Week in Review Nov 16

Well this was the third week in a row that we had something to do, something that we were focused on working on through out the week. Thursday and Friday of this week were days off for me and I sorely needed the break! Although I am very surprised that I was able to handle 3 weeks of sustained activity as well as I did. And before I get too excited that all that activity is behind me, Thanksgiving is coming swiftly!

FLYLADY: I have been slowly, steadily working on Zone 3: the bathroom and 1 other room. The downstairs bathroom is for guests. One of my adult children has always used this bathroom. And now that only one child is living at home, this bathroom is up for grabs and I took it!! I take showers in there before I head upstairs to bed. On mornings when Joe and I both need to get ready, I head downstairs to use that bathroom. This is living, I tell ya!

I am a sprinter by nature. More accurate would be to say I crash and burn. But one of the Flyladies I watch on YouTube said not to do too much, but to stick to the 15 increments of working. Normally I make myself sick of something and feel free to quit. But this time, I am slowly seeing how the house is looking cleaner and more organized and I am still able to accomplish other things! I am building a habit of cleaning instead of just rushing to get it clean one time.

KETO: I am back to prepping my Once A Month Meals.

I tend to crave variety and I am sure in a few weeks(or days!), I will be making some kind of tweak or change to keep things interesting.

I saw this recipe by @sarahlynnfitness on IG Wed night and made them right away!!
Keto Shepard’s pie. One of my OAMM meals
Meatballs recipe from OAMM on spaghetti squash in Pizza sauce

If you want to do the Keto diet

Maybe after reading about the Keto diet, you are curious. Maybe you even read my story

One thing I won’t be doing is making promises to anyone that the Keto diet will definitely work for you. I won’t be talking anyone into doing it. It is a lot of work. At times I felt like I was experimenting on myself. I felt alone. A relative of mine felt bad for ONE WHOLE MONTH and decided that after one more day, she would quit. Well, she felt better the next day and the rest is history. (This is totally accurate to the best of my recollection).

The first time I attempted Keto, I was drained, felt sick and run down. After 4 days of that I ate a Clif bar and got instant relief. That was the beginning of the end. I really really tried to drink salt water, propel, etc. As I stated before, I came to detest the article titled “Keto flu is totally preventable”. I started googling “I hate the keto diet”.

I had been back on the keto diet for several weeks when I went to see a new dr(my old one had relocated.) This new guy had never been fat, I could just tell by the way he talked. When I try to give advice on a subject I know nothing about, I mean well, but even I can hear that it just sounds hollow! This is how the dr. sounded, like he had been trained on what to say to people about nutrition, but himself had no clue. The party line, if you will.

I was nice and could understand how a dr. unfamiliar with keto would be hesitant. I had watched videos on how to talk to your dr. who didn’t like keto. I went in READY to cooperate and still advocate for myself. I did not need him to agree with me, but to test me along my journey.

“The keto diet is not sustainable long term.” This line would actually not make me mad until later. In the moment, I could understand where he was coming from. I did tell him that I understood he did not think so, but my husband and I had researched this and seen other doctors at conferences and read articles by other doctors who believed in this.

I will finish this story another time, because this post is supposed to be for YOU. To help YOU decide if you should try the keto diet.

If you do, get DietDoctor.com and get a free 30 day membership. Watch videos and read articles that interest you. It might be all the support you get. It is a gold mine. Recipes too. And like me, you may start to feel like you know the doctors on the screen. Maybe you can even meet them at a Keto Conference one day.  ( These will become your fondest dreams)

Find some recipes that sound good. Or a website or YouTube channel you can follow and feel a part of. I recommend Keto Connect. They are very down to earth and relatable. At the very least, a book. I really think a person, group, (even online) is preferable.

There is a lot of information out there. Conflicting information.I just decide for myself what I think sounds best and what I seem to notice works for me.

If you do decide to go for it, let me know! I will certainly support you. You just have to have your own reasons to fall back on when the going gets tough.

So How Did I Lose Weight? Part 2

Yesterday I talked about how in 2016, I was up to 336 lbs(not even my highest weight).After a year of the “Real Appeal” program, and the next year doing the Naturally Slim program, I had lost 30 pounds. Fine, but not great.

In the middle of Naturally Slim, I veered off a bit and tried out the Ketogenic Diet. It went pretty well for 6 weeks until I hit the dreaded Keto flu. I gave up on, was happy to have lost 15 lbs and tried to go back to Naturally Slim with my full focus.

And then tried Whole Foods Plant Based. If you want to try this, I highly recommend this lady. She taught me that I, too, like my lettuce chopped up very fine. Seems funny, but was a game changer for me! And she shared the little cheats she makes to keep things doable. As I have mentioned I am a bit of a raving perfectionist (wanna be). So this was very good for me to hear!

It was mid September when my husband tried to entice me to come back to keto.  He reminded me that my blood sugar numbers were so good on Keto. And my weight WAS going down. He had a habit of smoking and grilling all his food and he promised to cook for me. I was so enamored by this gesture that I said YES! And then later retracted it. I just could not get my hopes up again. I just could not throw out all the vegan/veg food I had frozen for myself.

But I did. I gave the food away to my neighbor. I got my hopes up again. I started eating his smoked meats and salad. And I felt great and my blood sugar levels got so good, so quickly. I never had the keto flu this time.

I do not obsessively drink salted water and propel. I don’t have bulletproof coffee ever morning. I probably don’t eat enough fats. And who knows what all else I do
“wrong”? I don’t know why what I am doing is working so well. I just try to observe what I am doing and how it affects me. And I work on making new habits.

I am down to 273(from 336 two years ago).

So how did I lose weight?Part 1

In 2016, I weighed 336. It wasn’t even my highest weight. Through our insurance, we participated in a program called “Real Appeal”. I did learn a lot and had some success, but I only kept off about 6 lbs. The next year, I tried another plan through our insurance called “Naturally Slim”. I lost more doing this program, but it is hard to gauge since toward the end of the program I decided I needed to take more of an active eating plan since I had diabetes and I began to try other diets. But in that year, August 2017- August 2018 I lost 30 lbs.

I have been dealing with weight loss and cravings all my life. I have tried so many times to kick the habit of overeating, to overcome health issues. Eating whatever I wanted, but wishing I could lose weight. Or being on a program, maybe even losing weight, but wishing I could just break down and eat something. Food was more than food. It was comfort, entertainment, ritual. It was my answer to a lot of questions.

In April of 2018, I tried the ketogenic diet for the first time. I was reluctant to try it since I really believed in the Naturally Slim program and the idea that it was all about the amount you ate and only eating when hungry.

But I jumped in and promptly lost 15 pounds in 6 weeks. After the initial adjustment of realizing I couldn’t run and pick up fast food, and now my snacks were limited, it was pretty smooth sailing overall. I could probably pull up My fitness pal and see how poorly I was actually following the diet. BUT when you have a lot of weight to lose, anything helps!

Until about week 6. It was probably the Keto flu. I felt drained of energy and just sick. I hated the Keto diet and wished I had never gotten my hopes up. “The keto flu is totally preventable” became the most despicable thing I had ever heard!

At the time I was babysitting my 2-year-old grandson 4 days a week. I didn’t feel like I could despair of life AND give him the care he deserved 😉  I eventually just fizzled out doing the keto diet.

I would google “I hate the keto diet”. And I began researching other healthy ways of eating. I settled on testing out the vegetarian/vegan lifestyle. Lo and behold, there is a “flu”  or detox, associated with adjusting to that lifestyle as well!!  I cheated often. I often wished I was back doing keto(which I said I hated, but was losing steadily).

Week in Review

Last Saturday, we had our big 25th anniversary party. So the week(at least the end of it)was crammed full of preparations.

I tried not to dwell on the fact that already on the books, was another party for the very next Saturday. And this one in our home. The very place where all the party stuff came to die. The place that maybe didn’t get the full Flylady treatment last week due to the anniversary party.

And who is in charge of this gathering?? A very fragile soul who cannot hardly sustain any kind of pressure(me).

So this week, we decluttered party stuff(trashed it, stored it, gave away left over lettuce to EVERYone). I did my best to spend time doing daily chores and work in the FlyLady zone #2 The Kitchen.  All while keeping in mind, the tightest grocery budget ever- which means not wasting anything. I did not accomplish nearly what I wanted to in my perfectionistic brain.

I use Once a Month Meals menu plans. It is a site that helps me prep meals for the freezer for the month. Since it is the beginning of the month, I am also juggling that.

If someone else had done all I had done this week, I would be so proud of them! The mental side of this is actually the hardest part. Challenging beliefs and habits that I have spend almost 50 years developing.

I am starting to feel proud of myself!

Party Planning Committee

My husband has always talked about having a 25th wedding anniversary party. It just  seemed far off into the future! Last year we went ahead and reserved our neighborhood’s community room just in case we actually followed through 🙂

In the following month, we went back and forth. At one point, our daughter wanted to use our reservation to get married. And that would have been fine. We were left to decide if we really wanted the expense and stress and everything that goes with a large party…

One day, our youngest daughter, showed us a video of a YouTube vlogger making Kevin’s famous chili . We were so inspired! This party was ON!

I immediately set out to watch the entire series, tapping out notes on my phone. Pausing and rewinding, any time there was a party, food or decoration. Not just having it on in the background, but only watching it if I could sit undistracted and really take in everything. This might have been the most fun part of the whole process, just dreaming about what could be. It was a labor of love. I actually only got through season 8 and ended up with more ideas than I could ever use, but I am so glad I did it! It is definitely a show worth studying and appreciating.

I did search online, but most Office inspired gatherings were smaller affairs. Or involved pricey decor. I was aiming for 50 people, frugal decorations and food.

Note: I find there is a distinction between people who enjoy the show and have watched the series several times and rabid fans who have the show constantly playing every day for a decade. When the latter would share their party ideas with me, they did not necessarily resonate. If I saw red solo cups on the show, I wanted them. The rabid fans had ideas that were more abstract. My ideas were more literal. And both approaches are fine! It was kind of fun talking about it with other fans. I pretty quickly where I stood as a fan, but I am ok with it.

I ended up choosing to have themed tables. These could have been anything really, but I settled on episodes. And picked episodes that could also include a food or snack that could go on the table. Please see yesterday’s The Office party post for pictures!

 

Party Planning Flylady Style

On Saturday my husband and I celebrated out 25th wedding anniversary, our Silver anniversary. When I was a child, it seemed to be a more common thing than it is now.

When I wrote last time about the Flylady Holiday Cruise, I mentioned that Flylady Diane always says you can use it to plan any holiday, party or event. So as I would look at the Holiday Cruise Control Journal  everyday, I would also think about the Anniversary party everyday as well. And as it got closer, and there were more things that needed to be done, I could easily make a list. Not a frazzled last minute marathon get ready effort like I normally do.

Most of the time, I cannot picture what needs to be done until it is actually time to do it! But this time, since I made a point to think about it everyday, I guess that enabled me to envision all the details before it was actually time to start getting ready.

Not that it was completely stress free or anything, but this was the easiest, most organized thing I can ever recall putting together.

Flylady Holiday Cruise

Of all the things I have printed out at Flylady.net, I don’t think I have ever attempted the Flylady Holiday Cruising Missions The idea is that on December 1st, we are going on a cruise for 3 weeks. So all the preparation for Christmas needs to be done before the cruise on December 1st.

Here  is an example of one Diane in Denmark participating in one of the missions. I printed up the 25 page book and everything! Diane said to just look at it everyday(or at least that is what I understood). So everyday I look at it for a few minutes, maybe fill out some of the information about the holiday menu, or gift ideas.

I really didn’t see how that would work or help anything in October, but I kept doing it. Now that it is November, and it is time to act, I really see the value of having thought everything through!

Diane also says you can use the Holiday Cruise information for planning any holiday or party.

And I will talk about that next time!

C.H.A.O.S(Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome)

C.H.A.O.S,  or what Flylady calls Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome, has pretty much been a constant in my life. It is when your house is in such a state that you don’t want anyone to see it. Never mind that your self and the ones you love the most live in it, but that is a thought for another day.

Yesterday I realized that people would be coming over for Halloween. Normally, I clean like a banshee, a lot of stashing and dashing, flitting from one task, and then another…and then fall into an exhausted heap just as the doorbell rings.

Well, yesterday, I worked in increments and took breaks. Perfectionism did rise up, but I could actually see that I was making progress. I just decided to work on the important tasks first.

My husband commented that it sure looked nice, and my response was a scowl, but again, we will work on that another time.