2 Months- What I've learned

yesterday was my 8 week mark and Friday is my 2 month mark, so I thought I'd summarize some of the ups and downs on my journey.


I am hungry ALL the time. And I eat ALL the time. I am officially down 10 lbs since the beginning of this diet and that really wasn't my goal. Some of my pants are too big. I can pinpoint those last few pounds to this past weekend. Work was really busy- I left around 1:30am each night and had very little time to eat so my calories out v calories in was way unbalanced. Working on ways to address this. One of those ways is that I intend to start adding smoothies to my mornings. ADDING not in place of anything. I think I'm also going to start keeping some pre-cooked proteins in the fridge in addition to hardboiled eggs.


My system is healing!!! We've mentioned here that I have "cheat days" a couple times a month because my goal is to be able to partake in food life, not have to abstain from it. Ultimately, I intend to maintain a healthy gut lifestyle with weekend cheats. Some things that I used to react badly to pre-diet were jalapenos and beer. I am happy to report that jalapenos no longer affect my system at all and beer has a much much lessened effect. The 2 month cheat was pho (Vietnamese beef noodle soup) and summer rolls. The grain here is primarily rice which is the easiest grain. I could only eat about half of my normal order, because I was full very quickly. DH had no problem with his usual order but mentioned that he could probably switch to a smaller size. I am a fan of cheat days, because you don't feel as regretful about giving up little things when you get to have bigger things. I do, however, have cheat rules:

1.  Don't bring your cheats home-cheats are supposed to be special occasions and bringing it home may make you want to do it all the time
2. Don't cheat at work- I work in a restaurant and am used to buying myself dinner, but I don't let myself cheat at work because that is a slippery slope to step onto
3. If you have obsessed over the same cheat item for more than 20 minutes, just eat it- it's not worth messing with your psyche over.

It seems like more coconut than it is. Everytime I see a recipe calling for coconut milk/cream/butter, I tilt my head and think, this much coconut does NOT seem like moderation to me. At the beginning of this diet I bought a 12-can case of coconut milk. In 2 months, I've used about 8 cans if you include the 2 I bought before the case, so about 1 can/week. Not as big of an overload as I thought. I don't bake a lot on this diet and on cheat days (like cupcakes for st. pattys day) I still bake with wheat flour (sorry but nut flours just aren't the same). Nut flours have definite flavors and textures and I have to report that coconut flour just doesn't behave the way I want it to. it has an obvious coconut flavor and texture, and is highly absorbent of fluids. When choosing for a recipe, I definitely pick almond flour over coconut flour any day. So as it turns out, my coconut consumption isn't that crazy. I don't bake a lot in general, but because I use almond flour for baking, I choose other nuts (cashews, pistachios, walnuts) for my snacking. Moderation, my friends