Goal met! 2 months, 14 days

I did it! I woke up this morning and the scale read 125.5. I officially made my goal. I lost twenty pounds in 2 and a half months. Yesterday I wore my size 2 shorts the entire day. Size 2. Unbelievable. I am really happy with the progress I've made obviously. After trying on some bathing suits yesterday I may try to hit 120 pounds next. I want to look good, but I also don't want to look like a skeleton or anything. Trying to find that balance. We'll be on vacation for the next week, and I doubt I can hold onto 125 over that, but I've made my goal, and I will make my new goal of 120 too. I have willpower, and if I set my mind to something I will succeed.

Nearing the finish line

Well it's been a while and I thought I'd check in. It's been almost two and a half months on this low carb journey. The good news is that I am three pounds away from my end goal weight of 125. However the even better news is that I am now able to comfortably fit into size 4 shorts, and size 2 shorts are just a tad snug, but in another three pounds they should be perfect! I cannot tell you how many years it's been since I was this thin. More than two decades for sure. I am thrilled, and also flabbergasted by how easy this was overall. I mean have I worked hard by forgoing delicious baked goodies, and working my tail off with P90X3. You bet I have. But the results are outstanding and I don't feel like I had to do too much deprivation to earn them. I am excited to hear what my hubby's doctor has to say when he goes back in for his check-up in two weeks time. Hopefully it will be nothing but good news, and a pat on the back.

So yes, P90X3 is still going strong. We manage to get in four nights a week on average, but the days we miss we're usually doing something else active like hiking. We just started week three of the final phase. Yesterday's workout was eccentric lower and it kicked my butt. I am so sore today. I can't believe how great my results have been from just working out 30 minutes a day, a few times a week. I know we could have been better, but the flexibility allowed us to do what we needed to do, without getting frustrated and quitting if we needed to miss a couple of days in a row.

Next week my hubby and I are on vacation traveling to far away places. It has been slightly challenging to find places to eat at that fit our low carb needs, but we're just going to do our best while we're out of town. Next Friday is also my birthday and I am hopeful that I will be starting 37 at my goal weight fairly soon.

I am proud of myself, and my hubby, and I will continue to update until we finish this crazy P90X3 ride. After that, we'll see what happens.

60 days of P90X done!

Hi blog. Well it's been a full 60 days of P90X3 and the results are good. Comparing my Day 1 pictures, to my Day 60 pictures you can see that I am way less flabby, and I am getting some actual definition and toning. I imagine the next 30 days will only make it even more noticeable. My weight continues to decrease, I am now at 131.2. My goal is 125 pounds and that's not all that far away. My clothes are getting very baggy on me so I bought some new size 6 shorts at the store yesterday. I'm feeling much better when I am wearing my bathing suit now. I don't have too many eating challenges anymore. We even found some great Thai food that we can eat and it was delicious!! Yes, we still eat a lot of salads, but that's ok. I like salads when you can add lots of yummy toppings to them. What I miss most is still the baked goodies.

So today starts the last phase of P90X3. Chances are good that we will keep doing P90X3 again when we finish this full round. I don't see a reason to stop. It works, and I feel and look great.

Another week down!

Hi blog! It's been another week on the low carb lifestyle. We made it through Father's Day without going too far off track, and I had my Book Club too! For Father's Day hubby asked me to make a Greek Pasta Salad sans pasta. It turned out fantastic! My extended family wasn't too keen on it, but I didn't make it for them, so no big. We also went out to eat on Father's Day and we went to a local BBQ place that we love. No problems ordering low carb there. The only time I really cheated was for Book Club I made Snickerdoodle cookies, and I ate one. Just one out of the whole batch. It was really good. Mmmmm. But that was it. I shouldn't need to bake again anytime soon, and we have lots of dark chocolate treats for dessert on the weekends.

P90X3 is humming along too. We're on rest week which we hate. Too much yoga!!! But after this week is over we can take new pics. I am excited because I know I look better than I did before. My skinny shorts fit me now, and I have muscles. Woo hoo! Low carb plus P90X3 equals some damn good results.

My current weight as of my last weigh in Friday was 132.6. That's thirteen pounds down and I am still losing. Slowly but surely I'm going to make my goal weight of 125, hopefully by the end of summer. You know that saying Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels? I am starting to think that's true.

Still on track!

Hi blog. I know it's been a while. So much was going on the past few weeks that posting to my blog was kind of forgotten. My kids are officially out of school now, and all those pesky end of the year school commitments are over. Yay! We are just chilling at home now, and loving it.

In regards to our low carb lifestyle things are going very well. I have continued to lose weight. As of today I have lost thirteen pounds in little over a month. I went from a size 10 in clothing, to very quickly approaching a size 6. I have had a few people ask if I am working out, which I happily reply yes I am, P90X3! I think we have found a way to make this lifestyle our new normal.

The hardest part for me continues to be the lack of desserts. I miss my cookies, cakes, donuts, etc. However I am happy that I can still eat dark chocolate goodies, peanut butter cups, and Dove Ice cream from time to time. It may not be a cake, or a cookie, but it does satisfy the sweet tooth.

My hubby has lost over ten pounds as well, and it looks like he's still on track for his doctor's appointment in August. We have some trips planned this summer which might make the low carb lifestyle a little tricky, but we'll make it work.

I'm feeling great and starting to look great too. The hardest part is the beginning, when you're body is coming off of the carbs and the sugar, but once you're past that hump it's smooth sailing.

Back from a little break

Hi blog. Don't ask me where I've been the past few days. I've just been super busy. I had multiple doctor's appointments on Friday. Thursday is just a blur at this point. But the important thing is I am here now, and I didn't fall off the wagon.

We had a hot weekend here which included some bathing suit shopping, I returned the size 14 and got a smaller tankini instead. We ate out twice, but we stuck to our low carb lifestyle while eating at Dickies BBQ and Chik-fil-a. Who knew Chik would have such a tasty Cobb salad?  We went swimming twice this weekend to beat the heat. We did our P90X3 last night with was Triometrics. Today I am busy baking oatmeal raisin cookies for girl scouts tonight. Not tempted to eat them at all, not my favorite kind of cookies and I don't like raisins.

Weight wise I had a sucky weigh-in on Friday. I was down 0.5 which isn't terrible, but not the 1 lb or more I was hoping for. So far this week has been o.k. My monthly visitor is due to arrive so that'll slow down my progress too. Bah!

I'm kind of mopey today. Just not feeling too happy. My doctor did say that my blood pressure was excellent, and I am pretty healthy overall. So my physical for the year is over. Woo hoo!

Well not too much else to report except that I am still here, on track, and doing well. Have a nice Monday.

Wednesday rambles

Greetings blog. I am happy to say that the worst of the hunger pains is over. My body has finally adjusted to not eating carbs and sugar and I am not feeling like I am starving 24/7. As long as I don't slip up and go on some huge carb/sugar binge I think I can keep losing weight without feeling deprived. I'm so happy to be at this point at last.

Last night for exercise we did Eccentric Lower on P90X 3. My legs were toasty. Even today they are tired and worn out. It was a great workout, and I was really feeling it. This morning I went on a brisk walk with my friend, and tonight will be more P90X 3. I may not see a huge loss on the scale this week, perhaps not even any loss at all. It bums me out, but I won't let it stop me. My clothes are fitting better, and looser, so despite the scale I am making progress.

Breakfast today was a 1/2 yogurt and some blackberries. Lunch will be maybe an omelet? And dinner will be beanless chili I think. Or vegetable beef soup.

I am finding low carb message boards to be helpful on keeping me on track and hearing others stories. I have a doctor's appointment on Friday and I expect full blood work done. I haven't been to the doctor in two and a half years so it's going to be the full deal head to toe. Yay. =P

Have a great hump day.

Back from vacation

Hi blog. It's Tuesday and the kidlets are back to school, and I am home again doing my normal home things. We had a nice, relaxing vacation up in the mountains. This is probably the healthiest we've ever eaten while at the cabin, but unfortunately I still gained weight. Grr!! I don't know if it was the macadamia nuts, or the organic dark chocolate peanut butter cups, or maybe just too much salt in something, but regardless I was up this morning by nearly two pounds. So frustrating!! Hubby was barely up at all and he ate more than I did. Oh well no reason crying over it, back to my normal routine. We did manage to get in two hikes while up there and boy were my calves burning. Today they feel back to normal thankfully since our P90X 3 workout tonight is all about legs. Yikes!

Foodwise today I've had some string cheese. Lunch will be an omelet. Dinner is going to be this new chicken recipe that I found on Pinterest and some veggies. Nothing too exciting but I'll let you know if the chicken recipe is a keeper.

I'm having the hardest time thinking that this is our lives for the long haul. I don't want to give up my desserts and bread things indefinitely. I know I am probably setting myself up to fail thinking like this, but I do want to enjoy the good things in life sometimes. The problem is it starts with a once in a while treat and turns into us getting fat again. Argh. Am I a carb addict, most definitely. Can I ever change, time will tell. For now I am just taking it all a day at a time.

Friday at last!

Good evening blog. It's been a long day, of a long week, but it's finally Friday so we can relax and enjoy the long weekend. Today was our weigh in day. I lost 3.5 pounds this week bringing my total lost to 8.8 pounds in the past twelve days. My husband lost 3.6 pounds this week, so he's doing great as well. We don't expect this same large drops in weight next week, but it sure would be nice if it happened.

We had a busy day but we stuck to low carb. Breakfast was a Luna protein bar. It was tasty but a little too many carbs for me normally. Lunch hubby packed us some cheese, meats, grapes, and nuts with sparkling water which I managed to shake up too much and it ended up going all over me. Dinner we splurged and ate at In&Out. So good! We both had double doubles protein style. My favorite thing today was dessert. At Costco we got some Justin's peanut butter cups. They are small but they are so good and only 6g of carbs. Such a nice treat for having a good week.

We're at the cabin now and we usually eat terribly up here but not this time. We packed with low carb in mind. We may even lose weight over the weekend which.never happens to us while we're here.

Overall it's been a great Friday. I'm excited for the weekend to begin.

Almost the weekend. WOO!

Hi blog people. I am so excited because the weekend is almost here. My hubby took tomorrow off to go on a field trip with me and our youngest. So it's like the weekend has already started around here. We're headed up to my in-laws cabin in the mountains so if I don't blog for a few days that's why.

Tomorrow is my weigh in day and I think I did well this week. I'll know for sure tomorrow but I think I lost 3 pounds this week. I know I can't expect this kind of weight loss every week, but I'll take it for now. I'm excited to hear how much weight my hubby lost this week. I know he's been going down, but he hasn't told me how far down he's gone.

Breakfast today was some banana cream yogurt. Yuck! I wasn't too impressed. I ate half and gave the rest to my daughter. I'll stick to cherry thank you very much. Lunch was leftover steak and peppers/onions from Sunday night. And dinner tonight is homemade meatballs with marinara sauce and peas. Not a fan of peas but we're low on veggies so it's what we have. Hubby will be happy he loves peas.

Exercise didn't happen last night because hubby has a cold. He was miserable. I am not sure if he'll feel up to it tonight or not. We should be able to get a hike or two in while we're in the mountains. And then we'll resume our P90X 3 when we return home. I don't like missing our exercise but exercising while sick is awful.

Well dinner is done and then we have grocery shopping to do at Costco. Have a wonderful weekend blog readers!!

Reading about wheat

Hello blog. I picked up two books from the library today and both of them are against eating wheat. The authors, who are also doctors, both think that wheat is the reason for a lot of ailments that befall people these days, from diabetes, to high blood pressure, and so much more including multiple mental issues, ADHD, and even autism. Both books were fairly interesting. I just skimmed through them not reading every page, but the pages that were interesting and that I felt mattered most to me and my current life.

Currently I am feeling kind of sluggish and low. I should probably eat a snack of some sort. I am tired even though I got up from a nap an hour ago. For breakfast I had a babybell, and some peanuts. Lunch was a hot dog and a green apple. Dinner tonight will be homemade chicken soup with vegetables.

After reading these books I can see how much damage wheat and carbs are doing to our bodies. It makes me not want to go back, but I know that by switching to this lifestyle forever that means giving up foods and desserts that I love. They say not to think back, but just to look at the present so that's what I'll try and focus on. I am unsure if I'll allow myself any cheat days in the future, or if I should just walk away from carbs and never look back. Food for thought. HA!

Another day in low carb land.

Good Morning! It's another beautiful day here in my neck of the world. Things are humming along nicely. I just got back from a little shopping at Target. I picked up some more Dannon light and fit greek yogurt. The cherry flavor was my breakfast this morning, but Target was having a sale so I picked up some more cherry, banana cream, and a strawberry too. The carbs are not too bad, 9 grams I think, and it's easy to eat in the morning.

I also got some sugar free cheesecake and vanilla pudding and a bag of super dark chocolate with almond lindt squares. I don't plan on eating the chocolate, or the pudding, every day, but rather as a treat on the weekend to reward myself for a good week of low carbing. I gotta have something small to look forward to.

Today for lunch I had leftover peppers, onions, and steak, and a slice of cheddar cheese. I'm still feeling a little hungry, but that will go away soon. I'm also taking the carcass left over from Saturday's chicken and put it into the crock pot to make a nice chicken broth. This means later on this week we'll be having some chicken vegetable soup. YUM!

Exercise last night was awesome, but hard. P90X 3 keeping it real. It was all cardio and the DVD was called Triometrics, they should have called it squats galore, because that's what it was. Yowch! I felt great afterward, but during was a little rough.

The scale continues creeping downward, which helps me stay focused day after day. This weekend is Memorial Day weekend so we plan to head to the mountains to enjoy the fresh air, and stay at my in-laws cabin. We're bringing our low carb food up with us, and we plan to get a nice hike or two in while we're up there also. I'm thoroughly looking forward to it. Just need to get through this week first.

Have a great day!

Salads, salads, everywhere!

Hello blog! I'm writing later than usual today. I spent the morning shopping and having lunch with my mom. We had a lovely time together. She bought me a new bathing suit cover up which is really cute and it will come in handy this summer. She kept trying to buy me clothing, and I kept telling her that I was planning on losing a lot of weight and that I would just have to return the clothing anyway, or not wear it again. I bought a super cute size 14 bathing suit last month, and at my current rate of weight loss it won't fit me for long, so I'll probably have to return it. I didn't want to make that mistake twice. The cover up however is already in a size small, and it's really loose and forgiving, so I should be fine with this.

For lunch we went to a salad and soup buffet place. I got a huge salad with all the low carb toppings and blue cheese dressing. I did get a small bowl of chicken tortilla soup, sans tortilla, and I just picked out the corn and potatoes. It was good, but now it's not even dinnertime and I am hungry!! Good thing dinner will be in an hour. Leftovers for us tonight since I've been gone all day.

P90X 3 last night was a major arm workout. Push ups, pull ups, and weights oh my! My arms are toasty today. I mean really toasty! We took new pictures last night and just from the P90X 3 I can see that my stomach is getting flatter (yay) and my husband is building up a lot of good upper body muscles (yay!). We'll see even better results the next time we take pictures.

Except for my extreme sadness over not eating desserts, I feel like this lifestyle change is doable. I know that the hungry feeling will stop when my body completely adjusts. (Any day now body!) I have some books coming from the library regarding a low carb lifestyle that I am going to read. I watched the documentary Fathead on Youtube and it was very interesting and eye opening for me. Check it out blog readers. =)

My weight is still going down, which makes me happy and keeps me on the right track, choosing the low carb foods, and passing on the yummies I'm used to. Tonight I made cake batter rice krispy treats for my daughters girl scout troop, and I didn't eat a single one. Willpower baby!!

Have a good night !

Sunday Day 7!

Hello everyone! Today is my seventh day of my low carb lifestyle. With every passing day I am hopeful that my body has finally adapted to this new way of eating. I've been more tired lately, and super hungry, but I kept going, and I am crossing my fingers that I am over the worst of it. I dreamt last night that I was at a bakery and asked to buy this amazing looking Oreo cupcake. After I told the lady I wanted to buy it, my conscience kicked in and I thought "Wait what am I doing? I can't eat that!" Funny how in just a week my brain has switched to knowing I can't eat cupcakes anymore.

Yesterday was a good day. We ate at home the entire day. We thought about eating out, but after talking about where we could go, and what we could eat there, it just made sense to stay home. We may be saving ourselves some money by not eating out as much, that will help mitigate the added costs of buying mostly proteins and vegetables at the grocery store. I'm sure this is much healthier for us and our kids.

Lunch yesterday was a Cheddar hot dog, and some boysenberries. Dinner was a huge salad with chicken, egg, cucumber, black olives, pickles, with Blue Cheese dressing. It was so yummy! For dessert I had the sugar free butterscotch pudding, which finished off the last of the pudding so no more desserts until next weekend.

Our P90X 3 work-out was Yoga X. We've done this one many times before. It's a slow workout, but it gets the job done. I can tell that I am getting more flexible and better at my balance. It isn't my favorite work-out, but it's not the worst one either. (I'm looking at you Pilates)

Today we have some running around to do, maybe some gardening too. I'm not sure if we'll do P90X 3 tonight, or if it will be a rest day. Yesterday completed Phase 1 of P90X 3 for us so we have pictures to take tonight to compare from where we started, to where we are today. Love picture day. I'm hoping to see some progress.

That's about it here. Have a great Sunday!!

Friday Weigh-in and Saturday

Hi all! Yesterday was SO busy that I forgot to blog. I thought about it once when I wasn't at home, but then it slipped my mind later. Well yesterday was my normal weigh-in day. When I weighed in on Monday I was 146.3, but I will admit that I ate terribly on the Sunday before because it was Mother's Day and we were at a theme park. So I am pretty sure I was up abnormally high from all of those carbs in my body. My highest before that Sunday had been 145.0. So I think that is more of an accurate starting point. Okay now to the good stuff. Yesterday I weighed in at 141.0! So That's at least a four pound loss in five days. WOWZA! Now I do not expect the upcoming weeks to be that great, I know that it always starts off huge at the beginning and then goes to a normal 1-2pound weight loss a week if I'm lucky. But it sure does do good thing to see such a smaller number on the scale. =)

Foodwise yesterday for breakfast I had linguisa. For lunch it was leftover tuna salad. And for dinner we went out to eat at a pizza place because my eldest had a friend spending the night. However hubby and I both ordered salads and they were HUGE! It was really tasty, and we will go back again for their monster salads. For dessert I made some sugar free butterscotch pudding. I stuck it in the freezer hoping for an ice cream effect, that was a fail, it was more like butterscotch ice, instead of ice cream. It still tasted good though. ;)

This morning I made the kids Butterfinger pancakes (not an all the time thing, but a special occasion thing) and for myself I had a babybel cheese and some peanuts. Yes their pancakes looked yummy... I mean butterfingers and whipped cream!! but I didn't need all those carbs and sugar in my body.

Well the weekends are always tough. We'll probably go hiking tomorrow, since the weather is so nice this weekend. I am not sure if we'll eat out again or not. It would be nice if we just ate at home, goodness knows we have enough meat now to not need to eat out again for a long time.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Feeling good Thursday.

Good Morning! I woke up in a great mood, and I am feeling wonderful. Maybe I'm the passed the worse of the sugar addiction, I sure hope so. I watched a documentary yesterday called Fed Up which talks about obesity in children, and how much sugar they put into all of our foods, even things you wouldn't think should have sugar in them. do. They also said that sugar is twenty times more addicting than cocaine is. No wonder my body is going through withdrawls, and how easy it is to go back to the sugar. I enjoy knowing this new information because it makes it easier for me to realize that my body is coming down off of an addiction, and that's why this is so much harder than a normal "diet".

So last night I made zucchini pizza boats. My family loved them. I was shocked because zucchini is not a family favorite, and yet everyone gobbled them up. Win!! I will make them again for sure! This morning for breakfast I had a string cheese and a small handful of peanuts. It seems like I am managing to find low carb options for breakfast after all. =)

Last night's P90X 3 work out was Pilates. I hate Pilates! It was ALL core and ouch!! My core needs the workout but it hurts so bad doing it. Oh well. We'll see what tonight has in store for us.

I need to get back to work. Tomorrow is weigh-in day and things are looking good. Hopefully I will have a nice number to report. =)

Happy Hump Day!

Good morning! I woke up in a pretty good mood. I stood on the scale and it was down considerably, which I am sure it just me shedding water weight, but it still made me smile. It's nice to see some progress in the right direction on that darn scale.

I went to my girls school this morning where they hosted a volunteer breakfast. I was worried that there wouldn't be anything I could eat other than just muffins, but I was wrong. I grabbed myself a blueberry yogurt, some red grapes, and a bottle of water. I wasn't even tempted by the muffins, because I am not a huge muffin girl, donuts would have been another story. ;P I enjoyed chatting with my daughters teachers and friends. It was a nice way to start my morning.

From there I drove to the grocery store for some much needed produce, and meat. I paid a little more than normal, but nothing too terrible. Now I have a stocked kitchen with lots of veggies, some apples, and meat! I'm looking forward to some variety in our meals now, and not just the same couple of things to eat day after day.

Last night I ended up having a cheese, onion, and bacon egg scramble, and some pineapple chunks. It was tasty, but I was hungry later. I didn't cave in, I'm trying to not eat after 8:00 p.m.

I read yesterday that after the first week or so of low carbing your body stops craving the sugar, and your hunger pains will stop. I can't wait for that point. My hubby told me yesterday that I don't have to join him on his low carb diet. I told him nothing else has been working when I've tried to lose the weight lately, so I think I'll stick with it and see if I get the results I want. I'm wondering if I'm just getting older and my body isn't burning off as many calories as it used to. I don't want the weight gain to keep increasing until I am some pudgy old lady. I want to be a fit old lady. =)

Well I have chores to do so I'd better get to it. Lunch will be a cheddar brat and some carrots with a little greek blue cheese dressing. YUM!

Day 2 of low carb and boy am I hungry

Hello out there. Just checking in for Day 2 of this new low catb lifestyle. I went to bed hungry last night. I usually eat dessert, but I didn't. I watched my T.V. show sans any sort of dessert. It was a bummer, but it was the right thing to do.

This morning I got up and ate some Dannon Greek Yogurt in black cherry flavor. It is not my favorite breakfast but until I can get to the grocery store, it's what I had on hand. It's currently 10:36 and I am ready for lunch, but I need to wait until 11:00. For lunch I'm thinking maybe tuna salad. I like tuna and I should be able to jazz it up enough to make it tasty. I just need to see how many carbs are in the Mayo we have. I have no idea what I'll do for dinner tonight. Maybe I'll eat the last two eggs. I plan on getting to the store tomorrow to buy more, so that's probably my plan. I like eggs, for dinner or lunch, just not really for breakfast. Go figure.

Well today my core is tight from P90X 3. We did the Accelerator, and even though I like Cardio, I did not like the million crazy planks they wanted us to do. Planks are not my idea of a good time, but my core is sore so I can tell they work.

Tomorrow morning it's volunteer breakfast at my kids school. I just know it's going to be muffins, or donuts, or some other deliciously carb loaded treat. Maybe I shouldn't go at all. Perhaps they'll have some fruit? We shall see. At home it's pretty easy to find low carb things to eat, out in the real world it takes more effort.

Hubby works tonight so we won't have exercise, but we'll be back at it tomorrow night as usual. That's about it for me.

Reboot! Low carb lifestyle. And GO!

Hello! Long time no see. I mean really, really long. My husband was given order by his doctor to switch to a very low carbohydrate diet and to lose 17 pounds, in the next 3 months. In an effort to support him, and to lose weight myself, I have decided to join him on this weight loss/low carb. challenge.

Yesterday was Mother's Day so starting today seemed like the right thing to do after eating a lot of non-healthy foods with my family. Today is a clean slate, and Day 1 of this new food journey.

This morning I started off with a half an apple, and 1/4 cup of dry roasted peanuts. I find breakfast is the hardest time to go without carbs because everything except for eggs and fruit, is full of carbs. I'm not much of a breakfast eater, I usually grab a granola bar and go, but things have changed now.

For lunch I ate several baby carrots with greek yogurt blue cheese dip, the other half of my apple, and a slim jim. We haven't gone grocery shopping yet so we're a little low on protein options, but I'll fix that this week. Tonight we'll have leftover BBQ ribs and veggies for dinner.

Lunches and Dinners should be pretty easy to go low carb on, it's the weekends, desserts, and breakfasts that will be a challenge for me. Today I weighed in at 146.3. I will weight in normally on Friday mornings, as soon as I wake up.

My beverages will be mostly sparkling water and the occasional diet soda.

For exercise I am briskly walking/jogging three times a week and also doing P90X 3 three to four days a week.

My goal weight is between 125 and 130 pounds. I do not want to be super skinny, but I'd like to be toned, and healthy looking.

My weakness is always dessert and eating out on the weekends.

Day 1 is in progress. I will try and use this blog to help keep me accountable.