21 Day Fix: Day 10

SUGAR! I want SUGAR! This would make my day today.........

And yes, then it would make me sick tomorrow.

I'm trying to drink my organic green tea and have thought about eating some carrots---- but really who can make their brain think it's candy when it's a carrot. I'd rather not eat anything.

Oh man..... I hope this passes soon.

Good thing I'm laid up with a sprained ankle or I might take the dog on the walk and just happen to walk into the nearby 7-11 to browse and end up stuffing my face with 3 candy bars before check-out and 10 more on the way home that I "got for the kids" and then throw away the trash in a neighbors trash can to hide the evidence.

Yes, right now, I am that crazy.

Oh Sugar Craze...... GO AWAY!  Today, I will win this battle;)

21 Day Fix: Day 8

It's been a week of working to eat the right food, and right amounts of food while exercising.  Some days were tougher than others, but thankfully I can say it's getting easier.  My vocabulary has changed. Today these words are in my head, and I believe them.  

It may see silly, but as I look back at my lack of motivation this is a big deal for me.  It doesn't mean I've accomplished what I've set out to do, it just means that I'm fighting for it now.

I think a big part of it was that my Vitamin D was extremely low.  This helps you get up and go, and I wasn't.  I didn't have the umph, so to speak.  Well now I have the umph and no more excuses.

Today, I'm going to better myself.
Today, I'm going to fight.

21 Day Fix: Day 1

I've finally hit a point where I want to take losing weight seriously.  I know I'm accepted for who I am by my real friends and family.  I know I'm a treasured child of God.

But I'm seriously overweight. Fluffy my aunt calls it.  I like that term better.

So today, with the help of a new friend, encouragement from old friends- and the deep desire to want to be healthier I'm embarking on a 21 day challenge to change.

It's a beach body program that has 30 minute work outs daily, that are different for each day of the week. I almost died today I think. I'm seriously out of shape!!!!!  It was total body cardio, and although I followed the beginner person on the video, I did it. And I am proud!!

This program is not a fad diet it's a portion control way of eating to help re-train my silly brain what is a normal portion.  It's obviously a lot of veggies, and some fruits and lean proteins.  It has good grains/carbs and some nuts. it's a good program.

So--- it is just healthy eating.


I'm going to strive to post here during the 21 days to be accountable to myself.  I am 80 lbs over weight and it stops today.

Here Motivation..... Where are you???

I want to be a runner. Not a marathon runner because that seems too impossible and just like a funny joke.  I want to be a "I can do a 5k easy" type runner. If I decide to go run a few miles I don't want to feel like I'm dying.  Which is how I feel after about 500 feet.

Then a quote comes to mind.. "If you do what you've always done, you'll be what you've always been" which is a non-runner.  I want to be a runner.

Crap. Looks like the forecast is for a lot of sweat :(

Being More Than Mommy: Lost: Motivation

Hi,
You were looking at my blog on Paleo with kids and I tried to reply but blogger was giving me issues.....

First, the Paleo did help the ADHD. My husband kind of gave up on it after the 60 days though because it is more work. A lot of work to do.  The ADHD just didn't seem to surface as easily and my son slept better.  It was like seeing a kid hopped up on sugar before, and the kid without sugar afterwards.  He could just control his impulses better.  I will say that it took longer to have an effect than I thought.  It just takes a few weeks at least for the glueten to get out of thier system.

It also helped my husband who has adult ADHD but he doesn't admit that either....he loves bread too much.  When he goes grocery shopping lots of bread and bagels makes it into our shopping cart. When I do that stuff is never in the cart;) 

I love that you are a runner. I want to be, but I can't even jog a mile straight at this time:( I'd love to be able to run a 5k without thinking.  I know I just need to get started, but workig full time with 3 kiddos and a house to keep up with just seems all time consuming.  I think I lost my motivation a long time ago and now I"m so far behind fitness wise, it's hard to get started again.

Anyways, feel free to email me if you have any other questions. Paleo was a great thing and I"m fighting to keep it 80% Paleo in the house now...  shamree_howard@yahoo.com

Blogging, personally and professionally?

Now that I've started blogging more regularly it's starting to be catchy and gives me an itch to blog more, even if anyone doesn't read it. It's nice to sometimes just get things out there more than the 140 characters of facebook.

I just started blogging professionally as well. That makes me feel more, naked, so to speak. I'm out of my comfort zone. I'm taking material from my technical expert co-workers and writing short blogs on their material, in more casual tones. I have them quickly review to make sure I didn't interpret anything weird, but I'm still nervous that I've made a huge blunder someone overlooked and I'll look like an idiot!

Plus, if you look at the site, as is with most engineering companies, 90% of the bloggers are men over the age of 50. I'm one of 3 women, only 1 of 2 women engineers, and the youngest person blogging.

Also, since I'm working with my colleagues to blog about technical topics that they are experts on- that they don't have time to blog on themselves- I feel almost like I'm trying to fake it. That isn't the case. I'm for sure not as technical as most of the other bloggers, BUT, I do have an engineering degree and understand a lot of what they are talking about, just not ALL of it- and I"m not an expert.

Check it out--- it's only 500 words. Don't fall asleep... and see what you think;)

http://www.designconcommunity.com/author.asp?section_id=3143&doc_id=261759&

Whole 30, with kids, ALL DONE!

Sort of...

We did it! We completed the Whole30 with no cheats (for adults) and only a few minor ones for the kiddos.  I for sure have more energy than I've had in a long time. I fall asleep easily at night, and wake up easily too. No more groggy, "don't talk to me until I've had my coffee" mornings. It's amazing. I'm a starbucks junky and I haven't even had coffee in days.

I lost a grand total of 6lbs. Doesn't sound like much, but it's the right direction and I did it all just by changing they way I eat. I wasn't working out like crazy or anything. Josh lost more. Punk. Yes I love my husband and am so glad he did this with me, but how in the HECK can guys lose more than women so easily? It's like they just think "lose weight" and it drops off.

Now I know that isn't really true, but it feels that way. Either way---- I'm glad we are all on a healthier way of eating.

We've added back in greek yogurt to make breakfast shakes, oatmeal and honey for the kiddos, and otherwise kept it all the same.  We're going to keep doing this for another 30 days. Yup. So we're done, but we're going to keep going.

Josh gets blood work done every year around his birthday. His doctor told him to wait this year until we'd done this for 60 days to really see a difference in your bloodwork. 30 days is great for creating new habits and "cleansing" the system, but it won't really show up until 60+ days.  So in a month look for an update on Josh's blood work compared to last year, which has always been pretty good.

The cookbooks we used during this journey were:


Both were ok and we found a few golden recipes in them; however, we found just as many we loved online for free!  The well fed book had about 6 recipes we liked that the kids liked and the everyday paleo had maybe 10.   The one thing to know is that in these books they sometimes use things that aren't allowed in the Whole30 first 30 days, like honey.  There was also a lot of "fluff" in the intros of these books like "oh it's so easy" or "My kids love to help me cook" or "kids love this" which was a crock in my humble opinion. The kids didn't love it at first. They hated most of it, as is evidence by my blogging. HOWEVER, that being said, now they are eating fine and eating a lot.  Most of the recipes they said "kids love" though mine still don't like.

We found that simple meals tended to work better for them like grilled chicken, blanched broccoli, and apple slices instead of pork stuffing stuffed acorn squash, for example, which we love.

I think the big take aways for me are this:
- it costs more to eat healthy
- it takes more time cooking to eat healthy
- it makes you feel great though!
- it's worth it.

Right now my book on whole30 is out on loan. I already have one person in line to read it (Jen), but after that I'm happy to loan it out (maybe not to Papa New Guinea though Becca).



You can read a lot about it online at www.whole9life.com

Maybe once I get my book back I'll write a list of what is approved and not, for those of you out there that care to take a gander.

It was hard, very hard at first, and frustrating, but now--- I can see this as a life style with some once in a great while treats, like Chocolate!