Shorts

Short post, basically, I need to get my butt back in gear.

It Is Finished

Well, I finished the fast.  In all honesty, it felt great to do it and finish it.  I feel a lot better overall, and am so happy to know that I got over some of my food addictions.  Yesterday I joyfully ate, but was surprised as how quickly I became full and how little I wanted to "munch" or eat sweets.  Overall, this fast was a great thing, both spiritually and nutritionally.

Now, on to new things...

Since I'm done the fast, I'm going to start tracking my points again.  I also bought an exercise ball to sit on during the day when I work from home.  Because I'll be moving around a lot more to maintain my balance, I'll probably burn more calories (not a lot more, but some), and I've heard that it improves your posture...we'll see about that.

I also plan on hitting up the gym again today.  I'm going to make myself go right after work, that way I'll have time to come home, eat dinner, get a shower, and be to church on time for my women's Bible study.

One More Day!

Alright, so tomorrow is the last day of this fast.  I did end up losing a bit of weight, but not all that much.  I plan on hitting the gym again started next week.  I've really been letting myself slack off, and that's not acceptable.  It's time to remotivate myself.

That being said, I need to start planning out my meals for the week so that I know what I'm eating instead of just trying to figure it out last minute and end up eating stuff that's bad for me.

I want to make sure that I'm still getting a lot of veggies in my diet, so this upcoming week I was thinking of doing my favorite Spicy chicken and rice, and also some chicken parm with a side salad for my dinners.  I was also thinking of making a potato chowder, but adding a ton of veggies to it.  The weather calls for it, for sure.

Anyway, this fast overall has been a good thing, and I'm glad that I did it.  It's really helped curb my unhealthy eating addictions, and I'm looking forward to a new me in the next couple of months.

Goal:  140lbs

Almost Done!

Alright, I'm on week three of my Daniel Fast.  Knowing that I'm almost done is changing my perspective and helping me stay the course, which is a good thing.  Last week was, by far, the most difficult.  I'm glad I'm past that.

Anyway, this week I think that I'm going to make a few stir frys, some penne pasta, and I was thinking a vegan corn chowder.  This should give me plenty to power through the week.  I already informed my husband that Sunday morning I'm expecting him to make me eggs, and take me out for pizza for lunch, lol.  Oh yeah, and I bought chocolate chips, because I'm making chocolate chip cookies that day.  Mmmmm.

Anyway, I'm planning on that being my only "splurge" day, and then pretty much eating the same way I have been, just with some healthy protein added in, like chicken and ground turkey and all.  Since increasing my fruits and vegetables, I have seen some weight drop off, and I'm really feeling good.  I also feel like I've broken a lot of the food addictions that I had, so overall this fast has been great for me.

Day 11

Well, I'm officially past the halfway mark.  I now have less days to go than I have been fasting.  I don't know why, but realizing this completely helped me refocus, and I feel great.  I went out last night and bought some more triscuts, as well as fresh veggies to make salsa and guacemole.  My husband got himself a frozen pizza that he made for dinner last night.  I was really tempted to take "just one bite", but I didn't and I'm proud of myself for that.

I made some vegetarian chili the other night, which is good and filling, to I'll probably grub on that the rest of the week.  Once that's gone, I'll only have one more week left, and I'm sure I can figure out something to make for that week.  I was thinking about making a tomato soup, but tomato soup just isn't good without grilled cheese.

I'm actually seeing the scale start to move, which is nice.  Hopefully by hitting up the gym I'll see the ticker go down more steadily.

Halfway!

Well, it's day 10, which means that around noon I'll be halfway through my Daniel Fast.  I can honestly say that this week has been a struggle, I am just not feeling motivated.  I need to refocus and pray that God's will works in me during this time.  I'm so tempted to just go off the fast, but then I'm like, no that's stupid, don't break your promises to God.

I can definitely say that having my LifeGroup do this with me this year has helped a lot.  It's nice to struggle with people, I guess.

Anyway, I've barely seen a movement in the scale during this time, and it's because while I'm eating healthier foods, I'm still eating as many calories.  I've had a sinus infection and bronchitus for the past week, so I haven't been going to the gym.  I'm feeling a lot better now, so I plan on heading in there tonight.  It's very obvious that I won't be making my 10-pound goal by February like I had hoped, but I'm ok with that.  It's enough to know that I'm going to the gym and changing my eating habits for the better.  Eventually this will pay off.

Day 6

Welp, 6 days down  So far I've been doing pretty good.  I'm not craving the sweets as much anymore, which is probably a really good thing, but I do miss the cheese.  I can definitely see myself continuing to be on a high-fiber, vegetable and fruit rich diet in the future, I'd just add in things like chicken and turkey and occassionally beef.  Hopefully I don't fall back into my old eating habits, that really what I've been trying to discuss with God during this, is that he help me stop overeating so I can get healthy again.

Yesterday I ate some oatmeal with strawberries added in for breakfast, and for lunch I had penne with cannelioni beans and veggies.  I wasn't really all that hungry for dinner, so I just made a fruit smoothie, with banana this time.  Mmmmm.

I'll probably eat my soup for lunch today, and for dinner I was thinking of making stuffed peppers with corn, black beans, onions, and rice.

Almost one week down, two more to go.

100% All Natural

Mmm, I made a 100% fruit smoothie for breakfast this morning, and let me tell you, it's amazing.  Nothing like those natural sugars and taste of real fruit to get your day started.  Excellent.

In the future I might actually add some oat bran or something to it just to keep me filled up.  Also, I'm out of bananas, but I bet this would be good with a banana mixed in, too.

I'm on to day four of my Daniel fast.  So far I'm actually enjoying it.  Now that's not to say that this is easy, I want some bread and chocolate, but whenever I'm feeling "snacky" I've been reaching for a piece of fruit or a spoonful of peanut butter.  While it's disappointing at the time, I wake up the next day feeling a lot better about myself for sticking to my guns.

Yesterday was a day for leftovers.  I had the penne that I made for lunch, and the soup for dinner.  Making that soup was a good choice.  It's got enough flavors in it that I don't get sick of eating it, and the rice and chick peas keep me full until my next meal.  Since I'm trying to make most of my "staples" over the weekends when I have more time, I'll have to do some digging and find another soup to make.  I was eyeing up a recipe for a tomato basil bisque yesterday...

Anyway, today is of course more soup, gotta eat it til it's gone, and for dinner I'm going to make more penne but a different way this time.  I was thinking of something with spinich and beans, sort of like a fazzoli.  I'll have to do some reasearch and see what I find.

17 Days Left

Onward!

Well, I'm on to day 3 of my Daniel fast.  I did really well yesterday and hope that I can keep up the momentum.  Yesterday I ate some Bear Naked cereal with coconut milk for breakfast (as well as a banana), and for lunch I had some more of that delicious chickpea and rice soup.  I was getting kind of snippy by the time dinner rolled around, but I didn't let myself cheat and I just waited it out.  For dinner I ended up making some penne pasta with zuchini and tomatoes, which was really good.  Of course, it would have been better with cheese, but oh well.

OH!  I also tried out a dessert that wasn't super amazing, but definitely helped take off the edge.  I put a chopped up banana in the freezer for a bit, then blended it with peanut butter and coconut milk to make a smoothie.  It actually wasn't half bad, but after the fast I think I'll be making it with chocolate mixed in ;)

Starting the year off right

Well, I started my fast yesterday.  All things considered, I did alright.  For lunch I made a chickpea and rice vegetable soup, which was awesome and I would definitely make again.  I have tons of leftovers, so I will likely be enjoying it more this week.  Some friends invited us out to dinner at Chili's last night, so I made it a point to do my research before we went.  Turns out Chili's has a vegetarian/vegan friendly menu that I went off of and ended up ordering fajitas without any meat and corn tortillas instead of flour.  Honestly, I really enjoyed that, too, and would probably eat it again.

Anyway, after dinner Jason ordered a chocolate molten lava cake, and I ended up having a few bites of that.  So yes, I did cheat a little, but not very much, and overall I'm happy with how my first day of fasting went.

The fast is pretty restrictive, but I want to make sure that I'm still eating what my body needs.  I think that today I'll start tracking on WW just to be sure.

Anyway, for breakfast today I had some Bear Nature cereal with coconut milk.  It wasn't awful, but it wasn't great either.  I ended up cutting up a banana and eating it with the cereal and it made it taste a lot better.

Of course, I have a sinus infection so my taste is all thrown off, so for all I know this stuff is really awful and I just can't tell, haha.