21 Day Restore: Results

Happy Monday lads!

I hope we all are alive and kickin' this morn. I had a great weekend spent with family starting off with with a Red Sox game with the broskis.

Despite the fact that the Sox blew it in the bottom of the ninth we had a blast. It's always a good time when I get together with these goofs.

Saturday night was spent up at my brother Nate's for dinner followed by laughing to the point of tears and watching horribly funny clips from Family Feud. You mean every family does do this?

And of course my usual pancakes on Sunday morning.

I tried to make a batch of coconut flour pancakes to change it up. Mistake.

They were impossible to flip, gritty, and gave me a stomachache..which was probably due to the fact that they contained a whopping 13 grams of fiber!  But they were just overall untasty. I'll stick to my 2-ingredient bad boys from now on.

Okay  so now on for the big reveal. The end of my 21 Day Restore!

Pretty much I cut out caffeine, sugar, and "carbs" for 21 days to see how my body felt through the process. Here's my main thoughts and outcomes from the past three weeks.

My energy levels feel more stable.

So the first few days were hard without coffee. Headaches. Body aches. Fatigue. But this just helped to show me my dependance on coffee. Once I got over that, I feel like my energy levels were much more stable after taking out the extra "carbs" from my diet. I put carbs in quotations since I did not cut out carbs completely, but took out all the foods people think of as carbohydrates. Bread, pasta, oats, cereal, etc, but still ate a plethora (don't you love that word?!) of veggies and some fruits, and nuts.

When I used to eat something "carby", I would always get ravenous for anything and everything, especially more carbs (enter half a bag of tortilla chips before you can say nacho supremo). And then I would want a warm bottle and a nap after. Once I replaced these with more protein and fats, my energy levels felt more stable, and my meals felt more satisfying. Which leads me to my next point..

I don't get hangry as often.

Yes hangry, a technical term for gnawing your arm off. I used to get bad cases of hanger. If I didn't get food in me every 2-3 hours, I was ready to take on Godzilla, Jaws, Frankenstein, and the Wicked step-sisters all at once for a carrot with peanut butter.

...okay I may still do that but I don't HAVE to. Now that I've listened to my hunger cues more and eating more satisfying foods, I can go a lot longer without my next meal. And if I'm hungry, okay but it's not the end of the world.

Coffee is my friend.

Coffee was probably the hardest to give up for me. I don't eat a ton of sugar, and carby foods are far inferior to peanut butter, but coffee? It was h-e- double hockey sticks to cut out.

But I got used to decaf. And now, one cup is good for me.  And if I don't have it? It's not the end of the caffeinated world. It feels good to enjoy coffee without feeling like I'm the walking dead without it.

I wasn't too strict.

So while I cut these things out for the most part, I still had some things on occasion. Some tortilla chips here and there (my downfall), a bite of spaghetti, and a bomb diggity Rita's custard and Swedish Fish icee.

But for the most part I was a good seed. And it was okay. I lived life. At the chips. And moved on. And having that freedom from guilt and shame is worth more than the 5 grams of weight I could have potentially lost.

I'm adding back...

So for the most part, this way of eating works for me. I enjoy eating eggs every morning. Until I make it back to France, bread is easy for me to pass on. And I did add back in coffee, but I also am going to add in lentils and beans.

Since I still don't eat red meat or poultry, meal options get a little more difficult to plan meals. I love salads for lunch so that's no problem for me, but eating fish and broccoli for dinner every night is getting pretty darn boring. And eating tuna more often skeeves me out with the whole mercury level thing. So I decided to add more legumes, especially lentils into the rotation.

I am going to experiment with soaking them overnight to rid most of the anti-nutrients that beans and legumes have and to make them more digestible.

Oh yeah, I guess I have to show those before and after pictures, right? I was thinking you might forget about that part. Whelp, herrrrrrree comes Em-lay!

Before:

Waist: 30"

Hips: 35"

Left Arm Circumference: 12"

Right Arm Circumference: 12"

Left Thigh Circumference: 20.5"

Right Thigh Circumference: 21"

Total Inches: 130.5

After:

Waist: 29"

Hips: 34.5"

Left Arm Circumference: 12"

Right Arm Circumference: 12"

Left Thigh Circumference: 20"

Right Thigh Circumference: 20"

Total inches: 127.5

Soo no infomercial worthy weight loss or anything, but I'm perfectly okay with that. I've gained more freedom and energy that is worth more to me than losing weight. I've finally come to a point where I am okay with who I am today and enjoying the process to finding what works for me.

So that's my journey and I'm stickin' to it. And now I'm off to go get me my beach fix and some seafood!

Make it a great day!

What's one thing you still want to do before Summer's over?

Can you live without coffee?