One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

When my cat, George, passed away, I admit I sunk into a bit of a funk. I quit eating well. I skipped my vitamins. I quit caring. Or, at least for a little bit. really haven't worked out at all since last August, when it was more of an intense desire to keep myself busy instead of potentially crying over my dog. There's no excuse. Injuries shouldn't have stopped me completely for so long. So, I decided to do something about it. It helps that on my husband's 35th birthday, Bad Pants also decided that he, too, needed to get into shape. Because while round is a shape, it's not the shape either of us want to be in for our 40th.

We bought a scale. Guess what? The Wii board has been lying to me, by about 12 lbs. I knew I'd gained some weight back since we moved to Georgia, but I had no idea how much. Our new scale is calibrated and accurate to within one tenth of a pound. And, when I weighed myself, I was in for a huge shock. I'd gained back all the weight I'd lost when I lived on the farm in Oregon. More, I was within 1.8 lbs of my all time high, which is about 4 months before any of you met me online, before my venture into Wordpress blogland.

I am horrified

I can't even punctuate that sentence I am so shocked and upset with myself. But, no matter. I am back on the wagon.

Our first step was to re-evaluate how we eat and switch it up again. Finally, after 3 years of effort, I have my husband on the same page with me. We are "eating clean", meaning if God didn't make it, we won't eat it. No store bought processed foods allowed. We even took it an additional step and are following Michi's Ladder from the Beach Body website.

Yes, we joined the Beach Body party. We have started Power 90, although, I know my body won't be bikini ready in 90 days. We are hoping to move to P90X once we're done with this one. But, that's beside the point. I digress...

For almost a week now, we just changed our eating habits. We followed the tiers on Michi's Ladder and decided to start off by eating only from the first three tiers. As we adjust, we'll move to just Tiers One and Two, the Pious and Happy tiers. For us, this isn't a "diet", but a lifestyle change.

It works like this:

Find what you normally eat on the ladder and then substitute something similar on the tier above. A near perfect diet would only consist of foods on Tiers One and Two. There are no calorie restrictions, unless you impose them on yourself. You just simply clean up your eating habits and replace what you used to eat with more nutritious foods. That simple.

While it's not always easy, I do have to say that in almost a week, I've already lost a whole pound. Without exercise.

Now, we're eating from Tiers One, Two and Three, because I can't justify throwing out the rest of the Tillamook cheese Bad Pants brought back from Portland and that AKPonyGirl sent me from Alaska. I just can't do it. And, well, a little extra fat in my diet from the cheese might just help me avoid diet rage since I am counting calories a bit. Quite frankly, Tillamook cheese makes me happy and I'm not going to completely deprive myself. Instead, I will measure my servings so I'm not going overboard.

I started Power 90 today too, modifying it for my ankle so I'd have no real impact. And, I plan on continuing this trend, modifying as needed until my foot fully heals for the next 90 days.

Bad Pants and I took our "before" photos today. No, I won't share them because I have a long, long way to go. I am more than a bit embarrassed and ashamed that I'm back at my starting point for weight loss all over again. Let's just say I won't be riding Casey for a while yet because I don't think I should put him under that kind of strain, knowing my balance is poor as well. No horse did anything to deserve lugging my lard butt around.

Hopefully, I'll have a different opinion at the end of 90 days. I'd like to be ready to move to just eating from Tiers One and Two by then, if not before. And with luck, I'll not be suffering two steps back again for this step forward. I am under no delusion that I'll have a "beach body" in 90 days. It will probably take a lot longer than that.

But, I started today. I took that first step forward.

Well, Hello Again.

I've been pondering this post for a while, I totally dropped off the posting wagon. I could blame a million different things but I think it all boiled down to motivation and my distinct lack of it.

I fell into a bit of a depression and picked up some bad habits. But, now that I have moved I am happy to report I am picking up some new ones!

Take-out became my friend during the latter part of my stay in Oregon. Not cool. My stress levels were up and motivation to craft meals was WAY down.

Two different health issues (one for me, one for the fiance) snapped me out of it. Now, I am working towards less take-out and more home cooked meals. I am also eating salads at dinner. Those who know me personally know this is a MASSIVE step. I absolutely despised salads for YEARS... just the thought of biting into lettuce made dry heave (gross but true!).

Then came the realization that my fatty/carb heavy diet wasn't doing me any favors, I needed something lighter and better for me as a side for my dinner proteins. I gave it more more shot, promised myself to eat salad for one week religiously just to see what would happen.

You know what?

I like it! I don't slather it with dressing or bury it in croutons and bacon bits. A light topping of low fat salad dressing, a few croutons and a sprinkling of low fat cheese and I've got myself a great dinner. Who'd have ever thought??

I've also joined Curves. I wasn't sure about it at first, but it turns out I like it! The workout is simple, yet effective. They say thirty minutes there equates to an hour and a half at a regualr gym. Pretty good deal! Everyone is super supportive. Tomorrow I go back for my second workout, can't wait!

Just Do It

I want to share a short article and a video attached to the article. It's time we Americans wake up and look at what's in our food.

Please go here. Your health is worth the time and knowledge. Please watch the video too. It's long, but worth it.