Day 21 - The Weekly Weigh In & Why More Measurements Are Good

This week was all messed up. It seemed to be our hardest.

Monday was my husband's birthday and though we celebrated it on Saturday, his dad and sister came down on Monday and that threw a small wrench in our eating plans. First, we thought they were coming early enough for all of us to go to lunch. We were dreaming of slabs of meat and veggies.

It turns out, they were arriving a few hours later than that. My husband decided a pizza was in order: the fastest thing we could get to arrive at our home as I didn't have lunch food for all four of us. Bad choice number 1.

Bad choice number 2 was going out, at my suggestion of course, to a cafe with a large selection of cakes. I had carrot cake cheese cake and a vanilla steamer. Then, at the meeting I went to in the evening, the hostess' chocolate almond clusters were sitting on a platter directly in front of me and I just stopped resisting at some point.

There was a lunch at McDonalds, a sub for dinner, far too many Diet Pepsis, pasta for dinner twice; it sounds like someone's Magic Day list!

I knew for certain that the measurements were not going to be kind to me.

Me:
Weight: 292.4lbs (292.2lbs, 290lbs)
BMI: 44.92 (44.86 (44.89)
R/B (right bicep): -- (16.5", 16.5", 17")
L/B (left bicep): -- (17", 16.5", 17")
R/T (right thigh): -- (31", 30.75", 32.25")
L/T (left thigh): -- (30.5', 30.25", 31")
H (hips): -- (56.25", 57", 56.5")
W (waist): -- (51",51", 50.5")
C (chest): -- (50", 50.75", 50")
Total inches: -- (252.25", 252.75", 254.25")

Husband
Weight: 257.6lbs (256.5lbs, 257.6lbs)
BMI: 32.44 (32.30, 32.44)
Total Inches: -- (226.75", 227", 227.5")

Look at that: I gained .2lbs. Wait a minute, Point Two? That's it?

Let's look at some more numbers.

As you can see from the chart, while I didn't actually lose all of my Magic Day weight, I DID go down despite cake and pasta and pizza and the rest. In fact, if you count from Monday morning's weight I have lost weight! And, if we look at the pre-Magic Day morning weigh-in of Day 14 on the 15th, I only gained .1lbs.

I drank yerba mate tea at least once every day except yesterday.

I ate a protein heavy breakfast - around 20 grams - every single morning in the form of scrambled eggs and 1/4 - 1/3 C of beans. Most days I had (mostly) 4HB compliant lunches in the form of salads with chickpeas and occasionally added protein (1/4 C leftover chicken, a tin of sardines...)  and a couple of 4HB compliant dinners.

Now, I could look at the overall numbers and see that I am not, in fact, going down in terms of weight. But, looking at more metrics reveals a truer story: for the times when I am 4HB compliant in my diet alone, the weight is coming down. And, I'm not hungry, I'm not feeling sick and I'm only feeling marginally deprived (I bought a truckload of liverwurst and some egg buns for the boys and it galled me to be unable to eat it!).

With time, that feeling of deprivation will go away. I am pretty sure that if I got off my arse and pre-made more bean dishes and plotted out the week's meals better, I'd have little to no trouble sticking to the plan.

I'm going to go and enjoy my Magic Day today. I already had my liverwurst and egg bun breakfast :)

Be sure to come back regularly or add 4HB Mom to your RSS feed. Coming up this week: how did I do on the week's goals? Recipes!  Food pics! More charts!

Day 14 - The Numbers and the Week in Review

Well, I'm about to have my second Magic Day, so that means it is measurement day. I already knew what the scales were going to say: weight gain. And that isn't my goal. So, without further ado, here are the numbers for this week:

Me:
Weight: 292.2lbs (290lbs)
BMI: 44.86 (44.89)
R/B (right bicep): 16.5" (16.5", 17")
L/B (left bicep): 17" (16.5", 17")
R/T (right thigh): 31" (30.75", 32.25")
L/T (left thigh): 30.5' (30.25", 31")
H (hips): 56.25" (57", 56.5")
W (waist): 51" (51", 50.5")
C (chest): 50" (50.75", 50")
Total inches: 252.25" (252.75", 254.25")

Husband
Weight: 256.5lbs (257.6lbs)
BMI: 32.30 (32.44)
Total Inches: 226.75" (227", 227.5")

I knew the numbers were going to come out like that for me. My face looked puffy all week, I ovulated, my breasts were fuller and more tender and my stretch marks itched yesterday. And none of my clothes felt any looser.

The great thing, though, is that there is next week.

So here is my post-mortem of the week.


The Good Stuff:

1. I felt less compulsion to snack between meals.
2. I rarely felt hungry between meals, but when I did, it felt OK to just ride that feeling for a little while until I got the chance to cook.
3. I switched from the Russian KB Swing to the American KB Swing. With the help of the following video, I really feel like I'm doing the swing correctly. I get the "violent hips" thing now.

The Bad Stuff :

1. On Tuesday I met my husband for a lunch out. We went to one of our fave places, Mex-I-Can, where we shared guacamole with home made tortilla chips and a chimichanga. Holy Mother of Glorious Food!  It tastes so good but it feature tortillas, rice and chips. Not great. 
2. On Wednesday, still suffering from sugar withdrawal blahs, I opted out of cooking and, pressed for time before having to teach a private group class, we went to Quiznos and got subs. I opted for the small and made sure there was lots of meat on it. But that bun wasn't good. 
3. I had a few too many diet Pepsis this week. I never drank more than 16oz a day, but I drank that almost every day. 
4. I spent a lot of time on the sofa with the laptop this week. I clearly need to get out more often.

The Goals:

1. Eat more protein.
1. Prep bean casseroles so that I can easily get in my protein requirements without added work.
2. Make tasty recipes so the chances of getting enough beans into me is better. 
2.  No cheats.
1. If eating out, choose options that don't include carbs.
3.  Start cold therapy.
1. For 20 minutes while reading each night, wear a chill pack on the traps.
4. Add Glut4 exercises in before meals.
1. I don't have a stretchy thing for the chest pulls so I'll just go for as many squats as I can and wall presses. 
5. Get yerba mate tea and alternate that and the pu-er tea with each meal. 
6. Build a tracking sheet in Google Docs to track results and what measures I've been taking. 
7. Do a daily weigh.
1. Hop on the Wii every morning before I start making breakfast so that seeing the results of what I am doing continues to inspire and point to adjustments that need to be made.

I'll be starting up with daily pics of food again this week. I should also have some recipes to share.

Day 7 - Measurements

Well, aside from a few glitches, I got through the week. It is the morning of my Magic Day and I'm waiting for my two pieces of toast! Toast! With cream cheese! I can hardly wait.

So, on to the measurements. (Last week in brackets)

Me:
Weight: 290lbs
BMI: 44.89
R/B (right bicep): 16.5" (17")
L/B (left bicep): 16.5" (17")
R/T (right thigh): 30.75" (32.25")
L/T (left thigh): 30.25" (31")
H (hips): 57" (56.5")
W (waist): 51" (50.5")
C (chest): 50.75" (50")
Total inches: 252.75" (254.25")

Husband
Weight: 257lbs
BMI: 32.44
Total Inches: 227" (227.5")

We realised that even tho we didn't have a traditional scale, we had a Wii Fit Plus system (that we never use). One of the features of that is to take weight measurements and track weight and BMI.

Now, in the 4-Hour Body book Ferriss points out how inaccurate a BMI is at telling you your actual body composition, but, like most measurements, when tracked as a constant, it can be an interesting way to see changes over time. Plus, the Wii Fit system uses it. So, we will, too. Neither my husband nor I are seeking go from geek to freak, so the BMI will be, perhaps, more accurate for us than it might be for others.

I have to catch up on the last couple of day's food logs. I've had to take my computer in for repair, so my posting may be a little spotty till it gets back.

And now, I'm off to enjoy my first Magic Day!

Day 1 - Getting Started

Today is my (and my husband's) official start day for our 4HB project. All week we have been experimenting with making slow/no carb meals and finding ourselves quite full. Any bad eating was really just a matter of habit or a desire to get rid of some of the sweets and treats we had lying around.

We got up really late this morning and dawdled a little, but before we got started we did our "Perfect Posterior" workout:

30 Glute Raises (I always called them pelvic presses) (GRs)
15 Flying Dogs per side (FDs)
30 Kettlebell Swings with 25lbs (KBSs)

Wow!  This was an incredibly effective workout. Effective being defined as "made me sore for hours and hours afterward". I almost couldn't do the 30 KBSs. After 20 I started getting a bit of tunnel visions and a panicky feeling. See, I'm a true newbie when it comes to exercise. I live on my couch, working on my computer. I haven't been doing much walking over the last few years and I spent 16 years as a smoker (I'm 6 years smoke free).

Given my present health profile, I'm actually curious to see how soon my body adapts to the regular exercise.

Before we started this morning, I was a little surprised that this 5-15 minutes of exercise was only supposed to be done three times a week. I'm not so skeptical now, though!  I think we'll go back and forth with the Perfect Posterior basic workout outlined above and an alternate workout of wall presses and squats, etc. I would like to get in the habit of daily exercise. We also plan to do a larger exercise weekly with the boys, weather permitting, like hiking.

(I've got 3 and 7 year old boys. Did I ever mention that before?)




I'll be doing a separate post for each day's food pics, so you can look for more specific details about food later. For now, I'll just mention quickly that we then had an omelet: french cream mushroom, spinach and chevrette (gotta use up my fancy cheeses) with 4 double yolk eggs between the my husband and I. Yum!

After we got our feed on, it was measurement and picture time. Now, I'm going to take the plunge and post my before and after pictures. I'm also going to list my specific measurements. My husband, however, does not we his photo on here. He doesn't want his name being used and he also doesn't want his specific measurements being listed. He did say I could post his total inches and track that on this site, along with my own.

So, here we go:

I look pregnant. How depressing. Ugh. What you see there is a 39 year old woman who is 5'10". (My husband is an inch taller than me.)

Now for some measurements:

Me
Weight: N/A (we don't have a scale, so for now we are going by measurements alone)
R/B (right bicep): 17"
L/B (left bicep): 17"
R/T (right thigh): 32.25"
L/T (left thigh): 31"
H (hips): 56.5"
W (waist): 50.5"
C (chest): 50"
Total inches: 254.25"

Husband


Weight: N/A
Total inches: 227.5"

I can't wait to see those numbers drop.