Week 10 Summary

Day 72, Fast Day #34

My mother left Seattle yesterday and I ended up making her 3-day stay a 3-day feast for myself. I did stick to a 16/8 fast on Thursday, but that was really my only restriction. Within those three feast days, there was seafood, buttery movie theater popcorn, corn pudding, a cheeseburger, fried brie, and lots of wine. This weekend reminded me that lactose is not my friend, ugh. After all of the dairy and other food debauchery, I am glad it is a fast day.

I somehow managed not to gain any weight and even lost a pound over the weekend, which puts me at a total of 20 lbs lost in 10 weeks. That is right at 2 lbs (0.9 kg)of weight loss per week, which is what is generally expected while alternate day fasting. My weight loss seems to defy traditional logic since I was having extra feasts. But, I managed to not go completely carb crazy this week. I ingested and average of 150 grams of carbohydrates/day this week, while my baseline was 213 grams/day. Perhaps my continued transitioning to a lower carb diet has something to do with it, but I am not sure. 

I did eat 14% less calories than my baseline this week, despite the extra feasting, which is 1,813 less calories this week than prior to starting alternate day fasting. This is not the theoretic 3,500 calories/week reduction needed to lose a pound, mind you. Although, the 3,500 calorie "rule" is probably not a very good rule of thumb anyway because the energy deficit requirement to lose weight is probably dependent on body composition  I reduced my caloric intake by a total of 13,468 calories over the last 10 weeks, which by the 3,500 calorie rule would mean I would have only lost a bit less than 4 lbs overall, not the 20 lbs I have lost. How mysterious. 

Calories
Week 1: 1,437 kcal or 76% of baseline calories (-3,213 kcal/week)
Week 2: 1,938 kcal or 102% of baseline calories (+294 kcal/week)
Week 3: 1,680 kcal or 89% of baseline calories (-1,512 kcal/week)
Week 4: 2,196 kcal or 116% of baseline calories (+2,100 kcal/week)
Week 5: 1,829 kcal or 96% of baseline calories (-469 kcal/week)
Week 6: 1,531 kcal or 81% of baseline calories (-2,555 kcal/week)
Week 7: 1,954 kcal or 103% of baseline calories (+406 kcal/week)
Week 8: 1,196 kcal or 63% of baseline calories (-4,900 kcal/week)
Week 9: 1,638 kcal or 86% of baseline calories (-1,806 kcal/week)
Week 10: 1,637 kcal or 86% of baseline calories (-1,813 kcal/week)

While ADFing: 1,704 kcal or 90% of baseline calories
Baseline Days: 1,896 kcal

All Feast Days: 2,802 kcal or 148% of baseline calories
All Fast Days*: 472 kcal or 25% of baseline calories

For reference
Week 1: 3 feast days, 4 fast days
Week 2: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
Week 3: 4 feast days, 3 fast days*
Week 4: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
Week 5: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
Week 6: 3 feast days, 4 fast days
Week 7: 4 feast days, 3 fast days, 
Week 8: 3 feast days, 4 fast days
Week 9: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
Week 10: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
*Includes faux-fast day that was my mama's birthday dinner.

I watched a few health and weight loss talks and documentaries this week. I think the one that was most intriguing to me was Wheat: The UNhealthy Whole Grain by Dr. William Davis, the author of Wheat Belly. I haven't looked into the papers and whatnot that Dr. Davis cites, but I know I do not feel great after I eat refined grains. I also have looked at the research papers showing the high glycemic response in those foods, so I figured they aren't healthy anyway. Zach just ordered me Wheat Belly on Amazon, so I am interested to read what he has to say on why we shouldn't be eating wheat. I would like to experiment at some point with cutting wheat from my diet entirely and seeing how I feel. 

I didn't eat any wheat products on today's fast day. I made some Paleo egg and ham cups instead. Yum. I rarely eat wheat on fast days anyway because of the calorie-load plus I never feel full from breads and what not.

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Fast(ing) Food - Mushroom Mini-Quiches and an Easy Veggie Side

Day 20, Feast Day #11 - Triple Feast

After my double feast day birthday I was not looking forward to getting on the scale. However, I managed to not gain anything and am still at 10 lbs lost. Another birthday present? Perhaps it was a gift from the Wizard of Oz.

Eating "reasonably" today just didn't work out. I managed to skip breakfast and not eat for 16 hours, as I had hoped to. This means I had at least a 16/8 type intermittent fasting schedule. But from there it was all downhill on Calorie Mountain. 

There was a box of strawberry cream Pocky biscuit treats on my desk this morning. That was my late breakfast at 11:30 am. Then on this rare warm and sunny late April day in Seattle, our office went on the building rooftop and had a barbecue to celebrate the April birthdays in the office. There was hot dogs, pasta salad, corn chips, rhubarb custard pie, and beer. Lots of calories.

Tomorrow I fast. I need to get back on track. I made a yummy lunch to motivate me. Zach and I like to do weekly food themes so we don't waste as much food and need to buy less in general. You may have guessed it is Mushroom Week:

Mushroom Mini-Quiches (Yields 12 pieces) ~98 kcal/piece
Takes 45-55 minutes

• 6 large eggs ~420 kcal
• 1/4 cup skim milk ~21 kcal
• 6 low fat butter crackers (I used Ritz Reduced Fat crackers) ~84 kcal
• 1 cup of shredded cheese (I used Parmesan since I had it on hand, I would recommend medium cheddar or mozzarella though) ~431 kcal for Parmesan
• 1/3 cup buttermilk pancake milk ~160 kcal
• 1/2 cup spinach ~3 kcal
• 1 small onion, diced ~15 kcal
• 4 medium to large mushrooms, diced (I used crimini mushrooms) ~18 kcal
• 1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped ~1 kcal
• Salt to taste
• Pepper to taste
• Cooking spray ~23 kcal

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease muffin pan.

Crush crackers (I usually just put them in a plastic bag and smash them a few times). Add 1/4 cup of cheese to the crumbs. Sprinkle crumb/cheese mixture into the bottom of the muffin tin cups. Pat down crumb/cheese mix.

Lightly spray a frying pan or skillet and heat up to medium. Throw onions and mushrooms in the pan and cook until tender (onions become translucent). Set aside.

In a medium to large bowl, beat eggs. Add milk, pancake mix, remaining cheese, spinach, parsley, salt, pepper, and the cooked onions and mushrooms. Mix.

Pour mixture evenly into muffin pan. There should be about a 1/4 to 1/3 inch of space left in the tin for the quiche to expand.

Pop the muffin tray in the oven for 25-30 minutes (until tops start turning a golden brown). Take mini-quiches out and let cool for 10 minutes. then pop them out with a knife. I also garnished with a little sprinkle of paprika.

A Quick, Easy Veggie Side Dish (Yields 4 servings) ~97 kcal/serving
Takes 15 minutes

• 1 medium onion, sliced ~46 kcal
• 2 carrots, sliced or cut into sticks (I leave the skin on) ~50 kcal
• 5 medium mushrooms, sliced (I used crimini) ~15 kcal
• 1 can of green beans, rinsed and drained ~70 kcal
• 1 tsp of minced garlic
• 2 tbsp butter (I use unsalted) ~204 kcal
• oregano or italian seasoning
• salt to taste
• pepper to taste

Melt butter in a large frying pan or skillet. Throw in onions, carrots, and mushrooms into the pan. Cook until onions and carrots are tender.

Throw in minced garlic and green beans. Turn heat to medium-low and cook another couple of minutes until green beans are hot. Sprinkle on oregano, salt, and pepper. Eat.

Calories: The Birthday Gift to Myself

Day 19, Feast Day #10 - Double Feast

I weighed in yesterday and had lost another pound, so a total of 10 lbs lost. I expect to reverse some if not most of the weight loss progress this week. There is a lot of social eating and drinking in my near future.

Today is my birthday and Zach and I are going out to eat at Poppy and then to see Oz the Great and Powerful in 3-D, since the original movie The Wizard of Oz is one of my favorites. Who doesn't love James Franco? I figure Poppy isn't super unhealthy cuisine, so maybe I can eat somewhat responsibly tonight?

What was on my desk this morning.

On top of giving myself extra calories for my birthday (aside from the shoes, red leather bag, and clothes I just ordered...), my co-workers were thoughtful and planned birthday treats for tomorrow, since it is normally my fast day today and they were working around my weird eating schedule. They must think I have more willpower than I actually possess if they think I am going to fast on my birthday and forego an excuse to indulge on cocktails and a nice dinner. This means, 500 calories is also extremely likely to be breached tomorrow due to birthday treats. I would be happy if I could keep things below 1,200 tomorrow like I did on Saturday... but we will see about that. This all depends on the decadence of the treats.

Then an additional feast day is happening again on Saturday, since we are doing a birthday happy hour because getting together during the workweek is a pain, especially since some of my friends live in the suburbs. With 500 calories being a decent sized margarita, I am kind of doomed this week.

I suppose I can just try to skip breakfast and at least follow an intermittent fasting schedule (16/8) by trying to not eat for 16 hours at a time, then not eat after an 8-hour period. Perhaps that will help some.

Sunday is going to be a brutal fast day.