Big Fat Skinny Girl

I'm not quite done with the Primal Blueprint, but from what I've read so far I feel like I'm doing it pretty spot on.

I currently don't eat any grains, and all the fruits, veggies and meats that I eat fall into the acceptable column - especially since I've stopped eating processed meats. In terms of dairy, I was under the impression that it was completely off the list but he recommends limited quantities with yogurt and aged cheeses being preferred. Which is exactly what I eat!

I counted all my carbs for the past few days and I fall into the weight loss sweet spot, with my ratios of fat-protein-carbs also in the right zone.

For Primal Exercise he recommends that each week you do 2 - 3 hours of slow steady cardio (my soccer games), a few short sessions of high intensity strength training (my crossfit) and a sprint every once in awhile (definitely included in soccer).

Can someone tell me why I haven't been losing weight?

I'm really tired today, and still quite swollen so I think that's making me grumpy. Hopefully I'll feel better after some good exercise tonight!

Today's Breakdown

Current Weight: 116.8 (Still swollen though, so it doesn't really count).
Goal Weight: 105

Food

Breakfast: Greek Yogurt + Apple + Lots of Cinnamon
Lunch: Protein Bar :(
Dinner: Chicken Breast + Salad with Tomatos, Broccoli, Carrots, Cheese
Snacks: TBD
Water: 2 bottles
Soda: None!

Exercise

Soccer (50 Minutes)

Last night I went out for dinner with a friend and she wanted Mexican. We went to one of my favorite spots and I got my favorite dish...only to find it really wasn't that great anymore. Normally when we go out for Mexican the hubby and I will eat through two baskets of chips and salsa, but last night I just wasn't into it. Then because I wasn't feeling full when I got home I had to sugar free ice cream bars. Today I feel sluggish and tired. It could be my body is still recovering from the surgery but I think it's more likely my body is trying to tell me it's happier without grainy carbs.

Yesterday was my lipo appointment. My husband dropped me off at 7am and picked me up around 2. I'd say it was a long day but I was pretty drugged up and didn't mind lying half sleep on the table.

To be totally honest, I was kind of dreading going in yesterday. In fact, I almost delayed the procedure until the fall at the last minute. Although I'm really happy with the results of my stomach surgery two months ago, I just wasn't looking forward to facing two weeks of swelling and soreness.

But now, 24 hours after surgery - I'm so glad I got it done. I drained a lot more this time, which was kind of gross this morning when I took off all the padding. But even swollen - I love my new shape. My love handles are gone, my thighs are thinner and I have to say, I have a cute butt. I can't wait to see what things will look like when the swelling goes down as I start to heal. I also feel like the holes are much less noticeable this time.

Most surprisingly, I am not sore. Not at all. After my stomach surgery I couldn't lay on my stomach for at least 3 or 4 days. And if someone had pressed on my abs I probably would have screamed. But I was tossing and turning last night with no problem. If it wasn't for all the pads I have to wear while I finish draining, I might consider going to Crossfit tonight. No Joke.

Before surgery I weighed in at 115.4. That's probably the last time I'll weigh myself for at least the next week. I don't expect to lose any weight from the lipo - since its more about shaping, but the scale will be off because of all the swelling. Once I feel like the swelling has gone down enough I'll establish a new base and goal weight.

Today's Breakdown

Current Weight: 115.4
Goal Weight: 105

Food

Breakfast: Greek Yogurt + Apple + Lots of Cinnamon
Lunch: None
Dinner: Green Enchiladas at Cactus + Chips and Salsa
Snacks: 2 Sugar Free Ice Cream Bars
Water: 2 bottles
Soda: 1 Diet Coke

Exercise

On hold until probably Sunday.

Tomorrow I head in at 7am for lipo on my inner and outer thighs and hips. I'm not particularly nervous, since I've done it before and it was a breeze. For anyone considering laser lipo to take care of that stubborn pocket of fat, I highly recommend it.

Last time I had the procedure done on my abs and waist on a Thursday and was back playing soccer on Monday. I think this time might be a little slower recovery since I use my thighs a lot more than my abs, but I hope to be back at Crossfit and soccer by the middle of next week.

The procedure itself takes about 4 hours (depending on how much they take out). You come home swollen and a little bruised with a series of small punctures. For my stomach it was about 15 small holes that will fade over time. It's been about 2 months now and they are just starting to fade, but I'm a slow healer.

I will definitely be posting pictures on my progress over time.

I counted all the calories I ate yesterday and decided to include my normal amount of cheese and dark chocolate to see where that landed me. The breakdown was:

Calories: 1256
Fat: 45.9%
Protein: 22.8%
Carbs: 31.2%

Just cutting the chocolate would have put me at 936 calories, with ratios of 40.4% / 29.4% / 30.2%. I have no idea if that's good or bad, but I intend to find out when I start reading my new books. They arrive today.

Today's Breakdown

Current Weight: 116.4
Goal Weight: 105

Food

Breakfast: Greek Yogurt + Apple + Lots of Cinnamon
Lunch: Chicken Chieu at Wild Ginger + Atkins Bar
Dinner: Chicken Breast + Salad with Tomatos, Broccoli, Carrots, Cheese
Snacks: TBD
Water: 4 bottles
Soda: None!

Exercise

Hot Yoga

Today is another extremely frustrating day. The scale remains stuck and my skinny jeans remain in the closet because they won't fit over my fat thighs. Normally when I gain weight, I first gain it in my face and boobs and then waist and thighs. This time it skipped the face and boobs step, which makes me think that I really am gaining muscle. Too bad it's under my fat and pushing it outward.

I also cheated yesterday on my brand new resolution and ate cheese with dinner. It was because the pork tenderloin I made was gross and I was starving from soccer so no amount of salad was going to fill me up. I'm going to stop at Met Market today after Crossfit and get some chicken breast so that hopefully I can climb back on the wagon.

I'm also going to count calories this week to see if I'm somehow secretly consuming way more than I think I am. It should also give me a good breakdown of carbs / protein / fat. With that I should have enough info to make some better decisions once I'm done reading The Primal Blueprint

If anyone out there is counting calories, I highly recommend the Lose It! application on the iPhone. It's even free!

Today's Breakdown

Current Weight: 117.1
Goal Weight: 105

Food

Breakfast: Greek Yogurt + Apple + Lots of Cinnamon
Lunch: Atkins Bar + Salad (No Cheese)
Dinner: Chicken Breast + Salad with Tomatos, Broccoli, Carrots, Cheese
Snacks: 2/3 Dark Chocolate Bar
Water: 4 bottles
Soda: None!

Exercise

Crossfit WOD: 4 Rounds - 15 Knees to Elbows, 60 Foot Bear Crawl, 15 Burpee Pullups, 60 Foot Crab Walk (Time: 11:16)

It's Monday, and that means it's time to re-evaluate my diet and make new commitments for the week. After spending the weekend thinking about it, and then having trouble squeezing into my skinny jeans this morning, I've decided to cut cheese and nuts for the next two weeks. I'll also be cutting dark chocolate to the bare minimum. (Come on sweet tooth - we can do this!) This means that the only fruit and dairy I will be eating is my morning yogurt with an apple.

Yesterday we had a BBQ to celebrate that spring has started. I'm really glad to see the sun starting to come out in rainy Seattle. The BBQ was delicious and I did an excellent job of resisting the call of the potato chips. My dinner was mostly carb free, except for some fruit, but I did promise myself I could have one piece of cake to celebrate my friends birthday and to reward myself for how strict I've been lately with diet and exercise.

We got mousse cakes from my favorite bakery. These mousse cakes are amazing - I normally eat two or three pieces and don't even feel guilty because they are so delicious. But yesterday I couldn't even finish one piece. They were too sweet! And this morning I woke up with a stomach ache. I guess my body is trying to tell me it likes this low-sugar diet and doesn't want me to go back.

After dinner last night we somehow ended up watching a marathon of the G4 show Ninja Warrior. Several of us in the room were crossfitters, and we promptly decided that we should form a team and go to Japan to compete. Our favorite event was the Salmon Ladder, which is really just a kipping pull-up on steroids. I wonder if we can get a setup in our gym...

Video Game - E3 2010

Today's Breakdown

Food
Breakfast: Greek Yogurt + Apple + Lots of Cinnamon
Lunch: Egg Omelet with Mushrooms, Tomatoes and Cheese + 3 Sausage Links
Dinner: Turkey Franks + Salad with Tomatos, Broccoli, Cheese
Snacks: 1/2 Dark Chocolate Bar
Water: 4 bottles
Soda: None!

Exercise
Hot Yoga

I updated my food intake from yesterday, which was a bad day. As I mentioned in yesterday's post when I get frustrated I tend to binge on carbs. At least this time I restrained myself to extra dark chocolate instead of a big bowl of ice cream. There will be no weight updates on the weekends because I don't get up at the same time of day and I don't feel it's as reliable.

Yesterday I decided to try posting my menu on low-carb friends to see if anyone could point out where I might be going wrong. I only really got one response, but it was a good one and it made me think. Thank you TaDa!, whoever you are, for reminding me that it's going to be extra hard to lose weight when starting from a lower bmi than from a higher one. I think I had lost track of that a bit and was beating myself up too much. She also suggested that I re-read one of the books and do a really strict jump start week to get my body moving. Also a good suggestion. I think I might read The Primal Blueprint. I've been meaning to for awhile anyway.

The other thing that TaDa! pointed on when I mentioned the fact that my real goal is to lose the weight hanging out around my middle, is that the only true method of targeted weight loss is lipo. Well prepare to be shocked - been there, done that, ready to do it again. Two months ago I had lipo on my stomach to get rid of this fat that just wouldn't budge. Most people are shocked and seem to disapprove when I tell them that (even though I know 90% of you ladies out there know deep down you've thought about it). Well I'm not ashamed. I did all the research on the procedure, found a doctor and then spent a full year doing a strict diet and exercise program to see if I could lose that fat on my own. I couldn't so I had it sucked out. My doctor says I shouldn't do a compare and contrast until 3 months out, so I will share the pictures next month, but so far I'm extremely pleased.

Next Thursday I go in to get my thighs done. And I can't wait.

Today's Breakdown

Food

Yesterday's weight loss was definitely related to sweating out a bunch of water weight at Yoga. It's back today plus 0.1 lbs. I'm also going to have to count yesterday as a rest day exercise-wise because my knee gave out during the crossfit running workout and I couldn't finish it.

Finally today I made some progress. I'm down 1.3 lbs. I think that's mostly water that I sweated out in Yoga last night, but I'll take what I can get.

I was talking to my friend Katie yesterday and I was telling her about my frustration with not being able to lose weight. Her comment to me was "How is that possible? You are allergic to all foods that are bad for you." And I realized she was pretty much right.

Right now I'm following a low-carb diet because of a few reasons. The first is that I read Good Calories, Bad Calories and it scared me to death (a topic for a post this weekend). The other two reasons are intertwined - it worked for me in the past and I have celiac disease so some carbs are already off limits.

My whole life I suffered from horrible migraines. I would get them 2 - 3 times a week. I was also always extremely tired and had a hard time concentrating on things. No doctor could figure out what was wrong with me, so they just started throwing drugs my way. Eventually I ended up on a cocktail of blood pressure meds, anti-depressants and triptans. The combination made me feel even worse and made me gain a ton of weight. Eventually I got fed up and quit the drugs (since they weren't helping my headaches anyways) and did a low-carb diet to lose the weight. Not only did I lose about 35 lbs but suddenly my headaches stopped and I had more energy. After 24 years of suffering, I was diagnosed with celiac disease.

At first celiac disease was a huge pain in the butt. I had to re-learn everything about eating. But now that I'm used to it I think I prefer it (other than cinnamon rolls - I miss those). Having to think about what I eat makes me choose better things. I now care about what's in my food.

I just wish this low-carb diet would work a second time!

Today's Breakdown

Goal Weight: 105 lbs.
Current Weight: 116.2 lbs

Food
Breakfast: Greek Yogurt + Apple + Lots of Cinnamon
Lunch: 2 Slices of Ham, 2 Slices of Cheese, 2 Pickle Slices
Dinner: 2 Turkey Franks + Salad w/ Spinach, Walnuts, Tomatos, Broccoli, Cheese
Snacks: 1/3 Dark Chocolate Bar + 5 Mauna Loas
Water: 3 bottles
Soda: None!

Exercise
Crossfit WOD: Intro to Running with Endurance Workout (Mega-Fail - will discuss tomorrow.)

I'm (optimistically) attributing today's pound to gaining muscle. I've been doing a lot of crossfit this week and I do feel stronger in the arms and thighs. Everyone tells me that gaining muscle is a good thing because muscle burns more calories and will eventually make you leaner. Unfortunately for me, this doesn't seem to be the case. When I gain muscle it just pushes my fat outward.

I try to mix up my exercise so that it's not all strength training. My current plan is to mix up crossfit, hot yoga, soccer and running to get the right balance of strength and cardio. That balance seems to be difficult to find, however.

Luckily for me I now have a workout partner. Meet Oscar. Oscar is a havanese dog with a slight weight problem. His doctor says he needs to shed a few pounds. This week we're going to start training for the Furry 5k by running two 5k's a week between now and the race.


Oscars's Breakdown

Goal Weight: 20 lbs.
Current Weight: 23.5 lbs

Food
Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner: Low Fat Dog Chow

Today's Breakdown

Goal Weight: 105 lbs.
Current Weight: 117.5 lbs

Food
Breakfast: None :(
Lunch: Farmer's Lunch at Purple (Apple, Walnut and Stilton Salad + Salami + Prosciutto + 2 type of Cheese)
Dinner: 2 Turkey Franks + Salad w/ Spinach, Walnuts, Tomatos, Broccoli, Cheese
Snacks: 1/3 Dark Chocolate Bar
Water: 3 bottles
Soda: None!

Exercise
Hot Yoga

I thought I was being good the last few days with my diet and exercise, but when I hopped on the scale this morning it was up 0.6 lbs. Let the frustration begin.

Hello, and welcome to my blog! The first post is always the hardest to write, isn't it? There are so many bases that need covering. But the best place to start seems to be with the title - Big Fat Skinny Girl. That's me. That's how I feel about myself.

A long, long time ago I weighed about 30 lbs more, which was a lot for my very small frame. Especially since it was all trapped right around my middle - stomach and thighs. I lost those 30 lbs doing a low carb diet, until one day when my weight loss just stopped. Unfortunately, that plateau was about 10 lbs higher than where I wanted it to be.

I've spent about 3 years obsessing over those evil 10 lbs, trying every combination of diet and exercise around. This blog is my attempt to chronicle some of those struggles - what works and what doesn't so that I can have a record of my progress and to maybe get/give advice from others battling the last weight loss hurdle.

Even though I know a lot of people would say I should just be happy with my figure and accept myself for where I am, I can't. I'm a perfectionist. And until those last 10 lbs are gone I will always consider myself a Big, Fat, Skinny Girl.


Today's Breakdown

Goal Weight: 105 lbs.
Current Weight: 115.9 lbs

Food
Breakfast: Greek Yogurt + Apple + Lots of Cinnamon
Lunch: A few slices of turkey lunch meat and a little bit of cheese
Dinner: 2 Turkey Franks + Salad w/ Spinach, Walnuts, Tomatos, Broccoli, Cheese
Snacks: 1/2 a Dark Chocolate Bar, 7 Mauna Loas
Water: 4 bottles
Soda: None!

Exercise
Crossfit WOD:
“TinkerBell” 3 Rounds 60 foot overhead walking lunge 45/25, 10 front squats 135/95, 200 meter waiters walk 53/35. Time: 17:56 (25/50/25)

Indoor Soccer (50 Minutes)