This has been a really positive week for me. Things are gradually changing and I really think they are changing for good this time. Each change I make I try to listen to what my body is telling me and go with that. Just recently, as you know, I’ve been trying to eat more during the day and less in the evening.
I struggle to eat anything before 11am, a knock back from the insomnia when I was too tired to eat (and anyway I had eaten quite enough over night to keep me going thank you very much). In the past I would often eat my toast at 11 and skip lunch and be starving by 3pm when I would begin my quest to feed the 5000. Actually it was just me, but I do remember eating a lot from early afternoon onwards. It was not always unhealthy food. I actually really enjoy healthy food and absolutely always eat far more than my five a day (love, love, love my veggies!). It’s just I was really hungry until I fell into bed at 3am.
This past week I have done my best to eat most of my food before 4pm. I still can’t eat in the morning before 11ish, but with only a smoothie or a slice toast I am able to fit in lunch. Lunch is now our biggest meal of the day and tends to be the most calorific (not that I count any). Because it is not that long since I have eaten (only an hour since breakfast), my portion sizes are smaller. We then have a tea with sandwiches once Gary gets home at 3pm, before heading off to the leisure centre. At this point I don’t seem to feel hungry. I am still munching away on our evening cup of tea and snack with Gary in front of Castle dvd, but every night this week I have thought how unnecessary the snack was to me. I wonder now how much is habit rather than need?
This is really just a (very) long-winded way of saying my body loves eating before 4pm and overall in a 24 hour period seems to need less than before. Another rather positive side effect is that it has also stopped the incessant nagging from the children that they are starving. Eating more food earlier on suits them too.
In the coming weeks I will be focusing not on how much weight I lose but how much health I gain. If I can make this a journey about making lifestyle changes rather than trying out the newest or latest fad diet, I might have a chance of some weight coming off and staying off. That said, I am pleased to say I have lost another 1Ib this bringing my total weight-loss to 18Ib. Can I hear a yipidee dipidee? I would say this is still down to moving more rather than eating less. I have walked the 45 minutes home from the gym most days. Next week Gary is taking me into the gym on our date night (I’ve not had the courage to go in by myself yet) and after that we have booked a court for an hour of badminton. It is such a healthy date night I feel all virtuous!! I have also booked myself onto a yoga course and I am debating a bit of Pilates and maybe even a swim. We’ll see, but the more I move this body, the more I want to move it!
I’ve also been putting some of my new knowledge to work and trying out various things. I’m incredibly bad at following recipes and the like, so will often play around with ingredients until I find what I’m looking for. I find this process much more satisfying than following the results of someone else’s playing about time!
This week I was intent on buying, preparing and freezing small freezer bags full of fresh fruit. My goal was to exchange the toast and Marmite breakfast with ice-cold smoothies:
I managed to fill ten bags with two large ladle-fuls to each bag. I will freeze them and add them to apple juice each morning before whizzing them up for smoothie heaven! I have plans to play about with freezing home-made yogurt in cubes and adding them to bags of fruit and chopped bananas for the children to help themselves to each day for a snack (they will add them to milk and blend). I was gratified to see how little space they take up in the freezer and next week will buy more fruit to make enough to last two weeks.
I have also been playing about with a granola recipe. The addition of the juice to the smoothie above gave me the idea to soak some just rolled oats in pine-apple juice. In the end I mixed together pineapple juice, small amount of oil and the last dregs of the honey and poured the fluid over the oats. After mixing thoroughly I spread them over a baking sheet and popped them in a hot oven:
I then mixed half a bag of mixed seeds with half a bag of sultanas and half a bag of dried apricots (which I chopped up):
I added the fruit and seed mix to the oats:
And put them in a hot oven. Once they had started to brown I turned off the oven and allowed them to dry out completely in the residual heat of the oven:
They are seriously good and made only from natural and healthy ingredients. I left them to cool and stored them in an airtight container. I made these for the children’s breakfast for them to eat a small amount of before going swimming each morning.
Thanks for all your encouragement last week. I love to read about your tips, successes and very much enjoy the cheering on!! I want to point you to a couple of other posts:-
1) Phyllis wrote another excellent post on why she won’t be a trim and healthy momma. A blogging friends emailed me recently concerning this book saying how well it had worked for her. I’ve never heard of it before, but Phyllis gives a very clear and helpful explanation of why it is not for her. Many helpful posts can be found at her blog On the Mend, where she documents everything she is learning about a cancer fighting diet. It’s very good stuff!
2) Audria posted about her week here and is going to be trying out a recipe for fish tacos this week. I’m kind of hoping she will post it because I love fish (Hint, hint Audria!).
How has everyone else done this week? Any of you care to show a before and after photo to inspire the rest of us? Any non bloggers want to share a recipe or write a guest post for me about a health related topic? I’d love for you all to get as involved as you want to. We are going to do this, I just know it!
If there is any way I can pray for you please do leave a message or shoot me off an email at the address above (right hand corner of blog). Thanks so much for joining in and for all your enthusiasm. I’ve also added a few more pins to my pinterest inspiration board which you might enjoy having a peek at!
You encourage and inspire me every week. Thank you for taking the time to write such heartfelt posts. There is always something I take away from them that I can use. Thank you too, for the very nice mention.
It’s my pleasure. It makes a big difference to have someone else writing posts also, and I am learning a lot from yours!
Those photos of the fresh fruit just make me want to devour all of it! Doesn’t fruit just look so much better than chips?
Well done on your progress. You inspire me each week too. I lost 1 pound also, so yes you will be hearing a yipideedipidee from me!!!
Yay! Well done Francis!
I have a new post up…http://bergblog-onthemend.blogspot.com/2014/08/wibbly-wobbly-weight-loss-what-i-have.html
Thank you Phyllis. I’m popping over now to have a read.
I’ve started going to the gym this week! I want to get stronger and tone up a bit, so I’m aiming to go twice a week to do some cardio and some weights. I try not to look at the men who are lifting more than my bodyweight – it’s not a competition, except against myself…
Ha! At least they can lift your body weight – they wouldn’t be able to lift mine!
The recipe is up. I’m going to try your smoothie recipe this week. Your granola looks amazing!!! Even though I had a rough week I kept all of you in my prayers and thought of you often.
http://storyland4.wordpress.com/2014/08/09/wibbly-wobbly-weightloss-another-blah-week/
Sorry you had a rough week. I hope this week is better. I’m popping over to read your post now.
Yipidee dipidee indeed! You’re doing great, and I love the ideas for smoothies and healthy snacks. I switched to grabbing fresh fruit instead of candy this week and dropped three pounds!!! Mind you, after the candy jar was refilled, I picked 2 pounds back up, but that’s still one pound gone – and needless to say, I learned my lesson and by-passed the candy aisle while shopping for this next week. It’s berries, bananas, and apples for sweet cravings, and we’ll see what the scale says at the end of week.
Well Done Leah, it’s good to have you back. I hope you enjoyed your road trip? I can’t believ just cutting out candy helped you lose 3Ib! That’s amazing. Maybe if I gave up my evening snack with Gary I would lose a bit more. I’m unwilling at the moment! Maybe when the weightloss due to exercise halts….
Smoothies are so yummy. I know for me a lot of snacking is a habit, there’s certain things I associate with food, and so I snack while I do them.
I spent the week sick or caring for a sick husband or cleaning, so not much progress in this house.
Me too Ticia, especially the evening snack with Gary whilst watching a lovely dvd! Sigh, happy days!
I’m pleased you had a good week, Claire. I really didn’t…and I shall leave it at that! Praying for a good week ahead for both of us
I’m sorry you didn’t have a good week. I’ll also be praying for you!
Hi Claire, I just wanted to pop in and let you know a few things about Trim Healthy Mama, since I’m the one that mentioned it to you. I read Phyllis’ article, and I don’t agree with her analysis. The book mentions Truvia, but you don’t HAVE to use Truvia, first of all. The book was written by two sisters – one is a purist and one is not. They offer alternatives for both food styles. I am a purist, so I lean towards organic, non-gmo or natural choices. When I started the program I was advised to buy Now Foods Organic Better Stevia. It is pure stevia extract and all natural. I did end up buying Truvia because I found it on sale at Costco, but THM now sells a Sweet Blend similar to Truvia that is all natural, organic, and non-gmo, and pure stevia. This is just a small part of the plan – the idea is to keep your blood sugar low so that you don’t release insulin (insulin is what is responsible for storing fat). So, it uses natural sweeteners like stevia and xylitol.
Secondly, I eat plenty of carbs on the THM plan. I just replaced all the whites with browns (sweet potato for white potato, whole grain sprouted bread for white bread, brown rice and quinoa for white rice). I eat plenty of veggies – starchy and non-starchy, I just changed HOW I eat them.
For example, for breakfast, I have a cup of herbal coffee with a donk of stevia extract, and if I am having an S meal, I also add a tsp of Kerrygold (grassfed butter) and a tsp of coconut oil to get my healthy oils in me. Then I have an S (for satisfying breakfast). For me, that could be a veggie omelet with cheese, cooked in butter, with chicken sausage. I walk away feeling great… and satisfied. For lunch, I may have a turkey BLT on sprouted toasted whole grain bread – lots of lettuce, tomato, turkey bacon, but instead of lathering on mayonnaise (a fat), I use low fat cottage cheese, and with maybe a layer of cucumber for added yumminess. This is an E for Energizing, since it is a carb meal. For dinner, I may have baked fish with lemon and butter with asparagus cooked in butter, and I am FULL and satisfied! AND I’m eating plenty of calories. I probably eat more than I used to, since I’m eating more healthy fats now (which is important for hormone balance and to nourish from within).
In between I eat 3 more meals – so I’m eating 6 meals a day. But I eat them 3 hours apart and I keep S and E meals separate. WHY? The science is so simple – fats and carbs are duel fuels. Your body will always burn glucose first and store the fat, if it is not being used by the muscles. Eating this often keeps my metabolism going too, and I am training my body to burn fat, but also giving it the glucose it needs (but without the fat). The book offers tips too, on how to keep your blood sugar down – like eat a protein with a carb so it slows down the blood sugar spike. Also, it is important to eat both types of meals (and their cousins) to lose. You HAVE to eat carbs to lose on this plan.
Did you know that your body burning fat for energy (similar to a ketogenic diet) is actually good for cancer? Glucose feeds cancer cells. Your body WILL convert fat to what it needs. Too much of any good thing is a bad thing, so of course you need glucose, but eat it so that your body BURNS it!
I’ve lost 25-30 pounds, just being active as a momma and eating healthier with THM. I don’t consider it a fad or trend diet at all – it is a lifestyle. I will never go back to eating sugar ladened processed junk food – I can’t even eat it anymore! My body rejects it and I feel terrible if I “cheat” and go off plan. I feel amazingly better eating the THM way.
THM does offer a lot of baked desserts – I like some of them, but not the majority of them. These are for those who miss muffins and cakes. I did very much in the beginning and made Mini Chocolate Cakes for Purist and ate them for breakfast with 0% greek yogurt sweetened with stevia and berries and whipped cream (yum), but I don’t need them as often now.
Oh, and their sippers are amazing! They are super good for you and help keep you satisfied throughout the day.
Just wanted to offer another perspective. I’d hate for you to miss out because of one person’s opinion (who didn’t get the main point, so maybe didn’t read the whole book?).
Blessings on your journey! 🙂