Weight and Weddings

I mentioned in my elimination diet wrap up post that one effect of the diet was Aaron and I both lost weight. While Aaron's weight loss has been praised, mine has been a mixture of criticisms and comments that truly frustrate me. It also just happened to be before our wedding, so many people assume I was losing weight for that.

I do not know how much I weighed before starting this diet because I don't regularly weigh myself, but I estimate that I lost a minimum of 10 pounds and a max of 20. I only noticed when none of my jeans fit and I went to buy new ones and found out I was 2 sizes smaller than I thought I was.

While I was definitely eating more "healthy" and a lot less grains, I was eating a lot of food and plenty of healthy fats (nuts, avocado, olive oil, coconut milk etc). I'm not sure why or how I lost so much weight, but I have a few ideas:

1. It was water weight. My body could have been retaining water due to all of the nightshade vegetables I was eating. Once I cleansed my body of those chemicals, it stopped retaining water.

2. Less stomach aches means more time to work out. There were many days when I found myself feeling too sick to work out, or only able to do a slow bike ride (on the gym bikes). Since I feel so much better, those days are fewer and farther in between, which means my workouts are more productive and my muscles are a lot bigger!

3. Moving to Madison. We walk a lot here every day, which is a stark contrast to the amount of walking that happened in Farmington Hills/Detroit.

This has all casued me to reconsider my understanding of what a healthy weight is for me. I never thought I could lose weight, but now I feel better than I ever have. My energy levels are higher and my body feels awesome all around. Those of you who aren't as close me may not know that I was getting painful stomach aches almost every single day. It made work and life in general unpleasant. It frustrates me to hear people criticize my body when I'm finally feeling better!

Also, telling me I need to eat more or eat junk is not helpful. I eat until I'm full. I eat food that makes me feel good. I eat at least 5 times a day and I don't skip meals. Sometimes I eat more than Aaron does!

The main reason I'm writing this is that it is unlikely I will gain any weight before our wedding. The last thing I want to hear on my wedding day is comments about how skinny I am or how I need to eat. Even if they are "compliments," I do not take it that way.

I would like compliments on how buff my arms are though!