Feeling great

This past weekend was graduation for my sister-in-law from high school. I realized when I was packing that I was going to wear the same exact dress for her graduation as for her brother's 2 years ago. So I decided I wanted to do a comparison from then to now (and most of that change has been in the last 2 months. So graduation 2012 with Seth and graduation 2014 with Shoshannah.

Not a huge change but I feel healthier and my skin looks and feels healthier and I am losing some inches! I am so excited for getting introduced to THM!

On my way to be a Trim Healthy Mama

So as you already have noticed on my blog I have always been concerned with my weight and I did really well last year when I was doing the Live Healthy Iowa challenge. Then I took a break and gained the weight back unfortunately. Then I decided to the do the challenge again but my heart really wasn't in it like it was last year. I did really well but not as well on my activity time logged for the challenge but I just wasn't losing. Finally frustrated I pretty much gave up during that challenge that I just couldn't lose and it had to be my thyroid giving me problems. But I also saw a friend who was losing weight and talking about how she wasn't counting calories and still eating really yummy food! I was introduced to the idea back in November but reading into it, I saw different "rules" and I got overwhelmed and thought that it would be the exact same thing as counting calories and just as difficult. So I pushed the thought aside until mid-March. I finally said I need to eat differently to try and deal with my thyroid naturally since the doctor doesn't think I am in need of assistance and I don't want any medications anyways. So then talking to another friend, I found out that people with thyroid issues do this "diet" and have been able to lose weight and get off their medications! So that began my research of this so called diet. I found that it wouldn't hurt to try considering it was saying to avoid certain things that my research on eating for hypothyroidism also said to avoid!

So now I am living a new way of life. I am eating and not feeling guilty. I am losing not only pounds but inches! And I am not feeling deprived and not craving sugar anymore! How amazing is that!? Who would have thought this lifestyle would diminish my sugar cravings! I sleep better, have more energy, and just in general feeling healthier! So now that I am following the Trim Healthy Mama lifestyle, I am eating cheese, butter, cheesecake, cream, and all sorts of yummy deliciousness while still losing and feeling great. And really after you do a little reading with it, its not so overwhelming anymore. It totally makes sense. I feel so free! Hopefully by mid May (about a month from now) I will be able to buy a new dress in a smaller size! Wouldn't that be amazing!?

Light bulb!

Sooooooooo this afternoon I had a light bulb moment. I noticed that the scale number wasn't changing but yet I have been running and doing zumba. I decided that something was amiss with this situation. So I embarked on a search to figure out what the deal could be. I started listening to a video that was talking about hormones being a main issue with people losing weight or trying to but never losing. I thought, hey that's me! Come to find out that a hormone called leptin is a fat burner hormone. So now I know what I need to increase that hormone. I found that to raise the level of leptin in my body I need to do about 5 things:

1. Increase my fiber consumption. 

2. Increase veggie and fruit consumption.

3. Sleep 8 hrs every night.

4. Stop eating after the last meal of the day. (Another website suggested no eating after 7 p.m.)

5. Increase Omega-3 fatty acid consumption.

So I'm sure that most of you are thinking, "Duh Abby. Those are things you should be doing anyways for a healthier lifestyle." Well you are right. I did know most of the stuff on that list. However, I didn't know that leptin levels would rise and ultimately do more fat burning for me. In fact, one article I read said that with higher leptin levels your body can burn up to 66% while sleeping at night! I will take that! 

Then I had a light bulb moment while listening to the video as it was saying to avoid soy protein and BHT and whatnot. (I know, "duh Abby" again.) But it got me to thinking. When I was doing so well with getting healthy and was actually losing weight, I was watching what I was buying and trying to buy as much natural foods I could. So the light bulb went on and I am going back to how I was buying food before. I know a lot of people are all whole foods and whatnot and that's great and I would love to do it too and will try harder now, but that darn $$ amount for it is what got me off it again. But I need to remind myself that I may pay a little more for healthier food but I will be paying less in healthcare costs. 

I will still be keeping my same mentality and not stressing about the scale (even though the beginning of this post seemed to be that I was concerned). BUT knowing where I was and was not going has helped with yet another break through. So now will I not only stress about it, but I will also change my shopping and eating habits. So let's see how much better I feel after this new discovery and change!  Here we go!

Healthy Eating

So I am really working on getting back to healthy eating after being on holiday for about a month and a half. Definitely didn't do well in the eating department and the scale showed it. At first, I was upset about the number on the scale. But then I realized that I already decided a couple months ago that I wasn't going to do that to myself. I've been very happy and enjoying life. Its not like I can't get back on track. So here I am trying to do a little better.

Tonight I tried a new recipe using sausage, kale and lentils. Its a recipe from Rachael Ray and you can go here to get the recipe. It tasted and smelled great. Instead of regular pork sausage that can tend to have more fat and calories, I opted to use turkey sausage. I added a whole 6 oz can of tomato paste instead of only a 1/4 cup. I also used an anaheim pepper instead of a chile pepper because I'm not a fan of real spicy stuff. My husband would have enjoyed it spicier but he liked it and I'm sure didn't even read the recipe so he doesn't really know the difference! It turned out great. So give it a try! You just may like it too!

Healthier Finances for the New Year

So this post I am going to talk about a different kind of health for this mommy. Instead of talking about losing weight, I'm going to talk about "gaining" some weight.  Healthier finances. I want to gain more weight in my finances meaning I want to cut out the unnecessary spending and focus on the saving. On January 1st, I started a spreadsheet to keep track of all the expenses that are outside of utilities, student loans, mortgage, etc that are constants (the ones that I have to pay or stuff gets shut off or sent to collections). So I am tracking all the eating out and date nights, groceries, hobbies and crafts items, medical bills/prescriptions, clothes, gas, and an other category. I've always looked for deals and ways to save but I have never logged exactly what I spent, where I spent it and what I spent it for. So even though I could go and look at my bank statement and kind of figure the same thing out, I made the spreadsheet so I could intentionally think about what I am buying and why and is it really necessary. So far so good. Granted we are only on day 6 of the new year, but I have had moments where I have said to myself, "No you don't need a candy bar." "No you don't need a pop." I've even said "no" to a playdate at McDonald's. So maybe in creating extra money weight, maybe I will be dropping some body weight because I am saying no to the extras!?

Time to Re-Program

So yesterday, I decided that my weight loss journey wasn't going to be completely based on calorie intake, calories burned, stressing, and feeling guilty if I've gone over those calories. On this new journey of weight loss I have had an epiphany of sorts. I realized that your brain gets programmed by your parents and family at a very young age and they continue to influence that program to be habit. There are multiple programs in one's mind all in different areas of life and there are some programs that are harder than others to re-program. One area I have found that I need to re-program is my mindset about food. I think until I have that re-programmed, I will not have any successful and long lasting weight loss. This revelation I have had may be just what I need to help re-program my mindset. I have noticed more and more that I eat out of habit, boredom, stress, and insecurity.

 I have discovered that out of habit that I tend to want to snack or eat dessert type foods like cake, ice cream, or cookies after lunch and dinner as well as have a snack in the afternoon. Growing up we did have ice cream, cake or cookies after every meal! So not healthy! But that's how my family rolled. Not only did I learn that from my parents, but my grandparents on both sides always had some sort of dessert after meals. Changing my mindset about having dessert on hand always and eating dessert after every meal has been somewhat changed. I don't always have desserts around or after every meal, but when there are some in the house, I definitely do. And if there isn't anything around, I crave something sweet. This particular area of changing the habit is still a work in progress but has made some progress nonetheless. Then growing up we always came home from school and had a snack before dinner while doing homework. So that has translated to an afternoon snack of some sort to this day.

Then I have found more and more that I eat out of boredom and have done that ever since I can remember. If I'm watching TV or a movie, I want to have something to munch on. Looking back it seems like there were a lot of nights where we had a small snack while watching TV before bed and I think that has stayed with me all these years.

Since having kids, I've come to the realization that I am a stress eater. When I'm having a rough day and put the kids down for quiet time, I go straight to the cupboard and eat something terrible and feel guilty as soon as I'm finished.

What I mean when I say I eat out of insecurity, I am referring to my father and brother taking whatever leftovers I may have had in the refrigerator and eating them. It never failed. I would put leftovers I had in the refrigerator and put my name on it and write, "DO NOT EAT!", and put it clear in the back of the fridge where you think people wouldn't see it since that is where you always find moldy stuff that you forgot about! But no matter what I did, my dad and brother always seemed to sniff it out and eat it.  Another thing I thought of was that when we were sitting to a meal, my family tended to clean the dishes out and eat everything and it seemed to be a competition of sorts of who got the last serving. So if you didn't get the last serving, you didn't get anymore. So guess what!? I got programmed into thinking or feeling like there would be no more food of that kind so I had to eat it while it was available. This is the biggest mindset re-program that I need to make. I am blessed with plenty of food always. I have no reason to not think there will be any food left for me to eat. I should not fear putting my leftovers in the refrigerator and worry about someone else eating them. And not only that but I should be giving and unselfish. I should let whoever wants it have it. There will always be more another time.

While writing this I have noted that I tend to be a closet eater in all these areas. No matter whether its a time when I eat out of habit, stressful eating, boredom eating, or insecurity, I will eat huge amounts because no one can see me. If people are around, I tend to eat more appropriately and don't over eat. I need to learn to not be greedy in my eating and eat to live, not live to eat. Food is delicious, food is wonderful, and food is needed. So this re-programming I will have to do is going to be tough. But with the support of great friends and supportive family, I know that I can re-program my mindset of how to eat and live and not feel guilty.

Epic Fail

I've been absent for a few months.....and by a few I mean like 6 months. The last 6 months haven't gone so great. I said in the beginning I would never see the weight on the scale that I had lost. Well, yet again, I am reminded to never say never. I have gained all of it back and then some. In the beginning I knew why I had gained some of the weight back. I mean, let's face it, summer came and we went on vacation for a couple weeks and then other trips and whatnot came up and I ate terribly. I will say I didn't go overboard but I wasn't exercising as much to compensate. But today, I have gained yet another 2 lbs and I have been working out as much as I can and even counting the calories. I'm not sure what the deal is but I was so upset by it that I almost cried. Then when talking to my friend this morning about it, I finally just realized, you know what! I need to just be happy with who I am and what I look like. I need to continue to exercise and enjoy it and just try to eat less and more healthfully. Then from there whatever happens, happens. I've decided that stressing over whether I'm losing or gaining isn't going to help me. My true friends love me the way I am, I have a husband who loves me no matter what, and I have 2 little blessings that love me no matter what. So from today forward, I am giving up on making a weight loss goal and stress over how many calories I've eaten and have I done enough exercise. I will eat when necessary. I will exercise to enjoy myself. I have found that I like running. Who knew! So now that I have a treadmill in my home, I will use that as often as I can and use that to de-stress and enjoy!