Fit Mommy Friday: WK 8: Counting Down...

the pounds, that is~
What an amazing challenge this has become!

It is encouraging to gain such momentum from reading your progress as well as working on my own!  I don't weigh every day or even every week, b/c I learned years ago that this kind of practice just sets me up for failure, but if it works for you, of course, by all means go for it! So since I can't give you a number of pounds for the week, I can say that my clothes are bagging on me~that once worn bigger sizes are now being put away so I can recycle them to someone else~Praise God!  I AM NOT keeping them~I wore them wayyy too long!

So my progress is this:

10 weeks without sugar/white flour will be celebrated tomorrow~whoot! All the while we have had two birthdays, Thanksgiving, church social dinners and ladies' functions and even other social events where food was the main event within my immediate family~My children haven't been deprived ONE bite of birthday cake~in fact, I've encouraged them to have their cake AND EAT IT TOO~lol! By NOT eating any~there was mo for them, so to speak!  But as part of this EXTREME NEW lifestyle, I have also learned NEW ways of shopping for and preparing foods.  First off, I READ labels.  I am looking for sugars and all it's insidious names and starches and its insidious names AND then I am looking for flours and all the descriptions and names it can have...I have researched and read a bunch on this so I have that crucial info...I do my best to make SURE that none of the "offender" ingredients in positioned no closer than 3, but at least 5 on the ingredient list.  Also I don't eat much pre-prepared foods. I do eat mayo (fat free/low cal~10 cal per tbs), margarine (yeah, I know butter is better..the cal or virtually the same~BUT I like margarine! LOL...and so far, colesterol isn't my enemy~calories are...LOL..this could CHANGE tho...LOL), flour~whole wheat variety, yogurt (I know I can make this~it's convenience and taste...I haven't acquired that homemade taste in this arena..but I plan to...I gotta get the right stuff to make it...), eggs (I buy these~don't have my own chickens...(maybe never, but the idea has crossed my mind!), cheese!(not making it either, but I've thought about it too)...You get the idea...I'm eating as many fresh/whole foods as possible! The foray into pasta~the whole wheat variety is interesting! Today we are making homemade lasangna noodles...and we use whole wheat flour to thicken gravy...oh yeah, it's good!  I have taken to collecting healthy recipes that are altered from their originals to make them health conscious and even binding them in a notebook~when they're keepers, I'm taking care to keep them LOL...

But then the most amazing part is cooking. Did I ever share I hate the kitchen..or I did hate it...it's always been a place synonymous with DRUDGERY for me.  Maybe all the guilt of late night binges after meals were eaten while I LITERALLY cleaned up~the left overs, that is...had gotten to me~but I never fully embraced cooking. I resisted it when  teenager, and never tried to really learn much then..and when I needed to learn, I learned by default.  You know, accidental learning...short cut here, easy way~there...but this amazing thing that includes recipes also includes new skills...that utilizes the shopping~label reading.  I can really cook!  IF I WANT TO~ha! Yes, SisterT has been in the kitchen a little more...my mother who is much like a chef of sorts does a fine job and has always loved it~but I'm learning! I no longer resent the kitchen, but rather enjoy 'rattling' the pots a little...ALL for love~love of health...good health begins with the intake of nutrition.  This is such an amazing change for me.  I am certain that my eating along with God's blessings has afforded me the health I do have thus far as I long ago gave up the premade processed stuff~for fresh and raw~but I had truly NEVER gotten a handle on portions...over eating is over eating no matter on what!  THIS IS A BIG GIANT change!

Along the way, my food plan has changed just a little bit.  I am eating a few less carbs than I began eating.  I have reduced the morning eating to one serving most days instead of two, and alternating the yogurt or milk serving between morning, lunch or supper meals to equal two instead of the three I was consuming. The overall bulk of my food is decreasing!  This is HUGE, too!

With my obstacles, I have to ask myself, 'HOW do you eat an elephant?' meaning that conquering a terrible situation of ill health due to morbid obesity and inactivity is akin to eating a GREAT BIG animal???  The resounding answer is 'ONE second/minute/hour/DAY AT a TIME!  or...one bite at a time~each meal or food encounter being put in its proper place~in the right way: God honoring.  God honoring amounts, combinations and times'...THIS is a new concept for me, too. I had NEVER considered GIVING God my food each day!

Activity is interesting.  I am almost feeling hyper!  My energy is returning, and I have no desire to do all the sitting THINGS I have done for years! I wanna dance and move~guess my house is gonna look better too! LOL...and you know, my whole life is improving! I am sleeping better as well.  The whole body is recovering! Exercise this week included more shopping and getting up and moving~anybody like to dance like I do? Good thing I'm a child of the 70s...LOL...there's some AWESOME dance music from the 70s-90s! Wooot!

Almost forgot the water~still struggle, but this headache means that the tall glass I just poured and downed half of needs to be emptied! STILL working on this one~since the stomach has shrunk, getting it all in a tough! BUT HEY, stuffing water beats stuffing food~LOL!!!

Okay, Fit Mommys~here you have it...one fat woman's attempts to give God her life...and you can join up the efforts and read mo HERE!