Can't keep me down. I love myself to much to stop now.

So far my healthy eating and working out has been going fairly well. Its been 7 weeks. I'm in week 8.

I'm down 11.5 lbs which doesn't seem like a lot but for me its more about how I feel and how things fit me. I'm down 3.5 inches on my hips and 3 inches around my waist. I would call that a success.

I have this week than two more weeks left of doing things the way I am. No sugar, no grains and no dairy. Saturday is my load day so I can have what I want. Now I have had a couple of people call my saturday my cheat day. Its not my cheat day and this is why.

Its important to maintain a healthy attitude and frame of mind when you are trying to make changes to your life. I was addicted to basically Carbs. Sugar is something else. And I still crave it on a daily basis. If I didn't allow myself to have what I was craving at all I would fail. I am taking so much out of my weekly eating plan that I need that one day to put it back, to allow myself to load up on things I don't allow myself to the other 6 days a week.

Notice that the key here is that "I" allow myself or don't allow myself things. I have total control over what passed my lips.

Its been a journey to say the least. One the first week it was so hard I didn't think there was any way I would be able to do this for 10 weeks. Here we are at the start of week 8 and I crave sugar on a much less reg basis. Its much easier to work out because I want to work out. I took the time to find a workout that worked well for me and didn't push myself into the one that came with the program I'm doing. There was no way I could physically do that work out. But rather than give up I made something work for me.

I found that the first couple of saturdays I ate way to much and felt sick on sunday. However I don't have that now because I crave less on those saturdays. I don't feel the need to eat all I can because I know that the food will still be there the following saturday. If you said something to me (in fact someone did) a couple months ago about giving up sugar I would have and did say hell no. But , here I am and feeling and looking better because of it.

I don't really find that I crave any one food all the time. From time to time I think Oh this sounds good. I don't miss pasta as much as I thought I would. And on Saturday I had a tiny bit of mash potatoes and Mac n cheese and found that was plenty to make me feel good. I have learned that I'm dairy sensitive. meaning if I take in to much dairy I get sick. So now I know that was part of my issue in the past.

The same with to much grains. I am no allergic to any of this just my body has a hard time processing it. I have IBS and was having flair ups from that on a reg basis and since we started this plan I have had little issue with my IBS. Its not gone, but it doesn't flair up like it did before.

My biggest obstacle in this whole thing. WORKING OUT. Not because I don't want to, not because I find it to hard to push myself to do so. Its the biggest obstacle because my body isn't allowing me to continue to do so at the moment. After 7 weeks of 2 to 4 (more often 4) work outs a week it has taken its toll on my bursitis in my hips. The pain from that has gotten to bad that I'm barely sleeping at night which is mentally effecting how I think etc. Its making my fibro flair up even more. Lack of sleep when you have Fibro is not a good thing. It caused your fog to be worse and it increased the nerve pain you have. So I have had to take exercise off the table this week. It makes me really sad I will not lie. But I can't endure the pain that strong much longer when the sleep factor is messing with me as well. Thursday I'm getting shots in my hips. those shots can take up to 15 days to work, but they could always work in as few as 5 days. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the smaller days.

I have chose to not beat myself up because my weight lost and inch lose is going to obviously go down for the next week or two. Its out of my control and there is nothing I can do but the action I am doing. Those actions are refusing to give up on myself because of this and to get the shots to try to help combat some of the pain so I can once again work out.

Its an adventure to say the least and some days and emotional ride as well. But I know I got this. I want it. and as long as I want it it makes it much easier to ride the ride instead of jumping off the bucking bull.

If I had any advice for anyone who reads this and is thinking of making life choice changes no matter what they are it would be this. No one else can make things happen in your life. You can't sit around and wait for something to happen to make that change for you. The only think that makes change in your life is you. Stop fearing failure, stop fearing an outcome you can't see yet. Take action. Because just taking action will make you feel better about yourself because that very moment when you say to yourself I can do this it will flip a switch on in your brain that you turned off at some point and you can always see better with the lights on than in the dark.

I would also give the advice of doing it for you! you can't do it for anyone else. If your not willing and wanting to do it for you, you will not succeed. And if you can find a buddy to at least have to talk to about the stumbling blocks but even more important is someone to share the successes with. I have found it helps me to have fitness pal on my phone.. Not because I count calories, because in what I'm doing I don't need to do that, but because it allows me to see my progress and to connect to other people who have fitness pal. So if your on fitness pal look me up :)

Where will I go when my 10 week program is over? Well I am going to tweak a few things but my journey is not over just because the 10 week program is over. Getting healthy doesn't happen in 10 weeks. But that 10 weeks is what changed the way I see food and how i see myself. It was a great jump off point to what I see is a long term change in myself.