A lot of the questions revolve around the “3D chess” of relationships. Man/woman. Introvert/Extrovert. And Alpha/”non-Alpha” (which we’ve taken to calling Omega). There are so many things that can be different in a relationship . . . and it’s important to know not only where you stand, but also where the other party comes from, to help make the relationship the best it can be.
In my book Fempowerment: A Guide to Unleashing Your Inner Bond Girl and the accompanying workbook, I talk a lot about how to be empowered by your feminine side (hence, “Fempowerment” – Feminine or Female + Empowerment). How to be #1 at being #2…How to be supportive without being submissive. I talk a bit about the whole “Alpha/non-Alpha” thing, but mainly about male/female relationships and expectations.
As you have heard if you have heard the 2 podcasts on GGW that I was on, I am an introvert, a girl (duh), and also an “Omega.” Though people often go crazy when they hear me describe myself as an introverted non-Alpha, it’s usually because they have only seen me in my “comfort zone.” When you put an introvert – or a non-Alpha – in their comfort zone, they’re just as outgoing and fun as the next guy. In fact, they might be more so, because that’s the only place where they get to be comfortably outgoing.
And, they will still care very much what you think, want to talk about, and if you are having a good time.
Anyway – I was talking about dogs.
Jake and me
When my husband and I were first married, I came “with” a dog, Jake. Okay, and a handful of cats. (I had lived on a farm, after all.) My husband is a city boy from Vienna, Austria, who doesn’t believe in the whole “pet” concept.
He got along fairly well with Jake, but after Jake passed away about 4 years or so ago, he basically said “That’s it, no more dogs.”
Dogs are hard. We travel a lot, and, while cats can just have someone come and visit to feed/water/scoop their kitty litter, dogs are not in this category.
A gal from my Crossfit box happens to be a director at our local Humane Society. Though I don’t know her all that well, she’s the sister of my main Crossfit coach Bo. But she doesn’t usually work out when I do.
We happened to be at the gym at the same time a couple weeks ago, and she was discussing a dog that they had at the Humane Society that she was “desperate” to find a home for. In fact, she said she would have taken him home herself, but she already has four dogs and that wasn’t in the cards.
Named “Jeffrey” (after the patrol officer that found him), this dog is a blue Staffordshire, 65 pounds but THIN (you can see his ribs), about eight years old. He had an eye issue that had to be resolved by having the eye removed. He had been at the Humane Society for two months, because he also had bad teeth, kennel cough, bad skin, worms, blah blah. Can you say $3,000 worth of vet work? Anyway, so, he’s a one-eyed, older, “pitbull-esque,” male, cropped-ear dog. No takers.
Since we are in a “no kill” county, this basically means that after a dog has been put up for adoption but not adopted, it goes to “Doggie Jail.” What’s that? It’s a fostering situation with a lot of dogs, none of which particularly get any attention – and of course none of which are going to be adopted into “forever homes.”
“I heard you had border collies before…look! I’m a border collie!!!” (before he had his bad eye removed)
I went to visit “Jeffrey” the day after she mentioned him. Okay – what a great dog. He is voice and hand command trained, crate trained, obedient, gentle, sweet and fun. (He didn’t answer to “Jeffrey” mind you – but who would?) We were leaving two days later for a week vacation, so I went back the next day to see him again, and took some photos and a video.
When I got home, I broached the dog subject with my Alpha hubby, who said ABSOLUTELY NOT. Then I asked him if he would just look at the video. You’ll know all this if you listened to the GGW podcast, because I detailed all this there.
After we returned from our vacation (she got special dispensation to hold him from going to Doggie Jail for a week), we brought him home for a week trial. After sending photos to Joy at GGW, she re-named him “Hank” (the Tank) – and of course, Joy being another of “my Alphas,” I just started calling him that. However, since my husband is my “head #1 Alpha,” I realized that the real key was to get him to name the dog. If he did that, I was sure I could keep him.
(To cut to the chase – my hubby named him “Winston,” I YouTube’d how to get a dog to answer to a new name and worked feverishly on it so it would “seem” that he “just happened to answer to” the name my husband picked, and the paperwork all went through this morning. He’s ours.)
But back to the Alpha/Omega thing.
During the “trial week,” the difference between my Alpha husband’s interactions/reactions to the dog and my interactions/reactions to the dog were so marked, it got me to thinking.
As a non-Alpha, my reaction to the dog was all about whether things were good for him. As in, was this food tasty enough? Was this bed comfy enough? Was this chew toy exactly what he would like? Was he bored? Did he want to go out? Was he happy? Did he want to go in the crate when we were at work/when we went to bed?
As an Alpha, my husband’s reaction to the dog was: This dog is so lucky to be here, this is the best life ever for any dog, especially a dog that was heading to doggie jail from a hard knock life. As such, he couldn’t give a damn whether the food is tasty, the bed is comfy, the chew toy is what he wants, or whether he wants to go out (if I took him out 45 minutes ago) or if he wants to go into the crate – he’s so lucky to be here that anything we do is going to be the best life he could ever, EVER have. He’s happy. Period.
It never occurred to me to think this way. Never. Ever.
And you know what? It’s so freeing!!!
I’m not hardwired to ‘be’ an Alpha – and I will never be. But this is one of those situations where I realize that some of my patterned responses do me more harm than good. In my husband’s view, even if we didn’t “lavish” the dog with “love/affection/whatever” 24/7, he was light years better off than he would have been under the circumstances he came from and where he would have been going. He now has a clean house, a loving couple, an acre of back yard wildlife area, good food, toys, a comfy crate, etc.
I do not need to serve the dog.
All you Alphas are just laughing your heads off at this. But I’ve never really been in this situation with an animal. In general, I’ve had my animals from puppy- or kittenhood. As such, I take “responsibility” for their happiness.
My last dog, Jake, was immensely shy, and quite the Omega himself. I had him from puppyhood, and folks would constantly say “Oh, he must have been abused before you got him.” Nope…he just came that way. And I spent all his years with me (15+) trying to be sure that things were “good for him.” I was constantly being “sensitive” to his “sensitivities.”
My husband was never that way with Jake. He treated him like…a dog. And a dog that had to fit into his life – not vice versa. They had an interesting dynamic.
Because Winston is older, and actually a great, easy-going dog without any hangups, I frankly think that he and my husband are going to get along better than Jake and my husband ever did. Jake always seemed worried that he was going to do something wrong – sort of the hyper-Omega. Winston might be an Alpha, but he knows that he is not the Alpha. I tend to think he’s a pleaser, and might be a non-Alpha. But in general, he’s very easy going, and wants to please, but if he doesn’t please, he kinda doesn’t give a sh*t.
You can learn from anything – even a dog. Maybe especially a dog.
I think that often, I have been more a Jake-like Omega. I think I’m going to enjoy discovering how to be more a Winston-like Omega.
So those of you who have joined me on the Pomroy eating plan – how’s it goin’? Those of you who said that you didn’t want to start when I started (because it was part of a holiday week) – did you start? How’s it goin’?
I haven’t been writing much, because I’ve been travelling. If you missed it, I was interviewed on the Girls Gone WOD Podcast when I was in Denver, then I went to visit my hanai family in the Salt Lake City area. I returned to finally get the appointment with the specialist on my hip/back issue – turns out to be “mainly tied to” arthritis in my S.I. joint pulling on the surrounding muscles, plus a poor core, plus “too much weight” in the abdominal area. Harrumph.
I mentioned the weight thing to my Mom, who’s response was “Well, you’re not THAT overweight…” (sigh) THAAAAANKS…
I wasn’t totally able to stay on the eating plan while I was staying with other people. I’m not going to lie here. It’s not that hard if you’re in your own home – or even in control of your food while traveling. But when in Denver, I didn’t want to make a fuss while staying with my friend, so did what I could. (Mainly, as that was a Friday-Saturday-Sunday or in other words the easiest days, I did okay – it was more in the timing of eating that I fell down. Oh, and the wine ;-) ) Then, when visiting my family, it was somewhat similar – the “tougher” Wednesday/Thursday days in particular. I did what I could, and figured that a little cheese here and there wasn’t going to completely throw me off the wagon, especially as I plan to keep this up longer than the “prescribed” 30 days. I do the cooking when I’m there, so I was able to take charge over my grandboys’ breakfasts, lunches and snacks, plus the family dinner.
I returned home, and, even though I wasn’t 100% “good,” I was pleasantly surprised today to weigh myself and find myself 6 pounds down. Yippee! I know, I know, scales don’t accurately portray what’s happening, blah blah, but this puts me down into the next “decade” of weight, towards my goal of losing 30 pounds (“3 decades”).
As I type this, I’m having my morning smoothie of watermelon (SO glad a friend told me that watermelon freezes like a champ!), pineapple, and mango with a few mint leaves (also frozen in a bunch), plus the added uncooked oats. I showed my oldest grandboy how to make this “smoothie” for himself when I was in Salt Lake. The oats remind you that you need to “chew anything that is food to your body.” My eldest grandboy is overweight, and eats his food fast. (Me too! I have been practicing the “putting the fork down between bites” mindfulness.) I had read at one point that if you “drink” your calories, your body doesn’t really know how to deal with it as food….because “in the wild,” the only thing you’d really drink would be non-caloric (water). This article mentioned that if you are going to be doing any sort of eating regime wherein you drink calories, you need to pay attention to “chewing” each mouthful “as if” it’s “food” to “let your body know” that calories are coming down your gullet.
I’m not sure whether this is true or false, but it definitely slows you down! The uncooked steel cut gluten-free oats are a great addition to help with this, even if it’s just a reminder. My grandboy paired this smoothie with an egg and ham burrito I showed him how to make. He was out of school on break, so we spent a lot of time together, and he said that this combination “kept him going” until well into when it was time for lunch.
Last night, I watched the movie Fed Up on Netflix. It made me so sad watching the three kids that they follow in this documentary. As always, their families think they are eating “right.” One of the kids goes in for a DEXA scan, which can not only tell you your bone density, but also what your body is “made up of,” both in total and in its various regions. Fat in the abdomen is the worst – a DEXA will tell you your total fat percentage as well as where that fat lies. My eldest grandboy actually has a DEXA coming up because he has had bone issues (his father has low bone density, and he might have inherited it). I hope that they get the fat percentage as well.
One thing the movie goes into is “skinny fat people.” In the documentary, the kid who undergoes the DEXA scan looks quite a bit heavier than his parents or his 3 brothers. However, all of them weigh out with obese fat numbers – even the super skinny youngest is right up against the obese range.
I have a feeling I might have been one of these. I have always (well, until recently/hormone changes) been quite slim, even skinny. All through my 20s I was around 140 (remember, I started Pomroy at 185). I was up in my 150s at my “heaviest” in my 30s, but back down to 140 in 2006 (I have it in my diary). I didn’t work out that much – certainly not much cardio – though I did lift weights regularly in 2006 because I wanted to look buff in my (backless/sleeveless) wedding dress ;-)
I could eat just about anything and still stay within a fairly narrow weight range. Now, not a chance. I am metabolically “broken” – and that’s what I’m trying to deal with and fix.
But I think a lot of this comes down to how you’re “programmed” to eat when you’re growing up. The movie goes into this – and how the “food industry” has FUCKED US UP (sorry for the swearing, but it’s worth it!) Books I have read recently, like Salt Sugar Fat, Death by Food Pyramid, and The Big Fat Surprise explain how this all happened . . . and how we need to eat more like what is now our great-grandparents than (usually) our parents or even grandparents. I’ve railed on and on about this before, and can’t get enough of reading/watching documentaries about it. I guess it’s my version of being a lookie-loo at a traffic pileup.
My hanai daughter and I were going through her pantry together, and we discussed “finding sugar” on a jar or can. In “Fed Up,” Katie Couric discusses how our purchasing would be radically altered if the “Sugar” had a Recommended Daily Allotment (RDA) percentage like all the vitamins do! Unfortunately, in the case of the pasta sauce we were discussing, though the Sugar was “under 6 grams” on the Carbs list, it was on the Ingredients list. This issue was discussed in the Salt Sugar Fat book – how we need to be careful, because words like “sugar and sugar” – and “fat and fat” – don’t mean the same thing. A pasta sauce can have 6 grams of sugar that occurs naturally from the tomatoes in the jar (e.g., in the Carbohydrates list, but not in the Ingredients list). Or, a pasta sauce can have 6 grams of sugar that are on the ingredients list, meaning sugar was actually added to the concoction (usually, because they’ve tried to take something else out, and it didn’t taste as good!)
Again, as pointed out in these books and in that movie, this is made “difficult” because the Food Industry wants it to be difficult. So people will throw up their hands, and buy Lunchables.
Another book I was recently reading talked about how baby formula is marketed in places like Laos – showing big, chubby babies on the label and stating that it’s far “better than” breast-feeding your child (more “First World”). And how these “big, chubby babies” all wind up with a host of diseases like anemia and malnutrition, though they are big and fat. Moreover, as the formula is not cheap and the same company makes things like coffee creamer with the same logo, some mothers purchase the coffee creamer to feed their babies. Yikes!
But I digress (how unusual)…
My plan is to get back to 155. I seem to think that’s do-able, though I haven’t approached it since I have had the hormone issues. That is also where my doctor says my BMI will be in the normal range.
Well, I meant for this to be a quick update, but as usual, I get typing, and I can’t stop. If you’re doing Pomroy, how are you doing??? If you didn’t start because you said you would but then you “forgot”…how about starting Monday???
“Qalo” (pronounced KAY-low) stands for Quality, Athletics, Love, and Outdoors. Their brand is “Commitment is Contagious” – which I love.
These rings were born out of the frustration of all us married athletes who love being married, love being athletes, and are just a wee bit tired of coming home from a workout and saying “Oooooops, I left my ring on the shelf/in the car cupholder/in my golf bag.”
I had this happen the other day. I had worked out at Crossfit that morning, and we had pullups. So I took my ring off, because no can keep on with pullups. I carefully put it in my gym bag, thinking I was a big smarty-pants. (I’ve left it oh-so-many times hanging on the key hooks under the shelf at my box.)
yup, that’s me and my wedding ring.
My husband and I went to the theatre that evening, and when he took my hand as the lights dimmed (hey, come on, it’s cute after 20 years), he was startled, then stage-whispered in my ear “WHERE is your RING?”
Sigh.
In the gym bag.
In the parking structure.
Blocks away.
Harrumph.
Here’s the deal with Qalo rings. They are made of 100% medical grade silicone. I have tried some of the rubber rings that are out there, but they made my finger itch. Not so these rings.
that’s me in the water – to the right of the kayak – getting into “buddy swim” position for the newbies heading into the water for their first Bay swim.
To tell you the truth, I’m actually lucky that I still have my wedding ring. As an S.F. Bay swimmer, I can’t tell you how many times I have seen folks get out of the water, look at their hand, then look at their (newly bare) hand. That cold water can seriously shrink up a … finger. (Ha! Dirty mind, you.) When I have done guard swimming for LLS Teams in Training, the VERY final thing I do before everyone goes into the water is to gather up all the wedding rings.
How did I wind up getting these nifty Qalo rings? Why, I’ll tell you. I negotiated a contract for one of my clients with Qalo. And Qalo sent me some. Yes, you read that right. There are some nice lawyers out there, that try to make a deal work for all parties. And so the “other side” (Qalo) sent me some rings. BEST EVER!
They have rings that are specific to breast cancer, Firepersons, Police, etc. For the fire/police, the rings have a “thin red line” or a “thin blue line” running around the ring. (Clever.)
The ones you see in the photo above are 2 in their “camo” flavor and 2 in their “black” flavor, a man’s width and a woman’s width on each. The single-color Qalo rings have one of the 4 symbols you see in the back of the photo, inset into the ring. (The answer to your question is: The kettlebell, of course.)
They come in little zipper pouches with very strong clips on the back. That’s what you can see it in the photo – the clip is what is coming up into the compass symbol. This way, you can put your “real” wedding ring into the pouch hooked securely on your gym or golf or tennis or chalk bag, put your Qalo one on, and off you go. When you’re done, switch back.
HERE is a ring sizing chart if you don’t know your size. My measurement came smack between two sizes – that’s why I got the women’s rings in the “lower” size and then men’s (thicker) rings in the “higher” size. The women’s rings (being tighter) are perfect for swimming. I think even with “cold Bay finger-shrink” they’ll stay on. (We’ll see, right?) The men’s, being a little looser, are perfect for Crossfit, biking, running, etc.
Feeling a little greedy right now ;-)
Anyway – if this is something that might be of interest – definitely check them out! You can get them on Amazon HERE, or go to the Qalo website. What a great idea! Below is a video of the two guys who came up with the idea, which I think is pretty cute.
I did have Bulletproof-esque coffee today, with a couple of pastured, local eggs in it, plus MCT Oil. (No dairy in the eating plan.) I matched it up with a smoothie of coconut flakes (not sweetened), the oats, cherries, and then some of the greens from the freezer, as well as a couple more eggs.
Right now, I’m having BPC with egg and MCT oil, plus raw carrots as my snack.
I mentioned earlier this week that I went to the doctor to address my back/hip issue that’s been going on for months. As I have blogged about before, I had seen my chiropractor (who told me about Pomroy in fact), did traction, saw my fascia guy, tried to address it with one of my Crossfit coaches, etc., but still no dice. I also sat on my @ss doing nothing for a few weeks to see if that would help (nope).
Oh – I was weighed there. (Did you know that a doctor has to weigh you or they can’t get compensated by the insurance? Yup. Weigh you, and take your blood pressure and pulse. Always wanted to know why they did that even if you were there for a sinus infection? You’re Welcome.) Their scale says I’m 2 pounds heavier than my scale does. I could put it down to the fact that I’d just had a full gigantic smoothie and bottle of water, or maybe my scale is just wrong. I’m going to report in from my scale though, because it’s not like I can hop on over and re-weigh myself weekly at the doctor’s office.
Oh – and the doctor counselled me that my BMI was “borderline obese” and I “needed to do something about it.” (Thanks, Doc.)
Take that, all my friends who constantly, CONSTANTLY say, when I’m frustrated by the growing joey in my lap, “But you look GREAT!!!”
And here’s a tangent. (How unusual for me.) In the Girls Gone WOD Podcast episode about eating disorders, one of the things that they go into for quite some time is folks who say, when seeing someone, “Wow! You look amazing!” (or some version of that). It would have never ever occurred to me to say that. The experts’ point was that you don’t ever really want to comment on how someone “looks,” because that can feed right into disordered eating.
The funnier thing is that I’ve seen a couple of friends recently who I have not seen in a while, and in each case they started with “Wow! You look so great!” or “Wow! You’re so skinny!” It was eery. I said “Thank you” to one, and pulled up my shirt to display my “joey” to the other (eee-yew!). Don’t put me in this position…!
If you see someone you haven’t seen for a long time, say: “Wow! I didn’t realize how much I missed you until I saw you!” – or something like that – Ok? Ok. Of course, easy for me to say since I’ve never said that when greeting someone. But it has always set me up to feel that I need to reciprocate with something about how they look – and if they look tired, or have gained a few pounds, or whatever, then I’m stuck.
AND SO…We’d left our heroine in her sexy washed-almost-white blue, backless hospital gown sitting on the waxy white paper on the doctor’s table….
The doctor sent me to get Xrays, and the good thing is that, this morning, he sent me an email and apparently my bones look fine. YAY! My hubby couldn’t figure out why I was so stressed out about that, but I reminded him we have two friends who, in their 40s, needed hip replacements. They were just like me – active, eating right, etc. – and then their bodies just crumbled at the hip. No bueno.
I have an appointment with the “non-surgery” department next week to come up with a plan. I’ll be curious to see what this guy says. I will probably not utter the “C-word” [Crossfit] because if he’s a hater, he’ll just presume “Oh THAT’S what did it.” As those of you who know me know, this issue came out of nowhere, after I’d been babying my body for nearly 1/2 a year, since receiving the news from my doctor that my metabolism and hormones were severely out of whack after all the long-distance training (which had ended a year before, mind you). So I’ve done no pounding (e.g., running, jumping); worked on form, form, form; no heavy weights related to lower body work (e.g., anything attached to a squat), etc. But the minute I utter the “C-word” I’m sure it will be over.
So I guess I will stress what I’ve been doing at the “C-word” – namely, rowing, upper body strength work, stretching, and the like – without mentioning “that word.” I am not particularly sure if I should even talk about the fact I’ve been working on slow air squats (which do not hurt – though situps do, go figure), because I’m afraid somehow that might be considered the culprit. Maybe I will call them “grand pliés.”
We all realize, of course, that now that I’ve obsessed about this, the guy I meet will have Greg Glassman’s visage tattooed to his arm and be wearing a Games T-shirt. (I should be so lucky.)
yup, that’s me in the middle, with a couple of my Ironteam buddies.
Today is “go slow, be nice to yourself” day on the plan. (As are Saturday and Sunday.) I’m thinking about going to that pool I joined and doing some slow laps. I think that sounds nice.
So, if you’re with me this week, how’s it going? PM me or send me a Comment. Frustrated? Going strong? There are a few of you who just couldn’t start on the holiday weekend, so are going to be starting this coming Monday. How about ya’ll… Ready? Believe me, getting to Friday, after Wednesday & Thursday of just protein and veg, is Nirvana. ;-)
OH AND – if you suddenly realize you ate something that wasn’t “in Phase,” I’d be curious how it happened. I had it happen yesterday. I was at the Farmer’s Market gathering up lots of nummy fresh produce with a friend of mine I hadn’t seen in forever. We were nattering away, and she wanted a chai latte with almond milk from the guy who sells them there – they’re not sweet, they’re spicy and super delish. She was ordering hers, and I thought “Wow, that looks really good” and so got one. We kept talking and it wasn’t until I was throwing the cup away that I realized….”OOPS…I’m in Phase 2, which is only protein and veggies.” I actually stood frozen over the garbage can with my hand still out after the lightbulb went off. Oops.
So my learning was that I was (a) out of my house and (b) talking with a friend and not paying attention to what I was putting in my mouth.
The idea here is obviously not to then put the back of your hand to your forehead saying “Woe is Me! All is Lost!,” give up and dive into a pile of Oreo cookies (double stuff, natch). Instead, take specific note of how it happened – and just vow for the next 30 days not to put yourself in that situation again. There’s no question if we’d somehow been in my house yesterday and I was making her that spicy almond milk chai latte, I would be looking at the ingredients and (perhaps wistfully) thinking “Nope, can’t do that until tomorrow.” OR, if I’d been at the farmer’s market alone, I would have seen the guy selling the spicy almond milk chai lattes and thought: “Wish the market was tomorrow!” But combining the two put me on “remote control.”
This is a super good learning for me though! I mean – come on – we all got our 10-20-30-80 pounds overweight in stages. We could have turned around earlier…before Φ was such a big angle…and stepped down from A back to Ax. But in a lot of instances, we just don’t realize what’s caused us to vector away from the path. At least this is the case with me.
When I was younger, although I lived through the period of the worst food advice in the history of mankind (thank you, Ancel Keys), I would apply it, and lose the pounds that had crept on (hello, rice cakes). Then I’d return to what my Mom had raised us on – whole grains, fruit, veg, meat. No desserts (unless it was your birthday), no potato chips, no trips to McDonald’s, etc. Which is how I kept the vector angle down, until a fistful of years ago.
The thing is, my husband and I have pretty much gone downhill holding hands smiling. (When all else fails, blame the husband. :) ) Before we lived together, I wasn’t all that interested in food. But then we went on our first trip together – a first class cruise of French Polynesia. Avec all you can eat, whenever you want, lobster/steak/desserts/crepes, baguettes, baguettes, baguettes made every day, did I mention baguettes? Oh and cheeeeese? We came back from that two week trip a horrifying 10 pounds heavier a piece, and then goaded each other along from there. Worse, once we were living together and I’d been “downsized out of” my job, my hubby suggested that, instead of trying to get another general counsel position, I take care of shopping/cooking/the food.
My husband is a city boy, and doesn’t like to exercise. And loves good food. However, when we met he was a McDougall vegan who didn’t drink. I ruined him – took a non-exercise lover and introduced him to the excesses of food and drink ;-) (No wonder he married me.) I got to love cooking, and as most recipes are for 4, and it was all so good…
yup, finishing during the night, but still finishing (Ironman Louisville)
Another part of the problem, though, was that when I had gained weight in the past, I was a metabolically active, active woman (who wasn’t particularly interested in cooking). So I was able to exercise, eat “pretty” right (margaritas and chips with gal pals notwithstanding), and get back to my ideal shape and weight. But after doing the Ironman, then having a hysterectomy (though they did leave the ovaries), then doing 5 marathons in a year, then the triathlon,then I think likely going through menopause, my body was so whacked out that it didn’t know how to cope any more.
I’ve ballooned 20 pounds in the past three years – which is not tied directly to food, since I’ve been the chef de la maison since about 2004. The doc says it’s the whacked out metabolism from hormones and long distance exercise. Now, granted, I had gained 10 or so pounds slowly after taking over cooking, but photos from 2006 still show me at my ideal weight/muscular look – I wasn’t just a scarecrow as I’d been my whole life (a few deviations notwithstanding). I was muscular and slim. Through 2012 (I have a diary – I checked) I was up about 15 pounds.
But then, between the end of 2013 and now – BLAM, 20 pounds like a ton of immovable cement.
I’m aiming for 30 pounds to be “released” from my body. (Don’t use the word “lost” – it implies “found” again! :-) ) That will still put me about 10 pounds up from my old ideal/muscular/slim weight, but that’s fine, I’m older.
Anyway. It’s time to get to work. That’s my story – and my learning from my “miss” yesterday with the latte. How’s by you?
Hey – I’m as OCD/Virgo/lawyeresque as they get. But one thing about Pomroy is that you really don’t want to log anything. I think this is important. Let me explain.
You’re going to be eating what you’re supposed to for Breakfast, Snack, Lunch, Snack, and Dinner. You’re going to be weighing and measuring out what you’re supposed to eat. So there is no reason for you to log anything.
I know, you say, but you LIKE to log things. Nonsense. It takes up at least an hour of your day to log everything, and it just makes you upset (speaking from experience). And here’s the thing – the other eating plans (be they Zone, Krissy Mae Cagney, Macro Diet, etc.) require you to log. So you do, then you constantly “obsess” about whether you’re the exact percentage, or macro, or “block” that you should be. Am I right?
Not this time, sistah.
I want you to take a deep breath, cross your heart, hold up your palm and repeat after me…
(come on, CROSS YOUR HEART….atta grrl….)
“I will not log anything for the next 4 weeks.”
(I’m waiiiiting….say it out loud….)
I know it’s hard. I know it. But part of the deal here is that you need to do what the program says, and as you are going to do what the program says, no deviations, period, there is no need to log.
Let me tell you what’s going to happen if you start logging. You’re going to have all the other eating plans you’ve been on – Weight Watchers, Atkins, Zone, etc. – creep into your head. You’re going to say “HOW can this POSSIBLY work, when my Blocks aren’t stacked up in order? This will fail!” (Did I mention “speaking from experience” before?) You’ll bring in something you did on a previous eating plan, and apply it here. You’ll tell yourself you’re “not getting enough” fat blocks, or protein blocks, or whatever – and you’ll either sneak them in, or just obsess that it can’t “possibly” work. Which is stress. Which, as it’s not adrenaline/tiger stress, your body will perceive as…remember the last blog post?…FAMINE. And HOLD ONTO YOUR FAT.
You see, the way that things are ordered in this eating plan is that they balance out over the entire week. So logging is counterproductive, because it will make you that much more obsessive, and you’ll bring all the other eating plans that you’ve ever been on into the equation, and you’ll stress out.
Now, if you want to weigh yourself and get your body fat percentage – go ahead. But try not to do it more than once a week. Because we all know that just makes us feel bad. I have a fancy scale that does all of this – and my starting weight/body fat is above. In case you were curious. Accountability.
I’ll post another one every Monday.
But the real deal here isn’t your weight on a scale. It’s the inches and also those “jeans you want to get into.” Weight on a scale per se doesn’t really matter. Body fat certainly does, but unless you have a killer body fat percentage scale, often the numbers you get outside of a dunk tank are just wrong. But inches and “getting closer to getting into those jeans” is Truth.
Today is cardio again (as it’s Tuesday/Phase 1). I went to Crossfit and talked to the coach about what I could do that would be cardio, but not involve rowing (since I did that yesterday), or rope skipping/running/biking/etc. (because of my dang hip. Doctor’s appointment in an hour today.) So we came up with a body weight workout that I was to do as fast as I could. I did:
10 rounds of:
2 pullups (green band, so I think that’s 20? 30? lb. assist)
2 each leg reverse lunge (can’t do front – hurts my hip)
5 ab mat situps (soles touching)
5 pushups (green band assist)
I did get my heart rate up, so that’s great. Tomorrow and Thursday are weights – not sure what I will be doing, but the coach that I deal with knows that the next 2 days are weights but NO cardio, so he’ll set me up.
I also joined a swim “club” at the Best Western hotel that’s across from my Crossfit box. It was not inexpensive, as it’s the summer – works out to about $100/month. But it’s a beautiful pool, saline “filtered” (no chlorine), and as I said, nearly across the street from Crossfit. I know of other pools that are less expensive, but either they have a smaller window of time when you can use them (e.g., the high school pools), or they are farther away. This one is open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., and like I said, right across the road from Crossfit. I LIKE swimming, and hardly anyone uses the pool – it’s quite a secret. (A friend clued me into it, because her boyfriend belongs.) There’s also a hot tub and a wee gym, plus a place to shower and change. So I figure I can swim either during my Fri/Sat/Sun “chill out” days, or swim faster during the cardio days. I’m happy to have a non-chlorinated pool at my disposal again, and getting my “wind” back in swimming will make me more likely to get back to swimming in the Bay again, which I really like.
If you’re with me – how’s it going? By the way, we have a few of you starting NEXT Monday, so if you’re still on the fence, you can start then if you like ;-) The more the merrier. We can do it!
Check out the middle variety – The SHEPARD. Is my shape just DESTINY? LOL
My avocado-bodied self salutes you ;-)
Today I started Pomroy again. If you somehow don’t know what I’m talking about, click HERE – it links up all (I think) of the blogs discussing what is going on in my self-centered little world (laugh).
The biggest issue for me is DRINKING ENOUGH WATER. If you’re starting today too, are you in this boat?
I did my cardio this morning – it’s Memorial Day and so everyone at my Crossfit box was doing Murph, but my hip/back are still in trouble, so I did a 5,000 meter row. I did it in 24:15, which is a little slow for me, but I didn’t feel terrible. I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow, since the sciatica drugs aren’t working, and neither are 800mg Tylenol. I gotta get this fixed somehow. It’s terribly debilitating.
the view from my rower.
Remember, Phase 1 in Pomroy (Monday and Tuesday) are cardio.
For breakfast, I did have time to make oatmeal, so I ate my oatmeal (1.5 cups – that is a TON of oatmeal!) with 1.5 cups of mango chunks. Then I went out to do the rowing.
I brought a bottle of water with me . . . and brought it home again! Harrumph. On the drive over, I had a big glass of hot herbal tea with stevia (stevia is allowed).
Then three hours later, I had my snack (an orange), and I had another couple cups of herbal tea. (My water bottle, however, is still sitting here in front of me untouched.)
One of George’s artworks.
My friends George and Donnalei Sumner gave me a little glass teapot and some tea for Christmas. The teapot has written on it “Sumner Serenit-TEA.” On the inside were tea “balls” – if you’ve never seen these, they look a bit like acorns. You add hot water to them, and they “blossom” into herbal tea. They’re apparently hand-“sewn” so that they do this.
I hadn’t used them, and thought this would be as good time as any. Here are some photos that show you what they look like going from the “tea ball” into the full “flower” in the pot (NOTE: I can’t seem to get them to line up as I’m typing this, but you can get the idea from the captions):
this is the little “tea ball” before it opensstarting to open (sorry, steam made this fuzzy)fully open “tea flower” in the pot (George’s writing is the green marker).
The issue here is that Pomroy states that you can’t “count” herbal tea, or even water with lemon in it.
I am already making bargains with this program, because I just can’t do that.
Straight water makes me feel bloated. I don’t like the “taste.” I put this down to the way I was raised – my parents never, ever drink water. Like, never.
So since I have to have a pitcher and a half (half your body weight in ounces) daily, I’m going to count herbal tea and things like water with lemon in it. I have to make this work somehow, and drinking straight water makes me ill. Are ya’ll making any bargains? I think this one isn’t a bad one to make, but maybe that’s because I’m making it! I’m going to drink the “plain water” too – but to get up to the ounce amount, I just gotta do something else too. What about you?
The only other bargain I’m making is that I need to remember to have a cup of coffee (black) every day.
I gotta get me this cup.
This eating plan says no caffeine/coffee (even decaf); however, when I did it the time before (after doing the Gottfried metabolic reset, which also cuts out caffeine), I had the mother-in-law of all migraines.
That time, as usual, I was lying in bed with the curtains closed waiting for my sight to return, belatedly remembering my first neurologist in high school, who said I could take a Cafergot pill every day, or drink a cup of coffee every day. When I say “waiting for my sight to return,” it’s because when I have a migraine, my sight dims from the inside out. When it’s at the worst, I can just barely see out of what would be the “corner of my eye.” The rest isn’t black it’s just “clear” . . . totally scary. I spend the hour or so that it takes for my sight to wane then wax reminding myself that this has happened before . . . “You will not be permanently blind, Sandy, chill.” (Only once have I had this happen while driving, which is quite awful. I spent a couple hours under an overpass on the highway, hoping a police car wouldn’t try to make me “move along.”)
While lying in bed, I listened to the Girls Gone WOD podcast about disordered eating. I had some thoughts about it. Perhaps my trying out different eating plans trying to address the 30 pounds of extra “me” that has accumulated is “disordered” eating. The gals on the podcast seemed to intimate that. However, the biggest difference that I personally see is that I’m not comparing myself to some Pinterest mythical “ideal.” I’m comparing myself to myself just a couple years ago. Due to hormone/metabolic changes, I have packed on the fat, and want to address it. On this episode (and the one before it) the gals being interviewed state that you can’t “just do an eating challenge for 30 days and then quit if you don’t see dramatic changes,” I beg to differ. You can have changes that occur in those 30 days, and they can then spur you on to continue on that program for another 30 days…and another 30 days. If you don’t see any improvement in 30 days, I don’t see a reason to hang on.
The reason I’m starting Pomroy again is that, after 10 days, I did have some noticeable changes, and it was easy. Sure, I’ve had friends do the “cabbage soup diet,” or some other crazy thing where you lose weight (likely water), and then gain it all back when you stop. But while on Pomroy, I was eating a lot, didn’t feel deprived at all, and saw changes in my skin, body fat percentage, etc. So while one of the interviewees on THIS episode states that “you have to be on a regime for more like years” because “it took years for you to get this way,” I’m not so sure that’s really exactly right.
Kind of a dumb picture, but this clearly shows my stomach. No “Joey” there like I have now. These are the jeans that I took the photo in yesterday, that I want back into. This photo is from 3 years ago.
I have to say that it’s been immensely frustrating trying to address this issue. (Don’t get old.) I was never someone who actually thought that much about weight, which is probably why this has sort of blindsided me. In my teens, 20s, 30s, even 40s by and large I’ve been one of those “pesky” people whose weight issues were easy to address. If it went up due to some bad decisions over time (like taking advantage of the donuts that were always available in Accounting on Mondays), I could stop whatever I was doing, pay attention, and I’d re-stabilize at the same weight. However, after I turned 50, things went haywire. Since I’ve never really had this issue in my life before, it’s been super frustrating. More so when my doctor (I blogged about this a while back) told me that I basically should just eat 1200 calories, work out more, and “realize” that “this is what happens” when you get older. Harrumph.
But back to migraines. I have “vasodilator” migraines, which means that I have to keep the blood vessels to my brain “constricted” a little bit, which caffeine does. (HERE is a blog post that talks about it.)
This is the opposite of “vasoconstrictor” migraines, where you can not drink coffee, eat chocolate, etc. because they can set off an attack.
“My” kind – also called “halo” migraines because of the sight issue – don’t lead to throwing up, and supposedly our headache is not as awful as the vasoconstrictor migraines.
Personally, I feel that the blindness part makes up for the headache not being so splitting. And my headache is quite bad enough, thank you.
If I have to have migraines, mind you, I also don’t mind the fact that I “have to” drink a cup of coffee or have some dark chocolate every day to ward them off. I’m going the black coffee route, to stay as close to the eating plan as I can.
Anyway – I hadn’t had a migraine in forever – and I did have one after going completely cold turkey as I stated above – so I’m not doing that again.
Some readers mentioned (when I blogged about it before) that perhaps what I was having were caffeine withdrawals. However, since I only was going off of having a cup or two of half-caf a day, and the headache was preceded by that pesky “losing sight” issue, I know what I know.
This happens to me now probably once every couple of years. I decide to “eat healthy” and “go off” things that are purportedly “bad for me” – alcohol, caffeine, etc. – and then WHAM I get a migraine. It’s so silly!
Anyway – so those are my bargains. I’m going to count unsweetened, hot herbal tea and water with lemon in it as “water.” And I am going to have a cup of black coffee a day.
Now it’s just about time to have lunch: for me, that’s going to be a smoothie of greens from the fridge, uncooked oats, and watermelon (bought a big seedless one yesterday, cut it up and froze the pieces…why YES, my freezer is stuffed to the gills!), plus some steak left over from last night.
Snack will be an orange again…Dinner tonight will be a weighed-out 4 ounce 1/2 buffalo 1/2 grass-fed beef burger with tomato and onions on romaine lettuce leaves instead of a bun, an artichoke (no butter/mayo), plus a cup of quinoa. I got the buffalo and beef on Sunday, mixed them together, then took out the scale and weighed out burgers. I kept two out for today, then froze the rest of them to have them ready. (I did mention that packed freezer, didn’t I? :-) )
So, it seems like there will be a gang of us starting Pomroy on Monday. Some of you are shy and PM’ing me about it – some of you are right there in the Comments (love you!)
Here’s what I propose – I’d like to put together a Fempower(R) coaching class to motivate you!
This is how we’ll start…
If you’ve read my book or or its workbook (“Companion Playbook”), you know that one of the chapters is on choosing your ‘Bond Girl name.’ If you don’t have the book, go to Amazon (linked to “my book” in the preceding sentence), click on “Look Inside” (it’s at the top right of the book cover – takes a couple of seconds to show up so wait for it), then scroll forward to Chapter 3, and read the “Creating Yourself” section.
So.
If you’re interested in doing a Fempower(R) workshop together, send your numbers from the previous blog post – your hip-to-waist ratio, and your waist-to-height ratio. Or just say if you’re a pear, avocado, or apple, and if you’re in the “over 0.50 danger zone.”
Don’t forget to send me your Bond Grrl name!!
I will then set up a conference call, and we will all call in (using your Bond Grrl name, naturally), and help motivate one another. In your submission, send a little about you and your life, your weight loss journey, etc. to yourcardshark [at] gmail [dot] com. I will post them here in a private file before our Fempower(R) telephone workshop.
Now, mind you, I can’t be sure that this program will work for you! I was just so SHOCKED that it worked for ME, starting about Day 9. I wish that circumstances hadn’t been such that I went off it for the past 16 days while travelling.
More shocking was that my husband of decades mentioned that I had changed.
If you’ve been married for a while you sometimes wonder (with great love, of course) whether your partner sees You any more, or if “you” have become just a consolidation of the things that you do “around” him (or her).
So that’s what I’m suggesting. I’m willing to set up a Fempower(R) tele-workshop on this subject, so we can all help and motivate one another – because, ya know, misery loves company ;-) (JOKE! JOKE! You really won’t be miserable on this eating plan, I swear!)
Love, Solitaire ;-)
P.S.: And for those of you who are PM’ers not commenters – get a gmail account that doesn’t reflect your name (reflect your Bond Grrl name instead!!), then comment ;-) No one will know who you are. And, it’s awesome for the other folks to see what’s going on for you, what your frustrations are, etc. It’s actually also really cathartic for you, too. (As this blog obviously indicates, for me!) I can certainly blog about what you’re sending me, but it’d sure be easier if you did it ;-)
I’ve had a few folks message me and a couple brave enough to Comment (hi Michelle! Hi Kristen!), so sounds like a few of us will be doing Pomroy together starting on Monday (thank you, Amazon Prime LOL)!
As I blogged about HERE, I am re-starting after having some success, then going off the program while travelling.
I just realized, however, that if you are starting Monday, and getting the book on Sunday, that there is some prep that you might not realize that you will need to do for Monday. So I thought I’d blog a “jump start.” This is going to be a long post, but I hope it will be worth it. (It will be if you’re going to start this on Monday.)
You won’t be able to read the whole book in a day.
You definitely want to read through the whole book for the Whys and Wherefores of all this. Also, the recipes are super good and not that difficult (HERE is the beef jerky one I blogged about – Nom Nom Nom!). But the crux of the whole thing is basically being prepared, food-wise.
When you get the book, go to Kinko’s, and copy some pages. Post them on the fridge.
The photo that I posted on the right shows pages from the book that I copied and put on my fridge. This is enormously helpful. It allows you to cycle through the Phases and know immediately if you can eat whatever you’re about to put into your mouth.
Here is a list of the sheets to copy, and where to find them.
1. Long-Term Weight Loss Goal & Food Portions Sheet: page 105-107. This lists all the food categories you will eat in each of the 3 Phases, and how many ounces or cups a portion is for you. If you have to lose more, you have to eat more. I’m in the 20-40 pound range, so I copied that chart. It makes it easy for me to know how much of a particular food to have (or not!) in a specific Phase.
2. Phase 1 Food List: This is found on pages 52, 77, 78. On page 53 it gives you the protocol for eating in Phase 1, but as it’s just that on the one page, I wrote it onto the bottom of the page 52 copy (saved the extra dime at Kinko’s). I go into this below as well.
3. Phase 2 Food List: Pages 60, 79, 80. Once again, the protocol for eating is on page 61, so I just wrote it on the bottom of page 60. I go into it below anyway.
4. Phase 3 Food List: Pages 68, 69, 80, 81, 82. Because the summary of the foods you can eat goes to 2 pages for Phase 3, the “protocol” is on page 69. (This just means you get to eat more food! It’s a good thing! Worth the extra dime at Kinko’s! ;-) )
Along with the sheets, you’re going to need a food scale.
Look. I know this a pain in the neck. But in all honesty, I found out (a few diet plans ago!) that I was eating too much protein. (Wo)Man up. Get a food scale. I don’t know if there is a Bed, Bath and Beyond near you, but we are constantly getting 20% off coupons from ours. Go there, or get one off Amazon. THIS is the one that I got – it’s easy, efficient, and you really only have to do it for the first few weeks until you get a handle on how much is “X ounces.” (It’s super small too, if you want to carry it with you.) Do it.
However, if the idea of buying a scale makes you throw your hands up in the air and reach for your keyboard to switch to reading something else, then, fine, don’t buy a scale. It’s only to weigh the protein – the rest is all in cups and tablespoons. And if even that freaks you out, fine, guesstimate.
But if you’re really going to do this, all in, then do it right. If it doesn’t work for you, you will be able to 100% say it didn’t work. But if you do this half assed, or even 3/4 assed (I have a big one, that’d be a lot of ass), and then you don’t get results, well, can you really tell if it worked? If you’ve done Weight Watchers, or are in AA, or if you have taken your Level 1 in Crossfit, you know that these very diverse entities are all 100% based upon one thing – accountability and measurement/ keeping track. If you’re religiously logging your Crossfit PRs to the 1/4 of a pound but not willing to weigh your food for a little while until you get the hang of what 6 ounces looks like, hmmmmm.
Remember, I’m widcha, sistah! My stomach actually looks smaller here because my hands are over my head. but it’s depressing enough.
Take your measurements. And a photo or three.
Speaking of keeping track, on page 109 is a chart to take your measurements. I personally took more, because I’m a bit OCD about all this. I used the chart that Dr. Sara Gottfried suggests, which includes taking two belly measurements. I believe I blogged about this when I was doing her program (100% committed, no success). If not, basically take these:
1. Waist and Hips: measure your waist at your belly button, and also one inch ABOVE your belly button. Don’t hold your breath, be sure the tape is parallel to the floor, yadda yadda. Then measure your hips. Calculate the waist-to-hip ratio by dividing the belly-button waist measurement by the hip measurement, to get your “shape.” If it’s 0.80 or less you’re a pear. If 0.81-0.85 you’re an avocado. If over 0.86 you’re an apple. The higher the number, the higher the risk for diabetes, stroke, etc. (I’m an avocado).
2. Height: measure your height as it really is, not as you think it is. :-) I measured mine and was quite upset to find out I’ve lost 2 inches somewhere in the past 50 years. Harrumph. Take the “one inch above your belly button” measurement and divide it by your height in inches (or centimeters, whichever you used). If your ratio is 0.50 or higher, it’s in the danger range.
You can take other measurements if you want – BMI, net carbohydrates, pH, blood pressure, blood sugar, steps, sleep, thighs, arms, what-have-you. But the most important will be the two above.
Drink 1/2 your body weight, in ounces of water, a day.
This sucks. I’m not much of a water drinker, and you’re not allowed to “count” herbal tea, water with lemon, etc. Gotta tell you, this is the hardest part for me. A best friend swears by her CamelBak Eddy Water Bottle (pictured above) and so I ordered one. Any port in a storm, bay-bee.
Because I’m not a big water drinker, and I’m an old lady, this means I’m running to the bathroom about every 20 minutes. But I heard an analogy once that works for me, so I will share it with you.
If you’re not a big water drinker, your system is like an old, dried-up sponge. If you run water on it . . . it runs straight off! The sponge isn’t able to absorb anything, because it’s so dried up and crunchy. But if you take your time and put it in a bowl of water, ultimately, it will puff back up and be useful again.
This is like your cells. If you aren’t giving them enough water, it’s not like they will immediately shout Hurray! and take it all in greedily. They’re like the dried-up sponge. So you need to be prepared that it will take a while before they are able to utilize the water that you’re going to be pouring onto them. Until that point – just remember the dried-up sponge (as you’re running for the restroom). Not very pretty, right? That’s what your cells are like.
Persevere. (I type this to remind myself, you realize. I really hate drinking water.)
Prepare your food.
Below, I’m going to give you the basic protocol for each of the three phases. This is not supposed to take place of you buying the book! It’s just for those of you who are waiting on the book, want to start Monday, and need to go shopping.
Phase 1
Here’s the basic deal. On Monday and Tuesday, you will be eating high-glycemic carbs and moderate protein. No fat. You need to eat every three hours, so if you get up early and go to bed late (shame on you . . . you need your sleep!), then you need another snack after dinner. The protocol goes:
Breakfast: Grain/Fruit Snack: Fruit Lunch: Grain/Protein/Fruit/Veggie Snack: Fruit Dinner: Grain/Protein/Veggie
The veggies and fruit are specific in each Phase. But let me give you an idea. Let’s say you aren’t hungry for Breakfast and are running around trying to get your family organized. Make a shake for the “grain/fruit” meal. If you have 20-40 pounds to lose, here’s the recipe for a quick shake:
3/4 cup uncooked steel cut Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free oats 1-1/2 cups fruit enough water for your blender to blend it. (NOTE: In Phase 1 you can have unsweetened rice milk, so if you’d rather use that instead of water, you can, but you’ll have to subtract those carbs from your oats. And no, NOT soy, almond, coconut, dairy, hemp, cashew, etc. – pay attention, you ;-) )
What? Uncooked steel cut oats in a shake? Uncooked? Yup. It makes it a little “chewy” (nutty?), but it’s FAST and it’s EASY. So as part of your shopping list, you want to get these oats. If you have a gluten-free aisle they’ll be there at your grocery store, or you may have to (wo)man up and go to Whole Paycheck oh I mean Whole Foods. I actually ordered a whole box of them off Amazon.
The interesting thing about this is it also reminds you to “chew” your smoothie. Our bodies don’t understand smoothies as food (instead of drink) unless we “chew” them. This is important! Chew your smoothie. The oats will help.
As for the fruit, go and get frozen fruit from Trader Joe’s or your grocery store.
Fruit that’s on the list for this Phase includes berries, cherries, mangoes, papaya, peaches, pears, pineapple, watermelon.
Believe me, you can make a delicious shake with frozen fruit, oats, go. Did you know that you can cut up watermelon, freeze it, and it works just fine? I didn’t either ;-) Berries, not so much. Watermelon, yupperoonie.
Et voila, breakfast, done.
For the snack fruit, I happen to like oranges, and they are on the list (as are apples, apricots, grapefruit, pears). You can of course use any of the fruit also mentioned above, but I need a snack fruit that I can carry. Stock up so you’re ready. Again – I’m writing this all out not so that you can short-circuit buying the book, but so you are ready for Monday. You’ll find the food you like to eat once you get the book and buy accordingly, but if you get the book on Sunday and are going to start on Monday, it’s going to be a squeeze to have the right food in your house to be successful. I’m listing the most likely candidates here.
In Phase 1, the difference between Lunch and Dinner is no fruit at Dinner.
The veggies that you can have in Phase 1 include beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, celery (including tops), cucumber, kale, lettuce (except iceberg), mixed greens, mushrooms, onions, spinach, sweet potatoes/yams, tomatoes, zucchini/squash.
bags of greens in my freezer.
So here’s the deal. I often can’t even really eat a “regular Lunch” because I’m so on the go. As such, I cut up a bunch of the veggies that are on ALL the Phases’ lists (kale, greens, lettuce, cucumber, celery), put them in a plastic bag, and throw them in the freezer. As the amount of veggies is Unlimited (no measuring), I can therefore throw a couple handfuls into the blender with whatever else I’m supposed to eat (fruit/grain in Phase 1), then have a piece of protein (usually chicken breast or deli meat). You can, of course, make an awesome salad but remember – no salad dressing in Phases 1 and 2, though you can use fresh-squeezed lemon juice.
Phase 1 protein includes lean ground beef, ground buffalo, lean ground turkey breast, nitrate-free turkey/chicken/roast beef deli meat, pork tenderloin, water-packed solid white tuna. It also includes a bunch of beans (as in chickpeas) that are high in vegetable protein. I’m not much of a bean person, so I am sticking with animal protein.
What about protein powder?
As I said, I sometimes make a shake for Lunch. I almost always make one for Breakfast. The thing about protein powder on this eating plan is that it has to ONLY contain what you are allowed to eat in that particular phase. Since in Phase 1 you’re allowed rice, in my mind, rice protein is fine. But remember, you need to read the can, and the carbs are going to count towards grains, plus you need to have as much of the protein as required in that meal. It’s too much math for me. I personally have used Bulletproof Collagen Protein because it’s all grass-fed protein, but you need to use a ton of it and it’s expensive. So it’s sort of a last resort if you ask me. It’s also whey-based and you’re not supposed to eat dairy, but again, sometimes it’s “any port in a storm.” There are some beef-based protein powders, but I haven’t personally tried any.
Dinner, as you can see above, is veggie/grain/protein. The grains include brown rice (as rice, cereal, crackers, pasta, tortillas), steel-cut oats (you know that already), quinoa, spelt (pasta, pretzels, tortillas), sprouted grain (bread, tortillas), teff, wild rice. So this will likely be similar to what you would “normally” cook for dinner if you’ve been eating Paleo. Just watch the portion size.
I’ve mentioned this before, but if you cook up enough quinoa, or steel-cut oats, or “whatever” for the week on Sunday, you can cut a “slice” of it when you need it and eat it. If you’re not a microwave person (I’m not), then re-heat it in the oven on low or put it in a non-stick pan and “dry fry” it warm.
Phase 2
Phase 2 foods (Wednesday and Thursday) are very high protein, high vegetable, low carbohydrate, low fat. The protocol goes like this: Breakfast: protein/veggies Snack: protein Lunch: protein/veggies Snack: protein Dinner: protein/veggies
I already posted her beef jerky recipe, which is easy and amazing – HERE is that post. Otherwise, you have to snack on things like the aforementioned nitrate-free deli meats, hardboiled egg whites, or just cooked lean beef, pork tenderloin, white meat chicken/turkey, water-packed tuna.
NO VEGETABLE PROTEIN THIS PHASE, NO FRUITS, NO GRAINS, NO FAT.
The veggies in this phase are “liver supporting, alkalizing” greens. So that means leafy greens, onions, garlic, kale, mustard greens, watercress, lettuce, asparagus (no asparagus in Phase 1), cucumbers, etc. There are some things not on this list that were in Phase 1 (carrots, for example). If you freeze up a bag of veg to use for smoothies, there are a lot of greens that overlap, such as lettuce, cabbage, mixed greens, spinach, chard, so stick with those so you can use those greens for all Phases.
This is certainly the most “boring” Phase. If you’ve eaten Paleo for a long time, it’s completely familiar to you, but you have to be careful about the No Fat part.
This is SUPER important, because the idea is that for four days you’re giving your body NO fat but keeping it happy with other things, so it will use YOUR fat for that macronutrient. Then, in Phase 3, you GIVE it fat, just as it’s coming around to realizing that there has been no fat all week and that it might want to start conserving what you have.
Phase 3
Phase 3 is the high healthy fat, moderate carbohydrate, moderate protein, low glycemic fruit phase.
The eating protocol goes like this: Breakfast: fruit, fat/protein, grain, veggie Snack: healthy fat, veggie Lunch: fat/protein, veggie, fruit Snack: healthy fat, veggie Dinner: fat/protein, veggie, grain/starch
Very basically, the veggie portion includes all the veggies from both lists. HOWEVER it also includes avocado.
The fruit portion, however, is basically berries, cherries, grapefruit, peaches (no apples, oranges, pears, etc.).
The protein portion has some additions, like shrimp, scallops, lamb, lobster, fattier pork (chops), dark meat chicken/turkey, crab, whole eggs. (The reason the list matches fat/protein above is because something like a whole egg has not only fat but also protein in one “package.”) You can also use vegetable protein, such as unsweetened almond/cashew milk, or almond/cashew cheese, and lentils.
The grain portion is ONLY steel-cut oats, quinoa, sprouted grain bread/tortillas, wild rice.
The healthy fats include avocado (mentioned above), coconut, coconut milk and coconut water, hummus, raw nuts and raw nut/seed butters, coconut/olive/sesame oil. Remember portion size though – for example, if you want to lose 20-40 pounds, a portion of avocado is 3/4 avocado (I think if you have less to lose it’s 1/2 avocado).
egg muffins – recipe is a bit far down in the blog linked to the left.
So what would, say, a snack look like? Raw nut butter on celery. Or what might breakfast look like? Make your usual steel-cut oats, greens and berry smoothie, then also eat 4 ounces worth of hard-boiled egg. I personally throw raw egg into the smoothies, but I get organic pastured eggs from a local farm. Or maybe you add coconut water and some protein powder (see above) to the smoothie. You get the picture. You could also edit my egg muffin recipe a bit (use turkey bacon!) to have little protein/fat/veg “bombs.”
As a side note, my husband makes Bulletproof Coffee every morning into which he adds a couple egg yolks for extra fat. He was throwing the white (the protein part) away, but I now have him save it into a little bowl that he puts in the fridge. This allows me to use the egg protein. You could theoretically do the same during the week, using only the egg white part for Phases 1 and 2, then save and use the yolks during Phase 3.
I know this is a long post, but I realize that some of you are getting the book on Sunday, with the idea of starting (with me) on Monday. I wanted to be sure that you at least have what you’re going to need for Phase 1, presuming you can shop during the week for Phases 2 and 3. But with this blog you could be ready to roll for the whole week
IMPORTANT: Only Do Phase-Appropriate Exercise.
Also remember that you will:
* only be doing cardio on Monday and Tuesday,
* only heavy weights on Wednesday and Thursday, and
* only EASY stretching/yoga on Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
If you’re a Crossfitter like me, this is a big change, since Crossfit tries to include a bit of everything on each training day. Talk to your coach beforehand if it’s important to you that they “know what you’re doing.” Some coaches get sore if you pick and choose what you’re doing. If (like at my Crossfit box) there are lots of folks who are doing bits and pieces of the WOD (or their own thing altogether), then practice your rowing or run repeats on Monday and/or Tuesday, your heavy weights Wednesday and/or Thursday, and then . . . this is hard for me to say . . . don’t go on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Do something else.
Personally, I printed out the Bikram yoga routine, and on Friday, I put on some “tinkly winkly music” (as my husband calls it), went out into my garden, and did the Bikram routine, but in a very calm fashion. We’re re-setting our bodies here, and part of it has to do with lowering stress hormones, etc. Go for a leisurely walk on the weekend – not a killer hike. Relaxxxxx . . .
Our bodies and stress.
Remember – there are only two sorts of stress in “caveman world” – (a) you’re being chased by a tiger, or (b) you’re in famine. Being chased by a tiger includes blood-pumping adrenaline, etc., so if your body perceives that it’s under “stress” of some other kind, the only thing it knows is famine. So it will hold onto all its “precious” body fat . . . no matter how much you have! There’s no “convincing” your body otherwise through “logic.” So for this four week period, do what you’re told. ESPECIALLY when it comes to the exercise portion!
I know this was a long post, but if you’re starting Monday and getting the book on Sunday, I thought I’d better give you a head’s up on what to buy and what to expect. Don’t work out on Monday and go for a new deadlift PR. DO work out on Monday and row your brains out. Prepare that freezer bag of greens. Get your snacks organized.
Quick blog post – and a shout out to Michelle for reminding me to post this!
A few weeks back, I posted that I was going to try the Haylie Pomroy Fast Metabolism Diet (that post is HERE).
So here’s what happened. The first week I didn’t lose any weight/body fat, but I started to feel a lot better. If you didn’t read that post, you eat different food in three Phases during a week (Monday & Tuesday, then Wednesday & Thursday, then Friday, Saturday & Sunday) to address metabolic issues.
By the 10th day though, things had really started to change. My energy was way better and my “stress handling capabilities” (meaning, not crying at the drop of a hat) were also way better. I also have rosacea, and my husband even noticed that the redness around my cheeks was about half what it usually is.
Then, of course, I went off the eating plan.
I didn’t go off because I was bored, or because I was stressed out, or because of any number of other things. I went off because my husband and I purchased a couple of condos out of state that had to be demolished and re-built, and so we went off to do that for a couple weeks.
I actually tried to stay on the eating plan while I was gone, but it’s so tough when you’re not home. Especially not only “not home” but not even close to home. You know how it is – we were working 8-10 hours a day on these condos, running to Home Depot, Lowe’s, back to Home Depot…(you get the idea), gutting, replacing electrical, blah blah blah. It’s not the ideal situation to not, say, have a cocktail and something soothing at the end of the day.
The interesting part, though, was that I actually did stay on the plan in a half-assed way, because it’s quite easy to do that. But the no coffee, no alcohol, no fat on 4 of the 7 days went out the window. Also it’s super hard to do things like make a green smoothie or purchase specific veggies when you’re not on your home turf.
This is just a quick blog post to say that I will be re-starting on Monday. If you’re reading this and looking for an eating plan – I’d really recommend it. As you probably have seen, I’ve worked my way through a number of eating plans in the past few years, but this is the one I’m the most optimistic about. Not only is it pretty easy to do, but I think it will be easy to stick with even after the 4 weeks are up. After that time, you can add back in the things that were disallowed if you want (e.g., soy, corn, dairy, alcohol), and/or go off the “phase eating” all together. But as I saw these past two weeks, I actually think that staying on the eating regime even afterwards will not be that difficult.
So that’s my update – sorry, no photos, but I have about 10,000 emails to answer and I really just wanted to post a quick update, and also give ya’ll notice that if you’re looking for an eating plan, why not join me on Monday???HERE is a link to the book in case you need it.
2018 UPDATE! Use London Broil steak, cut against the grain (e.g., cut parallel to the short end, not the long end). It is WAY less expensive than skirt steak, and works just as well if not better.
Recipe:
1 gallon Ziplock bag
a cookie sheet (must have a lip) or two
a cookie cooling rack or two
aluminum foil (to wrap around the cookie sheet)
For every 1 to 1 1/2 pound meat you need:
1/4 cup tamari (gluten-free and organic is only pennies more . . . hint hint!)
Juice of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 teaspoon onion powder (or onion salt, in which case use garlic powder)
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt (see above – if you want to substitute garlic powder, use onion salt – or if you use powder both times, double the salt added below)
1/4 teaspoon black pepper (or less if you don’t want it spicy)
1/8 teaspoon sea salt or Himalayan pink salt
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (or less if you don’t like it spicy)
1/4 teaspoon red sumac (a Lebanese spice I use in everything – this is totally optional but if you find it and use it, you’ll be stuck on it too ;-) ).
Start with Skirt Steak.
1-1.5 pound packets of skirt steak
Our local market sells packets of skirt steak in 1-1.5 pound vacuum-sealed packages. These are fantastic, because you can buy a bunch of them at once and freeze them if you’re not going to use them – then when you want some steak, you can take them out of the freezer and throw them right into the sous vide, bringing them up to about 90 degrees “and holding” when you’re at work. (If you don’t have a sous vide, you might want to read my blog HERE.) When you get home, heat up a cast iron skillet super hot, scorch them on each side for a minute or so, voila, done.
But today, these are for jerky.
The photo shows four 1.5ish pound packets. With this recipe, you can double or triple or quadruple or ??? the recipe without any issues. The smallest of the packages in the photograph is just over a pound – the largest is 1.5 pounds. So I’m quadrupling today. Because my butcher’s packages are always about 1 to 1-1/2 pounds, I always figure one package = one “set” of the marinade ingredients listed above.
If you don’t have a market that has these packs, but you do have a market where you can talk to the butcher, just bring him the photo from the blog and say you’d like one of these, please. ;-) It’s not expensive meat – some butchers cut it up to make fajita meat, but it starts like this.
The recipe by and large comes from Haylie Pomroy’s book The Fast Metabolism Diet, which has some great recipes. This one is particularly good.
I started down the Fast Metabolism Diet road last week, and though I haven’t lost any weight, my energy is really good, and I feel great. I blogged about what it entails HERE.
You can use any “meaty meat” – halibut, turkey, buffalo, etc. – but it works particularly well with beef.
My issue with jerky is that it always contains some form of sugar, and/or some sort of preservatives. I’m sure there are jerkies you can order without these, but they’re probably immensely pricey. This recipe is so easy, it’s ridiculous not to make your own.
Cut the steak into 3 strips (against the grain).
skirt steak before cutting (about 3 feet long or so)
The photo at left is what a skirt steak looks like out of the package. I don’t have a “selfie stick” and even at the end of my condor arm I could barely get it all in the picture. It’s like 3 feet of meat.
If there is any obvious fat, trim it off – but this is a very very lean cut of meat.
The fat you see in this picture doesn’t count as “fat” by the way – that’s just “marbling.” You may, however, run into a bit of fat that run all the way through the meat – particularly at the “fat” end of the meat – that’s what you want to cut off. But to give you some idea, I did not have any in all 4 of the steaks that I cut up before writing this blog.
Get your kitchen shears, and cut the strip the “long way” (against the grain). Your steak will be meatier on one end and less so on the other. So that means you’ll have three strips on one end, and usually as you cut, you’ll wind up with only two strips on the other end.
this is the meaty end of the skirt steak – as you can see, I get 3 strips on this side.
I keep these in as long of strips as they go. (Yes, I’m juvenile enough to sort of make a game of it – like trying to peel an orange in one strip of rind.) Sometimes you hit a weak spot in the meat, so that “strip” breaks off – it’s not important. But if you’re using a full skirt steak, you want the width of the strips to be about 1/3 of the strip at the “fat end” or 1/2 of the strip at the “skinny” end. It’s not rocket science, just do your best ;-)
marinade ingredients
Mix up all the other ingredients into the Ziplock.
Take the ingredients from the above recipe (multiplied by however much meat you have), and put them into a Ziplock. Take it from me, if you use a Ziplock with the actual “zipper” it’s a LOT easier to turn it upside down and shake it than if you use one that you just “press” together. No need for the excitement of the entire marinade and meat concoction slipping out on the floor when you shake it ‘cos you didn’t quite get the tracks of the bag to match….
A gallon Ziplock will take up to four times the recipe above, if you’re wondering. If you’re doing more than four times the recipe, I would use a couple of Ziplocks, but you only need one up to a quadruple recipe.
Again – the thing I really like about this recipe is that there is nothing sweet in it. Honey, sugar, whatever. And it’s delish. Trust me here.
Shake the marinade to mix it together.
Plop all the meat into the Ziplock.
Once you have all the strips in there with the marinade, seal the Ziplock almost all the way. Then squeeze down on it so that you get all the air out of the top little opening you’ve left.
Then seal it tight.
meat in marinade, all air squeezed out.
Now turn the Ziplock over and over to be sure the marinade gets to all the meat (like I said, this is the exciting part if you aren’t completely sure about your Ziplock zipper…)
Put the Ziplock into the refrigerator overnight (at least 8 hours, but better if it’s overnight).
Whenever you open the refrigerator between then and cooking time, give the Ziplock a few little tosses to move the marinade around on the meat. It will settle on the bottom side, so you want to be sure you let all the pieces get evenly marinaded.
After 8+ hours, drain & discard the marinade.
Squeeze the meat (while still in the Ziplock) to get it pretty dry. The easiest way to do this is to get the bulk of the marinade out first, and then zip the zipper back up most of the way, and squeeze the marinade out the “spout” by rolling it up from the bottom. This is similar to what you did when you were letting the air out to seal it, before putting it in the fridge.
You don’t want to pat the marinade off, but you do want to squeeze out as much of the liquid as you can, because you’re going to be dehydrating that meat, and more liquid = more time.
Take your cookie sheets and wrap them in aluminum foil.
You’ll need about two sheets and two cookie “cooling racks” for about each 3 pounds of meat, give or take.
Because the marinade and fat from the jerky is going to drip onto the aluminum foil, you may want to spray a little coconut oil in between the cookie sheet and the foil. I’m not sure if you have ever had this happen, but sometimes the foil “adheres to” the cookie sheet. So you might want to put a Pam-esque buffer. Personally, I use what are called “baker’s sheets” over my cookie sheets. They are PFOA-free silicone, non-stick, re-usable, and work like a charm. But as most folks don’t have these or do as much in-oven baking/roasting as I do, I am using aluminum foil in this recipe.
Put the cookie cooling racks on top of the aluminum foil, with their “feet” folded in.
If your sheets and racks are the same size as my sheets and racks, the racks will fit inside the lip of the sheet with a pretty good amount of room to spare. That will come up in a second.
If you’re only doing 1x of the recipe (silly you, you’re going to eat all that jerky before anyone gets home . . . :-) ) then you can likely use one sheet, or use two and leave more room between the pieces.
one rack, set up – about 2 to 2-1/2 lbs.
Put the meat on the racks, cutting it to size as you go. It can be close together, but shouldn’t overlap.
Although the recipe I used stated that you have to have the meat strips 1/4″ apart, they shrink up a LOT. So, I snuggled them up close, and as I checked the jerky, I was able to move them farther apart as they shrank. If you leave the strips long, be sure to tuck the ends down into the pan, so that they drip into the pan (not onto the bottom of the oven). That said – I’d still put down aluminum foil in the oven anyway, just in case. ;-)
Remember I mentioned the space between the rack and the sheet? I personally actually laid a couple strips along the “long side” of the sheet (between the sheet and the rack) and then another along the “short side.” The jerky drips a LOT as it’s dehydrating, but that basically means that about 1/2 way through, you’ll be able to move those strips up to the rack and out of the drippings.
As you can probably tell, I’m not too fussy of a cook ;-) I just wanted to be sure that you knew that everything came out just fine when I did things this way. I wasn’t interested in doing two batches, because that’s a lot of time. So I made it work. Also, to give you an idea, I’m doing 4x the recipe this time around (I did 3x last time), and I’m still going to use the same setup. They really do shrink up a lot as they cook.
Bake the strips uncovered at 200 degrees for about 3 hours.
At three hours, you want your oven timer to go off so you can check on them. If you have two pans of strips, this is the time to swap the bottom pan for the top pan. It’s also time to re-arrange the strips as you may need. You can taste one, but they’re not going to be close.
4x the recipe in the oven, so about 4 to 5 pounds of meat.
If you have some other situation – more strips down the sides/off the rack or some such, you’re going to need to get them up on the rack as soon as you can. So you might be checking more than just once at 3 hours and once when “nearly done.” But this is what I did. At 3 hours they had shrunk in enough for me to get all the strips that were off the rack onto the rack, plus I was able to re-arrange them to allow a bit more room between all the strips.
Bake the strips for about another 3 hours.
I say “about” because I have a convection oven, and mine were done at 6 hours total. If you don’t have a convection oven, I think it’s going to be more like 7 hours. Leave the temperature the same, don’t cover them . . . just do what you just did, and come back 3 hours later and check on them.
You’ll know they are done when the meat is dry and leathery. And you can’t stop eating it.
Remove from the oven and cool completely before refrigerating or freezing in an airtight container. (I just took the cookie cooling racks off the pans and set them aside until the jerky was cold.)
If, that is, you can make it that far, and don’t eat them all as you’re waiting for them to cool. ;-) .
On this Haylie Pomroy eating plan, the first two days are basically fruit/veg/grains/some protein, then the next two are strictly veg/protein (with protein as the snacks – enter the jerky), then the last three days are a lot more relaxed with fruit/veg/protein/grains.
I made the jerky on the first of the middle two days, and actually weighed out how much 3 ounces was, to be sure I got the snack portion right. Yeah . . . then I weighed out 6 ounces, to get the lunch portion right . . . and another 3 ounces for the next snack . . .
leftovers from last week. NomNomNom ;-) I think I have to have one…And YES, this is all that’s left of 3x the recipe :-)
It’s very addictive, and so easy to make!
By the way, the aluminum foil is going to be coated with a thick mixture of hardened on marinade, fat, etc. While the jerky is cooling, get that off the cookie sheet and throw it away. (As I use baker’s sheets, I just hit them with super hot water and this slides right off, then I pat the sheet dry, and hang it to use for the next roasting/baking extravaganza ;-) ) If you have a dog or animal that might go through your trash, I recommend crumpling it up into a ball and zipping it into the Ziplock that you marinated the meat in. It’s harder to smell that way ;-)
Any questions…?
And..speaking of recipes…tonight is roasted chicken night – if you didn’t catch it last time, HERE is the recipe for the easiest and best roast chicken in the Universe ;-)
I’ve been featured a couple of times in the Girls Gone WOD podcast (thanks gals!). The latest one is HERE.
(To cut to the chase – my hubby named him “Winston,” I YouTube’d how to get a dog to answer to a new name and worked feverishly on it so it would “seem” that he “just happened to answer to” the name my husband picked, and the paperwork all went through this morning. He’s ours.)
I’m not hardwired to ‘be’ an Alpha – and I will never be. But this is one of those situations where I realize that some of my patterned responses do me more harm than good. In my husband’s view, even if we didn’t “lavish” the dog with “love/affection/whatever” 24/7, he was light years better off than he would have been under the circumstances he came from and where he would have been going. He now has a clean house, a loving couple, an acre of back yard wildlife area, good food, toys, a comfy crate, etc.
, 
, and 
explain how this all happened . . . and how we need to eat more like what is now our great-grandparents than (usually) our parents or even grandparents. I’ve railed on and on about this before, and can’t get enough of reading/watching documentaries about it. I guess it’s my version of being a lookie-loo at a traffic pileup.
rings. They are made of 100% medical grade silicone. I have tried some of the rubber rings that are out there, but they made my finger itch. Not so these rings.
LOL)!
(pictured above) and so I ordered one. Any port in a storm, bay-bee.
of them off Amazon.
because it’s all grass-fed protein, but you need to use a ton of it and it’s expensive. So it’s sort of a last resort if you ask me. It’s also whey-based and you’re not supposed to eat dairy, but again, sometimes it’s “any port in a storm.” There are some 
, but I haven’t personally tried any.
my husband calls it), went out into my garden, and did the Bikram routine, but in a very calm fashion. We’re re-setting our bodies here, and part of it has to do with lowering stress hormones, etc. Go for a leisurely walk on the weekend – not a killer hike. Relaxxxxx . . .
” over my cookie sheets. They are PFOA-free silicone, non-stick, re-usable, and work like a charm. But as most folks don’t have these or do as much in-oven baking/roasting as I do, I am using aluminum foil in this recipe.
