Berry Ice Cream Treat

1 c. Frozen berries
2/3 c. milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 packets of Splenda (you can use 1/4 c. sugar if you want)

Blended for 20-30 seconds. DONE. DELICIOUS!  the whole thing took about 2 minutes. Amazing.

(I ate some right away, but put the rest in the freezer — the recipe promised a harder, more ice cream-ish texture if frozen for an hour or so.)

Healthy Habits

We are trying to develop more healthy habits around here! Easier said, than done, but I made a goal this year to do one or two healthy habits each week--just little things sometimes, like boiling a dozen eggs each week or having one of the boys cut up/clean veggies within a day or two of shopping, etc. Sometimes they are bigger, like buying a salad spinner. Anyway, I thought if I focused on one or two each week, and if I wrote it somewhere (on Reish Ramblings!), I would be more inclined to follow through.

So here they are so far....and hopefully, this will force me to add to this list each week!

January

HH 1: Ten mins of exercise every day regardless....I can/often do participate in more exercises---ballroom dancing for two to four hours a week, T-Tapp moves more than the ten minutes, but the ten mins a day is do-able and makes things more consistent for me.

HH 2: Take my vitamins and alfalfa every morning before I do any work or emails, etc. I am always going to "come back" later to take them, after this next little thing or after I finish this real quick, etc. No vitamins/no work should help me 'coz I love to work!

HH 3: Veggie Straws. Now, unlike the lady in line behind me when I bought these (who said, "I buy those too--gotta get veggies into the kids any way I can!"), I know these are not health foods--nor are they vegetables! However, they are lower in carbohydrates, give you more for the calories (38 of them!), have a little fiber, and are better than chips for my guys.

HH 4: Huge bag of almonds. I have been steering away from nuts more in the past eight months of my weight loss because I was on a low calorie/low carb/low fat diet. Formerly, I had been on a low to moderate carbohydrate diet and gained weight--from eating the insides of fattening sandwiches and nuts, probably! Anyway, I am trying to build up a snack repetoire for my guys that is less "bad" than other snacks--not a very noble goal, I know. But it's a starting point. So.....along with our veggie straws, our snack cupboard now has nuts again!

HH 5: Salad spinner. I have always secretly thought that we could have salads like restaurants if I just invested in a salad spinner. It's probably not true. But maybe it will help the boys clean and rinse veggies a little better.

Weight Loss Journey--Part II of II (Pictures!)

In my previous post (http://reishramblings.blogspot.com/), I described the weight loss/health journey that I have been on. Below, I am posting pictures and losses. Thanks for joining me!

This is a terrible picture! And it does actually make me look a lot worse than I did (or thought I did)...but here I was six years or so ago (before dancing!) at my highest-ever weight. I won't tell you what that was...but it was high! Here I wore a size 22 (or 24).

After six years of dancing, I had taken off thirty pounds! This was Spring 2011. Losses: 30 lbs; 25 inches; and 3 sizes (from 22 to 16). This was a month before I began an 800 calorie diet and intensive exercise.

And Fall of 2011. Three months after I began the very low calorie diet with Curves and T-Tapp exercises. Losses since Spring 2011: 35 lbs; 35 inches; 2 sizes (16 to 12). Losses over six years: 65 lbs; 57 inches; 5 sizes (22 to 12).




                                                   THIS SPACE RESERVED FOR NEXT
                                                  20 TO 25 LB LOSS!!! :)

I am working on maintaining my summer loss. It was a quick loss--and could quickly be put back on too. My Curves has pretty much gone by the wayside due to work, school, and family. (With homeschooling and working in the school year, it's hard to do too many extras.) I have a maintenance plan of lower calorie/carb/fat eating; Daily Dozen exercises; walking with my boys and dancing with my Prince---and after a month of so of maintaining with that plan, I hope to dig back in and lose some more.....regardless, my carbohydrate intolerance/pre-diabetes is under control and I feel young and energetic! :)

Weight Loss Journey Part I of II

Five or six years ago, I began a looonnnnng weight loss/health journey that is still very much a work in progress. It began when I hit the highest weight I had ever been (including during all eight or my pregnancies!) AND my husband and I began ballroom dancing. I had wanted to ballroom dance for many years--and when I received lessons from Ray as a Christmas gift in 2005, I was ELATED. However, I quickly found out that dancing at the weight I was at the time was nearly impossible.

But dance we did. We danced as much as we could the first few years--group classes, private lessons, practice sessions (the studio was just a few miles from our home), and open dances. Soon I found that I was losing weight little by little just from dancing--until after three or four years later I had lost thirty pounds. However, to lose more weight and get healthier, I had to change my eating habits--something I did not want to do.

Three years ago, still dancing (though not nearly as often--weddings, graduations, kids' moves/job starts, etc. interrupted our dancing a lot), I found myself sick. To make a long story short, I discovered that I had carbohydrate intolerance/pre-diabetes. I could only feel well if I limited my carbohydrate intake. It didn't have to be drastic, but it did have to be down to 150 carbohydrates or fewer (average person eats 300 a day!) to keep my pre-diabetes in check. Well, true to many moderate carbohydrate diets, I did not lose weight on that number of carbs--mostly due to the high fat and high caloric intake that cutting carbohydrates can created.

So, while I felt better, I kept gaining and losing many of those thirty pounds that I had danced off in the previous years. Then I heard about a very low calorie diet that caused you to lose weight very quickly--and being an all-or-nothing kind of person, I jumped on the bandwagon and started losing pounds quickly for the first time in twenty years (when I had lost 80 pounds between baby four and five!).

Also at this time I joined CURVES and began an amazing exercise program called T-Tapp--while stepping up our dancing for more aerobic activity. Within three months, I had lost 35 lbs and 35 inches, making my total weight loss for five years 65 pounds.

I also discovered that an overall decrease in calories, fat, and carbohydrates, with good amounts of protein, lots of strength exercising (Curves and T-Tapp), and moderate aerobics (dancing and/or walking for 30 mins four to eight times a week) kept my pre-diabetes in check and helped maintain my loss.

So...here I am, six years after we began dancing, with a 65 lb and 55 inch loss, from a size 22 to a 16 now to a 12, and controlling my carb intolerance. I still want to lose another 20 to 25 lbs and 20 to 30 inches.....but I'm working on maintenance for a while---making all of these changes a way of life for me.

See next post for pics! :)