All posts for the month April, 2012

Dear Diary, Day 1

Sweat it Out:
Elliptical 60 minutes
Ab work
Stretching

Burned 615 Calories according to the trusty Bodybugg!

My day of food in photo’s:

Breakfast: Kashi Go Lean Crunch, 1 Cup of Vanilla Soy Milk, Fresh Strawberries, and half a Banana

Snack: Garlic Hummus, Baby Carrots, Rice Cake, and Justin's Chocolate Peanut Butter

Lunch: Orange Juice, Vanilla Pea Protein, Frozen strawberries, frozen banana, and 2 cups of Kale

The baby LOVES Green Smoothies!

Mac & Cheeze with Roasted Broccoli

I had an ok day with food.  I stayed within my calories, but I could have eaten less pasta at dinner and felt satisfied.  In fact, I’m trying to cut out unnecessary pseudo-grains, but  I had planned on making Mac & Cheeze last week, and never did so I needed to use the stuff I had.  Had no cravings!  Finishing up my last 32 oz’s of water which will make today’s total 128 oz’s.

Good workout.  Stretching is going awesome and I can feel myself getting more flexible and a huge difference even since last week!

Tracked everything on My Fitness Pal and here is where my day ended:

Not Bad!

Sleep tight ya’ll!

2 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on April 30, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Daily Stats

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on April 30, 2012

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2012/04/30/dear-diary-day-1/

Get to Fifty in Sixty!

I survived!!!!!  I can check 24 hour fast OFF of my list!  And look at this pretty little (and by little I mean GIANT) salad I broke my fast with:

It totally hit the spot.  I wanted to make sure that I didn’t end up eating the rest of the night (like I do when I normally fast), and so I ate this salad 2 Cutie Oranges, some dried cherries, and a Kombucha.  Then I did the dishes, turned off the light, and the kitchen was closed for the evening (“kitchen closed” will always remind me of my mom).

Starting Weight

When I stepped on the scale this morning my weight was 257.2.  This was actually not as bad as I thought it was going to be, so it is a great way to start out this new beginning!  I am calling this new challenge Get to Fifty in Sixty!  This title may be a little off considering that I have 66 Days to complete my goal of getting to 50 pounds.  Originally I was thinking that I wanted to get to 50 pounds total loss, which  at the time would have been 20 pounds.  After calculating the numbers I would actually need to lose 24.4 pounds.  What the heck, I’m going to go for it!

The Official Challenge:  Get to 50 pounds lost by July, 4th 2012!  

My ending weight should be 232.8!  The reward?  I’m thinking that I will buy a new workout outfit, and a new casual outfit.

How will I achieve this goal?  

I have come up with a few goals for the next couple of months and although there may be a lot, a few of them don’t require that much time.  One goal that I have already accomplished this weekend is to join My Fitness Pal (if you want to be friends my username is carrieseals, friend me!).  I had actually joined MFP last year and so it won’t let me change my starting weight, and the weight loss chart is off, but oh well, what are gonna do!  I was using Livestrong.com’s Daily Plate before and I have found that the calorie goal is totally out of whack.  Example:  I put the same exact stats into both system requesting for a 2 pound a week loss and Livestrong told me to eat 2176 calories a day (which I have ALWAYS thought was too many calories) and My Fitness Pal told me to eat 1400 which I think is spot on.  Here are the complete goals for this challenge:

  • Complete 24 Hour Cleansing Fast
  • Re-activate My Fitness Pal Account
  • Drink over 100 oz’s of water EVERYDAY.  I’m usually pretty good about this, but on days when I run errands I fall a little short, and my body needs a LOT of water to feel normal.
  • Do some form of exercise 6 days a week.
  • Workout at least 3 times a week with the girls from the church
  • Get to the activity center at least 3 times a week even if that means two-a-day workouts
  • Find a weight lifting program.  I think I have over done The New Rules of Lifting for Women.  The workouts have become repetative and boring.
  • Finish reading How to Disease Proof Your Child, and one fun book.
  • Get more social with people in my church branch.  See if someone would help me out with Hanna so I can go to the gym in the morning instead of having to wait all day for Dustin to get home.
  • Track daily on My Fitness Pal and do daily stat posts periodically throughout the week.
  • Meal Plan Weekly
  • Only go out to dinner once a week.  We don’t have a problem with this right now since we don’t have a lot of restaurants near us!
  • Blog.  99% of the time I enjoy blogging with my whole heart, but when I am not on track it gets to be a constant reminder of how bad I’m doing.  It has also been a great tool to keep getting back to basics.  One that I need to utilize more often when I’m having a hard time.
  • Utilize my social networking.  The more focused I am on losing the weight, the more it happens, and it happens even more when I am connecting with people who know what I’m going through.  Have you liked me on Facebook yet?  Are you following me on twitter?  I plan on using these tools to my advantage (without letting them cut into family time).  

Seems like a pretty good list, right?  I am so excited for the next few weeks and I just know that the outcome will be a positive one!

What are you doing to start your week off right?  

What is a goal you have for this week?

Ever fasted?  Easy, hard?  Felt any difference?  

11 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on April 30, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Challenges, Commitment, Get to Fifty in Sixty, Goals, Making It Happen

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on April 30, 2012

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2012/04/30/get-to-fifty-in-sixty/

24 Hours of Starving Myself, Also Known As A Cleansing Fast

This weekend I have had a chance to get the kinks out.  I’ve had some wonderful support from family and from my awesome readers who have left me with so much positivity and motivation to start my new challenge.  I’ve been thinking for the past few days of how I am going to achieve the new goals that I am setting for myself and with all of the possibilities come excitement  and anticipation for all that is waiting for me!

One of the things that I knew would be at the top of my list to kick-start me into a fresh perspective would be to complete a 24 hour fast.

What are the benefits to fasting, you ask?  Well let me tell you…

According to All About Fasting:

When we cease the over-indulgence that has become so common in our modern world, even for a short while, our lives and our priorities become clearer. Do these “short while”s occasionally, and you have a tool that will greatly add to your life.

Fasting will:

  1. rest the digestive system
  2. allow for cleansing and detoxification of the body
  3. create a break in eating patterns, while shining a spotlight on them
  4. promote greater mental clarity
  5. cleanse and heal “stuck” emotional patterns
  6. lead to a feeling of physical lightness, increasing energy level
  7. promote an inner stillness, enhancing spiritual connection

So where am I right now in the fasting process?  About 18 hours in and counting.  With pregnancy and then breast feeding, I got our of practice from the once a month fasting I normally practiced with my church.  What better timing than to help it with my weight loss goals, right?

Unfortunately, after having a VERY bad last week, and a “last supper” dinner last night, my body is detoxifying pretty badly right now.  And meal planning will definitely not be happening until after I have broken my fast (at 6:00 tonight) since every time I look at food my tummy starts to grumble.

What I am looking forward too?:

  • Mental clarity
  • physical lightness
  • a break in craving sugar, fats, and salt
  • starting my week off right
  • the accomplished feeling I will have after doing something that was hard (yes, going without food for 24 hours is hard, even more hard when you are a food addict!)
If I can get through this I can get through a lot more than I give myself credit for.  And I must give props to the hub’s for doing it with me, my husband is a trooper folks!
What will I be breaking my fast with?
Salad.
A very LARGE, totally plant-based salad.
Stay tuned tomorrow for full details on “the plan”!
2 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on April 29, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Benefits of Fasting, Challenges, Making It Happen, Plant Based Diet

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on April 29, 2012

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2012/04/29/24-hours-of-starving-myself-also-known-as-a-cleansing-fast/

Day 1 4/30/2012

Let me start out by saying that I appreciate the comments and emails that have been sent to me after yesterday’s post.  They do not go unnoticed and have really helped me out through this trying week.  I don’t have days like this very often, but they are usually followed by a bout of motivation which is exactly what I need right now.

I’m taking this weekend to really think about what I’m doing to accomplish my goals.  I started this blog in June 2011 and since then I have bounced around 30 pounds lost, and to be honest, I really thought I would be further along than I am.

Monday 4/30/2012 starts a new journey for me.  The journey where my highest weight will no longer be 282.8 pounds.  I don’t want to keep patting myself on the back for the same 30 pounds that I have already lost and it is time to start giving myself gold stars for getting beyond that number.

I realize that giving myself a 20 pound weight loss goal is unreasonable in just the short time of 6 weeks (which would be the anniversary of my blog), so instead I give myself until fourth of July.  That is a little over 2 months to get to the fifty pound mark where I can really do some celebrating.

I will start with a weigh in on Monday 4/30/2012, and do CONSISTENT weigh in’s every Thursday.

As far as the other details of this goal to make it to 50 pounds lost, I’m not really sure.  But I do know that I will take this weekend to really think about them, and do a full post about them on Monday when I have my first official weigh in.

I’m ready to get past this funk, and make things happen!  Who’s with me?!

13 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on April 27, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Making It Happen

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on April 27, 2012

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2012/04/27/day-1-4302012/

Unbalanced

I have fallen off of the weight loss wagon hard this week. So hard in fact that it rolled over me, reversed, and then rolled over me again.  Today especially.  I just could not get enough food.  All I could think about was the next meal I was going to eat.  I have had no desire to post and then I realized that a lot of people experience the same things when trying to lose weight, and I owe it to my blog to talk about these issues.  I hate to sound vulnerable and dramatic and so I suppress the urge to be a whiny writer, and spare you all the pity party.  But this is also what we sign up for when we decide to put our lives out in the open and offer our support to each other.

I had a friend (who reads the blog), who made a comment on my Facebook page once. It said “It seems unfair that I can exercise for hours and only burn X amount of calories yet I can literally eat 5000 calories in less than 10 minutes”.  This is probably the most frustrating thing for me when it comes to weight loss.  I can be perfect all day, plus workout, and sabotage it in just a few minutes with poor eating decisions.

I am attributing this to hormones.  Weird thing happened this week.  Yes, I am going to talk about menstruation again, so buckle up.

I talked recently about how my period has become like clock work, which is great!  But randomly, I got it for the second time this month only 10 days after finishing the first time.  After thinking back on my diet I am attributing it to the increase in Soy in my diet, and after doing some research I found that it can affect your menstrual cycle.  For the last 3 weeks I have had some sort of Soy Milk daily and it increased at the beginning of this week when I had a certain craving for cereal (and found out that Peanut Butter Captain Crunch is in fact Vegan, google it), and ended up ingesting quite a bit of soy.

Nothing like going through PMS twice in one month!  Needless to say, I have an abundance of soy milk that is now useless.  Soy is out.

The truth of the matter is this:  I am having a battle between my body and my mind.  My mind wants to continue on with old habits, but my body is screaming for the new healthy way that I have been eating these past 3 weeks.  Self-sabotage is in full force right now, and I don’t really now why, or how to stop it.

Fact:  I am a food addict.  The only difference between a food addiction and a drug/alcohol addiction is that you have to eat to live.  Very unfair.  I recognize that I have addictive tendencies, and I tend to go 100% into something until I lose interest and move onto something else.  The only thing is that I need to fix this addiction and find a way to cope with my feeling without having to eat!  I’m hoping that a light bulb will just go off one day and it will all make sense.  Until then, I have to get over the bad weeks and turn them around.  I just have to keep repeating to myself I can do this.

I’m hoping to get out of this funk and back to regular posting next week.  I just have to make it through the weekend!

6 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on April 26, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Frustration

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on April 26, 2012

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2012/04/26/unbalanced/

Friday Link Love

Just to go along with yesterday’s post, it looks like it isn’t just me who struggles with weekend indulgence.  Check out this little factoid I stole from Hungry Runner Girl:

I see the same decline starting Friday around lunch time (especially when I was working an office job), and the weekend gets progressively worse.

I don’t know about you, but I have a pretty full google reader with a lot of blogs and blog friends that I like to catch up with periodically through the day.  There are a few blogs that I skim (usually if they post more than once a day) and blogs that I read all the way through (usually people who I actually interact with through my blog on at least a weekly basis).  This week I made a conscious effort to star or “pin” some of my favorite articles that I thought all you guys would like to read as well.  You’re welcome.

Meatless Weekdays – Summer Challenge with Skinny Jeans Dreams

I have mentioned Krystle’s blog before and if you haven’t checked it out yet you really should.  She has offered out a summer challenge featuring meatless weekday’s.  Since I am making the slow, but steady transition into no animal products I decided to jump on board with this challenge!  I’m starting it right after I am done with my kick-start (4/23) and completing it through the summer until Aug. 26th.  This is such a great challenge and she gives a lot of great reasoning behind why going meatless on the weekdays will boost your health.  Check it out!

Eat Less, Move More

This post really hit me because the concept of “Eat Less, Move More” is preached all over the place and for some of us it is not that easy.  Saying I am a food addict is almost an understatement, and it is frustrating to hear people say that it is easy to lose weight if you would just do ________.  This post felt like I was talking to myself in a mirror (although I have never weighed over 400 pounds).  The author of this article blogs over at The Anti-Jared and is an inspiration (but very humble).

What I’ve Learnt From Blogging (She is from the UK, so yes, it is LEARNT)

If you have ever thought of starting a blog, you need to read this article.  The etiquette portion is SPOT-ON.  I can’t tell you how many times I have tried to lend my support to other bloggers when they are in time of need and have never gotten a response or acknowledged.  And I’m not talking once.  Multiple times with the same blogger.  I have found that blogger world can be kind of like High school, and I just thank my lucky stars that I am now an adult who has the sense to delete a blogger from my reader if they are constantly negative and don’t acknowledge their readers.  I invite you to do the same.

I try to interact with my readers, and I am not here to just hear myself talk about my thoughts.  I could get that from a private journal.  I am here to find support and give support in return and I hope that you guys feel that in my posts.  I even wrote a post about it once.

Interview With Nutritarian: Helen

It is NEVER too late to change your eating habits.  Just ask 87-year-old Helen.  A great article of how she overcame a stroke and started eating plant-based.  A very motivational story!

10 Simple Steps to Happiness

This was the first article that inspired Friday Link Love because I just had to share the wonderful article with you all!  It is all about happiness and living compassionately.  I won’t ruin the rest for you.  You’ll need to check out the entire post.  It was very motivational.

Enjoy these great links!  I hope they start your weekend off on a positive note!  Here’s to keeping our food on track for the weekend!

5 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on April 20, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Blogging, Blogs to Read, Challenges, Inspiration, Link Love, Meatless Weekdays, Motivation, Plant Based Diet, Smile

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on April 20, 2012

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2012/04/20/friday-link-love/

A Well Oiled Machine (Weigh in)

I am beginning to be a well oiled machine, on the weekdays.  It’s the weekend that is killing my timing belt.

Starting Weight: 282.8

Last Week’s Weight: 254.2

This Week’s Weight: 254.2

This Week’s Loss: Nada

Total Loss To Date: 28.6

Can I tell you a secret?  Shhhh, come closer.  I don’t track my food.  Not even a little.  And I haven’t been since the beginning of my kickstart on April 2.  Not tracking actually works for me, even though the scale isn’t showing it.  I started working out this week again and if my muscles weren’t so sore and retaining water I would have seen a loss.  Oh, and if I wouldn’t have eaten like a crazy person over the weekend.

Like I said before, I am great on the weekdays.  Monday through Friday afternoon I eat well and I see a consistent loss on the scale daily (this is why I don’t track), and then the weekend comes and we run errands, schedules get thrown off and everything goes down the poop shoot.

This last weekend was no exception and I ate a plant-based diet, but it was more of the crap of the plant that I ate (white pasta and a whole lot of bread).  I did not focus on eating nutrient dense foods and come Monday I was up 3 pounds from the salt.  it took me the rest of this week to get back down to what I was last week and then add in exercise and sore muscles?  I knew a loss wasn’t in the books.

I’ve been told several times from Dr’s and Health professionals that losing weight with some of my conditions will be difficult and frustrating (like losing weight aren’t those things already!).  I’ve mentioned before that I have Hypothyroidism, and POS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome), both conditions are a never-ending cycle of fat.  Even when I see a perfect week of eating and exercise I will only see a 1 pound loss and I will admit that it does get frustrating.

The Silver Lining

I will admit that my new way of eating has been a huge point of positivity in my life.  Not only does it improve my mind and body, but if I do it correctly I don’t EVER have to track my food (something I was getting use to having to do for the rest of my life).  This is enough for me to say NO to the junk foods that frequently call my name.  Isn’t tracking food one of the most daunting, annoying things about converting to a healthy lifestyle?

It has also helped me to eat more intuitively, and with the kind of foods I am eating I feel satisfied, lighter, and it gives me more energy throughout the day.

I feel like I’ve got off on a tangent so let me bring it back around to my point.  I am not disappointed that I didn’t have a loss this week.  I know that I had a bad weekend, but I didn’t let it get me down and ruin the rest of my week.

This weekend I have a goal to continue good eating throughout Saturday & Sunday.  That includes when we go out on Friday night.  It is all about making the body work together like a well oiled machine, sustaining the good feeling that I have had all week-long through the weekend.

Happy Thursday All!!!

7 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on April 19, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Weigh in

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on April 19, 2012

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2012/04/19/a-well-oiled-machine-weigh-in/

WIAW: What I Eat When I Haven’t Gone Food Shopping

I know when it is time for food shopping when I can’t find Hanna anything to eat (she will only eat finger foods that she can feed herself), and since I couldn’t go to the store until the afternoon, I had a mish-mash of food today.

Check out Jenn over at Peas and Crayons if you want to get in on the What I Ate Wednesday fun!

Breakfast:  I had a little something different for breakfast today

Kashi Go Lean with Soy Milk.  Normally I would put 1/2 a banana on top, but I was out :(   I was still a little hungry and had a hankering for a piece of Great Harvest Cracked Wheat bread.  So I threw a piece in the toaster and spread a generous amount of Earth Balance spread on top (I could eat this ALL DAY LONG)

Lunch: Apparently my LARGE grainy breakfast worked because I wasn’t hungry until noon (I ate breakfast at 7:45, and going 4 hours without food is unheard of for me).  I made a everything-but-the-kitchen-sink salad.

Romaine Lettuce, Broccoli, Cucumber, Red Onion, Tomato, and Roasted Red Pepper hummus.  This salad was AMAZING!  Too bad I totally forgot to buy more lettuce when I went to the store today.

I had a mini Larabar on the side (larabar’s have been an obsession lately.  Plus, Hanna loves the mini-bars and they’re good for her so I oblige).

Snack:  A Couple of hours later I was hungry again, and Hanna started to whine so I decided it was time for a green smoothie for her and I to share.

Orange Juice, Frozen Banana, Frozen Strawberries, Vanilla Pea Protein, and 4 HUGE leaves of Kale.   I could barely get the straw away from Hanna, and I’m not kidding when I say that she drank at least half of it.

Dinner:  I decided to try a new-to-me Chipotle Garden Burger.

I offered to make my hub’s an actual hamburger, but he said no!  He was actually going to try the Garden Burger.  I thought they were pretty good.  He thought they were ok.  Hanna had about 4 bites and she decided that they were to spicy for her.  I also made some roasted yams as a side which turned out pretty good, but then again everything that is dipped in ketchup is right? Right.

A great day for food! I could eat like this everyday.

Happy Wednesday ya’ll!

6 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on April 18, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in WIAW

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on April 18, 2012

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2012/04/18/wiaw-what-i-eat-when-i-havent-gone-food-shopping/

Baptism By Fire

I am happy to report that I have crossed off one of my goals for the week yesterday.  Get over myself and go to the church exercise group.  Done and done!  I am so excited to be apart of these fun activities and it is going to be a great way for Hanna and I to get out of the house on daily basis.

It was a bit of a baptism by fire.  We were running a little late and so I rushed in the church last minute and hoped that they hadn’t started yet, which they hadn’t.  After a few introductions I let Hanna run off to play with the other kids and looked at the TV screen which read P90X.  P90X!?!?!  I fully admit, I was scared.  Especially since I had just met these people and I wanted to make a good first impression.

I sucked it up and decided that I was going to give it my best, and it was comforting to know that there were other girls who were questioning their capabilities as well.

I had a future plan that once I hit around 220 I would do a program like P90X (but I was more wanting to do Insanity).  I guess now was as good as any to see what my future self would be getting into.

My thoughts?  I liked it!  I could modify the moves pretty easily (it was the Plyometrics DVD so there was a LOT of jumping) and by about 30 minutes in I was sweating up a storm.  When I looked at how many calories I had burned on my Bodybugg it was around 500 which is the same as what I would have burned at the gym.

It was almost exactly like a group fitness class that I would have taken at the gym, but more laid back (considering that our kids were playing all around us and had to be tended to periodically).

This morning we played basketball, and let me mention that I have not played an actual basketball game since I was in my teens.  There were a few good girls and a few like me that were just happy to be moving.  Although I will say that I felt my competitiveness coming out (which doesn’t happen very often).  I was frustrated that I was missing baskets, and had to keep reminding myself that when I missed to say “shoot”  instead of $h!T (we were in a church after all).

At first I thought maybe I should just skip Tuesday’s and not play b-ball, but the other side of my head was saying, “don’t you want to get better and school some of those girls?”.  It’s funny how I think I’m not competitive, until I actually get into a situation that calls for it.  I keep telling myself it is a friendly game ;)

Are you competitive?

When is the last time you played a competitive sport?

4 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on April 17, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Goals, Sports, Workout

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on April 17, 2012

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2012/04/17/baptism-by-fire/

FMM: If Life Were A Movie

I know I don’t usually post twice in one day, but Friend Making Monday’s topic looked too fun to pass up. Plus, I am loving reading everyone’s movies that they wold love to be their life!

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

I can think of a few movies that would describe different times in my life, or some that I wish for my life for sure!  I was reminded last night of what I wished my teenage life was like:

Oh man, I loved that movie.  I also had a MAJOR crush on Ethan Embry (who played Mark) and I loved the way they made fun of Rex Manning.  I also realized that you are so dumb when you are a teenager, and that I am NOT looking forward to when Hanna gets there.  Give me patience.

The movie that I would love to be real-life (sometimes, I’m actually very satisfied where my life has gone) would definitely be this movie:

First off, I love Meryl Streep.  She is probably one of my favorite actress’s (loved her in Devil Wears Prada), and Julia Childs reminds me of my dad for some reason (I recall him watching her and making fun of her voice quite a few times).

At times I wish that I could be whisked away to a foreign country and be so bored that I learn how to cook amazingly!  Ever since I have been a stay-at-home-mom I have enjoyed cooking.  I’ve tried new things and tried to document the experience along the way.  maybe not as detailed as Julie, but I loved the way she made a goal and stuck with it.  Plus some of the food she made looked amazing, and just thinking about the chocolate cream pie she made makes my mouth water.  So much that I think I can’t talk about this anymore!

Don’t forget to link up over at Kenlie’s blog with what movie you would like to live in!

Leave a Comment
by Shrinking Carrie on April 16, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Friend Making Monday

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on April 16, 2012

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2012/04/16/fmm-if-life-were-a-movie/

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