Yes to this.

Let your food be your medicine. :) Eat clean!!

Slow and steady wins the race

It took more than a day to gain it- it'll take more than a day to lose it. Keep going! Don't give up!!

Slacker!!! :)

Sorry I disappeared friends.
I know the three of you must be devastated, anxiously sitting at your computer waiting for my next post.

Truth is- I'm slacking, and don't feel like talking about it. Ha :) I haven't given up! I still eat healthy probably about 80% of the time, but at least once a day I cheat. And when I do- I cheat hard. Ha ha ha

I don't want people to get worried. I do not believe you have to eat 100% healthy 100% of the time and work out 7 days a week to lose weight. That's an unhealthy mindset, setting yourself up for failure.

However, I've gotten too comfortable. I've started eating without thinking about what I am eating will do to me. How bad it will make me feel. A small cheat here and there is no biggie. But the way I've been eating lately has:
-made me exhausted most of the time.
-made it harder to sleep, feel rested, and wake up
-made my stomach hurt
-made me incredibly grumpy
-made skip the gym

I'm all for a little treat now and then. Depriving yourself will only make you resent eating healthy, and inevitably you will end up quitting.

I have to be more deliberate about what I'm eating. I have to be better prepared, and have foods I enjoy eating that are healthy at my disposal.

So that's where I am. :) No weight loss in about 2-3 weeks. Not due to a plateau, but due to that ugly little food addiction rearing it's ugly head again.

No worries folks- I've got this. :)

When to weigh yourself

A few of my friends that I've been losing weight with get disappointed when the scale goes crazy on them.

Side note: I did the same thing when I was first losing weight. My only goal was to get to that "magic number." If the number went up at ALL, or even stayed the same- regardless if I saw improvements in other ways- I felt like I was failing. Learn from me, don't do that!! :) The scale doesn't determine your success.

Truth is, scales suck. Even if you have one of those fancy schmancy read-your-body-fat-percentage ones, it sucks.

Your body changes throughout the day. It can literally fluctuate 2-4 pounds. In one day!

I tested this out, and here's my timeline:
0800- 156 lbs
1000- 157 lbs
1200- 159 lbs
1400- 158 lbs
1600- 161 lbs
1800- 158 lbs

Here's what I've learned so I don't ride the emotional roller coaster that comes with checking my weight constantly.

-weigh yourself right when you wake up.
-make sure you potty first
-try to only weigh yourself once/week

Here's what NOT to do when weighing yourself:
-don't weigh yourself every day (and ESPECIALLY not more than once a day)
-don't weigh yourself after eating
-don't weigh yourself after working out (You're muscles are all swollen up and you're retaining the water you should be drinking ;))
-don't weigh yourself after showering

And most of all, remember there are other ways than the scale to monitor your weight loss!! :)
-the way your clothes fit
-your energy level
-measurements
-taking pictures (before/during/after)
-muscles developing

I'd recommend ditching the scale altogether, but I know I wouldn't have listened to that. :) Just don't let the number dictate your self worth. You are more than a number. :)

Good stuff!

So this is pretty cool...
After doing bodypump yesterday at the gym, my gym buddy Linda and I were in the locker room gathering our stuff. As we're chatting about the class, a woman got my attention and said, "You know, this class is really working for you! I can see a big difference in you from when you first started!"
WHAAAAAAAT?!
To have a complete stranger feel encouraged by what I've been up to was a gift from God. A little reminder that how we live out our lives everyday can inspire people we don't even know! I need to remember this- in ALL aspects of my life. Not just working out.
I don't think I will ever get used to people noticing. It is so encouraging to have people excited with me! (No, I'm not doing this for anyone else besides me, but it's still pretty lovely!!) To coach people in their own new healthy choices, and celebrate when they start reaching goals and beating their own limitations of themselves is such an incredible blessing.
To all the people who constantly encourage, support, and inspire me- you have truly changed my life. :) Words will never explain what it means to me. :D

Not worth it!

So I cheated last night. I waited WAAAAY to long to eat (mistake #1) and since I didn't prepare any food (mistake #2) I went to the cafeteria at work (mistake #3) to grab something to eat.
I get down there, and HOT DOG!! There is lo mein, sweet and sour chicken, and egg rolls. We never get food this good on night shift. EGG. FLIPPIN'. ROLLS!!! Oh man, I'm just proud I didn't eat 12 of those suckers.
So, I got a little of each (not nearly as much as I really wanted-which I was kinda proud of) and headed off for some serious grub time.
Well...I knew it wouldn't make me feel lovely. I expected that. And I was correct. I was not feeling lovely. Instant bloating, belly yuck-ness, but here's the kicker! Apparently those mothers had some serious salt in 'em, cause I just about Incredible Hulk-ed outta my pants/shoes!! My feet and legs swelled so badly I'm lucky I kept my clothes on. Like a preggers ready to pop. Not cool body, not cool!!
So THEN, to counteract all of the sodium I just rapidly ingested, I drank a million gallons (just and estimate... Could've possibly only been a few thousand gallons) of water. So much so, that I thought my eyeballs (sorry Sara) might just float right outta my head. Needless to say the potty and I were BFF's last night. I had to sprinkle every 10 minutes. (TMI? Prolly.)
So, needless to say, we can cross Chinese food off the "worth it to cheat" list. Because, lemme tellya, it most CERTAINLY was not worth it.
Thankyouandgoodnight. :)

BMI

Yes, I am still alive. :)
I just wanted to post a before-and-after of sorts.

When starting the diet, I got a BMI (body mass index- im pretty sure it tells you what percent of your body is fat. lol) app.

In the first picture was my highest recorded weight. I was actually bigger, but I stopped weighing myself. As you can see,

I was in the "severely obese" category. :/ Not cool. My BMI was 36. I still have a hard time realizing I had been THAT unhealthy. I had been a "big girl" for a while... but I guess I never really realized just how big I had gotten.

Now...

I've gone down two categories, into the "overweight" category!! (Never thought I'd be excited to be considered "overweight"!! Ha ha ha :) My BMI has changed from 36 to 27.9! 

Sometimes, I just need a little reminder of how far I've come. Even after losing 47 pounds, I have to fight giving up. I can still feel defeated, still want to just stop. But then I look at things like this... :) It's a pretty cool thing!

I just sneezed all over my screen. Gross. Have a beautiful day everyone! :)