Weigh In Day

On Monday my mom asked me if there was a reason I was avoiding my blog. I told her it was because I had gotten off track with my food and didn't feel like talking about it. As you know from my last post, I was struggling with getting back on track with tracking my food and eating healthy. I actually had a really good day on Friday. I went on a bike ride and picnic with my kids (and neighbor). I got in some activity points and since we had a big breakfast before leaving, I had mostly fruit for lunch.

Mid-way point

After completing around 10 miles!

A nice picnic lunch

But then Saturday came around and for some reason my motivation went away. I wanted wine so I got it, which is really just stupid. Not only is wine all empty calories, but I get "snacky" when I drink wine so I end up eating late in the evening while I'm drinking. This then causes horrible acid reflux when I try to go to sleep so I have a hard time falling asleep, etc. Yet I must think it's worth it since I continue to do it!

Oh well. Moving on. I still would like to try to have at least 30 days in a row of tracking my food and staying within my points to see what kind of effect that has on me. But, even though I didn't stay within my points this week, I'm still weighing in today on my weigh in day. And the results of that weigh in this morning?? Down 1.2 pounds. I'm happy with that (of course) because I don't think I should have lost anything. But I'm going to be sure not to think that means I can get away with doing what I did this week. I'll take it to mean that the good news is I did track my food several days this week and that's the only thing that kept me from gaining a bunch of weight this week. I'm going to get back on it this week. Perhaps today is actually day 1 of my new challenge. The good news is (and what really matters) that I weigh less today than I did last Wednesday. If that can happen every week I'll be happy.

A Rough Start

It is so darn hard for me to get back on track when I've let myself eat basically whatever I want for the past 2 weeks. These 2 days have not been great. I'm technically still "on program" because I still have weekly points remaining, but not many. The good news is that I've tracked everything I've eaten and I know exactly where I'm at with my points. I could easily continue with my challenge and make it through this week within my points. However, the bad news is it has been a constant battle! I don't have many points left to play with and I have to continuously fight the devil that keeps telling me to just throw it in this week and re-start next week. Ugh. That's never going to get me anywhere.

Taking 2 weeks off and gaining back a few pounds is really no big thing if I can get myself back on track right away. Frankly, if I really focused myself, I could lose those 4.6 pounds in one week if I really wanted to. I could for sure lose it in the 2 weeks that I gained it and be right back on track. Honestly, the ONLY reason why I haven't already thrown in the towel is this blog. So, again, thank you!

We will see how these next 5 days go and see if I make it through my first week without going overboard. Honestly, I'm not sure if I'll make it or not. I'm not feeling all that confident right now, but I am going to continue to fight these feelings every day. I'm going to try to find the same motivation I had when I committed to the whole30.

A New Challenge

The Whole30 was a great challenge for me and putting it out on the blog helped tremendously. The fact that I put it out there publicly helped me to keep going when I didn't want to. I loved the support from my friends and family and could use some more of that now!

I am not doing another Whole30 because I just don't think that is a realistic way for me to live forever. I do need to make more permanent life changes though, so I'm looking at challenging myself in a different way.

It has been 2 weeks since the whole30 ended and I have taken these 2 weeks completely off! I am actually totally fine with the weight that I gained back. I was hoping I wouldn't gain back more than 5 pounds and I gained back 4.6 pounds. It has been a busy 2 weeks. The kids finished up school and then we've been doing some fun things as a family.

First day of summer break - a day at the zoo!

Then a camping trip!

And finally a night at Kalahari!

But today the new challenge starts. The new challenge is to see how many days in a row (hopefully at least 30, but perhaps even more than that) I can stick to the Weight Watcher's plan 100%. Here is what this means to me: 1) I will track everything I eat and stay within my points range every day. The points range includes daily points (currently 35) + activity points (varies daily) + weekly points (49 points each week). I can use these points any way I want (i.e. spread out throughout the week or one big day of eating, etc). 2) I will get in at least 5 servings of fruits and veggies each day. 3) I will focus on eating mostly real, unprocessed foods. However, what it really comes down to for me is that as long as I'm tracking my food and staying within my points then I am "on program". I might have days where I don't eat as healthfully as I should, but as long as I stay within my points I will consider that to be on program and part of the challenge.

I think it is going to be interesting to see how much weight I can lose in 30 days of being strict on the WW program compared to the whole30. I don't realistically think I'll lose 6.6% of my weight in 30 days again, but perhaps I will. When I looked back on this blog to August 2012 I noticed that in 2 weeks I lost 10.4 pounds. It ended up taking me 5 weeks to lose 11 pounds because during weeks 3 and 4 I went off program and stopped tracking my food on a few days. Based on this, it is possible that I could lose just as much weight in 30 days on WW as I did on the whole30. It's my own little experiment!

Today is day 1. I've had 4 points so far for breakfast, which leaves plenty for the rest of today. Thanks in advance for any support you provide. If I don't post for a few days and you're wondering where I am please feel free to send me a message to check on me - it'll help keep me honest!

Whole30 - The Results

That was a tough 30 days, but I am so glad we did it. I am even happier we did it together as a family. I believe I said it before, but there is no way I would have made it through the 2nd week if my children weren't involved. During the darkest days, I kept telling myself that if my kids can get through this with minimal complaining, there's no reason why I shouldn't be able to. I also thought about what message it would send to them if I quit. So I didn't.

The Groceries
So I started tallying up the food that we ate during this 30 days to give you an idea of how much a family of 4 might go through during the Whole30. However, I didn't have this wonderful idea until after I threw away some receipts. I tried to remember and guess, but this list doesn't even include every thing that I bought during the course of 30 days. Here is why it was so darn expensive......

8 pounds of carrots
3 bunches of celery
5 pineapples
4 pounds of strawberries
1 pound of sugar snap peas
3 pounds frozen green beans + 3 cans green beans
1 pound frozen California blend (carrots, broccoli and cauliflower mixture)
2 heads of cauliflower
4+ bags of lettuce
2 large containers of baby spinach
3 pounds of walnuts
3 containers of raisins (big containers)
garlic (probably 3-4 bulbs)
4+ pounds of onions
2 pounds of lemons
4 packages of Prosciutto
4 limes
10 pounds of grapes
3 3 pound bags of gala apples
4 3 pound bags of granny smith apples
2 mangoes
2 cantaloupes
4 green peppers
2 pounds asparagus
2 pounds zucchini
1 pound ground veal
1 pound ground pork
4 packages of breakfast chicken sausage
2 pounds ground beef
10 packages of Lou's Bacon (no sugar added bacon)
1 can tomato sauce
2 cans coconut milk
5+ 18 pack container of eggs
1 dozen pasteurized eggs (for homemade mayo)
5 avocados
1 package of compliant hot dogs
6 pounds frozen chicken breasts
2 packages of fresh chicken breasts
1 whole chicken
6 rotisserie chickens
6+ Dole Squish ems Applesauce
2 big containers of unsweetened applesauce
3+ pounds of sweet potatoes
3 pounds of deli turkey
20 lara bars
4 packages of mandarin oranges
3 bottles of balsamic vinegar
3 bottles of light olive oil
1 large jug of olive oil
2 packages chicken apple sausage

Whew! That is a LOT of food. I know there are things I missed. And frighteningly, the steaks that we ate and some of the ground beef that we ate was stuff we already had in our freezer. I can't imagine how much more we would have spent had we had to buy that stuff as well. We spent a lot of money, about $500 more than we usually spend on both groceries and eating out in one month. That did not make me happy, but I'm not that surprised. I wasn't really able to use coupons, and when I could I would often forget because I got out of the habit.

How we felt/feel
As I discussed day to day in my posts, I experienced many of the emotions and physical side effects that they talk about in the book and on the website. Overall, however, I don't think I feel any better or different than other times when I'm eating healthy (i.e. less) and exercising. I didn't necessarily notice getting a big spike in energy or anything. I do think I am sleeping better, but again, I think I tend to sleep better when I'm eating well.

I have had minimal stomach pains throughout this 30 days. The bathroom happenings (TMI yes, but with Crohn's important) are not significantly different. But again, I can remember back in 2012 when I was having a pretty bad flare (almost all year), I felt the BEST when I was doing weight watchers, paying attention to what I was eating, losing weight and training for a marathon. So, I don't necessarily think avoiding all the things I avoided was something that made a big difference. I think for me, it's eating healthy and losing weight that my body enjoys.

Results
Ok. So I am sure that lots of you are curious about this. I want to start by saying that according to the BMI (which everyone knows how much I hate that measure of "health"), I have 100 pounds to lose from when I started the Whole30. Drew had about 25 pounds to lose and Mary and Robbie were both perfect! :)

Drew lost 14 pounds.

Mary lost 6.6 pounds (that seems like a LOT but she doesn't look too skinny or frankly much different than she did a month ago)

Robbie didn't weigh in on day 1 and forgot to weigh in this morning, but he basically maintained. Last night he was around 57 pounds and he's usually around 55-58 pounds depending on when he gets on the scale, so I'm going to say he maintained his weight.

I lost 16.6 pounds and 8.5 inches overall (3.5 from waist, 3 from hips, 1 from chest and 1 from arms).

I can't believe I'm going to post a before and after pic...I still have a LONG way to go, but the results in just 30 days are pretty cool so I'm going to post it. Please ignore my messy bedroom! :)

What's Next??
So, I "only" have 83.4 pounds left to lose! (actually, I'd be happy with 74). I do not think that this is a realistic way for me to continue to live. Yes, losing 16 pounds without really even thinking about it (in terms of measuring or counting) was great, but I like feeling like I can have anything I want as long as I keep it in check. Weight Watcher's has always been something that worked for me to lose weight as long as I was working the program. Well, that's going to be the case for anything. Clearly, this would continue to work too as long as I was willing to continue to eliminate all these things from my diet every day. What the creators of the Whole30 suggest is that after the Whole30 you stay as compliant to the program as possible, with some mindful periods of "off-roading".  The problem with me is that isn't clear cut enough for me. When eating like this I didn't have to track or measure or anything, but when you start adding in "off program" foods here and there, how do you know when it's too much? I just can't do that. I can do something like Weight Watcher's and focus on whole foods most of the time, but since I'm counting points, I know how to add in the unhealthy things without going totally overboard.

So yesterday I officially signed up for Weight Watcher's online. I am going to give myself a few days off to just take a break. I'm (hopefully) not going to go totally crazy, but I will be indulging a little over the next few days....and I'm totally OK with that. We'll see what happens with the scale, but I'm not going to stress about it. This has helped jump start my weight loss journey (again) and I am motivated to keep going. I truly need this to be the last time I start this journey.

I plan to continue to blog through my journey. Thank you for all the support you gave me throughout these 30 days. Hopefully I can continue to get the much needed support from this blog so I can continue until I hit that goal weight and then continue on to maintenance!

Whole30 - DAY 30!!!!!

WE...we finished the Whole30!

Day 30 is here. A day I truly didn't think we would get to (really didn't think I would make it here around day 13)! During the past 30 days we took a challenge as a family to avoid all added sugars, gluten, legumes, dairy, alcohol, grains, white potatoes and other additives like MSG, carageenen, etc. We remained as close to 100% compliant as we could, but there were times that we just couldn't be 100% and that was OK.

Mary had 3 occasions where she was allowed to have ice cream. What's funny is all 3 of these days happened over the last week. Last Friday she had "discovery day" at school where they made ice cream; Sunday her volleyball coach took the entire team out for ice cream after their last game and then yesterday the ice cream truck came to her field day at school. I allowed her to have ice cream for all those occasions.

Robbie only indulged once and that was last Sunday when they got ice cream after Mary's volleyball game.

I did not indulge at ALL! I did not have one bite of the kids' ice cream last Sunday (which was impressive). There were times that I thought about having something forbidden when I was by myself since no one would need to know (I literally almost bought a donut this morning), but I always resisted.

Drew had one bite of an indulgence when he had a staff lunch and then meeting with dessert a few weeks back. But other than that, we stayed as close to program as possible for us.

Here is what our last day looked like:

Breakfast
The kids stuck with their sausage/scotch egg and apple slices and Drew had a scrambler. I actually skipped breakfast (bad, I know). I just didn't feel like eating and wasn't all that hungry.

Lunch
I stopped at Giant Eagle on my way home from running errands and got another salad. I also picked up some more fruit because we are getting quite low. Drew also had a salad from Giant Eagle.

I had taken a pic of my salad, but it looks the same as all
the other ones I've gotten. This was a much better picture.
My view during lunch today...my backyard.....

The kids had their normal packed lunches. They are awfully excited to buy a school lunch tomorrow! It's funny because Mary doesn't buy very often, but she's going to buy tomorrow! I'm happy because it means I don't have to pack their lunches!

Dinner
Another new recipe tonight was Eggplant Sliders. This was a pretty easy recipe and it was tasty. The kids even liked it and ate all of theirs.

Dinner happened outside as well! 

The Lowdown

I am going to do a whole separate post tomorrow to discuss the entire lowdown of the 30 days. I will give results for weight loss and measurements (exciting stuff) and will also discuss about what comes next. But for now, I am very proud of myself and my family for making it through 30 days of eating whole food. I am happy that we did this even though it wasn't easy. 

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post.....

Whole30 - Day 29

Day 29!!! WOO HOO!!!

So today was Mary's field day at school....and therefore the morning was pretty busy! I got up around 6:25 so I could get a quick shower in before volunteering at field day.

Breakfast
I then started my normal morning routine of getting Drew's breakfast made and lunch packed. He, of course, had a scrambler for breakfast. For lunch I packed the rest of the leftover rotisserie chicken with some guac and raw veggies.

The kids had their normal sausages or scotch eggs with apple slices. I was running around like crazy so I ended up just having a lara bar and an apple. I was hungry by like 9:45 at field day, but then it went away and I was fine until lunch (which was early around 11:30).

Lunch
I ate at school with Mary so I just packed some chicken salad and put it on top of some lettuce. Actually a pretty small lunch when I had such a small breakfast, but it was fine.

When I got home I made some bacon to put in Robbie's lunch for tomorrow so I had a couple of slices of that as well.

Dinner
And the craziness continued this afternoon because Mary had softball practice at 5:30 until 7 tonight. Like I said yesterday, that is the hardest time for me. But, I made dinner early and we ate around 5 and headed out to practice around 5:20. Dinner was a balsamic pork loin with roasted sweet potatoes (and a couple bacon wrapped sweet potatoes). I also put some unsweetened applesauce on the plate to dip the pork in. It was OK.

The Lowdown
What can I say?? It's day 29. It was a good day helping out at field day with my daughter. Tomorrow is day 30. The day I really wasn't sure if we would make it to....and we have. The kids were awesome. This is a huge undertaking for anyone, let alone kids and they did a fantastic job.

Whole30 - Day 28

Only 2 more of these posts!!! Let's keep it short and sweet, shall we?

Breakfast
No picture today. I had a doctor appointment this morning after the kids got on the bus so I ended up just having a lara bar for breakfast. The kids had their usual...sausage or scotch egg with apple slices. Drew had his usual of a scrambler.

Lunch
After my doc appointment I ran some errands and ended up at Chipotle with a friend for lunch. Yummy. I do, however, look forward to getting Chipotle one of these days with cheese, sour cream, corn salsa and chips and guac!

Drew packed his own lunch today and brought rotisserie chicken, guac and veggies. The kids had their normal lunches that they've been having the whole time. 

Dinner

I had roasted pork loin on the menu for dinner tonight and then ended up not making it. Robbie had baseball practice from 5:30-7 so I decided to just feed them leftover rotisserie chicken since they had to eat dinner at like 4:45. (side note- as much as I love my kids to be involved in sports the times for the practices drive me crazy. It's always right at dinner time. 4:45 is too damn early, but 7 is way too late. We end up doing dinner early and a snack after since that seems to work out the best)

Anyway, so dinner was quick and boring, but did the trick. After practice Robbie had an apple and raisins with almonds. Mary had an applesauce for her snack. Since I also ate (a very small) meal at 4:45, I think I'll have a snack tonight too....I just don't know what yet. 

The Lowdown

2 MORE DAYS!!!!!! We are going to make it! Stayed tuned after day 30 for a post about my thoughts of the entire process.