30 Days of The Skinny Rules!

Food! 

     It's what I have been focusing on for the past month.
Joey and I have undergone a complete change of eating habits and have maintained it for 30 days now.
This is my post to explain all the details.

     First of all, I didn't set out to start a diet when this all began. I have been needing to make a change however since I had gained a bunch of weight AFTER giving birth in January. Yes, After.
     Two things proceeded this big change. One, I had been reading lots of newly published material on habits and willpower. I was hoping it would eventually lead to having more willpower in the eating dept. but wasn't too encouraged because the book 'Willpower' stated that the advice therein wouldn't work for dieting because their findings indicate that you need sugar to power your brain (thus fueling willpower). The other thing was that I have been getting these awesome emails that post the newest stuff our library currently is receiving and I get an early crack at reserving good stuff. I can't pass up reserving a new release that looks interesting. (ps this is how I ended up reading about Habits in the first place too)
     So, one of the new releases I reserved was Bob Harper's 'The Skinny Rules'.

     There were so many people waiting for it that I was only allowed to check it out for a week. I have never had that happen before.
     I read the book, I felt it would work for us, and we dove into the change!

     Here is what I consumed before reading the book- Everything. Plus tons of chocolate milk and I loved my Dr. Peppers (LOVED) and I had no control, I was out of CONTROL!!!

     Here is what I (we) eat/drink now-  Apples, Water, Coffee (with very little sweetener), Almonds, Vegetables (limiting the ones that are carbs), lots of protein, lots of fiber,  Oatmeal, Meats, Cheeses...limited carbs (whole grain at that)

     Here is what we don't eat/drink- SUGAR, Potatoes, (accept sweet potatoes in moderation), Processed foods, Fast Foods (accept the one meal a week splurge allowed on the Skinny Rules Diet and even then it's just a burger, nothing else) cookies, cakes, donuts, etc. No COKES! No milk, (don't drink you're calories) No anything fun.

     I would have not bet money on me being able to eat like that for 30 days (or even a week!) So how did we do it? I'm not sure. One thing I learned from the book though, that changed my thinking is this- 'If you eat sugar, then you will crave sugar' Your body gets on a sugar high roller coaster that makes you want to snack all the time. Without the sugar (and carbs convert to blood sugar) you remain stable and eat less! It is true. The cravings all but went away when I quit cold turkey!

So the big question, did we lose weight?
Yes. And still losing. I hope to report back on that in another couple of months with more significant results, As for now it stands at about a ten pound loss for each of us!

One thing I didn't expect was that I lost interest in exercising and actually began to feel terrible after a few weeks. In fact, even last week, I was still feeling yucky and tired. I don't know if it was a type of detoxing that left me weak, but this week, I'm feeling much better and got back to my morning biking routine. I expected after a month off the bike that I would have trouble getting started. Before last month, I was going about a mile and a half in the mornings (not much) and it was taking me about 20 minutes.
Yesterday I set out at 6 a.m. for the first time in a month and did 4 miles in 30 minutes! I have my energy back and then some!!! Yay! Not only that, but I did Bob's Cardio workout last night and got up again this morning to do 4 more miles on the bike. I'm really looking forward to weighing myself at the end of this week to see if the exercise makes a big difference.

So, What is the end result in this experiment? The end result is that there is no end, hopefully, but that we will be able to keep it up as a new way of eating, not a temporary diet. This time next year I hope to be much more in shape and on my way to skinny!!!!