My recent update:
I appear to be down to 118.5 on an empty stomach. So woot for that. Only 8 more lbs to go till I hit my "reasonable goal." Think I can do it by the end of December?
The juice fast didn't take. I did juice for breakfast for one day, and was so mean and cranky by lunch that I had to eat something or risk yelling at my kids. So - I guess I'll just supplement with juice when I feel like I'm lacking in fruits and veggies and otherwise just try to eat healthily (and kick my thrice-weekly-Snickers habit).
I'm also looking for good tv shows to get addicted to. I think I'll be more willing to get up (or skip nap) to work out if I have something I can't wait to watch while I do it. Anyone got recommendations?
It's a journey - I must remember that. But I also know I have the speedbumps of birthday, Thanksgiving, birthday, Christmas and New Years coming up (all that feasting = lbs lbs lbs!). So, I'll do what I can now that does NOT involve starving myself and that will have to be good enough.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Saturday, October 22, 2011
The Juice Fast (aka why we love our Champion)
So today, after a week or more of talking about it, I finally started my juice fast. What exactly does that mean? Well, for a few days I'll be having juice for breakfast (apple with grape, primarily) and juice for lunch (carrot with tomato, primarily). For dinner? Real food!!! I'm not trying to starve myself to death. I just want to give my poor insides a break from all the high-fat, high-sugar, high-carb junk I've been eating. I also want to try to reset my mind and body so I don't crave all those things all the time. I was seriously thinking about fries and Snickers 24/7 (hubby and I even polished off an 8-pack of fun-size Snickers in about 5 minutes last night - we need help!) So, as you can see, I made a bunch of juice this morning - isn't the carrot pulp pretty?
I've had a couple of people ask me about our juicer. It's a Champion, as recommended by a co-worker of my husband's. His family eats a 90% raw-food diet (except for the one night a week they splurge) and they drink a LOT of juices. Fruit juices, veggie juices, green juices. And they are all SUPER healthy. So we thought we'd give it a try. Not the raw food, of course, but the juicing thing. Honestly, we don't make actual juice all that often. It takes an enormous amount of produce to yield anything more than a couple glasses of juice and tossing all that pulp (albeit onto our garden) still feels wasteful. Besides which we lose a lot of fiber that way. But here are a few things we do use our juicer for:
1) Making juice - Homemade apple-grape juice is just about the yummiest thing ever.
2) Making "ice cream" - run some bananas or frozen mixed fruit through the juicer and you have a super yummy frozen treat!
3) Making purees - our juicer comes with a 'blank' (ie a solid piece of plastic vs the juicing screen). When you run foods through with the 'blank' on, they come out nicely pureed. We've made everything from baby-food to apple sauce this way.
So far the only food we've found that our juicer can't take on is kale - it's thick stems get all tangled in the blade and bog it down. However, drinking kale tastes a lot like drinking freshly-cut lawn - so why bother? It's much better used it soups and stir-fries (or baked as chips!)
So that's our juicing experience in a nutshell. Wish me luck on my mini-fast - I'm hungry already!
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Old Year's Resolution
I am a Type A personality with a laziness complex. I want all my ducks to be in a row, I just don't want to chase them around to get them there. Therefore it's really easy for things in my life to drop below what I consider to be 'sub-par' and then I get stressed out and then I am even less motivated to get anything done and it all spirals out of control. When I was in college, I 'solved' the issue by food restriction. Now, I just whine a lot to all of my friends.
I want to be thinner, but I don't want to work out or eat right.
I want my house to be sparkling and tidy, but I don't want to scrub things or pick up after the kids (again).
I want to save tons and tons of money, but I don't want to put much effort into budgeting or couponing. (And heaven forbid I should have to pass up on something I want likerightnow).
Therefore I remain chubby and broke in a dirty, cluttered house.
Ok ok, I know it's not as bad as all that. But I've been feeling really overwhelmed lately. I need structure. Lots of it. Otherwise I'm totally lost and I can't seem to get my bearings and all my 'good intentions' just fall through the cracks. Multitasking is my enemy - I just end up with a brain that is running in so many directions it stops working all together. SO I need to take a few minutes to set some concrete goals for my life. Some "resolutions" if you will, despite the fact that this year is almost over.
For the next few weeks I resolve to:
1) Make working out a priority. At least the night before, I pledge to plan out when I will exercise the next day - then stick with it. When I can, I'll work out with my husband in the evening. When I know I have to be away or we'll be super busy, I will either get up early (ugh) or commit to myself that I will do nothing at naptime before I have exercised. I will do cardio and strength. And sometimes, I will even have fun! (I'm hoping to get the boys outside for a game of tag today).
2) I will work my tush off to get my "weekly planner" board made. I'm very excited about this project. I'm refinishing an old dresser door, gluing on a white board, and adding a favorite verse and then a chart so I can track weekly meals and daily chores. I will schedule what I am serving for breakfast, lunch and dinner for at least 5 days a week (I'm ok with having no plan for weekends), what chores I am doing to keep the house tidy every weekday, AND a contingency plan or two for meals. This week I have had a lunch consisting of a peanut-butter apple and a snickers bar because I didn't leave myself time to eat. We had Panda Express today because I made today's scheduled lunch for dinner last night (thought hubby wasn't going to be home. then he was. what a mess). And I have NO idea what to cook tomorrow - fridge is getting empty. Ooof. Having all my meals plus a spare or two (something quick, cheap, and using 'on hand items') and all my daily chores in one place leaves me no excuse for "oh, I forgot" laziness.
3) I will make a detailed (cheap) grocery plan, go back to couponing and plan around store sales. It really doesn't take that long, I just don't do it. We've been storing up food in the freezer and I've been meaning to take a freezer inventory so I can use up the stuff in there. But I haven't gotten around to it, which means I'm winging it for meals and shopping several times a week and wasting TONS of money. So - I'll pick a regular time each week to make the list, print the coupons, circle the sales, etc. Let's see if we can get this budget back in shape.
4) I will prioritize!! My time and my money are two of my most precious commodities and I've been squandering them both. I need to remember that God comes first, my family comes second, and my hobbies come - well - somewhere way down the line. So I'm setting some rules for myself. No more buying craft supplies until I make a sale (or two or three) from my shop. If I have a super great idea - I'll just write it down. And I need to finish the 'important' projects (i.e. Christmas presents, commissioned items, etc) before I make random things for the shop. And the most important rule - just because it's on sale, doesn't mean it's cheap! If I don't need it for anything, I should just save the money even if it seems like a really good deal.
So - those are my current resolutions. Lets see if I can get myself back on track. I'm tired of feeling like I'm letting myself down every day, esp when being a little extra diligent and organized would make all the difference in the world. Feel free to ask me about it. Keep me on task. I'm hideous about being accountable to myself, but I'm a little better about not wanting to let down my friends. Thanks for all your support!
I want to be thinner, but I don't want to work out or eat right.
I want my house to be sparkling and tidy, but I don't want to scrub things or pick up after the kids (again).
I want to save tons and tons of money, but I don't want to put much effort into budgeting or couponing. (And heaven forbid I should have to pass up on something I want likerightnow).
Therefore I remain chubby and broke in a dirty, cluttered house.
Ok ok, I know it's not as bad as all that. But I've been feeling really overwhelmed lately. I need structure. Lots of it. Otherwise I'm totally lost and I can't seem to get my bearings and all my 'good intentions' just fall through the cracks. Multitasking is my enemy - I just end up with a brain that is running in so many directions it stops working all together. SO I need to take a few minutes to set some concrete goals for my life. Some "resolutions" if you will, despite the fact that this year is almost over.
For the next few weeks I resolve to:
1) Make working out a priority. At least the night before, I pledge to plan out when I will exercise the next day - then stick with it. When I can, I'll work out with my husband in the evening. When I know I have to be away or we'll be super busy, I will either get up early (ugh) or commit to myself that I will do nothing at naptime before I have exercised. I will do cardio and strength. And sometimes, I will even have fun! (I'm hoping to get the boys outside for a game of tag today).
2) I will work my tush off to get my "weekly planner" board made. I'm very excited about this project. I'm refinishing an old dresser door, gluing on a white board, and adding a favorite verse and then a chart so I can track weekly meals and daily chores. I will schedule what I am serving for breakfast, lunch and dinner for at least 5 days a week (I'm ok with having no plan for weekends), what chores I am doing to keep the house tidy every weekday, AND a contingency plan or two for meals. This week I have had a lunch consisting of a peanut-butter apple and a snickers bar because I didn't leave myself time to eat. We had Panda Express today because I made today's scheduled lunch for dinner last night (thought hubby wasn't going to be home. then he was. what a mess). And I have NO idea what to cook tomorrow - fridge is getting empty. Ooof. Having all my meals plus a spare or two (something quick, cheap, and using 'on hand items') and all my daily chores in one place leaves me no excuse for "oh, I forgot" laziness.
3) I will make a detailed (cheap) grocery plan, go back to couponing and plan around store sales. It really doesn't take that long, I just don't do it. We've been storing up food in the freezer and I've been meaning to take a freezer inventory so I can use up the stuff in there. But I haven't gotten around to it, which means I'm winging it for meals and shopping several times a week and wasting TONS of money. So - I'll pick a regular time each week to make the list, print the coupons, circle the sales, etc. Let's see if we can get this budget back in shape.
4) I will prioritize!! My time and my money are two of my most precious commodities and I've been squandering them both. I need to remember that God comes first, my family comes second, and my hobbies come - well - somewhere way down the line. So I'm setting some rules for myself. No more buying craft supplies until I make a sale (or two or three) from my shop. If I have a super great idea - I'll just write it down. And I need to finish the 'important' projects (i.e. Christmas presents, commissioned items, etc) before I make random things for the shop. And the most important rule - just because it's on sale, doesn't mean it's cheap! If I don't need it for anything, I should just save the money even if it seems like a really good deal.
So - those are my current resolutions. Lets see if I can get myself back on track. I'm tired of feeling like I'm letting myself down every day, esp when being a little extra diligent and organized would make all the difference in the world. Feel free to ask me about it. Keep me on task. I'm hideous about being accountable to myself, but I'm a little better about not wanting to let down my friends. Thanks for all your support!
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
My Fitness Pal
Nope - juice fast didn't happen. Hoping to start tomorrow morning. Though, it's been really chilly the last few mornings so the last thing I want is cold juice. I think I might opt for a couple glasses of juice chased with a steaming cup of green tea. We have TONS of apples and a huge bag of carrots (plus some greens, grapes, etc) so I think we can do it. I just need the motivation.
That said, a friend of mine just invited me to join him on My Fitness Pal. I used to use Sparkpeople with some success, but frankly, it's really hard to fit in the time to record all my food and all my workouts (well, ok, it's not so hard to record my lack of workouts.) But since I know he'll be keeping an eye on me (and vice versa) it's pretty good motivation to just do it already. And I know that tracking is good for me. I'm FAR more likely to actually stick to 2 oz of pasta if I wrote it down already. And I'm FAR more likely to put in at least 20 min on the elliptical if I calculated for the calories already (although, the program probably expects more than the casual stride I take on the machine - but hey, I've got a sinus infection, at least it's something!).
SO that being said, would anyone else like to join me on My Fitness Pal? No, it won't tell me how much you weigh or even what you're eating - but it will tell me if you're working out and meeting your calorie goals. And you can keep track of me, too! The more people tracking me, the better because goodness knows I sure need a lot of accountability to put down the chocolate and lace up my sneakers. I've still got 10-15 lbs to lose -won't you join me on the journey?
If you'd like an invite, send me your email and I'll shoot it on over! Let's get fit, y'all!
That said, a friend of mine just invited me to join him on My Fitness Pal. I used to use Sparkpeople with some success, but frankly, it's really hard to fit in the time to record all my food and all my workouts (well, ok, it's not so hard to record my lack of workouts.) But since I know he'll be keeping an eye on me (and vice versa) it's pretty good motivation to just do it already. And I know that tracking is good for me. I'm FAR more likely to actually stick to 2 oz of pasta if I wrote it down already. And I'm FAR more likely to put in at least 20 min on the elliptical if I calculated for the calories already (although, the program probably expects more than the casual stride I take on the machine - but hey, I've got a sinus infection, at least it's something!).
SO that being said, would anyone else like to join me on My Fitness Pal? No, it won't tell me how much you weigh or even what you're eating - but it will tell me if you're working out and meeting your calorie goals. And you can keep track of me, too! The more people tracking me, the better because goodness knows I sure need a lot of accountability to put down the chocolate and lace up my sneakers. I've still got 10-15 lbs to lose -won't you join me on the journey?
If you'd like an invite, send me your email and I'll shoot it on over! Let's get fit, y'all!
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Crave Crave Crave
Oh my stars it's been a rough couple of weeks! I have had one nasty craving after another (seriously, if I didn't know it was impossible, I'd think I was pregnant). First Snickers, then Panda Express, then today I've been dying for homemade donuts. And unfortunately, it's all too easy to give in. Here are this week's triumphs and pitfalls.
Triumphs:
1) Today I have eaten really well. I woke up feeling sick, I think because all the awful eating has caught up to me. So I've had lots of fruits and veggies and eggs and it really feels amazing! Sometimes my body also craves healthy foods - those are the cravings I need to listen to.
2) We took a nice brisk walk last night. I even had the urge to run, though I didn't. I'm hoping that tonight I'll go for it and try to get in a couple miles of run/walks. I'd stopped working out at night because I thought it was interfering with my sleep, but I slept like a baby last night! Here's hoping.
3) I'm planning a juice fast for a couple days next week. I feel starved for nutrients and gorged on junk and I think I really need to 'reboot' my body. Hoping it works out the way I'm planning - I think I'll feel a lot better.
Pitfalls:
1) Sleeping and being lazy and not working out. I have had NO energy the last couple of weeks and I need to kick start my workouts again.
2) Eating junk junk junk. Cornbread, biscuits, chocolate(!!!), take-out food, potato salad and hot-dogs - no wonder I feel awful! And I think I've gained a few pounds back, too. I feel fat and yucky - the way I always do when I cave in and quit being healthy.
What I'm planning:
1) Work out every evening and make that my priority. If I have to get the kids to bed 20 min sooner, so be it. If I can get back in the habit, I'll have more energy during the day. And getting up in the morning to work out just isn't happening.
2) Juice fast. Juice for 2-3 meals a day for 2-3 days. Flush out my system, beat these cravings, then start eating healthier again.
3) Get more sun. Winter makes me want to hibernate - which means I want to fill up on carbs, then sleep for a week. Ooooof. More sun and lots of up-beat music helps to wake me up and get me going - so that's my goal!
That's where I am right now - I notoriously gain 10 lbs of "insulation" every winter - this winter I want to be different - I want to take 15 lbs OFF - so here I go!
Triumphs:
1) Today I have eaten really well. I woke up feeling sick, I think because all the awful eating has caught up to me. So I've had lots of fruits and veggies and eggs and it really feels amazing! Sometimes my body also craves healthy foods - those are the cravings I need to listen to.
2) We took a nice brisk walk last night. I even had the urge to run, though I didn't. I'm hoping that tonight I'll go for it and try to get in a couple miles of run/walks. I'd stopped working out at night because I thought it was interfering with my sleep, but I slept like a baby last night! Here's hoping.
3) I'm planning a juice fast for a couple days next week. I feel starved for nutrients and gorged on junk and I think I really need to 'reboot' my body. Hoping it works out the way I'm planning - I think I'll feel a lot better.
Pitfalls:
1) Sleeping and being lazy and not working out. I have had NO energy the last couple of weeks and I need to kick start my workouts again.
2) Eating junk junk junk. Cornbread, biscuits, chocolate(!!!), take-out food, potato salad and hot-dogs - no wonder I feel awful! And I think I've gained a few pounds back, too. I feel fat and yucky - the way I always do when I cave in and quit being healthy.
What I'm planning:
1) Work out every evening and make that my priority. If I have to get the kids to bed 20 min sooner, so be it. If I can get back in the habit, I'll have more energy during the day. And getting up in the morning to work out just isn't happening.
2) Juice fast. Juice for 2-3 meals a day for 2-3 days. Flush out my system, beat these cravings, then start eating healthier again.
3) Get more sun. Winter makes me want to hibernate - which means I want to fill up on carbs, then sleep for a week. Ooooof. More sun and lots of up-beat music helps to wake me up and get me going - so that's my goal!
That's where I am right now - I notoriously gain 10 lbs of "insulation" every winter - this winter I want to be different - I want to take 15 lbs OFF - so here I go!
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