How I lost 100 pounds with low calorie food swaps that taste just as good as regular

Hello pals of this blog on how I lost 100 pounds without gastric bypass or weight loss drugs! Happy Valentine's Day! Today as part of my Happy Heart February weight loss challenge, I'll share how I lost 100 pounds with low calorie food swaps that taste just as good as regular. 

Low calorie butter with olive oil. I get the light butter spread version like Land o Lakes and I don't taste any difference. I'll blend regular butter with olive oil, coconut oil or avocado to make spread butter with about half the calories. 

Low calorie light bread food swap. Keto bread is half the calories of regular bread with twice the protein. It's expensive but very filling so one slice is plenty. I also use 35-calorie per slice bread with oat grain. 

Blue agave syrup for sugar food swap. This isn't necessarily lower in calories but the sugars are low glycemic and you don't need much to hit the sweet spot. Part of how I lost 100 pounds was to eat foods I craved but control portions. 

Cauliflower for white foods. Cauliflower is virtually zero calorie especially when you consider it's calorie forward (consumption burns more than consumed). Cauliflower versions of white foods (rice, pasta, bread and potatoes) make super 1200 calorie diet food swaps. 

Salads for sandwiches. I'll make high protein salads (with nuts, seeds, meat toppings, eggs, cheese) as food swap for sandwiches. I'll wrap sandwich fillings in lettuce leaves. Filling up on vegetables and salads is crucial to weight loss on the 1200 calorie diet. 

Bragg's Liquid Amino for salt and soy sauce. Cutting sodium in essential to weight loss on any diet. Low sodium foods reduce inflammation and hypertension and improve metabolism. 

Stay tuned for more on how I lost 100 pounds without gastric bypass surgery or weight loss drugs. 

How I lost 100 pounds by pulling my head out of the sand: Happy Heart February weight loss challenge

Hello my very dear friends of this blog on how I lost 100 pounds without gastric bypass or weight loss drugs. Today, Groundhog Day I realized that part of how I lost 100 pounds was by pulling my head out of the ground. It fits right in with my Happy Heart February weight loss challenge, to lose weight but also toxic shame and chronic guilt. 

In past posts, I've shared about the toxicity I grew up with. And yes, it feels disloyal and wrong to admit that or talk about it. But I'm learning that the people who might say it's disloyal are the same ones perpetrating my toxic shame and guilt. To heal this broken heart of mine, I need to start being loyal to it first. If that means telling secrets, so be it. I need to share it. And to do that, I had to pull my head out of the sand of denial and accept that it had happened, that I wasn't imagining it. 

I mentioned loyalty. Abuse, neglect, exploitation, manipulation and parentification exist because of a misplaced loyalty to keep quiet what's happening. And that was taught by either not acknowledging that it was wrong or gaslighting me into thinking it was right and I was wrong. This cycle of silent abuse shanghaied my common sense and made me distrust myself. 

The first step to getting out of the quicksand is to admit you're stuck. Next is to get help. When I first began to pull my head out and open my eyes to what was actually going on (instead of the version I'd been given), my first response was disbelief. I'm so programmed to self-doubt that I don't dare trust even the evidence of my own senses.  Or even of others. When I tell my story, there is shock, disgust and even some horror, but no disbelief. People take me at my word and that helps me to start trusting myself. 

So what does this have to do with how I lost 100 pounds? If I can lose toxic shame and guilt, fear and self-doubt, dropping a few pounds is a cinch! Keeping toxic secrets weighs me down. Sharing, asking for help and trusting the right things, frees me. Confidence, self-respect, self-care are magic mojo pills. With them and the help of my Higher Power, I can do anything. 

Join me for more heart smart tips in this Happy Heart February! 

How I lost 100 pounds by talking back: Happy Heart February tips for weight loss and joy!

Hello friends of this blog on how I lost 100 pounds without gastric bypass or weight loss drugs. This month, I'm sharing a Happy Heart February weight loss challenge. It's not so much about diet as healing heart hurts. If you've struggled with self-care or toxic shame and guilt, here are ways to heal that broken heart and create a happy one. 

We talked in the last post about how too much caring for others and not enough self-care destroys us. Recovery means growing skin to protect us from toxic shame, guilt, manipulation and exploitation. The first step is recognize how shame and guilt have broken down my ability to care for myself. Journaling and talking to a trusted friend or counselor helps. Verbalizing what happened and how it felt, helps lance the toxin stored in my wounded heart. 

I was raised to think it was a mortal sin to question the authority of the adults in my life. That talking back, "sassing", arguing and thinking for myself was wrong. The Bible was beaten to tell me that God expected me to obey them. And He does but not when they contradict Him. Not when they hurt, exploit or manipulate me. Not when they make me do things they won't do themselves. Not when I have to do as they say but not as they do. Those actions confuse, break and destroy. They are not of God. 

To heal, I NEED to argue with wrong messages, to talk back to the voices guilting and shaming me. To contradict the notion that God expects me to take care of others but not me. I need to question hypocrisy, deceit and self-serving manipulation and exploitation. I need to let God define for he expects of me and not let others' paraphrase for their own ends.   

If you have struggled with anything like this, you'll know what I mean when I say that if feels strange and wrong to do these things. Years of conditioning have trained me to knee-jerk self-doubt. But if I listen to God, I find reassurance that the old ways are not the right ones. And each time, it gets easier. 

You might wonder, as I do, how to separate wrong learning from right. Should I discard everything I was taught? How do I hold on to what's good while detaching from what's toxic? All good questions that we'll look at in the next post. 

How I lost 100 pounds without gastric bypass: Happy Heart February Weight Loss Challenge

 Hello friends of this blog on how I lost 100 pounds without gastric bypass or weight loss drugs. Each  month I issue a new weight loss challenge to help us all lose weight, maintain weight loss and just be healthier overall. This month is Happy Heart February weight loss challenge. 

I call this a "weight loss" challenge because many people come here to learn how I lost 100 pounds without gastric bypass and what they can do to lose weight. But I'm writing for anyone who wants to be healthier, regardless of weight. The things I share aren't just for people who are overweight. They can even help someone who wants to gain weight because a lot of what I focus on is mental health. 

In Happy Heart February we're going to explore how emotional health drives physical issues. I rounded out January with posts on self-care, or lack thereof, and its impact on obesity, weight loss, body image, self-image and much more. This month I'm looking at ways to care for our hearts, the inside feels ones as much as the pump ones. To do this I need to tell a two-part story. 

Part one:

I grew up neglected, exploited and manipulated by adults charged with protecting me. I didn't learn how to care for myself or even that I should. I have empath tendencies and that was capitalized on. I cared too much, too hard and too long for too many people and not enough for myself. I was worked like an  adult and parent. I now know this parentification is dangerous and inappropriate. Then, it was just doing my job. Obeying everyone was being the "good girl" God expected me to be. 

These and other guilt and shame tactics destroyed any ability I had to protect myself. I lived in constant  remorse, anxiety, shame and fear of failure. God was not loving but draconian taskmaster who expected little girls take everyone's crap. I was only worth what I could provide. That I had to earn basic necessities including love. Which, no matter how hard I tried I never achieved. 

Whether I was an empath or just a very easily guilted child, I don't know. But the result was the same. I've heard empaths described as having no skin. We lack a protective layer that separates us from the feelings, wants, needs and issues of others.  We don't know where others stop and we begin. We absorb others' toxicity into our cells, because we don't know that we shouldn't. And, in my case, were actually told that we should. We exist only to serve.  

We learn to ignore cues and warning messages from our mind, heart, body and soul, which God (the real one, not the fake one I knew) provides to keep us safe. We end up with "emotional leprosy" as our confused, damaged nerves no longer protect us from pain and injury. Our conflicted mind-heart  sabotages our health, peace, security and comfort. We die internally. 

So that's the heart-breaking first part. If any of this resonates, I'm so sorry. But the good news is that it doesn't end there. In part two, we explore ways to mend our broken hearts. To literally grow some skin to save us from the "slings and arrows" that are killing us. We'll consider ways to turn a wounded heart into a happy one. 

Stay tuned for more on how I lost 100 pounds and am finding peace of mind and joy of heart.