Emotional Roller Coaster

Why is it that changing my food habits and exercising is such an emotional roller coaster for me.  My husband doesn't understand that part at all.  Food and emotions do not belong anywhere near the same sentence as far as he's concerned. 

But for me, it totally is.  I started out so pumped and motivated.  The majority of the time I have continued to feel that way.  The last two weeks have been very challenging for me.  I've hurt my leg, which has slowed me down with the exercising.  But yet my appetite has increased majorly. Along with my desire to eat foods that have not even been that much of a temptation for me up until this point. Every single day- several times a day- I have had to remind myself of my goal and pray for perseverance.  I have stood at the pantry door praying that I will choose wise things to eat so I can finish up the goals that I have set for myself.  Last night Jonathan walks in the kitchen to find me standing in front of the pantry with my eyes closed.  He laughed and said, "What are you doing?"  I said praying.  I actually do that a lot lately, right here. 

It's not that I think that choosing to have a "cheat" would be horrible or the end of the world.  It's just the talk that's going on in my head of - this is too hard, I can't do this forever, I may as well just quit.   All lies I know.  I just have had to talk back and forth to myself. The whole reason I'm doing this is to choose a healthier lifestyle and take care of my body.  Weight loss is not the ultimate goal.  I guess my flesh has just gotten caught up in that. 

Needless to say the last few weeks have left me to feel emotional, and a little nutty.  My prayer is that I will continue to try and bring glory to God through the way I take care of my body.  I had to break a lot of bad habits.  I guess now that my body has gotten in the groove my mind is having to catch up. 

Bum Leg

Well a week later, and there's no improvement.  If anything it's gotten worse.  I took a couple of days off.  I also went swimming in my parents pool a couple of times.  The swimming felt great. Getting back in the water for laps made me realize how much I used to enjoy it.  If it weren't for the 15 minute drive, I would do that every morning.  Although it didn't seem to help my leg heal extremely quickly, which is what I was hoping for.   So this morning I started back out in our neighborhood.  I just walked for 45 min. and did 5 - 1 min. runs throughout to keep my heart rate up a little.  I ended with some crunches and push ups. It's really hard not to get discouraged when I'm not able to run as much as I was.  But, I'm really trying to keep my perspective.  The whole reason I started this was to take care of my body in a way that is pleasing to the Lord.  

So, here's my pep talk to myself:  I have lost 27 lbs in 2 months. I am down three sizes and in pants I haven't been in since High School.  I feel great (other than an occasional limp due to a bum hamstring).   I am in the habit of eating healthy and feeding my family healthier foods. And all of these changes have helped me grow so much in my relationship with the Lord.  It has helped me to rely on him when it's not easy.  It has also helped me to turn to him with the cravings.  I can truly say that a lot of really bad habits have changed.  So even if I'm not exercising the way I want to be, or the way I thought I would be, I am still accomplishing my goal.  God has been faithful to pull me through these new changes. 

In anticipation of the winter, to hopefully find an exercise that doesn't hurt, and also to change things up a bit, we are thinking about getting a gym membership.  There's one just a minute away and I would be able to do a lot more strength training.  We're praying about it.  So who knows, maybe there will be a little bit more variety coming my way. 

Exercise

So I've talked before about how I've been walking and building up to running.  I have been trying really hard to go slowly and gradually build up.  I walk for a good 5-10 min.  Then I stop and stretch.  Then I had gotten to where I was running 17 min then back and forth running/ walking until my 45 min. was up.  Well this past week my right hamstring has started hurting.  It's gradually gotten worse to where now it hurts even just walking regularly.  This is exactly what I was trying to avoid.  I want to be able to exercise for the rest of my life.  I wasn't just doing it to lose weight.  So I have decided to slow things way back down and add in some muscle strength training.  I'm going to walk in the mornings for 45 min. - no running- (at least for a few days).  And I am going to do some leg lifts, weights, crunches and various things at night.  Several people have told me how important it is to alternate cardio and muscle training, so I'm going to give it a try.  Hopefully my leg will heal and I can get back in to some running.  I was finally starting to enjoy it. =( 

Too Much Salt

Have you ever noticed nights after you eat mexican, chinese, or anything else high in sodium the way it makes you feel?  Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night feeling hot, like my skin is tight, and I'm really thirsty.  Well since I've been changing the way I eat, I haven't felt like this at all.  I have completely taken added salt out of my diet.  I also watch the content of sodium in the things that I use that are already prepared for me.  

Well... yesterday was a half-cheat day.  My in-laws were here for the day and I knew we would be eating lunch and dinner out.  I have only had a few cheat days since I started and it had been several weeks.  So I decided yesterday I would have a few exceptions.  We ate lunch at Baja Burrito and dinner at Olive Garden.  These are two of my favorite restaurants.  At Baja for lunch I got a wheat burrito with chicken, beans, rice, lettuce, pico, salsa, cucumbers.  I didn't get the cheese or sour cream, but I knew that it would have a lot of salt and butter in the rice, chicken, and beans.  Hoping to counterbalance the sodium, I had several glasses of water with my meal.  At Olive Garden for dinner I got the Venetian Apricot Chicken.  I had looked it up online beforehand and new it was a sensible choice.  It had grilled chicken (I asked for the apricot sauce on the side) broccoli, and asparagus.  But once again I knew the food was all prepared with salt and butter (the customary way of food preparation in our culture). So once again I had several glasses of water to drink with the meal.  Well all this to say I woke up in the middle of the night feeling awful.  I was burning up.  My hands and feet were swollen.  I felt so thirty.  It took me a while to go back to sleep.  This morning wasn't much better.  It also made the morning run much harder.  I'm thinking goodness is salt really that bad.  It makes me feel miserable.  It definitely was not worth it.  I don't say all this to make people feel guilty about eating out or even eating salt.  More just to be conscious of what salt does to your body and the amount of it you take in.  It's very obvious that with my body it makes me retain large amounts of water which makes me very uncomfortable.  That also makes me wonder what it's doing to my body that is harmful. 

Meal Ideas

I had a friend ask me for some meal ideas.  I though I would share them here also.  One thing about eating the way I have been is there's not as much variety.  So I am always looking for new ideas.  Here's what I have so far.  I learned a lot of this from my sister.  

Basic Tips:

My main carbs are oatmeal, sweet potatoes, and brown rice.  I occasionally do whole wheat pasta, whole wheat bread or cheerios.  The minimal carbs is for weight loss.  I will add in more carbs once I reach my goal weight. Foods I avoid on a regular basis due to high fat or carbs: avocado, olives, corn, salmon, red meat, sugar. 

We try to eat as much from the garden as possible. When I say fresh vegetables here are some of the options I do:

sauteed  (with fat free cooking spray only) zucchini, squash, and onion

sauteed or boiled green beans with fresh garlic

fresh- tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, carrots, spinach

sauteed okra

Other vegetables, steamed broccoli, brussel sprouts, sugar snap peas

Breakfast:

* English Muffin sandwhich.  English muffin (whole wheat if possible), 3 egg whites (cooked kind of like an omlet), turkey bacon. 

* Oatmeal (unsweetened) egg white omlet (options: spinach, mushrooms, salsa, fat free cheese, peppers, onions)

*Plain cheerios with skim milk and fruit or turkey bacon or 2 boiled egg whites

pretty much every morning I do eggs. It adds good protein first thing in the morning

Lunch:

*Sweet Potato with fresh vegetables (raw when possible)

*salad with black beans, boiled egg whites, and fresh vegetables

*Tuna (with mustard and sometimes onion), sometimes with one slice of bread, fresh vegetables

*Pasta salad made with fat free cheese and dressing with fresh veggies added.  

*Brown Rice with Pinto Beans and fresh vegetables 

If i'm going to have additional carbs, I try to eat it here and avoid it for dinner. Same goes for fruits.

Dinner:

*Salad (always dark green lettuce, no iceberg with spinach) with Grilled Chicken Breasts (pat breasts with fresh basil and pepper) with fat free dressing

*Grilled/ sauteed tilapia (or any other white fish that's low in fat and high in protein) cooked with garlic powder and fresh lemon squeeze

*When I fix spaghetti for the family, I do a small amount of spaghetti sauce with a large portion of lean ground turkey and green beans and spinach. 

*Turkey Burgers without the bun (lean ground turkey, chopped onion, garlic powder), with fresh tomatoes and onion, and salad

*Lean Pork tenderloin with salad or fresh vegetables

*Salad with grilled chicken, strawberries, fat free cheese, and vinaigrette dressing

*Shepherds Pie: cooked Ground turkey, mixed vegetables, Mashed cauliflower (boil, drain, mash, add pepper, garlic powder, and fat free cheese), topped with fat free cheddar cheese. 

*stir Fry- Sauteed sugar snap peas, green onion whites and greens, carrots, edamame, bell pepper, and fresh garlic and herbs, chicken. (cook chicken in pan, set aside, saute vegetables, add chicken back)

Snacks:

*1/2 scoop of EAS chocolate soy protein shake made with skim milk.   First thing in the morning before exercise

*fat free cottage cheese with fresh tomato

*fruit 

*celery and homemade salsa

*fat free yogurt and fruit

*raw broccoli, cauliflower

Weight Loss:  I am down 21 lbs and two sizes.  This has been great so far.  Please pray for continued perseverance and motivation.  I am up to running 17 minutes, with 5  1/2 min. intervals. 

The Busy-ness of Life

Well, the past couple of weeks have been the busiest things have been in a while.  I am in the middle of studying for a a test to validate my teaching license.  VBS is going on at church.  Along with all the other responsibilities of being a stay at home mom.  This has been a good test for my new lifestyle of eating healthy.  In the past, I would eat the quickest food I could grab when I was on the go.  Now, because I am being very conscious of what I'm eating, and I don't want to mess it up just because I'm in a hurry, I am learning to plan ahead.  It's actually helped me to get organized and even get places on time occasionally (only occasionally =) )  I have started thinking through every night what I will eat the next day. Snacks and meals.  This has been very beneficial for my eating plan.  But it's also helped my stress level.  I think through the next day what we will do, get everything set out, and prepare whatever needs to be prepared.  When I wake up in the morning I am ready to go.  It makes the morning and breakfast go so much smoother.  It also makes eating healthy much easier.  I find that when I'm very hungry, something healthy doesn't always sound the best.  But when it's already prepared I don't mind eating it.  Ultimately food is fuel, and I just need something to eat.  It doesn't have to be the best tasting thing in the world.  Which is actually what I've been avoiding for a while.

Running update:

I'm still walking 6 mornings a week.  I have been building up to running.  This week I have been doing 15 min. total running.  I do 5 different running times (3, 3, 2, 3, 4).  I am learning to really enjoy it.  The time goes by very quickly and it has become a refreshing quiet time with the Lord in the morning.  And it feels good to do something for myself that I enjoy that doesn't really have anything to do with being a mommy or a wife.  I think it actually makes me enjoy those things more.  

Being Away From Home

So far... I have found that staying at home is the easiest way to stay on track.  When I am hungry, I can be sure that each meal or snack is nutritious and I know exactly what's in it.  I remember to eat and get my minimum of 5 times of eating in a day.  When I'm away I forget to eat sometimes because we get busy.  At home it's a controlled environment.  But I realize I can't be a hermit and stay at home all the time.  There are people we enjoy spending time with and things we have to do.  So I'm getting better about having snacks with me.  I do it for the kids, so it's really not that much more to do.  The other thing is to keep water with me.  If I don't then half the day goes by and I haven't had my water.  

This weekend we went to my husbands parents.  My mother-in-law had meals planned for the whole time.  I just brought the few things I needed to stay on track with my eating plan.  It was so nice to have the weekend off.  I didn't have to figure out what to fix for the rest of the crew.  I am doing my best to bring my family along with me on this journey.  But, there are some things I'm doing to get the weight off quickly that isn't really reasonable for a grown man and two little ones.  Like eating spinach for a snack or No carbs after late afternoon.  By the next morning I feel a little cranky and ready to eat, so I'm not interested in making them do that too! And the rest of the house doesn't want any part in this no salt and butter business.  I can handle that, I never really added a ton to begin with and they all eat the fresh veggies.  

This weekend marked the end of week 4 and I'm just about done with Month 1. Still pushing forward and learning new meal ideas with all the fresh vegetables and low -fat meats. For a little while longer, no carbs for dinner.  I try my best to make a dinner we can all eat and then I just don't have the carbs.  I'll let you know how that goes.  It's been challenging so far.  3 days down.  At least 4 more to go, maybe 11 more.