Choose to lose: week Four check in

THIRTY-ONE DAYS!!! That's how long I've been at this weight loss thing this time around!! Wanna know what kicked all this off? Check out my blog WEIGHT LOSS: my why & how you can find yours that I wrote over a year ago now. Today, I'm gonna be bold and share some pretty vulnerable stuff with you, I hope that you will find it encouraging on your own personal journey.

Today, I knew the scale wasn't gonna reflect my true results because yesterday I had a really bad day and ate my feelings. Lets back up a little so I can explain. Thursday evening, one of my sweet kiddos left the sink running and it was plugged so it overflowed into the floor and leaked through to our basement..... I cleaned up as best as I could but I couldn't help but go into a panic; especially after the flooding incident that happened back in the fall (I don't know if you remember that but I'm pretty sure I have some PTSD from that situation! especially since I'm constantly hearing water running now.). I had to take rescue meds to keep me from having a panic attack and those meds make me sleepy and hungry. Friday was a long hard day of basically me just doing those two things. BUT today is a new day.... so we are starting fresh.....

As far as Exercise goes... I'm still not following a vigorous schedule, but I am trying to go for walks a few times a week. This past week, Sunday morning, I fell in my driveway and have been sore from the fall so I've not done any walking. {It's been a rough week yall!} BUT lots of good things have happened too... Keegan just finished his 9th grade year so that should free up some time AND my discipleship class is ending soon... we are taking a break from piano classes too.... sooooooo I should have some extra time to devote to walking. (FINGERS CROSSED).

MY FOCUS: Right now, my focus is to track everything I eat on the Lose It! App while making better food choices.... I'm shooting for high protein, low calorie. I've struggled with macros bad because it's such a learning process. Some days, I even just focused on staying under on calories because I was just struggling!

HERE ARE THE DEETS:

My Heaviest Weight (Feb 8, 2023): 276 lbs.

My START Weight (April 3, 2024): 257.7

My Current Weight (April 27, 2024): 249.1

This week's weight loss (in 7 days): 1.3 lbs.

 TOTAL WEIGHT LOST: 26.9 lbs.

**On April 29th I was down to 247.7 lbs, but "gained it back". I'm learning through experience that weight fluctuates and so many factors play into what the scale shows!

For those of you wondering WHAT my diet looked like this week... Here it is!

I'm NOT perfect, but these are the changes I made that helped me get these results:

If you are NOT interested in the details, feel free to skip this part! 

Sat April 27, 2024: I started out with a Protein Coffee. For lunch I had a Pre-made Protein Coffee (Cappuccino flavored) and a Elevation Chocolate coconut bar (those are so good! I get them from Aldi and they taste like a mounds candy bar!!!) For Dinner I made a chicken salad with greek yogurt, but it was a bust. I had a boiled egg though while making the salad, so I counted that and the few bites of the salad that I had. I ended up throwing it out to the chickens and made a fruit platter with an orange, strawberries, apple, banana, and some peanut butter. I didn't have snacks that day, so I was 504 calories UNDER BUDGET that day!

Sun April 28, 2024:  Breakfast was a Protein Coffee and some protein waffles with organic coconut nectar. For lunch I had a munchies Protein Shake. And Dinner was a Fruity Cereal Protein shake. I snacked on 4 turkey sticks, 2 light string cheese, pretzels, and an elevation chocolate coconut bar. I was only 12 calories UNDER BUDGET that day!

Mon April 29, 2024: You guessed it, PROTEIN COFFEE for breakfast. For lunch I had a 3 turkey sausage sticks with 1 light string cheese, 2 mini cucumbers, and a cafe Mocha plant-based protein shake. For Dinner I made lazy lasagna for the family, so I saved the sauce and made Zucchini noodles to fix mine. I snacked on pretzel sticks and an elevation chocolate coconut bar throughout the day. I was 175 calories UNDER BUDGET that day!

Tues April 30, 2024: Protein Coffee for breakfast. I had Pizza in a bowl for lunch but while I cooked that up, I snacked on 3 turkey sausage sticks and a light string cheese. For Dinner I had a Munchies Protein Shake, a skinny cow ice cream sandwich and a fiber brownie.... I was still 309 calories UNDER BUDGET!

Wed May 1, 2024: Breakfast was Protein Coffee as usual. Lunch was I had an everything bagel with turkey and cheese and some mayo (which I didn't eat all of because it filled me up super-fast!) Dinner was weird: I used my waffle maker and made chaffles with 1 scramble egg and cottage cheese and some shredded fiesta blend. I was still hungry, so I put some cheese and turkey pepperoni in the waffle maker and melted it and it was so yummy. Then I had a skinny cow ice cream sandwich. Before church I snacked on a protein bar and some pretzels. Sadly, I was OVER my budget by 112 calories.

Thur May 2, 2024: Breakfast was a Protein Coffee. For lunch I snacked on 2 turkey sticks and a light string cheese while I cooked Zucchini Lasagna Soup. I had a bowl of that for lunch. For dinner, I kinda splurged and had 1 pc of Texas toast with sloppy joe sauce on top and I finished with another skinny cow ice cream sandwich. I snacked on elevation chocolate coconut bar and pretzels again that day. I was ONLY UNDER by 3 calories.

Fri May 3, 2024: Protein Coffee for breakfast, as always! Then I stopped tracking.... I ate a ton of healthy food.... like sauteed asparagus, oranges, cuties, a protein bar, ect. THEN I had some chocolate chips and this Jello fluff stuff made with cottage cheese, cool whip, and Jello mix. It was delicious but I had a huge serving. I'm sure I went over on calories. I did skip dinner though.

REMEMBER EVERY DAY I ATTEMPT TO DRINK ONE GALLON OF WATER!!!

I do this by using water flavoring packets and skinny syrups to flavor my water, this also helps to curb my sweet cravings.

CHANGES I'VE NOTICED: I've not noticed any changes just yet when it comes to weight loss. BUT even though this was sort of a rough week, I did have some really cool stuff happen too. I cut and colored my hair AND my husband got me a new watch (it's an early Birthday gift!) Weight loss is hard, life can be hard... but you gotta look for the wins and focus on gratitude in order to make it through. God is so good. He loves us more than we can ever begin to imagine!

THIS WEEKS WIN: I'm down 1.3 lbs!!!! While I realize that isn't much weight, I'm considering it a win. REMINDER (for both of us) 1-2 lbs of weight loss per week is healthy natural weight loss. I want to take a moment to challenge you to look for 1 WIN per day and/or per week! It can be something simple.... like I ate the appropriate portion of a meal OR I drank a gallon of water today OR I got 8 hrs of sleep...... FIND SOMETHING TO CELEBRATE THAT WILL PUSH YOU FORWARD ON YOUR OWN HEALTH JOURNEY!

Dear Lord, I pray for myself as well as anyone joining me on this journey. I pray that you would give us the strength to continue to make the changes that we need to make and to STICK to them. Help each of us to make good food choices even when the going gets hard. Bring restoration to our whole being as we learn to eat with our health in mind. Help us with our self-image as our bodies change on this journey. Let us learn to love ourselves where we are even TODAY. Help us to remember that food cannot fill the hole that was meant for YOU! Bring wisdom and truth to each of our minds and help us to plan our daily food and to enjoy it. Lord, bless our efforts with sustainable weight loss. Father, we long to be free of this difficulty in our lives, and we look to you, you are our supporter, our comforter and our helper. Thank you for your constant love. AMEN!

Thank you so much for following my journey and encouraging me along the way!

<3 The Bohemian Homemaker - Michelle Warren