Enjoying the Holidays-Recipes

Well, I don't know about you, but I'm a little nervous about being surrounded by all of that yummy food and making smart choices.  My philosophy is going to be do the best I can, and if I'm up a pound or two the next day hit it hard and get back on track.  Ideal Protein has sent out some recipes that can be substituted for some of your favorite holiday dishes, so I will share those with you.  I haven't tried them, so I'm not sure how they will be, but some of them sound pretty good.  This is the most difficult time of the year for dieting, but we can decide whether we gain 10 pounds, maintain, or loose 15 pounds.  My goal is to have lost another 18 pounds by the end of the year.  That will put me down 90 pounds!!  After all it's just food!  The holidays should be about our loved ones and the memories we make, not what we stuff ourselves with right?  It's Ok to change some of your food related traditions and focus more on being together and enjoying the real reason we celebrate!  Wishing us all good luck and a joy filled Holiday Season!

Look under the "recipes" in the side bar to find holiday recipes.

Things I am thankful for this season:

A wonderful husband who tells me every day how good I look and how proud he is
A daughter who has comitted to running a 5k with me in a few weeks even though she really doesn't want to.
A son who is my running coach and makes sure I get my workouts in.
3 fun younger kids who are learning to eat healthy with me.
Enjoying wearing jeans for the first fall season ever. 
Having the energy to get all the projects done that this season brings with it.
Feeling good enough about myself that I don't want to just hibernate for the winter
Finding new activities and abilities that I never knew would be so much fun
All of my MANY blessings

Can't believe I did it!

This past Saturday I ran my first 6k!  It was a 6k instead of a 5 because the route they had us take through the gardens at Thanksgiving Point happened to be 6k's.  I still can't believe that I could actually RUN (ok jog slowly) for an entire 3.76 miles.  Sometimes I feel like I'm living in a dream when I think about how my life has been for so many years now.  It is so fun to be coming out of my shell a little and trying new things.  The reason I wanted to try running a race was to just be able to have a goal to shoot for and to say I did it.  I beat the goal that I had set for myself for the race by a few minutes and I came in right in the middle of the pack.  I was so nervous about being last that I felt really good about the middle.  There were 1800 women that raced that day and the atmosphere and just being a part of it were lots of fun.  I couldn't hold back the tears of amazement just to realize how far I've come and how much Ideal Protein has blessed my life!  Thanks Molly for running it with me.  Next on the agenda is the half marathon in Ogden on May 21st.  I signed Scott up with me for that one, so we have a lot of training to do, but we will be there!  Running should just get a lot easier with my goal of being down another 50 pounds by race day.  Can't wait!!

Partying Summer!!!

Sounds like fun huh?  Well it has been and the scale has proven it.  The first of July we left for a family reunion, followed by a getaway to Lake Tahoe.  I got off track and I was having to much fun to refocus.  There always seemed to be an upcoming event (excuse) and reason why I couldn't get back on plan yet.  Finally after gaining 11 pounds over the last 6 weeks I decided it was time.  The only unfortunate problem was that I picked the week of the fair to start again.  Our kids show animals at the county fair, so we spend the whole week there surrounded by yummy fair food.  After all a fair is a veritable smorgousbourd (or howerver you spell that)!  But here is the good news.  Over the past 8 days I have lost not only the 11 pounds I gained, but and extra 1.8 for a total of 12.8 pounds in just over a week!  AND  I hate to admit it, but for 5 fair nights in a row I ate a Carl's Jr. low carb six dollar burger!  So now you know if you are in a pinch and need something fast those burgers obviously don't hurt too bad.  They aren't completely on protocol though, so I don't recommend trying this at home!  Anyways, I love, love, love that I can slip up a little bit every now and then and then get back on track.  I've always been one to quit if I cheated and never go back.  Not this time.  I've come to far and it is too easy not to keep going and reach my goal.  Which by the way is still a long way off, but closer than I ever imagined possible.  Now for the bad news.  If I wouldn't have cheated and taken six weeks off think where I would be now.  Another 18 pounds down!  So before you decide Kadee did it, so can I, think of the extra time you are tacking on to being on the program, and it also makes your pancreas have to kick back in and get back to work, which is not the idea here.  One thing that going off protocol did do for me, was remind me how crappy I feel when I am not eating healthy.  I actually felt bad enough that I looked forward to getting back on track.  Well here I am, committed, moving forward and I WILL get there, and I can't wait!

Onederland!!!!!

Today something really exciting happened! Something, that a few months ago seemed really close to impossible. Today for the first time in years the number on the scale started with a one. That is kind of hard to admit to the whole lot of you, but it is so amazing to me that I am just going to own it and be proud! After 20 weeks of following the IP protocol I am down 64.8 pounds! Tomorrow I will be down over 65 pounds and I will be half way to my goal weight. I can't even express how happy I am to be succeeding. There have been so many times when I have failed at dieting and have given up, and let me tell you after a while being a failure takes its toll on your self esteem. I know I have a long ways to go and the second half of this journey may be harder than the first, but the truth is, this time I know I will succeed. There is no doubt in my mind that if I stumble I will get back up and keep going. This is the first time that I have had that much confidence in myself and in an awesome program that has worked so well for me. After all who loses over 6 pounds on their 20th week of a diet unless Bob or Jillian are your trainer? I continue to be amazed! I'm thankful for a husband who has loved and supported me before during and hopefully after all of this and so grateful to have found the ticket for health for me. By the way, I haven't exercised at all while on this protocol until about 2 weeks ago when I decided to take off running and see how far I could go. I was hoping to make it to the corner of my street. I ran to the end of a dirt road by my house and then called Scott to come pick me up so that we could measure it with the odometer in the car. It was over 6/10 of a mile on my first time exercising in years. I was pretty excited about that. When my son got home I told him I had run that far without stopping and he didn't believe me. I said "come on, let's go". We took off jogging and I did it again. 1.2 miles of jogging on my first day! So anyways, I've decided that I am going to run a 5k on October 9th. I will spend the next few months preparing for that. It is really hard for me to believe knowing that a few months ago I could hardly make it up the stairs. What a happy day! Here are some before pictures (actually I was already down 13 pounds when these pics were taken)  and some pictures taken today when I entered onederland!

Ideal Protein Class

Just a reminder that we are having a class on Ideal Protein at the office this Tuesday, June 8th at 7:00. Anyone is welcome. Bring your friends and family that would like to learn more about this amazing diet. See you there!

Week 15

Down 5.6 pounds for a total of 55.4!!! The last couple of weeks I could feel my self starting to slip and not following my plan the way that I knew I should. Last weekend I called my good friend who also coaches with Ideal Protein and told her I needed some coaching. (Sometimes the coaching doesn't go over so well when it is coming from your husband:) She told me to give myself the weekend to take it easy and then to start fresh with 100% commitment. So I did, and I guess it worked. The important thing is to refocus instead of giving up. This program works too well to waste the time and money. I feel amazing and wonder what the future me will feel like. I am so happy to have found a plan that is working so well for me and am thrilled that so many of you are having such great results also. I don't know how many of you watched Oprahs show on weight loss this week, but she talked about looking past all that you see in the mirror into your eyes and into your soul. That is who we really need to love and the rest will follow. I tried this and I just started crying, because that person inside of this body is beautiful and tries hard to be a good person. I do love my soul and I want the outside of me to reflect that. Have a great week!

3 Months, ALMOST 50 pounds and a few of my favorite things

Tonight I weighed in. It was one day later than I normally do because we were gone last night until 10:00. I was thrilled to have a 5 pound weight loss this week. That brought me down to 49.4 pounds lost!!! So close to 50 I can smell it and I can't wait! I think 5 pounds is incredible after 13 weeks of dieting. I've spent some time reflecting on how my life has changed in the last three months. I don't even feel like the same person and not necessarily because of my weight, but because I feel like I don't have to pretend that I'm ok like that any more. I know I still have a long way to go, but I am making progress and I am doing something about it and that lets me hold my head up. Sometimes I will be just paying bills or sweeping the floor and I find myself smiling. That NEVER happened before. I feel like I am a better wife and mother. No matter what diet plan people chose there is nothing like working to become a better, healthier person and finding success. Here are a few things that I have been so excited to discover in the past three months.

Jeans
Comfortably fitting into theater/airplane seats
Much better hugs from my sweetheart
Smiling
Sneaking a peek in the mirror instead of avoiding it
Smoother skin
More energy
No knee pain
Sitting my baby on my lap (I've found part of it)
Finding clothes at Costco that fit me
Changing sizes every few weeks
Looking forward to meals because I am actually hungry
Having my husband tell me I need to wear something different because my clothes look to big

Week 12

This week I really wanted to hit 45 pounds lost. I fell a little short and lost 2.8 bringing me down 44.4 pounds. I didn't get down at all about not making it to 45. Next week I will blow 45 pounds lost away and hopefully split the difference between that and -50!!! I can't believe how close I am to that goal and how quickly it has come off. It is so fun when pants that barely fit two weeks ago are now hanging on me. This week I am going to go through my closet of many sizes and retire some things never to be worn again.

Week 11 a little late

I am late posting this so I don't remember much about how the week went. The small loss was due to hormonal female things so was to be expected. I was down 1.6 pounds this week.

What a week!!!

Tonight I weighed in and was down 40 pounds from my starting weight!! I was down 4 pounds this week. I forgot to say that I was down 2.6 last week. We were in California all week, and I was hoping to just not gain any weight, so I was thrilled with a 4 pound loss. We went out of town with some friends who are also doing the program, so that helped. One of our friends is a great chef, and made us some delicious dinners of shrimp, mixed veggies, & turkey patties! We also went out to a great seafood dinner. Our day at disneyland I just did my packets and bars and had a turkey salad for lunch. I wasn't sure how it would be being out of town for that long and not on our regular routine, but all three of us had a loss this week and I think that is a huge success!!! We had some dieters with great results this week. One that was amazing was a loss of 23 pounds after just 2 weeks! This is not typical and cannot be expected by all of us, but is awesome none the less. You guys are all doing great keep up the good work! Don't forget to come learn from the Ideal Protein nutrition specialist on Wednesday, April 7th at 7:00 at the office. Bring your friends and family.

Ideal Protein Class

Several of you are reaching weight loss amounts now where people are starting to take notice and ask questions. One of the Diet Specialists from Ideal Protein will be flying in to teach a class at our office. This would be the perfect opportunity for you to bring your friends and family, so that they too can see what this is all about. It would also be good for those of you who are doing the program to come and learn more about it. Remember, we are still learning too! The class will be held on Tuesday, April 7th at our office. We have already had several people sign up and room at the office is limited, so please call and RSVP so that we can move to a bigger place if need be. The office # is 801-782-4454 and just tell them that you would like to come to the IP class. We look forward to a fun evening where we can all learn from the experts. Please bring anyone that you feel would like to learn more about this amazing program. I am so thankful to the friends who shared the plan with me, and your friends will be too!

Week 8

Tonight I weighed in and was down 3.2 pounds for a total of 33.4 pounds in 8 weeks!! Yeah, I am so excited! It is so great to be on the road to feeling and looking better. Welcome to all of our new dieters, and congratulations to all of you who have done so great in their first few weeks. Remember, time is going to pass one way or the other so we might as well be dropping pounds each week right? If you guys are tired of hearing from me every week I'd love to have one of you share how you are doing. Anybody??

Week 7

Somehow I missed posting my results for last week. I was down .8 pounds. That put me over the 30 pounds lost mark! I was a little disappointed and had to remind myself that overall I have lost an average of over 4 pounds a week, and the day after I weighed in the scale dropped again. Sometimes it is all about timeing. I am excited to see what next week brings. I wanted to talk a little bit about eating out since I did that several times on our trip this week. Sometimes it is a little trickier to know what you are getting than if you had cooked your own food, but it can still be done and you can reward yourself from time to time with a dinner on the town. Here are some of the things that I tried. Outback Steakhouse: Salad with no croutons, cheese, etc. I brought my own dressing in a little container in my purse, but if you dont want to do that than just ask for olive oil and garlic and then squeeze a lemon over it, this is yummy too. 7 oz. Filet mignon, I gave a few bites to Scott, and steamed broccoli. Bubba Gumps: Salad, same as above, Cajun catfish and grilled shrimp and asparagus, McDonalds: 2 side salads,they are 99 cents each, with my own dressing and an Ideal Protein packet. I just wanted to make a point that there are options available at restaurants if you are in a bind or just need a night out. Next week we leave for CA for a week so I will let you know how that goes.

Believe it or Not!

Tonight I made the cauliflower fried rice that I have listed under Main course in the recipes. It was so yummy and my kids didn't believe that it wasn't rice. I love finding new ways to use our veggies. You've got to try this, you won't believe it is cauliflower. Anybody have any other yummy recipes to share? Another dieter told me about a new salad dressing that she made so I will post that tomorrow. The more good ideas we have the easier this will be for everyone, so experiment and share!

Ideal Protein Seminar

Scott and I spent the weekend at an awesome Ideal Protein seminar. We learned so much and it was great for me to see people who have actually done the program, lost tons of weight, and kept it off for years. There was a lady there who was in the initial trial group at UCLA seven years ago. She lost 160 pounds and has kept it off since then. To see her in person and to see her before picture was incredible. She had her shirt tucked in and was wearing jeans. I would guess she weighs about 120 now. It is amazing to think that you can go from what she looked like in her before picture to her cute little self now. Very inspirational for me! There were lots of other big loosers too. A man who was down 170 and still going, a cute little grandma who was down 90, a 60 year old lady who was down 65 and can't beleive that here measurements are smaller now than they were in her 20's. It was very exciting for me to see the success of others and know that it really is possible. We learned that they will soon be coming out with four new products all unrestricted. We learned that there are a few possible reasons that their may not be a huge loss one week. One is hormones, especially before or during a woman's menstrual cylce, another is constipation, there can be 15 pounds stored in the colon, so sometimes you just may need to go potty;), and another is obviously cheating. I figure that when you cheat it takes you at least 3 days to get back in ketosis and start burning fat efficiently. You can test this yourself by using ketone sticks to make sure you are in ketosis. Do not cheat just to check it out though because you will loose half of your week. On AVERAGE a woman will loose 3-4 pounds and a man will loose 5-7. That is an average, so if you have a bad week for one of those reasons just keep on going and things will all balance out. We will be having a class in the next few weeks put on by Ideal Protein people who will be flying in, so if you know anyone who should come we will keep you posted about a day and time and we would love to have as many people there as possible. The successes we have seen so far are so exciting and we would love to help more people. Keep up the good work everyone and I will post again Tuesday for my 7 week weigh in.

Week 6

For the last couple of days I have been hovering right around 30 pounds lost, so I was a little disappointed when I weighed in and was down exactly 3 pounds. .4 pounds short of 30. That was until I took my measurements and then I was disappointed no more. I was down 2 1/2 inches in my waist, and 2 3/4 inches in my hips! That is a total of 8 1/2 inches in my waist. I'm pretty excited about that and after all another 3 pounds is awesome too! This diet rocks!!! I am so happy in the progress so far and so proud of all of you who are doing so well also. With the 9 of us who are doing this so far we are down over 115 pounds already and several of you have only been doing it for 1 week! Keep up the good work! In my opinion it just gets easier with time.

Week 5

Well it has been 5 weeks and tonight I had a great weigh in. I was down 5.8. pounds! That is over 26 pounds total!! I am so excited, and I feel great. Time has gone by so quickly and I am happy that I am getting such great results so quickly.

21 days to break a habit

I think this must be true because even though I never had any problems the first few weeks it got even easier after the third week. Here is what I've noticed. 1. I think having a few more carbs in the restricted foods has helped my brain function(not that it will ever be good);) 2. Food no longer consumes my thoughts. This program is so easy that you don't really have to think about food. In the morning I plan what meat I will have for dinner and set that out and everything else is taken care of. The hardest thing I have to do is pick a packet. 3. I no longer feel like I need to go to the fridge every few hours for a snack. My body feels completely satisfied and even when it's time to eat I'm not starving. 4. I physically feel better and I feel better about myself which makes me happier! I think everyone around me is happier when I'm happy so all in all things are going great! Still, the only thing that I get hung up on is knowing I will be doing this for a looong time and feeling sorry for myself, but one day at a time I will keep on trucking.

Week 4

I just finished my weigh in after being on the program for four weeks and I was down exactly 3 pounds, for a total of 20.6 pounds! I feel great and am so excited. This last week was lots of fun trying the new foods.

4 week pictures!

Before

After

Tomorrow it will be four weeks since I started Ideal Protein. Somebody please tell me that you can tell a teenie little bit? Sorry, the first and third pictures are the same "before" pictures and I don't know how to get the extra one off.

Almost four weeks

Tomorrow is my weigh in day and I can't wait. I was kind of worried because this week I was allowed to eat the restricted food items. I was excited for some new variety, although I was fine on the non restricted foods, but I wondered how so many more carbs would affect me. I think the food is really good. There have been very few foods that I havent liked. I have tried some really good recipes that I will share. My scale at home is very temperamental. I can weigh three times in a row and get three different weights so my official weigh in is always on the office scale but from what I can tell this should be another good week on the scales!;) Another wonderful thing happened. We cleaned out our closet and today I fit into 4 pairs of jeans that haven't fit me in almost 3 years! I don't even remember the last time I wore jeans! I'm so excited to put some of my wardrobe that I have saved "just in case" to use! I will keep you posted on the weigh in tomorrow.

Week 3

For the first few days of week 3 I saw no loss on the scale. I think probably because of my binge at the end of last week. All continued to go well in week 3. I really enjoy the food and except for my one weak moment I am having no problem sticking with it. They say a woman will loose 3-4 pounds a week and at the end of the week I had lost another 3.2. Really great and I am thrilled but I wonder what would have happened had I not blown it. I guess the good news is I moved on and started right back at it and now I am down 17.6 pounds in 3 weeks! I can tell a big difference in how my clothes feel and I have so much more energy. I am once again excited about life!

Week 2

The second week was pretty uneventful I just kept following the program and waited for weigh-in. When I started I took one of each of the packets so I enjoyed trying each one and finding my favorites. I noticed that if I didn't drink all of my water I felt more hungry. The best thing that happened is that I had no cravings! I made my daughter cupcakes and had no desire to sneak a taste. I also went to a superbowl party and was surrounded by yummy food and had no problem. I've never been on a diet where I didn't need to just have a little nibble, so I thought that was awesome. I guess it is because your blood sugar levels have stabilized and so you don't have all the nagging cravings. Hovever I did have one little stupid problem. On weigh in night we were going to some friends for dinner and I volunteered to bring potato salad because I had some potatoes that I needed to use. I was doing fine and then I weighed in. I was down 3.8 pounds. Now this is a pretty respectable weight loss for a week but I wanted another 10 pound loss! The disappointment was too much to handle and I caved and had some potato salad. Maybe I would have been ok but next I was on to the birthday cake and I was out of control! Of course afterwards I felt awful. Emotionally and physically. My tummy wasn't used to those kinds of foods so I didn't feel so good, I decided then and there that it wasn't worth it. Not only had I messed up the diet, but I didn't even enjoy doing it I was so out of control I didn't even pay attention to how the food tasted or enjoy it. The moral of the story is your second week you obviously wont loose as much as the first so be prepared. 3.8 lbs down is great and that makes 14.4 pounds in two weeks!

Week 1 (AKA Hell Week!!)
I was so excited to begin and right from the start felt pretty good. I did notice that I felt more tired on the first couple of days but I was also sick so I'm not sure which was causing that. On the second and third day I had a headache but I learned this was caused from a lack of sodium. These products have very little salt so be sure to add sea salt. I don't normally salt my food so this took some getting used to, but made me feel much better. For the first few days I kept having the urge to go get a snack, but mostly out of habit more than hunger. I just paid attention to whether I was really hungry or not and usually I wasn't. If I really felt like I needed something to eat I drank some water and waited 2o minutes and then if I was still hungry I would have a dill pickle. During the first week you can have up to 5 packets or eat some of your vegies for a snack if you need to. I was fine without ever having to do that. By the third day into it I think I was in ketosis and all hunger went away. I sometimes even had a hard time getting all of my required packets in. I loved having some warm hot chocolate or pudding before bed because I don't usually have dessert and this felt like such a treat! Although I really liked most of the meals my favorites were the yogurt berry smoothie for breakfast, chicken soup for lunch, and I really enjoyed being able to eat dinner with my family. On 3 or 4 nights a week I make the same meal for them maybe adding rice or rolls to their dinner. On the other nights I make them tacos, spaghetti, enchiladas, etc and I use the main meat in their meal as my meat and just add veggies. I didn't want to totally change their evening meals and have them regretting my diet. So far, no complaints. My kids are even loving asparagus. On the occasional evenings when we are in a hurry to get to ball practice or something I will make myself 2 scrambled eggs with mushrooms and zucchini on the side and that is really yummy. The one thing that worried me during week one is that it didn't take long to get sick of salad with nasty dressing, so I made up my own salad dressings using ingredients that are allowed and I love them. Now my salads are no problem. I will include the recipes for those dressings. I didn't weigh myself all week so I couldn't wait to see what the results were and they were so worth it. In one week I was down 10.6 pounds and had lost 4.5 inches in my waist! I think from being bloated on carbs! I was so excited and already I felt so much better than just one week ago!

Catching up!

I am almost finished with my 4th week on Ideal Protein, and I thought it might be valuable to share how the diet has worked for me and the experience that I've had following the Ideal Protein protocol.

Since I've already been doing the diet for a few weeks I will back track so that I can let you know how it was for me especially during the first week and how my weight loss has gone so far.

I am writing this blog to offer ideas and hopefully some inspiration as well as to inform those who may be curious how the program works. I would really appreciate comments related to others successes, frustrations, tips, and recipes, and I hope we can all find success as we strive for better health!