless to it’s sweet goodness. So I thought that I play it safe, I left the bag on another co-worker's desk, and then he started to eat some. Then after awhile he started to realize that he was eating too much. So he ended up putting it on another co-worker's desk and the cycle kept repeating itself until it made its round back to me. What made it worse was that my co-workers kept bringing more and more candy and leaving it on each other's desk. Even though it was funny, in the end, we were all losers. But yeah, it’s true that you have to be careful with sugar. It doesn’t help you if you are trying to stay in ketosis. It gives you cravings and then that's when you fall into the trap and have the potential to lose your motivation and that’s when you fall off the wagon. And because of that this is the result of my holiday week.

As you can see, I have gained weight around the holidays, but the good thing is that it only took me 3 days to bounce back. Both Christmas and New year's slowed my weight loss, but I’m glad that I’m back on track. Jason helped put some perspective on my matter as I was a little bummed that I gained some weight. He reminded me that I am barely on my second month and that the weight that I have already lost was a great feat in itself and he was right. Just yesterday I tried on our groomsmen suit that I was fitted for on November 14 (where I was 235 lbs). The conclusion was that the suit was too big and I had to exchange it for a suit size smaller. But even that suit is a little loose on me and I still have a few more weeks to drop more weight (I am currently 213 lbs). So that helped bring back some perspective on the matter and gave me a boost to keep things going on this Keto train. 

As for foods, I have been eating pretty much the same things. Steak and eggs. Am I getting tired of it? Yes, I am, I am getting tired of it. But that’s okay, that let’s me explore new options. I have found that Lobster tails are only $5. And don’t forget about shrimp and fish. I think I’ll be alright. Just gotta keep at it. Here is to the New Year. I think Oprah said it best (yes, I said Oprah).

Blue pill or Red pill

When Jason explained the science about Ketogenics, it kind of felt like I was in the movie the Matrix. My whole life I grew up thinking eating healthy was a certain way.

I can hear Morpheus (Jason) saying, “What if I told you that you were lied to about eating healthy? What if I told you that there is another way, one where others would deem you unhealthy by the sheer quality of food that you would eat. A way where you can eat fatty foods, not exercise, and lose weight?”

"I know that this may sound like a fairy tale, but it is true. Unfortunately, this is something that cannot simply be explained, it must be shown."

“If you take the blue pill, the world you know will continue to exist and life will go on as usual for you. You can continue to eat the healthy way you were told of and find no results that satisfy you.”

“But if you take the red pill, I will show you just how far the rabbit hole goes.”

So keeping that in mind, I (along with Fred) was able to play the part of Morpheus. This was something that I was able to experience about two weeks ago. Fred, Matt and I went to Wingstop after Worship team practice. We ordered 30 pieces of boneless wings (should’ve gotten it with bone, so much batter, oh well) and sat down, prayed for the food and started eating. After finishing the food we started to have some small talk. Then all of a sudden I pose a question to Matt…… asking him, “what if I told you that you could eat fatty foods and meat and still be healthy?” Matt looked at me as if I were ready to tell a joke. I looked at Fred and gave him the look that said, “let’s preach the good news of Ketogenics.” 

Fred concurred with a slight head nod. So we began to tell Matt of all that he had known about health is a lie and that true health was to be found in fats and meats. Matt was a little hesitant and had some disagreements. So basically I was the testimony of the conversation and Fred was the guy who was going to break down the science of it to Matt. Well, after all that we said to Matt, he paused for a second and had many doubts. He kept quoting his boss (OM) who is some specialists of some sort, and wouldn’t let up. Then he posed the, I can’t afford to go on a diet at this moment statement. Fred and I shook our heads in disbelief. We had a hard time explaining to Matt about Ketogenics and at that moment, I felt like I was a new believer trying to share the gospel. No matter how much sense it made to me, it came out as jargon to others. It was a humbling experience though and made me want to look into this diet even more to further my knowledge of it. 

So at the hands of defeat, Fred and I gave up and changed the conversation. But before we changed the subject I looked over to Fred and said, “I wish Jason was here to better help explain.” And we all laughed.

But here is the good news. Last Saturday some of the men at our Church went to a joint men’s Bible brunch at Hometown Buffet with our sister Church. We had a small room to ourselves and at our table of 7 sat Jason W, Jason V, Kevin M, Vince, Kuya Paul, me and Matt. Well after prayer for the food, we were all dismissed to the buffet line. Before we left the table, Matt turns to Jason and I and says, “I talked to my OM and he knows about ketogenics and says that it would suit me better for my lifestyle. So my brother and I will be joining you guys!”

I was like wow! He’s actually going to join us. Not that I think he can’t do it, but more so that he understands and is convinced to make the change in his life. It looks like Fred and I didn’t waste our breath and that conversation didn’t fall on deaf ears. So yeah, we have two more “converts,” and I’m looking forward to see how they will do with the weeks to come. Yay!

So it's been 4 weeks and 5 days since I started and it’s been a great blessing. I have went from 235 lbs down to 215 lbs. Praise the Lord!!!

I have been experiencing a surge of energy in the morning, so when I wake up at 6am, I am unable to go back to sleep no matter what. Also my cravings for things have ended, especially when I get hungry and I don't feed myself after a short period of time I am no longer hungry and can go on the rest of the day not eating. With this new found energy I used it to return to the Jasanity Gym and renew my membership there. Results are just pouring in over here and all Glory to God for it all.

As for my meals, though I often make steaks, I have dabbled with some other things. 

I made Caulimac and cheese. The macaroni is replaced with steamed cauliflower. It was pretty good, but it wasn’t exactly like mac and cheese. So I’m still looking for better recipes. 

Salmon covered in cheese with fried egg and avocado. The salmon is prepared with lemon juice, butter, salt, pepper, and more butter (yes, I said, more butter). It turned out pretty good.

Some fun things that I have been making are desserts. Though I’m not a big dessert person, I do find joy in making these treats. It reminds me of the days that I was a doughnut baker. I enjoyed it there and had fun making things. So I wanted to take that joy and make some Ketodesserts.

Blueberry cream cheese pie/cake

And I made this. Unfortunately I figured out too late that I was using peanut butter. :/ Peanuts are a legume, it tasted good though.

Here is what I’m looking forward to making. I just have to find a store that sells Cocoa butter. Sprouts doesn't sell it.

My oh my.

Oh, I can't wait until the day when I stop biting my cheeks when I eat. :0

I hate exercising.

Recently, I found myself needing to go to the Emergency Room for shortness of breath/chest pain. Long story short: It had nothing to do with the diet or with exercising. Completely unrelated and I'm totally fine now. But because of that incident, I wanted to stay on the safe side and refrain from any cardio exercising for a couple of weeks.

On Wednesday, I had a wonderful day at Leigh Ann's house. It was fun just hanging out with her and Evangeline. No cares in the world. Smiling at Evangeline laughing at nothing. And then...

Leigh Ann: Jainah! You want to go to Zumba class with me?!

Me: Uh....

Leigh Ann: It's so much fun!

Me: Uh....

Lol. Of course, I said "yes". There was obviously enough time for me to go home and get my workout clothes. I was feeling physically healthy with no more pain. And God providentially planned for Zumba to be scheduled during a time slot that would still allow me to have accountability with my group that night.

I had no excuse. 
I was just glad that I was going with Leigh Ann. I can't go to these things by myself. I don't like exercising in general. I don't like sweating. I don't like the feeling of my muscles feeling like they're going to burst into flames. Or the feeling that my soul is being sucked out of my lungs. But I'm trying to learn to get over it. Sigh. I think out of everyone in this blog, I'm more reluctant to start an exercise routine lol.

Anyway, back to the story...

We arrived right on time and the instructor was already starting the class. I was so overwhelmed with how many people were in that class and how well people were following the instructor. I turned to look at Leigh Ann to express my shock, but it was too late. She had already ditched me. I watched in amazement as she rushed to drop her stuff to the side, rip her sweater off, place herself in the crowd, and dance. Then, all of a sudden, I was right next to her.. LOL. It all happened so quickly! I was so focused on trying to follow the instructor's moves that, before I knew it, an hour has already passed and the class was done. It was the first time I ever did a Zumba class and it was really fun!

And now...

Hahah. Just kidding. But I really wouldn't mind doing it again! The class was fun enough for me to barely notice that I was working out. Maybe this'll be my motivation to work out more often and maybe even be a gateway to different exercise methods. Eh.

PS: It's been a total of 34 days since I've been on this diet with (seriously) minimal exercise and I have (as of today) lost 12 lbs. Hooray! 

PPS: I want french fries T_T

The end is coming...

Woo it's been a while since anyone's posted anything in this blog! So here I am, since it's been my turn for quite some time actually.

Jainah and I just celebrated our one month anniversary of being on the low-amylose/keto diet together! (You go girl! lol) and I think it's fair to say that we are both a lot better than in the beginning of when we began. I've lost about 9 pounds overall (I started at 155 lbs, and now am 146 lbs....my goal is to be within my BMI at 120-125 lbs) I still have about 25 lbs to go, but each day I get closer so that makes me encouraged. Also, everyone that I see who is on the diet has noticeably lost weight! I'm really happy to see everyone sticking to it! Sometimes I look at my phone and it says “35 new messages” because I'm part of this crazy texting group of everyone on the diet haha!

On Thanksgiving though, I totally had more than one “cheat” dessert. And I think I paid for it, bc I gained 2 lbs by the next day and it's literally taken me this whole week to get back down to where I began. Before Thanksgiving, I was 146 lbs. But after, I was 148 and it's literally a WEEK later and I'm finally back to where I began. Phew! I also woke up the day afterward really groggy and exhausted. Kevin kept asking me if I was okay. I couldn't believe how out of it I was! Oh, but those thanksgiving desserts were calling my name...thank God holidays are only once in a while haha I'm fairly strict on this diet, but I think it's okay to splurge on a cheat dessert on special occasions ;)

Also, I've been faithfully working out 3 times a week at the gym this whole past month. I am a lot more energetic and alert, and I just feel good overall! I love zumba! Next week I'm going to try out a kickboxing cardio class so that's pretty exciting too!

My goal is to be back to my wedding weight by the end of the year (135 lbs) so I want to lose 10 more pounds by New Years Eve! I hope I can do it! I lost about 9 lbs last month so I think this month I can do it again. For a while I was frustrated bc it's been taking me longer to lose weight compared to back when I did it before Evangeline was born. I talked to Jason and he said it might have to do with my occasional juicing bc I might be having too much sugar. I think there's truth to that, so this month I won't be doing it as much. However, I do enjoy my green juice! I'll just have to cut down on those apples!

Happy December, everyone! I'm so excited for the end of this year and the beginning of 2016!

Misconceptions

I was thinking of all the diets that I tried in the past and how often I failed at them because it was really hard to stay consistent. I even remember one diet where I was told to not overeat, but just eat till you’re content. I tried that for awhile and it was not enough food, though I didn’t fill myself up, I ended up eating the same amount of food that I would eat regularly, just spread throughout the day. That diet did nothing but prolong the inevitable, 

which was me getting back to my bad eating habits. 

I’ve tried quite a few diets.....

like the juicing diet, all out salad diet, lean foods diet, the GM diet, and so on.

I even tried to add exercise......

It didn’t help. 

I even convinced myself that since I was working out I could eat more.

I always ended up leaving the relationship of the diet and running back to my first love. 

Unhealthy foods.

Eating unhealthy comes natural to me, yes I could easily spot a place that would be deemed terribly bad for you, it’s like a radar I have. I guess you could say that I have a knack for these sort of stuff. 

I was telling Jason the other day that if I were to be the person to try and convince people to start eating meats and high fat foods with low to no carbs, that they would look at me and laugh. I wouldn’t be able to convince a single person even if my life depended on it. I mean like, how would I even start to tell them? So I thought about it and came up with the misconceptions that people have about changing the way you eat and think about this diet/lifestyle of eating.

What people often think the diet is

Baked Salmon with veggies,

Baked Chicken......with veggies!

But it's not like that at all. What it really is, is meat and fat. 

What I mean is that you don't have to fear the fried foods, because you need the fat. Fat is energy! So that means that you could eat these wonderful creations that are all wrapped up in little bundles of goodness that God made. You could eat stuff like:

Fried Fish

Fried Chicken (it looks like it's calling you)

Steak 

And of course we can't forget a Filipino favorite.....

Crispy Pata

You mean I could eat Crispy Pata and not feel guilty about it?!?!?! 

That’s like a dream come true!!!!! It can’t be real, but it has been confirmed by Jason that fats are good for us as long as our carbs are lower than 60 grams a day (in general). 

Now, it doesn’t have to be fried foods. But you definitely need to keep in mind your fat intake, that is that it needs to be high intake. So as a rule, (and I’m totally making this up) a stick of butter a day keeps the Dr. away. 

Here’s what’s on the menu:

BREAKFAST

Juicing 15g

LUNCH

Ground Beef , Bacon, zucchini squash, onions, mushroom, tomato, eggplant, garlic

Total of 30 grams

Snacks

Oranges, Cheese

Total of 10 grams 

DINNER

Deep fried beef steak meat (0g)

Week one is about to wrap up for me, and I feel pretty confident for the weeks to come. Things are beginning to look a little brighter.

Ketogenic: New or Old?

The first thing people ask me when I tell them I'm living a ketogenic lifestyle... 

Insecure Husky person: "huh?"

Me: Well... I'm reducing my carbs...

Insecure Husky person : You're not fat!

Me: I'm doing it because it's healthy

Insecure Husky person: Isn't it just like Atkins or Paleo diet? Isn't that just a gimmick?

Me: Well.. I'm glad you asked. It's actually not new it's been around since after the flood. I believe God intended us to eat mostly meat and some vegetables. It was actually common knowledge back in the 1800's that carbs were bad for you but lost it's value when scientist began isolating the effect and not seeing the body as a whole unit.

Insecure Husky person: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZ

A French physician  and retired military surgeon name Jean-Francois Dancel made an astounding observation with the animal kingdom. He noted that carnivorous animals are never fat. and that only the herbivores were "so uncouth in form from its immense amount of fat, feeds wholly upon vegetable matter- rice millet, sugarcane,..."

Think about that... have you seen a obese tiger or jaguar? Yet we do see the hippopotamus, pandas, elephants...etc

A British doctor William Harvey, in 1856, said this 

“Knowing too that a saccharine [sweet] and farinaceous [starchy] diet is used to fatten certain animals and that in diabetes the whole of the fat of the body rapidly disappears, it occurred to me that excessive obesity might be allied to diabetes as to its cause, although widely diverse in its development; and that if a purely animal diet were useful in the latter disease, a combination of animal food with such vegetable diet as contained neither sugar nor starch, might serve to arrest the undue formation of fat.”

The research is overwhelming and to think I was eating unhealthy this whole time. I hope this gives people some insight on the authentic way of eating healthy.

Here are a couple quotations from my research to those interested.

In 1907, James French, in A Text-book of the Practice of Medicine says, “The overappropriation of nourishment seen in obesity is derived in part from the fat ingested with the food, but more particularly from the carbohydrates.”

In 1925, H. Gardiner-Hill of London’s St. Thomas’s Hospital Medical School describes his carbohydrate-restricted diet in The Lancet: “All forms of bread contain a large proportion of carbohydrate, varying from 45– 65 percent, and the percentage in toast may be as high as 60. It should thus be condemned.”

“Weight loss, fat loss, and percent weight loss as fat appeared to be inversely related to the level of carbohydrate in the diets,” Young reported. In other words, the fewer carbohydrates these men ate and the more fat, the more weight they lost and the more body fat they lost— exactly what Adiposity 101 would have predicted. What’s more, all of these carbohydrate-restricted diets, Young said, “gave excellent clinical results as measured by freedom from hunger, allaying of excessive fatigue, satisfactory weight loss, suitability for long term weight reduction and subsequent weight control.”

Books that I read:

Knife, Fork Muscle Book I - Brooks D. Kubik

Knife, Fork Muscle Book II

Knife, Fork Muscle Book III

Why we get fat and what to do about it - Gary Taubes

The art and science of low carbohydrate living - Jeff Volek & Stephen Phinney

Cooking Mama

I decided to post again because I am probably going to be MIA next week. My week will be consisting of striving to pass the Emergency Nurse Pediatric Course and spending time with family for Thanksgiving. So... Happy Thanksgiving, in advance! :) I'm so excited for Thanksgiving, guys. My motivation to not eat anything bad for me the past three weeks is because I'm saving my "cheat snack" for a nice generous slice of pumpkin pie. With a big ol' glob of whipped cream on top. I'M SO EXCITED.

Thanks, Boromir. I'll try to control myself.

It is near the end of week 3 of this ridiculous diet and I already lost 8 lbs. Hooray! Progress. I've been stepping up my cooking game the past three weeks which makes my meal prepping so fun and something to really look forward to. Here's just a few new things that I've tried since my last post. 

Some days I just go for something simple like Babybel cheese for a snack. For simple meals, I've taken to liking...

{ Cream of chicken soup }

{ Jalapeno salmon lettuce wraps }

{ Uh, self-explanatory. It's right there, guys. Lol.}

& if I have time, I get to make more complicated meals. My favorite so far being...

{ Chicken enchilada stuffed spaghetti squash  w/ avocado }

I also had the pleasure of making a low-carb dessert for Ann's birthday yesterday!

{ Low Carb Brownie Cheesecake }

This one was surprisingly delicious and was so fun to make. I've discovered some (weird) new ingredients that replaces normal carb-containing baking components. Like almond flour. And "Swerve". What in the world. Hahahah. It's awesome! I'm so excited to try new recipes. Especially with my fellow diet bloggers! Keep finding recipes, guys. Most likely, I'll try it out :)