In Review and Looking Forward

Looking back:

This year we went off and on dieting numerous times, trying both calorie counting and carb restriction/paleo/primal. Both actually worked pretty well until we decided to throw everything out the window and eat lots of sugar and junk food.

We also had a love/avoid relationship with entertainment. Video games and watching tv shows were either our obsession or we cancelled and avoided them completely. Right now we're in the "avoiding them" stage, and it needs to stay that way until further notice.

We made a spur of the moment trip to Disney for almost a week, and this is one financial decision I will never regret. We had a wonderful time, made lots of memories, and enjoyed the time together.

We're also still learning to budget out money and avoid too many spur of the moment decisions. We made a few, and haven't saved as much as we could have. Also, we're now paying of a vehicle.

I got a job this year starting in February. This job has been one of the most challenging and growing experiences of my life. Alex also got a second job working as a youth pastor at a local church. We are both enjoying the experience and trusting God to guide us.


Looking forward:

Overarching goal is to grow closer in our relationship with God and with each other. This influences everything else that we do. Or at least it should.

We want to eat as healthy as possibly as consistently as possible, and as cheaply as possibly. Therefore I am not going to completely cut out any food group, even as unhealthy as it may be. I'm going to meal plan at least one week in advance, post the meal plan, and stick to it. We're getting cash out ahead of time for all our groceries and spending.We're starting a partial cash only plan to help us stick to the plan. We're going to commit our time to reading books, studying God's word together, and finding other productive ways to spend time. I'm going to work until we believe God is telling us otherwise. We're not sure what that looks like yet.

Happy New Year!

Let the memories begin...

that's what signs say when you first enter Disney....what a fun time! We were gone Tuesday, and got back around noon today. Now we're relaxin' the rest of the weekend so that we will be ready for work again on Monday!

Food and Feeling

Since I'm sick, I've given myself permission to chill on the couch until time to brush my teeth and go to sleep. A cup of hot tea may be calling my name....be right back!

After putting my water in microwave, blowing my nose, washing my hands, kissing my husband, and then stirring my tea, I am now on skype to talk to my mom. I was a great conversation, and I was sad that it had to end abruptly. I'm just not feeling so great.

Anyways....to blog:

Up until my "low carb/paleo" phase, I was pretty much following the "what would 'so-and-so' eat" plan for eating. See, I made the mistake of thinking "Well she's really skinny, so I should eat the way she eats and then I'll be skinny." This is how a lot of diet plans are sold to the general public: pictures of skinny and or built people, and the before and after pictures.

Anyways, I have a couple of friends....really a lot of the girls with whom I became close friend, who all were very slim. I decided to watch religiously what they ate...or did not eat. They ate things like ice cream, cheese, pizza, cookies, breads, cake, and so on. Also, in general, they did not excercise, or at least not like I did. I was a runner for years and years....some of my earliest memories are running to a doughnut shop a couple of miles away from my house...and then sometimes running back.

Back to what would my skinny friends eat. The thing was, most of them didn't eat a lot. Or they were the "eat when I'm hungry" kind of people. Or (as I found out later) they are the "I was sick and lost weight because anything I ate made me feel more sick" kind of people

Which, btw, left me thinking that I could only take two or three bites of something before being done with a meal.

You can see why these plans didn't work quite as well for me. Not that I had a ridiculous weight issue, I just had the wrong mindset.

So then entered Alex, our upcoming wedding, and the idea of low-carb. I only wish I had read the book before deciding to limit myself to 75 carbs a day in order to fit back into my wedding dress.

I did fit into my wedding dress, but I quit the low carb plan some weeks before the weedding. I exercised like crazy the week before we got married.

Enter into the on and off again Primal way of eating. I will tell you that it works: I was the smallest I've been since I was 15 (?), but as soon as we decided that we wanted to eat ice  cream and cookies again, anything we lost was gained right back. I slowly moved towards more moderation-mostly because I wanted to wear my clothes.

So we're back on the "eating healthy on a budget" diet. Hot dogs are included, but this week I did buy some healthy chicken thighs...and then fried them with whole wheat flour and veggie oil. Fun stuff. Sure was yummy.

I'm realizing, again, that I can't keep comparing what I eat to what others eat-whether that's my friends, my husband, my coworkers, or the person online or on TV. Just because  cop on TV is super skinny doesn't mean she's really a cop, nor  does it mean she really eats all that food on the show.

So here's to a healthier life. One filled with fruits veggies, and happiness.

how to be a sugar junkie

How to of the day:

Bake brownies
Add chocolate chips and peanut butter before baking.
Eat them every night after dinner-at least two...maybe more if they start calling your name specifically.
Have only two people in the house.
Offer to share them.
But then eat them when the others aren't able to eat them too.
Eat them when feeling sad, frustrated, happy, busy, stressed, annoyed, excited, confused, sleepy, energetic, etc.
Especially when you feel disappointed by failed sourdough bread.
Avoid any small signs of being sick, such as sniffing, coughing, or a general queasy feeling.
Also forget how much better you felt when you didn't eat any grains and very little sugar....or at least forget about only having one piece at a time.
Oh, and it might help to decide to eat better tomorrow....or plan a new health idea for another day...but definitely justify the sugar binge by saying that you might as well enjoy it while it's there. Justification at it's....daily grind.


Today I accomplished this "how to" to perfection.

Oh, and tomorrow, I'm totally making up for it by eating a whole wheat pancake....C'mon....WHOLE WHEAT!

A wedding

Today we enjoyed going to Mason and Paige's wedding. Very cute!

Because it seems to be all I think about.

valleyviewsd.org

More food thoughts. We eat pretty much the same thing for breakfast and lunch every day. Breakfast is coffee with a tsp of sugar. Eggs, bacon, sausage, fruit. Water.

Lunch is some leftover meat and either caned peas or green beans. Sometimes an apple or another piece of fruit.

Dinner this week has been whatever we feel like. Today we had pork chops, raw broccoli w/ranch, cooked red and green peppers, leftover Mexican from our special date night, half a banana and peanut butter, and some chocolate chip cookies.

And at this moment, I don't feel sick. When we ate whatever and didn't focus on being healthy, I did start feeling sick from eating junk all the time. However, when we always ate healthy, sometimes I felt like I didn't get enough food, and I would wake up the next morning very hungry. Not a huge deal, but it's nice to feel satisfied. And right now, I feel like what we're doing works. We eat pretty healthy for breakfast and lunch, and then enjoy a dinner of some sorts of indulgences. It helps us to wait and eat junk at one particular time.

Eat Fresh at Wendy's

So tonight I told Alex I was craving a burger...and he suggested we bake something together...so we got baconators from Wendy's and we're making chocolate chip cookies when we get back from church tonight.

I ate healthy all day today.....until dinner....promise...