PALEO!

So far paleo isn't too bad!  I bought a BBQ Grill and have used it a few times and that makes paleo pretty easy.  I have placed a few of the recipes I've tried on the recipe blog.  My next thing I'm going to do is try some crock pot paleo recipes. 
I have had some cheat days (too many) with some family in town this past weekend. I have to say if I eat a lot of sugar or carbohydrates I feel awful!  My stomach will hurt and I just feel sluggish.  Maybe I should remember that for the next time I really want to cheat!  I had 3 cheat days in a row and I think it was 3 too many!
I went cycling with a friend on Saturday and she talked me into riding 20 miles.  I survived and my back survived but my bottom sure did hurt that day!  It was a good thing we rode for so far or else I would've gained weight with all the junk I ate this weekend. 
I'm still down about 1/2 lb lower than when I first started paleo 2 weeks ago. Not what I wanted so now it's time to get serious again...
On a very good note I finally got my Vit D level back and it's in the normal range and at a great level!  FINALLY! 

WHEAT BELLY DOWN!!!

So I admit, I'm the worst blogger in the world.  The 3 months of Wheat Belly happened at a crazy time in my life.  I bought a new place and had to pack and move and clean and it has ruled my life for the past 3 months.  I do have to say I give credit to people who can blog all the time.

I didn't try many wheat belly recipes so that was a downside of this diet.  Overall the Wheat Belly wasn't bad at all. I was expecting much worse. 

One of my friends talked me into doing a Dietbet.  Pretty much you join a game or make your own and there is fee to pay.  They are all different amounts and then you have to lose 4% of your body weight in 28 days.  You have to submit pics weighing in and weighing out and then if you lose 4% you get part of the pot.  So we both paid $25 and both lost our 4% and just found out that we won $40.35!  I hate losing money so it was a big motivator for me.  I'm planning on doing another one starting next week sometime.

I lost 16.3 lbs on the diet.  My goal was 20lbs but I'll take the 16.3lbs anyday!! I think I was even more excited when I saw my labs this morning!

LABS:
1/02/13 (before starting diets)          4/01/13 (after Vegan)       7/1/13 (After Wheat Belly)
Total Cholesterol 226                       236                                    179
Triglycerides       245                       218                                      95
LDL (bad cholesterol) 136               147                                     109
HDL (good Cholesterol) 40              45                                       38.4

Other than my HDL, I don't think my cholesterol has ever been this low! So this diet was a success on a few levels. 
On to paleo!

I'm really bad at blogging!

Blogging is just not my thing! It's so hard for me to get on here and write about the diet and what's going on. 
I was down almost 10 lbs last week and then I went home to Oregon to help my mom who just had a knee replacement. I cheated on my diet every day, multiple times a day!  But after all of that cheating I only gained 2.2lbs so I can't be too disappointed.  So now I'm back and sticking to my diet.  I even talked one of my other friends into joining us on the diet so I have one more person trying the Wheat Belly diet!
Since I've been gone I haven't tried any new recipes. I have a spaghetti squash sitting in my fridge just waiting to be cooked...I really hope this week it will happen. 
Other good news is that I bought a road bike while I was in Oregon, it didn't hurt my back and I've already gotten a few short rides in.  I just bought a townhouse so I've been busy trying to move and paint so once that calms down I can ride more.
I promise to try to do better and get some new recipes up!  I'm living off of the the flaxseed wraps and salads lately because I haven't had time to cook!

3 weeks down!

I did really well last week on the Wheat Belly Diet. The only cheat I had was one small chocolate covered strawberry and some Yogurtland Frozen yogurt (mmm...taro and roasted coconut....). I even worked out the most last week than any other weeks and I didn't lose one pound and I didn't gain one pound...A little discouraging.  But I still feel good so I can't complain. 

One of the things people talk about with the Wheat Belly Diet is how tired they are the first 1-2 weeks after starting the diet.  I haven't noticed any difference in how tired I've been.

I did try making the pumpkin spice muffins (I will post later tonight on the recipe blog) and they didn't turn out completely but they tasted pretty good. 

I'm planning on trying the squash pasta in the next couple of days. Meghan made it and said it was really good. 

Still no cravings for breads and cereal!!! I still find this very shocking knowing how much I love the stuff!

I started tracking calories yesterday using My Fitness Pal app on my phone.  It's a great free tool that you can either do online or on your phone.  Should be interesting to add this to the equation.

2 weeks down!

So far the Wheat Belly Diet isn't killing me...It actually hasn't been too bad. 

My mom called me the other day and she just had her labs done last week and after being vegan for 3 months her Cholesterol dropped in all areas!  She is on cholesterol medicine and before she started the diet they told her if it didn't come down then they would have to increase her dose of medicine.  I guess my body just likes my cholesterol too much to give it up and get it lower :)

Anyone who knows me will know that my favorite food is....CEREAL!  I could eat it three times a day and never get tired of it.  I've never met a cereal I didn't like.  On the Vegan diet I could still have most of my beloved cereals.  Now I can't have them and I was really worried about it.  Miraculously I haven't missed cereal at all. There is a hot flaxseed cereal in the Wheat Belly recipes that I need to try.  Meghan has tried it and said it wasn't too bad if you like slimey hot cereal. My goal this week is to try it.

My other goal is to also try to make the spaghetti squash "pasta."  I've also found some good recipes for zuchinni lasagna where you use zuchinni in place of the noodles. 

What I've had a few times are my egg/banana pancakes which aren't too bad.  I'll post the recipe on the recipe site. 

I lost 2lbs this past week so a grand total of 5.6lbs.  Still feeling good and not missing carbs as much as I thought I would.  I've always loved dark chocolate but usually 60-70%.  the diet lets you have 90% dark chocolate.  It took me a few times to get used to it that dark but now I love having a little square of bitter dark chocolate for a sweet snack.

Until next time....

Week 1 of Wheat Belly

I was pretty intimidated to start this diet.  After one week there is still some intimidation but I'm learning more and more what I can eat so it's making it better.  My Vitamin D level came back still LOW!  Actually 1 point lower than last time, so I've really stepped up the Vit D intake.

Still haven't eaten a lot of meat but I have eaten a lot of cheese.  I am down 3.6lbs from last Monday so that is good.  I was able to get some good bike rides in this past week and they didn't bother my back at all. 

I've been eating some good flaxseed wraps that I make and even made cauliflower crust pizza on Saturday night.  I'll be posting the recipes this evening when I get home from work. I really enjoy the flaxseed wrap and the pizza wasn't terrible either. 

I'm back to taking Fish oil supplement, glucosamine with chondroitin and my tumeric.  All of these I had to stop when I was Vegan. 

I had a cheat meal last night for my aunt's birthday.  My friend and I made chocolate covered cherries and they are amazing! Lets just say Saturday morning I was down 5lbs for the week and after my cheat meal of taco salad (minus the shell), homemade strawberry ice cream, homemade horchata, birthday cake and chocolate covered cherries I gained a little back...

LABS & WHEAT BELLY...ONE DAY DOWN!

The Wheat Belly Diet started yesterday and so far not too bad.  I'll be posting some recipes later tonight when I get home of what I've tried so far.  I'm not as intimidated by the diet as I thought I would be but it's only been one day so far.  I got a call from my friend Meghan yesterday telling me that so far she had probably eaten 20 eggs yesterday! She hadn't planned ahead for the wheat belly so that's about all she had to eat...I'm sure my cholesterol would love that!

I got my labs done and got almost all the results this morning.  Not as good as I was expecting...

BEFORE:                                                 AFTER:
Total Cholesterol 226                              236                    Normal (<199)
Triglycerides 245                                    218                     Normal (40-150)
HDL (good cholesterol) 40                     45                       Normal (40-96)
LDL (bad cholesterol) 136                      147                     Normal (0-130)
Vitamin B12 449                                     893                     Normal (211-911)

Total Weight Loss 6lbs.

So not what I expected.  I have to take into consideration that my family genetics sucks when it comes to cholesterol.  There are very few people in my family (on both sides) who are not on cholesterol medication! But I was expecting better than that, not worse!  I'm still waiting on my Vitamin D levels. 

Supposedly the Wheat Belly Diet is great on cholesterol so we'll see if it can help a broken cholesterol like mine!