Weight Loss Math: Getting to 150

Throughout the years, I have occasionally posted about my disappointment in the numbers on my scale...numbers I would love to see right now. Sadly, I have never been as disappointed as I was yesterday morning. I had successfully ignored what my clothes had been telling me for weeks and now my new goal weight is a number that used to freak me out! 

This is from January 2014:

I would be ecstatic if I weighed 150 now!!!

Link to Original Post

Barb's Race 2014 = 142

IRONMAN Vineman 70.3 2017 = 152

Extra 10 pounds from Barb's Race

Sometimes Subtraction Doesn't Work

My smart scale has a good memory. Hopefully, next week's chart will show a downward trend.
148 (March 2022) to 165 (February 2023)

Looking at the chart above, I know that some of the weight gain can be attributed to changes in training. Training reduction to be specific. 

Early last year, I was in training for the Modesto Marathon and I was trying to get to my goal weight of 145. I was getting close to my goal and raceday when I caught Covid and had to cut back on my training. I ended up doing a virtual race on my treadmill. 

After my 26.2 mile torture session, I switched to full on IRONMAN training and completed IRONMAN California at the end of October. I wasn't happy about my weight at that point, but looking back, it was still about 10 pounds less than I am right now.  After IMCA, I dropped the swimming and cycling and just did running workouts so I could complete CIM in the beginning of December. Once I crossed the finish line of the marathon, my training ended.

Obviously, I was burning enough calories with my training to compensate for my bad eating habits and once my training ended, the weight quickly and easily added up.

Addition for Subtraction

Three weeks ago I signed up for a half marathon at the end of April. Now that I was once again committed to a race, I picked a training plan. I wanted to pick a more advanced plan with the idea that I have done this distance a number of times, but I decided to accept the fact that I was not in the kind of shape I should be and chose a "novice" plan. 

I'll be the first to admit that I was shocked when I struggled at my first three mile run. It felt much harder than I thought it should be, but I told myself it would get better.

Progress has been slow and steady

There have been a few other things I've added to my daily routine since signing up. First, went back to waking up and drinking a glass of water. Why drink water first thing? Well, I've read a lot of different reasons over the years. Here's a link to an article that summarizes most of them. ("Should You Drink Water First Thing in the Morning?") There is probably some truth to most of them but the reason I started doing it again is because it is something I used to do when I was at a better weight. It was also something I could easily add back to my routine and feel some sort of success.

The third week of my training I added back Bulletproof Coffee. I had drifted away from just drinking black coffee and had been adding half and half to every cup. Unfortunately, half and half does not have the same affect as Bulletproof. The lazy side of me would prefer to just pop open a container instead of dieting a blender every morning, but I now have a full seven days of Brain Octane and grass-fed butter coursing through my veins and I have to admit I am feeling much better. Here are my two big improvements:

• Brain fog has lifted and I am back to writing this blog
• Inflammation is down...my right knee hasn't felt this good in a while and that is a surprise to me with all of the running I have been doing.
• Sugar cravings have disappeared

This Week's Math

So what are my mathematical plans for this week? Will I add something or subtract something from my routine? Actually, it's going to be both.

Add: Food Journaling

Yesterday, I added in a food journal. This has always been something I have struggled with and it took a bit of soul searching to figure out why. I thought it was just that I was lazy. In all honesty, it's because I didn't want to know what I was really eating. 

My journaling was always great for breakfast and lunch, especially when I was fasting and didn't have to record anything. However, things always went a bit sideways after work. Maybe I was ashamed to record that extra glass of wine or that handful of nuts I grabbed in the pantry, but for whatever the reason, I would stop journaling with the notion that "it's not that many calories". 

Subtract: Gluten and Sugar

Looking back at what I was eating and not eating last March, I remembered that I was trying out the Daniel Plan diet and had removed gluten and refined sugar from my diet. So, once again, I am removing those items. Thankfully, I'm not craving them, so it shouldn't be that bad. Fingers crossed.

Keto Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

As I was perusing the Bulletproof website for new recipes to try, I came across this one for stuffed cabbage rolls. They were described as comfort food and I vaguely remember eating them as a kid, so I thought I would try it out. Plus, I love anything with a good tomato sauce on it. 

Yes, I still like printed recipes...especially when shopping

I did end up making a few changes to the recipe. Since I didn't have any bone broth ready and because it was raining and I was feeling lazy, I opted to use a jar of Rao's Arrabbiata sauce. I also couldn't find ground lamb at Bel Air, so I bought a pound of grass-fed beef. Pound for pound, lamb has more calories than beef, more on this later.

The directions for this particular recipe had me feeling a bit like I was doing a technical challenge on The Great British Baking Show. The instructions told you what to do, but I still felt like something was missing. 

For example, Step 2: "Immerse the head of cabbage in the boiling water. Cook for 5-10 minutes or until cabbage leaves are pliable."

It was a pretty good sized head of cabbage, cooking it for 5-10 minutes would clearly soften up the outer leaves, but would do nothing for the inner. I decided to peel off the outer leaves as they became pliable and then stacked them up on a plate. This ensured that the inner part of the cabbage was exposed to the hot water as well and that I didn't up with a half raw head of cabbage.

Cabbage head as the outer leaves were removed

Stacked and ready for the next step.

More Cabbage Confusion

Step 5 instructed me to "Peel 16 large leaves off the cabbage. Lay each cabbage leaf on a flat surface. Use a knife to cut a V-shaped notch to remove the thick part (stem) of the cabbage rib." No problem, other than for some of the leaves, they were practically cut in half. I wasn't sure how I was supposed to use them. I figured I would worry about that when it came time to make the rolls.

I prepared the filling ingredients and mixed them together much like meatloaf.

When it came to filling the cabbage leaves, I ended up cutting the large leaves in half and using the smaller leaves whole. This worked out well. However, I ended up with only 12 rolls instead of the 16 that the recipe was supposed to make. This was fine, the size seemed right and the extra calories per serving was offset by the lower calorie beef I used in the filling. Even if I had divided the filling in 16 portions, I would not have had enough usable cabbage leaves to wrap them.

Roughly two tablespoons of filling

Twelve rolls wrapped and ready

Final step, cover with sauce and bake

Dinner Time

The recipe said to "Cover the dish and bake for 90 minutes, or until cabbage is tender and the meat is cooked through." I ended up baking the cabbage rolls for 75 minutes.

Looks like we are having cabbage rolls for lunch tomorrow

Here is my result...if I had a ring light for my phone, I'm sure it 
would look more like the picture below

https://www.bulletproof.com/recipes/keto-recipes/keto-stuffed-cabbage-rolls/?print

Nutritional Info per Roll (If I had followed the recipe exactly as written)

• Calories: 141
• Fat: 10 g
• Protein: 7 g
• Fiber: 2 g
• Sugar: 4 g
• Carbohydrates: 7 g
• Net Carbs: 5 g
• Sodium: 156 mg

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Becoming Bulletproof...Again!

It's been roughly 10 years since one of my triathlon club teammates, Anthony, first told be about Bulletproof coffee. We had stopped during a swim set and he extolled the virtues of this drink and then gave me the recipe.

"What? You put butter in your coffee? And oil?" I asked, somewhat stunned and a little grossed out.

The pre-blended oil slick is what I imagined :-)

In my mind, I pictured a steaming cup of black coffee with an oil slick on top. Seeing the look on my face, Anthony explained that it was actually quite good, just like putting creamer in your coffee. He talked about how good it made him feel and how much energy he had.

Since I was training for Barb's Race (a 70.3 mile women's only triathlon), I decided to give it a shot. I could definitely use the extra energy and since I drank coffee everyday, it wouldn't be too much of a change to add a couple extra ingredients. The issue became finding those ingredients... grass-fed, unsalted butter and coconut oil. 

I made a trip to Trader Joes the next day and found what I was looking for...sort of. The butter was spot on, but the coconut oil, was in a solid form in a jar. This was a far cry from the MCT oil I now use.

The next morning I whipped up a batch of Bulletproof coffee for me and HS. Wow! Anthony was right, it was like drinking coffee with creamer. After that, Bulletproof coffee became a morning go to. In fact, at the start of 2014, I decided to start a diet (my winter weight had climbed to a number I would kill to see now LOL). Bulletproof coffee was definitely on the menu!