#Gainingweightiscool, is the new social media craze. This new movement has shifted the focus from being skinny to achieving overall health. The movement is known as Ditch the Scale to Get Healthy which was first tweeted by fitness blogger Ariana Dentone. As you all know social media is the new info market for the 21st century, everything you need from fitness advice to stock exchange advice can be found somewhere on instagram; facebook or twitter. I am on board with this movement because the scale is mentally draining, it can lead to depression, anxiety and on the extreme end eating disorders.

Although the movement of ditching the scale is awesome we still have to be mindful of obesity and unhealthy weight gain. Recently I have noticed that my body composition has changed and my weight has shifted, I didn’t need the scale to tell me this I noticed it while looking at my image in my birthday suit, as well as how my clothes are beginning to fit and not fit. I stepped on the scale to confirm and yes my weight has increased by 5 pounds. (OMG) So that started me to thinking about how I plan to get this unwanted, unhealthy weight off. Due to my foot injury my miles have been low and my strength training has been less consistent, so the first step is to get back these two things back on track.

But, I still need to shed some pounds so I begin to investigate some of the elimination eating plans. You notice I didn’t say DIET because the first three letters of this word spells DIE and that’s definitely not the goal. Now keep in mind that I live a pescaterian (fish only, no land animals) lifestyle, so in my mind I have eliminated enough, but obviously that’s not true, because were has this unwanted weight come from?

The two plans that interested me the most are Keto and Whole 30. Why, because I have two co-workers who successfully incorporated these elimination plans into their lifestyle. Since I’m not the expert, I will share with you what I found out about each plan directly from them.

My first talk was with Coach Freeman ( teachers we only go by last names) and she has successfully been on Keto for about year, of course this includes the maintenance phase also. Here is what I learned...

Things I gave up:

Sugar, potatoes, rice, pasta, bread, fruit, carrots, corn, peas, beans

Requirements:

Keto is not a calorie based diet, but what works for me is to stay below 1200 calories per day

Percentages of calories:

70%-75% Fat,
20%-25% Protein,
5%-10% Carbs

Carbs:

All or most of my carbs come from green vegetable…

While on this journey I learned that cauliflower is awesome!

Premise

The goal is to get into a state of ketosis, so the body is burning fat from energy instead of carbs and sugar. By doing this, the body burns stored fat…fat loss= weight loss.

Benefits

I can only speak for myself, but in five months I lost 70 pounds. Once in a state of ketosis, food cravings and hunger nearly disappeared. Also, when in ketosis I experience high energy, and I think more clearly. As far as health benefits, besides weight loss, my blood pressure, cholesterol, and A1C have gone down significantly. I also sleep better.

Maintenance

Carb cycling, several days on keto and several days off allows me to maintain that weight loss.

Now let’s look at Whole30 with Coach Spence..

Things I gave up:

Fruits, dairy, sugar, pasta, breads, rice, and nuts

Long list, but the main things for me that were hardest were of course sweets. Because I loved my Peanut M & M’s. Week 1 was the hardest for me and I was told that I was moody from it, but after that it was easy. Dairy was a tough one also.

Requirements:

The basic requirements are learning how to change your eating habits. As I stated before, you will have to give up a lot of comfort type foods, the reason being is that this is technically a cleanse. Yes you will lose weight, but you are cleaning your body and training your mind,

Premise:

The whole concept is to cleanse your body of processed foods and foods that can cause bloating and that affects your digestive system. You will lose weight with this, but it is first a cleanse. Meal prepping is the key to being successful and you have to be very selective on where you go out and eat at.

Personal testimony:

Man, I actually liked doing the whole30. I actually did well afterwards keeping up with my meal prepping. I did get myself into trouble because I allowed time constraints to interfere with my meal plan. When I did it, I was losing 5-7 lbs a week for the first 30 days. I had a lot more energy and I slept better. This was due to the fact my body was not taking in processed foods all the time. I wasn’t feeling bloated because of the dairy and nuts. I wasn’t having crashes because I wasn’t taking in the processed sugar. I will tell you, if you are working out, the carb intake is limited, so understand that, but the results were great, and it’s easy to find recipes everywhere online.

After speaking with Coach Freeman and Coach Spence, I haven’t really decided which elimination plan I will adopt, but I’m leaning more towards whole30 (but I love dairy) so I might better try Keto. Decisions, decisions, decisions.