47.2 pounds gone
I am finally home from the mental health facility! It’s been quite a journey to say the least, but I am so happy to be home. I stepped on the scale and was expecting a 10 pound gain…luckily it was only up 6.8 on my Wednesday morning weigh in! I was so happy! I choose to look at things in a positive light and with my cup half full instead of being upset. I jumped right back on the Weight Watcher’s train the next day, and even filmed a “What I eat in a day” to keep myself accountable.
This mental health episode I learned a lot about myself. I realized that Weight Watchers is not just a diet for me…it actually gives me peace of mind. When I am actively working on the four pillars (sleep, mindset, food, and activity) I feel so much better about myself. I feel stronger, more confident, happier and carry pride everyday. I love the feeling of being in control of what I eat and how good I feel when I fuel my body with healthy choices.
When I was in the facility and did not have control of my food pillar…I felt like a WW imposter. I was eating high fat, high salt, high sugar foods in there and it was extremely challenging. For me, I am either ON or OFF when it comes to the food pillar. I found myself making choices that do not align with my lifestyle anymore (like eating a beautiful blueberry scone at a local coffee shop, for example). But now that I am home, I can treat those two weeks as a setback and just appreciate the close to 50 pounds I have lost with WW and how far I have come.
The fact that I am not derailed and still eating junk after the facility is incredible. We even don’t have a ton of fresh groceries or a meal plan going on in our house right now, because I’m still recovering and we haven’t had a chance to get to the grocery store. That will all change though! I always create my meal plans on Friday, grocery shop on the weekend, make a big pot of something on Sunday night so my hubby has lunches for the week…and then voila! Motivation and ingredients for a successful week!
John has been absolutely incredible throughout this whole journey, so I want to spend a minute talking about him. He has welcomed me home with open arms, taken such good care of me, cooked for me when I was feeling overwhelmed, given me hugs during a work day and is just all around an amazing husband. This was our first mental health crisis together, so it was incredibly comforting knowing that I have a partner for life who becomes a wonderful caregiver in my time of need. I am so grateful for his support on my mental health journey. I’m so grateful that we never fought once and he always remained so calm and grounded when I was spiralling. I’ve never experienced this level of support in a relationship in my 22 years of having this disorder.
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One small win I’d like to talk about this week was how I went back to that local coffee shop once I was discharged and saw the scones. I said “no” and only got an Americano Misto like I had planned. I was so strong because everyone around me was eating the scones and it would have been easy for me to grab one like I did before. But because I was filming a “What I eat in a day” I wanted to stay accountable! I filmed my latte, worked on my blog, and then went home with a smile on my face. I was so proud of myself. I even shared with my accountability partner Deb and she was like “You need to share that win in your blog!” So here we are! 🙂 It is so important to celebrate the small wins!
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Now let’s talk about this week’s recipe. This zero point moroccan stew was one I cooked while I was on a day pass from the facility. It was so funny, all I craved when I got home from the facility was a fresh stew filled with vegetables, and to cook it slowly, with love. I was missing my kitchen and cooking so incredibly bad, so I made it a priority when I was home. I was not sure when I was going to be discharged from the facility, so it was comforting making this stew, enjoying it with John, and then going back knowing that he had leftovers for the week in the fridge. He was grateful for my cooking too, and oh boy did this stew not disappoint!! The flavour profile is out of this world, and I used a spice combination that I had never tried. It was delicious, and I’m proud to share it with you. It definitely will be going in my cookbook one day!
Check out the video here:
Until next time.