Taking Back My Winter Pound!

For those of you who have been following my blog for awhile, you might remember in the fall when I finally caved and put on jeans and went to weigh in. I had to make the leap at some point, because I wasn't going to wear capri pants all winter long and I really don't feel like changing every time I weigh in. So, I bit the bullet, put on the jeans and weighed in, knowing that I would "lose" about a pound of weight loss, since the jeans weighed about 1 lb more than cotton capris. I continued to weigh in wearing jeans all winter long... until TODAY!

Today I took my pound back! I weighed in wearing cotton summer pants today (not capris, but they still weigh a lot less than jeans, I'm sure) and I think it couldn't have come at a better time. I ended up down 2 lbs for the week, putting me at 90 POUNDS even!!

I am now less than 10 lbs away from my original SlimGenics goal. I do plan to lose more (shooting for about 10-15 MORE than that original goal), but I am going to stick with this goal for now, since I have only 4 weeks left before they put me on Balance for my last 4 weeks in Minnesota. Once we get to Texas and get settled, I am going to go back to the weight loss phase until I hit my new goal and then I will do maintenance (though I assume I'll have to do Balance again first).

I'm counting on you guys to keep me accountable during that time. I know full well how easy it would be to NOT go back to the weight loss phase once we get down there, but I NEED to. I know I've come a long way, but I'm NOT done yet!

So, even though it may have taken a change of clothes to do it, I ended up with a 2 lb week!

Have a great weekend everyone and if you're in Minnesota, enjoy this rare, beautiful day in the 60's. We're smack dab in the middle of our moving garage sale and we're thankful to have at least one of three days give us a little sunshine!

Running Out of Time...

So, yeah. Running out of time. This is how I feel. I had the one great week during the plateau-breaker, but just hardly anything since then.

I'm getting a little frustrated because the counselors there can't seem to agree on what I should do. I'm trying very hard to follow their directives, but I feel like they change every time I'm there, making it very difficult.

I had one manager (who floats, but used to be my center's manager) tell me that when I had 15 lbs left to lose, they were going to switch me to Plan 1. But I hit that mark in the middle of the recent plateau-breaker and he was gone afterwards. They wanted me to go back on my normal Plan 2 after the breaker, so I did (last week) and only lost 1 lb.

So then last Wednesday a counselor told me to try the alternating removal of one fruit and one starch each day. I did that and was down 1 lb on Friday, giving me that whopping 1 lb loss on the week.

Then I went in on Monday and was UP .25 lbs. I did NOT expect it (I usually do) because I was down about .8 lbs over the weekend on my scale at home, so it really bummed me out. That day's counselor told me to STOP the alternating removal and that she instead wanted me to ADD a 3rd thermo-snack in and to also exchange my starches for a 4th snack 3x a week. I didn't do it on Monday or yesterday, so today I'll be doing it for the first time.

I weighed in today and I was down 1 lb since Monday, putting my loss so far for the week at .75 lbs. Today's counselor told me to instead remove the VHP meal replacements next week completely and see if that helped.

4 counselors; 4 different directives.

I really think I should just go on Plan 1. I know it's harder, but I only have 4 weeks left until I need to start Balance and I think it's safe to say I'm NOT going to lose 10 lbs in 4 weeks at the rate I've been going. No matter who I get when I go in on Friday, I think I'm going to just ask why in the world they're so hesitant to put me on that plan!?

Don't get me wrong; I'm happy that I'm still losing and I don't expect these pounds to come off as easy as they did in the beginning. However, I paid a lot of money for this plan and I am already not going to get my money's worth since I'm moving soon. I feel like they could at least get on the same page and be consistent in how to attack these last 10 lbs so I can get as close as possible to my goal before they put me on Balance for the last 4 weeks I'm here.

Ok, enough whining. Time to enjoy my chocolate VHP meal replacement for lunch. Have a great day everyone!

Post Plateau-Breaker Blues

It happens every time, without fail.

When I do a plateau-breaker, they tell me that you're not supposed to lose a lot DURING the plateau-breaker, but they're designed to get you going like gang-busters AFTER the breaker is over.

Not for me.

I lose like a rock star the week of, and then... nothing.

As I already posted, I lost 3.75 lbs last week - the week OF the breaker. Weighed in Monday and was UP .5 lbs. Now, they said this is fairly common because of water retention from all the increased sodium (I figured as much) from the unlimited skin-on, meat-on-the-bone protein allowed for the two days prior.

But today when I weighed in, I was only down that 1/2 lb, putting me right back to where I was on Saturday, meaning I've lost NOTHING so far this week. I did ACV 3 times on Saturday, cut the sodium back a bit on Sunday and did ACV again Monday and AGAIN last night.

So, we're trying something new. I am going to alternate removing one starch and one fruit every other day. So today, I'm removing a starch, tomorrow a fruit, then a starch, etc.

One of the counselors had told me that when I had 15 lbs to go, they were going to switch me to Plan 1, but I am at 12.5 lbs to go and they don't want to do that until nothing else works.

I'm open to seeing how this goes, since I would have to permanently remove one starch if I moved to Plan 1 and this way I only have to do it every other day.

I'm definitely running out of time to get to balance 4 weeks before we leave for Texas, so I will do whatever it takes to get to goal - I have 5 weeks (after this week) left to get to goal. I'm going to give it my best and keep praying that God will help get me there!

Blowing Right By Milestones...

SlimGenics definitely knows best, as my plateau-breaker has given me a rock star kind of week and I really haven't had one in a long time!!

3.75 lbs on the week, which blew me right past my 85 lb milestone and landed me at 87 lbs!!

This weekend I am doing a 2-day "fresh start" before going back on my normal plan on Monday, which means that I get to eat unlimited protein, including skin and meat on the bone!! Woohoo!

So for lunch today I enjoyed KFC's grilled chicken. Loaded with sodium, but soooooo good and so much better than a boneless, skinless chicken breast.

Admittedly, even though it's technically on-plan and should be 100% guilt-free, I still feel a small amount of guilt for the sheer amount of sodium it contained. I know that I'll be taking in more sodium than usual this weekend, especially with beef being unlimited, but I'm still afraid I'm going to pay for it when I weigh in on Monday.

Something tells me tomorrow will include a lot of Apple Cider Vinegar.

The best part about my weekend, though, has been the return of family who has been in Nevada for the winter since last fall. They hadn't seen me in about 50 lbs and it was really fun to see their reaction to how I look now compared to when they left.

Even makes up (a little bit) for the SNOW that was on the ground this morning.

Even if the weather outside is frightful, I'm still thanking God for all the blessings He continues to shower me and my family with (if a little snow in April is my biggest complaint, I'm doing pretty good!!) and for continuing to give me the strength to push forward on this journey. I know He's going to use me for something great and now I'm going to be ready for it - physically AND mentally!

Blogs That Are Not My Own #2

I'm starting off the week on a killer 7-Day Plateau Breaker, so some spiritual reminders couldn't come at a better time for me.

This is the other blog that I didn't write that I want to share with you. I received it as a daily devotional last week and the author is Lysa TerKeurst, author of the fabulous book "Made to Crave". I'll let the entry, Shocked by My Own Advice, speak for itself. I hope you enjoy it and take as much away from it as I did!

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate
and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and
many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow
the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
Matthew 7:13-14 (NIV)

The choice is mine. If I want to be a sold out somebody for God, I have to break away from the everybody crowd.

Today’s key verses are not easy for a girl who wanted nothing more growing up than to fit in. Don’t cause waves. Don’t stand out. Don’t stand up. Don’t rock the boat of norm in anyway. Just go with the flow in the same direction as everyone else.

But somewhere along my Christian journey, going with the flow started to bother me.

Verses like the one above in Matthew 7 and Romans 12:2, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,” started to mess with my status quo existence.

Conformed or transformed? The choice is mine. If I want to be a sold out somebody for God, I have to break away from the everybody crowd.

This is a message I shared with my son one day when he came to me scared. He admitted things had gone a little too far with his girlfriend and wanted help processing what to do. They hadn’t crossed every line but enough that he knew they were headed in a dangerous direction.

We sat on the back deck and processed the situation together. We read a list of empowering Scripture verses seeking to filter every part of this situation through God’s truth. In the end, he and his girlfriend came to the realization they needed to break up. It’s really hard to put things in reverse after certain lines have been crossed.

I walked back into the house after that conversation with two things running through my brain. I was thrilled my son came to me to talk about such a sensitive issue. What an honor to breathe Truth into his physical struggle.

But, I was also feeling a little panicked at the realities of parenting older teenagers. And that feeling led me straight to the pantry, convinced I needed some chocolate. I deserved some chips! As I loaded my arms full of treats, I was suddenly struck by a gut wrenching question. How can I expect my son to apply Truth to his area of physical struggle but refuse to apply it to my area of physical struggle?

Ouch. I was shocked by my own advice.

If I wanted to model what it looks like to live out truth in my physical struggles, I would have to break up with unhealthy choices. God made me to consume food, but food was never supposed to consume me.

Making healthy choices with my food would have to be part of my breaking away. I would have to distance myself from my distraction if I wanted to become truly transformed.

What’s your distraction? What’s the one way you can start to break away from the everybody crowd?

The everybody crowd says, “if it feels good it is good.” The everybody crowd says, “don’t deny yourself… that’s so old school.” The everybody crowd says, “everybody’s living it up – so should you.”

Conformed or transformed? The choice is ours. If we want to be a sold out somebody for God, we have to break away from the everybody crowd.

Dear Lord, I want and need to live apart from the everybody crowd. Free me of my distractions. Remove my insecurities. Help me to follow You with my whole heart. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Please visit Lysa's site with the links above; she has far more valuable resources and insight in this area than I do (she is a professional writer, after all )

She did a follow-up blog,  I'm More Than the Sum Total of my Taste Buds, that provides the list of verses she used with her son. This is just a sampling of the additional resources you will find at her site that can hopefully help along your weight loss journey, as it has helped with mine. I've found her to be invaluable, because she's been there!

Have a great week everyone and please pray for me that I hang in there with this plateau breaker. as this one is going to be a killer!

Blogs That Are Not My Own #1

...but so good that I have to share them with you!!

First a quick update on my week: I lost 2 lbs this week for a total of 83.25. I am happy to have a much better week than the week before (only .5 lbs), but SlimGenics is still having me start a 7-day plateau breaker on Monday to assist things and keep them moving. I'm guessing that I will be starting Plan 1 after the breaker, as I'm only  1.25 lbs away from when they said they were going to switch me. I only have 16.25 lbs to go before I reach my original goal, but as I've said, I'm seriously considering adding 10 more lbs to that goal. We shall see. Now, onto the first of 2 blog posts that I did not write, but feel speak to what I believe and feel very well!

The first is a blog post written by my fabulous husband that so eloquently speaks to the issue of gluttony in a way I could never elucidate myself. I do not believe simply linking to it does it justice, so I'm going to simply re-post it in its entirety below. Enjoy:

We entertained a nice couple last night. Two very good people who sought our counsel in regards to Angie’s recent weight loss. During the conversation, Angie illustrated her views on gluttony and while I was very well aware of them, and the sound, God honoring logic behind them, I don’t know that it had ever clicked so well in my mind as it did last night.

The early church identified seven deadly sins: Lust, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, Pride and… yes, Gluttony.

Gluttony, as defined by Merriam-Webster is excess in eating or drinking, greedy or excessive indulgence.

I think we can also expand that definition to encompass anything from cooking to video games to scrap booking or sports; anything that takes more of our time than is necessary and/or healthy. Overindulgence is to do anything to an excessive degree. Anything.

It’s pretty obvious God doesn’t want us overindulging, especially in light of passages such as:

James 5:5 You have lived on earth in luxury and self‑indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter.

By indulging in overeating we:

• Devote a significant portion of our attention to food. Attention that could be better spent in the Word, or doing His will.

• Devote a larger than necessary portion of our time and resources to food; time and resources better spent on Godly things.

• Harm our bodies, and decrease our body’s ability to perform as God designed it to. By harming our bodies, we drag down our spirit and emotional lives, for the spirit is anchored to the flesh, and if the flesh is already weak, how much weaker does it become when subjected to overindulgence?

• By dragging down our spirit and emotions, we become less effective for God, missing the opportunities to do things for Him at our full potential. God puts others in our path that we might shine His love on them, but how much are we shortchanging those people if we’re not at 100% because we overindulge in food?

• Our weakened body, mind and spirit become easy prey for those engaging in spiritual warfare. If God designed us to be spiritual prize fighters, yet we turn our bodies and spirits into those of couch potatoes, how easy is it for a fit enemy to defeat us?

Like everything sin related it’s a slippery slope that begins with baby missteps. No one wakes up one morning deciding to get physically, emotionally a spiritually unfit, instead we think, “It won’t hurt to grab some fast food for breakfast” Or “I’ve had a tough week, I deserve some comfort food” Or “We all have to eat, right?” or “one more chip won’t hurt anything…”

From there, it moves from “just this once” to “Well, I’ve done it before…” to “That’s what I do…” and pretty soon, our bodies, minds and souls are in worse shape than we care to admit or even realize. We’re soldiers in the army of the Lord trying to fight a war with broken down, poorly maintained equipment while telling ourselves we deserve this, selling ourselves on the notion that overindulging in food is a reward. A reward our society sells us daily. And we buy that sales pitch willingly.

I understand overindulgence more than most, I would guess. As a child, I was forced to endure hunger and often a lack of the creature comforts many of my peers took for granted. What this led to was a desire to escape my perception that my life was so much less than those around me by diving into a beer bottle. From there, I swam deeper into the waters of alcoholism and did so as if my ability to drink anyone I knew under the table was a badge of honor: Sure I didn’t have a nice car or awesome home life, but I could down a fifth of Vodka and still beat a sobriety test. Pretty soon, I didn’t drink for fun, or drink to blow off steam, I drank because it’s just what I did. I was a drinker; no longer a guy who drank, but a drinker… then a drunk.

After my awesome wife came into my life and I put that aside, I simply traded one overindulgence for another and turned into an eater; a full blown foodaholic.

From society’s point of view, I’d overcome this terrible vice of alcohol and straightened my life out.

From God’s point of view, I’d merely replaced one deadly sin with another.

Thankfully, I’ve overcome that too. Well, let me rephrase that, God has overcome that in my life. Without Him, nothing is done that has been done.

So, my question to you is: Are you moderating your indulgence? Or, are you worshipping at the altar of a false idol and rationalizing it as a reward for yourself, a deserved pleasure, as “just what you do,” “something I enjoy” another “where’s the harm in that” endeavor?

Maybe you spend too much time focused on food. Too much energy invested in a hobby. Too much time taken away from God and given to an indulgence that might be legal in man’s world, but by the very nature of your relationship with it, is illegal in the Kingdom.

If you don’t think this applies to you in any way, that’s awesome. You rock. But, before you decide it does, pray that God would show you whether your thinking on this matter is correct. If He shows you otherwise, turn it over to Him and watch as He transforms you into the son or daughter He had in mind when He knit you in your mother’s womb.

Philippians 3:20-21 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. 

He then added an additional piece of very relevant scripture that he received in a daily devotional email as a comment:

Romans 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

I hope you enjoyed my hubby's blog post as much as I did and I thank him for writing it. I am blessed beyond measure to have him as my husband. I love you baby.

Preparing for Plan 1

Well, I guess the good news is that I lost weight this week. The bad? I ALMOST didn't.

This was my slowest week of loss yet; I only lost . 5 lbs on the whole week!! But, it's better than gaining .5 lbs, right?

So in talking to SlimGenics yesterday, they decided that they are going to switch me to Plan 1 in another 3.25 lbs, so I'm on that plan for the final 15 lbs. I will get an additional snack each day, but 1 less starch and 2 less veggies!!

Now, let's just hope it doesn't take another month for those 3.25 lbs - it's really starting to fight back now (which is to be expected since I'm now attacking weight that has been there for 10 years) and I'm going to have to keep fighting.

I have a feeling these last 20 or so pounds are going to be harder to lose than the first 80 were, but I know it's going to be worth it, in the end!!