We walk almost every day, 27 miles in the past 10 days alone that I have track logs for, that's not counting walking we do here around the yard and such. Walks are my favorite because, in spite of the gnats and the sweat running down my back, they are the most enjoyable part of most days-the time when I can reflect without thinking I should be doing something else, and Matt and I talk and talk and when the kids come along, they chat away, too. Sometimes I listen to a recorded book, sometimes I just plod along. My speed has gotten better and I can walk longer and longer without feeling tired at all. We usually stop after 3.5 miles just because the sun is already down and we are in the dark.
I do ab work, kettlebell or yoga every other morning. I do 30 crunches nearly every night before bed and do arm curls when I watch TV. I started doing deep knee bends, but those are muscles I had NO idea were there and they did not want to be discovered, because for 2 days after my first 10, my knees would not lock when I walked and I looked drunk.
I went cold-turkey on sodas and after 2 weeks, I had one and I have been having one (in a can) every couple of days-all diet. I have had no bread, no corn or anything with corn in it, no rice and potatoes once, in sweet potato soup. No chocolate or candy, cut back on pasta to less than once a week, even the good kind with the extra stuff and no gluten.
I have oatmeal or Kashi for breakfast, even though my cholesterol is really low. For lunch I have soup or raw fruit/veggies and hummus most days. Dinner is more veggies, soup, stir fry with tofu, beans, couscous now and then with pine nuts and greens, tuna salad, bean burrito. I eat 1/4 cup of raw nuts every other day. I eat grapes, apples, cherries, muscadines, blueberries, raspberries, raw spinach, carrot sticks, soy cheese or an occasional whole grain tortilla with salsa for snacks. I drink water in 16 oz bottles and refill at least 4 times during the day.
I take cinnamon, kelp, B complex, D, flax seed oil and Valerian root daily.
In the past month, I have not lost a single pound. I will go down 2 pounds and right back up to where I was. I still have not figured the right combo-1500 calories a day and walking got rid of the first 30 pounds, and those could be ANY 1500 calories. 5 candy bars a day and I still would have lost weight.
I'd like to be losing pounds, I AM losing inches, I don't know how much longer I can keep my brain happy with the whole 'muscle weighs more than fat and I am building muscle'. I CAN'T be building it pound for pound. I need to see some results on the scale. I have to weigh-in by November 14 and need to have lost 13 pounds by then.
I am sleeping better, I am excited/nervous about the trip and that's keeping me awake a little, but over-all, I have been sleeping 8-9 hours a night and waking up early feeling just ducky. My moods are MUCH more stable, I don't know if it's all one thing, or a combination of things helping in that area. I feel calm these days about things that would have given me stomach aches before. Not EVERYTHING, the check engine light still makes me panic! But my brain does not go looking for trouble as it has in the past and that's a relief. It feels quieter in my head.
Over-all, I am pleased with the changes we have made and pleased with how well the kids are adjusting. Jake is getting too thin, I think. He lost 30 pounds last year when we did and Ben lost 7. Jake has lost more this year and has gotten a little taller/more filled out so now he has no fat on him. Ben has slimmed right down, too and Chan has always been slight, but no white sugar or gluten in 90% of their current diet has really changed how they look. Even Matt is slimming right up, his neck is much smaller-he stopped snoring again, yay! He has lost his belly, there's no handles on the sides now, just a rounded tummy that is getting smaller each week. *sigh*
I know I am the mama and that means my body will hold fat, I am in the pinacle of my fertile years, that last hoo-rah before things start slowing down over the next decade and menopause sets in. The good news is that my baby lust has FINALLY abated after 5 years of burning with envy over every baby I saw and poring over baby name books and learning all I could about baby photography and reading everything I could find about vasectomy reversals, being pregnant at 35 and so on. I am looking ahead, 6 years and Ben will be 18 and I will be 43 and done with homeschooling and being a SAHM. That's really young. That's a whole 3rd life to undertake. My childhood, their childhood and then??
I have only heard of one job that I immediately thought I would want. People who die in state-run hospitals usually die alone. Someone then has to go through their things, their homes, and find out who they are, who to contact. I would not want to tell people their relations died, but I would like to do the finding out part. A whole life, a mystery, a solution. That appeals to me greatly.
I leave Saturday for my trip, the kids are squared away for the week, field trips, play dates, Matt's taking time off. They will have as much fun as I will!
