Very bright lines today!

Oh, but no pre-planning. 

Breakfast was status quo, my go-to breakfast that is always delicious!

Lunch was a nice surprise because my hubby came home unexpectedly and we were able to eat together. The green beans are from the garden!

We went out there and picked food today. I need to take more pictures because there is a ton of food ready to harvest!  I snapped a quickie of the ripe tomatoes. 

We picked and picked and the only available place to hold everything was my shirt. I was ready to give birth!!

It was an easy labor and delivery!

Everything in a more organized manner!!

I’ve already blanched and frozen the zucchini. Excited to learn how to do this!

I froze it on my cookie sheets with the silpat mat. This allows me to pull it off the sheet really easily. 

Bagged and ready to use!!

This evening I found myself wanting goodies and sweets. I realized I was hungry and I better get to work on putting together a quick supper. 

Radishes and peas were from the garden for this meal!

Day 49, that’s a wrap. I have a count down in my planner. There are 112 days until my 50th birthday. Hoping to be very close to goal weight by that time!

For the first time since May 1st, I forgot to do my core exercises. This means I won’t get Saturday off. 

I was not at home today for any of my meals. I knew what to expect though and still planned my food pretty well. 

Breakfast was prepped at home and then eaten in the car. 

Lunch was lakeside and when I’m out and about, I don’t worry about measuring, and I make the best possible choices even if my lines aren’t “perfect”. Life can happen and I’m ok with having some blurry lines now and then.  Lunch was absolutely delicious and I would have eaten more but I felt one plateful was enough!

I’ll be so glad when I’m on maintenance and I can add potatoes or grain to my other meals. Supper had two fabulous salads that I could have eaten on maintenance, but I just ate what was on the weight loss meal plan. I did have the black bean chips as part of my protein because there were like 3 ingredients (black beans, oil, salt), and my supper was pretty simple.
 I admit that I did go back for seconds because I was fairly certain that I didn’t have 14oz of veggies on my plate. I probably had a little extra fat with a second serving of dip as well, but again, I knew that it would not derail me, and raw veggies aren’t very filling!

I’m happy with my food today and I can’t wait for breakfast!!  Day 44 is done!

I’m trying something new tonight because this needs to be quick and easy in order for me to keep up with it daily. I will start with a “before” photo. We are looking at Day 43. 

This has my plan for the day, but in the case of today, I had failed to pre plan my food. Normally, my planned food would be written in pencil. 

Then I’ll show my meals. 

BREAKFAST

LUNCH

SUPPER

And then I’ll show my completed day. This may or may not have the plan penciled in for the following day. This time, it does. 

I may say a few words about the food…like that was my staple breakfast again and I plan to repeat it again tomorrow morning!  I also was well into eating my cereal before I remembered to snap the photo!

Lunch was a throw together quickly meal but it was yummy. I’m also switching my lunch and supper back to the order they’re supposed to be in. I figured I may as well do it now since I was going to do it when school started anyway. I’ll be interested to see if having no fruit at night makes any difference in the speed of my weight loss. 

Supper was a bit labor intensive but the grilled veggies are so tasty, it’s worth the effort!  Here’s a quick look at the marinated  veggies before they went under the broiler!

I also might include any other “foodie type things” that happened during the day. 

Today I picked and froze raspberries from our garden.

They are very small this year because they didn’t get enough water, but I’m getting all that I can!

The blueberries are just starting as well. 

Mmmmmm!

I freeze on trays so they can be bagged and the berries won’t stick together. This makes them very easy to use down the road!

Overall it was a successful BLE day!!

I feel like I’m finally getting my act together in life. This year I turn 50. It’s about time. I have flirted with the debt free thing, flirted with healthy eating, struggled with the clutter, nevermind the actual cleaning.

A couple years ago I finally just had had it with debt. We had been debt free in our 30’s, INCLUDING the house so we knew what to do. We just got lazy. 

But I couldn’t live with that burden any longer so I got a part time job and started throwing my money at the debt. 

It was painful. Seeing thousands of dollars leave my hands and have really nothing to show for it taught me a solid lesson. I knew I never wanted to do this again. 

We followed the Dave Ramsey Baby Steps and just worked it. We fell off the wagon a bunch of times. But we crawled back on again and again and again. I’m happy to report that in September 2016, we paid our last debt. We could officially do our debt free scream and the burden was released!  With 10 more months of diligent focus, we finished Baby Step #3 and the new freedom from that is incredible!!

So…I (we, but I was the one pushing) got the money in order. That was the beginning of a new way of living. I try to budget, stay within the budget, and only buy what I really need. I still falter sometimes, but the habits have been established and I know I never want to experience that type of debt load again. 

Next came health. When I discovered Bright Line Eating it was so similar to writing a budget and then spending the budget, it felt right at home. Planning your food the night before is like a budget. Then eating the food as planned is like staying on your budget and spending in all the proper categories. Placing food on a plate that’s measured and fulfills each food category, and then knowing that it’s ok to eat every last morsel is very freeing!!  It was simple. It was and is like putting the pieces of a puzzle together and having them all fit!!  

It’s fun!  Really fun and after 42 days I feel like I’ve got this area of my life under control now so I can venture into the most difficult area of all (for me)….clutter!

What a plague to have stuff everywhere. I’ve filled a whole trailer load (a small one) with trash and unwanted things just this week and I’m sick that it’s all come out of my home.  Now to preface that a bit, lest you’re imagining an episode of “Hoarders”, most of it came out of my basement that flooded this spring, and it was stuff from when we moved 5 years ago. I’m dealing with neglect from the past and the process is excruciating. 

The only redeeming fact is that I have good systems in place now for paper and stuff, so it’s not continuing to pile up, and every item I deal with, I won’t have to look at it again. 

Money, Health, Stuff. I think many can relate. This is the order of attack that has worked for me. Living “Happy, Thin, and Free” is so much more than just losing weight!  I can see light at the end of a long and dark tunnel. I expect the next 50 years (yes, my goal now is to live till I’m 100!!) to be better than the first 50. 

I have a roadmap. I’ve traveled down the road. And best of all, I’m finally learning to enjoy the journey!!

It’s past midnight. I’ve had a very busy, running around kind of day. I’ve been decluttering and dealing with paper this evening, which is the WORST, and I need to go to bed because I’m hungry and bored, and feeling a little sorry for myself again. 

Nothing about today’s food plans happened!  But my lines stayed bright. 

This is what I had planned for breakfast. 

This is what I ate instead. 

I woke up too late to do hot food so I grabbed my staple, quick plan. It’s always delicious!

Lunch was supposed to be this. 

I knew I would be squeezing it in after the Costco run and a trip to the vet.  I came home from Costco and the vet and threw together this. 

I had too much fat, but whatever!  I did so much exercise today I’m sure it made up for it. Plus, the butter was thin on the corn!!

Supper was also on the run. I think I’m fairly successful going to Chipotle, and that is what I had for supper. 

Plans were put out the window!

I had planned a sack lunch in the car while driving, but I had this instead!

All the yummy parts are under the lettuce!

I spent a lot of time in the car today but still got my 10K steps in. That’s how busy today was!!

Before I go, here is the first half of my week!

It’s been a good week so far. Oh!  And I was down by 0.4 this morning and I’m hoping to see a brand new number tomorrow morning, one that I haven’t seen in several years!!

Good morning to a new day of whole foods!  Up 0.4 this morning. I don’t worry about the tiny fluctuations on the scale. 

I wasn’t sure how filling this cereal would be so that’s why I opted to use nuts as my entire protein. 

The strawberries and raspberries are from the garden. We also have blueberries, but they’re not ripe yet. 

This was a pretty quick prep time for lunch. The patties were in the fridge as leftovers. All my salad foods were basically prepped and in jars. 

I had to wash the snap peas and green beans since I picked them last night and put them straight into the jars without washing. 

This meal (protein, vegetable, salad, fat- and right now I’m switching the lunch and supper meals) always seems like a LOT of food. It was all very good. 

I like the different textures in food, sometimes even more than the taste. The coleslaw salad was fairly dry with no dressing, but having some soft cheese in it and alternating bites of it with the savory patties made it all taste delicious!

I just love knowing that my food is coming from my own garden or from basic ingredients out of my own kitchen. I’m planning to make the bean/mushroom patties again soon and I’ll share the recipe then. 

Right before I had supper, I had a food moment. I spent the whole day decluttering the contents of our basement that flooded this past spring. I already dealt with all the wet stuff during spring break, but the whole office was jammed full of boxes that were dry. 

Most of it is homeschooling materials which means I can use some for my classroom (I’m a teacher now. It’s been so long since I’ve blogged, lots has changed in my life.), I can get rid of a lot of it, and I can remember our homeschooling years which makes their cute handwriting and colored pictures sentimental and difficult to part with. There is also a lot of stuff we never did which leaves me feeling like a failure, even though I know overall, we did a good job. 

Needless to say, by 4:30 I wanted to snack and eat all things yummy, but those types of foods are not within my Bright Lines. I took a moment to think about how I was feeling. 

I wanted a treat, a reward for working so hard, some COMFORT food for doing such a grueling and mind taxing, awful job. But I chose to keep my lines bright and I drank water instead and quickly put together my supper. 

I had planned to eat this. It’s a life saver to plan your food the night before because executing the plan takes no additional decisions. And with a situation like this, another decision is NOT what I need to be doing when I’m tired, grumpy, and weak. 

I decided that peanut butter for my “fat” was more comforting than cheese, so I ate this. It was a compromise, but I didn’t cross any lines!

It was fast and easy to prep and I savored every bite.

As I ate, I could feel the peace come back over me and the cravings for all the treats went away. I am grateful for clarity of mind which has been a result of my new lifestyle and while in the past I would have just grabbed anything I could find, now I was able to make better choices and not pacify myself with unhealthy foods. I may have faltered a bit with the peanut butter (I didn’t measure it), but I stayed within my food plan and I feel like the day was a success especially since I was conscious of the “why” behind the cravings. 

Food should be food, not a reward, not a pacifier. It is for fuel and nourishment and should be enjoyed just for what it is. 

I’ve read a book that has changed my life!  I’m going to post a photo of it and then share my journey here in this blog. 

When you step on the scale and the number that pops up is the same number that you saw when you were full term pregnant with your first child…well…SOMETHING NEEDS TO DRASTICALLY CHANGE!!!

I found myself middle aged, pudgy, and definitely not happy with what I was seeing in the mirror. 

This blog is going to become more like a foodie blog for a while because I’d like to share my experience and the results of reading Susan’s book. This has become a new way of life for me and while I’m already 10 lbs lighter after just 37 days, my sense of well being, my happiness, and my positive outlook are simply amazing!  I am loving life and finding a new level of vibrant living that I want to co tongue to experience. 

I plan to jump in where I’m at and as time allows I may backtrack and show my food for the past 39 days. I wanted to be sure this was going to stick before blogging about it and it has!  

I’m happy to answer questions but there won’t be a big explanation of how this all works. I’m simply going to just share how I’m doing it and my reactions each day. 

Now to share my journey!

Family Poem and Portrait

   
 
Steadfast Determination

Purely authentic, individually unique, collectively talented. 

Loyalty steadfast, determination unmatched, ready for a challenge

Appreciation growing, hard working, idea driven.  

Trusting, honest to a fault, possibly too naive. 

All at home, family unit, savoring the days…

I’m afraid these may show up out of order. Sometimes I can’t force out a poem, or it may take more than one day for me to write it!

Day 4 NaPoWriMo 

The Cruelest Month

Glorious sunshine
Thermometer bright
Boots in the box and coats out of sight. 

Children outdoors now 
Sunglasses we need
The warmth hugs and holds us, our hopes it exceeds. 

Spring break begins now
For April has come
Projects outdoors, and then hours of fun. 

But weather surprise us
A fire we need
Inside the air’s chilly, we just can’t believe

We wake to find white
No sign of the sun
Vacation is tarnished, what happened to fun?

Dear April why now 
Does snow grace our land?
Spring weather expected and now we demand. 

Sunshine come back now
And warm our bare skin
And let the vacation now finally begin. 

It’s April and national poetry month!  I am joining the challenge to write one poem a day in April. I am following the prompts from the NaPoWriMo blog, and today’s poem is…

Poetic form: Lune
American Haiku 5-3-5
No other rules

Love never forgets
And hearts yearn
For memories vivid