Author: Tamara

I suddenly realized I never posted an official ‘after’ post about Whole30 and here I am about to kick off the second round!  For shame, Tamara!  In a nutshell, I ended up really liking the Whole30.  I do really well with restrictive opportunities.  I’m a vegetarian by choice and was a fat girl who could only shop in very limited stores for ages.  Sometimes I miss the lack of selection.  It was so simple and straightforward…  But I digress.  I guess the limited choices and clear intentions of the Whol30 plan/challenge makes me have to be truly transparent and honest with myself.  It’s not just the food itself, it’s the intention behind the food.  That intention made me super honest and I stuck to the whole30 as though my life depended on it.  I didn’t cheat at all.  I lost elevenish pounds and felt just amazeballs.  

I will fully confess to going further off plan than I intended after round one was officially over.  Peanut butter tagalong cupcake in point…  And tonight I ate fake meat, tortilla chips and yogurt because I know that tomorrow it’s over and I won’t be able to eat any of that at all.  I’m stepping back into the whole30 shoes earnestly, this time.  This time I know it works for me and I’m going to trust the process.  I wasn’t losing fat as fast as I wanted at one point and started restricting calories further before becoming discouraged and giving up for a few days during this window off.  Then I remembered- HELLO?  You just lost 11 pounds!  You have PMS bloat.  Get back on that flipping wagon and get your butt into gear!  So I am.  We will see how much I’ve lost 30 days from now.  If I lose no fat, at least I’ve gained thirty more days of healthy habits.  Cheers!

Btw- I’m starting this round at my weight from this morning of 228.

The Zumba bug has bit pretty hard again.  When you find an instructor whom you like it is everything.  I look forward to cardio-dance-Zumba Thursday nights and Sunday mornings like crazy.  This week I was super excited because I could hit another one of Jessica’s classes on Wednesday morning.  I was a little irked last week when a race event took my Sunday class and a school event took the Thursday.  Priorities, you know?!  Then last night I got a message to wear purple and plan to lift a glass at a surprise party afterwards to celebrate Jessica’s birthday, so I did.  

It was funny because not much was different except that we all wore purple and shared the party secret, but we all danced like a team or something.  We moved in the right directions together and miraculously I managed to do the same thing as the rest of the people most of the time!  It was so much fun.  The party afterwards will do a lot for the comradarie and community among us all in the future.  I met some really interesting people last night, some of whom carry pretty heavy work loads like me, and we all shared how this dance class is absolute therapy and joy for us all.  

I’m so happy that I rejoined the gym last summer and am incredibly grateful that I gave dance another shot.  If I could dance with Jessica every day I would.  Guess what?  I can!  Just like I dance with my kids at school I can dance at home.  Today I decided to practice some of the dances and try some new.  The following was an almost 50 minute workout and was a lot of fun!  All of these are from Jessica’s YouTube channel except the last ones that I found on the Fitness Marshall’s YouTube channel.  Have fun!!!

When he backs away after walking in on a serious discussion 😂

cool down:

The Big Climb is a fundraiser for blood cancers that is held annually in Seattle at the tallest building in Seattle: The Columbia Tower. There are 69 floors of stairs, 1311 steps, and 788 feet of vertical elevation.  People who sign up not only get to stump for cash to help fund research, but we also earn the privilege of climbing those 69 stories to the top to see my gorgeous city: Seattle.  Fun?  Yep.  Hard?  Yep.  But still fun?  Oh yes! (And not nearly as hard as you would think!  It took me a mere 24 minutes!)

I joined Team Trigger.  A student of mine from last year climbed and I thought it would be fun to join his team and climb along.  I loved the Base to Space climb.  The challenge was marvelous to conquer, but the people I carried on my way up made the experience profound and meaningful unlike other events.  I knew the people who were fighting this.  as fundraising continued, this season, things keep happening to remind me how important it is to be proactive.  I developed a greater understanding of my dad’s leukemia and watched him get more and more tired with each illness.  My old classmate from high school, Dawnelle, who was in remission found out that cancer wants round two with her.  It will lose.  Then I found out that the team I joined was built around my student’s mother who has battled lymphoma twice in her twin boys’ short lives.    If I’m lucky enough to avoid the cancer then I need to be proactive in helping others out by raising money and carrying their spirits up to the top of the tower with me in hopes that someday someone might do the same for me if I’m ever in that predicament.

Lastly, look at my friend Dawnelle and what a stud she is.  With nine people she raised almost 80,000.  Can you believe that?  She’s in the fight against cancer in her very own body right now and did that, earned a whole floor and inspired every single person who climbed that tower with her mural.  To everyone, keep on fighting.  For yourself or others, it doesn’t matter.  We are all in this together.

It’s safe to say that I pulled out all the stops this year.  I was a rainbow in motion.  I was the one moms were saying follow that lady in the rainbow tutu about.  Cap’n Awesome upped her game at this year’s Kirkland Shamrock Run!

We ran this little 5k for the third time.  Jude remembered how tough those hills were last year but then tackled them like a boss.  I’m so proud of my little running buddy.  He doesn’t love it 100% yet, but he gives it his all and I’m always so impressed!  This year Freddie had a bib, too.  Something about that pleased me to no end.  Of course gigi took off like a rocket and finished ages before us.  LOL

This year I met up with the Orca Running Amabassadors before the race and it was kind of nice to see them in person.  After the race was over and we had collected a large amount of chocolate milk, I checked in at the Orca booth to pick up some swag.  I walked away with a couple bonuses because I had a bunch of people use my Orca Running code and I earned a hat and sleeves and some other stuff.  It was kind of exciting!  Thank you for registering for the races- I really love that people just save a few pennies.  Anything I earn is just a nice surprise!

Today my daughter asked me if I’m looking forward to going back to my old ways after the Whole 30 is over next Sunday.  I paused, reflected and realized the Whole 30 did its job: it redefined me as an eater.  I was out of control, both with bad choices and self control.  I was back to eating pretty much whatever I wanted.  When I saw that 242 on the scale after a month of yo-yo-ing I almost panicked.  If it was this easy to get from 190 to 242 in a little over a year, my trajectory had me right back at 300 by 2019.  There was this moment of defeat, which now I’m calling bottom.  It wasn’t nearly as desperate as last time but it was a very necessary intervention.  Whole 30 pulled me out of that pit and gave me the tools and means to get back on my self again.  What am I looking forward to?  

• Eating a piece of pizza with my family.  Trying VEGAN pizza.
• I’m interested in leaning vegan.  I found alternates that surprised and pleased me.
• I’m excited that food is fuel, again.  Not entertainment.
• Fake.  Meat.  I miss that.  A lot.  
• A variety of protein sources.
• I am looking forward to eating a piece of chocolate every once in a while.
• Control.  I’m back in control and I love it.

I won’t miss:

• Worrying about SWYPO.
• Not being able to cook creatively.
• Eggs and tofu.  Mostly eggs.  🤢 I’m so sick of eggs.

See, moving forward I don’t want to go back to my old ways.  I want to stick with these ways.  I’m finding it pretty accessible and I like the food.   I don’t cheat on this, at all.  ,I feel bright and alive.  I’m not tired and I’m losing weight.  It’s my ridiculously slow pace, but still.  I’m losing weight again.  And honestly?  The first time I lost weight it was all about health and saving my life.  This time I want to be cute again.  I fully agree that I’m cute now, but when the way I feel matches my perception of myself I will feel so cute.  Watch out.  

I undertrained, underplanned and underprepared but by golly, today we ran the Hot Chocolate 15k!  I love this run.  We get to wind through the downtown Seattle area, past Pike then back toward Woodland park via the Aurora Bridge.  The past two years have been really HARD for me.  The weather hasn’t helped, either.  But this year?  This year the race went by really fast and before I knew it I was headed back into the city!  I think it has a little to do with confidence and experience.  This isn’t my first Hot Chocolate run, it’s not my first time on this course and it’s not even my longest distance.  Maybe I’m at the point where nine miles is fun?  Maybe???  As I ran today I had random noticings that I texted to myself, so I’m just going to share those, here:

• There were two really older dudes running together.  Clearly their running relationship went way back as they chatted on and on, mile after mile, white hair blowing in the breeze.  I tried to catch up to them but they were too fast for me and all I could think was that when I’m in my 80’s and I’m working with a limp like that one guy had, I sure hope I have the tenacity to run nine miles with a good buddy.  It was beautiful.  Fitness and friendship goals all over the place…
• Some people have fabulous costumes.  I tend to like the more subtle ones that make me feel like I’m being let in on an inside joke, so I loved one woman’s Stitch, of LILO and Stitch, costume.  It was just Stitch colored and had markings to look like him and it made me think I need to start getting creative….
• Which brings me to my next topic: I need to make a rainbow tutu.  I have the rainbow hat, socks and schwings, I just need the tutu and I’ll be a vision.  Or something.
• Wedgies.  Butts.  There they are in front of me as I’m running for two hours and they’re what’s moving around in front of me, bouncing, wiggling, jiggling, flexing so I often find myself unintentionally just butt watching.  In a race like today’s one becomes a booty anthropologist.  Everyone is wearing tight stuff, butts are out.  Big or small, flat, round, wide, long… But what makes me most studious are the people with the mega wedgie.  Like, their running pants or shorts are so high up in their crack that the cheeks are separated into two entirely singular entities.  You can see muscle tone and it gets pretty intimate, sometimes.  😂🤣🤣  I wonder how that feels.  Maybe it’s an excellent way to run, I don’t know….  Anyhow, it would drive me CRAZY to have a wedgie of that magnitude driving a wedge betwixt  my own situation and I want to ask!  Not to make a scene or embarrass them- I truly want to know.  To each their own, though!  To be clear, having a wedgie is fine, I just wonder at the effectiveness at reducing chaffing and just that wedgie feeling rubbing around in there for nine miles, you know?
• My favorite moment of the day was when I was on my way back across the bridge and you get to see the people who are last.  The walkers, bringing up the rear with a sweeper car slowly stalking them.  No pressure, right?  There was this one lady, though, looked new to running, chubby, third from last, but she had a cheering squad!  I’m assuming here, but her husband, who was not in the race, he had signs, cowbells and three little boys who were parading around and next to her as she made her way across the bridge.  They must have seen her right at the start bridge and they started making a hullabaloo, letting everyone on that bridge know that she was loved and they believed in her.  YOU CAN DO IT!  GO MOMMY!  WE ARE PROUD OF YOU!  It was a gorgeous display of love and support and I couldn’t get enough of watching them.
• Because this was my third year in a row, I get a medal for being a legacy runner.  Who knew?  They were out of them, though and are mailing it to me.  Lol

Today marks day 15 on the Whole 30!  I’m officially halfway through and I feel all kinds of normal and fine and good.  I think having the cold really distracted me from feeling weird or having sugar withdrawals, I feel really normal!  Here are some noticings, though:

• I had a couple of sore spots on my tongue for a few months- like sensitivity to acidic or spicy foods- that I’ve been wondering about and they’ve magically healed up.  
• Drinking coffee with just a splash of almond milk is no big deal anymore.  I have decided to maintain this habit moving forward.  There’s no reason I need a giant, sweet, sugary, 300 calorie drink to start my morning every day.
• I’ve totally adjusted to my anxiety medication and don’t have to eat a meal with my pill anymore.  In the morning, I have my coffee, a banana and I’m juuuuust fine.  Thus, my overeating and anxiety around this issue is all but gone.  This fear and resulting anxiety are the primary cause of my recent weight gain.  Their absence should make my healthful future with a healthy diet attainable again.  
• Being a vegan doesn’t seem like a compromise or difficult anymore.  There’s plenty of good stuff out there.  The only non-vegan food I’m eating right now is an egg in my breakfast bake and the odd bit of ghee, but I’m certain I could find a replacemen for both. 
•  Cashew cream is surprisingly versatile and replaces a lot of the dairy textures that I desire and seek.  It’s not going to fool anyone, but it stands nicely on its own as another option that is more than acceptable to me.
• TMI: My colon has to be thrilled with my fiber intake.  My poop is like a pile of sawdust.  I’m eating so much fiber, no sugar and no gluten so things stay loose and I imagine things are really nice in my large colon, now.  I don’t have uncomfortable bowels or anything, but it’s nice to be like ok, this is normal, I’m not alone…  
• My energy is great.  I’m not tired or anything.
• Eating this healthy isn’t more expensive than eating all the other stuff.  Packaged and refined foods give fresh eating a real run for the money, literally.
• I miss chocolate more than anything else.  I’m glad I get to eat it again shortly.  It’s nice to realize that when this is over, it just means I can add things back in.  I can include chocolate in the future.
• I had my first cheat.  Wanna know what it was?  I put regular instead of raw cashews on my fried cauliflower rice and decided to eat them instead of picking them off.  Big cheat.  Whatta rebel.
• I eat the same thing all the time. I had originally planned on photographing and posting every meal, but when you eat fried cauliflower rice every day and sweet potato and apple breakfast bake every day….  Yeah.  It gets tedious to find new ways to make it look good to Instagram so I scrapped that plan.  I still post to it, but not like I thought I would.
• I’m losing weight!  I can do this!

One of my greatest sound bites and takeaways from this experiment is this advice: hunger is satisfied by any food.  Cravings are satisfied by specific foods and have little to nothing to do with actual hunger.  I have a lot of cravings and I’m getting more and more successful at identifying which is which.  I’m amazed to realize that I’m not hungry that much, but food calls to me often.  This should be helpful, moving forward.

I joined an accountability group on Facebook this week.  A friend of mine, last year, who most people would think didn’t need to lose weight, joined and lost a few pounds and gained a new sense of health.  She looked pretty great before, but after?  She glowed.  I wanted some of that.  I figured there are worse ways to spend thirty smacks, so I threw my hat in the ring.  Turns out that the person who loses the most wins the pot, too.  I don’t have designs on winning, but every week I will weigh in with a photo and share it to the group.  There are people who weigh from as low as 119 all the way up to 425.  There are men and women and we are all there for the same thing: support and accountability.  So far, it’s been a really positive experience and I’m pretty happy with it.  Since my weigh in on 3/1, my scale has already changed!  🙂 So far, since 1/1/18, I have lost ten pounds.  I’m not going to complain about that.  Instead, I’ll just keep busting my booty and moving forward!

Tomorrow I have a race, Hot Chocolate Run, that I haven’t trained for.  First the injury then bronchitis and I can safely say I haven’t run farther than six miles in six months.  Tomorrow’s race is nine miles.  I’ll probably be walking like a duck for the first half of next week.  This race forced me to really think about nutrition on run and whether or not it is a cheat from Whole 30.  I decided to take unsweetened applesauce on the run and I’m going to drink that cup of hot cocoa at the end with glee.  I’ll bypass the fondu, but I cried thinking about that hot cocoa this morning.  I am so excited!  Seriously!  I’m planning to run nine miles tomorrow so I can justify a cup of hot cocoa.  LOL!  I know, according to the Whole 30’s rules and bylaws that I’m really supposed to start over completely, but I’m planning to let it slide and just keep trucking.  I think this is only my first Whole 30 and there will be more that come along after it until I get to where I want to be with my body.  I’m even considering going *gasp* vegan!

Today marks day number seven of the Whole 30 and guess what?  I’m doing great!  I am so proud of myself, I haven’t cheated by eating off plan on purpose once.  Not once!  And there were opportunities…  Like when I smelled Doritos and had to actively redirect my brain to focus elsewhere.  Or when I came home to Friday night pizza night and I couldn’t participate.  Each time I’ve had to pull up my big girl panties then seek out my satisfying alternative.  They do exist and I’m in shock at how well all of this seems to be going.

When I think about why this seems easy it comes down to me being the kind of person who does really well with defined boundaries.  I like having things and practices on and off the list.  As a vegetarian, I’m used to looking at a menu and having a very small selection.  As a fat girl, shopping was limited to very few stores with very little square footage dedicated to my person.  I had to make do.  Refocus.  Try a different route. 

It’s working, too.  I feel good.  I’m not tired or spacey.  I’m not hungry more than normal.  The strangest thing?  With the exception of eggs, it’s vegan.  I’ve always wanted to try being vegan but was afraid to do it.  Now I’m learning that it’s not so hard and the eggs are my least favorite part of any meal.  On top of that, I weighed in at 230 today which means I’ve lost nine pounds since 1/1/18!



  I feel so happy to be back to myself again.  Truthfully, I’ve been feeling a bit lost.  My identity seemed in flux and I wasn’t too sure what to think about myself.  I felt myself morphing back into my old self and I felt powerless to her, my inner fat girl.  This fresh start was just the perfect thing to redirect myself with a new plan.  My previous way of doing things kept leading me back through a cycle where I’d be successful for two or three days then I’d trust myself to make smart choices.  That inevitably turned into problematic habit building and I’d end up losing any momentum I got in those three days at the beginning!  This time I feel like I’m back.  For realz!

I’m almost  finished with day three of my Whole30.  So far so good.  I think my timing for starting is good for me because I’m not having too many cravings, I’m not hungry and I’m not prowling for food.  Could it be that I’m eating right so my body is happy and satisfied?!?!  What a thought!

One thing that I’m sort of struggling with is making sure that my food is whole.  Let me explain.  According to Whole30 plan, we are not supposed to make fancy, compliant pancakes or desserts that replace the ones we like because the goal is to shift one’s entire way of eating.  We want to change habits, not just lose a couple of pounds.  There is this acronym SWYPO which means (and I’m not making this up) ‘sex with your pants on.’  The idea is that having sex with our pants on, while satisfying and meeting our needs, is not nearly as good as with our pants off.  Instead of having sub-par experiences with compromised foods that are compliant in ingredients but not in spirit, instead we aim to enjoy the foods we are eating.  Find new favorites.  You get the idea.  So the other day I was eating spaghetti squash with tomatoes and it was just meh.  I added a tablespoon of cashew cream and it blew my mind!  So good!  It was like vodka sauce!  Later I was in a cycle of self congratulation with myself and realized I may have accidentally SWYPOed!  I started dialing everything back to basics after that and was essentially looking at a plate with squash, lentils, vegetables and never shall they touch!  I couldn’t imagine the author wanted me to do that and I realized the idea isn’t to restrict foods, necessarily, rather explore and integrate whole, healthy foods.  Almost everything is an imitation of something, this is no different.  When I try making Whole 30 brownies is when I need to regroup!

Welp, I made it!!  I was honest to goodness worried about starting a restrictive nutrition plan on a Sunday with access to my kitchen all day long, but today was a solid success!  I ate the foods I prepared when I got hungry for them and everything went pretty well.

I decided to journal my food a little differently this time.  I’m posting everything I eat to a new Instagram feed, so if you’re wondering what a vegetarian person eating the Whole 30 way consumes, click here and follow!

 

A few things:

• I need some soy sauce.  Bad.  I bought the wrong kind and it’s guh -ross!!  It’s made with black sesame seeds and is 2x concentrated.  That’s what you get for assuming all soy sauce is created equal at the Asian food market.
• I also need some almond butter.  It will be a salve that soothes, I’m certain.
• Plantain chips are about to become very important to me.
• Cauliflower rice does not taste like rice, it only looks like rice.  Once it’s in your mouth it is definitely cauliflower no matter how much like rice it looks.  Cauliflower is nummy, but it’s good to be aware going in that you can’t fool your mouth that easily!
• Cinnamon on sweet potatoes is heavenly.
• I got the sugar bug around 4:00, ate half an apple and it did the trick.  Phew!
• Cashew cream is easy to make and it actually tastes really good!  Soak a cup of raw cashews overnight in 2 cups of room temp water, pour off the water the next day, add 1/2 a cup of water and blend it up until it’s creamy smooth.  I added salt, lemon and nutritional yeast to make mine more cheesy.  It isn’t going to fool you into thinking it’s cream cheese or sour cream, but YUM!  You won’t care!

I happened to come down with a vicious cold this morning so I sat around in a stupor all day.  I did important tasks like making my bed and drawing in my bullet journal.  Hopefully I’ll feel better tomorrow and can work out.