Lose weight by increasing your protein.

I have made a change this past week. I decided to put some things to the test. It is just a theory but worth testing.

When I look over my nutrition each day, I am very often WAY under my protein requirements consistently. Obviously, my body isn't getting what it needs.

I was talking to my mom a few months ago, and she said that Dr. Oz said that you should eat 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of rising. She lost 18 pounds in a relatively short period of time doing this one thing. I asked her how in the world she managed to get in that much protein. I mean - that is like eating 5+ eggs! She said she did eat an egg or two, but mostly just made a protein shake.

In the last few months, I have been reading a lot of things about running. I would skip through the books to the part about nutrition and losing weight while running. I mean, I run about 3 hours a week. You would think I would lose weight. But, today I looked back over the time I have been on spark and I haven't lost any weight since Dec. 2009. Oh. . .well. . .I have lost the same 5 pounds over and over again. Don't get me wrong, I am thrilled that I have kept off the 35 pounds I have lost. I owe that to Spark and the tools here and the friends I have made through Spark. But, it is time to move on!

So, in my reading, I started theorizing that when I run, since I am not eating enough protein to support my body perhaps my body is burning the muscle rather than fat. Not strength training is also another contributing factor.

So, I began looking for protein powders. There is no way I am eating 5 eggs in the morning! I think I would be gagging them down! The protein powders are expensive. I looked at various stores and then had an awesome idea! (patting myself on the back) I had already looked up all the foods that were higher in protein. On that list was cottage cheese. What if I made a shake with cottage cheese? Okay - test it!

This past week I made a shake with 100 grams of cottage cheese, 150 grams of plain low fat yogurt, 100 grams of 1.5% fat milk, and truvia - my favorite no calorie sweetener. That was my base. Some days I added a banana. Some days I added PB2 (powdered peanut butter without the fat) and a Tablespoon of cocoa. Result? Well, it turns out to be about 300 calories and 30 grams of protein!

That was a good start to my day. I realized that I didn't need a morning snack anymore either. I focused the rest of the day to push my protein intake up to 100 grams - while still staying in my fat ranges.

After a week - I lost 2 pounds! Okay, ya, I know, it is the same two pounds I have previously lost. But, this morning, I lost another pound! I went back month by month and realized, my weight today, 183.2 is the lowest I have been since December 2009.

My plan? Continue. I'll try to give a report as to how week 2 goes with this plan.

I am so thankful to Spark for their tools. I mean, I just put in my food, set up what I want tracked and it does all the math. The reports are invaluable. If you have never looked over the things under "reports" you are missing some great tools. I can look back there and see each time I have stayed in my calorie range, how much I exercised, what I weighed, etc, etc. There is a wealth of information there.