Am I losing?

I've been dieting for almost two weeks. I was hoping for quick weight loss dropping my calories to 500 or less each day, but going up to around 1000 on Friday and Saturday nights. I feel like I've lost weight but probably not as much as I would like. I'm hoping for 5 pounds a week and might have lost 10 pounds by now. Fingers crossed. So the next two weeks I should really notice a difference. I just have to keep motivated and keep going!!

This was the starting point of my weight loss. I'll have to do a after.

Sunday fun day.

It's not exactly Sunday fun day because I chose to work today. It was either work or make my week extra busy. I opted to get a little done today and then it won't be such a overly busy work week.

I finally have a photo of Zoey on her favorite couch. We decided to keep the couch instead of tossing it just for the dog. She loves sitting in the window watching for bunnies.

It's day 12 of my diet. I have a harder time not eating as much on the weekends. We like to go out to eat. My rules are do not touch the bread basket or the fried chips and salsa. Salsa is okay, but not the chips! I've also said no to fried foods. Since chicken wings are my favorite, it's a good thing Doolittle's makes rotisserie wings that are not fried but tasted just as good or better.

I have no idea of how much I weight but I can tell my waist is shrinking! Bye, bye fat!!I think that saying is true, you'll feel the weight loss way before any one even notices. I think it takes at least 20 or more pounds before people ask if you've lost weight. I'm still a work in progress. I'll take 10 pound of weight loss if I can. Of course, I don't plan on weighing myself because I'll just get discouraged if I don't think the scale has changed enough.

 Still eating my spicy bean, corn, tomato, onion and peppers chilli soup. It's so delicious! I'm keeping my calories most days to below 500. I give myself up to 1000 on Friday and Saturdays because I just want to live a little too.

I haven't been hungry. I do eat breakfast every day. My one slice of wheat bread with PB. It keeps me full till mid afternoon or till dinner. Giving up sugar was easier then I thought. As long as I don't eat any, I'm fine. I'll just have to keep it that way.

Week #3 starts on Wednesday and I'm excited to check yet another week off my diet. I'm hoping by week 9, I've reached my weight loss goals. If not, at least I'm re-training myself how to eat more healthy and stay away from sugar.

10 days

I've been on a lose it fast weight loss diet. I'm determined to lose all the weight I've put back on since losing 40-50 pounds 7 years ago. I slowly gained back almost all the weight I had lost. It wasn't for lack of exercising. It was back to my bad eating habits. Now that I'll be turning 50 in August and summer is fast approaching. I want to lose weight fast and not lose it slowly. I've tried to lose it slow and that's just not for me. I need to take extreme measures to lose fat and do it quickly!

So far it's been dieting of 10 days. I started mid week, on Wednesday. Here's what my plan was to lose weight and deal with life at the same time.

Always eat my breakfast of 1 slice of wheat bread with honey and chucky PB. I'm guessing its around 150 - 200 calories. I eat this very slow. Probably takes me a good 3 hours to eat with lots and lots of water. I skip lunch and have zero snacks. I also skip some dinners too. Other days I need more calories. I've been eating protein (Chicken or pork) but mostly lots of veggies!

I did have more calories around 1000 last Friday and Saturday. I had three drinks, cheese and wine. We had a wine tasting on Friday when I ate a little of cheese, drank wine and had a taco with a few chips. Kept it all under control and pre planned my splurge. Saturday night we had dinner at a friends house for St. Patty's day. I had three drinks and a tiny bit of dinner which consisted of two little potatoes and corn beef/1 tiny slice. You have to adjust and live a little or it will never work to lose weight!

It's hard to say exactly how much I'm losing. I was going for or hoping to lose a pound a day on this very restrictive diet of less then 500 calories per day. I did weight myself but and it seems like that's what is happening. I can't say this pound per day will continue but I'm hoping at least 5 pounds a week. I have 9 weeks total to lose the weight before Summer starts. My goal is to lose 20 - 30 pounds. I was feeling awful about myself. My stomach was getting flabby, my leggings were not staying up since my waist had expanded. Nothing is worse then having to constantly pull up your pants when working. It was driving me CRAZY! Plus, I didn't like the way clothes were fitting and how I was looking with extra weight. It was time to do something about it. I didn't want to gain back all the weight and I was close to doing that.

My before diet photo with a little tummy. More arm fat and bigger booty.

 

After 10 days of dieting, I know the weight is coming off even with out stepping on the scale. My clothes are fitting better, I no longer have to constantly pull up my leggings. I still do, but not as much. I sleep better. I'm less achy at night.

 

I don't feel tired on this diet. I have a half a caffeine pill in the morning or 100ml to get me up and going.  Less caffeine then drinking coffee or tea. Since I don't do either, next best thing! Gives me energy to work and keep moving!

 

If I'm hungry, I will eat dinner. Veggies, protein or my favorite weight loss soup. Spicy Chili soup that I make.

My soup is low in calories, spicy for fat burning and so tasty! It's also filling since it's veggies and liquid.

 

On week #2, 7 weeks left to lose all my weight! I've got this! I did it years ago and I can do it the same way again. I just have to remember, it's all about what I eat. Stay away from Sugar! It's not your friend!!

Continue the 4 month update

Christmas 2017

Christmas this year was... well, lets just say it was not like the others.

Steve had Retina surgery about a week before Christmas. The recovery is face down 24/7 for over a week. This went right through Christmas.

This is how he spent time recovering during the holiday. Not a fun time at all!!

He was extremely swollen from being face down for days. We were all so glad when that was over, especially Steve!

It made for a not so pleasant Christmas this year. We got through it but not with out a lot of strong emotions from EVERYONE! I just tried to hold it together and we did the best we could under the circumstances. Lets just say, it's in the past and I don't want a repeat of that Christmas with family ever!

 Logan made this cake for Christmas! He is talented!!

 A little baking, and candy making.

Evan's 4th Birthday Party.

Kendra and Paul always go all out for Evan's birthdays. I was soo impressed by the decorations and all she does to throw a party.

 I made some Hawaiian rolls, but Logan made some too and out did me! I should have taken a photo of his rolls because they were perfect!

 Evan's Christmas and 4th birthday photos.

 

Many faces of Zoey decked out in her Santa hat.

Thanks Giving!

 Pie competition.. Who made the best pie, Logan or Celina!! I think it was a tie!!

 Turkey dinner!

 How cute is that, Evan and the two dogs. Picture perfect!

Watching Movies and TV all the time while Steve recovers from Surgery

 

Happy Birthday Kendra! 31!!

What's been going on for the last 4 months

I completely stopped blogging four months ago after Steve's eye accident. Life has been full of ups and downs since then. How do I even start to catch up? I'll start with what's going on right now and then back track to November.

Right now we are in eye healing mode. Waiting till Mid April when Steve gets yet another eye surgery. This one is to remove the oil in his eye from the retina surgery he had before Christmas to re-attach his retina. His eye once again will have to heal for at least 2 months. Then we move on to the good part. He will get a cornea transplant and a new lens. We are hopeful that this will restore his vision or at least improve it from being super cloudy. Keeping our fingers crossed that the retina will stay attached after the oil is removed so that the cornea transplant will happen sooner then later. It's all a wait and see situation.

With all the eye surgeries, Steve has been restricted from working, no heavy lifting, bending over from the waist down and no dust or anything in the eyes. He will be once again not able to work, when he gets the next two surgeries. It will probably be a good month or more of no work. Being self employed it's tough. We are making it during this tough financial time one day at a time. I try not to look too far ahead.

We do have some good eye news. Steve now has a color contact lens to match his other blue eye. This makes the injured eye look more normal. He lost 80% of his iris which is responsible for light coming into the eye, adjusts with light and is also the color part of the eye. His eye was pretty much all black with a tiny bit of blue around the very edge. With the color contact it looks normal. Which he likes. Now to get his sight back!

 We have no plans to go any where warm and enjoy the ocean, green or sand this spring break. It's not in the funds since we are in survival mode of just getting through this tough time with Steve working less through all these surgeries. The only option is to get in some needed "Green" at the local Zoo.

We spent about at hour, just soaking up the green and all the colorful flowers at Como Zoo this week.

 I'm still baking all the time. Well, mostly candy making. I've found some new recipes on Pintrest. The top recipe is from our friends that love Divinity candy. I received the grandma favorite recipe. Its not my personal favorite but I made a batch and gave it to our friends.

 

I made some of these candies last night. Coconut, caramel and chocolate. Another super easy candy. I have no idea of how it tastes because I have yet to try it. Logan and Steve each tried it and they said it was a winner!

My all time favorite new candy is this "Crack" Wow!!! So addicting!!! It's bad to keep in the house because you can not stop eating it! Super easy and soooo good! Saltine crackers, caramel/toffee and chocolate with pecans.

 

I was back to my old eating habits. This is not a good thing. I was eating three treats a day, eating what ever I wanted. Which results in weight gain. I'd say the stress from having all the financial responsibility put on me with Steve's accident played a huge roll in this. Its my own fault. I stopped worrying about me and was concentrating on everyone else. That's never a winning combo. I did still cross country ski when ever I could, if there was enough snow, not working a ton and not at half a day eye appointments with Steve. I didn't get to ski as much as I would have liked.

 

I've also been doing a lot of driving to Logan's soccer practice and some indoor soccer tournaments.  We will continue to have lots of soccer through summer into fall.

 

On the weekends, we've been doing a little easy fixes around our house. The kids bathroom needed to be updated. With Menards 11% rebate money we received, we purchased a new sink/countertop and faucet and still have money left over for more home improvement items. We also painted over the blue and now it's a shade of gray. Same as our porch/front sitting room. I just need to find some shelves and a few pictures. I do miss the nice blue but its what the kids wanted. At some point, we will paint the cabinet white and the kids bathroom door white. It's next on my todo list!  

I have a few / two doors left to paint on our main level before I start on the upstairs doors. I finished the trim on our front closet and the pantry. Steve paints the door since he does a better paint job and its a larger area. I can't wait to get rid of all the golden wood! It's a nice cheap update. It just takes time and we've been doing it little by little.

 

I've been looking at adding some pendant lights (2) in our kitchen. We have to change out the can lights. I think this is what I'm going to choose.

It was grandparents day at Evan's new school. Steve and I visited the new school and spent time with Evan getting a tour and having a snack.

 Here is the answers to the questions they asked the kids about their grandparents. Too funny!!

Celina celebrated her 18th birthday on February 24th. We have another adult in the house!!

She made her cakes (2) for her birthday. I'd have to say, my kids are pretty good bakers and do an excellent job of decorating.

We took her out to dinner and then off to the casino because that's all you can do when you turn 18, gamble!

Celina had Zero gambling luck, but Steve was HOT! He hit four, 4's and won over $100.

Best of all, Steve hit the Royal Flush and won $1000. First time ever! Winner, winner chicken dinner!!

2nd Cake Celina and Logan made together.

 

Kendra had some Valentine's day pictures taken of Evan. My handsome grandson. Such a cutie!!

 

Evan with his cousin Isabelle.

 Celina's March Madness Band concert. One more to go and she decided no more flute. She's been playing the flue in band since 4th grade. I suppose 9 years is enough.

We have a new driver in the house!!! Logan got his permit to drive on Valentine's day.

 Out driving with Logan. He drives a little like he is playing Mario Cart. It's improving a lot since the first time out driving.

Evan turned 4 in December. He is getting so big! Love that smile!!

We have some sad news too. Our bunny, Paige died. She lived a very good, long life. We got her as a tiny bunny when Celina was in 3rd grade. She lived to the old age of 9. Out living her sister by 9 years and our other two guinea pigs. She was a sweet, very soft bunny and will be missed.

 

Zoey knew when Paige died. We kept Paige in our master bathroom, because it was tile floor and plenty of room for her big cage. I have to say, I don't miss sharing our bathroom but I was sad to see her die. We said our goodbyes as I knew she wouldn't make it through the night. Sure enough, Zoey knew and went in and laid down next to her.

Zoey's legs covered in snow. We let her fur grow out over the winter to keep her warm.