Update :)

Howdy y'all! So I don't remember when the last time I updated this thing was...(before Thanksgiving?) but anyway...I've officially lost between 27 and 28 pounds which is AWESOME seeing as I've been getting off track because of all of the holidays and what not. :) I have a lot of new challenges coming up though! Ha...here's the list!

1. Cookie Exchange - Saturday December 15th
2. O'Charley's & dessert afterwards (Secret Santa!) - Monday December 17th
3. Christmas with mom's side of the family - Saturday December 22nd
4. Christmas Party at the gym (aka work) - Saturday December 22nd
5. Christmas with dad's side of the family - Monday December 24th
6. Christmas Dinner - Tuesday December 25th
7. New Years Eve party - Sunday December 30th
8. Aaron's birthday party - Thursday December 3rd

The end! Whew...that's all going to happen within the next month?!

Until later guys. :)


****UPDATE****

December 13, 2012

I went to my moms office today to weigh myself (she works for a doctor who preforms the lapband and gastric bypass procedures) and I am down to 177! Which means I have lost 15.3% of my original body weight. I started out in August at 209 and in December I am 32 pounds lighter! 18 pounds to go until I hit 50!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

So, I've been thinking. During the holidays I always pig out on a TON of yummy food. Seriously, rolls, mashed potatoes, dressing, cookies, cakes, pies, and fudge! I love it all and I normally don't get to eat it throughout the year. However, I have lost more weight in the past 4 or so months than I ever have in my life. I don't want to ruin all of my hard work. SO. I've been looking into ways to watch my calories while also enjoying the holiday season. :) I have a found a few helpful links that I thought I might share to other food-lovin souls. :)
Counting calories throughout the holiday seasons
I LOVED THIS ONE. I've been so worried about adding on extra weight more easily since I won't be getting to walk across campus everyday for an entire month. However, none of the alcohol stuff in this link applies to me since I don't drink. But very helpful tip...EAT LIGHTLY since you will be pigging out (at least a little) at dinner.

Good recipe tips
I bake. A lot. Although this website is dedicated to Thanksgiving, it can easily work for Christmas as well. I love the different baking ideas. Who knew that by replacing 1 cup of sugar with splenda will save 750 calories? WOW. When I speak of food, I speak in calories. When someone asks me where I like to get dinner if I have to eat fast food this is what I will reply with: "Well, if you go to Wendy's and get a spicy chicken sandwich (plain) and apples, you're looking at around 510 calories. However, if you grab a McDouble at McDonalds with apples, you only spend $2.20 and eat about 405 calories. You can find fast food items that will not totally kill your calorie count for the day. :)

I hope these sites help someone else out as much as they have helped me! Have a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year!!

Turkey day!

Happy Thanksgiving! (A very amazing holiday for those of us watching our weight and counting calories...it's a free-for-all!) I made sure to weigh myself before turkey day so yesterday, Wednesday November 21, 2012, roughly 4 months after beginning my weight loss journey, I am down 25 pounds. I am halfway to my goal of 50 pounds! I began counting calories in August and started at 209. Yesterday morning I was at 184 which is great news for me. :) I've been getting a little off track with my calorie counting since it's been the holiday season (which, for me, starts November 4th because of my birthday). But I've still lost 4 pounds in 2 1/2-3 weeks or so. Not horrible. :)

I also finally have a picture!

 

This is me after losing 25 pounds. I wish I could post a before picture but I was so embarrassed about how I looked that I never took many pictures from my neck down. :/ Hindsight and what not.

 

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I know that I personally have so much to be thankful for!

Just popping in

Haven't updated in a while so thought I'd just pop over and say that things have been going decently okay. Still slip up every now and then but I'm trying to get back on track. It's hard when the household grocery purchaser is encoraging at first and then slowly stops caring. Oh well...I'm working with what I've got at hand. Still counting calories, just wishing more of the calories were fruit/vegetables instead of junk. :( Oh well...at least I'm eating less of the junk I used to eat anyway.

 

That's all for now.

Oops.

Been kinda absent lately...I have good reason though! I've been super busy with school this semester. I thought it would be one of the easier semesters I've had but...no. Anyway...that has definitely kept me busy.

 

I believe I began watching my calories around the 2nd or 3rd week of August when I weighed in at 209 and almost had a heartattack. Well, I had a doctors appointment Friday, October 5th, and I am happy to report that I weighed in at 195! I lost 14 pounds in less than 2 months! I'm very excited that my hard work has paid off. Now I just need to get back on track (I've been slacking a little since my appointment) because I've still got 35 pounds to go to get to my goal weight of 160. I have faith that I will get there eventually though!

 

On a not so happy note...my cat that we got when I was 6 had to be put down today. :( Sad sad day. I love him and will definitely miss him greatly. R.I.P. Tiger.

Some good news and some bad news.

Hello again. :)

I have good news and bad news. The good news is I am finally moving onto stage 2 of a healthier lifestyle. Instead of just cutting calories, I'm now trying to focus more on cutting calories and watching what is in the food I eat instead of just focusing on the calories it contains. So far I've switched from potato chips to Sunchips, regular hotdogs to turkey hotdogs, from Jif peanut butter to Jif natural peanut butter, Bunny white bread to Bunny whole grain white bread, and from regular Goldfish crackers to whole grain Goldfish crackers. These are just some small changes but I know they are very hepful changes.

 

The bad news. I made about 2 million different mistakes foodwise today. Good gracious I don't even know if I can put it into words. It just really makes me feel bad. At least I do feel bad which means that I will be more careful about food choices after today. I know a treat every now and then is okay, but today just got completely out of hand.

 

That's all for now. Bye!

An apple for lunch :)

Howdy all. I've been quiet lately BUT still keeping up with my heathy lifstyle changes. :D I've been in a pretty fantastic mood lately since my healthy eating habits have finally proven to me that they are, indeed, working. I have noticed that I've had a much easier time fitting into clothes lately. That's always an awesome feeling. :) It also helps that I've been in school for 2 weeks now and have been absolutely walking my rear end off.

I pretty much just wanted to stop by and say that things are changing, and I'm excited.

Off to class!

Not too bad.

Lately I think I have been doing pretty good with the eating healthier. I have had WAY more good days than bad and I've started trying to encorporate healthier foods instead of just counting the calories of the normal unhealthy food I eat and just eating less of it. I lost some weight by just cutting back on portion sizes but now I would like to add healthier portions too and I'm sure the weight will keep coming off. I haven't weighed myself in probably close to 3 weeks because we don't have a scale anymore. I kind of like it that way because that means I can't obsess over the number but at the same time, I would like to check every now and then to see if there is any improvements. I have noticed some of my regular pants have started fitting a little better which is always a good sign. :)

 

 

I have had a few bad days but some of them really couldn't be avoided. I helped move my friend Bobbi Jo and her daughter Taylor back to Illinois this past Friday and I had my best friend in tow. Well, when you are just about broke and in a different city...fast food is inevitably the easiest thing to grab so we did that. I don't even regret it because I can't even remember the last time I had anything from McDonalds. My other bad day was the Saturday of last weekend. My grandma came into town from Indiana like she does every month and we went to Logan's for lunch. But I ate less than I normally would have and I didn't really eat much else that day after such a big lunch besides a couple small snacks.

 

Not too bad in the long run but you know...if you have one bad day you just have to make the next day a good one! 

A step (a lot of them, actually!) in the right direction.

Nothing can bring me down this evening. I have been doing good (minus a day or two) with my calorie counting which is always good news but the REALLY good news is that I went on a 2.8 mile walk today. Not a big deal? To me, it is HUGE. I never walk...like...never. I get most of my yearly walking done on campus. Today just about killed me but I did it so now I have no excuse to not do it again. (I probably sound whiny...but it was a LOT of BIG hills. Jussayin.)

Anyway...I'm expecting my legs to be on fire in the morning so I'm extremely happy I managed to get all of my cleaning done today. Nothing for me to do tomorrow but sit around the house in pain. :)

Noone said losing weight was easy...


P.S. I just found the secret to avoiding late night eating...brush your teeth as soon as you have the urge to eat something you don't need to eat. :)

Good news :)

This week, Monday-Friday, I have really put my all into eating healthier. I'm glad to say it paid off! I've lost a pound and a half in just 5 days. To some, that may seem like a tiny amount of weight, but for me, it's a pretty big deal!

I did have a rough day yesterday because I seriously got down on some unhealthy food. It was my last day babysitting Sydney and Vaan this summer so as a "Thank you", Dawn bought me 2 HUGE cookies. But ya know...sometimes you just gotta have a cookie. The Krystal burgers I had for dinner were probably a bad idea though. Oh well, that just means this weekend there can't be any cheating whatsoever.

But it's Friday, I'm a pound and a half lighter, I've got a lot of babysitting jobs coming up which means new clothes for school as well!

Happy Friday!

Good start to a good day

It's hard to be healthy when you are living in a household of people who arn't. That is the honest truth. Last night the thermostat broke and my dad had to go buy a replacement since the AC wouldn't work until it was replaced. Well since it was so hot in the house, it was a really bad idea to cook so we ended up with Papa Johns. Good food...not good food to be eating when you are trying to begin a new healthy lifestyle. Everyone thinks "well...you can't eat healthy all the time!" but I would at least like to get a good grasp on the healthy lifestyle idea before I start adding stuff like that on occasion (rare occasions!)

So you can imagine how hard it was for me to get up this morning and skip the cold pizza in the fridge for breakfast. Well...I DID. :) I opted for a whole egg and an egg white scrambled with a little bit of cheese. I also had a banana and an 8oz glass of skim milk. I know this is only a very small step...one meal...but I'm very proud of myself. You have to start somewhere, right?

Now I am off to pack my lunch and snacks for the day. Last night I made some homemade granola that should make for a very yummy snack today. :)

Later!!



Time to get serious!!

I hate that I am so spaced out with this blog. Ugh! Well...another update and let me tell ya, it isn't a good update. I babysit two amazing kids 3 days a week until school starts. Well today their mom asked me if I minded giving them baths since they hadn't had one...so I, of course, said I would. Well I had Vaan's bath done and while he was running around, Sydney was playing in the bath. Silly me spotted a scale in the corner of the bathroom and, since we don't have one at home, I stepped on it like a big ol' dummy! Let's just say that I was NOT happy with what I saw when I looked down at the number. Not happy at all. The only good thing that came from this HORRIBLE experience was the fact that now I am seriously back into getting healthy! I have resigned up for Myfitnesspal and began tracking the calories I consumed today and as of tomorrow morning I am going to begin doing a 30 minute walk on the treadmill every single morning besides Sundays (lazy day).

I am anxiously awaiting for Fall semester to begin so that I can get even more walking time in and because I have big plans for super healthy lunch/snack ideas. I figure if I don't have money on me (which I rarely do) then I'll have to eat the healthy food that I brought along with me. The awesome thing about college is that once you are privvy to the secrets on campus, you know where all of the rooms with microwaves are. ;) So now I am not confined to cold sandwiches and chips. The choices are endless!! I am very excited about this. :) I have also been on Pinterest (of course) and I've found a lot of healthy snack ideas (dried strawberries, frozen grapes, tons of smoothies etc...) and I'm extremely excited about putting all of my pinning to good use!

But I must sign off and attend to the fiber one chocolate chip cookie brownie that is calling my name. Until we meet again.......:)

One of these days...

One of these days I'm gonna figure out how to manage this "healthy lifestyle" thing! Just apparently not today. I know, I know...it's a long road and it is impossible to be 100% perfectly healthy when it comes to food/drink. Today was a better day than most...so far I have had skim milk, water, and tea as far as drinks go (no soda!) and foodwise could have been worse. Breakfast - 90 calorie fiber one brownie. Lunch - Strawberry banana orange juice smoothie (no AC...didn't wanna cook!) Snack - Wheat thins and cheddar cheese. Dinner...well...a sloppy joe and french fries. And I am now chasing that with peanut butter M&M's. Oops. :( I'm tellin ya...it's hard to tell myself no! There is always tomorrow! It's all about making more good choices than bad. I need to keep repeating that to myself. On Monday morning I also plan on starting a running program on the treadmill downstairs. The Couch to 5K one has really caught my attention. I will post about that on Monday, though. :) Have a GGGGGGREAT evening!

FINALLY! A SUCCESSFUL SMOOTHIE RECIPE!!!

Today is a GREAT day! I have been searching for the perfect smoothie on and off for about...4 months I'd say. Well I am happy to report that I have found it!!! I have found my perfect smoothie and I am ridiculously excited about it. :)

Now...this smoothie is sort of a rather unsightly color...but trust me...it tastes AWESOME! It was a really pretty pink before I threw in the spinach. Now that I've finally found a good recipe, I'm going to try and mix it up a little to see what works and what doesn't. This is what I started with this morning:

Technically...I never even used the basic recipe on the back of the Dole bag which was a cup of juice and a heaping cup of frozen fruit. I threw in some plain nonfat yogurt and spinach, as well. I think from now on I might leave the yogurt out. I was thinking I could start adding yogurt and getting the extra benefits but...I just really don't like it. :(



Big giant bump in the road

Yeah...this hasn't been going as planned so far. No worries...I'm not giving up! I just need to learn to be more strict with myself instead of always thinking "oh well I can start making healthier choices tomorrow." I must say...it's hard to pass up fast food when you are always running across Clarksville babysitting...especially short notice babysitting gigs. However...if I want to see the results that I am aiming for then I am going to have to learn to start telling myself "NO!" I need a game plan and that's what I am currently working on. I am about to start putting together some homemade 100 calorie snack packs to throw in my purse when my Super Babysitter symbol appears in the sky (Batman reference...heh). (Oh hey! Plus SB can stand for Super Babysitter OR Shelby Burkhart! ;)) Another thing that is seriously going to help me out a TON is...........

MiO liquid water inhancer! (I have the exact bottle in the kitchen but quite frankly taking a picture of it, e-mailing it to myself, saving it to my computer, THEN posting it on the blog seemed like WAY too much work. Don't judge me...it's super late and I wanna sleep!) But this stuff (especially the strawberry watermelon) is AMAZING. It tastes wayyyyy too good to have none of the bad stuff in it. I'm sure plain ol' water is better for you in some way...but hey...I don't like plain ol' water. But if you're a cheater like me...this stuff is yummy. :)

Here's to hoping I can get myself on track soon!

Goodnight all!

No apple today

This morning has already been a disappointment. I found a recipe yesterday for cinnamon apple oatmeal that looked SO GOOD. I woke up ready to make it and...the apples that were sitting on the counter yesterday were gone. :( Bummer. BUT, I did not let this tiny bump in the road upset me too much...(although I'm still not entirely over it, yet. ha.)

I almost gave up this morning and put off my eating healthy for another day. There were so many other breakfast foods calling my name...none of them very healthy options, however. But instead of calling it quits, I reached for my handy dandy Carnation Breakfast Essentials! I love this stuff and I've been drinking it on and off for breakfast since high school. It's pretty fantastic so if you are ever looking for a good quick breakfast drink, well look no further! Mixed with 1 cup of skim milk brings the calorie count to 220, which isn't bad seeing as I'm attempting to keep my "big" meals to between 300-400 calories. (Hey...a smaller breakfast calorie count means a little snack before lunch, right?) Even another plus to this stuff is it contains 21 vitamins and minerals including: 13 grams of protein, 25% of the daily value of Vitamin E, 50% of the daily value of Calcium and Vitamin D, 140% of the daily value of Vitamin C and last but not least, Iron (always a plus for me since I always seem to be a little anemic). And the last plus is...it's yummy. :)

The beginning of a new adventure!

Good evening! :) This is (hopefully) the beginning of a major journey that I have attempted more than once before. This is my healthy lifestyle blog. This is going to be a place where I write about the good times and the not so good times I encounter while trying to eat healthier and exercise regularly. What caused this sudden decision, you ask? Well, I always worry about my weight and how I look (I know, I know...love yourself as is...blahblahblah) and I just feel overall unhealthy and icky. I am too young to feel icky all the time! I want to start making healthier choices and I want to look in the mirror and absolutely love what I see. Why keep worrying about what I look like when I can change it, right? I have some goals and I am going to try to accomplish them slowly. I usually rush into a super crazy diet and it flops within days. I am trying to make this work! Here are some of my goals...

1) NO soda (Not such a big deal really)
2) ONLY 8 ounces of sweet tea a day (a MASSIVELY big deal!)
3) Begin a new running program
4) Be able to run a solid 20 minutes straight 12 weeks from now (scary!)
5) No fast food (unless it is Subway)
6) Drink at least 2 bottles of water a day (I'm not a big water drinker so I'm going to build up.)
These are the goals I am going to try and accomplish within the next couple of weeks. I am not the kind of person who can stop doing things cold turkey. I am going to seriously have to ween myself off of sweet tea for sure. However, I think with support from my friends and family...this might just work. I am definitely going to try my very hardest. Well, there's my intro. See ya!