Jewelry – Page 2 – Weight Loss Diet Solutions

I have something big to share. I’m buying group health insurance for myself and my husband starting in August. This is a big deal to me for many reasons. 1) I can stop worrying 2) family can stop worrying 3) this has been a freelance goal of mine for a year 4) I can get pregnant and not worry about not being covered 5) I found coverage!

And finally, pride. Pride because I found a way to make it happen. Do I think the health care system is corrupt and needs serious changes? Yes! But what I want and what is are two different things right now. I am writing this to help out those who may be thinking about the self-employment route, but are worried about not having health insurance. Here is what I’ve discovered:

1) Having an LLC between two people automatically qualifies you for group health insurance. Getting an LLC is pretty inexpensive and easy to do. Our LLC is not our main source of income, this isn’t an issue. Having group health insurace is guaranteed coverage at a group rate. Pre-existing conditions are not an issue here.

2) It’s more affordable. But not cheap. When I had a full-time job it would cost about $600 a month to bring my husband on to my plan. And another $250 a month when we have a child. When I left my job I qualified for COBRA for only 18 months at $550, just for me. Our policy now with full-coverage for $800 a month. Ouch. Yes. But, I couldn’t even get coverage as an individual. Another thing to consider is, is that this policy would be about $300 less when I’m no longer obese. How’s that for incentive?

3) Making the decision to make it happen. I realized that I needed to double my income to comfortably afford health insurance. I came up with a plan that works for me. This didn’t mean taking on hours upon hours of design work or killing myself to make more jewelry. It means that I have found a way to streamline my production and cutting back on excess (unpaid) work.

I have started writing freelance articles (improved writing skills!) that only adds about 15 hours to my already dedicated 10-12 per week. So by only working 25 hours a week I can afford all of my living expenses with room left over to pay down debt and save with some left over for fun stuff and travel.

This also leaves room for my creative projects, which is most important to me. It took a year to get to this point. Time organization and priorities can be tricky when you’re your own boss, but not impossible. I decided to stop spinning my wheels and make it happen.

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Last week I was swamped. Catching up on projects, sending out jewelry, and doing a lot of cooking. I took photos of my food, but before I knew it I was going to bed. I just didn’t have the time and energy to post last week, but there was another issue going on.

This could have been preventable as it was a pattern and I see it now, but at the time I was annoyed and I let it get the best of me. The week before last when I was posting photos of my food everyday, I was also doing something else secretly: I was weighing myself everyday. This is a bad habit and it doesn’t consider the big picture. Logically I know this. But, I was losing. Every day the scale was lower and I was like a moth to a flame.

So Saturday in DC came and we ended up walking close to nine miles. I don’t walk a lot and it just about did me in. The next day I got on my friends scale and noticed that my weight was up. Water retention. And then the next day we walked some more and I ate a very salty Thai meal. And on Monday we drove home. Which caused another spike in my weight. When I travel, I blow up. I KNOW this about myself.

But when I got home and stepped on the scale all I saw was work undone and I was upset and annoyed. I know the lesson of this is: I retain water and that is the stage I’m in: losing water. I also know that exercise and travel always causes my weight to fluctuate.

Instead of being healthy about it, continue doing what I was doing (which was working) I just said “f this” and stopped. Everything. We ate out almost everyday last week and didn’t exercise until this past Sunday. If that wasn’t sabotage I don’t know what is.

Looking back, I wish I would have just shrugged it off, stopped weighing myself, exercise and watch what I was eating, and drink lots of water. It would have gone away and things would have evened out again. So this is my calling myself out on destructive behavior.

This is also me continuing what I set out to do this month: kick ass. And so it continues. Fluctuations are not the big picture. Five pounds up or down is not the big picture. Doing good consistently is.

And now I bring you my eats from yesterday (monday):

I was not hungry until about noon yesterday. Instead I drank lots and lots of water. I came home for lunch where I prepared a plate of rice, onions in masala sauce (trader joe’s), spinach (with dressing and a little feta), and half a slice of tandoori naan. Total calories: 535

Later on in the afternoon I was hit with the baking bug. I purchased a bag of Sucanat over the weekend and was itching to try it. You can read more about it here. What I miss most about being sweet-free is baking. I also miss having a muffin for breakfast and so I’ve decided to add natural sugars into my diet (I’ve been eating honey for awhile).

I loved getting in the kitchen and figuring out a new, healthier recipe for muffins. I can’t describe the satisfaction really, but these are quite good. I used whole wheat white flour, sucanat and my own apple sauce. They are a bit higher in calories than I had hoped, I used vegetable oil and filled the muffin cups pretty full- I like muffin tops, what can I say?

I followed Krissie’s advice and froze the rest for reheating throughout the week and to avoid eating too many. I ate two at 166 calories each.

For dinner I made a pepper, onion and spinach stir fry in a Chinese sauce over rice. This was surprisingly filling and low in calories. I actually calculated it several times to make sure I was correct. Calories: 300 (maybe a little less)

And for a night snack I made smoothies with bananas, milk, frozen mango, frozen cherries, a splash of vanilla and walnuts. About 250 calories

Total calories for the day: 1,417

Exercise: 45 minutes of Insanity, burned about 400-500 calories

Earned my sticker for the day!

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