I remember being somewhere around that when we moved into this house (3 years ago), and I dropped about 5 pounds or so, with leaving my mom’s house and all her sweets and breads, plus all the unpacking and moving, and carrying boxes of books upstairs. Then gradually, I gained it back. That was three years ago. I don’t remember how long it took me to top 200 again (I first did it during pregnancy), but I’ve been there for probably at least 2&1/2 years, and perhaps more. Yikes. Not good.

Oddly enough, I haven’t been particularly GTD-compliant. I went to my mom’s on Thursday (we were supposed to show our house, but that fell through… again!), and she was making her home-made hamburger buns. I had already had a bit of some new dessert she had made, so since I had “broken my diet already, this day is a bust,” and I ate I think 4 buns. Wow! Plus more of that candy!! Then on Friday, I went with my mom to visit a woman in our church who recently found out she has cancer, and is likely terminal; and then since it was lunch-time, we went to the local Mexican restaurant (delicious!!) and I gorged myself not just with the chips and salsa, but the fajita chicken nachos. OH!! It was so good! But afterward (both days), it didn’t sit well, and I felt pretty crummy. Then my lactose intolerance (or was it the Mexican spices?) kicked in, and *ahem* I preemptively lost all the weight I might have gained with one trip to the bathroom. So, I was tired of feeling like a moldy dishrag, so yesterday, I was perfectly compliant. And I meant for today to be another 100% day… but I forgot to take my lunch to church, so I ended up eating just whatever was there (trying to do good for the meal), and then I ate a bit of dessert… and then some of another of my mom’s new desserts (yes, that’s plural — I probably ate 5 different things). So, now I’m not feeling so great, and tomorrow the scale will probably reflect that. But TODAY, this morning, the scale said 199, so I’m happy with that.

My sons have been asking about making gingerbread cookies (so they can use cookie cutters), and I finally gave in. I was planning on being really good, but I wanted to make sure that the dough tasted right — the feedback on the recipe was mixed, with many women saying it was “the best recipe” and many others saying it was “awful,” “tasted like cardboard,” “too sweet,” “not sweet enough,” “heavy on the spice,” etc. So I tasted it — it was pretty good. Then when I helped my kids with the cookie cutters (left alone, they overlapped the pieces pretty severely, and cut cookie after cookie with the same cutter, without removing the first one, so they were stacking up inside the cutter), I fell back into my old habit of eating scraps and pieces. It tasted good… but not *that* good. I’d've much rather had chocolate chip cookie dough or something.

Now, it’s been a few hours since I ate them, and I feel like garbage. A slight headache, very sleepy (which is unusual), weird feeling in my arms, general lethargy. Yuck.

I’m writing this not because I feel in the mood for a confessional, but just because I want to remember this feeling, so I won’t be tempted like this in the future.

I did manage to steal it away from them, eventually, though. I used the excuse that they were fighting over it to confiscate it. It’s great! I don’t know for sure that I’m working my core muscles — I probably am, but don’t think I’ll feel it until the morning. One reason I got it, though, is that I spend a lot of time at the computer — reading or writing blogs, looking at the news (no TV), doing research, and also typing up very old, out-of-print books. My back has been hurting a bit lately — probably mostly sitting poorly (particularly hunched over), and also lying in an awkward position watching a DVD with my husband. And this seems to help. It probably strengthens my back, in addition to working my abs. My kids are unwittingly helping with that — the younger one particularly likes to climb up on it while I’m sitting on it, which makes me have to shift a tiny bit to keep my balance.

Even if it weren’t free, I’d still be glad I got it. I don’t know that I would have spent full price on it, but I am glad I have it. Particularly since it’s free.

This week, I mowed my yard, which took about an hour and a half. While that was all the exercise I did this week it did cause me to drop three pounds in one day! I didn’t blog it, because I was afraid that it was just temporary — perhaps water weight from sweating, or something. But it’s now been several days and the weight loss is still there — 203 lb. That’s still a lot — I feel bad about being glad that I still weigh as much as I do; but, hey, I weigh less than I did!

Another success — I was at my mom’s house, when she had a large order for cookies (sugar cookies, oatmeal cookies, and chocolate chip cookies). I love cookies. I love sweets. Two of the three kinds need to be frosted, and I helped. Usually, I pop in a few cookies along the way when I frost them (or when I don’t — I love chocolate chip cookie dough and fresh cookies, too!), plus extra frosting — especially when there is frosting left over. But I didn’t this time. In some ways, I wasn’t even tempted; in other ways I was very tempted. I also cleaned out my mom’s freezer, and she had a lot of various desserts in there, that ordinarily I would have eaten. But I didn’t. Success!

Then, I went to my mom’s house again, and she had made delicious garlic-cheese bread. The house smelled amazingly wonderful. I could probably have eaten half a loaf by myself. I did give in and had one small, thin piece, but that was it. I call that a success!

On Friday, my husband wanted a pizza when we were already out, and I had just one piece (because I was soooo hungry). I was tempted to eat more, although it was supreme which I don’t particularly care for. But I fixed myself something else to eat, and resisted. Success!

Finally, last night, we went to a neighbor’s birthday party, and I didn’t eat anything except once I licked my fingers after putting a piece of cake on my son’s plate. They had a full meal — hot dogs, BBQ sandwiches, potato chips, potato salad (which I don’t like anyway), cole slaw, beans, spinach dip, and another thing or two. Ordinarily, I would have had a plate full, even if I wasn’t terribly hungry (and I had had a snack about an hour before going, plus a glass of lemon-water right before we left), plus dessert. So, to get out with only licking my fingers once — oh, yeah, baby — success!!

So, I’ve been following the genotype diet for at least a month, and have been watching the quantities of what I’m eating for three full weeks. I’m feeling much better, and I’m certainly losing weight. Plus I know I’m eating more healthfully, since I’m eating many more fruits and vegetables, and much less processed foods.

In trying to get my husband to exercise (because I think it will help him with his stress levels and fatigue and sleeping poorly), I decided to suggest a family walk this morning. Even before going, I had pictures in my mind of me breaking out into a run, and it felt good. So, we head out — and I had specifically suggested a brisk walk to my husband — he’s usually the one wanting to go fast while dragging me along — but this time, I broke out into a jog, and my husband dragged along behind. My kids started crying at seeing mommy running away from them… well, actually, the older one was a little perturbed but tried to keep up, while my younger son  just eventually collapsed into a heap where he was. So I ran back to them. I didn’t run much that particular time because my husband was dragging and my kids got upset. But it felt good. I also couldn’t run very far because I’m out of shape. But it still felt good to run.

So good, in fact, that this afternoon, I went for another run. It’s just down the street and back — I had intended to see how far it was by driving down the road and back — it’s probably at most half a mile each way. No, I wasn’t able to run the entire way. But I might build up to it! I ran until I was tired of running, then walked until I was tired of walking, then ran some more. I might go again tomorrow. So, yeah, I’m liking this diet!

[I weighed myself this morning, but hadn't lost any more. We'll see tomorrow what this running did for me. ]

So, even though we haven’t been doing the BTD over the summer, I’m more committed than ever to it. With the return of school, we’ve gotten into a schedule, and that has helped get into a routine which includes better diet. I’m trying to fix my husband compliant foods, but I’m his wife, not his mother, so when he eats off-diet, all I can do is give a gentle reminder, raise an eyebrow, or say nothing at all — I cannot force him to eat right. He doesn’t always tell me when he eats avoids at school (typically coffee because he’s so tired, although sometimes he’ll grab an ice cream bar or something bad like that), but I can usually tell because of the change of attitude he has, depending on how compliant on the diet he is. I haven’t told him yet, but I can tell. Within half a day at least of eating wheat, he gets a stiff neck. For myself, I really don’t have health complaints other than being overweight. For the past several months, (perhaps even the past year) my weight has fluctuated perhaps 5 pounds a month and slightly risen from its baseline perhaps a pound every month or two. Initially on the diet, I noticed 5 pounds dropped off, but gained those back over the summer, so basically, I’ve started this second round about the same as I’ve been for most of the year. I don’t have a strict figure about what I weighed to start with, unfortunately, but my weight was as high as 220 some days (or nearly so), and definitely over 215 for the most part. Even though it fluctuated a bit (since I weighed myself every day, which some people say is a no-no), it came down a bit too, but not below 210 before the summer. Then I gained it back.

That weight gain has been the impetus for me to start the GenoType Diet (GTD), which is a variation of the BTD. (You can read more about both of those here.) I’m a “Teacher,” based on my measurements. At first, my weight was still fluctuating but on the slight downward trend — an initial loss (probably water) of a few pounds spurred me on, and then I continued the fluctuation that I didn’t like. Rereading the book, I saw that there were guidelines for how much of the various types of foods to eat — 2-5 servings of carbohydrates every day, 1-3 servings of turkey per week — that sort of thing. I realized that I was eating too much turkey, peanuts, peanut butter, cheese, etc., and not enough fruits and vegetables, so I made up a diet check-sheet for myself.

This has helped quite a bit, because I only eat what is on the list. I’m not craving food like I was, and I’m having more self-control. Before, I would let myself eat “just one” cookie, which would turn into a handful of cookies. Now, cookies aren’t even on my list! I didn’t realize I wasn’t eating enough vegetables — I thought I was doing a pretty good job; it’s still a struggle for me to eat 4 per day — most days I get 2 or 3. However, I’m staying within range on all the other things, so I’m no longer eating tons of turkey and carbs while also not getting any vegetables, or only one serving per day. That means that when I’m hungry, instead of looking to see what I have (and ending up eating stuff I shouldn’t), I look at my list to see what I’m allowed, and what I’m short on, and eat from that.

So, while my husband is still struggling with extreme tiredness and not being very compliant (although he sometimes talks about getting back on the wagon), I’m feeling great. I feel clean inside. And I’m losing weight, which is the main benefit I want. When I started the diet, I weighed about what I did when I gave birth! Within the first week after both births, I lost 20 pounds (including baby). Although I lost all the weight the first time, I kept much of the weight the second time, and then added back to it in the three years since I had my younger child. I’m tired of being the weight I am.

Today, my weight is 207, which is lower than I’ve been in months. Is it weird to feel “thin” when I weigh what I do, and am still well over “obese”? [This is an extremely interesting slide-show of various people of all shapes and sizes and whether or not they are underweight, normal, or overweight, according to the BMI. For a brief description of it, the "underweight" people look downright anorexic, the "normal" people look thin to normal, and the "obese" people look fairly normal to slightly chunky, while the "morbidly obese" look fat to very fat. I think the purpose of the slide-show is to demonstrate that the BMI is not a very good tool to determine whether someone is truly healthy or not. It certainly fits that purpose!] If I exercise, I tend to lose a pound a day; if I don’t exercise, I lose about a half a pound or so. Sometimes I don’t weigh every day, though. I’m thoroughly enjoying the diet. I don’t have the cravings I used to; I’m not hungry as much, and when I am hungry, it’s not an intense “gotta find something to eat now!!” feeling like I used to have; I’m eating more healthily (no sugar, no white flour, etc.). I just feel good.

In the meantime, my mom has been on the Blood Type Diet, and she has lost over 20 pounds (over the course of 3-4 months), and she says she just feels better. I’d read a bit about it, and rejected it because the guy bases it on the theory of evolution, which I reject. Then last weekend, our church hosted a series of lectures on creation, and the lecturer and his family (I’ve known his wife for years) stayed with us. This lecturer, a doctor who goes around speaking on the scientific basis of creation and the problems of evolution, swears by the Blood Type Diet. He and his wife tell me stories about how they were before they went on it, and the process by which they became believers. [He also said he could give me the scientific reasoning apart from evolution why it works.] So, I got kits to type my family’s blood, and also ordered The Genotype Diet, which should be coming in soon.

After typing their blood, I got online to see what each blood type should eat, and what we should avoid. Fortunately, I only have to keep up with two types — my friends have three or even all four types in their family! And a lot of foods are both on the “beneficial” and “avoid” lists for both types (although a lot of foods are “beneficial” for me and “avoid” for my husband). I think I can do it without a problem. I won’t be able to eat tomatoes (which I don’t like anyway, except in things like ketchup, spaghetti sauce, pizza, etc.) or wheat, but in a lot of ways, once you cut out one of the “avoid” foods, that lessens the temptation for the other “avoid” foods. For example, cutting out wheat means no bread, no pizza, no pasta, etc. (except for specialized foods like “rice pasta”) — so no pizza crust means no pizza sauce and no sausage and no pepperoni and no cheese. In a way, it would be harder for me to eat pizza without meat and just vegetables than to just say “no pizza at all.”

But this is going to be tough for my husband. He has already bemoaned several things on the “no” list that he can’t have, or should have only occasionally and in moderation (particularly things like pizza, sausage-biscuits, Italian beef sandwiches, salsa, etc.). The funny thing is, he even looked longlingly at the corn I ate at lunch today, and he’s not even a big corn fanatic! I guess now that it’s on his “avoid” list, he wants it. But I don’t think he noticed that coffee is on his avoid list, and this is the point that is going to be most interesting to me. I’ve long wanted him to give up coffee, because I didn’t think it was good for him (oddly enough, I can have it, although I can’t stand the stuff!), and he has even said stuff in the past about going off of it, but just has never managed to do so. I don’t know whether I should tell him now that he can’t have coffee (for fear he will just say he won’t do the diet at all), or if I should just let him figure it out in the morning when I don’t have coffee ready for him. Or cereal bars. I’m not really sure what to fix for breakfast in the morning — he can’t have oats, wheat, dairy, or pork, so there goes oatmeal, biscuits, sausage, bacon, waffles, muffins, etc. Like I said — this could get interesting!

We started this the Monday before New Year’s Day, so I’m nearing the end of my 2nd week. I’ve lost about 10 pounds. I’ve exercised a little. Sometimes a very little, or even nothing above my normal (in)activity — climbing the stairs to get on the computer, going downstairs to check on the kids, doing laundry and cleaning house, etc. Yet I’ve still been losing weight. And I’m not hungry.

In the book, Dr. Atkins has a diagram of a right triangle and says that is the typical American diet, which is unbalanced by having too many carbs (in addition to a lot of unhealthy food like refined sugar, flour, rice, etc.). And if you go immediately to a “balanced” diet (represented by a rectangle on top of the triangle, still sloping), you still have the unbalanced base underlying the rectangle, so you’re still unbalanced. He says that what needs to happen is that you, basically, go unbalanced on the other way (extreme low carbs), so that the two unbalanced sides balance out, and then after that, you can start on a balanced diet — a diet which will truly be balanced without the underlying imbalance, but a perfect rectangle made of the two unbalanced triangles.

It seems to work.

I’m ten pounds down, without being hungry, without counting calories, without restricting myself from anything but breads and the like and fruit — basically anything with sugars (even natural sugars), or high carb content. But I don’t feel deprived, and I don’t really miss the sweet. Yeah, I’ve fudged a little bit — I’ve had a little bit of some things with sugar, like a ketchup-based sauce (there’s sugar or high fructose corn syrup in the ketchup, but nothing else in the sauce had it); and I’ve had some extra carbs (because I didn’t keep close count, I’m not sure how many days I went “over”; but I know that the two days I ate at my mom’s house for supper, I went over, but not by much). But I’ve still lost. Amazing.

So, on Monday, we did start the program. My husband has complained about soreness, but I haven’t really had that much. I wonder if I should be pushing myself harder, but when I’m doing it, I push until I can’t push any more.

One thing that makes a big difference is that I haven’t been working with weights or bands. They weren’t an integral part of the program until yesterday. (By that, I mean, that yesterday’s workout — the shoulders and arms — required weights on almost every exercise, as opposed to the core and cardio workouts which only had a few with weights.) I’ve done a few different workout videos that had weights as options, with the instructors saying that form is more important than weights, and you can do your own resistance by concentrating and going up and/or down slowly.

Yesterday, I watched the video through once, and then my husband and I did it. Because I’m not that much into working out with weights, nor working my arms, I was afraid that I couldn’t even get through the workout (it’s an hour, after all!), if I used any weights. I was especially afraid of the “chair dips”, and really was worried that my arms would be too sore to do those if I had used weights. My goal for that video was just to make it through. Which I did, with ease. Oh, I could feel it in my arms, but I didn’t struggle. So next video, I’m definitely going to be adding some weights.

My husband got himself some bands and me some weights (1.5 & 5 lb) at Walmart yesterday, so we’ll see how that goes. I’m a little afraid of adding the weights, but it’s just ridiculous not to. I want to make it through the workout, and don’t know how much weight will be too much on the workouts. If it were up to me, I’d just use soup cans or something for the weights, but my husband rolls his eyes at that. So we’ll see how it goes!

Yoga video is today! I’ve never done yoga, and don’t like the Eastern mysticism that is its roots, but I’m looking at it as some good stretches, and I know the positions are difficult to hold and get into, which will be good for me. I’m pretty limber anyway, but my husband hates to stretch; so this will be extra-good for him. When we did the P90X pre-test, I was able to reach 5 inches past my foot, while he could only reach 6 inches short of his foot. Let’s just say, he’s looking forward to the results, but not to the process.