Yes, this blog is still alive!

So Joel and I have been extremely unhealthy these past four busiest months ever. Sleeping maybe 4 hours a night if we were lucky, eating out, NO exercise whatsoever, and we have been really feeling it. Basically, our bodies were pissed.

These past two weeks, we have finally slowed down, getting 8 hours of sleep a night, and I have been exercising in the mornings for 1 hour, and taking bro on a mile walk at night before bed. The eating out is still a problem, but we are working on it... At least we are trying to eat healthier.

Just from doing those two little things, sleep and exercise, I feel 100% better! It's amazing the difference I feel just from spending extra time on myself. I just wanted to post this to remind you to take care of your bodies, especially during candy cookie yummy food Christmas season!

Also, I wanted to ask if you have any EASY healthy lunch and dinner recipes for me. I would very much appreciate it.

Thanks!

Football - Schedule/Results - Southern Utah Thunderbirds Athletics

Football - Schedule/Results - Southern Utah Thunderbirds Athletics

DAY TWO

Today was okay? I was in charge of making two dozen cookies for our weekly Relief Society night. I chose homemade oreos. Yum, yes I did eat one or two in the process. The night was a total success, but there were about 15 different varieties of cookies to try at this thing & recipes to go with it!!! And even three varieties of homemade ice cream. My favorite was for sure the strawberry Ru barb. I had a tiny bite of one or two cookies and a bowl of ice cream. I hadn't eaten dinner yet so I gave up my evening meal for these treats. Hopefully my body forgives me tomorrow. I did not make my calories and I put bad things in my body. Hmm. Not good, back on tomorrow. I feel guilty and slouchy. Not worth it.

I did make a delicious meal tonight. Recipe Below. Mike loved this. Super easy and tasty. A very different approach on meatloaf.

Low fat Turkey Meatloaf

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups plain breadcrumbs
• 1/3 cup nonfat milk
• 1 medium onion, cut into large pieces
• 1 medium carrot, cut into fourths
• 1 8 ounce pack sliced mushrooms, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 1/4 pounds 93 percent lean ground turkey
• 1/2 cup egg substitute
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
• 1/4 cup tomato ketchup

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or foil wrap.

Place breadcrumbs and milk in a small bowl, and allow to soak for a few minutes.

Place onion, carrots, and garlic cloves in a food processor with a grater attachment, or grate by hand. Transfer grated vegetables to a large bowl; add mushrooms.

Crumble ground turkey in with the grated vegetables. Add breadcrumb/milk mixture to the vegetable and turkey mixture. Stir well with a fork.

Add egg substitute, Worcestershire sauce and ketchup. Mix well with light fingers.

Divide mixture into two and form two loaves on the baking sheet, each about 7 x 4 inches.

Bake for 50 minutes to an hour. Remove from oven and check the internal temperature has reached 160 degrees F. Allow meatloaves to rest for 10 minutes before slicing. Each loaf makes about 8 slices.

Per slice: Calories 108, Calories from Fat 32, Total Fat 3.7g (sat 1g), Cholesterol 28mg, Sodium 193mg, Carbohydrate 10g, Fiber 0.8g, Protein 8.9g

DAY ONE

This is it! My wonderful husband from www.startingat500pounds.com started his blog a month or two ago, went public a week or so ago and has been so successful so far. With the support from friends and family along with the blogging world.


I told him that I needed a place to express my feelings and document my journey along with him. This blog was started by my sister Mandi for us gals in the family to post about our weight loss. If you don't mind gals I need this refuge to post about my daily goals, failures and successes. You are welcome to post any time. Here I will post daily about the struggles and accomplishments to becoming healthier and weight loss. I don't have as far to go as some, but my journey is just as hard. I love food. I grew up eating a lot of food. Without exercise all that food turns to fat making me feel lazy and tired. Right now I feel trapped in this body that is not even mine. Well, the truth is, this fat body is mine. I hate it. I am not happy with myself.

I have come to realize where I am in my life and where I want to be in the next year. 365 days later I should be that much closer. I do see in my future having one or two more children. That is a hard thing to take in, just because I am on this journey to look good. Do you know what having a baby does to your body??!! But more than that. I want to be healthy to have more children and to raise more children. I want the lifestyle change so loosing the baby weight after is not a hurdle that seems too high to jump. I am still young I hopefully have many more years ahead of me. And that is why I am starting NOW!

It helps having wonderful support. And that is my wonderful husband. Along with family, friends and the blogging world. My husband is my inspiration. If he sets his mind to something he WILL accomplish it. And I know he will. His journey started with the thought of surgery. Due to issues with our insurance company we are supposed to wait 6 months with monthly doctor visits required in the meantime. That news could have either torn us down even more or given us the chance to prove what we can do with that time we are given, and that is just what we are doing. A lot of these blogs are all about the strong willed doing it themselves. I'm talking 400 pound+ men and women loosing the weight without surgery!!! It can be done.

With these doctor visits we will find out, if the time it will take Mike to loose the weight he needs to loose, will he be able to loose it fast enough to avoid even more serious health problems in the near future. With surgery he will loose an excessive amount of weight in a short amount of time. Only time will tell.

As for me. I am on the journey of counting calories, serious portion control and light exercise. I will work my self up to fewer calories and more exercise.

Here's to feeling good!!!

Points

I know I am the one who started this points thing, and I haven't been keeping up on it. If you all have, then I will take this month as a loss for me.

If you haven't been keeping track, then I vote we start now, and I PROMISE that in one month, I will tally up the points, and the winner will collect $10 from each loser.

What do you think?

Update on the cleansing...

It's been four days, and I have lost 7 pounds! Two pounds a day, except for the one day I ate a cracker, and only lost one.

The great thing is that this weight I am losing is going to stay off as long as I keep being smart. It's weight that shouldn't be on me in the first place!

If you decide to do it, which I highly recommend, just know that the first day is bad because you feel sick to your stomach. DRINK LOTS OF WATER, it's the only thing that helps. Day 2 and 3 are horrible too because you are craving everything! Day 4 is easy. Today is day 5 and easy, but I won't know what I lost today until tomorrow morning.

If I keep this up, then it will be 14 pounds in 7 days. I am feeling great and very motivated.

Hope you are all doing good!

Body Cleanse

Just a secret, you can lose 5 pounds in a week just by going to Haiti and sweating all day everyday :)

So, now that we are back in town, and have eaten most of the Norwegian chocolate... Joel is back on the Atkins diet, and I am back on the points!

I decided to do a body cleanse, starting tomorrow. The girl we were in Haiti with said that she did a body cleanse for 10 days, and she could not believe what came out of her, and that she felt it make a big difference. She did the lemon, syrup, and cayenne pepper cleanse. The one I am doing I think will be easier than that.

I am doing the "Natural Body Cleanse". Eating NOTHING but fresh fruits and veggies, and only drinking water for one week. I'm really excited to see how it works out.

I am also going to start working out again, hopefully everyday!

Hope you are all still going strong! If you have had a diet lull, get going again!

TODAY

Today this is what kept me going and made my morning! (Picture taken this morning with my cell phone at aprox. 5:30am)

I got up late after pushing snooze five times. I mean come on it is my 5 am work out day, so hard for me!! I lay there thinking of excuse after excuse of why I should stay in bed. I have to go to the bathroom, so that got me out of bed, but still I think of all the reasons why I should not exercise, or I'll just do it later. Who am I kidding no I won't.

Then I said a little prayer. (yes I was sitting on the toilet) (sorry TMI) in an instant all those excuses were gone. I got dressed quickly found my music MP3 player and headphones (a must have for me) and headed out @5:30am. I decided to walk/jog (flop) around the neighborhood to get as much in as I could in 30 minutes.

I walked down my street listening to Good Charlotte and see the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen. I am never out before the sunrise. It took my breath away. I know it was something Heavenly Father knew I needed to see. On top of that a guy in my ward ran across the street in front of me and waved, that made me feel good. Like someone recognized that I am trying too.

I went home after a good walk and wrote down a list of things: WHY DO I GET UP TO EXERCISE???

I filled a whole 8 1/2" by 11" sheet of paper. On the back of the paper. I wrote some ideas of what motivates me to loose weight. I also wrote down three achievable goals. Today is a good day.

How's it going?

Okay so I can't have sugar? Well somehow in my twisted dieting mind I now crave fatty foods in place of sugary foods. Chips, pizza, pasta. I can't have movie candy so I have a bag of Cheetos? Messed up. It's like if I am told I can't have something I look for something else to replace it. Before we started the points thing I was going to the gym every day and watching what I eat. It was working and I felt good it came easy. No brainer. Earning these points takes the brains and I'm feeling guilty about not earning the points it is bringing me down. Too much to think about too much to do. Any thoughts?

Karlie

LDS.org - Ensign Article - “And upon the Handmaids in Those Days Will I Pour Out My Spirit”

LDS.org - Ensign Article - “And upon the Handmaids in Those Days Will I Pour Out My Spirit”: "Good women always have a desire to know if they are succeeding. In a world where the measures of success are often distorted, it is important to seek appreciation and affirmation from proper sources. To paraphrase a list found in Preach My Gospel, we are doing well when we develop attributes of Christ and strive to obey His gospel with exactness. We are doing well when we seek to improve ourselves and do our best. We are doing well when we increase faith and personal righteousness, strengthen families and homes, and seek out and help others who are in need. We know we are successful if we live so that we qualify for, receive, and know how to follow the Spirit. When we have done our very best, we may still experience disappointments, but we will not be disappointed in ourselves. We can feel certain that the Lord is pleased when we feel the Spirit working through us.9 Peace, joy, and hope are available to those who measure success properly."



I am using this for my visiting teaching message, and I wanted to share it with you guys. Make sure you are measuring your successes, not just your disappointments! I always let the bad out-weigh the good, and that is when my diet goes bye-bye. So keep looking at the good you are doing! Who cares if you only get 1 point one day, step it up the next day!

It's me

Hi guys! The biggest thing for me is having the support from family. And the competition doesn't hurt :)

I did well last week. Although I didn't keep track of points each day because I lost the paper so this week is my start.

My hardest thing surprisingly last week was eating dinner before 7pm that usually meant that I would have to eat without Mike, but I can do it. The sugar thing wasn't as hard. I lost it 2 of the 7 days, sneaking a candy ha ha ha one time I chewed the candy and spit it out before I swallowed it (I know gross) but it so wasn't worth loosing the point!!! I like this system, it makes you think.

Here's to healthier lifstyles!

Points

Here are the points, 1 for each:

Exercise 30 minutes
Drink 8 glasses of water
Eat three servings of fruit
Eat three servings of veggies
Don't eat sugar
Don't drink caffeine
Don't eat after 7:00 pm


I found my hardest one of course is caffeine. I did make it three out of four days last week though! and then Saturday... well I kind of blew it, but I'm back and ready to do it again this week! I hope you guys keep it up to, only not as good as me because I want to first prize :)