Be Gentle With You

Several dollops of sour cream, two tubes of frozen Greek yogurt, a few cups of tea with real milk or half-n-half, and a couple slices of cheddar cheese later – I feel fine. I slept well. My fingers feel the same.

According to the scale, I’ve lost 2 more pounds. But two pounds in two days is nonsense if you are considering calories in and calories burned, so the scale once again only confirms what I already knew. I felt kind of bloaty when I woke up on the day I was to weigh myself – Day 31. My back hurt (extra). I had a headache. And I had some abdominal cramps.

I was ovulating.

Sorry if that’s too much information, Gentle Reader, but it’s part of being a female person. You do it enough times (I figure I’ve ovulated about 12 times a year for 35 years, minus a couple of pregnancies, so let’s call it 400 times), you know how it feels. HOWEVER, when you are eating lots of chemicals and consuming lots of soda, it gets a little confusing. Am I feeling bloaty because I ate Doritos for lunch and washed it down with a Route 44 Dr. Pepper from Sonic® (with the best ice!)? Or am I feeling this way because my miracle of a body is preparing to make a baby if the conditions are right?

So, I’m guessing if Day 31 had not fallen on the-day-of-conception-preparation, the scale would have read two pounds lighter. This is only significant in that I spent 30 days eating so many foods that every diet tells you to limit, and I not only did not limit them – I ate loads of them. I measured, weighed, and counted zero food. I took the Whole 30 people seriously when they said my ONE JOB was to eat only the foods on their list.

I ate HALF an avocado at a meal (instead of the 1/8 of an avocado that is the usual suggested portion). I ate handfuls of nuts several times a day (hundreds of calories in each handful). I ate steak without trimming every bit of fat. I didn’t skim all the fat off the chicken broth I made. I ate bacon and cooked my eggs in the bacon grease. Mayo (homemade) was on the list – as was olive oil and clarified butter.

I ate as much as I wanted of these decadent foods – and I lost nearly 10 pounds in a month.

This means it is not all about calories in/calories out. It’s more complicated than that. And it’s more simple than that. It’s about spending some time paying attention to your miracle of a body and learning the lessons she is teaching you.

I didn’t take any pictures yesterday of food or whatever. So, here’s a picture of my silly dogs for your viewing pleasure. Eleanor Rigby sometimes sleeps in ridiculous poses, and Roxy would like to be as close to me as possible – so, if I’m on the sofa on the other side of the gate, she’s up against that gate.