Today is the start of Day 4 of my Carb Cycling diet! So far, so good! Although, I would love to eat some chocolate or cheese and crackers or candy or ice cream (you get the point??) the food I am eating has all been great! Well, except for breakfast....

 

Meal #1

The first meal of the day, every day can include a carb and protein. What I am trying to do, is have something super quick that doesn't need to be cooked since I have to eat right away and once it is not vacation I will be eating a lot earlier and I don't want to wake the kids with a blender or pans. The first two days I tried overnight oats with protein powder in it and I couldn't find a consistency that I liked. Then I tried All Bran cereal with protein shake as the milk (found the recipe in Choose to Lose) and I could hardly stomach that.

 

So, I am still on the hunt for something. Any suggestions???

 

Meal #2

 

High Carb Day

 

 

One half of Ezekiel bread English muffin with 4 egg whites and 2 slices of tomato.

 

Low Carb Day

 

 

Egg white omelet with bell peppers and onions and some shaved monterary jack w/jalapenos. This was delicious!! I really enjoyed this breakfast!

 

 

Meal #3

 

Low Carb

 

 

Buffalo Garlic Turkey burger with a side of carrots, celery and ranch. I forgot to take a picture of my high carb lunch. Next week!

 

Meal #4

 

I did not take pictures of this meal, but both high and low carb days I had a protein shake. On the low carb day, I mixed almond milk, peanut butter and protein powder. On the high carb day, I mixed almond milk, a banana and protein powder. They were both really good!

 

Meal #5

 

Low Carb

 

 

Grilled chicken, fresh spinach, tomatoes, onion, Mrs. Dash, olive oil and balsamic vinegar! So good!

 

High Carb

 

Grilled steak, sweet potato, broccoli and a side salad with balsamic. Yum!

 

Well that's it! The first few days of the diet! I feel really good! Day 2, so far, was the hardest. I was craving anything and everything on my high carb day. I kind of prefer the low carb day, surprisingly! I think because I can have peanut butter and a little cheese on my low carb day and I LOVE, love both of those! Just a guess :)

 

Today I am linking up with Jenn at Peas and Crayons!

 

Happy New Year Everyone! I hope you have a fun New years Eve!!

I Choose to Lose Part 3

In the book Choose to Lose by Chris Powell, he asks a series of questions that need to be answered before starting. Today I am answering those questions for all of you!

 

S.M.A.R.T

 

 

Specific goal -

 To lose 66 pounds

 

Measureable goal -

Desired weight - 140 pounds

Desired clothing size - 8

 

What will make my goal Attainable?

I will prep food ahead of time, go to bed earlier and follow the carb cycle plan!

 

What's a Realistic weight-loss goal for me?

I will reach my goal weight within 7 months 

 

I choose to reach my goal by the following date...

Time Sensitive

July 24th 2015 (my 35th birthday)

What a birthday present to myself!

 

 

There you have it my S.M.A.R.T goals!

I am starting day 3 today! It is going very well, but not without its challenges! Don't forget to come back Friday to find out the good and bad of the first week!

If you haven't read the first 2 Choose to Lose posts, you can find them below...

I Choose to Lose

I Choose to Lose Part 2
 

Who is joining me? I would love to see your goals, post them in the comments below!

 

 

 



Menu Plan Monday - Carb Cycling #1

Well, it's here, Diet day!! I am excited to get going and start shedding some pounds and getting into shape! If you haven't read about the diet plan, you can read about it in these two posts:

I Choose to Lose



I Choose to Lose Part 2

 

This is my first edition of a carb cycling meal plan. I might experiment with a few different ways of showing the meal plan to make it easy to follow. Let me know if this is easy to read in the comments section below!

 

 

Week of December 28th

 

 

SUNDAY (LOW CARB)
Protein + Fat + Veggies

 

Breakfast (meal 1) - Overnight Oats with raspberries and a scoop of protein powder (recipe to come)

Meal 2 - Egg whites w/onions, tomato, spinach and feta cheese

Lunch (meal 3) -  Buffalo Turkey Burgers served with Carrot sticks and Celery Sticks and Ranch**

Meal 4 - Protein Shake w/handful of almonds on the side or a scoop of natural peanut butter mixed in

Dinner (meal 5) - Tomato, Basil and Garlic Chicken served with sliced tomatoes and baby spinach drizzled with Olive Oil and balsamic vinegar**

 

 

MONDAY (HIGH CARB)
Protein + Carb + Veggies

 

Breakfast (meal 1) - Overnight Oats with raspberries and a scoop of protein powder

Meal 2 - Egg Whites on Half an English muffin and a tomato slice

Lunch (meal 3) - Turkey Veggie Medley 

Meal 4 - Protein Shake with either a side of fruit or blended into the shake

Dinner (meal 5) - Citrus Steak served with a baked sweet potato and veggies or side salad**

 

 

TUESDAY (LOW CARB)
Protein + Fat + Veggies

 

Breakfast (meal 1) -  Overnight Oats with raspberries and a scoop of protein powder

Meal 2 - Egg whites w/onions, tomato, spinach and feta cheese

Lunch (meal 3) - Buffalo Turkey Burgers served with Carrot sticks and Celery Sticks and Ranch

Meal 4 - Protein Shake w/handful of almonds on the side or a scoop of natural peanut butter mixed in

Dinner (meal 5) - Leftover citrus steak from Monday, served on a salad with Olive oil and balsamic

 

WEDNESDAY (HIGH CARB)
Protein + Carb + Veggies


Breakfast (meal 1) -  Overnight Oats with raspberries and a scoop of protein powder

Meal 2 - Egg Whites on Half an English muffin and a tomato slice

Lunch (meal 3) - Turkey Veggie Medley 

Meal 4 - Protein Shake with either a side of fruit or blended into the shake

Dinner (meal 5) - Apple Cider Chicken served with Brown Rice and veggie or side salad***

 

THURSDAY (LOW CARB)
Protein + Fat + Veggies

 

Breakfast (meal 1) -  Overnight Oats with raspberries and a scoop of protein powder

Meal 2 - Egg whites w/onions, tomato, spinach and feta cheese (or whatever veggies are left)

Lunch (meal 3) - Buffalo Turkey Burgers served with Carrot sticks and Celery Sticks and Ranch

Meal 4 - Protein Shake w/handful of almonds on the side or a scoop of natural peanut butter mixed in

Dinner (meal 5) - Leftover Tomato, Basil, Garlic chicken on a salad (baby spinach, tomato, onion with Olive oil and Balsamic

 

FRIDAY (HIGH CARB) (WEIGH IN)
Protein + Carb + Veggies

 

Breakfast (meal 1) -  Overnight Oats with raspberries and a scoop of protein powder

Meal 2 - Egg Whites on Half an English muffin and a tomato slice

Lunch (meal 3) - Turkey Veggie Medley 

Meal 4 - Protein Shake with either a side of fruit or blended into the shake

Dinner (meal 5) - Leftover Apple Cider Chicken served with Brown Rice and veggie or side salad**

 

SATURDAY (REWARD DAY)

 

Breakfast (meal 1) - Protein Shake with added fruit

Meal 2 - Pancakes (Whole wheat for me) served with maple syrup and fruit

Lunch (meal 3) - Italian from Amatos

Meal 4 - Apple with Peanut butter

Dinner (meal 5) - Mongolian Beef served with Brown Rice and veggie

For my reward day, I am sticking to the 5 meals. I will keep portion sizes in check. Two small pancakes, a small Italian and a reasonable portion of dinner. None of my choices are out of control for my reward day, but I am not worrying about the proper mixture of carbs/fats and protein. By eating lunch out, I am taking one meal off from cooking which is always nice in my book!!


**All recipes can be found in either Choose to Lose or Choose More, Lose More for Life books by Chris Powell. If I like the recipes, I will post them at a later date.
***This is the one day that I may go off plan, as it is New Years Eve and I don't know our plan yet. If we don't do anything special, I will cook, but if  not I will just cook it on Friday.

Today I am linking up with the Laura's! Mommy Run Fast and I'm an Organizing Junkie! Looking for meal ideas? Head over to their site for a whole bunch of great plans!

Wish me luck for the first week of the diet! I am excited that everyone is on vacation and I will have more time to prep and all our meals can be eaten at home. Next week, I will have to be more creative because two of my meals will need to be eaten on the road! Have a fabulous Monday everyone!  



Merry Christmas!

The last few days have gone by in a whirlwind! Everything was so much fun, but I am wiped! I just wanted to take a quick second to say Merry Christmas to everyone...a little late :) I hope that everyone had a great few days!!

Next week, is the first week of carb cycling for Mike and I! My meal plan is ready to roll for Sunday night! Tuesday, Choose to Lose Part 3, Wednesday will be WIAW - first day of carb cycling, Thursday - Litcher Christmas, Friday - How the Jeans Fit Friday - diet week 1!! It is going to be a great week!

 

 

Have a great weekend!!

 

I Choose to Lose Part 2

Good morning! Today is part 2 of, I Choose to Lose and the first bit of information and probably the most important, are the guidelines for the diet. What exactly am I doing??

Carb Cycling**

 

What is carb cycling?

 

Carb cycling is an eating plan that alternates high and low carb days and also includes a reward day right in the plan.

 

Simple right?? Right!

 

There are four different plans based on the speed you want to lose weight and the results you are looking for. I have chosen to do the CLASSIC cycle. This isn't the easiest, but is not the most intense. I think it is a good place for me to start. As I get closer to the goal, I may switch to TURBO to speed things up a bit if my weight loss starts to slow.

 

 

The Rules

1. Alternate high-carb and low-carb food days.
2. Eat 5 meals a day.
3. Eat within 30 minutes of waking and every 3 hours after.
4. Choose foods from the list of approved foods (found in the book**)
5. On low carb days, you eat a high carb breakfast, then combine a serving of protein, fat and veggies for the rest of the days meals.
6. On high carb days, you eat a combination of Protein, carb and veggies.
7. Drink a Gallon of water.

 

What this looks like in my world...

 

 

 

 

My Weekly schedule...

 

I am starting on a Sunday so that I can weigh in on Fridays and Saturdays will be my reward day!

 

 

The below "plates" show how to put together a meal
 

ALL BREAKFASTS and HIGH CARB DAYS

 

 

LOW CARB DAYS

 

On the reward day, you can eat/drink whatever you want and mix your carbs and fats. Obviously, you don't want to go overboard and erase all your progress, but if you have a pizza night once a week pre-diet, schedule it for your reward day. Like the occasional glass of wine/beer, you can have it on your reward day! I scheduled my reward day for Saturday. This works for us because if we get together with friends or have a date night it is usually on Saturday. I will be able to have a drink and eat food that is off plan. Or for most of our Saturdays where we are just home, we can have pizza and movie night with the kids and we don't have to feel bad about it because it is built into the plan!

 

I will follow the above plan for 3 weeks, then there is a "slingshot" week which I will explain as we get closer. I will be starting on Sunday December 28th. Next week in the series will be my S.M.A.R.T goals, come back to see!  

 

**I got all of my information from Choose to Lose and Choose More, Lose More for Life by Chris Powell**

 

Happy Tuesday! 

Menu Plan Monday 12/22/2014

 

 

 

I don't even know if we can call this a menu planning day?? There is so much going on this week, that I won't be doing a lot of cooking.

 

 

Breakfasts will be our usuals, cereal, oatmeal, English muffins with peanut butter. Christmas morning though, I will get really crazy and open up a can of cinnamon rolls or actually, two cans! This was a tradition when I was a kid and now I continue it with my kids. They love them, just as much as I do!

 

 

Lunch will be sandwiches. For Christmas Eve and Christmas Day lunch I got a bunch of appetizers, different kinds of cheeses and veggies. We will just snack for lunches!

 

Dinners...

 

Monday - Chicken in the crock pot

Tuesday - Neighborhood Progressive Party - dinner out!

Wednesday (Christmas Eve) -  Chinese food at Mike's sisters for family party.

Thursday - Ham, mashed potatoes and corn with éclair cake for dessert with my parents.

Friday - Pizza night

Saturday - Date night, dinner out!

Sunday - Day 1 of Carb Cycling - Next week will be my first carb cycling meal plan! I have been working on it already and I am really looking forward to it!

 

Today I am linking up with Laura @ Mommy Run Fast and Laura at I'm an Organizing Junky!

 

 

Come back tomorrow for Part 2 in my I Choose to Lose Series. If you missed part 1, you can read it here.

 

 

Have a great Monday! 

Friday Favorites

Friday Favorites! I love doing this post! I love putting something on or using something during the week and thinking, "Oh I need a picture, because this is a favorite and I know others will love this!"

That is exactly what I said when I put on my new nail polish on Tuesday night. Check out this color...

Love it! It is a perfect any time color, but especially right now at Christmas time! I am going to be wearing this color until the new year for sure. I was thinking I might put some gold or silver glitter polish over it on my ring finger starting next week!

Ruffian Red

I got this nail polish from another one of my very favorite things, my Birchbox! I just love getting my box in the mail every month. This month I got such a great box.

This was the special Lo Bosworth box that I chose to get and I am so glad I did. I got 7 samples this month! Interested in trying out Birchbox? Click here.


Finally, we are only 6 days away from my favorite holiday!

I used to get so excited as a kid, unable to sleep Christmas eve and now I am the same way, but now it is because I am so excited to see my kids in the morning. Their excitement is contagious and I just can't get enough of it.

Last night we were spontaneous and decided to drive around and look at Christmas lights (in our PJ's of course)! This is a tradition every year, but we hadn't gotten a chance yet this year. The kids and I took these selfies in the car when Mike ran into the store on the way home! Everyone was getting a little sleepy and silly! This tradition is one of my favorite things we do during the holiday season!

 

If you missed it yesterday, I posted some of my favorite family photos from our photo shoot.

 

 

Click here to see more!

 

That's all I have for today! We have lots going on this weekend. All fun stuff that I am looking forward to! Everyone in my house has been sick this week and today I woke up feeling like I might be getting it. I am praying and crossing my fingers that I can keep it away, because I don't want to miss the fun this weekend. But, I am looking at the positive and I am just thankful that this sickness struck this week instead of next week!

 

Linking up with Andrea at Momfessionals and Erika at A Little Bit of Everything!

 

 

Have a great weekend!!

TGIF

Family Photo Shoot

I have wanted a professional family photo done since Olivia was born. We always take a family photo on most all of the holidays or special occasions, but have never gone to have them done professionally where they are hang on the wall quality.

Can you guess why we haven't done it? If you follow my blog at all then you can probably guess that it is because of my weight. I haven't been happy with how I looked since having Olivia so, I keep putting it off. Finally this year I thought, if I keep waiting we may never get one. I want to be able to look back and see myself in pictures with the kids and have nice pictures to decorate our family walls with.

The kids don't care what I look like, it really only bothers me. They will want to look back and see me, and I know years from now, I am going to look back and say "wow, remember when I was really overweight and unhappy??!!"

So, I dressed in layers and we walked around downtown with a friend of ours (Maine Photo Girls) and snapped pictures. Here are some of my favorites!

 

I am so happy that I got a good one with each one of my favorite kiddos!

 

My boys!

 

Love this one of Mike and Olivia!

I know that I am not looking at the camera, but our smiles are so natural that I just love this picture! 

 

The background and colors of this picture is just beautiful!

 

This picture wasn't posed, Olivia just kind of jumped in and Alicia snapped this pic and I am so glad she did! This little lady made us a mommy and daddy and I couldn't love her more!

 

 

This cutie!

 

That look just makes me melt!

 

Love this one of the kids and if you look close, their cool parents are in the background :)

 

Love the downtown background of this family pic!

 

This beautiful girl looks so sweet in this one!

 

I am so happy that we finally did them and I can't wait to get some up on the wall!

 

"What I love most about my home is who I share it with" - Tad Carpenter

 

Come back tomorrow for some fun Friday favorites!!

WIAW - Christmas treats edition

Good morning all! Yesterday I spent the day making treats with a friend to give out to the neighbors. We made a whole bunch of goodies in only a few hours and had fun doing it! Way more fun doing it with a friend than doing it alone!

I need to start gifting them because these cute tins are taking up a lot of space in my fridge!

 

Here is a list of what we made and then a recipe you don't want to miss!

 

Chocolate Pretzels

Snickerdoodles

Peanut Butter cookies with kisses

Oreo cookie balls

Cheesecake balls

 

 

 

 

My favorite recipe of all is the Cheesecake ball, and I have never made them for anyone who hasn't fallen in love with them :)

 

You can find the recipe on the Wilton site, here, or read below :)

 

 

Ingredients

 

8 oz. softened cream cheese

12 oz bag of wilton candy melts

(yesterday I used white chocolate chips instead and didn't notice a difference)

Graham cracker crumbs

 

Directions

 

Beat the cream cheese with an electric mixer until it is light and fluffy. Meanwhile, melt the chocolate.  Add the melted chocolate to the cream cheese and continue to mix until mixed through.

Pour into a baking pan and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight. The longer the better, if it isn't nice and firm it doesn't take long before it gets sticky and is hard to roll into balls.

Once chilled, roll into 1 inch balls then roll in graham cracker crumbs.

 

The Wilton recipe is for cheesecake pops, but I have always just made them for a tray or boxed them up for a gift. If you were hosting, these would be cute as pops with a little red or green sugar mixed in to the graham crackers for a festive treat. These taste just like cheesecake and they are so easy to make! You can't beat a 3 ingredient no bake recipe! If you like cheesecake you should, for sure, make these for your holiday parties this year!

 

Linking up with Jenn at Peas and Crayons today!

Have a great Wednesday! 



 

I Choose to Lose

We are clearing out our cupboards and preparing to start a diet after Christmas and I am looking forward to it! Yes, you heard that correctly, I am looking forward to starting a diet! I can say this because I read this book, Choose to Lose by Chris Powell, last weekend.

 

 

This weekend, I read most of this book, Choose More, Lose More for Life by Chris Powell.

 

 

 

I am totally convinced and feeling really confident that this is the diet for me! The information in the book makes so much sense to me and I can really relate to things he talks about. I feel like it is a diet that will be doable for our life and relatively simple to execute on my part. I don't think it will be without hurdles, but I am feeling really good about this!

 

I find the way Chris Powell writes to be extremely motivating, especially in the second book. After reading it, I truly feel like I can do it! This is going to sound cheesy, since I don't even know him, but the way he writes makes you feel like he wants you to be successful and he means it!

 

If you are looking for a lifestyle change or diet, I definitely recommend trying this book. Read it and follow along with me! I would love a little community taking this journey with me!

 

Here is my plan for the blog when I start the journey....

 

Monday - Menu Plan Mondays - just as I do now, but with Carb cycling meal plans

 

 

 

Tuesday - Tuesday Tips - This day I will rotate through either tips that I have read from the book or as I move along, tips that I am finding helpful for myself.

 

Wednesday - What I Ate Wednesdays - just as I do now, but of course showing low carb days, high carb days and reward days.

 

Thursday - My Life - This will be a day for anything Litcher! Fun things we have going on, Decorating ideas, DIY and of course Litcher Moments.

 

Friday - How the Jeans Fit Fridays - This will be my scale day! You will hear all about my week, the good, the bad and the ugly and my plan for the next week! As soon as I can button the jeans again, I will also post a pic of me in the jeans so that we can not only track my scale progress, but also how my clothes are fitting!

 

So that's the plan starting Sunday December 28th! Next Tuesday I will post the basic guidelines of the diet. Who is joining me??



Menu Plan Monday 12/15/2014

What. A. Whirlwind. That is all I can say about this weekend. I am sitting here on Sunday night thinking about my meal plan and it doesn't seem like the whole weekend could have gone by already. It was such a busy weekend! Practices, rehearsals, hair appointments, parties, Sunday school, and some Christmas shopping!

This week does not settle down at all, that's for sure! We have something every night this week, but a little less going on next weekend so a little rest before the big holiday!!

I am still in my cleaning out the cupboards faze of prepping for the diet. Start date December 28th! So this week, is more of the same. Clearing out non-diet foods from the house and celebrating!

Week of December 15th

Breakfast

Cold cereal with fruit

Lunch

Peanut butter sandwich, tomato soup or dinner leftovers.

Dinner Plans for:

Monday - Sandwiches - we will be eating in the car between activities tonight.

Tuesday - Pizza - we are having friends over for pizza and some Christmas movies!

Wednesday - Breakfast for dinner - I have dinner with book club, but Mike and the kids can have pancakes or eggs with fruit.

Thursday - Hot dogs - I have dinner plans with some friends, so Mike and the kids are on their own again.

Friday - ??? We always have pizza on Friday night, but I hate to have it a second time in a week, so we might have to wing this night or we'll have pizza. Although I should eat a salad since I will have eaten out two nights in a row!

Saturday - Tacos

Sunday - Lasagna served with salad

Not the healthiest meal plans I have ever seen, but two weeks from now, it will be a whole different story! We will be settling down after Christmas and Mike and I will be settling into our new habits! I am very much looking forward to this new adventure!

Linking up today with Laura from Mommy Run Fast and Laura from I'm an Organizing Junky! Want to see more great meal plans, head over to their blogs!

Want to know more about Carb Cycling, the diet, I am getting ready to start? You can read about it here and here. I will also be documenting the whole process coming up in the next few weeks!

Have a Happy Monday! 

Friday Favorites

Well it's Friday and only 13 days until Christmas!! I am excited for it to get here, but also not wishing the time away because I love this time of year so much! We have been doing lots of Christmas activities and have a whole bunch more on the calendar for the next two weeks!

Last night, I addressed Christmas cards to the light of the Christmas tree and watched one of my very favorite Christmas movies, The Family Man. Mike and I watch this every Christmas season, we laugh at all same parts and there are a lot of them! Love it, if you haven't seen it, you should!

This also counted as one of my favorite moments of the week. Christmas lights twinkling, cozy blanket, favorite movie, cup of tea. Perfect! 

Since we are talking about Christmas movies here are some of our other favorites that we watch every year. I don't think we are alone, these ones are classics! 

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Home Alone

We watch Home Alone with the kids on Thanksgiving night. It has become a  new tradition. We then try to watch National Lampoons ourselves after the kids go to bed, but now we are getting older and tired and we can't stay awake, so we end up having to find another night to watch it!  

How The Grinch Stole Christmas

Other than the above three, we just pick any old Christmas movie to watch. Yesterday morning while I wrapped, I picked a random Christmas movie on Netflix to watch. Mike thinks they are all cheesy, but I love them! They are almost always about some magical way that two people fall in love or back in love, and they just make me happy! 

On a completely unrelated to Christmas favorite, I read my favorite diet book this weekend. Yes, I am using diet book and favorite in the same sentence! Choose to Lose written by Chris Powell. The concept of carb cycling and all the reasons why people have such a hard time losing weight made so much sense to me. I am actually really excited to start, but I am being realistic and we are starting the Sunday after Christmas. Interested in learning more? I talked about this book a few times this week and you can read the posts, here and here. I will be documenting the whole process leading up to and during the diet. 

Now I need to get going to start my favorite day of the week! Friday, no plans, pizza and movie night with my favorite people are on the agenda! Christmas movie, christmas lights and lots of snuggling! Gotta love Fridays! 

Linking up with Andrea at Momfessionals today! 

Have a Great Weekend!

TGIF