Well folks, I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!

I’m still goin’ strong with the goals I talked about in my last post.  I haven’t been perfect at them, but I haven’t given up either!  I just keep pluggin’ along and learning as I go.

I really, really love intermittent fasting guys.  It just makes me feel so good, always chills out my appetite and helps me to sleep like a rock.  I didn’t do intermittent fasting for a couple weeks last month (crazy life!), so I’m so happy to be back at it.

I will say that the first few days of intermittent fasting (after taking a break for a while) is always hard!  I feel extra hungry and it just seems so daunting.  BUT, after about 3-4 days, my body slowly starts to adjust and it’s just awesome.  My appetite starts to regulate, I have more energy and I just feel good.  I still have moments of hunger or cravings, but if I distract myself for a bit, they seem to go away quickly.

It really is just a great way to simplify healthy eating and I just feel like my body likes it!  Everyone is different though, so I’m not saying it’s for everyone!  But, I guess you never know if it’s for you unless you try!  If you want to try intermittent fasting, I would recommend the most common, 8 hour eating window, 16 hour fast.  I would also recommend committing to it 100% for at least a week, but ideally two weeks!  I think it takes that long for you to really feel a difference.  It’s also important to stick with it 100% because I don’t think you’ll feel the full effects if you don’t.

Anyway, I’ve also been loving my goal of having a protein shake every day!

It also really simplifies my healthy eating and assures I get a lot of good stuff in my body.  I love protein shakes because I can throw them together quickly, take them with my on the run and they fill me up!

My typical protein shake consists of liquid (usually unsweetened cashew milk, water and/or kefir), protein (usually protein powder, collagen peptides and/or plain Greek yogurt), greens powder (I love Amazing Grass orange or chocolate peppermint flavors), some kind of seed/fiber (usually chia seeds, hemp seeds or ground flax seed), something to sweeten it up (fruit, natural drink mixes like True Lemon, Emergen-C or just a little stevia), and some sort of greens (romaine, spinach, chard, kale, etc.)  I sometimes also add in things like cucumber, lemon, peanut butter, powdered peanut butter, avocado or whatever else I want to chuck in there!

Love my protein shakes!

I’ve also been loving my “stay away from all the sugary stuff” goal too!  That’s always a hard one for me, but I always feel so good and notice great results when I cut it out!  I gotta say though that this is the one goal I’ve been struggling with a bit lately.  I’ve stayed away from the cookies, cake and desserts, but I’ve been snitching on the candy!

Auuuugh!

It’s kind of funny because although I like candy (of course), it usually doesn’t tempt me too much.  I’ve learned many times that as long as I don’t start eating it, I can easily resist it, BUT as soon as I start eating it….I just want more and more!

It never fills me up and so that’s another reason why I just try to steer clear of it!

Sooo, sadly I’d been doin’ so well with my goals and then I made a trip to Trader Joe’s.  They always have such fun candy and treats, so whenever I go there I like to pick up a few things to bring home to the fam.  I should have just bought things that don’t tempt me (all the chewy, fruity stuff), but NO, I decided to bring home a few chocolate things!

I bought these dark chocolate crisps and OH MY, they are awesome!

They are shaped like a Pringle and are just tooooooo easy to eat tooooo many of!  I also bought these dark chocolate mint creams…

They remind me of a fancy peppermint patty and they are so good too!

Sooooo, I thought I would just enjoy a few of these sweet treats and then get back to my goals 100%.  I did alright for a little while, but then I seemed to find myself continuing to snitch candy here and there.

It was super weird because I was rockin’ my goals, sticking to everything 100%, but then just adding a little candy on the side!???!  Ha ha.

I realized this was no bueno and would quickly get me nowhere, so I’ve since cut it out once again and am back to abstaining from all the sugary goodness out there….including candy!

I don’t know about y’all, but it always seems like sugar, dessert and treats are everywhere!  It really requires a daily commitment to stay away from it! In fact, last week we were up at my mom’s house celebrating her birthday and everyone brought treats!

I brought the yummiest Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies with cream cheese frosting (I love them!), but I didn’t have any.  Yay.  My sister was also staying away from sugar, so we decided to take this victory picture…

My sister is holding the cookies I made and I’m holding some yummy cupcakes that I wanted to pound.  BUT, we persevered!  Here are some other treats that were kickin’ around my mom’s house that night!

It was truly like a war zone.  Ha!

I also found myself at McDonald’s this week with my daughter and 4 year old….

My daughter had a dentist appointment one morning and she asked if we could get McDonald’s  breakfast afterward.  Aaaaand, since I’m a huge sucker for sentimental things, memory making and quality one-on-one time, I said, “A’ight.”

I was hungry since I was intermittent fasting, but I stayed strong!  Woot.  I was definitely tempted to indulge, but I remembered my goals and stuck to ’em.  Yay me.

I know that healthy living really just comes down to making a bunch of small choices that add up to become great things!  I also know that every time I stay strong, resist temptation and make a good choice….it becomes much easier to make good choices again and again!

That is how habits are made.

I’ve also learned that when I decide to just indulge a little or have a little taste of something here or there, it’s much easier to indulge again!  Have you ever heard the “Camel’s Nose in the Tent” story?  Well ya, that reminds me a lot of myself when I decide to “have just a taste” of something I’m trying to stay away from!  Ha ha.

Now, I just wanna say that I definitely think a healthy lifestyle can include indulgences from time to time.  In fact, I think it’s healthy and balanced to enjoy yourself sometimes!  However, I know when I have goals I’m trying to reach and weight I’m trying to lose, I really just gotta stay away from all the crap.

And that is that.

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Well, I also gotta tell you guys that although I’ve been working hard and loving my new goals these past couple weeks, I decided to kick my goals up another notch this week!

Um, ya.

So, Kev has still been going to my old gym, F45.  I really love F45 and would recommend it to anyone!  I went there for two years, loved it, learned a lot, saw some great results, but I was just ready for a change.  So, last May I quit F45 and went back to my old gym, Vasa Fitness.

It’s been great for me and is just what I needed.

Anyway, F45 does an 8 week challenge several times a year.  While I was a member there, I thought about doing the challenge a few times, but when I looked over the meal plan it looked a little “gourmet” and time consuming, so I just never wanted to try it.

But, Kev came home from the gym this week and was all excited about doing the challenge!  I looked over the meal plan again and it still looked gourmet and time consuming, BUT I decided to give it a shot anyway!  I really love doing challenges and working on goals with Kev.  I also know that he’ll have a lot more success if I’m on board since I make most of the food ’round here.

So, here we are.

Also, the Oxygen Magazine challenge that I’ve been doing is coming to an end, so it’s good timing (or bad timing, depending on how you look at it!) to start another challenge!

I’m about three days in now and I feel great.  It’s tough, I’ve been doing more meal prep than I usually do, but I know my body will thank me.

It’s really just a very clean diet full of loads of veggies (just what I need!), a little fruit, meat, eggs, seeds, nuts and a little brown rice and quinoa here and there.  It’s tough, but I know it will be good for me!

I’ve told you guys many times that this has been a funky year for me as far as weight loss goes.  My body just hasn’t been responding like it usually does and it’s kind of taken the wind out of my sails a bit.  I never gave up, but I just haven’t felt like going super duper hard core either.

But, here I am being hard core now…and I’m happy ’bout it.

In fact, I’ve learned in the past that whenever my body seems stuck or doesn’t respond to my efforts I usually need to get a little creative.  I’ve tried short term low-carb diets, elimination diets or just uber clean diets and they all seem to work at resetting the body and getting it functioning well again!

It’s hard and takes a lot of discipline (that’s why I’ve kind of been avoiding going down this road!), but it always works!  The problem is that these types of diets are hard to stick to long-term and I wouldn’t consider them a lifestyle.  However, they are a great kick in the pants, I always learn a lot and they do help me to make better choices and develop better habits long-term.

The key to these mega healthy or restrictive diets is to keep them to a reasonable length (I think no more than 2 months) and then when the “diet” is over, slowly transition into a more realistic, long-term, livable lifestyle.

The absolute worst thing you can do after a “diet” like this is over is say “Yahoo, I’m done!” and then go pig out and eat all of the foods you’ve been missing.  This will seriously jack with your body and hormones and cause you to gain back a bunch of weight in a hurry.

Soooo, I’m going to stay mindful during this challenge and I plan to slowly transition to a more practical diet when it’s over!

So, in case you wanna know, the past few days I’ve pretty much been eating protein shakes/green smoothies, eggs, avocados, lots of veggies, chicken, stir-fry stuff, homemade soup and just a bunch of variations of lean meat and veggies.  I’ve had fruit in my smoothies and just a little bit of rice and quinoa.

And, I haven’t taken any pictures!  Gah.

I’ll do better this week!  A HUGE key to success with this diet is meal prep and always having good food options available at all times!  I’ve been cooking up chicken and prepping veggies on the regular.

Well, I have a lot more things I could share, but I think I’ll end it here!!  I’ve been taking a break from social media this past week, but I’m planning on getting back on later this week.  I will share more of my food stuff and deep thoughts when I get back on there.

‘Til then, I love you all!!!