90 Day Diet Challenge & Supplement Review: The Beginning

My supplements came Friday!  (WOW, that was FAST!!!)

I'm planning to start using the supplements today for the 90 Day Diet Challenge.  I chose the "30 Day Diet" option.  I'm going to "clean" up my diet again, hope the kids have finished off their (far too tempting) Halloween candy, and re-read Timothy Ferris' "Slow Carb" diet book... until my Paleo books show up on the library hold shelf.  It never hurts to refresh your memory... and I know that grains tend to affect me negatively, especially wheat, with bloating, cramps and just overall fatigue... so I'm going to try and keep those out completely, even though they're allowed.  I also absolutely can't handle artificial sweeteners, so I'll stick with Stevia and Xylitol as I have for the past couple of years.  I'm already used to using herbs without MSG or sugar, so that'll be easy enough.

**See my Week One Results Here!

My husband and I are starting to take our energetic 4 year old dog, Diva for walks around our neighborhood in the evenings after dinner.  I'm hoping that this helps get me in at least a little bit better shape... and if nothing else, it will be great for developing a new habit, and getting us both ready to hit the gym again by the end of the month when its probably going to be too cold for outside walks in the evening!

Now... for the before photos.  *gulp*  REEEEEAAAAAALLLY don't want to do this part.  Maybe I'll post before photos when I'm already losing a little bit, so its not quite so depressing.   I'll take the photos and hide them in a vault.  Yeah, that's it.  Then I can post at the end of the month to see how much of a difference I'e made!

At any rate, I can be incredibly sensitive to supplements (which can be a really good thing, or a really bad thing!), so I'm curious to see how this goes.  I'll be seeing my regular doctor on Monday, so I'll hopefully remember to bring up these supplements when I go.

I'll post some of my favorite recipes as I go, including what I find for Thanksgiving!

Here are some of my Top Five favorite past recipes that will fit this protocol 

(*some will need a slight tweak, but its doable!)

Super Easy Chicken w/Onion "Noodles"

Protein Smoothies:  A Quick Tip!*

Super Quick & Easy Mexican Eggs

Cajun Tilapia

Orange Tilapia*

What are your favorite healthy recipes?  Please share!  Include a link to your own blog recipes if you have one, I love finding new blogs!

I believe that planning can take the edge off.  I plan to have figured out serving sizes and plan with a list of available options for my breakfasts, lunches and dinners.  I'll have my grocery list ready to go and some serving size meals ready to heat and eat for those times (you know everyone has them) when I'm going to have a time crunch and need to eat RIGHT NOW.  Mostly, though, I just want to plan to get back to my healthy habits.  The fact that I let the stressful events in life get me down so much that I gave up on my emotional and physical health is very disappointing to me.  I'm going to give up the guilt and let myself move on and have hope that I can make the change a permanent one.

What are your no fail healthy eating tips?

Disclosure: I will be receiving product as a participant in the 90 Day Weight Loss Challenge. All opinions are my own. 

Diet Review: Weight Loss Supplements

Well, I finally caved and bought new jeans for a wedding, so I suppose this means that its time to finally get inspired to lose weight again.  And yeah, I just said that I broke down and bought jeans.  For a wedding.  This was mostly because literally every single dress I tried on made me cry.  A lot.  I'm talking full out sobbing in the dressing room.  Then all the way home.  My poor husband is at his wit's end.

The thing is that I gained a lot of weight quickly and I still haven't found that thing that is going to make it 'better'.  I have found that getting back to clean eating and keeping my grains to a minimum FINALLY got me to the point where I STOPPED gaining weight... but I'm still stuck at the same weight I stopped at.

Trust me, I find that highly preferable to continuing to gain, but having gained over 70 pounds and doubling a dress size in a year is not something that I can be "okay" with.  I don't like my body in this size, I just don't.  I've tried everything to work through my body image issues, and I can get to the point of not sobbing every time I look in the mirror, but I'm not happy.

In addition to looks, adding this much weight this fast has had a huge effect on my energy levels, on my joints and my feet.  I've started having back and neck issues, something that had completely disappeared when I was at a healthy weight.  I'm only 5'5"... this weight is too much for me.

So, that being said, I was over at The Palmetto Queen's blog the other day and saw that she had joined a 90 Day Challenge.  I decided that this was my chance to get inspired and take charge of my weight.  I have little things working in my favor, but I need help, because the typical things that used to work are not working for me.  Maybe its age, maybe its a health issue.  I'm getting things checked out and tests are coming back normal, but the weight and fatigue are still hanging on.  I discussed it with my husband, and after some research, he decided that he would be okay with me taking the 30 Day & Night Challenge for three months. The supplements include a lot of what he read about in Timothy Ferris' "Four Hour Body" book.  So that's the route I'm going to take.

I'm going to take this challenge as a way to help me make a positive, permanent change in my habits and lifestyle... who wants to join me?

Note: If you are a blogger who would like to participate in this challenge, they are accepting applications.

Disclosure: I will be receiving product as a participant in the 90 Day Weight Loss Challenge. All opinions are my own. 

When I receive my supplements, I'll even force myself to take before photos... stay tuned!

I Received my supplements Post Here!

Going Grain Free? Raw? Which end is up?

I have been having some pretty hard core health issues over the last year.  I know that a LOT of it stemmed from stress, wearing out my adrenals, etc.  A LOT.

But I have continued to gain a large amount of weight, regardless of anything I tried.  I know a lot about nutrition.  I am continually trying to inform myself, make better choices and get healthy.

A year ago, I looked like this:

Not perfect or anything, but I was toned.  I had muscle and not  a ton of fat.

Now?  I'm too embarrassed to have my photo taken.  I can barely handle going out in public.  I can't shop for clothes without crying. I cringe and try to hide whenever I see someone with a camera.  I have gained enough weight that I now am more than 20 pounds heavier than I ever was... even 9 months pregnant with my fifth child.

I was a fitness instructor until recently.  Since last May, I have gained a LOT of weight (as in over 60 pounds in a year).  It wasn't long before the weight was making my knees hurt. A lot.  I taught 4-5 fitness classes a week. I would come home and my joints hurt SO badly that I could barely walk into my house.  I was stiff, sore and aching.  I pushed myself to keep working out because I kept gaining weight, even when there was no change in my eating habits or even when I made even more, healthier, change.

Finally I had to take time off of work.  The pain in my joints was SO bad.  I thought I just needed to rest them.  After 5 weeks, they felt no better.  I was so upset... and the weight still piled on.  Then the rest of my symptoms of dry skin, exhaustion and even more severe insomnia than I had already suffered from got worse and worse to the point where I couldn't stand it anymore.

Googling symptoms one day, I found that I matched so many of the symtoms of adrenal fatigue and hypothyroid.  I started researching natural supplements that would help.

After 10 months, I finally caved and went to a clinic.  The doctor, for whatever reason, refused to do a thyroid panel, even though I would have been paying for it out of pocket (we don't have health insurance currently).  I finally found a doctor who ordered the thyroid panel and I had all the test results from the first doctor to show that it wasn't anything blood, liver, etc. related.

My results came back "normal"  they were borderline "off" but not enough to get any help.

I found an online place to order thyroid supplements and began taking them.  I need something to change, like right now.  Everything in my life is going fine except for this... and this is a BIG deal to me.  HUGE.  Ha, no pun intended.

ANYWAY, in researching even MORE... I found these, and it intrigues me, because the symptoms of being grain sensitive fit my symptoms just as much, if not more than the hypothyroid.  Huh.  I had planned on doing a blog series of "30 Days of Raw", but now I'm thinking I may do "30 Days of Grain Free" (obviously a lot of these will overlap... but still...)

If you're interested in learning more about going grain free, why/if you should (its not for everybody), etc. you can check out these links that I've been reading tonight!

10 Reasons to go grain free

Difference between Atkins Diet and grain free diet (The Atkins diet always worked wonders for me in the past)

Eating ancestrally

Grain Free Living

Grain Free Recipes

I will definitely still be eating clean (I especially do not miss MSG, HFC & artificial sweeteners)... I'm just not sure its going to include grains much, if at all.  It may take me a few hits and misses, because I do love my bread and POPCORN... omg.  I LOVE popcorn... ugh, but I have to find something that works.  Being this overweight is just devastating to me.