Return of the Coup!

So it's been a while.  (Five years, I think?)  And I am probably W+10 from when I first started this coup.  To be fair, I've had a third child, but it's really no excuse.  When I sit down and look at things, it has nothing to do with baby weight gain --I got back to my pre-pregnancy weight within a few months.  It has everything to do with my diet and, not to make excuses, but probably a lot to do with the "busy"ness of being a working mom: feeling too guilty to take time away from my boys to go for a run, turning to frozen pizza or McDonald's to get a quick meal in between caring for the kiddos and grading / planning, and choosing to zone out on my phone rather than going for run when I find myself with even a half hour of down time.

I lost all the weight I gained after having Rhys fairly quickly, but I was still almost 15 pounds heavier than my pre-pregnancy weight with Ty.  So I took a picture.  Probably 3 months after Rhys was born, I decided that I'd try to hold myself accountable by documenting my progress with a "Before" picture. I still haven't taken an "After" picture (and Rhys is 12 months old).

I think I've maybe hit the stage in life where my body has settled into its preferred, comfortable weight, which is, unfortunately, not MY preferred, comfortable weight.  Apparently, my eating habits haven't really jived with my body wants to do, sooooo here I am.  I've decided that not just for weight reasons, but for overall health reasons, I'm going to make a MAJOR lifestyle change and significantly reduce the amount of sugar I consume.  My plan is to cut out all added sugar -- natural sources of sugar, like fruits and veggies are not included -- 6 days a week.  Although I'm going to allow myself a splurge day, I hope that cutting it out for all days but one will make a difference.

Here are my goals, in no particular order:

1. Drop 20 pounds (25-30 would be ideal, but let's not get crazy)

2. Demonstrate that I actually have some degree of willpower

3. Reduce sugar consumption so I don't get heart disease (I mean, I'm sure I won't know if I've reached this goal for a while...)

4. Improve the appearance of the areas of my body I don't like: the bulgy-ness of where my arms meet my torso, the bulgy-ness created by my bra, my ever-widening thighs, the soft slope that has replaced my jawline, and really the entire area between the bottom of my rib cage and my knees.

Finding foods that do not have sugar is going to be a challenge.  There are the obvious no-nos (so long, cookies, bagels, and chips!); then there are the stealthy ones (sauces, dressings, condiments, yogurt).  So Mission #1 has to be to find recipes that will work for me on this diet.  Right now, I envision myself only eating eggs and kebabs -- which I LOVE, but I don't want to HATE them after a while.

I'm going to list out meal options that I can think of off the top of my head, really just as a place to start.

Breakfast
-Eggs
-Sausage
-Bacon
-Fruit bowl

Lunch
-Salad?
-Turkey & cheese roll-ups?
-Leftovers...?
-Apple, peanut butter, and oats sandwich (do oats have added sugar?)
-I saw a hasselback zucchini that looked pretty tasty here: https://iquitsugar.com/recipe/hasselback-zucchinis-3-ways/

Snacks
-Almonds?  Other nuts?
-String cheese?
-The tears of my soul?

Dinner
-Kebabs
-Stir fry
-Any kind of chicken / beef and veggie meal
-Hamburgers (no bun)
-Meatballs?  (I'll need sugar free marinara...)
-Fish...?
-Tacos?  (Do whole wheat tortillas or corn tortillas have sugar?  Ay, dios mio!)


I'm mainly just finding a lot of things that look like this.  I WANT to be a person who likes food that looks like this:

But I ACTUALLY am a person who generally likes food that looks like this:

This is not going to go well for me.

Anyway, I'm unofficially going to start tomorrow.  (I'm only saying unofficially because we have a couple Father's Day celebrations coming up.)  But after that, starting Monday, it is officially ON.  I'm scared!