Say it ain't so, Joe !!!

What do intelligent people do when problems arrive in life ? They rethink, regroup and refine- the other 3 R’s in life. I spent yesterday doing just that. Okay, so the scale is not moving in the right direction. This does not scream fail; it simply means that I am going about things in a way that is wrong for my body. Because of my hormone issues, cortisol is my enemy, and anything that makes my system pump it out is a bad thing. Stress is one of the primary causes, and anything that can bust stress is helpful. So I reconsidered my exercise options. And once again, I reviewed my food logs to find out what I was possibly doing wrong. Other than last Sunday carbs were within tolerance level, no excess salt, no excess fruits, not heavy on the meat, no surplus coffee creamers. But what’s this? HOW much coffee am I drinking???? It seems that once again my consumption has crept up to a very unacceptable level. 12-14 cups of coffee per day to be specific. My naturopath, who was the one who first uncovered my PCOS problem back in the days when we were dealing with infertility, warned me at our last visit that coffee will make any weight loss attempts I try nearly impossible. It is not because of the diuretic affect or because of too many cream and sugar additions. In my case, the caffeine kicks my adrenals into high alert and my body becomes so flooded with cortisol that I could gain weight on lettuce leaves alone. He wanted me to quit coffee all together ( decaf is problematic because of the chemicals used in the process), but truth be told I ADORE coffee. The smell, the taste and the mouth feel. Green tea and other herbal alternatives just do not have the same viscosity. I have dropped coffee all together for a time, lived through the massive headaches, but it keeps finding its way back into my life, so I compromise and vow to limit it to two cups a day. Then it sneaks up, and weight loss becomes a real problem. So yesterday, I skipped making coffee in my lovely coffee maker, stuck with one cup of instant and two cups of green tea. I relaxed a bunch. I could literally feel iron bands falling off my body. Then I helped things along with a change in exercise routine ( bellydancing) , and a Reiki session. ( Reiki is a non touch energy healing system- I am a Reiki Master but sometimes forget to include myself in my list of clients). We will see what we will see. While I was doing my own re-evaluation I looked over the guys logs and I think I found one possible reason they are starting to experience stalls and gains. Their intake balance is going to be changed around as well.

Yesterdays log

Breakfast-
Veggie egg white omelet with salsa
yogurt, strawberries, sugar, ground flax
water, green tea





Lunch-
grilled chicken on romaine with seed mix and dried cranberries
apple, yogert with cocoa powder and sugar
water




Dinner-
Grilled pork loin chop, sweet potato,asparagus sauted in olive oil, garlic and dill
tossed salad,Diet Sierra Mist





Snacks
14 almonds
2green tea
sugar free jello, sugar free pudding, 100 cal almonds
1/ grapefruit, sugar free pudding,TLC bar

water 18 (144 oz)
exercise- 40 min
walk 10 min( out in the mucky mud to discover what the snow piles have left behind)
Belly Dance DVD 30 min ( great fun and good working those abs !)
Fruits 3
veg 9
lean protien 3
dairy 3
healthy fats 3