A revelation, indeed!

Last night we went grocery shopping for a few items and I practically forced myself to pick out something from the bakery section that would be that first official "oh-so-worth-it" indulgence after competing the YB program.  We brought home a Laura Secord chocolate mousse cake.  (I picked something small so that it wouldn't linger within my sight and reach for too long.)

Last night my taste buds wanted to taste it but my brain told them it was too late at night, the fast has begun, and to just shut up because they weren't getting any until tomorrow.  It actually worked!

This morning I walked (note: didn't RUN) to the fridge to have a small piece with my morning coffee.  I enjoyed eating it and did not feel the urge to have a second piece.  Holy.  Shit.

This evening, again, my taste buds are asking for something for a snack (reminding me about the cake in the fridge) but my brain has already told them to can it for the night.  Wow.  I'd say this experiment was an astounding success.  :)

Our dinner tonight was something I had intended to make for breakfast (since I worked from home today); bacon, onions, garlic and shredded sweet potato in a pan.  It was actually good!  Next time I'll cook the bacon til it's crispier, the onions until they're a little more caramelized, and the sweet potato separately so that it's more like hash browns.  Anyway, will eat again.

Boring Sunday post...

I decided last week to wean myself off the YeastBuster program because I felt I was ready and I was really sick and tired of having that damn drink first thing every morning.

I'm happy to be off it, but I left all the bottles in the same spot on the counter as a bit of a reminder; if you fall off the wagon you'll be back on this wagon!!  Yucky.

So far, so good.  I've not gorged myself on cakes yet, which is a good sign of me actually kicking this yeast problem/sugar addiction.  There are sweets in the cupboard (such as semi-sweet chocolate chips and my dad's homemade rum-soaked fruitcake) that are not interesting to me at all.  What a revelation!

Last night we went to our friends' house for dinner.  They didn't know what to make us for dinner so they made tacos.  Well, sounds good to me - I haven't had tacos in eons!  I looooooooove eating a hard-shell taco loaded with ground beef, tomatoes, lettuce and shredded cheese.  Yum!  I had two hard-shell and one soft-shell and I was pretty full.  Oh yeah, I drank two rum 'n Cokes.  Only two.

I brought a container of blueberries and strawberries plus a small container of coconut milk because I knew they would have crap for dessert (and I was right).  My friend busted out the chocolate cream pie from the fridge shortly after we went downstairs to play darts.  She also had a really gross-looking bag of no-name cheese crunch things.  Blech.  I had a sliver of the pie.  Normally I would have told everyone to get their own damn pie while I ate mine...okay, I'm exaggerating.  A little.  After my sliver of pie I got myself a nice bowl of fruit in coconut milk.  My friends commented on how good it looked so of course I offered them some.  After all, I brought enough for everyone;  I'm a good friend. :)

Today I had bacon with my eggs for the first time in, like, two months (because of being on the YB program - delicious bacon is NOT allowed on the program).  It's a boring day and I'm supposed to be reading for my latest course (Fire Protection) in the Occupational Safety and Health program I'm working through, but I'm finding that my mind keeps wandering to the kitchen for some munchies.  A couple of plantain chips and a few spoonfuls of vanilla-flavoured, 9% MF yogurt did the trick.  For now.  I'll continue reading after posting this entry.

Weighed myself yesterday and the scale read 145.4 lbs, but since we've started working with weights and the pull-up bar I can't worry too much about weight anymore.  I wore my size 7 pants last night!  W00t!!

Chicken thighs for dinner.  Can't wait!!

Grass-fed bavette of beef...

Yummers!!

New progress pics...*goes to hide under a rock*

If I look at these too long my brain starts to remind me that I'm not in the same light and am a little further away from the mirror, but I know for a fact that there are significant changes.  It's just that they're all-around instead of concentrated in one area.  I know my belly doesn't stick out as far (and my newt tattoo looks better, too!), and I can see a difference in thickness (front to back) in my pelvic/bum area in the side shots (check the curve of the bikini bottom side).

Can't wait to see more results soon!

Mmmm, chicken. And motorcycles. Ooh! And a weight update!

That humungous free-run bird you saw in yesterday's post is now resting comfortably in the slow cooker on a bed of onion, carrot, garlic and celery, bathed in sea salt, freshly-cracked pepper, Italian seasonings, "roasted garlic and pepper" seasoning, and seasoned salt (guilty pleasure of ours).  Actually, I'm starting the cooker on high for a bit, so perhaps the poor dear isn't so comfy...good thing it's not feeling anything at all!  :)

Yesterday after work we headed over to the motorcycle show, which happens (almost always) on the first weekend of the year.  We had previously arranged to pick up a set of tires for my bike (Honda 599 - aka Hornet) and we also grabbed a pair of boots each (my toes were constantly scraping the front of my old ones), a set of custom-made ear plugs (I wish we could try them out on the bikes, but it's only 6C here and we don't have any heated gear!), a couple of bike covers (to keep the sawdust off them while in the garage), and I also bought myself a new helmet.

Since we were at the show for over 4 hours were a bit hungry so we ate....ugh...a pizza slice each.  Gross!!!  Actually, it tasted pretty good, but it sure felt icky.  I have a headache this morning, too...wonder if I'm that stressed about eating it or if I just over-slept this morning.

My weight this morning was 144.6!  Yahoo!!

Come onnnnnnn, SPRING!!!  Mama's got some ridin' to do...

Winning part deux! Lookie what I scored today!!

Winning!

GROK, I love buying new, sale-priced, smaller pants.  Looooove it!!!!

Mom...perhaps she's starting to listen??!

This past year my mom has been told by our family doctor that 1) her iron levels are pretty high, and 2) she has a fatty liver.  This freaked her out a bit, though initially she didn't do much about it.  She continued drinking her diet sodas and munching on junk food like cookies and such.

Now that she's seen my weight edging downward again (I hit a plateau for the last few months, which I wasn't trying too hard to get past), she's become interested in hearing about what I'm eating and where I bought the jeans that look so good on me.  LOL

I told Mom about Big Fat Fiasco and she said she'd like to see it (!).  She has started re-reading her Atkins book and has learned more about what foods to eat and what fats are healthier.  Last week we watched BFF together.  She wanted to come back yesterday so we could do more research on the computer about the fatty liver and iron, and I printed off a bunch of pages for her to read.

One piece of advice was to get some of the iron-rich blood out of the system by donating a few units of blood on a regular basis.  Mom isn't keen on donating blood, though I'm still working on that.  (She was willing to do it when I offered to go with her, but she ended up getting rejected at the clinic because of her age; they needed her doctor's blessing before she could donate.  She had psyched herself up to do it so she was pissed!)

Advice with regard to the fatty liver was to lose weight. See, Mom's had problems with her weight for a bunch of years, but mostly she's had problems with her BRAIN.  She is bi-polar and has been on (the wrong doses of) meds for a looooong time.  She used to complain that these meds made her overeat and that's why she got fat.  Roughly two years ago she decided that the meds were poison and promptly stopped taking them.  Fast forward past a couple years of hell (for her AND for those around her) and the doctors FINALLY got her dosage right.  When she was ill anything you said would go in one ear and out the other.  It's taken a long time, but I've finally got my mom back (YES!!) and she's willing to LEARN new things.  Shit, I never thought I'd see the day.

Mom's been on the Atkins diet before and lost about 85 lbs.  TWICE.  She wants to lose more and has been asking what kinds of meats are good (grass-fed, organic, hormone-free, etc.), where to buy them, and what oils are okay to use for cooking.  She even wanted to come to our house for NYE because "you put out HEALTHY food that's not going make my weigh scale go up."

I think we're getting somewhere here...

One! One pull-up! Ah ah ah!

Hunnybun installed the doorway chin-up bar this morning, and after testing it out with a couple of half-assed (I mean, leg-assisted!) chin-up attempts earlier, I finally did one chin-up tonight!  Ok, it wasn't pure form, but hell, I managed to pull my ass up off the floor! :D

2012 has to be the year that I incorporate more movement and lifting of heavy things into my lifestyle, which will compliment the diet changes I've already made (and continue to make).  Progress needs to continue!!

Instructions for starting the Primal lifestyle

1. Take "before" pictures. Lots of them.
2. Eliminate sugar and grains from your diet immediately.
3. Start reading and learning: Primal Blueprint 101 | Mark's Daily Apple
4. Adopt other aspects of the PB as you learn/are ready for.
5. Take pictures during your transition.
6. Start saving money to buy new, smaller, clothing.
7. Take more pictures.
8. Enjoy your new life.
9. Post your before and after pics in this thread.