Neato Keto

I've decided that my intentional journey this year will be in doing the Keto plan - I refuse to use the D word. I feel sure that most know what it is by now, but I'm keeping my net carb amount to 5% of my calories daily. My protein around 25% and my fats around 70%...

I'm no stranger to the low carb life - as I've done Atkins numerous times in the past - and I can't explain why this time is different... but it's not quite as restrictive as Atkins' first two weeks -- being that within my macros - I can have up to 25 grams of carbohydrates a day. Now, that also needs to take into account that you subtract out the fiber content from the total carbs and get the net number... so my NET carbs are under 25 grams a day.

With the many times, I've done this before - I suffered excruciating withdrawal symptoms for up to a week. I did my research on the keto flu before getting started and I was ready for it - I never knew in all the Atkins stops and starts that what my body was struggling with was the loss of sodium. So this time, I armed myself with electrolyte water and added a little more salt to things the first few days. I never really got those dreaded migraines like I have in the past. My biggest struggle has been fatigue - I go in spurts. One minute I'm feeling incredible and knocking out all. the. things. Then a bit later, I'll find myself completely worn out - so I feel like my body is still adjusting to burning fat for fuel instead of sugar.

I'm in it to win it though - so I'm just taking it one day at a time. Like I said before - I'm not looking at this as an all or nothing thing. It's my new lifestyle. So if I'm at a party or something and there are carbs, and I want some -- I'll keep it to a small amount and go on living my life. Just because I have one small thing doesn't have to derail me entirely from my whole plan.

In the past that has been my thought process, I would cave and have one thing -- and next thing you know 6 months have gone by and I've been off the wagon the whole time. Not this time... I've got a friend that I'm super comfortable sharing the slips with and we've vowed to help each other through that "failure" mentality.

I'm two weeks in on the plan so far and I'm still loving it -- I've got just enough variety that I'm happy and I'm trying out all sorts of new recipes and sharing them over on my recipe blog. If you scroll down there is a label that will pull up all of our keto-friendly recipes.

My plan is to keep to the semi-basics for the most part as much as I can and add whatever we're craving. If I need to bake something -- I'm happy to do it. I'd rather do that than buy something packaged as low carb because that way I know and can control the ingredients. This week - I made John some mini cheesecakes that are low carb and have a pecan crust. I made myself some chocolate mousse -- but I'm looking for a different recipe on that one.

In addition to my keto plan, I've added in intermittent fasting. I'm going most days from about 10 PM to 12 or 1 PM the next day to eat. I seem to be doing just fine on that and even though my doctor was strongly against it - things are going fine. One thing I can tell you that has been eye-opening is that the night before starting the plan - my sugars were 358 and since beginning the plan they haven't been over 130 even once! I'm excited to go back next month to show her by sugar readings -- maybe I'll even begin my goal of backing off of some of my medications. 

I saw the doctor the day before we started and she put me on a new shot that is helping curb my hunger as well - I'm virtually NEVER hungry anymore... and I used to be a huge snacker. It's so strange... between the shot and the added fat in my diet -- I'm losing weight and never hungry. 

I haven't added this in just yet -- but it's coming. I've been seeing some ads for the Body Groove workouts and I'm thinking about getting them. It looks much for free form and I'm looking for something to completely change the way I think and feel about working out. Has anyone seen the ads or heard of this program? I'm curious how it works -- it looks like it would be fun and maybe something that James and Tyler can do with me at least whenever he wants to join in.

Journey to Better Health

There honestly hasn't been a year in my adult life that I haven't set a goal for better health... but I truly believe that this year, I can make it happen. I want to make small changes and be better overall... not just lose weight.

I'm going to give the Shred Revolutionary Diet a try this year. I've read through this book and the Cookbook as well... I've loved them both!

 

The plan seems like it might really work for me because it's a 6 week cycle, and each week is very different. So for someone that likes plans that offer variations at the same time as they spell out what you should do for the best results... this is right up my alley! 

I additionally plan to use the Core De Force workout plan at least for the first month of my workouts... I used 21 Day Fix for the better part of the fall and I loved it as well. I tried Country Heat too, but I'm just not much of a dancer... so it didn't really work well for me -- don't get me wrong, it is a lot of fun - it's just not my favorite plan. If you're more interested in something you can live stream into your living room -- you should check out BeachBody On Demand.

In addition to these things -- I'm going to step up my water intake, and do my best to try to get my medications under control. So I'm going to be working toward getting my health to a place that will allow for my doctor to decrease my chronic medications tapered down to a level that is less and less each time I go to see my doctor. 

I experienced that in November when my doctor lowered one of my medications based on my eating well and working out so consistently for the several months before I went to see her.

Goals for 2017

It's 2017 y'all! I'm so excited to have turned the page on the year and to have a fresh start. I don't know why everything feels fresh and new magically on January 1st, but there is just something about the start of a new calendar year that gives me a whole new hope for doing things better and being stronger.

Well, this year I've got a new tool in my belt -- it's called Powersheets! I'll have a link down below to check out to see if there are any left for you to get them. If there aren't -- you should ABSOLUTELY go over and check out Lara Casey's Blog -- grab a notebook and DIY yourself some powersheets!

I wanted to take some time and share what I came up with for my goals this year... but I want to start with Lara's overarching words for this year that we are all about Progress over Perfection. I couldn't have said that any better than she did. So with that said -- my word for 2017 is: JOURNEY!

I want to embrace all of the ups and downs that come along with setting goals for the year... which I have often let derail my goals in the past. I've so often started something, had a hiccup along the way and let that completely stop the entire process.

My main goal for this year is to NOT let those hiccups take away from the good progress that is happening in my life.

So I worked through the entire prep work section of the Powersheets and ended up with these goals.

(feel free to click on this to get a better look)

These are the 10 things that I'm working on this year -- or at least for this first season of 2017. Every 3 months there is a goal refresh process that you can work through to make sure that your goals haven't changed a bit over time. If they have - then you can change them up a bit and keep going... 

Once you've written your goals for the year out -- which you can have as many or as few as you want... then you make an action plan for each of them. 

I chose this goal to show you the action plan -- just because I wanted to show an example and I thought that this one is the most important for the year. I also bought a new bible for my work this year... 

 

This One Year Chronological Bible is on sale right now and it's the NLT version so it's going to be pretty practical. I love that it also has some adult coloring spaces as well for you to get a little creative and spend some time soaking in the Word of the Lord. Mine should be here by the middle of next week -- so I'll be working hard to get caught up to the daily reading for whatever day it delivers, by pouring into it for a few days. 

After your action plan is written in your Powersheets for each Goal -- then you fill out your monthly tending list -- which is a place for you to write in your Monthly, Weekly, and Daily tasks that will help you accomplish progress toward your goals. 

This is my Tending List for January -- and I LOVE that it has a progress bar for the monthly goals, then a checkbox for the weekly and daily goals. I'm already loving seeing the check marks getting placed in the boxes. 

If you see down at the bottom there that nothing is happening with my first 3 daily goals... well, that's because I also am in the process of reading about a new lifestyle plan that my sister uses along with her Beachbody workout systems... so I'm going to give it a shot. I just may wait another week or so to get it all planned out. I'm planning to go visit my mom for a few days a week from Monday -- so I will likely not hit the ground running with this plan until the last week of the month, but I do plan to start working out again next week and getting more water in... and making healthier choices with food once we are back into our other routines. 

I'll write more about what I'm planning to do here in a few more days -- once I've finished the book! 

Use this link below to check out the shop where all of these amazing Powersheets and other items can be found. There isn't a thing on their site that I don't have on my wish list!

Checking In

I've been doing more videos lately than writing -- so I wanted to give you the links to these videos to get me caught up... There are quite a few, so bare with me on this -- then we will get back to other things.

Video 2

  

Video 3

Video 4 

Video 5

Video 6

  

Video 7 -- this is the latest video in the series 

If you made it through all of that -- you'll now know that I'm going to be picking back up on this little corner of the interwebs at least every other day or so. I dearly miss writing and interacting with that side of my brain, so meet me back here at least by Wednesday. 

I will still do videos as well and post them here and on Facebook, but I just needed to get caught up before launching into this again. If there is something you'd like me to write about or cover, please let me know and I'll work that into the schedule.