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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Day 69, Feast Day #36
Nine days and no progress on the the scale. I was expecting another plateau, but that doesn't make it any less irritating. The good news is that despite breaking my fast with half of a frozen pizza, I did not gain anything back. Zach had a rough day at work and was feeling mopey and tired, so I picked up a frozen pizza to cheer him up, along with some necessary supplies for when my mother comes to stay at our apartment for the next few days (aka a large bottle of white wine and whole milk for her coffee). I know it is not good to emotionally eat or encourage that type of eating, but in my defense Zach was hungry, we had a lot of chores to do to prepare for my mom's arrival, and it did cheer him up a lot more than some Swiss chard would have.
I may end up with an extra feast day or two this weekend with my mom being in town for my brother's college graduation. We'll see how things go. She normally only eats one meal a day (dinner) aside from coffee and likes to take an hour long walk daily, so maybe I will just roll with her one meal schedule and try to walk with her after Friday. I guess my mom is an intermittent faster already. I used to be unable to understand how she could go so many hours without eating. Now I understand that the body adapts to a one meal schedule like anything else.
I am a big fan of National Public Radio and pretty much all public media operations. While I am off doing family stuff for the weekend, I recommend reading this interesting NPR article that was posted today on how anthropological research is pointing toward diet as the source of obesity, not lack of exercise. Exercise is still good for you, so don't think this justifies being a coach potato.
Day 67, Feast Day #35
I have been struggling to eat a decent amount of iron lately without eating a good hunk of beef or a bowl of steamed clams it seems like. Due to the constraints of my time and my income, I can't be eating steaks or mollusks weekly. It also appears that Zach and I didn't buy enough iron-rich veggies this week.So I whipped together a more primal version of a classic potluck dish, a marinated three-bean salad, in hopes of getting a little more protein in my diet on the cheap. I substituted refined sugar for honey and avocado oil for vegetable oil Canned beans are not an ideal food for both primal (stricter people do not condone eating legumes) and non-primal reasons (the can), however, they are cheap. Zach's got to finish his doctorate degree before my pantry lacks cans of beans in it.
Note: Avocado oil is not cheap normally, but remember, I basically got this avocado oil for free. O
live oil is a cheaper substitute that you are more likely to have on hand. Also, I don't consider myself a 100% primal eater, I just have aspirations to transition to a more primal diet.
Marinated bean salad preferences are very prone to individual tastes (like meatloaf, barbecue sauce, and grits recipes). So feel free to adjust the salt, vinegar, and honey to whatever combo of sweet, sour, and savory floats your boat. Add in bell peppers or celery. Go crazy.
Honey Bean Salad (Yields 6 servings) ~153 kcal/serving
Takes 5 minutes
*BONUS* Cost me 50 cents a serving
- 1 can of beans, drained and rinsed (I used light red kidneys) ~385 kcal
- 1 can of green beans, drained and rinsed ~70 kcal
- 1 can of wax beans (sometimes called butter beans), drained and rinsed ~70 kcal
- 1/4 of a large onion, chopped (I used a yellow one) ~15 kca
- 1/2 cup of vinegar (I used white, white wine or red wine would also work well) ~11 kcal
- 2 tbsp of honey ~120 kcal (if you aren't a big vinegar fan, you can go with even more honey, or less if you want a more sour marinade)
- 2 tbsp of avocado oil ~240 kcal (olive oil would work too)
- 1/4 tsp of celery seed ~2 kcal
- 1/4 tsp dried thyme ~1 kcal
- kosher salt to taste, I used a bit less than a tsp
- black pepper to taste (I used 1/4 tsp at about ~2 kcal)
Mix up the vinegar, honey, oil, celery seed, thyme, salt, and pepper in a large bowl, creating the marinade.
Plop the beans and onion into the marinade. Mix. You can eat it immediately or chill in the fridge until your potluck or picnic.
Day 63, Feast Day #33
Stepping up my self-control on my feast days lowered my average calorie count these past couple of weeks. Sure I had a deep-fried bacon-wrapped hot dog and a few beers the other day. The point is that I compensated by eating healthier other days. My overall average feast day calories is down, despite this week being a 4:3 (feast day to fast day ratio). I ended up losing a single pound over the past seven days, so I am still at a total of 19 lbs lost in 9 weeks (averaging a 2.1 lb loss per week). For the rest of the world smart enough to use the metric system, that is 8.6 kg total loss or nearly a kilogram loss a week. Americans are silly and I regularly have to look up conversions to cook in my native "customary" units of measurement.
Calories
Week 1: 1,437 kcal or 76% of baseline calories
Week 2: 1,938 kcal or 102% of baseline calories
Week 3: 1,680 kcal or 89% of baseline calories
Week 4: 2,196 kcal or 116% of baseline calories
Week 5: 1,829 kcal or 96% of baseline calories
Week 6: 1,531 kcal or 81% of baseline calories
Week 7: 1,954 kcal or 103% of baseline calories
Week 8: 1,196 kcal or 63% of baseline calories
Week 9: 1,638 kcal or 86% of baseline calories
While ADFing: 1,711 kcal or 90% of baseline calories
Baseline Days: 1,896 kcal
All Feast Days: 2,839 kcal or 150% of baseline calories
All Fast Days*: 470 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
*Includes faux-fast day that was my mama's birthday dinner.
There wasn't anything particularly interesting about my nutrient intake this week other than that I was missing over a third of my recommended iron intake despite eating plenty of protein. Whoops. This might also be because I didn't eat any of my usual iron-fortified cereals this week, since I am trying to cut down on my processed grains. My total carbohydrate intake was also the lowest it has been on on a 4:3 week as well, so that seemed to be a trade-off that happened.
One of the best sources of iron is organ meat, but the texture of organ meats isn't something I enjoy though. Zach and I are planning to buy most of our food from local markets, so maybe I can get some sort of mollusk to eat this week, since those also have a lot of iron, along with a bunch of dark greens. It doesn't make any sense to live in Seattle and not make some sort of effort to eat good, fresh seafood... unless you have allergies to that sort of thing.
