Pounds to Go Are Going! Pounds Lost are Adding Up!

I know, I know! I haven't updated in forever! I'm a bad blogger! But I do have some great news to update you with! Last time I visited my weight loss doctor on February 17th, he told me that I had lost 15.6 pounds! That was since actually starting the diet. So far, I have lost an official total of 21.8 pounds. So, rounding a tad bit up, I have put 22 marbles in my pounds lost jar. I attribute this to staying on the diet and being diligent about what I eat. I still have not officially added exercise, except for yoga once a week. I am working on this.

It helps that I visit my weight loss therapist every other week now. She still checks in with me to make sure I'm on track.

I have gone down a pant size in most of my pants and had a few pairs of pants taken in. For the unofficial weight loss, I've gone down about another 7.5 pounds. This is according to my scale, but I wait to see what my doctor's scale says for the official reading. I will see him again on March 24th.  I can't wait until I'm under 200 pounds! That will be so wonderful and I'm getting pretty close! I'm sure I will be under 200 by the time I see my doctor on the 24th.

My plan is to workout once a week after school. They have change yoga to Zumba and then walk right after I eat dinner three times a week.  I'm not so excited about Zumba. I used to be coordinated, but I'm not so much anymore. But I will try it because I need the exercise and it's convenient- they come to my school.

I have been making lots of different recipes. I need to update you with some that I try that turn out good!  I have been sneaking in some desserts, shh! They use sugar substitutes and haven't kicked me out of ketosis, so I don't consider it cheating. Next time I make a good one, I promise to post it and let you know all about it!

'Till next time! XOXO, Jen~

Shirataki Pad Thai

Shirataki Pad Thai

Ok, so I haven't updated you in a while. It has been three weeks since starting the diet and I'm doing great! I have lost between 7 to 8 pounds total. I lost 6 pounds the first week. The above picture is what I made for dinner tonight. I know, you're thinking noodles! How!?! They're called Miracle Noodles. They are made from tofu and contain absolutely NO CARBS!!! In this recipe, they had a good consistency, absorbed the sauce, so they tasted good to me! I did tweak the above recipe a bit. Instead of tofu, I added chicken. I also added bean sprouts and sugar snap peas. It was very good, a bit spicy, but very good!

So, to be completely honest, I had a small hiccup the first week. It was a complete accident, so let me explain. I had made an enchilada bake in a 13x9 pan, so I thought I would have plenty of leftovers. Well, I guess this was a good thing, my son and I had seconds and there wasn't much leftover. So, on the first Saturday, we had to go out to dinner. Always dangerous, unless you have a plan. But, I had a plan. We were going to go to Texas Roadhouse and I was going to get a salad, steak, and broccoli. Simple, and totally on the diet. But when we got to Texas Roadhouse, there was a 55 minute wait.  So, we went to Pasta House instead. Talk about temptation! But I still ordered accordingly and didn't even touch a roll. I ordered a marsala steak, which is a non-breaded steak, and broccoli, and peas with proscutio and mushrooms.  Well, the peas is where I went wrong. It was the first diet my doctor had me on that I was allowed peas, because I remember making split pea soup. I got confused and thought they were allowed. They're not on my allowed food list because they are a starch!  Well, I just basically went on as though nothing had happened so I didn't give up and mess up even more. This seemed to work out wonderfully!

The part I am lacking in is the working out. I have started yoga again, which I love! My class is only once a week. But fitting in other work outs seems impossible. Almost every night of the week, I have something after work and don't get home until late. Then I still have to make a healthy dinner, pack my lunch for the next day, and then it's time to go to bed. I know it sounds like an excuse, but I'm finding exercise impossible to fit in. My weight loss doctor just wants me to walk 10, 15, or 20 minutes after each meal. Well, in the morning, I'm lucky to even eat breakfast before leaving the house. So, exercise afterward isn't an option. At lunch during the week, I only get 30 minutes, so there's no time to walk. Dinner's the only time this could even possibly work. He says that if you walk right after you eat, you don't ingest as many of the calories you just ate. This sounds like a great concept.  He says it really works, too!

So, again, if you have any suggestions for fitting in the workouts, please, please, please comment me!  I need the help majorly in this department! I promise to keep you more updated. I'm rewarding myself tomorrow with a makeover at Sephora for staying on my diet for 3 weeks. You should reward yourself with nonfood rewards regularly.

Talk to you soon! Jen~

Meatloaf Cordon Bleu and Garlic Smashed Cauliflower

Meatloaf Cordon Bleu

Garlic Smashed Cauliflower

My first diet meal. See the above links to get the recipes and see better pictures.  My picture doesn't do them justice.  Also, for the garlic smashed cauliflower, I left out the chives. I didn't have any. It would have made them better!  I should have added a nice, green salad, but I ran out of time. I will definitely add tomorrow for lunch.  Tomorrow is my actual start date anyway. I like to make a meal the night before so I have something for lunch the next day. Both of these recipes are on my No Carb, No Sugar Pinterest Board. I'll share that with you soon.

It snowed about a foot here and the temps are in the negative. So, school got called off already for tomorrow. It might also be called for Tuesday. We'll have to wait and see.

I have all my grocery shopping done. Thank goodness, because of the snow! So I have everything I need to make all my healthy recipes this week.  I have a template I would like to share with you for a Weekly Meal Planner, but I'm not sure how to do this yet. I think I'll have to save it in Google Docs and share it. But it could be helpful if you want to do a plan like this. If you want it in the meantime, comment me with your email, and I'll email it you you.

The other component to losing weight, of course, is exercise. I need to start adding this to my schedule. I enjoy doing yoga and have signed up for a class which starts next week. I also have an elliptical machine and need to start using it. I'll start slow and work my way up to a reasonable time. My school district also pays for employees to use the local gym center, so I really have NO excuses. I have to schedule my workouts as if they are appointments with myself, and stick to them! My weight loss doc always says, "Put it in the schedule and adhere to the schedule!" It should be that simple. I guess I need to sit down, really study my schedule and figure out the best time for me to realistically workout. If you have any feedback about how to do this, how to stick to it, let me know. I would love the help with this. I really struggle with this part.  It's weird, it's so hard to get myself to workout, but yet, I absolutely LOVE the feeling when I'm finished working out.

All right, that's my next task. Schedule in workouts. Need to go and evaluate my schedule. XO, Jen~

Weight Loss Motivator Jars

So here are my Weight Loss motivator jars. Thanks Pinterest for another wonderful idea! I made these the other day in anticipation of starting my diet.  I went to Michael's and got the supplies, but I think you could do it much cheaper at the Dollar Store.  I wish I had thought of that sooner!  The one on the left says "Pounds to Go" and the one on the right says "Pounds Lost".  Obviously, the Pounds to Go jar is filled up right now as I haven't lost anything as of yet. However, I did get on my scale this morning. I always did like my home scale more than the one at the doctor's office, and I might have a little less to lose than I thought. The scale read 223! :) I'll have to wait to get the official weigh in number when I see my weight loss doctor on the 10th of January.  Anyway, I filled up my Pounds to Go jar with 100 marbles, thinking I was at 235ish. If I'm really at 223, and lost 100 pounds, I would weigh less than I did in high school. Now that would be downright impossible! Nice, but impossible!

I just got back from seeing my weight loss therapist. I talked to her about my writing homework she gave me in my journal. (See first post) She could tell that I was anxious, but excited at the same time about starting the diet. So, we did a meditation which helped calm me and brought me into the now.  I really used to think meditation was just a bunch of hooey, but I'm starting to buy into it. It makes me feel good and I really think it can help me with the weight loss. A few sessions ago, she gave me a meditation CD of hers and I do it periodically to help calm myself.  It's specifically about eating and forgiving yourself. I really think it does help. If you're interested in getting her CD, comment to me and I'll get you the information.

I also told her that I started this blog.  She thought it was a great idea to keep me motivated!  I am pretty excited to tell my weight loss specialist doctor about all that I have done to take this diet more seriously this time.  I think he will be impressed! Well, actually, the only thing that impresses him are results.  I guess that's as it should be!

I have lots of grocery shopping to do this weekend to prepare for the upcoming week of healthy meals! So, I guess this will be a shorter post! Please follow me and you can get lots of weight loss tips and ideas along the way! XO, Jen~

First Post

So this is my first post. I have been preparing to start my diet, again.  My start date is January 6th. I have done a lot to prepare so far. First and foremost, I am under the care of a Weight Loss Specialist Doctor and have been for a couple of years.  I have successfully already lost about twenty-five pounds so far. But even more amazing, the doctor tests my total body composition every time I'm in his office and I have lost a total of more that fifty pounds of fat! So, some of that has transferred to muscle.

Second, this time around, I am seeing a weight loss therapist. She has had me think about mindful eating  and really make a plan for starting my diet. I have started a journal and she's given me a few writing assignments. Things like…

Write down things you thought when you were successful on other diets.
Make an argument to yourself about what you would say to yourself to get yourself to go off the diet and then argue to try to stay on it.
Write down the reasons why I am doing this.
Write about caring about myself and building a compassionate, kind, and caring self.

I have also set some small and larger incremental goals along with some non-food rewards for myself.

I guess I should tell you a little about myself… I am 37 years old. I have been overweight since my late 20's because of mixture of depression medications. Also, I have type II diabetes due to the weight and the medications. It's not a healthy mix and this weight loss is a matter of life or death for me.  My doctor has simply asked me, "Do you want a stroke or a heart attack?"  I can honestly say at 37 years old, neither sounds appealing.  At my heaviest, I was around 260 pounds. I am now more around 235. I'll have to get an exact start weight to be more precise about this.

I also thought starting a blog might help keep me inspired and motivated to keep going. I've had trouble staying the course before. I seem to do okay for a few weeks at a time, but it's back to the old habits of eating.

The diet my doctor recommends for me is a modified version of The Duke Diet.  It's a No Starch, No Sugar Diet. It's a challenge to eat this way and even more of a challenge to maintain.  The key to this diet is to PLAN!  Make a PLAN, Stick to the PLAN, and Keep PLANNING! You have to know for the entire week every morsel of food that you are going to eat, for every meal, for every snack. So, I've already made my Weekly Meal Plan for the week I start my diet. I have recipes in hand. I just have to do the grocery shopping and I'll be set!

The idea is no starches and no sugar, so your body goes into ketosis. Ketosis is when your body starts to use the stored fat in your body. This is great! Use up the fat in your body- great way to get rid of it! You just have to STAY in ketosis by continuing not to eat any starches or sugar.  This is the hard part.

I guess I'll keep getting ready! I'm almost getting excited. I have a couple of Pinterest boards that will be good resources if you want to try a diet like this. I share those at a later time!  'Till next time! XO, Jen~