Monday Weigh In 2-25-13

No change in weight this week. However the scale moved a lot this week. Last Monday I was at 333lbs than Tuesday I was all the way down to 325! I focused this week and really tried hard to eat right and for the most part I did. I had three meals this week that contained animal products, and we tried some  great new plant based recipes that were a hit with everyone.

Stepping on the scale this morning I got three different readings that were honestly all over the place. I am very frustrated about my progress and my scale. So first thing is I need to get a new scale, I used to have a scale that went dead on me about 6 months ago so I bought one from Fred Meyer. If you step on it differently or shift your weight to one side you get different readings. Jennie seemed to agree the scale was going rogue. Second thing is I need to really concentrate on making sure I exercise everyday. I did great last week and got 3 days in. This week I need to get 5 in. I also need to be really careful on my sugar intake. I haven't been as strict as i should because I have been sneaking bites here and there. I need to eliminate all sugar and simple carbohydrates from my diet. Whole grain and fruit are the easiest replacements for these cravings.

I realize this needs to take time. However I expect to see results on my timeline and when it doesn't' happen I get frustrated. I need to remind myself that this lifestyle change takes time and I need to keep moving forward. The weight is slowly coming off I can feel it in my clothes. I just keep telling myself, "Keep moving forward!"

Monday Weigh In 2-18-13

Weigh in Monday is here again and I am actually surprised what the scale said today. I was down to 333. Which means I had a 4lb lost this week from last week. I am surprised because honestly I ate like crap. I had about 5 meals last week with meat and had some sugar food as well. I didn't workout either. Refocusing this week and working out are my goals. Working out is essential to me loosing weight.

It is Tuesday and I am writing this and I weighed this morning and I was at 325lbs. I worked out last night by going to spin class. Worked hard and burned over 1,000 calories. I felt so good when I got home. Jennie had made this gorgeous salad and some fresh green beans that she baked in the oven with some seasoning. It was really good and hit the spot after a long working out. I drank plenty of water and I am so happy to see my body making changes. By the way I don't really miss meat. The only time I craved meat was Saturday and I had some chicken wings.

Monday Weigh In 2-11-13

Monday weigh in 337lbs. Total weight loss this week -6.

I don't feel like this week was a a failure. I found myself a few pounds up mid week and focused on regulating how much fruit I was juicing and really tried to make sure I had a good mix of veggies and fruit. This weekend I let my guard down and had a little binge session. had meat Fri, Sat and Sun. I also found myself eating food with sugar. I am confident the weight gain is from food in my system and some water retention. I can't believe it's an actual permanent weight gain. My clothes have been feeling loose, and my energy levels are high. I am going to watch the scale closely this week. It is very apparent that I can not miss my exercise. I worked out on Thursday night and it was awesome I felt so good. So there it is as of this morning I had a 6lb gain this week. I am sure by Thursday it will be gone.

Green Smoothie

Here is the recipe I like to make in the morning as breakfast.

4 Green Apples
1 Bunch of Celery
1 Cucumber
1/4" Slice of Ginger
1 Lemon
2 cups of Green Grapes
1 Large avocado
2 bananas
3 cups of fresh spinach

Juice the apples, celery, cucumber, lemon and ginger.

Insert other ingredients in this order into your blender
1. Grapes
2. Spinach
3. Avocado
4. Bananas

Pour the juice into the blender.

Blend on high until the spinach is completely gone, add ice to the blender if you want to drink it cold right away or serve on ice.

This is a big batch of green smoothie. It will make breakfast for Jennie, Paisley and myself. I will than have extra for a mid morning or mid afternoon snack for Jennie and I. If you are juicing for yourself I would cut the recipe in half and you will still have enough for breakfast and a meal later that day. Also feel free to add flax seed or chia seeds to the mix as well.

Enjoy

Monday weigh in 02/04/2013

Monday is weigh in day. Every week while I am on my journey to loose my original goal of 100lbs I will weigh in and share my thoughts about the week. I will share with you my success's and failures i experienced during the week and how I plan to overcome those failures. 

This mornings weigh in resulted in me loosing 5lbs this week. My weight is 331lbs and I have lost a total of 13lbs, in the last 10 days.

I didn't expect to have this type of weight loss I experienced this week for many reasons. First was I can have as much food as I want as long as it is veggies and fruit, beans are also free food items. Second was I am not putting my body into keytosis so I didn't expect to drop weight that fast. As the week progressed I found myself not wanting to eat as much food because I felt full and not hungry. (One of the benefits of the high nutrition from veggies and fruit)

 Overall this week was awesome! I felt really good and I was able to still have some food I like. My failures this week were too many oatmeal cookies, Ice cream with the young men from church on Tuesday and a bag of popcorn on Sat. evening and no workouts this week. I didn't have any meat until Sat. evening when Jennie and I attended a YMCA banquet and I had meat on Sunday evening at a Super Bowl party.

So Saturday we had steak at the Banquet and I wanted seconds, Jennie encouraged me to not have seconds but I did because it tasted so good! I started into the second piece of steak and only ate a few bites because I was full. All in all I felt really good for the remainder of the evening and also felt good on Sunday morning. I expected to have some digestive issues from the red meat however I was fine. Sunday evening was a different story, the Super Bowl food did not go over well. Jennie and I both complained about stomach aches and feeling tired and groggy.  This morning we both felt like we were experiencing a food hangover. In fact as I write this right now my stomach feels bad and I know its from all the good tasting junk food we ate last night.

All in all I feel great and my energy levels have increased. The biggest thing I noticed this week was my overall attitude and demeanor. I felt so happy this week, and experienced very little stress. I had times during the week when I could have been over stressed, but I moved through the issue and got it done. This was a huge wake up for me because during all my other diets I have tried I always felt down, angry or just repressed because I was trying to resist every temptation to eat sugar. Not the case this week, much more mentally stable and happy.

I will post some recipes we have been enjoying in our family this past week that maybe you will want to try in your home. Remember if you eat 3 times a day and decide to juice for one of those meals you have just made your diet 33% plant based and that is a huge step to adding more nutrition into your diet and making you feel better.

Monday Jan. 28, 2013

 

Paisley my daughter loves putting food into the juicer, she is helping me this morning make our morning juice!

I stepped on the scale this morning and I had lost 7 lbs! This is amazing since I have been focusing on moving meat and animal products out of my diet since last Friday...which was only 3 days ago.

As of right now I am eating veggies and fruit during the day. My morning and mid day snack consist of either more juice or a whole fruit or veggie, or nuts like almonds, cashews or walnuts. Lunch consists of a Medium sized salad lots of veggies, an avocado and key ingredients that include cilantro and parsley. Cilantro and parsley are added to help increase with the detoxing of my body. Ideally dinner will be large salad with beans and some steamed veggies on the side. Right now I have had meat for dinner every night. I am slowly moving that to only having 2 meals a week with meat. This will make my diet about 90% raw veggies and fruit. It's not easy since I have been eating meat or an animal product 3-4 times a day.

If your interested in some of the information I have been researching here is a book I highly recommend. Eat to Live, by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. This book is awesome and he goes through all the ins and outs of why we as a human race need to have more veggies and fruit in our diet. I purchased the V-Book for my ipad and iphone. This was a huge time saver for me while reading I could easily read 6-10 pages at work when things got a little slow.
 

Animal Fast

Have you ever fasted before? Growing up as a member of the LDS Faith (the Mormons) we fasted a lot. Usually the first Sunday of each month. This was always a struggle for me since I love to eat food. Fasting has always been a spiritual type of activity for me in my life. Until now.

Up to this point I have been trying to use a ketogenic type of diet to loose weight. High protein very low carbs, much like Atkins or Medifast, the South Beach Diet etc...This type of diet was helpful and effective but I could never stay with it for the long term. In the beginning I would go a few weeks and cheat, than as time went on I could only go a few days before I cheated. I have yet to really bring myself out of this slump. While all of this has been going on I have been doing a lot of reading and research about whole food diets. When I day diet I don't mean dieting, I am reffering to what we eat is our diet.

So this whole food diet research has taught me that I need to reprogram what I eat. First thing first, Vegetables and fruit. There are many different avenues I can take here on reprogramming my diet to include 80-90% raw vegetables and fruit. Between a juice fast and Dr. Fuhrman's 6 week program you can retrain your mind and body to not rely on animal products. The results are supposed to be more energy, overall health, weight loss, cholesterol and blood pressure levels will drop as well.

So how am I doing it. Well I bought a Vita Mix back in September and I'm using it to make smoothies. I also went out and bought a juicer. The combination of these two tools in my kitchen is going to help me reboot my entire life and my health. I am testing this theory that my body will heal itself if I put the right type of food into it. I am expecting weight loss, my blood pressure to decrease and my triglycerides to come down. I am hoping I see the change in myself that others have experienced. It's not easy to completely change your eating habits, right now I am trying to change things slowly so I can stick with the program. So enjoy the blog as I keep it up to date with success and interesting things about my journey.