Food Glorious Food

Its Spring Break at my house which means a lot of video games, Netflix, cleaning and making of videos to be posted on Youtube.  I also found time to get caught up on Drop Dead Diva and some reading!  My focus today though is to talk about food.  I have tried many diets or tricks to lose weight from eating half a grapefruit before every meal to eating cheese and salami all day long.  The diet change always resulted in about 10 lbs of weight loss in 2 weeks then nothing.  Finally from reading many books and attending a week at a Biggest Loser Resort I think I have figured a few things out.  I didn't have it all wrong before...I just didn't have it all right.

As soon as you say the word diet people cringe and with good reason, most of them don't work.  I have read a lot by Michael Pollan, especially his book 'In Defense of Food', and I was trying to apply what I had learned to my 'diet'.  He says many insightful things about food, like that if our great grandparents don't recognize it then we shouldn't eat it.  All of the processed food that has been introduced over the past 50 years is causing us to be fat and sick.  He also said to eat mostly plants and not too much.  Not only does the average American eat a lot of processed food we eat too much meat.  A serving size is 4-6 ounces but most Americans consume twice that amount 2-3 times a day.  These extra calories turn to fat and make our kidneys work harder than they have to.  So the first thing I figured out was that we have been deceived into thinking more is more and a better deal, but it really is less is more and will be a better deal in the long run.

Once I wrapped my head around what a healthy and normal serving size was, I tackled when I ate.  I am a classic overachieving busy mom and sometimes I would skip breakfast or I would not eat all day until dinner or, my favorite, drink coffee all day long.  Its called break-fast for a reason...you are breaking the fast you were on while sleeping for 7-8 hours and your body needs food to restart your metabolism.  I also learned that while a banana has lots of good things like potassium and vitamin C it will raise your blood sugar if eaten alone, so I needed to add protein to my morning meal.  Eggs, oatmeal or peanut butter are all good sources of protein.  Its also important to have good carbs in the morning and at lunch, like whole grain breads or pasta.  I have Dave's Killer spelt bread toast with all natural peanut butter, a banana and a cup of coffee every morning.  I am satisfied and ready for my day after that.  So remember to eat a good breakfast:)

Maybe you are wondering what kind of progress I have made and I am not afraid to share the details because hiding the facts is what got us into this mess in the first place, right?  I weighed 272.3 lbs on December 15th, 2013.  This was officially the most I have ever weighed in my life.  I seemed to gain about 20-30 permanent pounds with each pregnancy and a nice 20 was added after my knee surgery in 2000.  I tried several diets and trainers and once I even lost 60 lbs just to get pregnant again.  I have always played soccer, gone jogging and even paid for a personal trainer at the gym, but nothing seemed to be the right combination until now.  I have lost 28.5 lbs since that day in December and I lose 1-2 lbs each week.  I was a size 20 and now I can squeeze into a few 16's.  My journey is far from over and I'm sure there will be roadblocks and potholes to get around and over as I continue on.

I have a lot more to tell you about food, exercise and small changes I have made to my life that I know will keep me going in the right direction.  Stay tuned and you can hear all about it and together we can help other busy moms reach their goals!  Moms move mountains and sometimes they are covered in bad dieting advice:)

Prioritizing My Priorities

Well, I'm finally making progress on that baby weight I gained after 4 kids and a 17 year marriage and knee surgery.  Why did it take so long?  It's not because I haven't tried to lose the weight, because I have tried just about everything that didn't sound insane (like the grapefruit diet), but I would always hit a wall after 10 or 15 pounds lost.  Was I frustrated and trying to convince myself I didn't need to lose weight?  Of course I was and did!  People can be happy if they are a size XXXL or a size 24, but I was not happy and that's what gets me to my point....I hadn't been successful before because I didn't make myself a priority.

Every mom knows that there are not enough hours in the day to do everything you want to do or that could be done, but we usually put the kids, spouses/significant others and chores above our own needs.  This leads to sleep deprived, stressed, under-appreciated and in my case out of shape moms.  I have known all along that a good night's sleep will help me be healthy, but I would stay up late working or cleaning just to get up the next morning exhausted and unfulfilled.  I made the decision to make sleep a priority and at 11 pm or sooner I would head upstairs to bed.  Once I made a few other changes to my priority list I was even able to be in bed by 10 or 10:30 some nights and I now regularly wake up naturally before my alarm.

How did I do it you ask?  Its an ongoing process but the first steps involved not caring as much about dishes in the sink and taking the time to explain to the family that they need to do more.  As a parent you need to transition from providing them with everything they need as babies and toddlers to teaching them what to do as kids and adolescents.  Maybe the dishwasher wasn't loaded exactly how I would have done it, but the goal was for me not to do it, right?

Now 7-8 hours of sleep alone will not solve my problem so the next thing I had to work on was what I ate and when.  To find out what I did and how well its working you'll just have to wait and read my next blog posts because its time for me to do some boxing on the Wii!

Moms Move Mountains and Sometimes Those Mountains Are Ourselves