strong 62

It has been 62 days since I attempted my new change. It has been the best new year's resolution and best kept new year's resolution yet.

I have lost 32 pounds so far and I feel amazing. I feel strong. I feel like doing everything and I am MS symptom free. That overwhelming tiredness is gone.

It also helped that I was in a weight loss challenge with my sister in laws. It kept me motivated on days when I wasn't in the mood.

A lot of people have asked me what I am doing and so I thought I would share. Just a heads up- I wasn't perfect all the time and I had days where I screwed up my diet royally. I would just try to jump right back on board the next day. If you think I'm nuts and have gone A-wall then, good! I love being a tradition and culture breaker! The biggest difference I have made in my health is when I stopped listening to what everyone thought and broke away from what the FDA recommends- or Grandma- and then started listening and studying and figuring things out on my own.

I went 95% vegan. I cut out all animal products on most days. Anything and everything animal- dairy, eggs, fish, cheese, meat, chicken. Every now and then I would have a small bite of chicken, cheese, or an egg but from all my studying and learning, I know for me, vegan is the way to go. I really started to study out in my mind what eating meat "sparingly" really means--and I think I've got it down now. Sparingly is key.

I cut out all sugars- mostly. Even high sugar fruits like bananas, pineapples- if I did eat high sugar fruits it was on an empty stomach so it wouldn't be a sugar acidic overload. My fruits I eat freely are lemons, grapefruit, limes, tomatoes, avocados, bell peppers. On Sundays I would eat something sugary like a cookie or once pumpkin cheese cake. I could tell my body didn't know what to do with it and I felt puffy and bloated afterwards.

I went gluten free. Another thing I have played and practiced with for many years. I just can't do wheat. It just clogs me up and is too heavy for my system. In my opinion wheat is the number one weight gainer grain. I lose weight quickly once I say goodbye to bread. It is great for famine, filling empty bellies, and for comfort. Wheat and potatoes could solve world hunger if we could learn to distribute it better. I think wheat is a culture thing and isn't supposed to be eaten at every meal like most Americans do. But bread is sure good. I love it and I can't stop eating it once I start. I then feel gross and so so so tired after eating it. It takes me awhile to detox from bread.

I ate well over 2500 calories a day. Instead of heavy carbs, I ate quinoa, some oats, brown rice, organic corn. Brown rice and corn are actually not alkaline but it doesn't seem to affect my body like wheat does. I want to improve and venture out with buckwheat, chia, millet, and almond flour but I was too nervous during the weight loss challenge to experiment. I am a believer in good healthy oils. Coconut oil, avocado oil, olive oil, grapeseed oil. I ate hemp seed hearts everyday which is very high calorie and is high in protein. I also got some of my protein from edamame, quinoa and nuts. I ate an avocado everyday, well I would try.

My meals were mostly vegetables in all their variety. 3/4 of my plate was vegetables. I would sauté stuff, have hummus, salsa, organic chips- but I tried to get full off of the good stuff. 

My biggest meal or meals of the day were between 11:00 and 3:00. I don't think your biggest meal should be breakfast, it should be lunch. A heavy breakfast is torture to my metabolism and I start dragging the rest of the day. My big carb meals were always before 3 and for the rest of the day it was just salads and light stuff.

I quit eating by 6 at night if I could. I wasn't always perfect but I tried to be done by 6. I feel good in the mornings when I've been fasting for awhile. Fasting is really good for the body and mind. I have a super clear mind when I fast.

I drank a gallon of lemon water and/or green drink every day. Again, not always, but my goal was to drink 32 oz in the morning, 32 oz by lunch, 32 oz when the girls got home from school, and 32 oz before bed. water water water, Hydration. So important. My green drink is green tea free of course. It is just vegetables, grasses, and low sugar fruit in powder form.

Insanity. I bought the Insanity videos because simply they are amazing and I haven't found a harder work-out yet. There are 8 DVD's plus other DVD's that I haven't even done before but the first 4 are about 40 minutes long and those are my favorite. They are interval training videos where your heart peaks and then slows down and then peaks again for the entire work-out. Of what I read, interval cardio is the best fat blasting workout.

 My favorite part of Insanity is how I feel the rest of the day- like seriously 15 years old again. Giddy, happy, tons of energy, jumping around and getting tons done. When I do the hour long Insanity work outs with the other 4 DVD's I actually feel wasted all day and don't have that skip to my step. I think I actually burned more calories through out the day by doing the short videos in the morning than I did with the hour long work-outs because I did more during the day and had more energy to accomplish more. I think I will do the short videos in the morning so I have a good day and maybe 3 times a week do the hour long ones at night so I can just go to bed afterwards. Insanity makes you SWEAT like crazy. I drip in sweat the whole time and I believe sweating is so incredibly healthy for the body.

My biggest weakness in the challenge was food journaling. Something I hate because I don't count calories or worry about portions but it was part of the challenge and so I had to do it. I lost probably 20 points over the course of the challenge because I didn't food journal.

So there you have it. It worked amazingly well and I hope to feel this great for...well for the rest of my life would be nice!