The plan....

I am going back to planning my food. A few blogger let me know about this site. Thanks Tiffany!

I am going to give it a whirl but kind of in reverse. Rather than tracking what I eat, I am going to plan out my eating for the next day. I may change and go to tracking what I do eat...I don't know. I'll play it by ear.

It really seems like a cool website. Wish me luck!

Rethinking my way of thinking....

So I did this whole weight loss thing "naturally", you know, no pills, shakes, etc. I made "sustainable lifestyle changes" to get the weight off. Right? Well....now I'm thinking...not so much. I still eat most of the same foods, just in smaller quantities. I did make some ingredient substitutions (ie., low fat, reduced calorie, etc) and cut out some really bad stuff (like almost all of our fried favorites), BUT for the most part, the foods are still the same.

And it is starting to bite me in the butt! I don't want to cut quantities any more. The food is there and I just want to eat whatever I want! That doesn't work well for weight loss (or maintenance). Yup, still struggling....

I've been thinking a lot lately about the need for me (and my family) to really change the way we eat. We need to cut the complex carbs WAY down and WAY increase the fruits, vegetables and whole grains. When I think about it, it seems simple. Trying to put it into practice is a completely different ball game!

We have a huge food storage FULL of the crappy foods that I am talking about eliminating. Not to mention the fact that those foods have a better shelf life anyway making them more practical for food storage. It also makes it easier on the budget because when that stuff goes on a really good sale, I can buy 6+ months worth of it. It is a little harder to buy 6 months worth of fresh fruits and veggies!

I know, freeze it, can it. I have issues with freezing. One problem is the space. I don't have 50 cubic feet of freezer space. In fact, my freezer space is quite limited. I also have issues with freezing because what happens if the power goes out in the middle of summer? Yeah, my aunt (who has two full sized freezers) had that happen to her and had to throw out ALL that food!

Canning....BLAH! I know, stop whining and do it.

My other major issue is the kids. I have five kids ages 2 to 9 who have become accustomed to eating like crap. That's not exactly something that can be changed overnight. "Hey kids, I know you're used to eating Fruit Loops and Frosted Flakes for breakfast every morning but from now on, we'll be eating tofu and muesli. Ummmm....yeah.

I have been taking baby steps but I get frustrated with baby steps. I know that baby steps are steps and I just need to keep plugging along. I wish I could just throw everything out and start over but from a budget standpoint, that would be suicidal!

Anyway, enough with the whining.

I made a list of vegetables and put an "x" (* means we tried it since making this list) by all the ones we as a family have tried at one point or another. This list isn't comprehensive. I took off all the herbs, beans, and anything that brought up a photography website when I googled it (that really happened BTW). I was actually surprised at how many we had tried. Let me emphasize "TRIED". We don't by any means eat all of the "x"-ed ones on a regular basis.

So our new baby step is to try everything on this list! Wish us luck!

Artichokes
Arugula
Asparagus
Avocado	x
Beets	x
Beets, Yellow
Bok Choy
Broccoflower	x
Broccoli	x
Brussel Sprouts	x
Butter Beans
Cabbage, Green	x
Cabbage, Purple
Cabbage, Red
Carrots	x
Carrots, Purple
Cauliflower	x
Celery	x
Chard
Corn	x
Corn, White	x
Cucumber	x
Eggplant
Endive
Escarole
Fennel
Green Beans	x
Greens, Collard
Greens, Leafy	x
Greens, Mustard
Jerusalem Artichoke	x
Jicama
Kale
Kohlrabi
Leeks
Lettuce	x
Mushrooms	x
Okra	x
Onion	x
Onion, Green	x
Onions, Red	x
Onions, White	x
Onions, Yellow	x
Parsnips	x
Peas	x
Peas, Pod	x
Peas, Snow	x
Peas, Sugar Snap	x
Pepper, Green Bell	x
Pepper, Orange Bell	x
Peppers, Chili	x
Peppers, Hot	x
Peppers, Red Bell	x
Peppers, Sweet	x
Peppers, Yellow Bell	x
Potatoes, Purple	x
Potatoes, Red	x
Potatoes, Sweet	x
Potatoes, Yellow	x
Pumpkin	x
Radicchio
Radish	x
Rhubarb
Rutabagas
Sauerkraut
Shallots	x
Spinach	x
Squash, Acorn	x
Squash, Ambercup	x
Squash, Autumn Cup
Squash, Banana	x
Squash, Butternut	x
Squash, Carnival	x
Squash, Chayote
Squash, Crook Neck	x
Squash, Delicata
Squash, Fairytale Pumpkin
Squash, Gold Nugget
Squash, Hubbard	x
Squash, Kabocha
Squash, Pattypan	x
Squash, Spaghetti	x
Squash, Sweet Dumpling
Squash, Turban
Squash, Yellow	x
Tomatillo	x
Tomatoes	x
Tomatoes, Cherry	x
Tomatoes, Grape	x
Tomatoes, Pear	x
Turnips	x
Watercress	x
Yams	x
Zucchini	x

It's official....

I am OUT OF CONTROL!!! I need to nip this in the butt like NOW!! No more excuses. No more waiting.

"Oh, it's the Super Bowl party on Sunday. I'll wait until after that."

"Oh, Valentine's Day is coming. I'll wait until after that."

And then anniversary....March Madness....birthdays...Easter....

I'm not even going to post how much I have gained in the last week and a half but rest assured, it is PATHETIC!!!!! I can't even believe how stinkin' hard it is and long it takes to take weight off but how easily and quickly it comes back on! BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!!!!

I started out my day good. I exercised. Then I had a piece of homemade, whole wheat bread and a glass of juice (that equaled a serving of fruits and a serving of veggies). Go me! Then I ate leftover pizza and brownies from the party yesterday.....and it's only 8:25!!

No more excuses!! Change starts NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yummy treat

My cousin has a recipe blog where she posted a recipe for a Green Machine Smoothie Dream. I have to admit, I was a little skeptical. BUT we decided to try it out for Super Bowl Sunday (you know, in an attempt to justify all of our horrible eating by eating something somewhat healthy). I have to say, it wasn't bad. I wouldn't say it was my favorite thing in the world but it is a fabulous way to get a hefty dose of a variety of fruits and veggies! The best part was that when I made it and split it in two (shared with the hubby) it was only three WW points (on the old program, I'm clueless as to how the new program works). Here is the exact recipe we did tonight (so the nutrition information below it will be accurate if you decide to make it based on that information):

3 cups baby spinach
1 cup frozen berry mixture (strawberries, blueberries, red raspberries & blackberries)
1 frozen banana
1/2 orange without peel
5 baby carrots
1/2 container Yoplait french vanilla yogurt
1/2 cup fat free milk

Oh! And we got our first basket of fruits and vegetables. I should have taken a picture. We got quite a haul! I was very excited. For the first time in a long time (okay, maybe EVER), my fridge is literally overflowing with fruits and veggies!! WAHOO!!

A two year snapshot

It is so weird to think that it was two years ago that I started this journey. Two years ago, I weighed over 180 pounds. A few years before that, I was over 200 pounds. But that was before I was keeping track! This little snapshot kind of makes me laugh, but not really. Notice the three major spikes in the first year? Those were the times when I wasn't involved in some sort of competition. Pathetic really. BUT, I have been able to keep the weight off WITHOUT external motivation (okay keep it off until this week). Not too shabby!

Well...I did it...

Can you sense the excitement oozing from me? Okay, it's probably harder on a blog to sense my sarcasm. But if I was really, truly excited, that title would have looked something more like "WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! I DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" And it would have come seconds (instead of almost a full week) after my weigh in.

But you'll notice, it didn't. Because while I did make it one full year with my Saturday weigh ins being at or under 136.6, my "celebration" was....well....pathetic! To celebrate, I went out to lunch, at over a dozen cookies, and had a milkshake...ALL IN ONE AFTERNOON! Hello! Did I learn nothing! And the rest of this week hasn't been much better! According to the scale this morning, I have gained...are you ready for this?.....THREE pounds in less than a week. Awesome. Pure. Awesomeness.

I even decided at the beginning of the week that I needed to go back into full on diet mode to get things back on track. The first day, I lasted until dinner. The second day, I lasted until lunch. The third day, I lasted until I woke up!

I think I have decided my eating on the weekends and watching it during the week is really biting me in the butt. It's kind of like someone trying to quit smoking. "I'll quit smoking, but just smoke on the weekends." Yeah, let me know how that goes for ya.

And while I have made some good strides in the eating healthier department, I know I still have TONS of room for improvement! Most of what I have done is modified ingredients to be lower calorie/fat and decreased portion size but I am still eating a lot of the same foods I did before. I won't say that was a necessarily a bad thing though. For me, it worked to get the weight off, and it worked for a year to keep it off.

But now, I need to get serious. My husband wants to lose weight. He has lost weight before but then puts it right back on. I am not feeding my kids healthy foods. I was at the grocery store the other day and as I passed through the produce section, it hit me like a ton of bricks that my kids probably couldn't tell you what even half of the produce even is! That is scary!

So we need to make some big changes. We need to eat healthier so I can teach my kids how to eat healthier, so my husband can take the weight off and keep it off, and so I can keep my weight off naturally (without relying on the scale to tell me what and when I can and cannot eat).

I'll have to keep you posted on how we do it. I know it is going to take some research and some major changes.

Step 1 (baby steps): I have signed up for a food coop in our community. Each week, I can go pick up a basket (or two, we'll see) of 6 different fruits and 6 different vegetables. Some will be familiar but some will be new. It will be fun to incorporate this into our diet! I am hoping that we enjoy it and eat it enough that soon we will be buying two baskets every week!

Here's to some major changes....a little at a time!