Day 28- End of Week 4 Weigh-In and Secret Experiments

First off, the weigh-in photo:

This morning.

First day I was able to record a number instead of an

error in Week 1,

The estimate is I started at 450, because this scale stops registering me somewhere below that number. I was also barefoot in the older photo because I wasn't able to get socks on, my feet were too swollen. Yep, either barefoot, or barefoot in sandals in February in Minnesota, because my feet were too swollen for appropriate footwear. I've been wearing shoes for two weeks now, with socks. And I need to buy new socks because the ones I have were kind of ratty when I was forced to stop wearing them.

My weight loss was very rapid that first week. I was losing near three pounds a day, peeing it all out twice in the night. It slowed to 2 pounds a day in Week 2, to one pound Week 3, and this week it's at half a pound.

Why such a dramatic slowdown? EXPERIMENTATION! I don't like taking diet advice at face value, not when foods are being eliminated. I cut out sugar, wheat, corn, soy (aside from the soy that's slipped into certain foods because I can't afford the non-soy versions), most dairy aside from butter... And of these foods, wheat is the most vilified in The Wild Diet. So, naturally, I wanted to see if wheat itself really does have a profound effect on my body and pain levels.

Now, I'd done an elimination diet a few years ago when I first started seeing signs of swelling in my legs, and I cut out wheat, gluten-y foods in general, and corn. I was vegan at the time, and it was  a struggle to find food in compliance, but eating lots of brown rice and potatoes, and protein where I could it, I found the swelling went down and I dropped a lot of water weight. Everyone told me I was going to kill myself, though, from doctors to social workers to family and online friends.

I started adding back corn. I felt okay. I stopped being vegan. That went alright. Gradually gluten and wheat itself made its way back into my diet and my swelling came back, but I paid it no mind as I worked my way through bloody steaks bringing my health back up to manageable after so much time with too little protein.

Well, The Wild Diet is a type of elimination diet, cutting out suspected inflammatory foods and filling up on satisfying foods to negate the cravings one would normally feel after giving up favorite foods. But you're not expected to add foods back to see if those foods actually caused the health issues that disappeared after several types of food were removed.

Wheat being the villain, I thought I would eat small doses the past couple weeks, to see what would happen. I weighed myself daily since the start to keep a steady relative number as I added small amounts of wheat products. I paid attention to frequency and relative amount, and looked at my numbers in relation.

February 19th was a fish fry on a Friday (Fry-day) to see how that would affect my digestion. It rolled around in my tummy, but I enjoyed myself that night. I gained 3 pounds when I was able to weigh myself that Sunday.

The next dose was a beer Monday night, and the next day I was up a pound.

I ate a ton of sugar the next night in about any form I could find, not realizing my actual period was starting, two weeks later than normal. I was up another 2 pounds by Wednesday.

Since then, I've had one more beer and two traditional cookies, and my loss has slowed to tiny fractions.

But! More important than the scale number is how my body feels. I've gotten sluggish. I'm not waking before dawn, I'm not keeping up on hygiene so well, and my shoes are getting tight again. I just feel emotionally icky, beyond the period slump I always get. My knee pain is also returning, which has slowed my walking.

I have concluded that for my body, wheat is indeed a bad guy. It seems to stall my weight loss, which is bad considering how overweight I am, and it seems to worsen my body's inflammation. The added pain worsens my depression symptoms. I will be eliminating this food from my diet, since two different elimination diets have shown eliminating then reintroducing it correlates with pain and inflammation. I think this will make for better results over Month 2.

My weight loss over Month 1, the first increase being

from water retention during what I thought was PMS, but

was just spotting

Today, I have made my fatty coffee, adding some almond extract and some cardamom to make a nice warm and slightly Christmasy-flavor. (Grew up in a Lutheran church with much Swedish good in the bake sales.) I plan to keep the day simple and work on eating Wild like I should be. I want to see how a full month eating as Wild as I can will affect that graph.

I will also be taking my after pictures tonight- I took my before pictures before I went to bed, so for consistency, I will do the same for the afters. In my swim trunks again. xD

I will write up my email for Abel's 30 day challenge entry, and get everything prepared for sending.

I hope everyone following the Wild 30 Day Challenge has been experiencing better health and happiness this past month. It's been an interesting experiment, and I've learned so much about myself and my body. I've learned to be a little selfish, and that it's not a bad thing. I've learned I can do what I put my mind to, even if it seems impossible. I've learned I can cook! It's truly been a month of great things, and I'm looking forward to continuing for a lifetime.