Losing Weight: The first 10lb!

This journey has been a slow one, weight loss wise, and at times very frustrating.  I just want to give up like I always have in the past, I start to get depressed, frustrated, ect.  I am not like “normal” women I can’t stick to an exercise plan (I’m sure I can do better than I do) I never know how long I will be down with my pain.  I truly believe God is using this blog to help me, every time I think that’s it I can’t do this or no one is reading this or what’s the point of continuing he shows me that I should, that I have too. For example: Last week I had 4 new followers on my Facebook page, all complete strangers and had several more people following my blog.  Then my friend came over to drop of some clothes that were too small for her since she just lost 50 pounds, all her old clothes could fill a bathtub!  She and I started talking and I told her it wasn’t going well and I was frustrated.  She gave me some tips and asked if I could visualize the weight loss well I couldn’t honestly, after she left and I was going through her old clothes then it hit me I wanted to be able to get rid of my plus size clothes too, I could visualize my self doing that.  Well the next day I started doing those tips, eat slower, drink more water, and eat less.  Sounded so simple yet I didn’t think it would matter because I didn’t think I ate that much.  Well the first day I took my time eating a doughnut for breakfast, it took me 30 minutes to eat one doughnut and I was full after. I was shocked!  I would pinch off a small piece and savor that bite then would wait a bit drink some coffee and eat some more I also drank lots water.  Before I knew it I was full off of one doughnut!  I have been drinking at least 8 cups of water a day, taking longer to eat which has allowed me not to overeat and to truly enjoy each bite.  I didn’t realize how much I was eating such an eye opener.  I haven’t eaten healthy really, it’s been one of those week’s where there are parties and great food so I eat what I want just smaller portions.  I also haven’t exercised this week.  But with all that God blessed me with my biggest weekly loss yet 6 pounds!!!!!!

So this puts me at 10 pounds total gone!  Wow!  My first 10 pounds gone!  Praise God!

Kids Christmas Crafts

Here are some crafts my 3 year old and I did this week.  Very cheap, I had most of materials on hand.

We made these reindeer door hangers for grandparent gifts.  I found door hangers unpainted at hobby lobby for $0.79.  To make the reindeer I painted his feet with brown paint then pressed on white paper.  After it was dried he made the noses by dipping his thumb in red paint, the eyes we dipped his index finger in blue paint.  After that dried I drew antlers on then I cut it out.  He helped me paint the door hangers and after they dried we modpodged the reindeer’s on them and added glitter.  I think they turned out very cute.  You could just do the footprint directly on the door hanger.  I didn’t because I was going to frame it then discovered frames were too much since I was making 7 of them, so I choose door hanger.

 

This next project was inspired by this wreath that my son’s preschool class did last year, I have it hanging in his room for the holidays but the wall needed more art.

So we made this hand-print tree to go in his room too, I happened to have an extra canvas in our house so this project was free!  I painted one hand green and made overlapping rows on the canvas too look like a tree.  I should of started lower, each time you do a new row just add less hand-prints.  Then I painted on the trunk and my son helped me paint the presents under tree, we did three strokes for presents and after it dried I took white puff paint and added the “ribbon.”  Once hand-prints dried we made Christmas lights on tree and painted a star.  He really liked doing this and having it in his room and I think it turned out cute!

Kale Chips

Well its been a crazy couple of weeks but I plan on starting my weight loss posts back on Monday, I’ve been holding at same weight for a while which is good considering I haven’t been able to exercise or eat the best.  Until Monday I will be posting some recipes and crafty stuff to get back in habit of blogging.  Enjoy!  🙂

My new favorite vegetable is KALE!  I am absolutely in love with it!  Here is my favorite Kale recipe, its crispy and salty and it satisfies my potato chip cravings.  My 3 year old loves them and so does my husband!  It is crazy good for you as well, I have included some interesting facts before the receipe, hope you get hooked on it as well!

Some facts (interesting to me) about Kale

• its a form of cabbage
• its an anti-inflammatory
• has more iron per calorie than beef
• has more calcium per calorie than milk
• one serving is 5% of daily fiber
• one serving has 2 grams of protein
• high in vitamins
• good for eyes, skins, bones
• helps in weight loss
• reduces risk of heart disease and cancer
• lowers cholesterol

Kale Chips

• tear Kale off the stems
• wash and dry
• lay on pans ( I usually cover pizza pans with foil)
• drizzle olive oil and sprinkle salt and pepper (I use fresh ground pepper and sea salt)
• mix it well with your hands then spread them out on pan so not overlapping or touching
• put in preheated 375 degree oven until they crisp up 15 minutes or so, maybe less check after 10 minutes to make sure they don’t burn.
• then eat all up!

 

Cranberry Salsa

This is the best stuff ever, and very hard to just eat a little bit.  🙂  I always make a big batch at Thanksgiving and at Christmas.

Its very easy to make but just a little time consuming to chop everything.  My first time making it took forever because I had to use the hand chopper then I got a little food processor and that saves lots of times for cranberries.  I still chop the cilantro and green onions with a knife, the jalapenos you can do knife or food processor.

Here is recipe ( I tripled it for this batch)

Cranberry Salsa

• 1 bag whole fresh cranberries
• 3 green onions (I use one bundle)
• 2-3 jalapenos (seeded)
• 1/2 bunch of cilantro (I LOVE cilantro so I use 1 bunch maybe more)
• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 vegetable oil

Roughly chop first 4 ingredients.  Then mix in remaining ingredients.  Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving. Serve with tortilla chips and store in fridge for 7-14 days.  Also good poured over cream cheese and served with wheat thins.

Scroll down for some pictures and tips!

  I used a 3lb bag of cranberries so it took a while in my mini food processor

  First time I made this and chopped all by hand my hands were burning from all the jalapenos so I have gotten smart and use gloves when working with jalapenos

If you use cilantro a lot you know that it doesn’t stay fresh long after you bring it home from store which is frustrating because I like to buy a lot at once.  I discovered that if you put it in a vase with water then cover the vase with a plastic grocery bag and stick in fridge it stays fresh for a long time!  This stayed fresh for almost 2 weeks.  Just pull it out of the fridge and wash and cut like you normally would.

Losing Weight Week 5 Results

Today we get to celebrate a loss!  Three stones got to be taken away!  Praise the Lord for this loss!

I did my 30 day shred video 2 times this week and was more careful of what I ate and portion control.

I’m feeling refreshed and excited for the new week, a little nervous because of thanksgiving but God is faithful and I’ll just have to not over indulge  🙂
Thank you all for the encouragements, suggestions, websites to check out, books, and so much more it really helps me to know that I’m not alone especially on the weeks where I just want to give up.

Be sure to come back to my blog and Facebook page later in the week to check out some thanksgiving recipes and no they aren’t all low fat.  🙂

Spaghetti Sauce

My husband and I have been making our own spaghetti sauce for 7 years now,we started just after we were married.  We both can make it and its so much better than the store and actually cheaper.  It doesn’t really take that much effort, if you do it like me I make one big batch then freeze the rest for a quick dinner later on.

So here is the basic sauce

• crushed tomatoes
• meat (if you want it)
• diced onions (sauteed in olive oil)
• 2-3 cloves crushed garlic
• salt
• basil, oregano,

Cook meat, drain fat.  Saute onions in a little olive oil til soft then add crushed garlic and cook just for a minute or two then add your cooked meat.  Add crushed tomatoes then add seasonings to taste.  If you don’t have a lot of time just bring to boil then let it simmer for at least 20 minutes but if you have the time then simmer for as long as you can I like to let it simmer for close to an hour.

Below are some ideas; use what you have on hand, use what you like, and don’t be afraid to experiment

I love to use ground turkey for my meat but you can use anything.  We have used ground beef, sausage, sliced chicken sausage, at times I use italian sausage.

I like to add veggies to the sauce my favorite is sliced mushrooms and diced zucchini.  Tonight I didn’t have any of that so I used diced squash and it was good!

We also like to put in some dill weed and crushed mint, not much just a little bit!

Usually I  buy this big can of crushed tomatoes at Sam’s for under $3 so I make a big pot of it then freeze it for later.

 

 

 

Losing Weight Week 4

This will be short and sweet…….

So last week was a sad, hard, long, emotional week.  My husbands grandmother passed away and it was not expected at this time and was a draining week.  I didn’t exercise at all and we weren’t home hardly so ate out a lot and I didn’t watch my portions or those deserts so sad to say I gained two pounds.

I was really upset about the weight gain and dreaded doing this post all day yesterday then realized I shouldn’t dreading this or be to concerned about letting y’all down, but should worry about letting God down and myself.  Once I realized that it was still hard to do this but made it easier.  I also realized that I need to watch my portions and what I eat more since I can’t always excercise.

So I gained two pounds but I’m not going to let it get  me down I’m just going to keep on working harder.  Thanks for the love and the support!

 

 

Losing Weight Week 3 Results

I would say this week has been my hardest so far in this journey.  My endometrosis kicked in most of the week and I was in a lot of pain.  It was all I could do to go to work and take care of my family.  My whole body ached where its hard to move at all and its frustrating because you have all these plans but you can’t do it because you are in pain.  So I was struggling with that then on Wednesday I woke up to my right foot hurting.  I could barely walk I was limping and was in pain every time I walked it hurt and my ankle was swelling.  It was strange and that lasted the rest of the week.  On top of physical pain I was battling with depressing thoughts, it’s very easy to get in that state when suffering.  I didn’t take it to the Lord which I should, I didn’t tell people to help me battle it I just kept it inside.  I don’t know why I do that because it always makes it worse and I feel like a horrible christian, horrible wife, mother, friend, teacher.  I think because I kept inside and didn’t focused on God it showed on the outside I was short with my son, unloving towards my husband, ect.  I also gave in more to my sweet cravings and bigger portions.

Even after all that the Lord was gracious and has allowed me not to gain this week.  So as you see there are still 147 stones in the jar and I’m OK with that!

I’m thankful for the new week and excited to get my life back on track.  🙂

 

Losing Weight Week 2 Results

Sorry it took me a while to post this, busy week and I’ve been in pain this week.  Well let me start to say how overwhelmed I’ve been with all the comments and all the views on my blog, and conversations I had over this.  Its awesome to see how God is working through my life and how he will be working through yours as well.  I love hearing about your stories and love the courageous women who have posted their weight on here, it is very touching.  I honestly don’t know how to take it all, I wasn’t expecting all this support and love and it makes me a little uncomfortable and a frankly more scared that I’m going to let all these people down and that I can’t do this.  But i just have to stop and remember how God is faithful to me and how he will allow me to overcome this obstacle.

OK well enough about that, I lost 1 pound last week!  I was so happy I was terrified there would be no change or that I would have to add a stone but Praise God I got too take 1 away!  My endometrosis was acting up last week so I only got to work out twice last week and I did overeat a couple times.  I don’t know how many of my readers suffer with this or know what it is but it is a nasty thing when it flairs up.  I usually have about 2 1/2 weeks out of the month that I’m good and in no pain. Well it started up again last week, I was very nauseous Monday from it then Thursday by the time I got finished with work it was all I could do to walk and finish my day.  I was in pain all over my body and very bad low back pain, which continued off and on the rest of the week.  I had a lot going on this weekend so once I pushed myself to do that stuff then I was down again.  Anyway this week is looking to be about the same.  I also hurt my knee, I  think I just sprained it from all that working out that my body wasn’t use too.  I’m only 29 but when my endo kicks in I feel like an 80 year old women its so frustrating.  When I get like this I try to focus on God and his promises that I won’t always have this broken body,and that this isn’t it for me and that helps me.  I know the added weight doesn’t help either, I’m hoping that when the weight drops that this will help my pain.

Please continue to pray and encourage and share those stories.  I would like to encourage you to like my Facebook page or follow my blog!  I would love to hear from you with any tips or new recipes, I’m going to share some on my Facebook page soon.  Love you all!

 

 

 

Losing Weight Week 1 Results

Last week was my first official week to start losing weight. I worked out 3 times for 20 minutes.  I’m not following a particular diet plan or products at this time.  I’m just trying to watch what I eat and how much I eat, and cutting out sodas, well I did have one coke this week. At this point my main thing is working out consistently then I will focus more on a specific diet plan, this is where I have always been very weak at.  So I’ve been doing Jillian Micheal’s 30 day shred.  Some co-workers  and me started working out twice a week after work and it’s really been helping me to have that accountability.  I borrowed my friend’s DVD and I fell in love with it and the next day bought my own copy!  I encourage you to get it, it is hard and intense but it works, time goes by fast and when you are done you are out of breath and sweaty and smelly which equals a great workout!  I have never worked out like this EVER. Usually it’s something kinda easy and I may break a tiny sweat just really to check it of my list but this is what a workout should be.  She is tough but encouraging and really like your own personal trainer encouraging you not to give up.  My favorite line is “that knot in your stomach is just fear leaving the body,” or as I scream out in agony when I’m doing it alone is sin leaving the body!  I can’t do this without God I have to pray continually during the workout just to get through it but the Lord is faithful.  I actually look forward to working out, most days.

OK enough on that,  so on Pintrest I saw this cool idea to keep track of your weight loss so I decided to do it for my blog. Each red stone represents 1 pound of weight I want to lose. I started out with 150 stones and each week I will post a new picture on here to see how much I take away 🙂 or add 😦

This week I lost 2 lbs, I’m very excited it could’ve been more but this weekend we ate at several yummy restaurants for special occasions.

Thank you all for love you are showing me, your prayers, your support, encouragement and sharing your stories!  Keep it coming