D-D-D & No, I am not dieting

In our household DDD usually means that you are watching Diners, Drive ins, and Dives on the Food Network. We are addicted to the Food Network. Why I do not know and how it happened I do not know either; however today DDD stands for something totally different in my mind …..

Double Digits Down !!!

Yes, that is correct, I have finally hit the double digit loss on the scale! I have seen changes in other ways and other people have stopped me and said that they see quite a difference and that was doing okay for me — motivating me — but in the back of my mind it was still a question of when would I see at least 10 pounds gone …. well the answer came today!! YEA!!

An amazing transformation has occurred in the past couple of weeks. You may recall just a few short weeks ago, I was not able to manage to use the elliptical for any longer than a minute or two. Well, with the encouragement of my personal trainer Krista (aka "Jillian with wings") and my husband I have gradually increased my ability to utilize this amazing machine and I am now happy to report that I can consistently do it for 20 - 25 minutes at a time. I do this almost daily, while monitoring my heart rate to ensure I am keeping it at a fat burning level and viola slowly but surely I have greatly increased my endurance, tolerance, and ability & the best part is that the elliptical is a machine that works all the major muscle groups that I am targeting (the areas I feel I have the most to lose from). Here is to even more progress in the weeks to come, as the competition heads into the final stretch.

Second topic for this blog as I mentioned in the headline is No, I am not "dieting". Really I am but I tell myself that I am not, so that I don't get discouraged and so that I don't feel as though I am absolutely restricted from having certain foods. Now, there definitely are certain foods that I used to eat that I can not have now and may never have again, but there are definitely foods that I used to have and can still have with just a few adjustments.

We absolutely love tacos … so at the store the other night I bought the leanest ground beef, weight watchers mexican cheese, lettuce, tomato, and fat free sour cream. Then it was on to the tortillias - those can be the deal breaker — but not if you shop smart — Mission makes a 96% fat free tortillia that is awesome and lower on calories and fat while having a little more fiber than other tortillias. For the food plan that Jeremiah and I are utilizing this is the best case scenario. The cashier was amazed at the "healthier" side of things that I was purchasing - she said she had no idea that these things came in a healthier form. We quickly began talking about whole wheat pasta and tortillas which some people love, but I absolutely loathe … I have tried them and absolutely can not choke them down - they, to me, taste like carboard and that doesn't do me any good. I was the healthier side of things, but need to still have a good taste too. We can still have cheese burgers, again we just use the leanest beef and are cautious about the bread and condiments that we use. We can still have ice cream — Skinny Cow and Weight Watchers Smart Ones make some awesome flavors and I don't even feel like they are low fat or the portions are too small. There are some amazing products out there that still taste good, so it is easy to diet without feeling like you are dieting.

Continued success to all of you — Looking forward to seeing all the progress on April 16th!

Until Next Time,

Amber