Tuesday, November 25, 2014

It is a really great start! weight loss journey

I have said it a million times over the past year (and before), that I wanted to get on the road to being healthy and fit. I struggled with finances and just trying to survive, that I was not able to fully focus on my health, until my financial life was in order. After many false starts, I finally did it.

Two weeks ago I decided the time was right and I jumped in. I knew I wanted to do some sort of Paleo or low-carb diet. With PCOS, you should not eat processed foods and you need to limit carbs greatly. I found that the traditional low-carb diet still allowed for too much fat and too little fruit. I love fruit. It is the one thing that I cannot find myself eliminating from my diet. So, after some research I decided to go as Paleo as I could.

Still on a rather tight budget, I cannot do the Paleo diet whole hog. They love grass fed, free range, organics of all kinds. I simply cannot afford to do that completely. Maybe one day. I am going to do as much as I can, without disrupting our tight budget.

Week one went great! I lost about 3.5 pounds. I stayed on plan and was able to give up Coke, without too much issue. I actually made it a whole week on plan! This was huge for me. It had been three years since I had been able to stay on plan.

Week two started out really rough. We were on a very limited food budget, because of an unexpected expense. After a weekend of really bad food and gaining back almost two pounds, I got some good advice and support from some friends. I decided to do my best to eat as close to plan as possible. I got in some extra exercise and made sure I stayed within calorie range. I re-activated my myfitnesspal account and stayed accountable. By the end of week two I was down another 2 pounds.

Halfway through week two, I am down another pound, averaging about .4 lbs a day. We are in Thanksgiving week, so I am making sure to get an hour workout in every day. My oldest complains that she doesn't like me going to the gym every day. I responded with, "do I take you to the park to play every day? Do I cook you really good meals? Do I cuddle with you when every you want?" She said yes. I then added, "Do you want me to be able to do that as long as you are living at home? Do you want me to be around to see you get married and have kids?" She said yes. I said, "Then please let me have the hour and a half a day to myself to make sure I can do that. She gave me a big smile and a hug and said OK.

I have gone from 274.4 to 268.6, with a wobble in there that bad weekend of eating. I feel so good that I am making progress. All who have PCOS, know just how hard losing weight is.

Some how this time it all feels different. We shall see.

I have a goal to do a 5K on or around my birthday, March 16th. I know I can do it if I keep my head down and work toward it. My hopes is that my hubby will join me. I would love for my parents and kids to watch from the sidelines. So I am off to find one!

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Rolling with the punches...$40 food budget for the week.

This week we had an unexpected expense due to a tire blowout. Thank goodness Hubby is alright, as he was going 65 mph at the time. Note to all - please get your tires checked regularly. It is dangerous to not get the air pressure and treads checked. In fact I had just posted on my personal face-book page the day before this happened. A visual inspection by yourself is not good enough. Run into a discount tire or other tire place and they will fill your tires and do a quick inspect for you, for FREE!

Since we are just now able to start our baby step 1 (a recommended step by Dave Ramsey to save $1000 for an emergency fund), we didn't have the extra money to buy a tire. This money had to come from somewhere, so I had to reduce my weekly grocery budget to $40 for the week. This would have been devastating if I didn't keep a well stocked pantry. 

(Side note, we are actually going to save $2000 in our baby step one. We feel that it would be better to have a little more buffer in case a true emergency happened. Plus, this would more than cover our medical deductible if we were to need it. Dave Ramsey has been using the $1000 amount for awhile now and I think it needs to be raised.)

First thing I did was check out what we had, that I could make meals out of. With a budget of $40 I decided to go to Aldi's and anything I couldn't get there, I would run to Walmart. At Walmart I used the balance of what was on my Savings Catcher gift card from the week before. You can see that I did not sacrifice on my choice of organic milk.  I can really taste the difference and I think it lasts longer. I also buy two half gallons, so that it doesn't spoil so quickly. Please note that I had left over grapes, apples, bananas and oranges, so I did not need to buy fruit this week. Lunches are left overs for Hubby, myself and the youngest. The oldest daughter eats a school lunch. We also have eggs, pancakes, cereal or the like for breakfast. 

Here is the menu I came up with and what I needed to buy to round it out.

1. Tacos
2. BBQ baked skinless chicken thighs, baked beans and veggies3. Spaghetti and meatballs with veggies4. Meatloaf, baked potato, (noodles for girls), veggies5. Grilled smoked brats, pan-fried potatoes, okra and carrots
6. Breakfast for dinner (Eggs, bacon, pancakes)

7. This will be on Friday when we get paid again, so we will be having a treat of take-out or I will make a home-made pizza.



Shopping list:

Aldi's Total with tax - $38.36
Ground beef 3 lb - 1 lb 93/7 fat for $5.09 (for tacos) and 2 lb 80% fat for meatloaf for $8.83
1 large can crushed tomatoes - $.99
3 lb Bag of onions - $.59
Egg noodles - $1.25
Onion soup mix - $.79
5 lb Bag baking potatoes - $1.79
Eggs one dozen - $.99
Smoked brats - $2.49
Milk - two half gallons organic 2% - 2.99 ea = $5.98
Cheese (block) - $1.89


Lettuce = $.99
Garbage bags (40) - $4.99 (hated that I had to buy these, but we were almost out)
Ketchup - $1.29

Walmart - $6.20 - 6.16 (gift card) = .04 out of pocket
1 Red bell pepper 1.78
Large bag of frozen peas 1.86
Celery .98
Okra frozen 1.58

Total spent was $38.40. I came in under budget! I also reduced our gas budget for the week. I usually like to fill up the van so that I can take the girls to our favorite park or just run around town. This week I only put enough gas in the van to get my oldest to and from school. If we want to go to the park we will go to the one across the street (not as nice, but they will still get the exercise they need). 

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Going Paleo....

This past week has been a mess, our littlest has been sick with a high fever. The oldest has had a cough and general gunk. I have had nausea and just didn't feel well, in fact either did Hubby. So the beginning of our healthy eating habits went to the wayside. We are not 100%, but we have decided to plod ahead and figure this thing out.

After researching a lot of "plans", we have decided to go Paleo. There are a lot of great resources out there on exactly what it is, but basically you eat things like meat, veggies, fruit and no grains. You want to eat as closely to what our ancestors in the Paleolithic Era ate. I might get some flak on this, but it is similar to the Atkins diet. The main difference is that you can still have your root veggies (i.e. potatoes). Basically you want to eat food in its least processed state.

I like the sound of that. Eating food as it is meant to be eaten. So I will be giving up bread, processed, sugar laden drinks/food.

Why am I doing this? I have PCOS (poly-cystic ovarian syndrome). It is a metabolic disorder that has its basis in insulin resistance. One of the best things to do for treatment is to eat a low-carb diet. Many have also had success eating a paleo diet. Having tried a strict low-carb diet in the past, I knew I could not maintain it long term. I am looking for something long term that I will enjoy and not feel too deprived.

What my mom taught me:
Basically my mom lives this kind of paleo diet without realizing it. She avoids bread and grains, but will still indulge in the occasional baked potato. She has been able to maintain a healthy weight and it has helped her with her own health issue (diverticulitis).

I also like what this kind of eating plan can do for the girls. I have a friend who switched to this way of eating and a lot of the behavioral issues her little girl was having was drastically reduced. My girls are healthy eaters overall, but they have gotten the bad habit of stealing our soda a little too often.

This weekend I am doing a menu plan and grocery shopping so that we can start this plan on Monday. Once I get the menu plan done I will be posting it to this blog's face-book page. I would love it if you had any advice or recipes that you share them.

Let's do this!