Obedience: Health

Well, I know this is no news flash...but I had a baby 3 months ago (Yay Sully is 3 months old already!!!)
That means that I'm on the way down from a huge weight gain

With Mylin I gained 35 pounds over the 9 months I was pregnant with her and lost it in about 4 months
And then I gained 40 pounds with my big boy this past year!! (He was a pound bigger than her at birth....)
And here I am, 13 weeks later looking at how to lose the rest of my baby weight with him...

I had been struggling to lose the last 15 for over a month...but I had 7 of those MELT AWAY the last 2 weeks!!!
And this is how I think I did it:

1. Breastfeed my baby boy! This helps the pounds come off and my mood stay elevated (which in turn effects everything else in a positive way!)

2. Started reading Made to Crave by Lysa TerKeurst
- basically, it's all about how God created us to crave...but that is meant for Him, not food, sex, shopping, smoking, drinking, facebook checking, desserts, etc. etc...

3. I've begun to add these things to my diet:
- attempting to drink as much water as 'prescribed': 8 8oz glasses a day
- eating at least 1 apple a day - which contains pectin, which naturally gels and slows down my digestion, keeping me fuller for longer
- eating a spinach and fruit smoothie every afternoon (I make with fruit juice, so I still get the not-so-good-for-me sugar)

4. I've begun to eliminate these things from my diet:
- cow's milk: it's natural job is to make big baby calves into even bigger adult cows...
- bread: this has been hard - I LOVE my breads...but I'm open to learning and experimenting to baking gluten free and substituting peanut butter toast to start my morning with peanut butter and apples...

Next on my list is oatmeal - something I don't love...but think I can experiment with and enjoy!

What I'm not giving up: All sugar.  I love dessert, cake, brownies, cookies, and ice cream.  And dove chocolate. And rolos. And hershey's kisses :)
And here lately homemade ice cream - from a super simple recipe that I don't even need an ice cream maker for!!!
(If you don't want to crave these extra calories you better not click on that link!)

So while I do want to decrease my sugar intake - I am still going to enjoy a good dessert once in awhile (just not 6 cookies during naptime while I facebook...)

So...I'm looking for more ideas!
Shout out to Kami and Leslie who have blazed the trail before me!
Send me over your best kept health secrets (if they aren't that big of secrets!)