November 2010...finally caught up! Am I gluten intolerant??

My weight on November 1st was 121.4 pounds. I was down 1.2 more pounds!

This month everything was going well. I had been eating "Chock full of Veggie" Chili over quinoa for lunch most days at work- yummy! I have been exercising most days. I finally read the book Why Do I Still Have Thyroid Symptoms? by Datis Kharrazian, DHSc, DC, MS. I had heard of the book through one of my podcasts (Blog Talk Radio Underground Wellness, available free on iTunes) and knew a little about the book. I knew from the podcast about the book to have my doctor order a blood test the last time I went to see what my levels of Thyroglobulin Antibodies (TGB Ab) & Thyroid Peroxidase Antibodies (TPO Ab) were. My Thyroglobulin Antibodies tested normal but my Thyroid Peroxidase Antibodies tested high. The reference range on the test is less than 35 and mine were 124. This indicated that my hypothyroidism is caused by Hashimoto's disease. Hashimoto's disease is an autoimmune condition in which the body attacks and destroys its own thyroid gland. Although the disorder is a common cause of hypothyroidism, most doctors don't bother to test for it since a diagnosis does not change the standard treatment, which is to prescribe thyroid hormone. When I was given my first prescription several years ago I even remember the nurse practitioner telling me it did not matter what the cause was when I asked her since it would not change the treatment. Dr. Kharrazian discusses the link between gluten intolerance and Hashimoto's disease in the book. If you are thinking of reading this book I must warn you that it goes into a lot of technical details about medical stuff that would be better understood if you were a doctor. I think he may have forgotten that people who are not doctors might read his book.

So I do have a reason for getting into all of this detail. I decided that it could be a good idea for me to try to go "gluten free" for a period of time to see if I notice any difference or if it makes me feel more awake to not eat gluten. So I went through the cabinet and pulled out all of the gluten. I decided to eat up all of the gluten and once it is gone I will start my "gluten free trial" and see how it goes. Ever since I have been trying to "dispose" of the gluten products by eating them I have been having "bowel issues" similar to the problem I had in the spring of 2009...so now I wonder if I really am gluten intolerant.

I took a couple of pictures of me wearing my old pants.

Those pants (New York & Company) are a size 8. I wear a size 2 now. The pictures were taken the first week of November.

I am finally up to date with my blog- YAY!

September & October 2010

My weight on September 1st was 123.2 pounds. I was down another 2 pounds since last month's weigh in. I had a doctor's appointment on September 3rd. The scale at the doctor's office weighed me in at 124 pounds FULLY CLOTHED! This meant that my scale is pretty accurate and I really have lost all of those pounds.

I had to make another trip to the store for some clothes since some of my pants were falling off of me. It was going to be cold soon and I would need to wear full length pants to stay warm but all of the pants I had from last winter were HUGE on me. It was a great day for me since I discovered I wear a size 2! All of my pants from last winter were size 6. My favorite pair of pants was now too big for me. I will miss those pants!

October's weigh in was 122.6 pounds. It was only .6 of a pound but I am not complaining since it was still a loss. I have to be getting close to what I should weigh at this point so I would expect the weight loss to slow down. I do still have a little bit in my upper inner thighs that needs to go though. On October 21st I had another doctor's appointment that I weighed in at 123 pounds fully clothed. That really made me happy.

I don't have a lot of notes for September and October. I continued with my workouts and continued to eat healthy foods. During my October vacation (I did not go away) I stopped out to see my Mom and she fed me some really good food. She called it a "Live Garden Burger". It was REALLY good but did not taste like a burger. It is a bunch of raw ingredients made in a food processor and served on lettuce and did I say it was YUMMY...oh I guess I already did. Well it was really good and someday I hope to make it but I need to get a food processor first.

I promise the next update will be better and it will be the one that catches me up to being current.

July & August 2010

July

On July 1st I weighed in at 127.2 pounds. That was only a .4 pound weight loss during June. Less than half a pound. Hmmmm... wonder what happened there. The only thing that had changed was that I had discovered lunch meats with no nitrate or nitrites and no chemicals or antibiotics added. It was in the organic section of the store so I thought I would try some. So I ate quite a few sandwiches in June. I made sure the whole grain bread did not have high fructose corn syrup in it too. You would be shocked to see how many whole grain breads have that crap in them. I am the only one in the house who eats the whole grain bread so I had to eat the whole loaf myself so that ended up being a lot of sandwiches. I am not sure if that slowed my weight loss down or not so I stopped eating them to find out.

At the end of July I was invited to Ocean City Maryland for the weekend (more like 24 hours). Have you ever tried to find healthy food at the shore? Well it was not easy. When I arrived Saturday morning I had some cantaloupe that was in the hotel room and one of my Kashi peanut peanut butter granola bars. I brought a box of those in case I needed a snack. I did find a salad place that made a really good Greek Salad so I had that for my lunch. For dinner I wandered around the boardwalk in search of something semi healthy (no doubt my cousin was ready to kill me- I am sure she was starved by the time I selected a place to eat) and I finally settled on some fish tacos. They were YUMMY! There were TONS of places to eat but they all had JUNK. I could not believe some of the things they fried down there. I mean really...do Oreos need to be fried? Seriously???

Remember the bikini pics from last year on my cruise (pic on left)? Well here I am (pic on right) in the same bikini 9 months later and about 15-18 pounds lighter (I do not know my exact weight when I went on the cruise). On July 30th I went shopping again for some more new clothes (and spent way more than I had planned).

I found another good book in July. It is Strength For Life by Shawn Phillips. There are workout routines in the back of this book that I started doing. I do the Monday night routine & the Thursday night routine on my Monday & Thursday nights in place of the Gilad workouts. These are weight lifting routines that use dumbbells and a weight bench and the ones I do focus on the arms. There are other routines but I still like doing the Gilad workouts too much to give them up so I do those the other days. Muscle burns more calories than fat so I want to make sure I have some muscles!

 August

My August 1st weigh in brought good news. I was 125.2 pounds. This meant that not eating all of those sandwiches paid off. I had lost 2 pounds in July! It may not seem like a lot but when you add up each monthly weight loss those pounds add up. I was officially down 20 pounds since December and that was wonderful news. When I changed my eating habits I thought I should lose a few pounds as a result but I never thought I would lose 20 pounds without counting calories. Had I known this I would have taken measurements when I started and I really regret that I have no "before" measurements. I had to measure my progress by my weight, photos, clothes size and just the visual difference in my size which is so obvious to me when I step out of the shower in front of that big mirror.

Two more books I should mention. The Eat Clean Diet by Tosca Reno and The Eat Clean Diet Cookbook by Tosca Reno. The Eat Clean Diet is not really a diet. It is a way of life. Kind of like what I did. You change the way you eat and your body changes. Unless of course you are already at your perfect weight, then it will just help you make better food choices so you can feel healthier. It does not require any counting of calories either. I found a lot of recipes in the cookbook that I need to try and I will  give reviews when I do.

May & June 2010

May 2010

My May 1st weigh in showed a two pound loss during April. I was down to 131.8 pounds. My clothes were getting very loose and I found some clothes that I had from several years ago that fit me perfect again! This was an exciting moment for me. I knew I had a shopping trip coming up in my future to get some smaller clothes but I decided to wait since I realized I was going to continue to lose weight.

I don't have a lot of notes about May. I relocated my workout space in April & May. I cleaned out the "laundry room" which is actually a pretty large room in the basement with a washer at one end of the room and the dryer at the other end. I installed a rubber floor and turned it into my scrapbook/craft/workout/laundry room. I brought an old TV down and hooked up the DVD player and VCR. I had all of my Gilad episodes upstairs on the DVR in the living room so I had to copy them all to VHS so I could workout downstairs. To add variety to my workouts and since I had a DVD player in my new workout space I alternated between the Gilad workouts and a DVD that I had purchased maybe 4 years ago and only used once or twice. It is the Quick Fix Total Mix DVD. This DVD allows you to create custom workouts by selecting up to 3 workout segments to create a custom routine for your workout. Each segment is 10 minutes long and it counts down while you work out. You can do 10 minutes, 20 minutes, or 30 minutes. It is your choice. The 9 segments to choose from are Abs Flex, Abs Crunch, Abs Burn, Buns Toner, Buns Firmer, Buns Shaper, Arms/Legs Combo, Leg Blaster, and Arms Toner. The only items required are a 3-8 pound set of dumbbells & a chair.

June 2010

On June 1st I weighed in at 127.6 pounds. I was down another 4.2 pounds- Wow! After all of the effort I had put into those Slim Fast diets in prior years I was amazed at how the pounds were just melting away now with so little effort. No calorie counting, no starving. I did not feel deprived. I no longer desired all of those highly processed products of modern food science that people refer to as "food". I was enjoying REAL foods. I wish I would have thought of this years ago!

Speaking of years ago...I had 2 other DVDs that I had bought at the same time as the Quick Fix DVD that were still wrapped in the plastic! Shame on me. Clearly at one point in time I had planned on working out but never followed through. I forgot to mention that when I started the Gilad workouts I had to open my BRAND NEW (still in the package after 4 years) yoga mat. IMPORTANT NOTE: workout equipment does nothing for you if you don't use it. So the first one I unwrapped was Crunch The Perfect Yoga Workout. There are 2 workouts on this DVD. One is "Fat Burning Yoga" and the other "The Joy of Yoga". I decided to try Fat Burning Yoga. Let's just say I decided Yoga was not for me. I found this to be extremely difficult. I don't seem to be flexible enough for yoga. Maybe I need "Yoga for Beginners" or "Pre- Yoga"??? I felt like I was being tortured doing this workout. If anyone thinks I should give it another try let me know...



So the following night I opened the other DVD. This one was Crunch Pick Your Spot Pilates which has 3 targeted 10 minute workouts for your belly, butt & thighs. This one worked out much better for me. I would do this one again. Maybe if I do this one enough I would be able to ease into the yoga but why bother if I don't enjoy it. If you don't like your workout you are less likely to do it. So I am thinking maybe I should list that yoga DVD on eBay...

I had some vacation time in June. I bought some 5 pound dumbbells. I had been using 3 pound dumbbells because that was all I had but they were too light. I also went shopping for some new summer pants and shorts since I was swimming in my old ones. I had lost almost 18 pounds total so I think I deserved some new clothes.

I found a pretty good book to read in June. The Belly Fat Cure by Jorge Cruise. It made me sit down and count all of the hidden sugar in my foods. I don't know if I will ever be able to eat such a low amount of sugars as recommended in this book but I do think twice now before eating it. There are recipes in this book too. It was definitely an interesting book. I like to pick up a tip from this book and a tip from that book. I use the tips to customize my eating plan to suit my needs since there is always something that just does not work for me in each book. For example, I don't like mushrooms. Many of the recipes include mushrooms so I just leave them out and sometimes replace them with something I do like.

I am going to try to get the July post up a little quicker than I got this one up...sorry for the delay:)

April 2010: Down 5.8 pounds without counting calories!!!

As I sit here tonight all sweaty from my Total Body Sculpt with Gilad workout, I will look back at the month of April. On April 1st I had my second monthly weigh in. I was 133.8 pounds- down 5.8 pounds!! This was the highest monthly loss so far based on my starting weight since my entire weight loss from December 14 2009 until March 1st 2010 was only 5.9 pounds. None of my monthly weigh ins since this one have been this much weight either. I was still working out almost daily with Gilad and by now I believe I had removed all of the high fructose corn syrup food items in my cabinet and hiding in the fridge (with the exception of Brian's stash). In late April I came down with a cold and missed about a week of workouts.

For those of you who think 5.8 pounds is not a lot to lose in a month remember I was NOT counting calories at all. I ate when I wanted to but did not eat junk. Some of my favorite snacks are nuts (almonds, walnuts, cashews, brazil nuts) and dark chocolate (Ghirardelli Intense Dark 72% or 86% cacao). Another favorite is Kashi TLC Peanut Peanut Butter Chewy Granola Bars.


Do you enjoy documentaries? One I really liked that I watched a long time ago was Super Size Me. That is the one where the guy eats McDonald's for a whole month- GROSS!

Another one I watched that I found very educational was Food, Inc. and I think everyone needs to see this one. After watching it I did not eat chicken for a while and I am sure I would have done the same with beef but I really don't eat much of that anyway. Anyone who wants an inside look at the food industry should see this one.


If you have about an hour and 50 minutes available I recommend you watch The World According To Monsanto. Click on the link and you can watch it online for free. After watching this I have tried to not eat a lot of soybean/soy products because I do not want to eat genetically engineered food.

Another one I recommend is Sugar: The Bitter Truth. This one is about an hour and a half long and you can watch it free by clicking on the link.
Did you watch Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution? If not there are clips of it on You Tube that are very interesting. Watch this clip about chicken nuggets. Jamie Oliver also did a show called Eat To Save Your Life that is worth watching. The link will take you to part one and there are 8 parts. I recommend you watch all 8 parts.

I hope I have given you enough homework to keep you entertained until my next post which will cover May.

March 2010: Thank You Gilad!

This blog post is all about March. March 1st is when I started doing monthly weigh ins. Back on December 14, 2009 at the doctor's office I weighed 145.5 pounds. My scale never weighed accurately so I got rid of it and got a new one. I started to notice my body changing and my weight dropping so I decided to start monthly weigh ins on the first of each month. I would weigh myself first thing in the morning before getting dressed. On March 1st I weighed in at 139.6 pounds. I had lost almost 6 pounds! This made me very happy. I was not counting calories or limiting how much healthy food I was eating. If I felt like eating I did but I ate healthy unprocessed food instead of junk.

I also continued my Total Body Sculpt with Gilad workouts. I was doing them 5-6 times a week. One thing I like about the Gilad workouts is that they have a variety of different exercises at different intensities. You may be going at a fast pace for a while and then you switch to something not as intense for a while which gives you time to recover so you can keep up with the workout. The first time I noticed my body changing was during the abdominal segment of the workout. When I was doing my crunches I could tell that my hips were not as wide as they were before- they had gotten smaller!! Seeing my body slowly change was all of the encouragement I needed. My clothes were getting looser. This was working! It felt good to see results.

OMG! I think I just thought of the perfect name for the blog. I can't call it "My soon to be named bloggy thingy" forever you know...

Ok- it's official! I just changed the name to "My Journey to Achieve Optimal Weight & Health" since that pretty much sums up what I am writing about here.


Now back to March. I read a very interesting book about hormones with some awesome dietary advice in it. It was Master Your Metabolism by Jillian Michaels. This book explains the impact hormones have on your metabolism and how your diet affects your hormones. It also has meal plans and recipes included. This book will make you think twice about what you are putting in your mouth.

My metabolism appeared to be working again. I am not sure if I should credit the Gilad workouts or the foods I was eating. I think it really was a combination of both. The results made me want to continue on this new road I was on and I was enjoying all of the new foods I was eating.

At this point I had very little interest in foods containing high fructose corn syrup. You could sit there with a bag of Oreos or Chips Ahoy cookies and it did not bother me. Once you stop eating crap you lose interest in it since the real whole foods actually taste better. There are Oreo Cakesters on the counter right now and I read the label and saw the high fructose corn syrup and for some reason they no longer seem appetizing to me. I think I have reprogrammed my brain somehow to reject all foods with high fructose corn syrup in them. I am ok with that. My next post will cover April.

February 2010: Learning more with Podcasts & Books

Let me start by saying I LOVE my iPod nano! I use my iPod while I am at my desk working and it really helps make the day go faster. If you don't have one you should get one.

Don't ask me how to work one of these new ones though since mine is a 3rd generation nano but it still works GREAT and I am not the type of person who has to have the "latest" technology. After all, my cell phone is a pre-paid cell phone that does not even have a camera.

I subscribe to a lot of podcasts though iTunes and enjoy listening to them while I am at work. I frequently jot down notes as I listen to them. I have a pile of paper scraps with notes on them that I am trying to add to a word document I made with all of my podcast notes. If you do have an iPod and want to listen to some of these podcasts (all are free)here are the health & fitness related ones that I listen to regularly:

1. Beyond Diet Podcast
2. BTR: Underground Wellness / Blog Talk Radio
3. Build A Sexy Body
4. Dishing Up Nutrition
5. Fat 2 Fit Radio
6. Healthy Mind - Fit Body (these guys are very into Paleo diets)
7. Logical Weight Loss
8. NPR: Your Health Podcast
9. Two Fit Chicks and a Microphone


In an effort to get as much information as possible I also read a bunch of diet and health books. Some were very informative, some were boring, and some totally sucked. The first book that stood out to me was The South Beach Diet Supercharged by Arthur Agatston, MD, with Joseph Signorile, PhD. This book teaches you how to make better food choices and appears to be a nutritionally sound diet consisting of a wide variety of wholesome foods. I used it as a nutritional guide only. I did not do any of the phases since my intention was not to be "on a diet" but to change my eating habits. The book includes nutritional guidance, workouts, and recipes. This is the book where I found my recipe for "Chock-Full-of-Veggies Chili" which I make frequently. I made a batch of it last night and am taking it with me to work this week to eat for lunch. I serve it over quinoa- very YUMMY! I do slightly alter the recipe since I do not eat mushrooms- ick!

I will try to review more books with each post since I have read so many of them. So let's look back to February. I continued adding more healthy foods to my diet and by then had finished off any of the highly processed foods that remained in the house. One thing I should note is that my husband Brian was not participating in my new healthy food diet so I had to give him his own cabinet and I had my own cabinet. So any processed foods that he liked ended up in his cabinet and I finished off the ones he did not like. The next thing I did was went through everything in the cabinets & refrigerator. I read all of the labels and got rid of everything that contained high fructose corn syrup, MSG & trans fats that I missed the first time I cleaned out the cabinets. It is amazing how much of that stuff is hiding in foods and condiments.

I continued my workouts with Gilad's Total Body Sculpt. I had recorded them on the DVR and I randomly picked one each day to work out. On February 16th I chose one that was called Total Body Sculpt PLUS, not realizing that those are one hour episodes. I did not figure it out at first and by the time I did I was already into the workout so I thought I would just keep going. That was really hard. The 30 minute episodes are actually about 22 minutes once you skip the commercials so I had only been working out 22 minutes a day. This was like doing two workouts in a row and it was a challenge but I did live to tell the story. If you want to watch a free preview (the frist 2 minutes) of one of his workouts you can click the link below.

I don't have a lot of notes about February. I was continuing my eating plan and my workouts. I feel the workouts were very important to help me build my muscles to increase my metabolism that had apparently slowed down over the years. I was not tracking my weight at this point. I did not start tracking my weight until March. More about that in my next post.