boost my metabolism

I’m glad I didn’t mark this as done in Feb, when I felt better because now, after my 6 weeks of very little activity, I feel my metabolism has slowed down a lot again so I need to focus on this goal for a while.
When I look at my original plan I realise I’ve let some of the key things, that really helped make a difference, slip a little…

Eat 6 times a day
I am not doing this, which is stupid because I know for a fact that this is very important and is the one thing that made a big difference last time. While I was recovering from my injury, my schedule went out the window and I just started eating whenever, most days not very regularly at all going for hours without eating. So, back to regular meal times and snacks! I don’t think I’ve had a snack in weeks…

Exercise twice a day
I’m now exercising most days but often just once a day and I’m not following any schedule at all. It doesn’t need to be heavy exercise, just as long as I move a lot.

Eat enough
I’m not sure I’m eating enough and some days in the past few weeks I’ve eaten way too much. I’m using weightlossresources.co.uk to track my eating and exercise so I know I eat enough but not too much.

Big breakfast, light dinner
I’m struggling with breakfast. Often, I don’t feel hungry when I wake up and, though I know I should have breakfast, it can be a couple of hours before I get around to it. Have to work on that. I’m following Moose’s lead and having no starchy carbs at dinner (most days) and quite like it so will be sticking with it.

Eat enough protein
I think I’m still doing ok here, just have to keep my eye on it for a while. I think my carb intake might be a bit low, though.

Sleep
For few weeks I struggled to sleep. I couldn’t get to sleep and would wake up at 4am after just few hours of sleep. Now I can’t seem to get enough sleep. I could sleep for 15hrs and still take a nap or two in the afternoon. I spent a good part of last weekend sleeping. It might be because of my period and also because I’m back exercising again. I need to learn to go to bed when I’m tired.

Vitamins
Yes, taking a multi vitamin, calcium, zinc and udo’s oils. That’s plenty and I’ve been really good about taking them daily as well.

• no sugar
• stop drinking coffee
• drink lots of water and juices

I just read some of my old progress reports on this and am now really excited. I look forward to starting tomorrow!

Ooops, it’s almost a month since my last update… but the news is good, at least!
Doing all that bikram in January really helped kickstart my metabolism. My body temperature went up about 1 degree, which is a lot in body temperature terms, to almost normal range and I’ve had hardly any ‘thyroid pains’ which is a big improvement. So I’m very pleased with that and am trying to keep my system going with regular exercise. February’s been very cold, coldest in 30 years, so I haven’t been able to take my bike out much, but the weather should improve next week.
For the past 2 weeks, I’ve also been eating more regularly – in January this was difficult because of the bikram schedule. I still struggle to remember to have snacks so I need to work on that.
I’ve finally managed to lose 2 pounds. Wooohoooo! I think my body is now working pretty well, so it’s just down to me making sure it continues to do so (exercise, diet) and also, even more importantly, making sure that I burn more energy than I take in – I have absolutely no excuses now. I actually was very surprised when I noticed I’ve lost 2 pounds, because I thought I was only going to lose less than a pound (if any) because my calorie deficit was around 2400 for the week. Could be that my metabolism is now working close to normal and I no longer need to use the adjusted metabolic rate to work out my basic need. I don’t know, but I’m not complaining! I just hope it continues.
I hope I can get back to yoga soon, that’ll help keep my metabolism functioning smoothly.

Last week was ok, but the problem really is that my schedule’s been different every day so it’s difficult to stick to a routine and when that happens, the first thing I seem to neglect is eating. It’s wrong, but it just happens and I don’t know how to fix it. Once I’m done with bikram, which is tomorrow, I can go back to my normal schedule and really start working on this goal.

I also binged on sugar and crisps at the weekend (walkers sensations were on special offer at my local supermarket…) which really has to stop. I don’t know how or why that started happening again… I think I’ve been feeling a bit down, though I should realise that junk food only makes me feel worse. I know it, but it’s hard to resist when you’re feeling like that. I’ve adopted Moose’s excellent strive to eat in a way that honours my body -goal and will tackle my emotional eating issues there. I think I’ll write an entry there in minute.

Monday to Friday was pretty ok, but then I decided to take the weekend off yoga, and without really thinking about it, forgot about the rest of my routine too, which was a big mistake because I ended up forgetting to eat, then feeling irritable and then eating very badly. Not good.

I still struggled to fit in snacks. I think it’s going to be difficult this month, while I do bikram, so I’m not going to worry about it too much until February.

Despite eating badly at the weekend, I ended up with a good calorie deficit again, though I still don’t think I’ve lost any weight :( in fact, I put on some again…. :(

I feel I ate enough, but not too much. Mostly, I’ve tried to eat when I’m hungry. I think I averaged about 1500 calories per day and they’re all good quality calories, so it’s definitely enough but should not be too much because of the amount of exercise I’ve done.

I had some chocolate this weekend, which was the first time I had any this month, so it’s pretty good. However, I had too much chocolate, which is not good. I also had a few youghurts during the week. I think I’ve developed an addiction to Muller’s fruit corner youghurts, which are very sugary so I have to stop it this week.

• Focus on meal times – today I had breakfast at 11am, which is too late
• Stop eating youghurts – eliminate all sugar from diet
• Reduce coffee intake
• Drink more herbal teas
• More fresh vegetables – have salads every day
• Increase water intake to 3l
• Call doctor
• Run more
• Sleep more!

Eat 6 times a day
This is quite easy, though I have skipped a few snacks or had them at odd times. I need to buy some more nuts and other snacky things. What makes this a bit more difficult now is my Bikram classes. The classes are on at quite inconvenient times: 10am, 11am or 4.30pm. I need to plan a bit better this week.

Exercise twice a day
(summary here)
This week, I’ve just exercised once a day and that’s been plenty. It’s been hard to get used to doing Bikram every day and I wanted to focus solely on that. I’ve walked or cycled there. Actually, I was planning to cycle more, but it was so cold the roads were a bit icy, so I didn’t feel it was safe.

Eat enough
After Christmas, this was not difficult. LOL. Though I must say that on couple of days I was surprised how much I needed to eat to reach my minimum calorie limit. Then again, it is so easy to eat too much, depending on what you eat, so I’m finding using SparkPeople very helpful.

Eat healthy things only
This week was all about cleaning up my diet again because, surprise surprise, I ate lots of chocolate and other junk over xmas. I haven’t had any sugar this week. Actually, that’s wrong, I have, but not chocolate or sweets, just some ‘junk youghurts (and only 3 of those!). Strangely, I don’t get addicted to youghurts – I even had an Alabama Chocolate Fudge Cake Muller Crunch Corner today and was happy to have just the one, which is a great feeling. There’s a lot of sugar in that youghurt, but it’s still less than half of the recommended daily amount and since that’s all the sugar I had today, it’s pretty good. The other 2 youghurts I had were Muller Fruit Corners. I also had 2 small bags of crisps and 1 can of diet coke, but other than that, my diet this week was pretty much perfect, so it was a good week especially compared to the previous 2 weeks. I ended up with a nice calorie deficit for the week, which, in theory, should mean I’ve lost about 1.5 pounds, but that’s not happened (yet).

Big breakfast, light dinner
Hmmm… not paid much attention to this. I’ve had my usual porridge + youghurt + ground flaxseeds + a mashed banana and cinnamon for breakfast every morning, but I think my dinners are still much bigger than my breakfasts are. I’m not too worried about this right now.

Eat enough protein
Loads of protein, between 68g and 81g every day, which is very high. This doesn’t actually take much effort, I seem to just naturally build my meals around proteins.

Sleep
Need to start going to bed early.

Vitamins
Taken every day. Also taking Agnus Castus to balance hormones.

• It wasn’t that difficult to stop eating sugar this time and I’m relieved I don’t have to eat sugar anymore.
• My stomach pains got worse during the holidays, but since Wednesday, I’ve hardly had any pain?!?
• This was the coldest week of the winter so far, but I’m happy to report that I actually felt quite warm all week! I didn’t once feel in pain or feel like my bones were freezing. I’m so happy about this. I think this is because of Bikram and also eating regularly.
• Strangely, still, my body temperature was only 35.5C when I checked it (twice), though that is an improvement from before – it used to easily go below 35, down to 34.5C, so that’s a whole 1 degree higher, which is quite a lot, I think.
• I checked my resting pulse twice and it was 58 and 59 – I can’t remember why I wanted to check this, I think there’s a connection with metabolism. I need to read about this. I know that when my thyroid was really bad (and hence my metabolism was really bad, too) my resting pulse was something crazy like 80!!
• I am much happier when I eat well and exercise, and especially when I don’t eat sugar!
• I haven’t lost any weight, actually, I’ve put on weight and am now nearing my heaviest ever weight which is just awful and so unfair! However, I’m determined not to get down about it. I’m optimistic and willing to give this another week at least. If the weight doesn’t start falling off, then I’ll see a doctor.

• Juice more – I’m going to follow some of the juicemaster principles this week to detox a little
• Absolutely nothing processed or sugary or salty, so goodbye crisps and junk youghurts
• A little less coffee and more herbal teas
• Don’t skip snacks
• More exercise
• Consider acupuncture and chinese herbs?
• Call doctor’s office, see if I can get print out of my last bloodtest results

I just stepped on the scales again. I only weighed myself few days ago and discovered that I’ve put on 7 pounds – I thought I might have put on 2 pounds but not 7!!! I wasn’t meant to weigh myself for another week, but did anyway. I’ve put on 1.6 pounds again?!? WTF? I was so disappointed I burst into tears. I really don’t want to go down this road again. I’ve already put on enough weight in the last 10 months. I should have lost 1 or 2 pounds this week and I most definitely should not be putting on weight! Husband says I should go to the doctor but my doctor is so dismissive about any complaints like this. Last spring I told him I was struggling to lose weight and he started questioning whether I had an eating disorder!! I felt a bit embarrassed after that, so haven’t mentioned it to him since. I think I’ll see what happens in the next 2 weeks, bikram should help balance my body and is very good for thyroid, so I see what happens and if things don’t improve, I’ll find another doctor.

PLAN:
I’m going to continue with this plan for at least three more months, no matter what, and if it works I might stick with this way of eating for much longer. I only followed the plan for 2 weeks before xmas and immediately noticed many health benefits so I’m quite motivated to continue with it.
I’m going to go back to using SparkPeople from next Monday to track my progress daily.

GOALS:
I don’t want to set strict weight loss goals, but I’ll keep on making sure I burn more calories than I consume and provided I have no problems with my thyroid, I should be back to my happy weight by my birthday in March.

I also hope that I’ll notice other health benefits like general wellbeing, increased body temperature/not freezing all the time, my stomach pains will hopefully disappear, less moodswings, no PMT, better skin, more energy and probably many more…

I’m pleased with the way the first week went. I

Eat 6 times a day
I found this really hard for the first few days, to have to eat every couple of hours, but by Thursday, I was already used to it. I still have to remind myself to stick to the schedule, but it’s much easier, doesn’t feel like such a chore anymore. I also think my body is starting to get used to this schedule and I actually feel hungry every couple of hours.

Exercise twice a day
(summary here wanted to exercise 3x day, but after the first day, I decided it’s best to start with 2 and then add another walk or something after few weeks. the first week was good and to my surprise, I didn’t procrastinate about exercise at all and found myself looking forward to 1pm when I could go for my run or walk. Weird but nice.

Eat enough
The first few days were hard, I just was not hungry and had to force myself to eat, but it got easier. Still, I could eat a little bit more, esp on the days I exercise a lot, but I think I eat enough. I think it might just be that my metabolism is much slower than I thought it was and I just don’t need to eat any more. I don’t know, this is one of the things I wish to find out after few more weeks of doing this.

Big breakfast, light dinner
Haven’t paid so much attention to this yet, but I have tried to eat as much as I can at breakfast time. My dinners have been quite light, but sometimes I need to eat more to reach my min calorie limit. So I guess I need to plan this a bit more, even bigger breakfasts and lunches.

Eat enough protein
Easy peasy. I’m pleased to see that I get enough protein, even on the days I don’t eat fish (which is 5 or 6 days per week) and just eat 100% vegetarian, I often go over my protein allowance. And I don’t drink any protein shakes either or take any other supplements. So whoever says vegetarians don’t get enough protein is wrong, wrong, wrong! Not to mention, I get good quality protein, which is very important. On the days I eat fish, I go waaay over my allowance, which is actually not that good either but I think if it happens just couple of times a week, it’s ok?

Sleep
I go to bed early, but I don’t sleep. I think it’s too much coffee. I don’t know why I’ve started drinking coffee again. Must start cutting down.

Vitamins
Not done. Will have to start.

• I have more energy throughout the day
• I have no mood swings! I hardly ever feel irritable and if I do, I eat something and it usually goes, so it must be related to my bloodsugar levels or something
• I’ve had less stomach pains. However, I still get them and a few times really bad ones, so I do need to see the chinese doc about it
• My bloating has gone – that must’ve been the wheat I’d consumed in the previous couple of weeks
• I have had less thyroid pain/symptoms – I did have really bad pain the other day, after I had quite a few samosas, so I think it was the wheat in the puff pastry. I’d also had tofu that day, which is a goitrogen, so that might be partly to blame too. Actually, the following morning, I also woke up with really sharp stomach pains when I was lying on my stomach. It was different from the pain I’ve had before. I wonder if that was the wheat too? hmmm…
• I’ve felt less cold, though I’ve kept the heat on higher more too, but I haven’t had the feeling of my bones freezing all week and also, my morning body temperature has been just over 36C twice, which is quite huge!
• I think I have lost some weight, however, I have PMT now so actually feel heavy and bloated, so not going to weigh myself until the end of the week.
• I feel healthier and more positive. My system has definitely started to balance a bit. i don’t feel so sickly anymore…
• I love food! At the same time, I think about food very little. I feel I’m eating enough and I enjoy the meals I have, however, I have no desire to eat more than that, I don’t crave for junk food and I find it easy to say no to junk and choose the healthy option. It’s awesome!

• Buy Udo’s oils, perfectil and calcium tablets
• I had some emotional eating issues last week (after the horrible thing on Sunday) so clearly need to work on that
• Bigger lunches
• Drink less coffee
• Drink more herbal tea
• Look into bikram yoga – are they still doing the special offer? should i get that now? where’s the studio?
• buy new running shoes!
• find a pedometer

So, yay, I’m enjoying this and feel great, say about 85% normal.

went well. My appetite was better. I felt happy and energetic.

My doctor’s secretary called me today to say that all my bloodtest results are now back and that Dr Phil says that everything is ok and I don’t need to do anything, no need to change my thyroid medicine and no need to investigate the stomach pain further. Obviously, I’m relieved that the results were ok, but at the same time I feel a bit frustrated because a) I know my thyroid is not well. he even knows that because, for example, he said he could clearly see i had a goiter, hello? b) so he thinks i should just ignore the pain? I’ve asked the secretary to ask Dr Phil call me because I’s like to ask a few questions, like whether he thinks the pain might be stress-related and what he reckons I should do. I’m not making an appointment and spending another 60 euro just for that.
He’s such a lovely man though…
Anyway, I’m relieved it’s nothing serious and I can keep my liver and other organs, for now at least. I’m going to see an acupuncturist after xmas too, so that should hopefully help. And, I’m sure this new diet will help a lot, too!

to make all the changes I want to make. I never realised how difficult it is to eat regularly! I’m also a bit shocked to find how irregularly I’ve eaten for a while! I realise I often go for hours and hours, even all day, without eating anything. The stupid thing is that I know I shouldn’t do that, I know from experience that I’ll put on weight if I do that. I know that I have to eat regularly to stay healthy and keep my weight down. It’s easy when you’re working, because you have a daily schedule you have to stick to, but at home my days lack structure and I don’t even notice the time. I need to learn to prioritise eating, at least for a while, until I get used to it. It feels a bit silly to think, say at 12.30pm, that I can’t go out now because I have to have my lunch at 1-1.30pm, but I think that’s what I have to do.

I’m addicted to SparkPeople! I’m still finding it quite difficult to use, but it’s helping me track my calorie and protein intake. Argh. I’m such an idiot, I entered some foods there and of course entered wrong info – you’re meant to put vitamins as a % of RDA and I put them as % of 100g (or whatever the serving size is) because on most labels they’re in grams… And now I don’t know how to change them, it doesn’t look like I can do it myself, so I probably have to create new entries…

Yesterday, I struggled to reach my minimum calorie target. Weird. (that said the day before yesterday I went well over my allowance because I made quiche and jaggery walnuts…) I also burned a lot of calories (618 according to SP, though this hardly is 100% accurate) and SP doesn’t adjust your daily calorie allowance depending on how many calories you burn, so I’m a bit confused about that. I think I should’ve eaten at least 500 calories more, but had I done that, I would’ve gone over my daily allowance according to SP – but I think SP is incorrect here. I need to read more about calories, metabolism and exercise.

I was planning to split my exercise into three sessions, but I decided to just start with two, that’s enough for this week at least. It’ll take me a while to get used to my new schedule, so I’ll make the changes slowly and I want to make eating regularly my first priority.

oooh, I had a lovely lunch today! Loveliest ever. Egg ‘mayonnaise’ made with one egg, natural youghurt, chopped red pepper, cucumber, mustard and black pepper, and served on rye crispbread with a bit of avocado. Yum! I could have that every day!

Omg, what a long and booooooooooring entry. Just writing this for my own info and to make myself really think about this, really. I want to do the best I can with this goal, because I know I’m the only one who can do anything about this and I know I can change things. It’s all down to putting the effort in and staying motivated. This is only day 2, but it’s going well.