I have lost 100 lbs!!!

Shocking.  Awesome.  Amazing.  Unbelievable!! 
As of 5:31 today, Sunday, February 26, 2012, I have lost 100 lbs.  100 lbs of fat gone, gone gone. 

For those of you who have been on this journey with me from the beginning...THANK YOU for every kind word of encouragement.  I cannot believe I would have come this far without that kindness.

I'm still going..I've got about 50 left to go, but that's the gravy, as they say.  I've done the biggest part.  The hardest part.   I'm not saying that the next 50 will be easy, but I've done the hardest thing of retraining my habits.  Exercising daily!  The rest of it will come as it comes.

But I've done it.  What I thought impossible.  What I thought improbable.   I have done.  I have finished this part of the race.  Now I keep moving, keep going!

Nothing's going to stop me!

Unprocessed Day 3

I am on the 3rd day of eating only unprocessed foods.   After reading a lot on the web, there are lots of variants to what people consider "unprocessed."  Some consider eating things only in their natural state.  Like Milk.  Sure I could get raw milk, but I'm not really interested in it.  I don't drink a lot of milk anyhow, but I am considering milk from the grocery store as natural.  Others consider processed as anything that alters the original state of the food.  Consider, butter.  It has cream from milk and sometimes salt.  But to change milk into butter there is a process.  Because it is still natural ingredients, I consider it fine.   So in the mornings, instead of spraying non-stick cooking spray ( it contains lecithin, which is an emulsifier, dimethyl silicone, which is an anti-foaming agent, and a propellant such as butane or propane) I use ever so slight amount of butter, just to coat the pan so my eggs won't stick. 

I will say I miss my lavash bread.  I think it is the feeling of fullness (bloating?) after eating those carbs that I miss.  I've been using lettuce as my bread this week.  I still put turkey breast (that I cooked - not from the deli) on top of the lettuce, with sprouts, tomatoes and mustard, roll it a little and eat it like that.

As always i'm eating plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables.  For snacks (the hardest thing to go unprocessed) I'm eating air popped pop corn and raw almonds.   I've also found an organic peanut butter which is okay, so I'll put that on celery or apples.   I find that the organic peanut butter is heavier and less creamy than JIF, which is a good thing so I won't take a spoon and just go crazy like I can with the JIF creamy jar!

Restaurants are a little tough but I made it through last night.  I ended up with steak and eggs with a side of a baked potato (instead of hashbrowns or toast).  I am actually considering making my own bread with wheat berries to see if a) I can do it and b) because I think 40 days without a piece of bread will be super ridiculously hard!!!

Carry on today my friends!!

40 Days of Unprocessed Food

Last year for lent I gave up Diet Coke as part of the 40 Day Challenge for the Blood Water Mission. Our family donated $175 which was the sum of all the beverages we drink in a 40 day period!  Startling, isn't it?  Well, I never looked back after giving up the Diet Coke, I just kept going and I'm almost 12 months free! 

This year, I wanted an equally difficult challenge for lent.  Now, giving up something for lent is kind of like a new years resolution for me, and it really isn't that spiritual.   The lenten season IS Spiritual for me, just not the giving up something.  However,  I was so blown away last year that I could give up Diet Coke, that I wanted to try something this year. 

I've decided to give up processed foods.  I have already eliminated a lot of this through just general well eating for the last year, but I still eat processed things every day -  The Lavash Flat Bread I love, An English Muffin, Pretzels, Apple Straws, Crackers...   I want to see if my body is better without them....If I notice a change in the next month than I will reevaluate what I should keep and not keep in my diet.

Unprocessed means different things to different people.   I mean anything that has additives that are not naturally occurring in the world.  I pretty much need to know what everything is in the ingredients list.   And High Fructose Corn syrup does not occur naturally in the world  or sucralose...or poly dextra whatevers....

So wish me luck..I'll keep you posted!

I love you Eddie Bauer

So I was shopping at Eddie Bauer the other day (Yes!) and I was trying on pants and I had to buy a size 14!!  Now I know that their sizes run big and I am still normally a 16, but how exhilarating to have to get the smaller size in a normal store!  Woohoo!

Back to Running

I haven't been running much, but since I have the 8k coming up in March and I'm hoping to do a 5k before then, I've got to get cracking.  I started today just doing a half mile so I don't get too sore.  Often when I get back to running, I'll go right out and run 2-3 miles and then the next day I hurt like heck!!

:)  All is good...still holding on to these 2 lbs...I think I'm like a bear, ready to hibernate for the winter...holding onto fat!  Seriously!

Too much fruit

I eat way too much fruit.  I know it.  I need to fix it.  I probably eat 5 to 6 servings a fruit per day.    While it may not be high in calories, it's probably higher in sugar than I should have.  Yes, it is better than a bag of oreos, but I've known for a while that my fruit "addiction" is probably not a great thing!

So I'm going to try to cut back to the 2-3 servings per day that was recommended by the dietician I saw a year or so ago.  It'll be tough for sure because I LOVE my fruit!  But I'm going to do it!

Blogging Rut

It's a good thing when I'm in a blogging rut...I think..  It means that things are going along just normally.   I'm still fighting to get those 2 lbs off to reach the 100 lbs...stealing dealing with constipation....but nothing new and amazing to report.

I'll begin running this week to start training for my 8k.

It's nice being in a peaceful place about weight loss.  

Boot camp is over!  WOOHOO!  I won't be doing that again.  It made really no difference in my weight or my size.  At least I tried it!

I've discovered Downton Abbey and I am now caught up on all the episodes.  I love me some period drama!!