Our Vida Loca

So, we knew when we started this journey to healthy that it would be long, often hard, and continuous. It has definitely lived up to our expectations. But we've seen so many positives out of it that we are compelled to keep going. We've both stalled a little bit in our weight loss, but our commitment to our overall health is stronger than ever. We have allowed a little more "cheating" in our eating habits, but we are very conscious of our choices and try to balance a "cheat night" with hard work and exercise. The kids are doing incredibly well, too. Especially our oldest. She, the ever mature "almost-ten-year-old" consciously makes healthy food choices. She will, by herself, choose healthy things. Our stubborn boy, however, needs more prodding. He is proving the "growing boy" adage to be true, eating constantly. He would eat around the clock if we'd let him. (We call him our little Hobbit. If you're a fan of Tolkein, you understand why). But, he still has adapted to eating what we eat, and the boy has never met a salad he didn't like. Not that he will turn down pizza or anything, but he will eat healthy if that's his only option. He even tried a Brussel sprout the other night.

Our weight loss has slowed, but not stopped. We've been told we lost the "easy weight", the rest was hard. My response was, "it felt pretty hard to me!" But, in retrospect, it hasn't. The hardest part was deciding to do it. The rest was easy! I've learned to give myself a break. While I still push myself and scold myself into making better choices, I don't just give up and call it quits when temptation overwhelms me. That is crucial!

A very interesting side effect to living a healthy lifestyle is that "bad" food actually makes me sick. Really. We had a cheat night a week or so ago and had pizza for the first time in a very long time. Not homemade, whole-wheat crust, low sodium-low fat pizza sauce with turkey pepperoni pizza, either. I'm talking full on, greasy, cheesy, bad-for-you pizza WITH garlic dipping sauce, thank you! Ten minutes after I ate way more than I should have, I wanted to throw it up. My body had a violent physical reaction to the grease. I held it down, fortunately, but my body was not happy with me. While my "mental" desire was for the nastiness, my physical desire wanted something green and fresh. I've also developed this loathing for going out to eat. Not that our small town's limited dining options help matters, but I actually hate going out to eat. My mind is saying, "yay, get something really good", but my body is saying, "there is nothing good! Go home, cook a chicken breast and some green beans." I think that is a pretty amazing side-effect. And a great way to save those dollars. I'd rather use that money to buy some really good produce or lean meat.

And one of the best parts of this journey is seeing the changes in our family. The physical changes in our kids are wonderful. I love seeing clothes that were once tight on them hang loose now. It's awesome to see. And they have a spark that was subdued before. We go outside and play. Now they even beg to go "workout" with us. They enjoy walking the neighborhood with us. People noticing makes me happy. Seeing them comment on our kids' progress gives me needed validation that were on the right track. Because of my extremely "negative" personality, I have difficulty excepting compliments on my physical changes. Hearing, "you look great" or "I can really see a difference" just translates in my mind to, "You looked horrible before" and "You were roughly the size of a baby rhino before." Now, I know people mean well, so I'm trying to just take it in stride, knowing that my positive changes just might inspire others to make that step towards healthy.

So, at the end of the day, we have come to understand that our journey is just getting started, and there are and will be many uphill struggles. We're going to dig in and keep going. And maybe, just maybe, somewhere on the way, we can help others on their journey.

So... Don't stop. Keep working. Be healthy!

So, after having lost quite a bit of weight in the last few months, friends ask Derrick and I, "What's your secret?" Well, the truth is -- there is no secret. Weight loss is only part of the healthier lifestyle we've adopted. We just took a look at ourselves and said, "No more." We were tired of being overweight, but we saw our parents struggling with health issues and decided that if we didn't take action now -- we would surely follow in their footsteps. And we saw our kids struggling with their weight and decided that they'd never do anything different if we didn't lead the way -- so here we are. We ARE NOT experts, we are not necessarily right -- we just want to help everyone we know get healthier like we are trying to do. Don't think we have all the answers or even know what we are talking about. We are just trying and are here to offer encouragement and help where we can!!

After having gallbladder surgery in March and discovering my years of Mr Pibb/Dr Pepper continuous oral infusions (i.e. 8 - 12 bottles per day at times) had given me ulcers, terrible looking esophagus, and had shot my gallbladder -- I finally decided it might be time to let them go. So I said goodbye to them, but slipped back into old habits by finding caffeine free things to replace them. I limited my intake on those, but soon decided that it must stop all together. By mid-April I had put away all soft drinks (except for two exceptions while I was in Honduras, and let's face it -- I thought it safer to drink two diet Pepsi's at the time rather than infect myself with parasites, so we'll let that slide) in favor of water or tea. But soon my tea went by the wayside, as Derrick encouraged me to use less and less sugar until finally I couldn't tolerate it anymore. Now water is my only liquid friend. Occasionally, I'll treat myself to black coffee, but gone are the gobs of sugar I'd pour in it.

Derrick lead our journey to health by joining an "afterburn" class at Trinity Fitness here in Troy. Afterburn is a cross-training style fitness class, similar to Crossfit, but more aimed at the beginning exerciser. While he is most often the only male in the class, he has made a commitment and goes at least 3 times a week. (He's taking a month off right now to be there for Coy and his football, though). He has definitely been the role model and leader for household's lifestyle change. He has been our motivation and guide along the way -- starting with healthier eating and modeling the exercise example for us.

By no means have I been transformed into a nutrition expert!! Most of my tips I have gotten from friends who are involved in the fitness/nutrition lifestyle and through Derrick's materials at Trinity Fitness. Most importantly has been our dear friend Jason Jones (of Jones Medical Supply) who has mentored Derrick along this road. So, please don't look to this as a "how-to" for weight loss success. If you want an expert -- he is a much better source than us! Take in mind -- our ultimate goal is to live healthier. Weight loss is a much-needed, happy-to-have-by-product of this goal. I will share what we have done to be successful and you can use it as an example. There are many different ways and different methods out there. I don't even know if ours fits into a mold or category of "diet", (IT'S NOT A DIET -- IT'S A LIFESTYLE CHANGE!!!!) but it's what has worked for us, so we go with it!

The first and most important thing you have to do is keep a food journal. All day -- every day. You must account for every single thing you put in your mouth! And not just the calories! We have an app on our phone (yes, Virginia, there is an app for that!) We both use "My Fitness Pal" on our iPhones. It keeps up with our food info (all our nutritional data) and weight. We set goals and work to achieve them. It gives us lots of great info. Most importantly: it's FREE!!! (If you really want to get high tech and groovy -- add a techno arm band that keeps up with movement, etc. We are both just starting to use the "Up" bracelets by Jawbone. It tracks our steps, sleep, and interacts with our My Fitness Pal app. It's way cool! We also know someone with a Nike Fuel Band. There are lots of options and apps for those techno savvy kool kids!) The only way to begin to eat right is to realize what you are eating. For most people -- like us -- when you see what the nutritional value (or lack thereof) is of the things you eat -- you stand gasping, ashamed that you actually put some of that in your body. We learned that many of the meals we consumed were MORE IN ONE MEAL than our WHOLE DAILY intake should have been. Especially when we went out to eat. It's astonishing when you look at the calorie content in some foods. And sodium. Don't get me started on the sodium! Contrary to what some people think -- the amount of sodium you take in every day affects so many things about your body. Basic science lesson: Where goes sodium, there goes water. So, the more sodium you have floating around, the more water that your body retains. Which is why my weight could fluctuate 5 pounds from day to day. Depending on how much sodium I took in, I would retain or lose more water. Now that I'm eating better, my day-to-day fluctuations are much less! Sodium content is high in nearly everything you buy in the grocery store that doesn't come from the produce aisle! You have to watch labels very carefully and pick the smarter choices. Low sodium options aren't necessarily "good", but they are much better than the alternative. Compare labels and brands!! Unfortunately, the cheap or store brand is often the poorer nutritional choice. Let's put it this way -- eating healthier has not been cheap for us! There might be a way to eat healthier cheaper, but we have not found it yet. If anyone else has, PLEASE, please, PLEASE share your methods. HOWEVER, it is far less expensive to pay more for groceries than to pay for heart attacks, diabetes, etc. Remarkably less expensive than those!!

SO: getting to the food. We eat lots of veggies and salad. You get used to it. It doesn't mean you don't crave your old favorites (I'd hurt someone real bad for a cheeseburger!), but you learn to cope. You find new favorites (Love, love, LOVE me some sugar free jello and pudding!). Most importantly, don't quit even if you have a bad day. It's hard -- and there will be stumbles -- but you have to do better the next day. Small steps lead to bigger steps. If you have to start with just one healthy meal a day and then work towards two, just do SOMETHING. No matter what, though, keep your food diary. It'll help. Also -- learn what I like to call the "NO" foods. Foods we can never eat. I hope that later down the road when we get closer to where we want to be there are some that we can indulge in on occasion. Like: rice and potatoes. Gosh, I miss potatoes. Mashed potatoes and gravy, garlic and cheese mashed potatoes, FRENCH FRIES, boiled new potatoes....sorry -- I get a little Forrest Gumpy when I think about potatoes. I love...rather loved potatoes. I miss them so much. We can still eat sweet potatoes, but it's just not the same. And I really like sweet potatoes, so I'm okay there, but Derrick doesn't ... so... really stinks for him. And we still eat brown and wild rice sparingly, but NO white rice. We used to eat a lot of white rice. (Might explain things a little...) But no more. No white rice...no regular potatoes. Nothing white. White in the food world is bad, bad. Another "NO" food -- anything fried. I'm okay with that. I do miss fried chicken (my favorite food ever) and fried summer squash, but I can deal. Baked chicken has become a staple.

Breakfast for us is an effort to get in a jolt of protein to start the day without the cholesterol and grease of bacon and the sugar of syrup and kiddie cereal. It's hard. Some days I have to run out of the house and make-do with whatever I can come up with. But I've made a real concerted effort to have a good, healthy breakfast every day. I like eggs. Heck, I LOVE eggs, so they are a great choice for me. We'll usually boil a bunch one night to have all throughout the week. We do a lot of bagels -- whole wheat bagels. The kids actually like these. My favorites are the bagel thins. You can find them most anywhere, even Wal-Mart. Thomas is the brand and one "whole" (bottom and top) bagel thin is 100 calories. We'll spread peanut butter on these and it makes for a good protein breakfast item. Coy still loves his bowl of cereal every morning, but we've cut out the Cinnamon Toast Crunch he used to eat and made him switch to Honey Nut Cheerios or Kashi Go Lean Crunch. He likes both and is content with eating that. When I'm home, I'll make eggs (they love scrambled eggs and omletes). Once in a very sparse while, I'll do pancakes or waffles with turkey bacon and sugar-free syrup. It's a splurge, but it's usually on a weekend where we can burn it off throughout the day. Derrick often takes Greek yogurt for breakfast. I hate yogurt, and the kids aren't as excited about it as Derrick, but they'll eat it occasionally. He loves the Dannon light and fit Greek yogurt or the Chobani double protein. They pack the most punch for the calories. Be cautious when you buy yogurt, though, you want to check labels carefully to make sure you're not getting a sugar-loaded (thus carb and calorie-loaded) version.

Lunch is harder for me. You just get tired of the same old thing, so it's a struggle for me to find healthy choices that I'm not sick of eating. Since we both work, it's either make something before work or eat out. Derrick is much better at making his lunch in the mornings than I am. I usually have to eat from Troy's (very limited) dining selections. I have found a favorite, though. Half Shell (here in Troy) has a grilled chicken breast that delish! I get steamed vegetables and wild rice or just double veggies. It's a weekly staple! But everyone has their own versions of what's good -- so just try to find something that works for your taste buds and your lifestyle change. It's not easy -- therefore -- I've learned to try to be better at making my lunch (which is so hard because it takes so much time to a: think about what you want and b: actually make it! and mornings are hard enough, right?) and taking with me. And yes, I DO count out each pretzel thin or low-fat chip because it matters! It's okay to through one or two extra on there-- it won't ruin your day -- but it's not OKAY to have two or three servings. Portion control is KEY! You can have some of your favorites -- as long as you remember to count the calories and only have ONE serving! Sometimes, I will let myself indulge in those not-so-good-for-me snacks -- but I will only have a 1/2 of a serving. One time, I cut a Baby Ruth (my favorite candy bar) into fourths!! Just so I could have my fix -- but in a responsible kind of way.

Snacks can be a challenge, too. Let's face it -- "snacks" are usually associated with what's good TO you, not necessarily FOR you! But you can find some healthy snacks. Of course I'm going to say carrot sticks. I mean, you can eat your weight in those things and they don't pack on many calories. Plus, their high in fiber and beta carotene, so you're belly will be full PLUS you'll have great eye sight and be really regular. But, unless you're Peter Rabbit, you probably don't want to live on 6 tons of carrots a day, so other options for snacks would be ideal, huh? Pita chips and hummus are all the rage. And lots of people love it! We're not so much those people -- so we look for other things. Apples and peanut butter. Derrick puts them together, I think that's gross and keep mine separate, but I digress. Pretzels (especially ones that say low sodium) and pretzel thins are a favorite of mine. SUGAR-FREE Jello Pudding and Jello are a big favorite. It doesn't get any better than sugar-free jello. 10 calories! Eat two! There's lots of companies out there with fancy protein bars and snack bars, but BEWARE. Most of things are LOADED with calories and fat to go along with the protein. I have found one keeper. South Beach Diet brand makes a "Good to Go Plus Fiber" bar that is really good. I have tried Fudge Graham and Dark Chocolate and like them both. They are 110 calories, so it's a bit of a splurge for a snack -- so I try to save these for workout days when I know I'll burn off the calories. They are a GREAT alternative if you're dying for a candy bar, though. They are a personal fave! I also like the Kellogg's protein bars, but those are actually "Meal Replacement" bars because they are a whopping 180 calories. Sometimes I'll sub those out for breakfast if I'm tired of bagels. Then I can have more substantial mid-morning snack later. But I don't use them for snack, though, because of the high calorie content.

Dinner is a little easier, because the whole family loves steamed veggies and salad. Which is good, because they appear at almost every supper time. We'll pair them with lean cuts of grilled steak or chicken for a well-rounded, healthy meal. We have been very, very fortunate that our kids have hopped on board with us and are doing great with the eating changes. They love fish, so we throw that in a lot. And not just fish sticks -- real fish, like salmon, tilapia, whiting, perch.... they actually eat it! We even have their favorite -- PIZZA. We buy whole wheat pizza crust (I found a recipe for one you can make that I'm dying to try) and low sodium, low calorie pizza sauce (you can even find one of those at Walmart. The great value brand pizza sauce is a good one), turkey pepperoni and cheese made from skim or 2% milk. Also, our favorite marinara is from Publix. It's Walnut Acres Organic Low Sodium marinara sauce. Granted, it's like $6 a jar, but when you think of how much you'd pay to eat out somewhere -- it's kind of a bargain. We sometimes make whole wheat spaghetti or other pasta dish (although, we usually try to stick to this for lunches not dinner, because Derrick is of the opinion that carbs after 2 pm will turn you into a Gremlin. I mean really, it's an obsession with him. Me, not so much. Everything in moderation!)

So -- there you have the basics of what we've been doing. We try to workout 3 - 4 days a week. We don't always make it. Life happens. Especially with two kids to shuttle about. But -- you do what you can -- and realize that every little set-back is not the end-all-be-all. REMEMBER -- it's a LIFESTYLE CHANGE, not a diet, so you have to grow accustomed to doing things the new way. And, as my Daddy always said, Rome wasn't built in a day. I didn't put on all my extra weight overnight, and I can't take it all off overnight. Little by little, the small things add up to big things. You get used to eating right -- it becomes simply, what you do. And eventually, things become easier and you grow accustomed to the change. Hang in there, keep going, and know there are other people struggling right along with you!

Good Luck!!