Finding Me: When are We Talking About?

Previously I covered the How aspect of this journey and the Why aspect.  Today it is the When.  WHEN exactly are we talking about:  Are we starting eventually?  Next month maybe? 

I am currently doing this.  I already started my Low Carb/ High Fat lifestyle (once again) on January 2nd.  It's not a Keto diet. (If you know what that is...) But, a Low Carb plan with higher fat.  This is not a diet to me now, it is a lifestyle.  My husband has joined me in eating this way, so it is much easier to maintain.  If you have a spouse or a close friend or a FB friend who you can use as support, your efforts will be easier for you too!  

Another WHEN is when do I want to lose the weight... What time frame am I looking at? I lost 8 pounds during the month of January!  I'd really LOVE to lose 8-10 pounds each month, so that I could be ready for maintenance come holiday season.  That means some serious effort on my part!  But, I find that for the most part if I can focus on the goal ahead of me and stick to my plan, this style of eating works for me!  So, we'll see how motivated I am during this year!  How consistent I can be to stick with my eating plan....  How badly do I want this #victory2017 ??

If you are going to be successful, you will also need to decide on your own parameters.  Your HOW, WHY and WHEN.  HOW are you going to accomplish your weight loss?  What eating plan are you going to follow?  WHY are YOU doing this?  What motivates you to start, to continue on the day to day and to actually finish?  WHEN are you going to start?  And other goals that you may have and set them down on paper.  Maybe even make yourself an inspiration board, like we did in our Support Group as the first Challenge for this year.  I find that when I don't look at my Inspiration board often enough, I begin to lose site of my goals. (I'll talk about the inspiration board more next week, I think!)

We can not be successful if we lose sight of our personal goals! Can we?  How do you keep yourself motivated?

Update:
I wrote this as an immediate third part of the series.  But, was waiting to edit and release it in a timely fashion.  Because of life and all of it's quirks and upheavals, I have been in complete chaos during February.  I didn't lose the 8 that I was hoping for, but I did lose.

Menu Plan Monday: Feb. 27- March 5, 2017

Planning my family's meals ahead of time based on what I have on hand AND what is on sale at Publix and Aldi is a HUGE $$ saving plan for my family! This habit of sharing it keeps me accountable!  (I share it on my coupon blog each week.)


I try to plan my family's meal plan based on what is already in my freezer/pantry/frig, so that very little shopping has to be done to feed my family for the week, except for the fresh items- such as dairy and produce.
We are once again doing Low Carb, so I plan 5-6 dinners that way and we usually eat out once a week (&/OR we have a cheat day at home). We are trying to get our family on a healthier eating track this new year, as well as getting away from more and more processed foods. My kiddo still eats some carbs during the day, but eats what we eat at dinner time.  My Hubby is doing Low Carb, so planning out the entire day has become my "norm" or else he feels like he might starve!!  He wants to see his options on posted on the frig!

By shopping the sales/deals and actually planning our menu, I rarely have to pay full price for anything to put together a menu plan. This saves so much money for my family! Try it, it will work for you too!

Do you have a plan this week?? I'd love for you to share it with me!

Here is our Dinner plan:

• Egg Roll in a Bowl 
• Slow Cooker Chicken Tikka Masala, Riced Cauli
• Fat Head Deep Dish Pizza, salads
• Turkey Veggie Soup, Salads
• Goat Cheese & Spinach Stuffed Mini Meatloaves, Creamed Summer Squash 
• Weekend away:  taking snacks & lunch with us, eating dinner out.
  cheese sticks, nuts, trail mix, beef jerky, hard boiled eggs, Summer sausage & cheese, etc...

Breakfast Options:

• Power Protein Smoothies w/ Peanut Butter & spinach
• Eggs & bacon
• Scrambled eggs & sausages
• Cheese omelette W/ Avocado

Lunch Ideas:

• Leftovers!!!
• Egg wraps filled with turkey, avocado & cheese
• Pizza Salad
• Thai Cucumber salad w/ peanut dressing

Snack options:

• Trail mix, peanuts 
• Cheese cubes & salami
• Ham & pickle roll up
• celery & PB
• Fat Bombs (Low carb/High fat version of chocolate!!)

Do you have a menu plan?  Could you put together some sort of plan for this week OR start making a plan for next week?  Without a plan, your new eating style will fail!
Let me know how it goes!  

Finding Me: Why Am I Doing This Again?

Last week I explained How I am doing this weight Loss Journey this time around.  This week I want to  delve into the WHY am I doing this, yet again:
I'm sure that you have your own reasons WHY you are not doing anything.  Or WHY you have chosen the plan or path that you have.  Or a list of reasons that explain the WHY that motivates you.  If you don't, after reading mine, please sit down and think about it and make a list of your own WHY!

• I have a child.  I want my child to grow up with a positive body image!  To not be constantly seeing her mommy gaining and losing weight.  And definitely not hearing me referring to myself as fat or wearing fat clothes, yet again....  She's tall and extremely slender and will probably take after her dad and remain that way.  I've strived to instill in her a sense of balance in her eating choices.  To choose healthy foods.  To realize that water is life giving and soda is evil.
• I have a husband.  I want to feel beautiful for him!  He loves me no matter what size I am!  He sees the inner me.  He loved me at a size 28 and has never seen me less that 195 pounds.  BUT, I want to feel comfortable in my own skin and feel like I look like what he SAYS I look like.  SO that when he compliments me, I can accept it graciously and willingly and not just nod and and "yeah right".
• I have my own life to live ahead of me. I can do it so much more successfully when I can move and breathe and live it to the full!  I hate the extra pains and aches that come along with gaining weight!  The knee strain.  The neck and shoulder aches.  My heels begin to ache and I'm constantly asking Hubs to rub my feet.
• I want to sleep better!  I had much better sleep quality 50 pounds ago!  I miss that!  I could sleep thru the night and not get up to pee.  Not toss around trying to find that cool and comfy sweet spot....  (Sigh...)
• I just don't want to be the fat person in every picture!  You all get that right?  Now, I come from a family of overweight people.  So, I'm not the only one.  But, I'm talking about family, friends, church, etc....  I'm tired of having to angle, turn, hide and try to get the JUST RIGHT pose to look less fat.

Now, after all of that, I don't have a specific # or size in mind.  I have a general pound and size in mind, but it is more about how I feel inside, my energy level and how I look when I see myself in the mirror and in a photo.  I'm not out to be model thin.  Just me.  Trying to find my real self....  You feeling that too?  I've got some weight to lose.  I've got a ways to go to get healthy.  Come along for this journey and let's find it together!

Menu Plan Monday: Feb. 6-12, 2017

Planning my family's meals ahead of time based on what I have on hand AND what is on sale at Publix and Aldi is a HUGE $$ saving plan for my family! This habit of sharing it keeps me accountable!  (I share it on my coupon blog each week.)


I try to plan my family's meal plan based on what is already in my freezer/pantry/frig, so that very little shopping has to be done to feed my family for the week, except for the fresh items- such as dairy and produce.
We are once again doing Low Carb, so I plan 5-6 dinners that way and we usually eat out once a week (&/OR we have a cheat day at home). We are trying to get our family on a healthier eating track this new year, as well as getting away from more and more processed foods. My kiddo still eats some carbs during the day, but eats what we eat at dinner time.  My Hubby is doing Low Carb, so planning out the entire day has become my "norm" or else he feels like he might starve!!  He wants to see his options on posted on the frig!

By shopping the sales/deals and actually planning our menu, I rarely have to pay full price for anything to put together a menu plan. This saves so much money for my family! Try it, it will work for you too!

Do you have a plan this week?? I'd love for you to share it with me!

Here is our Dinner plan:

• Salisbury Steak w/ mushrooms & onions, creamy mashed cauliflower
• Philly stuffed peppers & salads
• Dinner salads w/ goat cheese, berries, walnuts & leftover chopped turkey
• Turkey Casserole
• Creamy Garlic Pasta w/ Chicken & broccoli, salads (Cheat day)
• Grilled pork steaks, brussel sprouts & salads
• Dessert: Low carb Peanut Butter cheesecake cups.  1 each evening this week. :-)

Breakfast Options:

• Power Protein Smoothies w/ Blackberries & spinach
• Eggs & bacon
• Egg Biscuits
• Turkey & Cheese omelette

Lunch Ideas:

• Turkey Salad w/ pecans & grapes, on romaine 
• Egg wraps filled with turkey, avocado & cheese
• Leftovers
• Pizza Casserole
• Thai Cucumber salad w/ peanut dressing

Snack options:

• Trail mix, peanuts 
• Cheese cubes & salami
• Ham & pickle roll up
• celery & PB
• Fat Bombs (Low carb/High fat version of chocolate!!)

Do you have a menu plan?  Could you put together some sort of plan for this week OR start making a plan for next week?  Let me know!  

Finding Me: How Am I Doing It?

Today I am going to dig deeper into the HOW of my Weight Loss Journey...  You all have to have a HOW in your own journey.  Did you know that?  Just floundering around won't work.  Just "eating more healthy!!" Doesn't get you anywhere!  You have to have an actual decided on HOW!

Here is my HOW:

• I am following a Low Carb/ High Fat diet.  I thought that I pretty much knew all there was to know about Low Carb, because I have done it several times over the years.  But recently I was in my local library and found a new book that caught my eye, so I grabbed it and brought it home.  Low and behold I found some great tidbits in there that have truly helped this month get my new eating plan off to a ROARING start! 
  
  The Book was The 30 Day Low Carb Diet Solution.  In it I found how many grams of carbs I could eat at each meal for my body size, as well as how much protein I NEEDED.  I also found several nice recipes to try.
  
  
  
   
  

  
  
  I have many Pinterest boards for Low carb recipes.  If you are on Pinterest and you decide that your HOW involves Low Carb, then follow my Pinterest boards and get some ideas!  LC- Desserts,  LC- Food, LC- Baking, and more!!
  
  About 2 years ago I had a very expensive test done by my doctor, because she was not convinced that my Low Carb diet was the healthy way to go...  They took a blood sample and sent it off.  They compared my blood type and decided that the very best diet plan for me was..... TAH! DAH!  LOW CARB!  Yep, that's right!  The same one that I had been on and losing weight successfully!  SO many people, and many doctor's included, just can't get the "fat is bad" mindset changed!  Ok, more on that one later.... Let's move on!
  
  
• I am drinking a LOT of water.  (I mean a L.O.T.)
  As part of one of our Support Group's challenges we began drinking 1/2 our body weight in ounces of water each day.  (So, if you weighed 250, you would drink 125 ounces.  200 lbs and you'd drink 100 ounces.)  I had 124 ounces to drink every day for weeks!  I met my goal most days! 
  Yes, in the beginning you are in the bathroom every hour or so.  But, your body does adjust and after awhile you realize that even tho you drank20 ounces right before bed, you are no longer up in the middle of the night JUST because you need to pee!  (Now, if something else wakes me like the cat or the dog or I'm hot, then I get up and go and drink even more water!)
  
  Drinking that much water takes effort.  It takes discipline.  Drinking that much water each day means that I drink my morning coffee (And totally savor it!!!) and then nothing else except water all day.  BUT, it is flushing my system daily!  It is helping me to feel full and not get the munchies!  I LIKE WATER!  I like what it is doing for me now!
  
  
• I am also doing some exercise 4-5 times a week.  We have a dog that has to be walked each morning, so Hubs and I get up early and walk for 30 minutes before getting ready for the day/work.  This gets us both some exercise, as well as getting the dog his exercise and potty break. 
  I try to take as many steps in my day as possible, as well.  I park farther way from doors if I can so I can walk a bit further.  While doing housework, I make multiple trips to put things away even tho it totally goes against my nature!   (I am a one trip gal!  I will carry all 8 bags of groceries in just so I don't have to go out again!)  BUT, I have realized that doing that is not so helpful.  I can get more steps into my day if I make multiple trips.  I do it while putting away laundry; while carrying groceries inside; loading the car for a trip; etc...

Have you decided on your HOW?  How are you going to go about your own personal weight loss journey?  Ambling along will never get you there.  Please make a plan!  Set some goals.  Decide on a lifestyle and eating plan today! (And it doesn't have to be Low Carb to be a part of Finding me!)