Day 11

8.30.18 Day 11
Weight: Didn't weigh in 
Weight loss goal: 180lbs
Daily goal for 8.30.18: Stop obsessing about everything! 

Breakfast

(P)    eggs and ham                    
(G)    sweet potato                 
(Fr)   blueberries and mango

Lunch
(P)   cottage cheese and chicken
(V)   lettuce, tomato, cucumber
(Fa)  salad dressing/avocado
(Fr)  apple

I had lunch with a peer at a restaurant and their lunch menu had chicken salad but the chicken was breaded! WTF! Come on people! So i picked the half wrap California chicken with a side of cottage cheese and a side salad. I drank ice tea no sweetner. It was ok. i liked that they had cottage cheese and a plain salad. 



Dinner
(P) turkey and ham chopped  
(V)   romaine lettuce, tomato, english cucumber, mushrooms
(S)   
(Ft)  avocado

The family is having a baked potato bar. I will not be having that even though i love bakers. I'm really trying to make better choices, so I have to be strong and have my version of a chef salad-minus the egg and cheese. 

Day 11 Summary
It took literally everything I had to not snack between 7-9pm today. But I did it! I drank my water, folded clothes, took a shower, got the boys clothes ready for Friday...I did everything I could so I wouldn't eat. What a sense of accomplishment! I never knew it could feel so good to say NO!

Moments of truth
I have diabetes...I was diagnosed earlier this year and I don't need insulin but am taking two medications that I don't want to take. I don't want to be the fat girl with diabetes. i don't want to be a statistic, but for the time being I am. My moment of truth is that I have been avoiding the doctor, of getting my A1C checked and taking my medication. I tested my blood sugar for the first time in months and my morning blood sugar was 147. I tested again after lunch and it was 216. This is unacceptable, so I am going to starting taking my medication again. Make an appointment to get my A1C checked and from here on out you will see my blood sugar results along with my food intake. This has been weighing heavily on me and I feel like I am in a funk. I feel sad, resentful, overwhelmed and invisible. I still find joy but I want to have a house that is orderly, help with the laundry and dishes, less electronic time, I want to go on a trip in an airplane (i love to travel and I LOVE LOVE airports) and experience an adventure. I want to feel good.

Day 10

8.29.18 Day 10
Weight: Didn't weigh in 
Weight loss goal: 180lbs
Daily goal for 8.29.18: No flour! No sugar!

Breakfast
(P)    2 eggs scrambled                     
(G)   sweet potato                  
(Fr)  mango and blueberries

Lemon pepper tuna on tomatoes & cukes!

Lunch
(P)   tuna with lemon and black pepper
(V)   tomatoes, english cucumber, brussel sprouts
(Fa)  
(Fr)  mango and banana


Dinner
(P)   ham steak
(V)   brocoli
(S)   romaine, tomatoes and mushrooms
(Ft)  ghee on my brocoli


Day 10 Summary
Today was a good day. I stuck to my lines with no deviation. I drank water and I got a nice little walk in with the dog! I feel more in control with my life when I can keep my lines....it's like when I keep my desk clean and tidy, my work life is more in sync and I get more accomplished. When I can stay bright, I also get a lot accomplished, I have more energy, and I don't have time to think about food.

Moments of truth
Can we talk for a moment about Ghee? What is it? It is clarified butter. It is made from regular butter, but heated up until the butter separates into liquid fat and milk solids. Once separated, the milk solids are removed which means it has less lactose than butter. It has a higher burn point so it is great for sauteeing or frying food (we don't fry food on BLE. :)) It is very similar to butter as far as nutritional profiles and fat content are concerned. Is it better for you than butter? Some studies have shown that those who eat foods with  ghee have a lower LDL or bad cholesterol and higher HDL (the good stuff). Since ghee also has many of its dairy proteins removed, it contains less casein and lactose so those who are sensitive to dairy could tolerate it better than butter. In addition, it is rich in conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) which is known to have high range of health benefits and it also contains a fatty acid called butyrate acid which plays an essential role in digestive health. I like it is because it TASTE AWESOME. I'm still dreaming of those brussel sprouts i had the other day that i roasted with ghee. 

Day 9

8.28.18 Day 9
Weight: Didn't weigh in 
Weight loss goal: 180lbs
Daily goal for 8.29.18: 

Breakfast
(P)   Nut butter and pecans                 
(G)   Oatmeal                  
(Fr)  Banana and blueberries

Lunch
(P)   Chicken sausage and shrimpt
(V)   brussel sprouts and corn
(Fa)  ghee on my brussel sprouts
(Fr)  Mango


Dinner
(P)   burger
(V)   english cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes
(S)   
(Ft)  

Tuesday night is typically spaghetti night. I had some whole wheat thin pasta with marinara sauce and ground beef (the burger listed above...i wish my family would just incorporate the burger into the sauce, but they like it separate which grosses me out.)

Day 9 Summary
Not a terrible day...I stayed bright until I got to dinner and had some WW thin spaghetti. 

Moments of truth
Bingo is hard for me. I love volunteering and seeing the old people but the concession stand has such great food. Tonight was pizza and it smelled so good. A perk of volunteering is free food and soda. Tonight, I brought my veggies and had water. I refrained from concession stand goodies (they have popcorn people and it is good popcorn! For free!) and for that, I'm quite proud of myself. Hooray for Jen!

Day 8

8.27.18 Day 8
Weight: 236 (-4)
Weight loss goal: 180lbs
Daily goal for 8.27.18: Take it meal by meal, baby! Drink that water!

Breakfast
(P)    Pecans/almond butter                         

(G)    Oatmeal                  
(Fr)   Banana and blueberries

New breakfast item! These are breakfast rounds and I go the recipe from Katie's Bright Kitchen www.katiesbrightkitchen.com. Each recipe makes 1 meal (3 breakfast rounds). They are DELICIOUS. Super easy to make and you can mix up the extra fruit you add into it or you can eat the extra fruit on the side.     

 Lunch
(P)   Chicken sausage and shrimp               
(V)   roasted brussell sprouts with ghee and                leftover corn  
(Fa)  Avocado
(Fr)  Apple

Lunch was leftovers shrimp boil from Sunday dinner. I cut the corn off the cob and weighed out 3 oz and then i roasted a batch of sprouts with ghee and measured out 3 oz. How have I never used Ghee before? It is clarified butter, so you can let it sit out and it spreadable and easy to scoop out. It is a bit pricey, so i won't be using it a lot, but it is amazing when roasting veggies. 

Dinner
(P) chicken, beans, chese
(V) lettuce, tomato
(S)
(Ft) avocado


Day 6 Summary
Until dinner, today was a good day. I stayed on track all day until i went to dinner for a friends birthday. We went to Los Aztecas, which is a fake mexican restaurant (according to my husband...its americanized mexican food). I had the chicken taco salad. Yes, I ate the shell. I practically licked the plate clean. 

Moments of truth
I didn't snack between meals. I kept my lines for breakfast and lunch. Minor setback at dinner, but tomorrow is another day!

Day 6

8.25.18 Day 6
Weight: Didn't weigh in today
Weight loss goal: 180lbs
Daily goal for 8.25.18: Bright lines all day! 1 cold brew coffee (no sugar, just black) and lot's of water.

Breakfast
(P)        Starbucks medium chai tea                        
(G)                      
(Fr)       

 Lunch
(P)                      Fettucine with Alfredo
(V) 
(Fa)  
(Fr)


Dinner
(P) thin crust pizza with pepperoni and sausage, cheese
(V) onions
(S)
(Ft)black and green olives


Day 6 Summary
In Bright Lines Eating, SPT talks about why she recommends not exercising while on the weightloss portion of the plan. People use it like a debit/credit

system, as in "I went for a 3 mile run, therefore I can have a donut." Because they did some exercise they feel they have built up this credit in their meal plan that allows them to indulge in something that is not the best for them. I am 100% guilty of this mindset. I enjoy going for walks, swimming and running and before BLE I completed triathlons, 5k, 10k and half marathons so exercising is just a normal part of my life and now I have a dog that loves to go for walks and we have a beautiful area here in our neighborhood that is perfect for a quick 1 mile loop and it has doggy water fountains! But I tend to eat crap or skip meals when I do something good. The debit and the credit don't balance...much like my checkbook at times. But that is a totally different post for another day. 

Moments of truth
An absolutely horrible day for eating. I went for a walk with the dog right away in the morning and a few hours later we went to a doggy dip at the local pool, so swimming with the dog...the exercise doesn't outweigh the craptastic food day.

Day 7

8.26.18 Day 7
Weight: Didn't weigh in today
Weight loss goal: 180lbs
Daily goal for 8.26.18: Bright lines all day! 1 cold brew coffee (no sugar, just black) and lot's of water.

Breakfast
(P)         left over pizza                       
(G)                      
(Fr) 

Lunch
(P) 
(V) 
(Fa)  
(Fr)


Dinner
(P) chicken sausage, shrimp
(V) corn           also had yellow potatoes
(S)
(Ft) butter


Day 7 Summary
Today was lazy sunday. I was grocery shopping by 9 and made plans to make ahead a few lunches and my breakfast as well as my sweet potatoes which not only do i find as a delicious way to start the day, but so does my dog, Lucy. I did not eat breakfast or lunch. I just was busy cleaning, cooking, doing laundry. 

Moments of truth
I made two batches of breakfast rounds from Katie's Bright Kitchen and 5 sweet potatoes so I can scoop out the 4 oz when i want them in the morning and I bought these great takeaway split containers that allowed me to put my 6oz protein in one and my veggies in the other side. I am good with lunch for the next couple days as well as breakfast.

Day 5

8.24.18 Day 5
Weight: 237 (-3)
Weight loss goal: 180lbs
Daily goal for 8.24.18: Bright lines all day! Lot of water!

Breakfast

(P) Milk and ricotta cheese                            (G) Shredded Wheat                    
(Fr) Mango

Ricotta cheese? It. Is. Delicious. It doesn't taste like cheese, it is just a smooth creamy texture and taste. I was blown away when I tried it on fruit and shredded wheat. It counts as a protein as does the milk so I think I will probably be hungry by 10:30 today, but this was a good breakfast. The Shredded Wheat is the big Post Shredded Wheat Biscuits and they come individually wrapped and you just break them up and put them in a bowl. One package is the perfect weight!
 Lunch
(P) hard boiled egg, chicken, diced turkey
(V) lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, shredded carrots with balsamic vineagar 
(Fa)  black olives
(Fr) peach

I was hoping my husband would take me to lunch since he was off on Friday but he decided to nap instead. So I hit the local Hy-Vee and went through their salad bar and then picked up a piece of fruit from the produce section. It was a huge salad and did great filling me up!

Dinner
(P) shrimp with angel hair pasta (about 1/4 cup..it didn't taste very good)
(V) asparagus, red peppers
(S) lettuce, shredded cabage and carots
(Ft) black olives

Today is Friday Fun Day with Mom and that usually consists of a fun activity. Today our community is hosting a World War II LST ship (land sea tank). It is a big ship that is docked at our local Ice Harbor dock on the Mississippi river. We were able to take a tour and it was amazing. It would come dirctly onto the shore and the door would open and tanks, jeeps, soldiers and supplies would unload onto shore. It was truly amazing. After the tour, we went to Olive Garden for dinner. The boys love pasta, so we went and I got angel hair pasta with shrimp. The shrimp and veggies were good but the past tasted kind of "meh". So I ate all the shrimp and got my fill of salad. 

Day 5 Summary
Totally was hangry by 10:30 as I knew I would be. I was so busy this morning because the hubby was off work and throwing off my normal morning routine that I didn't bring any protein with me. Luckily our vending machine sells little packets of nuts, so I got one of those to tied me over. 

Moments of truth
NMF (not my food)...vending machine nuts, Olive garden dressing, a small portion of angel hair pasta. Lots of walking.

Day 4

8.23.18 Day 4
Weight: Didn't weigh in today
Weight loss goal: 180lbs
Daily goal for 8.23.18: Bright lines all day! 1 cold brew coffee (no sugar, just black) and lot's of water.

Breakfast
(P) 2 eggs                               
(G) Sweet potato                     
(Fr) Mango

Nothing to see here...same old breakfast. I swear I am not stuck in a rut. If it's not broke, don't fix it! Am I right or what?W
 Lunch
(P) Hard boiled egg, cubed ham and cubed turkey
(V) Lettuce, tomatos, cucubmers
(Fa) Balsamic vinaigrette 
(Fr) Apple

I was worried about lunch today because I went out to eat with a good friend of mine and we went to a restaurant that is know for its sandwiches. I knew I couldn't have a sammy, so I went online to look at their menu and was pleasantly surprised to see they had a Chef Dom Salad-their take on a chef salad. It was HUGE, like I have never seen a bigger salad. I couldn't eat it all. It was crazy big. So I brought the rest back to work and will finish it at dinner time. 

Dinner
(P) 1 egg and 2 small sausage links
(V)
(S)
(Ft)

It was Brinner night tonight. My husband made eggs, sausage (his Uncle runs a meat locker that was started by his dad-my husbands grandpa and the sausages came from the meat locker...no sugar added), toast and hashbrowns. I took the dog for a walk because it was beautiful out, I wasn't hungry yet and while I like the sausages, i don't like the smell. It actually worked out well. i was able to come home and make my egg and eat without any issues. Brinner is the bomb!

Day 4 Summary
Today wasn't a terrible day.I stayed in line for breakfast and lunch and I may have gone over my protein threshold for dinner, I still did good. I did not get all my veggies -so i need to work on that. I drank a lot of water and the walk in the afternoon with my sweet Lucy Loo was wonderful. I love it when the dog listens to me. 
Moments of truth
I think I need to increase my protein a bit in the morning. I get to 10:30 and I'm hungry. I will try more water and tea tomorrow to see if that combats it, but i'm already drinking my cold brew coffee so i'm not sure how adding more liquid is going to solve anything. 

Day 2

8.21.18 Day 2
Weight: 239.00
Weight loss goal: 180lbs
Daily goal for 8.21.18: Don't think about yesterday. Focus on today! Drink more water! 

Breakfast
P: 2 eggs
G: Sweet potato
Fr: Mango

I love eggs and sweet potatoes. I'm not going to lie. I switched it up with some mango slices that I got at Aldi. They were a bit pricey ($4.59) but they were all cut up and ready to eat. No one in my family likes fresh mango so they are safe from the boys! Now if they were dried mango they would be all over it, but dried fruit is a no-no on BLE so we don't have to worry about that.

Lunch
P: Tuna (5 oz...1 oz more than should be)
V: Romaine lettuce, tomatoes, red pepper, cucumber and a carrot with balsamic vinegar
Ft: Avocado
Fr: Mango

lunch actually filled me up. The extra tuna and the massive amounts of veggies really did it for me. I made it all the way through to dinner!

Dinner
P: Ground beef
S: Cucumbers, grape tomatoes, red peppers
V: Spaghetti squash w/marinara sauce

On Tuesday nights I volunteer at our church bingo night. I love it. Lot's of old people who like to gossip and full of sass. I have been doing it for 2 years and the people are wonderful. Tonight to combat snacking on their delicious consession stand food, I brought my big bowl of veggies and i ate part of my dinner while working. 

Day 2 Summary
I think i did ok until dinner time. My fear was how I would be around all the delicious food at Bingo, but with my big bowl of veggies, I came out of Bingo without noshing on the NMF (not my food) and stuck with my own BLE veggie bowl.

Moments of Truth
Yeah, the spaghetti squash didn't do it for me. I don't know if i am doing it wrong, but blah. The boys made thin spaghetti so i did have a small bowl of whole wheat thin organic spaghetti. 

Takeaway: I need to plan my dinners better because I default to eating with the family when I don't have a good plan or run out of time. I can do better!

Day 3

8.22.18 Day 3
Weight: 239.00
Weight loss goal: 180lbs
Daily goal for 8.22.18: Don't think about yesterday. Focus on today! Drink more water! 

Breakfast
P: 2 eggs
G: Sweet potato
Fr: Blueberries

What can I say, I like eggs and sweet potatoes. To be honest, my intent this week was to back these BLE compliant breakfast rounds (I'll explain more when I actually make them). In fact, I was going to make my lunch for M-W on Sunday and be all set for the first part of the week and then do it again tonight for Thursday and friday and guess what? All my containers were gone. I was like, where the heck is all my stuff?! Wanna know where they were? AT WORK! So now i have them all and I went to make my breakfast rounds this morning and all my bananas are gone!!! Dang kids! 

Lunch
P: Chicken
V: Lettuce, carrots, shredded cabbage
Fr: none

I took part of the day off so I could celebrate the end of summer with the boys. So I took them to lunch and then we went to Crystal Lake Cave and after that we took the dog for a walk since it was so beautiful out. It was a fun day but i'm gonna be straight up...a.) i could never be a stay at home mom. To all the SAHM-you are SAINTS! b.)Thank you baby Jesus for school starting tomorrow. These kids are eating me out of house and home and they need some serious structure and time away from Fortnite, Minecraft and You Tube. 

Dinner
P: Brat with a two tablespoons of potato salad
V: sauerkraut
S: none

Dinner was not a huge success for me. Brats are ok on BLE but not recommended for eating a lot of due to high fat and their may be sugar involved. I had one but the potatoe salad was def a no-no.

Day 3 Summary
This was not a perfect day and most aren't but you just have to plow through it all and focus on the long term goal. I find myself looking at some of Before/After pics posted on the BLE facebook pages and they are super inspiring. Its amazing what a 45lb weight loss can look like. i just have to keep swimming as Dory would say. 

Moment of Truth
I am a gassy b*tch from all those raw veggies on Day 2. Good heavens I tooted all night long. Also, I need to rezoom and focus tomorrow. As Scarlett O'Hara says in Gone With The Wind "Tomorrow is another day."

Intro

This is me. My name is Jen. I'm almost 47 years old. I have a husband and two kids plus one puppy. This blog is my accountability partner...my journal. This is where I am going to come to so I can document my successes and my failures...my good days and my bad days in this thing I call my Bright Lines Adventure.

What is Bright Lines?

Bright Line Eating is a book by Susan Pierce Thompson, Ph.D that talks about the science of eating and how sugar and flour have the same impact on your brain as cocaine, meth, and other illicit drugs. The first part of the book is all about the science and the second part is about incorporating that science (i.e. eliminating sugar and flour) from your food consumption (notice I didn't say "diet"). Basically, its is clean eating. No processed foods, anything with flour (not just white, but any kind of flour-rice, wheat, almond, etc.) and sugar (white, brown, agave, honey, fake sugar, truvia, etc.). You can have grains and fruit, but you measure your food and you eat a ton of veggies. Oh and there is no snacking in between meals. This book guides you on how to retrain your brain.

This has become my Bible. I have pages marked, notes posted, paragraphs highlighted. Its a shame I have to return it to the library.

Day 1

8.20.18 Day 1
Weight: 240.00
Weight loss goal: 180lbs
Daily goal for 8.20.18: Bright lines all day! 1 cold brew coffee (no sugar, just black) and lot's of water.

Breakfast
(P) 2 eggs                               Breakfast is: 1 protein, 1 breakfast grain and
(G) Sweet potato                                        1 fruit
(Fr) Blueberries

I love microwave sweet potatoes. My intent on Sunday was to make a bunch of sweet potatoes, roast some carrots and brussels sprouts and make some meals for Monday-Wednesday, but then I realized that all my food containers were in my office at work waiting to be taken home. They were clean, so there was no concern about stench or varmints but they weren't doing me much good at work...if you know what I mean. 

Since my prep work plans went out the window AND I was sidetracked by a surprise that our dog Lucy left me and had to spent 15 minutes cleaning up that little mess, get some clothes in the laundry, detail my son's chore list for today, wake my youngest son (who is not a morning person) and get myself pulled together for work, did i realize that I won't be able to sit at my kitchen table and enjoy breakfast. I had one container I could use so I nuked that tater for 5 minutes, made some scrambled eggs for my oldest (the youngest doesn't like eggs)-then made 2 somewhat dippy eggs (sorty of runny yolks, but not too runny). I was able to remove the skin from the smokin' hot sweet potato and mush it down, then put the eggs on top and then put some blue berries on top of that and yes, I know it kind of grosses people out, but I am hear to tell you the mix of savory and sweet is delightful. People dip their toast with jelly on it in the egg yolk so how is cutting out the toast and sugar and just eating the berries and egg any different? 

As you can see from the picture above, I devoured it before I remembered I was going to take a picture! 

 Lunch
(P) Black beans
(V) Sauteed onions, peppers and mushrooms as well as cucumber and grape tomatoes
(Fa) Avocado
(Fr) Mango

Lunch is 1 protein, 6 oz of veggies, 1 fruit and 1 fat. I get hungry in mid afternoon and today I know we won't be having dinner until after 5:30 because we have back to school conferences. So I added in an extra 4 oz of veggies from my dinner to my lunch. 

On Saturday night I made beef fajitas and I made a burrito bowl for myself because I didn't want the flour tortilla that the boys were having. We didn't have any beef leftover (it was tasty...if you have an Aldi near you, I recommend their thin sliced angus beef. Its super affordable and it is delicious) so I just threw the left over beans, sauteed peppers and onions (from the farmers market!) and added a sliced avocado. I reheated it all and it was delicious. 

In my opinion you can not go wrong with a simple cucumber and tomato salad. I sprinkle a little salt and some pepper and it tastes like summer. This cucumber was from a co-workers garden as were the maters. Delish!
I am not going to lie...afternoons are terribly hard on me. I work until 4:30 and by 2pm I am starving. Like I said above, I increased my veggies, but I think I need to increase my protein amount as well so I can be fuller longer. Today if sister hunger comes a calling I am going to drink some more water and if she still keeps knocking I have some mint tea to brew. Mint tea always makes me feel so chill. It has a pleasant sent and a natural sweetness that caps that hunger pain. 

Dinner
Dinner is: 1 protein, 6 oz veggies, 8 oz salad and 1 fat

(P & 6oz veggies): Leftover Sunday dinner
(Salad 4 oz): Cucumber and tomatoes 

No one in my family really eats leftovers except me. Last night my husband made Deconstructed Cabbage Rolls. The recipe is very BLE friendly as it does not have any rice in it like my normal cabbage roll recipe does. It is onions, cabbage, lean ground meat, stewed tomatoes and seasoning. He did make some rice on the side, but I only saved the cabbage/meat part of the recipe and ditched the rice. 

Like afternoons, evenings are also a problem for me. I am fully aware that I eat out of boredom, so tonight I have to make a point to not be bored. I have a pile of laundry that needs to be folded and put away, school starts in 3 days so I would like the boys to have a good start to the new year and i could take the dog for a walk so it gets some exercise. The loaf is getting more loafier (not a real world, but you know what I mean).

This is Lucy. She is a Corgi/Husky mix and 6 months old. She likes somewhat long walks where she can smell everything and meet new friends, swimming in her pool and Dairy Queen ice cream. She also likes snuggles, kisses, digging giant holes in my yard (she is legit halfway to China) and belly rubs rock her world. We adopted her from a rescue and are completely in love with the crazy shoe chewing loaf.

Day 1 Summary

Afternoons and evenings are definitely hardest for me. I think I do need to increase my protein at lunch and drink more water to help me feel full and flush my body. It was a rainy day and we were busy with back to school conferences. I wish I could have some energy at the end of the day so I could tackle laundry and other "fun" stuff. Overall it wasn't too bad. 

Moments of truth

I did have some blurry lines after dinner. My stomach was grumbling at about 7pm. I had some nuts and some more water. Then I completely broke down and had a atkins coconut bar. It tasted horrid (and at one time I thought they tasted delicious like a Mounds Bar).