Primal Change & Why I Hate My Scale

Runapalooza!  It was an incredibly hot, cloudless day.

I am very happy to return to this blog after some months of hiatus!  It's been a busy and interesting summer, but that's another story...  To catch you up to now I've been crazy busy with work and roller derby and my sons and friends and my boyfriend moving in with us and camping and lots more!  Sadly, in this time, my health has been left by the wayside.  I started eating out more and soda once again became a nearly daily occurrence and ice cream was no longer a treat, it was a twice-weekly outing.  Still, I really didn't gain too much weight and I certainly didn't lose any.  My ability to bench and run withered quickly.  Even though I wasn't paying much attention to my health this summer I completed the inaugural Runapalooza 5K in 34:34 and my second Warrior Dash with some friends all decked out in our goth attire.  I was able to climb over walls that I didn't think I could and I felt excellent completing the Dash.

The happiest darned goths at the Warrior Dash!

Primal Change
Fast forward to October 13th and a derby Halloween party I attended as the Bride of Frankenstein.  A fellow skater had briefly mentioned paleo and we talked about it.  I had been considering paleo for the last year or so, but have really never taken steps to try it out.  I talked about it with Andy the next day and Monday I just started!  I do not have the ability to eat the wild-caught fish or grass-fed beef, but I've cut out the processed carbs to all but nothing (natural carbs are fine) and the sugars are gone and I'm eating mostly meat and veggies.  I now only eat when I'm hungry and have gotten back to the gym on a near-daily basis.  Since October 15th, I've lost over 5 lbs to my current weight of 184 lbs.  I am so terribly happy with this change!  I have already seen more energy and I love that the weight is finally going away!  Check out Nerd Fitness or Mark's Daily Apple for information about a primal/paleo lifestyle.  That's where I went!

Why I Hate My Scale

I plan to write this on my scale!

Really, my scale is pretty stellar.  It's digital with buttons to save 4 profiles of weight and takes body fat percentages as well.  However, it's far too accessible for me.  I weigh in almost daily and sometimes more than that.  One evening over the summer, after a particularly calorie-dense day of eating out, alcohol and soda and who knows what else, I weighed in right when I got home.  The scale shot back the numbers 2-0-1 at me.  REALLY?!  200 lbs again!  I honestly cried myself to sleep.  Then I got up in the morning and weighed in again to see 198.6... Better.  Then I weighed in again a few hours later and then again a few hours later.  The scale is a bitch.  I'm not mad at her for telling me that I did a terrible job eating.  I'm not mad at her for at one time telling me that nearly half my weight was body fat.  I'm mad that she exists.  I like the scale as a tool to give myself an idea about where I am with my fitness, but I am not using her like that.  I am using her on a daily basis to berate myself for the terrible job I did or didn't do.  Even if I see the numbers head south slightly, I wonder what I could've done to make it move faster.  But weight loss is supposed to be slow.  I continue to remind myself that it didn't take a month to put this weight on and I need to be patient.  So I am going to put her away.  She'll have to see the dark until I have my monthly weigh-in with my amazing friends and then she'll go away again.  If Andy or the boys care to check where they are weight-wise, and as men they certainly do not do this as much as I ever did (combined, I'm certain), they'll know where to find her.  To be certain I can free myself of her tight grip, I think I'll have one of the menfolk hide her.

Finally...
I'm on the path to better health that I have longed to be on.  We'll see how well the paleo lifestyle fits me and how much I'll tweak it as I make my way to eating whole foods and bring my family away from the crazy amounts of processed foods to a wider variety of vegetables, fruits and healthier (and more humane) meats.