I have lost 15 lbs so far. Yay! And 5 inches around my stomach. And everywhere else ranges from 1/2 inch - 3 inches. No, I did not finish or start another whole30. HOWEVER, that being said, I'm really grateful I did my "half" whole30 because it has helped me develop a better relationship with food - thus aiding in my healthier lifestyle.
Before I started trying to eat better, I was exercising - 6 days a week - for the entire month of January and I didn't lose a single pound. Talk about frustrating. Then I did my whole14 in February and realized that I wasn't really eating "healthy". I thought we were. We didn't go out to eat much, and we never drank soda, but we did get pizza once a week and that was it. That's a lot better than other people, right? And we had veggies with every dinner (I included corn in that - it's not really a veggie). But that was usually the only time I had a vegetable during my day. My meals usually consisted of this: Pancakes, or 2 eggs with 2 pcs of toast for breakfast. Or sometimes waffles, french toast. Either way, carb dense breakfast. And for lunch I would have quesadillas, or a PB&J, or something easy, like leftovers, but......Carb dense. And then for dinner we would have something like Spaghetti and breadsticks with canned veggies, or sometimes steamed broccoli. But again, a carb dense meal, or sometimes even a fat dense meal because we used cheese a lot! Not spaghetti all the time, enchiladas, meatloaf, homemade pizza, etc. But carbs usually took up most of our plate.
So ya, I now know that eating that many carbs in a day are not good for me, because I don't burn off all the energy that is packed in those carbs, which means those extra carbs were being stored as fat. Long story short, I eat a TON more vegetables and fruit, only 2-3 servings of carbs a day, still drink a ton of water. I'm grateful that I've never been a soda drinker, or juice for that matter. I just love water. Always have. And I hardly ever eat dairy. I don't drink milk, and I don't cook dinners that have dairy in them anymore. We don't really eat pasta anymore. Although we have had it 3 times since February. My kids don't really care for pasta anyway, weird, right? Our dinners consist of broth based soups, or vegetable soups, we eat meat and vegetables and we throw rice in there every once and a while so the kids have something to fill up on. Jonas and Alexis eat more fruit and vegetables now, which is great. I still buy ramen noodles, corn dogs or chicken nuggets for them or crackers, yogurt, cheese sticks, etc. Not all at once, but every once and a while.
And I mainly do clean eating now. Oatmeal, or eggs with 1 pc of toast for breakfast. Or banana pancakes (they are pretty good). Wraps, salad (I ate it for 2 1/2 months straight, so I'm kind of sick of salad now) or 1/2 sandwich for lunch with veggies and fruit. And my snacks always have a vegetable or fruit in them now. It's small meals every few hours. It's taken me a several months to get my eating right, but I feel so much better and I'm consistently losing weight now. As long as I don't give into my downfall, or eat a ton of carbs or fat foods (like cheese, I used to eat a TON of it) - like going out to eat. And we don't get pizza once a week anymore. Maybe twice a month now. And I only eat 2 pieces. I can tell my stomach is shrinking. I used to be able to eat 4. I make homemade pizza a lot more now. I make it with wheat flour and we use turkey pepperoni (less fat) and I don't put very much cheese on mine.
What is my downfall? Sugar. I love it, I crave it almost every night after dinner. A lot of times I have to forget about it and distract myself, and a lot of times I give in and get a candybar from the store or whatever. I used to never be a sugar lover. I would prefer a bag of cheetos over sugar, but now I really think I'm addicted. I don't want to give it up completely because that would work for a time and then when I'd start eating it again, I'd gain it all back. So I'm trying to only eat it twice a week, in moderation. Trying. It's a work in progress.
And I still work out every day for an hour - except Sundays. Those are my rest days. I don't go to a gym, I don't have money or time for that, but I do at home workouts via youtube. I workout in the morning while my kids watch their morning cartoons. Well, Alexis just plays and makes a huge mess, or sometimes crawls in and out of my legs, but it's all good. I have 3 favorite youtube channels that are amazing for working out.
3) My third favorite is XHIT. Good, short workouts that get my heart pumping and build muscle. The "trainers" on it are fun to watch.
2) My second favorite is Fitness Blender. They aren't as entertaining to watch, kind of boring, because of no music, but I like them a little bit better than XHIT because they have a HUGE variety of workouts. Kickboxing to strength to cardio, etc. Tons of stuff and it's a really good workout. Heart pumping and sweating.
1) My all time favorite youtube channel is Blogilates. Cassey Ho is the fitness instructor and she does mainly pilates moves. So it doesn't require weights, or even shoes for that matter. Just your own weight and gravity and a yoga mat. And it kicks my trash every single time! I get sore muscles every week from doing her workouts. Plus she makes a calendar with what videos to do each day so you don't plateau, and it's hard! She has fat burning cardio videos as well that she incorporates into her calendar. But all her videos range anywhere from 5-20 minutes long. I've never done one longer than 20 minutes. She's super entertaining and cute and bubbly and has a fun attitude and personality. I'm kind of obsessed with her! Ha ha. So much that I bought her book, and I follow some of her meal plans for clean eating. I cannot say enough good things about her. She was also rated the #2 most influential social healthmaker. Who was the first? Jillean Michaels.
I always knew working out was important and I had a desire to lose weight, but I felt like I could never find what was right for me. I have finally found it. I hate doing the same workout every single day. It gets boring. And I hate doing the same workout video for longer than 20 minutes - that's why workout videos never worked for me. And riding my exercise bike everyday never worked for me. I have lots of workout videos that just sit on the shelf because they are too long! But give me a workout that is 5-10 min long, I can do 6 of them just fine! I never get bored.
My goal was to lose 30 pounds by the end of June. I might not be exactly 30, but if I do sugar in moderation, I think I could get close to it. And then I want to lose 30 more by the end of the year. We'll see.
Anyways, there you go. I'm not looking for a lose weight quick diet, but a healthy lifestyle. So I may not be losing 5 pounds a week, but I am losing at least 1-2 every week. Some weeks I gain because I eat sugar or whatever, so it takes another week to get back to where I was, but it's a work in progress. A healthy lifestyle. :)
I'll do a before and after once I get to a 30 pound weight loss, but for now (since I can't do a post without pictures) here is a pic of me with Alexis. :) And guess who took it? Jonas did! He asked the other day if he could take a picture, and I was going to say no, but then I thought, maybe he could do it. And he did. I help him, and teach him how to look through the viewfinder and how to frame the picture, etc. It's cute and he loves it. :) Maybe I'll get more pictures of me now.
GOOD FOR YOU!!! I always say to myself I need to eat better. I looooove working out. But I never eat good and that is why I don't see results. This is motivating!
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