Primal Journal:Momto3 page

[Momto3]

I began the primal lifestyle on June 6,2010
My husband is on this adventure with me and we are easing our children into it. I have three sons. 8, 4 and 7 weeks. The newborn is pretty easy since he's nursing.

I have struggled with my weight since 1996 when I was diagnosed with some medical issues and put on medication which caused weight gain, but triggered the vicious cycle. I have done the low fat diet, on to the low glycemic diet, on to all whole grains, chronic cardio, then weight training. Having three children in the midst of all this too. I saw some success at weight loss when weight training, but was still having energy problems.

Anyway, it's been two weeks now and I am thrilled to be off the insulin rollercoaster. I've lost 1 lb so far. I am hoping it's just going to take some time to flip those hormone switches and then I'll watch the weight come off.

I'm 5'3" 165.4 lbs
According to my scale I'm at 38% body fat. I am only 7 weeks post partum and nursing.

I am following the PB exercise guidelines. I'm really enjoying this approach!

My husband and I are enjoying being able to include fat in the diet and cutting out grains has helped cut out sugar.

This past weekend all 5 of us went for a 4 hr walk/hike. Yesterday and today is bodyweight exercises.

[hippie_mama]

Congrats on the new addition to your family, and the lifestyle change!

I'm also a mom of three (mine are 8, 6, and 4). We're not pushing the no-grain thing on the kids; they still eat cereal, but we've removed all HFCS from the house, and all snacks and 1-2 meals a day are completely primal (sandwiches with bread are a 'treat' that they relish, and they get pasta when they're away from home).

[Momto3]

Thanks, hippie-mama.

So, I'm using Fitday to track my info and it is calculating to reach my goal (130 lbs by March 2011) I need to lose about 1 lb per week. It is calculating that I burn about 2600 calories a day....so I should aim for 2100 to eat. In PB it recommends journalling for a few days to get a feel for what you're eating, but not to worry about it after....that if I'm eating enough fat, i will be satisfied.... Well, I am finding that if I let myself eat what I want (primal foods of course) I am hitting the 2300 cal mark. My carbs are 100g or less. After 2 weeks, I've lost 1 lb. I think after reading in the book about the "effortless weightloss" I imagined a bit more weight loss to begin with. I've been telling myself that it's only 2 weeks in and I am nursing so I shouldn't go too crazy on the weightloss anyway.... I've also got a condition called Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome which makes me insulin resistant and it's been very, very tough to lose weight in the past. I've done it, but it took 4 days/week of weight training and some cardio. I haven't ever cut out all the grains before and I am hoping it will be the key to unlocking the hormones to help me lose weight.

Over the past two weeks I have been active also....body weight exercises, walks, hikes, sprint, swimming laps.....all according to PB guidelines.

Do I need to cut down the calories. I think I read in a dietician book somewhere that while nursing to keep calories around 2000. Is this reasonable for being 5'3" and 165lbs?

I would love some feedback.

[Stabby]

With regards to losing weight the whole calorie deficit concept is a little misleading. If you're getting enough good, nutritious, filling food your body earnestly wants you to be super lean and under the right conditions you can burn as much as 3000 calories or more in a day even if you aren't exercising for a long time and burning a lot of calories from that. But the problem is that those conditions are elusive at first. Mark has recently come out with 2 brilliant posts on leptin, the hormone that communicates satiety and also informs the brain of the status of its fat stores. If we are getting enough food in and the brain can "hear" leptin's signals, it will stimulate the metabolism to just burn the fat. Body fat is a burden and if one has a constant intake of calories the body is going to go into "feast" mode (as opposed to famine) and it won't feel the need to hang onto the fat anymore. We can become "leptin resistant" when the brain can't hear leptin yelling at us due to either dulled receptors or various molecules blocking the leptin signaling. So in Mark's post he discusses a few things that cause leptin resistance and how we can resolve them. Too many carbs while insulin resistant, a poor omega 3:6 fatty acid ratio (hugely important if you're nursing too), grains (especially wheat!), and a few other things are particularly problematic. That would be a really good place to start looking

Fitday is great to keep track of your carbs, protein, and fats and also your micronutrients. Making sure that we're getting all of the micronutrients we need from food or supplements is of the utmost importance. I don't think that it would do your favors to reduce calories right now if you're looking to lose weight, at least not right away. My advice is to address the sources of leptin resistance and get really good nutrition first and give it a while, you may not even need to cut out calories. Just striving to have as healthy a lifestyle as possible according to Mark's book and blog posts and keeping it fairly low carb will probably be a good place to start.

edit: here are his leptin posts http://www.marksdailyapple.com/leptin/ http://www.marksdailyapple.com/furth...s-with-leptin/

[Momto3]

Thanks, Stabby. I had read Mark's posts on leptin with great interest. Awhile back I read in a book for those with PCOS that we have something going on in our system that hinders the saiety feeling, especially with carbs. I don't remember if the book mentioned leptin specifically, but when reading Mark's posts, it sounded familiar. Yet, thankfully Mark gave some ways to combat this! Since going primal 2 weeks ago, I've cut out all grains. I am taking a flaxseed oil supplement for the omega 3 (I know this is not the best source, But I am making my way through a Costco size bottle - plus I have had some success in bringing down my triglycerides after being on the supplement for a year, so going to finish off the bottle). i have kept to the closer side of the 100g mark rather than the 50g for carbs because of the breastfeeding....I do intend to read about other nursing moms and what they do for their nutrition. I am concerned with keeping my milk supply up since PCOS can hinder this. Anyway, I really appreciate the feedback and will continue to feed my body the good stuff and give it some more time.

[slesca]

I'm a nursing mom (5 week old) and am still playing around with what to eat. My body definitely demands a lot of food- if I skip breakfast, I am frantic for another meal in the late evening. It leads to lots of grazing. What works best for me is to eat three substantial meals each day because I can't seem to get enough calories from two meals. I haven't done the calculations you have so I have no idea what my calorie needs are. I just know that I eat like a man and I've only had one or two meals that have made me feel really satiated. They were huge! My weight loss was really fast at first and now that I'm down to the last 5-7 lbs (to get to my pre-preg weight), it seems to be going really slowly. I'm carrying my excess weight in my hips/butt and I'm dying to get rid of it so that my wardrobe could expand a bit.

I'd say I'm pretty low carb most of the time- 50 ish, with some days under and some days closer to 100. This isn't really on purpose anymore, it's just what my favorite meals contain when I don't cheat. When I cheat, that's another story Hello, carrot cake from last weekend.

Congrats on your new little one! It sounds like we have two babies who are pretty close to having the same birthday. Mine came on May 19th.

[Momto3]

Thanks, Slesca! It's great to hear from you. My son was born April 30th.

I am really liking the PB approach with the flexibility when it comes to exercise. It's very doable incorporating it into our new family of 5. You are doing awesome on the weight loss. I do wish I had known about PB before. I was following CW with whole grains and watched the pounds pile on in the last trimester. It was so discouraging. I don't know if it's b/c it was my third, or b/c I'm 35....but my core really took a beating. It is still painful to do a push-up. Thankfully sqats and lunges are very doable and isolated upper body.... the core and pelvic floor will need some rebuilding.

[Momto3]

Wa-hoo! My Five Fingers showed up today! Sprinting here I come!

[Stabby]

Hehe, awesome. Nothing like a good "barefoot" dash up a hill.

Flax will have some benefits in the absence of fish oil and maybe even some with fish oil, but for the truly dynamic health benefits a high dose of fish oil is the way to go at first. Here's a great post by Chris Kresser on fish vs flax. He also has some awesome fish/omega 3 posts, a great podcast with a leptin expert and a ton of other posts. Quality site, although if all I read was Mark's stuff I'd still be insanely healthy.

[Momto3]

@Stabby: The Healthy Skeptic is the guy who pointed me in the PB direction. it was his posts on cholesterol that got our attention. We are so looking forward to all the wonderful benefits of this lifestyle.

I wish there was a way to copy and paste from Fitday....

Wednesday:
B: 2eggs,coconut oil, asparagus, homemade almond meal muffin
L: chicken breast, carrots
D: roast beef, carrots, apple, strawberries with little bit whipped cream
Snack 2 almond muffins

squats, lunges, calf raises, crunches
walk to the grocery store