Week 13 Summary

Day 93, Feast Day #52

I have been very bad at actually alternate day fasting these past couple of weeks and have ended up just 5:2ing. Birthday parties and the bachelorette party last week have been followed by my own Independence Day party and spending an evening at the Seattle International Beer Festival. All of my feasting and ludicrous amounts of refined grains and alcohol has set me back 2 lbs total. My net weight loss is down to 19 lbs over 13 weeks. This is still 19 lbs I am proud to not be carrying anymore, but gaining back weight is still irritating, especially since it is directly related to my recent pleasure eating and drinking.

Another set back this week is being on a 10-day course of antibiotics. I am one of those people that can get really nauseous when taking oral antibiotics, and the doctor said I should take these ones with a meal, twice a day, to avoid stomach irritation. (The doctor also confirmed I likely have a celery allergy based on the mouth numbing I noticed previously). For days now, I have been eating regardless of actual hunger in the morning to make sure my medicine stays down. Ugh. Just yesterday, I had intended to do a fast day, but ended up doing a medium calorie day. The awkward 953 calories is far too high to be a fast day, but too low to be a normal day of eating.

Here are the numbers for the past week including two days of the bachelorette party and my July 4th party:

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)

Week 11: 1,681 kcal or 89% of baseline calories (-1,505 kcal/week)

Week 12*: 2,108 kcal or 111% of baseline calories (+1,484 kcal/week)

Week 13*: 2,649 kcal or 140% of baseline calories (+5,271 kcal/week)

While ADFing: 1,806 kcal or 95% of baseline calories

Baseline Days: 1,896 kcal

All Feast Days: 2,857 kcal or 151% of baseline calories

All Fast Days: 448 kcal or 24% 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, 1 medium day, 1 fast day (I re-categorized my "faux-fast" as a medium day)

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

Week 11: 4 feast days, 3 fast days

Week 12: 5 feast days, 2 fast days*

Week 13: 5 feast days, 2 fast days*

*Includes days during my bachelorette party weekend.

As you can see, my 13th week was a record-breaker in calorie consumption. I also broke records in average carbohydrate consumption (224 grams/day) and sugar consumption (85 grams/day). It's no wonder I feel so gross in the aftermath of all this. My insides are probably coated in molasses and all of the good bacteria that were once living happily in my body are now dead. 

I have been partying in a land of carbs.

Check out the cool food landscapes by Carl Warner.

I will attempt to fast again tomorrow and just eat something light in the morning while avoiding my normal morning coffee (which can upset my stomach). Hopefully I don't end up going overboard when the need for my second meal kicks in. Eating two tiny meals is far more difficult for me than eating one filling meal. Getting back on the wagon is tough!

Week 12 Summary

Day 87, Fast Day #39

I survived my bachelorette party weekend intact and had a crazy amount of fun with some of the amazing women in my life. The weekend included what most women dream of for their hen weekend: time at the beach, a hot tub, rich food, lots of booze, and a crew of buff firemen (no not strippers, real ones). I would have thought it was all some amazing dream if I didn't have so many other witnesses to verify it all actually happened!

More proof that my amazing weekend was real is the 2 lbs I gained over the 2.5 days of fun. Don't act like you're not impressed. This is not really surprising given that I ate and drank like Monday was the second coming of Christ. From my best attempt at recollecting what I consumed, I estimated just shy of 12,000 calories over the whole weekend. Again, there are parts of my trip that are quite fuzzy, so this is a conservative estimate. 

Here is a look at the progress and numbers after 3 months of alternate day fasting:

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)
Week 11: 1,681 kcal or 89% of baseline calories (-1,505 kcal/week)
Week 12*: 2,108 kcal or 111% of baseline calories (+1,484 kcal/week)

While ADFing: 1,735 kcal or 92% of baseline calories
Baseline Days: 1,896 kcal

All Feast Days: 2,786 kcal or 147% of baseline calories
All Fast Days**: 463 kcal or 24% 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
Week 11: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
Week 12: 5 feast days, 2 fast days
*Includes days during my bachelorette party weekend.
**Includes faux-fast day that was my mama's birthday dinner.

This past week's weight gain was due to an increased number of calories from alcohol, carbs (probably a half-sheet of Hawaiian bread rolls are included in this) and a lot more fat (84 grams/day versus my overall average of 58 grams/day). I also only fasted the two days because I cheated so much. I certainly enjoyed myself and all that champagne, and this week's numbers I suspect will be as bad or worse given two of this past weekend's calorie estimates land in Week 13 as well as my Independence Day party, which will involve a lot of day and evening drinking and eating.

Today I punished myself a bit with an all liquid fast. Despite my non-belief in overpriced juicing detox gimmicks, the thought of eating solids foods seemed unappealing since I was experiencing a delayed onset hangover, accompanied by soreness and a sunburn, Plus it was a record-breaking high today in Seattle, so I was getting dehydrated and staying sore. Thanks global warming! Or not. What I drank today was a low calorie and a higher calorie green juice, some multi-green kombucha which looked like I was drinking pond water due to the algae content (and didn't taste much different than pond scum), coffee, tea, and a multi-vitamin. I needed a high nutrient, low calorie day.

I am going to attempt to get more than 4-5 hours of sleep tonight. I always find it difficult to sleep when it is so hot in our little apartment that lacks air conditioning. Sigh.

ADF Side Effect - Smaller Feet

Day 83, Fast Day #38

I completely forgot about the Mexican-themed lunch for a co-worker's birthday yesterday, so I officially failed at making this a 4:3 week. So now it is only going to be a 5:2. Womp womp. I guess I am also trying one week of the 5:2 diet. 

Oh well. I weighed in this morning and am down another pound. This makes for a total of 22 lbs lost in about 12 weeks without any changes in my physical activity. My weight loss is now averaging less than 2 lbs/week. Mind you, I have been throwing in extra feast days with all of the social events lately, so this isn't surprising. Lots of booze calories are on the books this week.

One weird weight loss-related change I noticed is that my feet are about a half-size smaller. I am not tracking shoe size as a weight loss measurement, but I tried on the shoes I bought for my wedding the other day and they are too big now in both width and length. This is a bit irritating because the shoes are well beyond the store return policy. So I guess if there is someone that wants brand new 7 1/2 W ivory heels, I would barter with you. I ordered a different pair of heels a half size down today, so hopefully those work out.

Back on the subject of shrinking feet, while I have seen this topic discussed by other women in online weight loss forums, I haven't found much research done on this topic. I can't think why anyone would fund such a study, so I'm not too surprised. Feet are boney, but they still contain fat tissue. So it seems logical that the 22 lbs of weight I lost could have been partially distributed in my feet. Those extra 22 lbs were also putting more pressure on my feet, which can could have created swelling. In fact, as obesity has risen, so have doctor visits for foot and ankle pain. I guess a tip I would have for future brides in light of my shrinking feet would be that if you plan on losing weight before your big day, to hold off on buying shoes until you need them for your dress fitting.

Today's fast is going well. I am at about 411 calories for the day, so I have a little bit of an allowance for a dinner-time snack. So far I've consumed a cup of black coffee, salt & pepper pistachios, a trail mix made with sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, almonds, dried papaya, dried cranberries, and dried apple bits (yum), some fresh cherries, a multi-vitamin, and some guava kombucha. I am going all vegetarian today because I feel like I really need to clean up my gut after the last two days of feasting. 

The margin of error for tracking calories, much less remembering food and beverages, might be high this weekend in light of my bachelorette party. On that note, I will post my 12th week summary a bit later than usual (Monday or Tuesday) because I will be busy being a woo girl this weekend with some of my favorite gal pals:

WOOOOOOO!!!!!