Ten weeks! I can’t believe it’s been TEN WEEKS since starting my Transformation Day 2012 challenge. I never would have thought that after ten, short weeks, I’d see so much progress and positive change in my life. So much has happened over this past week though. There’s almost too much to share in one update!
My weight bounced up a little bit. I weighed in at 262.8 this morning. That’s a total of 16 pounds gone in 10 weeks, and considering I know that my weight bounce has absolutely nothing to do with my food, I’m fine with it.
I’ve been tracking my blood sugar over this past week. My fasting blood sugars in the morning are solidly in the “pre-diabetic” range, but that could have more to do with my sleep apnea than anything else. During the day, my blood sugar never goes over 90 mg/dL.
I also started taking an iron supplement last week. By the middle of last week, I really felt like it was probably helping. I was less tired, I wasn’t so cold, and it was easier to get blood for my glucose testing. Saturday and Sunday though, I was back to being exhausted again, so I’m not entirely sure what the deal is (other than those darned female cyclical hormone fluctuations.) I’ll probably have a better idea next week about whether or not the iron supplement is truly helping.
One of my proudest accomplishments for last week though was the fact that I finally decided to ditch the pop. I drank a Coke Zero on Monday, and that was that! For the next few days, it was hard to break the “habit” of grabbing a cold can out of the fridge before sitting down at my PC in the morning, but now I don’t miss it. I did have an interesting experience yesterday though. A friend came over and brought a can of Pepsi Max (my former “crack”), and when she popped it open and poured it into her cup, I REALLY wanted one. Just the sound of the can opening and fizzy liquid being poured into a cup really triggered me. I hadn’t expected that. Now, it didn’t trigger me enough to want to undo all my hard work with respect to the pop situation, but that was still an unexpected reaction to something as simple as someone opening a can of pop.
This same friend who had the Pepsi Max took my kids out onto our property yesterday and gathered black walnuts. In the coming weeks, we’ll be figuring out how to dry and process those nuts into something useful. Since we didn’t get anything off our fruit trees this year, we were so happy to learn that we had black walnut trees. (I’ve said many times before that we’re pretty plant-ignorant, so a lot of folks are helping to teach us. I did know enough to get online and find a guide to identify the walnut trees though, so we should have fun with that.)
And lastly, probably the biggest update of all — I’m taking my kids grain-free! This is a BIG deal because we don’t have a lot of money, and it’s a LOT cheaper to let the kids eat at school. Last Friday though, I spent the day planning my menu for the next two weeks, and on Friday night, we bought most of the groceries that we’ll need to prepare that menu. It didn’t cost as much as I feared it would, and the kids are LOVING the variety so far. They loved picking out fruits that appeal to them. And my 6-year-old who doesn’t want to eat anything other than fruit and cereal with milk has actually surprised himself by trying (and LOVING) pumpkin soup, almonds, meatballs, and a breakfast scramble with eggs, all kinds of veggies, and bacon. Score one for the home team!
The kids were also really excited to pick out their lunch bags, and this morning, my 9-year-old was so helpful. Although I’d portioned out the kids’ lunches last night, I hadn’t put their fruit, almonds, and water in their lunch bags. She was so willing ot help!
It felt good getting up a little early and making a nutritious breakfast for the whole family. It felt good sending my kids to school with healthy lunches that are grain-free. Although my 9-year-old seemed to think I was “putting her on a diet”, we got everything straightened out with her and they all couldn’t be more excited.
See, I warned you — lots of new stuff for this week’s update!