I’d love to look like this at some point
My weight loss was slightly weird this month and didn’t fit my usual pattern.
It could have been one of a few things or a combination:
- Going on a camping trip the first weekend and imbibing a bit with some mead and chocolate.
- Adding coconut meat and water to my diet and not eating as much of my raw milk products as a result.
- Adding weight workouts.
It’s probably a combination of all three.
At the beginning of the month, I went camping with a bunch of friends. While I did my own cooking and ate very well and low carb, still there were some indulgences. I usually shared a bottle or two of mead (a fermented honey drink) with my friends in the evening. I think the most I had was a few glasses, but mead is definitely not low carbohydrate! Still I love it, especially when I can share it. I also had some really good dark chocolate. Oh and I can’t forget the bacon wrapped dates that happened one night. Dates are not low carb, but they are gluten-free and really yummy, especially when wrapped in bacon.
When I got home, I was up 2.2 pounds from when I weighed myself the day we left. During that week I lost 5 1/2 pounds which was really weird. Sure enough the moment I went down to 187.8 I promptly went up again and stayed there for two weeks. So I wasn’t losing weight at all, and actually ended up at 190.7 a few days later. This was weird and discouraging and I didn’t like it. I wasn’t doing my regular weight loss and I didn’t know how to fix it.
During this time, I decided to give a whole coconut a try. I bought one and used the coconut water (2 ounces at a time) to supplement my regular water intake. I would add those 2 ounces, once a day to my regular water container which holds 52 ounces. I would then eat about 50 grams of coconut meat as a snack. Coconut meat is considered a fairly low carbohydrate food with a cup measuring out at 5 grams. Coconut water on the other hand is where most of the sugars in a coconut reside. A cup of water measures out to 6.3 grams. So by using 2 ounces a day I was adding in just about 1 1/2 grams of carbohydrates.
I also started adding in more vegetables: jicama for one, cucumbers and some bell pepper slices. And all of these are low carb vegetables and I was still in ketosis, but for two weeks, I wasn’t losing any weight. And I realized that in order to eat these vegetables, I had cut my fermented raw milk products out. So I stopped eating the coconut and I added my yogurt and kefir back in (kefir on the days I’m home, yogurt when I’m at the office). Within 5 days of doing that my weight began dropping and I lost 3 pounds in 4 days.
So lesson for me, I’m not giving up my raw milk products again. They are definitely a factor in my weight loss. Nothing else changed during that time, just the composition of what I was eating. I’ll probably add in coconut again later, but I won’t give up on my raw milk.
I’ve also been going to the gym regularly. I joined a regional gym that is about 5 minutes from my house. The place intimidates me which is good. Its full of body builders and lots of scary equipment. I’ve been going regularly for about 3 weeks now.
My workouts have been short and are about to get a bit harder. I had a complementary session with a trainer this morning. She was checking my form and giving me exercises. I was logging them into fitocracy during that time. Once she realized that my logging them now was giving me the ability to use them again, she was okay with it, but thought that searching for the exercises took too long Since I usually set up my routines before I go to the gym, I should be okay.
She put me on a cardio machine called a Sybex and had me do a tabata workout on it. For those who don’t know, tabata is form of interval training which is 20 seconds of go as hard and fast as you can, then 10 seconds of slow. Do this 8 times for a 4 minute killer workout. I managed to get 4 sets done, which was half. But I felt like I was going to pass out. So I have something to work towards.
Fitocracy is keeping me motivated. There is something about earning points in real life that counts towards a game like environment. Also the community there is really supportive. So far I’m a level 7 working my way to a level 8. There aren’t any real benefits to doing it, but the motivation of trying to get myself up a level is really nice.
June 2012 Measurements
| Measurement | Starting | Current | Difference |
| Weight | 200 lbs | 185.4 lbs | -14.20 lbs |
| Chest | 39.00″ | 37.00 | -2.00″ |
| Waist | 36.50″ | 33.00 | -3.50″ |
| Stomach | 43.00″ | 34.00 | -9.00″ |
| Hips | 45.00″ | 41.00 | -4.00″ |
| Thighs | 25.25″ | 23.50 | -1.75″ |
| Biceps | 15.50″ | 15.00 | -0.50″ |
I’ve lost 6.2 pounds this month which is the most amount I’ve lost in a month since I started actually losing the weight. It’s still a good, sustainable weight to lose. Not so fast that my skin gets loose, and not so slowly that I get frustrated and want to give up. I’m satisfied with my weight loss.
I’m also finally noticing that my clothes are fitting better. They aren’t loose by any stretch of the imagination, but they aren’t as tight as they were. Out of all my measurements this month, the only two which aren’t at the lowest are my waist and my biceps and both of those are with 2/10 of an inch of the lowest.
I’ve decided to add the tabata to next month’s workouts. So 8 minutes of cardio 3 to 4 times a week. 2 minutes of warm-up. 4 minutes (or at least work up to it) of kill myself tabata and then 2 more minutes of cool down. Its intimidating but a heck of a lot less than thinking about staying on a cardio machine for 30-60 minutes which I think would bore me out of my mind.
Fitness Report Series
- Report 1: Eating Healthy Food isn’t Enough
- Report 2: Fitness Report – Month 1
- Report 3: Fitness Report – Month 2
- Report 4: Fitness Report – Month 3
- Report 5: Fitness Report – Month 4
- Report 6: Fitness Report – Month 5
- Report 7: Fitness Report – Month 6
- Report 8: Fitness Report – Month 7
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Hi there! You are doing a wonderful job with your eating and your workouts! I stopped going to the gym when warm weather came….but get in a wonderful hike in the mountains when my son and daughter in law can. We hike in the Rockies. I still use a whole lot of raw milk….and i think that is really keeping my weight stable and i love that. I eat bacon and usually two eggs everyday and have added some bread for carbs with the protein and that keeps me most of the day. I take 2tbs of coconut oil and eat berries and an apple. This all seems to work for me! I love reading your posts!
Keep up the good work !!!!
I found it easier to let go of the scale and just go by measurements. Especially when you add in any kind of strength training. The number on the scale doesn’t mean much when you’re adding muscle and losing fat.
Yes I know what you mean about the scale! I haven’t weighed in ages. I just go by how my clothes fit now. And being in this body for quite a number of years I can easily tell when i gain and when I lose. I can just tell.