Excited!

Today was a big day in the diet. It's the last day of drops in this set, I broke the 25 lbs lost mark, and broke a mini 10 lb weight loss goal. All in one day! I'm super excited about that. My goal is to try to continue to lose weight, more slowly of course, during the 6 weeks off, so I could actually reach my goal in one more set of the diet. Happy Day!

Update

Well, the diet is going well. I am down 16.7 lbs as of this morning. So that's great. We are over half way there and I discovered one major thing I was neglecting to do. I need, absolutely need, to be drinking no less than 4 bottles of water every day.
And for those who are wondering, We have it narrowed down to a 3 day cycle of vegetables, totaling 6 total vegetables that are acceptable on this diet, that I can handle. (The obvious choices like green beans, peas, carrots, broccoli, etc are not allowed on this diet.) So for lunch we are cycling through celery, lettuce, and cucumber and for dinner we are cycling through sauteed onion, (grilled for Chris) raw tomato, and grilled zucchini.

I am eating chicken for lunch and steak for dinner with an occasional crab legs or shrimp for dinner. Chris goes back and forth between tilapia and chicken for lunch and the same dinner as me.
Chris's mom got us a New Wave Oven. Check it out. It's amazing. I use it literally every day. I cook that night's dinner and tomorrow's lunch at the same time using the two different levels of grilling surfaces that it features. 9 Minutes on one side, flip and add veggies, 9 minutes on the other side. And I pack our lunches for the next day while it's cooking.
Another wonderful surprise as warmer weather approaches, I found some decent looking strawberries at Costco and bought a couple of pounds of them. Oh my, are they ever delicious. We are using Stevia (an all natural sweetener, 0 calories) and we dip the strawberries in it, slight after taste, but still delicious. And a nice break from the apple and oranges every day.
I also started making a warm apple desert to break up the monotony. I found the recipe that was approved by the diet. I grill thin apple slices on the New Wave for 5 minutes. Then dump them into a bowl add a teaspoon of lemon per apple and coat with cinnamon and Stevia. Oh my, is that ever a delicious treat now that we can't seem to get our heater to work the way its supposed to. Warms you up inside and out.
I have also rediscovered a slight love affair with tea. I think our counter now has about 10 different hot tea flavors (for me) and 2 boxes of cold brew ice tea (for Chris). We sweeten that with Stevia as well, and it tastes just like the sweet tea I discovered at McDonalds or that Chris grew up with.
Now, all that aside, we eat well, but the lack of variety is getting to us a little, I have been obsessing over healthy food blogs lately and am salivating at the idea of the many many many recipes that I have found and Chris has been becoming a theoretical master of all things Sushi with books and Internet videos. We are both anxious for the diet to be over. So much so, that for the last 3 nights I have dreamed of baking and making other delicious food. Last nights dream, was a low carb, high fiber pasta, in a wonderfully acceptable portion with a vegetable side. I could almost taste it.
Our diet ends technically on April 13th. Then we will resume eating normal healthy foods. Chris will likely be done with his weight loss by that point in time, but I will still have a significant portion to go, so after 3 weeks of eating normally, I will begin again on May 4th. Just after our 1st year anniversary. I'll be ready for a delicious meal on that day. I will be finishing on July 3rd, while we are in California visiting Chris's family. Hopefully by that point in time, I will be at my goal weight and will not have to begin another round.
It's definitely been an adventure and will be even more of one once Chris is eating normally and I am dieting on my own, but the results are totally worth it. He promised me some custom ballroom dresses, when I reach the weight I want to be, so that is a fun motivation when I start to get down.
Well, I'm off to guzzle down another water before I'll allow myself to have some tea. And get back to writing the sermon for the Children's Sabbath.

Winner

(Not our dinner, just an example, our portions are much smaller)

So, I was extremely stressed about this diet. I was dreading eating, because of all the veggies. However, we finally found a winner. Steak with sauteed onion! Yum! I actually enjoyed eating dinner tonight. Which is a big step towards the direction of sticking out the diet. Tomorrow is celery with chicken for lunch. Then steak and grilled tomato for dinner. Slowly but surely, we'll keep experimenting until we find some good mixes. But I am definitely relieved after dinner tonight. Yum.

Vegetables

So, if you know me at all, you know I have been battling vegetables all my life. I am officially at the make it or break it point. I have to eat 8 oz of veggies twice a day. Which may not seem like a whole lot, but when the most you have ever eaten in a day is 6 green beans and that was about 16 years ago, that is kinda of a staggering amount.

So last night, as Chris and I were weighing out 3.5 oz portions of steak, chicken, and fish. (Our freezer at this point, only has these portions of meat and vegetables and is completely full.) I was also blanching and freezing asparagus and zucchini in 8 oz portions. And steaming some asparagus for lunch today. So, in just a few hours the first battle begins. I have a little flexibility in the veggies I can eat, so there will be lots of experimentation.

But, I have 40 days of 8 oz twice a day, so I will either learn to like them of simply have to grin and bear it.

Here's to finally growing up and becoming a big girl!

Update: Lunch - Seriously, a lot of asparagus for one meal. And I tried, I really did. I gagged like a six year old, but I couldn't get it all down. But I did eat 14 pieces. Which still makes me pretty proud. Tonight is a salad, so I'm off the hook for today. After the diet, we might eat asparagus more often, but in MUCH smaller quantities.

Sunkist

I went to get an airbrush tan today as a trial before the ballroom dance competition in two weeks.

My oh my, I wish I had never faked baked before.

It so much more even then I ever attained in a tanning bed. It looks incredibly natural. And then there's that whole instant gratification thing. I got a very lightest tan color and it looks like I have spent days laying out in the sun. And you know that whole no cancer bit.

The tanning girl even sculpted my non-existent abs. I laughed as she did it and told her that there was no need. I wouldn't be showing my stomach off to anyone but my hubby.
But it does makes it a lot easier to put on a dress that is far less than my normal coverage, when things are tan looking.

If you ever have need of a tan, I recommend the airbrush tan. Not the mystic tan or the other automated spray tans.

Beautiful

There is nothing I struggle with more than my self-image. I don't feel beautiful. But, there are lots of great songs from other people who understand the struggle and I cling to those songs. This is the most recent one I have heard. Actually on a veggie tales movie about self-image. Yeah, it gets that bad.

Beautiful For Me



Then there are some old favorites.

More Beautiful You



Beautiful



Mirror

Oops

So our honeymoon started out with a bang. We got to our hotel in Chicago and we ate dinner and promptly passed out. I had not slept in over 36 hours. I woke up after sleeping really hard and checked my watch to see 5:20. We are supposed to catch the 5:30 shuttle. I wake up Chris and tell him what time it is and run to the bathroom. As I am struck with a thought, AM or PM? I ask Chris who after a long pause burst of laughter. So, we're back to bed with lots more time to rest. Thank heavens. Off to Disney tomorrow.

Bakin

I was proud, so look at what I've made.

Oy

I started back up on working out after the concussion this week. Didn't really do a slow progression. It's not really my thing. I did 5 miles on day one. 15 miles on day two. And 21 miles today. All of this on the bike. I must say, however, my bony behind does not take kindly to a bicycle seat for over an hour. I had a difficult time getting off when I had finished. Yikes. I hope to set back up the tredmill this weekend. We took it apart and moved the heavy part downstairs, so now I have to put it back together. Then I'll start running again.

We had Ray in town last night. It was the first time in over a year that something wasn't wrong with me while we had our coaching. Usually something is really hurting or I have a concussion or I haven't slept. So I was more than overjoyed that everything was good yesterday. We had a good lesson. We are prepping to compete in January in two styles, not the four we were originally planning on, because Ray has decided to change all of our Standard routines. So we have had to start back at square one on all of our Standard. We haven't even touched Latin yet, so we will see how that goes.

Chris and I have joined a small group through our church as well. It meets on Monday nights. I have really enjoyed the fellowship and challenge of this group. I find that I am still missing the amazing bond I had with my Nav study. I am so grateful for that group of women who helped me grow so much and likely nothing will ever compare to that group, but I am grateful for a group of women to talk to and who hold me accountable again.

We are heading for Disney World for our honeymoon in the not too distant future. I am very much looking forward to it. It will be great to go on a real vacation with just the two of us. It is enough time away that I think we will really be able to truly relax and let go of pressure and stress.

We are still working on the house and the kitchen is getting closer to being done. I will post some pictures when it gets all the way there. It is a very good change so far.

Calli is doing much better, she has come to work with me every day this week. Everyone comments on how well behaved she is getting and how much more social. I think the key is to just keep exposing her. The trainer is fantastic and I am looking forward to getting back to that after 3 weeks away due to busy schedules.

I took a little breather after biking and sat in a more cushion-y chair, but I'm ready to get up now. Happy Day to you all.

Goal

As of today...





I have lost 6.7 pounds since August 7th.
12.9% of my goal is complete.
I am measuring various aspects of my body as well, but have not had enough time go by yet to check for a difference.
I biked 10 miles and ran 2 miles today.
Which puts me a 60 miles when combined with last week.
I feel better and stronger and have much more energy.
I have an extremely hard time going to sleep at night (my body just won't shut down). My poor husband is tired of this problem, as I hate to be awake alone.
I will probably start setting an earlier alarm to see if that will make me sleep at night.
My back is stable. It was in bad shape before I started and maybe is a little bit better, but that depends on the time of day.
I am trying to eat approximately 1200 calories a day. Some days more, some days less. It creates incentive for me to cook at home because it is much easier to control my calories at home.
I have rediscovered hunger. I haven't really been hungry in years. I ate whenever it was suggested or a normal meal time arrived never really given time for hunger to develop.
I eat a great deal of protein now because it helps hold back the hunger.
I have heard many times, "Eat to live, don't live to eat." I am now understanding what that means. It really amazes me how little I need to eat in a day (comparatively) to get by and keep up with my increasing workouts. And, I have begun to really feel the "eat to live aspect" about an hour before meal time on lower calorie days, I can feel my mind and body start to get sluggish. Then it's meal time and everything picks back up.
All in all truly understanding the idea of portion control and making my body perform as my mind wills it.