Guilt-free Eating??

I feel like I start every blog out with, "well, It's been a few weeks.." I am so bad at this blogging thing! I am very inconsistent and I am sorry to the 3 of you out there who read this. lol

Well, last week(the 12th) I lost no weight! I stayed the same. Which for me is fine. I didn't work out and I definitely strayed from Paleo a bit. So I'd rather stay the same weight than gain!

This morning I weighed myself to find I was down another 2 lbs!! Now here is the miracle of Jesus: I worked out Monday. That is it. One day. Doesn't seem like enough to have me lose weight! Granted, I did a phase 3 which included a whole 60 minutes on the cybex, which is like a stair stepper sort of machine. For more of an illustration, what the ellyptical is to the treadmill, this thing is to a stair stepper.

I have been having an incredibly hard time these last 2 weeks wanting to stick to Paleo you guys. But let me say this first!! I really REALLY love this way of eating!! I truly love how I feel on it and love what seems to be happening to my body, even though most times in the mirror I don't always see it, I still love it! So this last week, I had definitely had my cheat moments. I had many thins that are not paleo approved, but still are incredibly healthy well balanced choices. I also came to a really hard place where I was feeling incredibly guilty for eating so "poorly in my mind. I am incredibly quick to forget how extreme paleo eating is and it was revealed that I am being way to hard on myself.

We had a fun ladies night last wednesday, had dinner and my friend Amy's house(she just had her precious little girl Kenzie on saturday!) and she was the best hostess!! She as so kind to ask me what foods I can have, as she and another lady friend are vegetarians, and made a meal catering to all our specific diets! What an incredible lady!! Then we, of course with the premiere of the last installment, watched Breaking Dawn Part 1. It was the most splendid of nights with some great gal pals. As we were all talking about diets, eating, ways of dieting, weight loss, health and what not, I was asked about my diet and my fight against food and how I have lost some weight and what not. I got an opportunity, seriously given by the Holy Spirit, to be honest about my guilt and struggle and how even though I did NOT want to make this a diet where I would feel guilty for my slip-ups, that is exactly what it turned into. And with the holidays coming up and me actually wanting to enjoy them and eat some good food for one day ya know?

One of the wonderful ladies there gave me some exceptional advice for the upcoming holiday season of which I will for sure be using for holidays with fam and special occasions. and not everyday is a special occasion! I have to remind myself of that ;) She told me to make a sort of mental contract with myself. Tell myself before hand what I will allow myself to eat, like one piece of pie, not 3, or a small portion of mashed potatoes(because man I love carbs!) not half a plate full. This was , I know what I am allowing myself to have and i can actually enjoy it without guilt. 

This may be something that some of you readers have done before and have known about for a long time, but this is a very new concept to me. Cheating willfully on a strict eating plan and being able to enjoy it? An incredibly foreign concept for his lady. But my life is not my diet. Nor do I want my life to revolve around it or be consumed by it. By life is meant to revolve around Christ. My life is meant to be one of obedience to him, not a slave to the food I consume as a means to renovate my pathetic and uncared for temple of a body.

I hope that you all have had a wonderful weekend and look forward to writing a blog about my thankfulness and it is the ultimate week of thankfulness in this week of Thanksgiving =) 

Here's to eating guilt free!

Feeling a bit like Bon Jovi

So today marks the completion of 6 weeks total of being on Paleo. Weighed in today and holy crap, lost another 5 lbs!! Brings me to 24 lbs down on Paleo and 50 lbs for the year! I am in complete disbelief you guys! A huge reason is because I made some not so paleo friendly treat for a ladies hang out time but which I also ate of because they were delish!! Breakfast, Lasagna and taco cups! I should have taken a picture! Here is pretty much what they looked like though =)

 They were so good! but they had cheese, I forgot how much I love cheese. =)

I pretty much am halfway there...aaaand then the Bon Jovi song comes into my brain ev-er-y time! You know the one:

"WOOAA We're half way there! WOA-OOH Livin on a prayer!" 

Your Welcome. =D

Okay, back on track after that musical break, I am halfway to one of my short term goals which is to give Paleo a solid 12 week go at it. And this picture kind of gave me some motivation

This kind of holds true for me. I haven't really noticed too much of a difference in the mirror but I have in my clothes. Well, at least in the way that things from last fall were a lot tighter to get zipped up than they are this season! They are baggier than I would have ever thought, it is super bizarre because I still feel the same size. It is such a weirdo feeling.

I also saw this on pinterest and realized that summer 2013 is going to be here sooner than I think and thought this was rather motivating too!

And the other "halfway there" thing is that I have lost 50 lbs, and I am really aiming to lose 100 within the next year. I would love to lose it by summer, but it took me almost 11 months to lose get this far, that I don't think I will be discouraged if I can't get that 50 lbs off in 8 months. I think it is crazy that for the first time in my life I have actually lost this much in one go. I have said this before, but my usual yo-yo weight loss routine is, I lose 30 lbs, feel like I've done a great job and then gain back 40. So this is a huge record for me. I'm not going to lie, there is a little frustration with me not being able to tell a visible difference for myself. like in the mirror or in my jeans. That is where I want to see a difference. I have to keep telling myself that it is not important. the number on the scale is not important. the number on the tags of my clothes are not important. This is about health and wellness. But I would be a big liar if I said I never thought about it, longed for it, hoped or dreamed about it. So I'm just gonna throw it out there and say I do deal with it, I do struggle with it, but I do not want let it define or become the reason why I continue on this journey.

Now, the last motivating picture I am going to post will be because  I am the biggest of procrastinators! I seriously am always telling myself, "Tomorrow I will go to the gym." Or "tomorrow will be the day when I ___insert almost anything I am to lazy to do here___" I know that I will fail in this area. Undoubtedly, I will make this same habitual mistake again and again. But it is the times that I am given the strength to get off my butt and do something active that I am very thankful for. Those are the ones where I want to remember taht amazing feeling of accomplishing something goodfor my body, my temple, the one body I was given to steward well, made by my Creator, that if I wear it out, what the heck am I going to do with it? As far as staying active and pushing myself at the gym I thought this was  very true because there is always a little, or a lot, of regret when I do not do something active.

Well thats all for now folks. I really hope you all had a wonderful and safe halloween and don't go to crazy on eating the Halloween candy! I am sure it is peak season if you are in the dentistry field.

Here's to the next 6 weeks!!

Let's do this! It's never too late to start =)