Yay!

Back under 200 pounds! I stepped on the scale this morning and it said 198. SO happy to see a 1 and not a 2. It's one of the best feelings ever.

How I did it, on vacation.

I can't believe I lost weight on vacation. This NEVER happens for me!

I went to St. Louis with 5 other people for a weekend mini vacation. I knew it was going to take a lot of self discipline, but I was determined not to fail.

The most difficult thing on this vacation was staying away from alcohol. One of the things that I do w/ this group of people is drink. We go out to bars, drink lots of beer, have fun & laugh together. I knew that I could not drink any alcohol on this trip so I stuck to water & diet cokes. It's not fun when you're hanging out with a bunch of drunk people & you're not drunk. Luckily they were nice enough to bring beers back to the hotel, so at least I wasn't in a bar environment.

Eating was pretty easy. The first day we went to an Italian sandwich place. I really wanted a sandwich but instead I got a salad w/ salami & ham on it. At the BBQ place the next day I just didn't eat the bread & I got green beans and coleslaw as my side (I was so happy to see that the coleslaw was oil/vinegar based and not creamy). I skipped on all desserts besides for a bubbletea & a sugar free cheesecake at the casino. I even skipped on the appetizers that were deep fried. I also brought packets of almond butter with in my purse. When I would get hungry & couldn't just eat a bag of chips from the gas station, I would eat the almond butter like astronaut food. It did the job.

We also did a lot of things that required us to walk a lot. We went to the zoo and walked around all day & we also went to the St. Louis City Museum which is basically a giant jungle gym. We climbed through things, climbed up ladders & slid down slides. It was fun & I bet it burned some calories.

So, all in all the vacation was a success. I am currently 12 pounds down from a little over a week ago. It's going well.

Yay!

I kicked 8 pounds in the face this week. Go me!

New Post!

Okay it's been forever. I've been having a lot of health problems lately which have caused me not to focus so much on my diet. Food makes me happy, so when I am sad, I eat. W/ the combination of stress, my diet & health problems... the very expensive antibiotics I've been on 3 times now, are not helping.

I know someone who is into holistic healing & she introduced me to an illness that I may have. All my symptoms match up. It's a little unreal. But it also makes complete sense.

So for a week now I've been following a very strict diet in order to balance the good & bad bacteria in my body. It's been going okay.

Things I can't have:

- SUGAR! This eliminates all carbs & even fruits w/ high sugar content like apples.
- Beans & Legumes cause they break down into sugar.
- Moldy fruits like melons & oranges.
- Potatoes, squash & corn.
- Dairy
- Alcohol
- Caffeine (which I am cheating on & allowing myself 1 small cup in the morning)


Things I can eat:
- Meats: Beef, Buffalo, Chicken & some fish (fatty fish like salmon)
- Green veggies!
- Sweeteners like Stevia & Agave Nectar because they are natural
- Walnuts & almonds
- Eggs
- Live culture yogurt, plain & not sweetened
- Herbal tea
- Alternative grains like quinoa
- onions, garlic, spices, olive oil & coconut oil
- Avocados (cause they help to break down sugar)

So example of what I might eat is as follows:

Breakfast- Yogurt w/ agave nectar, walnuts & cinnamon & small coffee.
Lunch- Fish & quinoa.
Dinner- Beef, onions, green beans w/ an over easy egg on top.

I also take a supplement called acidophilus which helps balance the bacteria in your system. I also drink A LOT of water. It's really hard eating out like this. I was at a wedding this weekend & luckily it was family style so I had beef, chicken & veggies. I was SO sad to pass on the bread, pasta, blue cheese in the salad & the root beer floats. I'm hoping this makes my body feel stronger & healthier. I feel a lot better only being a week into it. Another week & I should be able to introduce a few more things into my diet.