Week 2: Seeing/feeling changes and the magic of coconut butter

Before I get into the specifics of this week, I want to talk about the epiphany I had a few days ago. A thought about losing weight a decade ago came up to me again this week that I had forgotten. When I first started losing weight, my mindset was this: Think the opposite of what you've always thought of food. One of the things I used to think, and we all tend to think, is that real nutritional changes are restrictive. I want to have my cake and eat it too. What's damaging for me with that mindset is that the healthy foods aren't the ones restricting me, the junk foods are. I'm not free whenever I eat crappy foods, I'm bound in a cycle of addiction. I recall back then that a typical week would go like this: eat well for three days, get a craving for chemically and sugar laden food, eat said food and a bunch more like it for the next few days, then start over again. To me, restriction isn't eating the foods I'm eating now, but it's eating all of those other foods because those are the foods restricting me from looking and feeling my best. I hope this analogy will help my current and future clients... I weighed at the first of the week and I've lost three pounds! As I stated in the first blog, I'm not concerned with the number on the scale, but I also know that being this big isn't healthy. For the first few weeks, any positive changes (no matter how small) should result in changes on the scale. The reason for this is because I was eating so much and not exercising before and now I’m eating normal amounts and exercising.

Exercise this week went great! The sun finally came out and acted like spring on Saturday so I went for a trail run. It hurt and my cardiovascular fitness is nothing to brag about at this point, but the important thing is that I got outside in the sunshine and burned some calories. The sun makes a big difference for me. I’m strongly affected by the cold and cloudy weather in a negative way. This is something that’s really helped me to understand overweight or obese clients that struggle with seasonal affective disorder. It’s hard enough to get outside when you’re 50 or more pounds overweight much less when it’s gloomy outside.

Exercise Log:

Wednesday – Arm circuits. Overhead extensions, rope pull downs and push-downs, then barbell curls, hammer curls and preacher curls. 60 minutes

Thursday – Off

Friday – Off

Saturday – 3.25 mile trail run/hike. I can’t run for a solid 3 miles now, so I’m hiking or walking all of the inclines or even some of the flats. 40 minutes

Sunday – 3.25 mile trail run/hike. I was so tired from Saturday but it felt good to get out again. 40 minutes

Monday – 1 hour of circuit training. Megan created a workout for me that was brutally specific to my desires. The first circuit consisted of walking lunges, lateral lunges, single leg deadlifts and a 1/10 mile sprint. I repeated this three times with a three minute break in between. My second circuit consisted of overhead slams, back extensions, 1 minute on the rowing machine and 1 minute of jump rope. IT WAS HARD. 60 minutes

Tuesday – Day off    

Approximate Total Exercise Time: 200 Minutes

We had a blast! I cannot tell you how much I look forward to getting rid of that double chin.

My food has been stellar this week. Megan and I adopted a paleo-ish approach to eating for 30 days as a way of ridding ourselves of cravings and just to see what it’s like. My food selections have consisted of about ten different things: bacon, eggs, egg whites, sweet potatoes, apples, cashew butter, coconut butter, grass-fed beef, organic chicken thighs, and kale, carrots and celery for smoothie purposes. Again, you can follow my nutrition habits on My Fitness Pal. My username is brandonfitwin.

Mmmmmmmmmmmm

Look at this beautiful smoothie. My usual apple, carrots, celery and kale.

Fat and protein at its finest. Three eggs and two slices of thick bacon.

My current lunch of choice. 200g of sweet potatoes and 1 serving (4oz raw) of grass fed beef.

I actually tracked five days in a row!

Let me sing the praises of coconut butter real quick. It is so good! I’ve never tasted something so naturally sweet that only has two grams sugar (per 2T), no artificial ingredients and contains almost all fat. It’s glorious! I’ve been eating two tablespoons right from the jar every day. 

Again, these changes are habitual. It’s not about the number on the scale, but instead it’s about doing things that help me to feel and look better. Restriction is not eating healthy foods, restriction is eating foods that restrict me from feeling my best.

Week 2 down, 50 to go!