Mamma Belly Progress Report

Earth Milk--My new favorite drink

Today marks the end of my two week experiment of daily exercising my transverse stomach muscles to see if it would shrink my belly.  When I started the experiment, I took measurements of my stomach and checked myself for a diastasis muscle separation.

I began with a three finger separation between my stomach muscles.  Today the gap is one finger which is right where it should be.  As for my waist circumference, I lost 2 inches from the area 3 inches above my belly button and 1 inch right at my belly button.  Pretty impressive results considering how easy the exercise video I used is.  Ten minutes of really easy exercises that don't even seem like they will make a difference.

I thought about ending the exercises right here.  I closed the gap and lost some inches.  Mission accomplished.  But then I started wondering if another two weeks of faithful exercising would make even more of a difference.  So I am going to try it and see what happens.

Before

After-2 weeks later

In the mean time, I had to buy new shorts because my old ones were too saggy baggy.  And my shirts are starting to hang on me--not my most favorite look.  I've been trying on my shirts that were too tight before only to discover they fit now.  Woohoo!

This week I am doing something called a Fuel Cycle.  This is where you eat all S (high protein, higher fat, low carb) meals for 3 days, then all fuel pull meals (high protein, low fat, low carbs) for 2 days, and then E meals (high protein, 45 grams or less of carbs, and low fat) for 2 days.  And then repeat for another week.  This is to help rev up my metabolism and get it burning all my fat stores even faster.

The S days are even stricter than Atkins induction--no nuts, no seeds, only limited cheese (otherwise no dairy at all), non-starchy vegetables, and no fruit.  When I tried the Atkins diet, I remember feeling like poo during the induction.  But apparently my diet has already been low enough in carbs that I have been energized the last three days eating such a carb restricted diet.  My brain fog and mid-day tiredness have disappeared.

I admit that it seems weird to think that I need to eat MORE fat.  I eat a meal and realize it was rather low in fat, so I eat a skinny chocolate covered coconut crack bar for the fat.  They taste a lot like Mounds Bars.  Next time I'm going to add almonds to make them Almond Joy bars.  It helps keep me full and satisfied.  You would think that all the extra fat would make me gain weight; but the opposite is true.  I lost 3 pounds after the first two days.  And no, it wasn't water weight since I lost all of that a month ago when I first started the THM diet.

Tomorrow I start the Fuel Pull days.  I admit I am most nervous about these days.  Low fat and low carb.  I have a list of food choices and I am confident I can do this without feeling hungry.  I will just load up on lean white meats, egg whites, fat free dairy (plain Greek yogurt and 1% fat cottage cheese), salad and other non-starchy veggies.  And I can't forget my new favorite drink, Earth Milk.  Even if it glows bright green and looks...suspicious, it actually tastes pretty good considering it's basically blended up leaves with a few other ingredients (this batch is spinach and parsley).