Nutritionista (or Nothing Shocking..Yet)

So, my first appointment was today.

I was NERVOUS.  Weird, right?  I figured she was either going to tell me I was eating perfect and I should be losing weight OR that everything I ate was wrong and I need to eat everything different.  Or that she was going to tell me to eat babies.  Just playing out the worst case scenarios in my head.  The game of “what if”, so to speak.

It was neither, of course.  I’m a little nervous about what the plan is, but actually excited, and the most important thing is it makes sense.

The first thing we went over is the drinking and smoking.  I talked about how I only smoke socially with a drink, and that the idea of smokes when I’m sober is revolting, but I also very much freak out at the idea of never smoking again.  I also made sure that she knew I was willing to give up some things, but my once a week night out/in having drinks was not one of them.  She understood.

Then, we discussed my workout schedule.  She was happy with the amount and quality of them (especially when I mentioned that this is kinda base and it gets crazy from here), and she simply asked that I try to stay consistent and do my workouts in the mornings for the time being while we play with my dietary intake.  It’s what I’ve generally been doing, so no biggie.

We discussed calories in, calories out.  She said that sure, it had worked for me before because it was such a drastic shift to the healthy (eating less amounts of crap is better than eating more amounts of crap), but when you get to a point where you’re trying to take off very little weight like I am, it just doesn’t hold true any more.  She said calories are not even anything for me to think about.  Freeeeeedom!  She said later, we’d discuss where to splurge and where to hold firm after we’ve established what I *should* be doing, so I’m interested.

We discussed this week’s dietary changes.

#1 Pre-post workout fuel.  I MUST eat or drink one of these things immediately before and after my workout (half before, half after): 16 oz milk, 1 bottle of honeymilk light, or 1 cup of yogurt.

#2 Breakfast.  Continue with what I’m doing with some small changes. (Always be at or over 12-15g protein)

a) Stick with my fage, fruit, oats, and honey concoction, but switch to liquid stevia from a dropper.  She swore up and down that this sort of stevia is basically just a plant oil, and wouldn’t go against my “no artificial sweetner” rule.

b) To change it up occasionally, I can have my turkey sausage, cheese, and sprouted grain english muffin, but only have half the muffin and extra turkey sausage to make sure I’m at least at 15g.

c) Try a whey protein smoothie – whey protien, a banana, some extra fruit, and some pb.

d) Protein bars as a major major last minute backup (e.g. this would be better than no breakfast within 45 mins)

Also, for now, make sure to ALWAYS eat breakfast like this, even on the weekend.  No “saving calories” for a bigger lunch.  Because… I’m no longer counting calories.

#3 Snacks

She mostly liked what I was doing but told me to cut out the pretzel/chip crap and use this handy/dandy list of things that I have already been eating most of the time anyway:

veggies+hummus (or tzatziki)
string cheese
almonds
whole fruit
veggies
beef jerky
turkey pepperoni
edamame + sea salt* (not something I’ve been eating but a new suggestion)

Again, with the permission to eat any of these in any amounts that I want, I don’t see a problem.  Yeah, I pretty much did a happy dance here too.  The only thing that she asked was to watch the nuts and stick to one serving.

So yeah, snack when I’m hungry, more fuel in the morning.  I’m pretty happy with this.

However, she warned me.  She wanted to SEVERELY reduce my grains.  I kinda felt like this…

I protested, and she said that she wasn’t going to eliminate CARBS, but grains.  I still protested (I seriously think that I will DRAG ASS all day and feel awful), but then she taunted me with this:

If I can stick with the plan, she thinks I can probably take the weight off within 3 months, and by then it will feel normal.  She said 8 weeks, but I’m going to say 3 months and be pleasantly surprised.  Hell, if I’m making decent progress in 3 months, I’ll be happy.  She also promised me that my times will improve.  If I feel weak and it sucks for my workouts, we’ll switch stuff around.  She said feeling stronger was the goal – not eating so little that it makes me weak.

The thing that makes me feel good about it is it seems to be the way SHE eats, and it obviously works because she is fit and healthy (and also a runner, teaches classes, etc, so she knows what I’m up against, she’s not a little waif that does nothing active and eats 1200 calories).  I know that everyone is different, but it’s a good start trying something that is OBVIOUSLY working for someone.  It was always suggesting “this is one thing *I* like to do”, so it’s not that she’s suggesting lots of crazy things she wouldn’t do.  And… no calorie restrictions.  Just good, well timed food. Just… eep… less grains.

To which I thought about on the drive back to work, and y’know, there are a lot of things I thought I couldn’t do.  Four years ago, the way I eat now would have been such a shock to the system, I would have probably told future Quix to stuff it, if being healthy is that much work I’ll be fat, thxuverymuch (but now – live it. love it.)  Three months ago, I never thought I could give up diet soda, but I don’t drink it or rarely have the desire to do so.  Maybe three months from now, I’ll be laughing about how freaked out lessening grains is making me.

But hey, I don’t even have to face it for another week.  Just consistency in workout times, working fueling, breakfast, and snacks.  And good old fashioned pen and paper food journaling (no portion control, no calories, just writing down what/when I eat/exercise/sleep).

So, here is taxicab (taxiblog?) confessions time peeps.  Somehow in this weird existence of denial I have, I started this “ritual” where I would stand on the scale a few different ways and take the lowest.  Then, my subconscious decided that she would just weigh the way that gave the lowest weight.  For some reason, past Quix thought this was an acceptable way to weigh herself.  That’s been many months in the making, and this week, I decided that I was going to weigh myself on the scale like a normal human (feet normally, not off to the side).  I’m sad to say that it’s a bit more than I thought it would be.  So resetting, I will post my low weight of the past week which is…

173.8.  Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.  Seriously, how did I think that standing on a certain part of the scale would change what is going on in my body, but I guess I still have those “hide my head in the sand” urges that I did when I just bought XXL stretchy band skirts instead of facing my real size.

Oh well.  No mas.  I’m staring down that 173.8, eye to eye, armed with a plan, and ready to take that bitch down.  Even if that bitch is part of me.