Happy Two!!

Stepped on the scale to see what this week looked like for weight loss. 

Two pound loss!! Wahoo!!!

After playing around with .2 increments for the last couple of weeks, it sure was nice to see the numbers drop in a decent way.  I'm amazed at how much my hormones affect the weight I hold.  Started my cycle this week and the scale dropped like a hat. 

Speaking of that, this is the first cycle I've had where I've been dealing with mild cramping and general discomfort the first two days.  I've been a lot more moody and have had way less energy compared to previous months.

I was wondering what changed.  My cycles have been so un-intrusive, I'm almost embarrassed to feel this way.  Not sure if it makes a difference, but I did have several helpings of meat (venison and ground turkey) this past week.  Also, I've had some treats of real sugar in the form of Christmas chocolates gifted to us.  Not much, but more than my normal. 

Now, I don't have scientific proof that these are making a difference for me this week.  But, I do find it curious and wanted to make note so I can keep track of things as the months move on.

Really happy to have some jeans fitting loosely and tighter fittings clothes fitting comfortably enough to wear now.  I am actually have a ton of fun putting outfits together and learning to accessorize my wardrobe.  Such a blessing!

Progress pics

Okay, well, for some reason, blogger won't let me update my pages.  I made a collage of our last six months of progress. I'll post that here for tonight.  I LOVE seeing this!

And....drum roll....I DID IT!!!  I got into the next decade today!!!!  Feels pretty awesome to have met my goal! :D

Stuck on Monday

The weekend was a little defeating.  Friday I gave in and we ordered pizza from downtown.  I just couldn't seem to move my body off the couch.  Emotionally, it was a rough week.

When we order pizza, we get a thin crust (NOT ETL), spinach, broccoli, mushrooms with tomato sauce.  Then we ask them to put ONLY feta cheese on top.  My husband really likes feta and I can pick most of it off.  That leaves me with less fat and salt, but still not all that nutritious. 

Then we hit the cookie swap on Saturday.  It was so fun.  Great time making new friends.  I brought some yummy raw brownies that we tweaked and renamed, Christmas Bliss Balls.

So, we brought some great, nutritious treats.  But, WOW was it hard to resist the toffee that someone else made!! And...I didn't.  I nibbled a few bites and then fought myself the rest of the weekend.  We packed away all the treats and are working to deliver them this week. 

Church potluck on Sunday but I did to really well there.  Just had my own taco salad for lunch and one of my Bliss balls for dessert.  Still, I was fixing myself toast all through the weekend, leaving me afraid to step on the scale. 

Today, I was at the same weight I've been since last Thursday, I think.  Still, way better than a gain after a weekend of poor choices. 

I was on track today and I'm looking forward to seeing what the scale holds for me tomorrow. I am SO close to the next decade!! And, it was my goal to be there by the 10th. 

Tomorrow is Picture Day!!

Cardio Kickboxing

Last night we went for our second Cardio Kickboxing class at the YMCA.  We spend an hour kicking, punching, sweating, and attempting to follow along.  It gets confusing at time!  It was a little more enjoyable than the week before.  I don't love it, but I'm glad I went.  Not sure I'm excited for next week, either. But, I'll be glad when I've done it, I'm sure.  There is a lot of mind/body interaction and, that part, I definitely like.  Our instructor is really great, so I end up looking forward to seeing her as well.

After, we went out for burritos at Dos Amigos.  We had a coupon. ;)  I couldn't finish the whole burrito. They are huge.  Did eat the chips and salsa, though.

Was expecting to see the scale up this morning due to salty foods.  I usually see a gain if we go out to eat. 

I was down by .2 pounds.  Not a big loss, but a loss, nevertheless.  I'm happy with that. 

Busy day out today.  A rush in the morning to get schooling done.  Drop off big kids for lessons and then a visit with friends with the younger children. I'm excited!  I have this sweet friend that knows our food preferences and she's always so sweet to oblige us. She's planning to make a plant strong lunch for us!

Our friends and family don't need to be so accommodating, but I sure do recognize the blessing when they love on us in this way. 

Work It Off

So, last night we headed to the YMCA for Family Fun Night.

I admit, it takes everything in me to join in on group exercise.  Okay, full truth is it takes everything in me to join in on ANY exercise.  I'm just wired that way.  Lots of overcoming happens in my head if I want to be part of the Family Fun.

We did have fun.  We played some flag football and dodge ball.  Of course, it wasn't a major workout, but it was really great to hear my little girls giggle and squeal with delight as Mommy and Daddy chased and cheered for them.  The boys especially liked having a fast and furious Daddy on their tail. 

Everyone was famished, though, when they got home.  Dinner *was* pretty light, as I was trying to get us out the door quickly.  I made a vegetable stir fry that was apparently short on vegetables.  I served it over crunchy chow mein noodles for the children.  I intended to have brown rice, too, so they wouldn't have so many of the processed noodles, but I didn't make the time for the rice to cook. 

All of that led to hungry bellies after the gym.  I made up three blenderfuls of kale and fruit smoothies while someone else cooked up some peanut butter toast.  We munched away while David read our advent reading for the night.  Really, it was very sweet.

This morning the scale was up on first step.  I decided that since I had had that late night snack, which isn't my norm, I would get in a light Wii workout.  The fact that the house was quiet and I was alone helped in a big way.

Twenty minutes later and I'm down .4 pounds.  I'll take it.

Half Victories

I'm singing the Lord's praises this morning!

Yesterday, I was able to resist the amazing smell of that ooey-gooey pizza served at the children's cast party.  I brought along my salad and crunched-crunched-crunched my way through lunch. 

I confess, I did nibble the half-crust that the baby left on her plate.

I'm tellin' ya', it was HARD.  I went through the pizza line a few times getting the little girls what they wanted.  Then I sat there watching the leftovers just sit and call my name. I couldn't believe how difficult it was to avoid eating that food.  I ended up moving to another side of the room so I couldn't see it as readily.  David left altogether to go get a coffee.  The chips and pizza were too strong of a force.  I'm proud of him for doing what he had to do.

And, this morning, I'm so thankful to the Lord.  Actually, I wish I had thought to pray for strength while in the battle.  I need to think harder that this is a battle for my soul as well as my stomach. I won on the stomach end. The scale was down another .7 today.

My soul? I missed the opportunity to commune with the Lord and see Him at work giving me strength and power to resist.  He DID do those things, I just missed seeing him do it because I was so focused on the battle.

Help me be attentive to you, Lord.  Help me see that the temptations are there for the very purpose of driving me to you.  Give me a heart that is sensitive to your work in my life even in the midst of a foolish thing like a pizza party.

Another Monday Start

And the scale is down BIG! I am shocked.

This weekend I was seeing the scale going up and it was a little disappointing.  Heavy on the grains with the holiday meal and I almost didn't even get on the scale this morning.

So glad I did! Down 1.7 pounds!  That's a great motivator to STAY AWAY from the pizza at the party today.  (Ahem, yes, I was battling that temptation in my head)

I have 2.2 pounds left before I hit that next decade. Pizza ain't gonna help me meet THAT goal! 

Got a little spring in my step.  Yeah, it's a tiny bit telling that the scale sways my moods like that.  I need to work on keeping my eyes on the Lord.  He needs to be the source of my strength and my joy.

I AM praising Him for this.  I did say no to a lot of temptations whirling in my head this weekend.  That only comes by His power.

The Day After Weigh-in

So, I played with the scale enough to accept the fact that I'm up about 1 pound from yesterday.  That's fair. I definitely overate on the heavy foods and underrate on the salad.

Today I go back to normal and enjoy it. :)

Nutritarian Thanksgiving!

Yep.  That's the ONLY picture of the food we made for the whole day.  Can you BELIEVE that????

I wanted to get pictures of all the great food we made. All the recipes I tried were fantastic! It looked beautiful and tasted so good! 

Our turkey turned out lovely.  The cornbread stuffing and green bean casserole were delicious.  The sweet potato pie was VERY sweet, but a good flavor on the plate as long as you didn't have too much. 

The mashed potatoes were too runny, though.  Warming them in the crockpot all day was probably my downfall on that one.  I made up for it with my mushroom gravy, though, as David told me he loved it so much he could cover the plate with it. (at least, I HOPE that was a good thing ;) )

My il's brought a gorgeous and delicious salad that was devoured.  And, my sweet 11yo boy made that adorable "turkey" vegetable platter while my 14yo boy made a batch of home made hummus. 

The biggest hit of the meal, though, had to be the apple crisp ala mode.  A nutritarian apple crisp topped with vanilla Nice Cream.  We really wowed everyone, including ourselves!!  I'll get that recipe typed up and on the blog soon. You will DEFINITELY want to make it. :)

And, a little extra to be thankful for this year, I started the day .4 pounds down on the scale! That puts me at a 2 pound loss for this week already.  Wow!!

However, I really pigged out on the food at dinner today, so I'm thinking I may not like the story the scale tells me tomorrow morning.  For now, I'll just be happy, though.

Renewed Momentum

Scale was down .7 again this morning. That's motivating!

I have some new smaller goals in place to keep me trucking over the next couple of weeks.

1.  Just under 2 weeks until our next picture day.  I'd LOVE to be in the next decade by then. That's 4.5 pounds to lose in 2 weeks.  Doable, if I work hard at working the plan.

2.  27 pounds to lose before I get in the "Healthy Weight" range on the charts.  That's really encouraging to me!  I've had my brain so set on "Another 50+ pounds to go" that I was starting to lose ground.  27 pounds is less than I've already lost. That's exciting!

3.  Make this eating lifestyle fit our budget.  I have got to find a way to decrease the spending because I can't keep spending twice the budget every week.  There has to be a way.

4.  Keep praying for a way to get a hold of Dr. Stoll's materials on plant-based eating. I'm really looking forward to reading through his materials.

Happy Day

Happy to see the scale the this morning. Finally got that number under 175.  Dropped .9 pounds since yesterday. I was hopeful, as my body had been cleaning itself out all day. 

It's amazing how eating grains/bread as my primary calorie source changes how my body functions. When I'm eating the normal ETL plan, I'm like clockwork with my digestive track.  At least, but normally two or three times a day I have a small, easy elimination.  When I start going over on grains or add in any dairy or meats, I see constipation and hard stools.  I am more than happy to avoid those and so are my hems that haven't given me trouble in many, many months.

Self Clue:  If you miss a morning movement, you know you need to get back on track.

David said he saw a good loss this morning as well.  He was stuck, same as me.  Nice to be building some momentum again.  I'm in awe that he only has about 18 pounds to go before he's in the "Healthy Weight" range.  Very exciting!!

Wondering where I've been lately?

Lost in Grainland.  Sigh.

We had an incredibly busy last two weeks. This past week, extremely so.  The children had three performances of The Scarlet Pimpernel this weekend as well as a day for full dress rehearsal.  It was intense, hurried, wonderful, and topsy-turvy, to say the least.

Because we were on the run and out of the house so often, I just didn't have the time to prep salads for my meals.  I did well with breakfast, but I succumbed to the easy grain foods that I had prepared for the children to eat while out.  Loading up on bread has kept the scale at a definite stand-still. Blah.

Add to that our celebrations this weekend with salty chips and salsa and a LOVELY lunch out with some new friends from the new church we've been visiting.  They invited us to Ruby Tuesdays, which has a great salad bar!  I loved it, but splurged on the biscuits they leave on the table.  I'm a bread-junkie, no joke!  I'm scared again to step on that scale. Grrr.

But, I need to know where I'm at. I guess I do, at least. 

Upside, I headed out with David to try out a Cardio Kickboxing class last week. It was...um...interesting. ;)  I was glad I went and it was good to have something active like that to do together.  I'm hoping I'll learn to like it a lot so it turns into something I look forward to each week.  Who knows, maybe I'll even want to join him for the Boot Camp class he likes to do on Tuesday mornings.  Brrrrr! That's all I can think of when I think of leaving the house for an early morning workout.  It's SO COLD these days!!

Speaking of that, I'm praying to find a new winter coat for myself.  Mine was just way too big.  I passed it along to a friend.  I found one in my oldest daughter's size (small) and have taken the coat she used last year. Only thing, it's really not a winter coat. And, the zipper is busted.  So, it's getting frigid out there and if I'm aim to stay warm, I have to layer up on my fall coats and my clothing.  I have a few dollars tucked away and am praying the Lord will help me find the perfect winter jacket in my thrift store hunts.  Your prayers are very welcome. :)

Overweight!!

I did it!!! I crossed the line!!


Hello Overweight. :)  I've missed you. :D

RIGHT on the Line!

Can you believe I am RIGHT on the line for Obese?????!!!!  30.00 BMI.  I just can't tip it off that edge for the life of me!

I keep saying TOMORROW it'll happen. Then it goes up or doesn't come down enough or some crazy kind of thing.  

Yet, I am pretty excited to be THAT close! 

And just think, in my birthday suit, I'm NOT obese at all. :) 

So, here's to tomorrow and to the hope of being Overweight. :D

After the Juice

Starting my third day coming off of the juice and the scale is still going up.

Sigh.

Not surprised.  It happens.  Just sorta silly to think about why I did that juicing and now the scale is going up.

Still, it wasn't ONLY about dropping pounds. I wanted to cleanse out the crud. I did that.  So, it was still worth it.

Pretty sure I won't be juicing again for a long while, though.

Still happily in the 170's, though.  For that, I'm grateful.

One.More.Pound.

Stepped on the scale this morning.  Down another 2.2. <grin>

One more pound to go before I am OUT of the Obese range on the chart.  <bigger grin>

Boy, if that doesn't give you a reason to not quit, I'm not sure what would.

So, I guess I can't give up today when I am THIS close to what I've been working toward for so long.  I would still get under that mark, but it sure is motivating to keep doing something that could make it happen by...ummm...tomorrow, maybe??? Wow.

I'm going to take it one juice at a time.  Mornings I do tend to do better with juicing than later in the day.  I'll start with the carrot based juices since those agree with me more. I do still have some pineapple left to flavor the green juices.  I think I can make it one more day.

But, then I'll want another day just to keep it solid. ;) 

Sigh.  If you give a mom a juicie..... ;)

Pray for me!!

Hello Juice Fast...Hello New Decade!!

The past couple of weeks have found me struggling with eating habits.  While having company, I did well preparing meals that were healthful.  Still, I overate when it came to grains and oils, leaving me feeling sluggish.

We also went out to eat several times.  I was able to make fair choices from the menus but the salt and oils really make an impact on me when I'm doing that frequently.  Topping all that off, the last night we went out, I chose a chicken sandwich to go with my greasy fries and onion rings.  By the next day, I was a completely slug.

One of the great things we did during our visit was to watch one of our favorite family films, Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. I was reminded of my intentions to do a 10 day fast ever 3 months to reboot, boost my immune system, and jolt my body with nutrients.  After the last couple of weeks, I was ready. David, of course, was overjoyed.  He's been dying to go back to juicing for weeks.

Yesterday was day one.  The first juice was great.  The second, green juice, just as awful as I remember.  The third, still mildly gross.  But, I got them all down, we went shopping for more produce last night, and I'm committed to the 10 days.  Gulp.

I've never done more than 4 days and that was rough.  I'm pretty sure my crabbiness over the taste of the juices is connected with some detox issues. 

Upside is that I am FINALLY down to the NEXT DECADE!!!!!   A couple of goals I had for doing this fast is:

1.  To get solidly into and through this next decade swiftly.  I lingered way too long in that last decade and I needed a push to get that scale going again.

2. Cleanse my body from the excess crud that's gone in that last couple of weeks.

3. Prove to myself that I can do it. I need to conquer my mind and my gag reflex. 

4. Fit into a few clothing items I bought this week that are just snug enough to get me excited about shedding a few more pounds. :D

So, after seeing the scale down 2.6 pounds this morning, I'm feeling confident about hitting the juice for another day.  :)

So close!!

I am SO close to that next decade, but it keeps eluuuuuuding me!!

And, then I went and pigged out today on a bean and sweet potato burrito from Dos Amigos, munching on the children's pb&j extras as the meal went on. Sigh.  My belly is way too full of tortillas to be comfortable.

So, likely tomorrow I will see a gain instead of getting UNDER that silly 180 mark.

When will I EVER learn????

Don't be surprised if I just ignore the scale tomorrow. :-P

Alert-Alert!!

New Decade in sight!! The scale was down again this morning.  1.5 pounds before I am in the next decade. 

Over.  The.  MOON!!

New Decade in Sight!

The scale was down in a big way this morning!! I have 3 more pounds to go before I reach the next decade. And, only 7 more pounds to go before I am out of The Land of Obese!!!

Whoever thought it would be so exciting to be Overweight. ;)

So, our experiment this week proved successful.  Each week David and I go out for date. We typically scrounge around to find a place to eat out that fits our Eat To Live choices. Often, we find something that works, but still has something that isn't ideal.  The biggest offenders would be the salt, oil, and white carbs. 

This week we decided to skip the meal out and just grab some kind of quick leftovers before we went dancing. (YES! We are taking square dancing lessons!! How nerdy is that?! Super, silly fun!)  So, after skipping the restaurant food, I stepped on the scale this morning and saw almost a full pound gone!  Clearly, those *cheat* nights with fried mushrooms or salty chips do make a difference.

I don't mind giving them up to see that scale move.  I just wish there was SOMEWHERE to go for a nice, relaxing meal together that didn't harm the body.  I sure do like having someone else prepare a meal and deal with the messy kitchen once in a while.

Today is a crazily busy day.  We have a mad rush to prep food and house before I head out for lessons and shopping with the children.  I am going to a different grocery store today, hoping to find some new food items.  Especially looking for some variations of the Ezekiel Bread I've been getting for the children.  Also planning to stop at an apple orchard for a big bag of drops.  I'm not sure when I'll have time to process them, but I can't pass up the price!