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This is the first of a series of quarterly updates now on how life is going in maintenance mode since ending my last round 16 months ago (actually I just realized it was 17 months- sorry guys- some of these posts I’m working on for 2 months at a time so the timeline gets skewed). Mainly because there is not enough information out there for AFTER hCG. You know, that decades long part of life?  Seems kinda important given the time period it spans.

While I have maintained my weight loss, it’s not like every single day of the last 16 months I’ve been the exact same weight. So I’m hoping that perhaps by sharing my triumphs, my struggles, and how I work at keep things in balance without gaining large amounts of weight back and bringing things back to level on my own when needed, this might aid you in doing the same.

My Weight the Past 3 Months

I’ve been pretty much between 123-125 lbs for the most part.  A few highs and a few lows here and there.

So what I have been up to, aside from taking….

• 80 photos of asparagus
• 48 photos of yogurt
• 166 photos of spinach
• 92 pics of fennel
• 91 photos of lemons
• 114 photos of cucumber
• and 168 photos of onions?

168 pics of ONIONS??  Yup, true story.  For an up and coming gallery of P2 protocol foods! Now you’re thanking me.

My MAJOR Triumph:

I reached 15% bodyfat.  Man oh man.  I completed hCG 16 months ago at 17.9% bodyfat with 21.3 lbs of fat, and really my goal the majority of this past 16 months has simply been to maintain my level of fat but to gain additional muscle and get stronger at crossfit.

This was after a not so pleasant body fat test done on February 15th, showing a 1lb fat gain and 1lbs LOSS of Muscle – WHAT???

I sat down to analyze what went wrong.  The 1lb fat gain was not such a big deal to me- it’s easy to overeat and the 1lb fat gain was over a period of 4 months since my previous body fat test in October 2013 – that’s easily fixable and understandable.  What didn’t make sense was the muscle loss.  There should have been a muscle increase with 4 additional months of crossfit, a couple which were 4 days a week, and not only did it stay the same, it dropped.

I narrowed down the 3 things I felt may be contributing to this odd outcome:

1. I was still on a low dose of thyroid medication and realized I probably no longer needed it.
2. I had gotten lazy about eating protein after workouts – sometimes not getting around to eating a meal till 2-3 hours after crossfit, on a regular basis.
3. Was fasting intermittently about 1x a week.  Once I bumped up my crossfit to 4 days a week I thought perhaps it was too much for me?

Removing My Thyroid Meds

I got off my thyroid medication (that day in fact).  Since the medication I took was active thyroid hormone, T3, also called cytomel, it is a known muscle stripper if taken in excess of what the body needs and can definitely cause muscle loss.  I had other indicators that I no longer needed the additional thyroid hormone, but I had been nervous to actually get off of it.  In fact, I had tried several times in the past several months, but always got nervous that my weight would go up so I would resume taking it.  This time, I felt this was enough proof that I really didn’t need it anymore and that now it was actually making things worse for my body, not better.

Warning!  I was only on a tiny dose so it was okay for me to get off overnight like this.  Had I been on a higher dose I would have had to wean off slowly over time.  Obviously, most people do this with the aid of a doctor.  I have come to find for myself that dosing by symptoms has been better for me, and I got my t3 from Mexico.

Eating Protein Soon After Crossfit Workouts

I decided to be more responsible about eating soon after my workout – the last 6 weeks I have made sure to come home and cook up some chicken or ground beef right away and eat it, along with either kale salad or some clementines.

Fasting A Little Less Often

I only fasted twice in the past 6 weeks.  However, I actually AM still kind of fasting on a regular basis in the sense that I still don’t eat breakfast and I still often don’t eat before 2pm.  But as far as an actual all day fast where I don’t eat until dinner, which I was doing about 1 day a week prior, I am rarely doing at the moment.  Since I’m crossfitting 4 days a week and then of course on recovery days I feel the need for some fuel, I’m finding there just aren’t as many good opportunities to fast – a day where I’m recovered from a workout and not working out that day are few and far between.  So I made that adjustment to fast less often.

These changes obviously were the right choice for me since I dropped an entire almost 5lbs of fat in the last six weeks and had a gain of 2lbs of muscle.  VERY PLEASED.

Follow Up Lyme Treatment

The only other thing that changed in the past 6 weeks between these two tests is I had some follow-up lyme disease treatment, and it’s possible that it may have allowed my body to do better.

First I want to make it clear that I have NO testing to prove I have lyme disease.  The testing for this disease is notoriously poor with frequent false negatives.  I came to this conclusion myself after researching the various symptoms and seeing my health decline in a similar fashion over the past 10 years.  I strongly feel that’s what I’ve had all this time.  Back in November, I spent a whole month out of town getting an alternative lyme disease treatment involving cold laser and rife frequencies.  I can only tell you I came home a changed person.  I’ve been so much better since then that it’s like night and day.  But in the last month, I had started to feel like I might be regressing just a tad.  I went in for some follow-up and there did seem to be indication through the muscle testing that I did have some residual lyme going on in the “hatch stage” of the lyme organisms’ life cycle, which I’ve been getting treated for the last 4 weeks.  Once again, I feel improvement in my symptoms.  Whether or not this contributed to such a great body fat test this time around I don’t know.  I’m including it because it’s another “different” thing that was going on during this time.

My Current Eating Habits:

Dairy free
Nut free
Gluten free

What I do eat (examples further down):
Veggies
Meat
Occasional grain- usually white rice (when I eat Thai- yum) and organic corn (tortillas and popcorn mostly)
Fruit

Working on:

Eating more raw veggies.

I am eating whole heads of kale for a salad- stuff like that.  Warning though!  This is not something you can just jump into- you need to gradually increase raw veggies you’ll experience some major painful indigestion (don’t ask me how I know).

Getting to Crossfit 4 times a week.

I have been a solid 2-3 time a week crossfit gal for 2 years, but as I’ve gotten stronger and my body has changed I have found I can easily handle going more often without too much soreness.  That being the case, I got in a pretty solid 4 day a week crossfit routine this month- it just feels good and really is something that keeps me grounded.

Challenges This Quarter

Occasionally I buy packages of dried fruit- the unsulphured kind- dried mango is a favorite of mine- however I can only do this now and then because invariably I eat way too much it in one sitting and have this sensation that my stomach is fully of a bunch of gummy stuff.  So yes, I do not have completed control over something so sweet at this time, so most of the time, I simply don’t buy it.

I’m a total wuss when it comes to confrontation- no need to explain the details, but in short our landlady got very confrontational with me over a misunderstanding and it was hard for me- I’m a sensitive soul- always have been and I’ve learned to except it.  Since I live a pretty sheltered life- husband treats me great, I work from home so I don’t frequently come into contact with rude strangers etc, it’s rare for me.  I was an emotional mess- the kind where you wander around the house crying and aimlessly cleaning up at the same time while trying to process how you feel.  It was challenging for 2 reasons- first, the fact that I could turn to food to comfort myself, which would have been super bad timing for my body and my emotional health as I had just resolved that day to do some super clean eating for the next week, and 2ndly it happened about an hour before I was supposed to leave for crossfit.  I contemplated not going- I felt horrible and really didn’t want to leave and go work out.  I wanted to sit with my pillow and watch tv with a big bowl of popcorn and one or two P3 smoothies to top it off.

I triumphed on both accounts in the end- my son and I both headed to crossfit (he has his own kids crossfit class once a week as well now and I hated to disappoint him).  I told myself I should at least get myself there and I could always choose to not work out once I was there.  I worked out.  It felt good.  Didn’t take the sadness away but what’s important is that I took care of myself  instead of harming myself because of being hurt by someone else.  I stuck to my commitment to eating clean that day as well- now tears in popcorn bowls that day.

My Crossfit Calendar

As you can see, I’ve been to crossfit 4 days a week steadily most of the past 3 months.  And it’s felt great!!  Many new accomplishments and PR’s during this time.

P4 Meal Examples in My Daily Life

Here’s a fairly large meal I had about 4:30pm after coming home from crossfit around 2pm.  It’s leftover pasture raised chicken, sweet potatoes, and hummus for the chicken, with several pats of butter strategically placed all over the dish.  I was full when I finished it.

I thought it would be fun to record my weight before and right after this meal.  Just because we ladies take scale weight a little too much to heart sometimes and forget how much our food weighs when we eat it.

And this is literally at 4:52pm, less than half an hour later after I finished that meal:

Amazing huh! 2lbs worth of food was in that plate.

Here’s some more examples of meals and snacks I eat:

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