How I'm Finally Losing Weight in Sobriety
How I'm Finally Losing Weight in Sobriety
Vol. 3: A Week of Learning to Kick Sugar Cravings and Discover the Foods that Work For Me.
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Well HEYO! It’s me, your faithful and overly positive weekly writer, Jess. For those of you new around here - it’s my mission to slip a little love note your way every Monday, filled with topics related to embracing a sober lifestyle, motherhood, wellness, homeschooling, and more!
Today I’m thrilled to share my update on how my first week on The Plan has gone. Good grief, it’s only taken me 3.5 years to FINALLY see that number on the scale go down and let me tell ya… I’m here for it.
I don’t know about you, but when I removed alcohol I was certain the pounds would literally fall off. Sure I was choosing a sober lifestyle for the health of it and it wasn’t about weight loss, but I couldn't help but think of all those liquid calories I wouldn’t be consuming!
Truth be told, wine was soon replaced with the permission to consume any and all sugar I desired. Do I regret it? Heck no. In those early weeks of sobriety, I knew I needed to do whatever would help me avoid pouring that glass of wine. Chocolate, ice cream, whatever leftover Halloween candy we had stored in the cabinets wasn’t going to sabotage my goal of being alcohol-free and it sure wasn’t going to make me wake up the next morning with a hangover or feelings of guilt.
Mix my ever-growing love for sugar, a habit of indulging in a multiple spoonfuls of peanut butter daily, and getting really good at baking sourdough - your pal Jess wasn’t exactly feeling like she was her best self.
I knew I needed something to get me out of my funk and after feeling completely defeated by my most recent full marathon (FYI: I was sick all race week and ended up having to speed walk 20 miles of my race), I reached out to my trusty mother-in-law aka holistic nutrition guru for her guidance.
Enter The Plan.
Before I dive into how my first week went, I want to start by saying this is not a diet. It actually focuses on chemistry not calories. The Plan provides a structured method to help you find which foods work for your particular body. This was incredibly appealing to me because I tend to lose motivation quickly when I feel like I’m being completely deprived and am doing a program that doesn’t feel like it could be sustainable. Yeah, yeah, yeah… I know I’m only a week in, but I wouldn’t be sharing about this if I wasn’t impressed with how I was feeling and the results I was seeing.
Just like sobriety, it feels good to feel good! And when you feel good, you want to share it with the people you care about.
Hint hint, that’s YOU!
The author of The Plan, Lyn-Genet Recitas, is a nutritionist. Her "plan" calls for a 3 day cleanse where you eat only low reactive food. For the remainder of the 20 day plan you add one new food a day and record whether or not the food is reactive for your unique body chemistry. This is based on whether or not you saw weight loss and/or experiencing inflammation and a number of other symptoms.
I gotta be honest, the thing I was initially most concerned about was not being able to have coffee during the 3 day cleanse phase! Can you feel me on that, Mamas? Waking up to that glorious cup of hot coffee first thing in the morning is my ritual and I look forward to the warmth of that mug in my hands every single gosh darn day.
But friends, as we know… if we can quit drinking, we can accomplish anything.
Day 1: This is the most basic day of the program and incorporates only the least reactive foods. I felt pretty fatigued, but knew my body was working hard to restore and nourish itself from the inside out.
Day 2: Woke up and was absolutely giddy to see that I’d lost 3.2 pounds! Hallelujah! Can I get an AMEN?! Day two brought the first “test food” which was almonds. While still following the menu laid out in the program, almonds were going to be introduced to the body at snack time. If I were to notice less than a 1/2 pound weight loss the next morning or experience any significant symptoms, I could assume that almonds might be a reactive food for me.
Day 3: Down an additional 1.2 pounds! Yup, a happy dance was most definitely performed the second I stepped off the scale. Day three’s test food was chicken. By this day I was still missing my coffee (duh) but was easing into the new habit of drinking 16 ounces of water with lemon first thing after weighing in. Isn’t it amazing how our brains are wired? Just like when I needed to find a hobby to replace my wine, this new habit of drinking water instead of coffee upon waking - was becoming a new routine.
Day 4: Down 1.4 pounds, giving me a total of 5.8 pounds lost so far on The Plan. Today was a nerve-racking day for me. Of course I was beyond thrilled with the movement on the scale, but this was the day that I could not only reintroduce one cup of coffee, but I also was going to be testing my beloved cheese. Energy felt restored today and I was surprised how just one cup of coffee (yes, it was a larger mug) felt like a perfect amount and I wasn’t experiencing the mid-afternoon crash.
Day 5: Down .8! Not as big of a number, but friends… this meant cheese most likely isn’t a reactive food for me! Tears. Of. Joy. For today’s test food, I was to try one rye cracker with almond butter during my snack time.
Day 6: Down an additional .8! Total of 7.4 pounds lost and today marked my first protein test day. Chicken and several vegetarian sources of protein had already been added at this point, but now it was time to rotate my protein so that I could experience more weight loss and additional health benefits. I decided an egg would be my next protein test.
Day 7 (current day!): Down 1 more pound. OMG. I thought today was going to be the day I stepped on and saw either no change or even some weight gain. I don’t know why, I’m usually incredibly optimistic, but I guess I just felt like it’s been going way too well.
As I write this, I’ve lost 8.4 pounds total and can’t wait to discover the other foods that my body loves. I’m feeling incredible, in control, and so gosh darn proud that I’m seeing this through.
I’ll make sure to keep you posted on how the rest of this program goes and if y’all could do me one HUGE favor and keep your fingers crossed that my “bread test day” goes well, I’d be forever grateful.
That’s all for now my sweet friends. And just as a reminder, if the only thing you did today was stay sober… you’re winning.
To learn more about The Plan, you can visit her website here and/or order the book from Amazon.
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