Reporting Week 8

So this last week was my last week. It was a CRAZY week and far from perfect. I did not get all my exercise in and I had an extra treat. Anyway, I've made it, lost some weight, feel like I have accomplished something and am glad I'm done for awhile. I have some ideas for a few things I want to incorporate into my life when it comes to eating and exercise. I go back and forth between thinking I have to be really strict with myself and feeling like I don't want to put too many restrictions on myself. I feel like this next little bit will find me trying to be good without the restrictions. My hope is I will make the good choice without feeling deprived of what else is out there. It hasn't worked great for me in the past, so we will see how it works for me now. Maybe I'll share again. This is NOT my favorite thing to talk about on this blog, but thanks for letting me use this outlet to keep me on track. I was far from perfect, but there were many times that I wanted to cheat and didn't or didn't want to get up to exercise and did because I knew that I would have to report it here. So, here is to a bright future with lots of fruits, vegetables, and exercise.

Reporting Week 7

I'm late reporting again. We went camping this last weekend. Actually, this whole last week was a little crazy with the end of school, Jakob's Birthday, a camping trip, and Father's Day!! Wow! I tried to count calories, but it was so hard when we were camping. I tried to make healthy choices with what we were eating and portion control. Tracking all this this last month has taught me how hard it is to eat right when my schedule is off. It has been good for me to be mindful of things because even when I'm not sure what is in my food or how much I'm eating, I'm making better choices then I would have made and eating less then I would have ate.

I'm looking forward to NOT counting calories anymore. I was going to take a few days off and start up again but now I think I want to start something that doesn't require me to count calories. I've done it for awhile now and I'm getting a good idea of how much I should be eating. We will see what I come up with. One week left.

Reporting Week 6

Am I really only on week 6?? It feels like I have been doing this forever!! I feel like this is a really boring thing to post on the blog and that I should be done with it already. The good thing is that it has kept me on track and I have done better then I would have done without the accountability to you! BUT, I will keep it short and sweet.

This last week was good until Saturday. I know I went over my calories for that day. I was at a scrapbook convention this last weekend (more to come on that later) and they fed us snacks and I ate out a few times. I stayed on track Thursday and Friday, refused the cake and cookie bar things (they looked so good.) I also made good choices when I ate out. My only problem was trying to count calories. I know I had to have gone over on Saturday, eating out adds so many more calories. I did get most of my exercise in. I came up 1/2 short (it was so hard to get it in with the convention) but I will make that up this next week. And, that is all folks. Hope this isn't getting too boring, I promise I will be done sharing this part of my world soon.

Reporting Week 6

I had a good week. Not much of interest to report. I saved 2 hours of my exercising for Saturday morning. I knew it would be a big day, so I got up at 5:30 am and went walking for a couple hours. That was an accomplishment for me. After a couple weeks of not getting my hours of exercise in I knew I just had to get it all in this week.

Just a couple more weeks and I'll be done!

Reporting Week 5

Do I have too?? That is what I keep asking myself. I really don't want to write this post. So, did anyone notice I'm a bit late reporting for week 5! Well, I am if anyone is following along, and I have to report that I had a few issues this last week with my plan.

The Ugly Truth

• I ate dairy.
• I didn't count my water.
• I only exercised an hour and a half. (Gulp! Hardly anything, I know!)
• I ate too many calories on Saturday.
• I didn't count my breads.

The Good

• I was on vacation in Utah so I have something that resembles an excuse, if your into that thing.
• I didn't intentionally do most of these things, just failed to plan, it is so hard for me on vacation.
• I didn't eat that much dairy, I just know that it was in some things I ate. I ordered things without dairy and asked for no cheese at most restaraunts we ate at.
• I did count my calories all the days of our trip except for Saturday. We went out to a Mexican restaraunt and I ate a big meal then had some Soy Ice Cream when we got home. I so wanted to stop at Charlies and order a Hot Fudge Brownie Sundae, yum, (seriously, I was so close to doing it), but I was good and I settled on the Soy Ice Cream. I know I went over my calories for that day.

So, what do I have to say for myself. Overall, I did stick to counting my calories throughout most of the trip. I usually go a little crazy with food when I'm on vacation so I'm excited for staying within my calories. When I got home I jumped on the scales and I hadn't gained anything from my trip. That in and of itself is a HUGE accomplishment for me. Even though I feel good to a certain degree, I wished I had stayed on track. I should have been writing everything down and getting enough sleep so I could get up early to exercise. Next time we are on vacation my goal will be exercise and water. If I could add those two things I would do so much better.

Interesting sidenote: I have not seen any difference in how I feel with going off the dairy. It makes me wonder why I'm doing it. I was hoping I would feel different, but I guess I'm not allergic to it. I didn't feel any different with the little bit of dairy I ate on my trip to Utah. I really enjoy all the soy/rice/coconut substitutes I've been eating. I think in the future I will eat the soy/rice/coconut substitutes at home and not worry about dairy when we eat somewhere else.

The first few days of this week are going well. It is so much easier to stay on track at home. I'm off to exercise right now.

Reporting Week 4

So, I'm halfway done!! Hardest parts of doing this. Its hard to go out to eat and eat at other people's homes. Its hard to count calories, ALL, THE, TIME. Its hard to wake up at 520am to go walking. Its hard to do this day after day and not see results coming as fast as I would like.

BUT, its great to have my clothes fitting a bit better. Its great to feel healthy and strong each day. Its great to know that I'm giving my kids a good example of healthy eating. Its great to feel like I'm headed in the right direction, slow and steady wins the race. Right??

So this last week I was 45 minutes short on my exercise. I now, pretty sad. I'm only exercising 5 hours a week and I came up short. I blame it on a few rainy mornings and Steve being gone Friday night/Saturday morning on a Father/Son campout with Jakob. I'm going to make up for it this week.

I've decided to change the way I count my calories. I'm going to count my calories on a weekly basis, making sure I'm eating at least 1000 calories a day, but allowing myself to have some flexibility. So, there you have it. My week.

Reporting Week 3

This last week went well. I'm still following all my little rules and moving forward. I do have to say that I am getting tired of eating the same old things each day. I get bored with food, especially when I place so many restrictions on what I'm eating. I truly can eat a huge variety of food with what I'm doing, it just takes a lot of work to find new recipes and try them out. I get stuck eating the same old stuff and craving something different.

This yummy dinner is one that I tried a couple weeks ago. It was really good and I enjoyed it. It can be found here. The recipe for the yogurt sauce I made with tofutti (nondairy sour cream) and it wasn't that great. I would like to try it with the yogurt someday. Jakob was a good sport about eating it. Isabelle ate the tomatoes and the avocados. Steve said they were okay, he wasn't a big fan of the cabbage. Karter excitedly ate a whole bowl of black beans, but wouldn't touch the edamame. I love feeding them such healthy food, even if they only try a couple things, even if they don't like some things, I know that if I keep doing it they will learn to love it. Someday. Maybe.

Reporting - Week 1

I've been making 100% whole wheat bread and it is actually turning out!!

This week was good in the sense that I followed my plan. One of the problems I have is that I'm not really writing down what I'm eating in an organized way. I notice as I move forward that it becomes easier to not be as strict with tracking my calories and water when I'm not writing it all down. I have decided to make a simple weekly chart that I have to fill out each day. I have it in the kitchen so I can easily mark the water I drink and the food that I eat.

This last week I also had a couple days where I just didn't have a lot of food in my house. I needed to go grocery shopping and I didn't have a lot of the little things that I needed to make what I usually eat. There were a couple times I wanted to cheat because I was hungry and I had to get creative (really creative) with what I would make!!

Reporting back each week on the blog makes a world of difference for me. I feel silly typing this for the world to read, not that the world is reading it and not that anyone is reading it, but just the idea that SOMEONE might read it keeps me on track with what I'm doing. I realize that I really eat quite well, I just allow myself to cheat a bit, normally only a couple times a week. But those little bits add up to not seeing the results I want to see. It really hasn't been that hard to do what I've been doing. The hardest part is counting calories. Knowing I have to do it leaves me with no way out. I have been the master of talking myself out of doing something or cheating a little bit. This way I know I can't cheat without having to post it here and I just don't want to do that. (Too much pride, I guess.) AND, I am seeing results.

Reporting - Week 1

So, this last week I stayed on track with my new eating/exercise routine. My only downfall was eating more servings of bread. I forgot this last Monday and had three servings of bread. Then on Saturday I made homemade whole wheat bread and couldn't help but eat 3 pieces of bread throughout the afternoon. I made sure I counted it into my daily calories.

My biggest success was going out to eat with Steve last night. We went to dinner so I had to save my calories throughout the day. I ordered blackened salmon, grilled vegetables, and a baked sweet potato (no butter or brown sugar). So yummy! I ate it all,was so full, and stayed within my 1200 calories!!

Really, it was easy to stay on track. I'm use to eating this way throughout my normal days. Like I said in my earlier post, its the going out to eat/celebrations that throw me off track. Knowing I was accountable made it easy to make the right choices.

Lets Get Serious!!

Warning: Longest post ever!! Oh, and it is about weight loss and there aren't any pictures.

Okay, so I have to get serious about eating healthy and exercising. I was able to lose the post baby weight with my first two kids but I haven't been able to lose it all since having Karter. I can attribute it to a lot of things, but the main reason why I haven't lost the weight is I haven't been willing to push myself just a little more. In the past I have been able to lose weight by eating right for a few days and then I could splurge a bit. Then I would jump back on the next day and get back on track. It wasn't the best/fastest way to lose weight, but it made me happy and the weight would slowly come off. It hasn't worked this time.

I will eat/exercise great for a few days and then I will splurge on eating. It throws me for a loop. It is so hard for me to eat right the next day. When I do finally jump back on it takes me a few days to get back to where I was before and then I splurge again. (See the cycle??) I have tried to stay eating right for longer periods of time and I have struggled with feeling deprived, convincing myself that I can get away with splurging, and fall back into this old cycle. I know how to lose weight, I know what I need to eat, I know what I need to do to exercise, I just need to be motivated and accountable.

So, this is where my lovely blog comes in. I haven't posted a lot about eating/exercising/weight loss in the past, but trust me, it is a huge part of my daily life. Not that I'm great about doing it (as you can tell by the post above) but I'm always THINKING and TRYING and STRUGGLING with it. I just want to lose the weight and be done with it once and for all. I'm sick of it being such a huge part of my life. So, here is what I'm going to do. (Are you still with me??) I'm going to be accountable to you. I'm listing the things I'm dedicating myself to for the next two months and I will report back weekly with how I have done. I would love to hear your feedback on what I could do better or different ideas for what has worked for you.

• April 25, 2010 - June 24, 2010
• Eight glasses of water a day
• 1200 calories a day
• No refined sugar, dairy, or white flour
• No more then 2 servings of bread (tortillas, pitas, etc.) a day
• 1 quart of Rice Cream/Soy Cream a week (to be eaten throughout the week and added as part of the calories each day)
• Exercise 5 hours a week
• Track everything you eat
• Report on blog each Monday

Okay, that is it. I'm wanting to up the exercising, I'm exercising about 2-5 hours a week right now, but with everything else to do on the list I better stick with trying to get the solid five each week. If I can do this for the next two months I know I will see results! And, now I'm accountable. I have to do it.