Houses houses houses

So this whole house shopping thing has been SO stressful! We are pretty low on our budget, because we dont want to be paying TONS Of money every month for a mortgage, and having to cut back on things etc... so its been HARD! I know that if we could spend another 20-30K it would be easier because there are better houses in that price range.
Everyone keeps telling me that I will know when I find my house, but I really think I wont find "my house" because of our price range LMAO! That being said... I think we found something pretty darn close.

This is a 4 bedroom with a basement, nice and roomy, and in great shape. It is a foreclosure and Im SHOCKED the condition its in, cause the other foreclosures I looked at were HORRIBLE!!! The only thing that is in my mind on this one is the backyard needs work. Its not fenced in, and you can see where water runs down the yard when it rains... so it was kind of muddy when we looked. Jon says we can put in some drainage and that will fix the problem, but it wont happen right away obviously. The yard does go back quite a bit too, but its wooded, so we would need to clear it out etc. HOWEVER there is a nice side yard, and a hill on the front yard... and its RIGHT smack dab at the end of a cul de sac, so the kids can play in the road on their bikes etc. And get this... its RIGHT Across the street from the pool!!! WOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO! So anyways... we are going to put an offer on it, and see how that goes!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

Time to move on...

Sooooo as the true diet whore that I am... I think it might be time to move on. Im wasting money every day by starting my day out well, eating my medifast foods, but then by midafternoon Im in the pantry eating crackers. (No my tankini didnt help) I will say I do have horrible PMS so it can probably be blamed for the past couple days, but I think either way that Ive hit the end of my medifast journey, because if you arent going to do it 100%, then you are throwing money down the toilet.
SO Ill either see if any of the peeps I know want to buy stuff off me, or Ill ebay it.

On to my NEXT idea. A friend here is doing the 17 day diet. What is that you say? Its a book that you have to buy (of course, similar to southbeach etc) where there are cycles of eating styles. It encourages clean, whole food eating. Cutting out processed stuff etc... but each cycle is different to help "throw off" your metabolism and keep it pumping. I havent read the book yet but here is some info I found online:

The 17 day diet consist of 4 cycles, each lasting 17 days with the exception of the last cycle. (which is supposed to be your NEW way of eating forever) The point of the diet is to confuse your metabolism so that it keeps actively working.

Cycle 1: Promote rapid weight loss by improving digestive health (basically low carb)
Cycle 2: Reset metabolism through increasing and decreasing calorie consumption to increase fat-burning and prevent plateaus
Cycle 3: Develop good eating habits by reintroducing additional foods
Cycle 4: Maintenance of weight loss by eating healthy during the week and allowing for consumption of one's favorite foods on the weekend.

The good part about the program is that there is no real calorie counting. The program encourages to stay within the normal range of 1200 to 1400 calories, but there are no calorie or portion size numbers to be concerned with.

Exercise is encouraged with the program of at least 17 minutes a day.

The book states people lose between 10 and 15 pounds within the first 17 days (Cycle 1). Also, you can go back to Cycle 1 at any time if you have more weight to lose.

So once I read the book and get started on it Ill of course be blogging away about it. ;)

Cheat cheat cheat...

Week 5 was a bit CHEATY here in my house. *sigh* I went all that time without cheating, cause I knew it would mess up my diet, but then I DID cheat, and it didnt mess it up and I still lost... so now part of my brain is thinking "HEY I can eat a few crackers, and Ill be ok..." Or other various things that it decides I want a bite of. I think once you open the "cheat door" it stays open.
I still am debating how far I want to go on this plan. Obviously with buying a house, we need our money elsewhere, but on the other hand... I REALLY want to keep losing FAST so I can wear my smaller summer clothes in a couple months. Im figuring if I lose 10 lbs in April and 10 lbs in May Ill be fitting in quite a bit of it... Then I can start working out, and transitioning onto another more "real" plan. On the other hand... I cant be paying for this food, and then cheating. It doesnt make any sense!

So needless to say... NO CLUE!!!

I dug out much smaller tankini top that I wore about 6 or 7 years ago (yikes, that was a long time ago) and hung it up on the outside of my pantry... so if you come over and think Im odd, there is a reason its there lol! When I stumble to the pantry to munch on some crackers I will see it there and say WAIT A MINUTE!!!! Crackers wont help you fit in that... and hopefully then I will turn around and get a glass of water instead. LMAO!!!!

Sigh!

And then it all came crashing down

Well it was bound to happen... especially after my "oooooh Im not craving anything" post. I swear its my kids fault. LMAO! (jk) I have more trouble on the weekends when they are home, and here I am with kids home on spring break, and I LOST it today!!!! Did fine, till we were headed home from errands at 1 pm, drove through chick fil a to grab lunch for the kids, and MAN it smelled SO GOOD. So I started mentally having a pity party about why I couldnt have it, and how it wasnt fair, and bla bla bla.... so anyways, I got home and ate a few dill pickles to try and NOT eat anything else, but it didnt do it. I had an itch I had to scratch. :( unfortunately, the fat girl in me likes to RUN down the hill if I happen to step off course... so my one french fry I stole from Ben, turned into a few crackers, and then a handful of trader joes mini chocolate chip cookies, and then another cracker, and then a spoonful of peanut butter. I finally stopped myself there, but then wasnt hungry (and felt kind of sick) so I didnt eat my two afternoon medifast meals... ate dinner, and then decided "WELL IVE ALREADY F'D Up" cause thats how my fat girl inside thinks... so I decided to eat 2 fig newtons that Ive been lusting after for the past month when I give them to my kids for snacks, followed by a LARGE chunk of dark chocolate *sigh*

SHAME ON ME!!!!! Its alright though. Its not the end of the world. I will NOT give food any power over me. Its just food... food is food is food. The most it can do is cause you to not lose, lose a little, or gain... its just food! I am officially brushing myself off, and getting back on the horse. Tomorrow is a new day, with only medifast in it LOL!!!

One month down...

So I officially have hit my one month mark with medifast. At this point, its almost so easy that it feels TOO easy. I find that Im not craving things anymore. Yes I would love to have a sandwich, or a bowl of cereal... but I dont really think about it anymore. I was debating switching over to southbeach at the end of the month, but I really think the amount of prep time and thought that it would require would throw me off. I am going to continue on doing what Im doing for as long as I can. Once Im ready to start the transition phase, I would assume I will sort of merge into a southbeach style of eating... lower carb, but healthy carbs.... (which really is how people should eat anyways)
I feel so empowered to have broken the bonds of carbs, and sweets. I really feel soooo great with how Ive been eating. My face has TOTALLY cleared up (I was suffering from teenage style pizza face before) and Im thinking that it might have taken care of my migraines as well. That being said, its not what Im eating so much as what Im NOT eating that is making those changes... but I feel proud that Ive come this far, and I dont NEED to eat those things anymore.
My family has continued to eat normal around me... enjoying friday pizza night, ice cream, cookies etc as they normally would, and I havent had any! Im so proud of myself!!!

So anyways, down to the stats!!!!
My month is as follows:
Start 3/6/11
1st week: -7.2
2nd week: -3
3rd week: -1.8
4th week: -3
Total for month 1: -15 lbs, and 8 1/2 inches (It would be more if I had measure more body parts lol)

Thats not too shabby in my opinion. I am 5 lbs away from where I was after I had Jacoby (before gaining the 25 lbs that Ive gained in the past 2 years) then from that point Ill have 30 more to go! WOOHOOOO!!!

If anyone wants more information or wants to do what Im doing, here is my coaches website: https://youngforever.tsfl.com/