2012 Year in Review

And, Oh!  What a year it has been.  And now, I have cycled right back to where we were, both sidereally and weightwise.

I started out with a bang in January, with the leptin reset and Robb Wolf's recommendations.  This success led me to being fired by my rheumetologist.  Yay!  I didn't keep good records, but the 5-week experience plus the later month-long "Paleo on 100 dollars a month" challenge left me 15 pounds lighter.

Then I started CT in earnest.  Yay!

But, then summer crept forward, the garden carbs called me, I started a half-assed compliance program.  My mindless following of my guru was stalled when he was made to walk the gangplank.  He then circled his wagons, with a paywall all around, and I lost both the new community and my enthusiasm. Walked away from all the paleo crap, too.  When I got into dietary trouble, I'd just fire up the cold tub and fix it.  OK, that worked for awhile.

Eventually, this C-student attitude got me into gaining all the weight back.  (But wait!  It wasn't "and then some.")  I kept getting serious for a week or so, then eating a bunch of wheat or bbq sweet corn, and gain a few pounds.

By fall, as a result of my big mouth and my insistence on speaking truth to power, I was walking the gangplank as well, right off that [redacted] site and into the cold, deep blue sea.

So, lets recap.  I was on a half-assed diet for most of the year, I didn't do any more aerobics than my active lifestyle already affords.  If someone handed me a piece of cake, I ate it.  If someone didn't, I didn't eat it.  I didn't eat on little plates.  I didn't chew my food thirty times.  I didn't starve myself.  I didn't log in every day and spin a stupid wheel.  I didn't eat potatoes.  I didn't not eat potatoes.  I didn't troll neo-nazi sites to see what they were eating.  I didn't track my food, I just salted it, buttered it, just ate it.  And, when I was full, I quit eating.  I didn't do testing.  I didn't sign up for personal coaching.  I didn't count my satfat grams.  I didn't even count my carbs, except for grins.  I didn't pay for a webinar.  I didn't go to a Paleo convention or make any paleo brownies.  I did no crossfit.  I did not give up or butter my coffee.  I did not sous vide or confit anything. No monthly hormone panels, no 23andme, no suitcases full of supplements, no dopamine-enhancing drugs to swallow every morning.  I did not buy a single bag of ice.

This fall, after spending a year fixing things hormonally, and reading more of Dr. Kruse and Dr. B G, I started on progesterone.  I feel wonderful on it, and just gained a few pounds, each pound being incredibly worth it.  I started having a more normal response to carbs, a resiliency to physical activity (and a hot climate!) I haven't enjoyed since menopause, but learned that I must be very careful with carbs in order to keep out of a hormonal imbalance.  I got more skin tags and aches and pains.  There is more water weight in the mix, and I haven't sorted it all out yet.  But there is also the fact that I completely stopped my sleep medication (yea, that one that caused me to quit eating and lose all that weight and appetite).  Before progesterone, I found that I couldn't go for more than 2-3 days without the sleep medication, or I would lose sleep, gain weight and get a bit cranky.  This time, with the progesterone, I was able to go through a couple of weeks, with moderate crankiness only after a few days of high-GI carbs like cake and cookies.

And what happened with my weight?  Nothing.  (This has never happened before.  I either gained or was miserable trying to lose or tread water.)  My belly fat is less, people still ask me if I lost weight, my skin is so much better, and I have fallen in love with CT.

My plan for 2013 is to continue with my fixed hormonal system and CT, continue to eat meat and veggies with few grains, increase my aerobic exercise and see what happens.  I will probably throw in another "100 dollar challenge, we'll see if the dollar amount goes up though.

Happy New Year!!