Reboot – 1003+

Giphy

Once again I’m trying. I hope this is mainly annoying, rather than a red line for you – reading things I’ve said many times before. If the line is red, stop reading here, and I apologize.

If you’re still reading, THANKS!

CoolFunnyQuotes.com

My husband and I had a talk, continuing over the past several days, about our eating. Due to the weather encouraging comfort food, plus my husband trying to be ‘nice’ to me, bringing me popcorn or ice cream, and other assorted excuses (pick one. ANY one will do…. :0) ) I have regained weight I tried really hard to shed. We’re doing a lot right, but never enough to actually make significant progress in my goal to LOSE the lard.

This morning we are AGAIN getting serious. Today I’m trying a new recipe for “Keto Bread Rolls” from Arman online to hopefully take the place of the deli roll we have been eating with dinner. I’m also making “Sausage, Egg & Cheese Bake” from Suzanne Ryan’s Simply Keto recipe book. We love this.

I’m tracking my eating, drinking, and exercising via MyFitnessPal again. I have my macro set up there now (5% carbs, 25% protein, and 70% fat) so I can see how I’m doing. My personal macro is actually 14grams of carbs, 77grams of protein, and 85grams of fat daily. I’m trying to keep my calories to around 1137 daily.

I’ve entered what I’m eating today already so I KNOW I’m staying within my calorie total, plus am hitting the right percentages on lunch and dinner, with even a snack some time today. I have also entered my activity and have already started that. (I get some credit for moving more, though I don’t really make any allowances for it on how much I’m eating.)

Our lunch stays the same, except I’m not having any fruit. The only changes are at dinner – plus snacks – and that’s not bad at all.

I have found FitnessPal.com more to my liking than others because they allow you to add recipes not in their database (which is large) quickly and easily without having to list each ingredient and quantity in the recipe separately. They also allow you to repeat easily what you eat daily, rather than having to enter it all again every day. (We basically eat the same lunch every day with the exception of Lunch Bunch on Friday.) Once you enter something, when you go to the category again for each day, what you listed previously is there if you wish to check the box. NICE.

I’m motivated to stay with my plan. My husband has agreed NOT to bring me ‘goodies’ just because he likes me, so I’M in charge and the only one I can blame is myself if I don’t stick to this. So far, I’m feeling energized.

I’m going to start cooking now. Hopefully, by the end of this week, I’ll see a bit of improvement. Fingers crossed.

123RF

Doable Chunks

TrendingGifs-Wordpress.com-giphy

As of this morning I have reached my first weight goal- to regain the 30-pounds-off mark! Can you see the balloons, streamers, confetti? Can you hear the horns? :0)

My next goal will be 5 more pounds down. This sounds doable – thanks to Maria – who suggested I break down my goals into doable chunks, rather than looking at the entirety.

Onward and Downward!

Mondays are Motivating

tenor

I used to dread Mondays. They meant back to work, loss of freedom, etc. Now I wish there were more. For some reason Mondays are motivating to me – a chance to start with a clean slate – refreshed goals, new determination.

I’m kind of frustrated right now with my efforts to lose the lard, so I am signing up with cronometer, a calorie counting website recommended by our son awhile back. I’m going to start fresh, log what I’m eating, log my exercising, etc. to give myself a fresh look. Then, based on what I’m seeing, I’ll make tweaks in what I’m doing and see if I can get back on track again and make some serious progress.

More Matt Wilson Art

Matt Wilson – Metal Sculpture –

One Step

Dog Trying to Eat a Veggie – Giphy

I found more motivation for my efforts to lose my lard and get stronger from an unlikely source: Eve Dallas (NYC murder cop in the future) speaking to a young musician who had turned the corner on trying to stay straight from his drug and alcohol addiction – Dark in Death – J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts).

She said, “You know, it’s a long street after that corner’s turned. I hope you stay on it.” And the musician answered, “One step, every day, the rest of my life. I like street. I like who I am when I’m walking it.”

I’m feeling that way right now.

The weight is still clinging, down a bit one day, up a bit another, but I’m trying to concentrate on eating healthy, portion control, healthy snacks, drinking lots more water (up to THREE 17 oz bottles a day now) and exercising daily. I’m doing half an hour to 45 minutes of yoga stretches with abdominal exercises every day and then working with dumbbells (5 lbs) three times a week. Since my arms get tired pretty fast, I made it through my sets yesterday, then did some other things, then came back and did another session.. That seemed to work well. I can tell I worked my arms yesterday, but I’m not SORE.

I’m pleased that I’m TRYING to get stronger each day, that I’m trying to control my eating.

“One step, every day, the rest of my life. I like street. I like who I am when I’m walking it.”

Some Progress, More Coming

Drafting Table When I’m Working – 1

Drafting Table When I’m Working – 2

When ideas are coming fast and furious, rattling around in my poor brain until I’m dreaming of them, it’s a relief – and so much fun! – to spend time zipping from one idea and medium to the next, shoving things out of the way enough that I can keep playing.

Every once in a while, though, the adult emerges and looks – appalled – at the mess I’ve created once again. The stern taskmaster says that I MUST clean things up before starting anything else.

I went upstairs several days ago. intending to at least START with the tractor in there, but got some ideas for new magnets and I simply gave in to the need to play. I had a GREAT time, got the magnets finished, priced them yesterday and put them into the basket I take back and forth to my local booth in town.

I then listened to the taskmaster and decided to at LEAST get the drafting table cleared off.

Drafting Table Cleaned Off – 1

Drafting Table Cleaned Off – 2

My plan is to continue my cleaning efforts up there today. at LEAST getting another table cleaned off.

Happy Tuesday!

Diet Woes

I learned yesterdaythat, without a doubt. I am an emotional eater. When I’m upset, I can’t seem to stuff in the food fast enough. I’m much too old for this kind of reaction. We didn’t even have anything really upsetting happen – I was just thrown off my new diet and exercise regimen – and I went the other direction with a vengeance.

So – no stars yesterday for exercise and the scales were laughing at me this morning.

I have a nice start to the day. I will do better.

Month 2

unknown

Hahahahahahahaah! I love this picture. :0)

Our South Beach orders for Month #2 arrived yesterday. I have been DIYing most of our meals, since we were out of most everything, using up the dregs of what was left in our boxes from Month #1 when possible. So we started in with lunch yesterday on our renewed supplies.

I called in and cancelled our subscriptions/memberships/auto-delivery orders yesterday, once our delivery came.  She tried to change my mind. Asked me how much weight we had lost. Why we were quitting. I didn’t want to list the reasons, so just told her we needed a reboot, and were pleased that they provided it for us.  I got confirmation emails that our subscriptions had been cancelled, and there was a chance to do a survey. I tried, but it wasn’t working.

I know the coronavirus has caused big problems for everyone, and that this will continue. I’m assuming the problems we experienced were due to that:

CONS –  

• The variety of foods from which we could choose was small.
• I kept up with trying to change our next order for month # 2 to not get certain things we didn’t care for again. Each time I went online, (and I did this several times before the cutoff date) they had discontinued something else we liked, or had marked it with an asterisk that indicated we needed to choose something else because supplies were low and they would substitute something else when they filled our order. We ended up choosing nothing from the frozen selections for Month # 2. The things we liked weren’t available.
• The website was annoying. Each time you change from one page to another, you had to sign in again. Some pages got 404 messages. The page where you input what you ate was great when South Beach foods were eaten, but the DIY section was next to impossible. Since you fix 2 dinners, 2 lunches, 2 breakfasts, 2 afternoon snacks and 2 morning snacks DIY each week, this is really annoying. I gave up and just logged my weight changes.

PROS –

• We like their shakes a lot. We like a lot of the snacks. We like their cheeseburger soup and the white bean chili in a bowl. We like their pancake mix.
• We like the convenience of just standing in front of our boxes and choosing what we would like to eat for many meals each week.
• We got what we wanted from the two-month membership: a reboot on our efforts at keto; a reminder of what a ‘portion’ is; a chance to get our heads on straight about how long it takes to lose the weight versus how easy it is to put it back on; a redoubling of efforts to exercise as we eat right; motivation to continue our good habits when the 2nd month is finished.

I am happy that my husband will have probably met his weight goal by the time we finish this second month. (He only has about 10 lbs to go.) I wish he would exercise, but at least he is encouraging about MY efforts.

My goal is another 30 or so. I’m also using this ‘reboot’ to remind myself that just because something is in the pantry does NOT mean I have to listen to it call to me or eat it. I’m HOPING that my husband won’t go back to putting a lot of frowned-on foods into the cart, but if he insists on it, I don’t have to give in and feed my face. I will make it a priority to keep DIYing what I SHOULD be eating – including some good snacks – and hopefully that, plus my exercises will make ME healthier, too as I pursue my goal.

I love the recipe book Simply Keto by Suzanne Ryan. She doesn’t use a lot of ingredients you need to scrounge to find. The recipes are simple – and to me, the less time spent in the kitchen, the better. They taste really good. My husband’s reaction when he learns I’m cooking one of our favorites, or trying a new one for us, is “GREAT!”

Here’s to Month #2!

 

 

Diet Progress

You Tube

Weight comes off MUCH more slowly than it goes on. The older you get, the harder it is to get the lard off.

 

Lovethispic.com via Pinterest

 

In our current quest to get ‘back in the saddle” of the keto eating plan, my husband and I have signed up for two months of the South Beach Diet. That is the closest plan of prepared meals to how we are trying to eat. We are about 2/3 of the way through the first month.

So far, we have each lost 5 lbs. We are not very pleased with the number of choices on the food plan, or the taste of many of the entrees. We DO really like anything they offer that comes in a small cup and the shakes. My husband really likes the candy bars ( both snack and entree) and I love the small bags of nuts. Otherwise, it’s a very good thing we have fresh, ripe tomatoes to eat alongside the entrees for lunch and dinner.

That said, the first month is helping me re-realize what a “portion” is. We were eating many of the right things, but we glossed over – or ignored – the portion amounts. When we are doing the DIY dinners, lunches, breakfasts, and snacks each week, I am trying to pay particular attention to how much I am serving.  Also, my husband is saying he will cooperate with not throwing things we shouldn’t be eating into the grocery cart. If they aren’t around, they can’t call to you from the pantry…. “Linnnnnnnn dahhhhhh!”

By the end of the second month (approximately mid-September) my husband may REACH is weight loss goal. We have talked about the fact that his ‘cooperation’ will need to continue so that he can KEEP the weight off. I have consoled him by pointing out that he can increase enjoy some fruit then, and that we may buy the candy bars he likes A LA CARTE from South Beach to tide him over, or to simply keep a supply for him. He also readily admits that he really likes many of the recipes we have found by Suzanne Ryan in Simply Keto.

For example, I have Suzanne’s recipe for Keto Chili in the slow cooker right now for one of our DIY dinners tonight.

I will earn Gold Star # 7 this afternoon with my yoga practice.

Next week, I will TRY to add a few minutes of my elliptical trainer to each day. It’s very hot here, and my trainer lives in our garage, so I’ll have to get out there early and limit the minutes I spend – Maybe I’ll try Mon, Wed, and Fri to start. I figure that even though I won’t be doing 35 minutes out there, anything I’m doing is better than none.  AND, if I do the time out there, I’ll give myself another Gold Star!

My weight loss journey will be much longer than my husband’s. That’s okay. If I am seeing a reasonable amount of progress – either from the scales, the measuring tape, or my flexibility – I will try to “keep on keepin’ on. “

Wish me luck?

1st Impressions

Pinterest

Our first shipment of the South Beach Diet was delivered this afternoon – right after we ate lunch.

1st impression – there was a lot more frozen food than I expected. I apparently didn’t read carefully enough, so I was scrambling to find an organized way to store my husband’s choices in one place and mine in another. My husband immediately wanted to know what he could have for a snack. We had JUST finished lunch, so I firmly told him I needed some time to get my act together, and that we would have our ‘afternoon snack’ around 3 pm.

2nd impression – we will be eating more TIMES each day than we have been. We have been doing intermittent fasting and then eating lunch and dinner (with an occasional dessert) before bed. This obviously hasn’t been working – though we have helped the failure along by eating stuff we shouldn’t and not paying enough attention to portion size. Now we will eat 6 times each day – having breakfast, a morning snack, lunch, an afternoon snack, dinner, and a dessert type snack each day.  I will be doing ‘do-it-yourself’ meals and snacks – 2 of each spread out over the week. I’ve gotten out my calendar so I can do some planning. One regular ‘DIY’ lunch each week will be Friday’s Lunch Bunch. Since we’re starting Wednesday afternoon this week, I’m doing the best I can to get in as many DIY’s as seems reasonable.

3rd impression – We have just enjoyed our first ‘afternoon snack.’ My husband had a vanilla shake and I had a chocolate. They seemed a bit ‘thin,’ but the flavor was good.

4th impression – This is not as much ‘just heat up the food and eat it’ as the Nutrisystem we tried quite awhile back. There is cooking even on the meals provided in the program. (For example, I have tried to prepare my husband that he will be mixing and cooking his breakfast pancake mix.) I really think this is a good thing. We will be constantly aware of what we are eating, preparing much of it, actively engaged, rather than just nuking something and taking no responsibility for it.

5th impression – we are supposed to be eating 3 non-starchy veggie servings each day. (I’m happy because we’ll include tomatoes from our garden and some salads, as well as small servings of other good veggies.)

6th impression – I may have to live in the bathroom! We are supposed to drink half our body weight in fluid each day. I will make every effort to drink more, but my eyeballs are already floating, trying to drink 64 oz of fluid each day.

7th impression – they suggest that you keep your exercise routine to a minimum during the first week since your body is adapting to a new way of eating. They suggest walking 10 minutes 3 times a day. I will plan to add my old lady stretching yoga routine to that, since that is not at all strenuous, and is relaxing.

 

10-20-30!

Yesterday I received my new month’s worth of Nutrisystem AND my 30-pounds-off-bear-reward!

I’ve already admitted to you that I’m immature and respond really well to childish forms of pats-on-the-head, and it’s really the truth. I give myself a gold star on my desk calendar each day when I do either my yoga and exercises or my elliptical trainer. I look at my sweet lineup of bears and smile, feeling a definite pat on the head for my lardage loss thus far. It also motivates me to go for the next one!

My husband and I decided that we would split the cash-back reward on our credit card. He immediately ordered a pistol he’s been drooling over for a LONG time. I told him that I would spend my share slowly, indulging in some new clothes – one size down from what I’m currently wearing – as further motivation to continue losing the lard.

Since one of the parts of me that won’t change is my FEET, I ordered some really colorful “happy” shoes from China from a place called, “Yes, We Vibe.”