Kim's journal (comments welcome) - Out with the junk food!

[kim532]

Hi I am Kim.

I am a 38 year old mother of 2 boys married to an awesome husband.

I am starting a journey to change my lifestyle! No diet here. This is a lifestyle change I am after.

I have fallen into very bad eating habits. Stress eating. Convenience eating. I am a working mom so anything easily pulled from the freezer or cooked from a box has become a staple in my household. It is all garbage.

I have known for a while that my eating habits were wretched. I feel bad. Have no energy. SO tired. Joints hurt. Want to sleep all the time. Even a little stress relief in alcohol becoming a little too frequent as well. Bowls of cereal right before bed. Frozen pizza for breakfast. Pepsi is the great love of my life next to my family.

A friend of mind mentioned she had been eating a Paleo diet and felt great. For those of you who are not familiar, Paleo is also known as the caveman diet. What would caveman have eaten? Meat (pasture fed), fruit, and veggies.

I have read several books. Practical Paleo and the Wheat Belly Diet. If I know one thing, it is that I want to drastically reduce bread products. Notice I did not say eliminate. I am shooting for a lifestyle and being able to have birthday cake is a must for me. (At least at this point in time).

I already have been in a semi-transition to Paleo eating over the past month and a half. I have lost 10 pounds. I am happy for the weight loss, but I have been eating only about 2 out of 3 meals the way I consider healthy per day. I am here to get serious. Journal my struggles and work thru my issues.

Here is my before picture taken in January in Disneyland.

 

[momof2minnies]

Hi Kim
Glad I found you.My cousin is 48 and was very overweight most of her adult life-she has been doing the Paleo diet for about a year now and has lost 110 lbs She now weighs 165 and is in a size 10.
She does exercise,doing croossfit about 3x/week, she had a tough time at first but not anymore-she stuck it out.

I myself read Tosca Renos books about clean eating and it is basically the same type of lifestyle change-I have lost 13 lbs in about 7 weeks,have tons of energy and feel so much better.
With the exception of the Pepsi I was feeling and eating the same as you 7 weeks ago.

Keep posting here for support-I will follow your journey and if you want me to ask my cousin anything for you I will.

Linda

 

[kim532]

Linda thanks so much for your support! I will check out the clean eating books you mentioned. At this point I don't have any questions for your cousin, maybe down the road I will. Right now I feel like I am in a battle for getting routines established. Meal planning. Recipes that I can go to in a pinch.

Today I was so awesome until dinner time. We ended up in Target. My boys were cranky / hungry and they got Pizza Hut from the snack bar. I of course played clean up on the leftovers.

In the big scheme, this was probably a reasonable calorie day, but I am mad cause I didn't want the bread!

The good news is that this did not trip me into a wave of eating all evening. I have done that in the past. Considering a day wasted so using that as an excuse to keep eating all evening. I was able to say I screwed up at Target and move on. I had a huge glass of water when I got home and some deviled eggs for the rest of my dinner. I should consider this a victory for the recovery. I am going to weigh myself in the morning. Hopefully I will be down another pound. I will let you all know.

Kim

 

[momof2minnies]

Hi Kim,
Yes small victories at a time.I do feel it is about having a routine. Eventually that routine turns to habit and it all becomes a little easier.

Your before picture was in Disneyland,your after picture should be in WDW!!!!!!!


Keep it up,

Linda

 

[kim532]

Hi Kim,

Your before picture was in Disneyland,your after picture should be in WDW!!!!!!!

AGREED!

We are debating our next trip timeline. For financial reasons we were thinking of waiting until 2015, but our boys are so young and SOOOO into Princesses. We may have to go in 2014. They are the perfect age for the magic of WDW and the expanded Fantasyland.

SO the scale was kind this morning. Down a pound like I hoped. According to myfitnesspal that is a total loss of 18 pounds, but that is from my all time high. Since trying to get the processed junk out of my diet in mid-April that would be 11 pounds. AT some point I will share my actual weight numbers, but right now I am not brave enough.

Today stress at work got the better of me. I did not do good this evening. The exact victory I had yesterday of isolating my failure, did not occur. I ended up with McD's cheeseburger and Coke (YIKES!)

I think I am being too good in the morning and lunch and then just needing more food by afternoon/evening. I am going to try to have a bigger (still healthy) breakfast and then eat lunch a little later. See if that helps.

Take care!

 

[momof2minnies]

Yes they say breakfast should be the power meal of the day!!!!!

Have a good one,
Linda

 

[coffeecassie]

Sounds like you are off to a good start! Interested to see how the Paleo diet goes for you.

 

[kim532]

So since my last post, it has been rough. I fell off the wagon hard. Back to old habits. I am not trying to rationalize my bad eating choices, but I figure I am trying to break 38 years of bad food choices. This isn't going to be easy.

The good news is that today I was 95% back in the program. My only non-paleo food choice was I decided to drink milk with dinner. I don't plan on doing this everyday, but here is my food today (and this is pretty typical day for me).

Breakfast
Bulletproof coffee - I don't know how healthy this really is. I do use grass fed butter. I like this for breakfast cause I am not a huge egg fan. I can only eat eggs for breakfast a couple of times per week. Just dawned on me, that you guys might not know bulletproof coffee. It is coffee that I put in a blender with coconut oil and butter. The first time I heard of this, I thought how nasty could you get, but it turns out I really like it! It is so yummy. Like a latte almost. Google it if you want more info.

Snack
Fruit & mixed raw nuts

Lunch
Salad - basic greens and carrots
Baked chicken with guacamole
fruit

Dinner
Hamburger patty (no bun)
onions sauteed in butter
tomatoes
watermelon
milk

My carbs for today are a little higher than I would like. I ideally would like to have only one fruit serving per day and I had 3. Also I would have liked to have had another veggie at dinner. All things considered I am happy. Especially since at work I was in training that had a catered lunch, I held to my packed lunch and avoided the cookies. I feel today was a huge triumph.

Also I decided to take Linda's advice and have my after picture in the world. We decided to go in October 2014. I am going to spend the next couple of days coming up with my goals to reach by then. I want them to be challenging, but also realistic. They need to incorporate health and not just weight. I want stress levels/management, exercise, weight, energy level. I want to look at all of these items.

Take care,
Kim

 

[momof2minnies]

Hi Kim,
Sounds like you are doing well. Yay for WDW!!!!!!!!

We got a pin code in the mail and are going in Sept-yipee!


Keep up the great work


Linda

 

[kim532]

Here I am again admitting defeat! My youngest celebrated his 6th birthday over the weekend. While my goal was not abstinence in the presence of cake, I was hoping to show some restraint. I don't think 3 peices counts as restraint The thing that has me ticked is that it wasn't really that good of cake. It was OK. But it wasn't anything to write home about.

Speaking of cake to write home about, at work today we had a group lunch and a co-worker brought in cupcakes from Milwaukee Cupcake Company. They were so good. Anyone near Milwaukee needs to try them. I know...Not helping my situation here!

I wish cupcakes were Paleo! I have some recipes I am going to try.

I have an awesome encouraging friend who is helping me with food tips. I love podcasts. I was listening to one today and they were talking about cheat days. It really hit home. Essentially talking about getting that concept out of your mind. Lifestyle not diet. You cheat on a spouse (well I don't, this was there example). You can't cheat on food. It is food! It is what nourishes your body.

I am still trying to iron out my goals and will post them soon.

Even after the cake and cupcake debacle of late, I am back on track as of dinner and going to keep moving forward. I think having written down goals will help my focus.

Kim

 

[momof2minnies]

Ah its not defeat just take one day at a time-my friend always says one minute at a time,that's all you can control at the moment.


Yes writing things down does help to stay focused.


Happy birthday to your little one!!!!!!


Linda

 

[kim532]

I am still here, trying to decide exactly what my goals should be.

I have had a bad head cold the past week and it is slowly creeping into my lungs.

What I am finding challenging is staying committed to an eating program when I don't feel well or things are not ideal. Even with the cold this week I did 2 out of 3 meals good per day. If I can just get to the 3 out of 3 per day good.

I think our October 2014 trip is being moved to July 2014! So excited it is going to be closer. We are hoping to take my niece with us. She is a sweet 14 yr old girl (15 at the time of travel), but her dad doesn't want her fly unaccompanied (they live in Ohio and we live in Wisconsin). So there is logistics to work out. We can make it work out, it will just take some effort.

I haven't weighed myself. But I am betting I have gained some weight.

I hope everyone has a wonderful 4th of July! We are just laying low and I am hoping to heal a little.

Kim

 

[kim532]

First want to say this blasted head cold is sticking around. I don't think I have had something stay around so long. It is nuts.

I have been thinking about my goals and I wanted to tie them into my next trip. So in my mind, I needed to have the next trip ironed out first. SO I have that done. We are going to WDW July 26-Aug 2, 2014. We are hoping to get an AKV value 2-bedroom and I am booking right at my 11 month window. My Mom and my niece will be joining us.

This gives me a little over a year to meet my goals. I am going to group long term and short term and I think the focus then of my updates will be on meeting the short term goals to ultimately make it to the long term.

Long Term Goals

• Lose 90 pounds
• Able to walk up the 4 flights of stairs in my office without needing to stop and catch my breath
• Improved flexibility ( I have some mat work I need to do for a bad knee that I am going to use as my gauge on this)

Results - How I am Hoping to feel

• Improved Energy
• Reduced knee pain

I know the list is simple, but there are other things I am hoping for that I am afraid to put in writing.

With long-term goals established, my first short term goal is to stick to a low-carb 80 % paleo diet this week. I picked this goal because today was a good one. I am very happy with how today went. Not only did I eat good, I planned ahead so I am ready to start tomorrow off good. I made homemade paleo mayo. Then I used that to make deviled eggs, which will be my breakfast tomorrow.

Low-carb for me is to keep it under 100. That is the hard part. It is so easy to go wild on the fruit.

I did get on the scale this morning and I was up 5 pounds from my last weigh-in back in June. I am just going to go with what MyFitenesspal says for my weight. That means I am down 13 pounds.

Kim

 

[momof2minnies]

Hi Kim,
Great job on the refocusing.Your goals look great.

Been to WDW several times including AKL but what is a 2 bedroom value there? Do you mean vs a savanna view?

Did not think I would like AKL but took my oldest DD for a mom and dtr grad present and loved it.We did the Expedition Everest challenge back in 2010.

One day at a time and you will meet your goals.

Any humidity in your neck of the woods?

Linda

 

[kim532]

Value is a category of room DVC owners can book. They are located in Jambo house and they are DVC rooms that were made out of regular hotel rooms. They are smaller than a typical Villa room so they are cheaper point wise for me to book. I think it is 3 feet shorter in length. I can handle that!

We have never stayed at AKL yet. So excited to stay in my other home!

My deviled eggs were good for breakfast. I can't eat them everyday though. I will have to figure out a couple of breakfast choices.

Kim

 

[kim532]

Yikes! 20 days without checking in. It is a fair assumption that things are not going as I would hope. I am right there in the human nature when you want to brag when you do good, but shy away when things are bad.

I have no idea how I am doing on my weight. My scale broke and I don't trust the numbers it gives me. Although I do like the results. Says I am down 50 pounds. My goals are still my goals. I am not modifying them.

We went for a hike in my neighborhood and I live about 1 mile from Lake Michigan. My neighbors told us about a secret beach, so we went to find it. It was a cute little beach with a ton of rocks for my boys to throw in the lake and a little creek from run-off that Evan made a dam in. All this to say that I got my exercise in because getting down to the beach and climbing back out was work. There is a trail, but it is fairly steep and you have to constantly watch your footing and balance. We plan on gong back fairly routinely now that we have found it, because the boys loved it. Here are some pictures.

http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=b8f340a2690dfe433315f89dbf2f35f7&sid=0GcNXLhozZMNY


I am going to start eliminating carbs back out of my diet. Evan's birthday is Thursday, but once I get past that, it should be smooth sailing until Thanksgiving.

Kim

 

[momof2minnies]

Hi Kim,
Glad to see you back-hang in there, not easy but doable.

Your pics are cute-sounds like a good hike.


Linda

 

[kim532]

So I still have not been able to control my eating. Today is a day that is all about why I need to do something.

Woke up this morning feeling fine. Went for a walk with my boys and spend some time with them at the park near our house before lunch. The walk completely wore me out. Where did my energy go? I have none. It is so pathetic.

I came home and my knee starting bothering me. Almost like I was getting some kind of muscle spasm around my knee muscles. Not severe pain but enough that I have not wanted to be on my feet now the rest of the day.

The reinforcement of how crappy I feel has come at a perfect time. I just bought a book that is a 30 day meal plan for Paleo. Starting as of right now, I am back in the saddle. My dinner is going to be healthy and tomorrow will be day 1 of my 30 day Paleo challenge. There is no way I can follow the book plan exactly. I don't have the money to go to the grocery for some of the ingredients. But I have a freezer full of meat and vegetables that can get me started till I get paid on Friday. There is a new organic market that opened by us that I will hit with my pay day money.

You all know that I dont typically post every day, but for this challenge I am. Right before bed as an accountability action.

I need to do this for my health and for my boys. I cant live my life with NO energy and slow moving from joint pain.

Kim

 

[kim532]

I am happy with my choices today, but I am not going to lie....IT HAS BEEN HARD!

I am doing this eating plan pretty much on my own. My DH is supportive and will eat what I cook. I am not forcing my kids down this road yet, so all this to say we still have the junk food around the house.

With the junk being in the house there were multiple times today that I was within inches of putting it in my mouth mindlessly. I stopped myself. It has really opened my eyes to how much food crossed my lips without thinking.

I also have decided I am not going to weigh myself during the 30 days. I want the way I feel. My joint pain and my energy level to be more of my guide of daily success.

My food today:
Breakfast - deviled eggs and bacon. Coffee with butter
Lunch - chili
Dinner - Hamburger (no bun), sugar snap peas, cole slaw
Before bed snack - salami and milk

Looking at what I have eaten it is obvious there is not enough vegetables. Probably not enough calories in general. Tomorrow will be better,

Today I think I am also going thru some sugar withdrawals again since my diet had lapse pretty bad before this. Headache. tired. moody. I know I just need to battle thru this. It will get better.

Kim

 

[kim532]

This daily documenting worked today. Many times today I felt like cheating. I held strong because I didn't want to admit defeat on only day 2.

I am definitely in carb detox. Headache, fatigue, grumpy. It is rough.

BTW if any hardcore paleo people find there way here. I know right now I am not technically doing it right. I hope to get there someday. Right now is a mostly low-carb diet. I am actually excited to go shopping this weekend and start the 30 day plan I bought.

Breakfast - Bulletproof coffee
Snack - Salami, cheese stick
Lunch - carrots, meatballs, and green beans
Dinner - Steak, jalepeno with bacon and cream cheese.

Tomorrow is going to be even more difficult. My son has a full day of medical appointments, which will be stressful and we will probably be eating lunch out.

I will prevail!

Kim