Over half way to my 1st goal!

My Mom called me tonight to see how I was doing since there was no blog entry for yesterday! Don't worry...I did not break down and give up. I went to blog last night and our computer was having one of its common 'fits' so I had to turn it off and let it rest. It was too late to wait for it.


But yesterday went good. I made my new menu for the week and got groceries. I am so excited to have Chili tomorrow! Yum! That sounds so good. I will let you know how it turns out.


Yesterday I made it past the half-way point of my 2 week goal, and am now on my way down to the finish line! It feels great to know I will finish and meet my goal. When I was talking to my Mom tonight I said, "You don't think I did good yesterday because I didn't blog, huh?" She said, "No! I know you won't do bad at least until you reach the 2 week goal!" I am still not sure if that was a compliment or not...is she expecting me to cave in just after meeting my first goal? Just kidding Mom...I know what you meant! :0) There is definitely value in setting mini goals for yourself to work toward. I need to think of my next one!


CHALLENGE: Get through Halloween without eating ANY candy...NOT ONE BITE! I have never done that before. But don't feel too bad for me, I had my share BEFORE Halloween. :0( It will still be hard though...it is tradition to eat fun candy after being outside collecting it from all the neighbors with your kids. And tradition is one of the biggest reasons we eat! But, this year is different. I am on a mission to stick to the program and that is what I am going to do!

Quote of the day:

People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing. That's why we recommend it daily!"

~ Zig Ziglar

Is this true or what! That is why writing in this blog every day is so important to me right now! It gets me thinking about why I am doing this and what I want. It keeps me focused and motivated to be able to post positive things and meet the goals I have set!

I hope everyone has a

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

A close one and a success story

Well, all is still going well. Today I went to lunch with my sisters-in-law Gina and Lindsey (Happy Birthday Lindsey!) and mother-in-law Cindy. We had a really yummy salad at Ruby Tuesdays. One of the best parts of the salad was not having to cut all the veggies and meat myself!

Then tonight as I stood in front of my menu trying to decide WHAT to cook...NOTHING I should eat looked good. I did not want another salad, I did not want hamburger, I did not want to eat or cook chicken and I did not want any veggies. UH-OH! That is not good. This is how I felt by half way through the last time I did this. I just want more variety. I am not talking a candy bar, I am talking an apple!


At that point I might have caved and made grilled cheese sandwiches (on Betty Crockers Silky Smooth White Bread) or something fast, easy and full of simple carbs. But then I thought of all of you, and the blog I would have to write and knew I did not want to write a sad entry saying I did not make my goal.


SO....I got the chicken out of the freezer and thawed it out in the microwave before cutting it and cooking it in a little oil in the skillet. I made an Asian salad (lettuce, chicken cooked in sweet in sour with water to make a little sauce, almond slivers, onions, radishes, mushrooms, cheese, Toasted Almond Salad Dressing) and jello. After I was done I was full and mostly satisfied, but am about to head for a Diet Mountain Dew Mug to help with the sweet craving.


All of you have been so great in supporting me! Thank You! I know I would not have made it this far if I was not being accountable to all of you. I would have stopped, started and probably stopped again by this point! I know I can make it through another week and then Phase 2 will have a lot more variety!


I also wanted to tell my cousin Denette 'THANK YOU!' for sending me an e-card every day since I started this. She wanted to encourage me and let me know that I am being cheered on! That has meant so much to me.

And I also want to tell Denette CONGRATULATIONS!

This is what she wrote in her email to me today: "You have kept me motivated over the last week, and as of today, I reached my goal. I wanted to be 50 lbs lighter this year, than I was last year."

Her total weight loss is 70 lbs!

I just want Denette to know that I am SO PROUD OF HER and she is the one inspiring and motivating me! That is such a huge accomplishment! She does not have much more to go until she reaches her ultimate goal. I know you can do it Denette!

Quote of the day:

Rather the pain of discipline, than the pain of regret.

- Bob Andrews

This is how I feel today. I made it through dinner and am so glad I am not regretting what I ate! I am feeling proud that I was able to focus enough on my goal and focus on the long term, than just on what I wanted right then.

Whew! That was a close one!

Weigh-in Report!

Monday is going to be the day I weigh-in. I chose Monday because it motivates me to get through the weekend strong. I don't want to mess up a great week with a bad weekend and then have to weigh Monday morning!

Today is the first time I have weighed since starting on Thurs, Oct. 23rd. I did not want to focus on numbers because my only goal right now is to STICK TO THE PLAN! So when I went to weigh today I had no idea what it would say.

RESULTS:

Loss this week: -10 pounds

Total Lost: 10 pounds

YEA! I feel really good about that number! I hope to lose about another 10 lbs while I am on Phase 1, but as long as I stick to the plan it does not matter. Remember, I will not lose like this after I start Phase 2. Right now I am on the kick-start program and am losing at a faster rate! But it feels great to get a little bit behind me and know that the work is paying off!

Sunday---always the hardest day

Is it just me, or is Sunday a really hard day to eat good on? Weekends are generally harder, but Sunday...I am home almost ALL day! And by the time I get home from church I feel like I could/would/should eat anything and everything I can find! Why is that? I go three hours without eating on other days. But, I guess on Sunday I eat when I get up, then maybe have a diet pop before church (we go at 1pm) and then by the time we are home from church I actually have not eaten for like 7 or 8 hours! And then by the evening I want to bake something. Sunday nights just make me want to bake something sweet. I know there have been many times I have looked through my cookbook trying to find something I have the ingredients for.

So, today in church as the last half hour was counting down, and I was sooo hungry, I thought about how I would feel as soon as I got home and what I needed to do to keep control. As soon as we walked in the house I opened a Diet Coke and warmed up a Cream Cheese Cup. Ahhhhh. Then I had a stalk of celery with peanut butter. Ahhhhh. Now, I could be in control and get everyone else fed before I got the rest of my lunch.

I DID IT! I got through a Sunday without any slip-ups, a Sunday that is day #4 and that would be hard anyway! I feel so good that I stuck to my plan. Tonight before bed I will have a fudgesicle I think, that sounds really good. And most likely, another Diet Coke!

There was also one other observation I made today while I was at church. Usually, when I sit in church I look at all the other ladies and how cute their clothes are and how skinny they are and beat myself up! I would talk really mean to myself, which made me want to come home and eat really bad! Today, I was so much kinder to myself. I have been on program for only 4 days...but that is enough for me to say to myself, "You are working on it, your are making progress, you don't have to feel bad." It just takes a little work and progress on my goal to feel so much better about myself and be able to pull myself up, rather than keep knocking myself down.

Quote of the day:

God has given us many gifts, much diversity, and many differences, but the essential thing is what we know about each other--that we are all his children. Our challenge as members of the Church is for all of us to learn from each other, that we may all love each other and grow together."

--Cheiko M. Okazaki; Ensign, May 1996, Page 13

This is just a nice quote. That is one thing I love about blogs, we get to learn from each other and share ideas, and just keep in touch to keep our ties to each other strong!

*Be sure to check the blog tomorrow...it's my first weigh in post!

Neufchatel Cheese

*WARNING: LONG POST, MAY BORE MOST!

Day #3 was not as hard as I anticipated! I made it through without any horrible struggles, though something sweet did sound good to me today. Diet Mountain Dew really helps me fill the need for something sweet. I do love my mug (which is a fountain drink of Diet Mt. Dew) and I do not plan on cutting that out. Even Dr. Agatson (who is the author of the SB Diet book) says you can have your diet pop, or whatever sugar-free drink you like, since there are so many other changes to make...we can't take away everything. I agree!

I also cooked up one of my favorite sweet treats today. There is no name for them that I know of, but they are little cream cheese cakes and taste kind of like cheese cake to me. I got the recipe from my mom, who got it from a co-worker, who eats really low carb. All the ingredients are on the "Able to enjoy" list in the SB book, so I made them and love them. Here is the recipe and I will name them the 'Cream Cheese Cups'.

Cream Cheese Cups
2 packages of Neufchatel Cheese (next to cream cheese)
3 eggs
3/4 cup splenda
Touch of vanilla
About 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (optional)

Mix all of the ingredients together with a hand mixer, it will be a little lumpy
Spoon into muffin pan - I get a pan of 12 out of this batch
Bake at 350 degrees for around 15 min.
After they are cooled, spoon them out, store in refrigerator

Nick does not like these, but I love them. They are really good warm. I like to microwave them for a few seconds after I take them out of the fridge. NOTE: You may be wondering why there are chocolate chips if there is no sugar allowed. Well, in the SB diet there is a recipe for ricotta cheese which has a few chocolate chips. I choose to have my few chocolate chips in my Cream Cheese Cups instead. I don't know the science behind why a few of those are allowed...I just enjoy it!

My friend Sylvia (who technically is my sister Cinda's friend, but she said she could share since I like Sylvia too, so she is both our friend!) asked me about what salad dressing I use. Alot of you may not know what the SB Diet really is and what kind of foods you eat, so I thought I'd give you a brief overview. As you have probably already figured out, SB is low carb. It teaches you the 'rules' of how to eat, and then you apply them to your life. There is no set menu or meals you have to eat. It is all food you buy at any supermarket. You don't count calories or even restrict portion control. It is based on eating the right kinds of foods that your body needs to reduce cravings and make you more satisfied from your food.

I am on Phase 1, which is the jump-start first two weeks of the program. There are NO carbs, not even the good ones right now, so your body gets rid of all the carbs and sugars that make you crave those foods. After two weeks I will start Phase 2, which begins to add in more of the good carbs. I will tell you more about Phase 2 when I start it. But for now on Phase 1 I am eating lean meats, eggs, low fat cheeses and dairy products like cottage cheese, nuts (in moderation), peanut butter, lots of vegetables and salads. I can also have things like sugar free-jello, sugar free Popsicles and fudgesicles, sugar free candy, and seasonings.

The interesting thing about the SB Diet is that things like cheese and nuts are usually 'bad' foods, when actually they are the good kinds of fat that you need. And when it comes to salad dressings I have all types that are either regular or lite. I do not want to have fat free because when a manufacturer makes something fat free they add sugar back in to make it taste good. It is hard to get used to when we are so used to thinking that the best is always 'Fat Free'. NOT TRUE!

My favorite dressing is really boring...Lite Hidden Valley Ranch. But it takes soo good to me since I ate the crappy, fat free, generic brand for so long. I also just started liking Caesar dressing. The best combo...a little bit of Lite Ranch and a little bit of Caesar...YUMMY! I also have a Toasted Almond Asian dressing I like to use with sweet and sour chicken. Another thing to add to your salad so you don't need as much dressing is cottage cheese. I learned that trick from my mother-in-law, Cindy, and now I do it all the time.

Quote of the day:

The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking places.

-Author Unknown

This quote made me smile! :0) That is exactly why I am doing this blog. Even if not one person ever read it, it is keeping me connected to what I am doing and why so I don't pull over and park AGAIN, while I wait for tomorrow!

Day #2...

was also a success! YEA!

Today was a little harder than yesterday, as I expected. And I expect tomorrow to be even harder. But I got through it without any slip-ups. On the South Beach Diet you are not supposed to be hungry. If you are hungry you are supposed to eat more of the right foods. Nobody is going to last long on a plan that you are always hungry on. I was hungry some of the day but that is because I have to get better at variety. I would try to think of what snack I wanted and then not be able to think of anything that really sounded good right then. So I just didn't have anything. I need to get better at not only finding more variety but also expanding my tastes.

Today was a busy day and I did not get on-line very much to explore the South Beach (SB) website. I want to look for recipes tomorrow...which reminds me...my cousin Denette emailed me a ton last summer and I need to go through those! That will be really fun and I can do it tomorrow while Nick is at the BYU game.

Quote of the Day:

Instead of giving myself reasons why I can't, I give myself reasons why I can.

-Author Unknown

This just makes sense. If I tell myself I cannot (which is what I have been doing for a while before October 23rd, 2008) I will not. I believe what I tell myself...self-talk has more impact on our minds and actions than we know. Simply talking kindly to myself and telling myself why I can do this will get me there faster than beating myself up.

Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!

I cannot tell you how much I appreciate all the supportive posts I have received today! I am so grateful to all of you and love you guys all so much...I can't even tell you!

Last night after I posted the blog on our family site with the link, I went to bed with sort of mixed feelings. I felt sort of panicked and my heart was racing as I lay in bed, "Should I take it down? Nobody has seen it yet...", but at the same time a sort of realization that I am really going to do it this time.

One of the hardest parts of losing weight is simply getting some time behind you following your plan. For several days it is way too easy to say, "I will start tomorrow...", and we all know how that turns out; tomorrow never really comes! So when I was thinking about all of this last night while I lay in bed, I realized that there was no way I would not follow my plan on the first day I posted my blog! I was so excited because I KNEW tomorrow would be a good day!

All of you helped me through the first day!

The first day was a success! I was so pumped up from making the blog and planning everything that today was not too hard! I went and got groceries so I am all stocked up on the right kinds of foods. I got the veggies washed, jello made and had lunch.

LUNCH- This is one of the areas I have identified and being a problem time for me. Not so much for what I eat, but that I don't get around to eating. Lunch time is always so busy. I am getting Lukas to preschool, or trying to run errands around Slade's nap time, picking up Lukas, trying to check things off my to-do list, etc. I don't want to slow down to cook chicken, make a salad and actually sit down to eat a meal. Some may think this is great...I save calories. WRONG. By about 4pm I am famished and will eat whatever I can get my hands on, which is often where the "I'll start tomorrow" strategy comes into play! I have to eat often to stay in control of WHAT I eat. Like today, I had canned chicken on a salad since it was much faster. I am going to keep boiled eggs, turkey, canned chicken and chicken I cooked for another meal on hand for quick protein I can put on a salad. This will eliminate the long preparation which should help the lunch situation.

It is amazing how much the mom sets the tone for everything. When I am eating bad, the entire family is eating bad. It felt so good to see everyone eating chicken, potatoes (no potato for me though) and vegetables for dinner. Afterward we went for a walk to deliver a few things I had to drop off to people in the ward.

I also joined South Beach Diet Online today. I am going to do that instead of going to Weight Watchers like I used to. South Beach is better for me and how my body responds to food. There are lots of tools for tracking your food, making shopping lists, recipes, community boards, Q&A and more. I will really enjoy that.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do. Not that the nature of the thing itself has changed, but that our ability to do it has increased."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

This is a wonderful, well-know quote that can be applied to every aspect of our lives. For my purpose, it gives me hope that this healthy lifestyle can and will become second nature because I continue to incorporate it into my daily life. Dr. Phil always says we have to "practice the behavior we desire" and I really do believe that is true. It takes 21 days to form a good habit...day one...done!

I feel naked...

Have you ever had that dream where you are in a room full of people, or a crowd of people, and you are the ONLY ONE standing there stark, buck...naked? You feel so uncomfortable (to say the least) and you want to run far, far away and hide! I have had that dream, and that is how I feel right now while I start this blog.

As you can see from the title I am starting a new journey. I am starting a new journey that is in fact, a very old journey, that I have traveled countlessly on since the 3rd grade. I am starting yet AGAIN for several reason:

1. I have been running away from it for a while now
2. I have decided it is an important enough journey that I WANT to start it again
3. I am finally realizing that it is in fact a journey that I am starting and will be on a while...not just a race to the final destination

If you know me at all, you what journey I am speaking of...WEIGHT LOSS!

You might be asking yourself why, if this is a common journey I embark and disembark on, I would be starting a blog about it now. Good question. I am not sure myself!

What I do know is that I am tired of being overweight, I am tired of not having any clothes to wear, I am tired of avoiding people I want to see, I am tired of not wanting a family picture because I have to be in it, I am tired of breaking promises to myself, I am tired of starting again, and again, and again...but most importantly I don't want to teach my children bad eating habits and I don't want to be a hypocrite. I do not want to be diabetic. I want to be healthy for my family and healthy for me so I can enjoy my family.

I am tired of having a perfectly, wonderful, blissful life except for the one asterisk that always hangs out in my head all the time..."but you are still fat!"

So, I am ready to change that!

I am the only person that can make all the things listed above go away. I am the person that has to make the changes...and I am ready to change the path I am on because I choose to. Nobody is making me. I know that Nick, Lukas and Slade love me no matter what I weight and they all make me feel like the most beautiful woman in the world. I know my family loves me no matter what I weigh. I know my in-laws love me just like I am. I have wonderful friends that love me too. Yet, I also know all the above people support me in my quest to lose weight because they do want me to be happy and healthy...not because they care if I'm fat. There is no other woman in the world that has such a wonderful support system as I do! And that is why this journey will be different. I am ready to use my vast support system---I am ready to use all of you to help me! I am ready to make it public and be accountable.

I am not sure exactly what this blog will hold. I do know I need a place to collect all my thoughts (the good, the bad and the ugly), I need a place to put pictures that I can watch change as I start to shrink. I want to post my mini-goals that I am working on and the rewards I have in-store for myself. I want to post weekly weight-ins and keep track of what I have lost. I want to find inspiring quotes to share and maybe recipes I love. I want to have a place to share my excitement and also the inevitable bumps along the way.

This is called 'Karly's Journey' because this is it. This is the journey that will take me to my destination. I am ready to keep all the promises I have ever made to myself. I am ready to prove to myself that I can do this. I can. I will. I am.

So, here I go...