Hiked Rattlesnake again

We hiked to Rattlesnake ledge again Friday. It got pretty dark by 4:30 or 5. I should always remember my backpack and head lamp just in case. But it was a nice afternoon.

My blood sugar went from 115 Friday morning to 95 on Saturday morning. My weight is still around 226-227.

Saturday, we had a beautiful sunny day. I finished moving the rest of the compost to the back yard over the sand filter septic system. Then I planted the carex, oxalis and tassel ferns as ground cover. Little by little, there won't be any more grass to mow in the back yard. I have room for 2 Japanese maples. I may try to move one that is vase shaped and getting bigger. But it's close to a gas line, so I may have to just cut it down. I'll have some pathways of beauty bark around and through the yard.

It's all I can do to wait to make the pumpkin mousse. But I've got to cut back on the treats in order to keep losing weight. I've had some winter squash with pork chops. I have one more serving of almonds in the freezer and I won't buy anymore for a while.

I went to a little party last night and was going to have a little wine, but I just had a diet pop instead. Wine always makes my ankles swell up anyway.

Week 15: -2, Total 19

Lost 2 of the 3 I gained last week. I cut back on low carb treats. I have been having about 2 handfuls of almonds in the evening. One would be sufficient.

I made two soups on Sunday with some grass-fed chuck roast that I cut up into bite-sized pieces. PCC did not have the soup bones on hand, so the soup wasn't as good as last time. One was a beef soup with dinosour kale, leek, squash, carrots and peas. The other was a chili with beef, red peppers, celery and onion and the New Mexico green chiles. It's a little hot, but gets better when I stir in a little cream cheese and cheddar cheese.

I'm going to my brother's for Thanksgiving. I'm planning on taking the low carb pumpkin mousse, either green beans almondine or broccoli puree and maybe some deviled eggs, but they like deviled eggs too. We'll have fun playing games. Hopefully I can get a hike in over the long weekend. Maybe I can get a niece or two to go with me.

Week 14: +3, Total 17

Oh man. I'm getting nowhere fast by having low carb treats. Plus 3 this week. I made a low carb chocolate mousse and I had some nuts. I had some toasted coconut - big shavings of organic coconut which I baked at 300 for about 10 minutes. Next time, I will add that to a coconut custard. I may have eaten some other things I can't even remember. I had some regular bread too.

My morning blood sugars have been between 99 and 108 for the last week. I need to prove to myself I can maintain 85 for a week! I've only maintained that for about 3 days.

I just had one more treat. I wanted to practice some recipes to use on my family when I have them over. I had read about cooking sliced apples separately and then adding to a pie. So here's what I did for a lower carb dessert:

1 sliced Golden Delicious Apple

Melt some butter in a skillet with the heat on medium low. Add the apple. Add cinnamon to taste and a light sprinkle of other spices such as ginger, nutmeg and cloves. Toss with the apple. Cover and cook for a few minutes. Toss and cook another few minutes. Sprinkle about 3 packets of Splenda. Serve warm with a splash of heavy cream.

Week 13: -3, Total 20

Yay, going back down again.

It was tough to get through today at work with the Halloween candy all around me. Especially the Almond Joys! How many times in years past did I eat a few bags of Almond Joy, Snickers and Reeses. Empty wrappers all over. It's ugly to remember and to think of the harm it has done. When one trick-or-treating teenager asked me where my candy was, I just said "It's so bad for you!". The commercialism and greed or hoarding of candy turns me off. Just like Easter when instead of hunting eggs, the kids just greedily run around getting as many as they can. The size of Easter baskets is extreme and now includes gifts. It's just too much, I think.

I did get to the gym Monday. I bumped up the wave machine, like elliptical only an inline skating motion. I was even swinging my arms, pretending I was skating out on the boardwalk by a California beach! I had my heart rate going at around 155 for about 8 minutes and then a cool down. Then I did some upper body and abs on the ball to round out the hour.

I *will* get to the gym tomorrow night for mostly cardio, which I usually hate to do by myself and I talk myself out of going. When I look back on my journal, exercise makes a big difference!

Have to remember my goal of improving my hiking time. Everybody is faster than me and I don't like to make my friends slow down and wait for me. I would like to do more group hikes, but I gotta lose more weight so I can walk faster.

Hike to Poo Poo

We hiked to Poo Poo point from the high school. This was a tough hike. I was huffing, puffing and sweating the whole way up -- total time was about 2.5 hours. But look at the results! I lost the 3 pounds I had gained over the last couple weeks, so now I'm back at my lowest in 3 months. And my blood sugar was 84 today! Whoo hoo.

In 3 months, I've lost a total of 2 inches off my waist and hips.

This time of year, you can't help but think of pumpkin pie. I made this custard as practice yesterday. It tastes so good and sweet! I will take this to my brother's house for Thanksgiving since there will be some borderline diabetics as well as sugar-sensitive kids there.

1 29-ounce can pumpkin puree
sweetner to taste - I used 20 packets or so of Splenda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon sea salt
4 eggs
1 - 13oz can Coconut milk

Mix and pour into 6 large muffin tins greased with butter. Preheat oven to 425 then turn to 350 and bake for 45 minutes until a knife inserted comes out clean. I froze the individual portions.

Week 12: -0, Total 17

Well, doggone it. I did well eating-wise, but the scale hasn't quite gone down yet. Just barely. It probably will tomorrow! I have been hungry and maybe I ate larger portion sizes or an extra piece of cheese. Geez, constant struggle and thinking about food.

Hey, wait a minute! I just remembered I take my waist and hip measurement each month.

>>>>>>>I lost a half inch off both waist and hips. <<<<<<<<

So the ratio is still 97% :(

Hike on Snoqualmie Winery Road

This hike connects to the Rattlesnake Ledge Hike, but we didn't quite make it far enough to connect. I liked this hike because there was plenty of clearing which gave us a spectacular view of Tiger and Taylor mountains. We heard that familiar screech and looked up to see a bald eagle gliding above. This mountain had been logged many years ago, and seeing all the new growth and variety of plants is fun. There are some we couldn't identify so I have to look the up (didn't have my camera with me -- that needs to be standard equipment from now on!) The vine maples are flaming red and glowing amber.

The scale was down a pound this morning and my blood sugar is back down to around 100 after last week's cold and eating a few too many carbs. So I'm working hard to eat less and get some more weight off! Oh yah, and exercise more. I have to stop telling myself I hate the elliptical.

I love the elliptical. I love the stair master. I love the skating machine. I love the stationary bike.

Week 11: +2, Total 17

I ate out last week and just had a little of this and that. Hopefully things will go back down again.

I've missed my hikes a couple weeks in a row now too. So I need to bump up the workouts. At least do 4 good high intensity workouts a week.

My blood sugar was 124 one day. I had a good workout that night. The next day, fbs was down to 111. So I know exercise is very effective for getting that down for me. I was looking at my journal and when I hit 85, I had done a nice long bike ride the previous day.

I've had some carb creep and nuts so I'm going to keep an eye on that. Things are heating up at work so I have to make sure make time to get to the gym after work. It's good to work out the stress (not bad stress, just good stress). I would so love to get back to playing tennis because I'm not that crazy about just doing an elliptical by myself. I quit tennis because of heel pain. I suspect that high blood sugar was partly to blame. I'll have a little surgery for a meniscus tear and then I hope to be ready to play next spring.

So that's how I can make it through elliptical: it's bringing blood sugars down, weight down and good training to get back into tennis!

Week 10: -4, Total 19

Woohoo! I'm back in action. After my potato chip incident, last Sunday, I was kind of hungry for the next few days. But I stuck with it and am much less hungry now.

I've had a bad cold, so that probably helped me not eat. I haven't had many colds in the last several years. Maybe it was punishment for eating the potato chips.

Some of the things I ate last week: fajita skillets (just the chicken, peppers and onions with some cheese), tuna salad with cucumber and mache (lambs lettuce), grass-fed rib steak, cod and bok choy soup. I also made some low carb cheese cake, but just had small amounts.

My blood sugar was 127 this morning and was 116 yesterday. Maybe my cold or lack of exercise is why it is so high?

Voila! down a pound

I buckled down and watched my portion sizes and voila! I lost the pound I gained last week plus one more.

No hike this week since my hiking buddy is in Hawaii. So I will get in a bike ride on Sunday.

Week 9: Gained 1!

Uh oh. Now how can I wriggle out of this one? I have to face it. I had a bag of potato chips and a candy bar on Sunday. I don't know why. I had actually gone down a pound earlier in the week. A couple of people have noticed that I look better. So why would I slip back to old habits? I don't know.

Other than that cheat, I'm eating how I was eating for the first couple of months for the challenge when I lost about 2 pounds each week. About 30g carbs daily, 6 oz meat for lunch and dinner and 3 eggs for breakfast. Plus the supplements including fish oil. Ok, I probably exceeded the portion amounts sometimes in the last couple of weeks. So I will pay closer attention to measurements.

There is no way I'm giving up on this. I will do it. I CAN and I WILL.

Week 8: Lost 0, Total 15

I've updated my goal to what my ultimate goal is. 150 will put me out of the overweight classification on the BMI charts.

Didn't lose weight this week. Had a little clam chowder and even a few french fries when my Mom and I went to lunch! That was my first cheat meal in two months and I hope it's my last. It just was not worth it. It is not fun to gain back what I worked so hard to lose.

For Month 2, I lost an additional inch off my hips and a half an inch off my waist.


I made something a little different for dinner.

Lamb and chantrelle skillet

Sautee crimini and chantrelle mushrooms. Remove from pan.
Sautee sliced leeks then add 4 cloves garlic.
Add ground lamb
Add 2Tbsp fresh thyme. Salt and pepper to taste.
When lamb is almost done, add back mushrooms. Stir for a few minutes.

I then had some homemade gelatin with sf raspberry syrup, plus some cream.

Good stuff.

True confession - sugar free treats.

I'm going to confess now that my fbs went up to 98. I got a maltitol-sweetened nut thingy and ate the whole thing. A few days ago I had some sf carmel pudding. This is the ready-to-eat pudding in 4 little containers. I hope I can learn some day to eat just one at a time. But I ate all 4 that night. So I'll just stick with the sf jello as my only treat.

I have not gained weight yet, but I haven't lost either this week.

I have a hike planned today and the weather looks good for another bike ride on Sunday. I'll keep my carbs under 30 as usual and eat about 6oz protein for dinner along with my usual 3 omega-3 eggs for breakfast. I've been having some cheese in an omelet for breakfast and I will skip the cheese if I don't start losing.

I skipped lunch Friday and I may continue to eat about 2 meals a day with no snacks. I won't eat before exercise in order to get extra fat burning. I have 4 days until Tuesday!

Week 7: Lost 3, Total 15

I’m happy with 3 pounds down this week. I’ve been through the intermittent fasting for 6 days now. So that is 3 full days of fasting. I’ve proven that I could do it and I’ve achieved my goal of NORMAL BLOOD SUGAR at 85. So I will discontinue 24 hours on/off IF scenario for now. I will continue to eat very low carb and even skip meals if I’m not hungry. No big deal now. I guess fasting can be used to get hunger back in control or if I go out for dinner and eat a few things I shouldn’t. There is still more to learn about it.

I had a good workout at the gym Monday. I kept rests between the weight exercises to less than one minute. I did some squat/presses in between to get my heart rate up. I went through chest press, flys, one-arm rows, abs on the ball and lunges in 30 minutes. I did kinda-slow (not quite the 10 count superslow) and used heavy enough weights so that I couldn’t do more than 8-12 reps. I did 2 sets of most of them. I may do a similar workout on Wednesday night, but work different muscle groups. I’m not very fond of just doing cardio for an hour!

Next week for the Week 8 checkin, I'll take my waist and hip measurements. :)

Fasting Blood Sugar at 85

I saw my first fasting blood sugar at 85 this morning! It was 98 on Friday. I also lost 3 pounds. I had a late ‘lunch’ if you can call it that at 8pm last night so I will wait until 8pm tonight to eat dinner. That’s about my usual time anyway. I'm still eating my usual low carb meals. Yesterday, I had asparagus and steak for dinner and an omelet for late breakfast.

My clothing is getting much loser. I may look like a bum with baggy pants for a while. :) Fortunately, I make my pants with drawstrings and can tighten them up. I will take the side seams in a little. I’ll put some vertical darts in the back of my shirts. The weather has gotten colder now, so I’m doing the layered look with a loose shirt over a t-shirt.

Since my hiking buddy was out of town for our usual Friday hike, I did a bike ride on Saturday along the Lake Sammamish old railroad trail. My timing was perfect, because I met a new biking/hiking buddy! She is new in town and was looking for the trail and saw me taking my bike off my bike rack. We rode together and chatted the whole time. At the end, I gave her my phone and email so that we can do a hike or bike ride. She teaches biology at the high school. I was hoping to find someone to do something with on Sundays so that works perfect for her. She rode on further north and I headed back. The smell of blackberries along the trail was heavenly so I had a few. Oh my they were good.


This is a picture of butterfly weed that I planted in my garden. I hope it comes back next year, but I think the slugs enjoy it too much. I had lots of butterflies this summer. One day there was about 5 of them parading back and forth through my yard.

Diet Tweak 2 - Intermittent Fasting

I read Dr. Mike's blog Thursday morning about intermittent fasting and decided on the spot to give it a try. I had eaten breakfast, so I didn’t eat the rest of the day and just ate this morning after an hour of weight training. I can’t believe I didn’t pass out or fall over dead! I felt just fine, actually, and drank my usual water along with two cups of green tea. It sounds radical and crazy, but Dr. Mike makes a pretty good case for all the health benefits. Eating only meat and fat sounds crazy too, but I learned we don’t need carbs either. There is less hunger that way. I love veggies and I don’t feel they are bad for me, but I don’t worry about having them at every meal. I made a red bell pepper and cabbage slaw with a wasabi mayonnaise that was so good.

In studies, health benefits of IF include improved weight control, insulin resistance, blood sugar, hypertension, bacterial and viral infectious diseases, chronic sinusitis and autoimmune disorders. There were many responses to Dr. Mike’s article. Fred Hahn asked whether we would waste muscle. But Dr. Mike answered that since you don’t fast for more than about 24 hours at a time, this shouldn’t happen.

My blood sugar was about the same as usual - 98. I'll give this a try and see if I can get that lower. I had gained 2 pounds earlier this week, but they are gone this morning. I had been eating a little more last week and enjoying my last bottle of Carb Options Barbeque Sauce with smoked chicken and some country pork ribs.

This is the suggested rotation which means you always eat at least once each day and don't go much beyond 24 hours of fasting. When I eat, I plan on just eating what I usually eat.

day 1 : eat bf & lunch = eat before 6 pm
day 2: eat dinner = start eating after 6 pm
day 3: eat bf & lunch = eat before 6 pm
day 4: like day 2... rinse & repeat.
basically dinner-bf-lunch/ - - - /

http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/archives/2006/09/fast_way_to_bet.html

Week 6: Lost 2, Total 12

Yay, still consistently losing each week. I tried the Omega-3 tweaks. But I ate larger portions of meat and a lot of green beans a few times as well as some fruit and cheese. I also had some pork ribs with the last of my Carb Options barbeque sauce. I don't think they make it anymore. I have to be careful to not let my eating get out of control.

I got some grass-fed round roast and it came out tender for a change. I baked it at 275 almost covered with water for about 3 hours. Next time, I will get some burgundy wine to add. I reduced the broth and boy was that good. I froze the sliced meat and broth in individual serving sizes.

This is my second week back to work and I'm enjoying it. I've been good about packing my lunch and my gym bag and working out at the gym a couple nights a week. Monday night I do weights and Wednesday I do just cardio and a few abs. I went to get on what I thought was an elliptical and I guess it was some machine that simulates skating. My outer thighs are sore today. It was fun, though. On Wednesday, I'll probably do about 10 minutes each of the skating thing, elliptical and maybe back to skating or even the bike. I really don't like these things, but the days are getting too short to walk outside. I may try the new rowing class at the gym.

I'm at my lowest weight since I can't remember when. My watch is getting loser. My blood sugar has still been under 100, but not down to 83 yet. I'm still working on that.

Diet and supplement tweaks - Omega 3

I love seeing this ticker now and couldn't wait for Tuesday. I'm almost half way to my mini-goal of 215. My longer term goal is to get to about 150 pounds.

I've tweaked my diet and supplements this week, based on the success of Regina and Jimmy. I have already used these supplements in the past, but I guess I stopped them for a while. I'm taking fish oil and natural E, chromium, L-carnitine, acetyl-L-carnitine, L-glutamine, r-ALA, borage oil, glucosamine/chondroitin, CoQ10, magnesium, D and a multi. I guess I stopped these for a few weeks, because they may not be necessary and I don't want to rely soley on them. I think leaving bad stuff out of my diet is more important as well as eating the most nutritient dense foods. But I'm ready for a boost. My blood sugar finally has dipped below 100 and I want to get it to 83 consistently.

I love salmon, and I have been eating grass-fed beef grown here in Washington State. So I've just bought more of that as well as the omega-3 eggs. The basis of these tweaks is to improve the ratio of Omega-3 fatty acids compared to 6 and 9's. I've read Dr. Mary Enig's Know your Fats. I love her research because I love butter and she says butter is health food! When butter comes from grass-fed cows, it is golden yellow and has lots of vitamins A and D as well as some CLA. I've been getting KerryGold butter from Ireland. Sometimes I take a teaspoon and just let it melt in my mouth. Who needs the popcorn, when the butter is the part that tastes good?

I did some research on dietary fats and how they are metabolized. So many of the low carb books focus on excess carbohydrate getting stored as fat and I understand that. But excess fat gets stored as fat too, even though it doesn't seem to need insulin. I limit myself to about 4 Tablespoons of fat per day besides what comes naturally in meats. That's still pretty generous! My main fats are butter, olive oil and coconut oil.

Well, my hiking buddy is out of town so I need to get my butt in gear this weekend. I have a big pile of compost that needs to be spread in the garden, so that should burn off a few calories.

Week 5: Lost 3, Total 10

I lost 3 pounds early this week! Woo hoo! I would love to keep losing 1-2 pounds each week with no plateaus.

My energy was a little zapped so I had some protein powder after working out. Eating right has become so easy for me. I cannot take it for granted though. My friend was talking about a homemade huckleberry pie with cinnamon and sugar on top. It sounded good but I had no desire at all to eat it.

I made some marinated chicken breast and then marinated some flank steak in the same type of soy sauce, sherry, garlic and red pepper flakes marinade. For some salad dressing I made a wasabi mayonnaise with soy sauce and toasted sesame oil. That was really good!

I made several servings of the chicken and flank steak and froze them in small packages to take to work. I’ve been packing my lunch for work which includes salad, dressing and one of the meat packages. I also pack my gym bag to stop on the way home a couple of nights a week. Monday is weight training on my own and Wednesday is mostly cardio and abs. On Friday morning, I workout with my friends and a trainer.

I’ve still been at around 30g carbs daily.

Exercise:
2 – 1 hour weight training sessions
1 hour step aerobics
3 hour hike

Blood sugar has been around 103 in the mornings.

Weight: 235. Lost 3 pounds this week for a total of 10 in 5 weeks.

Rattlesnake Hike - with Pictures

We had to do this beautiful hike again since it was a clear day with almost no clouds. I'm sure we'll come back in September and October because the mountain is full of big leaf maples and vine maples which turn glorious colors in the fall.

This is a view from about a half mile up. The lake is part of the water supply for Seattle.

This is a view from the top of Rattlesnake Mountain, about 2 miles up, and my good hiking buddy, Sharon. I got a blister on my heel and bless her heart she had a big bandage just the right size! Then later my water bottle leaked in my backpack and drowned my cell phone. I was planning to buy a new one anyway. Luckily, I had my camera out so it didn't get wet.

Old tree with roots by the lake.