Halfway Through Phase 1!

I'm halfway through my medically supervised liquid diet. I've now finished 8 weeks.

For the 1st time in 5 years, I got on the scale and the number meant that I was below the BMI considering me morbidly obese. 

That's right, now I'm just obese! 

I've stayed on my plan this whole time, I haven't cheated, not even tastes, even though the desire is still there. And it may always be there. 

I've spent years eating what I've wanted (always feeling guilty about it though) and it's not going to go away any time soon. It may take years of focusing on my new habits. 

They say it takes 21 days to start a new habit. I call BS on that. I think it takes longer. I've been tracking my new habits in my bullet journal (bujo) starting from January about doing chores around my house. And if I'm not careful, I've noticed that despite 4 months now, I will still slip back into my old habits. I have to catch myself. Sticking to writing & tracking things in my bullet journal is a habit onto itself. I gave up in February/March last year and the years before that, I wasn't very consistent. So far this year, I have been but I catch myself not picking it up or tracking things every so often. 

A book they gave us on this program called Living Smart, calls this "drifting". We find ourselves drifting off our new habits and go back to our old ways. The authors suggest catching yourself within 3 days of drifting and bringing yourself back on your plan. They also suggest monitoring the heck of you progress and kudos to my bullet journal because it helps me do just that. 

Another thing I'm learning is that I don't know all that I thought I did.

For example: last night in class, we talked about cardio and heart rates. I remember learning about it in school and I have a heart rate monitor, my FitBit. When I've been walking, it tells me that I'm in fat burning mode, so I thought I was meeting my target heart rate. 

Turns out, I wasn't. There's a whole other level called cardio. So I used the formula, and figured out my target range (226 for females, minus age, divide by 3 & then multiply by 2) I seriously just thought I just didn't sweat that much when I work out. Today, I tried the elliptical machine and watched my heart rate hit that target range. Turns out, I do sweat. And I don't have to go as long as walking because I was working harder. 

And for the life of me, I do NOT know why I didn't know that. I think it was arrogance. I think I must have tuned out or skimmed that stuff because I thought I knew it already.

Which begs the question: what else don't I know about healthy stuff?

I'm also trying to figure out food plans. I don't want to do a specific diet especially because I actually don't like the diet that I am on. A high protein soy diet doesn't make me feel great. Yes, I'm losing weight but I'm only eating 1,120 - 1,280 calories a day. My body is dropping weight because of the difference between calories out and in. 

I don't think this is the plan my body will thrive on. I'm not going to quit or anything, I'm just not loving it. I'm glad I only have 8 more weeks on it.

I'm looking into food plans that make me feel great. Something I can sustain, not something you are supposed to do for a phase (like high protein diets). I'm thinking low calorie balanced meals, some plant based but not all the time. I'm also thinking it's time I start cooking actual meals...or rather when I get to eat regular food again. 

I'm starting to think about how I want my lifestyle to be after my program ends. I noticed foods from my travels and how I felt after I'd eat them: the food in Iceland was all organic and I noticed a big difference in my health after a week eating organic food, I loved the bread in Paris but never went overboard, plus it was so fresh that it didn't have crazy preservatives in it, I loved the savory tastes from Hungary, and the pistachio gelato in Rome. I'm a meat and potatoes kind of gal, but it can be leaner meat. And I have no clue yet what the food in Portugal, Spain, & Morocco will be like. 

What I would love to do is to take things that I loved about the food from my travels and apply them to my new healthier style of eating. 

We shall see where this all takes me.....I predict Pintrest.