Week 6- The Gabriel Method

{ July 24, 2009 @ 4:42 pm } · { Body Image, diet, exercise, healthy living, The Gabriel Method, Weight Loss, Weight Struggles }
{ Comments (1) }

I thought the blog would help with the process, but I haven’t had time to sit and write out my successes and failures. This week I feel like doo. I caught a heinous cold from my brother and niece and haven’t felt like putting the effort into following my new healthy lifestyle. I will admit I have consumed a lot of fast food and packaged meals this last week. I’ve only walked the dogs twice in 7 days. My head feels like it’s going to explode. I have had a headache for 8 days in a row. I can handle the sore throat and congestion, however the headaches drain all the life out of me, and it hurts to move.

To summarize the last month and a half – Week 2 and 3 went fantastic, I lost 6 pounds and my pants were falling off me, I even gave a fairly new pair of capri’s to my other niece while we in Michigan visiting. I had no problem on vacation continuing to walk, take my supplements, and eat semi-healthy. I did have potato skins when we went out one night and had McDonald’s on the way home from a long day at an amusement park and then visiting Lake Michigan. For our road trip up there, I packed a cooler of healthy snacks and sandwiches, so my son and I had no need to stop for crap food. However I did eat a few of his Twizzlers. The drive back is where the down slide began. While I packed some fruit and water, during the week we had wiped my dad’s frig almost completely out of food, so I didn’t have much to make that was healthy or traveled well. My son and I stopped for fast food for lunch and upon arriving in Memphis for our overnight stay, the power was out in part of the city. We had planned dinner at Cracker Barrel, but their power was out also. The hotel’s people assured us the power would be back on by 10:30 pm. So we had to drive around to find an open restaurant in a city that has many parts that need to be avoided. I was so tired and pissy that I gave into his request for Chik-fil-a. Next day I was ready to get back home. We saw Graceland and headed out for more fast food on our 7 hour drive.

I learned two things while on vacation for 11 days, the Texas heat is killing me, and I slept like a baby in my dad’s basement, which led me to believe my room at home is too bright and might be a factor in my sleep issues. I purchased a sleep mask which has helped, but it doesn’t stay on my head the whole night, so I have to find it when the dawn is breaking. After pulling out of Memphis and coming into Arkansas and then Texas, the temp hit 104. The frustration and irritability immediately increased. At 8:00 am it’s been over 88 degrees which is miserable to walk the dogs in, mowing the lawn when it’s 98 degrees at 8:00 pm sucks, I have reverted to my old ways. I haven’t been walking my 10, 000-12,000 steps a day, I haven’t been eating 5 small meals a day, and all I want to do is sit. I’ve gained 3 pounds back. I am mad at myself for doing so well for a whole month and now letting it backslide. I have re-read my old posts and realized I did feel better when I implemented my new healthy lifestyle, and I need to go out in the kitchen boil some eggs, and prepare some easily accessible meals to take along while I run errands or work.

I have listened to Gabriel’s meditation recording every night, but now start it in different places because I fall asleep within 3 minutes of the beginning, which led me to hear the same message over and over again. While relaxing at the chiropractors the other day, I tried to implement SMART mode. I wrote out a page of positive affirmations on Wednesday. I have set new personal and professional goals for myself. I put my fish oil caplets in the frig because I read that might help with the fish oil burps which are gross. I want to be thin. I am not afraid of being thin, I’m just lazy. I have a hard time planning meals and I despise cleaning the kitchen after every meal.  I like food, I like pre-packaged food, I love convenience. I could eat cereal for every meal and never get sick of it. However, I know I can’t. I have to get off my butt and start all over again.

One point I wanted to make about his message which he states food will no longer taste good and your cravings will subside. While for some foods it has worked, french fries I can now live without, but my grandmother’s homemade blueberry pie was divine. I could have eaten the whole thing. That is one thing I miss about my grandparents not being close anymore, home baked treats. I don’t bake much because I know I will sit and eat the whole lot myself and have done so in the past. This week my mom also baked my grandmother’s two best cookie recipes, molasses cookies, and oatmeal prizes, which have oatmeal, banana, and butterscotch chips in them. I took a dozen home and devoured them in two days. Once again for the convenience I could eat them for breakfast, snacks, whenever. I will NEVER cease to love cookies or pie. Good thing I don’t know how to make a homemade pie crust and have enough will power not to make cookies but a few times a year. I have a chocolate chip, peanut butter, oatmeal receipe, I got from a college boyfriends mother that is one of the best things you will ever put into your mouth. That one only gets made for large parties or bake sales.

So another point to make is you can’t eat anything you want and still lose weight as claimed. I have not beat myself up to much this week about eating unhealthy, I know I will get it back together once I get over this cold. However, it does suck to gain weight back you just lost 2 weeks ago, and know your stomach is expanding again. I can feel my Dunlap while sitting here typing. The temp has dropped this last week so it’s only 77 at 8:30 am, but because my head has hurt and I feel like a truck has run over me when I first wake up, my 3 mile walks haven’t happened much. The dogs are mad at me. My female is trying to escape out of the backyard again. I caught her digging a new hole and yesterday when I came home, both were in the alley. The gate didn’t get shut all the way and the smart dog that she is, she pushed it open. I am thankful they stayed close to home. Years ago I lost an escape artist dog who got hit by a bus at my mom’s after getting out. She liked to chase tires.

I am going to re-read the book tonight to unlease a new perspective. I will not weigh myself again for another month. I can feel my sides and stomach getting smaller and tighter when the weight is dropping. I will try to implement SMART mode daily. I will start looking at my pictures of Halle Berry in the morning and evening to refresh my unconscious mind. I will get this weight off.

Summary – Week One

{ June 18, 2009 @ 3:40 pm } · { Body Image, diet, exercise, healthy living, The Gabriel Method, Weight Loss, Weight Struggles }
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I purchased The Gabriel Method on 6/10/09, and after reading through it fairly quickly, I was excited to start implementing my lifestyle change. The next day I purchased the recommended supplements minus the flaxseed oil, and have been taking them religiously every morning. I went to the grocery store to buy “live foods”.  One thing I have learned, implementing a new healthier lifestyle isn’t cheap, but my digestive track is already thanking me just after one week. I downloaded the CD onto my iPod. The first night I was skeptical how listening to a mediation was going to help me lose weight. While laying in bed, I turned it on, and by the time he uttered, “you should feel your eyes and face relaxing,” all my muscles relaxed instantly, I was mildly amazed. Needless to say, I didn’t make it through the entire message before I was asleep. The second night, varying results occurred. I made it through the entire recording and fell asleep immediately after it ended, however I awoke three hours later, irritable, with thoughts running through my mind, my dog was snoring, only irritating me more because every time I drifted back to sleep, she’d start snoring again. I turned the iPod back on to listen to the message again and fell quickly into a slumber. I have read other reviews from people implementing the book, and most have achieved “the best sleep of my life.” I continue to wake up three to four hours after falling asleep with thoughts racing through my head. But this is nothing new, I have always been a tosser and turner, and any slight noise awakens me. This is probably another reason I am always so tired during the day. Plus the Phetermine doesn’t help with the sleep. Before implementing my new healthy lifestyle I asked my doctor to prescribe it to me. Phetermine and exercise is how I lost the weight four years ago. It controls my appetite, yet it doesn’t control me from eating french fries and cheeseburgers. If I proceed to eat what I have in the past, my weight will continue to yo-yo. Once the pills are gone I most likely won’t refill the prescription. I want to see if the eating 5 meals a day I have implemented and the mediation are going to be enough.

The new healthy lifestyle plan:

Breakfast:

1/2 cup oatmeal with fruit (not instant oatmeal) or 1 whole omega-3 egg and one egg white with onions, tomatoes, mushroom, a sprinkle of shredded cheese, and salsa or  1 cup non-fat yogurt. I did have my eggs with a tortilla one day. I do miss the carbs.

Snack:

Cottage cheese and fruit or hard-boiled egg and grapes.

Lunch:

Lean protein, fruit, and veggie and sometimes rice. I have been tearing up the $4.99 rotisserrie chickens at Kroger.

Snack:

Cheese and fruit or handful of almonds or same as above snack, however I have been limiting the eggs to one egg yolk a day.

Dinner:

Protein and salad or veggies. After seven days, the salads are no longer my favorite. They have become boring.

I don’t eat after 7:00pm. I drink a shit load of water. I am now getting up in the middle of the night to use the restroom.  This looks like a diet I know, but one of the messages in The Gabriel Method is your body will starve craving healthy foods, you will no longer be attracted to the processed foods and your cravings for junk will go away. Guess what, it is working. I went to dinner the other night with a girlfriend after working 11 hours and instead of ordering tacos loaded with crap, my subconscious went to the grilled items and I ordered mahi-mahi with steamed veggies over rice. I hate fish, but it was delicious. What is hard to implement is cooking ahead of time in order to bring food with you. I have no problem packing my son’s lunch for school, but for me it’s easier to drive-thru somewhere and grab lunch while I’m out running errands. The other day, while he and I were out running errands, I did stop at Chick-fil-a and grabbed chicken nuggets for him and a grilled chicken sandwich and fruit for myself. He didn’t eat all his fries, so I asked if I could have one, and it didn’t taste good. I LOVE french fries, especially their waffle fries. It was mushy and lackluster. Also one night I was fed up with my dinner salads and didn’t have time to make it to the grocery store, so we ordered pizza. I only eat mushrooms on my pizza, he eats plain cheese.  I had three pieces. About an hour later my digestive system was a little more than mad at me. The toilet and I became best friends for about 20 minutes. I knew food was the culprit behind my digestive issues, I stopped eating beef years ago, after being sick all the time. I can only eat cheeseburgers at fast-food places because the majority of it is fillers vs. 100% all American Beef as most claim. Pizza, I never had a problem with, but after eating so well all week, it became a problem.

What I have also noticed is I am no longer tired at 4:00 in the afternoon. I haven’t woken up cranky and cooking really doesn’t take that long. Being a short order cook and planning your meals, however does. My son is already so skinny he can’t live on what his momma is eating, so he gets different choices then myself. I made eggs the other morning in two pans, because he won’t eat veggies in his scrambled eggs, plus he got bacon and toast. Last night I made a pork roast and made his as a bbq pulled pork sandwich with chips and fruit, while I just ate the pork and a salad.

According to the author, he states not to weigh yourself for the first month. That didn’t happen. After one week I have lost 2.5 pounds, which is good. But what is better is I have noticed my muffin top slowly dissolving away.

I have three large plastic tubs in my closet full of clothes ranging from a size 8 to 12. I currently wear a size 14, the goal is by summer’s end to be back into the 8′s. After that it’s getting the thighs not to touch.

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