Another Whole 30 in the books

But NO weight loss. Zero. Zilch. Nada. I am very disappointed and a bit baffled, but as I've said previously, this is THE way for me to eat.

It's so easy for me to get away from tracking my food, even when LoseIt is right there in the palm of my hand. Tracking food is a little more difficult when you're cooking all your meals from scratch, especially if you make a recipe with lots of ingredients. But as Jen pointed out, there's a recipe builder in LoseIt and I have, in fact, used it many times. It's just … tedious and I'm not a big fan of the tracking.

Please don't ask for the recipe. I made it up, using 

two different cookbooks and substituting freely. 

And I didn't write anything down. Take my word 

for it, though, it was YUMMY!

Also, many of the ingredients I use aren't in the database, so you not only have to enter all the individual components of a recipe, sometimes you have to enter all the data from a package of, say, coconut sugar. (Which was an ingredient in the delicious cherry rhubarb crisp we had for dessert last night.)

And when most paleo/primal folks don't keep food journals, I feel especially cranky.

Anyhoo … the end of the Whole 30 was Friday and I fired the LoseIt app up again yesterday. My daily calorie target (according to LoseIt, based on my eventual goal) is below 1200, and we're not even going there. I'm trying to keep my calories around 1400 and I get plenty of exercise. Yesterday's burn was almost 600 calories. And since I've been doing essentially the same amount of intentional activity since, oh, FOREVER (heh), I should be losing at least a couple pounds a month.

Sound familiar? I've whined about not losing weight WAY more than I've celebrated losing it over the months years both of you have been reading. The difference this time is I feel good, I eat well, I have a ton of energy, my sleep is good and I've lost a bunch o'pounds already. I see no reason to change what's been working as far as food goes.

As for exercise, I've added rowing – not as much as I thought I would the first week, but a tiller workout is nearly as effective as a rower one. Maybe more! I'd hoped to get four rowing workouts in, but only managed two. And I've added running intervals to my daily walks a couple times a week.

The nice thing, as I said the other day, is my favorite jeans fit great. My husband says I look fitter and trimmer, despite the number on the scale. My spring, summer and fall days are much more active than my winter ones, so I just need to be patient and let my body catch up with the season.

In the meantime, I'll hit the highlights of how it used to be, and how it is – even with 20 pounds more to lose:

Then: I rotated three pairs of yoga pants with baggy shirts – sweatshirts in cold weather, tees when it got warm – and wore either walking shoes or Clark clogs, the only comfortable footwear I could find. I never wore make-up, I pulled my long hair back and pinned it up, and I tried to be as invisible as possible. I was embarrassed to take up space, at times, and while I know that's not a healthy way to feel about one's body, it definitely was how I felt.

Now: My current summer wardrobe is fun and includes skirts and dresses and a cool pair of linen slacks and many tops I've hung on to over the years that now fit and look good. Again. I'm buying cute shoes and wearing jewelry and, generally, doing all those fun things to make oneself look and feel good. Things I never did when I was overweight.

And as for that feeling of taking up space? Two words: Move over!