Jenn's Losing It

On December 17, I began my Body Revolution journey. It took me 5 weeks to complete Phase 1 because I decided to repeat a week that I slacked off on. I'd say I'm pleased so far. I've lost 14 inches overall and I'm down .4 pounds. I'm thrilled over the inches, but wish the pounds were more. I know my eating was completely off. I fooled myself into thinking I was eating right, not tracking my foods. When I began Phase 2 on Thursday I committed myself into tracking every bite, lick and taste no matter what they add up to. In the past of be good for eating a snickers, not counting it for some random reasoning like I was on the road with the kids or because I was stressed. Travel and stress points count too. I'll never be satisfied on the scale if I'm not true to myself.  I'm excited to start Phase 2 (even though my body is screaming no you're not after the first workout yesterday).  Here's my measurement chart so far, I've decided to do my measure...

So as many of you know, I battle Hashimoto Thyroiditis (aka hypothyroidism).  Briefly - Hashimotos disease is a condition in which your immune system attacks your thyroid.  The resulting inflammation from Hashimotos often leads to an under active thyroid gland.  I've been taking medication to support my thyroid for over two years and I...of course...blame all of my weight issues on Hahimotos. Most recently I received a diagnosis of Birdshot Retinochoroidopathy (BSRC) - which is an uncommon, bilateral inflammatory disease affecting the choroid layer of the eye (between the outer sclaera and the inner retina).  It belongs to the group of disorders known as the idiopathic multifunctional white dot syndromes.  It was first really discovered in 1949 and variously called "candle wax spot retinochoroidopathy " and "rice grain retinochoroidopathy", which gives you an idea of what is seen on examining these patients.  It only gained formal recognition as...

Things are still going well on the no carb front for me. I can't say the same about sugar. I am still craving it in the worst way. I stopped taking Gymena(to help curb the sugar cravings) daily when the cleanse began, I think I need to add that back in and see if that helps. I also felt kinda bloated and crappy after dinner. I was eating cheese for the first time in 9 days. I LOVE cheese, but it seems that cheese no longer loves me. Which is a great thing to know. I probably never noticed before because I was bloated from all the bread I was eating.  Smoothies have continued to be my staple. Here's day eight and nine for food- Breakfast-smoothie & 2 eggs, Lunch- Smoothie, Dinner-spaghetti squash with meat sauce-loaded with portobello mushrooms, tomato and onions Breakfast-smoothie and eggs, Lunch-Smoothie, Dinner- cauliflower pizza with spinach and goat cheese

Was I expecting insane results...yes. Did I cheat....yes. Did I get in what I put out...yes. So all in all I'm satisfied with my results. My belly is getting flatter, feeling less bloated. I admit to cheating with sweets a few times. Apparently their hold on my is tighter then bread and pasta. I haven't had any of those in a week. I will continue to do my best in this next week, adding in some exercise. I haven't done any in well over a week. I used the cleanse as a crutch as to why I couldn't exert myself. Lame I know.  So off to the next week, I hope you continue to follow my progress.  Here's a week one picture side by side.  I weighed in this morning at 205.4, a 3.8lb loss for the week. 

Day seven, last day of the cleanse capsules. I can't say I will miss taking all those capsules. Today was one of the easier days for me. I worked out in the yard, my personal slice of paradise as I like to call it and it distracted both me and the kids from becoming irritated at one another. Which then of course leads me to do the right thing when it comes to food.  Here's a look at today's food- Breakfast-Smoothie, Lunch-salad with a turkey dog, Dinner-beef & mushroom kabobs with quinoa

Days 5 & 6 are done and you'd think by now I'd have the food rules down pat. I don't. Day six was nothing short of embarrassing. I started out fantastic. Then life got in the way.  In the early afternoon I found myself super agitated at just about everything. The kids were misbehaving, the house was a mess and I had a million and one things to do. I quickly found myself back in my old habits. I had poptarts. I felt like I blew the whole plan. I'm embarrassed to even write it out. I stress eat. Even with trying as hard as I can to clean eat I can't stop myself. My body rejected the sugars and crap snack within a short time. I definitely paid for my poor choice. I'm also not sure that it will deter me from doing it again.  With all that said I will celebrate my victory against eating all the party foods tonight. I went to a wine tasting and there were no "approved" foods there for me. I politely declined. I had a few sips of wine for the tasting, but...

Day four down. Feeling a little better about things today. Keeping lean proteins in has been helping me feel full longer. I snuck a bite of cheese today. I'm not sure if that what was gave me the massive stomach ache, but I won't be sneaking cheese again for a while. Apparently I am a do it and learn the hard way kind of girl. 😁  Here's what was on the menu -

Saying that today wasn't a challenge would be a lie. I started the day off great, then around 2pm I found myself caving to one of my weaknesses...frosted animal crackers. I bought them for the kids, knowing full well I would have a hard time resisting. So after I indulged I felt like crap, my stomach bloated and of course I confessed to my group that I'm cleansing with. They were all so supportive. It was a great feeling. I'm hoping these cravings subside even a little.  Here's what made my menu today - minus those tempting crackers! Egg whites, smoothie and water for breakfast Spaghetti squash with marina sauce-loaded with diced tomatoes and onions for lunch Steamed cod with California melody veggies for dinner with a smoothie

Today was less stressful around the house so that helped me not want to snack on things I shouldn't. No headaches today, however my energy was on the lower side. I got tired out quickly. I also ended up adding a protein at dinner time since I was feeling so lethargic.  Here were some of the things I ate today, along with 2 SP smoothies.  Half of an acorn squash baked with butter and paprika Lentil soup Hamburger with A1 sauce and whipped carrots and parsnips  

Well. I somewhat survived day one of my cleanse.  I am a wicked carb addict, so I instantly craved them. So badly at times that I could have sworn I could taste the snack I was imagining. Sad I know. The smoothies were good, they helped me feel like I was getting a treat.  Dinner time was the toughest. I made spaghetti squash for myself and regular pasta for my family. I snuck a strand and felt bad after. 😁 I couldn't tell if the sudden summer weather we're having or the cleanse had me extra irritable, but I also had my oldest son home from school yesterday with a sprained ankle.  I'm hoping that day two will go smoother. Here's pictures of lunch and dinner- Portobello Mushroom pan fried in organic butter with romaine lettuce & organic balsamic vinegar dressing   Spaghetti Squash with marinara sauce with diced tomatoes and onions  

Tomorrow I begin my very first cleanse. I have chose to do the 21day Standard Process cleanse, upon recommendation from a trusted friend and attending a seminar about the company, Standard Process. I am a little nervous and a little excited all at the same time. I am not what you would call a vegetable fan. I just recently, within the last year, started introducing them into my daily diet. I chose to do this cleanse for the most basic of reasons, to force a reboot of my metabolism, my body, my mind and my diet. Carbohydrates have always been my weakness. My hopes are that with doing this cleanse, I will learn to eat healthier and have a clearer mind and also feel more grounded.  This time of year is one of the best times of the year to do a full 21 day cleanse.  It's spring, when all things are growing, seeds are being planted, everything becomes renewed. What an amazing feeling it will be to do this for myself. Renew and energize myself for the summer. I'll be posting daily o...

Water. I know I don't drink enough of it. So I figured this would be the best monthly challenge to get back in the groove of things. For the next 31 days the challenge is simple. Drink water ~ eight ounces, eight glasses per day.  Comment or share this post if you're in on the challenge. It's summertime here in Connecticut and the weathers been hot, so drinking water should be no problem!

Well. Week one. Always the hardest when you're making a change. Especially when you're a foodie like myself and when I say foodie, I mean junk foodie. Guilty. I've been drinking more water, moving more and watching my portion sizes. Tough to do when you've been on a food free-for-all for the last month.  So after making just the one small change of being accountable for what I eat and sharing it with all of you, I lost 3.2lbs this week. I'm very excited and having such a great first week definitely gives me the motivation to keep going.  I started a WW Active Link Challenge this week as well. This way I can get a clear picture of what my current activity level is and how to add more activity in. I can't even wrap my head around fitting time in for exercise right now, BUT, if I want to be successful I will need to find time. Today also marks the beginning of a new month and I'll be starting a new challenge for the blog as well. I'm doing a 31 Day ...

iStock/Thinkstock You may have read in the past that eating mini meals throughout the day is a smart way to  lose weight . The thinking there is that by grazing every couple hours, you never get to that point where you're starving—meaning you're less likely to wolf down way too many calories in one sitting. But a new multi-university study, published in journal  Appetite  this month, claims that  all of the research thus far on eating small meals throughout the day is inconclusive —and as a result, mini meals should not be touted as a smart weight-loss strategy at this point. So how'd the researchers come to this conclusion? They analyzed all of the previous studies done about meal frequency and found that the majority of them used self-reported data—which, in the dieting world, is considered pretty unreliable. So we asked Keri Gans, R.D., author of The Small Change Diet , for her take on the results. "Most people don't understand what a small meal is—so the people...

I figured its a new season and I'm about to start down a new weight loss path, so why not change up how Lily Boxing looks! So I spent some time today freshening up the blog page style and the pages are still undergoing some updates, but it's well on its way. Tomorrow I'm going to meet with a nutritionist so she can get me started on a more nutritious meal plan than I'm on now. I've been following Weight Watchers since about three weeks postpartum with James. I've been steadily losing weight, but want to make a full lifestyle change at the same time as I lose weight. So my hopes are that she can teach me to make more nutritional choices than I am making now. I'll keep you posted on how it goes tomorrow and check out the updated page-tell me what you think. I plan on posting the new workouts and receipes I find during this new road to complete wellness I'm taking.  ~Wish me luck~ 

In scary news, a recent report from the CDC found that  women consume an average of 13.2 percent of their total daily calories from added sugars.  Just how bad is that really? Well, the American Heart Association recommends that women limit their sugar intake to no more than 100 calories per day, or less than six percent of your total calories. That’s just 25 grams of sugar. So yeah, you should probably cut back on all those sweets. This study specifically looked at added sugar, which includes any sugar used as an ingredient in processed foods (like white sugar, brown sugar, raw sugar, honey, corn syrup, maple syrup, etc). Unfortunately, nutrition labels don’t distinguish between this and the naturally occurring stuff—like that in fruit or lactose (found in milk). That said, it’s safe to assume that a soda or muffin that doesn’t contain any fruit or lactose gets  all  of it’s sweetness from added sugar, says Shanthy Bowman, PhD, nutritionist at the USDA Food Services...

Their favorite on-the-go meals (that are still healthy!) By Lauren Gelman We all know it's healthier to skip the drive-thru, but everyone eventually finds themselves at a roadside rest stop or caves into a late-night French-fry craving. The trick is making the healthiest fast food choice you can. So we turned to the nutrition experts who created the menus for our favorite fast food joints to find out what healthy meals they order when they eat on the job. Get their suggestions for healthy fast food. Note: Most of the foods that follow are pretty good in terms of calories and fat, but they’re still loaded with sodium. Most adults should have less than 2,300 mg daily, and many of these meals provide half that amount or more! Burger King: BK Veggie Burger "I typically order the BK Veggie Burger, but I hold the mayo," says Stephanie Quirantes, RD, the nutrition and health manager for Burger King Corp., North America. For a side and beverage, she has the Fresh Appl...

Chew on this: People are more likely to think a food item is healthier if it has a green calorie label, according to a new study out of Cornell University. The study, published in the journal Health Communication, took place in two parts. First, 93 undergrad participants looked at a picture of one of two candy bars. The candy bars each had the same number of calories listed: 260. In fact, they were nearly identical—the only difference between them was that one had a green calorie label, and the other had a red calorie label. Yet the participants who looked at the photo of the green-labeled candy bar judged it to be significantly healthier and to have fewer calories than other candy bars. “Green means go and has generally positive associations, so we might see that as a green light to indulge,” says Jonathon Schuldt, PhD, the lead study author, assistant professor of communication, and director of Cornell’s Social Cognition and Communication Lab. Since red can of course carry its ow...

Simple..to shed pounds, get your veggies in!  Add pureed cauliflower and squash to your classic recipes such as chicken casserole and macaroni and cheese.  By doing this you can cut as many as 357 calories from your day.  All this is according to a study at Pennsylvania State University in University Park.  When you pack in veggies in place of other high calorie ingredients it cuts your calories, says Alexandia Blatt, lead author of the study.  Another way to do this is add more sliced/chopped veggies to your meals.  So if your rice pilaf calls for one cup of veggies, try doubling it and cut back on some of the rice.  The result is great flavor with an extra boost of fiber which helps fill you up faster. Fitness Magazine July/August 2011