Get Your Girl Back

Parenting takes a lot out of me. Especially parenting kiddos with special needs. From 2010 until now, I have really struggled with my mental, physical, and emotional health. Recently I attended the Thirty-One National Conference in Denver, and I heard four amazing motivational speakers. The one that really spoke to my heart, however, was Traci Bild, author of Get Your Girl Back. She talked about prioritizing life and taking deliberate steps to get your life back to the way you want it to be. We can't do everything, but we can prioritize and really focus on what is important to us. When I sat down with myself and figured out what "girl" I wanted back, I came to these conclusions:

• Fitness and Health - feel better, stronger, and fit back into my clothes. This includes having time to work out and the resources to eat healthy. 
• Parenting - spending time actually playing with my kids, cuddling, reading, and interacting one-on-one in a fun way every day for at least 10 minutes. Sometimes I spend an hour with one kid, but it is on homework or a project. I want to enjoy my kiddos. After all, I spent years trying to get them, right? Ten minutes doesn't seem like much, but ten minutes of one-on-one attention for each of my lovelies is a lot more than I have been giving.
• Marriage - We obviously married each other because we loved one another. Somewhere over the last few years, we have become a bit disconnected. It happened in little steps with events in our lives: miscarriage, moving, fostering, adopting, parenting, recruiting trips, etc. In the last few months, we have been more intentional about spending time together and remembering why we enjoy one another. We are even going to start "dating" again! 

Wow! My Thirty-One business and my teaching career didn't even make the list! What is truly important to me has nothing to do with money or prestige. It is health and family. Traci has emails, a dream journal, and a book coming out soon. I can't wait to dig further into her challenge to get my girl back! 

5 Pounds!

I have had this post ready to go for awhile, but I just had to wait to celebrate! I have lost 5 pounds. That doesn't seem like a lot, but it represents about 6 months of gains! Since bringing home the kiddos, I have gained an average of 5 pounds every 6 months.

I really feel like my eating habits are under much better control, so now I need to focus on getting moving. Walking the dog, jumping on the trampoline with the kids, walking with friends, and bike riding are all good ways to include the family. If I need some down time, I can exercise in my room where I have made a space, in the family room with the Xbox, or on the elliptical. There really are no good excuses! I have the tools, now I need to use them. My husband and I agreed that at 10 pounds, I can order an activity tracker, so that is another incentive!

I need to remember that focusing on my health and wellness benefits my whole family as well. Nearly every parenting book for foster parents, biological parents, and/or adoptive parents includes a section dedicated to reminding the parents to take care of themselves.

Week 3 - Finding the Right Foods

Three weeks down! I have lost 4.4 pounds!

I think I have been more successful than in the past for several reasons: 

1) I am very motivated to make a change because I want to be able to wear all of my clothes and button all of my pants. 

2) I am more realistic than I have been in the past. I know that I can't kick caffeine completely right now or stay under my calorie goal every day. What I can do is limit my caffeine and set aside a cheat meal so I have something to look forward to if I have followed the rules the rest of the days. I don't feel deprived! 

3) I have been more successful at finding the right foods for me. In the past, I have tried tons of ingestible options to help me lose weight: supplements, meal replacement shakes, diet pills, no carbs, and so on. This time, I am focusing on finding the right foods for me. Those are foods that are high in protein and flavor, but they are still "real food." Let me explain. I can't make it if I have to live on shakes and diet food. Gross! I also have to have foods that work with my teacher schedule and keep me going all day. 

Here is a sample of what I eat in a day with my 1300 calories I am allowed (more if I exercise): 

Breakfast (about 300 calories) 

Key Lime greek yogurt (4.5 grams of fat, but tons of protein and flavor) 

Homemade protein bars, breakfast bars, or nuts (more protein) 

Morning Snack (about 100 calories) 

Fruit (Something sweet and around 100 calories - frozen grapes, frozen cherries, strawberries, banana)

Lunch (about 200 calories) 

Tamales (my favorite food in the world!) 

Diet Dr. Pepper (I just have to have something sweet) 

PM Snack (about 100 calories) 

Something salty such as air-popped popcorn, cheesestick, cottage cheese

Supper (about 600 calories) 

A nice home cooked meal with protein and veggies, maybe even a grain or starch. 

If I still have points, I will indulge in a glass of white or maybe a small bite of chocolate-covered fruit for dessert. 

This type of eating works the best for me because I don't feel deprived of sweet things and foods I love like my lime yogurt, Diet DP, tamales, and cheese! I know I need to add in some more veggies and fruits, and I plan on checking out some smoothie recipes to help out with that. I hate having to eat something different than my family, so, even though I am eating my biggest meal at the wrong time, I can eat what everyone else is eating. I love cooking too, so this works out great. 

Week 2 - Making Money, Cravings, and Measurement

Down 3.2 pounds! 

How will I stay motivated for 50 more weeks? What will I do when I have cravings?  

·      HealthyWage and DietBet: Perhaps the best motivator is money. These two websites allow you to place a bet (kind of like an entrance fee), and then get a guaranteed payout if you reach a goal. HealthyWage has you set a goal and a timeframe, then you choose an amount you will pay in each month. If you meet the goal and maintain the weight, you get your money back plus some winnings! You pick the goal and the timeframe – how great is that! Diet Bet is a little different. You pay a set entrance fee to join a certain challenge, and then all the participants in that challenge who meet the goal split the winnings. In both sights, you have to record yourself weighing in, and there are some other guidelines that prevent cheating. I will definitely be joining both of these sites to help with motivation!

·      20-Minute Rule: I read a blog where the author suggested waiting 20 minutes when you think you have a craving. During that 20 minutes, you think about other things, drink some water, and see if the craving passes. Last week I mentioned that I was having cravings in the afternoon, so I tried this 20-minute trick. It worked pretty well for me! When a craving hits, I drink a big class of water and then wait 20 minutes. If I am still hungry, I grab some protein. If I just can’t get the craving out of my mind, I can add it to my “cheat hour” (see below).

·      The Cheat Hour: I cannot stick to a plan if I have to cut something out completely. If I can never have margaritas and chips and salsa, movie theatre popcorn and a Cherry Coke, or a big bowl of Talenti gelato or a DQ Blizzard, I will give up pretty quickly. I can stick to my calories and tracking 167 hours a week, but I need one hour a week where I can do whatever I want. When I was part of Curves a few years ago, this free hour helped me to lose 15% of my body weight in one year (about four sizes). In my first seven days, I didn’t use this cheat hour.  It went okay. By day 8, however, I was ready to use my hour. During that hour on Friday night, I ate chips, salsa, queso, and some chocolate. I didn’t make supper or have a balanced plate of food. I just ate as much of whatever I wanted. Truth be told, I was uncomfortable because my body hasn’t had that much garbage in quite a few days…but I would do it again! Rather than feeling guilty for breaking my plan and then giving up on my goals altogether, I avoided feelings of deprivation and had another 167 good hours.

·      Precision: Knowing exact calories is very important when trying to lose weight. In order to do that, I have to use tools: measuring cups, spoons, and a food scale. The first time I lost weight, the food scale and my measuring cups were my best friend. When I pour a glass of wine (or something more healthy), my five ounces can get a little heavy handed unless I measure. A chicken breast can be almost a pound at times, so the good scale comes in very handy. When putting in my food for the day, I try to make sure I am as precise as possible. Since my goal is to track literally everything I eat, precision counts!

Off to another great week!