Ouch!

I'm so sore from legs day one of my BBG restart! 

I went for a walk today with my friend and our dogs for my LISS and my legs are sooooo sore! I've been ouching all day.

So I leave you with these funnies:

 

And a little Yoda :)

Sitting hurts. Stairs hurt - especially going down them and any sort of pressure on my legs hurts.

Call me crazy but I kind of love it!

Who am I?

~Carly

Sunday Musings

Good morning!

It's a dreary, rainy Sunday here in Connecticut but I will take it!

I am re-committing to a more active lifestyle and re-starting Kayla Itsines' BBG program and I did Day 1 today and woah. Sore already. I got to about week 5 last time I started but got sidetracked - always seems to happen. 

I'm not going to let that happen.

I'm going to clear my mind of can't.

I've accomplished a lot in these last 6 years of losing the baby weight and I'm still a work in progress. 

Another mantra of mine is a negative mind will never give you a positive life. 

I truly believe this. 

What are you ready to accomplish?

~Carly

Recipe: Chocolate Caramel "Crack" (THM - sort of)

Hello! Happy Tuesday night!

A few years ago, a neighbor made the most amazing creation she called "Christmas Crack" which was essentially butter, sugar, saltines and chocolate. What's the big deal with those ingredients. Don't be fooled - when combined it is the most delicious thing I have ever tasted. For real. It's sweet, salty and crunchy. 

Fast forward to now and being on THM I haven't had it in a very long time. In fact, Ifortunately hadn't even thought about it until it started popping up in my newsfeed on Facebook and on Pinterest. Ugh. 

Then a few weeks back in the Trim Healthy Mama groups page the lovely Briana Thomas posted her own recipe. So immediately I pinned it and looked at it but honestly it was a little too involved for me and I moved on with my craving.

So tonight while grabbing some items out of the pantry I noticed a package of wasa crackers and I decided to experiment.

I grabbed some foil, the wasa crackers, my THM super sweet blend, a stick of butter and vanilla and went to work.

I quickly searched for a recipe and found this one from Smitten Kitchen - http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2009/04/chocolate-caramel-crackers/

So I followed the directions loosely.

I didn't make a full recipe so I halved it. I spread about 9 crackers on the foil and preheated the oven to 350. I added the stick of butter to a saucepan and added about 1/3 cup super sweet blend and stirred. However, it wasn't thickening or coming to a boil. Seeing as how the real "Christmas Crack" calls for brown sugar, I didn't have any or any THM brown sugar. So I cheated a bit and added two small teaspoons of regular real sugar. As soon as I did the mixture came to a rolling boil and simmered for a few minutes. Then, I added the vanilla and poured over the crackers and spread with a spoon and popped the tray in the oven. After about 8 minutes it was ready with the edges turning brown and I sprinkled dark chocolate chips on top. I use the Enjoy Life brand. However, I didn't have enough so I did use some Nestle tollhouse chocolate chips I had on hand to fill in some gaps. These are clearly not on THM (hence the name of the post) but I figure it's better to have a smidge of real sugar than to indulge in completely off plan foods.

After the chips sat on top and melted I spread them around with a spatula. I sprinkled the top with some coarse sea salt and popped it in the fridge to cool.

Then I proceeded to open and close the fridge numerous times waiting to be able to taste it!! 

Finally, after an eternity - or about 15 minutes - it cooled enough for me to taste to make sure it was going to be good enough to satisfy my craving.

Oh, you guys. It was AMAZING!!

I popped it back in the fridge to cool a bit more and then broke it into pieces. 

And of course I continued to taste test. Even my son wanted a piece. I'm not going to lie - I hesitated to share! Haha but like a good mom I let him have a piece (a small one). He loved it!

This recipe is definetly a keeper. And while I did use some off plan ingredients, this hit the spot and I don't feel bad at al for having this along with my S meals!

~Carly

The D14 Recap

Yikes! I completely forgot to post my recap from the results of The D14 program!

Overall I was down about 5 pounds and almost 8 inches! My clothes are looser and fitting well, I'm still very much not bloated and truly feeling great!

I'm back to eating Trim Healthy Mama style - not that I really stopped - but just continuing to eat well. I have been careful to re-introduced too many of the things I cut out. However, I have had some small amounts of cheese here and there but am going to try to avoid gluten as much as possible.

Since I was finished with my nutritional rebalancing I feel truly amazing and I encourage anyone who is looking to get healthier, maybe lose a few pounds or just detox a little bit if you're feeling sluggish, etc.

~Carly

The D14 Day 14

I made it!! I measured this morning and lost another inch or so for a total of 7 3/4 inches lost in 14 days! I'm still less bloated and feeling good. I can't believe it was so easy to cut out some things from my diet for these past two weeks and I'm so much better for it!

I really can't say enough good things about this detox. Whole food nutrition is so important and I really am going to keep what I learned about myself going forward. 

I started my dieting journey in 2010 by counting calories. While it worked initially it can be quite a pain long term - but when you find food freedom like I have with Trim Healthy Mama you can lose the numbers and measuring obsession.

~Carly

The D14 Day 12

It's crazy that I only have two days left on my first round of The D14 and then go into Maintenance! I plan to continue using the shakes and eating my THM way.

Cutting out some things from my diet hasn't been as hard as I thought - some moments yes but my body is thanking me for it. I'm much less bloated. I am bouncing a bit on the scale but still feeling so great! 

I went for a walk yesterday with my dog - a little over 2 miles. Then today I took her for a walk again but it started to rain so I brought her home and went to the gym and walked hills on the treadmill for about 35 minutes. It felt great to exercise today.

So, just a quick update. I'm going to make the most of these last two days!

~Carly

Two Year Trimaversary!

Happy Sunday and Happy Two Years of Trim Healthy Mama to me!

Started at about 170 and really large for me personally (left). I had tried numerous diets - South Beach, Atkins, Eat To Live, meal replacement diets (found one product I do love now though!) and then right before finding THM I did the 21 Day Sugar Detox which was a great segue into the Trim Healthy Mama lifestyle.

The pic on the right was from the other night before going out to dinner with my husband. I'm currently doing a THM-friendly detox with some Juice Plus+ products and I'm about 153/154 pounds right now. I'm also down a few more inches in just the past few days and feeling very less bloated and trimmer.

So there it is. While I didn't lose a ton of weight, I lost inches and gained so much more happiness than I could have ever thought. 

~Carly