Okay – March starts tomorrow and that really means spring is coming! You wouldn’t think so with the amount of snow we had since Friday. Here I am standing by a snow bank on the side of the house:
That would be about 4 feet high. Our bobsled chute:
It is very hard to see to get out of the driveway.
We have a big overhang of snow on our garage, which will fall off sometime today. It just froze this way.
Yes, I am still married to him…
Today is a rainy sleet mess, but at least we don’t have to shovel it!
I chose not to go to the gym today to run on the treadmill. I thought about it while drinking up some protein.
Just not feeling the run,though; part of which is some nagging knee pain that I think might be related to my old back injury. So, I stayed home and rode on the trainer for 10 miles. Good enough!
Time for breakfast! I made up a bunch of the magic rolls yesterday so we can eat them this week. John really likes them. I had an egg sammie with laughing cow. Skipped the hot sauce in the a.m., though.
Since it is the last day of February, time to do a review. Here is the assessment of my goals for this month:
1. Continue with weight loss efforts. Did really well here. I lost 3 pounds, which is the last of the Christmas weight. Woo Hoo! Like I said, 1 week to put on, 2 months to take off.
2. Experiment with some eating protocols. Just for fun. I might try doing a couple low carb days just to see what they are like. Or more likely paleo/primal type eating. I incorporated some lower carb days each week. Really more of a sugar and grain free approach with higher fat. This was a surprising hit for me. I will discuss more below.
3. Be more productive with my down time. Down time is great, but I don’t need to spend it all on the computer or playing games. That means reading more books, going out for events, etc. Success here. John and I went to a couple of concerts and I read voraciously this month. Not to mention the new half bath we are putting in.
4. Do more recipe cooking and not just meal assembly. Another success! Some of the cooking involved Chicken chili, Chicken with balsamic tomatoes, Magic Rolls, Coconut Curry Chicken.
5. Clean the house for 15 minutes each day a la Fly Lady. I was doing really well with this, then about mid month I started slacking off, especially when we started working on the renovation. Oops.
A good month overall. Tomorrow reboots with some new monthly objectives.
I was ready for a circular lunch today. I needed fiber, so I did a 1-minute muffin (pumpkin) topped with some coconut butter.
Tasty. I am wanting to do a cream cheese frosting on this thing again. That always goes well with pumpkin.
So let’s talk some numbers and some fat. Regarding doing the lower carb stuff during last month, this took me quite a bit out of my comfort zone. Not so much having less carbs, because we all do that from time to time just naturally. It was the fat.
Since I was keeping carbs at 100 and my protein requirement that I personally like is around 100 g – that left a lot of calories left over that I needed to eat. So that meant fat. Like butter, coconut butter, nuts (started to get out of hand with these), 2% milk. I even moved to some half and half in my coffee. I found out my body really likes the fat. It kept me full. In fact, I had to make sure I ate enough on some days. It was such a great feeling to not have that nibbling urge. I only had 1 day during February where I just out and out ate – and that was last week when I had some stress and just ate a lot of chocolate chips and nuts and granola. The other day I ate a whole bunch of food was Superbowl Sunday. Nuff said on that one. 😳
Anyway, there was a little bit of paranoia on my part that I would gain weight from eating all the fat, even though my calories were in check. Still old prejudices there, although they are leaving. I averaged 1704 calories per day during the month of February. And less exercise than normal. Now, I only did lower carb 3 to 4 days a week and my normal eating on the other days. But overall, my whole monthly diet consisted of 40% fat. On the lower carb days, it was as much as 65%. And I still lost 3 pounds.
An experimental study of 1, but interesting nonetheless. I was able to get in at least 20 grams of fiber on lower carb days, so not too low. The not having cravings for sweets or just eating was the ultimate bonus in my book.
I could talk about this more, but I am sure many of you are like this:
Now back to regularly scheduled programming – afternoon snackage!
Fairly busy with work today, which is a great way to start out the week. That latte kept me full until dinner (thank you 2% milk). Dinner was something different. I stopped at the smokehouse yesterday to load up on meat for the freezer. Sometimes you never know what kind of meats they will have. They had cube steaks yesterday. So I cooked one up to put atop some butter lettuce. Topped with greek dressing and feta cheese.
This was really good. I think I like the butter lettuce mix better than the spring mix I normally get. I am not a big fan of the radicchio in it.
Tonight is the rest of the work and then a pumpkin snack:
Yeah, I recycled this picture for you LOL!
Question: What kind of salad mix is your favorite?
My body likes fat, too but only when combined with smart carb days. Processed carbs plus fat equals weight gain. Isn’t that funny? Baby romaine herb salad blend is my favorite. Everything is better with the addition of fresh herbs! Can’t wait to start planting them.
It is funny how that works. I had to make sure that when I did my regular eating days that I didn’t overeat the fat LOL!
I love hearing about your food experiment! So interesting about the fat! I find that when I eat higher fat cheeses, milk or oils, I am much more satisfied also! Hmmm…may have to try an experiment myself 🙂
Funny, today I was about to go on Fly Lady and figure out a cleaning schedule for myself. Then, I thought…yeah, who am I kidding… 😉
I was thinking about what kind of points WW would assign to one of my lower carb/high fat days LOL! It would probably be scary 😀
High fat works really well for me too–nuts, seeds, avocados, coconut, half-fat milk & cheese, etc. NOM NOM NOM NOM.
Your foods always look so good. I like mixing the fruit with the greens. I had a lettuce salad with raisins, strawberries, boiled egg, and some cottage cheese.
Great job losing the Christmas weight! You should feel really happy about your hard work paying off–even being snowed in. 🙂
Oh I’m so jealous that you have your Christmas weight off! Good for you! I might have to get serious about trying the low carb days. It worked for me in the past.
Lately, my favorite lettuce is the romaine hearts. So crunchy! I like the baby lettuce, but there are a couple of things I pick out of there. I haven’t seen the butter lettuce, will have to look for it.
I like plain Romaine lettuce in my salad. I don’t like any of the bitter ones like radicchio or arugula.
I am another fan of high fat and it works for me.
I am enjoying your experiment!
I think you did a great job on your goals this month!
Christmas weight gone — fantastic! I’m about 8 lbs behind you still! I miss fats… healthy fats = great yumminess. And yes, fullness too. Strange how that works. Change it up once in a while is good for the body/metabolism/mind, methinks.
My favorite salads have nuts on top!
Congrats on your weight!
I’m curious what you eat to get 40% fat. Just about all the healthy fats have been knocked out for me due to my new kidney stone diet. grrr I can only do so much with olive and canola oil and Promise spread. :p~~~
Aren’t you just SO ready for spring? Snow is pretty in pictures, but we’re on the eve of March,time to melt. We also have trouble seeing while backing out of our driveway.
Mostly saturated fat and nuts, really. I had more coconut oil (which I eat anyway), full fat cheese and fuller fat dairy. Plus cashews, pecans, and peanuts. I don’t do veggie oils anymore.
I am so ready for spring!
Okay…I don’t live back east and I say you have had plenty of snow, you and your hubby better invest in a bobsled to use on that run you have going on there.
Your eating experiment was interesting. I find myself not as hungry when I have had my 2 healthy oils in every day. Congrats on the 3 pound loss this past month!
You are doing awesome lady! Making goals, keeping goals, dang. Love reading your blog:)
I have noticed that you use laughing cow cheese more often than others. Does it have less fat content or it tastes better than others to you?
I just really like it. It spreads easy, which is one of the main reasons I use it.
I think you find a good variation in changing your days concerning your eating. I’ve always been a believer never to cut out all fat from the things we eat. We have an espresso machine at home and I drink that with hot milk and it’s the full fat version because it makes the coffee so much better. I use about a cup of that milk a day and I don’t care that it isn’t low fat.
I think you had a great month Lori! Bring on March with Spring!
Coffee and espresso with fuller fat milk is the best way to go. The fat in that brings out the fat soluble flavors in coffee and so good!
three pounds is awesome….and I find the more omegas I eat the leaner I get as well.
LOVE ME SOME SALMON ON TOP OF MY BUTTTTTER BLEND MIX OF SALAD 🙂
Really interesting on the fat thing Lori. My mind is not there yet with changing that drastically although I do have my lower carbs days too. It is my mind talking… I have already added in healthy fats to a higher % but doubt butter will enter & I am not a fan anyway. Definitely something to think about & I like the not super low carb like some do.. I do need my fiber to stay regular! 😉
I need to do that cleaning thing too!
Opps, congrats on the weight loss!!!!
Congrats on losing the Christmas weight! I have 5 pounds worth I need to work on. :-/ Oh well. I’ll get there.
Favorite salad mix is definitely spring mix. I just love it but my fiance despises it so it’s tough for me to buy anything bagged.
I’m not a big fan of radicchio either, but almost any other salad mix is tops with me. I’m with you on the fat, too. It helps so much with satiety, both physical and mental. 🙂
Great job getting the holiday weight behind you. I know it’s a relief!
I always love your monthly wrap up posts… how you look at things so objectively. I want to be like you when I grow up 😀
I actually usually buy a romaine blend and the butter blend and then mix them together. I like the contrast of the crunchy romaine against the really soft butter lettuce.
I think your experiment is interesting! Kudos on a great month. My SIL introduced me to Fly Lady and I signed up for emails and admit that I delete them before I read them. So my house needs some attention!
Bahaha, that’s a funny picture of John with the snow. My parents in NB now almost have 6 feet of snow in their yards! It’s up to my mother’s roof! And they’re predicting 2-3 more feet to fall in March.
Very interesting thoughts on increasing the fat intake. I’ve done that before and have noticed the same things. Strangely, I’ve lost weight since my accident even though I’m in bed or on the couch all day. Did you notice that with your injury? I think it’s a combination of having my hunger levels drastically drop now that I’m not working out and I’m also not eating out nearly as much.
I did lose a little weight when I was immobile. At first, my appetite was decreased from the pain pills, but it continued to go down after I got off those and was eating more. I think my body was actually pretty happy about the exercise break. It was strange, but a good thing 😀
It sounds like you experiment was a success. Does that mean you will continue with it at some level? Or try something new? Congrats on the weight loss! It looks like your February was an overall success based on what you wanted to accomplish. I like some of your ideas especially being more productive with down time, great idea! I need to do that as well. I like any kind of salad and like it even more with lots of feta cheese on it. 🙂
I might continue on with this to a degree. I like eating the fat, so it won’t be too hard LOL!
You had quite the successful FEbruary. Good for you!
Don’t cut your carbs too much. You exercise WAY too hard and need the energy.
As for the snow, I’ve had it. Got so spoiled when we were in S.C. How great it was to go outside less all those layers AND to run on clear roads. Lets just hope in another week, we open our eyes and see blades of green or at least daffodils rising?!!!
This has me thinking that I need to revamp things with our eating. My husband is naturally rail thin and he is hungry all the time. Maybe more fat in his diet would mean he spent less time pestering me to eat. Goodness knows *I* don’t need five meals and two desserts every day, which is what would make him happiest.
Yay for dropping the Christmas lbs. Hang in there re: the snow. It’s March now, your ground will surface again soon!!!!! Love the photo of John. And my favorite salads? Greens with any kind of fruit. LOVE that combination. Have a great day!
nice snackage goin on here! and congrats on the final loss of the christmas weight.
I think I eat less when I have more fat in my diet. Lately I’ve been drinking 2% milk because I got a deal at Sam’s Club and I must admit I really like it. I’ve never been one to drink a glass of milk but I have been lately.
I like butter lettuce blends but I usually just buy what is on sale.
Same with the weight loss, 1 week to put it on, and MONTHS to get it off…so frustrating!
I am going to ignore the fact that you chose not to add hot sauce to your morning egg sammie! 😀
I did notice when I did low carb that my fat ratio was about 50% – but I didn’t see much difference in the scale as long as the calories were the same.
I love goat cheese and carmelized walnuts in my salads – I usually save that for when we go out to eat though. 😀
Hi Lori.
I just found your site. Now I check it almost daily. Thanks for writing it. I’m working on some weight loss so it’s all very helpful. And, I enjoy the pictures.
I love spring mix with feta cheese, kalamata olives, roma tomatoes and a couple of walnuts tossed in, all drizzled with Italian dressing. Greek salad..yum!