The last time I post on here was in 2016, I said that I was going to change it to a cooking blog and then I never post again. I do love to cook. But I think the way that my life is now, I am just going to keep it real and post whatever I am currently working on.

I was trying to think of what I really wanted to do with myself. The kids are getting older and I am starting to have some free time, not a lot but some. I have started to try to take better care of myself by watching what I eat and starting to work out again.

2018 was a tough year for me and I am ready for it to be over. I started it off with motivation to get my butt in shape and lose the baby weight which now is just I guess my normal weight because my baby daughter is about to be 7!  I worked out for 5 months. We added in weight lifting in the mornings 3 times a week and rowing or the elliptical for 15 minutes Monday through Friday. I signed up for weight watchers and tracked everything I ate and I lost absolutely nothing. I started at 183 pounds in January and in July I was still 183 pounds. People said, muscle is heavier than fat.. Great, I am not gaining 2 lbs of muscle every week.  It was so discouraging. Then my father died in a farm accident at the end of July. It was terrible and I can’t write much yet, I will in time. Anyway, I stopped working out and started drinking at night to help me sleep. It didn’t really help me sleep. In the beginning of October I woke up with so  much pain under my ribs. I seriously thought that I was dying. I was like my liver is a goner and this is totally my fault. I went to the doctor and was diagnosed with Acid Reflux. Nothing serious thank go. That was my wake up call to get my act together. It’s not about me, it’s about my family and they need me. I have to pick myself up and get back on track.

My husband and I decided that it was time to tackle our eating habits. We both didn’t eat terrible, so we thought. We would eat pretty healthy all week and then we would eat whatever we wanted on the weekends. That was our problem. Eating whatever on the weekends and snacking. I hate throwing away food so the nights I said I wasn’t hungry and I wasn’t going to eat dinner, I would end up eating my kids left over dinners instead of throwing them away.  I would have dinner even though I wasn’t making myself dinner. That all adds up.

My acid reflux and his stomach hurting made us think that it was time to cut out everything from our diets for 3 weeks and then slowly add them back in to see what was causing the pain.  I read a lot about the elimination diet and that’s what we were going to try.

In the beginning of October we cut out dairy, eggs, alcohol, bread, caffeine… Basically everything except boneless skinless chicken breast, wild Salmon and Shrimp, rice, fruits and vegetables. Slowly we started losing weight. I was down 10 lbs after 3 weeks and my husband lost 15 pounds.

They say that you should add one thing back at a time and that’s how you know what is not agreeing with you. We added pizza back which is about 3 different things. Surprisingly, we didn’t have a terrible reaction to it. I do not recommend breaking an elimination diet with pizza though.  Then we slowly have been eating whatever we have been craving here and there just not as much as we use to, and we have still managed to keep the weight off. I even lost another pound. Next we are going to add back in working out and weight lifting again.

The thing that this whole diet made me realize is that even though I wasn’t eating bad, I was eating too much when I did eat. My portions were out of control. Then when the weekend rolls around, wine and pizza everyday is not good for you even though it’s delicious. Also, I now throw away the kids leftovers instead of eating them.

I started the diet thinking that I could never be one of those people that “eat to live” because so much of my life is spent around food. When my friends and I have book club it’s like who’s bringing what delicious thing to eat? When I go out with my husband or we have friends over we always figure out some special menu and we enjoy ourselves and eat good food and I really do not want to give that up at all. I am starting to realize that I do not have to give that up, I do have to check myself though with how much I am piling on my plate and keep track of the wine. I am getting better I think. I will keep trying to lose weight and keep updating on here.

I will try to keep this blog updated a few times a week . Besides the diet stuff I have been trying to figure out my next steps in life. I want to go back to school and get my bachelors so I am trying to figure out when, where and how. I’m sure I will post some things about that.

I have always dreamed to be an author. I read about this KDP publishing on Amazon where you can publish your own books and sell them in digital book format. I have published 3 so far. I haven’t sold any but I am starting to put my self out there. I have 2 more finished I just have to edit and publish. One day I’ll be a real author.

Those are my plans for now. Write soon.