First Weigh-in In a Month

This morning I did a weigh-in because I had been avoiding the scale since my last weigh-in at 298.2! EEK! But I am happy to say the scale this morning said 279.6lbs! YAY! That is a total loss of 18.6 lbs in about a month. I will take it! I'm pretty excited to weigh-in next week and see the number even lower! I would LOVE to be out of the 270's, but we will see. 9.6 lbs might be a lot to lose.I am super excited about this loss though! Here's to another gluten free day! :)

Eating Out Gluten Free

Today was a busy day for me and thus I had to eat out twice. I really don't like to do this because it is often unhealthy decisions I make. Today for breakfast that was no exception. My family was at Hardee's and I being super hungry looked on their menu talked to the person taking my order and decided on a "gluten free" low-card breakfast bowl. BAD IDEA! First it was loaded with cheese and greasy sausage which at one point I probably would have loved, but not anymore. My tastes have really changed especially with being faced with a gluten intolerance. So, I ate the breakfast bowl and within about 15 minutes found out I shouldn't have. I don't know if the person preparing my food didn't change gloves or somehow gluten found it's way into my meal, but it was there. I felt miserable! But, at least now I know not to get that.


For dinner I ate at Red Robin. For those of you who do not know what Red Robin is it is a american food restaurant. I have been doing lots of research on gluten free eating out and after my breakfast fiasco was worried about attempting to eat out again. To my delight it was FANTASTIC! Also, I explained to the waitress and she listened. I asked her to please make sure the staff changed their gloves and made sure that no gluten came anywhere near my plate. She was like we here at Red Robin really take food allergies serious and do everything to ensure your food is "clean" of allergens. I ate my meal still a little skeptical that I would feel sick shortly after. NOTHING! What a relief! I ordered that California Chicken Burger with no bun and instead of fries I ordered a side salad no croutons with the honey-poppyseed dressing. It was super delicious and I will definitely be going back in the future and with ease. I love that feeling.

Super Great Gluten Free Dinners

For the past three nights I have made some amazing totally gluten free dinners. On Thursday I made had gluten free chicken fettuccine alfredo using Trader Joes Brown Rice Pasta Fusilli. I have had other gluten free pasta that costs much more than this rice pasta that didn't taste near as good. Along with the chicken fettuccine I had green beans and applesauce with cinnamon. I can't say ENOUGH how amazingly tasty this pasta was. And, I only paid $1.99 per bag for this pasta which is such an incredible price. Now, with using the alfredo sauce it didn't make the meal super nutritional but I just can't cut everything out while getting used to eating gluten free. 


Ok, Friday night I made pork chops seasoned with thyme, cumin, paprika, garlic salt, onion powder and pepper. I baked the porkchops until done and ate it with some GF yukon gold mashed potatoes, green beans and applesauce with cinnamon. I obviously like green beans and applesauce! ;) This dinner was delicious!

Then tonight I made homemade pizzas using a GF pizza crust. When making the dough I sprinkled a generous amount of an Italian seasoning before baking which I feel like gave it an excellent amount of flavor. I made two separate pizzas so I can cut up and freeze and then just take them straight out of the freezer and reheat. Which is super nice because there isn't really a whole lot I like to eat that is quick. So the first pizza had red sauce, chicken, spinach, black olives and cheese. The other one had red sauce, bacon, sausage and cheese. They both were super fantastic. I used Bob's Red Mill GF Pizza Crust mix. I paid around $3.50 for a bag of the mix and it made two large pizzas.


I look forward to making more delicious GF meals! AND I am weighing in for the first time in about a month on Monday. I am nervous and excited all at the same time. I really hope to see a loss. No matter how much. The last time I weighed myself I gained 15lbs. That's a whole lot to gain when you are really wanting to lose weight! 

Inspirational Quote #3

"The rainbow would not be without first the rain." D Donche Jr

Todays Meals & Thoughts

Today went pretty well as far as eating gluten free. The problem with eating gluten free is it's either all or nothing. When I am eating gluten filled food I have stomach pains and intestinal issues after each meal and in between as well. But, unfortunately I am just kind of used to it. Now that I am eating gluten free and really making sure nothing that has gluten in it comes close to my mouth its like my sensitivity heightens. It's like one little bread crumb can upset my stomach. For example, for breakfast I ate 2 scrambled eggs with a slice of GF bread and a small amount of cinnamon butter with a Clementine on the side. All things I ate for breakfast were GF but my stomach started hurting soon after finishing my meal. So, that means that either by using the toaster that is also used for regular bread my bread got some crumbs on it or the cinnamon butter that has shared a knife with a gluten filled product got gluten in it. And because this is my second day eating GF I can feel exactly when I have encountered gluten. It also happened again tonight for dinner. I went out to Denny's with my mom and grandma. I ordered 2 egg whites with turkey bacon and chicken sausage. All of which is supposedly GF. So, I suspect the bacon was grilled on the same surface that the pancakes are made thus contaminating my food. Also, the entrée came with a side of bread and I asked the waitress if I could get fruit or yogurt as a substitute and it was going to cost me extra. I didn't want the bread and the other side but just a substitution. It just gets frustrating going out to eat and my husband and I really enjoy doing this. I will have to make it work though because this is now a lifestyle for me. I can't go back for my health.


I went to a whole foods store and found some good deals. I bought some GF pancakes (blueberry and plain 2 for $6.00), rice pasta ($1.99 a bag) as well as some spinach and some apples and so on. I think I want to make fish and rice for dinner tomorrow. We will see how adventurous I want to get.


Today's Meals:


Breakfast:
2 scrambled eggs
1 slice GF bread
1 clementine


Lunch:
Tuna salad on GF crackers


Dinner:
2 scrambled eggs
2 slices of turkey bacon
1 patty of chicken sausage
grits


Snack:
1 homemade GF brownie (MMMmmmm....)

Gluten Intolerance

Well here I am! I don't believe I have mentioned this yet mainly because I myself don't want to believe it, but I have a gluten intolerance. To my body, gluten in toxic. It makes me feel awful and yet I still eat it. It's like the thought of living gluten free is horrific. BUT, my friends, the time has come. The time is here that I say good-bye to my gluten and say hello to G-free eating. It's going to be a tough journey. I know because I have tried once. And it ended with my crying in the cafeteria at work because they had sold their last baked potato, one of the only things I could eat that night from the cafeteria. It was terrible. Seriously, imagine a grown woman crying in a cafeteria over a baked potato! I can laugh at it now, but what an awful day. 

I have been going on almost a year now of knowing that I have a gluten intolerance and doing nothing about it. My excuses were: it's too expensive, it's too hard, I simply can't live without pasta and on and on. But the truth of the matter is I can't afford NOT to live G-free. The risks I am taking every day with eating foods with gluten is just plain crazy. I don't want to end up with intestinal cancer or infertility and that can happen! It's just crazy how your risk of very serious health problems is elevated when eating gluten that attacks your insides with you have an intolerance. 

Yesterday was my first day gluten free in months. It's truly amazing just how much better I feel with one day of no gluten. I ate a banana, gluten free white cheddar crunchy goodness, honey roasted peanuts, cranberry and almond bar and tuna salad on g-free bread. I was in the process of moving yesterday and was busy packing and traveling so I didn't eat super well, but gluten free and that's what mattered yesterday. 

Today, after work I will be venturing out to the local whole foods store to pick up some more gluten free goodness. I will share what I find later on tonight! Oh and I am reading another book which I will also share with you later on tonight!

Today's Food Diary

Well it started off well....


Breakfast:
3 eggs scrambled
1 cup of fresh spinach chopped
1 Tbsp of black olives
1 Tbsp of tomato
1 Tbsp shredded cheese
1 biscuit with 1/2 Tbsp cinnamon whip
1 cup of coffee with caramel creamer
water


Lunch:
6" turkey & ham sandwich from subway
American cheese
Lettuce
Spinach
Pickles
Olives
Oil & Vinegar
Light Mayo


Dinner:
Taco Bell :( Enough said....


Snack:
Cookie Cake... what happened!!!! :(

Yesterday's Food Diary

My breakfast isn't the healthiest today because I haven't really been keeping healthy food around the house and so I had to work with what I had. I was planning on going to the store later on in the day so I just made something that was better than what I had been eating for breakfast.


Breakfast:
2 eggs scrambled
1Tbsp black olives
1Tbsp cheese
1 buttermilk biscuit
1/2 Tbsp cinnamon whip


Lunch:
I didn't get to eat lunch :(


Dinner:
I had leftovers it was a chicken and noodles plate which contained:
Egg noodles
Cream of Chicken Soup
Chicken Stock
Chicken
Sides:
Apple Sauce with Cinnamon


Snack:
1 cup of Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream


So, not such a good day as far as food goes, but honestly its WAY better that what I have been eating! So, I will work to be a little better today. One day at a time, step by step; I will beat this!

Today I Stepped on The Scale.....

and it was not pretty! I posted a while ago that I was having a difficult time in life right now and that is still true. I lost my job and have not been able to find a new one. I am having a really hard time with that because I am a person that loves work and loves to stay busy. I hate that I haven't worked a day since December 5, 2010. It is awful. And of course as a result I have gained weight and a significant amount. I weighed myself today and the scale said 298.2lbs. I just want to cry.... On my very first weigh in post I said that I would never see the weight that was on there and now I have surpassed it. It is not a good feeling. But, I will just pick myself up and move on. That's what I have to do. I CAN NOT let this be the end of this journey. I have to push forward and keep trying to win this battle. I WILL win this battle. I hope to start getting back on track. I have been feeling really down lately and literally have just been sleeping and sitting on the couch. That has to change. I can't live this super lazy life that I have been. Job or no job, I have to take care of my health. So, a fresh start? I think so!

Not Keeping My Promises...

So, I obviously haven't kept my promises this week. I haven't blogged at all and it makes me sad. My eating has been terrible. I really NEED to work on my relationship with food and how I utilize it to comfort me in difficult times. It's such a hard habit to break. I feel as if sometimes it's truly an addiction that I struggle with. An addiction that like any other addiction can feel like the hardest thing to stop. I will work on this. I can't afford not to, my health can't afford for me to eat like this. I will beat this monster within.....

Weigh-Ins From Last Week & This Week

Hello! I hope your holiday was fantastic! Mine was pretty amazing, although I ate too many sweets. I did however enjoy the flavor. I didn't have my camera with me when weighing in the past couple of weeks, but I wanted to post the results still. I have indeed gained weight, but I expected to with things that are going on in my life. It's that me turning to food to cope with things tendency that I have which needs to be worked on. Nonetheless, last weeks weigh-in was at 281.4 and this weeks was 283.2.

The issues I have been dealing with are not yet resolved and I have been sick for about the past week. I am hoping that getting back on track with eating healthy will also help me get over my illness. I feel pretty awful. I also hope to be posting every day again starting tomorrow. I hope I can keep my promises!  Until tomorrow!

It Has Been Some Time....

Hello! I feel like it has been forever since I was last on my blog. And it has been... I didn't have a weigh-in last week. I have been having a very difficult two weeks and am trying to bet back into the swing of things.  On a side note, I truly believe that God has a reason for everything that happens and I am hoping whatever comes of these hard times is going to make me a better, stronger, and more thankful person in life. I know that for every door that closes one is bound to open and I am trying to see the positive light through all this darkness. Many of you have no idea what issue I am referring to, but these words can be applied to any part of our life that may be tough. I am nervous about this weeks weigh-in. I have not been watching what I have been eating this past week. I am just thankful I can eat again. I literally didn't eat for several days and at one point my weight was down to 272 lbs. I very unhealthy 272! I was weak and very fatigue from not eating. So, I am not going to beat myself up over my weigh in this week, but instead just see where I stand and move on. I've missed blogging the past two weeks. I hope to never leave you again! :)

Weigh-In # 3

Ok, so my weigh in was amazing this week, but I'm not sure I won't gain any of this back. I experienced a tragedy this week and for the past two days I have not really been able to eat. So, I will not be suprised if some of this comes back once I start feeling better. But for now it's a great loss!

Do You Know Your Body Fat %

Two weeks ago I ordered an OMRON Body Fat Analyzer. It is the NEATEST thing ever! I love knowing my body fat percentage that way I have three ways to measure my weight loss: weight, inches and now body fat percentage. Just because the scale doesn't move doesn't mean we're not making progress. The gadget is very simple to use. You enter body type (athletic or normal), height, weight, age and sex then press start and hold on to it while it scans and tells you your body fat percentage and your BMI. I will check this once a month to see what my change in body fat and BMI is. I am excited to be able to report this as well.

My Current Body Fat Percentage: 46.6% --- WHOA!
My Current BMI: 47.2

So, I have a ton of work to do, but excited to be able to track my progress!

If you have not seen this gadget, check it out! It is worth it to know your overall health and to make a goal to work towards!

Food Diary from Saturday

Hello! I have been missing from my blog this week and it makes me sad. I've just been super busy with work! Yesterday I stuck to my eating plan really well. My days food is as follows:

Breakfast:
Light Whole Wheat English Muffin
1 egg
1 slice of cheese
1 clementine

Snack:
Apples with low fat caramel dip

Lunch:
Lean Cuisine Pizza
Small Salad
1/2 fat ranch dressing
2 slices of a Chocolate Orange

Snack:
slice of cheddar cheese
1 wheat cracker

Dinner:
Parmesan Encrusted Tilapia
1/2 weight watchers mac & cheese
1/2 low fat creamed spinach
1 hard boiled egg
2 slices of Chocolate Orange

Snack:
1 cup of popcorn

I have NEVER eaten tilapia before last night and I LOVED it! I know it is not the healthiest kind that I ate, but if you knew me you would know I typically hate seafood. Literally, the only kind of seafood that I normally eat is canned tuna. I don't really care for shrimp although I am trying to change that and I don't like any other fish just yet. I baked the tilapia instead of frying it like the package mentioned. I will be having it for dinner tonight as well. I am hoping to slowly move up to buying tilapia that has no seasoning on it so that I can season it myself and make it very flavorful and healthy.

My New Favorite Obsession...

I am in LOVE with a new recipe I have come up with. I REALLY like Qdoba Mexican grill and mainly because of their lime cilantro rice (not to mention their queso sauce). So, the other day I was craving Qdoba, but their portion sizes are just huge and I knew if I went there to get a burrito, I would eat the whole thing! I decided to make my own! I looked up a recipe for lime cilantro rice, tweaked it a little bit and made it. The rice recipe is as follows:

• 2 cups of cold water
• 1 cup on long grain white rice
• 1/2 tbsp butter
• juice from 1 whole lime
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• dash of salt

Pour the 2 cups of cold water into a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Once boiling stir in rice and butter. Cover and reduce heat to simmer for 15-20 minutes or until rice has soaked up all the water. After rice is cooked and right before serving mix in the lime juice and cilantro. Enjoy!


OK, so then I took a whole wheat tortilla and placed a decent amount of rice in the middle placed 1/8 cup of quesadilla cheese on top of the rice. I then took some heated seasoned black beans and placed them on top of the rice and cheese then topped the beans with another 1/8 cup of cheese. I then placed lots of fresh lettuce and a couple black olive slices in the burrito. I put a dab of fat free sour cream and then some verde sauce on top rolled it up and enjoyed!

The Scale & I Are Mad at Each Other

So, today was the dreaded post Thanksgiving weigh-in. And by the title of my post you can probably imagine what the number on the scale starring back at me looked like. :( This morning my weight was 287.2... UHHHH! This is no ones fault but my own. Nobody forced me to eat all the grams of carbohydrates with gravy that I did or the pie I ate with whipped cream! I am not proud of this moment, but I hope I learned my lesson and remember my lesson when Christmas rolls around. So, today I will just begin eating healthier again as if this slip up didn't happen.  I will not give up on this journey no matter what happens along the way. This, I promise to myself!

Before Pictures

This is a HUGE deal for me! I have never, NEVER posted pictures of myself as the weight I am.... especially in shorts! Please be nice to me, I am not stating that I am a model or that I look/feel amazing! I am here to lose weight and the get healthy... I am here to have a better healthier life and these pictures are for me to see how far I have come and know that I never want to be in this spot again. I am not pregnant although I feel like my belly kind of looks like it because it sticks out, but not for much longer! So, here goes nothing!

How Did I Do Over the Thanksgiving Holiday?

Thanksgiving is over, but I still have leftovers! I didn't do too terrible, but I definitely didn't eat healthy. I ate some white meat turkey with mashed potatoes, corn, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, rolls and stuffing... SO pretty much ONLY carbs! :( I don't know my official weight yet because my weigh-in is on Tuesday, but I feel like I may have gained a little back that I lost last week. We will see! Oh and in my next post tomorrow I will tell you about a really neat new device I just got to calculate body fat percentage! It is really neat. :)

Inspirational Quote

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time. ~Thomas A. Edison

Happy Thanksgiving to All

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! I just love this holiday. I love getting to spend time with my families and to eat hearty food. Food... why does it always boil down to foods. Any who, instead of getting to enjoy this holiday with my family, I am working. I am stuck inside a hospital building with limited natural light and no homemade turkey dinner just waiting until 11:00pm. At 11pm I get to hop in my car and drive three hours to meet my mother to do our annual black Friday shopping spree. Unfortunately for me this year it means that I will not be able to sleep until like noon on Friday. That's OK though because I love to shop with my mom. It's always been a great time for us! All in all though, I can't complain. I have so many things to be thankful for this year. A great husband, an amazing family, a job that I do enjoy doing, a house to live in (that is very amazingly decorated for Christmas already), a cat that my husband and I spoil rotten and my health. I am thankful that I am not seriously ill with anything other than obesity. But that battle is being fought. It is a difficult one, but I am excited to tackle it head on. I will learn so much about myself and I already have. I have learned that I do not have to eat sweets every day to feel satisfied. That is a HUGE deal to me. I always... ALWAYS had to eat something sweet after just about every meal, but not this past week. I felt so much better, not so bogged down by sugar. I look forward to more benefits due to eating healthy, exercising and losing weight. I will most likely not be on to blog for a couple days. Not until I get back from St. Louis, MO. I will talk to you all soon...

Thanksgiving is Right Around the Corner

Thanksgiving... time with family to share what we are thankful for and a time to over indulge for most of us...  Last week I lost 8.4 lbs, and I think that is wonderful. This week, I am worried I will gain it all back and then some. I am going to do my best not to overindulge. Tomorrow night I will be driving 3 hours to my parents house so my mom and I can do our annual black Friday shopping event. I get off work at 11:00pm which will put me at my parents house at around 2:30am, just in time for shopping. Sleep you say... who needs sleep. So Thanksgiving day is my first worry about food because when I am really tired in order to keep my self awake, I snack... excessively. Then is Friday, mom and I will be out and about getting our shop on and we will most likely eat out somewhere and Friday for dinner leftover turkey dinner. I am leaving to return home to my husband on Saturday afternoon after I get my hair done at 2:30pm which will put me back in town around 8:00pm. You might say well that's not too bad, one day of overindulging. But wait, there is more. Saturday evening when I arrive back home, my in-laws will be here and they've decided to bring Thanksgiving to us! We will have a Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday night and then they will be staying in town visiting until Monday which means more eating out while we show them the town. This weekend could simply be a recipe for disaster for me! I guess we will have to wait and see.

2nd Official Weigh-In

So, today was my 2nd weigh-in, but my first official weigh in with after my initial weigh-in. I was feeling unsure about how it was going to turn out because on Saturday night I ate some pizza and just junk food. I am happy to announce that my weight this morning was 280.8 which means I had a loss of 8.4 lbs on my first week! I am VERY excited about that! I also was thinking that because I was expecting to lose 2lbs a week that this first weigh in is equivalent to 1 month of weight loss which brings my goal even closer to me!

Feeling A Little Under the Weather...

I haven't been feeling so well today. I think it's just stress related with the holidays coming up, but none the less I hate it when I don't feel well. I will have my weigh in tomorrow morning. I am nervous to see what the scale says. I hope to see some weight loss. We will see bright and early! Until tomorrow....

Fresh Fruit Crepes

I made some pretty amazing fresh fruit crepes for my husband and I for breakfast this morning. They are super easy to make and taste wonderful. The ingredients are as follows:

For the crepes:
1 cup of all purpose flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup of milk
1/2 cup of water
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp butter melted

Fruit:
I use fresh strawberries, bananas and kiwis are really good in it as well although I didn't use them today.

Topping:
Low fat strawberry yogurt
Granola
Sprinkle with powdered sugar and cinnamon

Ruby Gettinger's Theme Song

Ruby's Journey

One book I definitely recommend EVERYONE to read is Ruby's Diary: Reflections on All I've Lost and Gained. I read this book a couple months ago and my heart just went out for Ruby. When I first started reading her book, I really didn't know a lot about Ruby or her journey. I read this book within two days because I just couldn't put it down. It was so inspiring and so interesting to read how she feels about everything she has been going through. I am currently watching Ruby: Season 2 and I just love seeing her amazing smile and her dedication to losing weight. I get so motivated when I watch her show and just know that if she can beat her monster within, I can to. If she can lose all the weight she has, I can to. I love the theme song for her show as well. The song is called "I Can" by Johanna Stahley. If you have not heard this song and you are on a weight loss journey you NEED to listen to it! Actually here it is listen to it now!

If you have not heard Ruby's story, please look it up right now and read her story, her book, and watch her show! It will change your life!

New Favorite Salty Snack

So, I LOVE these popcorn puffs. They are not the healthiest, but better than chips. Again I am taking one step at a time!

The nutiritional facts in these are as follows:

Serving Size: 2.5 cups
Calories: 140
Total Fat: 5g
    Saturated Fat 1g
Cholesterol: 0g
Sodium: 150mg
Dietary Fiber: 2g
Suagrs: 1g

Anywho, if you have a Trader Joes in your area and you like white cheddar, CHECK THESE OUT!

Today's Food Diary & Thoughts

Hello whomever is reading my blog... if anyone is reading this blog. Today wasn't such a good day as far as my eating goes. It's not that I ate too much, but the foods I ate were not the healthiest choices.

Breakfast:
1 cup of Cinnamon Life cereal
1/2 cup of skim milk

Lunch:
Small bowl of cube steaks cooked with brown gravy and no-yolk dumpling noodles

Dinner:
Small bowl of cube steaks cooked with brown gravy and no-yolk dumpling noodles
1 cup of green beans
1 cup of applesauce with cinnamon

Snacks:
1 small banana with 1 Tbsp of peanut butter
1/2 bran muffin

Drinks:
Grande Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha made with nonfat milk and without whip cream
Water

I needed to each MANY more veggies and fruits today, but I didn't plan appropriately. This just shows that for me it is very important to plan all of my meals ahead of time to make sure that I am eating as healthy as possible.

This week I have been trying to get into a habit of working out. Now, I am starting VERY slow because I have been out of the gym for quite some time. I've been only working out for 15 minutes a day for the past 4 days. I've been using the elliptical machine at my gym. Thursday I used this new machine and it is an elliptical, but slightly different. I worked out for 15 minutes on a hill program setting and the distance I covered was 2.01 miles and burned 204 calories--- in 15 minutes! Can you imagine if I used this machine for an hour and covered 8 miles and burned 800 calories!  That would be amazing and is a new goal that I am working towards. I still need to do my measurements, but I can't find my tape to use. I am going to get a new one tomorrow. I want to do these before I lose weight because I want to know exactly how I far I have come.

Crunchy Fruit and Nut Granola

I LOVE this granola recipe. You can add so many different ingredients to make it exactly what you like.

Ingredients:

8 cups of old fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup of brown sugar (I use dark)
1/2 cup of water
4 tsp of pure vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
2 cups of your favorite nut (I use walnuts, pecans and pistachios)
Dried fruit (optional) (I really like orange flavored cranberries purchased from Trader Joes)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment or wax paper and set aside. Place water and brown sugar in a medium sized microwave safe glass dish. Stir and then microwave for 5 minutes. Remove from microwave, give a quick stir and add vanilla and salt. In a very large mixing bowl combine oats, nuts and the already prepared brown sugar mixture. Stir until thoroughly mixed. Pour onto cookie sheets in an even layer and cook in over for 45 minutes to an hour or until granola is crunchy and golden. When the granola comes out of the oven and is still warm mix in the dried fruit. After it completely cools, store in an airtight container.

ENJOY!

Testing My Willpower

As I sit here blogging I like to have noise on in the background... tonight I have chosen a movie. One of my all time favorite movies, Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory. After I started watching the intro I thought about how much of a test this is for my willpower to stay away from sweets. Sweets, the downfall of my healthy eating; my bestfriend and my worst enemy. I am proud to say since I have started this new journey I have eaten only 3 snack size pieces of candy! ONLY 3! If you knew me, I'm not sure you would believe I could survive without sweets especially chocolate. ;) I'm doing well with it though. I feel better since I am not so bogged down with sugar. It's nice to have a clear almost sugar free mind. We will see how watching Willy Wonka is for me tonight. I will have to let you know if I give into temptation tomorrow.

Today's Food Diary

Today I woke up super late so I didn't get to eat breakfast until like 1:15pm. Wow that's late! Anywho, here is my food diary for today:

Breakfast/Lunch:
3 scrambled eggs
1 1/2 cup of fresh spinach chopped
2tbsp chopped black olives
1/2 bran muffin

Dinner:
Piece of grilled chicken with bbq sauce and montery jack cheese
side salad
baked potato

Snack:
6 Rosemary & Olive Oil Triscuits
2 slices of smoked turkey breast
1 oz. of cheddar cheese

Drinks:
1 vanilla coffee javakula made with skim milk and without whip cream (I added some cinnamon and nutmeg)
water

Sneak Peak of My Weight Loss This Week

So, I was very anxious to see if I had lost any weight on my first week so I broke out the scale this morning! Down 9.4lbs!!! I started out as 289.2 three days ago! I know that my weight I have lost is mostly water weight, but still to see a loss is an amazing feeling. It really motivates me more to see lower and lower numbers on the scale. I will only post official weigh-ins each Tuesday but I wanted to share this great news. I'm excited to see what Tuesday brings as far as weight loss. I will post my body measurements in just a little bit when I do some more discussions of the book Fit from Within. :)

Book Review Chapter 1- Accept Yourself Today

This is my very first book review for the Book Fit from With: 101 Simple Secrets to Change Your Body and Your Life- Starting Today and Lasting Forever. 

Chapter 1: Accept Yourself Today

"If you don't accept yourself, you won't live fully, and if you don't live fully, you'll need to get full some other way."


This chapter is probably one of the most important chapters I have read thus far. Just reading the main quote from the chapter really sums up what it has to say. You can't accept yourself tomorrow, after you lose x amount of weight, when you get married, have kids, finish school or any other excuse. You have to accept yourself NOW. Today is the day.


We all know just how difficult it can be to accept ourselves for exactly who we are, especially if we feel like we need to lose weight. As the book discusses, today's media definitely doesn't push individuals to want to accept themselves as they are, with no changes. Everyday almost constantly we are bombarded with images of very thin, rich and "beautiful" women. Our perceptions of what success, beauty, wealth and ultimately happiness are very jaded by the media. There are millions of weight-loss products, pills and diets thrown our way everyday and as an overweight person, it is a constant reminder of how much I do not fit the "media ideal body". And speaking of "ideal" body, we are taught throughout life we need to be within a healthy weight range that is set by others based on our height and age yet the media gives us the implication that even people that are within their "normal" weight range still are not thin enough. It is terrible that those are the messages we are receiving daily from our society. It is very unfortunate these are the words that reach our ears and are embedded in our minds because many eating disorders stem from being constantly reminded that we are unattractive in the eyes of the media. We have to be stronger than the media messages, we need willpower to look past them. Willpower is something that I have struggled with a lot, but that is another post another day.

It is difficult to accept ourselves if we have self-defeating thoughts which can lead to self-destructive behavior like overeating and avoiding the gym. Learning to accept yourself today is vital. Learning that you have today to change the whole way you look at your life is almost mind-blowing. This week as a re-read this chapter in the book, it was like something clicked for me. Something changed in my head and went from saying "I can't accept myself and this weight, it's embarrassing!" to "I may be overweight, but I control my life, I control what my weight is, no one else can do that for me and today I chose to better my life, to life my life." It is very empowering. Try it today. Change the way you think about yourself.

To end this post I will leave you with another quote from this chapter: "Acceptance gives you peace of mind in the present and makes changes possible for the future."

Inspirational Quote #1

The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking places. ~Author Unknown

Some Missing Days...

OK, so it looks like I am missing some days in my postings as far as food diary goes. This is because I just today (like and hour ago) created a new blog for my journey. The other one I was using was outdated and I didn't like the appearance or the title, so I wanted to change it. I am very pleased to announce that I love the looks of this new blog which I spent forever designing with all the cute colors and stuff.

I am so excited about writing this blog. It is going to be such an amazing outlet for me and like I said, I hope it helps others in similar positions. To give you all (whoever you are) and idea about what my blog has to offer within all of it's contents I will explain what I have planned. First and foremost, I will blog everyday (well almost everyday). I will be posting stories, inspirational quotes, pictures of food and myself, book reviews (first book up is Fit from Within by Victoria Moran), recipes, my successes as well as the many obstacles I will face along my journey. I would love it if anyone decides to follow my blog if you would comment or subscribe just to let me know who is out there and hopefully I can lend you some support as well.

As far as the book reviews go with this first book it is broken down into 101 mini chapters. I will discuss what each one covered and then write a little about my personal experience on that topic. I think by doing this I can truly get the full meaning of the book and really take a deep look into myself and the relationship I have with food. I have read to about chapter 33 so far so I will sit down maybe tomorrow and write out several of the overviews with discussions then. I really recommend this book to anyone who has struggled with food at any point in life. It makes you step back and analyze the real reason you eat, don't workout and continually make excuses for the reason we can't lose weight. It is a very honest and to the point book. I hope you will pick up a copy for yourself.

1st Weigh-In and Food Diary

My first weigh in was on 11/16/2010. And from the picture... you can see the results. This is only a starting point but I can say, never again will I see this number.

 

Here is my food diary for the day:

Breakfast:
2 scrambled eggs
2 turkey sausages
1/2 all bran muffin

Lunch:
Pre-packaged tuna salad with crackers
(I am totally aware that this is not the healthiest meal, but theres a story... not an excuse... a story. My husband and I had just got back from being out of town a day prior to this lunch and I had got ready for work an hour early so I could swing by the grocery store and pick up something healthy for lunch. Well, I went to get my car keys to leave and realized they are in his car at his work! So, needless to say the hour until work went by really slow while I waited for a friend to pick me up! :(

Dinner:
6" oven roasted chicken breast on honey oat bread with american cheese, spinach, tomatoes, cucmbers, oil & vinegar and fat free honey mustard
6" ham on wheat with spinach, tomatoes, cucmbers and fat free honey mustard
(Apparently I was starving.... :/)

Snack:
1 cup of homemade granola (you can find the recipe on my recipes page)

Drinks: 1 cup of coffee with pumpkin spice creamer and some sugar and the rest of the day I just drink water (thankfully that is not a habit I have to get into.. Thank you Mom!)

Hello World...

My name is Katie and I am starting this blog to share with you my journey of losing weight and getting healthy. I am 23 years old and weigh 289.2lbs! That is A LOT of weight to be carrying around each day. It's no wonder all I want to do is sleep and not move around, it gets heavy. This journey (lifestyle change if you will) is not going to happen fast nor do I want it to. This needs to take time, I need to make habit changes, not quick fixes. There is no quick fix to getting healthy, NONE. I will lose all my weight the old fashioned way; diet & exercise. I will not be taking any medication, drinking any weight loss drinks or taking any other kind of weight loss supplement. I have tried hundreds of diets (sigh...) throughout my lifetime and not one of them fixed the problem because if they did I would not be writing this blog.


I not only WANT to lose weight but I NEED to for my health. I have borderline hypertension and type 2 diabetes and I do have high cholesterol. AT 23 YEARS OLD! Can you imagine what my health would be like if I continued down this path... it wouldn't end pretty, but I feel it would end quickly. I have a predisposition for certain diseases, so I need to work extra hard to try and keep those diseases from running my life. My mother has diabetes and my father has hypertension and high cholesterol.

Anywho, I want this blog to be very raw and real. I will post pictures of myself as well as food I make, recipes I use and quotes that inspire me. I want to have a documented reminder of how far I have come. I am expecting to lose about 2lbs per week. I know that my first few weeks will probably have more weight loss than 2lbs (at least I hope) because you are kicking your body into full gear, preparing it if you will. I am very excited about this journey and I hope if anyone reads this blog, they will feel inspired and motivated to get their life in check as well.