Loser week 4

Wow, I may never get caught up on my blog. I might just have to do a quick recap of highlights and start fresh, lol

I swear I was much busier during spring break than I normally am. And not busy like we got to go do anything fun, busy like working on stuff that needed to be done.

But this post is about my weight loss journey!

This week I gained 1 pound. But it's not a big deal, because I worked out 6 days this week, and I know I am gaining muscle and losing inches. I did however splurge quite a bit too, although not giant amounts in any given day, just lots of little splurges all week. But I'm ok with that. I am taking huge steps on improving my health, so I know these little splurges won't hurt me in the long run.

Bourbon really ejoyed going to the gym with me this week, and it was kinda fun to have a workout partner. :) And it forced me to vary my routine so that I could show him how to use all of the machines. Which is good. I tend to get stuck in workout routines and do the same things over and over again, which really isn't that good for you. Once your body gets used to a routine, you aren't really doing much anymore, you gotta change it up, switch things aound, use your muscles in new ways. Which is what I did all week long. I got a new DVD from netflix this week too; The Biggest Loser Bootcamp, which didn't seem too hard when I was doing it (oh, it's a challenge, but I got through it and thought "wow, that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be") but the next day I was paying for it, lol, AND the day after that. You know it's a good workout when you are sore for 2 days in a row. :) I really enjoy these DVD's too, they are actually kind of fun.

And I am about halfway done reading the Master Your Metabolism book, and learning so many things. It really is kind of scary the amount of crap that we put into our bodies and don't even think about it. This book gives you a crash course on the different additives and such that we ingest, and how it affects us. Like sugar replacements. Our bodies don't really know what to do with man made chemicals, so they just plug it in wherever they can and make it work, but it confuses the body. When you eat certain things, your metabolism will react in certain ways. Like protein, when you eat protein, it takes 35% more energy to digest, so your metabolism automatically roars up when it gets protein in the system (which is why the atkins diet works so well, but the body also NEEDS carbs to work effectively). When you eat sugar, your metabolism knows that it has to rev up to burn it (which is where the sugar high comes from, but then it crashes as soon as the sugar is burned through, which doesn't take long). BUT when you eat sugar replacements, your body senses the sweet, but then there isn't any calories with it, and it gets confused. After a while of doing this, your body thinks "ok, well sweet equals no calories, so we don't have to rev up the metabolism to burn it off" and your metabolism actually slows down. And not only is THAT bad, but then once it has made this switch, when you DO actually eat something with real sugar, it won't automatically rev back up and it will work at the slower pace that is has become accustomed to with the fake sugar, and then you actually pile on more pounds than you normally should. Crazy eh? You could actually be sabotaging yourself by eating diet food all the time, making your metabolism slower and slower. Who knew?! It's very interesting stuff.

So Jillian says, if you are going to indulge in a sweet, eat the real thing, just eat it in moderation. Eat the real ice cream not the no-fat, no sugar fake stuff that is full of these crazy chemicals that are messing up our bodies. Which makes total sense. I mean I moved us to using real butter a few years ago when I learned that margarine still has trans fats, but that the labels were allowed to say they were trans fat free if they had less than .5 grams in a serving. But when you use more than a serving, which most people do, you get much more than that. And ANY trans fat is ridiculously bad for you and your heart. I would much rather us use the real stuff and not use as much, than put that crap into our bodies. So it makes sense to do that with everything.

So I am going to try to clean up our food and get rid of as much as the chemical crap as possible, which of course includes high fructose corn syrups and all that fun stuff. That means I need to wean the kids off of oreos and make homemade "whole foods" cookies instead using all the real stuff. I need to get them off the boxed mac-n-cheese and make the real stuff instead. These kinds of things. Wish me luck, because I am going to need the force to be with me..... :)