Wheat Belly: 12 Weeks In (+ T25)

It's been a while since I've updated on our healthy eating and exercise. The good news is that lack of blogging doesn't mean we've completely fallen off the wagon. We probably follow Wheat Belly guidelines about 85% of the time. There are many days we refrain from processed foods, refined sugars, and grains 100% of the time. There are also days where we are less strict and end up eating a graham cracker or cup of popcorn.

It seems misleading to contribute our progress through Wheat Belly alone, considering our exercise routine plays a large role in our weight loss. For the past eight weeks, Jesse and I have completed T25 workout videos every morning before the kids wake up. Though the videos are only 25 minutes, they are very fast-paced, high-intensity workouts. We completed the 5-week Alpha level and are in the middle of the 5-week Beta level.

I finally made progress pictures of our weight loss. I chose before pictures from January, which is when I was at my heaviest, even heavier than the day I delivered the trio. (I was also exclusively pumping for triplets at the time, so my boobs were huge!) I began my weight loss journey in January with the Super Foods challenge. Our diet did not radically change until mid-May, when we strictly implemented the Wheat Belly way of eating. Both Jesse and I began different exercise routines in May (P90X and 30 Day Shred) before beginning T25 together in late June. Here's our progress thus far:

We're not going to take any measurements until we finish the Beta round of T25, but here are a few numerical statistics:

Jesse stopped taking his Lipitor a few weeks ago. He had a cholesterol screening this week. His overall cholesterol increased, though his bad cholesterol decreased significantly and his good cholesterol also increased. He returns again in 3 months for a repeat screening.

	Standard Range	April 15, 2014	July 31, 2014
Triglycerides	0-149 mg/dL	241	75
HDL	>39 mg/dL	31	42
Cholesterol	100-199 mg/dL	212	225

We have both lost over 30 lbs each in the past three months, without counting a single calorie.

During the first month of Wheat Belly, I challenged myself to make a different dinner every night. I found this to be incredibly expensive and exhausting. Now that it has been a few months, we have some staple meals and go-to ingredients that we always keep handy. Instead of planning meals for the week and going grocery shopping, I go to the grocery store and buy what's on sale, then go from there. For a few weeks, I was only cooking dinner a few nights a week and we would have leftovers or smoothies for dinner. We both agreed that we are not as successful this way and I have resumed cooking dinner six nights a week. Here are some of our favorite meals:

Stuffed peppers (with cream cheese and chicken or ground beef and tomatoes)

Paleo cereal: nuts, berries, almond milk

Turkey and tomato lettuce wraps

Zucchini noodles (stir fry or pasta replacement)

Taco salad

Bunless burger with sweet potato fries

Tuna tomato melt with grilled asparagus

Salmon croquettes (WB Cookbook) with roasted broccoli

Pizza (cauliflower crust) with salad

Ricotta cheesecake (WB Cookbook)

Salmon, roasted broccoli, honey glazed carrots

Slaw, stewed cinnamon apples, grilled pork chops

Stir-fry (veggies, chicken, soy sauce)

Baked chicken, sweet potato, zucchini

A die-hard Wheat Belly follower would critique those meals (corn chips, soy sauce, mayonnaise, etc). In our first month, we refused to consume anything with modified food starch. We would have continued that if we could afford alternatives, but it was ridiculous making 18 ingredient barbecue sauce and paying more than double for nitrate free ham. I am well aware that we don't follow everything to a tee, but the way we are eating is very manageable and realistic for us to maintain.