You Look Mahvelous!

Hey everyone,

It was so awesome to see you at the conference! And you all looked great. Brent, you are smokin'!! Lu Ann, I'm so proud of you! Melissa, way to go! Each of you were bright and twinkly and it was great to see you.

I, on the other hand ... twinkle not.

A couple of you said I looked thinner, but I do believe that was a trick of light - I chose my clothes specially to be slimming. I haven't lost anything. In fact, I'm afraid, just the opposite.

These muscles in my side are not healing very well at all. I tried to live my life normally at the conference and I was in a serious world of hurt when I got home. I was having sharp, shooting pains through my rib cage, and all kinds of delightful other things that I won't bore you with.

But ...

I am still keeping up with the nice big salads, and I'm going to try Lu Ann's awesome sugar plan. After checking out her new physique at the conference, I'd be a big blind bat if I didn't see it was working and how great she looks. I'm going grocery shopping tomorrow and will buy foods to support that change.

In the meantime, I'm so proud of each of you. Keep it up, and maybe by next conference, I'll be lookin' smokin' right along with the rest of you!

I've been FAILING to PLAN --

and therefore, planning to fail. :-(

Fortunately, I got kick-started again. I bought a big wall calendar and I've been trying to write my planned meals for the day on it. 3 meals. That's all I get. I'm not doing the 5-6 small meals a day thing anymore. It just doesn't work for me. This way, when I want to eat something, I have to sit down and eat it. And I have to make sure I eat everything I need until the next meal. 'Cuz there's no snacking allowed! I have allowed myself a wint-o-green mint in between (Love those things!) but they're only 15 calories each.

I just got to thinking how much better I did back when I did body-for-life, and the REASON I did so well wasn't because the plan was better than my current plan. It was because I was sitting down every day and making a specific plan for the next day. What time am I going to exercise and what am I going to do exactly? What am I going to eat for breakfast and what time am I going to eat it? Etc. etc.

Now that I'm planning again, I'm doing well again. Imagine that!

And We're Off!

I've offically lost two pounds. It's a start. All this getting my habits to be better is finally paying off. I've gotten off caffeine, reduced sugar intake (mostly just by not snacking on junk), and now am starting to move around a lot more.

Maybe I will hit my goal by the end of the year. Time to get off the computer and go dance or something. :)

Getting off Sugar

I finally did it. Now, I didn't get completely off sugar. But I did make myself as of last Wednesday to not eat cake, ice cream, candy, soda pop, etc. I didn't cut out all the sugar on sauces and such. But I have been looking a little closer to the labels to make a better decision on whether to use it or how much to use.

The first few days were tough, and now it's quite easy. My husband had some M&M's the other day and I was having a rough day, so I asked for two. I ate them slowly and enjoyed them. And I was satisfied.

Then today, I tasted one bite of a cupcake and I was good. It's like eating a lot of sugar makes you want to eat a lot of sugar. Eating a lot less makes you feel satisfied when you only have a small amount.

And I'm down a pound. Hard to tell exactly because of water weight changes, but I think I've lost a pound or two.

I've also got my pedometer on me every day checking how many steps I've taken. I've averaged about 7000-8000 steps most days. My goal is to get it to 10,000 steps or more a day.

Between the less sugar and more moving, I think I may have finally gotten the start I wanted to losing weight.

Now if I can just keep it up and not have many setbacks.

Interesting ...

I'm not sure how I did it, but I re-pulled some of my oblique muscles and so I didn't attempt the aerobics. That was sort of getting all geared up for nothing.

I did learn something rather interesting, though.

I've been doing the salad thing and I've cut way back on bread, and I've had no pasta in about three weeks. Last night I had some spaghetti, and I was up all night with gas and bloating and other things that polite ladies don't mention they have, so I'm guessing I'm not as polite of a lady as I thought I was. It was interesting to me to note the effect the pasta was having on me after so long going without. I think this is my body's way of saying it doesn't like it. And isn't that what our bodies would tell us, if they could talk - lay off the refined flour? I guess gas is just a body's way of talking ...

Sugar

by Rebecca Talley

I rarely ever watch daytime TV, but today I happened to watch The Tyra Show while I did my aerobic workout (sometimes I just get sick of my DVDs and work out to a TV program for a change of pace since I have the moves all memorized after doing them for so many years). So today's program was about overweight teenage girls. All four girls were at least 100 pounds overweight. I can imagine the kind of harrassment these girls face on a regular basis because of their weight. I felt bad for each one.

Tyra's guest was some dude who's pushing a new lifestyle change that includes limiting your sugar intake. I'd read LuAnn's post on watching sugar--limiting it to 25 grams--with interest a few days ago so this program piqued my interest even more. This guy advocates only 15 grams and substituting food flavored with other types of sweetners for sugary foods. I'm still not sure if I like these other sweetners of if they're very good for you.

He said an average American ingests 130 grams of sugar per day. Since soda has about 40 grams it only take 3 sodas to do the job. These teenage girls were all ingesting twice that amount of sugar. He challenged them to not only reduce their sugar intake, but to up their carbohydrate, specifically fiber, intake. He said that sugar bonds with the food in our intestines and it makes the food sticky and leads to constipation because it's harder to get rid of it when there's a lot of sugar present. He also said that increased sugar intake promotes belly fat. (I thought I could just use the "I've had 10 babies" excuse).

This is the same basis for the South Beach Diet. Cut out processed sugar and white flour and increase fiber through beans, fruits, and vegetables.

Anyway, like LuAnn, I looked at some of the foods I thought were sugar safe. I was surprised that non-fat milk has 12 grams of sugar per serving. However, I'm still confused about how to differntiate between the sugars. I've heard that the sugar naturally produced in fruit is not the same as refined sugar. I would think the sugar in milk is more comparable to that in fruit because it's naturally part of the milk.

Today, I have not had any sugar. I've stuck to vegetables, beans, salad, nuts. But, I do have a nasty sweet tooth that in the past has lead me to eat candy, ice cream, etc. So I need a sweet option. I've never been a soda drinker and for the last several months I haven't had much refined sugar because I've been sticking to the SB Diet.

I have questions, though. Is the sugar produced in fruit actually different? Do you count that toward your sugar intake? Or, is it just the refined sugar that needs to be controlled? What about these other sweetners (like stevia) are they bad?

I'm going to the CFI author dinner on April 22nd and I want to look good--no, make that amazing--in my red dress I bought for my son's reception. I'm hoping I can take off a few pounds before then.

Dipping My Toe into Real Life ...

Well, it's been an interesting month, and that's about all I can say. I've become acquainted with muscles and bones I didn't know existed. I've taken pills for pain in said muscles and bones. I've been reminded of my mortality, and reminded that it's all in God's hands.

I'm now almost completely better. I can feel myself returning to the land of the living. Twice last week, I had to park about two blocks from my destination, and walked the remaining distance, and didn't suffer for it. I'm not forgetting as much, and I seem to be able to put sentences together better when I talk. Believe me, I'm so, so grateful.

I've been eating two nice big salads a day ever since I posted my plan, and my bread intake has gone down a lot. I've had fast food just once since then, with a few other minor diversions. I did eat some Easter candy, but not as much as I have eaten in the past. My Coke consumption has dropped, and while I know I still have a very long ways to go, I'm feeling good about the progress I have made.

Tomorrow I dip my toe even further into real life and attempt gentle aerobics. I say "attempt" because I realize it might not go well and I'm not going to push myself. But I think I can do it. In another week or so, I might even be back to full speed. The human body is amazing in its ability to heal. I have no doubt that it will be some months before I'm totally pain-free, but I'm nearly functional again, and that's fantastic.

I'll let you know how it goes with the aerobics tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm really enjoying Kraft's fat-free honey dijon dressing. I think that's my favorite out of the dressings I picked up last week.

Time is wasting away!

4 weeks, 28 days, just under a month. What do all these things have in common? They each represent how long until I find myself sitting on a plane to go to Germany. They also represent the number of days I have to kick my diet and exercise plan into full gear. I did so well in January I just don't know what happened. But I need to go to that plan again. SO I am going back on Leptin, cutting out the sugar, and I need to figure out a way to add exercise to the equation this time. I don't want to spend my two weeks in Germany huffing and puffing, I need to do this, and I need to do it now! Thanks for letting me rant, sometimes it helps to just say it on the blog.

Good Reasons

So. . . I've been MIA for a while, I know. There's a good reason for that. I've been avoiding you all because I'm up almost ten pounds. But there's a good reason for that, too. I'm expecting baby #4 in October.

So now the goal is to not balloon out like I did with the other three and gain too much weight.

I would like to copy Tristi's goal of salad for lunch and dinner. I don't think I can do the dinner though. I could do the lunch, but every night I have to show my kids how to eat their food. That kind of requires me to eat the same thing they are having. My kids hate to eat--they'd much rather run around the dinner table while singing and dropping their food to the floor.

I will still try to exercise as often as possible, which isn't much. But now that it's warmer outside I'm going to try to incorporate walks into our days.

Goal #1: Eat a salad every day for lunch
Goal #2: Go for walks with the kids every week
Goal #3: Don't balloon out and gain 60 pounds with this pregnancy

Here a Salad, There a Salad, Everywhere a Salad Salad ...

So far the salad thing is going great. I wasn't able to have a salad for dinner last night - I was out doing a book signing and we ate on the very fast run - but I know this is something I can do most days on a regular basis.

Saturday Lunch Salad -

Dole Greener Selection bagged salad mix (I really like the blends that contain different types of lettuce and also carrots and red cabbage)

four small slices of Swiss cheese

about 2 T. croutons

tomatos

mushrooms

1 T. Kraft honey dijon fat-free dressing

This, I would consider more of a snack salad. The protein content was a little light, with that small amount of cheese, but I did well with it until late in the afternoon.


I had a salad for lunch today, a standard issue, and then for dinner, I did the following:

Dole Greener Selection lettuce

turkey (not lunch meat - real, baked turkey)

slivered almonds

pepper jack cheese (not a lot, just enough for zing)

tomatoes

mushrooms

I ate a roll alongside this, and it was a nice dinner salad. The turkey, cheese, and almonds gave it enough protien to tide me over.

Kraft's fat-free dressings are pretty good, and they come in around 3 g. sugar per serving. I find that if I don't want dressing, I can throw in some extra tomato, and that gives it moisture without fat/sugar.

See ya later ... but I'm feeling pretty good about this salad thing so far.

A New Experiment

Yeah, yeah, yeah, me and my experiments ...

I went to the doctor today. He says that these mood swings I'm having are perfectly normal for someone who has had a brain injury and to just expect them and deal with them. Lovely. See, I've been ornerier than a mama bear in the middle of the winter who was just awakened for the eighth time by her fighting cubs. My nerves have been really close to the surface and controlling my outbursts ... hasn't been going so well. So I guess I get to just plan on feeling like I have the world's worst PMS for a little while yet.

But as to the rest of me, I am better. Not enough to leap on a treadmill or go on a marathon run with Brent, but I'm able to walk around a bit better. I even went to the grocery store today without hurting myself, so progress is made.

Now, on to the experiment.

Foods in the lettuce family contain silica, and silica is excellent for helping injured tissues to heal. I firmly believe that we are all entitled to inspiration as to what our bodies need, and while pondering it today, I had the impression that I need to consume a large quantity of salad. I got to thinking about it. I have always loved going to salad bars. I like sprinkling beets and kidney beans and all sorts of fun little extras on my salad. I realized that I honestly could eat a nice big salad every day if it had some fun little veggies in it to keep it from being boring. In fact, I could eat two, and that's what my body wants.

So, for the entire month of April, here is my experiment:

Every day, I will eat a salad for lunch and another for dinner. I went to the store today and got a ton of fun little things to throw in there - cucumbers, tomatoes, mushrooms, alfalfa sprouts, pepper jack cheese, croutons, beets, kidney beans, pineapple tidbits, toasted almonds, and fat free dressing. I also got some tuna and some chicken, and eggs. I can vary what goes into the salad and control the protein content, etc, by adding meat and eggs. Then I can do a grain for breakfast, or a slice of whole wheat toast with my salad, if I feel the need.

I'm actually really excited about this. Eating salads is a great way to lose weight and get nutrients, and by adding in the protein, etc, I'm not going to starve like you do on most salad diets - in fact, a nice little salad can fill me up. I have struggled for a long time with getting enough vegetables, and there are times where I go for three or four days without eating any produce at all.

The point here is:

To give my body a ton of silica so it has the ingredients it needs to mend my tissues

To give my body a ton of nutrients so I can start to heal from years of neglecting myself

To increase my appreciation for healthy foods

To eat less junk food and more high-nutrition food

I do imagine there will be an occasional treat here and there ... I'm not a saint by any means and I know that my willpower needs a shot in the arm. But this is an eating experiment I can live with. At the end of the month, I'll evaluate and see how I'm doing. Of course, during such times as the Storymaker conference, when I'm not in charge of what I'm eating, I'll need to waggle a little, but I really, really think this will help me get headed in the direction I want to head in.