Thursday, March 24, 2016

continued... 7 pounds

I was sitting in my favorite lunch restaurant, munching on a cheeseburger and fries, my diet completely abandoned. I was almost done when my friend, Mary, passed by my table. I could have ignored her but I caught her attention. I wanted to say something to her. I did not much care what I said. I just wanted a 30-second chat. So I told her that I was craving chocolate and, in fact, I had been craving chocolate every day since I got home.

I was kind of expecting a typical response about emotional eating and how I must be stressed. After all, that is how I would have responded. But not Mary. Mary knows "stuff about stuff." (I know stuff about stuff, too. I just know stuff about different stuff than Mary knows.)

Mary said, "You need more Magnesium." We got into a nice discussion about candy cravings and Magnesium. We also talked about vitamin B. Both are good supplements to take. I then went out to
my local pharmacy and picked up a few bottles of pills -- Magnesium, vitamin B and vitamin E. My new pill-taking regimen began that very day. (Yes, I am now a pill popper... and a gummy eater. My vitamin B complex came in gummy form. Yum.)

I figured that while I was already taking pills, I might as well include some fiber capsules. I almost always have fiber pills in the house. Fiber is really good for your immune health. (Age-old "stuff about stuff" that I keep in my head.) Which, of course, meant that I would be drinking plenty of water.

Well, if I am going to be drinking a lot of water anyway, I might as well watch what I eat so I can lose these excess 7 pounds, I thought.

That is how I got sucked back into dieting. This time, though, I was not going to eat only raw vegetables. I decided to look up the paleo diet theory. I have to say it does kind of make sense. However, I really like cheese, I am not giving it up. Bread, okay. Cheese, no way. Not happening, bub. I am a cheese eater. So, with that exception, I began a paleo diet.

I started losing about half a pound every other day. I was very happy with the results, but I also wished I could lose a little more each day. Then I saw an online ad. Ugh. Online ads. I should really stop clicking the links and listening to them. This ad promised easy weight loss of about a pound a day by just making some simple dietary changes and adding specific herbs to your diet. Curious about the herb combination that would help me lose weight faster (I love herbs and grow the ones I use in my summer garden each year), I invested my money (via my credit card).

Bad idea. The "herb" combination was not herbs at all. Spirulina (a type of algae), wheatgrass (just like what it sounds) and cacao powder, NONE of which are herbs. Plus, YUCK! Nevertheless, I bought the eBook. Therefore I was going to try the combination. I did pretty well, I think. I bought the very expensive "herbs" at the health food store, then swallowed the resulting swill (pardon my language) for two days straight, morning and evening like the instructions said to do.

My results were that I stopped losing my every-other-day half pound and I began to itch uncontrollably. I stopped drinking the swill and my itching subsided. So I sent an email to the support desk. My "subscription" that I paid for came with support desk help. I told them the problem. They sent me back an email telling me to START drinking the liquid again and to start exercising.

Being stupid, I did what I was told. The itching came back and I think it might have been worse. I decided to look up allergies to wheatgrass and spirulina. (I am NOT allergic to chocolate!) Lo and behold! Wheatgrass is a possible allergen. One of the symptoms of a wheatgrass allergy is itching. Another, more severe reaction is respiratory distress. I am not interested in being unable to breathe. I stopped taking the wheatgrass/spirulina mixture. I feel much better now but my weight loss did not resume.

Fortunately, that part happened pretty quickly and I had messaged more than once with the help desk. Just before I learned about the wheatgrass allergy, they messaged me to try drinking some apple cider vinegar in water for a few days. This I know to be a legitimate trick to lose weight. So I started doing that and my weight loss began again. It was still slow, but at least I was losing. In fact, after two straight months of dieting, I have finally lost all 7 pounds I put on during my 3 week vacation.

(7 pounds divided by 8 weeks is just under 1 pound per week.)

Am I going to stop the diet? I don't think so. I have put on quite a few pounds since I was 30 and I would like to lose them. My intention is to keep going for another week. That is when I go down to visit my parents and I know my mom wants me to help her eat some lasagna, so I will break my diet for a couple of days. Then, when I come home, I hope I will have the will power to go back on it again.

What have I been doing? It is actually pretty simple. I cut all wheat products and most grains out of my diet. Also, if I eat breakfast, I eat just fruit, no meat or eggs. At dinner, I make sure to eat a salad with my meal (vinaigrette salad dressing). Most important, though, is I cut all soft drinks out of my diet and I drink plenty of water.

7 pounds is all I have lost this far (and it was NOT all "water weight," thank you very much). But 7 pounds has already helped my face lose some pudginess AND my weight now ends in a "9," which makes me feel like I have lost 10 pounds because the digit in the tens place is 1 lower than it was when I got home from vacation.

Yay, me! I am doing it and I am just so pleased that I have lasted on my diet for this long.

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