Update on healthy eating!

Hey guys, remember how I told you we are done with the sugar?  I thought that I would do an update to how that is working for the family!  First off- the kids.  The kids have been in total sugar and junk food deprivation.  I got rid of it all at the same time.  The good news is that Duncan was pretty on board from the beginning.  I phrased it that we were all grounded from yucky food- so he could understand it.  He is pretty understanding and pretty on board.  He now asks before he eats anything if its yucky food or good for you food.  I love that.  I love that he is learning food choices in his own 4 year old way.  He is hooked on the high protein yogurt and scrambled egg whites.  Things have been pretty good with him.

Sophia has been pretty on point as well.  She is the best one at the store helping pick out all the vegetables.  We get our weekly veggies- carrots, onion, garlic, sweet potato, celery, green beans or asparagus.  After that, we stand back and look at all the veggies available and pick the ones that look the best.  She LOVES color, so she is always intrigued by the red/yellow/orange peppers and yellow squash.  I love that she is invested in picking the veggies.  I think that its easier to get her to eat them if she helped pick them.

I think the biggest struggle is Josh.  Bless his heart.  He has a pretty simple palette.  He isn't crazy about veggies and isn't very experimental with them.  He tries hard though.  Its hard to get the kids to get excited about trying new things when Daddy isn't crazy about it.  He is trying hard though.  Rather than picking up a two liter of soda (which I cant stand), he picked a packet or orange Kool Aid.  At least I can sweeten it with something other than sugar or cut the sweetness down a bit.  Baby steps....

I have found that my favorite workout videos are by Jillian Michaels.  She is easy to follow and she keeps it simple for us big folks who cant contort like a pretzel.  I have the Biggest Loser Sculpt and the 30 day shred.  I have been pretty diligent about working out.  Lyza's afternoon nap is JUST long enough for me to pop in a DVD.

Results wise....in a week I have dropped about six pounds.  Pretty decent-huh?  I haven't been hungry or cranky.  I actually have had A LOT of energy.  My joints haven't been QUITE as achy.  I have chronic back problems...so yeah.  I always drop a lot of weight in the first week, and then it tapers off- so Im not shocked by the first weeks results.

How are you all doing with your food choices and workouts?  What are you finding that works best for you?  What isnt working?  Let's keep it going guys!!

Getting back in the saddle

Ok, So after a lifelong struggle with weight, I researched and decided that gastric bypass was the right decision for me.  (Please spare me your judgement- I researched, and researched and made a long thought out decision that has forever changed my life for the better.) I had a dietitian do a work up on me taking into account my personal body chemistry.  We found that due to my body hyper producing insulin, I HAVE to stay away from carbs.  My blood sugar struggles to stay consistent without sugar. (and yes I know that there are carbs in vegetables and fruit)  My body turns grains, flours and sugars (duh) into sugar.  I have found that I feel the best when I eat 50% vegetables and fruit and 50% protein.  This is personal to ME.  Consequently,  I dropped an astounding 200 lbs in my first two years.

I have had my struggles with staying on the wagon here and there but I adhere to the core principals of it for the most part.  So I had a baby 7 1/2 months ago.  She is amazing and beautiful and perfect and I am SO glad to have her.  I am still nursing her so I kind of went into dietary free fall.  Nursing makes me hungry ALL THE TIME.  No seriously, every two hours I am hungry.  I only gained 12 lbs when I was pregnant with her and so I left the hospital ALMOST at my pre-preg weight.  Within 8 weeks, I was actually down 12 lbs from my pre-preg weight.  I didnt really watch what I ate while pregnant and got really relaxed about it.

Cut to 8 days ago....

I have put back on 15 lbs.  Yup- FIFTEEN pounds.  I about CHOKED when I got on the scale.  I knew something was up when my jeans were getting tight- and I believe in not looking at the numbers all the time- but 15 lbs?!  Yikes.  Not good my friend, not good at all.

So the Easter Bunny was an evil bastard this year and SPOILED me and the kids like crazy with Hershey Kisses, Crunch Bars and the ever evil- Peanut Butter Cups.  I am pretty sure that I single handedly ate about 2 POUNDS of chocolate.  I also lost it because the kids were refusing to eat, only to find their rooms covered in tin foil and Kisses flags.  They were climbing the refrigerator to find chocolate.  They were clawing each others eyes out over candy.  I got ANGRY.  I took a garbage bag and went through the pantry, everyone's bedroom, closet and any other hiding place I could find and threw out the junk.  ALL OF IT! All the Dorritos, the BBQ Lays, the Cream Soda, the chocolate, jelly beans- ALL OF IT- GONE.

My ass was huge and my kids were huge asses.  That was motivation enough for me.  I was back to eating right and going to get back on the horse!  I don't believe in counting calories.  I believe in food choices and eating whole, real foods.  Foods that contain only one ingredient like- chicken, eggs, fish, asparagus, carrots, nuts.  You know- FOOD.  I grill, roast, steam and poach to my hearts content.  I use LOTS of herbs- they are calorie free and make everything taste good.  I quit drinking soda YEARS ago- but I have replaced it with both black and herbal teas (hot and iced).  I carry a 32 ounce water bottle with me EVERYWHERE.  I drink over a gallon a day.  I DO drink coffee and that is where my indulgence and my bad thing takes place- I use artificial sweetener in my coffee.  Oh well....sue me.

I am back to eating slowly until I am full.  I eat when I am hungry and I NEVER deprive myself.  If I want something sweet- I find a way to make it happen without it being horrible.  I don't believe in cooking two meals- so whatever I eat, the kids eat or a modified version of it.  If its nutritious for me, its good for them too.   I also have chosen to make it an adventure in cooking again.  We are finding new ways to make everyone happy AND healthy.  The kids attitudes have improved and they just know- we are all grounded from sugar.

Its funny though because within two or three days, we all are fine with making different choices.  Even the kids are on board.  No one is crying for pasta or screaming for ice cream.  I know that looking at food as a source of nutrition has really helped in changing the way our family eats.  The kids get excited to choose the veggies and protein for dinner.  When I let them choose what to eat, we all have a better dinner experience.  Take tonight for instance.  Sophie chose ham and egg cups, broccoli and cauliflower and a mashed sweet potato.  That had all of our nutrition covered and it was YUMMY.  No screaming or crying at the dinner table and we all felt GOOD after dinner.

I have three young kids and two daycare children too- so leaving to go to a gym is impossible not to mention- I hate the gym.  I have a treadmill that I LOVE LOVE LOVE but after a while, I get bored.  I decided to go the video route this time.  I have a couple of Jillian Michaels DVDs, a Six Week Body Make Over, Windsor Pillates, Jazzercise, and then I found some stuff on Netflix as well.  I am not looking to drop TONS of weight- maybe 30 lbs.  I guess that is a ton of weight to some of you- but after 200, 30 seems pretty minuscule.    I am also not hyper focused on the scale.  I try to weigh in only once a week or I make myself crazy.

Do it with me!  Lets keep each other motivated and inspired.  Share recipes, share successes, share new workout ideas!  Who's with me??

Everything should be rainbows and unicorn farts...

So recently I have read a lot about people choosing attitudes, eliminating drama, always finding the best in everything, etc.  Sometimes I find myself agreeing and sometimes I don't.  I thought that I might step onto my soapbox for the day- so here we go.  Attitude and happiness are choices- correct.  Is it easy? Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't.  I think that it's natural that you aren't always happy and aren't always joyous and over the moon.  I feel like being happy is actually the exception and not the rule.

I remember moving here from Puerto Rico at age 13 and being in total and utter culture shock.  Everyone was beautiful and everyone was happy and hyper all the time.  I was REALLY overwhelmed.  I struggled all through my teenage years feeling like I didn't fit in.  It really had nothing to do with the looks aspect- it was a difference in personality.  People were happy all the time and spouting scripture and cheesy catch phrases about choosing good attitudes...and this was before social media like facebook existed.  I felt like I was doing something wrong that I didn't feel like that.  I also felt like I was being punished by God that my life was tough.  If I had more faith, if I had more friends, if I was doing it right, it would all be perfect- right?!

Skip ahead 10 years...When I chose to be a full time stay at home mom- I experienced a big adjustment period.  I was overwhelmed with everything that was involved with taking care of....EVERYTHING.  I went into this crazy place where I felt like I had to control everything all the time.  I seriously drove myself to drink because of it.  When I went through therapy because of the drinking problem that I developed- I realized all of the pressure that I had put on myself.  You want to know what the secret to my success was? I let myself believe that I was ALREADY perfect. My children were already perfect.  I realized that perfection was not something that I could create or force- it just WAS.  We are wonderful, perfect creatures and the rest- really doesn't matter all that much.  Sometimes good enough is perfect.

When I figured that much out, everything else worked itself out.  Life is not roses all the time.  There are ups and downs, ebbs and flows.  There are times when things will be amazing and wonderful and then there will be times that are down right hard.  Sometimes all it takes for me is to say- "yeah, things are really tough, and basically suck, but it wont always be like this and ITS OK.  I cant control or change the negativity, I can only accept it and try to move forward."  Acknowledging where you are in your journey and trying to go along for the ride is the key to freedom.

I also want to touch on "the secret".  I completely believe in the power of intention.  Where I struggle is that there is an attitude that if all your dreams aren't coming true all the time or if you are having a hard time- that you are doing "the secret" WRONG.  Guess what- your not doing anything wrong, that's just life.  Stop beating yourself up for it!

I get frustrated when I see people pinning or sharing goofy quotes on Facebook or Pinterest that are supposed to be deep and meaningful.  Its spouting messages about the beauty in all things.  Guess what- there is beauty in struggle and beauty in difficulty too.  THAT is where growth happens- when you are being challenged.  I know people mean well by them and that there is no harm in a good reminder sometimes but I wish that there were messages out there that said- It's ok that life sucks today, ride it out, there is always tomorrow.  Where are those messages?  Where are the messages that say- I am grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow because things aren't going the way I think they should go.

Relax, take a deep breath.  What if today you just decided that you were already perfect.  What if you were already whole and complete.  What would you accomplish?  What would change?  What would you give yourself permission to do?

How to make it happen??

So I have wanted to move to Denver for what feels like years.....three actually.  Three years.  After a reunion with the family, I now know- Denver is where I should be.  Yup.  I'm moving to Denver!  Well, hypothetically.  I just need to get out of the last bit of credit card debt, find Josh a job, sell our current house, buy a new house- oh, and pack.  Not necessarily in that order.

I know what I want to do, but if you know me at all, I'm a bit jump the gun happy.  I likes to make moves before I have the logistics figured out.  To some, it may seem inspired- to my husband its impulsive.  I love my life here in Utah but I am ready for a move.  I am ready for a change- and I think Denver could be IT.  I want my kids to be around their cousins.  I want to be around my brother and sisters.  I want to hang out on my Moms couch when I don't feel like making dinner (haha- that was a half joke).  I want to do the things that normal families that live in the same general area do.  So keep your fingers crossed for me dear friends and family.  To Denver- and Beyond!