DAY 104 - REFOCUSING MY EFFORTS

Wow! My life has been crazier than usual and I have not been focusing on my GREEN vs RED system in well over a week (since we traveled out of town on June 14th.).

I really didn't think it would be so easy to fall back into old habits but I was gradually losing focus on my 5 basic goals each day.

The GREEN vs RED system DOES WORK when I am intentional about doing my very best to meet every goal every day. The most important goal is reading my Bible and intentionally praying. I have managed to do these two things most days but I'm not doing them in a God-honoring manner, which would be taking time to do read God's word and pray first thing in the morning. Instead, I have been "cramming" in these two vital activities at the very end of the day when I am exhausted.

I have also been so lacking in adequate sleep I wonder how I am functioning and I know  my body, mind and emotions are suffering the consequences of sleep deprivation.

Then my diet has been wheels off for 10 days! I don't know if I have been GREEN with calories since our recent trip. My husband and his brothers hosted their family reunion this year which was a lot if fun but we were all very busy and I didn't make the healthiest choices.

We finished up the reunion this afternoon. I'm now packed and ready to leave with our oldest child to church camp tomorrow. I had to make a decision to get back on track immediately or risk regaining all my lost weight. Between our out of town trip, hosting the reunion, being a church camp counselor and then traveling to spend a week with my parents and siblings, I have been in a prime position to lose all of my hard earned progress.

NO WAY is that happening.  I have officially refocused, I have planned and logged all my meals for camp (I'm taking a lot of my own food so I have better control of type of food and calories etc.  I will weigh in the morning and then not again until Saturday morning.  I plan to get any regained weight back off.  When I return from camp,  I will begin blogging my cards with my progress each day.
I will post from camp if possible. Until next time. Choose healthy habits and have a happy heart!
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DAY 102 - TOTAL WEIGHT LOSS 26.8 LBS

I ate great all day but then got to the family reunion and didn't have a plan on what or when I was going to eat dinner. So, I snacked on nuts and trail mix, ate a few of the kids' French fries and then ordered a sandwich with fresh fruit for dessert. The sandwich was very big and I ate it all even though I was full. I'm falling back into bad habits with my eating. My calories have been over most days for the past week. Although I am concerned about calories, I'm more concerned with sleep, or lack of it, so I am in bed and ready for sleep now!

Calories: 3311
Exercise: bootcamp
Sleep: 2.5 hours
Water: 80 oz
Spiritual: did not read Bible, did pray

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DAY 101 - TOTAL WEIGHT LOSS 28.4 LBS

I had a good drop in weight this morning. This was not surprising because I knew from logging my food over our trip last week, there was no way I had actually gained that much weight.

Today was my oldest child's birthday. I passed up the birthday cupcake and ice cream at her party because I knew we were eating out for dinner and then going for ice cream afterwards. I was over on my calories, but considering we were in birthday mode all day long, I think I did pretty well.

I should not be up this late, I know it, I will get the lack of sleep thing figured out. It is definitely a lack of boundaries and lack of time management that keeps me up. I am going to have to create a schedule and live by it. My husband has been telling me this forever. My lifelong friend has been encouraging me to get enough sleep because it is CRITICALLY important to every other area of my life (if I am truly going to be healthy). I say I want to be healthy but I can't claim to actually BE HEALTHY until I regularly get enough sleep! I have some serious effort and change (which is the hard part) that has to occur.

DAY 98 - OUT OF TOWN

I ate too much again. Even though my diet has been poor, I have had a strong desire to exercise which is good. I will be back on track tomorrow with my diet and I'm going to bootcamp as well. I am dreading getting on the scale in the morning. I'm sure my weight is going to be WAY up. Part of the increase will be real, some will be from not drinking my water, increased sodium, and traveling. I will give myself a week to get back to where I was before our trip.

I have some challenges in the 2 1/2 weeks ahead (family reunion, going to church camp, and traveling home to see my family) but I have a plan to overcome the challenges. I DO NOT want to repeat what I just did over the last five days. I will go into more detail about my plan in the next few days, for now, I'm going to sleep.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Calories - 3638
Exercise - Elliptical Machine 53 minutes
Sleep - 8 hours
Water - 50 oz
Spiritual - Read Bible and prayed

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DAY 97 - OUT OF TOWN - 13th Wedding Anniversary

June 17, 2013
We celebrated our wedding anniversary by going to dinner at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants with our three awesome kids. I ate way too much. It was great food but I definitely can't eat like that every day.

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DAY 96 - OUT OF TOWN - CANNOT WEIGH

Calories - 2719
Exercise - Ran 2 miles, Walked 4 miles
Sleep - 6 hours
Water - 100
Spiritual - Bible/Prayer
Sugar - 128/45

Today was better than yesterday. It helps tremendously to get my exercise out of the way early. I was running this morning at 6:30.  We are at a hotel tonight with an excellent fitness area. I'm going to bed shortly so I can workout early in the morning.

I'm taking the kids to tour the Blue Bell Creamery and I am planning on enjoying the ice cream sample at the end of the tour!
R
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DAY 95 - OUT OF TOWN

We are visiting friends this weekend and the family should open a restaurant the food is so good! I didn't measure what I ate tonight but I was way over on calories. Also, can't find the blank index cards I brought with me so here goes;

Calories: 3238
Exercise: light walk/bike ride
Sleep: 8 glorious hours!
Water: 70 oz?
Spiritual: did not read Bible but did pray
Sugar:115/36

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DAY 94 - TOTAL WEIGHT LOSS 29.8 LBS

We were traveling today and ate at one of our favorite restaurants I haven't been to in 10 years. I compromised and at a healthy salad but had a little bit of the not so healthy options. I didn't have a scale or any help on Internet as far as calories go on what I ate. I try to overestimate how much I eat and what the calories are for each item.

Clearly sleep is a very tough issue for me. Going to sleep now.

DAY 94 - TOTAL WEIGHT LOSS 27.2 LBS

THREE POUND GAIN? No way!?! I don't know what that is about but I suspect it had something to do with the awesome smoked ribs I had last night for dinner. I don't add salt to anything that I eat anymore, however, the ribs have a rub on them that has lots of salt in it. My hands felt swollen when I got out of bed. I go to the bathroom and weigh as soon as I get up. I couldn't believe my eyes! I weighed again after bootcamp and after drinking 40 oz of water AND eating breakfast and my weight was down .6 LBS so I know something was out of whack.

Speaking of out of whack, that would be my sleep. I'm in bed now and going to sleep monetarily!

DAY 93 - TOTAL WEIGHT LOSS 30.2 LBS

I'm over on calories and sugar. I ate too much today and was way over on sugar grams due to lots of fresh fruit (strawberries, cantaloupe, pineapple and honey dew).

I've been inconsistent with my goals for a couple of weeks now. I need to get back on track and the best way for me to do that is to pre-plan my food for each day and make myself go to bed at a decent time. I feel very "out of balance" right now. Too busy, too many demands on my time, just too much in general. I'm the only one who can change the busy-ness of our lives. It is a very hard pattern to break but it is critical I figure out how to change this.

Going to sleep now.

DAY 92 - TOTAL WEIGHT LOSS 30.6 LBS

I finally hit a wall tonight. I'm exhausted. I'm in bed as I type this and ready for sleep. Today was a much better day, it helps to pre-plan my food. However, I was encouraged by someone today to get adequate sleep. Although I have changed many unhealthy habits to healthy ones, I can't truly live an overall healthy lifestyle (physically, mentally and spiritually) without enough sleep. I'm taking that encouragement to heart and going to sleep now.

DAY 91 - TOTAL WEIGHT LOSS 30.2 LBS

Today was the worst GREEN vs RED day out of all 91 days!

I was very frustrated this afternoon and I reacted to the emotional stress by eating. I didn't eat anything unhealthy (I had grapes, almonds, 94% fat free popcorn), however, I ate WAY TOO MUCH! Nothing I ate satisfied my "hunger." I realized, after consuming a lot of food, no amount of food or variety of food was going to calm the stress/emotions I was feeling. I was (subconsciously) trying to "eat away" the anxiety I was feeling emotionally. I finally had to deal with the emotions.

The last 10 days have been extremely demanding. I have had some very time consuming activities that were beyond my control. Things are finally looking up now and I refuse to let the schedule or life in general derail my new healthy lifestyle.

To get back on track tomorrow I have already chosen what I am eating and have already logged it into My Fitness Pal. I'll eat what is on my food journal and nothing else. I will go to bootcamp in the morning. I will get 6 hours of sleep. My sleep had been terribly inadequate lately, which probably has a lot to do with the stress eating tonight. I'm exhausted!
On that note, I'm going to sleep. Tomorrow will be a better day!

DAY 90 - TOTAL WEIGHT LOSS 30 LBS

My weight was way up today. I have been having a lot of REDs lately and I got back in the swing of things today. I read my Bible, prayed, exercised and started drinking my water early. It makes all the difference in how well my day goes.

My husband smoked brisket and ribs for a get together with his family tonight. The meat was AWESOME and I had to watch my portions carefully. I went over on calories yesterday so I ate healthy all day and for dinner I had a grilled chicken salad. I also ate one rib and a small amount of brisket. I stayed within my calories and still enjoyed the yummy food. It was a good compromise.

DAY 89 - TOTAL WEIGHT LOSS 31.6 LBS

Over the last week, I have had very inadequate sleep. It is having an effect on me as far as what I want to eat, my energy level, my ability to focus, etc. I'm going to be RED again tomorrow because I'm getting up early to go ride bikes with a friend. Hopefully, getting exercise will counter balance the lack of sleep.

DAY 88 - TOTAL WEIGHT LOSS 30.8 LBS

After sleeping for 8 hours, I started off the day with a 3 mile run and lots of water. My card is 100% GREEN. Although I am going to bed super late, I should still be able to get 6 hours of sleep tonight. Sleep makes a HUGE difference in how I feel, how hungry I feel, and what kind of food I'm craving. I'm heading to bed now.

DAY 87 - TOTAL WEIGHT LOSS 30.6 LBS

The card speaks for itself. The problems:

Too little sleep
Craving carbs
Too little sleep
Didn't start drinking water until 11:00 a.m.
Too little sleep
Didn't eat breakfast
Too little sleep

The solution:
Get enough sleep. Going to bed now!!

DAY 86 - TOTAL WEIGHT LOSS 30.2 LBS

Had a good day all the way around. Very busy and my sleep is being sacrificed again. My kids get out of school tomorrow and our schedule should calm down. I'm tired and heading to bed.

DAY 85 - TOTAL WEIGHT LOSS 30.6 LBS

WOOHOO!!!! I hit the 30 lb mark today! I had over a 2 lb drop from yesterday and I don't really understand it but I'm just going to savor the moment!

I didn't have time to take pictures until late tonight so I won't be able to post them until tomorrow night. But I will end this post with a happy thought. In my original "Before" picture 30 LBS ago, I was squeezing into size 14 jeans. After losing 10 LBS, they were loose but I could still wear them. After losing 20 LBS, they were too baggy to wear, they didn't look good. Now after losing 30 LBS, I can literally put them on and take them off without unbuttoning or unzipping them! AWESOME!

DAY 84 - TOTAL WEIGHT LOSS 28.4 LBS

I had a good day. Still dealing with very demanding schedule. I had planned to go to bootcamp tomorrow morning, but given that it would only allow 3.5 hours of sleep, I'm going to have exercise another way tomorrow. It's too late to get 6 hours in tonight but I'm headed to bed now to get as much as possible.

DAY 83 - TOTAL WEIGHT LOSS 28.6 LBS

Sleep is a beautiful thing, especially after several nights of not getting nearly enough.

Sundays have typically been a little more challenging, for whatever reason, to eat healthy and stay within my calories. Today, I didn't struggle at all. However, I was SHOCKED to find that with only 1200 calories consumed, I had eaten 72 grams of sugar! I made very healthy choices all day! It turns out that APPLES, which I ate two, contain 17 grams of sugar EACH! I didn't even think to check how many sugar grams an apple has because I always thought it was one of the fruits with lower sugar.. Very interesting.

The other interesting observation I made today concerns water. I have discovered a correlation between how much water I have consumed and how hungry I feel.

I have always heard that sometimes when you think you are hungry, you might really be dehydrated, so you should drink water. Plus, drinking water prior to eating a meal is believed to fill your stomach up so you feel full before you begin eating. I believe both of those ideas are valid. I have also found the days I have struggled the most are days where I haven't consumed my water early in the day.

DAY 82 - TOTAL WEIGHT LOSS 28 LBS

Today was a decent day. Managing the stress better at home. Still have a lot to get done but it is at least beginning to feel managable.

I made our kids favorite meal tonight, Mom-Mom's spaghetti. I have not typically been eating carbs at night but I decided to put the recipe for the sauce in "My Fitness Pal" and figure out how many calories the sauce and whole wheat noodles would be. I must say, it was a delicious meal and although I was at my max calories while remaining GREEN, it was worth it!

Since I haven't exercised in 3 days, I should probably try to keep my calories in the 1200 range. However, I think I have done a much better job of managing the stressful situation we have been dealing with than I would have managed it a couple months ago. Yes, without exercising, I don't need to eat 1700 calories since I'm trying to lose weight. But it's a lot better to eat and keep track of 1700 calories then to go wheels off and eat everything in sight and not keep track of any of it.

I am anticipating having time to exercise tomorrow and I should get enough sleep, so I should be all GREEN, which will be great!

DAY 81 - TOTAL WEIGHT LOSS 27.8 LBS

When I began this journey 81 days ago, I set out to change my UNHEALTHY HABITS that were making me miserable in every way, to HEALTHY HABITS that would both literally and figuratively give me a HAPPY HEART. I am happy to report that the healthy habits are really habits now!

There is still a lot of stress right now and I feel like I need to be cloned to keep up with the all things needing to be completed right now. However, in the midst of all the stress today, I was thinking about how much I wanted to exercise! I was thinking how much better I would feel if I could just have time for a very intense workout. I knew realistically I was not going to be able to exercise today and I was okay with that.

The GREEN vs RED system is perfect for times like this. Some things beyond my control, have happened over the last couple of days that have made HUGE demands on my time. Normally, I would be eating my way through the stress. And yesterday I did have that desire to eat something... Just to settle down the anxiety and stress I was feeling. I did eat too much but it wasnt horrible. Today, I didn't even have the desire to eat outside of my normal meals/food. Praise The Lord!! It feels SO GOOD TO BE FREE! I know I am not totally free of this bondage yet, but every day with every "little" victory, I am one step closer to total FREEDOM!

As for my card today, there is still too much RED, but today was a vast improvement over yesterday. Planning in tomorrow being even better. I was surprised my sugar grams were so high since my calories are pretty low. Definitely something I am going to watch closely.