Making This Plan a Lifestyle + Learning to Be Patient

Well folks, I’m still going strong with my “Extreme Transformation” diet/challenge and I’m loving it.  I’m two weeks in and quite frankly, I can see myself sticking with it (more or less) for a very long time.

I will say that the first week, I followed it to a T.  I made a lot of the recipes in the book, ate 5 small meals a day, tracked everything in My Fitness Pal and stuck to my guns.

However, this second week I’ve chilled out a bit.  It’s been great though because I’m still stickin’ to my guns and working hard….BUT I’m slowly making it my own.  I’ve been tweaking it and turning it into a long-term lifestyle for myself.

There are a few things that I really, really love about this program that I’m not budging on…

• I love starting my day off with a high carb breakfast.
• I love ending my day with a low carb dinner.
• I love, love, love having two low carb days a week.  This is something I’ve been wanting to incorporate into my lifestyle for a long time, but just haven’t.  I love that the two days are back-to-back, I love that I can still have a high carb breakfast and I love that my “reset” day follows my two low carb days.
• I love that this program switches between low and high carb days.  It helps to keep it interesting and keeps me motivated.
• I love that this program keeps me motivated to eat well, not eat to much and makes me want to keep doing it day after day.  I attribute that to the fact that it IS balanced, it’s not too extreme and it’s just practical and livable.
• I’ve chosen to stay away from all of my favorite sugary treats for a long time.  I haven’t identified an end date.  Sugar is the #1 thing that derails me from healthy eating and living.  Soooooo, for now, I’m keeping it out.  On my “reset” day, I’m allowing myself a healthy treat and some chocolate chips, but that’s it.  It’s been absolutely perfect for me.  It’s been nice to have that little somethin’ somethin’ on my reset day, but it doesn’t cause my blood sugar to spike and send me into that crazy sugar craving cycle.

There are also a few things about this program that I really haven’t been following.  Although, they are still good things, I’ve learned time and time again that I have to customize things and make it work with my life and lifestyle if I ever expect to stick with it for the long haul.

• This program recommends eating breakfast within a half hour of waking up.  I haven’t been doing that and I don’t plan on doing that.  I usually eat my first meal of the day around 10:00 AM.  When I first wake up, I drink my warm lemon water with baking soda and then I just wait to eat until later.  That lemon water feels so refreshing and cleansing to me.
  • I’ve just learned over the years that FOR ME, I have a lot more success with weight loss, and healthy living when I put off eating breakfast for a while.  It just seems like I eat less overall throughout the day and my appetite is a little more in control when I don’t eat first thing in the morning.  I guess it’s kind of similar to intermittent fasting, although I’m not exactly following that either.  I’m just doing what seems practical, livable and doable for me.
  • Note: I don’t work out first thing in the morning.  I think if I exercised in the morning, I’d probably eat earlier.
• I haven’t been eating 5 small meals throughout the day.  I really don’t hold myself to a set number of meals.  I just try to stick to around 1500 calories a day and eat whenever it works for me!  It seems like I usually have a set breakfast and dinner, but the other meals are random.  I try not to obsess about it.  I just focus on eating good, clean food and keeping the macros in check.
• I have been hit and miss with keeping track of my food in My Fitness Pal.  Quite frankly, I’ve used My Fitness Pal on and off for years and I’m just burned out with it!  I still love My Fitness Pal and think it’s an invaluable tool for learning about the composition of food and keeping track of macros and calories, but I just don’t want to do it every day.
  • I’m very aware of the macro makeup of most of the foods I eat, so I just try to pay attention and make good choices.  I always have protein with each meal and on high carb days I have more carbs/less fat and on low carb days I have more fat/less carbs.  Pretty simple.  This approach also helps to make it a lifestyle for me instead of just a short-term “diet.”
• I’ve been making some of the recipes in the Extreme Transformation book, but mostly I’ve just been sticking to my favorite tried and true meals that I love.  My typical meals usually consist of various creations of oatmeal, eggs, chicken, veggies, fruit, plain Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, protein powder, brown rice, quinoa and a few other random things.  It’s just simpler for me to stick with what I love and enjoy and what’s quick and easy for me to whip up.

Well as far as the results I’m seeing and feeling….let’s just say that my body is psycho.  I can definitely feel some changes (my cravings/appetite has gone down, I sleep better and I have more energy), but my weight has hardly budged.  I still feel poofy and it’s very frustrating.

BUT, I’ve learned time and time again to not give up!  I plan on just sticking to my guns and being patient and consistent.  I know that is the name of the game.  It works every time….eventually.

I’ve talked to SO MANY people who want to lose weight, get in shape and become healthier.  It seems like most people can stay motivated and work hard for a few weeks, but if the results don’t come quick enough, they usually get frustrated and give up.  That is exactly what NOT to do.

It is vital to make permanent changes and create a healthy lifestyle if you ever expect to see long-term changes and results.  I know SO MANY people who work hard and lose weight and then go right back to their old lifestyle.  That will obviously just make you go right back to your old weight and health.

I believe that the best and only way to lose weight/get in shape/improve health is to make deliberate long-term changes and then stick with it!  Good ol’ fashioned hard work, exercise and healthy eating.  You don’t have to be perfect at it and you can certainly still splurge occasionally, but you have to exercise and eat well consistently.  That is all.

******************

I’ve pretty much been eating a lot of the same things I shared in my last post, but I thought I’d share some of the different, random things I ate this week.

This has been one of my favorite dinners.  I make it about once a week.

I just make my favorite Baked Chicken recipe, cook up some veggies in some coconut oil (soooo good!) in my electric frying pan and have some brown rice or quinoa on the side.  I usually do quinoa these days since it’s lower in carbs and higher in protein.

I love this dinner because the leftovers are the perfect “meal prep” for several days afterward too.

I also made this random creation this week, but I don’t think I’ll ever make it again. Ha ha.

I was just going to scramble up some egg whites, but then I saw my bag of cabbage slaw in the fridge so I decided to add it in!  I hate wasting food and I wanted to use up the cabbage slaw before it went bad.  However, this “meal” was pretty gross.  I choked it down, but made a “note to self” to never ever make it again.

I also took my high schoolers (and one of their friends) out to lunch this week.

Chick Fil-A for the win.  It actually worked out great for me because it was on one of my low carb days, so I just ordered the Cobb salad with grilled chicken…

It was yummy and simple.  One of the things I struggle with on low carb days is figuring out what to eat!  It was nice to just order something for one of my meals and not have to think about it.

This salad did have a little corn in it, but I didn’t sweat it.  It also came with a packet of Avocado Lime Ranch dressing on the side, but it was over 300 calories!  It was a low carb-ish dressing, but I didn’t want to eat all that.  Sooooo, I just drizzled a tiny bit on top and called it good.  There was enough good, flavorful things in that salad that it really didn’t need much dressing at all.

I also went to my gym this morning WITH KEV!  Woot!  It was his first time going to F45 and he loved it.

He’s sure had a rough year, but I’m happy to say he’s doing well and is excited to get back to work and get back into great shape.  He had ACL surgery 6 months ago, so he really hasn’t been able to workout too much since then.  He also had all of his other scary issues a couple months ago that kept him from doing much too.  Poor Kev was also on steroids for a couple months (corticosteroids not anabolic, ha ha) so that made him gain weight too.  It was rough.

But, he’s doing great now.  He’s been going to physical therapy for his knee for a long time now and has been going to his old gym a little bit here and there.  I finally talked him into coming with me to my gym and it was so fun to have him there.  We both thoroughly got our butts kicked this morning and loved it.

We also got BAM Protein Shakes after our workout and they were awesome!  Kev got a tropical one and I got the Almond Butter Oatmeal Cookie one.  YUM!

They are obviously the perfect thing to have after a workout, but I also think it would be fun to go out one night and get a protein shake instead of ice cream!  It would still be a fun outing, but instead of a sugar rush, you get a yummy, healthy shake!  Win, win.

For those of you local folk, Bam Protein Shakes is right next to Vasa Fitness in Riverton.

Well, I think that’s all I have to say about health and fitness today.  I do want to share a few more pictures though.

I’ve told you guys before that I’m not a fan of my kids growing up.  I wish I could just freeze them all and keep them under my wing forever.

My oldest son is a Senior (it seriously kills me), so this week he and I took a tour of the college he’s planning on attending in the fall.

He’s going to go to UVU (Utah Valley University), which is a great university.  I actually went there and got my Associates Degree there almost 20 years ago and I loved it!  I went on to get my Bachelor’s from the University of Utah, FYI.

I was floored by how much that school had changed!  We also learned that it’s now the biggest University in Utah!!  Wha???!??!  Who knew!??!  When I went there, it was actually Utah Valley State College and was quite small.  I can’t believe how much it has grown.  I was thoroughly impressed, although I can’t believe my child will be old enough to go there!!

I also took my daughter shopping for prom dresses this week!  How is she that old!???!  This will be her first High School dance and it’s kind of freaking me out too.

I learned that most of the girls nowadays rent their dresses.  I also learned that the dresses are waaaaay nicer, waaaaay prettier and waaaaay fancier than the dresses I wore in High School.  I also learned that renting a prom dress is about as expensive as buying a normal dress.  It is not cheap!

However, she is my only daughter so I don’t think we need to buy dresses.  She tried on about 20 dresses.  They were all so pretty!

That white dress was absolutely stunning, but we both decided that it was entirely too “naked looking.”  Ha ha.  It was a beautiful dress though!  She decided to go with that blue Cinderella lookin’ dress.  It was gorgeous.  I’m excited for her.

I’m also happy because she will be going to the dance in the same group as her older brother!  So dang cute.  One of his darling friend’s asked her to Prom, so it will be fun.

Well, that’s all folks.  It’s late, I’m tired and I need to head to bed.  Kev and I have been busy the past couple nights painting our upstairs.  It will look so nice!  I’ll share some pics when it’s done.

I’m hoping next time I blog I will have some good news about my body actually responding to all of my hard work!  Fingers crossed.

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