Down FIFTEEN Pounds!!

Hi friends!  Okay, so I am soooo excited!  I weighed in this morning and I am officially down 15 pounds!  I don't want to say that I've "lost" it, because that kinda sounds like I might want to "find" it again.  :0)  And I definitely don't want this weight to ever creep back onto my body!  I feel so much better, healthier and lighter and I don't ever want to give up this way of living!

Okay, I'll back up a bit....a couple of weeks ago, I posted about my "Dollar Diet".  A lot of Facebook friends and some local friends have asked me to show how I am playing the Dollar Diet game.  (By the way, that is a term we gave it....it's not really a diet because no foods are off limits, but we didn't know what to call it.  I'm open for changing the name if any of you can think of something better.)  :0) 

How we play is that every dollar represents one calorie.  (I play with $1,200 each day, or 1200 calories.)  Everytime you eat, you move the amount of calories that you "spend" from the 'available' section to the 'spent' section.  When you've spent all your money, you brush your teeth and stop eating for the night.  (That's a tip from Dr. Phil's book.  I like it because it's a good signal that says "I'm done" for the day.)

Here are a couple of pictures of my food "wallet" that I made last month.  My daughter is playing with me and she has a tri-fold wallet with a spot called 'reserved'.  If she knows she's going out to eat with friends, or has plans for later, she will look up her calorie count of the food she wants to eat later and then put that amount in her 'reserved' spot.  She is doing great too!  I'm so proud of her!

Down SIX pounds!

Woo-hoo! After one week of eating less than 1200 calories, I am down SIX pounds! I am so happy and feel like I have finally found something that works! My daughter is also joining me on this weight loss journey! I'm not sure how much she has lost....I haven't pushed her to weigh, but I can tell in her face that she is losing too! Yeah!

I am pretty much combining a bunch of cool weight loss ideas into one plan. I LOVE the Weigh Down Workshop, which is a Bible based program in which you eat when you're hungry and stop when you're full. The Lord designed our bodies so perfectly and the program teaches you to only fill your body when you are actually hungry...not just "heart hungry". I love the idea of waiting until I've "got the growl" (as my good friend, Kristine, says) however, I have a hard time with emotional eating and a hard time with stopping when I'm full.

When I was diagnosed as a Type 1 Diabetic over 16 years ago, I was put on a 2000 calorie diet. (I was six weeks pregnant at the time.) I was taught that every food had a caloric value and given a pocket chart to let me know how many calories to eat at every meal and snack. At first I lost weight. (I seem to do better when I'm told what to do....I don't think Aaron - my husband - would agree with that.) As my pregnancy progressed, of course, I gained weight. After my daughter was born, I was able to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight fairly quickly. However, my pre-pregnancy weight was high (190). After four more children, I am still in the 190s and still wanting to lost weight.

I think the Lord showed me a great way to have fun and combine all of the weight loss success I've experienced into one. I don't have a name for my program yet, but I'm thinking I may name it the Dollar Diet. I don't really like the word "diet" because I think that diets don't work and to have true success, you need to change your lifestyle. Maybe I could call it a food budget. I need something catchy. Email me if you have any ideas!

For every calorie you need in a day, deal yourself play money. (We're using Pokemon Monopoly money.) As you eat throughout the day, you "pay" for your food choices and when your money is gone, you brush your teeth and stop eating for the day. (The "brush your teeth to determine you're done eating for the day" is from Dr. Phil's book.) In order to determine your caloric need, just do a Google search for a calorie calculator. Email if you need help!

That's all for now....my Bojangles biscuit just arrived via my awesome husband. Oh yeah....did I mention you can eat WHATEVER you want? You just have to pay for it! :0)