Monday, June 30, 2014( Day 2 WS diet)

Day 2: you may only eat veggies(except for corn and other starchy vegetables) and the wonder soup. 

Alright so today was quite the busy day for me. Had gym, then walmart, then home and picked out of the garden, showered, made kale chips, chopped up cantelope to eat tomorrow and LOTS of squash for the freezer. Then helped Eric with making 4 gal. of icecream... Ahhh... Now, on to the diet... Today was hard. Hard because I REALLY wanted fruit and hated that I couldn't have any. For breakfast I had 2 hard boiled eggs, not exactly part of the diet, but I knew I needed it to be able to go to the gym and actually have the strength to work out. Ended up being just me, so I went and jumped on the elliptical and then got the guts to try the stair stepper...excited about class tomorrow evening. Really hoping for a good turn out!

Meals:

Breakfast: 2 hard boiled eggs/water

Lunch: Salad with broccoli and carrots with a vinegarette dressing(yuck) and soup. 

Supper: Grilled squash(lots) and soup

Snacks: just before bed I ate a little cantelope.

Exercise: 1 hr. on the elliptical and 10 min. on the stair stepper.

I was really surprised by the fact that I had about the same number of steps at the end of the hour that I usually get in class. I was right at 6,900 steps... 

Total Steps: 9,339

Water: 2  1/2 qt. 

Sunday, June 29, 2014 (WS diet Day 1)

Ahhh, Sunday... Our day of rest and also Day 1 for me in my one week WS diet(Wonder Soup)....

Day 1: You can only eat fruits today(except bananas) and as much of the wonder soup as you like. 

 This morning was pretty usual... I had an apple and some grapes for breakfast. For lunch, I had a bowl of the WS, an apple and some grapes. I also cheated a little and had some of Eric's delicious homemade icecream... I KNOW, I KNOW!! First day and I have already cheated!! No more of that lol... About an hour later I was dying to snack!! So I warmed up some more of the soup and ate it. It satisfied me well :) I had a friend warn me of the soups astounding ability to send you to the bathroom often, and sure enough... 3 hours later I am indeed in the bathroom. Wow! I also read on the blog that I pulled this recipe from that by the end of the week, she felt "clean" inside... So I hope that's how I will feel as well.. :) I plan to keep my routine as normal as possible so pray for me!! Haha! Day 1... So far not bad at all :)..... 

Ok, so day 1 was a fail for me lol... Should have started it tomorrow! We were invited to a friends house for supper and I so cheated and had some grilled zucchini and squash, and some grilled potatoes and a bite or two of corn. I'm just gonna keep going and *try to stay away from friends offering good food haha!! 

Meals:

Breakfast: apple, grapes

Lunch: Wonder soup, apple, grapes( and a little icecream)

Supper: Wonder soup, and lots of cantaloupe, watermelon, 2 peaches, potatoes, and grilled veggies.  

Snacks: extra bowl of soup

Exercise: not much... It's my day of rest.

Total Steps: 2,152

Water:1 1/2 qt.?

The 1 week "Wonder Soup" diet

So I am sure that many of you have heard of this diet.... It consists of a cabbage soup that they give you the recipe for and then on each day you are allowed to eat only certain things and I will post how each day goes for me and what I'm allowed to eat. I'm really not bothered with eating vegetables so I'm looking forward to it, I don't think it's going to be an extremely hard diet for me, but we will see how I feel about it at the end of the week. Wish me luck and lots of pounds lost!

Here is a quick overview of the "Wonder Soup Diet"...

Wonder Soup recipe

•1/2 head of cabbage, chopped

•1 cup celery, diced

•1 cup white or yellow onion, diced

•1 cup carrots, diced

•1 green bell pepper, diced

•2-3 cloves garlic, minced

•4 cups chicken broth

•1 14oz. can of basil,oregano,garlic diced tomatoes

•1 tsp. oregano

•1 tsp. basil

•1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

•Few shakes of black pepper

•1/2 tsp. salt(optional)

Instructions:

1. Heat 2 tbsp. of olive oil in a large pot over medium heat

2. Add celery, onions, bell peppers, and carrots.

3. Sauté until slightly tender and then stir in minced garlic.

4. Pour in chicken broth. 

5. Stir in tomatoes and cabbage

6. Bring to a boil and reduce heat, cook until cabbage is tender.

7. Stir in all spices.( I added mine while it was cooking so that the spices would permeate the food)

8. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed. 

9. Eat and enjoy!!

Day 1:

Only fruit today(except bananas) along with the wonder soup. 

Day 2:

Only veggies today(except corn or other starchy vegetables) and soup. It says you may have a baked potato for breakfast.

Day 3:

You may have fruits and veggies (minus the exceptions,and no potato...) along with soup. 

Day 4: 

Today is only bananas, milk and yogurt along with soup...( I am looking forward to this day)

Day 5:

Only tomatoes(6-8) and protein like fish, turkey, or chicken today along with soup... Mmmm... Bring on the meat!!

Day 6:

Today is protein and veggies day... Any vegetable(minus restricted) and same type protein with soup...

Day 7:

LAST DAY!! Today is fruits, veggies (minus restricted) and juices only with the wonder soup. 

Hope to be a lot lighter by this day!!!

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Boy....Today has been a day of this and that but not much of nothin....lol Does that even make sense? Slept in this morning, got up had a brunch meal as I started on making food for an upcoming diet I plan to try( more on that in my next post!) That took a while, and mostly just sat around....(Hoping to get in a evening walk...we will see) Watched some tv, chatted with my sis for a while....and yeah...that's about it.

Meals: 
Breakfast/lunch: 2 hard boiled eggs, banana/water

Afternoon/late lunch:Eric brought home some pizza, which I decided to endulge in since starting tomorrow I will be on a strict diet for a week.

Supper: salad and some cantelope :)

Snacks: Eric made some homemade icecream for a ss teachers meeting tomorrow at church and I had to taste test it ;) but just a couple bites though., apple

Exercise: a nice walk on the new community walking trail. 
Total Steps: 5,041

Water: 2 qt. 

Friday, June 27, 2014

What a day!! Busy busy busy! I had gym this morning and then got on the elliptical....THANK YOU Annika for being my work out buddy today :) After gym, came home got started on lunch...after lunch, ran my sis to work, then bank, bills, then home again. Then went grocery shopping. Then ate supper and breathed! Haha! It has been a good day :)

Meals:
Breakfast: 1 hard-boiled egg, 1 protein bar, and a banana/coffee

Lunch: had planned on salad but was in a rush so I just grabbed some chicken nuggets and a hashbrown I had made for the kids and ran out the door :/

Supper: Salad with ham, cheese, ranch and chopped up hb egg :) with a little deer meat.

Snacks: banana, apple

Exercise: 1 hr. devoted fitness, 25 min. on the elliptical
( I was super excited today.....I checked my steps after class and had close to 6,900 steps!! I was within 300 steps of my 10,000 when we left the gym!)
Total Steps: 12,285!!

Water: 2 qt.

My random thoughts...

So here is my little nugget of wisdom for the day.... If you wait till you have time to exercise... You'll never exercise. It has to become a priority on your daily agenda with a specific time set aside for it. Whether it's in your calendar or not is a good indication of just how "important" it is to you.....

Weekly weigh-in 6/26/14

Today I weighed 310lbs. So I'm pleased with my progress. I have lost 4 lbs., I really want to keep this momentum up and finally reach the 200's!!! I didn't get to take a progress picture today, but I will def. get one next week!

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Today has been an alright day. I did some light house cleaning, and attempted to get some work done in the garden, however the rain had different plans for me :(  I was however productive in getting all my pictures from my phone copied to my computer so I could erase them off my phone! Anywho, here is my daily info and tomorrow is gym day!!!

Meals:

Breakfast: oops, forgot about that meal!!

Lunch: leftovers from supper

Supper: cheeseburger with lettuce. No bread and fried green beans. 

Snacks: apple, 2 oranges, banana

Exercise: just a movin around the house...

Total steps: 4,122...so close, but it was 10 and I needed to get to bed...

Water: 1 qt. 

Wednesday, 6/25/14

Today has been a good day. Had class this morning and will be trying out a class in the evening on the 1st of July. We will see how that goes...hoping to find a time that works best for people to come. I really need to find me a work out partner for after class. It really stinks working out alone. So, if you need a work out partner and don't mind coming to Atlas let me know ;). I have been dropping weight and I would suspect tomorrow to be a good weigh in day. We will see :) 

Meals~

Breakfast: 2 protein bars/water

Lunch: soup

Supper: Taco Salad(chips, lettuce, cheese, deer meat)

Snack: strawberry protein bar, 3 cookies

Exercise: 1 hr devoted fitness, 25 min. On the elliptical

Total Steps: somewhere close to 10,000. I wasn't able to wear my phone the whole time in class to count all my steps. 

Water: 2 qt. 

6/24/14

Today was a pretty good day. I practiced some new df songs... I don't have them down enough to actually do them in class, but I'm excited about practicing them more and doing them in class soon.  Today was a good day with eating and exercising. My goal is to reach 5000 steps on the days I don't go to the gym, so I'm glad that I made it today :) I didn't do so well with water intake though. I gotta work on that!

Meals:

Breakfast: protein meal bar

Lunch: salad with ranch

Supper: deer steak and green beans

Exercise: 

Practiced df songs and really tried to keep myself movin.

Total Steps: 5,059

Water: 

1 qt.

Devoted Fitness....

Devoted fitness, such an amazing ministry to be a part of and I find myself being really bummed out. Today I had made an event, invited close to 200 women to come and try devoted fitness for free and only one showed up(which is a regular). I can expect some resistance to this ministry because well it has Christ as it's center and it will have opposition from Satan. Sometimes I feel like, "What business do I have leading this class?" I am extremely overweight, I am just now to where I can do the full hour without having to modify moves..... And a lot of times my self-conscious gets the best of me and I worry about what I look like in front of people. But I feel like God has led me to where I am, and though I feel completely inadequate for such a task, I know that God does not call the qualified, He qualifies the called....So with that in mind I have to just set aside my feelings of inadequacy and self-consciousness and do it. I may not look the best, I may not be the best and there may be many women in the class that would be way more qualified and visually appealing than I am to be leading it, but God hasn't called them, He's called me. So I will keep doing it, regardless of whether there is 1 person in class or 2, or 5, or 20....  I will set my feelings aside and I will lead the class into worship with God and trust that God will take care of the rest. God will make all of my inadequacies, adequate. Though totally scared walking into every class, I will trust that God will work out all of the rest if I am faithful and show up and be willing to allow Him to use me in this ministry. I pray for more women to come, not because I want to have a class full.... to make myself feel accomplished. But because I want other women to experience being able to worship and lean on God while pushing yourself to keep going when your inner self says, "I'm tired. Just quit." And honestly, it's no fun to work out alone, being around other women, especially women in Christ, it gives me motivation to keep going, to continue on my journey. My journey of losing weight and also my walk with Christ. To be able to share prayers and praises with each other after class and getting lost in worship together while working out and being there for each other is amazing. So I feel God is testing me. I feel Him saying,  "Angel, even if  only one shows up, will you be faithful? Will you do what I have called you to do?" Yes. I will. Regardless. I will pray for the growth of this ministry while I continue to be faithful in leading it. And I pray my willingness to be real and vulnerable will somehow be a blessing to someone else.....  Maybe someone in the same boat as I am in, who feels too self-conscious to come and workout will find motivation through me. That's my prayer. Lord use me. 

Session 2 starts now.... 6/23/14

So for the past while we've been busy with vacations, traveling and such and I have allowed my eating to go uncontrolled and just enjoyed myself. Being on vacation I haven't done the exercise that I should've been, and boy can I tell it. My weight definitely shows the lack of care and control that I've had. I got on the scale this morning and I was 314 lbs. A serious blow to my gut. But at the same time a renewed motivation. I refuse to allow myself to go back to where I was. So today starts session 2. I will be going back on my stricter diet and exercising three days a week for at least an hour and a half, while also keeping myself active at home so that the exercise doesn't end when I leave the gym. I plan to implement all of my previous things that I did to keep track of my intake and my weight-loss. Such as keeping track of my food intake with MyFitnessPal app and also my Striiv app. Along with and probably most importantly, my blog. It really help me keep my emotions in check. And it allowed me to express my inner thoughts without fear of judgment. My own personal sanctuary to allow myself to be real and give myself a sort of self accountability as well as tracking my progress and giving me motivation to keep going. I really believe Satan diverted my attention away from these things so that I would begin to fail. While having these things and using them I felt great. I had motivation, I had a visual representation of what my hard work was accomplishing. I so need that again, and I know that now. I allowed myself to believe that as I became more comfortable with the routine that I had that I could let those things fall by the wayside and still continue on my path. But the reality was when I let those things go, I slowly let my routine go. And with having two trips almost back to back, that hasn't help me either. But with all traveling out of the way, I am free to get back on track. And that is exactly what I plan to do. So no looking back, no regrets, just moving forward. Today starts Session 2.

Meals: 

Breakfast: protein meal bar, coffee /acv water. 

Lunch: fresh salad from our garden with ranch dressing /acv water

Supper: squash soup

Exercise:

1 hour df class, 15 min. on the elliptical, and housework.

Total Steps: 10,313

Water: 2 qt.

Weekly weigh-in 5/4/14

Well, today has been a running day!! I did remember to weigh-in this morning, but I didn't have time to take a picture. My scale this morning read 307 lb. So I have gained a couple back, but I'm not gonna let that get me down, it's bound to happen. So, I will be gyming 3x a week and really watching what I eat. Next week we are going to Ohio for 9 days to visit with family. So I'll miss a week of classes. But when we get back I'll be ready to hit the ground running! I am so close to the 200's!

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Oh my, just realized while typing the date that TOMORROW is weigh in day. I am afraid. lol. I know that I am higher that what I was, but I'm not sure exactly where I am at. Today has been a really great day! We had class this morning and we had a newcomer :) Her name is Rachel and seemed super sweet. Hopeful to see her back on Friday. This is my second day leading and I feel I am doing pretty good. I love Devoted Fitness. I am so glad that I can be used to connect other people with this ministry to. It is so wonderful to get lost in worship while dancing in His name to all His glory. Praise God! It is amazing to feel God carrying you through when you feel like you can't do no more. I have for too long neglected His temple. With His help though, I know that I can work hard, eat right, and get His temple back healthy again! That is an exciting thought!!

Meals:

Breakfast: almond butter sandwich/coffee

Lunch: soup/ acv water

Supper: chicken salad, a yogurt parfait/water

snacks: a couple fries

Exercise:
1 hr. df class, 30 min. on the elliptical

Total Steps: 

Water:

2 1/2 qt.