State of my Union

Heh. Not like civil union, although, we did celebrate our one month anniversary yesterday (I know, we're dumb). My union, as in the state of ME. I feel that as someone who likes to write about personal nutrition and exercise, I owe readers periodic status updates as to where I'm at. There is nothing worse than thinking you are reading the blog of someone focused on bettering their health, only to find them spinning their wheels. So without further ado, lets recap the last 12 months:

September 2011- proclaimed 1 year of challenging myself to strict Paleo
October 2011- still going strong. Down 5ish pounds
November-December 2011- eh, doing ok down a few more pounds. Trip to Vegas, holiday treats creeped in.
January 2012- Holiday bloat in full effect, 7ish pounds lower than September, but in need of reset
February 2012- Reset month. End of February- lowest weight for me in 6+ years (18lbs lower than September 2011).
March 2012- Rebelled against reset month, but not in a super crazy way and was able to keep weight loss off.
April 2012- Decided to ditch my year long challenge, I was bored? IDK, I'm sure I had some good excuse at the time (see post from April 2, 2011 if curious). I was eating good somedays, not so good others, not out of control, gained 3 pounds since Feb low
May 2012- same as April, but began praciticing IF- loved IF, and was essentially able to eat what I wanted and maintain weight (a bad discovery for a sugar addict)
June 2012- Same as May, continued IF, same weight
July 2012- Same as June, continued IF, same weight
August 2012- reset month. Lost the 3 pounds, back to Feb low.
September 2012- wedding celebrations, slight rebel against reset eating, gained 3-5 lbs from low weight.
October 2012- Continued celebrations into first part of month. See bad habits creeping in. Gained 2 more lbs. I know what I have to do.

So, I'm still 11 pounds less than I was a year ago (progress) but typing out how the year went is not so stellar, if all we look at is pounds lost. I am a work in progress.

As far as capabilites, I've hit more PR's over the past year then I can count. Some current stats:
Max back squat (hips below parallel)- 235# (October 2011, I'm guessing it was around 205#?)
Deadlift- 245# (October 2011, again, guessing- 215#?)
Strict press- 95# (October 2011, guessing- 80#?)
Push press- 125# (October 2011, guessing- 105#)
400m run- 1:50 (October 2011- 2:20? still recovering from ankle at that time)
Max box jump- 27.5" (October 2011- not possible, still recovering from ankle)
Pull-up progression- green band (medium thickness) (October 2011- performing jumping pull-ups only)

This makes me happy, seeing some pretty large strength gains while losing 11 pounds. Hmm, perhaps the 11 pounds lost over the course of the year were not composed of simply water and lean muscle tissue.

Periodically, I like to do a reset on my eating. Since learning tremendous amounts about what works for me and what doesn't over the past 2+ years, occasionally I feel the need to get back to basics and re-test my tolerances, adjust my macros. What does this mean exactly? Well, for me, it means ditching all the little bits of sugar that have slowly crept into my diet. It means making sure my insulin response is working correctly by ditching the starchy carbs, and limiting fruit. It means kicking my body back into ketosis, which I've been out of since the before the wedding (over a month now!). It means drastically increasing my protein and vegetable intake. It means drinking a crap ton of water everyday, and it means being so incredibly boring for 4 weeks or so (no alcohol, eating the same things over and over).

The goal of this little exercise is to remind myself how good I feel when I'm fueling my body with the correct nutrients. I'm not trying to lose "weight." I'm not trying to fit into any specific outfit or see some number on a scale. The only thing I'm interested in is making my body as efficient as possible. I want to make sure that my body is able to access my fat stores and use those for energy. This switch takes time. I've mentioned before that I can tell the exact moment my body flips this switch. It's incredible.

I'm sure people are reading this and thinking, "if she knows what she needs to eat to feel good, why doesn't she just do that, always?!" Oh, boy. If I knew the answer to that question, I'd be one rich lady. The only thing I do know, is that I HAVE found what works for me. I feel so much more at ease with the concept of ditching conventional dietary advice. Also, I find that even my fit/healthy friends perform periodic "checks" where they focus on cleaning up their diet and/or focus on training for something for a period of time. Taking a few weeks to be strict with myself is something that I am no longer ashamed of, in fact I see it as a means to continuing my long term awarness, and a sign that my thoughts towards food/nutrition are reaching a more sane and balanced place. One important thing to point out is the scale of which this reset encompasses. This is not me going from a standard american diet to the Whole30, like the first time I tested eating real food/"paleo"/what have you back in 2010. This is me going from occasionally eating some rice with dinner, or having some chocolate for dessert, or drinking a glass of wine after work to NOT doing those things for a period of time.

After these next few weeks or so as I get my system up and going (fat adapted), I will resume my intermittent fasting. I really love the schedule of having a small eating period (1pm- 7pm) and performing my workouts fasted.

Here we go (again) Ctrl+Alt+Del