Eating on Our "diet"

This new way of eating is working out really good for us... Lots of veggies and some fruit and some healthy meat... Since Dave does not like veggies I have been making up a soup that gives him 4 cups of veggies in every bowl. Today I made up a huge pan of it so that everyday I can warm him up a big bowl of it to go with dinner and he is happy and healthy :)

After this stage I give it a little puree so he can not see the veggies

I also baked a bunch of chicken and then cut up each serving into bite size pieces and put them in baggies we can have for lunch... and made 5 lbs of hamburger ( the 96/4) into 4 oz patties in the freezer. This week we added 15 servings of cod to the freezer too.. all frozen in single little servings I can just pull out and pop in the oven :) Eating like this is proving to be simple and easy.. to shop for.. to cook for and to eat.

It amazes me to think that in the last 17 days I have used no sugar.. no butter.. no breads.. no pasta... nothing preserved or boxed or fake.. everything has been fresh.. I did use stevia .. two little packets.. one when I made bbq sauce and one on some strawberries.. but that is it. I may not have lost a hundred lbs yet.. but we are both feeling so much better.. more focused and cleaner and in great spirits. A lot of people tell me negative things about this hcg diet... but a lot of them do not get it... for some of us, everyone is different, but like for us here.. being fat is a big mental thing.... this diet is teaching us how good we feel when we eat right.. and showing us some pretty bad habits we had.. we were not eating because we were hungry.. we were eating because it was habit. This diet has taken the hunger away and is letting us learn a lot about ourselves and how we work and allowing us the chance to change our habits and how we think about things. Not every "diet" works for every person...but this one is working for us.. not only are we losing weight.. and inches.. but we are feeling amazing... and learning so much and making huge life changes in how we eat.. what we eat.. and why we eat.

Focused

I can not seem to get focused.. my brain either seems to be stumbling around with nothing or it is in overload. No need for blonde jokes here :) I know this is part of the bi-polar and I am keeping an eye on it because right now it is in overload (upswing) so many cool fun things going on.

1, Started a group on Facebook Stanwood Area Barter Group Hoping to get lots of people involved and start getting some bartering going on in the area.

2, The diet Dave and I are working on... post about that here it is going great.. a lot better than I had expected... day 13 of 40 days and feeling great!

3, Coupons... coupons and coupons... yes I am addicted. It is crazy how many coupons are out there for so many things. I spent a couple of hours just this morning signing up to have samples with coupons mailed to the house... I may not need to ever by any tampons, pads, shampoo, soap, or anything else for the bathroom for years. My facebook and my email are not filled 98% with coupon related things... I am printing and gathering and stacking and sorting and organizing like crazy... I love it! I am ready to take my first envelope to the store this week for our weekly trip... I may only save a couple of dollars ( not going too extreme here... yet) but it is a couple of dollars we would have spent last week. Our grocery list is changing .. food wise we are only buying meat and veggies and fruit right now.. so I am only using coupons for cleaners and stuff for the next couple of weeks.

4, Working on some new craft projects. Have three new projects I have started.. but they are not really ready to be talking too much about yet :) Next week I should be ready with a blog post for at least one of the projects!

5, Cleaning the house... this may sound odd.. but now that the kids are out.. and Dave and I have everything how we want it... I am so in love with cleaning it. The best part is.. it is so easy now. When I clean the kitchen ... it stays clean. Sometimes I clean something and then spend the day walking past it just amazed that it is still clean. My kids were not dirty or messy.. in fact they were a lot cleaner than most teenagers I know.. it is just so different now.

Ok that pretty much wraps up what is going on this week for me. I am on an upswing.. not too high though.. should be fine.. and I am getting bunches down and feeling great! Hope everyone else is having a good week too.

*a huge hug and a prayer for someone I know who is in a hard place right now, it will get better*

This little butterfly bush was planted in April, post here a friend had given me the little one inch start that was almost dead... it did nothing for months.. then all of a sudden it started growing and now it is about 2 feet tall and around and has little flowers. Yay!

~Michelle

Great View on a Sunny Day

Well I do not really have a lot to write about these days... working on the house.. cleaning and organizing and sorting is mostly what is getting done. Getting ready to head out to the shop and start cleaning out there. Now that all the kids have moved out and we have brought everything home from storage it is as if Dave and I are finally moving in together. When I moved in here I left almost all my stuff in storage.. then he put most of his into storage so that he could make room for all of my kids and we could remodel the house. Now the house is done and the kids are gone and we are making it ours and it feels so good :)

Friday we went to Bellingham to pick up a couple of things for the house, a magnet door dick for the bedroom so the door stops blowing shut.. I am so afraid of the cat getting smashed. We also needed to get a new track for the closet door in the office.. we had the wrong one up and it made a really horrible sound when you opened it. On the way back we drove down Chuckanut Drive which is a beautiful drive and we stopped at a pullout to have our lunch and enjoy the view.

We visited a fun antique junk shop and found a few things we might need... decided it was best to come home and do some research and think about them first though. We then hit the hobby store and brought some track to set up Dave's very old train cars in so we can display them with our train stuff. Hit the grocery store for a lot of fruits and veggies... we did find a salad dressing that is everything free... no calories.. no fat.. no sugar.. no msg... pretty much there is nothing in there.. lol it is weird.. but it taste good so we enjoyed a nice green salad with some chicken in it and some fake? salad dressing.

This morning we had a lazy morning.. did our weigh in and we are both still dropping.. did our weekly measurements and they are down... Dave made up a bunch of charts so we can watch everything and then we went and hit some garage sales.. I got some fun baskets and a cool big glass bowl and a few other small things..tomorrow we focus on the shop and mowing the weeds in the yards.. the grass has all died off but those weeds are about 2 feet tall :(

Keeping Track of my Weight

Started a new diet thing ... yes I know people hate the word diet.. but I am ok with it.. for me it is just a short way of saying I started a new way of watching what I eat and paying attention to how I am feeding my body and how I am taking care of myself. A couple of years ago we started a "diet" where we cut out the junk food.. stopped going to fast food restaurants.. this not only saved us a lot of money but we figured between fast food... soda.. and pizza.. we were eating close to 8k calories a day.. yes that would be number one on how we got fat.. plus we were not doing any form of exercise... those two things together and the pounds just flew on. We stopped eating all the ick and started walking almost every day and hiking and we stopped gaining weight.. even started losing....then life happens and we end up being too busy for the hiking and the walking starts to be less and less and the weight slowly starts coming back on... and we start eating out more.. and here we are on the up hill again... we know what we need to do... we need to eat healthy and exercise more... having a hard time getting back on that track though.

A couple of people I know started a liquid HCG diet and Dave and I were talking about it... then we learned some good friends were also starting it and we decided to jump in too. Some people love this and some hate it... I am a bit nervous about it but I do see it working with people and I am going to give it a try. Plan is to use it as a jump start... since we are having a hard time getting motivated and started again I am thinking this is going to be a great cleansing to be able to get back to no junk food and better eating schedule and being able to exercise a lot more... anyone who wants to talk to me about the harm it can do.. I have heard it.. and I do not throw away the concerns.. but.. there is also the thought that being fat is doing a lot of harm. I am not posting this to debate if this is a good "diet" or not... I am here so I can keep track of how this is working for me and my progress with it.

We took our measurements and got on the scale.. I know that last time I was losing weight it really helped when I shared it here... it holds me accountable and makes me work harder. When the whole world can see what you are doing (I know the whole world reads my blog..holds its breath just waiting for me to post ) or not doing it helps.. last time I listed my weight.. so sharing that is not a huge deal for me this time around.. but writing down how big I am in inches for anyone to see.. wow that is a hard one... just looking at it on paper myself is hard. I will be weighing in everyday and measuring once a week. I will be updating on this post and not starting new posts for any of this ( at least that is the plan )

That all being said... here goes

Week 1 ~ This was not as hard as we had thought or in the ways we had expected. The drops really help with the cravings and with being hungry. My biggest problem is I am not hungry at all... I am having to force myself to eat to be able to get enough calories each day. The water is going through me as if I was a funnel... not sure what good it does when it goes through so fast. Dave is having almost no problems with any of it. Last night was his first night of feeling a bit hungry late at night... he was up working... but he dealt with it fine. He is getting his veggies in a soup every night.. boring but he likes it so that works. Learning a lot about things we do, mostly with food, because of habit.. really paying attention to those things and keeping notes... really focusing and talking a lot about how the healthy eating will continue in our lives. Will be keeping LOTS of veggies and fruits and smaller portions and staying away from sugar and carbs. This week will be trying some new recipes.... That is one thing I do not discuss with Dave.. he does not want to know he is eating vegetables. *smile*

Weight

Date Weight Total loss

8-19-11 ~ 255.6

8-26-11 ~ 247.6 -8lbs

9-2-11 ~ 242.6 -13lbs

9-9-11 ~ 238.0 -17.6lbs

9-16-11 ~ 237.0 -18.6 lbs

9-23-11 ~ 234.0 -21.6lbs

9-30-11 ~ 232.4 - 23.2lbs

11-8-11 ~ 225.0 -30.6

11-18-11 ~ 222.2 -33.4

2-2-12 ~ 213.8 -41.8

Measurements

8-19-11 ~~~~ 9-23-11 ~~~~ 9-30-11 ~~~~ 11-18-11 ~~~~~2-3-12

Neck ~~ 15 ~~~~ 14.5 ~~~~ 14.25 ~~~~~~ 14 ~~~~~~ 13.5

arms ~~ 15 ~~~~ 14 ~~~~ 14.25 ~~~~~~ 13.75 ~~~~~ 13.25

chest ~~ 50 ~~~~ 48.5 ~~~~ 47.5 ~~~~~~ 46.75 ~~~~~ 44.75

waist ~~ 51.25 ~~~ 51.5 ~~~~ 47.75 ~~~~~~ 44.25 ~~~~~ 41.75

hips ~~ 55.5 ~~~~ 53 ~~~~~ 52 ~~~~~~ 50.25 ~~~~~~ 48.75

legs ~~26.25 ~~~~ 24.5 ~~~~ 24.25 ~~~~~~ 22.75 ~~~~~ 22.25

9/30/11 ~Today is day 43, that is two binge days and then 34 days on phase two and now 7 days into phase 3. I am down now to 232.4 scale goes up a little and down a little every day... pretty much staying right about here. What has amazed me the most has been the inches I have lost in this last week. All of a sudden the inches came off and I lost almost as many in this last week as I did in the last month. Which is nice because I now am able to wear a size smaller and I have clothes in this size I have been saving and hoping I could wear again... now I am working towards the next size smaller. Will do phase 3 for a couple more weeks... then a little bit of phase four and start back on phase 2 around the 21st of October.

11-18-11 Into the last week of Phase 2 round 2 and I am down a total of 33.4 lbs and 21.75 inches. Next week is Thanksgiving... and then we have a road trip planned and my Birthday and Christmas and New Years... some big challenges coming up.. time to really stay focused. Will start another round in Jan... I am going to try to work hard.. lots of exercise and eating good between now and then to be as close to under 200 lbs as possible

2-3-12 Last week of phase 2on the third round.. this one has been hard. Does not help that we went through Thanksgiving.. Christmas... son being home.. two road trips ... and news years eve... before we started.. had a bit of a hard time before we started this.. all in all we did pretty good. Had gained back 4lbs that had to be lost in this round too. I did it :) I am really seeing a difference now.... started in a size 24 jeans and now a 20 is lose.. I can put on size 18 but not really wear them yet.. I do expect to be able to very soon.. which will mean I will need new clothes very soon. I have one pair of jeans and one pair of Capri pants in that size.. then nothing smaller. I have been wearing all my summer clothes just because they are getting super baggy and by the time summer gets here I will need all new clothes in that area too. I am not planning on doing another round of the hcg diet for awhile.. I want to give it 3 months or so.. really focus on working out and eating healthy and getting things toned up and adding some muscle... then possibly will do one more round end of April and then this summer will be all about hiking and working out and eating right. I Want Muscles!!

Mini Vacation (photos)

We went with some friends and headed to Sequim then down the coast to the Ocean and then home.. spent 3 nights 4 days and had a LOT of fun.

Sea lions playing in the water in Sequim at the John Wayne Marina

Fountain ( water comes up through the middle then pours through the roots ) at the Olympic Cellars Winery it is really cool and I am hoping to make one for the yard :)

Lavender, lots of it in Sequim.. this is at the Olympic Cellars winery Fun place.

The Lavender room at the The Red Caboose Getaway

Dining car at The Red Caboose Getaway in Sequim.. all set for breakfast

Sail boat in Port Angeles

A sail boat in Port Angeles with the big ferry in the background, ghosting into the fog.. it was really cool how it just disappeared into the fog

This tree is truly huge.. no way I can show it in a picture so I just did some fun ones :) We did see a mommy squirrel with her baby in the mouth moving it across the path and took it up the tree.



Ruby Beach on the Washington Coast.. just south of La Push.


Kites flying at Ocean Shores


Beach at Ocean Shores

The jetty at Ocean Shores