I think I should introduce myself before going much farther, in case people read this, but not any of my other blog posts.
My name is Cathy. I am the stay-at-home wife of a Baptist pastor, living in eastern Ontario. We have ten children, ranging in age from almost 6 to almost 26. Three of our children have left home (two of those are married; one has given us our first grandchild). Of the seven who are left, one is an adult working as a carpenter full time and paying rent by helping us remodel our house. Another is almost an adult, and has plans to move to Virginia if he is accepted as a Joel Salatin apprentice. The last five are still in home school, so my days are still very full. Full, but rewarding. :)
Last week I started a series depicting my THM journey. I "went public" because I believe I need the accountability. Writing this paragraph at the end of the first week, I can definitely say going public has helped a lot. You can read my first post here.
February 28, 2014 -- Weighed in at 207.0. Ate three butter-fried eggs for breakfast. Drank water kefir pretty much all day. I drink water kefir pretty much all day every day, so I'll not mention that again. Snacked on cheese somewhere around noon. Celebrated my daughter's birthday at our church after youth group/Bible club. We had brought an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen, but I remembered to bring all the stuff I needed to make a chocolate muffin in a mug and a cottage cheese raspberry whip, so I had that instead. Later, though, I ate the chocolate bunny my husband had bought me. (Note to self: Ask him not to buy me any more chocolate, not even if I beg.)
March 1, 2014 -- Weighed in at 205.8. Ate two butter-fried eggs for breakfast. Had a family day skating on the Rideau Canal, where my daughter took this photo of me pushing my grandson in his stroller:
I have probably a dozen or so "before" pictures I could have picked from, but I decided to let this one be it. I smiled for the camera even though I knew my daughter would post this on facebook. She and I have talked a lot about self image as relates to our bodies, which conversations would fill several blog posts of their own. In fact, we had such a conversation today, as we traveled the canal together. (She skated, I walked with the stroller.)
Considering the fact that I spent 4-5 hours walking almost non-stop today, I felt myself justified in getting a poutine. For the uneducated, this Canadian delicacy consists of French fries and cheese curds with gravy poured over it. I'm sure that sounds gross to some people, but we all think they are delish. I only get one when I'm at the canal (which is no more than once a year, or less), and only when I don't get a beaver tail. I also had a small cup of hot apple cider.
On the way home, we stopped at Tim Horton's where my husband treated every one to doughnuts and hot chocolate. I had come prepared for this. I pulled my knitting out of my backpack (which I carry everywhere instead of a purse), and knit fast and furious on what will probably be the first of many hats I plan to donate to a rescue mission in Ohio (where a friend of ours is a men's counselor). This will be a good way to keep my hands occupied when we are out in public and there is non-THM food around. After I use up all my leftover yarn, I'm going to buy some cotton and start on dishcloths.
All that walking just about did me in, though. I have plantar fasciitis in both feet, so after hobbling into the house, I plunked myself down in the recliner for the rest of the evening. Asked one of my girls to make me a peanut butter sandwich. She used homemade whole wheat bread, and it tasted good.
I worked out where we were on the canal on Google Earth, and I'm guessing I walked close to six miles. That's a lot when you're walking on ice and trying to keep your balance!
March 2, 2014 -- Weight: 205.2. My feet feel like they are broken. Thankfully it's Sunday, and I don't have to do much. A friend sent me a link with plantar exercises, which I hope to start tomorrow.
Breakfast was chocolate muffin in a mug and cottage strawberry whip. I ate it on the way to church since I was running late, but it was so filling I could not finish it. I left it in the van since it's still cold and snowy here, and finished it on the way home. I did eat a piece of the chocolate that was being passed around by someone in the church. I'm debating about whether to let this be a once-a-week treat, or to say no to it altogether.
Sunday dinner: The big thing in this house is to keep Mom out of the kitchen on Sunday afternoons. The children are all adamant about this. This is the day Mom gets a break from the kitchen, so while they make dinner, I get to put my feet up--and stay out of the food. :D Today they made scrambled eggs and a mixture of fried potatoes, sausage and onions. I ate the eggs with a little ketchup, though I'll have to look later to see if ketchup is S acceptable.
Snack after evening service: peanut butter sandwich made with slices of cheese instead of bread. Yes, I am quite aware of the lack of veggies in my life. Plan to fix that tomorrow.
March 3, 2014 -- Weight 202.6. Chalking up that drop to be the 6 miles on the canal catching up to me. All the same, I don't want to lose weight that fast, so I determined to eat every three hours today, whether I felt hungry or not. Started with a chocolate muffin at 7:30. Those things taste amazing, but they are soooo filling. I felt like a stuffed pig already when Tom came in 15 minutes later and announced to the children that he was taking me out for breakfast and all the normal Monday morning errands. I was totally not expecting that!
Thankfully, we did some of the errands before breakfast, so by the time we got to the diner I felt like I could eat again. Normally I get the Atkins breakfast (no carbs), but we were at a different diner this time, so the plate of eggs and bacon came with toast and home fries. I did eat the toast with a teeny tiny bit of jelly, but passed on the home fries. But by the time three hours had gone by, I still felt way too full, so decided to wait another hour before eating an FP cottage strawberry whip.
After that, it was time to take the girls to piano lessons, so I was in town when the next three hours was up. I shared some pepperoni and cheese sticks with them to hold me over till supper. (Meanwhile, I had been at the library studying my family herbalist course--I don't trust myself to go shopping alone. Too much chocolate in every single store.) I also finished a hat while one daughter went into the mall for something. While the family ate lasagna, I ate a huge plate of greens with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese and some ranch dressing. Seriously, that is enough food for one day!! I am stuffed full to bursting, and never once felt hungry. I'm thinking I'd like to feel hungry between meals.
Oh, I forgot. One of the girls got a small peppermint patty from her piano teacher, and she gave it to me. Yes, I ate it. I need to learn how to make THM patties.
March 4, 2014 -- Weight: 203.8. I expected this after all the food I ate yesterday. Also, I'm figuring the weight loss from the canal has stabilized. And I know that you're not really supposed to weigh yourself every day. I will probably do something different next week.
Spent 25 minutes snowshoeing. The wind and the recent snowfall almost erased my previous trail, so I had the fun of breaking it out again. Came home and felt hungry. There is something about working up an appetite that makes me feel like I "deserve" to eat, and that I'm not being a glutton. I like the feeling, but I don't know if it's a good one, or an accurate assessment of why a person does or should eat. Somehow I suspect not.
Breakfast: oatmeal sweetened with xylitol and cinnamon, and a cottage strawberry whip.
Lunch: Took me a while to get over my "full" feeling from breakfast. Ended up with a four-hour gap instead of three. Decided I needed dessert for lunch, so after eating the piece of mozzarella a young son cut and gave me, I looked through the book and decided on Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies (page 387). Chose to bake them in a square pan as bars instead of as cookies. Baked 20 minutes instead of 10. I ate two small bars, finding them a bit too sweet. Next time I shall reduce the sweetener amount.
Snacked on those bars, one here, one there, for the rest of the day. Sounds bad, but I didn't eat nearly as many of them as I would have of a pan of regular brownies. There were still a lot left, even after sharing them with a few of the children. But they've respected my announcement that they were mine, made without sugar, and were good enough to ask instead of just taking.
I did eat a piece of homemade whole wheat bread fresh out of the oven, with some butter on it. I know I should learn to make Gwen's whole wheat sourdough bread, but I've not had good success with sourdough, so I'm a little leery of it.
March 5, 2014 -- Weight: 202.8.
"O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; to see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary." --Psalm 63:1-2
Oh Lord, fill me with that kind of longing for You!
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with cheese, two biscuits with butter, one also with apple butter. Biscuits and apple butter not THM friendly.
Lunch: This was one of my busy days, when I just didn't want to take time to actually make something. Had a few more of those chocolate peanut butter cookie things, with a couple pieces of cheese.
Supper: About half an apple and some cottage cheese. I really was not hungry, which was why I didn't eat the whole apple.
March 6, 2014 -- Weight: 202.8
Breakfast: Chocolate muffin in a mug, cottage strawberry whip.
Walked down to the local Tim Hortons to buy some K-cups for a friend. This was a round trip of about 5 1/2 miles. Normally, I would use that distance to justify a doughnut or two and some hot chocolate. However, I did not want to have to confess to that in this public journal, so I refrained. (See what I mean about needing accountability?)
Lunch: Somehow I skipped lunch. I didn't mean to, but it happened.
Supper: Salad with cut-up chicken breast, with ranch dressing. Finished with two more of those chocolate peanut butter bars.
Midnight snack: One chicken breast.
March 7, 2014 -- Weight: 201.8
End of Week One assessment:
Weight loss: 5.2 pounds.
Successes: Having to report to a public journal made me less likely to eat unhealthy foods.
Areas for improvement:
1. I need to eat more meats and veggies.
2. I need to eat more regular meals.
3. I need to space out my exercise to daily short bursts rather than 2-3 long, hard "marathons".
4. I need to weigh myself less often so as not to be obsessed with numbers. Planning to try for Friday mornings only.
