My Why's!

Last night I was exercising in my room using weights and my exercise ball.  Before I could blink, Neeley and Kayla were doing it right along with me!  Neeley ran to get one of her balls to do the ball exercises with me and Kayla ran and grabbed the heaviest thing she could find for weights (Lilah's little crock shoes).  Seeing them be so eager to join in just solidified my "Why!"  

I want them to learn good habits while they are young.  I want them to be conscious of their own health and have it be something that is just automatic for them!  I want to be around for many years to come so I can see them grow old.  I want to have the energy to do anything I want with them!  I want to be free from this weight.  

When I started on this journey, I decided I not only wanted to do it for me but as an inspiration for others.  If I can do it, so can anyone else.  I am just so glad to see it is my own daughters I am inspiring!

Healthier alternatives!

First of all notice I said healthier! 

 My neighbor was kind enough to give us some zucchini from their garden.  I love zucchini bread so I decided to make some with a few modifications.  I exchanged out the oil and put in apple sauce and then used wheat flour instead of white.  So, I know it still has lots of sugar from the sugar and the apple sauce, however, it is at least a little healthier from the original version.  I wasn't sure if the family would eat it but it is a big hit!  Even Jer (after a bit of teasing) liked it too!  I figured I could eat a 1/2 a slice and still stay within my calorie allotment for the day.  Yummy!

I am beginning to be pleasantly surprised by all of the yummy stuff I CAN eat.  Instead of focusing on what is taboo I have been trying to find all kinds of great things that I can eat.  It is a fun little challenge and I get excited when I find something that is better than the fatty alternative.  My favorite?  Turkey bacon.   SOOOO much easier to cook and Jeremy even likes it better than the original.  Now you know it has to be good if it passed the hubby test!  Only 35 calories a slice with very little fat!

My new obsession!

Thanks to my sister in law Richelle I found my latest obsession.  It is a website called fitday.com.  You can type in everything you eat and it calculates calories and nutritional values for you.  You can also add your exercise and other activities.  It then calculates everything for you so you can see how you are doing.  You can put in daily nutritional goals as well as activity goals.  There is a free section (the part I am using) and a pay section.  Not sure what that offers but the free part is pretty cool.  So if you are doing a food journal or counting calories this is any easy way to do it!

I have been counting calories the past couple of weeks and when I didn't know I would guess and try to guess over as not to cheat.  Well, I found I was consuming less calories than I thought!  How nice is that!  Now I can eat more, all healthy stuff of course!

That brings me to how I am doing.  GREAT!  That sums it up.  I got me a barbell set of weights so I can now get going on some muscle building so I can burn more calories!  I have to get working because last week I was number three in percentage of weight loss for the contest.  Not sure of the results for this week so we will see.

Enemy #1!

I have come to discover that family gatherings are enemy #1 when it comes to weight loss.  It is a good thing Jennie and Ryan are in the zone when it comes to this because they made tonight a safe gathering at their house.  But I can't say as much for the lot (the cabin for you outsiders).  I want to start this out by saying I love the lot, I love family gatherings and I really love Mom Dopp.  But, I am finding it really hard to stick with things when eating in any combination of the above three things.  Jer was out of town this week so I went to the lot to spend time with some of the family.  The first two days I did really well.  Then time around the camp fire hit.  And it was time to roast marshmellows.  I had already resisted a number of things and tried to eat the best of the worst at all of the meals.  I know that I can't be perfect all of the time.  I was just so much in the zone before going up there.  I had gone another week with no desserts and eating pretty much a perfect diet.  So I really shouldn't be beating myself up here.  I pretty much took a day off from the diet and realized that it really isn't all that fun any more.  Fun is feeling good at the end of a day when you know you have done everything humanly possible to be healthy.  Fun is feeling great with no guilt.  Fun is being a good example to the girls.  I guess I should be glad to have this learning experience and realize that I am changing.  It is just hard to go and see all white bread, butter in all the vegetables and everything else for that matter and treats like you wouldn't believe.  

I think I am starting to know how a minority might feel.  When you are different from the norm.  It is funny that we live in a society that the norm is so unhealthy.  If you go into a restaurant and order your food to be prepared differently just to make it healthy you are almost frowned upon.  You make something a little different trying to make it a little better for you and people think you are imposing on their taste buds.  I am happy to see more healthy things being offered like whole wheat crust for pizza but saddened to see other things disguised as healthy when it is really bad.  My pet peeve number one are labels that say trans fat free when you read the label and find hydrogenated oils in it anyway. Legally they can say that if it has less than .5 grams of it.  How is this legal.  Shouldn't we be allowed to know the real truth and make a decision for ourselves.  What kind of government does this???

Ok so I know I am ranting here but really, it is true.  So as for now, I  will continue my quest to eat healthy. I can't stay away from Mom's cooking all together because it is some of the best around.  I'll just have to eat less of it and pick and choose what parts to eat.  Really, don't get me wrong this isn't against Mom.  She is the BEST cook and one of the most giving generous people I know.  She really loves us all and wants to please us.  This is about my own vices.  This is about me making healthy choices when I am around all of those yummy things.

Inspiration

I thought we could use some good inspiration for the day!

"It is far better to dare mighty things, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much.
For they live in that gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."
---Theodore Roosevelt

Good food!

Almost a week into my contest and I am feeling awesome!  This week was an incredible week with total control.  I had absolutely no desserts and all healthy foods all week long except for a treat yesterday on the 4th of July.  I have turned down chocolate cake, gelato, ice cream, cookies and the list goes on and on!  The more I do it the more I feel in control.  It has become almost a game to me how much I can stay away from!  Right now I have a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting sitting on my counter and I have not even tried it!  Now if you know me, you know this would be one of my all time favorite desserts!  Can you say CONTROL!

I realized that the times I want this stuff the most is when I am hungry.  Instead of saying "I'm hungry" my body has this inner voice that screams, "FEED ME THE SUGAR!"  I have started to recognize this as a cry out for food and not just a cry out for the junk.  So before I can think about going for the junk I have quickly been getting something healthy to eat.  This is a harder task for me than you might think.  I used to snack on some junk as I made our meals.  Now I just have to get the lunch together in a hurry.  This has caused me to come up with some on the spot meals that I can always go to.  My favorite for the week is some fat free refried beans topped with salsa.  I warm it up and dip carrots and celery in it.  I have decided it tastes better than chips in it and it is so easy to whip up.  And I get the protein I need!  

I now need to sit down and come up with a lot of other go to meals so that I have plenty to choose from when I get the urge to go for the junk!  Hopefully over time my body will learn to send hunger signals and not junk signals!