Summer of my Mediterranean Diet

Day 40 (41 & 42) - Guess what?  The scale finally moved.  I knew it would, which is why I weighed myself again after only one day.  172 lbs.  It finally gave me the 2 ounces I complained about yesterday.  How I knew?  Because I went to bed starving and could feel my body "eating itself".  That is a joke, but I could feel something different (in addition to being hungry).  I have to say that the protein was my missing component. Yesterday was a very rough day in the midst of a very rough week.  In addition to my protein epiphany and subsequent resistance-attack, then the huge learning curve of trying to understand the correct way to go about this and the overwhelm with trying to track and monitor myself, I have also had a rough work week and difficulty finding balance in my personal life with all of this. When I woke this morning, I realized that if I don't want this blog to turn into "The Summer of My Public Mental Breakdown", I need a Time Out!  So, t

Day 39 1/2 -  This is the first time I've posted twice in one day, but I honestly don't think there is any way possible I could consume 150 grams of protein in one day!  For lunch I had a small salad with 1 tbsp dressing, a tuna packet, 1/4 cup of shredded cheese, tomatoes and cucumber and washed it down with a vegan protein powder and strawberry smooothie.  That was 411 calories and 41 grams of protein.  I thought I was going to hurl while I was eating/drinking my lunch. By the standards in my original post this morning, that means I still need to consume 92 grams of protein TODAY.  Simply not gonna happen. Surprisingly, many sites I've looked at appear to concur with those numbers.  And maybe it is because I am so far in the other direction?  Or because I have too much default information in my brain that wants to eat a mostly plant-based diet?  Whatever the reason, I just can't quite climb this mountain of information and follow it blindly. I came across ano

Day 39 - Oh the ironies in life!  I spent a couple hours working on my bedroom, both yesterday and the day before.  Cleaned it out, moved the bed, hung the curtains, hung the sheers underneath the curtains to help block even more light, ironed the bedskirt and put on the new sheets and blanket that I bought over a month ago.  For good measure, when I was all done, I smudged my bedroom with sage.  When I got in bed last night, I covered the light emanating from the cable box to create total darkness and I put my noise machine on ocean sounds to block the distant highway hum.  Then, I couldn't sleep!  Go figure! I tossed and turned all night and woke completely exhausted, fatigued and quite a bit fragile.  I called "time out" and reached for my robe instead of my workout clothes this morning.  There is a part of me that thinks it was "Resistant Rita" who kept me up all night, throwing an absolute tantrum in my subconscious mind.  She is quite the Queen-Bee and

  Day 38 -  I started this blog as an experiment to follow a Mediterranean diet to lose weight over the summer.  It is not going well.  My scale is stuck at 172.2.  It couldn't even give me 2 ounces of progress over the past few days.  I gave up the Mediterranean diet portion of my experiment.  I have been counting calories.  I have been eating super healthy.  Truly.  No (added) sugar.  Whole wheat and grains, not refined white products.  Talk about "feeling pressure".  I sure hope I turn into a diamond like the quote above instead of simply imploding when all is said and done. So now, I must tweak again.  I do not enjoy this part of the process.  Stubborn Suzy and Deprived Debbie are just waiting to pounce on me as I make my newest declarations.  (Please refer to Days 23 & 24 if you are new to my blog) .  However, if something(s) is not working and we continue to do the same thing, we are now part of our own problem.  I so sincerely want to be part of my solution

Day 37 - Tuesday.  There was a full moon last Friday, so the waning moon is still quite large and bright in the sky.  It is beautiful.... except when it is shining into my bedroom so brightly that it disrupts my sleep.  We recently took down our bedroom curtains to paint and the rods never made it back up yet.  Today it is at the top of my priority list when my husband gets home from work. I am an introvert.  I don't concentrate well when there is too much chaos or people in and out of my work space.  Right now my living room is full of teenage boy/man energy, as my son's friend spent the night and they sacked out on the couches.  I am wearing my headphones as I write, so I can listen to the sound of soothing water bubbling instead of hearing them and all of their sleep breathing. Yesterday everything took its toll on me and I climbed into my bed and put my eye mask and ear phones on, before pulling a pillow over my head and calling a time out.  I stayed there, falling in

Day 36 - Monday morning.  Sometimes I feel like the little engine that could, sometimes I question my sanity.  I am never quite sure of which end I will land, on any particular day, but I always know it will eventually seesaw to the other side, so it doesn't really matter. I am tired and sore from my extremely active weekend and I have a 10:30am appointment today, so I skipped my morning workout.  I did weigh myself though and was absolutely beside myself that the scale hasn't moved from 172.2.  I haven't eaten more than 1700 calories in a day since I began counting calories.  I hiked, I kayaked, I swam and I rode my freaking bike.  It is so hard not to feel defeated by how slo....w.....ly this weight is coming off.  Deep breath. As I was getting dressed, I pulled on a pair of capris that I haven't worn in a couple weeks and could see and feel how noticeably smaller I am in them.  This encouraged me to take my waist measurement.  I am down another half inch in my