Week One...DONE!

So, week one of my no cheat challenge ended yesterday, but I was mid cleanse, so I figured I'd weigh in today instead! Can you guess by the image how much weight I released in the past 8 days? If you guessed TEN POUNDS, you're right! WOOHOO!!!! Give yourself a sticker! I thought I had lost that much just a couple of cleanses ago, but either my scale was wrong or it all came right back on in the next couple of days, so that was a bummer.


Weight: 212 lbs. -10 lbs
Waist: 46" -1"
Hips: 47" -1"
Right thigh: 25.5" -0"
Right calf: 16.5" -1/2"
Right upper arm: 16" -0"

Just 15 pounds until I hit 100 lbs released! It's almost painful to say that when I was only seven pounds away from it six months ago, but I've decided I can't focus on where I've been, I can only focus on where I'm going. Much easier said than done, but I'm working on it!

This past week has been really difficult. With birthdays and parties and homemade lemon bars for the last day of dance class and field trips to the Pizza Place, there has been temptation around every corner, but I did it! No cheating! It's getting easier as the days pass, which I knew it would, but there is still the desire there. I imaging the desire will always be there, it will just keep getting easier to ignore. Now, if I could just desire to eat salad!

Harder Than I Thought

Boy did I pick a bad month to be good!  Lol  Saturday was my husband's birthday and my daughter's birthday party. Eggs benedict for breakfast ( for the family...a shake for me), then we BBQed and swam. I had my husband grill me up a chicken breast and a portobello mushroom. I ate the mushroom like a burger with a lettuce bun. I'm trying to stay away from red meat, but did end up eating half a burger patty. Can I call that not really cheating because I stayed within my calories and haven't said absolutely no red meat? I have to say that I have been tempted to cheat and just not blog about it, but I haven't! Go me!

I wanted to do something with my husband for his birthday that was semi affordable. I found it difficult to think of anything that didn't involve food! We ended up just enjoying a nice night in.

Sunda I had a fireside at church that I am played the piano for. I was totally stressed out about it. I wanted to gorge on all of my usual stress comfort foods, but I didn't! It's really eye opening being on this no cheat challenge. You never really realize how much of an emotional eater you are until you can't rely on foods during emotional times. I had a double shot of Ionix Supreme to help get me through! I also had to bring five dozen cookies and not touch a single one of them. Of course, there were SO many goodies after the fireside as well. I just drank a lot of water.

I wasn't going to weigh in until I had a week of the challenge under my belt, but I did sneek apeak this morning. I'm not disappointed, that's for sure! I'll give an official weigh in on Thursday morning after my two day cleanse!

Day 2

Today is going well! I woke up this morning, pretty hungry after my two day cleanse. It was the perfect time to try the new vegan shake from Isagenix! Two boxes were delivered on Monday morning...just when I started my cleanse. (Isn't that how it always works?) So, I got to try it this morning! I have to say...it wasn't my favorite. It was just too sweet for my liking. I can understand why they made it so sweet, but it wasn't my cup of tea. I think I may add some Want More Energy to it tonight to see if the tartness of that makes it more palatable to me. If I were vegan, however, I would still drink it everyday. It's not bad...I just prefer the vanilla and chocolate!

Lunch came around noon. I'm SO happy to be back on track! Who could look at this lunch and think that I'm either depriving myself, or could be eating something that tastes better? 

Today's lunch consisted of a chicken breast (seasoned with some Himilayan Sea Salt and rosemary), four cups of fresh spinach (which I wilted with some sea salt and water that I used to reconstitute some sun dried tomatoes), which was topped with some sun dried tomatoes and about 1/2 ounce of goat cheese. The pizza on the right is on a flax and quinoa tortilla, which I crisped up in the oven, then topped with a tablespoon of pesto, 1 oz of fresh mozzarella, quartered artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes and capers. Oh my goodness, lunch was SO good! I ate half of the chicken, then saved the rest for a mid afternoon snack!

I'm only about 9 cups of water into the 16 I try to drink each day, but I should be able to easily reach that by the end of the night! 

30 Day No Cheat Challenge

I've decided that I need to stop allowing myself to slack. I need to stop allowing myself to "cheat." I'll eat something "bad" and tell myself I'll make up for the calories by not eating as big of a lunch. I'll eat something "bad" and tell myself that because I'm conciously allowing myself to eat it, it's okay because that means I'm in control. I'll eat something "bad" and tell myself that I'll do better the next day.  No more! I'm officially starting a 30 day no cheat challenge!

Today is Day 1! I'm cleansing today. (As I did yesterday as well) So far, I've an IsaDelight, Cleanse for Life, a Natural Accelerator and three cups of water. So far, so good!

Weight: 222
Waist: 47"
Hips: 48"
Right thigh: 25.5"
Right calf: 17"
Right bicep: 16"

I've taken "before" pictures and will post them with my "after" pictures at the end of 30 days.

After taking the before pictures, I was feeling pretty poorly about myself, so I pulled out an old pair of jeans and put them on. You know how in amazing weight loss stories, you see a picture of a person standing in a single leg of their old jeans? Yeah...that's not me. lol However, I looked at them and cannot believe I ever allowed myself to get that big. I'm hoping that in the next six months or so, I'll look at the jeans I'm wearing now and won't be able to believe that I was ever that big.

So, here we go!

My New Toy Rocks my World!

My eldest daughter has started drinking tea. She decided that she needed a fancy tea cup and saucer to drink her tea from. I'm not quite sure why, but she insisted she just had to. So, we made a quick trip to Goodwill to find a tea cup and saucer. While we were there, I was browsing the electronics and ran across this little baby. It's a George Foreman 2 serving classic plate grill.

One of my biggest complaints about eating healthy is all of the dishes it creates! Every single lunch, I dirty at least four dishes. My normal lunch of chicken breast with goat cheese and spinach requires a pan to brown my chicken, a baking sheet to bake it, a pan to wilt my spinach in, a plate and a fork. Now, keep in mind that there are eight people in my family, so I do not own a single small pan. I'm using a full 10 inch diameter pan to fry a single chicken breast in! So, when I saw this thing for only $6, I just had to get it! I cannot believe how easy this has made my lunches! No need to separately brown, then bake my chicken. The grill does it all! Even better, it does it in 8 minutes as opposed to the 30 my chicken usually spends in the oven! I still use a pan to wilt my spinach, but I think I'm going to try to wilt it in the grill today...just for giggles. ;) I'll let you know how it goes!

Cooking for a single person is so strange to me. I never used to eat lunch. I would just snack on whatever I could grab all day. For breakfast and dinner, I always have at least six people to cook for, so I'm used to cooking large quantities. It's kind of nice to cook for just myself. I feel like I'm doing something special for myself. Some people like to have a spa day. I like to cook myself lunch. Now, dishes...I'm not horribly fond of those, which is what makes this grill so ridiculously awesome!

Refocusing on my "why."

It's no secret that I've been struggling recently. Dinner time seems to be the most difficult for me. I can be great all day, then go crazy at dinner. Night time snacking has returned with a vengeance. I KNOW I need to get things back under control, but I consciously choose not to. I'm not snacking without realizing it. I'm snacking with an "I'll do better tomorrow" attitude. "Tomorrow" has turned into six months. SIX MONTHS! It's just not okay.

I ran into my sponsor, Amber, the other day at Hobby Lobby. (This was my first time ever going there...I think I spent about three hours there! SUCH an awesome store!) I told her that I had been struggling and not  only not losing weight, but rapidly gaining it back. She then contacted our friend, Craig, who sent me this text:

Keep your eye on your why Katie :) What made you start in the first place, why is this so important to you? Keep doing the simple things, make sure to eat as much as you're outputting and if you are focused on hitting a certain weight put the scale away for 10 days at a time so you are not stressing over hitting that number, in turn boosting your cortisol levels and slowing fat loss. You are an amazing spirit, remember this is NOT a race, it is to find the real you, and to get to your why may take different speeds, but as long as you're pointed in the right direction nothing will stop you :) Much love! Craig

He's absolutely right. I think I've forgotten my "why." Why am I doing this? I'm doing this so I can play with my kids. I'm doing this so my children grow up knowing that eating right and exercise is an important part of life. I'm doing this so I can live to see my great grandchildren. I'm doing this so I can figure out who I am. I'm doing this so I can feel good about myself and not shy away from opportunities because I'm embarrassed by who I am. I'm doing this so I can LIVE. These are the things that are important to me and I can't let food stand in the way of accomplishing these things in my life.

I'm putting my vision board back up so I can really focus on why I am doing these things and remember that I want my "why" more than I want Taco Bell. lol