Day 5

Well I have done really well so far on this diet. The truth is I didn't give up all of my coffee. I am drinking 1 cup a day which for the record is a lot better than the half a pot I was drinking before. Today I woke up and all I could think about was bread. A hot piece of toast smothered in butter. Or fresh warm homemade bread. I think now it is going to be hard for the next few days. 12 more days on this cycle then I can add beans to my diet. I officially dislike dieting.


I weighed myself to see if there was any change and I am 163 which is what I decided my starting weight would be. Bummer I was hoping for a drop in weight to justify not eating bread. 12 days to lose hopefully 5 pounds.

Day 1

So I started the 17 day diet today. At the beginning of the year I wanted to lose 30 pounds and maybe fit into my wedding dress fit by my 10 year Anniversary. I though it would be a gift for him to know that I, after 10 years and two giant children I could still fit into the dress I wore when we became Man and Wife. Well in the last 5 months I have lost 10 pounds. An average of 2 pounds a month. I was losing motivation when a dear friend of mine called to tell me about her diet. She was so excited to start and would call or text me her results every few days. She has started the second cycle with a weight loss of 13 pounds on the 17 day diet. This is the first time I have ever used a "diet" before I just counted calories and exercised but before I was also breastfeeding and desperate to be out of maternity clothes. Breastfeeding helped me loss weight. My kids were hungry and I made all the milk they needed for the first year of their life.
Yesterday on the scale I weighed in at 163. Today for my day 1 weigh in 165. I do not think I have gained 2 pounds over night so I am going to start at 163. My goal is about 140 but if I get down to 145 and feel like I look good I will stop. 18-23 pounds is my goal. I don't think I will lose it all in the first 17 days but with in the 68 day cycle would be nice. No sugar, no alcohol, a lot of water, low carbs. Here is what I think will be hard for me. No bread, No red wine, No beer, No Pasta, No butter, eating so much chicken and fish with no butter.

I think it will be worth it. I hope to see results.

To Run or Not to Run

While I was at the market there was a stand for Team In Training for leukemia and lymphoma society. After Damian and I finished shopping mistaking the point as normal we went over to give a donation. Instead I got an invitation to train for a marathon. I enjoy running, and I always wanted to run in a marathon so do I train or do I wait. This is an open door. Honestly I am going to walk through it. I am going to a meeting and find what I need to do. I need to put myself first and do something that I can be proud of. This is an opportunity. . . 

Sustainable life

After my husband and I got married we were a couple of kids just playing house. Sadly I could make a couple of really good things, meatloaf, spaghetti sauce, cookies, vegetable lasagna and bread. As for the rest of our meals well lets just say we ate Hamburger helper and tuna casserole more than anyone ever should. As we have grown into a real family I have have found a true love of cooking  and even my company dishes ten years ago are rarely ever made. I have a library of cookbooks that are well used because to me there is nothing more satisfying then a good meal at the table with the people you love.

This is not a post about my love of cooking but of our belief in sustainable eating. We have given up fish due to the over fishing. There is no reason for us to eat Alaskan salmon when we live in central Texas, we no longer eat those cans of tuna. I love tuna fish sandwiches but the tuna are being over fished and really does every store in American need an aisle of canned Tuna? No. In fact it makes me sick. We are killing the ocean and if we don't stop the over fishing it will be the end of us. So I know it is a small stand of four people but we are doing our part. Really you should to. We have started buying all of our pork, beef, eggs from the farmers market. I need to find a farmer who sells chicken and I know of a couple but one is a CSA that $72 a month is a little high for us. I just want to be able to buy a couple of whole chickens a month for my family. I love the farmers that we buy our meat from and the others just don't have chicken ready yet. They are so proud of their meat and always remember me when I come to the market and asked how my meat turned out, how my family is doing and if we had a good visit. We are welcome to come to the farm to see the animals. I don't mind spending our money on good food and paying the proud farmers for their hard work.

We also have given up those awful boxed meals, most processed foods. I read all of the labels, so no High Fructose Corn syrup (I don't care what the commercials say it is a very chemical and unnatural process to turn corn into syrup), and I have a rule of thumb if I don't know what an ingredient is or I can't pronounce it we don't eat it. We eat pretty healthy and we are proud of what we are teaching our children about food.

We are not all the way to our goal of living a sustainable life we have a dream of a small farm where we raise all of the food we eat. So every house we live in we put in an edible garden. This house we have planted 6 fruit trees, with plans to plant three more, we have three kinds of grapes, three kinds of berry bushes, three pineapple guava bushes, two beds of asparagus. Theses are the things that the next owner will inherit from us. I hope they like fruit. Really in planning to feed our family and friends we are helping the earth find a balance even a small one in our backyard.

This is who we are, this is who I am and I am proud of the decisions we are making and look forward to the plans we have made coming true.

God is Good