If you’ve been counting the weeks with me, you’ll realize I’m posting this a few days early. My eight weeks are up the beginning of next week, but it suits me better to post this now.
So the final verdicts are in!
These are just a few of my musings, achievements, and failures since I began this journey to a healthier me.
30-Minutes By Myself
This one has gotten easier since school started. I now have only the two little guys at home with me during the day . . . when we are actually home! And I’ve found that the baby’s naptime is my time to have this 30-minutes-by-myself thing.
However, the Lord must have decided I’d be getting too comfortable with my time alone . . . and put me in as teacher for one of our women’s Sunday School classes. So now quite a bit of that time is put into studying for Sunday School.
I guess that’s what happens when you pray: “Lord, draw me closer to You and into Your Word.” The Lord has His ways, and it’s not up to us to choose them!
Eating More Whole Foods
Ok, so this is my major confession. While Lowell was gone hunting for a week, the kids and I ditched all healthy eating attempts and lived the life for several days. Like cold cereal for supper!! However, it makes it that much harder to get back into the swing of eating healthier. But we’ll get there.
Drinking More Water
I have upped my water intake on most days, but could stand to be more consistent with this one. I feel better on the days I drink plenty of water.
Exercise
Riding bike has been my choice of exercise. And although four days a week had been my intial goal, I’ve only achieved exercising 3-4 days a week. But I still feel like it has helped me in overall endurance, strength, and mood. Yes, exercise really does boost your mood!
Counting Calories
Now I’ll have to say that I’m a numbers sort of person, so counting calories wasn’t all that difficult for me. However, I wouldn’t recommend it for someone who struggles with an eating or food disorder. With the right tendencies, someone could become overly obsessive about it – which is not good.
But throughout the 7 1/2 weeks, I was able to count my calories about 5-6 days a week. Some weeks it was all seven, some weeks it was only 3 or 4. But I guess it helped since I have slowly lost a few pounds!
Looking back on my food diary, I ate between 1800-2100 calories, with the average being 1900. This was including around 450 calories for breastfeeding the baby. The first few days I felt hungrier, but not deprived. After a week, I felt fine. And now that I’ve been doing this for almost eight weeks, I feel like it’s alot of food! It varied between those two numbers because some days I truly did not feel like eating any leftover calories, and other days I was really hungry – especially if I’d done more outside, strenuous garden work (plus I’m still nursing Baby Dallas).
Going from here, I will probably drop back counting my calories and simply go to eating when I’m hungry. I don’t want to count my calories for the rest of my life!
The Iodine Protocol
Let me begin this segment by saying we are not doctors here at the Shoe. That’s our disclaimer! We just read and research, and read some more. I will give a few links so that you can do the same.
Lowell and I have both been doing The Iodine Protocol outlined in Dr. Brownsteins book “Iodine: Why You Need It, Why You Can’t Live Without It”, although to varying degrees. We highly recommend this book, written by a doctor on why you need iodine in your diet and why almost no one gets enough for optimum health.
Lowell has always been able to take much more of a supplement without it adversely affecting him, than what I can. So this protocol I will outline is not exactly what Lowell takes, but is what has helped me.
You can also find the official iodine thereapy guidelines by going to this webpage. This is a complete protocol with companion nutrients agreed upon by numerous iodine literate MD’s and other medical practitioners in 2007.
We’ve both been doing this since late March/earlyApril, and had read that it takes around 4 months before most people start seeing weight loss. And this four-month mark also coincided with when I began this healthier me journey.
However, Lowell hasn’t counted calories or anything like that, but has still lost around 14 pounds and 2 inches on his waist! He feels it is sustainable and is a result of The Iodine Protocol detoxing his body from the results of the pain meds he was on for 2 years and normalizing his blood sugar. He had slowly gained almost 20 pounds over the 6 years since his accident.
We both believe that the iodine protocol has helped stabilize blood sugars and normalize our food cravings. You simply don’t feel like you need to eat as much as you did before!
What I take on most days:
1/4 tsp. unrefined celtic sea salt dissolved in hot water (I haven’t been consistent with this one)
1,000 mg. Vitamin C (this needs to be taken 1-2 hours after/before taking iodine)
25 mg. Iodoral (iodine/iodide)
200 mcg. Selenium
100 mg. Riboflavin (Vitamin B2)
500 mg. Niacin (Vitamin B3) *Be sure to get the non-flushing type*
10,000 IU Vitamin D3
This protocol has given me more energy, increased my mood, and helped decrease the bad effects of my sleepless nights with the baby. And it also added to the weight loss – although please remember that it took four months for that to start taking effect.
Weight Loss
Now for the final results: in 7 1/2 weeks, I have lost 7.4 pounds! Ok, so that’s not huge, but when it hadn’t been going anywhere for almost a year, that’s good! It’s been consistently around a pound a week.
I don’t know how many of you followed this little journey, but I had one fellow sojourner (who texted me her progress) and she has done even more awesome than me! (You now who you are, and I’m proud of you!) 🙂
Now if I were to give one tip on getting healthier and losing weight, it would be this: Find some way or someone to be accountable to! You don’t know how many times I wanted to be really, really bad . . . like in baking ooey-gooey fudgy brownies, eating them with piles of ice cream, and smothering it all with homemade fudge sauce. Oh yum.
But the fact that I knew I had to post an update here on the blog soon kept me from doing too much of that! Accountability is important in many areas of our lives . . . and this one is no different. Find someone to text you every week to see how you’re doing, if you’re on track, or just to applaud you for your progress. It will be fun for both of you!
Thank you all for following along, and may we each one not take our health for granted . . .
but use it to further God’s kingdom!
- The Adventum CD Collection – Sale Now - March 27, 2021
- Alternative To Facebook Option - January 30, 2021
- The Beauty of the Hoary Head - January 2, 2021
Lisa Tacheira says
Love this! 🙂 Thanks for sharing. You’ve inspired me. I’m not sharing any results though, not quite committed to the accountability thing 😉 <3 Keep it up! 🙂
Living in the Shoe says
Yes, accountability can be scary! 😉 I almost didn’t do this on the blog, but after a year, I figured I needed to get myself in line somehow. Hope the rest of your healthy journey goes very well!
Wende Otto says
Great job!
Living In The Shoe says
Thanks!!
Kim W says
Well done and keep up the Good work! Isn’t it funny that when we pray for more time to ourselves, and to grow closer to the Lord he arranges it just so?
Living in the Shoe says
Yes, it is! But that isn’t the way I would have necessarily chosen . . . but He knows best!
Shilah says
Congratulations on reaching your goals while keeping it real! I appreciate that you told about the slow days as well. And as for teaching the Sunday School class, I’ve felt just like you do when given the job; yet it was a special time of digging into the word and growing. God bless.
Living in the Shoe says
Thanks, Shilah! I told Lowell that if I must teach for six months, that I would like to learn how to enjoy it. So that is my prayer! And thanks for being an encouragement to me in so many ways – both in post office matters and otherwise. 🙂