Failing & The 3 Reasons We Do

One thing I have learned over years of yo-yo dieting is that it is not the diet that failed it was me. It was my way of looking at it and my way of approaching it. I have tried every diet under the sun - from watermelon only to high protein to shakes and everything in between. I have lost and gained the same pounds over and over and over again. Nothing seems to help and work but I continue to search and struggle. 

There are three key reasons I fail at all of these diets and why so many others do as well. 

1. Commitment - they all require commitment and not just a simple commitment; a major one. Buy all new food. Prepare food. Buy gym equipment or get a membership. Buy supplements. Eat this at this set time. Measure, track, weigh, hold your breath and pray. Commitment! When you ask someone to do a complete 180 it can be overwhelming and near impossible. 

2. Discouragement - oh yes I said it; discouragement. We have all had it. When follow the diet to a "t". We workout until we ache and the scale does not move. What gives? We grab the bag of chips and say screw it. Some days it doesn't seem worth it. Been there and done that.

3.  Unsustainable - it is okay to give up all real food for a couple weeks but can you continue to drink shakes every day for every meal? Can you continue to workout 2-3 hours every day for life? The thing is most "diets" are unsustainable for life. 

So... what can we do about this? Give up and settle on our current weight for life? No!!!! That is not the answer. We need to change our habits.. I love this quote because it is so very true.. 

"Successful people are simply those with successful habits. – Brian Tracy"

So let's change our habits. What is the first thing you do in the morning when you wake up? Start a pot of coffee, take a shower, watch some tv, check your email and Facebook? Chances are that you said some if not all of these things. Remember in my previous blog I said this journey is about zero excuses so it's time to change some of the bad habits into good ones and reduce the excuses and eliminate the 3 key reasons for failing. 

First off lets make a list of bad habits. I am not talking about biting your nails and crewing with your mouth open. I am talking about all the little things we do in autopilot. How many minutes do you sit and watch tv in the morning? Could you do it on a stability ball? Or from the treadmill? Small and simple change. Do you shave your legs sitting down? Stand up. Take a look at your list of 5 - 10 items and pick one at a time you can change - and do it! 

In the end it doesn't matter what diet you are trying - if you are not ready to make the changes needed and work past the 3 key reasons of failure you to will fail. So start small and keep your fitness goal ahead of you and you will succeed. 

HOMEMADE OVEN-BAKED ZUCCHINI CHIPS

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup dry breadcrumbs
• 1/4 cup (1 ounce) grated fresh Parmesan cheese 
• 1/4 teaspoon seasoned salt
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons fat-free milk
• 2 1/2 cups (1/4-inch-thick) slices zucchini (about 2 small) 
• Cooking spray

1. Preparation 
2. Preheat oven to 425°.
3. Combine first 5 ingredients in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk. Place milk in a shallow bowl. Dip zucchini slices in milk, and dredge in breadcrumb mixture. Place coated slices on an ovenproof wire rack coated with cooking spray; place rack on a baking sheet. Bake at 425° for 30 minutes or until browned and crisp. Serve immediately.

Tex Mex Stuffed Peppers

Makes 8 servings

Stuffed peppers, can be served as a side, but usually counts as a main dish in our home. 

Recipe Ingredients for TEX MEX STUFFED PEPPERS

1	lb lean ground beef
8	medium green peppers
8	tablespoons fat free sour cream
8	tablespoons salsa
2	cups brown rice
1	cup low fat cheddar cheese
1	cup frozen corn

Recipe Directions for TEX MEX STUFFED PEPPERS

1. Remove tops of peppers, and clean out insides, discard. Blanch peppers in boiling water for one minute, until slightly softened. Set aside.
2. Brown ground beef. Add taco seasoning of your choice (recommend PC Blue Menu Reduced Salt Taco Seasoning Mix).
3. Combine meat, rice, corn, cheese and mix together. Fill each pepper with 1/8th of mixture.
4. Stand peppers in baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
5. Top with fat free sour cream and salsa.

Categories

Main Dish, Side Dish, Mexican

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 288.6g

Amount Per Serving

Calories 361 Calories from Fat 58

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 6.4g 10%

Saturated Fat 2.4g 12%

Trans Fat 0.0g

Cholesterol 55mg 18%

Sodium 240mg 10%

Total Carbohydrates 49.0g 16%

Dietary Fiber 4.4g 18%

Sugars 5.1g

Protein 26.8g

Vitamin A 13% • Vitamin C 162% Calcium 12% • Iron 19%

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet Nutritional details are an estimate and should only be used as a guide for approximation.

Legend

 Fat
 Protein
 Carbs
 Alcohol
 Other

Calorie Breakdown

Daily Values

Health Information

Nutrition Grade 96% confidence

Good points High in manganese High in phosphorus High in vitamin B6 Very high in vitamin C

Read more: Tex Mex Stuffed Peppers Recipe | Healthy Recipe Ideas http://caloriecount.about.com/tex-mex-stuffed-peppers-recipe-r97555#ixzz2fos1qlga

Labor Day 5K

Summer is almost over and what better way to end summer then with a 5K. Heck I started summer that way so why not..

Memorial Day's 5K time was kind of messed up since the race ended up being a half mile longer. I calculated my time at 35.55.

I decided in June to run another 5K this time hoping to get a real honest time. I ran the Diaper Rash at received a time of 38.31. This time I ran with a friend and we really were not pushing ourselves.

I ran/walked a couple ColorRun's during the summer but really after the Memorial Day race I did not do much training.

This all brings us to Labor Day 5K. This was my first time racing this route. I had ran the route with my daughter the week before and best time was 39 mins. I was not real hopeful. Race day I woke up with a horrible head cold. My running partner got sick also so really had no idea how well we would do. We started off strong with a 10 min mile pace. We managed to run our first mile at this 10/11 min mile pace. Took a short walk and decided that I should go on without her since she was really not feeling so hot. Sadly I took off run/jogging/walking without her the rest of the way. I finished at 35.12 net time. After finishing the first time I decided I should go back and finish strong with my dear friend. I found her just a couple minutes behind me and together we finished the race.

Success

Anytime you are working on losing weight and setting goals you think about things that you hope change when you lose weight. I refer to them at the mile stone successes. We all have them. "I want to walk without my legs rubbing together." I want to wear "normal" size clothing." "I want to run down the stairs to answer the phone and not be out of breath." Things like this. I have a long list of these things. On this list I have clothing sizes I hope to see again. I have things like single digit jeans. Knee high boots. Fit into my wedding dress. Etc. This past weekend I was able to see something I haven't seen in a long time and boy did it feel good.

Drum roll............................

That's right it's a med. top. Something I have not seen in at least 8 years. I can't wear all med. tops but I will get there. 

What are some of your mile stone successes?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

New Blogger 

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Diaper Dash 5K

Finally the weather is starting to warm up here in Michigan. This past weekend we had fairly decent weather and was able to do a ton of things with the girls. Our goal was to keep family fun time expenses down under $50.

I started off the weekend by completely a 5K. I set out to complete a 5K a month all summer long. I completed my my first one in May on Memorial Day. This was my June race. We have a local group that holds an annual race called the Diaper Dash. This race helps raise funds to help local mothers by purchasing items like diapers.. I completed the 5K in 38.31. Not my best time this year but not a bad time either. I am feeling pretty good. I am sure I could have pushed myself harder, but no second guessing what didn't happen. Only goal setting for next year.

? What does one do with all their race shirts and numbers ?

My legs were so sore after the race that I could barely walk. I am sure I over did it with my personal trainer on Friday. 

Last summer my family was introduced to Geocaching. Ever since we have been dying to go again. Since the weather was nice we decided to head out Saturday and see how many we could find within a 3 mile radius of the house. We found 4. Here is a picture of my two oldest daughter checking out one of them. 

We finished up Saturday night with a fire. Perfect way to end a perfect day. Sunday morning after a big breakfast we headed to complete our fun cheap family weekend. We started out by shooting 9 holes of disc golf. Than we finished it up by spending a couple hours fishing. We didn't catch anything but for our first time out this year we had a great time. 

Life gets so busy sometimes that we forget to just sit back and enjoy the time we get together. This weekend we proved that you could do just that for little to no money.

Memorial Day 5K

The big day came and went and I survived.. I more then survived; I rocked the Memorial Day 5K. I set a goal to beat my personal best time and I did that plus... My best time previously was 44.41 this time it was calculated at 35.55. That is over 8 mins faster then my best time. There was a little bit of confusion on the track layout and after we all finished it was announced that the actual race was a 3.6 mile rather then the 3.1 so I had to calculate my 5K time from my finishing time of 41.28. I wonder how well I would have done if I would of finished stronger a 1/2 mile back? Guess we will find out next year. Now to start preparing for the Diaper Dash in 2 weeks. The Diaper Dash is a typical 5K but all the proceeds go to helping low income families buy diapers.

Oldest daughter MiKayla (11), Middle daughter Nicole (8) and myself. 

My oldest daughter MiKayla

This is me; okay hard to see but I am the one with the pink line across my butt. 

Mexican Meatloaf Muffins

Mexican Meatloaf Muffins

Ingredients

	cooking spray
	1/2 pound uncooked lean ground beef
	1/2 pound uncooked ground chicken
	2 large egg white(s)   ( 1/4 cup liquid egg whites )
	1 cup cornbread stuffing dry mix
	1 medium uncooked onion, chopped
	8 oz canned enchilada sauce
	4 oz canned green chili peppers, diced

•         Preheat oven to 375°F. Coat a muffin pan with cooking spray.
•         In a large bowl, mix beef, chicken, egg whites, stuffing mix, onion, chilies and half of enchilada sauce together. Shape into balls with your hands and place into muffin pan.
•        Cook for 1 hour, top with remaining enchilada sauce and bake for 5 minutes more. 

  

Estimated Nutritional Facts: 1 muffin -- Calories 181.3 * Total Fat 5.3 g * Sodium 520.3 mg * Total Carbohydrate 14.1 g * Protein 18.9 g

Motivation Monday

Okay so it's not Monday but it will be soon enough.. I am currently working on a DVD slideshow for my cousin who is graduation from high school. While going through some old pictures I found a couple from 2 years ago. This was; as some of you might remember when I was at my heaviest 212 pounds. Check out the double chin!

The Simple Things

Have you ever heard the song "Simple Things" by Kenny Chesney? It's a song about drinking addictions but rings true for any situation where you feel lost or helpless. When you struggle and feel like you've lost the battle.  I was sitting here and something sparked my mind. Everyone has their own reasons for losing weight. It ranges from happiness/self-confidence to wanting to be able to wear a size 2 or a bikini with pride. However, everyone has random and uncommon reasons they want to lose to. Maybe they are not part of common knowledge people people are too embarrassed/shy to discuss them openly. What are you uncommon simple things you miss or reasons you want to lose weight? 

My Simple Things are:

1. I want to go to the store and not feel embarrassed when buying a chocolate bar. At the moment, I don't buy them because I feel like people are staring at the "fat girl buying the candy".

2. I don't want to be that girl who walks up three flights of stares and is completely out of breath and having a heart attack.

3. I think it would be funny to see my clothes that I wear now be baggy and barely fit me. I would still wear them sometimes to, as weird as it sounds!

4. I don't want to have back boobs anymore!

5. I would like to have my thighs NOT invade each others space!!!

Maybe these are really uncommon reasons, but they are different than the whole common "I want to be pretty" or "I want to be healthy" reasons!

Wha Who!!!

Okay, Okay you're asking 1st off "where have you been?" and 2nd "why the Wha Who?" Let's talk about the 1st question. I am a mental roller coaster. I can't ever seem to be happy with my success and beat myself up over the smallest of bumps. Friday started off as a great day which leads me to the 2nd question. During the spring and summer hours I work 4 days a week; which means I get Friday's off. I have partnered up with 2 wonderful ladies who agreed to split personal training time with me. This is huge because I went from spending $70 a month for 2 hrs to only spending $47 a month for 4 hours. Okay so back to the Wha Who. Friday morning I weighed in and guess what? The scale read 162.2! That's right for those of you who have been following my blog that meant that I reached 50 pounds gone for good.. I have always been on this weight loss journey. Some days I am moving forward and some backwards. I started to get really serious about in Nov. 2011 after looking at picture of myself with my beautiful daughter. I decided right then that I needed to lose weight not only for myself but to set an example for my daughters.

November 2011 - My oldest daughter MiKayla

30th Birthday Sept. 2011

30th Birthday Sept. 2011

Any normal person would be over the moon with excitement. No; not this girl. I set up the camera to take an after shot to compare to "fat" me and I don't see a huge difference. I see small ones but I don't see this wow image. I look at other people's photos and see this amazing before and after but when I look at mine I see a little smaller tummy but that is it. I have only gone down 3 pant sizes and 1 top size. 

After my Friday morning personal training session I decide to take the gals advice and go shopping for a new top and maybe try on some old 'fat' me size clothing. I never made it the 'fat' me section because I got lost in the 'new' me stuff. I found this great new top. I am very excited about it. Not only is a beautiful top, but I love the way I look and feel in it. 

Apparently I don't know how to take dressing room photos.

Check it out - Size 'L'

This was just the pick me up that I needed. I decided to celebrate by going out to lunch with my husband and then to the movies with my kids. The bad news is that 'fat' me made an appearance and pigged out. As of this morning I am still battling 2 weekend pounds I need to drop off so that I can get back to my 50 gone Wha Who...

I set a goal for myself at the beginning of the year to drop down to 155 by my mid-July vacation. I have 10 to drop in 10 weeks. Very doable if I bury 'fat' me and focus. Here's to the next 10... stay tuned...