I'm slacking!

 Ok, I am really slacking!  I could have sworn that I wrote this post....I'm telling you. I wrote it!  Ok, maybe I wrote it in my head.  But I just came online and was shocked to see it not here! I'm telling you.....

So about a week or so ago I had two things happen or rather brought to my attention that relate to my life and my healthy journey.  They are doctors advice to lose weight and setting goals.

The first is doctors advice.  I follow a channel on youtube. It is a guy and his wife is in the background and they banter back and forth.  We never see the wife.  HOWEVER, about a week ago we saw the wife in a very serious video.  She is roughly my age (48) and she was out grocery shopping and felt pain.  She had a suspected heart attack.  She spent 4 days in the hospital and they are still running tests to find out what is happening.   Their video was her story but very heavily into giving warning signs and advising people (women in particular) of heart issues. Women have different symptoms than men apparently....and women also at are higher risk when their estrogen is fluctuating wildly through perimenopause.  I watched the video and I was like "dude...just another reason to get my weight under control".  

But that still didn't spark me.  A few nights later I was just feeling really really dizzy.  I mentioned it to Jason and also mentioned that it had happened another evening (and I had a brief period of it since then for a third night).  We immediately checked my blood pressure and a few other things, and everything was normal.  But as I sat there worrying I was thinking, "My doctor is flat out going to have to put me on a different diet and whatnot in order to 'save my life"   Dramatic?   Yes.....very much so!  But this came right after that video that I watched!  But thinking that really made me think.......why am I not changing my diet NOW.  Why am I waiting under a doctor tells me that I have to change or I will die?

The other thing...the goal.  Someone, oddly enough the same person from the channel that posted that video that I mentioned earlier, commented on one of my videos.  They were saying "set goals".    I have resisted setting a weight loss goal.  I have set them in the past. I set goals like "I will lose 25 pounds by the time I get married"  (Yup...remember the 12 week challenge?? from this fall?)  I've done those challenges to myself many time!  And typically I start to slip up and as soon as I realize that I have no chance of making that goal, I feel like a failure and I give up.  Yup, that's what I do!   I give up and typically gain!     But I started to think.  I am not going to set any long term goal.  I am not going to say "MaryFran, you can be at your goal weight by such and such date!"  No!  I am setting a goal of 1 pound a week.  If I fail for that WEEK than I have the next week to try again!  

So those are my deep thoughts!  I have been doing ok with my weight loss efforts.  I've had a few things slip in (Reece's cups.......darn them!)  I have been able to maintain the clean fast for my intermittent fasting.  I've been consistently fasting about 16-17 hours each day. I've talked about pushing it longer, but right now I'm hungry when that 16-17 hour mark comes around.  So I'm just sitting back and relaxing with this for a while.  I don't want to be ravenous when I break my fast, because I know what I will do (or rather what I am capable of eating)!   So right now I'm just sitting right here at that 16 hour fast each day!   

best laid plans

I was sure that this week was going to go as planned.   I was going to fast for 19 hours and have a five hour eating window.  I was going to exercise and ride that bike for at least 30 minutes each day.  It was non negotiable in my mind!

Except, well….I guess it was negotiable!

I did NOT fast for 19 hours a day. 

I did NOT ride that exercise bike.

I am disappointed with myself. But I am going to focus on what I did do.

I DID do a clean fast for about 17.5 hours each day.   

I DID walk after work each day.

I DID track my food and keep it close to 1400-1500 (or less). calories each day.

my Week may not have gone as planned.  But I did make good positive steps.

A new Week

 My weight is NOT going down.  I'm still on the struggle bus.   I am kinda just floundering! I ate too much each weekend day. 

Ok, now that I got that first statement out of the way, lets talk about some of my thoughts and plans.  Good old fashioned bullet style entry.

* My weekend eating was a bit higher than I would have desired.  I at between 1800 and 2000 calories each day.  Not utterly horrible, but definitely something that I need to fix.

* Last week I finished a book called Fast Feast Repeat.  It talked more about the proper way to fast and different variations.   It opened my eyes and really went well with the book that I recently read that made me think more about my plan and what I need to be doing.   I haven't been REALLY fasting since I have been drinking my flavored waters in the morning.  I made a decision to really fast......do a CLEAN fast.  Only water during my fasting hours! 

*  I had in the past been doing a 16:8 intermittent fast.  To explain what that is, I basically was fasting (or I thought I was fasting) for 16 hours and then I was allowing myself to eat within an 8 hour window.    It was a natural switch for me.  HOwever, after reading about the fast, I am wanting to go more toward an OMAD fast.  I'm not quite ready to go that far.  BUT, This week I am going to try a 19:5 fast.  So I will fast for 19 hours.  Basically, I will eat a light lunch/snack at my last break during my work day, then eat dinner like normal (which for us is around 7PM).  

* By eating on my last break versus my lunch break, I will have the lunch break hour free to ride the exercise bike.  No excuses!

*  I will continue tracking my food.  I can still do a lot of damage in 5 hours.  So tracking will continue.  At least for the foreseeable future.  The books all say that you don't need to track with intermittent fasting and the books even go on to talk about how your body will adjust and you will be able to eat more intuitively and mindfully.  I sure hope so!  That would be amazing!

* I am not yet sure how I will handle fasting on the weekends.  I know people do fast and still hike and whatnot, but I am not yet sure.  I may use my weekends and drop it back to a 16:8 plan.  We shall see. That is up in the air.  I've got a few days until the weekend rolls around where I have to have my plan in place!

SO there you have it.  The news that my weight loss journey is stalled and my thoughts and plans for this week to unstick it!  :-)

Vegetable Soup

 We were obviously needing healthy foods.  Our bodies were screaming for it.  It was obvious when we went grocery shopping.  Our unplanned purchases were all either fruit or vegetables.    We were craving healthy foods and we listened.   We planned to make a big pot of vegetable soup and boy was it delicious!

Vegetable Soup  

For a printable copy click here. 

1 lb Beef -Either a roast or stew meat (If it is stew meat just make sure to cook it slow and long for  lb tenderness of your meat)  

1 lrg can Diced Tomataoes (Italian seasoned)

6-8 potatoes, peeled and diced 

4-8 cups of Beef Broth

3 pounds frozen vegetables 

Salt and Pepper to taste

1.  Cook the beef until tender.   Cut the beef into bite sized pieces.   

2. In large pan (or crockpot) place beef, potatoes, tomatoes and frozen vegetables, salt and pepper.  Add beef broth until broth covers vegetables.  You will want the broth to be a half inch to an inch above the vegetables.  Adjust the amount of broth according to the amount of vegetables that were added and to your individual preferences.

3.  Cook on med-high for 45 minutes on the stove (in crockpot, cook for 6 hours low)

4.  Serve and Enjoy

This soup hit the spot!  The weather has turned cooler and the vegetables were exactly what my body was demanding!   A win win!

For More Recipes click here. 

 

November Already

Seriously, where is time going?  How can it already be November!   Time is just rolling at one heck of a fast clip!   But here we are at the beginning of November!   The last week of October went by and before I knew it I was stepping back on the scales for my weigh in.  Another week in the books!

What did we do

My weigh in week started off with a weekend.  We were busy with errands on the weekend. And as usu enjoyed our weekend together.  We got a few Halloween decorations up and carved our pumpkins.

We did also get in a walk outside.  But it was a quiet relaxing weekend.   On the one day I totally crashed and ended up napping on the couch for like four hours. I guess my body really needed it!

Of course the weekend ended way to fast and the work week rushed in and life got back to crazy.  I am still working with some new agents and leading a training class….so my days are non stop.  Even my official ‘breaks’ are not really breaks as I am trying to catch up on emails and whatnot …things I can’t do when I am leading a training class.   The week seemed long to me for some reason….but there wasn’t anything horrible about it…just busy.   And like normal, I was ready for my Friday weigh in…because it meant that the weekend was upon us 

Living Healthy

Finally, after vowing to get back to being healthy habits after vacation I actually made some efforts.  It only took me two to three weeks!  (Which is actually shameful!)

I started by tracking my food.  My calories were NOT where I like and need them to be.   My calories were in the 1600 calorie range.  Which for me is either barely maintaining or slightly gaining.  So not exactly perfect…but my food was tracked!  I’m calling that a win!

As normal we walked every night after work (well except for the one stormy rainy night).  I also hopped back onto the exercise bike during my breaks on a few of my days.  To my shame I didn’t do it every day….but I did it three times…which is  better than none!  I also didn’t do my  10 miles that I was averaging before vacation. But I still rode.  With losing my breaks due to training, I call three days of shorter mileage a win!

So what happened on the scales?  Why I went up.  My weight popped up.  Some of that is due to the ‘mi that ick’ and that’s ok….but I can’t blame my weight entirely on that because I know my calories were a bit high! (For my body).

A new week for Weight Loss

I know that I wasn't entirely on track for weight loss this past week.  And that’s ok.  I am more proud of the fact that I started to take the small steps to reign myself in. Sooo, this week I am committed to expanding my efforts.  More miles on the exercise bike and lowering my calories to where they NEED to be so that I can get back to being a loser!

It all boils down to what do I really want.  If I want to be thin. If I want to be healthy, I need to take the steps to make myself healthy.  I can pray for it…I can talk about it…I can dream and lot and plan.  But if I don’t actually take the action to make it a reality, nothing will happen! If I want it badly enough, then I need to put in the effort!  This week is all about effort!!!!