Trying a new product

I am quite excited I had the opportunity to try out one of the super popular waist trimmers. 

I can't wait to see if it does anything. Plus, I wonder if there's adverse affects. 

 

Review to come. 

Have you tried one? What did you think? 

Say what?!

Hey guys, been a few days since my last post. Getting everything ready for our upcoming trip and the kids birthdays this week. 

 Matthew and I were decorating kylee's chocolate cake/chocolate frosting with the sixlets beads/pearls and realized just how hard not eating all the yummy goodness the kids want to eat for their birthdays will be. 

The kids each get their own cakes since they are a few days apart and then get another at grandma and grandpas ahh so much junk food. 🎂🎂🎂

Well let's get back to my reason for writing. The last few days Matt has been confronted with a few questions. Now I am not gonna say the aren't valid. They or at least some of the questions or statements make sense or it's easy to understand that point of view. The last few weeks on Matt's podcast(TerriblyDisappointing(available on iTunes) the other guys ask how he is doing on his plant based whole foods diet. On one hand to kind of motivate his but also to joke around with him when he takes a free day. 

The reason I mention this is because one of the guys(possibly both, idk I heard the conversation from Matt) commented on him eating pizza and then how Matt said he had been good. He(other guy) said that eating even 5000 calories of fruits/veggies isn't good for you(I'm assuming weight loss wise). 

This is the comment I was saying you can see the trail of logic. If you have ever been on a diet( probably even if you haven't) you have heard the you need to eat less calories to lose weight. 

It's all quite confusing because I have also read that it isn't a long term solution because our bodies can last on so few calories and if we raise our calorie allowance we will likely gain weight.

Well damn should I eat less or make sure my body can "run" properly. I can't say for sure how I am eating is "healthy". However, I am fairly certain it's healthier eating bananas and such than it was  regularly eating pizza and mc Donald's. 

As for the 5000 calories of fruit/veggies making you gain weight. I did a little math of one of my meals the other day. 

Here is one of my meals 

 Great smoothie by the way. I actually doubled this recipe for the one meal. So approximately 720 calories. Which is probably about 3 pizza slices. Which is about what I use to eat. This was one of my 5-6 meals that day and i weighed myself the next morning now I may have only lost a few ounces(not sure of exact amount) but I know I certainly didn't gain any.

.....................

The next comment was in regards to Matt's lunch(well one of them). 

Matt had gone to kfc with a coworker. Matt did not partake of the restaurant food and instead ate his pistachios and raspberries. 

While sitting with his coworker who was munching away at his chicken and mashed potatoes he told Matthew that both the raspberries and pistachios were bad for him. Having texted me if it was true(would love to know what your search turned up/thoughts) I told him I don't think so. Asked what the guy was saying was bad about the pistachios. Matt said it was kind of an in general thing. 

However Matt later said the guy mentioned good cholesterol and bad. Referencing the pistachios. 

He(other guy) said that the raspberries were no better for his than the fried chicken he was consuming. Now in general I would say that's total hogwash. However, his reasoning was pesticides. 

So that is my question to you are raspberries now better for you than fried chicken if sprayed with chemicals? 

Pizza is my Drug

It has been a bit since I last posted on here. 

Since then we have had our ups an downs.  We went to a birthday party this last weekend for a friends kid and we decided to partake of their bbq. It was enjoyable. 

Should we have done it? Probably not, especially since, we both had stomachaches after, even with only eating a little bit of the food. 

I am now dying for the gooey cheese and the nice warm sauce. I probably seem crazy since, I baked some bread and now it is really hot in our house. 

Food addiction: 

 "Food addiction is a very serious problem and one of the main reasons some people just can’t control themselves around certain foods, no matter how hard they try

What is Food Addiction?

Food addiction is, quite simply, being addicted to junk food in the same way as drug addicts are addicted to drugs.
It involves the same areas in the brain, the same neurotransmitters and many of the symptoms are identical (1).
Food addiction is a relatively new (and controversial) term and there are no good statistics available on how common it is.
This is very similar to several other eating disorders, including binge eating disorder, bulimia, compulsive overeating and having an “unhealthy” relationship with food.
."-authoritynutrion.com

I can't remember if I told you about this time recently. It was a week or so ago, and I decided I wanted to go to Game Stop. We bought a few games, and then proceeded to the grocery store 2 doors over. Matthew and I discussed what we would be eating for dinner. 

I didn't mention that between the grocery store and Game Stop there is a pizza place. Who happens to have a monday special where the pizza are about 3.99 on Mondays. 

Anyways, so we are standing there discussing/trying to talk ourselves out of ordering pizza, and I eventually say ok lets just go home. Get away from the temptation. 

 Matthew seems to be annoyed so I say ok if you really want it lets go get it. He says no, and continues to tell me why we can't as we are walking out the door. Out the door and around the corner towards the pizza shop. I asked him where he is headed and I think he said something about to the car and I said its about 100 feet in the opposite direction. It was then that he realized he was kind of on auto pilot. 

Eek, do you deal with things like this. Does food have a power over you?

Trials

I realized that with the last post I didn't state how much we have each lost. 

Matthew's starting was 275

and he is currenlty

256

My starting was 235

and I am currently 225

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

I hope you guys, who celebrate, had a good Easter.

Matthew unfortunately had to work, but he was able to see the kids "open" their baskets before he left for work.

Then after he got off work we went and had an Easter Egg hunt with family.

Video here

While getting the kids baskets ready the night before I came to the realization that candy is one of my problem areas. 

As I was buying it I was sitting there thinking that I could just eat whatever jelly beans don't fit into the eggs. 

That was the first reason yesterday was tough for me. Matthew said candy isn't a problem for him. 

However, I know good and well he had trouble with the other 2.

Since, Matthew, his dad, and I are all on this Whole Food Plant Based "diet", we all decided to do a potluck. 

I tried a few recipes yesterday, just for us to decide on corn bread.

Matt's dad made some approved chili. It was really good. However, it was Matt's sister made wings. Not hot wings like I had thought, which would have been way worse, but chicken nonetheless. 

His other sister made a banana cream cake. 

Those weren't nearly as bad as the trial we faced later.

If you read yesterdays post, then you know that normally Matthew and I would order pizza. Actually, truth be told. We would order 4 from Dominos. Then proceed to eat to our hearts content, and then eat leftovers the next day. While watching our shows on Sunday nights, Walking Dead, Shameless, Game of Thrones, etc.

Last night we were good, and fought the urge to order it. Wasn't that difficult until one of the characters in Shameless said I ordered pizza, yada yada, I will heat it up. Then the other said nah its better cold. We both had to fight the urge at that point to not order that dang cheesy goodness.

Have a great Day guys.

Next Post: Does this count?

Lets Get Real

Good Morning All.

Happy Easter to those that celebrate it.

In yesterdays post I said I would talk about...

1. What were our starting weights?
2. What was our first task?
3. How long we have currently been on this?
4. How is it going thus far?
5. Also, I will share a recipe I found we have loved. 

I have "struggled" with my weight for most of my life. Until I got married I was usually just on the higher end of a healthy weight. Being an emotional eater I know where my issues with food started. I had a less than ideal childhood and I believe once out of the situation I didn't know how to cope with everything at such a young age, so I turned to food. I suppose it has been a good(bad) friend ever since. 

I wish I knew what Matthew's trigger is. I think he may just have bad habbits. Such as watching tv and wanting to eat. For instance today is Sunday. So tonight we have "Shameless" and "The Last Man on Earth", usually we would watch it and order pizza while Matt would drink a bottle of wine.

Over the years we finally realized that we are 1 addicted to food. So much so that it will improve our mood to get the food we want, and we become grumpy if we don't. Another thing we have come to realize is that we are each others enablers. 

A recent example of that: This weekend we went to Matt's parents house and he and his brother put a trampoline together, we played games, and just visited. Then they were planning to go out and have a free day/date night. Matthew wanted to go, so I agreed. Whats funny about this, is we were trying not to spend money, and thats one of the reasons we went  over there in the first place. Because we knew the kids would have free fun, and we could visit etc, without spending a dime. We were good, packed every food we (us and the kids) would eat that day.

Before we even left for the dinner I told Matt I wasn't thrilled with the idea of a free day or meal. Because the day before I started I had eaten pizza and gained a few pounds. It took a few days to get them off. It didn't seem worth it.
(I only started the whole food/plant based part last friday(3/27/2015). Matthew had started about a week before me, maybe 2.)
 However, he was saying I should just have one meal.  I still was saying I didn't really want to. He said well I am gonna go off if thats ok with you. Now I could have said I wish you wouldn't but I don't feel I have a right to say no to something he wants to do. Right before we got to the restaurant I told him I would go ahead and go off for this one meal, because I didn't want to end up regretting it.

Says quite a bit about how much of a slave to food I am. That I would regret not eating "crap".


What were our starting weights?  Matthew started this adventure at 275. I started at 235. :-/
 

What was our first task?

Matthew's dad progressivley introduced him to this diet. He first started him/us on drinking enough water. Which, for those who don't know that is suppose to be half your body weight in water. I have been drinking 115 ounces a day. After begining this( a day after Matthew) I realized I wasn't drinking nearly enough. Maybe 30 ish ounces a day. I had been chronically dehyrdated for years. 

I love researching, so I had to look up if being chronically dehydrated could cause you to gain weight/ retain fat etc. 

The answer is Yes. 

Our bodies are mostly water so if it isn't getting enough it will try and hold onto the little it has. 

As well as if it doesn't have enough our bodies don't function properly.

How long we have currently been on this?

We started the water part about a month ago. 

Like I said above, I started the whole food about a week ago. Whereas Matthew started 2 weeks ago.
How is it going thus far?

Surprisingly well. Feeding a family of 4 six small meals a day can be quite expensive, but other than that its going well. I have found, I am not so drawn to the junk food. Don't get me wrong, since I am sitting here writing about food, and what not I am currently thinking of pizza, and how it tastes. However, I have noticed as long as I eat my small meals every 2 hours like I am suppose to, I am perfectly fine. At least as long as the food is good. If I try a recipe and its blah then I am just thinking well, I could just order a pizza.

Matthew has lost about 20 pounds

I lost about 5 while doing the water, and eating "normal" foods, but eating slightly less.
Also, I will share a recipe I found we have loved. 

 

 

Rotini and Black Bean Salad

Source: triplantstrong.blogspot.com 

 

 Ingredients:
8 oz whole wheat/whole grain rotini pasta
6 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp minced garlic
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 can black beans
1/2 c. cherry tomatos (I used roma tomatos)
1/2 c. frozen corn, thawed
1/4 c. chopped green onion, white parts
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 c. chopped fresh chives
1 tbsp fresh cilantro
1 ripe avocado
salt/pepper to taste
1 tbsp fresh cilantro (I used an entire bunch)

*First of all, I doubled the recipe above.  Then, I added 1 red bell pepper, 1 bunch cilantro (instead of 1 tbsp), 1 tsp cumin, several dashes cayenne pepper, & garlic salt to taste.  I also used more beans and corn than it called for. In addition, double the dressing recipe.  As the pasta sits, it absorbs the dressing.  You need to add more prior to serving.  I grilled chicken breast to put in the salad for the family members that eat chicken.  If I would've had fresh spinach, I would have put that in it as well.

Cook the pasta according to the directions on box.  Rinse with cold water and drain.  Whisk together the balsamic vinegar and garlic in a bowl.  Season with salt and pepper.  Then, whisk oil in until dressing thickens.  Add beans, corn, onion, chives, cilantro, bell pepper, etc. to the pasta.  Pour dressing over pasta and toss.  Add cubed avocado to pasta and fold in.  Refrigerate at least an hour or longer before serving.

I hope you guys like this recipe, and enjoyed todays post.
If you try it let me know what you think.

!!Have a great Day!!

Hey There

Hey Guys!

Welcome to our new blog. 

I suppose I should just jump right it. 

 

...............................................

...................................

...............................

...................

............

.......

..

.

 

About a month ago Matthew's dad,

..Seen Here..

contacted him about trying out a "weight loss" app. I am not entirely sure if its a weightloss app, it might just be a health app, but I believe the biggest reason for choosing Matthew is because he has some weight to lose. I suppose I should say WE.

 Because, naturally I ended up joining him on his adventure. 

 .

..

......

.............

....................

.............................

...................................

...........................................

 

Here we are circa 2006

 This was actually the photo shoot for our wedding invitations.

Here we are circa Now.

Now I would love to say that we didn't go into this hoping to lose weight. 

However, that isn't the case. Just as with many other peoples stories we have tried several times, with several different diets to lose weight. However, there is always one problem. US! We are the problem. At least in our case. I have the problem of thinking oh I lost 5 pounds now I can reward myself, and I reward myself with food, i.e pizza.

Obviously being completely immersed in the Standard American Diet(S.A.D) we are big fans of food. You don't generally get to be 50-80 pounds heavier in 8-9 years without being a fan of food. 

So that's what this is, a blog about our adventure in weight-loss, getting healthy all while HOPEFULLY eating good food.

Have a great day!

Next blog post: What was our starting weights?

What was our first task?

How long we have currently been on this?

How is it going thus far?

Also, I will share a recipe I found we have loved.