The Start of My First Fuel Cycle

What is a Fuel Cycle? 

A Quick Rundown 

If you have not heard of (or most likely read) the book Trim Healthy Mama, a Fuel Cycle is a week long of eating that forces your metabolism to start using your body's fuel (aka fat). It goes very much like this: Three Deep S (eat as pure of fats as possible with non-starchy veggies and no Carbs) days, two Fuel Pull (foods with very little to no fats or carbs with non-starchy veggies), and two E (Next to no fats, low carb) days, you repeat this a second or even a third time depending on how stubborn your body is. Today was day one of my Fuel Cycle. The deep S days forces your body to use up the sugars that are already in it (all of the glucose) and to start turning towards your fat for burning while giving it the best fats you can possibly afford. The Fuel Pull days are to start burning your own fat. No carbs, basically no fat (what fat you are allowed is burned up quickly by your body). Finally the E days where your body gets to refuel on glucose/carbs.

Day 1

My first day, a deep S, is now coming to an end. As my family's budget is rather low, we have had to come back to some pretty basic foods until tomorrow, when we get to go food shopping. So far I'm tired, but then again I haven't been keeping to a good bedtime lately. . . (usually sometime between ten and eleven, but I always take about fifteen to thirty minutes to fall asleep only to get up around six in the morning. . .)

Breakfast: Fried eggs, half a cup of coffee with a small amount of cream sweetened with Stevia

Lunch: Scrambled eggs and mushrooms with salmon seasoned with salt, pepper, and nutritional yeast.

Snack: Whipped Cream  and Iced Oolong Tea sweetened with Stevia

Dinner: Scrambled eggs with hamberger and mushrooms, more Oolong Tea sweetened with Stevia

Each day is a new one, I can't wait to find out what it will be like!
God Bless,
Joy

July Resolutions

July is so much more relaxed compared to June! But that doesn't mean I'm any less busy. . . What with college preparations, finishing my first draft before August (at least it's my goal), and looking for a job!

#1  Less computer
      Yes, I'm going to try again on this one. The more I'm on the computer, the less ANYTHING gets done. This month, my goal is to be on the internet for an hour or less, and the rest of the time I'm on it will (hopefully) be working on my first draft of my story.

#2  Help with the Garden
      I love gardening, but I also don't like the bug bites, sunburns, and soreness I tend to get when I do garden. Seeing as I'm in charge of two garden plots this year (brocali, radishes, lettuce, marigolds, cilantro, and cucumbers) I'm going to work even harder on actually gardening!

#3  Finish My College Application Stuff
      Technically I've been accepted to Northland International University, but I'm not all the way finished. It's mainly the smaller stuff like sending in the medical papers, insurance info, and signing up for my classes. I'm a horrible procrastinator (as you can probably guess by now), and I have been putting this off for as long as possible.

#4  Finish My First Draft
      I have the first two and a half chapters written for my first draft, that leaves just ten and a half left to write up before the thirty-first. Word wars anyone?

#5  Complete a Fuel Cycle
     I'm doing the Trim Healthy Mama life style now, and one of the ways to kick starting your metabolism is by going through a Fuel Cycle which forces your body to start burning its own fuels in a safe way. I've already started, but it's a two week long cycle. I'm going to have to really work on my self control throughout those two weeks.

This month, I have FIVE resolutions to work on. Let's see how I do this time.
God Bless,
Joy

Sunday Weight Loss Recap

Where I Was: 

I started on the Trim Healthy Mama way of living sometime around April. I don't have a picture to show how heavy I was, but I was pretty heavy, close to 200 lb and I'm almost 5' 3". I was constantly feeling worn out, tired, and I had horrible joint pains (I'm almost 20). A friend of ours had started using the Trim Healthy Mama guidelines, and as of today she's lost around 30 lb! The best part of the THM way of living, I can eat some of the most delicious foods I've ever eaten (Chocolate! Cheese cake! Frappes!) and I have never felt this full all the time in years.

June Thirtieth

I've lost 12 pounds so far, and I've kept them off! As an added bonus, today for church I was able to wear a blouse that I haven't been able to button up even before I bought it. God has truly blessed me today! The photo I'm uploading isn't the best, it was taken really quickly so I could get changed into my everyday clothes. . . Oh well. I hope to take a better one next Sunday!

God Bless! 

Joy

I can't wait any longer!

YAAAAAAAAAAAY! I'm so excited!

For years I've been obese; never having the gumption to count calories or measure all of my food I'd almost become satisfied with being overweight for the rest of my life. Almost. I didn't have any energy to exercise (though I love dancing and running), and sometimes going out with my youth group became something to dread because I'd run out of breath way faster than the other skinnier kids. My mom would tell me about when I was six years old, a skinny little bundle of energy. I've always wondered what that would be like to be again as I hardly remember being six.

As of this morning, for the first time in YEARS I've lost ten pounds! I've also lost one pant size, and the one I'm in right now is beginning to get loose! I'm so excited that I'm typing this with a silly grin on my face.

That's my little ramble that I had to write before I went to bed.
God bless and good night!

Joy

Trim, Healthy, AND be able to eat butter, cheese, chocolate, cream, and all that?

Yup. It's called the Trim Healthy Mama diet, or the S and E diet. I can't wait to start it!

It's based on separating your meals into two different kinds of meal. The S meal or the Satisfying meal is full of fats, the E meal or the Energy meal is full of carbs and sugars. The switching back and forth from the different kinds of meals allows your body to use up one kind of fuel all the way before you feed it more. (It uses up all the glucose and sugars you just fed it for the E meal, and then it uses up all the fat you feed it with an S meal.)

I'm not an expert yet, I'm only on page 66 and this book is a whopping 607 pages long. Most of it is recipes, but it is till a whole lot to read!

The thing is, this book makes more sense than anything I've seen on TV, the internet  or any other book. This is something I can try to start to do as I read it! It's fun to read, and is stock full of scientific information. Those women have done their research well!

The two sister's who wrote it, Serene Allison and Pearl Barrett, have been using this method for five years now. Serene has helped her husband to lose weight, and Pearl's husband finally has food that he likes to eat at home! The sister's write in a way that is fun and easy to read. I highly recommend this book!

I'm hoping to make their Chocolate Nut Slabs later today!

Solo Deo Gloria,

Sparrow