Weight Loss Wednesday

I've heard of other people doing a Weight Loss Wednesday post each week so I've decided to take a stab at it myself. First, by way of update, I finished up my fast. I'm ashamed but not too proud to admit that I gained back every pound I lost during the fast.

Therefore, I'm taking on a new "strategy". I've been reading and started working through the videos for "Made to Crave". Basically, it's the same concept as what the other program "The Lord's Table" focuses on: Learning to crave God instead of food. However, I'm finding that "Made to Crave" speaks to my heart issues more clearly than the other did.

I've also been working out more regularly using, EA Sports Active 2. I have to assure you, this is NOT another Wii game! I'm actually using it with our PS3,  But still, whereas typical Wii games don't even cause you to break a sweat, these give you a legitimate workout. I'm seeing the pounds slowly start to drop off again. Thank you, LORD!

MyHero and I have also decided to start controlling the portions our family eats. Not easy when you are feeding teenagers! However, given the fact that Type 2 Diabetes runs rampant on MyHero's side of the family, and the fact that both our teenagers are overweight, we feel that this is a necessary step for our family. We don't want our kids to become part of any homeschool statistics regarding Diabetes!

Preschool Activities in a Bag

My dear friend Mrs. Bee was reminding me the other day about how I participated in a swap when she was pregnant with her daughter, who is now 5 years old. I didn't have any preschoolers at the time, but I did it as sort of a baby gift for her.

The swap was with preschool activities in a bag. Each person participating makes enough bags with one activity for each of the participants. So if there are 10 people in your swap, then you make 10 ABC activity bags, for example. Then everyone gets together to exchange bags. Everyone ends up with a bag for each activity. What a great early child education tool! Mrs. Bee is using these in conjunction with Time4Preschool to help prepare her little ones for kindergarten.

Relaxed Learning

We have a somewhat relaxed approach to learning in our house. Perhaps it's because I'm an Aspie and seem to have a very difficult time keeping us on any type of schedule. Throw into this mix my 10 year old Aspie and two allergic to work teenagers.

Of course, my kids are required to do a certain amount of school "work" each day. But the majority of their time is their own. Probably too much of their time is their own. How do they spend all that free time? Mostly on games, either on the TV or on the computer. Some of their favorites include, Minecraft, Little Big Planet 2 and Team Fortress 2. RoboBoy has a passion for origami. He loves to go to specific channels on YouTube to learn new techniques.

With all this gaming they do, it's a wonder to me sometimes to hear them come out with things that I'm at a loss to figure out where in the world they learned THAT? I've heard it said that kids have a natural curiosity. I believe it! My daughter has pursued, on her own, a study of Greek Mythology. If I had forced this on her, she never would have learned half as much as she has chosen to learn all on her own!

It cracks me up and puts me in awe when they use big words and use them in the correct context! I suppose they get a lot of that from me. I've always used big words and didn't stop just because I had kids. When they were little, I often had to stop and explain to them what a word meant. Now I hear them saying things like, "I'm exponentially bored!!!" Wow! That's what I call bored!

Now that we are looking at entering the high school years, which I have no doubt will pass in the speed of a blink, I'm beginning to think that games are the way to prepare them for the SAT! Yes, there are such animals as SAT games! If only I could find a way to turn cleaning their rooms into a computer game!

Day 19

I just had my first solid food in 16 days! It was sooo good! Frozen peaches, mangos, strawberries, pineapple and blueberries with vanilla yogurt mixed in. I had it in a cereal bowl so as to manage the portion I gave myself. Found that I couldn't finish it though. I probably had about 6-10 bites left and I knew that I wasn't going to finish it, so I handed it to my son who had been drooling over it.

I'm glad now that I didn't eat anymore because I'm feeling quite full. They say that it takes about 20 minutes for your body to register to your brain that it is full once you are. Therefore, you should eat slowly and chew every bite. Then, as soon as you think you might be full you should stop eating. This is definitely going to be my strategy from here on out. Especially since my stomach has shrunk so much! I don't want to stretch it back out with over eating again!

I've gained a couple ounces which put me back up to 164. That is to be expected as I ease back into eating again. I'm looking forward to getting back to a rigorous exercise routine which should help me to start shedding some more of these pounds.

My goal is to be down to my goal weight by the end of this year. I believe that this is totally realistic since I only need to loose 34 pounds. It sounds a lot easier than it is actually going to be though.

Day 18

I finally broke 164! That sure was one stubborn pound!! This means that I've officially lost 10 lbs during this fast. I expect to gain some of that back when I start eating again though.

Speaking of eating again! I start my transition days tomorrow. I've already started having yogurt to repopulate the good bacteria in my digestive system. Last night I made a smoothie which included yogurt for my dinner. I'm still looking forward to eating again, but I seem to be less hungry than I've been.

I found out yesterday that a dear friend of mine has started a juice fast with her neighbor and her husband. Theirs is different from the one I'm doing. It will consist of 5 transition days eating only raw fruits and veggies, followed by 5 days of juicing, then another 5 transition days. She told me that her neighbor, who is morbidly overweight, (is that an official term??) has lost 12 lbs in the first few days. I say, "Go, team, go!!"

Starting Weight: 173
Current Weight: 163

Day 16

Only 5 days left to my fast, counting today. I keep having to remind myself that I WILL get to eat again. I hope that in addition to teaching my flesh that it can't have everything it wants, my children are getting an example in staying with something even when it is hard.

Character development is one of the main things we strive for in our Christian homeschool. Most days I don't feel like I'm making any headway in this area. Constantly dealing with self-absorbed teenagers and one preteen can be quite discouraging. Once in a while I see glimpses of selflessness, like RoboBoy making breakfast for his sister this morning. Maybe there IS hope for these kids yet!

Day 15

Not at all sure what's going on with my body at this point. Apparently I was mistaken about my "monthly friend". My body tricked me into thinking it was here. Add to that the fact that I've been gaining 2 ounces a day for the past 3 days. Oy!

I've been soooooo hungry! It was torture for me to watch the rest of my family eat Super Bowl treats last night. Counting down the days till this fast is over.

Of all the silly things, we were watching an episode of Phineas and Ferb after the Super Bowl last night. The characters were all eating taco salads. I started craving taco salad! As I was trying to get to sleep last night I found myself fantasizing about taco salad and had to stop myself. MyHero has agreed to take me out for taco salad when I start eating again. (happy happy!)

I'm thinking that the toughest part of all this is going to be holding out through the last two transition days. Those are the days when I'm supposed to be eating fresh fruits and raw veggies to allow my system to ease back into solid foods again. If I remember correctly, last time I did this fast, I didn't last through the full two transition days. These are the times when I need to keep reminding myself that this is about reigning my flesh in!

Day 13

I was surprised this morning to find that my "monthly friend" is here for a visit. That explains the migraine I had last night! It also explains my body's resistance to dropping the pounds. At least I haven't gained any like I normally would at this time of the month. It also explains why, aside from being hungry, I've been having such intense food cravings.

Praising God for helping through those cravings! If I can manage to get through those without breaking down then I can get through the ones I get on a normal non-fasting month.

Starting Weight: 173
Current Weight: 164

Day 12

Ever have one of those weeks that just gets away from you? Well, I've had one of those. My sweet friend and neighbor had eye surgery on Wednesday. I had promised to go over to put her drops in her eyes and make sure she was comfortably resting when she got home. I ended up spending pretty much the whole day watching for the medical transport to drop her off. It turned out that her surgery was delayed due to problems with the laser.

Yesterday morning I went to spend some time visiting with her. When I got home I remembered that my son had a doctor's appointment that afternoon. Hubby and I had to do a car swap, (he runs home, picks me up, I drive him to work and drop him back off), then I needed to shower and get ready to be in 'public'. By the time we got home from the doctor's, picking daddy up from work, going to the grocery store to get dinner, and back home again the day was pretty much shot.

I did drive my neighbor over to see her elderly mother and drop off a prescription for her at the assisted living facility where she lives. It was nice to see her mother again. I told her that I'm going to have to come see her every day because she kept telling me how good I'm looking. LOL

You'd think as busy as I've been that I wouldn't have much time to think about being hungry. I wish that were true! Wednesday night I was reading "Brisinger" to keep my mind occupied and read, "Orik fell silent as a portly dwarf waddled up and deposited a plate of steaming food in front of him." Suddenly, I was having visions of sausage gravy smothering biscuits and hash browns and scrambled eggs. That's SO not fair!!! I spent the rest of the night craving that meal.

In all this busyness I need to give thought to contacting our homeschool tester/evaluator. If I wait too long then before I know it June and July will be upon me. Not only that, but those testing slots tend to fill up quickly.

Homeschool standardized tests are not a requirement in our state. We do, however, have to have our kids evaluated once a year by either a certified teacher or a psychologist. This can be done by either testing or a review of the child's portfolio.

Starting Weight: 173
Current Weight: 164