10/16/13 Thoughts and feelings...

So there's not really much new going on since yesterday. But, did you ever notice how when you start to succeed, people will start to either sabotage you or basically hate on you? Even if it's not downright obvious.
Here's the thing. I've known this girl since I was 10 years old. I'm 28 now. She's one of those people that is cool to have fun with, but not to be sincere with. I've tried to get her out of my life, but she keeps popping up and I'm too nice to be mean. But anyway, since I've started my healthy journey, she's all the time messaging me telling me about her unhealthy meals. And she tries to use very describing words like "flavorful" and "mouth watering". And it's not that she's making me want to eat the foods she's talking about. It's just the fact that I really feel that she is wanting me to think, "Man that sounds delicious, I'm gonna go and eat that instead of something healthy."

Now, some people may wonder why she cares about what I'm doing... Well, I've always been the "fat friend" and she's always been the skinny girl who would get honks from guys as we walked down the street. Anyway, since having a baby, she's gained a lot of weight and is over 200 pounds now. So I'm thinking she's feeling competitive with me because she's always needed to be in the spotlight. She's never really had skinny friends. And I'm losing weight every week.

The first week I told her how much I lost and instead of praise, she said it was "probably just water weight". So I don't think I'm reading into it too much, I just really don't appreciate that from people. I can't say I'm surprised, but I'm a little taken aback by how obvious it seems. I didn't say anything negative back to her about the unhealthy food she was having and I didn't say it sounded yummy because I don't want her to think she's successful in trying to tempt me. I did however, tell her what I'd had for dinner and how it was pretty freaking delicious and healthy. Because that's what's important to me. Healthy food is tasty too, dangit!

So I'm definitely not going to let anyone discourage me at all, but it's just interesting to see who is supportive of you and who isn't. I totally get being jealous, but I do my best not to hate and to put myself in that persons shoes and feel happy for them because I know that I would want others to be happy for me when I'm succeeding at something. :)

Update 10/15/13

So things have been going really well. I do still eat some meat but I did get to buy some Boca Burgers this week. I got two packs of the regular burgers and 1 pack of the chicken type. Which is really good. Both of them are really good but this is the first time I've had the chicken. Or well, "chicken". I've been cutting out cheese, I haven't had any since maybe Friday or Saturday and I've been cutting back on all the olive oil I've been consuming. Before I was dipping pretty much everything in it. I also got some vegan-aise which is really yummy and I think that has helped me to cut out some of the olive oil. I'm still having an avocado a day in the form of homemade guacamole and two juices per day. And I'm down to 265.7. I was actually at 265 on Sunday morning, but I snacked a little too much during the football game, but that's okay. Next week I'll be sure to portion out my game snacks beforehand. I was eating fairly healthy, but I wasn't paying attention to the amount I was eating. I tried hummus for the first time on Sunday during the game. It was fire roasted red pepper and it was pretty amazing. I also had some peanut butter honey granola and some sunflower seeds. I've been having a few ounces of the granola with my morning juice and a few ounces of the seeds with my lunch. So I've been doing well and feeling great. And today I started working out! I got ahold of The Biggest Loser Bootcamp and I did the beginner portion along with the cook down and all of that was 30 minutes and I didn't think it would be so hard, but after just the warm up part I was sweating! It felt great. And it really went by so fast. I couldn't believe it was already over. I put on my fancy schmancy workout jacket. It's nice and tight with long sleeves and even has holes in the wrists for my thumbs and I felt really legit and I think it may have helped me get my sweat on because I usually have such a hard time working up a sweat. Or maybe it was only because it's been so long since I worked out. But I'm going to continue to do this every day while my son naps until I'm ready to add on the second part of the workout. There are three parts and the cool down. I think it might be awhile before I can move up. And then once I've mastered all parts I might try the insanity workouts and see how well that fits me. But anyway. I know I've said I just really wanna focus on being healthy and while that's still the case, I just wanted to say that i think it would be awesome to lose 8 pounds a month and be down to 137 by February 2015. If not then at least be in good health by then. I don't know how my body is. It might be a healthy at 150 pounds kind of body. I've never been down there, so I don't know yet. :)

Current weight- 265.7

Goal- Healthy

Starting weight- 278

My journey started on September 13th 2013 :)

Feeling Accomplished

I did pretty dang well for myself this past week. My husband and I didn't have much money to get a lot of stuff so we decided that I would juice and have a meal a day and just got enough for that until we get paid again. So this week I've been juicing for breakfast and having some guacamole for lunch. I was able to get a few things to eat so I actually scraped together a few dinners that were all completely vegetarian. Actually, i think they were all vegan. I made a really yummy tomato, cabbage and lentil soup. It had other veggies in it and some beans and it was really good. The cumin is what really gave it the kick I needed. And I was able to make enough for two nights. Yesterday morning my aunt and I actually went to Hardees for breakfast and she asked me what I wanted to get. I told her I couldn't have anything! Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING had meat, cheese, eggs and white flour. So since I was hungry I went for a medium order of hash rounds. not the best, but it was better than pretty much everything else. I used to go for the low carb bowl, but that's the opposite of what I'm trying to do here. It was interesting and my aunt was quite surprised when she asked me if I was going to be a vegetarian and I told her that that's what I was working towards. It made me feel good. I did have a piece of chicken last night though. I basically only had a head of cabbage and there was some frozen chicken breasts in the freezer so I cooked that and sauteed some cabbage and also baked a potato and ate that. I felt like I was cheating but I still lost 1.1 pound after having been at the same exact weight for the last 3 or 4 days. So it's important to change it up I guess. Anyway, since we don't have much and won't until tomorrow, I'm going to juice fast today. I think I will just make a big batch and sip on it throughout the day. It will oxidize, but it'll still be good. Anyway, 4 weeks of healthhy eating, without really exercising, I'm down 12 pounds. :)

Starting weight: 278
Current weight: 266.3
Goal: Healthy!

Being Honest

Ok, real talk... I ate at Golden Corral on Friday night. I wanted it. I kept seeing the stupid commercial for the wings and appetizer bar and wanted it. I know that it's not, overall what I wanted, but I went anyway. It's out of my system. I had a busy Saturday what with cleaning the whole house and rearranging it so that we could clean the carpets. When I say "whole house" I mean, the living room and bedroom coz that's all we have besides the kitchen and bathroom. But, it was still a lot to do. The carpets look amazing by the way. And from now on Halt will be eating in his Bumbo instead of me giving him something and him walking around and eating it and dropping it on the floor and coming back for more. But I digress! Saturday was busy so i didn't get a chance to eat all that great, or, so I though. We went to subway for brunch and I got a turkey breast salad with lettuce, spinach, shredded cheese, cucumbers, olives, banana peppers, onions and balsamic vinaigrette. And that was the first time I'd ever had balsamic vinaigrette and it was amazing! I mean, I LOVE red wine vinegar on my sub sandwiches, but this stuff was better. So that was actually a pretty healthy meal. And then when we got home, we stayed busy all day until around 10pm. My husband went to Taco Bell and got me a Chicken Cantina Bowl. Which isn't GREAT, but it's better than some of the other stuff I could've filled up on. And I was only able to have one juice that day as well. And then yesterday we went and had Taco Bell again, but it wasn't as healthy as the day before as we were on a tighter budget and so I got dollar items. We made it back home in time to start the football game while we ate and then I hurried out to get my aunt to run her around. I still listened to the game in the car and didn't eat again until dinner. I made myself a juice and some guacamole because I try to eat an avocado a day. It's just 3 or 4 grape tomatoes chopped up with my avocado and some creole seasoning and garlic powder. I put that on a two whole wheat tortillas with some spinach and shredded cheese. With a little olive oil. And that was it. So far I've lost 11 pounds. I was at 268.7 for four days. Which is surprising because my weight didn't fluctuate at all. That almost never happens for even two days so four days was shocking. Then on Sunday I weighed myself and went up half a pound and Today I was down 2 pounds. I don't remember if I said this in my last post, but I like to weigh myself every day because it keeps me honest and on track. But here it is.

10/7/13-
267.9 pounds

Tomorrow is my husband and I's four year anniversary for when we started dating! :)

OMG! Where to start?

Oh wow, I'm finally doing this. I've been wanting to start a blog or something since I first started this journey on September 13th. But ok here it goes. I am learning to be healthy. It all started when I was browsing through my homepage on Facebook and came across a friends status which mentioned they were watching the documentary Hungry for Change. At the time I was not actively seeking a way to lose weight or get healthy. I mean, as an obese woman (we'll get down to the basics here in a few) I'm always wanting and hoping to lose weight, but was not in a place where I thought I could even try. But the title jumped out at me. Hungry for Change. I was hungry for change. So I Googled it to see if I could find a trailer for it. I found the website for it. I watched the trailer and read about it and knew I had to watch it. So I did. I learned so much from it. Afterwards I made a few decisions. 

First, I wanted to cut out processed foods. I wanted to stop eating anything that had ingredients I didn't understand. I've done that. I don't eat bread, or pasta or drink soda. But, to be honest, I still take a bite of my cousins Spaghetti Rings now and again. I even had a Super Sonic Bacon Double Cheeseburger a few weeks ago. And last weekend, I had pizza. Because I'm still tempted and I can't help but give in every now and then. BUT! I'm learning to not beat myself up over it. I'm learning not to give up when things aren't going perfect. 

Second, I wanted to start incorporating fresh vegetable and fruit juice into my daily life. I've done that. The first weekend after my husband and I got our juicer (we picked up a Hamilton Beach Big Mouth Juicer for $70 from Kmart, it works wonderfully!) we decided to try a week long juice fast. On day three, we realized that that was a mistake and we were ok with that. We ate- not the best food- but we felt much better. The very next weekend we decided to try a weekend juice fast. That time was a lot more difficult. The whole prospect of not eating until Monday was so daunting I didn't even make it through a whole day. But we revised again. This weekend we're going to go for a 24 hour fast and see how that works.

For the most part I am attempting to eat a MOSTLY plant based diet. I would like to cut out dairy at some point. As well as eggs. At some point. But for now, I'm doing well without the breads and pastas and refined sugars. I've gone from 278 to 268 in 19 days. Still a lot to go as I'm a 5'5 woman and healthy for me is something like 135-150ish. 

All in all, I'm learning to take it one day at a time. And that I do not have to be perfect. I'm learning the significance and the importance of testing and refining. I mean, I might WANT to be able to do things a certain way- like going on a 60 day juice fast right off the bat, but my body is best at taking things slowly. :)

Shannon Lovett

268lbs

Feeling- Rested and Encouraged