Me!

People often ask me what's the secret to my weight loss success, so I thought I would blog about it so that you all could read about it. In 2007, I was facing my 40th birthday and not too chipper about it.....I was heavier than I ever had been in my life and pretty unhappy about it. In late March/early April, I decided to do something about it but wasn't sure exactly what. A lady that I knew told me about her diet which was all organic/natural.....I wasn't sure if it would work, but it didn't sound too bad to me. I was discussing this with my sister one day and she said "That sounds like the Dr. Oz plan". I remembered hearing something on Oprah similar to what I was talking about so I did some research and discovered the book "You On a Diet" by Dr. Oz. I was hooked immediately and became a faithful label reader.

I cut out soda pop and drank mostly water. I quit eating anything with bleached, enriched flour; high fructose corn syrup; and partially hydrogenated oils. I quit eating processed foods and started to eat more healthy, natural, nutritious foods and snacks. I limited my calorie intake to around 1200-1500/day. I ate 4-5 small meals daily consisting of 100% whole grains, fresh fruits and veggies, and clean proteins such as chicken or fish. And I limited the foods I ate to 5 grams or less each of sugar and fat. The transformation was amazing!! I lost 55 lbs and went from a size 14 to a size 4!! See the above photo vs my profile pic for comparison!!

Today, I still maintain this healthy diet most of the time.....I will on occasion eat a burger or a piece of cake because I don't think self deprivation is helpful to weight loss. If I eat something that I don't deem "healthy", I limit my portion size......1/2 a burger instead of a whole one or skip the bun. If anyone is interested in losing weight, I would highly recommend the above mentioned book or check out Prevention magazine and the Flat Belly Diet book too!! Stay tuned for healthy tips and meal plans, etc. Good luck!!

06/19

We had a great time at the concert last night. Ordinarily, I am not a fan of the Cain's Ballroom, but they have made some changes since we were there last and it was much better. Johnny Lang is an amazing musician!! He has a great voice and can wail on the guitar. I had an opportunity to see him in 1999 but I blew it off, so I was glad to get another chance. He has changed much......used to be more bluesy (was compared to Joe Cocker way back when he was about 16y/o) but now he is more R&B with an almost spiritual feel. He is actually #1 on the Christian charts. Anyway, now I must catch up on chores since its back to work tomorrow.....yuck!!

Summer time at the Unruh's

Wow!! June has been a busy month for us!! Jon moved to his own apartment in Stillwater 2 weeks ago and so far, seems to be doing well.

We have new additions to our family. Our little outdoor cat, Mira(cle), recently had 4 little kittens......they are so sweet and innocent!!

I recently became a consultant for Homemade Gourmet and have been busy with that. I have really enjoyed experimenting with the products!! They have really made a difference around here at our house and I'm excited about sharing them with others!!

Gary has been busy both a work and with outside jobs!! I have included pictures of our garden to show just what he has been working on!! So far, we have enjoyed fresh potatoes and onions; today we picked some yellow squash. I love summer and all the fresh veggies!!

Tonight we are excited to go see Johnny Lang in concert at the Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa!! A good time should be had by all!!

Graduation 2009

Well folks, he did it!! Jon graduated from Stillwater High School tonight!! I am about as proud as a mother could be right now!! Way to go kiddo!!

Frustrated!

I was beginning to get very frustrated with Blogger.......I tried to upload our latest photos for over a week without any luck. I am so glad I finally got it to work!!

We went out to dinner last night and to the movies. We saw "Watchmen". I wasn't sure if I was going to like it but I actually did!! Today, Gary is planting some plants in the garden........I think its still a little cold but he is eager to get something growing in the dirt!! After he finishes with that, we are going to Stillwater for a little shopping.......woohoo!!

Busy month!!

Where in the world has this month gone?? I just realized today that March is 2/3 of the way over.......seems like it was just March 1st!! We started this month off with a trip to Abilene to see Jeremy, Corie and the kiddos. As usual, we had a great time!! Corie and I got to do some shopping while Jeremy and Gary went to work. The weather was perfect so we got to enjoy some outdoor time including a trip to the zoo!! We love spending time with them and we've already been discussing our next trip to see them!!

Back home, it has been work as usual!! Gary has been busy working on the garden and the fence around our property and nearly has it all done!! Yeah!!

I've been busy at work but found some time this week to get my hair colored.....I am so glad because it really needed it!! I also learned the hard way this week, that one should leave computer repair to the professionals!! I came home from work Monday to discover that we had a particularily nasty virus on our computer. I got very frustrated because I couldn't access my email or facebook, so I decided to remove it myself and proceeded to reformat the entire hard drive!! I thought that I lost all of our data including our 1100 song Itunes playlist!! Oops!! I took the tower to a specialist on Tuesday and got a loaner because I would have withdrawls if I couldn't check my email or facebook!! Well, they contacted me today and they were able to retrieve ALL of our data.........YEAH! I think I will stick to nursing and leave the computer repair to someone else.

SE Oklahoma trip

We wanted to share a few of the highlights of our recent trip to southeastern Oklahoma. We talked about a weekend get-away to the Broken Bow/Beaver's Bend area last fall, but we couldn't fit it in with hectic work schedules, so we decided to go this month to celebrate Gary's birthday and our anniversary. So, last Friday morning, armed with Mapquest directions and our road atlas, we headed out for Smithville, Oklahoma. Neither one of us was really sure what to expect and we were a little apprehensive. Since we weren't familiar with the area......restaurants and such, we decided to stop in Poteau for some groceries since our cabin was equipped with a full kitchen. After the pit stop for food, we continued on southward. The terrain was becoming more green, lush and mountainous at this point. We wound through part of the Ouchita National Forest; up, down and around mountians. We finally reached the turn off for Smithville......night was fast approaching and it was becoming very hazy......we were hoping to reach the cabin in the daylight. Following the directions the proprietors gave us, we passed the post office, the school and the little cafe (about all there is in Smithville by the way) and turned left at the rodeo grounds onto a very narrow county road. We wound back into the mountains for 8.5 miles on this creepy little dirt road. I was beginning to get a little worried that we were lost and I was waiting for the banjos to start playing the theme song from Deliverance!! If you've ever seen the movie "Wrong Turn" you know how I was feeling!! But we pressed on and we eventually did make it to the cabin. The food stop was a great plan because we were at least 30 miles from town!! So, Gary lit a fire in the little cabin's fireplace and we cooked burgers for dinner. The next morning, we took off down the county road again and soon found ourselves in Arkansas. We picked up some steaks to cook for dinner that night in Mena, Arkansas and then we took off down the Talimena Drive. The drive was beautiful!! We stopped for lunch at the Queen Wilhemena lodge and continued on back to our cabin. On our final morning there, the owners horses came to visit us before we left. We had some apple slices that they enjoyed. On our way out we stopped at the Mountain Fork River for some senic photos. We also stopped in Krebs, Oklahoma on our way home and had dinner at Pete's Place.....a very historic, tasty Italian restaurant. It was a fun and relaxing weekend all in all and I'm very glad we made the trip!! We're thinking about maybe going back in the warmer months when we can partake in some of the water activities in the area. It would be really nice if we could get the kiddos to go with us!! We've added some photos of the beautiful scenery!!