My Secrets To Losing 30 Pounds This Year and 2012 Goal Setting

I'm really exciting to see what the new year brings for you and me.  I'm sure there will be challenges, but so much fun to experience it all! I'm ready to accomplish my goals. Are you?


Cat's Belly Fat Cure Facebook Page

14 Day Health Challenge, Day 1. This Accountability Rocks!

I met all of my goals today!  It's all due to this challenge and the support from all of you.  I have been floundering for the past few weeks.  Maybe floundering is too strong of a word here, but I haven't been my normal healthy self.  Sometimes I think we start to backslide and don't even realize it until it results in a marked change enough to grab our attention.  I know that's true for me.  I desperately needed something to bring me back in line with my health and wellness goals.  I've worked too hard to turn back now!

I've received lots of questions as to what this challenge means to me.  These are my daily goals for the next 14 days:

1. No snacking after dinner.  
2. No junk food.  I realize this is open to interpretation somewhat. For me if I can understand the ingredients and nothing is refined, I don't consider it junk.
3. No gluten.
4. No dairy.  

That's it.  Pretty simple.  Nothing to count or track.  I do plan to take pictures or keep a list of what I'm eating during the day to keep me accountable.  Now my goals may not be your goals.  Just decide on your daily goals, know that you can do it, and have the discipline to see it through.  

Today's meals:

Breakfast: strawberry Glutino bar & a prune

Snack:  Cranberry Almond Kind Bar

My buddy for the day & a healthy thumbs up from her

Lunch:  tuna with mustard, Yah's best, and rice vinegar with sugar snap peas and raw baby carrots

I had a couple of handfuls of these and Julia ate the rest.  Sugar snap peas only last a few minutes in our house.

Snack:  Trader Joe's Teriyaki Natural Turkey Jerky with grape tomatoes.  I had a little more jerky than what's in the pic ~  couldn't resist a little pre-picture snacking ;). Yum.

Before dinner took Ashleigh to a gymnastics photo shoot.  She's quite the poser.

pre-dinner snack: handful of peanuts

Dinner:  Chicken stir fry with broccoli, onions, mushrooms, carrots.  

Dessert: organic red seedless grapes

I was supposed to meet with my trainer today, but I'm sick again. Boo.  I may not feel like making it to the gym, but I did follow through on the 12 Days of Fitness Christmas Challenge by performing 100 jumping jacks.  I'm hoping to feel better tomorrow because I'm going to work in the Hardware Store tomorrow and Saturday.

Tell me:


How was day 1 of the Challenge?  Did you obtain your daily goals?

Goodnight friends, I'm falling asleep on my laptop.

Cat

Cat's Belly Fat Cure Facebook Page

Week 10 Results and How to Break Through a Plateau

My weight has been up and down for the past month, so much so I wasn't making any progress.  I decided that HAD to change, so I became focused again on my goal, made a plan to get there, and stuck with it 95% of the time.  The results are a 4 pound weight loss for the week. Yay!  Now the challenge is not to get lazy and let old unhealthy habits creep back in to my life.

This is how I broke the plateau.  These were my ideal ways to eat and workout:

• Eat some protein at every meal or snack
• Eat a carb heavy meal in the morning or ONLY within 2 hours of working out, otherwise stick to protein and veggies. 
• Don't get too hungry.  I will inevitably lose self control if I get too hungry!
• Drink lots of water.
• No eating after 8pm
• Eat no gluten or dairy
• Workout with cardio and strength training 5 days per week.

These were my guidelines.  Sometimes I didn't meet them exactly, but I made the best choices I could.  My mindset was the closer I stuck to these guidelines, the better my result.  I forgave myself if I made a poor choice and immediately recommitted to this plan.  For me being able to immediately recommit to the plan was key to my success.  I love to experiment like this and study the result.

This week I'm going to relax the plan a little, but really the only difference being the way I eat carbs.  I'm going back to my original plan of limiting carbs after 3 pm, by avoiding or limiting starch at night.  It's worked for Candace Cameron Bure and it's worked for me.  

....my little kiddos at Halloween. Julia was the super hero, American Dream and Ashleigh was a pirate.  The small pic on the right was taken tonight while trick-or-treating in the cool rain.  They had a blast even in the rain!

I had excellent results losing weight this way.  Do you have any tips or secrets that helped you break through a plateau?  Tell me.  Don't be shy.

Remember you're worth loving yourself enough to stick with your plan, see things through, and get results.  We can do this together.

Have a wonderful Tuesday.

Take care,

40 DAY CHALLENGE starts today!

Happy Monday to everyone.  I've decided to challenge myself to 40 days of healthy living leading up to my birthday.  By the end of the challenge my goal is to weigh in the 150s, which is a lofty goal, but I can do it!  Here's my daily goals:

• eat clean 95% of the time
• workout 5 days a week
• asleep by midnight
• declutter 15 minutes a day (while this goal seems like it doesn't fit, it actually does for me.  Trying to clean up all areas of my life .)
• no eating after 8 PM.

Monday is officially day 1.  Is there a goal you would like to achieve over the next 40 days?  Just tell me your goal and we can do this together. 

I saw this commercial today at the gym.  I love how strong and empowered this lady looked...not to mention super fit!


Sunday workout:

• 50 minutes on Precore (I was trying to see how long it took to burn 500 calories.  When I started working out about 6 weeks ago it took me at least an hour.)
• FLEXIBILITY - 90-90 Hamstring Stretch
• Standing Chest Stretch
• CORE - Face Down Iso Ab with Straight Leg Raise (This one's tough!)  
• Reverse Hyper
• BALANCE - Cable Single Leg Left (I'm secretly in love with cables.)
• RESISTANCE - (chest) Seated Chest Press
• (shoulders) Seated Scaption:  1 arm (Didn't like this one much.)

The non cardio portion is what Dr. Oz's website set up for me.  I think I liked doing my own thing better, but I'm giving this a chance. The website came up with a 4 week plan for me, so I'm gonna see it through.  I'm hoping to learn some new techniques that I'll love.

My eating today was just O.K.:

• BREAKFAST:  PB&J smoothie.  It was devine...will post the recipe when I have a chance.
• LUNCH:  Taco Salad: no sour cream, no cheese.  Chicken, guacamole, lettuce, refried beans, tomatoes, salsa.  Just a few chips and some of the taco "bowl". Extra lettuce. Unsweetened tea sweetened with Sun Crystals.  I think I embarassed my hubby making all of those substitutions, but I'm the customer & need to be happy, right?  I used to never stand up for myself, but I am now. They brought me a whole extra plate of lettuce.  My kids really enjoyed it too!  They love lettuce!
• DINNER:  Pretzels with hummus. Apple with peanut butter.  We were so full from lunch we didn't have a formal dinner. 

 That was my day.  See ya in the morning at weekly weigh in.

Take care,

Goal Achieved and random thoughts, of course ;)

I obtained my 1st weight loss goal today.  I've lost the 1st 10 pounds!  I'm really excited because I've been trying to lose weight for years, as I was saying in a recent post.  What I'm doing is really working and I'm going to keep doing it.  I have a goal in sight and I will make my actions match the outcome I want to achieve.  The ultimate goal is to weigh between 115 to 120 pounds.  I really don't want to say at this point what I do weigh, but suffice it to say I have a way to go. My plan is to break down my goal into 5 pound mini goals. I've negotiated with my hubby to give me $100 for every 5 pounds lost, sort of as an incentive for me.  Really though, I think the main reason I asked him to give me $100 dollars was so I wouldn't feel guilty spending money on myself. 

I'm actually beginning to enjoy the journey and the pleasant surprises along the way.  Like last night when my husband came into the bedroom after eating corn chips, at first it smelled like "feet", but then I realized oh that's a corn chip smell.  I think my sense of smell is improving as well as my taste buds.  A month ago those chips would have smelled good to me & I probably would have munched on a few and I still would if I had really, really wanted some.  However, I didn't eat any because I have a goal insight that I want to achieve and to me that's more important than a few seconds of pleasure from the chip, that's surely not going to do me any favors.  However if it had been my favorite dessert, banana pudding southern style, I would have definitely had small amount & not felt guilty at all. 

I think my husband thinks I'm going through a midlife crisis of some sort.  I think he is too though, and I'm honestly not sure where it's going to take us.

Tonight I went to the gym while my oldest daughter was at gymnastics.  We came home immediately after her gymnastics practice & he was none to happy that I hadn't fried the eggplant & okra from our garden.   In his defense he was probably looking forward to it because I've definitely honed my okra frying skills.  After the 1st bite, almost everyone raves about them.  It took me about half a summer one year to get the recipe like his mama's, and the bad part was I couldn't ask her because she was deceased.  Am I planning to snack on any when I cook them?  Nope. 

I've had something else on my mind today too.  Last week a good friend of mine went back to work after being a stay-at-home mom like myself.  With our kids getting older, the youngest being 4 1/2, I plan to go back to work when the youngest enters elementary school.  So I've started thinking about what I want to do as far as a career.  I think the answer occurred to me today.  In every job I've ever had, I excelled in one area.  Management always put me in this area, I felt very comfortable doing it, and always received the very highest praise from senior management in this capacity.  Now I'm not saying I was a perfect employee, far from it.  What I am saying is this is one aspect of my job I enjoyed the most, found the easiest, and the most rewarding.   My main career before staying at home was as an assistant manager and senior loan officer in a bank and also a loan officer at a credit union.  Oh and I also was in sales at another bank.  People really trusted me, which I think was the main reason I was successful in sales because I'm not a pushy person at all.
This area that I had much success, fulfillment and joy was in a public relations/almost negotiator sort of role.  I loved going to Chamber of Commerce meetings and functions, speaking with local business owners, and being on the front line drumming up business or just talking with folks about their family, health & what's important to them.  Honestly though talking to people on a personal level made the business deals a piece of cake.  I also really enjoyed telling people no in a positive way.  Never tell them what you CAN'T do, tell them what you CAN do.  Now, what job that is in today's market, I have no idea?  Thanks for listening to me ramble like this. 

Anyway this is what I ate today:

breakfast:  O.K., I've been on a roll with this one lately & it just doesn't get old.  Old fashioned oats, (instead of cinnamon I used pumpkin spice & it was really good), peanut butter, Sun Crystals, apple,  & Garden of Life Super Seed.  Unless your spouse dislikes the smell of peanut butter, you'll love this.  My hubby fusses when he smells peanut butter in my oatmeal, so I try to eat it at a considerable distance away from him. 

lunch:  This was just heavenly.  Food For Life brown rice tortilla, hummus, lettuce, carrots.  I lightly toasted the tortilla, then folded it all up like a taco.  Yum-O!

dinner:  Salad (romaine, carrots, cucumbers, Bragg's healthy vinaigrette)  You may not see cucumbers on the salad...well, I actually ate those while making dinner ;) .  McDougall's black bean and lime soup (see below)

 

. 

I didn't cook much today, usually don't on Mondays, which are very busy for us, but I don't like to eat at fast food restaurants too often as well.  I didn't plan on it being a vegan day, oh well. 

my littlest pumpkin before taking her to dance class today.

 

 

Question of the day:  How has you spouse or significant other reacted to your weight loss, positively or negatively?

Thanks for listening everyone.  Hope you had a fabulous Monday.

Be healthy.  Be strong.

Take care,


 

No Excuses. Period.

Same old story...wandering around wondering what diet I should do...all while eating every unhealthy, sugary food in sight.  Because after all, I'm starting my diet in the morning & I'll never be able to eat X again, so I might as well get my FILL of it now.  Lies. Lies. Lies.  I keep coming back to the BFC.    What makes it so great is it's flexibility to various eating styles.  I have been flip flopping back & forth between vegetarian & omnivore.  Here's the awesome part...either one can be done on this program!!!  How cool is that.

For the rest of the month of December (starting today, day 1)  I'm keeping a food log & posting it on this blog.  Please keep me accountable.  I may be posting several times a day at first...seems to help me stay on track.

I can do this.  I've done much harder things...thyroid cancer seems to ring a bell.  This is easy compared to that.

My motivation:

• feeling sexy again!  Woo-hoo!  
• fitting in those size 4 jeans in my dresser draw.  I know that may seem small to some people, but I'm 5'3" with a small frame so I think this is very doable.
• more energy to run & play with my kids (& my hubby, wink, wink ;) )
• to be here for my 2 beautiful girls
• having the energy to keep a clean, tidy house
• sleeping better
• healthier
• going clothes shopping & purchasing an item knowing it will look nice!
• cardio & strength health
• the feeling, I can do anything!

My goals:

• maintaining a weight of 115-120
• fitness:  run a mile (without stopping), perform a cart wheel & a back bend (bridge), perform 20 regular push-ups (not girlie style)

That's all for now.

Happy BFC'n.  :)