Saturday, June 29, 2013

Saturday only!!!

I am celebrating the fact that I am going to get my first misses sized swimsuit in 16 years-my supplements are changing lives!!! Place an order for our most popular pack or higher, and I will give you $20!!! It doesn't get better than that! 

Friday, June 28, 2013

Bloglovin'

Claiming my blog

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/8850133/?claim=fy3x6ge3mu6">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Thursday, June 27, 2013

A couple of bad days

Oh man! I am having a couple of frustrating days. It is the kind of thing where I get so down on myself. I just want to feel good. Don't get me wrong, physically, I feel better than I have in a long time. I am in clothes that I would not have fit into last year, that is for certain! I am just an emotional wreck this week, and I wish I could lay my finger on it.

Work has been crazy busy. Lots to do, and not enough time to do it. I work a seven hour shift, and then have the afternoons to catch up on stuff around here, spend time with the kids and make dinner. This week, I have been back on the computer every night. Last night, I gave myself a reprieve because the pain in my hands are killing me. I suffer from tendinitis and arthritis, and when I work on the computer too mush my hands literally stop working. Last night was one of those nights.

DH and I have also not seen too much of each other this week. He is putting together our kids' school's website, and he had to meet with a couple of teachers last night. So, he was gone, and I went on my walk to try and improve my mood. It only helped a bit.

This morning, I was ok, except I woke up with a headache. Been having more of those from my allergies. I got past it, but now am feeling overwhelmed and sad. I have a parish council meeting (my last one), and then I was supposed to go to a L'Bri party, but don't know if I will make it as I still have work to finish. Bleh. Just.feeling.bleh.

I have so much to be thankful for, and to be happy about, and I just can't bring myself to that place. One of my friends always says to lay it at the feet of Jesus. Jesus-you know what is in my heart right now. Please help me.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Tomorrow is day 8

So, tomorrow is the last day of my second 8 day challenge. I don't know that I lost more weight than the first time I did it, and that is ok. This is about the journey, not a sprint.

I am looking forward to being done just in terms that I can focus on the day to day. I am a bit trepidatious about the weekend as weekends are harder, but I will get though it. I am going to dinner with some of my closest friends on Friday night. Mexican-always a tough one for me. I will be ok. This is about being with friends. Such a necessary part of the journey.

Saturday, we are going to a water park for the day. So much fun! Looking forward to time with friends, and DH and the kids. Food will be an issue, but again, I will make the best choices I can!

Thanks to those of you who followed me here. This is a new format for me. I am looking forward to writing more about my thoughts and feelings as I go on. They health and nutrition thing still feels new.  I am learning so much, and things I never knew before. What I am learning most though, is appreciating every single day for what it is. A gift.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Day 6

My name is Therese, and I am a scale-a-holic.

Seriously, though, why are we so drawn to these numbers? The reality is that weight, by definition, is the pull of gravity on an object. I know, the bigger the object, the bigger the pull. I am on day 6 of my current 8 day challenge. In the past, I have done this plan or a mini reset (like a 4 day challenge) as a plateau buster. This one I did because I felt it was time to kick things into gear again.

As I said yesterday, I have a great support system this time around. That being said, by day 6, I am ready to be done. Hanging with this until the 8th day, but seriously, so ready to move onto what is next in my journey. So, what will day 9 bring? I am not sure. I have been playing with low carb for a while. Y'all, there are so many thoughts on the right way to lose weight! I need to figure out what is right for me because when I get to goal, I want to stay there. I want to maintain. I know that is a long way off, but I think it is important to explore along the journey.

In that vein, I am doing some great reading right now. I had vowed that this was the summer I got my family off of processed carbs and into more fruits and veggies. So far, we haven't done great, but it is really hard to do a 180 when you have a teen and an almost 10 year old who are not too excited about it. I am doing great personally without bread. A lot of the reading I have done is pointing to the fact that wheat is so highly refined and modified that it really isn't good for anyone. My two younger kids are much more receptive to the change. A, my daughter, is a fruit and veggies girl. She will pick up a piece of broccoli over a french fry any day. And M, my almost 8 year old son, loves fruit, and quite often will question if something is healthy or not.

Again, though, my older two are the tougher ones. I blame myself for a lot of the choices we made early on. P, the teen, had huge aversions to meat as a tot. He also had this huge gag reflex. Couple that with the fact that he was at my folks for dinner 3-4 nights a week because of our overlapping work schedules, and my mom tended more towards convenience foods, he became a big carb boy!

D, the almost 10 year old, is my carnivore. Not a huge deal, except that he is the one of my 4 who has genes like me. He struggles with his weight. As someone who has struggled with her weight her entire life, and ended up with an eating disorder, I know how delicate a situation this is. I remember how bad it felt to be teased, how bad it felt for the doctor to comment that I weighed too much, how absolutely awful it felt for one of my family members to say something about my weight. DH and I have been, instead, working with him via portion control, ie, everyone gets one serving, etc. He has also chosen to come walking with us quite a bit lately. All that being said, I am really dreading his physical next week. Our pediatrician isn't always the best about it.

So where does all of this lead to? To be honest, I am not sure. What started as a post about how I weigh every day, and that is too much during an 8 day challenge because of the fluctuation, turned into thoughts of my family. More to come on all of this. For now, I am going to sit with these thoughts...as they are many...

Oh yeah...and go drink my water...sigh.

Monday, June 24, 2013

Just some thoughts

I forgot how lonely it is when you start a new blog-particularly when you didn't share with your old readership that you moved. I needed a break from some of that. Oh well, if you are reading this, please feel free to leave a comment so I know someone is reading. Thanks!

It has been an awesome few days! I am in the middle of an 8 day challenge. This plan is one of the great things about the supplements I take. It really kind of jump starts you when you stall. This time it has been awesome because I have such great support!!! Have y'all used voxer? I love it-it is truly a great way to connect with people and my 8 DC friends and I have been checking in with each other. It is keeping me in check and I just <3 those ladies!!!

One more thought-WATER! I have such an issue getting in my allotment everyday. Did you know you should be drinking half your weight in ounces of water?!?! I have embraced water and been able to give up diet coke with the supplements I take, but wow, some days I get busy and forget!!! SO frustrating! I have tried an app, tried an alarm, but seriously, any thoughts you all have would be great!!!

Friday, June 21, 2013

Highs and Lows

It has been a crazy couple of weeks. I was supposed to be on vacation with DH last week, and instead I was home for the first week of summer with sick kids. Whomever said you can't get stomach flu in the summer was seriously mistaken! We are all better now, and focusing on getting into a routine for summer. 

The past couple of weeks have been hard! I think you can relate when I say when it comes to weight loss, we all are looking for a quick fix. I am constantly reminding myself that I didn't put the weight on in a day, and it certainly won't come off that way either. I fell into a habit for a few weeks of trying to copy what some of my weight loss buddies were doing because they were so successful. Some low carb, some high carb...it can be confusing to know what is right. You know what I have discovered? I need to do what is right for me.

So, what is right for me? Well, I have my vitamin supplements for one. They make such a difference in my mood and are truly helping. As I have said before, they are not a magic pill. I still work hard to make healthful choices and exercise. The supplements seem to fill in my gaps. 

For another, I am a part of a great community! We support each other in the best possible way. I was never one to share when I was trying to lose weight. It was too personal, and what I had become was too embarrassing.  Now, I am not afraid to share. I am more than a number. I am learning so much about food and nutrition, and how to best fuel my body, and I have many friends I can thank for that. Some in real life, and some that I have never met but none-the-less am thankful for and pray for daily. 

One of my friends, L, who is a great source of knowledge in nutrition recommended a couple of books to help me on this path. One of them arrives today, and I will be sure to share once I start it. I feel really bad, as L has been a life-long friend since high school, and when she started her path back to school in dietetics, I kind of dropped off the planet. I saw what she was learning, and it was too painful. I feel horrible about all of it. I wasn't there for some things going on when she needed me, and for that I am sooo sorry. Here she is, though, helping me and encouraging me. So like her. 

So, today is a great day. The supplements I take have a system called the 8 day challenge. It is a cleanse, but whenever I do this, I am never hungry! No deprivation here! My biggest struggle is getting in my water. I am a work in progress though, and I am working on it. 

As of this morning, I am at a new low!!! I have lost 32 pounds so far, and I feel fabulous! I am now wearing Misses' sizes again-no more plus size for me!!! For the first time in about 15 years, I know I have got this!

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

A new start!

Take 3...here I am starting blogging all over again! The thought came to me as I was out on a solo walk the other day. I have been struggling for a while with the things I want to write. I used to do a lot of writing about my family-like an online journal, but I moved it to a new blog to have more privacy. Then life got hectic (with 4 kids, it has to be!). I hadn't really felt the want or the need to blog in a while.

Then,  in January, I made a change. I made a change that I didn't think would work or that I would stick to. You see, I have always struggled with my weight. Mostly with being overweight, well, except for the time in my life when I stopped eating...oh yea, and the time in my life when I purged-a lot. I was young then, and never very sure of myself.

In 1996, I met the most amazing guy! He quickly became the love of my life. We were engaged 4 months later and married in December of 1996. He was the first guy who I felt valued me for me. That was incredible, and all of the eating disordered stuff from the previous 9 years had quickly fallen away. The problem was, I have these genes-you know the ones...the ones that give you this propensity to gain weight. Couple that with 7 pregnancies (I have 3 beautiful babes in Heaven), hypothyroidism, and years of dealing with my parents' illnesses and deaths, and my weight skyrocketed.

Actually, it skyrocketed in the first blissful years of marriage. Y'all, I had no idea how to eat. I was just enjoying being married and cooking to my heart's content. Then all of the above stuff happened. I rose to my highest weight and stayed there for THIRTEEN YEARS! I was what I called "The Great Maintainer". I have a husband who loves me no matter what, and at some point, I stopped trying to lose. The reality was that some of my health issues made it hard to lose weight no matter what I ate and how much I exercised.

Fast forward to January of this year. Something changed-I am still not sure what, but something definitely changed. I had a group of girlfriends (none of whom have/had as much weight to lose as I did/do) who said with me, "Let's do this!" (I could never do this without the support of my hubby and these ladies!) So, I started, and 27.9 pounds later, I am feeling great and ready to write about it.

I still have 75ish pounds to go, so I hope you will join me on this ride. I know I am going to get there, and I hope you will stay with my on my journey to health and wellness.