Rejoicings

I am a little bit thrilled right now.

I weighed myself this morning and have lost 5 pounds since Monday.  It is most likely water weight, but I am happy nonetheless.  I was 178 Monday morning, and now I am 173.  Yay!

But that is not the most important thing.  The most important thing is this motivation to eat better.  Not eat better as in foods (though that is there as well), but to have better quality of food, and less quantity.  I am very aware of what I am putting into my body lately.  And I feel great.  I feel a little thinner, I feel happier, and I have noticed my self esteem is over the roof right now.

This is the way I rejoice!

I can do this.  I can keep it up.  It isn't so hard, and it feels good to be picky about what I am eating.  It feels very good.  I love this.  Sigh.

Food Beware

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I have had a bunch of nutrition shows in my Netflix queue.  I finally decided to tackle them and watched one today.  It is called Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution.  I am in love.  I am thinking in a completely new and more aware way.  I highly recommend it.  Admittedly, it is rather one sided, and I know it is always a good idea to get both sides of an argument but, as they say, the proof is in the pudding.  

At any rate, I wanted to share just a little of what I learned with you.  But this post would be far too extensive.  So I am just going to share the things that I can remember right now.

Cancer, diabetes, infertility, and many other deadly sickness are more prominent today than they were even ten years ago.  More and more children are dying from cancers than should be possible.  

A small village in France got tired of all their children having malformations, and dying, and so decided to change all the primary schools over to organic meals.  The children also had a garden to tend, and harvest.  I learned that most of the disease was from pesticides.  All of the foreign chemicals put on (and seeping into) the food is what was causing that.

I want to start buying organic.  This Earth, which we as the human race have stewardship over, is being destroyed by all the chemicals we use for our food.  When we pay for "cheaper" food, we pay for fossil fuels to transport the food, the ozone layer to be depleted.  We pay for all the disease and sickness caused by the pollutants in the air.  It makes me sad.  And really, can you put a price on health?  Will paying for chemo be cheaper than buying uncontimanited foods?  Just a few questions to ask yourself.

Sigh.  And now I am tired of being on a soap box.  Suffice it to say, I am going to try hard to change our style of living.  I have big plans.

Jeffrey has wanted me to start baking all our bread for a while now.  Since there is a heavy duty wheat grinder here, we will grind our wheat, bake our bread, use my mother in law's pasta maker and make our own pasta.  Also, I am going to try my hardest to buy locally.  Organic, obviously.  I don't really want to add to the greenhouse gasses.  

My long team goal is to nearly eliminate processed foods from our diet.  And to eliminate pesticides and gmos.  Sigh.  I have a long way to go, I know.  So, this is my bucket list:

Have my own organic garden from which to gather the majority of my seasonal produce.

Buy local organic when I need to buy.

Have a fully functional beehive.

Make home made bread and pasta.

Have chickens (for the eggs).

Start a charter school (that is for another post).

Treasure and save water.

I am excited to start.  Baby steps, obviously.  But the best news of all, learning this has inspired me to be healthier.  I don't know if it was watching the French eating their meals, or if it is the fear for my children's health.  Either way, I have noticed I have begun to eat smaller portions, and more produce.  Which is awesome!  I am excited about it.  

Broken Record

So basically, I feel like a broken record.  I bet you could all say it along with me.  "Hi, I am back again!  This time I promise I am in it for real..."  Sigh.  I just seem to be in a serious slump.  The no sugar thing isn't working because, well, I love sugar.  And I am depressed so the sugar helps me.  Not seriously depressed, just hate living with my inlaws and having no control over my life at all.  I hate not knowing what is going on, and when things are going to change, and so, to not dwell on those thoughts, I bake cookies.  I eat ice cream.  Not to mention the fact that it is summer, and that means snow cones.  Only three months out of the year can I enjoy that icey goodness called Tigers Blood.  Oh so good.

But, I really need to change.  Because really, I do eat well.  I have a green smoothie for breakfast nearly every morning with a piece of whole wheat toast.  For lunch I generally eat a large green salad with a piece of whole wheat toast.  And then for dinner, I have been watching my portion sizes and eating less.  Then I go to work for three hours, come home, and don't eat anything, then go to bed.  

I am not really sure what is going on with this stubborn mid-section though.  I get the three hours of work in each night.  I eat tons of fruits and veggies.  I don't eat a lot.  And I am not losing anything.

Sigh.  

Which leads me to believe I need some serious exercise help. But that is hard.  I have two kids who make exercising extremely difficult.  My son loves to join me, but in so doing, stands right in front of me, so I trip on him and we both get hurt.  My daughter hates for me to exercise.  She purposefully hurts herself so I will pay attention to her and not my exercise vid.  It is so frustrating.  So, I am not getting much in aside from work.

But the good news is I am not hating my body.  I actually like it quite a bit.  For the first time in a very long time I love just about everything about me, body included.  I would like to be able to fit into the smaller cute clothes again, which is why I am on this journey.  

So, I am asking for some help.  What else should I be doing?  I want to get rid of some of this spare tire (because it is starting to look like I have a tube around my waist), but I really don't know how.  Tips?  Suggestions?  Anything will be much appreciated!  Thanks.

I'm Back

OKAY.

I am back and ready to get going in full force.  We have moved and are mostly settled in.  We still have a few boxes lying around, but that is to be expected.

And things are going to be going well.  I admit, I sort of gorged myself on sugar these past few weeks.  But I figured it was just as well.  After talking to my little sister, I decided to go off sugar until my birthday.  I will still eat honey, but that is all.  No more sugar until the end of October.  Just in time for candy corn!  Which is made with honey, by the way.

I also decided to follow a new diet plan.  Diet meaning what I eat, not going on one.  I don't believe in going on diets.  Bad for the morale and body, I think.  But this, a way of life that I know to be good is going to be my bible.

My friend posted this on her blog.  She had a baby and seriously just a few months later she had dropped 45 pounds.  Granted some of that was baby being born, and she said another part of that is having great genes, but the other part is this regime she followed.

In her words she said:

if you really want to see results try the following

...

-30 min. of weight lifting 3x per week

this means 3 sets of 10-12 reps for toning.

do upper body and lower body, rotating each time,

mon: lower muscles & cardio

wed: upper muscles & cardio

fri: lower muscles & cardio

sat: just cardio, no weights

it's important to give your muscle groups a day off.

-30 min. of cardio

yup, that's it!

make sure you do the weight lifting first, then the cardio.

this is important so you will be burning fat while doing your cardio.

-start your day off with water and protein to kick start your metabolism

eggs & cottage cheese are great, but it does not have to be animal based.

soy is fab!

this is a great time to exercise, before eating,

but any time during the day is great.

-eat every 3-4 hours

never

go more than 4 hours without eating, ever!

this should be about 4 meals a day, but small meals

...

sample menu

...

breakfast: 2-3 eggs (eggs whites if you are watching your cholesterol) or cottage cheese with fruit

(just make sure it's some kind of protein)

lunch: 1/2 sandwich (try to get fiber & protein enriched bread), fruit, & veggie

snack: 1/4 c. peanuts or almonds (or any protein: like a string cheese, ademame soy beans, avocado w/lime & salt) & veggie or fruit

(do NOT skip this snack!!! this keeps your metabolism going)

dinner: protein, carb, veggie

dessert: stick to one sweet thing a day,

so if you have this after lunch then call it a day;-)

-breads are not bad

(sorry mr. atkin, just don't eat them at every meal;-)

-try to stay away from soda all together,

yes, this means diet soda too

(sad, i know, but research is showing that diet soda increases your cravings for sugary things and ends up hurting you in the end.

try cutting down to 1 diet soda a day, and then moving to 1 every other day or on special occasions like dinners out.)

none of these tips will work without the following:

stop eating when you are full!

this means eating slowly (try to always be sitting down) and drinking water with every meal.

i drink 4-5 liters of water a day, but before i was breastfeeding i tried to get 3-4 liters.

start off with 1 and work your way up:-)

(try to skip on juices and gatorades.

they usually have sugars that end up as empty calories.

some gatorades are ok, just read the labels first.)

remember, the number on the scale is not going to make you any happier than you are today

b/c

it's not about the weight!

 

And so, starting tomorrow, this is what I am going to doish.  Obviously with a little deviation because I am no good at following a strict regime, but I will still do my best.  I hope you have all been dropping the pounds while I was away!  

Moving

I seem to have disappeared.  Sorry about that.

Friday night we learned that we have two weeks to be moved, so I am a little stressed.

Our friend has been deployed overseas for the past year, and we have been house-sitting.   We always knew the day would come, and that it would be sometime in May, but we never knew exactly when.  Now, we are gearing up for the move.  Well, I am anyway.  Jeffrey is studying for a big test for school that he will be taking on Thursday. 

That translates into me having to do a lot of the packing.  We have use of a truck and trailer on Saturday, so we need to have a lot of our things packed up so the big things and big boxes can be moved.  And there is mostly just me to do it.  A little stressed?  Why yes, yes I am.

So, suffice it to say, I will not be focusing on any weight loss goals right now.  I will be focused on moving and that is basically it.  I do have big hopes for the future though.  I have my kick-awesome yoga video that has been hard for me to do on the wood floors.  Some of the poses put a lot of pressure on my knee, and the hard wood floors have been killing me!  So, moving in with my inlaws will give me carpet to yoga on.  And they have a nice 5 mile hike right by their house.  Within walking distance of their house, actually.  And a park with a track around it that is marked to be .5 miles.  So, I can go running there and measure my distance.

See, good things (I hope) are in store.

But, again, I will be gone most likely until the 15th, which is the day our friend gets home.

Good luck to all of you on your journey!  I hope when I come back everyone is at least 2 pounds lighter!

FAIL

Last night I dreamed of donuts.  The kind dripping with frosting.  The big, thick gooey ones that get all over you.  There were cinnamon rolls with frosting drizzling off the sides.  And I enjoyed tasting, savoring loving every single one.

I woke up and told Jeffrey about that delectable dream.

He smiled, handed the baby to me, and left.  Fifteen minutes he was back with a box of donuts.  Very nearly the same as in my dream.  Just no cinnamon rolls.

I smiled because he is so wonderful, and tucked into them.

And you know what?  They really weren't very good.  The cream in the middle of one was frozen, the other one was disguised as an apple fritter, but was really cherry (I hate cherry), and they were too sweet and left me feeling F-A-T.

I put on my jogging shorts, and they barely fit!  They were so tight and I blame the donuts.

Sometimes I think it is important to have an epic fail like that.  It gets you back on the right track.  My little baby (she is 17 months old) had surgery last week.  In my preoccupation with her, I didn't do a whole lot of exercising, and I had four accidental cheat days.  I blame the stress and worry.  And then I got sick, and when I am sick, even though I should do better, I am actually quite worse with my eating habits.  I don't want to work.  I don't want to cook.  I just want to sit, and go into a coma until I feel better.  So my husband cooks.  And when he cooks, he cooks greasy fast food.

But now, because of that epic fail, I am ready to jump back on the band wagon.  I am ready to start it all over, and strengthen my resolve.  Besides, I had lost two pounds last week.  I don't want to gain it all back!  I learned today that donuts are much better in the box then they are around your tummy. 

Well, as I have said, I have been feeling like junk lately.  Probably from the junk I have been eating.  So Tuesday night Jeffrey and I came to a mutual decision.  I am going back on the hypoglycemic diet.  And when I say diet, I don't mean "I need to lose weight so I am going on a diet."  I mean with hypoglycemia there are foods that can and cannot be eaten.  I am going to strictly adhere to that way of eating.  I think everyone ought to anyway. 

Making diet changes is a very slow process for me, with many set backs along the way.  But I figure, as long as I keep moving forward, no matter how small the steps are, it is a good thing.  So, here I am, back to it.

• No hydrogenated oils (which I mostly have been doing anyway).
• No refined flour (again, we eat whole wheat and basically nothing else, unless it is homemade.)
• No processed sugar (and that is the one I have been failing miserably on.)
• No soda (we don't usually drink soda so not a problem.)
• No HFCS (and that I added.  Because it is so bad for you.  And I can taste when it is in foods.  They are unnaturally sweet.  So so bad.)

I think that is basically it.  I can't really remember anything else.  I started yesterday.  And of course, that is the day our friend came over and brought a huge bag of gummy bears.  Surprisingly enough, it wasn't too difficult to say no to them.  It could be that I was feeling very yucky and had no appetite, but I am pretty proud of myself.  Conference is going to be a bit of a chore for me because I wanted to have little treats for Keith for listening.  And Easter of course will be a chore, but quite honestly, I hate feeling like this, so I think if I can remember this feeling, I can conquer that cursed sweet tooth. 

Sigh.