My long road to weight loss when I own the bakery
From a cake eating, cookie nibbling sugar addicted bakery owner to a no carb, no sugar, no dairy bakery owner…One of the hardest things I have ever done in my life. Sure, you are sitting there saying that isn’t so difficult, well my friend you are so very wrong.
I, like a lot of people, started out skinny and petite but as I hit my stride in my 40’s so did the tonnage. Everyone can relate to filling out in their 20’s and 30’s but that wasn’t so bad because you could lose it a little easier. But in 1994 all of that changed… Because when I was 36 my bakery business just kind of happened. I was the baker, bookkeeper, delivery person extraordinaire. Started baking at 4pm, that was when my rental kitchen was available then did the dishes, invoiced and did the deliveries until about 8 am at which time I would sleep a few hours. I would get up buy my ingredients and do it all over again. Yes, I was a little crazy but I really did love the business even when I hired employees.
The year was 2000 and I was opening my brick and mortar in downtown Napa. Right about now you are thinking what a great location downtown is but that truly did not happen until maybe 2010 after all of the construction all around us. OMG there was construction to the left, to the right and even behind our lovely historic building. Roads and bridges were closed for weeks at a time. So naturally, I overestimated the business that I would get and the depression set in.
So here is where I became that person…the crazy, angry woman from the New York area that is always yelling and loud. Well, to be honest, I have always been loud and a very straight shooter. I was not sleeping at all from the stress and worry, I was eating way too many takeout meals and I was constantly eating at work. Ah, yes eating at work, a scone or a morning bun with my coffee, oh are you cutting cake let me just stand at the table and snack on small pieces of cake with frosting and of course, don’t forget I was the quality control supervisor. Oh, Honey, this continued through Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, and Nutrisystem because of course, it was my meals that were the problems, not all the sugar and flour.
I ballooned up to a hefty woman 5’2” and close to 200 lbs. Sure I lost 40 on Jenny Craig but when you get to the point that you are going to puke when you open some of the food you know the end is near. So, slowly but surely the tonnage starting creeping up, not back to my heaviest but well on my way. Then came weight watchers…I really did try but when they tell you that skinny cow ice cream sandwiches are 2 points well let’s just have 2 or 3. So that diet too went by the wayside as well.
Well many years have passed and yes I exercised and thought well I have to lose some weight I am moving. I did spin, I tried to run ( oh yeah my feet and legs loved me with all the top weight hitting the ground and not so gracefully, I might add) and worked with a trainer. Oh how I loved the weekly weigh-ins and the measurements…you think there has to be progress this week I was into my classes and weight training and just mixing it all up. Then the moment of truth, you know when you try to take off everything that you have on because that too is the problem but alas the needle and the tape measure did not move. You blame the scale or think oh she must be doing my measurement on the wrong leg because of course, you think the right is thinner than the left. And of course you just want to cry, and I did and became very discouraged.
Ok, enough about that let’s discuss what happened in 2017 that made this time different…I had heard about Whole 30, if you haven’t the short version is no sugar of any kind, no dairy, no carbs including beans, rice and peas and corn ( my 2 very favorite veggies ). I was toying with the idea of trying it but could I really stick to something. Mind you my portions were too big, I had to have a sweet after dinner with ice cream being my favorite go to. How happy am I with Ben & Jerry’s and Hagen Das making non-dairy ice cream but that is frowned upon on Whole 30.
Picture it, Monday, July 17 my feet hit the floor and I say that’s it I’m doing it. I didn’t prepare for it, I didn’t read anything about it or plan it but I said to myself that’s it I am sick of being fat! I looked it up, saw what I should and shouldn’t eat and started. So I begin the process…I hide in the office a lot so as not to be tempted, I’m sure my employees don’t mind it so much. I bring in leftovers for lunch, I change to almond milk lattes, eating lots of fruit and veggies and drinking lots of water.
This is just the beginning… in my next blog, I will go over how I stayed on Whole 30 for 90 days.