Tag Archives: healthy eating

Fail Forward – No Sugar No Grains

Posted on January 22 by Jillian416 • 0 Comments

Have you heard of the No Sugar, No Grains lifestyle? How about Vinnie Tortorich? Maybe Fitness Confidential?

If you haven’t heard of any of those three things, that’s okay – you don’t need to. I’m almost hopeful that you don’t know any of the three. That means I get to introduce you to a whole new way of living healthfully! And that’s awesome! I’m going to share a lot of information about them. And, I’m really excited to do so, let’s get started!

My Struggle is Real

For at least 19 years, I’ve knowingly struggled with my eating. I have no idea why, or where it started, I just remember struggling to keep my eating under control. I was a serial dieter. One fad diet after another, I even found success with many of them, losing up to 75 lbs at one point – but, I never managed to keep it off. I always looked at my diet as “only temporary,” and “only until I lose the weight.” Those two statements right there are part of the MUCH bigger reason I never stuck to a diet. However, I want you to know, that despite struggling with my weight, in the past and currently, you CAN find your happy place when it comes to your food.

Fail Forward - No Sugar No Grains

Don’t Let Those Resolutions Waiver

We’re nearing the end of January, this is about when people’s resolutions begin to waiver. People start to give up on their goals, or stop believing in themselves. If you listed one of your goals as losing weight or getting healthy, I want to help you get past this hump and keep moving. Trust me, it IS possible!!

For the last 20 days, I’ve been following the No Sugar No Grains (NSNG) diet, created by Vinnie Tortorich. I’m not an expert yet, but I am seeing great results, and Seamus actually started following this means of eating about 3 months ago and has had amazing success. He’s lost 68 lbs, by simply giving up ALL sugar and ALL grains. He does workout, but because of a bad back, he’s currently only walking 4 to 5 days a week. Nothing overly intense, and yet he’s still losing weight!

With most diets, they encourage you to eat low-fat / low calorie. To eat small portions and stay below a certain (small) number of calories. People succeed, but they often feel restricted, which can in turn lead to the binge / guilt cycle. That doesn’t need to happen, you can have yummy, delicious cream in your coffee, or eat real bacon, and not turkey bacon (unless you prefer turkey bacon).

Here’s why I am loving NSNG, I am NEVER starving. In fact, I rarely think about food, unless I’ve gone too long without eating. Because I’m giving myself the fat it needs to work properly, and getting my carbs through healthy veg, I don’t obsess over when my next meal is. It’s an amazing feeling, freeing a part of your brain that has always stressed/obsessed/worried about food. NSNG is a true lifestyle change, it’s not a temporary fix, it’s  something that you stick with and (honestly) will want to stick with.

There are some added benefits, beyond just losing weight, and I am losing weight (6.7 lbs in 20 days). Giving up gluten can have a HUGE impact on your mental clarity. I often stuttered and struggled to find the right words when I spoke, now I feel clear and like I’m not stumbling over my words. Removing sugar (and sugar substitutes) has also helped, by keeping my blood sugar stable, so I don’t have the peeks and valleys (rushes and crashes), that I once did. I feel a sustained amount of energy all day long, and it feels great. And, the best part? My body is having an easier time fighting the depression I suffer from.

There’s no greater reason than that to follow NSNG. Losing weight is wonderful, but if I still hate life, then it’s pointless.

Maybe you’re thinking, I can’t do this – I just can’t give up pasta/bread/soda/cookies, etc – that’s okay! Maybe try giving up just one of those things, and doing that for awhile, until you feel strong and confident in your ability to say no, then maybe remove something else, so on and so forth.

And, if you just aren’t interested in following an NSNG lifestyle, that’s okay. Please know, you can still be successful, you just need to put your mind to it!

Fail Forward - No Sugar No Grains - Baby Doodah

In Conclusion

In future posts, I’m going to talk to you about how we got started with NSNG and provide you with some tips on how to prepare for NSNG if you’ve been eating whatever you want for awhile.

If you’re interested in learning more about NSNG, or maybe you want to start following this lifestyle – Vinnie Tortorich has an amazing book Fitness Confidential and a self-titled podcast, that I would recommend checking out.

Additional reading

Snack Ideas: 10 No Sugar, No Grain Snacks – From Family Sport Life
Recipes: Gluten Free Anna (Anna is Vinnie’s co-host on his podcast, and her recipes are out of this world!)
Article: No Sugar, No Grains: Is This the Key to Long-Term Health?

Posts About My Frequent Failing Forward

I have Binge Eating Disorder
What it’s like on a daily basis, struggling with Binge Eating Disorder
What Someone with Binge Eating Disorder Really Looks Like
Coping with Binge Eating Disorder & the Loneliness of Having the Disorder
Why I Decided to Be Bold and Come Clean About my Binge Eating Struggles
Enough with the Lies Regarding Food Consumption
How I’m Working to Say NO to the Binge

Your Turn!

What are you failing forward with, this year? 

Have you ever followed the NSNG lifestyle? Did you have success? Share your secrets in the comments below!

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Filed Under: All About Me, Family, Food & Fitness

Fitness Fridays – A Slightly New Direction

Posted on August 1 by Jillian416 • 2 Comments

Fitness Fridays is BACK!!

Last week, I took a very short hiatus from Fitness Fridays. I decided to take the time to regroup and refocus on what I wanted out of these posts, because what I previously had wasn’t really working. Well, it was working, but it wasn’t what I had in mind when I decided to revive these from the dead.

I find my Fitness Friday posts to be very motivational and inspirational because I am forced to come here and report to the internet at large, what my goals are and whether I met them. There is nothing that holds me more accountable than not wanting to report a failure to my readers (or anyone, really).

I decided to keep these weekly posts light on the advice (with the occasional advice post, when I have something I really want to share) and heavy on how the week went for me, what worked, what didn’t, etc. I don’t want that to be relegated to the very bottom of the post. For me, the whole purpose of this is to be like an online journal where I share my trials and tribulations, keep myself motivated and maybe inspire someone else in the process.

So, I’m hoping you’ll join me on this new and improved expedition!! There won’t be a link-up at this time, but I’ll re-evaluate that as time marches on.

For now, I hope that you can except my brutal honesty towards myself and support me as I do so. Ready? Set… GO!

Fitness Fridays-BabyDoodah 8-1-14

Fitness Fridays…… Renewed! 

Week of 7/26/14 – 8/1/14

This was a hell of a week! It was my first full week back since being on vacation and I wasn’t happy about that, so I was really caught up in the emotions of work and not really paying attention to my eating or exercise. However, I did manage to keep my nutrition to at least a 7 (out of 10), for the majority of the week.

I got back into drinking my Shakeology, which keeps a lot of my cravings at bay, but I was still wanting salty / carby foods, thanks to PMS. I did manage to eat lots of veggies all week long, which helped keep me full and away from the junk. I didn’t weigh-in this week, because I just didn’t want to face the music AND I’m considering taking the scale out of my life, at least for the near future, (more to come on this in future posts).

But, while my eating was around a 7 all week, my exercise was a big FAT 0. 🙁 I felt low in energy all week, and just couldn’t find the get up and go to get a workout done. I did walk with Emmett a lot, but no intense sweat sessions. I do realize, that if I had worked out, that low energy probably would have gone away, I’d have felt amaze-balls (yes! I did just say that). 🙂

I do want to say one thing, and it is a REALLY important thing. I refuse to beat myself up any more, for anything. Whether it be a lack of motivation to workout, or the way I naturally react to a situation. I’m sick and tired of always hating the way I am, or the way I look. In order to overcome that I need to change my mindset, and realize that I am okay the way I am. I’m not saying no to self-improvement, but I am saying no to beating myself up for not being 100% amazing RIGHT NOW.

Fitness / Food Goals for the next week:

  1. Complete the 3 Day Refresh! I start on Monday! I’m kind of nervous, but I can do anything for 3 days, right!?
  2. Workout 4 times. Beachbody recommends that you do light to no exercise during the refresh, due to the lower number of calories you’re taking in, because of this, I am aiming for 4 workouts, instead of 6 or 7.
  3. I will keep my nutrition at a 7 out of 10.

Your turn!

What do you think of the new (again) format of Fitness Fridays?

Share one or all of your goals in the comments below, let’s hold each other accountable!!

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Filed Under: All About Me, Food & Fitness

Fitness Fridays – #2

Posted on June 20 by Jillian416 • 2 Comments

TGIF, friends! It’s finally Friday!

Who remembers watching TGIF on ABC on Friday nights?? Anyone? I’m sure I am not the only one! I used to look forward to that night of TV more than anything. Well, that’s not entirely true, I did look forward to the night Full House was on. I’d love that show, still do (and I still watch it today).

Anyhoo – I completely veered off topic there. We’re in week #2 of our Fitness Friday link-up and I’m really excited because we had two great blog posts link-up with us.

Hungry Gator GirlMeet Brianna from Hungry Gator Girl!

How to make the sun shineMeet Katie from How to Make the Sun Shine. 

Thanks for linking up ladies!

Last week, I explained that we would be picking a weekly theme to talk about on our blog. Last week’s theme was ensuring you fit exercise in while traveling, this week we decided that we’d discuss how to keep motivation for working out when the newness of a fitness program has passed.

Staying motivated when the newness has passed

If you’re like me, it’s can be really difficult to stay motivated to eat right and workout hard, but there are ways to overcome your slowly waning drive.

1. Assess the Workout You are Doing. Consider the workout you’re doing, is it something that you enjoy or do you find it boring or repetitive. If you find that your answer is yes to either of those, PICK A NEW WORKOUT! There are so so many options out there for staying active, don’t ever let yourself get bored and fall off track.

2. Have You Plateaued? If you’ve been doing the same routine or type of exercise for some time, it’s possible that you’ve plateaued. When that happens, you can get frustrated and have a hard time keeping your focus. Switch it up, try something new, take a different running route, anything that will shock your muscles back into action.

3. Are you getting lazy? Yes, it may sound harsh, but are you getting lazy? Is your motivation disappearing because you just can’t “find the energy” to get up off the couch and put your sneakers on? Then stop making excuses, put the sneakers on and just work out. Even if you convince yourself to do 10 minutes, that 10 minutes is better than keeping your butt on the couch.

Fitness-Fridays,-a-blog-link-up-Baby-Doodah-and-The-Panda-Post

Onto the goals

Amount of Weight Lost

Last week I maintained, this week I gained 3 lbs. I’m not really surprised, I had pizza Wednesday night and on Tuesday, for lunch, I had pulled pork and pasta salad (at a work meeting). Neither lend itself to being healthy, so I gained.I need to get focused next week!

Exercise Goals

Last week I said I wanted to keep working out, using the 21 Day Fix and I can share that I have continued to stick with it and I am enjoying the workouts so much. I got through the entire 7 days and I loved them all, even the hardest day, Total Body Cardio Fix. Yikes! That’s a toughy!

This week, I am going onto my 3rd week of 21 Day Fix. I’d like to continue with that and get 7 days worth of workouts! On the side, I’d like to take some more walks with Emmett and get to the outdoor pool with him a few more times.

Food Goals

I set a goal to continue sticking with healthy eating and drinking my Shakeology, and I partially completed that. I had my Shakeology every single day (I am loving it!) and I stuck to the 21 Day Fix Meal Plan about 75% of the time. It’s a wonderful feeling, I just need to get to 100%. 😀

Next week, I want to continue following the 21 Day Fix Meal Plan, and drinking my Shakeology. I look forward to reporting a loss next week. 🙂

Alrighty, that about does it for this week’s Fitness Friday – We’d love it if you shared your awesome fitness related posts with our link-up below.

Fitness Friday - Joint Pic

Kathy at The Panda Post|Bloglovin’|Facebook|Twitter|Instagram

Jillian at Baby Doodah!|Bloglovin’|Facebook|Twitter|Instagram|Google+

 Your turn!

How do you keep your motivation up when you’ve been working out for awhile?

What are some of your exercise and food goals for the next week?

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If you want to start your Monday off on a generous foot and want to support cancer research, donate to my ride. I’m riding for Roswell Park Cancer Institute and their Ride for Roswell. Anything will help me reach my goal, and further advance cancer research. Just click HERE to donate.


Filed Under: Food & Fitness

Friday Fitness – Restart

Posted on June 6 by Jillian416 • 1 Comment

Happy Friday!

I don’t know about you, but I am SO thrilled to be here again. It has been one heck of a week and I’m really excited for the weekend. A certain someone special in my life has a birthday on Saturday (Seamus), so we’ll be celebrating that, otherwise we’ll be doing some stuff around the house and some major relaxing.

Friday-Fitness---Baby-Doodah

Friday Fitness

I’ve been thinking, and I decided that my blog needs a new (old) series. For those of you who have been reading since I started, you may remember when I had a post that I did every Friday where I talked about my fitness goals, the weight I lost or didn’t lose, whether I was tracking my food, etc (you can read all of the old Friday Fitness posts, here). It kept me accountable, until it didn’t, and the reason it didn’t was because I began making excuses and then just decided to cancel the series because I hated sharing my failures each week.

I’m at a point now, where I truly believe that I am ready to lose the weight and that my mind is too. I’ve had a few different instances over the last week, where I was craving junk food (Tim Bits to be exact), and after really thinking about it, I realized I didn’t want them and that I didn’t want to feel like crap after eating them. It was easy for me to turn away! I hope this means that I am beginning my road to recovery.

 Steps to Better Health

I’ve begun taking steps to better health, I recently signed-up to be a Beachbody Coach, I’m really excited about this and will be sharing more as time goes on. Since I signed-up as a coach, I chose my first Beachbody program and went with the 21 day FIX. If you’re interested in learning more about Beachbody and their workouts and having me as your coach (for free – your only cost is that of the challenge pack) or are interested in becoming a coach for yourself (again more details on this in a few days), you can visit my page by clicking here.

Goals

So, how this is going to work, is that I will be sharing my weekly goals and in future weeks, I’ll be sharing my success/failure from the past week. My goal is not to cop out after a few weeks, even if I fail. Failure is a part of getting into shape, especially when you are as out of shape and overweight as I am, I want you guys to know me as a real person. So I will be sharing the good, the bad and the ugly!

Exercise Goals

I will be working out 7 days a week for 30 minutes, following the 21 day FIX schedule. I can do anything for 30 minutes!

Food Goals

I will also be following the 21 day FIX food plan, which I will share more in detail in future posts.

Here’s to a really great week of workouts!

Your turn!

I’d love to hear what your goals are, or what workouts you’re doing?

Has anyone ever done a Beachbody workout before? What are your thoughts?

If you want to start your Monday off on a generous foot and want to support cancer research, donate to my ride. I’m riding for Roswell Park Cancer Institute and their Ride for Roswell. Anything will help me reach my goal, and further advance cancer research. Just click HERE to donate.

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Filed Under: All About Me, Food & Fitness

Sunday Meal Plan – Week 17

Posted on June 1 by Jillian416 • 2 Comments

Here’s to another lovely Sunday Meal Plan!

It has been another great Sunday in Western New York, the sun has been shining, the breeze lightly blowing and the birds tweeting. I couldn’t ask for much more in the weather department.

So what did we do this weekend?

Not all that much, but we did do some serious lazing around. 🙂 Yesterday I finally went and got a hair cut, it’s been since before Thanksgiving, and I was in desperate need. I don’t know if anyone else has as good of a relationship with their hair dresser as I do, but I really enjoy seeing her and catching up. I see Alli at Chez Ann Salon, in case anyone is in need of a stylist. 🙂

In the afternoon we ran a couple errands and then headed out to a playground for some good ole fashion fun. I got this lovely picture…

Sunday-Meal-Plan----Baby-Doodah

It was just such a gorgeous evening!

And today, Sunday, started out rough. Emmett woke up around 1:30 and I wasn’t able to crawl back into my own bed until around 5:30 am. It’s been so bad lately, he’s woken up every single night since last Thursday. I know everyone says that it will all eventually pass, and that I’ll look back on this time fondly, but I have to be honest, I’m tired… How do I get him to sleep through the night again (help!)?

Once we were all up again, we went grocery shopping, got coffee, had lunch, took naps and then went out for a nice long walk. It was a beautiful night once again. I just love this weather! The time between it being cold and super hot, I just wish it lasted longer in Western NY. 🙂

And now, my Sunday meal plan.

Sunday: Pork with homemade tomatillo salsa

Monday: Grilled Chicken and Zucchini

Tuesday: Salmon with Israeli Couscous, with Peppers and Pistachios (this is a recipe I got off of one of my Paleo eMeals menu – it’s so good!)

Wednesday: Mexican Pizzas

Thursday: Hot Dogs and Fries

Friday: Meatloaf (following my recipe, find it here) and Baked Potatoes

Saturday: Seamus’ Birthday Dinner!!! I’m not sure where he wants to go yet, but I’m excited to celebrate with him.

That’s about it for food this week, once again, I’m pretty excited about our menu! I’m linking up with Laura from Mommy, Run Fast! and Jill from jillconyers.com Check them out and link-up!

If you are feeling generous and want to support cancer research, donate to my ride. I’m riding for Roswell Park Cancer Institute and their Ride for Roswell. Anything will help me reach my goal, and further advance cancer research. Just click HERE to donate.

Your turn!

Please share your tips to get your toddler to sleep through the night again?

What fun meals do you have planned for this week?

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Filed Under: Family, Food & Recipes

My Finds Friday – Paleo

Posted on October 25 by Jillian416 • 0 Comments

Happy Friday! Time for My Finds Friday, Paleo edition.

It’s Friday, which means that my vacation is nearly over. I always have such grand plans for my time off, and it always seems to fall short. All I wanted to do was get my house in order and get a bunch of extra blog articles written so that I was ahead and wasn’t constantly waiting till the night of, to write a post. I love this blog and I feel like it deserves more than an hour a night that I’ve been able to dedicate to it. Unfortunately, the extra blog posts didn’t happen, life did, and so I’m in the same spot I was prior to vacation. On top of that, I didn’t do any cleaning, I just had no desire to spend my time away from work, cleaning up my house. It definitely isn’t gross, just cluttered and dusty, it could use a once over with a vacuum and a dust cloth.

So, what have I done? A lot of relaxing, (ie: watching TV, napping, and reading), we celebrated our anniversary, went to the Buffalo Zoo (post coming soon), and just spent time just being. Sometimes that’s all you need to recoup yourself and feel refreshed and ready to take on your normal day to day tasks.

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And now, My Finds Friday!

I mentioned above that I did some reading over vacation, I began reading The Paleo Manifesto and it is filled with a lot of good information. Since I am being inspired by this book, I thought I’d focus this week’s My Finds Friday on all things Paleo.

Alrighty, those are my finds for the week. I hope you visit them all and give them some love! Also, if you have some of your own finds, Paleo or otherwise, feel free to link-up below. I love seeing what you come up with!

Your turn!

Have you ever thought about going Paleo?

What are some of your favorite Paleo meals or recipes?

Filed Under: My Finds Friday

What I Ate Wednesday – #6

Posted on August 21 by Jillian416 • 0 Comments

I think I say this every Wednesday, but what a busy day it was! It seemed like I was moving non-stop from the moment I awoke and I have the headache and tense neck/shoulders to prove it.

I actually don’t have a lot of pictures, because I didn’t eat a whole lot. I never thought I’d say this but I was literally too busy to eat at times. Crazy, right!?

Breakfast was the same as last week’s:

2 slices of toast
eggs
avocado
tomatoes (fresh from the farmer’s market, still)
2 plums
a banana

 

what-i-ate-wednesday-54 what-i-ate-wednesday-51I absolutely love this breakfast, hence why I had it again. It is very filling and just hits all the taste buds!wednesday-2

I skipped a snack today, I honestly just didn’t feel hungry and since my mind was busy, I didn’t really think about food.

Huge win!

Lunch was just kind of thrown together at the last minute because I didn’t want to spend a lot of time cooking or making anything. I just had some Keebler Townhouse Flatbread Sea Salt and Olive Oil crackers and a couple hard boiled eggs.

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Dinner was out, at Salsaritas. We had an appointment to view a new day care for Emmett and stopped on the way home. It was absolutely delicious, but it always is when we go there.

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All in all it was a really good day, busy, but good! I am amazed at how much less food I eat when I keep myself busy. I’m not just allowing myself to sit around thinking about what I can binge on in the kitchen. It feels good to being working on gaining control of my eating.

Your turn!

What foods did you eat this Wednesday?

Thank you to Peas and Crayons for hosting!
Filed Under: What I Ate Wednesday
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