Tuesday, March 11, 2014

CoffeeShop Facebook Cover/Header 17 and Finished the Whole30!


I have a freebie today, but first I wanted to blab a bit.  So yesterday was the last day of my Whole30 and I got on the scales this morning for the first time in a month.  I lost ten pounds and the majority of my abdominal fat thanks to eating healthy foods and daily exercise!  I can't believe that I made it an entire 30 days without dairy, legumes, grains, added sugar, and wine.  Best of all, I eat as much as I want in every meal and I never feel hungry or deprived.  Yes, twice pan-fried plantains (in coconut oil) and yummy dates rolled in coconut flakes are allowed!

My mom is doing it with me and she lost 10.5 pounds and my sister Heather is almost finished and she swears she lost some belly fat (ha, she is so fit she just had a bit of loose skin).   I dream I could have Heather's body, but she also works out like crazy and has never let herself get out of shape.

But it is not just the weight-loss that excites me.  I have more energy, feel more relaxed, my little aches and pains are gone, my face has completely cleared up, my blood pressure is incredible, and I am actually addicted to exercise. If I don't get out there and walk, bicycle, hike, or do an exercise tape every day, I feel like I am really missing out.  Last month I felt my age (or older), but the last week or two I have felt decades younger.

We feel so good we are all doing another 30 days.  I am still concerned that my chip-addiction is not completely cured, so I think an additional month of eating within the Whole30 boundaries will be good for me.  However, when I finish I hope to introduce a few basic foods back in my diet; like cream in my coffee, a bit of cheese and homemade yogurt, and an occasional glass of wine with company.  But I am swearing off chips (unless they are homemade plantain chips) and added sugars (thank goodness I love fruit) because both are EVIL (and unfortunately delicious)...

It is really funny because my other sister is also following an eating plan to get in shape, and is in a bit of competition with the rest of us.  She is doing the "Eat for  Life" diet which is low fat, lots of veggies and some fruit, grains and beans, no dairy, and no meat (just some fish).  For a while she was eating a pound of lettuce and a pound of raw veggies a day!  Lately she is "almost-vegan", except for the occasional fish.  I want to note that she is not eating meat because she thinks "meat is murder" or religious reasons, but rather feels meat is not healthy and should not be a part of anyone's diet.

She has lost some weight, but she is always hungry.  I mean ALWAYS hungry. And to be honest, because she is always starving-to-death, she can be quite grouchy (sorry sis!).  Her only daily fat is a small handful of nuts, and it takes a heck of a lot of rice, veggies, and fruit to kill those hunger-cravings.     Unfortunately this often leads to snacking on sweets like cake (her husband is quite the baker).

You should see us when we all get together.  Those of us who eat meat suggest she try a tiny portion of grass-fed steak so she would feel more satiated, while the almost-vegan tells us that she never uses oil to pan-fry anything, she just uses water.  My husband noted that it would be technically called boiling rather than frying.  ;-)

Since everyone else in our family eats meat (including her kids and husband), she gets the bad end of the stick.  I noticed that she was a bit miffed last weekend when she had to pick all of the stew meat out of the beef/veggie soup mom made for lunch.  After her bowl of meat-less veggie soup she finished her meal with a piece of cake, and someone made a huge error of judgement and mentioned that a bit of lean grass-fed stew meat might be better for her than a piece of high carb/sugar cake if she was trying to lose weight, and there was a huge explosion.  I love family gatherings!

Anyway, enough about my crazy eating plan.  I feel good and I wanted to share with you just in case any of you are personally feeling a bit down about your low-energy and midwinter weight-gain.  Whole30 really made a huge difference in my life.  Remember, I used to be the type of person who ate bowls and bowls of Flaming Hot Cheetos while I was pregnant :-O, so I can't judge anyone else.

I wanted to share a handy Facebook cover/Header storyboard with you today.  You can add your images using clipping masks and change the color around the images (or add a pretty texture!).

You can use my Group-It action to quickly add your own images.  Here is a clipping mask tutorial and also a link to my free action.

Download the free CoffeeShop Facebook Cover/Header 17


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4 comments:

  1. Thanks for the freebie! And way to go on sticking with your plan. I might have to look it up. I need to do something.

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  2. Thanks for the freebie. The Whole 30 plan intrigues me and I think it sounds healthy and similar to what I've done on my own in the past. I have never been able to eliminate all those things from my diet although I have limited them successfully and felt much better doing so. Dairy would be hard for me to eliminate completely, even for 30 days. Oh well, I may give it a try anyway to see if I can get back to a more consistently healthy diet. BTW, I had a problem with this site earlier today, whether at your end or mine, I'm not sure. The link I normally use to get here kept taking me to Google Search for some reason, but only in Firefox, not in IE. Just curious if anyone else had an issue. Anyway, thanks again for your generosity in sharing your talent!

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  3. Congrats on the weight loss and sticking with the Whole 30 plan. I have been reading Mark's Daily Apple and trying to convert to Primal. I was vegetarian for 5 years, and the only weight I lost was during the one year of that five when I was also vegan. Being vegetarian has not really helped me at all with weight loss. So I recently added fish and chicken back into my diet, and have eliminated most grains and sugars. So we shall see! I know if I eliminated cheese as well, I might stand a chance of losing! I will add that potato chips are my downfall as well, and I simply can't bring them into the house...

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  4. Hi, Rita....I'm coming back for this FB header after reading this post in 2014....just wanted to say thanks for the info about whole 30 I'm going on 2 years of being a believer! LOL! Currently on day 7 of my October go around (gotta get it done before the holidays :)) Also, a homeschooling mom....love your stuff...Thank You!

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Thank you for taking the time to leave a message, I love reading them! All comments are personally moderated by me and I will post and answer them them as soon as possible.
Rita