Last week I wrote about how I want to lose 70 lbs (and my other intentions.)  So I’ve set my intention in place and I have a clear vision of why I want to lose weight; I want to lose weight be the healthy active person I was before I had kids–my weight is no longer the badge of honor of motherhood.

I’ve started exercising everyday–walking 1-3 miles.

I am taking my supplements, drinking my water, and have started to follow a food plan that will allow me to eat about 1600 calories a day.  I’ll take one day off a week, once I have the plan in place.

I had trouble finding a food plan that I could stick with–I don’t want to count points, I don’t want to count calories, I don’t want to write down everything I eat, I don’t even want to log it into either of the apps I have on my phone for keeping track of food . . .  but I don’t want to be fat either.

I’m also busy with the kids activities and my own!  I’m not making excuses, rather I am identifying roadblocks to my success.  I know what I can do and what I can’t do.  I can remember to get up each morning and walk–but I can’t think about what I will make for lunch at 11:30 that will be nutritional and 300 calories–at 11:15.  I need to plan.  This is about how I’m going to make my plan.  It is my journey!

What to do?  I did buy the app Log my Run Pro–I’m following the “train for a marathon from nothing” feature of the app.  I also log all of my walks that I take–and I’m amazed at how in less than a week my miles are adding up!  So I do feel like I have record keeping of my exercise in the right place.

The food part of the equation is where I am having trouble–I’m not excited about cooking for me and the rest of my family AND I already feel like I fight with them over food enough.  The “people are starving in _______.” is no longer working.  The project is two-fold.  Food for me and food for them.

The food and how much is tricky so I googled for a little while and found a few great websites.  I also found a few great lesson plans so . . . I am going to teach the food plate (the new pyramid) for science in our homeschool.  I think it will be fun and my kids can see where they need to make some better choices in eating.  I have 2 kids who like white food and one of those kids has issues with the sensory aspect of eating so . . . things get a little more complicated than just “eat your broccoli.”

This is a great chart that establishes how much of each food group you need based on age and calories.

But how many calories do my kids who are 5-11 need?  I have 2 kids that are non-stop movement and the other 2 are  . . . less active.  Check out this website for the entire family!

So this is my food plan at the moment.

Breakfast:  a muesli style oatmeal or quiche with a banana.

Lunch:  Soup and a salad–the soup will be store-bought so that I can track my calories and the salad will just be romaine/spinach/cucumber/mushrooms/hardboiled egg (I love decorating salads with extra veggies).

3:00 snack not sure–it may be an apple with some cheese, protein shake, hot tea, peanut butter on a spoon.

Dinner:  trying to not eat anything past 7 pm.  Dinner will be veggies and protein (trying not to eat carb in the evening).

According to my Daily Food plan this is what I’m supposed to be eating to achieve my nutrition and caloric goals . . . I’ll be following up with this–because I’m a little suspect on if it will really add up to be balanced.

5 oz of grain (breakfast)

2 cups of veggies (salads and dinner)

1 1/2 cups of fruit (1 of each apple, banana, orange)

3 cups of Dairy–no way will I do this–they recommend this for calcium so I will research calcium rich foods

5 oz of protein (eggs and meat at dinner)

So will this work?  Not sure.  I was always a “normal” size and never had to worry about how much I ate or exercised.

Stay tuned on what I come up with on for my daily intake!  You can sign up to receive updates via email.  Tomorrow I will be posting the beginning of my unit on the food pyramid.  I know the idea that I set forth will take on a life of its own and we will learn but it may not be how I intended.

Be Blessed.  Please pray for me on my journey and for others who also want to lose weight.  Your words of encouragement are so very helpful to us.

Motivation Mondays, Mindful Mothering, The Better Mom,