Temporary Goodbye

To my Loyal Readers… I must take a break from posting for the next month or two.  It is Spring Cleaning time, both literally and figuratively, as I need to spend some concentrated time on my to-do list as well as nurturing my relationship with the Lord and my family.  Doing this “limited internet” hiatus a few times a year helps me to re-prioritize that which is most important.  I will continue my gratitude list… on paper, the old-fashioned way, for now.  

Goodbye… for a little while.  Blessings.

 

Corrie Mims

 

How to Eat and Move to Increase Your Metabolism… Joy Dare #153-155

Your genetics only account for about 5% of how fast your metabolism converts food to energy. This means you can influence the other 95% and tell your body, over time, to ramp up your resting metabolic rate. This is your go-to plan to make that happen (and why it will work) in a nutshell:

1. Eat smaller meals, and eat more often. When you go too long between meals or snacks, your body thinks you may be in a famine situation, and it was created to brilliantly “gear down” and conserve energy. Then, because you are dreadfully hungry from waiting so long to eat, you eat a huge meal at the same time your body thinks it is starving and is in a conserve-all-energy state. So, it stores your meal as fat for future famines! When you eat smaller meals/snacks every 2-3 hours, you “rev” your metabolism engines by telling your body there is a wealth of food available and easily accessed. Also, eating any food increases your metabolism, especially the first hour after eating, so eating smaller meals more often means more hours of the day when your metabolism is boosted just by eating!

2. Eat more protein. If you follow my health plan, you are already doing this but may not understand why it is helping. Protein requires 25% more energy to digest than other foods. It also directly “feeds” and repairs your muscles. You’ll see why this is important as you…

3. Build muscle through strength training. You have probably heard that muscle burns more calories than fat, but did you realize just how many more? One pound of fat burns only 2 calories per day, while one pound of muscle burns 35 calories per day! Building more muscle and maintaining it is beneficial to your body in many ways, but where your weight loss efforts are concerned, it is vital! It is more effective longterm than aerobics because it doesn’t just burn calories while you are exercising- it increases your ability to burn calories all the time, even while you are sleeping. (It also makes things easier to pick up, daily tasks feel effortless, and makes you look fabulous instead of flabby… but that isn’t the point of this post.)

4. Increase your calories (feast) one day a week. This tells your body not to gear down and create a set point of metabolism based on your lower caloric intake the rest of the week. In my health plan, this is the “splurge” day from Saturday night through Sunday lunch.

5. Avoid sugar and refined carbohydrates (like white bread, pasta, white potatoes, white rice, etc.) most of the time. When you have a blood sugar spike due to your body breaking down these quick carbs, your pancreas releases insulin which transports the excess glucose (sugar) in your blood to your liver and fat cells as storage for future energy requirements. As it does this, your glucose levels fall in your blood and you feel the “blood sugar low” so many talk about… aka HUNGER! You want to eat everything in sight, especially craving those simple sugars to give you relief from the low you are feeling. Do you see the vicious cycle that is created by just one meal that is too high in quick sugars? It is a double whammy, both increasing fat storage and making you crave more of the bad stuff all at the same time.

6. Eat real food. Not the processed-out-of-a-box junk. Not the chemical laden food-look-alikes. Your body knows they are not food, and has to work very hard to figure out what exactly to do with them. Ultimately, it processes them as toxins and stores them often in fat cells to protect your body from them temporarily! Yuck. It is hard on every organ system in your body. Just don’t eat them. Unfortunately, this includes pretty much every food that you don’t make from scratch. There are simple ways to cook real food, though, and it doesn’t have to be hard. Give your body food it recognizes and automatically knows what to do with.

7. Keep things moving at a normal pace. Umm… so I’m a nurse, and talking about things like this doesn’t bother me. Even if it bothers you to read it, the information is important enough for you to read it anyway. Your small intestines are where your body absorbs nutrients from the food you eat. Your large intestines then absorb water as needed, and what is left is what comes out in your toilet. Different people visit the toilet at different intervals, but there is a “normal-and-healthy-for-you.” You may go three times a day, or twice a week, but if your stool is hard and pellet like, things are not moving along as quickly as they should. Likewise, if your stool is liquid-like and unformed, things are probably moving along too quickly! Talk to your doctor, of course, if you have either on a regular basis. Simply changing your diet and sticking to it will go a long way in helping in this area, but when you initially make the change it often shocks your system and things may… well… back up. (Miralax will be your best friend in such a circumstance. FYI.) This doesn’t really speed up your metabolism, but it does assist your metabolism! If your digestion is moving too quickly, your body can’t absorb the many micronutrients available and needed in the real food you are eating. If moving too slowly, your body may store more of the food than it needs just to “deal with it.”

Here is a rude awakening, based on the above facts. If you and your best friend each weigh 150 pounds, but you were 200 pounds and dieted by cutting calories to lose weight and she has never weighed more than 150 pounds, you will have a slower metabolism than she does and will require less calories per day. This is why she can eat pizza and chocolate and you are eating salads and soup, but you weigh the same amount! It seems unfair, I know, but when you understand why your body geared down and the miracle it is that your body was created to be able to do so, you can be thankful for it. You also can, to a great extent, reverse the process and gear up your body by increasing your metabolism in the above ways.

Joy Dare:

153. 154. 155. Three Gifts Hard to Give Thanks For… We haven’t built our house yet even though we are so close to starting; I can’t sing praise anymore in the choir at church due to irreparable damage to my vocal cords during thyroid removal; Our country is quickly becoming more and more in debt while infringing on more and more of our freedoms. Your timing is best, Lord, and none of these things surprise you. You promised to use all things for the good of those who love You, and You are faithful to keep all Your promises. I trust You.

Corrie Mims

 

Let’s Talk Fuel Economy…. Joy Dare #147-152

I’m not talking about cars and gas costs, because I don’t know anything about motors. I am talking about the rate at which your body breaks down proteins, carbohydrates, and fats to produce the energy required to keep your cells functioning. This is known as “metabolism” (which is an overused word often by those who have little understanding of what the process really involves or how the rate of metabolism is set over time).

Yes, genetics play a factor here, but before you give up and resign yourself to a life of being overweight, I have great news. You have the ability, no matter how old or hormonal, no matter how many great-grandmothers in your family were overweight or obese, to change your metabolism (again, the rate your body breaks down the food you eat and turns it into energy instead of storing it as fat).

I am tempted to go deeply into the science of this here, because it gets me so excited and I love it, but I do realize most of you just want to know how to do it and you don’t care so much why it works. I get it. So, I will put it in the simplest terms I know how, (and if you decide you want the deeper cut, just ask).

First, let me say this is being spurred by a talk I had with K. this week after looking over her food journals from the past thee weeks and doing some investigating as well as interacting with the amazing and brave members of our secret health plan group on Facebook who are sharing their lives with me while we pursue health together. (Join us? Click here, and send me a message or comment that you would like to join.) K. didn’t lose any weight this week, and fell off the wagon a few times with her eating plan. I realized there were some holes in my teaching that needed to be explained to her to help her with her choices, and she is excited and back on track this week. These are the basics of what I taught her…

1. We all have different rates of metabolism.

(No surprise there, right? We have all had that skinny friend who could shovel back pizza and chocolate all day and never gain an ounce while we ate salads and drank chicken broth and gained 5 pounds!) This is why the old teaching of calories in/calories out wasn’t a complete picture. And if you believed it and ate less and less in an attempt to lose weight…

2. You have likely injured your metabolism repeatedly.

There are a number of ways we do this: when we eat, how much we eat, what we eat, how we move, and how often we move. The choices many of you have made over years in these areas have told your body to slow down and store the fuel you give it in the reserve tank. There are complicated and fascinating processes in the body which allow it to do this (and this loves-to-research nurse is struggling to spare you the details…It is just so hard!) Anyway…

3. You can reverse the process, over time, and increase your metabolism.

You do this by increasing your body’s need for energy, because your body will only burn fat stores when it is out of easy-to-access fuel and needs the reserve fuel tank. The great news is that endless hours on the treadmill are not the answer to doing this! So…

4. You can’t base your weight loss on how someone else’s body uses fuel, just like you can’t base your car’s fuel economy on your buddy’s truck and driving habits.

They won’t correlate. However, over the next few days I will be teaching you specific ways (in bite size lessons you can easily digest) to increase the rate your body uses fuel, to encourage your body to access the reserve tanks and drain them, and to give your body the tune-up it is desperately needing.

(You can thank my four children for keeping me so busy that I can’t unload all the information on you at once! It is against my nature to wait and show restraint when there are lessons to teach and learn. Just ask K.)

Joy Dare:

147. 148. 149. A Gift Outside, Inside, on a Plate… The wheat growing beautiful and green in our fields; the scale reporting 9.5 pounds lost in the last 4 weeks; pastured eggs and sourdough whole wheat bread with Stan’s raw honey on my breakfast plate this morning.

150. 151. 152. Three Gifts Heard… Cowboy telling Grandma he loves her, TenderHeart’s declaration of “best in the world” about my homemade chocolate chip cookies, BraveHeart’s baby laugh when Cowboy “gets his sugar.”

Corrie Mims

 

While I Have Been Quiet… Joy Dare #134-146

I am behind and need to do a marathon of Joy posting. Life has gotten more complicated around here now that SweetHeart is potty training and TenderHeart has allergy shots twice a week (a 30 minute drive away). This is combined with the usual homeschooling, tumbling lessons for TrueHeart, karate for TenderHeart, orthodontist appointments for both of them, and little BraveHeart who is awake and wanting me… all.the.time.

I shared yesterday with a friend that in a matter of just a few minutes, SweetHeart had pulled a tomato paste can out of the cabinet on her face which made me forget that I had put my sourdough starter in the oven just to warm it (and I cooked it!) and I panicked and stepped backwards in the puddle of pee in the kitchen floor (because SweetHeart was traumatized by the can in the face and wet herself) and it somehow wicked halfway up my sweatpants…. and then BraveHeart hurled a feeding’s worth of spit up aimed perfectly down my v-neck and into my underclothes. I guess he wanted it to go back where it came from.

Even when I don’t know whether to cry or laugh, I am overwhelmed with how blessed I am and how important this job is that the Lord has entrusted me with and called me to do. I am equally moved by the realization that I am HERE to do it.

I really struggled with fear the past few days. I began having the same bronchitis-like symptoms that started two years ago and resulted in the diagnosis of my rare lung disease. I didn’t tell anyone, not even Cowboy, that I called my pulmonologist and had a chest xray done, and I waited for two seemingly endless days and nights for the results. The thought of going back on 60 mg of prednisone a day made me want to weep and I knew the long-term prognosis was considerably worse if the lung disease ever flares again. I kept talking to the Lord about my fears, but it was a struggle to lay them down. I wish I could say I claimed victory in that area, but I didn’t.

And then they called me yesterday morning to say my chest x-ray was clear.

Unless you have been close to death and struggled to get oxygen, suffocating even though you were breathing, I don’t think I can fully explain what it is like to fear doing it again… or the relief of knowing I don’t have to. I am sure there are many other circumstances which could relate in your life, but these are mine.

Much of my gratitude this week centers around this grace from His hand…

134. A clear lung x-ray.

135. Every day I wake up feels like an “extra” day I didn’t think I would have two years ago.

136. Oxygen and the tiny little alveoli which do the miracle of exchanging it. Your creation is amazing.

137. BraveHeart…that You gave him to us even with all the doctors saying it probably wouldn’t happen because of my thyroid cancer and shouldn’t happen because of my lung disease. Yet, they are still clear. Your plan is best.

138. Your goodness, which would have been just as good if my lungs had been filled again with the fiber matrix that suffocates. Your goodness is not dependent on my circumstances, because again, Your plan is best.

139. The day this week when TrueHeart and TenderHeart spent two full hours after finishing their required lessons researching, rehearsing and performing all the details of the Japanese Tea Ceremony…. just because they wanted to. TrueHeart’s study this year of the Eastern Hemisphere has really been fascinating, and the blessing of being able to be with them as they learn… even when it is hard… is wonderful!

140. Cowboy’s Grandma Beulah, after a heart attack-pneumonia-kidney infection diagnosis, was alert and knew us last night… and said, “I love you, Corrie.” How she has impacted my life since I was a baby!

141. Finally perfecting the 100% whole wheat sourdough loaf of bread. You know how many times I have attempted it and how many “bricks” I had to throw out to the chickens in the process. I knew there had to be a way out there, and You listened to me pray about bread- of all things. Thank You.

142. Two more verses memorized in The Romans Project. This discipline is changing me.

143. An unexpected and unanimous response from our secret health plan group encouraging me to write a definitive guide to my plan for Kindle. There are many details I haven’t included in my blog, and I’m going to need Your help to organize it all and complete the project. Of course, I always need Your help!

144. That all my pants are suddenly loose and I can feel the changes in my body. Thank you for granting health and a way to pursue it.

145. A kindred spirit and friend who lives far away but is able to stay in almost constant contact with me through texting. I miss her so, and feel so lonely sometimes for a friend like her…here.

146. Our duck is setting! Cowboy’s Daddy and Cowboy’s brother built a beautiful duck house for her, and she has been laying eggs in it for weeks. She pulled her feathers out and surrounded her eggs with them, and is now nestled down over them to help them become. These kinds of Your miracles always amaze me.

Corrie Mims

 

The Splurge Effect… and Joy Dare #127-133

 

A dear friend walked up to me last night at church and held up 3 fingers with a smile.  It took a minute for me to understand, and then I realized… She has lost 3 pounds on my health plan.  I walked away struggling with the lump in my throat.

You see, she is one of 30 members of our secret group who has already started seeing results after just one week.  The reason it is so emotional for me is because I didn’t plan this “health plan” to help anyone except me.  I had tried all the other diets and they didn’t work for me for one reason or another.  I am a researcher by nature and by nurture (thanks, Mama) and I knew there had to be answers out there that would work for MY weight problem.  After tweaking my plan over the process of a year and charting my weight to see what I could and couldn’t do and still lose weight- I finally pieced together the plan that worked for my body.

MY body.  It didn’t occur to me three years ago that this plan could or would ever help anyone else.  Even when I decided to help K. and encourage her in her journey to health, I was so nervous that it wouldn’t work for her.  When I opened it up publicly on this blog to anyone who wanted to try it, I was overwhelmed by the response… and I felt fear that hopes would be raised and then dashed and I would be the cause.

I have prayed myself to sleep at night for these members by name and asked the Lord to honor their efforts to become healthy.  And He has.

I kept telling myself that there is no charge to do this with me and if it doesn’t work for someone (and surely there will be someone it doesn’t work for), it won’t be a great loss for them.  The problem is that I know this isn’t true.

I know firsthand what it is like to want to be the skinny girl who eats whatever she wants and still looks fabulous.  And I know what it is like to get your hopes up that you might actually get to be the skinny girl again, only to find out that the plan is too complicated, too expensive, the recipes too gourmet, too strict, and not sustainable over the long term.  I have bought into more diet plans and subsequently thrown in the towel more times than I can count or would want to admit. 

I just could hardly bear the thought of causing someone else to feel discouraged…. again. This is a lot of weight to carry.

So, as the numbers of pounds lost are beginning to roll in (and off!) for the first members of my health plan, I am feeling excitement, gratitude, shock.

I am shocked because, of any area where I might have considered myself to be the most nominal expert… where I might have felt even a wee bit of pride and thought the Lord might be able to use me one day to help people in that area… yeah, this wasn’t it.

It is just like my God to use my weakness (in an area where I have failed repeatedly) to bless others, and in doing so, to show His strength and bring glory to His Name! 

Having said this, please know I am well aware that I have had nothing to do with this if it works for you.  I am as surprised as you are.  Bless His Name!

This brings me, finally, to the point of my post.  I have come up with a new name for “Corrie’s Health Plan”  because, well, that just wasn’t very creative.  I began thinking about what makes my plan different than all the other ones, and the “splurge” of Saturday night through Sunday lunch is the most defining factor.  (Every other diet plan I have tried had an “all or nothing” approach where you had to give up your favorite foods forever.)

So, we will now call it The Splurge Effect.

And speaking of, I asked a few of the members of the group who completed their first week on the plan…

“For those who started the plan last week and had your first splurge meals Saturday night and Sunday… How did it make you feel? Did you notice a difference in your body when you added back in those processed foods? Was it hard to start back on the plan on Sunday night? Tell me your experience, and then I will share mine…”

These were their answers:

1) [My husband] and I both commented Sunday afternoon that we could tell a huge difference and just felt kind of yucky. Last week when eating on the plan, after a meal we felt full and satisfied. After eating our splurge meals we felt stuffed and like we ate too much. We didn’t eat healthy but we did try to still watch our portion control. It wasn’t too hard for me to start back on the plan because I was ready for something healthy and to not feel that way. I can definitely tell a difference in our thinking about food.

2) I felt so bloated after my bad weekend, no fun!

3) I wasn’t completely on the plan but splurged while out of town. I was so sick by Sunday night. I literally had to go to bed early from the sugar racing through my body. I know it sounds weird but I’ve become so sensitive to an excess of sugar over the years. I regretted it and wondered how I will feel this weekend when splurge time comes. Will I even want to??

4) I was very happy to start back on the plan. I felt extremely tired and sluggish after my splurge.

K. has also told me how bad she feels on splurge day.  I find it interesting because, since I designed this plan for me, I had no way of knowing if everyone would react the same way to the splurge.  I have been known to say out loud after splurging…

“I can hear my cells crying.” 

When you give your body the perfect fuel of real food and do just a few minutes of strength training for several days, it starts running optimally and feeling incredible.  All of your organs start working better and the brain fog lifts.  Then, suddenly, we splurge on processed foods and refined sugars and everything comes to a screeching halt.  You WILL feel the difference in your body.

Which brings me to the big question everyone is thinking…

“So why splurge??!!”

You may think that because you are losing weight on the plan, you should skip the splurge and you will lose even more weight.  You are more than welcome to give it a try.  However, if you are like me, you are doing this plan because you are not the most disciplined person in the world who never ate processed foods anyway and only crave healthy, whole foods.  Let’s face it- you wouldn’t be interested in what I have to say if you were that way.

The Splurge Effect, in my experience, does the following:

1) Allows you to shock your body with excess food which helps keep you from a weight plateau where you seem to hit a brick wall and just can’t lose past it.

2) It allows you to eat the foods you have been craving and helps you have a short-term relief plan for those days when the emotional cravings for foods gets a little out of control.  If you know that in three or four days you can have the food that your mind is obsessing about, it is easier to get through the craving without giving in… but if you had to tell yourself that you could NEVER have that food, you might not make it.

3) It makes you feel miserable, which is great! It is great because you have such a stark contrast that shows you what the processed foods and sugars are doing to your body.  It makes you actually WANT to go back on the plan after Sunday lunch because you will be bloated, sluggish, and in a brain stupor.  (Every other diet plan I have ever done made me feel deprived and made me want to eat anything and everything that wasn’t on the plan.  And if I ever gave in and fell off the diet wagon, nothing made me want to get on it again.)

Over time, you may begin to modify what you eat on the splurge.  These are splurge-related questions I have gotten in the past couple of weeks:

1) Do I have to splurge?  I don’t want to eat sugar and processed foods! 

No, you don’t have to eat sugar and lots of processed foods, but yes, you need to splurge.  You can simply eat MORE food.  Eat double the brown rice serving you usually have, eat pasta, eat white potatoes and corn.  If you make your own yeast rolls or biscuits with white flour, eat them.  (I know white flour is processed, but these are just ideas.)  If you’re like me, though, you will have a Krispy Kreme doughnut.  Just saying.

2) I want to split my three splurge meals up because I am going out with friends in the middle of the week.  I want to eat one splurge then and save the other two meals for Sunday.  Is that okay?

Unfortunately, no.  I have tested this thoroughly and it doesn’t work.  If you must move your splurge, you have to move the full three splurge meals.  It is a 24 hour splurge of an increase in food that shocks your body into releasing more fat.  It isn’t a shock if you spread the meals out, and your body will likely just store that mid-week meal as fat.

3) Do I have to eat like this forever?  Once I reach my goal weight, I don’t have to splurge on the weekends and follow the rules during the week anymore, right?

Sorry, but you [mostly] have to eat this way forever.  But, really, is it that hard?  Yes, you will be able to have an extra splurge meal occasionally during the week as long as you watch the scale closely.  (I have found, however, that once you start taking extra splurges it is easy to keep rationalizing more and more of them until you are no longer on the plan at all.) The weight will come back if you go back to eating like you used to- which is pretty logical and goes without saying, I think.

I hope this helps deepen your understanding of The Splurge Effect and encourages you to take the challenge with us!  If you have further questions, send me a message and I will do my best to help you find the answers.

Corrie Mims

 

The Joy Dare continues…

127. 128. 129. Three Gifts White…  SweetHeart’s first-thing-in-the-morning smile when she sees me; soft clean sheets on my bed; the brightest, clearest stars that go on for miles over our farm.

130. The 11! third and fourth graders I taught last night at church.

131. Hand-me-down clothes painstakingly sorted and stored by Cowboy’s Mama which bless us over and over again as SweetHeart and BraveHeart move into the-next-bigger sizes.  I can’t remember the last time I bought clothes for either of them.

132. The new church outfits Mama surprised me with for BraveHeart and SweetHeart.  They are precious.

133. TenderHeart’s birthday plans finalized and his good friends who are coming to join him.  I cannot believe he will be ten years old tomorrow!

 

 

12 Snack Ideas for Corrie’s Health Plan… and Joy Dare #121-126

Some of you have asked for more ideas for snacks which fit the rules of my health plan, and I realized I pretty much eat the same snacks over and over.  In general, I am not hungry at snack times and I eat just to keep my blood sugar levels from taking a dive.  The not-being-hungry makes me not-very-creative.  Thanks to members of our secret group on Facebook (Join us? Click here, “like” my page, and comment with a request to join. I will add you to the secret group which can only be seen by members!) I am stepping out of my comfortable box and sharing some great ideas for snacks which fit my plan… and which are easy and tasty so I will actually eat them.  These are my faves so far:

1) One small pear and one string cheese. Slice pear into 8 slices and cut them in half again to make 16 chunks.  Cut string cheese into 8 pieces and make skewers of pear/cheese/pear on toothpicks.

2) One Greek yogurt with 1/2 cup frozen berries, stevia to taste or very small drizzle of raw honey, and a handful of whole, raw almonds.

3) One small apple with a tablespoon of natural peanut butter and small handful of whole, raw almonds.

4) 1/2 cup of cottage cheese (not reduced fat!) and half cup of berries. (Okay, so I personally hate cottage cheese.  But there are lots of people who love it and you might be one of them… and this snack would be a great choice for you.)

5) Beef or Turkey Jerky (low sodium with no sugar used in preparation) with a small navel orange or 6 green grapes.

6) 1/2 cup of pumpkin seeds with 6 raw baby carrots.

7) Lettuce deli wrap:  One large piece of leaf lettuce layered with two slices of low sodium deli meat (not the honey kind!), a sprinkle of shredded cheese and slice of tomato, sea salt and pepper… roll up and enjoy.

8) Lettuce bean burrito:  1/2 cup black beans mixed with one tablespoon of no-sugar-added salsa.  Mash with fork and heat in microwave.  Roll up in piece of romaine lettuce with sprinkle of cheese.

9) Open-faced banana sandwich:  1/2 of a 100% whole wheat “bagel thin” spread with natural peanut butter (Smuckers is the only kind I use) and toasted in toaster oven.  Top with 1/2 sliced banana and 4 raw pecan halves.

10) A few celery sticks filled with almond butter and topped with whole almonds.

11) Two tablespoons of hummus with celery, carrots, and snow peas.

12) 1/4 cup of old fashioned oats cooked on stove with 1/2 cup of water, sprinkle of cinnamon and nutmeg, one packet of stevia, and whisk in one egg during last minute of cooking. You won’t taste it! Top with a handful of walnuts or almonds and 1/4 of a thinly sliced apple.

I will look for more gourmet ideas and do some taste testing for future posts, but the above are snacks I either have had pretty regularly on my health plan or that I know I would like (minus the cottage cheese one, but I gave that disclaimer already!) Please comment below if this helps and if you have other ideas for great snacks which follow the general rules of the plan!

Now, for more Grace Counting:

121. 122. 123. A Gift in Losing, Finding, Making Something... I lost my closest friend a long time ago.  The broken heart almost killed me and I used it as an excuse to become mean, ugly, bitter for a time.  But You found me, dug me out of the pit, and helped me find me again, too.  And then you made something beautiful out of nothing, convicted me of sin and cleansed me, healed my broken heart.  When the scar aches now, I remember Your faithfulness when I wasn’t faithful to You.  Thank You for loving me enough not to leave me in that place.

124. The sweetest date night with Cowboy Saturday, even including the scary drive home in the fiercest snow-so-thick-we-couldn’t-see-the-road-at-all. I love being anywhere with him.

125.  Clothes for church that do not have to be completely removed for me to nurse BraveHeart!  Thankful for Cowboy’s sister who kept the older Hearts, Cowboy’s mom who went with me to care for BraveHeart while I tried on clothes, thankful there were some that fit, and truthfully, thankful the shopping trip for the next few months is over.

126.  Thankful for my mom, who (though sick with a nasty cold) is picking up TrueHeart from tumbling for me tonight so I would not have to make two trips to Florence in one day.  I don’t know what I would do without her, Lord.

 Corrie Mims

 

Corrie’s Health Plan Q & A… Joy Dare #118-120

We now have 22 members in our secret weight loss group on Facebook, and we are already seeing great results!  On my health plan, you should lose 2-3 pounds per week without feeling deprived or giving up forever the foods you love.

Want to join us? Send me a message and let me know.  I will friend you and add you to the secret group:  corrie.c.mims@facebook.com

I have been receiving lots of questions through private message and in our secret group so I am going to cover as many as I can here.  I welcome any and all questions, so feel free to comment below if you have one and I will do my best to answer it for you!

1) What kinds of fats are you eating at snack time? I get the butter and oil for cooking but snacks? Are nuts considered a protein and a fat?

Yes, nuts are a protein and a fat. If there is a natural fat in the protein, like hamburger meat, you don’t have to add another fat… but you can if you want to.  This isn’t a low fat diet by any means, you are just restricted to eating fats which have not been modified drastically from their original form.  Real butter, no margarine, for example.  Coconut oil or extra virgin olive oil, but preferably little to no corn oil or canola oil.  Other than olive oil, your fat should be solid at room temperature.  Margarine is not food.  I read an informal study that said it does not ever mold and and flies won’t eat it.  That should tell you something right there.  (Feel free to try the experiment and see if it is true.) Give your body food it can recognize.

2) What about using honey as a sugar substitute?

This has been my most asked question by far.  We have our own bees (but alas, never get any of their honey due to some serious robber bees in our area!  They still pollinate our garden though, so we love them dearly.) I do use raw honey occasionally drizzled on plain Greek yogurt or on a whole wheat homemade waffle or homemade sourdough pancake, but in very small amounts. I love it and it really is good for you- but it does elevate your blood sugar levels so I try to wait until the weight starts really coming off before I add it in.  Make sure if you are having honey that you use RAW HONEY. Not pasteurized. If you are buying it in a store, it is the wrong kind. My awesome beekeeping-big-brother Stan sells it and it is the best honey you will ever taste. (Learn more about this most delicious honey here:  Happy Hills Bees)

Also, like the dairy, if you get even a little heavy handed with it or don’t balance it with a solid protein, your weight loss will stop. You have to decide if you want to risk it this early or not. I stay away from it the first few weeks and then slowly add it in, watching the scale as I go.

3) I got stuck at mealtime without a healthy carb! What do I do?

You must plan ahead.  Always put an apple and some nuts in your bag before leaving to go anywhere.  You never know when you will get stuck somewhere.  At home, make my brown rice recipe and freeze in portions like I show you here– Then you will never be without a healthy whole carb again.

4) I am eating like I should, but I don’t like to drink much during the day. Is that a problem?

You must drink more. Much, much more. Fat cells never leave but just collapse and when they collapse and release their contents, it goes into your bloodstream to be filtered by your liver and kidneys. All the toxins from processed foods, etc. are stored in the fat, and it can make you feel awful, sick, and toxic if you aren’t drinking enough to flush it quickly out of your system.

5) Help!  I added all this natural fiber in to my diet after eating mostly processed foods and I am, well, stopped up!  I am going to be constipated forever?

Miralax for your bowels isn’t a bad idea in the beginning- to move things through in a healthy way, but quickly and comfortably.  You can buy the generic version at Walmart and use a capful per day in your coffee, water, or tea.  It does not change taste or texture.  No, you will not always need to use it.  After you eat this way for a few weeks, your body should become more regular and normal than it has ever been! Give it time to release the toxins first.

6) I don’t like eggs, so I am having yogurt for breakfast with toast and also yogurt for a snack as well as string cheese. That’s okay, right?

I am concerned you are having too much dairy in one day. Two yogurts plus a string cheese plus cream or half & half in your coffee. That much dairy will slow your weight loss. You can handle this one of two ways- You can cut back on the dairy in one day, or you can wait and see how much weight you lose the first week and only cut back if you aren’t losing. Completely up to you, but either way, don’t let it discourage you.

You are running a risk by having toast AND yogurt in the morning. The yogurt has carbs and protein in it. You may be having too many carbs with your protein. If you want more than the yogurt and berries, just add some nuts and skip the toast.

6, 7, & 8) What brand of bread do you buy? Do you ever make your own bread? Do you eat oatmeal?

Yes, oatmeal is okay but only old fashioned oats you cook yourself. I will give you my recipe for them soon. You have to eat them with 2 eggs. No quick cooking or instant.

I use a few different kinds of bread. Arnold’s is my favorite, but any completely (100%) whole grain that is low in sugar and higher in fiber is fine! I do make my own sourdough bread but that is more complicated and I will explain that in coming weeks. And only eat one slice.  

9 & 10) Why 2 eggs…..I can hardly eat 2 eggs, let alone 2 eggs and oats. Why raw nuts and not roasted?

When the nuts are roasted, as yummy as they are, it changes the makeup of the natural oils in them. The high heat makes them not as good for you. Two eggs are necessary to get enough protein, but I stir them into my oatmeal as I cook it and you don’t taste them AT ALL. K. didn’t believe me until I showed her how and she was amazed. I will post how to do it. If you can’t stomach the eggs, eat some leftover chicken with it or the like… you can’t have the oatmeal without the protein.

11) How do you decide how much protein is needed with a carb. I just had a small apple and a handful of almonds which was 6 grams of protein. Is that good?

That was a good ratio for a snack, but I try to do a bit higher protein ratio with a meal. I don’t count the protein though.. because I can’t do strict diets where I have to weigh or count stuff. You need your protein to be weightier than your carbs, even the healthy carbs. Think of it like a plate where at least a 1/4 is protein (sometimes more like a 1/2 for me), less than 1/4 quick carbs like rice or potato or oats or fruit, and 1/2 low sugar veggies.

12) Eating a “light” yogurt like Activia will work on this plan?

I don’t recommend the Activia Light yogurt on my plan. Although they make it sound good because of the no sugar added and fat free plastered on the front, if you look at the ingredients it has lots of stuff added… like modified food starch, corn starch, carageenan, etc. When eating on my plan, you need to eat foods that are as close to their natural way as possible. For example, I make my own yogurt (tutorial later) fairly often and there is only one ingredient in it: Milk. I add fruit to it when I eat it but it is very simple. That’s why I recommend Chobani because if you get the one with the fruit on the bottom, the ingredients are very simple and easy to understand. It does have raw cane sugar in it, but that is a natural sugar that is better for you than beet sugar and is used only in a small amount. It is a sugar your body can recognize and isn’t modified in any way. It really makes a difference. You can also buy the Chobani plain Greek yogurt and add your own fruit. The Greek part is important because it is double the protein of regular yogurt!

13) Can I still call it baby weight when the baby is 18 months old?

Yes.  And if your baby is say, in her 30s, still call it baby weight.  Having babies changes our bodies forever- Embrace it and be thankful for it, but get healthy and down to a normal post-baby-weight-for-you on this plan.

14) WOOHOOOOOO!!! Down 2 lbs since MONDAY!!! Passed a wall on the scale that I haven’t been able to get under for YEARS!!! Thank you, Corrie!!  The exciting thing is….I can live this way. So tired of sneaking 3- 100 calorie packs at a time and NEVER feeling satisfied and ALWAYS feeling deprived and still not losing weight!

That is why I eat this way- it makes me feel satisfied and not deprived. It also is reasonable and doesn’t make me give up for eternity the treats I enjoy or use foods I hate. It doesn’t require I cook two separate meals for my family, either, which is just not sustainable. That is why I created this system and I can’t tell you how excited I am that it is working for you.

15 & 16) So, I’m realizing that I need to eat smaller portions so that I am hungry enough to eat 5 x’s a day. Is the chocolate meant to be eaten totally alone or can it be incorporated with a snack.

Yes! Make your portions smaller, just keep the ratios the same of protein to carbs. I eat the chocolate totally alone just before bedtime, but it could be incorporated with a snack, I think.

17) I know you always eat fat with the protein, but are you saying you also ALWAYS eat an equal amount of carbs?

No, sometimes I just have a handful of nuts and no apple for a snack, for example, if I am not very hungry. But don’t skip the carbs for two meals/snacks back to back because your brain needs some quick sugars found naturally in foods to function properly. And don’t ever have the carbs without the protein.  

18) Would avocado be a good fat to add?

Yes, a little avocado is always good!!!

19) If I stay on this plan forever, will I keep losing 2-3 pounds per week no matter what?

No.  In my experience on this plan, you will continue to lose until you reach a healthy weight/BMI for your body.  Then, the weight loss will stop but you will continue seeing improvements in your skin, hair, blood pressure, and every system in your body as the old cells (made from your processed foods) continue to die off and are replaced by new cells (made from your healthy eating on this plan) are formed. If you have an unhealthy goal weight for your body, adjust your thinking. Here is a chart to help you: (from freebmicalculator.net)

Also, there are medical conditions which may make it difficult for your body to release the weight.  If you have a thyroid condition, or kidney problems, or take steroids for autoimmune disease, etc., it may take longer to see a move on the scale… but you will still be healthier and it is worth the change!

20) Do I have to exercise?  I hate exercising.

Yes and no.  No, you don’t have to exercise to lose some weight and become healthier just from the eating plan.  However, if you don’t do some kind of strength training 2-3 times per week, you will see less of a move on the scale and you will get flabbier where the fat is leaving instead of looking trimmer and fit.  Here is my simple workout for the first four weeks.

21) Why did I see a bigger move on the scale the first week than I have any week since then, even though I am still losing?

Your body will release a little more the first week because it will release water weight first.  Then, it will just be releasing fat the weeks after that.  So, pick up a pound of butter, stack it on a plate and really look at it.  Know that for every pound you lose, you have lost that much weight in FAT.  It is a very good feeling!

Still have questions I didn’t cover?  Send them to me or comment below and I will cover your question in a future Q&A post!

Corrie Mims

Joy Dare, continued:

118.  A sweet and quiet Valentine’s night with my Cowboy since my Mama asked if the three older Hearts could spend the night with her.  I cooked a delicious shrimp and broccoli meal (served over pasta for Cowboy, with brown rice for me) and we had uninterrupted time to just enjoy one another.  What a gift!

119.  Two more verses committed to memory in my Romans Project challenge!

120.  Another move on the scale.  Thank you, Lord, for continuing to help my body move in the right direction toward health and fitness!  Thank you for the temple you gave me.

 

To the Cowboy Who Will Never Read This… Joy Dare #111-117

You mended me like a worn out fence.

You took all the tiny, ugly, angry little pieces of my heart and

slowly, perfectly put them back together again.

That is your way.

You fix things.

You have been my Boaz, Hosea, Samuel, Isaac…

You have been like Jesus.

Steady and sure, strong yet tender,

always, always there.

I watch you on the backhoe,

digging and moving and packing and smoothing…

just as you did with my brokenness.

Your love woke me up, made me new again,

gave me hope and home.

To the Cowboy who will never read this because he only reads his Bible and researches farm needs,

who wishes Facebook and social media would collapse into dust…

who deals with everyone exactly the same, never puts on airs, hates the phone and change…

You changed everything that was normal to you just to love me… to love us.

To the man who makes the exact same morning sounds as every other day in the exact same order,

who wears only gray socks and gray t-shirts because clothes are just a necessity,

who looks at me like I’m beautiful, whole, treasured…

You still make knees weak, butterflies stir, voice catch, breath quicken.

To the Cowboy who doesn’t like Valentine’s Day because it is a silly marketing ploy and thinks holidays are frivolous in general…

There is nothing everyday about your everyday love.

Your life is daily poured out in a Valentine to me.

Actions, not words, speak love from a Cowboy.

And this Cowboy is Mine.

And I…

I am forever, his.

 

Corrie Mims

Joy Dare:

111. My Cowboy Valentine. He came directly from Your hand, Lord. Of this I am sure.

112. TenderHeart’s allergy testing yesterday, that it is over and that we finally have answers and a treatment plan.

113. Kelsey’s willingness to babysit and make busy bags and always come at a moment’s notice. She is a treasure.

114. Cowboy’s mom who took on most every duty of mine she could this week while I have been sick- errands, childcare, running TrueHeart and TenderHeart to activities.

115. The ability to eat real foods, and how they make me feel.

116. SweetHeart’s one success in the little potty. It really was an exciting blessing for this mom of four.

117. The way you have loved me, and shown me, with your Son. I love you, too.

 

 

Weeks One Through Four Workout Plan

 

For those who are interested in the way I workout, I will post my plan and update as it changes.  I have 16 weeks worth of training exercises that I printed online years ago which doesn’t exist in that form anymore.  I don’t want to infringe on any copyrights but I have modified things to fit my life anyway so they aren’t the same as the original.  The exercises increase in intensity gradually every 4 weeks, but never take more than 15 minutes.  I will post free links to videos of the exercises in case you don’t already know what they are (but I am NOT posting videos of ME doing the exercises.  Don’t even ask.  It is not a pretty sight when I exercise, but it gets the job done!) Simply click on the name of the exercise to link to the video.

I do the strength training 3 times per week, alternating between workout 1 and workout 2.  So, the first week I would do workout 1 the first exercise day, workout 2 the second day, and workout 1 again the 3rd day… with at least one rest day between each workout.  The second week, I would start with workout 2 the first day, workout 1 the second day, and back to workout 2 the third day.  Follow me?

I workout in super sets of two exercises per set.  You will understand more as I tell you the routine, but just know that the exercises are grouped and you will repeat the super sets of two exercises several times before you move on to another set of two different exercises.  I will give you the repetitions or reps (number of times you complete each exercise) as well as the number of sets (number of times you complete the sequence of two exercises including all the reps before you move on to the next set of different exercises). 

Workout One

A.  8-10 squats followed immediately by 10-12 bench back extensions (I use my ottoman), rest 30 seconds and do them all again and rest 30 seconds. Then, by week 3, you should repeat them all again for the third time.

B.  10-12 hip extensions immediately followed by 10-12 kneeling assisted push ups (a “girl” pushup with hands on an ottoman or bench). Rest and repeat, just like with the first set.  Again, add an extra third set by week 3.

C.  6-8 bird dogs each side followed by a 20 second plank, rest and repeat, adding another repeat by week 3. 

You get the idea?  Okay, so shorthand now for …

Workout Two:

A.  6-8 split squats each side, 10-12 stickups, rest and repeat, by week 3 rest and repeat 3rd time

B.  6-8 one-leg hip extensions each side followed by a 20 second side plank, rest and repeat with plank on other side.

C.  8-10 Y squats followed by a 20 second push up plank, rest and repeat, add 3rd set by week 3. 

If you don’t like these exercises, just find some kind of strength training exercise you like, and do it.  That’s the most important thing and the hardest thing… to do it. 

Also, I alternate these strength training workouts with walking briskly on the farm for 30-40 minutes three days per week.  If you don’t like to walk or its raining or whatever- just do something.  Swim, ride a bike, play the Wii Fit, run in place in intervals, or use the Couch to 5K running app on your iPhone… just find something you like to do that gets you moving constantly for 30-40 minutes and DO IT.

That’s all.  It will really speed up your weight fat loss and will make you feel incredible!  You will start seeing waist definition almost immediately, and yes, you will get sore… but the good kind of sore.  And the more muscle you build, the more fat you will burn.  It is an awesome snowball effect that happens.  Get ready for the new you!

Corrie Mims

 

Perfect Brown Rice Recipe

Here is my recipe for the most perfectly nutty, slightly chewy brown rice and the way I serve it in single portions to fit my healthy eating plan.  You may use any brown rice you like as long as it is not quick-cooking rice.  It is so easy and delicious, you will wonder why you have been eating white rice all this time!  Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

 

First, you need a Tablespoon plus a teaspoon of real butter.  And a 9 x 13 casserole dish.

 

Now, you need to pour 4 2/3 cups of water into either a small pot to heat on the stove or a microwaveable bowl.  Add your butter and 1 teaspoon of sea salt.  Use filtered water if you have funky tasting water.  Put it in the microwave or on the stove and heat until just boiling and butter is melted.

 

 

While it is heating, pour 3 cups of brown rice into a 9 x 13 casserole dish.  Spread it out evenly over the bottom of the dish.

 

 

Give the water/butter/salt mixture a good stir and pour over rice in dish.  (And by all means, turn baby in Maya Wrap away from the hot water.)  Stir the rice gently to settle any displaced rice back into an even layer.

 

 

Cover dish wish a DOUBLE layer of foil and seal carefully with your hands all the way around.  Place in oven and bake for 1 hour.

 

 

Remove from oven and carefully remove foil.  Fluff rice with fork and cover with a clean kitchen towel. (I know, sounds crazy, but it is important!  Just do it!)  Let rest for 5 minutes.  Set your timer.  Then, uncover rice and fluff again.  Allow to sit for 5 more minutes before serving.  If I am not eating right away, I allow it to sit for 15 more minutes and then begin the packing and freezing process.  This is how I do it:

 

 

One heaping 1/3 of a cup spooned into a cheap plastic sandwich bag.  Don’t use the nice thick ones.  Really.

 

 

Flatten and seal by patting vigorously with your hand, creating a single layer of rice.  Burp the bag a couple of times to get most of the air out.

 

 

Stack the bags of flattened rice (you should have at least 17, up to 20 of them) and store them just like this in your freezer.  When you are ready for a serving, grab one of the bags, poke a few holes in it with a fork, and microwave just until it begins to puff up like the bag is going to explode.  Remove carefully from microwave and pour onto plate.  You may also add it to a hot skillet as an alternative and it will be ready in seconds.

It really is the perfect brown rice!  Try it and let me know what you think.

The pictures are courtesy of TrueHeart who blogs pictures only over at http://www.developedphotography.wordpress.com  She wasn’t happy with the rushed job in poor lighting I was requiring her to do, so check out her regular work.  She will be thrilled to see her blog stats rise with number of views, and I love it when she is happy!  Thanks a bunch.

Corrie Mims