My "Real Food" diet is working!! Before and After Pictures from Donna. PTL!!

 173 pounds on June 5th (5'2")  (Stomach all gone!!)

Hi Everyone! This weekend has been a whirlwind of activity, so I didn't get to do my usual Monday housecleaning post. However, I have been taking pictures and videos left and right of various projects and activities that have been 'in the works.'   I do hope to get them all posted in the next few days. So, what's on the 'schedule' for this week?Here are a few things that I've got almost ready to post.

                      Posts for This Week...and maybe a little into next week. :o)

• How to make a frugal tablescape...with before and after pictures. (and weekly cleaning challenge)
• How to use recycled plastic bottles to make planting in big planters and moving them an easier task.
• Tutorial: A Super Easy 30 minute circle skirt (like a poodle or square dance skirt) that requires no pattern and minimal sewing. Bonus:  how to make your own bias tape!
•  Great food storage tip that makes the most use of your freezer space and makes defrosting a snap!
• Sunday:  The Secret to Pleasing a "Hard to Please" Hubby

Before and After Pictures 
Today, I'm posting my first ever  "Before and After" pictures, since I started my weight loss journey in April. I had to take the above photo myself, because  the kids were  already asleep. Sorry about the blurry image.

  189 pounds on February 25 (5'2") 

I looked pregnant from the side because my stomach was so big. 
And the blouse was so tight in the bust that I could barely get it over my chest.

Progress Report on my Weight Loss Efforts
Here is a picture taken less than a month before I gave up junk food. I  had just added the ruffle and widened the hips on this blouse on February 25th this year. I started dieting about a week after we started our weight loss blog, Gettin' Thin Together on April 11 so that was about April 18th or so. I took the first and last photos tonight, June 6th.  So this has been the result of seven weeks of dieting. (Did I tell you I had no intentions of getting on a diet...I just started the blog to get some support. I thought I would never be able to get on a diet again and stay on it. 

 I am still pinching myself...is this real? To think I fought giving up junk food all these years! My conscious has always bugged me about it, but I just couldn't bring myself to give up the processed foods, snack foods,  poor quality bread and pasta.     Now, I don't want to do anything to jeopardize my freedom to choose good quality food at every meal. I never want to go back to enduring the old cravings that kept me hooked on junk.

No More Food Cravings!!
Since I started eating real food, I have not craved a speck of junk food.   I can smell it, look at it, know how good it would taste..and still not eat it!!  When you think of how much sense it makes that natural food (all original designs by God himself ) like vegetables, fruit, meat , and nuts are going to be good for you and that food made of man-made chemicals just might not be good for you, it makes you wonder why we never consider this switching to lose weight and regain our health!  

All these years, I've been a prisoner of my appetites even when I was thin. Now, I'm free and I never feel the need to overeat. I'm so grateful to the  Lord that he put the way of escape right in front of me.  I truly believe that someday, I will, again, be able to eat a piece of pizza or have ice cream without it sending me into drug-like additive cravings, but I think my body needs to get completely healthy before that can safely happen.

Amazingly, I actually love water, fruit, vegetables, and lean meat now. I avoided them in the past, even though I loved the taste of them. It always seemed like cooking was too much trouble to mess with and I didn't 'crave' real food like I did toast, crackers, chips, and pasta.

Not only that but I have so much stamina and energy that I just can't believe it's real! The other night, I went square dancing with the children for the first time in several months. Normally, I would dance about two dances...then be exhausted and very over-heated. So I'd rest and sit out a dance, then join the next one.  Even though it had been months since I'd danced, last night I was able to dance two solid hours with no breaks!!  I was so full of energy that I was wide-eyed all the way home, even though we didn't get back from College Station until 1:30am.   I NEVER NEED A NAP NOW!  I have been off junk food since May 5th.  That's not even two months! And I'm healthier and more energetic than I've been in my whole life.

Even if I never lost another pound, I'd never go back to eating like I did. Now that I know what was actually making me feel exhausted, emotional, stressed, and addicted, I just can't let it happen again.  I look so different even after such a small weight loss that everyone who knows me wants to know what in the world I am doing. The crazy thing isthat  it isn't that the weight loss is so large, but that my skin tone is so wonderful, my shape has smoothed out, and I'm so NOT bloated. I've lost so many inches that the brand new clothes I bought a month ago don't fit. (Several inches too big in the waist.) I've only lost seven pounds this month...and that's good...but I look like a different person. That never happened when I've dieted in the past.

So when people ask me what I'm doing to lose weight...I tell them..I don't count calories...I don't weigh anything....but I also don't overeat--and I don't even feel the urge too.  I just always eat REAL food rather than man-made...i.e.a small piece of meat, a cheese stick, an orange or apple, broccoli spears in vinegar and oil, and an occasional cup of oatmeal or brown rice. The stomach monster seems to have been slain! Hurrah!

So, I thank the Lord every single day for answering my deepest heartfelt prayer...to not be overweight and to not be tired, sick, and embarrassed about how I look every moment of the day.  To look really trim even though I do still weigh 174...is just astonishing!  I never looked good at that weight before and I think I look so much better now because all the junk and chemicals are out of my system. I look and feel younger than I ever have...even though I am overweight. That's as big a miracle as I can imagine.  I have hope now and am not afraid of the future and being stuck with excess weight. Even if it took three years to lose all my weight, I wouldn't care, because I've got most of the benefits of being thin..already!

If you are like me and struggling with weight...and maybe have given up hope of ever losing it, and if you haven't considered giving up processed foods yet and are still struggling with a desire for food, please do give it a shot, even if just for a week or two. I wish I had known how much it would help me years ago to give up the junk and not feel compelled to overeat. If you would like more encouragement, then drop by our weightloss blog. We would love to hear from you at Gettin' Thin Together!

Happy Homemaking.....

Six Easy Ways to Make Your Family' s Favorite Meals Healthier

 

For the most part, we are creatures of habit and most of our kids don’t want to try ‘new’ things… So in trying to educate our children and train their taste buds towards foods that will keep them healthy, it’s best if we sort of ‘fool’ them into eating healthier by simply improving the health  quality of the family favorites that they are already accustomed to.  Why take the trouble? Do you know how many of our children are now starting out life overweight? Do you know why? Believe me…it’s time to break with our culture…and do things different. Just cause everyone else is jumping off a cliff, children in tow, doesn’t mean we have to!  Here’s what Carol Simontacci, author of ‘Your Fat is Not Your Fault’ says about what she calls “The Fattening of America”….

“If your overweight, chances are you’re not a glutton, but you probably do eat too many nonfoods. Some nutritionists call these foods ‘food artifacts,” or products made by human workmanship. These are substances that are not naturally present in the world and were not part of our ancestor’s diets.

If you look at supermarket stats, you’ll see what Americans are buying—and it isn’t food!  We’re eating more pseudofood now than ever in the the history of the world! And don’t think your body doesn’t know the difference. That entree may taste and smell like real food, but your body knows otherwise, and it knows where to store every toxic molecule.  All the low-fat this and low-fat that, the sugar substitute here and the fat substitute there will not solve your fat problem.

   Over 75 percent of the food products sold in our supermarkets are either nutritionally dead or nutritionally toxic. We don’t bury that dead food; we store it on our hips, waists, and chests, pound after pound after pound. Why build more toxic waste dumps in this country when we can use our bodies instead?”

What happens when we eat this stuff?  Carol says, “When we eat foods our bodies can’t use, or foods that contain artificial ingredients; when our digestive systems do not sufficiently break down the foods into usable parts, the liver is required to handle an excessive amount of toxic waste for which it is not prepared. And most of us don’t drink enough water or eat enough fiber for the colon and kidneys to perform their vital functions, and waste materials build up in the colon to be reabsorbed into the body.   Fat performs an important function in the body by storing all this excess toxic waste.

Logic tells us that if we clean up our diets and eat pure foods, including 30 to 40 grams of fiber a day, drink eight to ten glasses of water, and avoid synthetic chemicals as much as possible, our bodies will not have to build storage depots on our hips and bellies to handle an unnecessary load of toxic waste.”  In other words, friends, Fat has to encase these toxins to keep them out of our systems! No toxins…less fat in all the wrong places!

photo credit

Six weeks ago, I decided to take Carol seriously and say No to junk food, sugar, fast food, bread and other man-made non-foods (except homemade whole grain wheat bread).  Guess where I lost the first ten pounds?  My hips, stomach, and other lumpy bumpy places.  Not only that, but my energy level skyrocketed! My hubby, who is very thin, was feeling so sluggish that he decided to quit eating the junk too. He said he feels better than he has in years and he looks less drained and dehydrated. So obviously the junk food affects us all whether we have fast metabolisms or slow.

Even if our kids aren’t overweight now, if they keep eating junk…they will be later down the road, or like my dear hubby, they’ll just be exhausted and worn down by the time they hit middle age. We feel like we’ve gotten a new lease on life! But convincing our kids to change is another issue all together!  Hence the reason for today’s article…We need to make gradual changes and wean our kids off this stuff.

The biggest thing you can do to improve your meal’s health factor is to cook from scratch. The fact is that if it’s in a box or a bag or has instructions..as Carol Simontacci (nutritionist) says, “Don’t eat it!” It’s probably not good for you!  I know..it's time consuming..but our country is in a crisis...and we need to spend more time on this issue! Our children's future health and quality of life are depending on our willingness to make this a priority. 

Second, replace the BAD fats with GOOD fats Don’t buy fatty meats…but instead choose lean meats. Instead get your fat from good sources like real butter, olive oil, canola oil, and lots of nuts for snacks, even avocado slices to get the good fat that actually lowers cholesterol and gives you the energy you need.  This will cut out the hunger factor and avoid so much need to snack. Even your skin will be softer!  Don’t eat or use saturated fats if you can at all avoid them…and of course, fried foods are pretty much a disaster… so avoid them as much as possible.

Third, have a good source of protein at every meal! This will keep you from having a carb heavy diet that causes insulin rush and food cravings..leading to excess snacking of the junk food.  Spend less on junk and more on lean meats, low fat cheeses (the only thing worth buying low-fat), eggs, turkey bacon or protein drinks (look for ones without the excess chemicals), tuna, fish, poultry etc.  Sandwiches are more bread than anything else and without protein will lead to excess hunger and cravings.  Make chunky soups with lots of meat and veges, that can sit in the fridge and be eaten easily and packed for on the go if needed.  I keep at least one cold roasted chicken in the fridge just for snacking purposes.

Fourth, add lightly cooked vegetables to every meal and keep raw veges  ready to eat for snacks in between meals.  Plan to have two thirds of the meal be veges to one third meat.  Be creative! There’s all kinds of ways to add veges to a dish…get the kids used to chunkier sauces, add veges to casseroles, etc.

Fifth, cut out the sugar!! Provide lots of fruit, ready to eat, for dessert instead of nutritionally worthless pastries, chips and snacks.  If you can’t leave the sugar out of your main dishes altogether, at least use a natural substitute like Truvia or Stevia.  But skip the baked products as much as possible.  I buy one back of chips for the week and one bottle of soda—we’re still in the weaning stage. When those are gone…they’re gone! Then I keep lots of fruit on hand.  We thought it was going to cost a lot, but surprise! When the fruit was there and the bread, cookies, chips, and soda were gone…they ate it…and forgot to complain!

Last, substitute GOOD CARBS for BAD CARBS in your main dishes and side dishes.  Oatmeal and Oat flower, Brown rice, Pearled barley, sweet potatoes and protein fortified pasta will not spike blood sugar levels nearly as much and won’t cause the cravings that normal pasta, white flour, rice, and white potatoes do.  Be aware..Gluten Free Pasta is HIGH on the glycemic index!

These are habits that we need to instill in our lives and the lives of our children. Yes it’s easier to just eat readily available quick cook precooked food…but the price we pay in terms of health and fitness for the rest of our lives is simply not worth the convenience and time saving. Make some time for you and your children’s health…it’s an investment that will pay off for life!

I’ll post Carol’s recipes this evening, but here’s my menu plan for this week….

photo credit

Comin’ Homes  Menu Plan for May 25-31

• Roasted turkey breast, roasted asparagus, Baked Sweet Potato
• Chicken and Brown Rice Casserole, Sauteed Broccoli
• Healthy Salisbury Steak, Baked Potato without fat, Basic Salad
• Roasted Chicken with Mushroom Gravy, Roasted Veges
• Lemon Pepper Halibut, Steamed Rice, Roasted Asparagus,
  Pumpkin Pie (1 small piece per person)

Sunday Dinners:
Roast Beef w/Roasted rosemary tossed whole greenbeans, new potatoes, and carrots
Skirt-Steak Fajitas with Sautéed Peppers and Onions  (go easy on the canola oil!)
(use corn tortillas instead of flour if allergic to wheat)

Photo Credits for most pictures: Photo Dictionary.com

Happy Homemaking!

Donna

This Week's Challenge: Healthy Eating is the Secret to Painless Dieting!

Hi Friends,

It seems like forever since I last got to actually visit bloggy land. I scheduled all the posts last Monday and have had rare and very short opportunities to do or say anything since then. As it is, I've got mail everywhere and a mess to unpack and put away before I can really spend some time catching up on everyone's posts and comments. Hopefully, I'll see you tonight!

I don't have a Monday challenge that has to do with cleaning...but how about a healthy living challenge?! Ok, so that doesn't sound like much fun either...but the results sure are!!  I feel like life has turned around 180 degrees for me as a homemaker! I've been feeling tired,  sluggish, scatter-brained and not really able to be the homemaker, wife, and mom that I wanted to be, but I never guessed what the real culprit (besides my own lack of effort) really was. I thought it was hormones, lack of self-discipline, getting old...etc. But I've been getting really tired of being the frumpy housewife! Not only that, but I want to have fun with my teenagers and keep up with them! And I want Tim and I to have a great time when the kids are finally out of the 'nest'. So I have taken stock and decided that the picture, in terms of my health, is looking pretty bleak.  My physical condition has really been the result of a 'domino' effect and what was bad was that I never knew which domino it was that knocked down all the others--until this last week and a half!

The Secret to Painless Dieting!! I'm going to share with you today the post that I put up yesterday on my weight loss support blog (really it belongs to all our members) which I only started three weeks ago. I've lost nine pounds and changed my eating style...and now even my activity level, dramatically since then. But the biggest change started the Thursday before last.


See if this isn't challenge enough for anyone's week!!.....

 Yesterday before the Honor Society Induction Ceremony for Jacob.

(PS. I made the trumpet style skirt myself but didn't use a pattern. Good style for pear shapes!)

I just had to tell you about an incredible change that has taken place for me since we started our  weight loss group, "Gettin' Thin Together. three weeks ago.  I have not ever had to go hungry or have felt any cravings of any kind!! I never knew that my battle was caused by the ups and down caused by my body craving bad sources of carbohydrates and the sugar and insulin rush that results.  Except for the first day, I have not had to fight cravings any more. The only battle I fight now is the battle of the 'mind'--the mental desire for foods that don't help my body stay healthy but actually harm me.  I never wanted to admit to myself that junk food hurts us, just like alcohol, drugs, and cigarettes.  If I hadn't eaten tons of it in the past, I could probably 'indulge' now and then without it hurting me. But after years of junk, my body just can't handle it any more without knocking my body's systems out of whack.


I almost entitled this post...thing I didn't eat this last two weeks, but didn't mind!  I had to eat healthy through  Mother's Day dinner, Pizza night with friends, dinner at Saltgrass Steakhouse with hubby's boss, a four day speech and debate tournament, went to Chick-fil-A with friends, and attended a church potluck all in the space of a week and half. My daughter, who knows how much I have struggled with food and that I have never stuck out any kind of diet since she was old enough to remember, told me, "I keep pinching myself, thinking I'm going to wake up and Mom will be back to her old comfortable ways."  She's so happy to finally have a partner in her efforts to stay thin and healthy! Together, we are going to help the whole family get on a better track before it is too late for the guys!

Here is what I didn't eat in the last week and a half...lasagna, ice cream bars, shakes, Starbucks' vanilla coffee in a bottle, sausage pizza, ice cream, cookies, deep dish brownies (warm), chili frito pie, chicken fried steak, and Chick-filet's famous chicken sandwich with fries, chicken quesadillas, fajitas with cheese and sourcream.....should I go on? I never, in my whole life, could have imagined being able to turn down these opportunities to treat myself. And I never thought I'd buy a bottle of water as long as I live, but I've done so three times now!

This is basically a list of all my favorite foods!  It was as if the Lord was trying to show me, that nothing was going to derail me as long as I was willing to give these yummy things up for as long as it takes. I've not only lost three more pounds, but at least three inches in my stomach, the lumps on my hips are gone, my extra chin is gone--I'm losing weight everywhere!


I look fantastic compared to two weeks ago and feel so much energy that I'm always amazed that I can fall asleep at night! And I do sleep great...like a log!   I  could hardly believe that I NEVER got tired at our tournament like I normally do and I drove straight to Austin (from Houston) on Wed. and straight home afterward on Sunday without any tiredness. I even cooked Mother's day dinner because everyone else was too tired to help...but I felt fine. (Tim did cook the steaks though.:o)

My husband is so amazed about my energy that, as skinny as he is, he wants to follow my diet so he can have my energy. He just can't get over it! I'm quickly getting into old clothes too--thank goodness!. Five friends have started doing what I'm doing just to look and feel as I do right now. I haven't been able to wear this black and white blouse in a year or the capris either!


Now, before I tell you what I'm eating and not eating, I have to tell you that at 47 I have been on every diet imaginable and every one was either really strange and not good for my health, or very hard to stay on because I was always fighting the urge to eat something yummy. It was a constant battle not to 'cheat' and I was always hungry. For years, I weighed 125lb. (after losing from 185 after my second baby) but although I maintained that weight even through three more pregnancies (minus the normal gain of a pregnancy which I quickly lost), I was still miserable the whole time! Until seven years ago, I pretty much kept it under 140.   It was worth 'starving' to stay thin but it was never easy. I never felt FREE of the battle between what I wanted to eat and what I ought to eat to maintain my weight. And I never felt good...but rather kind of tired or irritable.

I never knew why I started slowly gaining again unless it was simply that I grew tired of the battle and began giving in to the cravings even as my metabolism slowed down--kind of normal for 40 I guess. But it was so discouraging, because I hated getting bigger and not looking pretty any more. I also had no idea, at the time, that as I ate more junk food and processed foods, that they were the reason I started feeling less energetic and even scatter-brained. I thought it was just the normal results of middle age creeping up on me.

Am I the only one who has noticed that almost EVERYONE is overweight?? It wasn't so ten years ago, but it is now. Even teenagers and children are overweight! Well, although it was you guys who inspired me to try ONE LAST TIME....I was still getting absolutely no where. The old ways of losing weight were just not working or I just couldn't bear to try them again.  I couldn't stand the thought of getting on our weight loss group's Linky List the third week and have to tell them that I lost nothing, but I was afraid that is what I was going to have to do. I guess the Lord knew that I was now desperate enough to try something I never had before--stop eating junk food regardless of how many calories it had or didn't have. I wanted diets that allowed me to keep indulging in sweets and salty snacks, processed foods, bread and cheese and diet coke and fake candy bars and especially fried foods. I felt like as long as I kept it under 1300 calories a day, that it didn't matter 'what' I ate.

In no way am I telling you that you can't lose weight eating those things, or that you have to stop eating those things. I'm only telling you why I not only dropped three little pounds but several inches in all the right places!!   Mike Huckabee who lost over a hundred pounds, wrote a book that describes it in the most simple terms, Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork.   I read the book a year ago, but at the time...

I wasn't desperate enough to give up the foods I loved for the sake of feeling wonderful and looking ten years younger!

 I literally wanted to "Have my Cake, and Eat it Too!"  You know what I mean. We want to eat whatever we like, even if it isn't in the quantities we like and lose weight at the same time. 

Here is what Mike Huckabee suggested and it summarizes perfectly how I've been eating the last week and a half.  He talks about the TEN THINGS HE STOPPED DOING which caused him to lose weight so easily without craving.          

        12 STOPS FOR WEIGHT LOSS AND HEALTHY LIVING

by MIKE HUCKABEE

The first day was the hardest! I was filled with cravings the first day, and couldn't think of anything to eat that wasn't on the 12 stops list.  My nutritionist also told me that  I needed to eat NO MILK, MILK PRODUCTS OR CHEESE right now due to my allergies. Was she out of her mind?!  All I could think of was SO WHAT WAS LEFT TO EAT?

I had never wanted an apple, orange, or raw vege, and only included cooked veges because I ought to. The main part of the meal always had plenty of carbs and the most important part of the meal, was the carb part. Our normal dinner was casserole with pasta or main meat and potatos, pasta, or corn...a starch on the side. The vege was an 'extra'.Veges and fruit never made it to lunch very often and rarely at breakfast. Certainly my snacks were never healthy and special occasion meals were the worst of all!. It's amazing how many special occasions we have in our lives...or excuses to indulge.

But starting the Thursday before last, when several of my friends and I were discussing a yeast free diet that was helping several of them lose weight very easily while gaining energy, I have stopped eating all the things on the list!

So what do I eat? The general rule is piece of meat the size of  deck of cards, two fists of veges, and one fist of fruit and a mall quantity of good fat. (olive oil, coconut oil, real butter), PLUS 1/2 cup whole grain bread (homemade or health food store) oatmeal, or brown rice per day. 

Snacks should be smaller versions of meals with the same balance so that you don't get food cravings. You know you have eaten too much of one food group if you find yourself hungry before four hours or craving something or sleepy in the middle of the day.

Dinner made from leftovers on the banquet table at the tournament plus my own nuts and an orange.

WHAT I EAT...
\
At home:
Breakfast (a good protein shake with greens plus (lots of vitaimins and fiber) or
(1/2 cup oatmeal if no brown rice in the evening)
Protein: Eggs and turkey bacon,
Small fat: butter or coconut oil
Vege: sliced tomatoes or sauteed spinach, or low salt V8 juice
Fruit: apple, orange, strawberries, pineapple or melon (no grapes or bananas--too much sugar)

Lunch:
Canned Tuna or Chicken, or natural (no nitrates added) lunch meat: turkey breast, ham, or roast beef
Salad with lots of fresh broccoli, tomatoes, cucumber, green onion, bell pepper (no carrots--insulin)
Fruit: same as above
Salad dressing: homemade mayo or salad dressing with no sugar or chemicals added

Dinner:
Lean meat of any kind except (No sausage or hot dogs)
Steamed veges with butter or olive oil (no potatoes, carrots, corn, peas, or starchy stuff)
1/2 cup brown rice (if no oatmeal in the morning)
Fruit salad or frozen fruit with a little Soy or Almond milk poured on top w/ stevia.
sauces like : Salsa, homemade spaghetti sauce, healthy sweet and sour sauce.


Snacks...any time I'm hungry....1/2 a fruit or vege and 1/4 cups nuts or couple slices avacado, and a slice of lunch meat (healthy)
Salsa and Bell Pepper slices, with avocado.

Drink water most of the day and before every meal. Also can have tea or coffee. Use lactose free milk sparingly. Lemon juice, water, and stevia for lemonade.

ON THE ROAD--Eating at SIX RESTAURANTS and Four Day Tournament/Convention...here's what I ate....

I bought a little cooler like Mike Huckabee does. I planned ahead of time what to eat at the tournament and restaurants. I brought my own little bottle of olive oil which I could sprinkle on any veges available. I also sprinkled the veges with lemon juice and salt and pepper.   I didn't touch any salad dressings provided.

 
At Steak House
Steak or Grilled Chicken Breast
Veges or Salad on the Side
Water or tea with sweetner I brought myself
No cheese, or dessert, or bread

At the Buffet at tournament :
Meatballs or lunchmeat, fajita meat  (when it was a casserole I ate tuna that I brought from home, straight from the can!)
Veges trays doctored up with lemon juice and olive oil. Ate raw sometimes before I got the olive oil.
Lots of fruit! Ate a lot that I brought myself.
Nuts on occasion.
Drank water and hot tea.


At Mexican Restaurant:  Fajitas with bell pepper and onions without the tortilla. No cheese, rice, beans etc. Taco Salad with salsa on top. No dressing, taco shell, sour cream, or cheese., Fruit from home.

At Whataburger: Grilled chicken sandwich with no bun. Ate apple I had in the car.
At Wendy's: Side salad, and Hamburger with no dressings, cheese, or bun. They put it in a salad container. Fruit from home.
AT Chick Filet-  Banana...ate the rest of my lunch at the tournament (canned tuna, fresh veges, nuts)
At Starbucks -  Iced Caffe Latte with Soy Milk and my own stevia from home.

That's it and three pounds later my friends were shocked at my energy, enthusiasm, lack of sleepiness after 16-18 hours days judging... on the last day from 7:00am to 2:00am!  Woke up at 10:00am the next morning feeling great. Drove all the way home and made Mother's day dinner and watched a movie with hubby.  NO CRASH!! for the first time ever in three years of tournaments! I also lost most of my bulging stomach and my lumpy hips and double chin. It was amazing!

If you would like to feel ten years younger...try these 12 Stops. If you want to understand the nutritional theory behind this approach and why processed foods are making everyone, regardless of age and background, gain weight (and get some great recipes)...read Your Fat is Not Your Fault!

Read about it here:

Be sure to try this at least a week before you decide it isn't for you! I don't think you will ever go back to the way you ate before!   Happy Eating!

At Chick-Filet about four days ago..

Announcing a New Blog for Weight Loss Support!

Gettin' Thin Together!

Dear Friends, 

Sometimes one comment is all it takes to get the ball rolling for me. How about you?  Deb from Jeremiah 29:11 and I had been talking back and forth about our struggles with food and then Dani and CountryMama added to the discussion. Dani said, why don't we be blog buddies and help support each other in our weight loss efforts??

And Ta Da!! A new blog was born!

It's called Gettin' Thin Together.

You can reach it just by clicking on the picture of the chickens there in my side bar. I'm partial to my chickens, being a die-hard chicken lover and I think they  make the whole thing seem kind of funny, though our purpose is totally serious. If you would like to join us drop by!  

A Blog Where YOU Are the Writer 

This is a different kind of blog, because although I will be administrating it, anyone who sends me their email address will be added to the blog as a 'writer'. The blog will show up in their personal list of blogs and members can post whatever they like..their ups, downs, photos, food diaries, struggles, or weight loss tips...even recipes!

All you need to do to join is sign up as a follower, send me an email address so I can add you to our blog writers and then post an introduction to yourself. The rest is up to you!  Or if you prefer, you can just 'hang' out and make comments now and then. 

Here is a post that I just contributed...  Tomorrow, Dani or Deb will be posting or maybe some of our other new members.

Weight Loss Buddies! 

Hi, I'm Donna, the admin gal for Gettin' Thin Together and  I think the best place for me to start, is just to write down what I eat. Especially since I think that 'unconscious' eating is at the heart of my problem.  This post (the first half of it) was taken from  Better Health Magazine...You will want to read every word of it! 

I know that when I lost the most weight and kept it off, it was because I was writing down what I ate every day. Eventually, I didn't have to any more but

I ate so habitually..most of the day... that I had no idea how much or how often I was eating! 

Forget counting the calories...just write it down. It's flat embarrassing! The main idea here is that it helps you hold yourself accountable.  Reader's Digest had written an article about this 20 years ago and that's what I was looking for, but this article says it even better.  In fact, I'm going to post my food diary once a week to help keep me accountable to you guys!

Here's the article...

Why keeping a food journal will help you lose weight  by Better Health Magazine

 The secret to shedding pounds, and keeping them off, may be as simple as writing down what you eat and drink in a food journal

By Bonnie Schiedel

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• 5 reasons you didn’t lose weight this week
• Lose weight the healthy way

A recent study of 1,700 overweight men and women who participated in a six-month weight-loss program found that those who kept daily food records lost twice as much weight as those who kept no records. Participants also exercised, reduced caloric intake and ate low-fat dairy products plus an average of three servings of fruits and vegetables daily.

“Keeping a food diary is one of the most powerful weight-management tools we have,” says Jack Hollis of the Portland, Oregon-based Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research and lead author of the study, which was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Participants were subsequently followed for an additional 30 months, in one of the largest and longest-running weight-loss maintenance trials ever conducted.

Why do food journals work?

“Many of us want food to ‘not count’—because we’re on vacation, we’re in a rush, we’re just finishing off the broken cookies in the bag,” says Colleen Cannon, a clinical psychologist in Calgary who specializes in helping people deal with the emotional side of eating. “The act of writing down what we eat helps to raise awareness about what we’re doing.”

It can also be a tool to get an understanding of portion size. “Writing down what and how much you eat and adding up the calories helps you to eat more mindfully and stay on track,” says Hollis. “When starting out, people tend to underestimate, so it’s best to measure the portion sizes carefully at first.” He adds that for many people, keeping a food journal is a lifelong tool, while others use it if they notice their weight creeps back up.
Read the rest of this article here. It's fantastic!

Here is good food diary to start with. It's basic and not too complicated.


Have fun!
Donna

From the Heart....Time for a little chat about my life long struggle...with food...

 Hi Friends,

Today being Sunday, I thought I'd share on a rather embarrassing topic...at least for me..... by passing on to you a comment that I left with my friend Deb at Jeremiah 29:11. I share it because maybe I'm not the only one in the same boat.

Most of the blogging friends I see, appear to be quite skinny and I have to say that I'm impressed. I wish I could say the same for myself!

 Tim and I on our honey moon...23 years ago...We were camping...

Deb had taken the time to post her own struggles in this area and asked for any advice, tips, recipes etc. that readers might like to offer. If you have any ideas, I'm sure she'd love to hear from you. And of course, I would too.

Here was my response to her and to anyone in the same boat as myself.

Blessings,
Donna @ Comin' Home
From Deb's post on weight problems..

Hi Deb...join the club! I was never anorexic but all my older relatives either are or have been in the 200-300lb. range. I'm 189 now and don't know quite how it happened. I stayed low after determining to lose weight after the second baby (down to 119) and kept it to 130-140 for many years and through four babies.



But this last six years my weight started creeping up. If I'm not paying attention..I eat. It's that simple. I have to remember to eat small meals and stop. I did the Weigh Down thing too.

Gwen was way off track in her theology for the most part, but she had hit upon one truth that has helped me ever since. It had the most useful life long principle in that the idea of waiting until you are hungry and stopping when you are full makes so much sense both biblically and physically. I've been thinking about this for some time.

I'd be glad to jump on the wagon with you! But you know, you really do look fine--Like the sweet friend that you are. Sadly,I think that I always thought I looked fat at every weight. Now looking back, I wish I still weighed that. It's too bad it had to ruin so many moments when I could have accepted myself and my struggle as one of those unchangeables.

I don't mean to accept the overweightness..that can be controlled...but the fact that I have to be consciously aware of what I eat more than others...that it's a weakness for me.

I think the most important thing I've learned from the Lord recently, is to offer up my 'eating' to the Him. In other words, "Lord let me eat as unto you." I tend towards self-indulgence for comfort and it isn't just food. The Lord has been dealing with other issues. I think that for some of us, hurts in the past lead to a need for some sort of 'comfort'.

You know, Elisabeth Elliot said that we should obey the Lord and leave the results up to Him. We know in our hearts what we ought to eat and ought not. His sheep hear his voice...and he will tell us what we should and shouldn't eat. But if that means it takes five years to lose the weight..so what.

Being overweight is no sin..but not obeying the Lord in everything is. At least that's the heart of it for me. I've just not been listening very well lately or heeding.

I don't believe our battle will be over until we die..but if the struggle keeps us close to the Lord..then it's worth it. But we should never feel condemned because we have to struggle with food. Everyone has a struggle with something. It just doesn't 'show' on everyone.

I'll keep you in my prayers, if you'll keep me in yours!

Deb left this reply to me today...it was so sweet! Thanks Deb!

Deb said...
You are such a precious soul, Ms. Donna. Thank you so much for showing off my ornaments. Most of all thank you for your sweet inspiring comments on my post about weight!! What I heard from you made the most sense of anything others have shared via a comment, or e-mail!!! I'm soooo glad God blessed me with finding your blog!!!


Love You All!