Happy October!!!

It's FINALLY getting cooler here in Texas!  And by "cooler" I mean the lower 80's!  (insert eye-roll here!)  It's been an unusually warm Fall....unfortunately.  I love the Fall....pumpkins, cool weather, sweaters, jeans....not sweating when I walk to my car....you know, it's the little things!

I know it's been a bit over a month since I last posted and I'm happy to say I'm still happily sitting on the THM wagon!  It's been 64 days with NO sugar and only 2 off plan meals!  In that month I've been camping for 4 days (in a tent....let's not talk about it!!), I've been out of town 4 days & have had some physical issues.  I'm pretty proud of myself!!  I also have an announcement....drumroll please......

I finally hit 30 lbs gone this morning!!  WooHoo!!!!!  I'm so thrilled!!  I won't say I'm a speedy loser, but it's definitely been steady!  15 lbs in 11 weeks!  Not too shabby!

So for those of you wondering what real life weight loss looks like on THM.....let me show you what mine has looked like since January......
1/1/15 - 309 lbs
2/4/15 - 292.8
Hubby was in the hospital with a staph infection & had 6 weeks of daily IV antibiotics at home.
2/16/15 - 298.8
In May I had a D&C & tore my ACL
6/18/15 - 284.8
Totally struggled to get back on plan for almost 2 months....and gained a lot of weight back....my knee was really messed up and I was in a LOT of pain.
8/1/15 - 293 (started being really serious about THM and cut out ALL sugar!)
9/4/15 - 287.4
10/1/15 - 282.6
I have pretty bad arthritis and went through a week with TONS of inflammation......figured out it's gluten that's causing the flare up.  Boo.....no more Ezekiel bread....at least for now!  But the inflammation has been better.
10/21/15 - 278.8 - 30.2 lbs lost!!

The moral of the story is.....jump back on the wagon when you fall off!  ;)


Next on the agenda is the recipe of the week!!
Briana Thomas created the orginial recipe here.....but my friend Amanda on You Food (AplusY) altered it to make it lower in carbs and it is SOOOOO yummy!!!  Stop whatever you are doing and go make it!!

Ok, that's about all I have for today!  I'll do my best to get back into the swing of blogging more often!

Blessings!
Dana

It's a new week!

I know I just posted last Wednesday and it's just now Monday, but my weekend has been insane.  I'm sure yours has too!

We met up with our besties from college!  Our oldest daughter watched all the kiddos (6 total) while we parents went out to dinner and coffee!  It was WONDERFUL!!!  And I stayed on plan!  ;)  We spent the night and the hubs & I attended some foster care training the next morning then met everyone at the ball field for some Fall baseball!  It was such a great 24 hours!  Love our sweet friends!  (My hubby and I are on the bottom!)

Oh!  Have I ever mentioned that our family is in the process of becoming a foster family?  Yep!  We are in the process right now!  It's going slower than we thought, but God's timing is perfect!  More on this in a later post!

Favorite recipe of the week goes to.....Me!  LOL!  I've been having a serious craving for apples and peanut butter, and not just 1 tsp of peanut butter!  So I came up with a yummy, low fat, peanut butter dip!

Peanut Butter Yogurt Dip - THM E

1/3 cup defatted Peanut Flour (I use THM PB flour)
1 cup 0% Greek Yogurt (I make my own with this recipe.)
1/2 tsp Celtic Sea Salt (or whatever salt you have on hand!)
2 Tbsp Gentle Sweet
1/2 tsp Sweet Blend
1 Tbsp Gelatin (optional - I use this kind)

Blend well using a hand held mixer!
Makes 3 servings & only 2g of fat in each serving!

It's my first THM recipe and I hope y'all like it!

I'm heading into Week 2 of my 30 day THM challenge!  I lost 4 lbs this last week!  LOL...that rarely happens, but I'll take it this week!  This nice loss gives me.....

I'm officially 27 days on plan and sugar-free!!  WooHoo!!!!  I'm so excited!  Saying no to sugar is getting easier.

I've had a family crisis this last week....it's an ongoing issue that has wreaked havoc in my extended family.  It's something that always pushes me to "use" sugar for comfort.  This time around, I was tempted, but asked the Lord for help to stay on plan knowing it would be easier to deal with the stress and pain with level blood sugar!  I did it.  I'm really proud of myself and so thankful to God for guiding me, & giving me the strength to look to him instead of to sugar!  Prayers for wisdom, peace and a miracle would be appreciated.

That's about all I have for now!  Enjoy your week!  Here's my quote of the week.....

Blessings!

Dana

I have too many things to talk about!!

I've waited too long and now I have too much stuff to cram into this one blog post!!  Oops!!  Life got busy and I didn't make time to blog.  No real excuses!

Drum roll, please!!!!!
I'm on day 20 with NO sugar!!!  WooHoo!!!!!  I'm so thrilled!!  The first week was rough, but the second and third weeks weren't too bad!  I didn't even miss it!  This fourth week has been difficult......I think I must have some yeast dying off (or an alien or 2), but it will pass!  I've been taking Magnesium since week 1 and I really think that is helping my sugar cravings!

I also started a 30 day THM challenge last week!  I'm loving it!  I only had one off plan snack my first week....some wheat thins, so I'm counting week 1 a great success!!  My goal for week 2 is drinking more water.  I have always had a hard time drinking 8 glasses of water a day let alone more than that!  I've had 4 glasses today......I need to get busy!!

Ok.....recipe of the week goes to.....Mrs. Criddle's Cowboy Cookies!!!  YUMMMM-O!!!  They are WONDERFUL!!  I did alter them a bit so I'll post my altered recipe below, but the orginal is in the link above!

Mrs. Criddle's Cowboy Cookies  (**w/Dana's alterations)

1)   1 cup of room temperature butter (2 sticks)
2)   1/4 cup THM Sweet Blend OR 1/2 cup Gentle Sweet (I used Gentle Sweet)
3)   1 tsp vanilla (or just eyeball it!  ;)
4)   1 tsp baking powder
5)   1/2 tsp salt
6)   1/4 tsp maple flavor (this seemed weird to me but adds good flavor!!)
7)   3 eggs
8)   3/4 cup almond flour
9)   1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut flakes
10) 1/4 cup of old fashioned oatmeal ground into flour
11) 1/2 cup oat fiber**
12) 1 cup chopped pecans
13) 1 cup sugar free chocolate chips (I used Hershey's)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Cream first 6 ingredients.
Add the eggs and mix well.
Then add almond flour, coconut, oat flour and oat fiber and mix well.
Finally, add the pecans & chocolate chips!
Scoop about 1 Tbs of dough for each cookie.
Bake for 9 min (just until the edges get brown)
Let them cool for about 10 min (if you can wait that long!!)

These turned out like regular, bad-for-you cookies!!  They made my cookie-lovin' heart sing!

Ok, that's all I have time for today!
Blessings!
Dana

P.S. Here's my quote of the week!