Happiness

My no sweeteners experiment paid off in a big way with 5 pounds lost last week. That puts me at 175 and a 31 pound loss. I finally broke the 30 pound barrier that had been eluding me. I am not going to say this was easy. I really noticed the lack of flavor whenever I took a sip of water and boy did it feel strange going out of the house without a piece of gum in my mouth! Actually during my work day, even though I work from home, I am in such a habit of chewing gum at work that it really felt so hard not to. Fortunately it doesn't have to be forever. For the dairy, I added it back in starting Saturday and haven't noticed any negative side effects from it. My plan for this week is to keep it nice and low carb but with more dairy (cheese and sour cream) and still refrain from sweeteners this week through Friday then a new phase in the hormone cycle starts where my body needs more carbs so I will add sweeteners back in for a week, but not during hours where I'm fasting. It's still an experiment to see if I can keep losing if I limit my stevia use to my eating window only. I have prepared myself for whatever the answer is, but I'm not going to lie, I hope that works. I have gotten by by putting an herbal teabag into my cold water to make unsweetened tea but it's not the same. Also, did you know that Lipton unsweetened tea mix has maltodextrin which spikes insulin worse than sugar? What on earth are they thinking? I know it's better to make it with teabags but I was craving more flavor so I looked, hoping for something clean. Boo. I did so good eating out last weekend. Friday night I had an ahi tuna steak with asparagus and a side salad. It came with a d8nner roll and potato too, but I brought them home and my son gobbled them up before they could tempt me. Saturday we drove about an hour away to try something new. It was a much nicer restaurant than we have in my tiny city. I had a dish that was marinated steak with onions, banana peppers and jalapeños smothered in cheese with a side salad. OMG it was the most well-seasoned meal I've had in a while and left me with a happy buzz! I had unsweetened iced tea at both places so I could avoid sweeteners. My Peleton challenge through work is going really well. I have worked out 20 minutes or more every day since last Tuesday. Tuesdays minutes don't count toward the 500 minutes but I just wanted to start the habit out. I was having terrible vertigo last week so I stuck to walking or dancing so there wasn't a lot of bending down or moving from the floor to upright position like the strength and HIIT classes have. I really enjoy the interval walking. I noticed last week that I was sweating down Mt back with the walking, which hasn't happened to me before but makes me feel like maybe my body is burning energy better now. I made myself do longer workouts on the weekends because I knew I'd have days where I just don't have a workout in me and I wanted a little wiggle room. Saturday I did a 45 minute walk and Sunday I did 30 minutes shadow boxing. So after today's workout I have 346 minutes left to do before March 15. That shouldn't be a problem as long as I keep my eye on the goal. I am starting to be less dizzy in the morning now so I will eventually add in some strength and HIIT. I haven't done push ups in more than a month but I'm trying to remind myself that one of my 2023 goals is to be able to do 10 legit push ups. Once this work challenge is conquered I can get to work on that goal and the zumba goal. Having these work challenges really helps me get back in the habit of exercise which I sorely needed. It really pushes me even when I don't feel like working out because I have something to prove. I very rarely don't complete these work challenges. They used to do a challenge at Thanksgiving time to challenge us not to gain more than 3 pounds between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I tried that challenge a few times and was successful all but 1 year where I binged on every chocolate-covered thing, every potato, every sauce and baked good, just everything. I remember weighing in after the holidays and being amazed at how quickly the pounds can be added back on. Its a feeling I hope to never be faced with again. Today was my first day cutting back on caffeine too. I cut my morning caffeine pill in half which means I took 100mg instead of 200mg for the whole pill. I have that at 5 AM when I wake, and broke my fast just after 7 AM and had a cup of coffee with breakfast. I will continue to do that this week through the weekend then starting next Monday I am going to have no caffeine pill but have black coffee during my fasting window and if I need more I'll have another cup or half cup with cream in my eating window. My goal is to eventually just get down to one cup of coffee per day. I have my physical at the end of March so I'm hoping I can be fully transitioned to that by then. I know the pounds won't always come off as quickly as they did this week but I am grateful for finding out that the sweeteners were part of the reason I was not continuing to lose weight last month. I'm willing to compromise a little for continued loss. I am doing my 24 hour fast tonight. I stopped eating at noon this time so I can eat lunch with my husband at noon tomorrow. I've never started a fast so early in the day before so it will be interesting to see if it feels different, better or worse. As long as I sleep good tonight it should be fine. Any minimal stomach growling only lasts a short time then it goes away for a while. I never thought my body would get accustomed to not eating for so long but here I am rocking it out. This journey has really opened up my eyes to all the ways my self-doubt were limiting me, and how 100% of the control has always been in my hands. It feels like reclaiming your power when you feel this firsthand by doing something you didn't think you could. So maybe losing weight can't truly make you happy in and of itself, but the obstacles you overcome in order achieve that success sure do!