Ive noticed lately that my nails seem to be a lot stronger than they used to be. I know its not because Im pregnant, Im only 10 weeks along so the free edge of my nails werent made while Ive been pregnant. Ive always had really flimsy nails and had a really hard time growing them to have any sort of cute free edge. Ive tried all sorts of different things, even drinking knox gelatin as a kid to try and make them stronger- it didnt work. Nothing has. But I noticed I have a free edge on all 10 fingers now! And they arent as flimsy, I really have to wonder if this is a perk to low fat eating? I will have to continue to watch my nails after I deliver this baby to see if they stay strong!
So this blog has been all about how I am trying to lose the weight I gained while pregnant- but surprise! Im pregnant! Im 6 and a half weeks along now and have continued eating low fat and healthy. My last two pregnancies I ate a ton of horrible food and even though I didnt gain a huge amount of weight during my pregnancies it was all fat! I ate tons of sugar sweetend lemonade and brownies with my first son and obscene amounts of pastries with my second, mostly chocolate or chocolate chip pop tarts. I am doing great with dealing with the crazy cravings. So far my cravings have been all been for pretty decent foods. My biggest craving is pudding- mainly tapioca pudding with chilled canned mandarine oranges. I make it with skim milk so it is very low fat but a good sources of calcium and vitamine C. My other big pudding craving is pistacio pudding with whipped topping, marshmallows and pineapple. So the marshmallows arent so great for me, but its so yummy!! I want to work hard this pregnancy to keep my weight gain to wieght that needs to be gained, not just a bunch of fat. Ive worked too hard to lose all of that fat to let myself eat crap and gain it back. I am being slightly more leinent on my fat intake since the baby needs it to develope but Im still being very watchful and eating lots f fat free or low fat products. I just let a few higher fat choices slide in once in a while. Like lean cuts of beef- more than 20% calories from fat but its important for me to get some red meat in my diet for the iron. When I took my pregnancy test I weight 156lbs, I hovered around 155lbs for a while and this morning I was up to 157. Im hoping to finish my first trimester at 159lbs or less.
When I first seriously tried to lose weight back years ago I read about Atkins. This was well before low carb diets became popular. I tried ‘dieting’- severely restricting my calories, as low as a few hundred calories a day. It sucked. So when I saw my friend losing a ton of weight while eating things like steak and butter I hopped on board. The first time I did it I did lose a few pounds. It was really restrictive and hard to stick with. I craved sugar like crazy even when I was in ketosis (a state where your body has burned ALL carbs and is now burning fat to keep you alive) I finally had to stop, it made me miserable and I did not feel healthy at all. My skin looked nasty and I just felt icky. After the birth of my second son I was desperate to lose some weight so I started back on low carb/high protein per the Atkins plan. I lost a few pounds but I was exhausted and I started losing my hair. I was really depressed and again my skin looked horrible. I started running while low carbing and I had such a hard time with having enough energy to get me through even a very modest work out. I looked around online to what other runners where eating and I found most were vehemently against low carb or high protein diets. Our bodies need fuel to get stronger and faster, that fuel comes from carbs. It took some getting used to, shifting my thoughts on eating carbs again but I have lost the bulk of my weight from eating a healthy diet including lots of carbs (about 40%), some protein (30%) and fat(30%). But Ive seen the fastest results with a low fat ‘high’ carb diet, when I keep my fat % under 10-20% the weight slips off a pound or two a week it seems now that Im off my plateau. The carbs I eat fuel my runs and the moderate protein helps rebuild my muscles. And one more perk is my skin looks great compared to how it looked when I was eating low carb and high protein.
My mom used to make this fabulous pistachio ’salad’ its always been one of my favorites but it was so not low fat, not in the least!
I was craving it in the worst way the other day so I decided to give it a diet make over.
Here is the new recipe!
One box of instant pistachio pudding (2g of fat per box)
One cup of cold skim milk (0 g of fat per box)
Two cans of pineapple, either tidbits or chunks, if you only have crushed that’ll work ok. Drain these well. (0 g of fat)
One cup of mini marshmallows( 0 g of fat)
Half a container of fat free cool whip (0 g of fat)
Directions:
Add the milk to the pudding mix in a bowl, stir until combined then place in the fridge until its set, about 10 minutes. Now dump in the drained pineapple, cool whip and marshmallows and stir until combined. This is best if it sits on the fridge overnight. The pineapple gets a little sweeter and the marshmallows plump a bit. Its not the healthiest thing in the world but its SO good. It’s a nice occasional treat. The original recipe called for an entire tub of cool whip, lots more marshmallows and only one can of pineapple, which results in a much more ‘fluffy’ but less healthy dessert.
Hey guess what!? My weight this morning was 154.8!! My new lowest wieght! Yay for healthy low fat eating and moderate exercise. Speaking of which I am hopping on the treadmill for a post race run this evening. I think Ill run 3 miles at a moderate pace and maybe do some hill work, I love the feeling of powering up a big hill, its a GREAT work out!
I also slipped on an outfit I never would have imagined I would be fitting into! My top today fit nicely- a size Large Juniors and my shorts are a size XL Juniors and MILES too big! How absolutly FUN is shopping when cute clothes are TOO BIG!