One Year, Eight Weeks: Famine and Feast Eating Lifestyle

My stomach was on a roller coaster ride this week. I found myself too busy to eat until five hours after I woke up (I wake up at 4:30 am), and though I tried spacing out my packed breakfast, I wound up eating most of it in one sitting, finishing it off around ten, before getting home by noon or one o'clock and eating until I was stuffed.

This is not good, folks!

Eating before I go to work is out of the question, The medication I take for my slow thyroid needs an empty belly for at least an hour. By that time I'm on my way to dropping my husband off at work. After he's at work, I'm on call at the first job. I might be able to fit in a little something then, but not always- especially when it's busy.

This week was crazy busy.

I found myself not digging into breakfast until after eight in the morning. Usually I take a small break around seven. I think that happened once this week. Once I was done working that job, I'd go home for lunch- and eat everything in sight because I was too hungry.
Being miserable and bloated is not my idea of a good time. 

Did I mention I have gremlins in my house? They eat all my good home cooking so I'm left with nothing but peanut better sandwiches to eat. My son eats the leftover dinner foods and my daughter dove into my fruit and veggie stash- not a bad habit for her, but I would have appreciated a little warning that we were running out! 
I didn't go shopping this weekend and when I opened the fruit drawer for my daily apple, all I got was a whole lot of empty. Next time I'm buying a lot more fruit and packing away my lunches before my son stores dinner leftovers away.

Maybe I'll even put note on the containers..."Touch this and Die"... sounds about right, don't you think?

Even the scale had it in for me this week. I gained two pounds. 312 now. Ugh.


Lessons learned:

Buy more fruit and veggies for the girl gremlin.

Pack and mark my lunches for the boy gremlin.

Make a point to eat something between calls by 7:00 am.

If you're too hungry, drink a huge glass of water (maybe two!) before sitting down to eat lunch.

Don't eat after 7:00 pm.


Oh yeah, that last one got me several times this week. My husband came home and made something or I did (mostly him though), but it took a long time and we usually didn't eat until eight at night. Not good if you're going to bed an hour later!
Nightmares plagued me the entire week, and I feel the late eating helped them along. Then I woke up tired...and hungry. Let's just say this wasn't one of my more stellar weeks concerning good eating habits.

Now I need to go shopping!

One Year, Seven Weeks: On and Off the Treadmill

I feel like I'm on a treadmill without actually having touched one in years!

Life's treadmill keeps my butt firmly plastered to the seat of my van, my desk chair, and the folding chair I use for face painting and sewing. Standing and walking feels good, but I have to admit, those little breaks in my day happen less often than baseball seventh inning stretches.

And I desperately need those stretches. And walks. I'm definitely on the wrong treadmill here!

This week I maintained. I cooked my fanny off this weekend (unfortunately my fanny found me when I was sleeping and reattached itself), so I have at least two kinds of soup to eat during the week. I made homemade green/berry tea (very low calorie and very tasty!) and I'm ready to start losing once more. 

Spring is coming, 
the grass is green, 
if I start walking 
I'll soon get lean!

Lessons learned:

Cooking over the weekend really helps at night during the week when I'm too tired to cook- and hunger can make me make bad choices.

I started asking friends who live close to me if they want to walk with me when I get the chance.

I need to make time to walk. Or purchase an exercise bike or home elliptical for easier access to exercise.


Sometimes I long for an unhurried schedule where I can keep track without the chaos. But until that happens, I have to persevere and get my weight down to a more manageable level. I'm still mad at myself for having almost met my 50 pound goal and slipping so far back. But I'm not going to let that stop me from getting back to that point!

One Year, Six Weeks: Healthy Eating on the Go!

This was a week of mixed blessings.

I did a lot of hours this week, and often didn't have time to make dinner. My husband was a great help, and cooked a few meals during the week. The good thing was we had a lot to eat- the bad thing was there was a lot of pasta and not too many veggies.

Breakfast and lunches consisted of the same foods for the most part. This week it was chicken salad with a side of sliced green peppers and apples slices or a banana for a snack...except for that one day where I bought a hoagie. A turkey hoagie with ranch dressing and bacon on a whole wheat roll. That sucker was consumed for both lunch and dinner- and worth every calorie.

I also finished off the gourmet candies my sweet husband gave me for Valentines Day. Not all at once, mind you- just a nibble here and there during the entire week.

The funny thing is the scale still showed that I lost another pound!

Now that the candy and hoagie are finished off, I can try to behave myself this week. 

Lessons learned:

It's okay to indulge once in a while, as long as 'once in a while' doesn't mean ' every day'.

Rest is just as important as eating healthy. I tend to indulge more when I'm tired.

Anytime you can snatch a chance to exercise, do it!


This past weekend I took an impromptu walk with a friend. It felt great! I had to sit once or twice, (which showed me I'm in desperate need of regular exercise), but it was a great walk with a good friend. I really need to start a walking club!

On the whole not a bad week, though I admit to indulging too much. Now there's nothing in the house to tempt me, so this week should be even better!

One Year, Five Weeks: Eating Lifestyle On The Upswing!

It's amazing what you can do when you stop being lazy!

I shopped. I prepped. I planned. And I lost three pounds!

310 never felt so good.

Rotisserie chicken was the main food for breakfast, with a packed salad of romaine lettuce and grape tomatoes, sans dressing. I don't need dressing, so this wasn't so much a weight loss choice but a personal one. I also took a nice crunchy apple, cored and sliced or diced melon for easy snacking.

That lasted me all morning. 

For lunch there was Green Soup and an orange. For dinner? Well, I tried to keep away from the typical starchy stuff, but my husband made four trays of mac and cheese, so that's what was for dinner most of the week. I had one helping and supplemented with fruit later.

When I ran out of chicken, I did have breakfast sandwiches, but only two days that week. On the weekend I made myself special eggs (scrambled eggs with sauteed spinach and cherry tomatoes with a slice of American cheese in them) and a side of bacon. Yum!

Some days I forgot to eat lunch or didn't have time to eat, and ate what was left of my apple slices instead. I was amazed at how little I really needed to eat without feeling deprived. Sometimes I came home with leftovers!

This week I'll buy two chickens so I can also make chicken salad, and slice up some green peppers to go with it. Together they make a really good meal!

Lessons learned:

When you don't focus on food a lot, you realize you're not as hungry as you thought.

Eat when you're hungry and only when you're hungry.

Eat until satisfied- not full.

A few bites every hour or so is better than eating all at once- especially when your job is driving!


It wasn't easy doing all of this. Maintaining the fridge and keeping it full of grab-and-go good food is hard when time is limited. Sometimes I don't have time on the weekends and have to do it on my short breaks during the week- but it can be done. I just have to stop being lazy about it!

I have to remind myself that this isn't a fad diet- or any kind of 'diet' at all- this is a lifestyle I have to maintain if I want to continue losing weight- the proof is on the scale. Smart shopping works. Prepping works. Planning works. But it's up to me to keep things going!

One Year, Four Weeks: First I Trip, Then I Fall..Not-so-New Eating Lifestyle

You'd think after a year, I'd get the hang of this eating thing.

Of course I wasn't working outside of my home this time last year, so maybe I need to rethink my rethinking. 

Got on the scale. The scale was having a bad day. It read 313.

I got off. I got on again. I rubbed the sand from my bleary eyes. But it was the same number. 313.

To be honest, I have no idea what I did to gain that much weight! Well...maybe an inkling....

Breakfast sandwiches, whether they be homemade or from the local convenience store just have too many calories- and I think the bread makes me hungrier. And tireder. Yes, I know that's not a real word- but it counts!

I'm in the proverbial rock and hard place. I need to reduce the stress, which in my case means quit at least one job. But if I stop one job, then I don't have the funds to pay off debt. I don't pay off debt, it gets bigger. The next thing you know I'll be living in a box somewhere behind the supermarket with my husband, kids and three cats.

Egad.

No time to relax, no time to quit. But there is a solution. Work a little harder during the small breaks I do have to start an at-home biz. Once I get the ball rolling there, one job can be cut- the one that uses up the most hours. Fortunately it's also the one that I don't have to work if I don't want to (and yes, right now I have to).

Oh goody...more stress. But stress with a goal.

Okay, enough about time. Let's talk food.

Most of the foods I had this past week involved bread, pasta or rice. Rice isn't so bad in small quantities (like in my clear broth soups), but the former two are causing issues. This weekend, we made four different casserole dishes of mac and cheese with ham, each one a different recipe. 
Mac and cheese with ham is good hot or cold, but I'm avoiding it like the plague because of the big weight gain- I just don't want to risk being hungrier and craving more!
I also stopped the breakfast sandwiches and had two boiled eggs, some rotisserie chicken, and some lettuce this morning. Okay, I packed all of this for my breakfast, and only ate the eggs so far. The chicken and lettuce will be a snack later this afternoon. I came home and had Green Soup for lunch. This is a very low-cal soup, containing julienne pork or chicken (right now it's pork), carrots, rice, and spinach in a chicken broth. Goood eatin'!

I'm still writing the recipe book and when it's done, this recipe will be in it.

I'm also taking an apple with me, all sliced and ready to eat neatly in the van between jobs. The goal is to limit the bread and pasta and see what happens. All I know is i don't want to gain any more weight.

Sometimes it's the hard falls that rattle you enough to make changes. This is one of those times.

Lessons Learned:

Whether you trip or fall, keep getting up- before you can't get up. 

Sometimes you just have to pull up your sleeves and work a little harder before you can relax a little.

Sometimes you also have to make yourself a meal if the current choices are not the best for you.

Just because there's plenty of it, doesn't mean you eat plenty of it!


I'm starting to feel the weight in my clothing, my knees, and in my walk. It's not pleasant, trust me. I've just been too busy to notice-or care. But I have to care if I want to make any kind of progress. No more skating by, hoping I'll get away with it. I'll own the losses or the gains. I'll fix what I can, change what I can, and cry when I can't handle things. Then I'll pray, get up, and start all over again!

One Year, Three Weeks: Emotional Eating- The Lifestyle Eaters' Wrecking Ball

The past two weeks have been rough. 

We were hit with a huge snowstorm.
Because of the snow, I couldn't do my regular jobs.
Two family members had severe health issues.
The van needed some repairs.

Experiencing one of these can put an emotional eater off track. But all four? Let's just say I haven't been on my best behavior.

I ate good food (for the most part), but I ate too much of it. Yet my weight has maintained for the past two weeks- I can't tell you how relieved I am! I thought for sure I'd gained.

But I'm tired. Being tired makes me lazy and when I'm lazy I don't usually prepare my veggie and fruit snacks. It also makes me want to eat chips and other comfort foods. Bad, bad, bad.

I had a breakthrough today! I was food shopping, and chips were on sale. On. Sale. Seriously? My favorite 'no-no' food that I so desperately craved was not only right there in my face in bulk, but at a bargain price! I took two bags and tossed them in my cart.

Two steps later, I yanked them out of my cart and put them back. Then I finished shopping, sans chips. A small breakthrough, but a breakthrough nonetheless. 

Instead I bought cantaloupe, honeydew and apples and prepped them as soon as I got home. I'm going to win this war!

Lessons learned:

Anything that goes in the cart can come back out any time before checkout. 

Keep your hands busy when you're stressed. 

Walk when you're stressed.

Do anything else but eat when you're stressed!

Stuff happens. How you react to it is entirely up to you, not the chips or the sale signs.


It's been a rotten two weeks. But I celebrate every breakthrough and blessing, no matter how small. God loves that. He's the only reason I keep going every time I stumble. And if you read this blog regularly, you know I stumble a lot. God just picks me up, dusts me off, and helps me try again. And if He can do that with me, He'll do it for you too!

Remember what Dory said..."Just keep swimming, just keep swimming..." Imma get mah bathin' suit...how about you?

One Year, Two Weeks: Too Weak is Right!

My apologies for such a late post. Family emergencies and too many late hours took their toll this week. I will be making a fresh report on Monday...Promise! (and no worries- the family is fine! :) )

One Year, One Week: On Losing Ground- New Eating Lifestyle

It's been a weird week. 

Sometimes I behaved, sometimes I caved. I was tempted and both failed and succeeded- sometimes in the same day!

Let the scale show I've dropped two more pounds. I'm now 307!

Surprised? Me too. Especially after having more than one doughnut that was brought home from the bakery. I really need to thank my husband for that...not.

The first major change this week was the snacks (minus the doughnuts). I took a banana or apple slices with me in the van and ate during work breaks. Apples go a lot father than bananas (and travel better!) so the main fruit this week was munchy, crunchy apples.

Good stuff, but after a week of eating apples, it does get a bit boring. Grapes are a good choice, but more sugary than fibery. Not as filling as apples, but maybe a combo of both would work.

Since I won't have time to wash hands during my driving jobs, the fruit has to be finger-friendly. Time to go to the market and start experimenting.

Soup was also prominent this week, but too many times I found myself having two bowls at mealtimes. Or a ton of buttered bread to go with the one bowl. I still need to cut back- not out. Bread is great with soup, but I don't need two huge slices- which is more like four regular ones!

The cold snap has finally arrived here so exercising outside of the van is a no-go. Exercise will have to be in the house or running around the downtown marketplace for now. At least until I save enough to get some kind of exercise equipment.

I was thinking of getting a rowing machine; something that would exercise all of me, and tighten up my muscle. I have a lot of muscle- it's just well insulated. Really well insulated.

Hopefully some of that insulation will melt off when Spring gets here sometime in July! (Juuust kidding! But it is a very late winter here!)

Lessons Learned:

Fruit works. Find more finger-friendly types.

Soup works. Make more varieties of clear broth soups for the week's lunches or dinners.

Quiche works. Much better than store-bought sandwiches, and much healthier too- since there's hardly any bread (I used a tortilla for the 'crust')- and I made it at home!

Lunch boxes work. They keep the apples from browning and the bananas from getting squooshed. And the containers keep grapes from rolling around.

Finding a compact, all-over body workout machine is harder than I thought. 


I'll be honest with you- I didn't think I lost anything this week. Doughnuts are not my weakness, but taste really good when temptation comes and you've had a rough day. I was surprised I lost anything, no less two pounds! I give full credit to the fruits and soups this week. They saved my proverbial bacon.

Mmmm..bacon....

I never thought working and eating healthy would be so hard! Sometimes it seems to work great, then I fail- and I don't just fail an eensy-weensy bit, I fail gloriously! But as long as I learn from yesterday and plan for today and tomorrow, I should prevail- with a lot of prayers to God for help- because there's no way I could pull this off on my own!

Week Fifty Two: The Dear-God-It's-Been-A-Year New Eating Lifestyle

One year. Wow. 

I've had a lot of ups and downs. I've worked hard to earn my successes, and I'm really mad at myself for my failures. But I've worked it through, sorted things out, and forgave myself. 

That last part is very, very important.

When you're trying to lose weight and you're an emotional eater, berating yourself for mistakes and setbacks just pours jellybeans down your throat (or insert the 'taboo food' of your choice).

You fall back.
You get back up.
You try again. 
Period.

No one ever had a perfect experience losing weight. No one. So who am I to belittle myself for setbacks? Giving up is the worst thing I could do! So I get back up, dust off the cookie crumbs, and start over.

I started over last week.

My kids gave me a really nice insulated lunch box for my birthday. I've been using it well. 

Those breaks in between shifts are now spent in the produce section of the market instead of the candy section, and I hand-picked a nice assortment of apples- the nice crunchy kind. In the morning I core and slice one, put the slices in one of my lunchbox containers, make and pack my breakfast, fill my water bottle, and I'm good to go until lunchtime.

I was surprised at how long my food lasted. I ate my breakfast in thirds, and only when hungry. I'd snack on the apple slices throughout the morning and found I only ate half of them- so I saved the rest for my evening shift.

Lunch and dinner were at home, and I'm still working on better choices than sandwiches. Not a bad choice, but something without so much bread would be better.

I messed up a little. Sometimes I had seconds. But all in all it was a pretty good week.

The end of the week came. I stepped on the scale. I lost one pound!

That one seemingly insignificant pound broke my weight gain run. Too many weeks of gain, gain, gain, broken by this one little pound. I'm going to give it a "Farewell Forever" party- without the cake!

I'm going to get back under 300 pounds.
I'm going to get back to 288 pounds.
I'm going to beat 288 pounds!

That's the first three goals. I'll make new ones as I go, but this is a good place to start.

Lessons Learned:

Fruit and veggie snacks work- though fruit works a little better.

Don't prepare food when tired- Prep it when you have a clear head.

Recognize the difference between hunger and thirst. Drink first, eat second.

Any pound lost is a good pound lost!


I'm finally back on the road to weight loss once more. It feels so good to see those numbers going down again! My biggest issue is consistency- if I can just keep the foods interesting, prep them in the mornings and weekends, things will keep moving in the right direction.

What a great start to the new year!

Week Fifty One: The Dear-God-It's-Time-To-Reboot! New Eating Lifestyle

Fifty one weeks. Why wait another week to reboot? I'm starting now.

But let's first look at the year in review.

The first six to seven months I did well, losing almost forty eight pounds. Then it happened.

I started working outside of my home for the first time ever. Stress overload. The New Eating Lifestyle I'd fought so hard for began to slip away- and I let it. But not without putting up a good fight first.
Unfortunately, I gave in to the abyss of stress eating. Eating on the fly, eating too much, and then buying the foods I knew would make me fall further back. Although I'm not sure jellybeans are a food...

So here I sit, feeling discombobulated. On one hand, I still lost twenty five pounds- but I could have lost almost fifty. I'm happy that I didn't completely fall off the vegetable truck, though it was a close call.

I begin the new year at a new weight. 310 pounds. Last year I started at 335. With a lot of hard work, that number should be a lot lower by this time next year. I hope.

Let the reboot begin!

No more second helpings. No more buying junk food. Have fruit and veggies cut and ready to take on the job. My family even helped by getting me a really nice insulated lunch box! Now I can take hot or cold foods with me- which opens up a whole new world of homemade healthy foods.

No more sandwich bags of chicken, baby spinach and tomatoes in my purse anymore! No more squashed bananas! (did you just hear that line from The Lion King??) Now everything will be cool and neat in their own little containers.
All I have to do is wake up a little earlier so I can pack a better breakfast and snack, and I'm golden!

Lessons Learned:

A twenty five pound loss is still a loss!

Since the gym is out and it's winter, find ways to get some extra exercise.

Meal plan. Snack plan. Do a lot of the buying and cutting over the weekend or during lunch breaks at home.

Whenever you feel the urge to eat more, go into another room and do something else- keep those hands and your mind busy!


It's been a rough year weight-wise, but still rewarding. Now I have a new goal- let's see if I can beat this weight loss by this time next year!