A Good Day...

Today was a good day. I went to the gym and did a good workout consisting of a couch to 5K run and some weight work too. (Couch to 5k has a great app too that plays your music and tells you when to run and when to walk so you don't even have to look at the clock, which is always hard for me when I see just how long I have to keep running etc.)

I ate all my food today. A bowl of oatmeal- I got some steel cuts oats and hopefully I can use one of the recipes I found online (gotta love pinterest) for my crockpot.

I also have decided that as much as I love Balsamic Vinaigrette I need something else to change up the taste of my salads so I googled a few recipes and then decided just to mix and match and create my own. Man, it is delicious! It transformed my salad into something really tasty!

Here is the recipe I mix, matched and kinda created I guess.

Roasted Red Pepper Vinaigrette

3 red peppers, 1 yellow pepper & 1 orange pepper roasted
3/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 cup olive oil
2 cloves of garlic
1 scallion
1 tsp salt

Roast peppers in the oven on broil until the skin is blackened and blistering. place in a bowl and seal tight with plastic wrap. Leave until they have cooled, at least 20 minutes. Peel the skin off, slice and put in blender. Add all other ingredients and blend until smooth.
Put on your salad- or whatever you want- and enjoy!

I am thinking of taking a bit and adding some red pepper flakes or maybe a spicy roasted pepper or something and see how that tastes- a little bit of spice is a good thing!



This salad I would've paid $12 for. Romaine lettuce, diced chicken, black beans, sunflower seeds and my dressing! So Yummy!!

$12 for Lettuce??

So I went out to dinner for the first time since starting this program. I took the kids and their dad tagged along to help with the chaos that would ensue!
Actually the kids did really well, the only 'freak out' was as we were leaving and Owen didn't want to be wiped clean. I call that success!

Anyways, we went to East Side Mario's where I ordered their Garden Chicken Salad minus the croutons and with the vinaigrette on the side.

This photo looks so much better than what I was served. I got a plate full of iceberg lettuce, 3 cherry tomatoes, 3 olives, 2 spicy peppers and what I think was 1/4 of a grilled chicken breast.
Needless to say I was quite disappointed. You know how salads ALWAYS taste better when someone else makes them, especially at a restaurant.... nope, the salads I have been making at home would put this one to shame! I hate that I spent $12 on a plate full of lettuce. I definitely won't be going back to East Side again in the near future!

Oh, and when the kids meal of Alfredo pasta and french fries came out and they brought out the all you can eat bread sticks I had to literally make a conscious effort not to just mindlessly pop a few in my mouth. It was a feat of strength I tell you! Though, if I'm being perfectly honest I did take a small nibble of the end of the breadstick just to satisfy the craving so I wouldn't eat the whole thing when no one was looking! I figure, lose the battle win the war right!

I've been feeling good, a little tired of salads and beans but I am finding new ways to eat the foods I need to.
Again, at church it was hard to drink as much as I should during those 3 hours and eat at the times I need to. But I think I will figure that out too as I get more used to this way of life.

Honestly I just love that I'm losing weight. I feel full all. the. time. and once I can get my life back into the swing of things and get back into the gym I know that my results are going to be phenomenal!  I can not wait to be healthy and thin!!!

pink eye...

Alright, my lack of posting is because on Monday I woke up with pink eye in, not one, but both of my eyes! Yay! So because looking into any light caused me pain I have held off on blogging.
That doesn't mean I have failed at eating- maybe a little at the exercise part, but considering I could barely keep my eyes open, I figured walking on treadmill might be just a tad dangerous!

I went back to Dr. Chris Morgan on Wednesday to check on my progress and have another BIA test.
These are the results of my first one compared to my second one- only a week apart.
The cool thing is that I have lost 3.5 lbs on the scale but if you look on the fat mass line, I have actually lost 5 lbs of fat and gained a little bit of water weight, which as my body gets to used to drinking all the water I am putting in myself it will let go of it. That made me super happy knowing that just because the scale says one thing, doesn't mean that that is exactly what is happening in my body.

 Now, this next picture (sorry about the crappy lighting in both pics, I took them on my iPhone and it didn't do a great job lighting wise.) Shows where I started in relation to Phase Angle, Intracellular Water, Fat Mass, and ECM/BCM.

I didn't know what all that really meant so I assume maybe you wont either?
Let me explain them as my booklet does...

Phase Angle - Calculated using the measurements of resistance and reactance, which are indicators cellular health independent of weight. Normal values vary with age and gender.

So my Phase Angle started at 6.6, it should be greater than 7.4. Right now my Phase Angl (PA) is the same as a healthy 50 year old- Not cool! But as you can see in my BIA, in just one week my PA went from 6.6 to 7.0. Thats crazy!

Intracellular Water - Water volume of body cell mass (i.e., water in the "living" cells)


So my ICW was at 52.5 the first day, which is pretty close to the cells of a 60 year old! Man, this was an eye opener to just how unhealthy I had let my body become. Then, within one week I raised it 53.7, which is a step in the right direction and at least now I am getting closer to a 50 year old in that department too :)

Fat Mass - The amount of stored fat in the body


Okay so this one is pretty self explanatory, But this is where I learned I lost 5 lbs of fat instead of the 3.5 lbs my scale said. The first day I was 70.9 lbs of fat- yikes!! and in one week that had gone down to 65.9 lbs of fat in my body. And my lean body mass had increased by 1.5 lbs.

ECM/BCM - Ratio of extracellular mass (ECM) to body cell mass (BCM). A lower value, indicating a higher ratio of living to inactive mass, is desirable. Normal values are near 1.0 (a 50/50 distribution).


So here I started out at 1.04, you want to be 1 or lower I was told so I'm not too far off but still it could be better. Then within one week I got to a 1.01.

I love seeing the numbers change!

Another cool thing that Dr. Morgan showed me was that I had done a few BIA tests before I got pregnant with Owen while I was losing weight. I can't remember the results exactly- I'll see if I can find my printouts or next week I will get a copy of them, but it showed that even when I was 163 lbs my Phase Angle, ICW, and pretty much everything that was measured was actually worse off then than it is now even though I weigh more!
I realized that what I did to lose weight before, which was counting calories but still eating whatever I wanted and exercising, made me lose weight but my cells and insides were still suffering and not anywhere near 'healthy'. It was kind of an eye opener. I guess it's like those skinny people who eat fast food all the time and never gain a pound- I bet if they did a BIA, I could possibly have a 'healthier' body even thoughI may weigh 50 lbs more than them. Not that I want to stay this weight- no way- but it's nice to know I am moving in the right direction!

Sunday Sunday....

Well, today it has been hard to eat when I am supposed to. I'm sure I will figure out the whole church & snack and all that but trying to get 2 kids ready for 9 am church and eat my breakfast and make sure I have water with me and an Ultra meal drink or bar for later and snacks and books for the kids too is a little daunting.

Fortunately, I did get my breakfast- 2 scrambled eggs with 1/2 cup of black beans and 2 Tbsp of no sugar salsa. I grabbed an Ultra meal bar for between classes in church but between making sure Melia wasn't eating chalk, screaming at the top of her lungs, or biting the other kids in her sunbeam class and taking care of Owen, who just wants to walk everywhere and be held (I don't know if he realizes what a contradiction he is) I totally forgot to eat it. Then after church I fed the kids lunch and put them down for naps when my home teachers showed up, so lunch/snack got pushed back again.

And now I am headed over to my brothers for dinner. They are serving lasagna. I love lasagna. I can't eat lasagna. Well, maybe if its vegetarian I can just pull the noodles out? This new way of eating is pretty easy while I am at home, but going out is another story. Like my girlfriends want to go out to dinner for a girls night in a few weeks- I think I had better research where we go so that I know what I can order before I go and plan my breakfast and lunch accordingly. I'm not a big planner, at least not for myself- I've had to learn to plan ahead for Melia so we don't have meltdowns but not for myself, so this is definitely a learning curve for me.

On another note, I have this really thing I got for Christmas (thanks mom and dad!). It's called a Jawbone UP. It tracks my movement and sleep and I can even set it to remind me to move.

So its this bracelet, and it has a corresponding app on my iPhone that when I plug it in it shows me how many steps I've taken, what my sleep quality was, how many calories I have burned and a bunch of other things. It's so cool.
This was my sleep the other night. It shows how long I was asleep. If I got up (which Owen makes sure I do) My deep sleep vs. light sleep.... This was a good nights sleep and I felt it in the morning.

Also, it has a smart alarm that will wake you up during a light sleep cycle so you aren't so tired when you do wake up. You tell it you want to wake up by 7 (or whatever time) and within a half hour, so from 6:30-7:00 whenever you are in a light sleep cycle it will start vibrating the bracelet and wake you up. But, like this day, if you aren't in a light sleep cycle during that 30 minutes, it will vibrate at the time you set for your alarm. As you can see in the picture I was woken during my deep sleep and so I actually laid there for a while longer not wanting to get up yet because I was tired, but most mornings when my bracelet starts vibrating I just open my eyes and feel good to go.

Sorry this sounds like an ad for the UP, it's not I just love it. This, along with the app My Fitness Pal, I can keep track of pretty much everything I am doing- If any of you are on that app we can be 'friends'.

Day three...

So I have been on this new eating plan for three days now and I feel good. I never feel hungry, in fact it is almost hard to eat everything I need to still.

It's amazing, I feel like I am eating so much and yet I have ALREADY LOST WEIGHT!! According to my scale I started at 180.6 and this morning when I woke up and stepped on the scale it read 177.2! I couldn't believe my eyes- that is 3.4 pounds... in three days! I'm sure that it's just the shock to my body of working out and eating a lot healthier and it won't always be this way but still- talk about motivation!

I am still in the process of figuring out everything I can and can not eat. Most of my meals have been pretty close to what I ate the first day, but I went grocery shopping today and got some salmon and a bunch of veggies and fruits (I'm not the biggest fruit eater, especially berries, but I am going to choke them down until I love them!)
I even bought some Tofu! I have no idea if I will like it or even be able to stomach it, but I thought I would give it a try.

My knee has been acting up a bit too, but I still have walked on my treadmill for 30 minutes each day - I am actually about to jump on it as soon as I post this entry, and so even though my knee is sore I figure walking won't hurt it so I'd better keep going.

I am very excited at the progress I've seen so far and can't wait to meet my goal... Did I even mention that in my last post? I want to lose 50 lbs. I want to be thin for a photo shoot I won for May. I know I won't be at my goal weight by then but I will look a lot cuter and thinner!

Well, off to walk! Cant wait until winter ends and I can do it outside!

and so it begins...

Before I got pregnant with baby #2 I wanted to go on a cruise. I made a deal with my husband that if I lost 40 lbs we could go. I came within 2-3 pounds of losing the full 40 lbs and even though I didn't 'make it' I had worked hard and so we went and had the time of our lives- resulting in baby #2!

After Owen was born my plan was to get right back to the gym at my 6 week mark, however, because my pelvis wasn't fully healed (I had fallen down the stairs at 7 months pregnant and busted my pelvic bone) and my three year old daughter, Melia, who has Rett Syndrome, was needing more medical attention (3 EEGs and an MRI within the first two months of Owens life) working out got pushed to the back burner.

Then, my husband left me. That, along with my three month old baby, special needs daughter and post pardum depression, made going to the gym- or even down to the treadmill in my basement- so low on my list of priorities that it just didn't happen.

Now that my baby boy is one year old and my daughter is in preschool 5 days a week, I decided it is time to take back my life and my health! I am sick of feeling like the skinny girl trapped in a fat body. I know I can lose weight, I've done it before. Though, I also had the freedom to leave at night to aqua-size or head out for a walk/jog when the kids went to bed. I don't have that luxury anymore.

 I can usually only workout between 9-11 am at the gym while Melia is in school, as long as Owen isn't sick and I can take him to the daycare. Or, I have to do it at home while they nap or after bedtime, and lets be honest, after they go to bed I am SO tired that I usually just want to veg out in front of the TV all night. Of course, that is how I got to where I am and so that needs to change.

Yesterday I went to my chiropractor, Chris Morgan, who is also a certified First Linem am handing over the reigns, tell me what to do, what to eat, when to exercise etc. and I will do it.

After being weighed (the scale at the office is about 8 lbs heavier than mine at home btw), testing my BIA, and a much needed adjustment, I went home with some Metagenics Ultra Meal powder and bars and a stack of information about my new lifestyle.

My first BIA Results

Today was my first day and lets just say I haven't been hungry once. In fact, I am finding it hard to actually eat everything I am supposed to eat today.

This was my plan for the day:

7:30 wake up - 10 oz of water
8:00 MorningMeal - 3/4 cup Oatmeal with vanilla extract, 1 medium apple & 10 oz of water
10:00 Snack - 1 Ultra Meal Shake made with 10 oz of water
12:00 Lunch - 3/4 cup canned tuna with 3 tsp mayo, salad using unlimited category 1 veggies & 15 oz of water
2:30 snack - Chocolate Ultra Meal bar & 10 oz of water
5:00 Dinner - 2 whole eggs with salsa and 1/2 cup black beans, salad with unlimited category 1 veggies, 12 baby carrots and 2 Tbsp sesame seeds, & 15 oz of water
8:00 snack - 1 medium apple & 10 oz of water

I missed my apple this morning and didn't have room for the salad at lunch but otherwise I have kept to my plan (so far, I am writing this at 4:15 so I haven't attempted dinner yet.)

I also need to walk (briskly) for 30 minutes each day- and I did that while the kids took their naps.

Well, so far the first day has been good. I will try to blog each day about my progress - and failings, because I am sure there will be some- and hopefully you can join me on my journey back to healthy living!