Week Twelve and COMPLETED!

Hey!!
So, I planned for this week to be an awesome week with my nutrition right on point, but it was NOT.
I made some bad choices, but even so, I made some good decisions, too.  Looking back, I consider it a win that I didn't just throw in the towel and say, "well, the whole week is shot so forget it!"  Nope.  I made a bad decision and then the next one was a good one.  I didn't lose an entire day to bad decisions the whole time.
So, my twelve week challenge (no grains, no sugar) is completed.  I have learned soooo much during these 12 weeks.
I've learned that I can have balance in my life.  Just because I eat 1 cookie doesn't mean I failed and should throw away the whole day (or week, or month).  It means that I should balance that with a healthy lunch (and pass on the other 5 cookies still sitting there).
I've learned that there will ALWAYS be the chance for treats.  No matter where I go or what I do, there will always be treats.  So, when they are available I don't need to eat them all for fear of never eating anything so yummy again.  I just need to wait until the next day or the next event for another treat.  It's probably weird that my brain thinks that way, but it does.
I learned that there is such a thing as moderation.  I can feel that this is still an issue for me, but I believe with continued focus and practice, I can get better and better.
I've learned to not label foods "good" and "bad".  It doesn't have morals. Food is food and the key is moderation. I want to use words and phrases like that's a good choice, that's a better choice, and that's the best choice.  I don't want to make any kind of food a negative. Especially for my kids. I won't say I didn't buy that because it's bad for you.  I'll tell them I bought the best choice I could find for their snacks, their lunches, etc.  And if they choose a slice of birthday cake over a fruit salad, I'll tell them, "Yum! Good choice!" And probably ask them to eat some fruit salad with their cake. ;-)  Hey, I can try, right?!
What will I do now?
I will continue to pay close attention to what I eat.  I will continue to track my physical progress once a month using a tape measure.  I will not weigh myself on a scale because the inches and the way my clothes fit will tell me how I'm doing.
I won't post monthly check ins about my food or my inches, but I will continue to share new things I try that work or don't work.  I'll share new information I come across.  And I'll post recipes that I love.  If there's anything else you'd like to see from me, let me know.
I am currently doing the 21 Day Fix program (which I've done in the past and LOVED) until January 1st.  Then I will do a 30-day MMA-inspired program called Core De Force from January 2nd-31st. After that?  Who knows?  We'll take it one program at a time and one month at a time.
I will eat whole grains, lots of veggies and fruit, lean protein, and have treats when I want treats.  I will continue to drink my Shakeology every day because it has done wonders with curbing my cravings and it tastes WONDERFUL!  And I believe it gives me the extra nutrition that I need that I can't possibly eat in other foods in one day.
I'm definitely going to continue with my accountability groups because it has been a GAME CHANGER for me in staying on track.  When I have to check in daily with a group of people daily, I tend to make better choices.
As far as ending numbers.  Here's my chart:

From day 1 to the end of week 12: I lost 13 inches and 11.6 pounds.  I decreased my body fat 10 percent (it went from 30 percent to 27 percent). My goal from here is to focus on that number.  I want to be under 24 percent body fat.
Here's all 4 week photos:

And here's a side-by-side of the first day and the last day:

Thank you for your encouragement each week.  I've enjoyed the journey and I look forward to becoming stronger mentally and physically by staying active and fueling my body with good nutrition.
Love, Kara

Week Eleven Recap

Week 11 started out really well!  Thursday came and I started slipping a little each day.

I had lunch with my friend on Thursday and the meal came with a little chocolate covered strawberry. I intended to save it for Rori when we were in the parent pick up line at the boys' school, but she fell asleep and it looked yummy so I went ahead and ate it.  The boys would've fought for it if they had seen it so I was just preventing a fight, right?!  =)  Then for dinner I made a pineapple chicken stir fry with a pot of brown rice for Jeremy and the kids.  Dinner ended up being so late because we were decorating for my son's upcoming birthday party and I was starving.  I had just a little brown rice with my stir fry.

Friday went well until our late dinner after the basketball games.  We went to Rosati's and I ordered my go to salad (antipasto salad), but the temptation of pizza was STRONG!  I ended up eating a small piece of thin crust pizza (when I really wanted a big piece of the deep dish one).  I also gave in and had a bite of the brownie they brought out for my son's birthday.  My sweet 8 year old niece thought to ask the waitress if they celebrate birthdays because her cousin is turning 13 the next day. She's so thoughtful!!  I'm glad it got devoured quickly because it was hard to resist taking more bites.

Saturday went surprisingly well considering we had 2 baseball games and a soccer game and I ran out of the house that morning with very little healthy snack options.  I ended up getting a grilled chicken salad at Burger King for lunch at 2:00.  I actually had to leave the KFC drive-thru line because they told me they no longer serve grilled chicken.  Bummer (and a little embarrassing).

We had to rush home after my son's second baseball game to get ready for the party.  So, I had a late start on heating up the food for dinner which meant another late dinner for us. I had bought tons of appetizers for food for the party (chicken wings, meatballs, taquitos, egg rolls, etc) and I loaded up with the Costco desserts: brownie bites, frosted lemon bites & pumpkin cheesecake bites. Not many choices for me to eat. Luckily I had thought ahead to make a chili that I can eat (and for some parents that were coming to the party that are trying to eat well with me).  So that's what I had for dinner.  I would've been OK, but there were soooo many desserts left and I thought, well, I did good today - I'm gonna have half of each of the three different desserts.  No one wanted the other half though so I ended up eating it.  So, I had 1 brownie bite, 1 lemon bite & 1 pumpkin cheesecake bite. Ugh.  I should've just packed them up and put them away instead of leaving them out.  Thankfully, Jeremy took them to church the next morning to get them out of the house.

Then comes Sunday.  I ended up eating 2 chicken wings at Barro's after church and I had some brown rice with some leftover meatballs for dinner, and I had a handful of Chicago Mix popcorn (cheddar cheese popcorn/caramel corn). Boo.

I always feel like I'm just a meal or two away from returning back to my old bad eating habits.  This just goes to show that I cannot let my guard down and I need to stay accountable to people because these slip ups were not nearly as bad as how I would've eaten 11 weeks ago.

If I were to go back to Thursday-Sunday and tell you how I would've eaten, it would be this:

Thursday: I would've ordered another yummy dessert at our lunch place AND ate the chocolate covered strawberry (plus I would've ordered a sandwich with my soup  instead of a salad).  And for dinner I would've had LOTS of brown rice.

Friday: I would've had 2 slices of the deep dish pizza and as many bites of brownie as I could've had before it was gone.

Saturday: I would've eaten a little of all the appetizers and a lot of the desserts (at least 2 of each). Plus I would've had a soda and tons of the Chicago Mix popcorn.

And Sunday: I would've had 2 slices of the pizza, about 4 wings and I would've asked my husband to order the pazooki cookie dessert.  Oh yea, plus a soda.

I've come a long way, but like I said, it's going to be tricky to not end this challenge and end up eating like that again.  I know I will have to continue to do something for accountability so that doesn't happen.  I've come too far to go back now. I'll have to work on my game plan since next week is my LAST WEEK of this challenge!!

Week Ten Recap (Thanksgiving Special)

I'm a little behind on my recaps.  2 weeks ago I completed week #10.  I tried to be extra good leading up to Thanksgiving because I wanted to indulge in a little bit of the yummy food.  I LOVE Thanksgiving foods!!
I did really well Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  I had one piece of homemade bread on Wednesday.  The kids were telling me how delicious it was all week and I couldn't resist but have one slice before it was gone.  It was really good!
On Thursday, we had a sick boy and ended up not being able to go to Thanksgiving with Jeremy's family.  We were sooooo bummed, but decided to make the most of it.  I ran to Pinterest to find yummy looking recipes that didn't have all the sugar or white flour that some traditional Thanksgiving foods had.  I figured this was a great chance to see how we can lighten up or health-ify some of the traditional foods we love without making anyone else suffer if they turn out bad.
Jeremy ran to the store with the list and the kids and I got to work prepping whatever I could before he returned.
Jeremy survived the madness of the grocery store and returned with everything we needed.  I was surprised the store hadn't sold out of some of the stuff we needed.  Hooray for that!
He smoked a turkey breast and I made mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potato casserole, cranberries, whole wheat biscuits, brussels sprouts, and pumpkin pie.  Everything turned out soooooo good!  Here's what I made and everything was sweetened with honey or coconut sugar and I used whole wheat flour in the gravy:

Smoked Turkey Breast: Jeremy used a rub made up of different dry herbs and spices. He's the grill master and this turned out so yummy!  Well worth the wait for it to be done.
Mashed potatoes: I made them with real butter and whole milk.
Gravy: I used this recipe from 100 Days of Real Food: http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2014/11/17/video-make-homemade-gravy-3-easy-steps/.  I used chicken stock because I didn't have any drippings from the smoked turkey breast.

Whole Wheat Biscuits: this is also from 100 Days of Real Food (I made these ALL THE TIME before I started this 12 week challenge): http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2010/04/08/super-easy-recipe-whole-wheat-biscuits/.
Cranberry Sauce: I got this recipe from the Fixate cooking show on Beachbody on Demand (so many GREAT recipes I want to try from that show...).  It's fresh cranberries, water, orange peel, fresh ginger, ground cloves, and raw honey.  They were delicious!!
Sweet Potato Casserole: Also from the Fixate show.  I will be making this over and over and over again.  I want some right now actually... Ingredients were sweet potatoes, butter, honey, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, fresh grated ginger and chopped pecans.
The show is found here if you'd like to set up a 30 day free trial (there's also TONS of Beachbody workouts for free, as well): http://club.teambeachbody.com/.
Brussels Sprouts: We just roasted these in the oven with butter, salt and pepper.  Yummy!!

And the icing on the cake (or rather the coconut whipped cream on the pumpkin pie) was our dessert:
Food Babe's Healthy Pumpkin Pie with Coconut Whipped Cream: http://foodbabe.com/2014/11/25/easy-healthy-pumpkin-pie/.  The filling tasted really good, like regular pumpkin pie.  The almond flour crust took me a little while to get used to.  I actually had one piece Thursday, Friday and Saturday and by Saturday I was loving it.  I preferred the pie cold (Thursday we had it at room temperature).  The coconut whipped cream was delicious, but again, it took me until Friday/Saturday to adjust to the combo of coconut with pumpkin.  I'd definitely make this again, but probably with a whole wheat crust and regular homemade whipped cream.
We had leftovers for lunch on Friday and Saturday and then it was gone and I went back to my normal no sugar/no grain meals.
I also had a couple glasses of Moscato on Thursday and one on Friday to finish the bottle and get rid of it.  =)
It was so nice to enjoy the food and get right back on track on Sunday.  I didn't have much guilt over the food either, because I was so careful about finding pretty clean recipes.
I hope you're able to try these recipes.  Let me know if you do and what you think.
Love, Kara