Weight Loss Help

In my last post I talked about losing weight in ten pound increments and using the principles from the 6 week Body Makeover program.  I tried locating it online for those who may be interested and unfortunately it appears to have been "replaced" by the Food Lover's Diet.  I looked at the program's description and site, but was not impressed.  It appeared to be more expensive and more "material" that doesn't add to my interest in the program.  I am glad I purchased the original program a few months ago.
My first few weeks of eating better didn't go so well.  After all I am human and attempting to get my house in order and used to four small children proved too much for me to remember to eat small meals throughout the day.  This week has been much better diet wise and my wonderful husband was willing to do it with me.  Now I don't have to cook different meals.  He also told me about a free app for our cell phones that allows us to enter and share our daily food diary, tracks our exercise and calories each day, tracks our progress toward our goal weight, and allows us to encourage each other.  It is called My Fitness Pal.

Once you download the program you provide your weight, age, goal weight and how much you would like to lose each week.  Based on this information it provides a target calorie intake for the day.  Because it is a calorie focused program I use it primarily as a visual encouragement and accountability.  My reason for this is because of my experienced weight loss in the past.  When I followed the program I have restarted I lost 30 lb. in about 5 weeks; however, the program is currently projecting my weight loss at only 14.  I believe some of this is because I am eating foods that will jump start my metabolism due to the type of carbohydrates which encourage my body to burn the fat I have instead of using the "easy" carbohydrate energy and storing the fat for later.  I am not a nutritionist, I just know what worked for me in the past.  I kept the weight off too...until I got pregnant, slacked off, and gained 18 pounds over the weight of the baby.
You can add in your weight each day, or however often you decide to weigh yourself.  I like to weigh myself each morning as another way of keeping myself motivated and accountable.  i have always been told "professionals" suggest weighing yourself once a week or every few days instead of each day, but a little gain in between doesn't discourage me it keeps me motivated not to cheat.  This might not work for you so you can "weigh in" whenever you feel comfortable.  I have not been able to weigh myself since my doctor appointment Monday placed me at 268 and some change so I rounded it up to 269.  My scale is broken :-( which is driving me nuts.  I will be purchasing a new one today and weighing myself tomorrow morning so I can stay on track.  My goal is to lose 109 pounds.
I would encourage you to check out My Fitness Pal and if you join, you can add me (addisonrain1) as a friend so we can encourage each other in our weight loss journey.  If you are curious about what I am eating, let me know and I can start posting pictures of my completed daily diaries.

Happy Weight Loss and Healthy Living!

"TEN: Ways to Improve My Life By Tens"

Ten is a wonderfully even number that will allow me to begin to better my life and the life of my family.  I am currently staying home which is taking some adjustment after working full-time outside of the house for the last 10 years.  I am finding it easy to become overwhelmed so I have decided to break things into chunks.  Here's how it will work in order to overcome all the challenges I listed in my previous post, "The Challenge of Life Changes."

10 Items a Day

I was listening to morning radio around the first of the year and they were discussing a woman whose New Year's resolution was to give away or throw away 10 items a day.  This was the initial inspiration for the idea of 10s because when I thought about doing this to lower my own collection of things (some of which have been in boxes since we moved 4 years ago) it spurred more ideas.  My first plan is to get rid of or donate at least 10 things a day; my three children will be doing this same thing to help keep mommy from being over-run by toys.  I am adding "pick up 10 items" as an option to theirs as well since I have 33 years of collecting versus their collective 12.  I realize that some days, when I get on cleaning or purging roles I will most likely do more than 10 items, but the goal will be at least 10 items.  For example, yesterday I threw out two trash bags worth of old magazines, old lesson plans that I have in electronic format, and other miscellaneous doodads that were cluttering the family room edges.
This single goal should help me address the clutter challenge and the organization challenge, or at least begin to make organizing easier.

10 Chapters a Day

A few years ago, I was going through a rough time in life and a close friend of mine suggested I try a Bible reading plan presented by Professor Grant Horner at the Master's College. 
-He has taken and divided the Bible into 10 sections (although for many who were in AWANA as children you will recognize some of the divisions as the poetry history, major prophets, minor prophets, etc, although these familiar divisions are not strictly followed). 
-From these 10 sections I read 1 chapter each day so that I am reading a total of 10 chapters a day.  **Let me take a moment to emphasize that I will not be "studying" 10 chapters a day, but "reading" 10 chapters so I will be looking at the text as a whole and not slowing down to back read, look up something I didn't understand, or memorizing.  The purpose of this task is to GET IN THE WORD and READ.  As a secondary and college level reading teacher I know that experience, exposure, and just plain doing will improve my comprehension over time (I have to retrain my brain muscle to Biblical text). 
The beauty of this system is that I will never read the same 10 chapter combination which will bring new connections and insights.  I will also read the Bible in LESS than a year because the longest section is 250 chapters so it would take 250 days to completely read that section.  i will list the section break down hear in a moment, but if you would like read the primary source information about the system or print book marks to help you keep track you may do so by accessing the document Professor Horner has created.  You will also find a portion of the document called "Secrets to Success" that will give you some pointers.

Professor Horner's Lists of 10:

List 1 (89 days)
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John

List 2 (187 days)
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy

List 3 (78 days)
Romans, I & II Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Hebrews

List 4 (65 days)
I & II Thessalonians, I & II Timothy, Titus, Philemon, James, I & II Peter, I, II & III John, Jude, Revelation

List 5 (62 days)
Job, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon

List 6 (150 days)
Psalms

List 7 (31 days)
Proverbs

List 8 (249 days)
Joshua, Judges Ruth, I & II Samuel, I & II Kings, I & II Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther

List 9 ( 250 days)
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obediah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi

List 10 (28 days)
Acts

10 Day Meal Plan

I have tried meal planning in the past, but seem to lose interest as it gets further into the month.  My solution is going to be to plan ten days at a time so that I can make grocery lists based on sales and pay days.  Planning should help my budget go further and help us all eat healthier so I am hoping this will help with my weight loss goal.  I planned the first ten days of meal yesterday based on what we already had in the house and freezers...

10 Pounds

I have tried many times to lose weight and the amount I need to lose keeps getting larger with every child and every year that passes.  I have decided to focus on 10 pounds at a time.  I am all about small goals these days to help keep me from being overwhelmed by the large ones.  These days it is easy to get overwhelmed when I just think about getting everything accomplished for a family of 6.  I will keep you all updated on my success, struggles, and anything for the good of the cause as the days go.  In addition to eating better, I will be working out.  I would love to go to a gym, but with 3 small children and a limited budget a membership isn't practical.  After all I can't take a 4 year old, 2 year old, and 3 week old with me to the gym without paying extra for the "at gym" care.  I need to ease into things a little anyway as I had my newest one only a few weeks ago.  The plan is to workout using one of my exercise videos at least 3 of the next four days since I didn't get any workout in yesterday.  I plan to incorporate as much as I can of the 6 Week Body Makeover as it is the weight loss program I have had the most success with in the past.  I was looking for it online now and it doesn't appear to be available any longer if anyone finds it or my results useful.  If I come across it, I will be sure to post the information and/or link.

10 Minutes a Day

I am going to start by doing 10 minutes a day of "pickup" or light cleaning in each room so that I can try to keep ahead of things.  This ten minutes for the kids rooms will entail me "teaching" them how to properly pickup their rooms and make their beds so that eventually I won't need to focus on these rooms each day.  I am hoping that eventually this will turn into a little decorating time also since I have a number of photos I would like to hang, but never have because I feel like I am always cleaning when I get home from work.

10 Minute Story Time

I want to get back to reading with my kids so my plan is to read to them each 10 minutes a day...even the baby.  For my oldest, who is learning to read, I plan to alternate the days that I read to him and the days he reads to himself - or one of his siblings.  Not to mention my little ones can get bored is I don't plan to change things up.  The plan is for this to be a minimum and not a maximum so that as we get a better routine or as they would like me to, I can read to them for longer periods of time.

I hope some of you find this inspiring, motivational, interesting reading, or simply encouraging that you are not alone in your struggles.  I will adjust the plan I see what will work and what won't for my family.  After all a great plan that isn't easy enough to implement is just that "a great plan" that will never become action.



The Challenge of Life Changes

"Life Changes".  Most people and women in general experience life changing moments on a regular basis and have to learn to cope with those changes.  As a sex, I find women quite resilient.  I am glad this is true as I experience the birth of a fourth child, change in job or possibly career, and health changes that need to be made.  I am sure many women can identify with the struggle and joy that is being a mother, a wife, a friend, a sister, a daughter....a woman.  there are times when I have felt alone and wished I had someone to share the "fun" with, so I am beginning a new chapter by sharing it with anyone who wants to read. 

Challenge 1: Mental and spiritual health


For the last 4 years I have been all about my work and all about the students.  The result was an unbalanced spiritual life, marriage, and family life.  One of the first things I need to tackle is restoring balance.

Challenge 2:  Adjust my method of organization

 

My husband is jumping up and down with the thought that I will improve my house keeping ability.  I will be the first to admit that I am not an organizer, a folder, vacuumer, or even a duster.  With small children our house is clean or picked up for about an hour if we are lucky.  I am an idea person more than a doer, so I have to become a doer.  I am happy to say that before number 4 came (literally the day before) I was able to reclaim my kitchen from the piles in the corners.  That's right, my method of make-shift organization is piles.  Hey, I know where everything is.  The only problem is no one else does...oh yeah and my piles tend to get moved, rearranged, or spilled on with so many sets of little hands and feet running around. 

Challenge 3:  The never ending laundry

Six people wearing an average of 2 outfits a day, unless you are a princess then the average is 4 a day, need I say more.  One frustration is that there is literally no end to laundry.  And let me emphasize how much I HATE folding or ironing laundry.  I would rather clean every bathroom in the house than undertake the task of laundry.  Alas it must be done, so I must find a better method.

Challenge 4:  Cooking on a budget

We love to eat out, but with unpaid maternity leave the budget is tight, so I will need to become a better planner for meals.  Oh, and actually stick to the plan!

Challenge 5:  Weight

So after 4 children and a stressful job as a high school teacher I am way beyond the weight I should be.  That's right I have to say it so it becomes reality...I am classified as Obese.  Luckily I am tall so it isn't as bad, but I don't want to be "lucky" any longer; I want to be healthy.  As of my 4th child I am 268 pounds.  In college I was 180 pounds and still not as healthy as I need to be now.  My parents and grandparents suffer from adult onset diabetes and I want to avoid that in my own life.  The only way to do so is to drop the weight and head toward the light of my goal weight: 160 pounds.  Reality check...that's 100 pounds I have to lose.

Challenge 6:  Education and attention for my children

 I have been so overwhelmed with circumstances in the past that I hate to say I have neglected my own children.  NO MORE!  Hear me now world!  "My family comes first and you WILL NOT MAKE ME FEEL GUILTY ABOUT IT!"

Challenge 7:  Career???

 

I have come to the conclusion that I must make changes and one is that I will not - under any circumstances - be returning to the disorganization, stress, and ingratitude that was my old position.  The question becomes...What do I do instead? 
Challenge 8:  Clutter

 

I am not sure why I have such a hard time getting rid of things, but I do.  I am not as bad as those people you see on television that are classified as "hoarders", but I do need to purge some items.
Since my maternity leave has begun I have identified a number of challenges as you can see from the list above.  Now I have to tackle the challenges and try to get some semblance of structure to my life.  In addition, my husband and I are tossing around the idea of me staying home since it is looking like I would have three in day care if I were to go back to work.  As a teacher the difference between daycare costs for two children and one infant and take home pay would be around $300. 

????????SOLUTIONS????????

I was inspired by something I heard on the radio so the first portion of my solution I cannot take credit for.  Clutter was lower on my list, but if I can take care of the clutter it will make the other challenges less stressful and more calming, and dare I say it...enjoyable.  I was inspired by the number 10 when I was listening to one of my morning radio stations (either Air One or KLove...I switch between so I am not completely sure which one).  The radio personalities were talking about a lady who was getting rid of 10 things a day for a whole year.  I really like that idea so I have begun to develop what I call "TEN: ways to improve me life by tens". 
This afternoon I will explain how "TEN" works.