The Good
- Sticking with this thing. I have royally surprised myself by sticking with this diet plan and not just sticking with it but actually kinda finding the groove. Admittedly, I now understand the importance of the first week of fasting and general "no fun"-ness because it's been long enough now that I've forgotten what artificial delicious tastes like and I am just enjoying the food that I actually do get to eat.
- Cooking for myself is not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I think this is also part of finding the groove. I'm getting better at basic things--like understanding spices which, admittedly, have always been somewhat of a mystery to me.
- Best Find of the Week Ingredient: Nutritional Yeast. Man, if you're not eating real cheese, this sure does do the trick in making you mostly, sort of, think you are. Also beloved because the natural community types call it "Nooch" which I think I love.
- Best Find of the Week Utensils: Mason jars. This is the one key I've not found before in the ever-growing challenge of bringing my lunch: fun and functional. Turns out, I fucking hate Tupperware. These glass jars literally will carry everything and they're a weird, fun talking point with people who have not been clued in to this geniusness in food packery.
- Momentum is building. I'm starting to find that wonderful little spot in the process where that feeling of being "pinched" grows less and less. Also helpful there is my jeans growing looser and looser and, thus, helping me fully realize this metaphor. Starting to see some results. I feel so much better I can't even begin to explain and imagining living like this for a good while becomes less daunting and (gasp!) even starts to make sense. What?
The Bad
- Food Cravings are real and will break you. They haven't broken me yet, but they've threatened. Thankfully, they go as quickly as they come so I don't feel completely obsessed. But I can't stop thinking about donuts. And cupcakes. And pastry. I've even started allowing much more pedestrian things like cinnamon bread enter in to the yearnings. This has brought about a whole host of things I've tried to just stay focused on what I'm doing. I'm very sorry fitness professionals, but drinking water and having a nice piece of sugar-free gum didn't make the list. I just try to hang in there until the feeling is gone--usually having a tasty beverage (Zevia, bless you) does the trick.
- Anti-socialness is a familiar bedfellow. I hate to say it, but this eating plan is not friend friendly. I was flummoxed by my brazen willpower at a birthday party this weekend 1) at a bar 2) with mounds of delicious cupcakes (I can only assume) 3) full of fried food potential and 4) with the best beer in the world on tap. I drank white wine. That's it. But my friends of old looked at me with supportive-cum-stupefied eyes. I know, kids. Big changes for everybody. It's so much easier to do this plan in the shadows of my own little cave with my low-calorie EVOO spray and fake butter-flavored god-knows-what to spritz on my third serving of eggs. I tend toward anti-socialness anyway so this is such an easy slope for me to slip into.
The Ugly
- All metrics are out to thwart me. I need to keep a real eye on getting obsessed with readings on the scale and the ketostix. I'm prone to this anyway but, once again, I can feel that both have come to rule my life and are literally the only things that cause me to panic on this plan. Eating no sugar, fine. How 'bout cutting out coffee? Um, okay...sort of. No food that causes any kind of immediate delight? Great. All of those, I take in stride. But even knowing that the scale is influenced by so many things does not change the fact that when I get on there and that stupid number hasn't moved in a few days or (gasp! again) it goes up, it ruins my day. I start to doubt everything. If the ketostix are beige, I'm failing. I know how I got this mindset. Now I need to start changing it. I can't live at the will of these stupid metrics when they are only one kind of indicator of 1) my progress and 2) my health and 3) my happiness. In fact, there not indicating anything about my happiness.
Alright...that's the story today. More updates to come at some point in the future.