My Personal 12 Week Challange
The sun has been out for the last couple weeks here in Michigan (well – minus the last 2 days!), it’s getting warmer, my treadmill was delivered last week, and I’m fed up.
It’s time to do something and with my husband setting his own workout goals for the next couple months, I’ve decided to join him. Plus, it makes it so much easier if we’re both on the same page! And after the crummy eating we’ve done the last week or so, the feeling sick is definitely enough to feel the kick in the behind.
I’ve printed out a goal list for each week, and marking what I do daily. I’m also focusing on health, not weight.
On my “do not eat list”
- refined sugar and flour
- no eating out
- no junk oils (corn, canola, soybean, etc)
- no coffee
- no grains (I’m wanting to be able to mark this one a few times a week – not everyday)
- no unsoaked grains (again – a few times a week, not everyday)
My ‘must eat” daily list:
- 3 tsp cod liver oil (going to be hard as I’m trying the oil and not the capsules *gulp*)
- probiotics
- 1 Tbsp coconut oil
- 1/2 cup yogurt
- 2 eggs
- a raw food with breakfast
- a raw food with lunch
- a raw food with dinner
- 2 quarts if water
I also have rows for the treadmill, weights, and aerobics.
By the end of 12 weeks I’d love to fit into my “thin” clothes (possible without having to go crazy), be able to run at least 2 miles at a time, and overall be in a healthier frame of mind.
What I’m not doing:
- Counting calories
- Eating low fat – cause you know…..I actually like my body.
- Weighing myself until the 12 weeks are up
Why do I tell the whole world? Cause now I’ll look like a dufus if I don’t do anything! Accountability folks, accountability.
So do you have goals for this spring? What are they, and how are you going to meet them?
Gonna join me?
Interested in the supplements, herbs, books, or products I like? I recently set up an Amazon store so that I could easily share them with you.
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About donielle
Donielle is an amateur herbalist and natural momma to two littles (with another babe in heaven) after dealing with infertility. She has a passion for nourishing nutrition, natural living, and spreading the word on how food truly affects our health. Her blog Naturally Knocked Up focuses on fertility and reproductive health and her book on natural fertility will be available in June 2012. She also runs a local blog (Grand Rapids Natural Living) and is active the local community in order to provide the area with resources and information for natural families.
Is this heading you towards GAPS? We found that once we were on GAPS we lost weight quickly and a lot of those goals fell into place (like not eating out, no bad oils, etc.). But it’s great to have goals! We’re planning to just get outside a lot more and we’ll get more exercise chasing our kids (2 year old is FAST and 8-month-old just started crawling, so they’re both mobile now). We’re off all grains, all sugar (except some honey). We need to get a wider range of veggies in our diet, more fats (especially animal fats), and more soups, so we can heal faster and get back onto NT stuff! I sent you an email over the weekend, btw. I know you’re super busy though!
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donielle Reply:
March 16th, 2010 at 8:57 pm
@Kate, I would at some point like to go on the GAPS diet, and I’ll be making more and more GAPS friendly dishes so that at some point we might be eating all GAPS for a bit. I’m being pretty flexible though and since my husband isn’t fully on board yet, I don’t want to press it.
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I am in!!! You are such an inspiration! I may have to think about the goals, but I really like the idea of posting them for all the world to see. Got any music ideas for a workout mix? Besides disco (even though it has a great beat and all)
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donielle Reply:
March 16th, 2010 at 9:00 pm
@heather harris, Right now I just use Pandora. The 80′s station is always a hit for me.
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Take the CLO like a shot with a chaser of half a teaspoon or so of honey. It might burn a bit, but that’s what the honey is for. It really REALLY helped me. Now I find that the CLO gives me a shot of energy in the morning and I don’t bother with the honey anymore.
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donielle Reply:
March 16th, 2010 at 9:01 pm
@Alexis, I’ll have to try that, cause I still haven’t gotten as much as I need right now!
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I love the reminder to eat one raw food with each meal. This is definitely a weakness area for me. I just thought today about how I need to be eating more raw foods – like salads. Let me know how the CLO goes. As soon my capsules are gone, I plan to make the switch too. For someone struggling to get “knocked up” a second time, I really enjoy reading your blog. Making the real food conversion has done wonders over the last year.
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donielle Reply:
March 16th, 2010 at 9:02 pm
@Michelle, Raw foods are my weakness right now too. Something about winter and I eat only cooked stuff! Last week I noticed I had gone DAYS without fresh foods!!
*and thanks for the compliment!
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I’m curious, why are you taking 3 tsp of cod liver oil? I’ve been taking 1 tsp a day (the Green Pastures butter oil/fermented CLO), because (I think) that’s the amount recommended by the WAPF. But lately I’ve been wondering if I should be taking more; I have persistent, pretty severe acne that just won’t go away. (I’m 24). I was hoping CLO would help, but this dose doesn’t seem to be doing much. Any suggestions/insights?
Also, the best way that I’ve found to take the CLO is to put a small amount of smoothie into a cup, drop in about 1/2 tsp of CLO, and take a sip of smoothie so that the CLO goes into your mouth without touching anything, then swallow. I have the gel stuff, and when I do it right, the CLO kind of stays suspended in the smoothie and I can swallow it without having to taste it at all.
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donielle Reply:
March 16th, 2010 at 9:04 pm
@Meghan, I’ll have to try your CLO tip! And I’m taking a bit more right now due to fighting off candida and I’ve noticed a bit of tooth decay starting and I’d like to nip it in the bud!
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I’m just curious and this might be too personal, but if you don’t eat grains, how much money do you end up spending on produce, or, food in general per month? We keep grains in bulk, so it’s super cheap for us–I don’t take it out of our monthly budget allowance for food. I do, however, already spend a lot of money on produce–and would have to spend more if I cut out the grains.
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donielle Reply:
March 16th, 2010 at 9:06 pm
@Kelly, Food in general we spend about $300.00 a month on groceries for 2 adults and a 3yo and the 1 yo is just starting to eat foods. Instead of grains I usually eat meat or eggs. And my husband hunts so that helps with our meat bill.
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Jenniffer Reply:
April 14th, 2010 at 12:21 pm
@donielle, Since your husband hunts, do you have any game recipes that you can post? That is all we eat is deer and elk!!
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donielle Reply:
April 14th, 2010 at 1:17 pm
@Jenniffer, Jennifer – I just use our venison exactly like I would beef so I don’t have any specific recipes just for venison. Sorry!
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Good luck! Spring is the best time to start a new goal like this. I can’t wait to hear all about it. I’m interested to see what kinds of yummy foods you’ll be cooking up too.
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I am in, sort of. I am still making a lot of these transitions (to natural food) in our house, so we are still in the baby steps of that. I am on a path to get healthy so that we can get “knocked up” in the next year or so, but I have to lose a lot of weight and get my body into a shape that can carry a pregnancy. I am counting calories because I used to be a grazer, emotional eater, and an over-eater; right now it is giving me some balance and control until I learn what normal things look like again. I like the idea of one raw thing with every meal! I am going to add that one to my list. We have gotten rid of the junk oils and are in LOVE with coconut oil!
I would love for you to follow along with my journey here, it is my week 2: http://mimsyweretheborogroves.blogspot.com/2010/03/battle-of-bulge-week-2.html
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donielle Reply:
March 22nd, 2010 at 10:34 am
@Molly, Good for you! Looks like you’re doing a great job already.
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Hi! I just found your blog and I am enjoying looking through your different posts!
I am trying to get my family on a healthier diet (no eating out, less sugar, more organic foods…), but I am having a hard time figuring out what to do about refined sugar and flour. I bake a good bit so I find it hard to avoid those two things. Is there something you use instead? I would love to hear your suggestions!
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donielle Reply:
March 22nd, 2010 at 7:52 am
@Amy Lynn, With baking it is tough to not use refined sugars and flours. Right now I don’t bake to often at all. So, personally I would say that it’s just something that needs to happen infrequently, say once a week or so to start. Otherwise, use the best ingredients you can and start subbing some of the refined stuff for less refined ingredients. Sometime you can even reduce the amount of sugar without affecting taste and texture to much. One thing I did at first was to start replacing 1/4 of the called for sugar with sucanat and 1/4 of the called for flour with a whole wheat flour. (whole wheat pasty flour is AWESOME in baked goods) Then just increase it slowly and a lot of times you can’t even tell as you get used to the new flavors. You could also try subbing some of the sugar with honey or maple syrup, or at least use dehydrated cane sugar. Also make sure you use either real butter or coconut oi in baked goods! (when I use coconut oil I can usually decrease the overall amount of sugar in a recipe since it’s slightly sweet)
Hope that helps!
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