Couch to 5K week 2

So I decided not to wuss out today and just started week two of the C25K. Oh geez. I only added 30 seconds to each run and then added an interval, but I was huffing and wheezing and yeah. I ended up slowing my pace down a ton. I mean right now I am really not interested in how fast I can run. Just the actual fact that I am running. So I ended up "running" at right around 3mph and walking about 2.5. Hopefully thursday will go a little better and Saturday I want to make it outside to run. I really hope it's not raining. I love the fact that I can use my grandparents treadmill. I just don't like the fact that I change how I run on the treadmill for fear of falling off of it. So I run differently which hurts a little more. I mean I am totally ok with the fact that I am running in place. I just run a little faster outside ;) And the scenery is nice.

I am overall pleased with how my January ended up for weight loss wise. Since tomorrow is the 1st I am just going to use that weigh in for my total for January. Which should be around 12 pounds ;) Depending on what it says tomorrow, so I mean how can you beat that? Well you can, but for me that is a great start to the New Year. And it presses me to keep going and to not give up and quit. Or eat all those carbs that I have been wanting the last two days. Grr. Like where the heck did that craving come from.

Birthday cheating results

Sundays are my busy days so I don't know if I will always be able to post. BUT man. I didn't really feel like I had done that much cheating on Saturday, but my stomach was going to tell me otherwise. I quite literally only had half a roll and some frozen yogurt on my birthday and I must have gone over the limit of sugar that my body thinks it needs right now because my tummy wasn't happy with me on Sunday. While I am trying to think of this on a good note, it kind of makes me sad because I really love those sweet Hawaiian rolls. And I will be sad to see them go. And ritz crackers.

And for whatever reason I am now wanting EVERYTHING I haven't been eating in the last month. Like cheese. And the rolls and the ritz. I think my body got enough of a taste of the roll and went oooh oooh I want some more. I was really fighting it earlier. But I would rather take a pleasant tummy over any of those foods.

So I technically a month into this. It's been 4 weeks. And while I am happy with my results I am ready to come up with new foods to eat. I can only eat so many rice cakes with peanut butter you know? And chicken and brown rice. Although I discovered that I really love mixing my rice into my salad at lunch time. lettuce, rice, chicken or taco meat. It makes a nice salad actually.

Gluten free cookies were a success!! They tasted good, and I probably ate too many of them. Yes they are gluten free but they are not sugar free :( So glad the box only made 18 cookies and that they all disappeared. But we will be repeating that one. Hopefully not too soon ;)

And this week I am starting week 2 of Couch to 5K. I think I am just going to go for it. I don't think 3 minutes at a time will kill me. I was impressed that I was able to do the 2 minutes right away that this I think will be ok. It will be interesting to see how easily my body will get back into workout mode. I wasn't able to today because of a test that I did for work tonight. But I should get to for the rest of the week :) And hopfully tomorrow when I head over to my grandparents to use their treadmill that I am not a half hour late from work like I was on Thursday. Geesh. I got things to do treadmill! Besides run on you. BUT the bike is together! I am looking forward to using that on Wednesday; trying to figure it out with the different workouts will be interesting. I haven't been on a bike since I was a member of a gym. So it's nice to have one down in our basement where I don't have to fight other people for it.

Birthday cheatings

Alright. So yeah. It's my birthday. And I did cheat a little today. But nothing too horrible or overboard! I decided that since it was my birthday I would have a little myfroyo. That's our local frozen yogurt shop where you buy the yogurt and then fit all the toppings you would never throw on your frozen yogurt at home into a little or big bowl and then pay for it by the ounce place. I might be the only one on the face of the earth who can walk in and spend $1.43 on less than 4 oz of frozen yogurt and be happy about it :) That's one of the things I am technically not supposed to be having because of the candida diet. I figured the yogurt would be better than ice cream and I had cake batter since it was my birthday :) 

The other thing I had was half of a Hawaiian Sweet Roll. First piece of bread in almost a month. And I was a good girl and only ate half of the roll. :) I wanted the whole thing. But I held back.

Because...

I knew I was making cookies for my small group after church tomorrow :) And I am going to be sneaky and sneak some gluten free cookies in. And then not tell them until after they eat them :)*insert evil laugh now* We have had this gluten free cake mix box sitting in our cupboard since my sister thought that she might be allergic to gluten. Once her test came back negative, it has just sat in the cupboard. So when I knew I was making dessert for group, I started looking for some gluten free cookies to make, and I found one that used the cake mix that we had in the cupboard. I mean seriously. How convenient is that? And the good news is they actually turned out ok! They are quite crumbly. I don't believe there is enough moisture in the batter. But they are definitely worth a repeat make. Not something I would do all the time, because they are still pretty high in sugar. But for a once in a while treat I could have them. I would just add some almond extract to the batter and it would be yummy!

I am pretty happy that I have found some gluten free stuff that I would like to continue to eat. I am not interested in changing my whole life around and buying all this expensive food because I can't eat wheat anymore. And I most certainly am not going to make my entire family do it. That would just be too expensive.

But I could tell that my stomach was acting up a bit, and I feel like I might have a little bit of heartburn. Which I hardly ever have :( So I know I overdid it today. But I do have to say I am happy with the way I ate today. I didn't overdo it to the point of being soooo stuffed. I made my meatballs gluten free, which I think worked pretty well. I probably had too many potatoes. But I didn't have too many other carbs today. So yeah.

It was a pretty nice low key birthday today. So hello 31. I am expecting you to be quite the amazing year. And I expect you to live up to that expectation.

What's missing?

Tonight was quite hilarious! We were making dinner and something in the sausage and bean casserole just didn't look right. So we fiddled with it and put it in the oven. And right before it was done cooking my Mom asked my sister if there were in fact supposed to be BEANS in the sausage and BEAN casserole. We had a good laugh and added them in.

This is one of the meals that I don't know if I should be eating or not. It isn't on the good side of the Candida diet. I didn't eat the croutons. But it has some gluten from the chicken broth and tomato paste and then sausage. But it's more the processed food that doesn't sit well with the diet. So I am just going to see how I feel in the next couple of days I guess.

Almost 28 days into this. And tomorrow I plan on doing a no-no. I am going to have a little frozen yogurt for my birthday. That is if I can convince people to go with me :) I am not planning on veering much from my diet on my birthday. I am so done with going overboard on "special occasions". I am fairly certain we could make any day we wanted a special day. But not even a roll. I am making my favorite meal. Even going to use cornstarch instead of flour in it so it is gluten free :)

Happy Birthday to me :0)

A whole can of chili

Today after I got home from my C25K day 2 training, I had found that my mom and younger brothers had gone out to dinner, and my older sister wasn't ready to eat. I was pretty dang hungry and had to come up with something quick. So I did something I haven't done in a while. I opened and ate almost a whole can of chili. I mean technically they are two servings, so it's not like I was going completely overboard. Most of my meals have been sitting right at 300 calories, and this one ended up being almost 600. (I had some fritos also). I figured I needed some more protein since I just had finished run/walking. So I ate almost the whole thing. Only left a couple of bites actually. And now I am sitting here with a way full tummy. But I guess sometimes you have to throw your body off right?

I mean it's bad  good enough that I started working out again. 3daysinarowthankyouverymuch. And I am just a tad bit sore from all the running. So I threw some extra calories in. I am not going to freak out. And yeah. I used the canned kind so it had some gluten and sugar, but I didn't want to get too dangerously hungry and make worse decisions.

So all and all I am still pretty happy right now :) Things are still progressing like they should and I am feeling on track. And that is a good place to be

Wednesday Weigh In week 5

Wow. Week 5 of weigh-ins :) I would like to happily report a loss:

2.2 pounds actually :) This brings my total for January up to 12 pounds! This excites me :) I mean technically it's my last weigh in OF January, but my next one is February 1st, so that will be more of a total loss for January. I actually think that is the most that I have lost in a month? That I can remember at least.

I did manage to get another workout in. I didn't know if I would be able to or not on Wednesdays simply because of the meetings I have every week. But I made it on time tonight and even had dinner before I went. I might have to only do a 30-40 minute workout those days, but I am sure that will be fine :)

The darn wind kept me up a lot last night! But the good news is that it has melted the majority of the snow that we had. Thank goodness! I am seriously sick of the snow already. I have decided that I like to visit snow. I don't like living in it!

12 down, 108 to go..

Couch to 5K Training

Otherwise known as C25K. You know. It promises that in 8 weeks that you will go from sitting on your couch to running a 5k, or 3.1 miles. I did this last year with a bit of success ;) Well I managed through it until about week 6 when I ditched it and ran a mile. And then ran two miles. And then ran 3.1 miles. In about 65 minutes? I think? And they say on the program that you are supposed to run a 5k in 30 minutes. What I really would like to say isn't Christian ;) So I will keep that thought to myself.

Back to today! I had decided that I was going to go to my Grandparent's house and use their treadmill to start my C25K since there is still snow and ice all over and I am not running outside. And it's not freezing in their basement. It actually ended up being warm! But as I was standing on the treadmill my uncle went to show me how it worked, and he flipped up the switch to turn the speed up. Nothing.  Oh great! I broke the treadmill before I even got started! We spent the next half hour hilariously flipping all the breakers in the house to find out which one had flipped, before I finally moved it over to a different plug. He eventually found the right breaker, but really I just thought it was funny. I got over there, got all dressed, and on the machine and the power doesn't work? Nope. Not going to stop me.

The one thing that almost stopped me was that my music quit playing after 3 songs in the new app I just got. So he was still talking to me telling me when to run and when to walk, but my music never came back. Kinda irritating. But whatever. I guess I will see what happens next time I use it?

I do have to say, I think the training is definitely harder on my knees on the treadmill then if I was actually running outside. I am pretty sure I will be running outside again soon, but for the next couple weeks I will probably stick to inside just for weather's sake.

My exercise schedule is going to look like T/Th/S doing the C25K, and M/W/F doing the bike when we get it put together. And Sundays are going to be rest days unless I get up early and get a workout in before church. Lots to do on Sundays with church, and usually a couple of church meetings, plus I will have to cook food for the next weeks lunches :)

Weigh in day tomorrow! I am off to bed so I can get a good nights sleep!

A trip to the dentist

Today I had the lovely pleasure of going to the dentist. I am trying to say that in the most non-sarcastic way that I can. See I haven't been to the dentist in about 3ish years. Save last month went I went in and had one of my baby teeth pulled because it was abscessed and infected. I have grown up with 4 baby teeth (3 now ) that didn't have adult teeth under them. And it hadn't been a problem. Until the last year or so when one of them kept getting infected :/

So I went in today with every intention of getting a cleaning and figuring out a plan of starting the process of getting an implant for my tooth. And then after a million X-rays and high tech pictures of my teeth he looks at me and tells me that I should consider doing another round of braces to straighten my teeth back up before we do the implant. His concern is that if I don't do that before the implant once I get it in it won't look right with my teeth moved.

I can just see the money flying out the window! :( Braces, let alone all these cleanings are very expensive. I have very decent dental coverage. But what the heck?!? This wasn't really what I expected when I went in today. I was thinking get this taken care of soon. I don't really want a hole in my mouth for over a year. So now I have a referral to my orthodontist from when I had braces almost 20 years ago to see how long it would take and how much it would cost to do it.

Not exactly in my plan this year? But the wax for my hands and warm neck roll and massage chair might make up for it a few times a year ;)

Food note :) I tried corn spaghetti tonight and I have to say it wasn't bad :0) I don't think I let it cook long enough? It was still kinda hard,but taste wise was good enough to eat again :) I might see about the rice spaghetti? I don't know which one would have less carbs?

oh boy

The bike is here :0) Yah!! I am excited to use it. Not so excited to put it together. But hopefully that will be sooner than later. We shall have to see how many of us it takes to put it together and when that happens since I have plans tomorrow, and wednesday, and I have to study for a test that I have to take for work to make me "highly qualified" for the job. yeah.

Ohmygosh. Today my body decided to crave everything I am not eating. I so wanted to eat the Texas toast that they had at dinner. And I so wanted a sugar treat. It's so hard to fall into that mentality of "oh I've been doing this for 3 weeks now, I deserve a treat" Uh no body. You don't. okthanksbye. The only day I will probably do that is Saturday on my birthday. I might have some frozen yogurt :) But that will probably be it.

It's hard to get all my water in on Sundays. I just go go go from church to meeting back to church that I have a hard time drinking it. Like it's 6 and I have 4 cups to go! Not a wise choice to do right before bed I don't think. yeah. I think I will probably be able to get two more cups in. We shall see.

Did I mention that I came up with a brilliant plan to start my Couch to 5K? I probably did. But I forget these things ;) I can go over to my grandparents house and use their treadmill! That was I am not running on the snow and ice.I thought this was genius :) That was I can get started and get going and not keep putting it off. I am going to go on Tuesday and get started on that, and do that T/TH/S and do the bike on M/W/F with some strength training afterwards.That seems like a pretty good program to me :)


As soon as we get the bike put together...

3 weeks and not quitting

I have officially made it through 3 weeks of this lifestyle change! I just had to look at the calendar to make sure :) You see 3 weeks is usually when I throw in the towel and give up. But not this time. I can't. I won't.

But it's the truth. I don't know what it is about making it past week 3. And the fact that I am doing this pretty much on my own. I really haven't stayed too far from the diet. I still have my 1/2 c milk in my coffee, and I still eat peanut butter. I think the gluten change has been the hardest thing to change just because gluten seems to be used in almost every canned item out there. I mean in a can of freaking tomato soup there is gluten. Or cream of chicken. Or boxed rice. It just makes preparation much harder. But I have taken the time to do it. I have still had more potatoes than I should probably. And I can so tell tonight. I am hungrier than I should be 3 hours after eating a meal. And I figure it's the mashed potatoes that I had at dinner. And I had a small spoonful of boxed rice the other night because time got away and I didn't make any plan rice.

I am still trying to figure out how to not eat the same thing all the time and get bored of it.  I don't think I am supposed to be having brown rice every day for lunch. But for crying out loud. I have hardly been able to get 1000 calories in and I have to be sensible about this. I can't starve myself. I have to be able to eat. So I am trying to find a balance in it all.

But a 10 pound weight loss proves it is working :) 10 pounds and I still have one more weigh in for the month of January. I say that's an excellent accomplishment for one month :) If I lose at least 10 pounds a month I will be down 120 pounds at the end of December.

And that would be a good place for me to be :)

Slightly stir crazy

We are sitting here on day 3 of snow/ice/rain mixed weather, and I have to say I haven't been out of the house since Wednesday afternoon when I got home from work. And I literally had a moment today of oh my gosh! What day is it? The boys (my brothers) are definitely ready to be doing something then stuck inside all day. See Wednesday the snow was pretty. And fun to play in. Today it's just a hard layer of ice after it was freezing rain ALL day yesterday. It's days like this I wish I had a treadmill. I would have used it! But I did manage to work out for 40 minutes on my Airofit. Yes. I have one of those. Kinda like the Gazelle :0) Best 14.00 I have ever spent at Goodwill. I have lost and gained and lost and gained with that thing ;) And soon the new bike will be here and we will have to make room in the gym. I can't wait to start cross-training with that thing. :) But I guess that means that I would have to be actually doing the Couch to 5k. Um hello. I am under 5 inches of snow and ice. The track is buried and I will not be running outside at the moment.

Oh yeah. I worked out!

It's the first workout that I have done this year. I was really trying to get a hold of the food part of this change. I knew if I tried to do both of them at once that I was going to fail at something. So I just decided to start with the food. But as I have watched my weight stay the same for the majority of the last week, I knew it was time to start the workouts again. Which means I am probably going to figure out how to eat a little more. Because I know right now I am hitting the very low end of how many calories I should be eating a day, and if I was to exercise most of that away, well I just don't know if that would be very healthy. So I am gonna have to figure out a snack at some point during the day.

And I also took the time to de-ice my car a little bit today. I have no plans on going anywhere till Sunday when I go to church, but I knew it was supposed to start raining and snowing again at some point before then, and I didn't want to be scraping off a ton of ice on Sunday before church..so I decided to get a layer off today. I ended up doing it right after my workout because I knew my body temperature would be up and I wouldn't freeze so bad LOL! But I spent a good 20-30 minutes getting all the snow and ice off of my car that had fallen since Wednesday. Let's just say that this is the part of winter that I do not like. I like snow when it's falling and pretty and I don't have to drive anywhere. Let alone the fact that I would like to be able to get off my street. I will be shocked if they actually get around to plowing my street. I really think that they rely on that good old Chinook wind coming and warming everything up. Just my luck they are probably going to end up doing it Sunday morning, and I will be digging my car out before church.

I haven't been posting a lot of my food, but it's been relatively the same every day. Usually a hard boiled egg for breakfast or two rice cakes with peanut butter, I have had a salad almost every day for lunch with either chicken or taco meat. And then I usually end up modifying our dinners to something I can eat. Last night I wasn't feeling all that great. So I just had a small spoonful of the rice at dinner even though it had gluten in it. I spent a fair majority of the evening in the bathroom anyways last night. I think I caught the bug that my mom had last weekend. Glad to say it passed quickly and I felt much better today :)

Good day. No school. I worked out. And I de-iced my car :) Now if I could only remember what day it is ;)

Snowed in!

Day two of snow and freezing rain combo :/ I think since the school district got so much backlash about school not being cancelled yesterday, they took precautions and cancelled today as we were walking out the door yesterday. And today at the same time they cancelled school tomorrow! So I actually worked only one full day this week :) crazy crazy weather. See?

At any rate my head hurts today. I don't have all my water in yet. And I didn't finish all my lunch because I think the rice was going bad. So when my mom got home from work I actually ended up sleeping for about two hours. And all I want to do us go back to bed! Best snow remedy and headache medicine for sure. So I am pretty sure I am not far off from an early bed time tonight :) Just to be snowed in tomorrow as well. I am so glad I don't have to actually be anywhere until Sunday! Except I should try to thaw out my car tomorrow. I fear it is frozen. I would love to have an automatic car starter right now! I think I say that every winter when it snows a lot :$

Wednesday Weigh In week 4 :)

Alright. I have been doing this for at least 3 weeks now. Since it's week 4 of weigh ins, I have been going fairly strong. And I am happy to report that I still lost this week. :) Not as much as I wanted too. But this was what I woke up to this morning.

10 pounds down! Only 1.6 this week, but this excites me :) I can see it mostly in my face. But I feel good.

Small post. Today was absolutely crazy! It started snowing at around midnight last night and didn't quit till about 2 this afternoon. And would you think this would shut our town down? Oh no. We toughed it out and thru 6 inches of snow we made it through a 2 hour delay at school. I had 7 of my 15 kids show up. And as we were walking out the door to come home today they announced that school is cancelled tomorrow!! Apparently we are going to get dumped on tonight. Either rain or snow. And the district doesn't want the backlash of parents griping tomorrow like they were today! Horrible. Anyway. This is the picture I took a few minutes ago.

So I am off to check the weather for tomorrow and go to bed. Now if only my little brothers would sleep in. Tomorrow will be grand :)

g-free success! sort of?

Today I made some gluten free pancakes for dinner :) I have to say..it wasn't completely horrible ;) I mean they seemed a little dry to me, but then again, I didn't drown it in butter and pancake syrup like everyone else. I mean for crying out loud syrup has 34 g of sugar in 1/4 cup! That's like instant death at this point. No Instead I put some peanut butter on it :) I even made it with the almond milk that we got to try. I still haven't tried it by itself. I put it in my coffee and didn't like that, and now I used it in the pancakes. I definitely am proud of myself for trying some new foods in all of this. Not that I really am wanting to incorporate them into my diet. But hey. I tried them ;)

I am tired today. I feel like I didn't sleep last night. But I had coffee at around 7 (mistake number 1) and then it was starting to get very windy! So needless to say while waiting around for the 4-8 inches of snow that is supposed to be falling very very soon, I will be making my way to bed very shortly. Right after I get all my stuff for morning ready tomorrow. Which wouldn't make much sense if we cancel or delay school, but whatever. :0) Better to be prepared than running late tomorrow.

Weigh in day tomorrow! Not too excited for it, but will do it nonetheless. I mean I weigh myself everyday anyway. Wednesdays are just "official" So yeah. I have still lost weight. Just not quite to my goal of what I wanted for the week. So it's time to get my workout plan in gear. :) We got the bike back on order, so I can't wait for that to come in. Now I just need to get going on the couch to 5k training again, and I should be doing pretty good!

Right?

encouragement

You just never know who is going to end up encouraging you throughout the day. LOL! So be nice to everyone you meet! I had a friend on facebook message me today, about how she reads this blog and how I was an inspiration. I have to say it slightly blew me away. See in my head I have been battling a little bit this weekend. So I had too much coffee, so I haven't lost any weight for most of the week. My cousin goes and loses 11 pounds in her first week and I am sitting at 10 (unofficially of course). And do I have what it takes to actually finish this. I mean when the going gets tough and the weight doesn't come off, do I have what it takes to dig my heels in and actually do it. No matter what. Can I really not eat yeast for the rest of my life? Will I ever be able to eat a cookie, or ice cream? These are the thoughts swirling around in my head. And most likely the answer is no. Although I don't know that for sure. And then another friend had been thinking about me and texted me tonight. I feel encouraged today :)

I tried almond milk in my coffee. That was a no no. almond and caramel and irish cream coffee don't mix too well. That latte sadly went down the sink. I did get to redeem it later when I went to my friends to work on bridal shower/bachlorette party stuff. I haven't been in a wedding in a while. almost 9 years. Yeah I helped plan one about 3 years ago, but I had forgotten how much time it takes to do this. Less than 55 days and my friend will be married. Lots to do in so little time. And clean my house too! yikes. LOL!

I feel like my body is getting used to way little-er amounts of food. I know right now that I am probably not eating enough. I am for sure listening to my body. But when I think about how much I am actually putting into it and I am not really "starving to death" Sometimes I will get really hungry because it's past time to eat. But other than that I'm kind of impressed. I have been eating pretty dang "clean" for me. I confess, I still much on fritos. But never more than a serving every couple days. Or a very small amount. But for the most part I am pretty dang proud of myself. I just need to keep everything realistic and I will be doing ok :)

Noting

Blogging from my phone tonight so this will be a short post. I just wanted to make note of some things going on. First thing I noticed today is that I was having very strong urges to pull my eyebrows. Yes. I know what's its called and yes I have done it for years. But I haven't done it in a long time. And hardly at all since I quit sugar. Well most of sugar. Which leads me to the headache I have today. And the rash that I have on my elbow. It really makes me think that it is all related to something I have eaten. I have had two coffee's instead of one yesterday and today. And I have been up late both nights. But maybe the combination of two coffees which is more milk an sugar and I have had more peanut butter in the last couple of days. I haven't gotten the rash in the elbow in a while. So I don't really know. Tomorrow I think I am going to be brave and try the almond milk in my coffee and see if I like it. We got it mainly to use in the gluten free pancakes I am going to make soon. But I did want to try it in my coffee. I figured it was worth a shot. Haha. Shot :) i also found a different kind of syrup that has less carbs and sugar. Not a whole lot. But enough to lower it by a teaspoon of sugar I believe. So I am excited to try it. I am almost out of the other syrup. Probably two more days? Maybe one. I am a bad guesser sometimes.

So. I have determined that I can really only have one coffee a day. Even if I want more. It's too much. I mean in a way I guess it was kind of like seeing what my level was? Very unintentional mind you. But it was kind of like. See this is how much or how far I can go with the sugar before my body starts to react.

Lesson learned.

Experimenting

Well I pretty much started phase two of trying to get rid of the Candida overgrowth today. I started taking Grapefruit seed extract which is supposed to kill the overgrowth inside my body. Pretty sure it's working as I have had a headache all day! Still have to figure out how long to take that before I start taking a probiotic. I figure I will just take it for 3 weeks to a month to use up what is in the bottle. Unless I start feeling way better way sooner!

I also am currently soaking my feet in RAW apple cider vinegar right now. It's supposed to be a natural way to get rid of athlete's foot. The whole issue with athlete's foot is the main reason that I realized that Candida overgrowth may be in fact what I have. I have had this issue for about 10 years and I can't get it to go away. My toenails are in horrible condition. I can't wait for the day that my toenails are all grown out nicely and I can actually go get a pedicure from someone. Until that day, no one is touching my toes. I won't put any salon through that. Yucky toes. I wish I could paint them, but alas, you are not supposed to do that when you have athlete's foot. Dang. Can't even cover it up. I usually end up painting them if I know my toes are going to be seem and then taking it off that night. Or at least that is the goal ;)

But sadly that raw apple cider vinegar is expensive! It was almost 6.00 a bottle. And I ended up using almost the entire bottle to soak my feet tonight. Now the one thing I was looking at said to soak your feet every night! But there is no way I can afford that. So if I think this helped at all I might try doing it once a week. I was really doing it to 1) see if it made a difference and 2) try to jumpstart the whole cleaning out the toenails effect. I by no means want to sit with my feet in soaking wet socks everynight till its gone. A) that's a lot of money and B) I don't have all that many socks and I don't want to be wearing two pairs a day. That's a lot of laundry!

So I press on. Press on through the headache, press on through the wet socks. By all means 2012 will be the year that I finish what I start. With the weight loss and the athlete's foot :)

Wedding stuff

Went out with the bride and the other maid of honor tonight. :) We looked at the venue for the wedding and headed over to the mall. We were looking for something the bride needed, but also trying to match the guys shirts to our dresses. Turns out there are various shades of teal. just FYI. And different fabrics will look differently in the same color we have discovered. But we had a good time and I spent WAY too much time in Victoria's Secret. It's a whole different shopping experience when you can't wear the items in the store. I kept thinking, Next year, Next year. I'm tired of repeating that statement every year. Yes. At some point this year I will be able to shop there. Now whether I will want to shop there is a different story.

Moving on.

Well I did ok eating wise today. I had a (small breakfast) sausage at work and then I had (small)fries when we were out shopping. So I probably ended up eating too much carbs. But I got all my water in and the rest of my meals were great. So I am not too worried. I mean for 12 days now I have followed a super low carb diet. And yeah I still need to get more protein in. But that is constantly my struggle. I even almost had some frozen yogurt tonight. I almost justified it. But it has probiotics in it. But it probably has way too much sugar in it, and I am not having sugar right now. That was a tough one. But I did not. I bought the flip flops for the wedding instead.

Exhausted. Thankful for a Monday off this week! That just dawned on me!! I don't have to spend sunday night cooking meals for the week, I can do that on Monday! I only need to make 3 lunches for school next week. This excites me :)

Wednesday Weigh In week 3!

Oh look, a very early morning post! I did this for a certain someone who texted me last week wondering where my update was! So I am posting my weigh in pic first, because she will be able to see it.

 

There it is! A loss of 3 pounds! I am very excited about this. One, it means I am still losing. And two, I was hoping for a loss of three pounds a week. That little Bridesmaid dress is taunting me for sure. And I do not want to show up to my friends wedding looking like I am pregnant. Therefore. I shall finish what I start by losing some weight. I think I have about 9 more weeks. 9 more weeks of 3 pounds would be 27 pounds which is pretty dang close to 200 :) I think I can manage that ;) Especially since fairly soon I am going to start exercising again. I think I am getting the food part under control again, so that means exercise time is going to be upon me shortly! I am going to start the Couch to 5k again. I kinda miss running? WEIRD. I hate running. BUT I love the feeling of accomplishment that I have when I realize I can run a mile. Very stinking slow. But I know as the pounds go down that so will the time.


Baby steps.....

monthly shopping

It's the 10th. That means it's time for the monthly shopping trip. Where my sister and I go spend 400.00 on groceries for the month. It's a crazy massive trip to Walmart that usually ends up being close to 3 hours. Because then you have to come home and unload the two carts of stuff you bought into your house and into the cupboards. Whew. Glad that trip is over with. We did end up getting some gluten free pancake mix and crackers. for when we have pancakes and for when I make meatloaf. And some almond milk to try. My sister is trying to be very helpful with the whole diet change. We are going to see how it goes.

I feel like I have been doing quite well with my eating lately. Like I am still surprised at the fact that I am not really craving all the foods that I shouldn't be eating. It's kind of the weirdest feeling in the world. I look at it and how much sugar is in it and think it's totally disgusting. It's weird, but I am thankful I suppose. I don't want to be sitting around moping at the foods I "can't" eat. I am just moving on. Tomorrow is the weigh in day :0) I am happy with the loss so far this week. I know. I am bad. I weigh myself every day. I find it keeps me more accountable. I find it funny to see it not budge for a few days and then bam, you are like 2 pounds lighter. For a 3rd week weigh in, I think tomorrow is going to go quite well! Especially since I wandered all over Walmart and Target tonight and feel like I actually exercised.

Disappointed

I was disappointed not once or twice, but three times today! Uuuug! First it started out with the eggs that I hard boiled last night. Strike that. They were nicely (gag) soft boiled and runny this morning. My apologies if you like your eggs that way. I do not. Gotta find something else for breakfast! Disappointment number two: I ran in to a local coffee shop and bought some coffee at the recommendation of a friend. Brought it home only to discover that the flavoring in it was dark chocolate. No bueno. I can't have chocolate :( No wonder the coffee tasted so good at her house the other night! Geez. And number three: We bought a stationary bike online tonight and it said it was in stock and we could pick it up at the store. Well we got all the way out the the store and then she checks her email. Not in store and cancelled your order. What?!?! Well she found the button that said keep the order and hopefully it will be here within 10-12 days. I am excited to have to bike to cross-train with the couch to 5k training that I am going to be starting up again soon.

Still feeling mentally good. :) And not to bad physically. I hate how one day of not getting all your water in turns into two. blah. Hopefully I can get it all in tomorrow. But I still am amazed at how well I am doing craving wise. Today I missed my ice cream. But life goes on. Definitely more important things than ice cream.

Preparation is key...

Do I really want to be awake right now? No. But do I really want to eat breakfast and lunch tomorrow? Yes!! It's almost 10 at night right now and I am standing in the kitchen boiling eggs, making brown rice, and cooking hamburger meat for taco salads this week. It's been quite the little struggle and learning curve of trying to figure out what I can and can't eat and being prepared for that. Like today after church we had a meeting where there was going to be food served. I actually texted ahead to see what was going to be served and went ahead and made my own lunch because I knew I wasn't going to be able to eat any of it. Has it been hard? Yes but God is good and he has been taking my cravings away. Once again I dumped most of my coffe out again this morning because it was too sweet. I have been trying to find a coffee creamer to use instead of the flavor syrups because I thought they had less sugar. Well it turns out that the way I have been making it is roughly the same. So I am gonna quit
Messing around with the creamers.

Other than that it has been going easier than I thought. I had one day of freaking out but other than that I have found it doing really well. My body just feels so much better without all the sugar and bread products. I feel lighter for sure. Not to mention the fact that I have already lost over 5 pounds. And I have only been doing this for almost 2 weeks. So yeah. That's my day today. Sunday's are going to be very busy for me. So I might not be able to post very much on Sunday's

Beets and ONE WEEK

I was brave yesterday and tried a beet. I wish I had been able to take a picture of my hand after I peeled them :) They were so purple :) But all in all they tasted like dirt. I wasn't too impressed. It wasn't really something that I would want to eat quite often at all.

I don't remember now what I ate yesterday either. Not a whole lot though. I think my stomach is definitely getting smaller. I am more satisfied with lesser amounts of food these days. Which is a strange phenomenon for me. I used to live a life of constantly shoving food in my mouth. And tonight I walked all around the grocery store, down the baking aisle, in the bread aisle, and I didn't want any of it! I shuddered! Um yeah. I don't know what my problem is LOL!

I spent a ton of money on groceries today. Well not all groceries. I had to get my normal vitamins because I was out of one and the other was low. And I have been reading on the http://www.thecandidadiet.com/ site about the antifungals to take to get rid of the yeast in your body. So I found some grapefruit seed extract to take that is supposed to work really well, and then I also got some raw apple cider vinegar also. I had a friend who told me that she actually drank it diluted in some water. I was more interested in soaking my feet in it to see if it would help my athlete's foot go away quicker. And I got some protein drinks to see if I like them to try to increase my protein. I am just not going to be able to eat enough I don't think. Or maybe I am. But on some days it would be nice to have a little boost. But all the protein powders I was looking at were packed in sugar! I was shocked. There was no way I was going to buy those with that much sugar in them. That was ridiculous. That would defeat the purpose of me giving up sugar if I had to use a protein mix with a ton of sugar in it. Uh no.

I have now been yeast/sugar/gluten/dairy(mostly) free for one week. There are a few things I was still eating. Like the 1/2 c milk in my coffee, with some syrup or creamer. I was eating apples still, but I didn't today. The last apple I had was tasting gross to me. I ended up throwing half of it away. I was sad. But the yeast and the gluten I have stuck too. Unless they were hiding in something I ate. There were a couple of times I ate like cream of chicken soup. Or tonight we had sausage and been casserole. Mom made me a little bit without the bread crumbs in it, but some of them might have been soggy and I might have eaten a few. But I ate nothing breaded, or pasta or the like.

I can tell this is what I am supposed to be doing right now. There is no earthly reason that I should not be craving any and everything sugar right now. Or bread. It's like my brain switched. I don't want it. I mean I want it in my coffee. I am still not quite ready to give up my coffee. Yes it's on the list of no-no's. I might eventually switch to decaf. But for right now I am keeping it. If I don't see an improvement by the end of January I might change my mind. But I can look at cookies or donuts or cakes and really be ok with the fact that I don't want it. Which is the weirdest concept in the world for me. But that's God. Now. If only I could make my brain like lots and lots of good vegetables that I should be eating I would be all set! This time at the store I got a cucumber to try. :)

harder day

Today was so much mentally harder. I almost freaked myself out this morning! Oh my gosh! I have to eat meat and vegetables for the rest of my life! And I don't like meat and vegetables!!!! I mean I have literally taken almost every single thing out of my diet that I used to eat. Let's see. I left the eggs, chicken, brown rice, and salad. EVERYTHING else, I am either supposed to stop eating entirely or eat only 1-2 times a week.

I mean Can I just die right now? Seriously? I guess you are what you eat is coming to light. Years and years and years of high carb high carb is coming back to bite me. I mean yes for the most part I feel a ton better. I mean I had gotten it figured out last year that I was intolerant to gluten if not allergic to it. But I am, was a bread girl! My diet consisted of everything bread. It wasn't uncommon for me to be eating 6 pieces of bread a day. And it's just so easy to eat a sandwich! I could eat it on the go. Now I actually have to think out a meal and prepare it a head of time most likely. Otherwise I will not be succeeding at all. Prep work and menu planning is CRUCIAL.

And sugar was my middle name. oh geez. without knowing it, I consumed a lot through out the day. Cinnamon sugar toast in the morning, pb and honey sandwich for lunch, milk throughout the day and ice cream at night. And almost every thing has some sort of hidden sugar in it. So to try to cut it out almost completely has been hard. I'm not quite ready to give up my coffee yet. It's the only milk and sugar I have during the day. Now if I had to find something else for breakfast than an apple, I could probably do that..but man. my coffee. not yet :/

true confessions of a recovering sugar/carb addict :0)

--------------
breakfast latte, hard boiled egg, apple
lunch romaine lettuce, chicken, brown rice
dinner 2 sausage links, fried potatoes, green beans
snacks 3 tsp pb

Wednesday Weigh In week 2!

I know, I know, I kept you all in suspense..but I don't have a lot of time to sit down at the computer until more in the evening. But I did weigh myself this morning, and it's pretty consistent with a first week back to being good weigh in! :0)

5.2 pounds lost last week!! Now I am fully not expecting to lose 5 pounds every week. I have done this enough to know that won't be true. But it was surely a nice way to start this whole process off don't you think?

Alrighty. I am beginning to think this no sugar thing might be working. For one thing this morning, I couldn't even finish a whole medium apple. HUH? yeah. I ate half of it and I was just done. So I had to have the other half at a snack later in the day. I just thought it was weird that I wouldn't even be able to eat the whole apple.
And then I have had some *ahem* diarrhea today. Sorry for the TMI. But it's part of the process. Of letting the Candida die off in your body.

Small victory: I looked at the vending machine at work today and just shuddered. I can't believe that bag of cookies I used to get all the time when I was stressed out or the kids were acting up or whatever reason I chose to eat them was, was 600 calories for the bag. I don't want it now. Gross.

-----------------------
Breakfast, Latte, hard boiled egg, half an apple
lunch, romaine lettuce, chicken, brown rice
dinner, roast beef deli meat, corn/black rice 1/3 c, small handful fritos
snacks, half an apple, 2 tbs pb

Mental game

Does weight loss seem to be more of a mental game to you? I mean we all know what to do to lose weight. So why didn't I lose it all years ago? It really seems to be a mental thing to me. Like today. Not that I by any means tried to eat less. But I sure played the well I am officially weighing in tomorrow, so I don't want to have a lot of salt. Or I should drink an extra couple cups of water to wash down any salty stuff I did have. I am fairly certain I ate way less carbs today than I did yesterday. All that kind of stuff was running through my head.

I weigh myself every day. Well every day that I am trying to "be good" and lose weight. If I am knowingly eating horribly and not working out then I won't do it. I don't want to know what the number says. But if I know I am watching what I eat and working out and making an effort its just what I do. So I know what the scale says last Wednesday and today and I am very excited. Although I know in my head it will taper off. I can't expect to lose lots of weight super quick. Nor do I exactly want to. I don't want all the extra weight :/

Today was harder. We had a crazy day at work and thankfully the snack that the birthday boy brought in was chocolate brownies. Since chocolate has been a no no for 5 years, that wasn't a problem. But today I am hungrier then I was yesterday. But today I didn't have a baked potato and chili. That's a lot of carbs even if the chili has protein in it. I really need to find a way to get more protein in. Without eating chicken twice a day. Or sucking down spoonfuls of peanut butter. Which shouldn't count. :) Protein has always been hard for me. I am not really a meat eater much by default. I would make a great vegetarian if I liked vegetables. I usually got most of my protein by milk and cheese actually. But since I am avoiding those right now too, it's been harder.

So the upcoming goals are to continue to figure out meals. Figuring out new things to try and *gulp* actually doing it.

---------------------
Breakfast small apple, hard boiled egg
Lunch romaine lettuce, chicken, brown rice
Dinner, scrambled egg, 1 1/2 sausage patty
snack, 2 tbs pb, large handful fritos
water 10 cups, latte in AM

Am I doing this right?

Hmm. I thought I was supposed to be not feeling good at this point. If I am not eating sugar or carbs or dairy, shouldn't I be experiencing some horrible "die-off symptom". Maybe the milk in my coffee and the syrup for my coffee isn't letting it die completely? Or the 1 apple a day I am eating? I don't know. Today was pretty good. I got my 8 cups of water in. I had a good salad and brown rice with some chicken for lunch and that kept me pretty full until dinner. I did have a baked potato and chili at dinner. I mean am I still eating too much carbs? I don't know. I still feel good today. Like if every day turns out to be like today I will be doing good. I think there has been some sort of metal switch in my brain. Like I have to do this. It's life or death. I can't go back to eating the way I used to be eating. It will kill me. So like it or not. Life has to change. I just have to figure out meals waaaaaaay better. I don't think I can eat an apple and an egg every day for breakfast for the rest of my life. Well I mean I can...I just won't enjoy it very well :/

I am still going back and forth on whether I want to be tracking my calories over at www.sparkpeople.com. It's going to tell me that I need to be eating way more calories then I think I am taking in right now. But with being so limited in my choices of food right now, I don't really know how to get all the calories in. So yeah. I don't know right now. I am curious today though. I ate foods I would have in my tracking system anyway. So I think I am going to go check it out and see what it says. Who knows. I may be more surprised then I think.

-----------------
breakfast: small apple, hard boiled egg
lunch, romaine lettuce, chicken breast, brown rice
dinner 1 baked potato, chili
snack, 2 slices of roast beef, 1 tbs peanut butter

It's a New Year!

Today marks the official start of my no sugar/no gluten/no dairy mark to figure out if my body is really allergic to yeast or not. And what do I do? Eat sour cream in my dinner. Whoops. I will make sure that doesn't happen again!

I could tell it immediately when I woke up this morning. The difference. So like many diets before I had "my lasts" yesterday. My last glass of milk, my last pizza, my last velveeta dip with tortilla chips and fritos.My last bowl of ice cream. And by the time I went to bed I felt horrible. And still today. I was puffy and bloated this morning when I got up. And then the headache started. Now I know that while you are cutting things out like this that there will be a "die-off" stage. And it's a lot like being sick. So I am expecting to not feel all that hot for the first week or so. So I am determined to push through. But man. I started the no sugar thing earlier in the week. So I could really tell when I had it. And even the creamer that I got for my coffee has been too sweet. I mean for real. My body has decided that it hates the sugar already? Geez that was quick.

It's a lot of work to eat this way. Tonight I had to actually think and prep out what I want for meals for the next week. Since I won't be able to eat at work with the kids anymore unless they are eating salad, I have to start taking my own lunches. And I also had to come up with something to eat for breakfast too. Ugg. That is going to be the hardest meal of the day. The majority of breakfast food is carbs. oh joy.

So I do believe that this is a good change. I am ready for it. I am ready to see my body actually change in a good way. As soon as the die-off stage is done!

-------------------------
Breakfast: small apple, tsp pb, half of homemade coffee
Lunch: salad, beans and corn, roast beef slices, small handful of fritos
Dinner: Ritz chicken (minus ritz), small handful of fritos
snack, small handful of fritos, , half of iced kicker from dutch bros
*8 cups of water*