January Jeans Club 2014

You may have noticed the badge on the right -- Marion of Affection for Fitness and Satu of Body Capable has a January Jeans Club for 2014 which I have decided to join. I do well when I have a challenge, and I think this is perfect for me!  I have 4 birthdays as well as the holidays to contend with, and if I can just power through this period, I can reach my goal weight in January.  I was well on my way this autumn, but then I let our college tour trips ruin my momentum (see the graph above). Anyway, please visit Marion's blog and read more about the January Jeans Club 2014. 

My pledged starting weight on this challenge is 143lb, which is Friday's weight.  I'm not going to count the extra pound that I have added due to bloating from yesterday's overindulgence. That means I have 9lbs to go to get to my goal weight.  If I end up shrinking but not losing all 9lbs, that's OK too.  My fitness goals this period are Planksgiving and the pullup workout I mentioned a few posts ago.  I've only done 3 plank workouts, so I am way behind!  Today I was able to do 30s, so I am one minute behind schedule.  My Planksgiving is going to be an ongoing challenge though, so I have to make it a habit, and soon I too can reach 3 minutes!

Trigger foods at home

As good as I am getting at eating Primal, I still fall into the gluten-free trap.  Friday I bought a package of Tate's chocolate chip cookies.  I was good, and only had 3.  Yesterday I had the remaining 11 cookies. Of course, they were delicious, but they had tons of carbs, and after two cookies, I was just stuffing them into my mouth.  Plus I also found the leftover bag of Snyder's gluten-free pretzels from our trip to Boston last weekend.  Now, I have to say that Snyder's gluten-free pretzels don't taste weird, they taste just like regular pretzels, they are the best!  However, they are also laden with carbs, which I scarfed down.  So, the downward march of the scale has been halted.  Sigh.  We'll see after the salt is flushed from my body today what the scale says tomorrow.  I got down to 142.5lb, but this morning I was 144.  I am more and more convinced that my plan for my birthday on the day after Thanksgiving, having Primal brownies, is a good idea.  Gluten-free products are still carb heavy and I just don't need that.

Dukan/Primal Fall -- I mean Winter 2013

Well, several weeks have gone by, and my weight hasn't gone down any -- I was 143.5lb October 15, and I'm 143lb today.  I've gone and come back down a few times, thanks to two additional college trips, and just came back from the last one to the Boston area on Saturday.  I really fell off the wagon on Friday, Saturday & Sunday, and I sure did pay for it on Monday!  I felt so sick I actually had to "empty" my stomach at the office, and couldn't eat for the rest of the day.  That's what popcorn and milk duds (Friday), various dairy & chocolate (Saturday), 3x ice cream bar, French onion soup, hamburger, fries & a Guinness (Sunday) will do to you.  Almost like my system was so sluggish, I just couldn't add anything else into the pipeline until things had moved further along.  Tuesday I ate very lightly:  scrambled eggs, yogurt.  I had hot water & honey and various kinds of tea on Monday & Tuesday.  Yesterday I ate more normally and had my medicinal Belgian ale, but haven't had my sausage yet for breakfast.  Today's lunch at work was our free annual turkey lunch.  I had turkey w/cranberry sauce, root vegetables and broccoli, and lots of beets.  Too much food!  I'm not used to having a big lunch anymore.

In addition to the improvements to my house I want to work on this weekend, I want to start working up to pullups again.  I'm going to start the first of the five stages -- see this video for more info (thanks to Marc for posting this!)  I think I'm going to alternate chinups and close-grip pullups (alternate days, not alternate sets), because I've been able to do close-grip pullups as well as chinups in the past (never more than 2 in a row).

My goal is to get under 140 in 3 weeks.  And coming up is Thanksgiving, and my birthday the day after.  I am not going to have my usual Carvel ice cream cake this year.  I'll have a gluten-free or primal brownie.