R2:D26 - I Cheated

Current Weight: 265.4 lbs   Total Lost: 21.3 lbs

So here's the deal. I cheated. Bad. Sigh.

This past weekend was great and hard at the same time. Saturday was the Tastefully Simple party. I love their stuff and lots of it is compliant! Total plus! I use a lot of their spices and such for meals. They are yummy and you don't have to use a whole lot to get big flavor!

Saturday morning I was up and out of the house by 8:30 am. The fog was ridiculous, so I pushed the picture appointment back an hour or so hoping it would lighten up. It didn't. So Chi and I went to the store and then over the picture appointment. On the way back to the house Chi asked me if she could put her window down. Sure. Go for it. From the backseat I hear "I CAN BARELY KEEP MY EYES OPEN!!!!" I look in the side mirror to see this....

This kid!

So once we got home and got the groceries put away I started making the dips and such for the party. Will was nice enough to do the cleaning for me that morning so I didn't have to stress as much. We partied from 2 pm until about 5:30 or 6:00. We had such a great time. Coleslaw got to meet some new friends and enjoyed being cuddled by Grand MaMa some of the afternoon. Will hid in his room and worked until I went back and told him to come grab something to eat. Gwen had tons of friends to play with so we didn't see much of any of the kids until later in the evening. It was a great day with great friends and great food.

Savory Tastefully Simple Chicken with Broccoli. COMPLIANT and DELICIOUS! 

Olaf was pooped after the party! Eating chicken tacos and getting loved on is hard work! 

Sunday I weighed in.... -1.5 lbs. Don't ask because I have no clue how I managed that! Mom and I were road tripping to VA on Sunday so I was up about 6:30 am to try to get everything done. Dinner went into the crock pot, Breakfast for that morning was made, Breakfast for the week was made, Laundry was done and Dishes were done. Not a bad morning!

By the time Mom and I were headed home yesterday at 6:30 pm, all either of us had had for food that day was breakfast and then a banana around 11:30 am. We were starving. And because we were starving we went to the most NON COMPLIANT place on the planet - Cracker Barrel. I'm not mad...or ashamed. I totally own the fact that I ate Country Fried Steak with Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans and Coleslaw. I had a Mocha Latte too...cause I was freezing and my eyes were having trouble staying open. And then...we ordered desert. We left feeling bloated and gross, but the food was good and now I know not to do that ever again. Gracious!

My weigh in this morning put me back to Saturday morning. I gained back that 1.5 lbs and I'm not even mad about it. I knew what I was doing and made a conscious choice to cheat and go off the Whole 30 plan. I wont beat myself up about it. I cheated. I own it. I'm moving on.

This morning I am back on track. Ground beef and sweet potatoes for breakfast. A banana for a snack. Roast for lunch. Pineapples and Grapes for the ride home. I got this!

See you all on Wednesday!!!! End of the month picture day!

R2:D23

Current Weight: 265.5 lbs   Total Lost: 21.2 lbs

Well Hello There 265! It is so nice to see you!

You guys...I am digging this whole weight loss thing right now! I feel incredibly good and my clothes are fitting better! I am loving the non-scale victories I am having as well! Here is one that I am stupid excited about!

In my car, before I started the Whole 30 in January, my stomach rested just at the back of my thumb when I had my hand on the steering wheel. I could literally touch my stomach just by moving my thumb a fraction of an inch. Now...Check THIS out!

I know it might sound stupid but this makes me so incredibly happy!!!!!!!!! It also makes me feel like I am doing something right and need to continue! There are definitely days that I look in the mirror and still see the 286.7 lb me. The me that was bloated and swollen. The me that was miserable. Things like the picture above happen and I can finally see progress other then the numbers on the scale! Its an amazing feeling!

I've cooked some pretty good meals this week too!

Sloppy Joe Baked Potatoes and Broccoli

Lemon Thyme Chicken and Green Beans

Shrimp, Sausage and Ground Beef with Cauliflower/Sweet Potato Rice

I am absolutely loving all the amazing food we get to eat! Sure there are times where I feel the need for chocolate. But those moments are farther and farther apart then they used to be. 

This week has been a bit rough mentally and emotionally for me. I can't really go into it, but my heart hurts and I feel completely out of control of the situation. I'm really quite surprised that I haven't completely blown this week off and eaten all the McDonald's and Chinese food I could find. 

On that same note, I am incredibly proud of my Mom! She is really sticking to this program and LOVING it! She is down 15 lbs! For her first round of W30 that's pretty damn good! Just about every morning/night I get text pictures of what she is eating. Even the men in her house, and there are 3 of them, are over the moon for 95% of her meals! Now I just gotta get her walking and the weight will be flying off of her! 

Mom and I are taking a road trip for a few hours on Sunday. Hopefully we can continue to make good choices in our food selection. 

Tomorrow, Saturday, I am having a Tastefully Simple party at my house. Things have been so crazy that I have done NO cleaning of my house currently. So tonight will be clean like you have never cleaned before! Tomorrow morning I have to go take a few outside pictures. Then I have to meet Mom to go to the grocery. Then its home to prep for the party. Its going to be a really busy next few days. 

Last night, as I was trying to eat my Shrimp/Sausage dinner, this happened. 

She was forelorned because I wouldn't give her any of my shrimp. Therefore, I was not allowed to eat my dinner. I caved and finally gave her a piece of shrimp. Olaf too. He was kung foo kitty at my feet! I'm not sure how we managed to end up with these two goofballs, Elsa and Olaf, but I certainly am glad that we did. They chose us honestly. I will have to do a post about them at some point. Elsa is like my shadow and I wouldn't have it any other way! 

Well, its off to work I go! I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!! 

TGIF! 

R2:D20

Current: 266.5 lbs   Total Lost: 20.2 lbs    😁

I am terribly sorry for not updating until now! I told you guys I suck at this! Lets see how much I can actually remember from last week.

My husband gave me his cold. It kicked my butt the entire week! Wednesday was when I really started to feel terrible though. By Friday, I was pretty much toast. I slept through all of my alarms and had to call my poor daycare lady and ask her to grab Gwen on her way out to take the kids to school that morning.

Gwen and Olaf waiting for Miss Janie

Friday afternoon when I got home I started building Coleslaw's new cage. He is a big pig and really needed a much larger cage then what he was in. I ordered a new C&C cage for him and ordered a separate cubby system for storage below the cage. I thought I was being smart ordering a much cheaper system to build the underneath storage from! Yeah....I should have spent the extra money! I ended up having to rebuild the storage space the next morning after I built the actual cage and found out that it was 1 inch smaller on two sides then the actual cage was. Which meant I had overhangs on two sides. So I zip tied some extra grids on those two sides and put cardboard under the cage on one side. What can I say....I didn't have duct tape! :) Gwen had two of her friends over for the weekend so I had to stop building mid cage and go get the girls. I did get it finished later Saturday afternoon tho!

Before

After

I ended up rearranging the living room a bit too and it looks so nice! I'm really happy with how it turned out! Now I need to start working on the front room! And then Gwen's room!

Friday evening Will took over the cooking so I could manage the pig cage. He made us a Shrimp Boil. So Good! Sausage, Shrimp, Mushrooms, Sweet Taters and Red Skin Taters!

So Saturday was spent building a cage, cleaning the living room and hiding from 3 girls who forced me to drink water while they ate their McDonald's chicken nuggets and french fries. We were supposed to go to dinner at Bob Evans for my Grandmothers birthday Saturday evening but the weather was pretty nasty. So it was decided not to take her out in that mess. Which meant now I had to figure out dinner. Side note: at this point, I had not had breakfast or lunch and the only thing on my stomach was a banana. I was HANGRY. And then, my poor unsuspecting husband reached into the fridge to have a Kombucha. I almost punched him. It then dawned on both of us that I had not had my Kombucha that day either. He handed me a Trilogy and I was much happier! We then ordered Chinese food. Go big or go home! And we were already home so yeah...we went big. We ordered as close to healthy as we could and moved on. I blew up the air mattresses in the living room and let the girls camp out in there for the night. I checked on them at around 10:30 pm and they were all snoring.

Sunday - The girls were up before the sun was. Will and I tried to ignore the mass giggling coming from the living room. We got up around 7 am. I made pork sausage, eggs and bacon for breakfast. The pork sausage turned out delicious!!!! I will be making it again!

Sunday was also our shopping day this weekend because Saturday was NUTS! So my Mom, myself and 3 8-9 year olds went to the grocery store. Yes...I am brave....or stupid. LOL. They weren't terrible and we got it all done. I had the girls bring in the groceries and then gave them lunch and threw them outside! It was decent outside! They can go scream outside! I took the girls home around 6 pm.

Sunday night we had stew beef with a broccoli stir fry over mashed taters. Good Lord that was good! Especially for something I literally just threw in the crock pot! Sorry no pictures! We were all starving!

Monday was a typical Monday. I tried to get on here and write my post and I failed. Sigh. Last night we had lettuce wrapped sweet potato burgers. So good!

I can not begin to tell you how much I really am enjoying all the amazing food we get to eat! Do I sometimes watch the food network and think "My God that looks good!", sure I do. But here lately, I find myself thinking "Wow that looks good. I wonder if I can tweak that to make it compliant!" I am certainly starting to find that losing weight is a whole lot of mind over matter. Will power is a huge thing! You have to mentally want this or it just wont work.

I probably wont update again until Friday at this point, so I will see you guys then! Have a great week!

R2:D14

269.4  Total Lost - 17.3 lbs

You Guys! I did it! I broke that 270 mark that has been the bane of my existence for the past week and a half! Yay! I'm so excited!

I have a Garmin Vivofit that I use to help me get my exercise in. Each day that I reach my step goal, it automatically moves the goal up for the next day. I was on a pretty good roll on meeting my step goal every day until the other night. My husband has shared his cold with me and I just couldn't care enough to get on the treadmill for another 2500 steps. There went my 13 day streak! Oh well. Today's goal is 8359...and of course I couldn't get out of bed this morning to do my normal 1 mile on the treadmill! Ugh.

I ordered the stuff to build Coleslaw a new cage! I'm super excited! He is going to have so much more room to run around in and I get to rearrange a few things in the living room so it all fits and looks nice. I have a thing about rearranging rooms every so often. My daughters room is the main culprit. I normally go in and clean/reorganize/move stuff at least once a month. I haven't touched her room in a few months, which is a huge feat for me, so you all must see whats coming....

My daughter is not good at organizing. In general. Not just organizing toys or colors or things. In general, she sucks at organizing. I have been wracking my brains on how to help her with this. I get that she is 8, but if we are being totally honest here....it drives me nuts. I know its a me problem, I get it. However, it is also effecting her school work. Some of the things she gets graded on in school is organization....bet you guys can guess how awesome those scores are! So, I think I have finally come up with an idea on how to make her WANT to become more organized. I am going to offer for her to redo her room her way. She can put her bed, dresser, toy chests, desk, etc. wherever she feels she would like it. This will be a pretty big deal for both of us. I am a control freak perfectionist and she is 8 - I'm in for lots of hyperventilating during this process. To be continued.

I haven't done much in the way of fancy dinners or anything this week. I made Spaghetti Squash and Meatballs last night with a side of marinara sauce. Delicious!

The last time I made the meatballs they were a bit to spicy, so this time I left out the paprika. They turned out really good. 

This evening is Egg Roll in a Bowl for dinner. My husband is very excited for this! Its def our favorite meal so far. What are some of your favorite recipes? 

I hope everyone has a great rest of your week! See you all on Friday! 

R2:D12

270.6 :  -.8 lbs  Total: -16.1 lbs

Good Morning!!!! Welcome to a new week! Can I go back to bed now? My amazing husband has shared his cold with me. I'm not a very good sick person. This sucks.

Friday evening I went home and cooked dinner - shocker right!? LOL! After dinner I put everyone in bed and tackled the rest of my steps on the treadmill. Once I had all my steps, I put on my big girl pants and made this happen....

Yep! I did it! I only lasted 3 rounds but I freaking did it! I need to get my butt down and stretch out a bit more, but hey, first time issues! I plan on doing this at least 3 times a week. It is a great workout and fun to boot! My girl Denise did this challenge Saturday evening and did amazing! My Mom made Denise and I do this at the Support Group meeting on Sunday. Tip - Don't do this in socks. It wont end well!

Saturday was a bit challenging. Mom and I had nails at 11. Then I had pictures to take for an agent. It poured rain all weekend, so outside pictures were not happening. I was able to get indoor pictures, but the lighting was pretty dark. I just hope I got some decent shots. Then Mom and I went to her office to take some new head shot pictures of her. She hates having her picture taken and quite honestly I have to be a stealth ninja at Christmas to get good shots of her. That fact that she asked me to take these pictures is a huge deal! After pictures, we went to lunch at Boston Market. Not completely compliant I am sure, but we did our best. Then it was off to the grocery store.

It was about 6 pm when I made it home Saturday evening. Which is quite early for a day spent with my Mom. I wasn't the least bit hungry and my poor sickly husband was hungry. I had 4000 steps to get in, because even though I know I walked them, the Garmin on my wrist doesn't count them when you are holding onto a cart! Ugh! So he microwaved leftovers and I walked. I got my steps in and then went to bed.

Sunday I woke up with a slightly sore/irritated throat. I have stuff to do. I don't have time to be sick. So up and showered. Made breakfast - Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes!

They were delicious!

I went back at 10:15am and told Will I was headed out. For him to still be in bed tells me he REALLY doesn't feel well. He is normally up at 3 or 4 am. He did get up and get all 11,000 of steps in before 7am and came back to bed.

I went over and picked up Denise and we were off to the Support Group Meeting. It rained like you wouldn't believe! Road were flooded everywhere! The front yard and half the driveway at my Aunt's house was a swimming pool! By the time we left there, the "puddle" beside my driver side door was half way up to my knees. So I crawled my big self in the back seat and over the armrest to get in the driver seat. Still not quite sure how I managed that! :)

I stopped and got meds for myself and hubby and then went home to make lettuce wrapped burgers for lunch. I meal prepped for the rest of the day before going to get Gwen from her friends house at 6.

I made meatloaf for dinner last night and was not impressed. My husband said it was OK, but not one of his favorites. I was pretty bummed. My mom had made this meatloaf for her crew and they all loved it. I must have done something wrong. We will revisit that recipe at a later date.

Oh! I did use the LikeAGlove shorts! They are very cool! Here are my very first readouts.

They were super easy to use and the app is very user friendly. I am looking forward to tracking these measurements throughout my journey.

I am feeling pretty crappy with this cold so my brain is all sorts of fuzzy. I am hoping I didn't jump around too much on this post! I hope everyone had a great weekend! See you all on Wednesday!

Who doesn't love a good kitten on a box picture!?

R2:D9 - TGIF

Current 271.4 = -.8    Total Loss 15.3 lbs

Yesterday morning, the corner shower caddy tried to fall fell on my head. I tell you this because it pissed me off. A lot. It was 6:30 in the morning and the shower accessories had it out for me. I should have known then that everything I did yesterday was going to be a struggle.

Some light insults and harsh placing of said shower caddy later, I was staring at my new pants I bought. My new pants that I bought from Woman Within that are 1 size smaller then I have been wearing for the past God knows how many years. There I stood. Staring. Hoping. Praying. I considered the shower caddy incident and almost put the pants away and wore my super baggy regular pants. And then I tore open the plastic wrap, took them out and stretched the waist band to see just how terrible this was going to be. My first thought... "Ha! Nope!" I put them on....and cried. Suddenly I didn't give two craps about the weight gain the past few days. I didn't give a crap about the shower caddy having a grudge against me. The only thing I cared about was the size MEDIUM pants I just put on. The size MEDIUM pants that FIT! THEY FIT! They weren't to tight. They weren't to short. They were...PERFECT. And so, I cried.

Non scale victories are extremely rewarding. I know that I go against the W30 rules by weighing in every day, but it keeps me accountable. What it doesn't do, is SHOW you what is changing. My current scale is a WW Bluetooth scale. It syncs to an app on your phone and shows you all your measurements, sort of.

I'm not sure how it works exactly, but it measures your fat, water, bone, muscle and BMI. FYI - I personally think the BMI is a crock of cow poop, but whatever. These measurements are helpful so you can see WHY you are up and down. Its pretty enlightening in a way.

The only thing it doesn't measure, is well, you. I can straight up tell you that I hate taking my own measurements. I always feel like I am measuring in the wrong place and I am never measuring in the same spot twice. Enter facebook advertising....

Like A Glove

Photo Courtesy of Like A Glove

How TRUE is that picture? Regardless on whether your scale can read your body through little metal plates or not, its still not completely accurate.

Facebook kept throwing likeaglove in my face and I finally went and looked at it...a few months ago. I looked at it and thought, Wow those are really cool!, and then went on about my way. About 2 weeks ago and I went and looked at them again, because Facebook. This time, I purchased the Curvy pair of shorts. The website says these will fit sizes 10 - 32 and can be worn by men and women. They arrived yesterday and I am scared to death to open them. Why you ask? Because numbers in general scare me. Sure they can help keep you focused and accountable, but they can also throw the fact that you are a lot bigger then you may think in your face. Which is another reason why I hate doing measurements. But...I bought them. So I will use them. I will take my first measurements on Sunday morning and continue to use this for measurements weekly. I haven't downloaded the app yet, but I am hoping I will be able to post the measurements here as well. Again...accountability.

Another thing I am adding to my list is this monstrosity...

And it is ALL DENISE'S FAULT!!!! That, my friends, is the Cupid Shuffle Plank Version. I may very well die after attempting this, but dammit I'm gonna try! Would you all try this? Why or why not? And I'm going to make my small child do it with me! Because I am an amazing parent! Ha!

My weekend looks crazy as usual. Nails, Pictures, Grocery, Cooking and hopefully long walks with my hubby! I hope everyone has an amazing weekend! I will see you all on Monday!

R2:D7 - The Hump

272.2 = +1.6

Happy Wednesday! (I think)

Its rainy and cold here in MD today. I'm not really feeling this whole 'being an adult' thing I have going on. I would much rather lay in bed all day today and watch reruns of A Haunting and Paranormal Lockdown. But I digress.

My body has been on a pretty good losing streak. And I was certainly really impressed with my ability to not sing it from the roof tops. I got on the scale yesterday morning absolutely certain that I would finally see the numbers I have longed to see since Jan 1 - 269.9! I knew it was coming! I just knew it!

And ... then it didn't. +.5 - Wait..what?! Why?! Its OK. We aren't going to freak out. Ups and downs are normal! I can do this! No big deal!

Enter this morning. I walked an extra .25 of a mile yesterday. Those .5 lbs are toast! .... Sigh. +1.1.

I'm not ashamed to say it...I considered throwing that scale right out the window while screaming Monty Python insults at it. "I fart in your general direction!"  "Your Mother was a Hamster, and your Father smelt of Elderberries!" "Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!" You get the drift!

However, I remembered that even though I had really no WANT to be an adult today, I certainly still needed to at least pretend to act as one. I took my gain and pondered it. And then my husband says to me over text "I think they hit a period of "Uh-oh, we're losing our reserves too fast, there must be a famine, we have to hoard calories!" followed by a period of "Okay, we're good! Clean house!"" And honestly, not only did this make me laugh, it made me really think about it.

When your body starts losing weight, why wouldn't it question whats really going on? Why wouldn't it take a moment and be like "Hold up there sister. We need to do some inventory and make sure we aren't getting rid of things we need!" I get it. Especially if you have been overweight for quite some time. So that helped with my urge to "Kill All The Things". Still don't want to adult today though.

So I got up this morning and walked my mile. The husband has requested Sheppard's Pie for dinner! This is another one of our favorites! Evidenced by the fact that I cant seem to ever get a good picture of it before someone has already dished up!

Recipe

Yesterday morning I put Butter Chicken (recipe) in the crock pot. I can't find tapioca flour to save my life, so I substituted with Almond Flour. I also left out the Garam Marsala and the Curry Powder...because we aren't fans of those flavors. I made some riced cauliflower/broccoli to go with it and BOOM! Instant Hit! And very filling!

We have our first Support Group meeting of the year this coming Sunday. I somehow became the "Ring Leader" for this operation, so now I have to figure out what I am doing with my life. Just not today.

Not today George. Not today!

See you all on Friday!

R2:D5

270.6 = Total loss 16.1 lbs

Good Monday Morning Everyone! I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Saturday was a bit crazy. I covered breakfast I believe in my last post. Mom and I had some running to do Saturday. Office Depot, Petco, Lunch, Drop off Gwen at her friends house, Grocery Store...

Lets skip to the good part..the FOOD! We went to Grill 13 for lunch. They have some really good food and some not so terrible choices for people who aren't supposed to have "anything good". Mom had a rib eye steak with a sweet potato and veggies. I had grilled chicken with broccoli and roasted potatoes. Chi...well....Chi had grilled cheese and french fries. Sigh.

We then went and picked up my truck and took Gwen to her friends house to spend the night. My heart was broken when this family told me a few weeks ago that they were moving from 3 houses down from us. Gwen and Tamia had become very close and I just adored this young lady. They ended up moving about 1/2 mile away if that. Its a quick walk through the paths in our neighborhood or a 2 minute drive by car. When I went to pick Gwen up last night Tamia's grandmother, Donna, asked me if there was any way for her to meet Chrissy's mom, Denise, so all the girls could spend the night. (Hey Denise!! We need to get you guys together!) Donna is either crazy or a saint! I haven't figured out which one! All those girls in one space...I need a drink just thinking about it! Gwen had a great time over there and it gave Will and I some time to relax and enjoy...sort of.

So Mom and I went to the grocery after dropping off Gwen. We decided to go to the Safeway in Laplata because they stock Kombucha. Hindsight....not a good idea to let me into a store with more then 3 flavors of Kombucha. Anyway, we ran into quite a few people we haven't seen in a while. I got a fantastic hug from Mary Ann, whom I haven't seen in ages! Her oldest daughter used to take riding lessons from me for quite some time. The whole family is a lot more like my family then just my friends. We were in that store for almost 3 hours. 3 HOURS!

Sunday we had plans to get up and go for a walk around the circle. Its a little over 2 miles. Plans are made to be broken right? My loving, amazing, wonderful husband seriously tried to get me up at like 6:30am to go walking. Its COLD outside and you want me to get out of my nice warm bed and walk in 30 degree weather? Ummm I love you, but NO. So HE went on his walk, dressed like he was preparing for the winter storm from the movie The Day After Tomorrow, and I walked my mile on the treadmill. In my warm living room. Wearing a t-shirt and pajama pants. Because that is how I roll!

The rest of my day consisted of laundry and cooking. 6 sweet potatoes and 6 pounds of ground beef went in the fridge for breakfasts this week. For lunch we made hamburgers with sweet potato buns, we left the skins on this time, and broccoli. FYI - leaving the skins on the buns made for a much easier to eat burger! :) (Thanks Mom!)

We even got to sneak in a movie and 1 episode of a new Netflix series that looks really good before I left to get Chi.

Dinner last night was pork carnitas with mashed potatoes and green beans. Will had seconds and I am fairly certain Gwen licked her plate clean. Bonus - we had enough leftovers for lunches today!

Before bed I got in some cuddle time with my Miss Pig.

And so did Gwen...

This morning I threw the ingredients for Beef Stew in the crock pot!

I woke up late and only got 15 minutes in on the treadmill before having to run and shower to get ready for the rest of the day. I will get my other 15, possibly 20, in this evening before dinner and letting Miss Pig out to play.

Fatgirlfedup posted this on instagram recently, and it really spoke to me, so I am leaving it here as well!

How was your weekend? Did you do anything exciting? Or better yet, did you get to relax?

Have a great day everyone!

R2:D3

272.2 = -.9

I know...I missed yesterday! I am terribly sorry! Remember...terrible at blogging!!! LOL! But don't worry! I'm going to make that up to you right now!

So on D1 I mentioned that we were gonna have Egg Roll in a Bowl for dinner. Feast your eyes on THIS!

A little EV Olive Oil warming in my amazing cast iron skillets. I make two batches of this stuff. This way, the hubby can have seconds AND we both get lunch the next day. 

Chopped green onions, red onion and a crap load of garlic! YUM!! 

Whole30 Holy Grail - Coconut Aminos (THANK YOU LAUREN!)

You guys should smell my house at this point! 

I use the bagged 3 Color Coleslaw Mix. Its delicious and cooks really well with the meat and veggies!

Instead of making the sauce this recipe calls for, the Primal Kitchen Mayo pictured below is an easy substitute with an amazing taste! 

Sigh....

"Mom! Can't you see that I am STARVING! Wasting away to NOTHING! Someone feed me!!!!!"

Sir Olaf thinks he should be fed at dinner time as well. Elsa normally does too, but he has become obnoxious about it. 

Last night for dinner we have handmade hamburgers with Sweet Potato buns. This is also one of our favorites. I had never made the hamburger myself until last night. We always just buy the hamburgers and bake them up. But I had some ground beef left over (that almost never happens) so I made them myself. A little garlic powder, salt, pepper and ground mustard and we were good to go! They were super yummy too! 

My Denise and kids came to visit last night and meet Mrs. Pig. I'm pretty sure DJ is smitten with her. :) I was cooking while they were here so I didn't get pictures but I'm fairly certain everyone enjoyed it. Denise even cuddled with her a bit. Held a whole conversation with her too! 

Breakfast this morning was scrambled chili eggs with Crispy Garlic Roasted Potatoes. I am in love with these potatoes! They are pretty amazing! I sort of figure since potatoes don't like me much, or maybe they like me a little too much, that having them with breakfast, if I am going to have them at all, is the best time to have them. That way they aren't just sitting there....plotting against me. I will be up and going for the rest of the day, so that's a win win. 

I have a bunch of running to do today. Saturdays are grocery days with my Mama along with everything else we can fit in there. Gwen's friend Tamia wants her to come spend the night tonight so I have to get a hold of them to see about when they want me to drop her off. I may not be back until Monday at this point. Tomorrow is my cooking day and I am sure Will wants to do some running tomorrow as well. 

See you guys on Monday!! Have a great weekend!! 

R2:D1

273.1 = -.5

I mentioned in my post from yesterday that I am doing the Whole30. In fact, myself, my husband and my Mom are doing the Whole30 as well. (more on those two amazing people in a moment)

For those who don't know about the Whole30 let me give you a super quick run down.

No Dairy

No Grain

No Soy

No Corn

No Beans (except green beans)

NO SUGAR

I'm sure most of you are now going - well what the devil CAN you eat!? :) Let me enlighten you!

All the Meat!

All the Veggies!

All the Fruit (in moderation)

Eggs! 

Potatoes! (in moderation)

Protein and Veggies are the core of this here lifestyle. Lots of meats, eggs and veggies. Now, I am NOT a veggie person. Never have been. Which makes it a bit tougher on me. However, I am seriously enjoying finding new and yummy foods that I never even knew about before. For instance, zucchini. Yeah you heard me. Zucchini. I'm sure you have all heard of zucchini bread, which is NOT allowed on the W30. Its delicious.... Now if you told me I had to eat sliced raw zucchini everyday, I'm out. Nope. Not doing it. You cant make me. BUT....you can make NOODLES out of that stuff! Get yourself a spiralizer and go to town! 

This one has 7 different blades! I am in love with this thing!

You CAN eat the Zoodles raw, but I prefer them seasoned with salt and pepper and then cooked in EV Olive Oil until tender. You can make all sorts of dishes with Zoodles. My husbands favorite is Zoodles with shrimp and beef tips. Yum! (See! I'm totally NOT starving myself!)

Moving on. 

My breakfast on a daily basis is pretty simple. I have ground beef and sweet potatoes Monday - Friday. "Good Lord, doesn't that get boring?" Nope! And here is why. My life isn't as crazy as I am sure others are, but I don't have a lot of free time. Even if I did, I prefer to spend that free time with my family and friends, or sleeping...because sleep is amazing! So on Sundays I meal prep as much as I can. I rely heavily on my crock pot for dinners and have found that most of the time we have enough of dinner left over for lunches the next day!! Score! So that just leaves meal prepping breakfast. 

This is the part of the blog that I realized I am a terrible terrible blogger! Who starts a blog to talk about weight loss, getting healthy and food and then doesn't take step by step pictures!? Sigh. 

Anyway. I start out by washing, skinning and patting dry 5 large sweet potatoes. I then cut them into 1/4" sections and salt and pepper them. While I am cutting them, I have my Coconut Oil heating in the skillet. **I have found that having an electric skillet with a lid helps IMMENSELY! This way you can control the temperature and keep the taters from burning** Once the oil is completely melted, place your taters in there. I use 350 degrees. I do one side for 10 minutes and then flip them and do 5 minutes. All with the lid on. For 5 sweet potatoes I get this...

I swear I will do better on pictures! 

After all the potatoes are cooked, I leave what little CO is left in the skillet and put in 5 lbs of ground beef. You can season it however you like! My husband likes onions and peppers in his and then adds in some scrambled eggs. I like mine with salt, pepper and Wahoo Chili (tastefully simple - you can use chili powder). This is the finished result...

Its sooooooo good! 

Last night for dinner was Cauliflower Sweet Potato Crumbles with Cajun Shrimp. I'm pretty sure all 3 of us licked our bowls clean! 

I think dinner tonight will be another house favorite - Egg Roll In a Bowl. 

Recipe

Its a bit spicy but Good Gracious its good! 

Another favorite of mine right now isn't even a food. Its a drink. You have to be very careful about everything you buy while doing the W30. There are hidden sugars and oils in just about everything. Were you aware that 95% of the canned tuna out there has SOY in it?! Read your labels! You would be surprised what you are actually putting into your body. And I am not talking about the nutrition label. Read the ingredients! Who cares about calories and all that jazz. Read your ingredients and prepare to be enlightened. 

Nectar of the Gods!

This, my friends, is Kombucha. It is a fermented tea. Yep, fermented. Its def a different taste and has a distinct alcohol tang to it....fermented. 

I'm not sure if you can read that label or not, but under NUTRITION it does list Sugar. And that is OK! The sugar in this is a naturally occurring sugar and No Sugar has been added. Again, read the Ingredients, not the Nutrition part. 

This post turned out longer then I thought it would be. Before I go, I just want to touch on 2 people. My Husband, William, and my Mom, Judy. 

My husband:

Us doing our first Whole 30 (back in 2017) was all his fault. And I say it that way because its true. It was all his fault. He pushed me to do it and while I physically felt better, I was a complete emotional and mental basket case. No Joke. I was angry and sad and bitter and ANGRY. Did you catch that I was angry!? 30 whole days of eating meat and veggies with very little fruit. 30 whole days of depriving myself of cheeseburgers and sodas and french fries and Chinese food and pizza and salad dressing and real mayo and Mocha Frappe's! Ugh! 30 whole days of not getting on the scale...only to climb on the scale on day 30, feeling 10x better physically, just to see a weight loss of 1 pound. 1....pound.... You guys, that 1 pound broke me. It broke every little tendril of hope I had left in me...and then I ate everything I could. And I felt miserable...and bloated....and ANGRY. I swore then and there I would never do that (The Whole30) to myself again. And I meant it. Until I didn't. Because lets be honest. I FELT better. I wasn't bloated. My acid reflux had calmed 10 fold. I had more energy. Why wouldn't I want to FEEL better, even if it meant I wasn't losing weight??? So January 1 we started our Round 1 (R1) of 2018. It was my idea and Will was totally on board. He had lost 18 lbs in 2017 doing the W30 and gained it all, plus more, back when we went back to eating crap. This time around, I am the main cook. I am trying to find new and yummy food to keep things interesting to make sure we don't get bored. 

My husband is a pretty amazing guy. He is smart and funny. He loves me beyond anything I could have ever imagined for myself. He supports me and all my crazy ideas. He cares. He genuinely cares. And he pushes me. He pushes me to do things out of my norm. He pushes me to keep going. He pushes me to get past my own insecurities. He pushes me to do better. To be better. And I love him for all those things and more. I couldn't do this W30 journey without him and I hope he knows that. 

He has currently lost 21 lbs in just Round 1. I'm pretty freaking proud of him! 

My Mom:

My Mom has struggled with lots things over the past few years. Her health physically had gone down the tubes. Her mental health was hanging by a thread, all thanks to people who make terrible choices and don't own them. Her emotional well being was just plain gone. I worried a lot about my Mom. I worried about her health. I worried about her mind. I worried about her soul. I worried about her ability to handle the things life was throwing at her. I worried about how I was ever going to be able to help her. I didn't have any answers. I had all the suggestions and opinions on the world, but no answers. She, like me, has tried every diet in the book. Every trick known to man and even some sea creatures. For a while we were both going to the pool and doing aqua aerobics twice a week. It def helped with her back issues and her mobility, but she still struggled. She lost a bunch of weight on Nutri System...of course she did. That shit is like cardboard and you end up starving yourself while paying out shit loads of money. Only to gain most, if not all, of it back and feel just as miserable as before. Mom had watched me struggle the first W30 I did. And I knew that she probably thought I was a loon for taking on something like this. But this new round was different. I feel amazing. I'm eating delicious foods. I'm not bored. I'm looking better. I'm sleeping better. My mood is level. She approached me about doing the W30 about mid January. So we talked. A lot. For 2 days. She was in. She was ready to change. It isn't easy by any means. There is a lot of cooking and planning. A lot of reading labels and discovering new foods. The first grocery trip was tough on her. It was 2 hours in the store reading labels and checking and double checking foods and lists. I just kept telling her, "Once you get the hang of it you can just walk in and get what you need and be done.". She didn't mind. She just wanted to feel better. Within the first few days she told me her feet felt better. She could walk without to much pain. Then her stomach felt better. After the first week you could look at her and see a change. She stood straighter, taller. She moved easier on her feet. She was less swollen in her face and seemed to genuinely smile more. She has taken this W30 challenge and run with it. She struggles here and there, but shes got this. We have a support group on facebook that we set up and she goes there or straight to me when she has moments. 

My Mom is my rock. My best friend. We are both stubbornly opinionated and overly possessive of those we love. She has really really struggled, with lots of things, this year. My one wish for her is just for her to be happy and healthy. I hope she knows just how insanely proud of her I am. How much I love her. How much I support her. How much I strive to be like her. Strong, Intelligent, Proud and Confident. 

She is currently on week 3 I believe. She is down 8 lbs. Way to go Mama! 

Side Note: On the Whole30 you are NOT supposed to weigh yourself everyday. However, I have found that it helps to keep me accountable. It helps me to know what I need to steer clear of or have less of.  (White potatoes stick to me like glue)  On this Round, I have allowed myself more fruit and it has helped me immensely. 

Sorry this turned into a book! I guess when it comes to this W30 thing I am pretty excited to share my experiences. 

I will leave you with a picture of the newest member of our family. Coleslaw!