Day 4 of 49

Thanks to my sister for loaning me her weights

I like the idea of blogging each day.

It's Day 4 and I don't feel like I've made any headway. But the truth is, I really HAVE. There's a steep learning curve and I need to invest in myself so I have a strong foundation on which to build.

I did the 10 beginner exercises. It's almost comical, he recommends the first week simply doing 1 rep the first day, 2 reps the second day and 3 reps the third day. I can do that!!! I did one of each and now I can say I did my workout! It won't ever be as easy and quick as today!

It is also giving me a benchmark for my weights so I know where to start. It's going to take a couple weeks to figure this out. My body transformation may not be outstanding after 49 days, but I'll keep going! Next step is a new tracking sheet.

Day 3 of 49

Frosty and 21ish this morning

Day 3.

Trying to get ready for my first workout on Monday.

I'm doing the 10 exercises in the book "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle".

I've also ordered "The Body Fat Solution", which is Burn the Fat in a bit of a condensed version, focused more on the casual bodybuilder. BFFM is "the bible of bodybuilding" so the BFS might be a good fit for me. Need to carve out some time to read it.

Put BFS audiobook on the iPod for John to listen to during his commute. We both need to work on getting clear about our goals.

Need to work out dinners. I do pretty fine, but dinners are the wild card.

Day 2 of 49

49 Days ends on January 14th

Day 2.

I think I'll use my blog to document my progress.

I really need to SEE these next 49 days, so I whipped up a calendar (my favorite thing to do)!

I need to be eating under my calorie limit (1450), which is nothing new to me. Since I've gained about 5 pounds during the "get-the-house-ready-pack-and-move" season, I've lost some ground. But I know what to do!

I need to harness this new revelation about what I REALLY look like and how that's affecting my health. The super weird thing about this new focus, is that I'm not crazy-over-the-top-excited, like I tend to be when I do something new. I feel a little..."flat".

I've decided that's okay. I'm going to put one foot in front of the other and see what new habits I can establish. I'm going to be firm, but gentle with myself as I do some new things.

Day 1 of 49

No one is going to see the before pictures!!!

OK, so we're signed up. John is doing it with me. This is Day 1.

We took before pictures.

I'm stunned. Shocked. It's like I'm really seeing myself for the first time. I didn't realize just how obese I really am.

THIS is motivating in a whole new way. I'm telling myself the truth. I need to process my goals and redo them.

I know we're going to lose a good week trying to figure out how to start and what to be doing, but better that than never!

49 Days

Sun is setting, love the sky

I'm considering Tom Venuto's 49 Day Holiday Challenge and have decided to go ahead and do it. I can't seem to get my head around it, so when my friend Marilyn encouraged me that "once I make a commitment, I'll have more clarity", I decided to go for it.

WHAT AM I DOING!?!?

Change in the Wind

Front of our new house

We've been through a lot waiting for our new house. We found it in January, made our offer in March and finally closed mid-September. We spent a month painting the entire interior of the new house, driving round-trip every single day at least once. We moved mid-October and I'm trying to start my life anew. It's been quite the saga, but that's not what I want to talk about today.

I am bored with what I'm doing and need to switch it up. I need to find exercise I really LOVE so that I'll do it for the rest of my life. It needs to be something that isn't just one dimensional. I'm experiencing a mindshift regarding my journey.

Even though I still am weighing myself, I'm really bored of posting Sunday Weigh Ins, so I'm going to put them on hold for now.

As we are getting settled, I feel like I have a (one) brain cell to explore new options. Some time ago, my friend Christi said the best thing I could do was in Tom Venuto's ebook. I purchased the "Burn the Fat" audiobook and I've checked it out from the library. I love his ideology. Stay tuned.

Ramp Up

Trail by river

I've been feeling lately that I need to ramp up my efforts. My friend Barbie was recently telling me about her weight loss successes and it got me excited. She's been doing "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle", a book I purchased back in February 2014!

I remember thinking I wanted quick weight loss and wasn't interested investing time to completely learn a new program, but now I'm willing to try it. I don't feel that I'm making the changes I need to make for long term success and I'm definitely not burning up my fat! I loved my weight lifting class in high school and think it's time to pick up those weights!

Dinner Starts the Day

Counting yesterday's dinner as the first meal of today

OK, last night I had my Beef Taco Salad, but I put it on for the first meal today. Oddly, this is really helping me!

Michelle's BEEF TACO SALAD:
216 Cooked Costco Organic Beef/Hamburger 100g
117 Low Fat Refried Beans 75g
225 Cool Ranch Doritos 42g
  11 Butter Bliss Lettuce 60g
  60 Full Fat Sour Cream 30g
  20 Reser's Restaurant Salsa 40g
649 calories

Meatloaf Moment

Best ever meatloaf recipe!

Alright, this has to stop. I ate a second dinner tonight!

I do really well when I plan my day ahead and I had decided for more tacos for dinner, skipping the high calorie meatloaf. I ate my tacos at about 6pm, but my husband was late getting home. The kids weren't hungry, so the meatloaf just sat there and cooled. No problem.

I bought Trader Joe's frozen mashed potatoes for the first time for the ease of it.

About 8pm, everyone was ready for dinner. Except me, I had already enjoyed my spicy, crunchy tacos. It was time to serve up the plates.

I was very curious about the mashies...and then the struggle (which I lost!) began.

This all happened in a millisecond...I think my thoughts jumped from "I can get through this" to "what do those taste like" to "I better find out so I know whether or not to buy them again" to "this tastes pretty good". A taste is all it took and I gave in to my desire to eat the meatloaf AND potatoes.

I would have actually been ok if I had one slice and a portion of mashies, if I had just put it on a plate and weighed it, I could have enjoyed it. But I did the "one little bite" over and over and over, lying to myself the whole time.

I probably easily ate an additional 600 calories.

This is so not the end of the world, but I was really excited to press into 194 this week and I'm totally excited about 189!

I want to STOP sabotaging my efforts!

This got my thinking.

1-do not let this be an excuse to eat MORE potatoes tonight, it's going to be okay.
2-do not give in to the temptation to not weigh on the scale in the morning
3-it could have been a lot worse
4-move forward with my breakfast tomorrow, everyday is a chance to start anew, leaving the past behind

I do really quite fine all day. Then, about after 5pm, I really, really struggle with the delicious freshly made food I make for my family! I need to figure this out.

My brain seems to turn off. I succumb to the idea that I don't care about losing weight, I just WANT IT!

So...

I eat my oatmeal at 9amish. It is very satisfying and nutritious.

I eat my daily salad somewhere between noon and 1pm usually. It is also very satisfying and nutritious.

About 3ish I'm ready for a snack. Right now that's some bean soup.

Then around 5:30 I'm really ready for a meal. The way I have things now, I've about 700 calories remaining for dinner. That's a huge meal! What if I ate that for breakfast instead? I could eat my salad for dinner and my oatmeal for lunch? Just a thought. I wonder how that would go?

I've also been thinking about starting my day with last night's dinner so I would be ending my calories with my 3pm snack. That would be very interesting to try. It would put some pressure on staying within my limit for dinner, because that meal would carry over to the next day.

I'm going to adjust MyFitnessPal to have my dinners carryover and see how I like it. This is the grand experiment and my experimentation has brought me here. I have to remind myself that I'm doing well. I've lost over 30 pounds in 18 months. That's a really big deal for me. I'm not comparing myself to anyone else. I know I'll keep it off because it's been about real, sustainable change.

Sunday Weigh In #67

Sunday, August 9, 2015-197.4

I'm excited for Day 4 today. I'm already practicing delay as I want to eat, but going to wait until after noon for my salad. Love that it is ready and waiting for me.

Day 2

Four Tacos=688 calories

For Friday, my schedule was different, but I was easily able to eat my chili first and my salad later in the day. Tacos weren't the best today. There needs to be a new tacomaker on Fridays!

Weight this morning: 197.5
Calories: 1428

Eat the Same Menu for Four Days Day 1

It's 10 minutes to my local Jack in the Box

I'm going to try an experiment. I am loving Jack in the Box tacos right now. It's so funny to me how I get in food ruts and I'm in a happy one!

For Thursday through Sunday, I'm going to eat the exact same menu. It's what I WANT to eat, so why not? It will also take any decisions out of the mix. I wonder what will happen?

Proposed four day menu:
bfast: steel cut oats with almond milk, dried blueberries, pecans and cream (333)
lunch: my daily salad (272)
3pm snack: half Taco Time white chicken chili (150)
dinner: 4 Jack in the Box tacos (688)

I really look forward to the taco dinner all day so we'll see what happens.

Weight this morning: 199.4

UPDATE:
Thursday calories: 1428 I did it! Very delicious and satisfying day!

Sunday Weigh In #66

Sunday, August 2, 2015-198.5

I've been bouncing around 198 this week and that's not going to work for me. I'm taking the next step for under 195s. I can do it!

Sunday Weigh In #65

Sunday, July 26, 2015-196.0

Wow, I've lost 34 pounds! I'll take it! Since I've focused on lifestyle change, I know I'll never go back to the way I used to eat!

I Can Eat That

The latest...fried zucchini!

I go through spurts with blogging. I LOVE my blog. I love that it reminds me where I've been and helps keep me focused. That's why I started it way back in January of 2012. I think I tend to write more when things are going well. Things are going well. :)

I had a good week of struggling to get back under 1450. Failing provides me information and then my next step is always trying to solve the fail. Failing is simply more information to help me grow.

I'm really happy with my breakfast and lunch, but currently I fall apart around 3pm through dinner. This is the fail I need to work on right now.

I'm always surprised when my process takes a new direction. Right now, I'm getting bored with my bagged chipotle salad and spicy turkey chili. I'm still loving my breakfast (steel-cut oats) and lunch (my daily salad), I'm not connecting with anything delicious for the 3pm snack or dinner.

What to do?

So today I'm looking for some new (or old) ideas and also found a way to keep track of previous meals that I loved. Eating more beans is always a good idea, so I might bring back the crazy delicious Chicken Tender Taco Salad. I always love eating THAT!

I've been enjoying telling myself "I can eat that". My philosophy is I can eat whatever I want, I just need to stay within the confines of my calorie limit. I had Doritos for dinner the other night, they were delicious. I must admit, that was my first Doritos dinner and it might be my last. But I was glad that I can eat those!

Eating Now: Daily Salad

My Daily Salad July 2015

When I first started eating a salad every day, I spent a lot of time experimenting. My daily salad has been the same for years, but I tweak it every now and then. Right now it's only 275 calories. I've tried to make it bigger, but it's too much. Sometimes I eat a chicken tender with it.

What's out:
-hard boiled egg

What's in:
-goldfish crackers (10g) and cottage cheese

This photo was taken before I started adding the crackers and cheese this spring. YUM!

Sunday Weigh In #64

Sunday, July 19, 2015-197.8

I have been taking my Sunday Weigh In photos all year (except I forgot last Sunday's!) but haven't been posting them.

I'm trying to simplify my life and I have a conundrum. My iPhone doesn't capture the digital scale at all. Sometimes, if I use the flash, it works, but most often, it is just a bright purple screen and doesn't display the numbers. That means in order to post a photo of the scale, I have to use my other camera and download from the stick. This is just too cumbersome as the latch is broken and I have to remove the electrical tape which holds it closed.  I've been doing this for quite sometime, but now that I have the phone, I see how inefficient the other way is when I just want the quick pic.

So I think I'm going to make it simple and make my own graphic for weigh-ins from now on.

I don't know how I'm going to like it.

It's ugly, but it works for now.

Losing Coach Online

My hydrangea when it was starting out this year.

Something really good happened.

Last May, I attended at workshop in California for Losing Coach. Of the nine principles the Lord gave me, I consider Losing Coach, the 10th principle for my weight loss journey. I have been implementing it since I returned home last May.

I haven't talked much about it because you really have to experience the workshop for yourself. The closest workshops over the past year have been in Ohio. That's a bit of a drive. :)

Well, Losing Coach is now online!

Last May when I attended, I weighed 217 and today I weigh just under 200ish. So I've lost about 20 pounds in a year. That sounds like such a small number and such a big long time. But I must remind myself, YES, I've lost 20 pounds (really, really slowly), but lost it is!

I feel like now that they are online, I can share more about it because I have a place to refer anyone who asks me about my weight loss. It has helped me tremendously, no, it has made all the difference!

I'm really looking forward to reviewing all the material I forgot over the past year!

Eating Now: Breakfast

No cook steel-cut oats for breakfast!

I've decided I want to keep a record of my favorite meals. I didn't realize that I go through cycles where I find something wonderful, eat it and then get tired of it. I'd like to come back to some of that deliciousness, so welcome some new posts..."What I'm Eating Now:".

This meal was inspired by Dr Fuhrman in either his cookbook or The End of Diabetes. When I read that he soaks steel-cut oats in liquid (no cook!) and stores in the refrigerator, my heart sparked "that's something that would be easy to do everyday"! So I tried it. Here's what I do:

NO-COOK STEEL-CUT OATMEAL BREAKFAST:
-glass dish with lid
-40g uncooked steel-cut oats
-100g unsweetened almond milk

I make a few of these at a time (twice a week) and store in the frig. Every morning, I pop the lid and put in the microwave for 60 seconds. When it's warm, I toss it on the scale and add:
-5g dried blueberries (Trader Joe's)
-7g chopped pecans (Trader Joe's)
-30g heavy whipping cream

This is fantastically EASY, I look forward to it and it's deliciously satisfying. I love the chewiness of the oats and the sweetness of the berries, the crunch of the pecans and the creaminess of the cream. What a great meal for me!

Previous variations:
dried cherries + walnuts
fresh blueberries + walnuts
fresh raspberries + walnuts

Tune the Temple Christian Weight Loss ECourse

These lilies are done now, but they were stunning!

I finally finished the online course from Tune the Temple! I don't remember if I've blogged about it, but Cathy offers an online course on intentional/intuitive eating.

I would highly recommend this Christian weight loss course to anyone wanting to overcome emotional eating and receive encouragement in their journey! Cathy has been so very caring and I'm grateful for what I've learned!

She has a wonderful weight loss method related to natural boundaries of hungry and full to help people lose weight. It is where I plan to end up, eating intuitively, but for now, I'm getting good results with counting calories.

Thank you Cathy for all you've done for me!