30 Days of The Skinny Rules!

Food! 

     It's what I have been focusing on for the past month.
Joey and I have undergone a complete change of eating habits and have maintained it for 30 days now.
This is my post to explain all the details.

     First of all, I didn't set out to start a diet when this all began. I have been needing to make a change however since I had gained a bunch of weight AFTER giving birth in January. Yes, After.
     Two things proceeded this big change. One, I had been reading lots of newly published material on habits and willpower. I was hoping it would eventually lead to having more willpower in the eating dept. but wasn't too encouraged because the book 'Willpower' stated that the advice therein wouldn't work for dieting because their findings indicate that you need sugar to power your brain (thus fueling willpower). The other thing was that I have been getting these awesome emails that post the newest stuff our library currently is receiving and I get an early crack at reserving good stuff. I can't pass up reserving a new release that looks interesting. (ps this is how I ended up reading about Habits in the first place too)
     So, one of the new releases I reserved was Bob Harper's 'The Skinny Rules'.

     There were so many people waiting for it that I was only allowed to check it out for a week. I have never had that happen before.
     I read the book, I felt it would work for us, and we dove into the change!

     Here is what I consumed before reading the book- Everything. Plus tons of chocolate milk and I loved my Dr. Peppers (LOVED) and I had no control, I was out of CONTROL!!!

     Here is what I (we) eat/drink now-  Apples, Water, Coffee (with very little sweetener), Almonds, Vegetables (limiting the ones that are carbs), lots of protein, lots of fiber,  Oatmeal, Meats, Cheeses...limited carbs (whole grain at that)

     Here is what we don't eat/drink- SUGAR, Potatoes, (accept sweet potatoes in moderation), Processed foods, Fast Foods (accept the one meal a week splurge allowed on the Skinny Rules Diet and even then it's just a burger, nothing else) cookies, cakes, donuts, etc. No COKES! No milk, (don't drink you're calories) No anything fun.

     I would have not bet money on me being able to eat like that for 30 days (or even a week!) So how did we do it? I'm not sure. One thing I learned from the book though, that changed my thinking is this- 'If you eat sugar, then you will crave sugar' Your body gets on a sugar high roller coaster that makes you want to snack all the time. Without the sugar (and carbs convert to blood sugar) you remain stable and eat less! It is true. The cravings all but went away when I quit cold turkey!

So the big question, did we lose weight?
Yes. And still losing. I hope to report back on that in another couple of months with more significant results, As for now it stands at about a ten pound loss for each of us!

One thing I didn't expect was that I lost interest in exercising and actually began to feel terrible after a few weeks. In fact, even last week, I was still feeling yucky and tired. I don't know if it was a type of detoxing that left me weak, but this week, I'm feeling much better and got back to my morning biking routine. I expected after a month off the bike that I would have trouble getting started. Before last month, I was going about a mile and a half in the mornings (not much) and it was taking me about 20 minutes.
Yesterday I set out at 6 a.m. for the first time in a month and did 4 miles in 30 minutes! I have my energy back and then some!!! Yay! Not only that, but I did Bob's Cardio workout last night and got up again this morning to do 4 more miles on the bike. I'm really looking forward to weighing myself at the end of this week to see if the exercise makes a big difference.

So, What is the end result in this experiment? The end result is that there is no end, hopefully, but that we will be able to keep it up as a new way of eating, not a temporary diet. This time next year I hope to be much more in shape and on my way to skinny!!!!

What I've been doing lately.

It's been a while but I'm back and now that I can post from my phone I may be posting more often. I've been doing lots of art and lots of reading and being inspired and lots of organizing and mostly dealing with an infant and a toddler. Seen below.

Do-over

Keep Trying!!!



I love starting over.

I know it usualy means you have failed at something. (Hence the word 'over')

But, When it comes to the subject of home and family and organization or management strategies, I am finally finding that each time I start trying a new direction, or rather a new attempt at doing things 'right', things at least get better.

Better is great! If every year I keep only a few of my resolutions, or at least learn some important lessons shaping next year's resolutions, then I'm making progress!!!

Right now, I look around me and I am encouraged by the progress I have made in the last few years!

Does it sound obnoxious that I'm patting myself on the back?




Well, you should know that this is from someone who used to beat herself up a bit about her goals and lack of accomplishing them. I have these ideas about what I should be and what a day in the life of our family should look like, what our home should be like, etc...

And I used to be soooo far from there.

Now, I'm a little closer. Thanks to God's patience and blessings in my life of course.

This makes me want to encourage other people!
I think I will go do that right now...

I was thinking yesterday- you know how you can spot another dreamer? They take time to encourage other people's dreams.

So Thank You, fellow dreamer... you know who you are.

Have a great day!!!
Misty

My other blog....The Drawing One

Greetings, friends...

Just wanted to share my other blog with you real quick.
That one is just for posting a drawing each day(actually night).
So, Go check it out!

Click Here to see my doodling.

Thanks!

Misty

Big Gap in Blogging and New Baby News!

Meet our new addition: Linus Zane

I'm going to blame him for my lack of blogging for the past several months, even though he just got here.
It was a really long pregnancy, ya'll.... it felt like years.

He is almost two weeks old now and I am just now feeling like myself again. I can walk without waddling like a duck and I can sleep! (between feedings that is)

Blogging and Homeschooling were two of the things that were put on hold toward the end of the pregnancy. I wasn't totally useless though, I actually managed to put the nesting instinct to great use in cleaning and organizing my house right up to the last week. I did some artwork, I read some books, handcrafted some Christmas presents, and I finally finished the mural in my son's room.

So what I'm saying is that 'I'm back', and it's possible that more frequent blogs may be coming soon. Hope you all are well!

Misty

How to get some creativity.

I have always been a creative person. Since most of my creativity has been channeled through art, I think most people assume me and the kids probably do lots of crafts. Being known as an artist and a homeschooler, it does make a measure of sense to expect this.

While I have been rather crafty in the past, crafts are not something I enjoy doing with my kids. *Gasp* I know... bad mommy award.

Crafts with kids are messy and time consuming.... and they usually result in something that has all the stability of a three legged hippo.

So you see it's not the mess that bothers me so much, it's the fact that the end result is so fragile and temporary. Anything made with popsickle sticks and toilet paper rolls is probably not going to be produced in this house.

We do like to draw and paint however, and I do save all their creations. We like to build with legos and I take photos of the really great constructions for posterity. I encourage all building and creating with toys and anything they can find.

Creativity is what I am really about.

This past couple of weeks I came across two pieces of writing about kids and creativity that really helped me focus my goals for the kids and our creative home atmosphere.... one was an article in Parents magazine. I would love to link to it here, but I haven't found it online yet. Instead I will give you the basic points. It was called "Inspire Creativity" and the subtitle says it all: Reading and math are the priorities for schools, but out-of-the-box thinking skills will be the key to a kid's success. By Leslie Garisto Pfaff

In the article we learn that statistics show that America's kids are losing their originality and imagination in schools. The reason is cited as the push for proficient levels on state examination leaving no time for anything but the basics, Math and English are the focus, rote learning is prized over critical thinking and more than ever play time is pushed completely out of schools at a very early level. Kids need to learn through play. This is where their imagination is developed. The article cites a recent IBM poll where 1,500 CEO's identified creativity as the single most important trait for leaders of the future.

My take on the article? Kids need time to be kids. Creativity must be encouraged, and there is more to learning than right and wrong answers.

I have much more to say about this ... stay tuned.

Next Blog: Creating creative centers in our home and the need for kids to be bored!

Looking ahead to the School Year

Pictured above is our Sonlight package for Kindergarden for this year. I recieved the package a couple of months ago but am just now getting ready to prepare for the coming year. This isn't everything actually, I ordered the Horizon's Math set seperately and Micah wanted to begin using it as soon as it came in so he has done many lessons in it and likes it alot. I also may be adding a Science component before we get started but first I want to determine if we have our hands too full already.

There isn't much to do by way of preparation, the beauty of Sonlight is that the instructor's guide (pictured in the foreground) does all the planning for you. They also make everything adaptable for you. you can omit activities or add more depending on your needs. They also have the option of a four day or five day schedule for each core curriculum. I have ordered the five day curriculum but I may switch to four days since we will be doing Co-op one day a week. I went ahead and ordered the five day because it comes with more storybooks and read-a-louds and I didn't want to miss out, instead of reading them during the year we can use them next summer, or read them as bedtime stories during vacations.

The absolute best thing I love about Sonlight is that the materials are about 90% reusable for the next student and the next and so on. There are very few consumable items. Basically these are the same books we will read with Allie and Noah. Some workbooks will need to be ordered, such as Math and Handwriting, but overall, it's a great investment for us.

As you can see there are many storybooks. There are maps and a Timeline book as well. As the student goes through the stories and the read-a-louds (basically bigger books that we will read a chapter or two of each day) then they will mark significant events in history on their timeline to create a view of history and time that will help them see the big picture. We will be going through Bible stories each week also, and using the Timeline book to mark events from that too. The maps are also utilized often along with the stories to help kids get a better idea of the world and the places that are talked about.

The intructor's guide encourages us to plan several field trips for this year also. I do hope to do that later. We may visit the Firestation and maybe the Newspaper office, a couple of workplaces and maybe a museum. It will be a tricky situation however, since Noah and Allie will be with us. Maybe I can plan those for days when Joey will be home. Or maybe get him involved in taking Micah on field trips.

We just found out my husband will be home one weekday each week according to his new schedule, this will present a special problem since homeschooling while Daddy is home presents distractions. Hopefully we will find a way to make that work for us, not against us.

I'm excited about this year, the thing I am really nervous about actually is the actual teaching of Micah to read. We have begun this already with the book. Teach your child to read in 200 easy lessons' (which many homeschool friends swear by) but I haven't been enthused by it. I need to redouble my efforts though, because he is doing fine with everything else, handwriting, math, etc. I just have to press on and unfortunately, this is the one area that Sonlight seems to lack most in.