Just Because It's "Legal", Doesn't Mean It's Legal

Everyone is different.  Different foods effect different people.  What might be perfectly fine for some people could be damaging to others.  This is a journey.  I am on a journey to discover what works for me.  I'm not just trying to get healthy, but I am trying to educate myself in what foods cause the fatigue, the weight gain, etc.  I have a list of foods and beverages that I am technically allowed to have.  However, just because it's on this list does not mean that I can have it.

So yummy but so dangerous! 

Technically I'm allowed to have nuts.  Technically I'm allowed to have some milk.  What have I learned?  Nuts are super easy to over-indulge on.  They cause me to have mad salt cravings, which in turn causes me to retain water and that results in no weight loss.  Milk...I have had it in the form of sugar-free ice cream.  Soooo not a good idea!  My sugar cravings have gone mad.  Since my sugar cravings have gone hog-wild I have started drinking diet sodas again.  The caffeine causes me lots of issues.

So now I know.  I cannot have nuts, or if I do have them I have to be very very careful.  Ice cream?  Absolutely out of the question.  This is how you do it though.  You have to experiment with different food items to find out how they really affect you.  I'm not jumping off the wagon, or cheating, or giving up.  I'm just experimenting with foods I am allowed to eat.  As it turns out my body disagrees with parts of Dr. Atkins' allowed foods.

On a side note, I've been getting really bored with my eating.  Which is to be expected because I haven't been very creative recently.  However, I have really started getting into Pinterest.  I have got to say that place is amazing!  There are hundreds upon hundreds of recipes and low-carb ideas!  Amazing!    I have got to get a plan of action in place.  Because of the soda pop drinking I haven't been drinking my water.  Because of the salt cravings and sugar cravings I haven't been eating my vegetables.  It's time to curb these cravings (again), and continue to grow and learn from my food choices!

Pinterest! What a great idea!
http://pinterest.com/ceciliastar1/

Back on Track!

Today is weigh day!  22 pounds down! BOOOOM!  So I had a little hiccup but the weight loss has returned.  I'm back to losing 2-3 pounds a week.  Suweeeet!  I've hit 2 more of my mini goals!  I'm feeling great again.  I woke up a little bit before 9am today.  That's pretty early for us.  I know that sounds crazy but when you don't get to bed until 3am, 9am is only 6 hours of sleep.  So there you go.  Either way I'm feeling pretty refreshed.  Much better than the last couple of weeks when I could barely open my eyes.

I went to Zumba on Monday and my stamina is where I left it!  It had been almost a month since I was able to make it to a Zumba class.  I honestly was worried if I'd be able to keep up.  Well I did keep up.  Class was great as usual!  I'm going to try and go as often as possible.  I was limiting myself to once a week but now I think I'm ready for as many as I can get in a week.  The videos and walks get boring for me.  At home stuff is really hard for me to keep going because I get bored and/or lazy.  With the live Zumba class I'm excited to go.  I'm starting to make some friends and the energy is contagious.

Everything is back to where it's supposed to be.  I'm eating right, working out, and losing weight.  What more could a gal ask for?

Oh yeah I forgot to mention I have reached 2000 views!! Woooooohooooooo! Who knew I would be popular in Russia, hehe.

Stats:

Entry	Pageviews
United States	1847
Russia	91
Germany	16
United Kingdom	14
Canada	7
France	5
Sweden	4
Philippines	2
China	1
Guatemala	1

Dragging...

Wow I've been dragging.  I've been so sluggish these last few days.  I've been sort of good with my eating.  I haven't cheated by eating bad food but I have definitely been avoiding veggies.  This is bad when doing Atkins.  I haven't been cooking.  I've had no desire to cook.  That's bad too.  I have to cook if I want balanced healthy meals.
 

I haven't been working out either.  Everyday I plan on going to Zumba something comes up.  Recently my work schedule got changed which was out of my control.  This morning I could have gone to class but I decided to sleep.  In my defense I didn't get to bed until 3am because of work and Zumba was at 8:30 am.  I have to wake up at least an hour before I work out so I can eat something.  So if I was to wake up at 7:30 (at least) I would have only gotten 4 hours of sleep.  Either way I haven't been working out.  The only workout I've been doing is my 25 minute walk during my lunch breaks.  So at least that's something.

I've been struggling to wake up in the morning as well.  I feel so tired.  Even the days when I do manage to get out of bed at a decent time I'm exhausted within a couple of hours and want to go back to sleep.  I'm wondering if I'm dealing with what some people call the "Induction Flu".  No, I am not pregnant.  I think I'm just being lazy.  I need to start being active again so that I regain my lost energy.

Anyone have some tips or tricks that help them stay energized?  I'm trying to kick my caffeine addiction and I don't drink coffee...sooooo...I'm out of ideas beside get my bum off the couch.

Gotta Get That...

Boom Boom POW!

Ok that was weird I admit it.  I have got to get myself back in gear.  I need to get back to working out.  I've noticed that there are changes in me.  These are not great changes.  When I was being active everyday waking up when I'm supposed to was easier.  Not perfect but easier.  I'm a soooo sluggish these days.  This morning I could just not get going.  My poor kids were so annoyed with me.  Finally I drank a Diet Coke and got a little energy.

When I was working out everyday this was not an issue.  Grant it I wasn't jumping out of bed at 6 in the morning, but I was no where near as sluggish as I am today.  I need to get back to being active everyday.  I need those positive endorphins!

I listen to Zumba music all the time.  It gets me itching to workout.  That's the beauty of it.  I need to work harder to get my bum to class.  I need to go to as many classes as I can.  The live classes are what keep me going.  I get bored of the Wii and DVD's.  The live classes are where it's at.

I've started doing my walks during my lunch breaks again and it is nice.  I've always liked those walks and I'm glad I'm doing it again.  I have to stop talking and writing about it though.  I just have to "do it" as Nike would say.

Maybe I should think up some kind of reward system.  Any ideas?

Forward HO!

Today is weigh day.  I am back to where I was before the weekend of bad decisions.  So that is good.  I've been able to lose all the weight that I gained from that weekend.  The damage that was done was minimal and is now non-existent, thank goodness.  Still, since I didn't stick to plan I did not lose more like I should have.  It's ok though, I'm back on track.  I'm going to stay on this path.

Yesterday my little one turned 3.  I had many opportunities to cheat.  The cake looked so good.  I also got the intense craving for chinese food.  I was fighting it all night.  Finally I decided to give in.  I told the husband we're having chinese for dinner.  I picked up the phone and got halfway through dialing the number when a thought popped into my head: "tomorrow is weigh day..."  That did it.  I put the phone down.  I did not order the chinese.  I did not have any cake either.  Instead I had a very tasty, atkins friendly chicken wrap.  Because of my decisions almost two weeks ago I am still fighting my cravings.  Fortunately I haven't given into any of them.  I was crazy close last night though.

At work today I started taking my walks again during my lunch break.  It was awesome.  The night was warm but not too warm and I just felt so alive walking.  My mind went a million miles a minute though, that was annoying.  I need to find a new audio book.

After a weekend of bad decisions, and a week of fixing the issues I'm back on track.  I'm going forward.  I'm not looking back.  I'm going to learn from this and get better.  The cravings will subside soon.  I am getting stronger.

Next year maybe?

I've always heard that there was a yearly Zumba convention in Florida.  I never knew much about it.  All I knew was that a bunch of Zumba instructors from around the world would go to get better at what they do. They would go to learn new moves, to figure out how to cut their clothing (yes that's a thing belive me, I have a video tutorial on how to cut your workout clothes), and lots of other health oriented stuff (certification, etc).  That's really all I know about it.  Until this year.  I am a fan of Zumba on facebook and they posted pictures of this year's convention and let me tell you it looks intense!  It looks like a lot of fun.  There are a ton of people and there are even celebrities.  I mentioned before that I want to become a Zumba instructor, maybe one day I'll be able to experience this convention.  It looks crazy awesome!  Here's another goal I can set for myself.  Next year? Maybe.  In two years? Hopefully! 

'Like' Zumba Fitness on facebook!

Look at that crowd!!

Aqua Zuuuuuuumba!

Yes, that's IS Vanilla Ice with Beto!

You Like Me, You Really Like Me!

I can't believe so many people read this blog.  I am about to hit 2,000 views!  Everywhere I go someone I know tells me either they follow my blog or someone they know follows my blog and my progress.  My best friend's mother's friend reads it.  My husband's Aunt reads it.  So many people read it.  I never expected this.  I'm truly blessed and humbled to know so many people are following me and my success (and my failures).

My mother commented on yesterday's post saying that she believes this blog is good for me because it helps hold me accountable not only to myself but to my "fans".  I couldn't agree more.  I had friends and family asking about my blog and my progress constantly when I had veered away from writing.  All my readers were and are constantly in the back of my mind.  Anytime I mess up I feel that I not only let myself down but that I also let everyone who is cheering me on down.  Anytime I have success or achieve a goal, I feel that I not only did it for myself but I am doing it for everyone who wants me to succeed.

This blog has become so much bigger than what I thought it would.  I am truly grateful to how much it helps me stay true to myself and to keep my goals in site.  I know I have been absent but I don't think I will ever do that again!  I had so many people asking about me while I was away.  It's so ridiculously awesome!  Thank you all for giving me the strength that I need to keep going!  You have no idea how much I appreciate your support.  It's really awesome.  I feel so loved!

Thank you all! You are amazing people!!!  God bless you all!

I'm Back...again!

I have been absent from my blog for quite a while.  First I had Jamboree in the Hills, but I never really got back to blogging since then.  This is a perfect example of me.  It only takes a day or two of not doing something to stop doing it all together.  For me to succeed at anything that I set out to do I have to make sure I do it.  Anytime I give myself an excuse or a break it causes me to go off course for an extended period of time, or, in the past, for a couple of years even.

Let me catch everyone up to speed as to what I've been doing since I stopped blogging.  I have done nothing.  Well not nothing.  I still have my family and my job, but in regards to being active...yeah nothing.  I've gone from working out everyday to working out maybe once a week at Zumba.  I was doing Zumba DVD's every other day and at least 1 live Zumba class.  I was also taking walks during my lunch breaks at work.  I'm not sure where or when or why  it happened but for some reason I stopped doing that.  I either didn't wake up early enough to workout, or my foot hurt too much to do the walks, or who knows what.  Either way I can assure you that whatever excuse I used, they were terrible excuses. 

This past weekend I traveled out of town to a wedding.  I had every intention of not cheating or eating off plan.  I thought to myself "if I can survive a 4 day country music festival, I can survive this".  Well I didn't survive it.  I only have myself to blame.  I gave into my temptation and had a big fast food meal from Sonics on Saturday night.  It was awful.  The burger was squished and greasy, the french fries were not fully fried so they were soggy.  The only good thing I had was my Oreo ice cream.  I didn't just cheat with a tiny bite, no I cheated hardcore.  I gave in really bad.  There were 2 good things that came of this cheat.  The first being that the food was not good so I didn't enjoy it.  This would help deter me from eating like this again.  Secondly,  I didn't even eat 1/4 of my ice cream treat.  Not because I didn't want to, I had every intention to, but the husband put it away in the fridge...so it melted.  At least I didn't eat the whole thing...it was a very large ice cream treat.  I ordered the small, but Sonics version of small is quite large.

After Saturday's bad decision making it continued to be that way.  It started as a single meal cheat, then turned into a "I'm still on vacation" cheat.  It took me 3 whole days to get back on track with my eating.  3 days!  Honestly I am amazed at how easy it was to just keep eating.  I am amazed how all my past sugar cravings came to the forefront with a vengeance.  It was almost like I needed to make up the last 4 months of not having any sugar.  It was crazy.  I am amazed at how I had believed all the excuses I gave myself to justify the food that was being digested.  Wednesday was weigh day and needless to say I have paid for my bad decisions.  Before I went out of town I was 1 pound away from my 20 lb. loss goal.  Now I am not only far from that 20 lb. loss goal, I have undone my 15 lb. loss goal.  In short, I gained 5 pounds in 3 days.  OUCH.  Hopefully some of that is water retention from all the salty greasy food I ate...yeah right.  How fast the weight goes on. 

As I mentioned before all it takes is one to two days to really throw myself out of a groove.  I need to re-ignite my fire.  I have no intention of giving up.  I just need to get some jumper cables and re-charge.  I need to start working out everyday.  I am returning to Induction phase.  I have to clean my system and get back into Ketosis.  It took me 3 days to undo 3 weeks of work.  This is a valuable lesson.  It is something that shouldn't have happened but I can at least learn from it.  It's happened before in the past.  I start a healthy lifestyle and I lose weight and start feeling great but then I become complacent.  I start feeling smug that I've been so successful so far, so smug that I get lazy and distracted.  In the past I would just stop being healthy and give up.  I would be happy with the progress I had made.  I'd forget about my goal.  This cannot happen this time.  I won't let it.

I also gained a lot of confidence.  I have been so happy with how I'm starting to look.  I'm making big changes physically and it's awesome.  I also know the numbers that I am losing.  This confidence can be damaging...I know that sounds weird.  I've become complacent (definition: pleased, especially with oneself or one's merits, advantages, situation, etc., often without awareness of some potential danger or defect).  I am so pleased with my success thus far that I have lost some of the strength to fight temptation, or have lost the fight to workout everyday.  I have a big goal.  It is going to take a while to get there.  I will get there.  I have to fight complacency and laziness.  I made some terrible choices recently that has undone some hard work.  I have to remember this.  I will succeed.  I can only get better and learn from these mistakes.

I don't know what's different about this time around.  In the past after a big off plan event like this past weekend I would just give up.  I would stop working out all together.  I would stop eating healthy.  I would stop everything that I had started.  This time around though I have no desire to stop.  It's just the opposite.  I want to keep going in the right direction.  I'm kicking myself for the bad decisions but it is what it is.  I've learned from it.  I'm stronger for it.  I don't want to give up.  I want to succeed.  I can't explain why this time is different.  It just is and I'm happy for it!