Fail to Plan or Plan to Fail! That’s the name of the game!

I’ll be sharing my weekly plan with you all on Mondays to keep myself accountable and for anyone who wants to come along.  My plan is what it’s always been.  The same plan that helped me lose 250 pounds in the first place.  Kicking sugar out of my life and breaking free from food obsession.

I suggest two paths for making this happen.  The first you can find here where I wrote a lengthy post about Sugar Addiction and a very simple eating plan that consists of nothing but liquid shakes every 2 hours for the first week or so.

The second path is the one I am currently on.  It is the one that I would refer to as the long term way of living that works for me.  It involves a form of intermittent fasting from actual food that you chew during the day.  What I mean by this is the nutrition I take in during the day comes in the form of liquid.  It’s still there.  It’s still coming in my body and fueling me as I need it.  But it doesn’t start the chew cycle which often leads to unnecessary food.  Aside from this I am listening to natural hunger.   In the first plan, I set a timer and drink a ready made Atkins shake every 2-3 hours no matter what.  In my current plan, I allow myself to get in tune with my natural hunger cues to decide when I need to drink a protein shake.

I think it’s very hard to listen to natural hunger when you’re mind is clouded by sugar cravings and emotional hunger. That is why sometimes just setting a timer every 2-3 hours helps you to reset this.  Once that seems to be done and there is less fear and anxiety about going without food for a period of time, the second path becomes much easier.

For me the second path means I begin my day with coffee.   I definitely love and look forward to my morning coffee! To be truthful it is what I crave when I get up and not food.  When I believed I was hungry first thing in the morning, it was a lie.  It was a lie told to me by the sugar that was causing cravings.  It was a lie told to me by my mind that relied on food for anxiety and comfort.  It was a lie told to me by many traditional theorists who believe not eating breakfast is a crime.  But the truth is that all I wanted in the morning was coffee.  And I will add half of a Vanilla Atkins ready made shake in place of creamer to turn my coffee into a ‘latte’ of sorts.  I usually drink two cups of coffee over the span of 2 hours.   The first half of my shake in the first cup and the second half in the second cup.  By doing this, I am getting about 15 grams of protein in which kind of turns my coffee into Protein Coffee I suppose!

As you can see there is nutrition but it doesn’t involve chewing.  Believe me when I say that the mental impact of CHEWING food as soon as I get up can never be underestimated.  The day might as well be wrapped up in the first hour if I do that.  From that moment on I am thinking about what to eat next.  This way I ensure that I preserve my mental sanity and do what works for me!

For the first several hours of the day, I alternate between my ‘protein’ coffee and my water.

Dressing up your water is key.  This is not something I did on my first initial effort to lose weight.  I believe that is why water fell by the wayside for me.  I guess it just wasn’t entertaining enough!  I kept struggling to drink it at all.  I was never a water drinker before and I couldn’t seem to get myself into the habit.  I’ve tried numerous times.  But this seems to be helping me more than anything.  I fill a mason jar with water in the morning adding fresh lemon and lime slices.  Sometimes just one or the other.  I make sure it’s really cold.  When I am done with my first cup of coffee, I begin working on that water.

Oh…I forgot….I also add a pretty straw.  Don’t ask me why but that helps!

The mason jar holds about 25 ounces of water so you’re really off to a great start once you finish it.  When I do finish it, I just refill it and put it back in the refrigerator or even the freezer (so long as I don’t leave it there too long–made that mistake last week!)  It WILL crack if you leave it overnight.  But if it’s just there for an hour or so it gets really cold and I prefer it that way.

This week I will continue to find other ways to ‘dress up’ my water.  I tried mint which didn’t work for me. I think I didn’t add enough so I will try that again.  My friend Jenny suggested adding cucumber so that will be something to try.  Please send along any other ideas you have.  I believe getting that water in is so important.  It really helps to curb hunger and still gives you the mental feeling of ingesting something.  So many of us just need to feel like we have something with us.  Whether it’s the water or the shake or unfortunately the cookie.  So many of us feel anxious whenever we don’t have something constantly with us to eat or drink.    I know much of this is seeking that comfort or seeking that feeling of not being alone.  Just having something there.  I’m working more and more on allowing God to fill that need but I may always be someone that needs to have ‘something’ right there next to me.  So water is essential as being good for you and also harmless to you calorically.   Even better it helps to flush out the toxins and sugar we have been killing ourselves with up until now.

I continue to fill my refrigerator with Atkins ready to go shakes.   Currently Vanilla and Chocolate.   But any shake that you like would work so long as they are sugar controlled.   You would be surprised at how many are NOT sugar controlled at all.  I try to avoid anything with more than 4 grams of sugar per serving in a detox mode.

I am also branching out into making some shakes for more variety.  I continue to believe that too much variety can hinder my progress.  But trying something new a little bit at a time works.  So every week I will try perhaps one or two shake recipes to try for variety but never more than that.  If you are just now starting out on an effort to sugar detox or break free from food addiction then you may want to drink a basic ready made shake every 2 hours until you feel less obsessive about eating.  This takes time though.  And I think it’s ok to do what works for you.

Last week I tried a new recipe from the Skinnytaste blog that used pumpkin.  I know it’s not really the time of year to be discussing pumpkin but it kind of got me off on a pumpkin kick.   So this week I am experimenting with making a protein shake using pumpkin.

Here is what I came up with: 

1/4 cup of canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling! Pumpkin puree)

1 Vanilla Atkins Ready to go shake OR 1 scoop of Vanilla Protein powder

Pumpkin Pie Spice ( according to your taste)

Ice

According to my calculations, this is 191 calories, 8 carbs, 9 fat grams and 16 grams of protein

This is an experiment so I’ll let you know how it turns out.

For dinner this week, I have planned out the following:

Monday: Chicken Drumsticks (with whatever variety of spices baked in the oven for one hour at 400.  I turn over halfway in the middle)

Tuesday: Pork Roast in the crockpot (how I will season this is still up for grabs…)

Wednesday:  Lasagna Stuffed Peppers

Thursday: 10 Minute Low Carb Chili

Friday:  Chicken Crust Pizza

For my exercise, I will continue to go walking in the neighborhood.  I am logging this on Map My Walk.  I am currently doing about 1.5 miles in the morning because that just happens to be how long it takes for me to walk around the loop.   I listen to podcasts and music while I’m walking.  Add me if you like…300poundsdown  I am also alternating or adding Leslie Sansone Walking Videos.

I am making progress.  The scale is down about 8 pounds since I really started getting back to what works. But it’s still not the level of progress I should be seeing.  It’s probably only been the last two weeks that I’ve really fallen much more into step with the way I used to eat.  And maybe even only this last week that I really started feeling it click.   I can tell you, though, that when I really follow this plan to the letter I will be seeing a weekly loss of at least 2 -3 pounds or more.  In order to do that I have to keep striving to go deeper.   To really address whatever the things that are bothering me might be and deal with them properly and not with food.  To keep seeking real hunger over the artificial mental hunger.  And to keep going further into my walk with God as I ask Him to show me the things I need to see and then give me strength to address them.

The scripture verse I am trying to hold onto this week is John 3:30

He must become greater, I must become less

And boy do I ever mean this on multiple levels.   There needs to be more of Him and less of me in in all areas.  Less of me getting in the way of His plan for my life.  Less of me trying to use my own methods (food etc) to deal with life instead of going to Him.  Less of me physically taking up room!  Less of my hips…and so on!! lol

Here’s to another successful week leaning on God and believing for victory!!

Love you all

PS.  Here’s a few pictures from over the weekend

We got a puppy a few months ago and he is actively chewing up everything in the house.  This weekend he brought the excuse “The dog ate my homework” to fruition when he managed to chew up Charlotte’s reading log. We attempted to tape it back together.   I wonder what the teacher will say?

He looks so innocent right?

Here I am with my son CJ watching movies.  I’m actually sitting on the floor here.  I know many of you understand the impossibility that is when you are really big.  Getting on and off the floor equals nightmare!

And last but not least…

The proverbial sitting behind the steering wheel ‘ so you can only see me from the head up’ selfie!  The kind we all take when we are annoyed with how we look from the boobs down! And of course my giant sunglasses that the kids say make me look like a bug.  Also add to this picture the highlighting job I recently got which my kids think is way too blonde.  They’re probably right.

What can I say..its Monday!

(c) 300 Pounds Down – Read entire story here.