I Know... I'm a Dork!

Ever heard of e-mealz?  We signed up for it!  I am SO excited.  We went grocery shopping and saved a TON of $$$ too!  The fact that my meals are planned out for me and they are simple (and cost effective!) is so exciting!  It is official... I know... I am a dork.  Hopefully this will help us in many ways.  Eating at home not only saves $$$, but also saves CALORIES!  Hooray for e-mealz!

My school schedule is changing in the spring.  Hopefully this will give me more time to take care of myself and my family!  One more final exam and then I can relax.  I can already breathe a little easier.  Ahhh...

This morning, as I was driving across the lake from taking C to school I thought about how beautiful it was. 

 I did NOTHING to deserve this beautiful view.  God is such an amazing artist!

Seeing this sunrise motivated me.  It made me want to RUN. 

As soon as I got home, I changed clothes, grabbed the leash, and headed out with Darcy, my eleven month old miniature dachshund.  That little dog made it 2.3 miles!  She's tougher than I thought.  Of course, it was NOT all running.  We did walk some too.  She's now passed out on the couch.  I guess I wore her out!

Here is another picture I took of the sky when Darcy and I were out.  Sorry about the shabby photography.  The pictures were taken with my phone.

What a great start to a great week!  

Thank you, GOD, for the beautiful sunrise!

TIPS!

Recently I have had a few friends ask for some information by email or Facebook.  I decided to copy/paste it to my blog for future reference.  Hope it's helpful!  

I really am not crazy about expensive fad diets. From what I've observed, they typically are WAY over priced and they do not last. Who can really live their entire life drinking shakes or taking supplements. That's just not how God created us to live. It's not natural!

Okay, you may already know most of these, but here are a few things that work for me:

1)PRAY.
Don't rely solely on yourself, others, or self-help books. All these can be VERY helpful, but I think you know WHO we should ultimately depend on!

2)ACCOUNTABILITY.
Find a few friends that you feel you can completely trust and share EVERYTHING (I would be happy to be one of those!). True accountability is really difficult at first, but you will find that it will ultimately make things so much better for you. Share your struggles, temptations, likes, dislikes, weight (this is the toughest!), exercise, EVERYTHING. I promise it WILL make a difference! I have a close friend who shares the same struggles I do and in the past, we have texted each other our weight weekly. I'm at 177 (was down to 159, then back up to 186), and HAVE to get back on track before I am right back where I started. I have even gone so far as texting her everything I ate as I ate it. Whatever it takes, right?!

3)MEASURE YOUR FOOD.
This is easy, but also easy to forget to do! Get some measuring cups/spoons that are simple and easy to use. I have a set that actually look like spoons. I LOVE them! They are 1/2, 1/4, and 1/8 cups. Get whatever works for you though. I like the spoon shape of mine b/c I can easily serve my food with them.
It helps to SEE how much food you are putting on your plate. Don't starve yourself. Look at the serving size, and get that amount. If when you finish, you still feel hungy, go back and MEASURE your second helping.
Once I got used to doing this, I actually started measuring out 1/2 of the serving size of the one thing on my plate that was the most unhealthy (I usually did what had the most carbs). That way when I got seconds, it was only one complete serving and I wasn't going overboard on it!
Another easy measuring tool is to imagine a divided styrofoam plate. The biggest section should be your green veggie, the two smallest your meat and carb. You can do that when you don't have a way of measuring.

4)MEASURE YOURSELF.
Get a friend to measure an area of your body that you struggle with. You can look up measuring charts online if you want to measure what is recommended by the experts. Sometimes you may not shrink in weight, but you are losing inches (especially if you're working out). I would honestly rather lose inches than pounds!
Cut a ribbon or string the length of your beginning measurements and each time you measure (I like to do once monthly), cut a new one. It's kind of fun to see if/how it changes!

5)REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!!!
No matter what we look like, we are beautiful! I tell my precious nine year old daughter all the time that "God doesn't make ugly people." to remind her that we are all "precious in His sight". Find a few inspiring scriptures and memorize them as a reminder of this!!!

6) Always use a smaller plate and smaller utensils. 
We tend to want to fill our plate with food and you can fill a small plate and it actually ends up being enough food. Plus if you want to go back for seconds, it's not quite as bad as if you had a normal dinner plate.  Don't forget to measure those second helpings!

7) Read some inspiring books. Here are a few of my favorites.
-First Place For Health
-Made to Crave (I also have this audiobook in my car.)
-The Weigh Down Diet (I don't totally agree with everything this author says, but the book is full of helpful tips.)
-Thin Within

You can probably find some of these in your local or church library.
 
8) Find some graphs or charts where you can see your loss (pounds or inches). 
It motivates you to keep trying and not give up. I found one that was a line graph and it was cool to see the line going down as I was losing. It did it in very small increments so it went down every time I would lose .5 of a pound.
 
9) I did Weight Watchers, so I try to remember what my zero points foods are and eat them as often as possible. If you aren't familiar with this I would be happy to share. There are lots of websites that you can use to find this stuff out too.


http://www.laaloosh.com/ 
This site has lots of resources, charts, and information that is great!

http://www.dwlz.com/
This has mostly WW info, but has restaurant info too. 

10)TAKE YOUR TIME!!!  

This didn't happen overnight. It's not going to come off overnight... and that is OKAY! Don't listen to advertisements and others who say "lose 50 pounds by..." some crazy, unrealistic date. If you lose slowly, you're teaching your body to keep it off. I did gain weight after losing, but it wasn't all of it and I refused to let myself get frustrated. I know that I can just do what I know I need to do and get it off again. This is a lifelong struggle for me and I know it is probably something I will always deal with. I just have to be sure to be aware of that. It's okay. I'm not sad about it. I will just take my time and make changes to stay on the right path. Slow loss over a long period of time is better than crash dieting and being on a never-ending weight loss roller coaster. 

You're doing great, don't give up!!!

Do you know of any other helpful tips or resources?  Please share if you do!