Baby?! Not yet.

So this last month Justin & I tried to make a baby. It was kind of a spur of the moment decision. The birth month of our child has to be somewhat planned because I am a photographer. I can't be 8 months pregnant & photographing a wedding. I can't risk missing a wedding that I am contractually obligated to be at because I am pushing a baby out of my vajayjay. SO- with all that said, we discuss what months are best to start trying based on the delivery date. Ideally I would be giving birth to our child between the months of October-March. We discovered that if we made a baby this month the due date of the child would be in March which we assumed would be an awesome time for me to be pregnant & have a baby. So we tried. No luck though. I wasn't as disappointed as I thought I would be when I read "not pregnant" on the test. The universe will give me a baby when I am ready. Right now is not the time.

Since I have decided to take this as a sign, we are going to wait until the end of the year to start trying again. Until then I'd like to kick this weight loss into super high gear & get rid of the extra 50 pounds I have been wanting to get rid of for 3 years now. I'd say 6 months is a safe amount of time to lose 50 pounds. I can manage 10 pounds a month! There are a few reasons for this. Let me list them off to you.

#1- I have decided 100% that I would like to have a completely natural birth experience. My family makes fun of me that I would give birth to my child in the backyard if I could. My friends already think that I am going to be annoying when pregnant, loving every uncomfortable second of it. I am not one bit afraid of giving birth. In fact, I whole heartedly regret not going to school to become a midwife. Since it is important for me to have a natural birth, I think that losing the last 50 pounds is going to make that more of a possibility.

#2- OK, number 2 is really vain but I want to be a cute pregnant lady. I can't help it. I love fashion. I love maternity fashion. I want to still look in style when pregnant & being 50 pounds less would make that easier as well.

So, I will start tomorrow. After I finish this beer. :-)

Journaling.

How did I gain 2 pounds? I'm hoping it's muscle cause I feel amazing! I feel thinner & clothes fit better. I have been working out daily with a set of dumb bells, so my guess is that it's muscle.

I started logging my food again today. I'm trying to experiment with how my body reacts to food. If I end up losing a good amount of weight one week, I can look back at what I ate & try and repeat it.

I'm trying to stick around 300 calories per meal w/ 100 calorie snacks in between. That seems healthy.

For breakfast I made my smoothie. I was amazed to see that it had 30 grams of protein in it. That's a lot! I had it directly after my weights workout, and am going to try and continue that trend. I could drink this smoothie everyday for the rest of my life, it is that delicious.

1 cup frozen fruit (I use strawberries that I picked)
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 dropper of Stevia
1 scoop 365 Whey Protein Powder
1 scoop Super Grass Chocolate Powder

Soooooo gooooood. It comes to about 300 calories, 4 grams of fat, 7 grams of fiber and 30 grams of protein. It's very good for you too!

Tonight after dinner I'm going to make Justin do a looooong workout with me. He's in for a world of hurt.

1 Pound!

Woohoo! 194.0 this morning! haha It's sad that I am so excited for 1 pound. I feel really good though, which I think is more important then only losing 1 pound. I'm starting week 4 of clean eating. It's going very well.

My newest goal is to get out of the "obese" category and into the "overweight" category. That means I have to get down to 175. I think that's pretty obtainable.

Need to add more exercise!!!

Stuck.

Still at 195. Have been for 2 weeks now. Not really sure why. I eat fabulously! I'm going to try and remain patient & just stick to the plan. Maybe it needs a few weeks.

I've been as low as 189. Trying to get back there.

I need to start a food journal & write in it about what I ate, why I made those decisions and see if there is a pattern to what I am eating & when I am losing.

Today I ate:

1/2 an avocado on Ezekiel sprouted grain toast.
Medium decaf coffee w/ skim milk.
1 homemade strawberry mango popsicle (made with stevia & agave nectar)
1 sweet potato, 1 cup fresh green beans & a palm sized piece of pork loin.
handful of strawberries & a homemade strawberry grain sweetened chocolate flourless muffin.
cup of decaf while working w/ coconut milk & stevia. (More coffee today then I have had in a week)


Conclusion:

I should of ate more meals today but my schedule was off. I woke up late, had a meeting around 2... so I didn't eat lunch. Had a popsicle snack instead- which isn't terrible since it is full of real strawberries and mangoes. I try and have one salad daily & skipped out on that today. More greens and fiber tomorrow!

Clean Eating Week 3

So, the first 2 weeks of clean eating went well. I've lost some weight & feel a lot better. I made it through 3 parties without eating sugar and then last night I caved in. A friend of Justin's got him some chocolate covered caramel apples as a gift. We put them in the freezer to hide them. You know, out of sight our of mind. Last night we had friends over to get dinner & watch The Killing. We went to a Mexican fusion restaurant in Oak Park & ate out on the patio. I did good. I got the salmon which came with roasted corn, asparagus and sweet potatoes. It was delicious. When we got home we took the caramel apples out to share with our guests. I didn't have any intention of eating them. Then, when our guests left & the apples were sitting there on the counter I grabbed a piece... then I went back for another... and another... and another. Finally I yelled to Justin "get rid of these before I eat them all" and he said, "throw them away!". I feel bad throwing away a gift like that, but in the garbage they went.

I felt really guilty for cheating on my diet. I got a tummy ache shortly after & woke up with heart burn.

This week is week 3 & I have decided to add a little more exercise in to jump start my weight loss. I did 30 minutes today. Anything counts. I felt like I was going to die.

Clean Eating- Day 1

So, Justin & I are both going to commit to eating a little more cleanly. It mainly consists of cutting out foods that are heavily processed & eliminating sugar (you can have natural unprocessed sugar- like fruit & raw honey) and white flour.

It's kind of amazing how it makes you realize how you depend on processed foods merely on convenience. Nobody actually makes their own food anymore. Grocery store aisles are lined with mostly processed food and only a small part of the store is fresh produce. Not only that but why is fresh food so much more money?

My body doesn't react well to processed food- especially foods with white flour. Every time in my life where I have gone a long period of time with eating nonprocessed foods and eliminating sugar, I have had amazing results. I needed a little push this time so I asked Justin to join me.

Last night we went shopping and stocked up on all the foods we will be needing. I also spent a good 2 hours preparing our lunches for the week. That's kind of what amazed me the most. You know, actually spending time to prepare the food I put into my body. I guess we don't do that often.

Today has been good so far. I eat continuously on this diet.

For breakfast I had a pumpkin smoothie which consisted of pumpkin puree, whey protein powder, 1/4 cup dry oatmeal, flaxseed oil, liquid stevia & pumpkin pie spice (cinnamon/ginger/nutmeg/clove). It was good & very filling.

Lunch is soooo delicious. We made a huge portion of barley salad last night. It's barley, peas, carrots, tomatoes, green peppers, feta & a shitake vinegarette w/ dill. It's a cold salad that you put on top of greens with a little bit of hummus. I made roasted garlic hummus last night. It's amazing.

I think one of the things that is going to be hard for us is getting over eating dessert after dinner every. single. night. We would have a skinny cow, or some fat free ice cream... so much processed food w/ lots of sugar!

I'll keep up with this.

Tonight is a whole grain pasta with pumpkin/tomatoes/turkey/squash.

Eating Clean + Weights

I've been trying to eat a lot more clean lately. I feel like switching that part of my diet up is going to help my body lose weight faster. No more sugar free pudding cups!

It's amazing how beautiful your food is when you eat cleanly. I look at my prepared meals and think, "wow how pretty". My breakfast remains the same because it was always very clean. One Siggi's yogurt w/ some blueberries & Fiber One cereal. I put about a tablespoon of honey on top of that as well to sweeten it. Lunch has always been hard for me. I work from home so I have a plethora of options. Lately I've been baking a piece of fish and layering it on top of salad. Today I did a flounder filet w/ paprika on top of a bed of greens, walnuts & peas. It was so pretty! I also had half of a grapefruit as an afternoon snack.

I've also successfully cut out caffeinated coffee from my life. My husband is kind of amazed by that. I drink decaf now & not as much as I did before.

I've been doing more weight training along with cardio. I need to join the gym but I haven't gotten around to it yet. Soon I will!

My body feels good, so that's what I'm going to focus on the most. If I keep up with it, I know the pounds will drop.