T minus 1 day

Last night definitely did not go as I would have liked it to.  About 10-15 minutes after I went to bed I hear my oldest making choking sounds and start crying.  I knew immediately what had happened, and sure enough, as I jumped up and ran into her room the overwhelming stench of vomit hit me like a wall.  And there was poor Lily, covered and crying saying "mommy, I spit in my bed!"  I'm not going to lie, it was pretty bad.  I had to wash her hair, change her clothes, and her sheets including her pillow.  I had to clean up spots on the carpet too, wash out the sheets in the sink, get the laundry started and when everything was done, I put a fan in her room to blow the smell out because it smelled like carpet cleaner and vomit.  I think I got to bed around midnight.  Later, Chloe woke up, but thankfully no vomit.  She was cold, so I turned the heater on in her room.  I never thought that I would have to turn on the heater at the end of July!  It's been rainy and cold for the past two days here.  Chloe woke up twice somewhere around 3-4 in the morning.  Naturally, I've been exhausted all day today and the kids still didn't feel very good.  We subsisted today on ginger ale, saltines and movies.

It seemed throughout the day as the kids started to feel better, I started to feel worse.  Thankfully I haven't gotten violently ill yet, and Matt, and the kids all seem to be doing pretty good now.  Last night I was the healthiest one in the house and now I am the sickest one in the house, so it's their turn to take care of me ha!  Tomorrow we are taking the Cog Train to the top of Pikes Peak, it is the one thing we are doing as a family for a 'vacation' this summer so I hope I feel better by the morning. 

I have been mentally preparing for my challenge today, all my motivational sayings are posted around the kitchen and living room, and the most important one is in the place I look the most and it says "Finish what you started"  Which has multiple meanings for me.  It's time to finish my weight loss journey, and I also have a bad habit of not finishing my challenges because I get bored with them.  So now is the time to Finish What I started!  I have  a little calendar that says 92 days on it I made out of a sticky note pad and I am going to rip off one a day.  92 days will come and go.  In 92 days I could be at the finish line or I could still be fiddling around 145.  This is to remind me every day, where do I want to be at the end of this challenge!  I want to be able to look back and have no regrets, to be able to say I gave it my all, I did my best, I worked hard every single day, and I feel proud of myself.

Sickness Strikes, New Challenge

Over the weekend I was perfect, staying on track and I didn't splurge at all.  I kept everything in moderation and I was ready to rock this week as well.  Monday was going just swimmingly until the afternoon, and then I had an incredibly stressful event that happened in the family which I'm not going to get into here, but it was too much for me and I went into my downward spiral of emotional eating.  By Monday evening I had ruined everything I had worked so hard to accomplish that day.  Tuesday was even worse, I stress ate everything in site.  I went through all the cookies in the freezer, and all the brownies I made the other day.  It was bad, really bad.  Although we got the issues worked out near the middle of the day I was still feeling a bit depressed and I didn't eat well or exercise at all yesterday.  Today, everyone in the family is sick.  Lily has diarrhea, Chloe isn't eating and is being very clingy, and Matt's stomach hurts.  I'm tired, and feel like I'm in a fog.  So today and tomorrow will also be down days.

But I am looking forward to the the future.  I have made a plan that will hopefully take me to my goal weight in the next 3 months.  Or at least hopefully into the 120s.  I have created a three month challenge for myself starting August 1st.  The plan basically is to do Turbo Fire for exercise, and to continue eating at 1750 calories a day.  But there are lots of aspects to the challenge I am making for myself.  If I complete each month successfully then I get a prize at the end.  For Month 1 it is the Turbo Fire advanced pack, For month 2 it is the Chalean Extreme advanced pack, and for month 3 it is a new complete outfit (complete with jewelry and shoes and jackets if needed).  I'm also giving myself small prizes for each successful week completed like buying a song on itunes.  That is just to help me keep up my motivation.  It will be 13 weeks long and here are the rules

• Drink 8 oz water every day
• Don't go over 1750 calories a day (tracking calories)
• Follow the Workout schedule- exercise 5 to 6 days a week
• NO SCALE ALLOWED
• Allowed to take pictures and measurements only at the end of each month
• All baking done with healthier ingredients such as applesauce, coconut oil, whole wheat, and coconut or date sugar
• Do a physical activity with the kids 5-6 days a week

Those are the basic rules an then I have a focus challenge each week to spice things up.  Notice how I have left it pretty open as far as food goes.  There is no food that is off limits, just if I bake, it has to be healthier baking.  The no scale allowed is in there because I am so ruled by the scale and if my weight is up I get depressed and over eat and if my weight is down I think I am doing well and I can eat whatever I want and I get upset.  So the scale is out for three whole months and then I will see where I am after that!  If I can follow through for all three months I should be in a very good place.
This will help me break out of my overeating cycle as well since I am not allowed to go over 1750 calories a day.  I have posted motivational quotes all over my house to help keep me motivated.  My favorite is "Suck it up and one day you won't have to Suck it in".  It makes me laugh every time I see it.

source

 So that starts on Thursday and I am also hoping to write every day during the challenge to document how the challenge is going.  I am hoping that the weekly prizes, monthly prizes, and weekly challenges will create enough "new" aspects and change it up enough to keep me motivated throughout the whole challenge.  I tend to peter off at the end of challenges because I get tired of doing them, but if I have something different to focus on each week that helps to keep it fresh and exciting.  It's like a mini challenge within the challenge.  One more day to kick this sickness, and hopefully we will all be feeling better by Friday morning.  It doesn't seem too serious right now but you never know what is going to happen.

Deflated

So I finally feel like I have deflated, or in other words, lost all of the water weight I was carrying around after my four day splurge.  That means it took me four days to get rid of it, although I'm not sure if it will be completely reflected on the scale tomorrow morning.  This morning I was 145 even, so only .2 down from yesterday and still 1.8 up from completely recovering from the weekend.  It took four days to put it on, and so it will take at least four days to take it off, if not longer.  It always seems to take longer to recover than it does to do the damage.  Today is day four and I am still doing great.  I made some Zucchini brownies last night and had a few today.  I tracked everything in MFP and I am still at about 1700 calories with my brownies, which is perfect for a workout day.  That is exactly what I am trying to do: live normally and count my treats and eat them throughout the week so I don't feel so deprived and like I need to go crazy on the weekends. 

I made the brownies from http://www.texanerin.com and I loved them!  They are made with coconut sugar and applesauce for sweeter and I really enjoyed them!  They are a much healthier version of their cane sugar and white flour counterparts.  Here is a picture and the recipe

Source

Chocolate Zucchini Brownies - 16 servings

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• ¾ cup coconut sugar or unrefined or granulated sugar
• ¼ cup (60 ml) unsweetened applesauce
• 1 cup (125 grams) whole spelt or whole wheat flour
• ½ cup (45 grams) Dutch-process cocoa powder (or regular cocoa powder if you don't have Dutch)
• 1½ teaspoons baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 cups (about 300 – 320 grams) peeled and grated zucchini
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips + ½ cup mini chocolate chips to sprinkle on top

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (176 degrees C) and line an 8"x8" pan with parchment paper or spray with baking spray.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the eggs, vanilla, coconut sugar, and apple sauce and let this sit for 5 minutes to let the coconut sugar dissolve.
3. In a separate medium bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa powder (sifted if lumpy!), baking soda and salt. Make sure there are no clumps before going on to the next step.
4. Add the dry mix to the wet, gently stir until combined. Be sure not to over mix!
5. Then fold in the zucchini and 1 cup chocolate chips.
6. Pour the batter into the pan and even the surface with a spatula.
7. Sprinkle ½ cup mini chocolate chips on top.
8. Bake for 30 - 35 minutes (14 minutes for the half batch) or until a toothpick inserted in the middle doesn't come out gooey. It might still be sticky - just not have raw batter on it.
9. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 days at room temperature or up to one week in the refrigerator. I recommend storing them in the refrigerator right from the beginning due to their high moisture content.

 The original recipe can be found HERE

I love Erin's site!  It's all about healthier baking, and I love baking.  I think this is what is going to tip the scale.  Now I can still enjoy baking without feeling so guilty about making treats and eating them!  I make sure that I calculate all the calories in MFP.  For this recipe here are the nutrition facts:

Calories 101
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 5 g	7 %
Saturated Fat 2 g	12 %
Monounsaturated Fat 0 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0 g
Trans Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 31 mg	10 %
Sodium 169 mg	7 %
Potassium 208 mg	6 %
Total Carbohydrate 15 g	5 %
Dietary Fiber 3 g	12 %
Sugars 3 g
Protein 3 g	7 %

Another thing that crossed my mind today is that I should make a list of my go to snacks and then I can start expanding them.  Pretty much I eat the same thing for snacks every day: fruit and yogurt.  Sometimes carrots and hummus.  I am glad that I am focusing on nutrition, I have a lot to learn still even though now I know all about clean eating, healthy food choices and all that, there is still a lot of preparation to be done especially when you take into account preparing snacks for kids and husband.  I just need to not be overwhelmed and continue making small changes.  I think I've tried to make too many changes too fast with nutrition and that is why I keep reverting back to my old cycle and bad habits of buying frozen foods.  I also need to make sure I have my go to food in the house.  It is much easier to feed the kids healthy food when we actually have it in the house!  When we run out of fruit and yogurt I am at a loss of what to feed them and they end up getting goldfish and fruit snacks and popcorn. 

up and down, up and down, will it ever stop?

So my husband swiped the lap top yesterday and took it to work with him all day, so I didn't get a chance to update with my "deflating" process.  Yesterday I was 147, which is four pounds less than the day before, and this morning I am 145.  So I just have two more pounds to go to get back to where I was before the weekend fiasco.  I am glad that it came off quickly, I was worried  that it was going to be very hard to get off.  There was a time several months ago when I gained 5 pounds in one week even though I was counting everything I was eating, and eating well and exercising.  I was devastated and I thought it would come off easily, but it proved to be very difficult and it took months to get back down to where I was before.  That was when I was in the middle of my plateau, another reason why being in that plateau was so difficult for me.  I thought I would be headed down, and then all of a sudden I would pop back up.  It was incredibly vexing. 

Yesterday was more or less a repeat of Tuesday.  We went to the park in the morning and I was able to get both the kids down for a nap allowing me to get some cleaning done.  I want to get better control of the cleaning in my house and I had heard about an app called Home Routines, so I decided to go ahead and get it.  Basically it's a glorified cleaning chart, but it helps you organize your house into tasks that need to be done every month, so it divides your house into zones and for about 4-5 days you focus on that zone and there is a check list that you can customize of things to do to clean that zone.  Then you can make daily tasks that need to be done every day, like wash the dishes and clean off the table.  I spent a decent amount of time figuring it out and customizing it for me and my house.  It also has a to do list, a weekly to do list, and a to do later list which I think is very helpful. 

I'm going to give this a try and hopefully it will help me get the cleaning done on a more timely scale. 

What I really wanted to talk about today was breaking my eating cycle.  From the very beginning I would do very well with my food for about five days, and then (usually on Sunday) I would just go berserk.  I would make a batch of cookies and eat until I got sick, and that isn't all, I would eat everything I wouldn't allow myself to eat on my "on plan" days.  I would eat so much that it would take me until Thursday morning to get back to where I had been before (three days of eating well) and then I would usually drop in weight Thursday-Saturday for a good weigh in on Sunday at which time the whole cycle would repeat itself.  While this was going on, I was still learning how to eat less, and how to cook healthier and I would make very good choices through the rest of the week, but inevitably I would have at least one or two bad days right in a row (usually the weekends) every week.  This didn't affect me too much until my weight got close to my healthy weight range, and at 150 I just got stuck and I was wondering why the methods that I had been using up until this point no longer worked.  It wasn't until I stopped this cycle that I could break my plateau, but once I broke my plateau I went right back to eating that way and didn't lose any more weight for a month.  Then of course this last weekend, which admittedly was my birthday weekend, continued the cycle.  What I want to focus on now is breaking this cycle for good.  I want to be able to eat healthy all the time and to be able to incorporate treats into my diet without over eating to the point where I make myself sick once a week.  It's always sugar that I start to crave.  I don't crave greasy food like french fries or fried food.  It's always cookies, candy, cake, brownies, ice cream.  Sugar.  Always sugar.  I was talking to a friend earlier today and she asked a question that I think could provide a lot of insight: what are you missing in your life that the sugar is filling?  This is a great question, and something that I am going to be thinking a lot about over the next several days and as the sugar cravings start to hit this weekend I am going to take some time to write down how I really feel.  Now, I don't think I could ever completely cut out sugar, and quite frankly I don't want to.  Might as well say "no more happiness!" What I want to do is focus on baking with healthier ingredients.  I found a great website: http://www.texanerin.com/  which is all about baking with healthier ingredients: sweetening with honey, agave and molasses.  Baking with coconut sugar and coconut oil instead of cane sugar and vegetable oil.  These ingredients act differently on the body than refined sugar does and the recipes on this site don't use any refined sugar.  I am hoping that cooking healthier will be able to give me that little something so I am not feeling deprived while at the same time, I don't usually overeat these foods because they are not so sweet and it is the very sweet flavor that I tend to way overeat on. 

So I feel like I have a game plan to work on breaking my up and down cycle, five days and splurge cycle.

Day 1 Passed

Four days later, I finally made is past day one!  Today I drank 12 cups of water, I didn't touch a diet soda, and I stayed out of all sugar and processed foods.  I had a headache from caffeine withdrawals since I drank so much diet soda over the weekend.  Outch.  Mental note to self, don't get so carried away with the diet soda.  I'm going to go off of it for a few days.  I always think that I should get around to giving up soda, but I just am not willing to do that yet.  I can give it up for several days and even months at a time, but to never drink a soda again?  That is just a recipe for failure, because I know I am going to do it.  Anyway, I was more than a little shocked at what my disastrous four days did to my weight.  The scale flashed 151 this morning and I about freaked since that is 8 pounds higher than on Friday!  I know a lot of it is water weight, I was feeling really bloated yesterday (TMI I know).  Water retention from all the soda.  I was expecting something around the 148 range.  It will be interesting to see how hard it is to get back down to 143.  Now I know what a four day splurge does to me and believe me, I won't be doing that again!  I thought I had kissed the 150s goodbye forever!

Today was a good day to eat light for dinner since it was Day one and Matt had school tonight so I made the yummy turkey gyros for lunch and had a shake for dinner.  I usually have a shake or a sandwich for lunch so that is why my light dinners as of late have all been shakes.

 This week has been uber hot (at least for Colorado) Temperatures in the mid 90s.  So the kids decided to just go for a splash in the pool while I was cleaning up the kitchen.  When I finished I decided to join in the festivities and we were all soaking wet in our clothes but it was lots of fun!  I am glad that I have broken out of my tiredness coma and I had energy today to play with the kids. 

 In the evening I put on some music and we all danced around for a while.  I got hot and sweaty since it was 80 degrees in the house.  (at 7pm it was still 83 outside so it was still hotter outside than in the house!)  Our AC doesn't work too well when it gets so hot, I turn it on to keep cool but it doesn't actually cool the house down. 

Now that I've made it past day one I should be good to go for a while.  Now is the time when I actually start to get skinny!  I feel like all this time I have been getting less and less fat, but since I entered into my healthy weight range I have started feeling thin for the first time!  It is very exciting and I am going to cling onto that as motivation to stay on track.

Crash and Burn

The past two days haven't turned out quite like I had hoped they would.  Yesterday was Sunday, meaning that it was already the hardest day of the week for me to maintain healthy eating, and it was also my birthday.  So pretty much I was doomed from the get go.  I made some crepes for breakfast and that was awesome!  But unfortunately I didn't feel much like cooking for the rest of the day so I piecemeal-ed my lunch and dinner together.  Whenever I do that, it is always disastrous.  Lunch consisted of leftovers from Friday night, so there was pretzel crisps, artichoke dip, and quinoa salad.  I ate way too much of the artichoke dip.  Then I proceeded to eat the rest of my birthday cake.  That wouldn't have been too bad if when I got home later that day I didn't eat all the cookie dough that was in the freezer and then I made popcorn for my dinner.  I have really been craving popcorn lately and I'm not sure why.  The highlight of my day was waking up and getting a surprise when I looked at my watch:

My watch gave me a birthday cake!

Today, I thought I could pull myself out of it and jump right back into healthy eating, but the hardest day for me is day 1.  I don't know why it is so hard for me to recover after a bad eating day, but it seems like the food I ate yesterday left hooks in my body and is pulling me back causing me to eat those things again.  I guess I could just throw out the left overs but that is such a waste of food, and with three others in the house there could be mutiny. 

I did great today until I came home at 3:30 and was very hungry.  I was planning on having a yogurt and then eating a protein shake for dinner since Matt is in school today, but for some reason I just couldn't seem to control myself and before I knew it, I had totally blown the whole day out of the water.  I'm pretty disappointed in myself since I was so ready to eat well after showing a loss on the scale for the first time in a month last Friday, and now I am back at square one: having to eat well for about a week to work off all the damage I did over the weekend and just get back down to my lowest weight. 

The worst thing about it is that I eat and eat until I make myself sick, and then I'm moaning in pain the rest of the night wondering why I haven't yet learned my lesson from the last time I did this to myself.  So unfortunately tomorrow is day 1 again, and if I can get past day 1, I should be good to go for a while.

Birthday Party

This morning I woke up and saw a nice surprise on the scale:

Woo Hoo!  Only two more pounds and I can say that I've lost 70 pounds.  I am super excited to be on the back side of the 140s.  It has me very excited and now I have rearranged my whole weekend to eat healthier so that I don't shoot back up to 148 or something crazy.  I worked hard to get here and I don't want to blow it now. 

I spent most of Friday cooking and cleaning for the party.  (good thing my actual birthday isn't until Sunday or I might have been sad).  Anyway, my mom, sister, and a good friend showed up.  The other half of the people who were supposed to come bailed on me since my Grandpa had Knee surgery on Tuesday and they all decided to stay with him.  I was pretty shot down since there were four people who were supposed to come: my Grandma, two Aunts, and a family friend.  Besides that I made waaaaaaay too much food.  I am trying very hard not to be upset about it since I can understand that Grandma needs to stay with Grandpa because he just had surgery, and one of my Aunts is staying with my grandparents and the other two live very close by.  They kind of all stay in a pack so if one isn't coming, the rest won't either.  But still I can't help but feeling a little wounded.  Grandma did call later that evening and apologized so I am going to go see them all on Monday, hopefully Grandpa is feeling better by then.

I wanted to share a few recipes with you that I made for my party.  Two recipes I made that are pretty healthy are the cool veggie pizza and the Quinoa salad with mint almonds and cranberries.

The cool veggie pizza is a Pampered Chef recipe.  It is the least healthy of the two but it still has lots of veggies and I love it because you can customize it with your favorite veggies to make it exactly how you like it.  I put zucchini, tomatoes, scallions, broccoli, and carrots on mine.

Cool Veggie Pizza

Ingredients
1 package (8 ounces) refrigerated crescent rolls
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1   garlic clove, pressed
1 teaspoon dried dill weed
Salt and ground black pepper to taste
2 cups assorted fresh vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, cucumber, green or red bell pepper, tomato, green onions, mushrooms, carrot, zucchini or yellow summer squash

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Unroll crescent dough; separate into eight triangles. On Large Round Stone, arrange triangles in a circle with points in the center and wide ends toward the outside. Using lightly floured bakers roller , roll dough to a 12-inch circle, pressing seams together to seal. Bake 12-15 minutes or until light golden brown. Remove from oven; cool completely.

2. In a bowl , combine cream cheese, mayonnaise, garlic pressed with garlic press and dill weed. Season with salt and black pepper; mix well . Spread cream cheese mixture evenly over crust.

3. Prepare vegetables: slice dice and chop.  Mix together and pour on top of pizza.  Cut into squares and serve

(original recipe can be found HERE)

The second recipe is from allrecipes.com 

Quinoa Salad with Mint, Almonds, and Cranberries

Ingredients
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup quinoa
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup coarsely chopped mint leaves
1/2 cup dry-roasted almonds, unsalted
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 cup coarsely chopped kale
1/2 cup sliced carrots
1/2 cup sliced celery
1 scallion, thinly sliced
18 grape tomatoes, halved
1 lemon, juiced
1/2 tsp lemon zest
salt and black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Bring the chicken broth to a boil in a saucepan over high heat. Add quinoa, reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the quinoa is tender and the liquid has been absorbed, about 13 minutes. Stir in olive oil; fluff quinoa with a fork. Set aside to cool slightly.
2. Stir mint, almonds, dried cranberries, kale, carrots, celery, scallion, grape tomatoes, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Season to taste with salt and ground black pepper.

(original recipe can be found HERE)

 

New All Time Low Weigh In!

I am happy to report that I have a new all time low!  Woo hoo!  I weighed in this morning at 143.8
That is .4 lower than my previous low of 144.2 so I am super happy.  I am hoping to get a little lower before the weekend.  My birthday is on Sunday and I'm having my family over Friday night for a Miche party and birthday celebration.  So I bought all my favorites at the store.  I have pretzel crisps, I love all the flavors but Wal-Mart had the buffalo and the everything flavors in larger bags so I bought those two.  The buffalo flavor is my all time favorite but the everything and original flavors are the best for dipping in hummus.  I do have some hummus, and I am going to make my most favoritest of dips: Artichoke dip.  I have a great recipe out of a Longaberger cook book.  My mom used to be a consultant so I have quite a bit of their stuff that she has bought me over the years.  I love it!  I am also going to make the pampered chef recipe for cool veggie pizza as a healthier dish.  And of course, the cake with home made frosting.  My mom is allergic to gluten so I bought a gluten free cake mix.  So much easier than messing around with making one from scratch, but I'm making my favorite chocolate cream cheese/buttercream frosting to go with it.  I will take pictures of all of it tomorrow and post some recipes.  Saturday Matt is taking me out to lunch and then I think I want to go to Cold Stone.  We NEVER go to cold stone since it is so expensive, and I love their ice cream, so that would be awesome.  Sunday is my actual birthday so we will just have to see how that goes.  I'm going to try to eat light for most of the day to help offset the treats I will be eating. 

This morning I put peanut butter in my oatmeal with unsweetened coconut milk so I could have a little energy boost for my workout, and it was pretty good!  Definitely different.  I also zested a few lemons and squeezed them, mixed the lemon juice and zest together to keep to add to my yogurt to flavor it.  I put some of the lemon mix and some splenda (I know, splenda isn't the best but I have a big bag of it that I'm using up and then I will be switching to something healthier, maybe date sugar or stevia) and it was AMAZING!  I am totally psyched about making my own yogurt, it's going to save a lot of money!  I just need to get the larger rock crock so I can do a whole gallon at a time instead of doing a half gallon. 

Since Matt was working again tonight and didn't get home until later, I have continued my plan of eating my dinner for lunch and eating lightly for dinner when he is not going to be home for dinner.  That way I eat fewer calories in the evening.  Today I made one of my very favorite meals: Curried Chicken with Couscous.  I will post the original recipe below but here are some of the things I do to make it a little healthier:
1. I use light coconut milk instead of original coconut milk
2. I don't add butter to the couscous
3. I cook my couscous in my left over Whey from making my Greek Yogurt when I have it, otherwise just cook it in chicken broth like the recipe says.
4. I use coconut oil instead of vegetable oil, makes it taste better too since you are adding the coconut milk!

Curried Chicken with Couscous

Ingredients
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
4 medium carrots
1 medium onion
1 tsp vegetable oil
2 tsp curry powder
1/2 cup golden raisins
1 can (13.5oz) coconut milk
Couscous
2 cups chicken broth
1 1/3 cup uncooked plain couscous (or one 10oz box)
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp snipped fresh cilantro (or 2 tsp dried cilantro)

Directions
1. For chicken, cut chicken into 1 inch pieces.  Lightly spray skillet with vegetable oil.  Heat skillet over medium high heat until hot.  As skillet heats, combine salt and pepper and season chicken with half of the black pepper mixture.  Cook chicken until golden brown and no longer pink inside.  Remove chicken from skillet

2. As chicken cooks, peel carrots, cut in half length lengthwise, then thinly slice on a bias (or just grab your food chopper and chop away it's so much faster).  Cut onion in half lengthwise, then crosswise into 1/2 inch wedges.

3. Add oil to skillet, saute carrots and onions 5 minutes or until crisp-tender stirring occasionally.  Stir curry powder, raisins, coconut milk, and remaining pepper mixture into skillet.  Add chicken, simmer 3-5 minutes or until sauce begins to thicken.

4. Meanwhile, for couscous, add couscous and broth into pot and bring to a boil.  Remove from heat, add butter and cilantro, cover and let sit 5 minutes.

Yield: 4 servings
Nutrition facts (without any modifications): Calories: 660 Total Fat: 23  Carbohydrate: 72 Protein: 38 Fiber: 6g

A lot of the fat comes from the butter in the couscous along with the carbohydrate, Also using light coconut milk will help a lot

Nothing lasts forever

Certainly perfect days don't last forever, although I wish they would.  It seems inevitable that after a practically perfect day I would crash and burn... although I'm trying to avoid the burning part.  Yesterday was not the best nutrition day, my sugar cravings came back full force and remember the cookie dough that I mentioned was in the freezer?  Yeah, about half of it is in my tummy now... or it was yesterday ha!  I ended up doing two workouts yesterday, my cardio in the morning and then after I gave into my cravings and then made some popcorn and smothered it in butter and had that as a snack with Lily, I decided that something needed to be done.  I'm hovering at 144.6 right now and historically now is when I blow it and my weight shoots back up to 147 or wherever depending on how much I decided to eat and for how long.  THAT is exactly what I am trying NOT to do this time because I desperately want to get to 140 and take my next picture!  So I decided yesterday that I needed a second workout to help offset some of the massive amount of calories I ate around lunch time.  Having already completed Turbo Fire, I decided to revisit an old friend of mine: Zumba Dance!  The kids were taking naps (wahoo!  two days in a row it's unheard of) but I worked hard to get them both down around the same time, and I had an enjoyable time doing Zumba.  It must have helped because this morning I am still 144.6, although I am glad I didn't go up, I am also upset with myself because I think that if I hadn't splurged yesterday the scale might have gone down today.  There is no way to know for sure so I will just have to let it pass and focus on today.

This morning the kids have been all temperamental.  There was a HIIT workout on the schedule today and this morning I have been sooooo TIRED!  Possibly from my extra workout and less than perfect eating yesterday, then of course I was having trouble falling asleep.... that would do it.  I've been pretty grumpy all morning, mostly just because I feel so tired, my head hurts and my eyes sting.  Maybe my allergies are acting up again.  Thank goodness the hives are gone off my neck now!  That was the craziest thing.  Anyway, I wasn't in the mood for a HIIT so I decided to do Zumba Dance again since I had so much fun yesterday.  Bad Idea!  Since it is on the Ipad and at a lower level, and both the kids are up, it turned out to be a disaster.  I couldn't get the kids to stop messing around with it and then they kept throwing toys, books, and couch cushions onto the living room floor where I was trying to workout.  20 minutes later I just quit trying, I was so frustrated and upset that it wasn't fun anymore and both the kids were having tantrums.

Of course Chloe decided to smile when we took the picture, but you can see a tear in her eye.  She promptly resumed crying when I put my phone down.

So I might try working out later today if I start feeling better, but seriously my head hurts from lack of sleep.  Do you ever find that when you have a lot of energy one day, the next day you crash?  I had tons of energy yesterday, enough to do 2 workouts even (and my second workout was completed by 5pm so I know that is not the reason why I couldn't get to sleep).  But it seems maybe I had too much energy since it kept me awake at night and today, there is nothing. 

Practically Perfect

Today was one of the few, rare days where everything just seemed to go smoothly, and everything fit together.  Nutrition, and exercise, and even my appetite.  Everything just meshed.  I'm always surprised when this happens as most of the time I am struggling, mostly with nutrition, and staying away from eating (usually the chocolate chip cookie dough currently in my freezer).  But not today.  Today I had oatmeal for breakfast with chia seeds and 2% milk, cinnamon and 1 tbsp brown sugar.  Afterwards I went directly into my workout.  I don't usually workout right after I eat as I will get sick easily but I was doing weight lifting today and that is something I can do right after I eat.  It's the cardio that makes me sick.  After my 35 minutes of weight lifting I decided to go ahead and do what was on the schedule for Turbo Fire, which was a HIIT workout (20 minutes) a core workout (10 minutes) and then a 10 minute stretch.  Even the kids were great through my whole workout which took from 7:45-9:15 to completely finish, much longer than I usually workout (usually around 45-60 minutes a day) but I had the energy and the kids were great.  Also something out of the ordinary.  Most of the time I have to take a break to stop the kids from fighting, or flushing all the shampoo down the toilet, or playing in the dog food.  Lily and Chloe did half the HIIT workout with me and were running around laughing and it was so cute watching Lily do the jumping jacks and squats.  Chloe mostly ran around in circles laughing hysterically.  I wish I had a video of it.  I'm not sure what it was about today, but I'll take it!

After I finished my workout, I packed the kids up for a playdate with some friends at the community pool.  I almost wish I had moved into the neighborhood across the street where my friend lives now!  We don't have a pool in our neighborhood and the kids absolutely loved it.  They had a blast.  I wanted to get some pictures of the kids playing, and that is when I realized just how hard it is to take a picture with your phone while you are in the pool with the kids.  Practically impossible.  But I did manage to get this shot.

That's Lily with the red hair.  We left around noon and both kids were utterly exhausted.  Lily of course threw a tantrum which I was expecting.  My friend took pity on her and bought her and the other kids ring pops and Lily was super happy all the way back to the car.  I guess that is one way to handle it!  As soon as we got into the car Chloe fell asleep.  I'm talking about 30 seconds and she was out.  (and the drive back to our house is about 5 minutes).

After Lily ate lunch she wanted to watch Snoopy, which I figured was a good idea since she had just spent all morning playing in the pool.  She hardly ever takes formal naps now unless Chloe is also asleep and I know Lily desperately needs one and I can lye down with her.  While Matt and I were eating lunch (a sandwich wrap), she fell asleep watching Snoopy.

Score!  Two kids asleep all afternoon!  I was able to get about two and a half hours to myself and I decided to sit back and relax and read a book.  A rare treat.  It was awesome to have a quiet afternoon to myself!  I didn't even feel tired or hungry, which is also unusual.  On the rare occasion that both kids are sleeping I usually fall asleep with them!  And when I get up from naps I am always starving.  I don't know what it is about naps that makes me hungry.  Since Matt was at school tonight I just made myself a shake for dinner, and the kids had eggs and cheese.

I don't get days like this very often but when they happen I gladly take them!

Staying in Control on Sunday

This morning I weighed in at 145.2.  Considering that we went out for breakfast yesterday and I ate three giant strawberry cheesecake pancakes that were amazing, I am pretty happy with that.  I was 145.2 yesterday as well and I am trying very hard not to overeat again and shoot my weight back up to 147.  I have been bouncing between 144 and and 147 the past three weeks.  It seems that every time I get my weight back down, I have a few bad days in a row and my weight jumps up, which it then takes me three to four days to get it back down and by that time something has come up and I splurge again.  So I am focusing on breaking that cycle now and getting my weight back down to 144 and then of course the next step is to break 144!  Hopefully I can do that this next week.  I'm still only going to update my weight tracker when I weigh in at a new weight.

Sunday is the hardest day of the week for me when it comes to nutrition.  Ever since I started Sunday has been my free day and I am really trying to get my "free day" under control.  Since my weight has dropped into my healthy weight range eating a lot of high calorie foods (such as making cookies and eating half of the cookie dough) has a larger effect on me and it stays with me for a longer period of time.  I am trying to learn how to have a treat without going overboard.  That has always been my weak spot.  I will get a little bit of sugar and then just lose all control.  So today, I have had a few cookies and a few small pieces of candy that I got at church (I was teaching the 5 year olds and my co teacher brought candy).  Fortunately I had made dinner for tonight a few days ago when I did my first experiments in once a month cooking where I made three meals at one time.  I'm planning on writing a blog post about that soon once I get it all put together.  I made chicken wraps, chicken devon, and chicken enchiladas.  Tonight we are having the Chicken Devon. 

It's a broccoli, chicken curry dish.  I put lots of broccoli in it, gives you an extra health boost.  I was wanting to make popcorn with butter but since I already ate cookies and candy I decided to refrain.  I don't exercise on Sundays (which doesn't help that Sunday has always been my free day because I don't work off any of the extra calories).

There are two more weeks left in the second month of my Turbo Fire challenge and I am dying to get below 144!  I'm trying to get to 140 so I can take my next picture and update my weight loss photos page!

What to do with the Whey after you make Greek Yogurt

So I recently made a post about How to Make Greek Yogurt and outlined all the benefits of making it at home.  Today I want to focus on what to do with the Whey at the bottom of the bowl when you are draining the yogurt through cheese cloth.  It is super healthy, and packed with protein.  Definitely do not throw it out.  Whey protein is supposed to be healthier than Soy protein and it costs quite a lot to purchase it in powdered form at the store.  For instance.  I got this bag at Costco for $45

1. Put it in your smoothies.  Protein keeps you feeling fuller longer since it takes longer to digest, therefore adding a protein boost to any smoothie (whether it is dessert or a green smoothie) is a great way to use up your whey.

2.  When a recipe calls for chicken broth, use your liquid whey instead.

3.  Use it to cook Quinoa instead of water, give your Quinoa an extra protein punch!  You can also use it to cook potatoes, rice, pasta, and other grains!

4. Substitute it for other liquids (like butter milk) in biscuits, breads and pancakes.  This gives it a sour dough zing.  It also works great when making pizza dough, use the whey instead of water and you will have a unique flavor for your pizza!

5. Use it to thin out home made hummus or pesto

6. Add it into your oatmeal, or better yet, boil your oatmeal in the whey instead of water!  Then top with fruit, cinnamon, chia seeds, etc. and enjoy!  (for other ideas on what to do with oatmeal, see this post HERE

7.  Use it to soak your grains in instead of water.  Depending on your recipe you can add several tablespoons to make them more digestible.

8.  Add a few tbsp to your soups and stews to give it a protein boost.

9. Mix it into your dog's food and give it to them as a healthy treat!

10.  Make a Whey Marinade!  Add your favorite spices to it: garlic, salt, pepper, rosemary, etc and marinade your chicken, steaks, fish, or pork.  The enzymes in the Whey help break down the meat and add flavor.

11. I have heard you can use whey to make ricotta cheese, and Gjetost cheese, but I haven't delved into cheese making yet so I can't give any instructions other than these two cheeses are made from whey.  But HERE is a site that tells you how to make ricotta cheese.

12.  Make Whey Lemonade.  A great recipe for healthy lemonade can be found HERE

13.  Use it as a starter culture when fermenting vegetables.

14. Use it to make lacto-fermented drinks such as ginger ale and limeaid.  A great tutorial on how to make your own ginger ale can be found HERE.

15. Use it on your skin and hair.  Some people use it instead of shampoo, and claim it has excellent toning qualities for skin and hair.  Add a few cups to bathwater or put some on a cotton ball and apply to your face for toning.  (beats purchasing expensive anti-aging products!)

16. If all else fails dump it in your compost bin.  Better than throwing it in the garbage!  There are so many uses for your Whey!

Make a whey marinade. Add your favorite spices and seasonings (garlic, salt, pepper, maybe some rosemary…Yum!) to the whey and allow it to marinate your steaks, chicken, fish, or pork chops. The enzymes in the whey help to break down the meat and add flavor. - See more at: http://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2011/06/16-ways-to-use-your-whey.html#sthash.8fnTCdzr.dpuf

Make a whey marinade. Add your favorite spices and seasonings (garlic, salt, pepper, maybe some rosemary…Yum!) to the whey and allow it to marinate your steaks, chicken, fish, or pork chops. The enzymes in the whey help to break down the meat and add flavor. - See more at: http://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2011/06/16-ways-to-use-your-whey.html#sthash.8fnTCdzr.dpuf

Resources: 1  2  3   

Select Tech and Zucchini Linguini Marinara

I've been feeling a little queasy today after eating all that ice cream at my in laws last night.  I wasn't originally planning on eating dessert over there but when they mentioned chocolate cheesecake with Oreo cookie crust I couldn't stop thinking about wanting some.  Unfortunately the cheesecake was at someone else's house.  A total tease, but of course I didn't call it quits at that point, I decided to turn my attention to the ice cream and cake that was available.  I spent the rest of the night feeling sick.  I got car sick on the drive home, which I am not sure if it was because of eating too much desserts or just being tired or what, but I've still been a little queasy today. 

Anyway, I just bought a pair of Select Tech Adjustable dumbbells and they came in yesterday! 

The kids enjoyed helping me unpack!

I can't wait to use them!  Unfortunately today was a cardio day so I will have to wait until tomorrow to use them, but I pulled them out and got them all ready to use.  Now my Chalean Extreme workouts will be so much easier to adjust the weights instead of taking the weights off, manually removing the pins and putting new ones on, replacing the pins and so forth.  And of course, the exercises will also be more challenging because I finally have weights that go over 15 pounds!  (doing squats with 15 pound weights is just too easy).  So I am excited for my second round of Chalean Extreme, eventhought that still isn't for another three months, I like to get in one weight lifting workout a week to try to maintain my strength. 

Matt was gone again tonight (working) so I was alone for dinner.  I have been thinking.  Since Matt is gone so often in the evenings (school and work), I might as well make the evenings he is gone a light meal.  Afterall I'm mostly just feeding myself and the kids could care less about having an actual meal made for dinner (Lily usually doesn't eat when I make dinner anyway).  So I still have about five large zucchini's in the fridge from the Farmer's Market last week, having only used two of them for the cookies, biscuits, and muffins.  So I decided that a great light dinner and also a very healthy dinner would be to make pasta out of it!  I remembered a recipe that several Pampered Chef consultants were doing at their shows, and I even did it at one of mine once called Zucchini Linguini Marinara and it is super easy. 

Ingredients
3-4 Zucchini
2 garlic cloves
your favorite marinara sauce

Directions
Julienne Zucchini into pasta strips with a Julienne peeler.  Place zucchini in Rock Crock or Deep Covered Baker, press garlic with a garlic press.  Cook in microwave 5 minutes.  Add marinara sauce and mix well, Heat in microwave an additional 1-2 minutes until done. 

The thing about this recipe is that since it is done in the microwave you need a microwave save dish, you don't necessarily need the Pampered chef products but it does taste better in them.  Also, you could do this in a non stick pot and as soon as the zucchini gets  soft (over medium heat) add the marinara sauce to it.  I'm having leftover zucchini biscuits with it and you could even make meatballs to throw in for some added protein and flavor.  I recommend having some good sides with this dish as it isn't as filling as other meals since it is composed entirely of zucchini. 

Homemade Greek Yogurt

Last night at our Pampered Chef team meeting we learned a few things that were really awesome.  Today I am going to share with you how to make Greek Yogurt at home!  It is super easy (especially if you have the Pampered Chef Rock Crock), and it saves a ton of money!  You do need a nice non-stick pot with a lid.  I wouldn't recommended making it in stainless steel as the yogurt has to sit in the pot for several hours and I think it would stick to the sides of the stainless steel pot.  The best pot for making Greek Yogurt that I have found is either the Pampered Chef Rock Crock or the Longaberger Flameware due to their unique ability to retain heat for extended periods of time allowing the incubation period to go much easier and smoother.  I use the Rock Crock, for two reasons: one I am a Pampered Chef consultant and got it for free (and therefore am naturally biased ;-)  and two: the Pampered Chef Rock Crock was made with a non-crack glaze meaning that it won't leak whereas the Flameware was made with a micro-crack glaze meaning you run the risk of your yogurt leaking through the bottom of the flameware over time as it was not designed to store food.  (Thus is my understanding, if any Longaberger consultants out there know better please feel free to correct me in the comments and I will be happy to change this statement.)

We buy about 10-15 containers of Greek Yogurt a week.  Most of the time we buy Chobani, which I can find at Wal Mart for $1 a piece.  If I am at King Soopers (Kroger) they usually run 4/$5, which is $1.25 per container.  The only ingredients you need to make Greek Yogurt is milk and a starter yogurt.  So if you have never made yogurt before you will need to go out and buy a small container of plain Greek Yogurt.  My two favorite brands are Chobani and Fage.  The Chobani tends to be cheaper so that I what I usually go with, although I do think Fage tastes better and is a little higher quality.  Milk you can get at the grocery store on sale for $2 a gallon and even if you have to pay full price and are buying a higher quality milk it is usually about $3.50 a gallon.  Then if you go organic you are looking at about $5.25 a gallon.  One gallon of milk makes about 6 cups of yogurt (48 oz).  Therefore home made yogurt costs about   One container of Chobani on sale is $1 per container and that is 5.3 oz per container.  To get 48 oz you need to buy 9 containers of yogurt which on the cheap side is $9 and on the more expensive side is $11.25.  Home made yogurt then costs either $2, $3.50 or even at the most expensive $5.25 for the same amount of yogurt!  That is a HUGE savings!  (Not taking into account the starter yogurt you have to buy the very first time you make your yogurt, but that is only $1)

You can make your yogurt with any kind of milk you like, I usually buy 1% milk.  You can make your yogurt with a whole gallon or with a half gallon depending on how large your pot is.  Make sure to leave out about one cup of milk to mix into your yogurt starter. 
Step 1: scald milk:  Scalding milk means that you heat up your milk just to boiling point.  It is not a rolling boil, but it is on the borderline.  About 180 deg 

You need to do this gradually to prevent scorching. Place your burner on medium heat or around #3 and let it gradually warm up.  Once it warms up to about 120 deg I turn the heat up to #4.  Again I let it gradually heat up until about 160 deg and turn the heat up to #5.  (The first time I tried it I put it on #4 and the bottom burned and then it wouldn't get over 160 deg, so gradually turning up the heat seems to work the best).  It is going to take a long time to gradually heat up so it is okay to go off and do something else while the milk is heating up.   I like to heat it up to just over 180 deg to make sure it is hot enough.  I was told that you don't need to stir it, but every time I check the temperature I stir it anyway to prevent the bottom of the milk burning. 

190 deg on the left and 108 deg on the right

Once you scald your milk let it cool until 108deg.  If you accidentally let it cool below 108 deg just turn the burner back on and heat it up to 108.  Mix together your yogurt starter (about 1/3 cup for half a gallon milk) and the 1 cup of reserved milk until smooth and add to scalded milk and mix well.  Put lid on Rock Crock and place in oven with light on for 8-10 hours or place in microwave with light on for 8-10 hours.

You now magically have yogurt!  But we are not completely done yet.  You will need cheese cloth and a colander.  I love to use my Pampered Chef salad and berry spinner.  I put an inverted prep bowl in the bottom so that the yogurt isn't sitting in the Whey and it is elevated above the liquid and can drain properly.  The longer you let it drain, the thicker the yogurt will be.

Once you have it set up, refrigerate it for several hours until desired consistency.  Then the yogurt just comes out of the cheesecloth and you can store it in a large glass container or place it in several small glass containers (may I recommended the 1 cup prep bowls with lids :-)

Mix in your favorite fruit and enjoy!  Instead of adding cane sugar with your fruit, try adding coconut sugar or date sugar.  They are healthier and have a lower glycemic index.  The sky is the limit once you have made your yogurt.  You can make granola parfait by layering yogurt, fruit, and granola in a cup.  A delicious breakfast!

Also, don't throw out the liquid in the bottom of the bowl.  That is your Whey Protein!  Save the liquid to give your green smoothies a protein boost.  Or mix it into your oatmeal in the morning.  People spend lots of money buying whey protein and now you have some for free as an added bonus!  For other ideas on how to use your Whey check out this post HERE

A trip to Elitches

Yesterday I took Lily to Elitches as a reward for finishing potty training!  Good thing we went yesterday because today is cold and rainy.  I packed a lunch consisting of some fruit, yogurt, a peanut butter and honey sandwich (not ideal but I was trying to think of what would hold up in 90 degree weather) and some of the zucchini biscuits that I made the other day.  Speaking of zucchini biscuits, they are amazing!  I bought a bunch of Zucchini at the Farmer's Market last week and I have been looking up ways on how to use it.  Here is the recipe for the biscuits.  I really liked them.

Garden Zucchini Parmesan Biscuits (original recipe comes from HERE)
Yield: 14 biscuits
Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup shredded zucchini
1/2 cup seeded, diced Roma tomato
1/2 cup scallions, finely chopped
1/2 cup minced fresh basil
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
7 thin tomato slices, halved
Directions:
Place the oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 400°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Add zucchini, ½ cup tomato, scallions, basil and cheese; toss to combine.
In a medium bowl, whisk together buttermilk, eggs, oil and vinegar. Pour buttermilk mixture into the dry ingredients. Stir just until blended; batter will be thick.
Drop dough by 1/4 cup mounds about 2 inches apart on baking sheet. Garnish with fresh tomato slices. Bake until golden brown, 25-35 minutes and toothpick inserted into the center of biscuit comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack and cool about 10 minutes before serving.


It was a perfect day for the theme park.  Lily absolutely loved the rides, and the water park.  We were there much longer than I was thinking and I didn't have enough food for lunch and dinner so I bought something that I thought Lily would eat: chicken fingers and french fries.  Just about the worst choice I could make for eating healthy, but Lily is such a picky eater and I only wanted to buy one thing since the food at theme parks is so expensive and I didn't want to risk getting something Lily wouldn't eat. 

Merry Go Round

Her favorite ride was the jumping jack, it is a mini free fall where the seat goes up and down a pole.  She also loved the paint cans which is a mini version of the tea cups. 

She was a little confused at first, but she got the hang of it.  Around 3:00 when we were done swimming, she was getting pretty tired and after I wrapped her in her towel she squatted down like she always does when she is cold and... just... fell over.  It was the weirdest thing.  Since her hands were wrapped up in the towel she faceplanted into the concrete.  I felt so bad for her, it almost ruined the rest of the day, but after a good cry I got her some ice cream and she was feeling better.

notice how she chose the ice cream that was the exact color of her shirt!

When we got home I am happy to say that I did not skip out on my workout.  I am still working my way through Turbo Fire and I had HIIT 20, Abs 10 and Stretch 10 on the schedule.  I am really good about getting one video done, but when I have to start another one it is much harder for me so a lot of times I just do the main workout, but I made sure I did all three and I was proud of myself for completing it.  I definitely needed to do it after the holiday weekend i had been letting my nutrition and exercise get a little lax.  I really want to get down to 140 so I can take the next picture for my weight loss photos section!  Only 4 more pounds to go.  My body is being stubborn again so I need to make sure to focus on healthy eating.

 

Dear Stomach

Have you ever had to shut your mind off to hunger?  Maybe you are not really hungry but you are thirsty or just bored.  I know for a fact that I used to eat whenever I got bored.  It was something that was satisfactory and delicious.  I never ate anything healthy when I was bored.  The afternoons are the worst time for me.  I tend to get really sleepy and really hungry in the afternoons and I just want to snack from 2:00-dinnertime.  That is one habit I have had to quit.  Now I get my afternoon snack and then I tell my stomach that it is just bored, and if I am still hungry after a while I will go drink some water.  I need to cut out all the extra mindless snacking!  So next time it isn't yet time to eat and you find yourself reaching for the crackers, tell your tummy:  you are bored not hungry, go do something else. 

Switching to Coconut Oil

Recently I picked up a book called the coconut oil miracle.  It starts out talking about how coconut oil has been demonized in the past, which was news to me since all I've heard recently is how coconut oil is a healthier cooking oil and all the healthier recipes are made with coconut oil, but anyway, apparently coconut oil was demonized for being high in saturated fat.  The whole first part of the book is about debunking all of the previous myths about coconut oil and establishing a new fact which is coconut oil is actually the healthiest oil for you due to medium fatty acid chains and the way that they are digested in your body.  It claims that these chains are converted to energy instead of stored as fat, and you also get slightly fewer calories per gram of fat than with other fats (typically you get 9 calories per gram of fat and coconut oil is 8.6 calories per gram).  Not much of a difference, half a calorie but I'm more interested in the other aspects of coconut oil anyway. 

This week I am still hanging out around 145 and so I am tweaking my diet again trying to get my body to go down and head into the 130s.  Every one of these last six pounds I have lost (taking 144.2 as my lowest weigh in) has been a hard fought battle.  So this week I am increasing the number of calories per day back to 1700, but not adding in any of my exercise calories.  I am wondering if eating 1400 calories for a prolonged period of time is doing more harm than good since my body might think that it is starving.  Also, in the interest of making healthier food choices, I am going to start cooking more with coconut oil instead of canola oil.  I'm also eradicating my kitchen of trans fats such as crisco.  I never used margarine, so that isn't a problem.  With all of the information bombarding us about what to eat and what not to eat, I do think that eating natural foods is the best way to go.  You can't win them all, and we can only do the best we can.  So I'm going to give coconut a try.  I'm off to pick up some coconut milk to mix in with my smoothies. 

For the weight loss side the author does talk about how coconut oil actually boosts our metabolism for 24 hours after we consume it.  Therefore we are burning calories at a higher rate and we also receive an energy boost from it.  All good things in my book.  Whether or not the whole scandal about how the soybean industry demonized coconut oil to boost their own profits is true, I think that there are some great health benefits to be gained from switching to coconut oil from soybean oil.  I have no particular attachment to canola oil and I am ready to branch out and try something new!  And if it helps me in my weight loss while getting healthier all the better.

Turbo Fire Week 7 Results

Seven weeks have come and gone, and most of my progress has come in the last three weeks.  That is when I finally broke my plateau and lost all the weight I've lost so far.  I've lost 5 inches all around:
                    before              now              change
waist              34                   32 3/4          -1 1/4
hips               40                   38 1/2          -1 1/2
Abductors      40 1/4             39 3/4           -1/2
chest              35                  34 3/4           -1/4
R. Arm           11 1/4            10 3/4            -1/2
L. Arm           11 1/4            11                 -1/4
R. Thigh        21                  20 3/4          - 1/4
L Thigh         21                 20 1/2           -1/2
weight         151.7               144.2             -7.5

Which makes this the best measure in that I have ever had!  So I am very happy about that and I am hoping to lose another five inches this next month too.  

Here are my progress photos.  I finally feel like I am starting to get slim!

How cool would it be to win the daily prize of $500 for the beachbody competition!  That would be sweet.  So I'm going to be giving the rest of this challenge the best I can and maybe, just maybe, I will be able to win.  I need to lose about another 15 inches to be able to win though.  I've still got time.  I'm doing all 20 weeks of turbo fire and Ive only just finished week 8.