SUCCESS! (one day at a time)

Yesterday, I successfully completed Day 1 of the Atkins diet!!! There were moments where it was super easy and moments where it was super hard, but I did it. And so far today, I'm doing it too! WOOOOOOO!!!! It is way easier for me to follow strict guidelines, than to try and control my eating through counting calories. I feel like I'm going to see results too, which is always helpful!

I'm in the induction phase (phase 1) of the Atkins process. I really am thankful that all of the information/resources are FREE online Atkins Resources ... and there's a free member site (and APP for my iPhone) that allows me to enter in all my food and keeps track of everything for me. It's WAY easier than My Fitness Pal, which I had been using. Basically, the way the induction phase works is that I have a list of foods I can/can't eat. I mostly have to stick to protein and veggies. I'm supposed to eat anywhere between 18-22 net carbs a day (net carbs is total carbs per serving minus any fiber or sugar alcohols). Most proteins (excluding eggs) have no net carbs, and most veggies have very little. I've done something similar to this program before and had pretty good success. I like a lot of veggies and meat, so that makes it pretty easy. Atkins also makes different types of bars (endulge and advantage) that are kind of like desserts/treats. You're allowed to have those as well, as long as you don't go over your net carb count. So basically, I said goodbye to most of what I eat on a daily basis. It was actually SHOCKING to see how many carbs I was eating each day! I was probably eating somewhere close to 300 carbs a day.... CRAZY!

So here's what it looked like for me yesterday:

Breakfast - 3 scrambled eggs and coffee
Snack - Atkins Advantage Caramel Chocolate Nut Bar
Lunch - Grilled Chicken Salad (lettuce, chicken, 2tbs light Italian dressing, shredded mozzarella cheese
Snack - 1/2 Atkins Advantage Caramel Chocolate Nut Bar, 1 can tuna
Dinner - roasted pork shoulder shredded (basically Pork BBQ without the sauce), 1 cup green beans
Snack - 1/2 Atkins Advantage Caramel Chocolate Nut Bar

I don't plan on eating two atkins bars each day (they're expensive), but I didn't have a lot of choices at the house. I will need to eat more vegetables, but I have to go to the grocery and get stocked up. I think for breakfast, I'm going to start drinking a protein shake, because I don't really have time during the week to fix eggs. Plus, since I'm still nursing, I'm going to make the protein shake with milk so that I can get some calcium (this isn't really allowed on the plan, but I know I have to have some calcium). Here's the protein powder I plan on taking:

	Serving Size   2 Scoops
	Servings Per Container  16
	Amount Per Serving		% DV
	Calories	200.00
	Calories from Fat	30.00
	Total Fat	3.00 g	5%
	Saturated Fat	1.50 g	8%
	Cholesterol	60.00 mg	20%
	Sodium	280.00 mg	12%
	Potassium	480.00 mg	14%
	Total Carbohydrate	17.00 g	6%
	Dietary Fiber	8.00 g	32%
	Soluble Fiber	5.00 g
	Sugars	4.00 g
	Protein	25.00 g	0%

Another positive... I finally forced myself to the gym to start working out again!!!! I decided instead of trying to run a long distance (which always messes me up mentally), that I would just jog for as long as I could before hurting or getting out of breath. So I set it on 4.5 mph (I know that's slow but for someone that's 285 lbs it didn't feel slow) and I got started. I tried not to look at the time so that I wouldn't get discouraged. I made it to 8 MINUTES without feeling like I needed to quit. I was getting winded though, so I stepped off for 20 seconds then got back on and continued. I ended jogging a complete mile at 13:30 without any breaks except that 20 sec break!!! That's the first time I've been able to do that. I then figured I should continue until 20:00, so I slowed it to 3.5mph and set the incline to 15%... that was KILLER! My heart was pounding so fast. At 17:00 I lowered it to 10% and finished that way. Once I did that, I ran the stairs 12 times (about 30 stairs). Total, I burned almost 500 calories! YAY! I wasn't exhausted, but I was sore and felt like I had a good workout.

I had a slight headache going to bed last night... I figure it's from the total detox of sugar and carbs... but I think that will get better! I woke up about 4AM feeling hungry, but thankfully that feeling subsided pretty quick.

All in all, yesterday was a complete success! I'm excited for my weigh-in to see how I've done so far! I feel like this is finally going to happen and I'm FINALLY going to lose weight!!!

Atkins

So the last week I did some real soul searching about losing weight. I haven't been able to stick to my plan at all.... there is so much temptation in the house with bad foods, and when we eat out, I don't know how to make low calorie decisions at all. I also keep forgetting to log my food into My Fitness Pal. I want to sit here and say, " I want to lose weight SO bad..." but obviously I don't want to bad enough, because I haven't made any major changes since starting this whole journey.

I think that I need a formatted diet, that tells me exactly what I can/can't eat. I've tried a lot of fad diets, all that promised quick results (which they did give) but that didn't last. Not to mention, as soon as I got off of the diet, I ballooned.. MAJOR! I know that the best way to lose weight would be to just commit to healthy eating and exercising, but I'm not there yet. I've been doing a lot of researching about the Atkins diet. I've done a version of it once before (when I was 14) and had a lot of success with it.

I've decided today to start that, because at the beginning, it's very basic with what I can/can't have, so it's easy to plan/stick to. Every night, I lay in bed thinking about what my life would be like if I was skinny... imagining shopping at normal clothing stores, thinking about how people would react, how my husband would react, how it would affect my kids in such a positive way.

I know it wouldn't take much more than a year, and when talking in long term times, a year doesn't seem long at all. But on a daily basis, mentally, a year seems like forever. I just want to get control of my mind. I want to be proud of myself. I want to weigh under 200 lbs! I want to wear normal size clothes. I want to not be self-conscious every time my husband touches me. I want to not hid what I eat, and sneak food. I want to be a new person. I want to not always wonder if people are looking at me because I'm fat. I want to be free from this sickness/addiction/controlling habit.

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So far today, I've done great. I scrambled 3 eggs for breakfast, and they tasted good. I don't have a lot of veggies at the house right now, so I'm going to run by the store and get some this afternoon. When I got to work, all I could think about was one of the 50 candy bars in the kitchen. I grabbed a kit kat and took it back to my office to eat (even though I wasn't hungry). I decided to look up how to count net carbs (I'm allowed between 18-22 a day, preferably 20, but the majority of them have to come from veggies). Well... the kit kat was pretty much my entire carb count... and I hadn't had any veggies yet. WOW! Never realized how many carbs stuff has, never even thought to look. I didn't think it would be that high, but it was. No wonder I haven't been losing weight SHEESH I know I was eating way too many calories, but I most definitely was eating WAY too many carbs too. So then I started the mind games of saying, "I'll just have 1 of the 4 bars of the Kit Kat." I thought and thought about it, but then I decided... COMMIT KRYSTAL, COMMIT! So, today, I'm going to COMMIT! My head is probably going to hurt from the lack of sugar/caffeine. But I'm going to commit. Tomorrow, I'm going to COMMIT! And pray. Seriously, though... I do think to overcome my mind and the temptations, it's going to take a lot of prayer. So I'm going to pray and commit... and OVERCOME! 

Day 4: Two Weeks Later. FAIL

Well, it's day 4, but it's been 2 weeks since my last post. It's so hard to keep up with this blog... but it's even harder to keep up with healthy lifestyle changes!!!!! UGH! Paul and I went to Atlanta for the weekend, which was AMAZING! Needless to say, I ate amazing, terrible food the ENTIRE time. The only redeeming thing I did was run a full 2 miles on a very hilly Atlanta! It was exhausting, and I was slow, but I did it.

Last week, after Atlanta, I was sick.... very sick... and Paul was not very helpful. So I didn't eat well that week, and only worked out 1 day. :(

So for the remainder of the week, I plan to eat better, stay on my calorie plan, log my food intake, and workout at least 3, hopefully 4 times this week. I don't even want to think about how difficult it's going to be to run after taking this long off. Not to mention, I still have tons of sinus issues going on with my breathing and my throat. I'm going to force myself though!

I've been thinking... instead of just having the two goals of running a 5k (and not being in last place) and losing 100lbs this year.... I need to make smaller goals that are more quickly reached, so that I can see and feel excited about the results!

I think I'll just make a goals page, so that I can check them off when I reach them.

With the terrible 2 weeks I've had, I'm still happy to say I've lost 3 pounds since I started. I wish it was more like 13, but who am I kidding. I haven't fully sold out on the eating healthy or working out, so that's what I get, is minimal results. I'm ready for this change, though, and to get things under control!

I CAN DO IT!

Day 3: Crock Pot Day! YAY

I love Wednesdays because I know that I don't have to cook dinner! Of course, I have to prepare it early in the morning, but for some reason, that seems WAY easier to me than trying to do it in the evening when I'm tired and have all the kids up. Wednesdays, after I get home from work and getting the kids, we have about an hour and a half before I have to take Isabella to piano and Children's Church. So I do crock pot meals a lot so that we still have something to eat.

The day went by fast. I still gave in WAY too many times to candy bars.... UGH! If I could just not go in the school kitchen that would help.... but I have to. So, like every other area, I'm going to have to learn... FORCE... moderation and restraint. I made a roast (beef) for dinner with potatoes and carrots. I don't really like carrots.... as in HATE... so I just ate the potatoes and roast beef. I also ate leftover chicken soup from yesterday for lunch so I did really good on those meals.

I, thankfully, stayed under my calorie count (but as mentioned in the post yesterday, I'm not sure the calorie limit is low enough).... but I had too much candy. On the way home from getting Isabella, I needed to stop and get a gallon of milk. I had been pretty stressed out because I had tried to go shopping with Wyatt which was 1) a disaster, and 2) for some reason I thought losing 5lbs would make clothes fit LOL. So, when getting the milk, I also got me a Twix Icecream. RIDICULOUS! That's embarrassing to even admit. So definitely, I have to start working on the candy bars. Hopefully by Friday, I can say that I didn't have a single one all day. That's my goal! I need to pack other snacks to replace them so when I feel hungry I won't turn to stuff like that... and I also need to find other ways to relieve stress, besides eating food!

The only positive for today, was that I weighed before I went to bed, just to see how I was progressing up or down.... and YAY! I've lost 5lbs since MONDAY! WOOT WOOT! That always helps me want to do better.

I didn't work out today. I didn't have time to go to the Rush and my body is EXTREMELY sore from the workout video last night. So I plan to go run tomorrow night for sure!

Here's my breakdown of food for today: 

I'll end with a sweet picture of Wyatt, after he woke up from his nap. I love his sweet precious smiles!