Baby steps=more food choices!!!

Greetings friends and Happy Follow Friday!

So I hit the two week mark of being very good and sticking to my eating plan. :) Woohoo!!! This means that I get more food choices now! Yippee-ki-yeah! Worth it-totally. I see a huge difference already and so do others. Maybe I can ask them for a few quotables for you all to read. I'm very excited by all this. Can you tell?

Want to know what I can now eat in addition to my basics? For a review of the basics check out this post.
Here's the next page in my eating plan:
Follow the same foods as before. However, there are more substitutes you may have.

2 pieces of low carb bread (a day) OR 1 low carb tortilla
Tuna sandwich or egg salad sandwich (low/light mayo)-no cheese
OR plan ham sandwich with lettuce & tomato only
OR turkey-bacon sandwich with lettuce & tomato only

No more than 1 cup of skim milk (I had been wondering when I would get to drink milk again!!!). Kashi Go-Lean is a great cereal (I've heard the Go-Lean Crunch is best tasting) to eat or mix with yogurt.

Snack substitutes (I'm so thanking God for this because I was soooooo bored with my snackage!!!):
1. Stuffed mushrooms with hamburger meat, mozzarella (I'm assuming low cal/light though she didn't specify that), and spices
2. Stuffed jalapenos with spinach
3. Lettuce rolls with any kind of meat (no sauce other than salsa though)
4. Sunflower seeds (non-salted) 1/2 cup
5. Nuts 1/2 cup
6. Sugar free jello (I've never been so excited for jello!!! ahaha)
7. Pepperoni chips (I'm very excited for these though I've never had them they sound good)
8. Pork rinds
Low carb fudge bars (1 a day if you want) <-------See that!?!?! I get to eat something that tastes super yummy now!!! Woohoo!!! *dance party* Break it down, na! lol

Mustard is fine with anything. Eat tons of pickles if you can (those burn the heck out of fat cells!!!)
She also mentioned adding salsa and vinegar to any time to any thing to help burn up those fat cells.

She also decided to add sit-ups to the routine since I'm already supposed to be doing at least 30 minutes of cardio, working up to 45 minutes 3-4 times a week. I say supposed to because I was already doing 45 minutes of cardio about 4-5 times and recently an hour of zumba two days a week. You can read about my zumba experiences here, here, and here. There are weeks I make it to the gym or am active 6 out of 7 days. Go me!! When I realize how good I've been I take a day off, lol. I'm just at the time in my life where I can make it a priority and am choosing to do so. Buzz word: I choose to do so. You really do have to choose and commit if this is going to work. This is not another fad diet (dirty word) or something you can try and decide it didn't really work for you because until you get through the first two weeks I don't think you've given it an honest, committed effort (My first two weeks weren't strictly committed and I had to start over! That's how serious she was able this with me). She said it took her three tries before she could get serious and just stick to it. So, that being said, this isn't for everyone. It really takes dedication and support (My family has been amazingly supportive and given up things too just to make it easier on me and I never asked them to, but they did! How cool is my family?!). Don't feel bad if this isn't realistic for you! Maybe one day it will be. And maybe you don't need something this intense. I do. And it's working!!!! :D

Back to the sit-ups. She wants me to do 3 to 5 minutes of straight sit-ups, well, crunches because I want to protect my back. :)
Here are the instructions she wrote:
3 to 5 minutes--->Go until you can't anymore, then wait 30 seconds and continue on until you hit the 3 minutes mark. After 2 weeks you should be at 3 minutes straight. Start working toward 5 minutes.

Say it with me, "Ouch!" Well, that is one of my areas on my body I take issue with so I suppose it's not a bad thing to add this in. I do inwardly wince at how much this is going to hurt, especially the second and third days. Ooooo, not a pretty thought. Shake it off. Just do it, right? I think I'll probably start this after my mini-vaca! I will still keep up the eating plan and we will be very active so I'm not worried about that part. :)

Can I tell you that the last two nights I've not had the impulse to snack?! My mindset is changing ya'll! Wheeeeeee! Part of this eating plan is changing my mindset towards food and it is taking hold in me. This has gotten easier as the time has passed. Though I have to admit that my Grandma's peanut butter cookies that she baked especially for me fresh on Tuesday so they could leave the airport with my dad early Wednesday morning to make it into my hot little hands was very, very tempting. Soon, Grandma, soon I may have them again! What a nice thing to do though, huh? Did I mention I have a fantastic family? :)

Blessings on your journey today!
R

P.S. Don't forget to enter my giveaway!!! Clicky, clicky here for details! Best of luck!

FF sponsor:
 

You are sooooo gonna enter this giveaway! :)

Hello all!

So, here is what I'm going to be giving away!

Pretty neat, right? I make crochet toppers for kitchen towels so you can hang them in convenient reach instead of figure out where the last person who used it left it. I have so much fun making these and I thought it would be fun to give some of them away. I have a plethora of these right now. I will be giving away a set of two towels to one lucky winner!

Ways to enter:

1. Become a follower or let me know you already are! (1 entry)

2. Follow me on twitter (or let me know you already do). (1 entry)

3. Visit my Etsy store (button on the right) and leave a comment about your favorite towel I have for sale currently. (2 entries)

Bonus entries:
4. Blog about this giveaway and leave me a link in the comments. (5 entries)

5. Tweet about this giveaway and leave me a comment letting me know. (1 entry per tweet, limit of 3 tweets a day)

My thought behind this giveaway was that I'm spending more and more time in the kitchen and so I could give something away that was related to time well spent in the kitchen. And I just happen to make and sell these (shameless plug)! Plus, I love to make these and I wanted to share something I love with you!

Must have all entries in by midnight (CST) on April 1st! Thanks for stopping by and entering!

Blessings!
R

My 1st Giveaway!!

Hi all!!!

So I've decided I'm going to be giving away some of my hand-done kitchen towels!

I'll post the official ways to enter, along with a few pictures, tonight!

You know you're excited!!! I certainly am!

Blessings,
R

Progress report-STAT!

Hello friends!

How are all of you doing today?! I am fantastic! Just thought you'd like to know. I did zumba tonight instead of this morning because I picked up my dad from the airport during that time. We are having a great time having him here with us. We've already picked up the much-anticipated princess bike and my little girl is a pro! Ok, not quite yet, but she is well on her way. She hopped on the bike in the store and just started riding. All that practice when she was littler and fit on the littler bike paid off, ya'll! :) She fell down a couple times when she leaned too far (mostly in turns) but started to figure out her limits within that half hour we were able to squeeze in riding before dinner. :) I'm such a proud mommy, can you tell? I really adore my children, especially when they aren't whiney or crying. tehe!

Ok, so zumba was a great workout tonight. I am finding I really like this "dance" class. :) I still want to try cycling so if I can ever get a copy of the class schedule I will be trying that next! Tips?? Tricks?

I had my mom pass on an "OMG" comment to me about looking so fabulous. And now we have another lassie who wants to take a swing at this new eating plan. Another one down and another one down... I'm rather excited by this compliment. People are noticing. This makes me want to jump on the scale and see what it says (yes, even though it is not the best measurement of progress, it's one of the easiest to obtain :P).

Anyway, at the end of the month I will be posting pictures of myself. This will kind of be the starting point for all of you, but this will be me about 3 months back into seriously working out and about 5 weeks into this new eating plan for me. Sound good? Great!

I can tell you that after my son was born a little over a year ago I weighed 214 (AHHH!! I know, right?!). In January I weighed in at 193 (not great for weight loss, but terrible). The reason I didn't go back to working out like a mad woman to lose the weight was that I was nursing and they tell you not to diet or lose a bunch of weight as it can really interfere with producing enough for your baby to eat (did I put that delicately enough? lol). So losing 21 pounds during the first year isn't too bad for progress I'd say. :) And it doesn't really matter in the grand picture because it can't be changed now! ha

So, I'm very excited to see what I weigh in at and to see if I met my MOPS (Mothers of Pre-Schoolers) goal I set for myself of losing 20 pounds during the MOPS year (which, until this last month, was while I was still nursing). I was around 200 at the beginning of the MOPS season so my first goal is 180. Next goal will be 160. I haven't figured out where exactly I'll land and much more weight loss will start to get difficult after that because I will be building muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat so at that point the scale pretty much becomes useless and then I have to go by how loose my clothes are. :) If you didn't know, now you do!

Thanks for sticking in through that long post!
Blessings,
R

P.S. I get to have green veggies tomorrow!!!!
P.P.S. So my grandma in MN made me fresh peanut butter cookies yesterday and sent them down with my dad especially for me because she knows how much I love them. I was super, super, super tempted to throw in the towel and just start over again. Grandma's cookies are almost worth it. Almost, but not quite. I'm committed and I'm not starting over yet again! :)

Quick time-double time-don't drop it!

Hello all!

So my dad is coming to visit us in sunny AZ this week! I'm very excited by this. And my daughter is VERY, VERY excited for this. She is really looking forward to that new princess bike. :) My dad has gracious decided to give us a gift and bring us to Vegas for a bit while he is here! My husband has never been, but I really love the chaos of Vegas. :) This will be the first time I've been there and be old enough to gamble, lol!

Here's my hesitation-how on earth am I going to be able to keep up with my eating plan?! This is going to be a real test of my willpower and my creativity. lol So, I vow to make healthy choices while I'm away and I will blog about the results and what I learn when I return. All I can do is my best and that's what I plan to do. I don't want to have to start over, yet again! *insert eye roll here* I know I'll be getting plenty of exercise in the pool and walking all over the strip, tehe.

Other good news: I have to get a new bathing suit!!! Well, I am by no means ready for a tiny string bikini (and don't know if my modesty will ever let me where one of those!) I am ready for a smaller suit! I do love the results of all this hard work. This is just another incentive to not lose all the progress I've made.

And my new workout song for the day is "It happens" by Sugarland. We all have "those" days and all we can do is get back up and have a better day the next day. I find this song amusing because I know even when I'm having a fantastic day I've been there and it actually makes me more thankful for the good times.

Happy Monday and blessings!
R

Friday Follow

Hi all!

Thanks for stopping by for FF! This is my first time participating!

You can check out my last blog post about my zumba experience!

Enjoy reading and I will return the comments and follows! :)

Blessings,
R

La vaca, MOO!

Hello loves!

Thanks for your kind comments! I love reading them. :)

Let's get down to business. I told you that I would try zumba, and not just once, but a few times so that I got a clear perspective of the class and what it has to offer. Well, I generally give new things about four tries (usually over a four week span). Today was my fourth zumba class. They added a morning one! I liked this change mainly because the floor was less crowded and I could actually move without worrying about running into someone if I messed a step up. Trust me, I do this often--messing up a step, not running into someone. Moving on.

Zumba, for those who don't know, is a "dance party" kind of a class. It combines different dance movements and aerobic exercise. It is mainly inspired by latin dances (think merengue, samba, etc.). The music is loud and it is very high-energy (think lots of jumping around). Ok, so you all read about my first experience here! as well as my second adventure in zumba here!

Here's my conclusion: It is an incredibly good workout. You practically never stop moving. Most of the time you are jumping or moving your feet (quickly) or yes, shaking your booty, booty, booty, booty. One thing I was really surprised by and didn't expect was this--I went to my chiropractor to be adjusted today and there was absolutely nothing out of place in my hips or low back. I have never, in the approximately three years I've been seeing a chiropractor, had this happen--ever. So, all that hip movement has really helped to align my back! Crazy, huh? I love this fact and will continue to do zumba because it is a great workout and it has helped my back in a fantastic way! I'm still learning the steps and still constantly mess them up, but the instructor said today, the more you come the better you'll get. This is true of anything-the more you practice the better you will be.

For all of you that already love zumba and are addicted or are curious and want to try it, I have news for you! The instructor informed us this morning that zumba was coming out for WiiFit in December. Gosh, I should really be getting paid for this, lol. That's what I know. Go do some investigating and report back!

Blessings all!
R

P.S. The "La vaca, MOO!" title is one of the songs that is stuck in my head from this morning. It keeps repeating "la vaca, MOO!, la vaca, MOO!, la vaca, MOO!" and I can't get it out of my head, lol!
I tried to grab pictures from the zumba site for you, but you'll just have to look yourself--Zumba!