Friday, July 31, 2015

"Popping Tags" and other fun adventures while losing weight via Low Carb

"I'm gonna pop some tag's, only got $20 in my pocket"...

I needed to do some BACK TO SCHOOL shopping for myself. Like I discovered around Spring Break, and then again as I continue to wear things and good friends are kind enough to say...

" Girlie it is time to retire those shorts".

"What?!, they're some of my "skinny shorts"?!"

"They're way too big and falling off you"

Realization.... I am still trying to wear things that were in my "too tight to fit" previous body, and are now hanging on me, but they were my littlest size. So, I have them on thinking "YEAH, I'm back in my skinny size" when actually I've slimmed down beyond them.

It is amazing how that is hard to wrap your head around this phenomonon.

SOooooo.... off to Value World I go!

Value World is a resale shop, one step up from Goodwill, where I think they have done some of the label searching and pre screening for me.

Do you know how many brand new, original store tags still attached, or favorite mid to late 00's GAP jeans that fit your shape just perfectly you can find if you search the racks at a Goodwill???

If you know you can wear a certain pant, or label, you can usually find it at these stores.

Plus SOMETIMES they have a 50% off coupon and you can apply that to your $5 Talbot brand blazer jacket and get it for a mere $2.50.

I mean it is like they are paying me to shop people!

This is also an EXCELLENT way to update your wardrobe while in-between sizes, restyle yourself, while making outfits via PINTEREST and without spending a fortune.

When my mom or sister comment or ask "Where did you get that?" I respond, "My Boutique", which is code for the Goodwill or Value World.

I did accomplish a closet clean out of 2 full garbage bags which I gladly passing onto a fellow reader, low carb chica, and friend.

It feels good to gift her these items as she is working through her journey and personally downsizing her body.

It also lets me make an inventory list and determine what I need to replace or go our looking for new and fun things to add into the mix.

I got 6-7 new (3-4 sizes smaller mind you) jackets or blazers , 5 sweaters (cardigan, v neck, jacket like and a cute argyle), 3 pencil skirts in Red, charcoal grey and a black and white houdstooth, and 3 lapis necklaces for layering all for $72.00 or around $3.78 per item.

Happy hunting!

: )





Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Hip hip HORRAY. Down more today ! Losing weight with low carb lifestyle...

HIP HIP HORRAY!

I lost more weight as of today and am at a new low.

155.5

This continues to motivate me to stay on my journey, keep eating well and "clean" staying on program.

I am feeling fit and feisty, so at this point, happy to be inching closer to my goal weight, but not obsessed with the end number.

I have stayed "mostly" on plan this summer with more time with the kids, at the lake therefore not in charge of the food, so not as easy to maintain my routine.

I have tried to plan ahead with cooking an entire ham on the weekend, slicing it all up, and bagging it to freeze and use during the week for lunches.

I still do all the baked chicken pieces for dinner, and then we have leftovers the next day.

I use a Sam's club roasted chicken for a dinner and then pull it apart for chicken salad that lasts a few days.

I've "treated" and cheated with a summer beach stand ice cream cone. It was good too. : )

Excited to keep up the journey moving forward and see if I can continue to maintain or lose a little more.

*exercise* Exercise* EXERCISE*



Friday, July 10, 2015

Great minds think alike... and other AhhhHaaa moments while living low carb!

"Great Minds think Alike".

Ah-ha moments.

We all know that phrase from "our OPRAH".

It summarizes the experience of an internal light bulb going off and to your life change being made so vividly.

I was reading along yesterday in my Gretchen Rubin book, Better than Before.  (She is also the author of Happiness Project , the one I so throughly enjoyed, I read it twice as discussed in previous posts.)

In Better than Before she studies habits. How to rid out bad ones, how to create good ones, and summarizes personality types determining how we all process changes. It's a fascinating study, much like I found the pursuit of being happier by doing things that make you happy in the Happiness Project.

Out of nowhere she writes about her finding a book that changed her life by Gary Taubes titled "Why We get Fat" and starts selling the low carb lifestyle sales pitch.

O. M.G.

She too found low carb living and it changed her mindset of eating along with her entire body!

I was SO excited to read this, especially from her, and the title of a new download for another "bible" to reference from Taubes.  I found it all a little ironic considering I read and re read her fist book and it had such a huge influence on me these last 2 years.

Taubes take seems to be a more scientific explanation of how the body consumes and processes sugar or simple carbs, deals with insulin and stores extra as fat for later.

She was the reason I "thought big" and started this blog!

I didn't know until yesterday we had not only OCD list making, over analyzing, zest for progress not perfection, a sense of order, and a constant need for improvement in common.

Gretchen is a LOW CARB-er TOO!!! : )

I found many low carb communities on my fit bit tracker site and have been reading, sharing and copying new ideas or recipes.

I have several Facebook pages I "liked" that also provide me a connection with like minded people. The PaleoMom.com,  Low carb crock pot cooking, Low Carb High Protein lifestyle.

I love Tosca Reno's blog and No Sugar Challenge. She is a fitness model and competitor and at 55+, she rocks.

Join the Journey!

Join the discussion! How long have you been low carb living? What recipes are your GO TO always in the fridge? Are you losing weight or trying to maintain? Write some comments, make a commitment and share your goals.

Let's create a community!

You just have to find or create groups for yourself  to support your goals, in this case the low carb living lifestyle, where you can be with GREAT MINDS that THINK ALIKE!


Thursday, July 2, 2015

How long will it take to see results from Low Carb lifestyle ?


Readers have asked " EXACTLY How long did it take to get the # of lbs 's off?

After talking specifically to one of my readers who is having great success in her own right while on the program, but had some very specific questions, I went to my FITBIT tracker and found the chart that it keeps for my weight loss.

It is funny. 

I forgot the process! The feeling of desperation and need for instantaneous success. How I wanted all 75# gone, like yesterday. I had to really think through the time frame, and the ebb and flow of the actual dropped pounds determining my success. 

I am still striving for the last 12#'s to remove themselves from my body to make my "goal" weight. Can I get there? I really do not know.

I weigh myself every morning and then plug in the number WHEN IT GOES DOWN. This does not show the occasional gain then loss again that did occur throughout this journey. 

I enter it into the tracker over time as I reach a new "low" and celebrate.

If you've read the first posts from this blog, I REPEAT: I JUST FELT BETTER almost immediately while eating low carb and high protein. 

Click here to check out the immediate first 2-3 weeks, results and then first few months, and how fast things happened.

I was getting constant feedback through random compliments, someone noticing changes happening, clothes loosening, or the general pep in my step that kept me continuing on eating on program and staying IN THE PINK.

This is the FITBIT tracker line graph of my constant and continual weight loss. 

It has taken 22 months to lose and maintain the 68.5 pound weight loss, which averages out to 3.11 lb per month.

As I stated before, had I been on weight watchers or some other program, (all of which I have tried before sometime /multiple times),
and only lost 3.11 lbs per month, I would have quit for sure.

No doubt about that. Did that for years.


Weight Loss Graph
I totally focused on staying on program, staying IN THE PINK proving I was on program, and knocking out "decades, or getting down the next 10 lbs.

At first, I wanted to get into "One-der land" or back into the 100's.

Then there would be a hold. Loosen up the reins a bit, not be as strict, life getting in the way, or being unorganized, or just my body not letting go of the weight quite yet, but I was able to maintain. That alone was an improvement and accomplishment.

Plus, clothes were still loosening.

Right now, I am in the same pant size I was when I walked onto a college campus 25+ years ago weighing close to 30 lbs less than I do now. Explain that. (!?!)

Seriously, (!)  between birthing 2 babies, being 45 years old, and all the weight training I have done throughout those 25+ years, I have added muscle to my frame for sure and life has added weight to my body. I've earned it.

I believe the Low carb eating burns fat off the body, and although we have all heard the saying "muscle weighs more than fat"... the truth and more important fact is, "muscle takes up less space than fat". 

I am at the point where I can say it is more important to me that I get down into and maintain a small, single digit size of pants / jeans / dress, that in order for me to be in, I know I am at a smaller (personally considered "tiny") frame than I have been most of my life.

I want to be fit, with tone and tight muscles, and then stay that way.

That is now a bigger pay off and achieved goal than the actual number on the scale.

: )