Thursday, August 8, 2013

Snacky-snacky. 

That was me today.  The children and I made plans to go visit friends. I stopped to pick up some snacks for the children and caved when I saw those yummy Terra Exotic chips.  My oldest daughter and I munched on them in the van. 

We had to skip our visit due to a child getting sick on the way there.  Detour back home.  Cleaned up the house and then sunk down to enjoy a movie and snack.  More snacky. I munched on some blue corn tortilla chips and salsa. 

The food wasn't bad.  A little outside of ETL due to the oils and grains I'm supposed to avoid.  But, I really enjoyed the treat with the children. 

I felt SO full, though, by dinner time.  Maybe that was a good thing.  I made Lemony Steamed fish and chicken (separately, but same seasoning) and roasted vegetables.  I had one bite of chicken (eh, I haven't been missing much) and a small pile of vegies, only two bites of sweet potato in the mix.

I think I'm *okay* on calories for today. Maybe a bit over. But, wow, can I snack if I let myself! I really need to stick to that rule if I want to stay on track with weight loss.

I nutri-tized my taco soup recipe today.  I posted it on my recipe page. It turned out really good.  As I was eating it, I had the thought, "THIS is what I was wanting," as I remembered my frustration yesterday in finding something satisfying to eat.  I'm not sure what it was, the familiar taste/texture? This is one of our favorite meals.

Oh, and I weighed-in today. I'm calling that last weigh-in a fluke, as I'm up today. BUT, if I look at Tuesday's weigh-in compared to today's, I'm still down a pound. I will take that, for sure!

I pinned a few recipes tonight. I want to try making some crackers from juice pulp tomorrow when we finish up school.

My new habit building list has been a huge help to me.  I'm really happy with how our days are going.  We're getting lessons done and I'm pretty much keeping up with checking and grading work.  Still wishing I had a bit more time to keep up with meals, but, judging from the slow and steady progress we made with school and routine this week, I think it'll eventually come.

Day 3 Vice-Busting

January 31, 2013
Day 3 Vice-Busting

Scripture Affirmation
God’s power enables me to live a healthy lifestyle.
"For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power." 1 Corinthians 4:20

This is such a great affirmation for me. I am a lover of words. Not hard to tell from my lengthy blog posts. But, the kingdom of God does not consist in words, but power. So often my words fill up my page and my mouth but they do not affect my actions. Lord, your power will change me, not my words. Your power enables me to live, do, act, go, consistently and strong, not the words I yammer. Let me meditate on the power you offer and work through me, knowing that merely talking about it will not avail.

Action:
1. Continue to build the habit of having water with you and drinking it often. Got my first bottle at my side. :)
2. Start creating a vision of things to come - not just how I'll look but what I'll do and how I'll feel. Picture myself doing what it is I would do or would lke to do, whom I'll be doing it with, and where I'll be doing it. I have a lot of things I visualize. I've spent a lot of time visualizing, even.  I dream of playing sports with my family. I would love to join in some vigorouse games of basketball, tennis, and soccer with my boys. I would so love to be able to handle a long bike ride with the whole family, strong enough to tote little ones with my own bike. I dream of great hikes to various points together. I just want to be able to run and play a simple game of tag with my children without a struggle.

I see myself sharing clothes with my oldest daughter. Enjoying our shopping trips much more when we are same sized and I like what I see in the mirror. I visualize more confidence when I meet my husband's co-workers at company events.

I crave and see myself accomplishing more in my day. Strong and able to take on the daily tasks of maintaining the housework and yard chores. Eager and able to add more to my day rather than handing it off to other. Strong and able to work beside my husband on various projects. Cheerful and excited to put for the physical effort to use up all that great extra energy that I gain. :)

3. Take inventory and throw out the high-calories beverages in the house. We really have not beverages like this. We do stock up on vitamin water, but that is sweetened with stevia, so no high calories. I often have diet soda in the house, but now that we are out, I won't be buying more. The juice we have I don't drink and there's really only enough for the children or special events.  I will still buy the low sugar, natural coffee creamer for a treat in my coffee from time to time. A reward for getting ALL My water in at the end of the day. :)

Half-Caf today!

Weigh-in:  208.5 tonight at the YMCA. Bummer. I'm not sure why the scale went up. I've been working hard. But, the scale is not the only tool of measurement, that's for sure. Enjoyed my first full circuit on the weight machines by myself and some cardio on the Stride Right.  Went with my oldest son and we had a fun time out alone together.

Day 2 - Vice Busting

January 29 - Day 2

Scripture Affirmation:

The God of hope fills me with joy and peace as I trust in Him.
"I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit."  Romans 15:13


Action: Build the habit of having water with you at all time. Determine the amount of water your body needs.

Body weight / 2 = targeted ounces of water per day.

For me, 104oz.

Build the habit of physically serving my husband in a special way. Determine the amount of time I will give to the nightly neck-rub.  15 minutes of focused time. (no baby, computer, tv, reading)

Afternoon Entry:

I didn't read this until now and I should have read it this morning. I got busy with choring and did not have my water bottle with me until almost lunch time. I came downstairs hunting for it and I WAS THIRSTY! I got 20oz down in a flash and have been drinking like that ever since. My body is really craving the water now that it's getting it. I'm at 80oz already today. I had a couple of cups of caffeinated coffee this morning, so I want to be sure to get in a couple extra bottles (20oz) of water, too.

The affirmation above is filled with words that swell my heart. Hope, peace, trust, completely, joy, confident, overflow, power.  These are all words I crave in my life...just like my body is craving this water. I can't get enough of the fact that the Lord holds out HOPE to me in the midst of so many areas in my life that feel like struggles. He offers me peace in the midst of the crazy chaos in my days right now. He calls me to TRUST HIM instead of relying on myself and my own foolish coping hangups. He promises me JOY and PEACE when I simply trust HIM instead of myself. He tells me I will OVERFLOW with CONFIDENT hope and He will show POWER in my life! Oh, how I am desparate to overflow with His goodness rather than my own fears and weaknesses. My God is a God of HOPE and He FILLS me...ME...with His joy and peace as I keep moving forward....trusting HIM.

Evening Entry:
160oz water, less 40 to account for 2 cups of caffeine. :)

Wednesday August 29, 2012

Today's Good Things:
Baby and I BOTH slept through the night
Increased water intake...8-9 16oz glasses today
Ttapp'd
Good choices on my meals

Today's Not So Good Things:
Cookies in the house. Still can't say no. :(
A little too much computer time

I'm working on some planning and prepping for school this week and next. We've had some bad attitudes, so we're struggling a bit with keeping those in check. That creates stress and I'm still in this awful Stress-Eat habit. Sigh.  I need to go back to finding a healthy way to deal with the stress. A walk, hoe-down, stretch, something.

We moved some furniture tonight. I've got a lot of cleaning and organizing to do tomorrow too. I need to get up and get moving though, afa exercise. I need to make a morning walk or outing with the children a regular part of the day. I feel like I'm recreating what was good before except it's all new because of our new location. To be honest, I'm uncomfortable walking alone in these parts so I've got to get a new groove of some kind. Today felt an awful lot like fall which is making me want to be OUTSIDE before it's too cold to do it.

Monday July 9, 2012

Today's Good Things:
Resisted a lot of treats today
Made a good choice with my extra calories tonight
Had a good start to my day
No soda :)
Prepped my citrus water
Tracked my food

Today's Not So Good Things:
No exercise
Stressful day with crabby children
Overdid it with my afternoon snack

Today was a good Monday. Hoping tomorrow is a good repeat. I'm doing better with my food choices. Feeling better about some of my limitation. Becoming more aware of my portion choices and remembering those habits I have regarding stress/boredom/fatigue eating.

Just tucked baby in for an early bedtime. I'm going to eat up my yummy fat free plain greek yogurt mixed with frozen fruit and then drift off to sleep. :)

Monday July 2, 2012

Today's Good Things:
No soda :)
Short walk after lunch
Family walk after dinner
Ate raw at each meal

Today's Not So Good Things:
Poor choices for snacks
Missed a lot of sleep last night so was dragging and very sedentary all day

Was super hungry at mid-morning and went with the easy-out...animal crackers with the littles. Boo.  Also added some chocolate chips to my peanuts this afternoon. Well, I add peanuts to my choc chips because I've been munching on those too much lately. So, maybe it was actually an improvement.

I'm using MFP right now but not as exact as I could. I don't have the patience to enter in my recipes, so I'm guessing a bit on some things.

I really liked getting out after lunch today. The rest of this week will be hot, so I'm going to aim for some after lunch exercise on the wii instead. I need the stress release right now as much as the exercise.

Feeling pretty good about my start this week. Just the fact that I'm here logging in is a step in the right direction. I'm not where I used to be, but I'm not where I *used* to be either. In fact, I'm here in July and that's really good for my pp habits. Hopefully, I can at least curb the 20lb pp gain I usually do if not see significant loss right now. I sure do want to work for the loss, though.

Tuesday December 1, 2011

Today's Good Things:
Devotions
Followed menu plan well
Made progress on some schooling issues
Worked at and applied the verses I read this morning
Baby Flutters!!!
Great meeting with homeschool group tonight

Today's Not So Good Things:
No exercise
A lot of sitting at my desk to get schooling and notes prepared for meeting tonight
Choices for protein and grains are limited so I've gone back to eat some bread

I haven't been journaling here, but I have been doing pretty well following my menu plan.  Thanksgiving was hard and I did set aside the portions and even allowed myself dessert.  But, I was able to get back on track fairly well and I've been doing well so far.  I still don't have any test strips, so I'm not sure how my body is processing the sugars, but I'm building good habits, so I'm thankful.

I still need to work at getting in that exercise. I have to just push myself, otherwise I give in to the tiredness and the lagging nausea that threatens throughout the day still. The "fog" has lifted, though. So we made this past week a "work week" and have been busy getting the house and my paperwork in order.  It feels good to have some projects done and a plan developing for school next week. Now that I'm feeling a little better, I'm eager to get our schooling more organized and effective. Tomorrow I'll keep working on that as well as do some reorganizing to move a piece of furniture to our room in prep for baby's clothes and items. It's a little soon for that, but I want to do it now since we are setting aside time to get projects done.

David took his 3rd test this week, so life changes again for a bit.  Not even sure how so right now, but this whole year has felt like a constant state of unknown.  Thankfully, the Lord remains faithful and strong.  A security in the midst of the craziness of our days.

So, the goal for tomorrow is to get in my 15 minutes of moving after each meal.  Now that my sweetie isn't dealing with the pressure of the exam, I may just have a handsome escort on my walks. That's the best motivation right there. :)

The happy news is that I've been feeling baby flutters already. I haven't even heard a heartbeat yet, so this is really exciting. Still waiting on our decision of whether we will move forward with a homebirth or switch over to an OB and hospital birth this time around. That also means I haven't really had much by way of prenatal care right now. It's still early, and so far it appears that baby is doing well. I can't help but be excited that it's all becoming more real, that's for sure!

Everything but the Elephant

This story comes from the book I'm reading. I've been keeping a page with quotes that challenge me from that book, but I wanted to type out this story here. It's been a wonderful analogy for me in this area of weight-loss and health as well as applying it to every other area of my walk with the Lord. In fact, we've been asking ourselves frequently around here, "Is that part of the elephant?"

It seems there was an artist who, one day, found that a large piece of granite had risen unexpectedly from the yard outside his home. Now, I don't know about you, but if that had happened to me I'd be upset. Just one more annoying thing I'd need to take care of before I could mow the lawn. Reportedly, it did annoy the artist, and he knew he'd eventually have to do something about it. He debated about borrowing a jackhammer from a friend until he remembered that, of course, he had no friends with jackhammers. Then he thought about getting some dynamite and blasting the granite into smaller stones that he could then carry away. But that didn't seem right either so he sat and thought about what to do. As he sat and thought and looked at that stone, he began to look past his problem. He forgot about his goal of getting rid of the stone. He actually started to see the stone. He noticed the lines and the shape. He decided to be grateful for the stone. Then one day he got out his chisel and hammer, and within a short time, he created an unbelievable reproduction of an elephant. Neighbors and passersby alike were amazed when they saw what appeared to be a real elephant grazing in his yard.

A friend asked the amateur sculptor how he'd managed to do such a good job in reproducing a realistic form of an elephant without even a model or picture to go by. The artist replied confidently, "It was really pretty easy, actually. I just chipped away everything that didn't look like an elephant."

This story comes with the challenge to focus on the person you most wish to become. As I read this story, I am struck with how it illustrates the fact that God's spirit is at work within me to chip away at everything that doesn't look like Christ. Because of His finished work on the cross, the victory of His resurrection, His application of righteousness to my life, and the gift of His Holy Spirit, I am now becoming the person God created me to be. In His word, I see that He is at work to reveal and remove those habits, weaknesses, and desires that keep me from loving my Lord fully.  I am seeing this in new ways as I work to face the addictions and desires that hold me in the area of what I eat and how I use my body.  When I read through this blog, I see the excuses and habits that have defeated me in the past months. Magnify that by the number of years I've been alive and I see a life that needs some chipping. 

The author give the challenge, "If you are serious about continuing your walk on this spiritual path to weight loss, you will work hard to chip away everything that does not look like the person you most wish to become." 

I give myself the challenge, Just chip away everything that doesn't look like Jesus.

For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;  Romans 8:29

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; 1 Peter 1:14-15

For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;  for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again ; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all ; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness ; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. Romans 6:5-13

I Just Realized...

Today I was going over some notes in my pregnancy journal from last year.  I am already 4 pounds UNDER my pre-pregnancy weight! And, I have 1 pound to go before I reach my after-baby weight!!

See, I gained a total of 5 pounds in my last pregnancy. After delivery, when all was settled, I ended up 5 pounds under my pre-pregnancy weight. That was amazing. But, here's the really great part of that story...

A few months before I got pregnant, I had started working to lose weight, just as I'm doing now. (minus the blog ;) ) As I worked, I prayed the Lord would give me a longer break between babies so that I could work to lose the weight I believed was necessary to lose to have a safe and healthy pregnancy. I had been borderline GD for the last few babies and I knew I needed to make big changes.  I believed I had a great reason to ask for a break. After all, the Lord would want me skinny to have more babies, right?

Well, just 2-3 months into my efforts, I ended up pregnant. And that was with some efforts on my part to even avoid a pregnancy! (charting with only one cycle isn't real helpful ;-) )  I was confused. I was frustrated. I was annoyed. I was scared. And, I was even a little embarrassed that I hadn't lost more weight before getting pregnant again.

Guess what? I had a tough pregnancy. I was very tired, sick, sore, and never really got any kind of "second wind" that I normally would with our other babies. Guess what else? I ended up diagnosed with GD in the last month. Because of that, I lost the homebirth I had planned and ended up with a not-as-bad-as-it-could-have-been-but-still-miserable-in-my-book hospital birth. My poor choices over the years had done just what I feared they would do. Prevented me from the *best* I had hoped for.

However, my prayers were not unheard. I may not have gotten the break I wanted to lose the weight, but I *did* lose weight! In nine months I grew a 8.9 pound, healthy baby girl and LOST 5 pounds!! Pretty funny how the Lord works. Because of the GD, I also gained some new insights into my eating habits, I learned a bit more about nutrition, I learned even more about the medical community ::sigh::, and I learned a GREAT DEAL about trusting the Lord in a mighty way.

So, I'm excited that I'm back where I started a little less than  a year ago. I'm praying that I'll see ONE-derland before Baby's first birthday. THAT would take another miracle, but I know and love Someone who is very good at those. :D

Monday February 21, 2011 Happy Monday??

Today's Good Things:
Bible time (awesome journaling time)
Smooth meal times
Swift tidy up from the weekend
Decent day school and chore wise
Good attitude day for me, which led to good attitude recoveries for the others
Good day eating-wise
Got in some fun activity with the children on the wii this afternoon
Coffee night with friends

Today's Not So Good Things:
A little heavy on the carbs

I am thrilled at how our day went today.  It was a delightful Monday. Though it started out with the normal tiredness and grumping that seems to plague us each week, the Lord was gracious and gave us a swift recovery on all ends. Honestly, I think it was all in how He helped me handle things. It's quite humbling to see that when I have my attitude and tongue in check, our day can go so well. Sigh. I'm learning, Lord...and I have SO much to learn!  Thank you for being patient with me.

I have some journaling I want to get on here from this morning. I had a very important conversation with the Lord today and He challenged me greatly. However, I don't have time to get it on here tonite, as it's already getting late and my eyelids are drooping. I hope to soon, for sure.

I've set my goal at 1500 calories per day this week. That's 300 less than what I've been aiming for. I want to see how that will affect my efforts since I'm still not seeing the losses that my charts are saying I should. Really, it's just another "try it and see" thing I want to do this week. I admit, I have fun looking at this from different angles and trying on new strategies. Nothing has been working so well that I am not willing to go with something new. Not looking for a fad or trend, mind you, I simply like to experiment a bit and see how my body reacts. I'm not sure how I'll do with that lower calorie amount. I was pretty worn down during the light workout I did this afternoon. It may be that I still need to those extra calories even though the baby isn't nursing as often.

I also worked on developing a new habit today. I've been trying to stay vertical during our lesson time. If I sit to work with someone, I tend to not want to get up. Then begins the routine of asking others to get things for me, tend to littles for me, delegating tasks here and there...which all leads to me being inactive and disconnected to many things going on. When I stay on my feet, not only do I keep moving, but I have better "surveillance tactics", I am willing to do more, and I tend to work a bit faster. It also seems to motivate the others to be more diligent regarding their tasks. So, how long does it take to build a new habit??? I'll be at this for a while, but I think it's going to be worth the effort.

That's all for tonite. I look forward to sharing more. Too bad I can't do that while vertical. ::giggle::

Sunday February 20, 2011

Today is Sunday and is my day off from logging. The last few weeks that has meant that I've overeaten, even though I'm supposed to use it as a day to use what I've learned from logging and make wise choices on my own. It's been really hard to do with our Sunday habits. :(

Today was good, though. Instead of going out for the breakfast buffet on the way to church, I had a couple mini bagels with natural peanut butter. (bagels aren't what I consider a "healthy" breakfast, but they are a HUGE improvement over an all you can eat buffet. ;)) I packed the leftover tortellini soup that I made yesterday for lunch with fresh fruit and plain non-fat yogurt. We had that at my IL's after church and I had the tiniest bit of apple crisp for dessert.

That was really good, but boy was I craving (and even hinting to dh) to stop for a Whopper on the way home. I hate that! Being out makes me want drive-thru. So dumb! We eat mostly whole foods at home. I cringe at the idea of serving my family boxed and canned foods, yet I love eating at restaurants and fast food...and so does dh. Good thing is, we've enlisted our children to help us break the habit and they've been great about deterring us. So, we won that battle but dh still stopped for some potato chips on the way home. (his weakness ;-) ) Still, potato chips shared between 8 people (baby doesn't eat those yet) is much less than a whopper.

Tonite we enjoyed yummy Ranch beans and I have several other crockpots going to cook up the rest of the beans for the week. (we've learned to like beans here ) Now I'm craving pizza. I think it's because these are habits we've built and my brain is stuck in that mode. I just nibbled on some turkey breast and carrot sticks, hoping that will chase the silly pizza thoughts away.

It's almost time to nurse baby and head to bed for the night. I'm coming down with a head cold, so I'm hoping for a full night's rest. She's fighting something too, so I don't have high hopes. It's been a rough few nights.

I'm hoping to feel well enough to meet my exercise goals tomorrow. I've grown a bit slack the last few weeks and I'm wanting to get back on track.

Monday January 31, 2011 Shoes On

Goodbye January!!

Today's Good Things:
Hard but productive day of lessons
Short but meaningful bible time
Morning and Afternoon 15 done
Met my water goal
Coffee out with friend

Today's Not So Good Things:
Missed Bible sharing time with the fam (I've been up with the babe and just could not keep my eyes open)
Felt a little like walking through molasses today, trying to get things done
Fussy baby
Heavy on the carbs today
Missed my workout

Today was a good start to the week. Even though I got going a little late, I was cheerful and eager to work on some changes. 

I started with a new outfit I bought over the weekend. I wanted another pair of pants to wear when I go out for my afternoon walks. (it's getting so cold out there!) I was pretty excited to find something from off of the Misses rack rather than the Women's that would fit. An added bonus was getting a $50 pair of jeans for only $5!! Add a $5 sweater and I'm a happy lady. ;-)

Honestly, I can't remember the last time I bought new clothes. I typically go second hand with what I wear, but I wanted to try on "real" sizes in the store and see where I was at. I'm not in the sizes I was hoping for, but I am on my way. I'm excited about that. :-)

I was SO dragging this afternoon and Did Not want to go outside to walk my mile. But, I grabbed a walking buddy and we hit the trail. I'm always so glad to be out there once I get going. The fresh air, cold as it is, wakes me up and keeps me going until dinner time.

What helped to get me out the door was my new strategy for the day. I've decided to wear my shoes all day to keep me moving and ready to go at all times. Something about wearing shoes makes me feel like I need to keep active and get on to the next thing. It was good. So, I'm adding Shoes On to my routine as well.

Fussy baby again tonite. Oh, how I could use some good sleep. ;-)

ETA: I forgot to mention the scale. I recorded my official loss from the weekend. However, when I stepped on the scale this morning, I was down almost 2 pounds from Sunday morning. ::shock::  I'm not counting it as yet, but I'm hopeful for the end of the week. If it sticks, that puts me at over 10 pounds gone and ready for my first reward. :D 

I've decided to weigh in daily and see how my scale likes it. I'm still getting off readings. Step on it once, get a number. Step on it again, get a number 2 pounds higher. Step on it again, get a number 1 pound lower. That's annoying, to say the least. But, when I can get a number to read the same 3 times in a row, I'm calling that good for now.

Sunday January 23, 2011 Lovely Day

Today's Good Things:
Morning Worship
Rest
Meal with my in-laws
Fellowship
Evening Worship
Baby sleeping sweetly in my arms :)

All good things to report today :)

I'm beginning to exercise by force of habit. ;-) This morning, when Baby was needing to be rocked during worship time, I found myself bending my knees a little deeper. Pretty soon, I was getting in some "half lunges" while I listened to the message. I thought that was pretty neat. ;) I don't think any one else noticed. They likely figured I was just keeping Baby happy.  Mostly, I'm happy that moving, being active and getting stronger is becoming enjoyable and habitual. That's progress. :-)

Oh, and skipped the brownies at church tonite, too. :D