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.