New Year, New Me

Welcome 2011! My fitness goals for this year are:

1. To lose my last 30 pounds of excess fat  
2. To do 90 days of P90x
3. To get as many people as possible to TRY Slim in 6 so that they too can realize that you CAN control your weight
4. To stop drinking Diet Coke ><
5. To run 5 miles.

Last year was a year of extreme change for me. I can't even begin to explain it. I wish I could start the year off right with exercise but due to the awesomeness of strep throat I have to wait 9 extra days before I can do my final round of Slim in 6. Once that is completed I plan on starting 90 days of P90x. Once those 90 days are up I want to train to run 5 miles.

I hope everyone makes a list of fitness goals for the new year. Just Push Play!

Plateaus... Isn't that a geography thing?

If you have ever lost weight for a significant time and then you just STOP then you know where I am going with this one. I would lose 5 lbs some months and 0 another. No matter how I ate or worked out. My body is just fun that way apparently. This month, thanks to the awesome case of strep throat I received for Thanksgiving, I was able to get past a plateau. But what fun is that? I didn't eat for 5 days. Ok well it was a little fun when I looked at the scale, but soooo not worth not eating Thanksgiving dinner. Anorexic people are insane, sorry, but they are..I love food way too much to ever just stop eating.. I don't know any secrets to get past a dieting plateau, and I have searched the web and tried all kinds of plateau advice (none worked). So I just keep pressing forwards, because even if I am not getting the results I want RIGHT NOW, I know that I am still doing what is healthy for my body. So don't give up if you have a week of zero loss, just keep trying, your body will catch up with your hard work. If it never does all I can suggest is changing it up. =)

Bend Before it Breaks

Sometimes you have to feed your cravings..For me this month, that craving is candy corn..I know I know, some of you think that is just sick, but I loooove that sugary sweetness. The advice that I was given was FEED that sugar craving..Just not with candy corn. With things like fruit, sweet yogurt, etc. So I attempted this and sure enough it's working so far...So far. I had some struggles last month with dieting and working out. Life gets hectic and things get put on the back burner..And I literally could not breathe unless it was scheduled lol. But I managed to eek in some work outs and stay on my diet the last few weeks and it is paying off. I am starting to see some tone in my arms.

Some...not a lot, lol. BUT it is a curve and I can appreciate that =)

I am a freak about my scale..I literally weigh myself about 5 times a day..There is a lot of different opinions about this. Mine is that if I watch my weight constantly I stay on track..If I only weighed myself once a week I would not hold myself accountable enough. /shrug. Everyone is different. 

 Some may say that I am body or image obsessed. Not true, I am obsessed with making myself healthy. I am obsessed with living. I have always been someone that has been soooo concerned with what others think. Always. It was just sad. I look at it now like, if it doesn't effect that person, then why should they really care? So if I am eating 1200 calories a day, and it doesn't effect you, then don't worry about it =) lol. Same goes for me. I have to stop looking at people and thinking things like "wow, they need to do this or do that"..Everyone has to decide for themselves to make this change in their life. Whether it is to quit smoking, to eat better, to work out, to play with your kids more..It's nobody choice but your own.

My change has led to this..

What can your change lead to? What do you want your life to be like? And sometimes you have to bend before you break..=)

Time to cowgirl up..

Last week was a rough one. Between dealing with the death of someone I loved, work, and planning a baby shower, you could say that my anxiety levels were at an all time high..And I used the excuse that everyone uses and simply said "I do not have time to work out"...Which was true...ish. Not working out, high stress and anxiety led to comfort eating..I never realized I was a stress eater, but after putting on 3 lbs this past week and dang near eating fast food and junk every day..I can now say that yes, I am a stress eater...

Exhibit A

These would be the cupcakes I made for my sister's shower. I ate two...Not to mention the 7 layer dip, taquitos, and carrots with ranch..

Moral of the story...Time to cowgirl up. I grew up in the country and a lesson you learn early on is if you fall off the horse, you brush your butt off and get back on.. So I started working out again yesterday and grocery shopped for a healthier diet. I am sore...beyond sore. But I can't let something set me back and hold me back. And while the comfort food helped deal with the pain of my loss, it also caused the pain in my abs today as I struggled  through my Slim in 6 dvd this morning...And I will remember this soreness when it comes to watching my Sooners play this fall and not overeat during a stressful game lol..

And next month when my sweet new niece Sophia arrives I will help my sister get back into shape and keep her motivated =)

RIP Eddie Walker, I will never forget your smile and cheerfulness.

You are what you eat...

Well if that's true then why don't overweight people go around eating skinny people? =)
So, I think I am going to start a food journal today. I am going to write down everything I eat (even the chocolate that mysteriously ends up in my mouth at work). My eating habits are a thousand times better than they were a year ago, but I am curious to see what works best. Everyone always says eating 5 small meals a day is best, but I can never manage to pull that off.And then there is the "fat free vs low carb" debate. Well, obviously the low carb one is never going to work for me...I am a southern girl, I will shrivel up and die without carbs..seriously.I also want to see exactly how many calories I get a day. Did you know that not eating enough can make your weight loss STAND STILL...? Only way eating 800 calories a day or less is gonna work is if you eat 0 calories a day and become anorexic...which is also not healthy..just saying.

Also, no more Diet Coke...this breaks my heart..seriously. I have cut out pretty much all diet sodas over the last few months, but I still have the occasional Diet Coke. I really shouldn't..It's just eating away at me anyways so..No more diet coke..God save my friends and family when I get a craving lol.

Both of these things are small goals..I find that small goals work better, because I can't see the big picture and eventually give up. So..one step at a time. September's small step will be 1)food journal and 2) no diet coke.. =( I say September but I will start today. If I don't start things on Monday I end up putting them off for another week..

In closing, here are some diet tips that I have found very useful
1) Drink a LOT of water
2) Add fruits and vegetables to your diet (think of it this way, you can't have upside down pineapple cake, but you can have a pineapple )
3) Do not walk into your kitchen after a certain time at night..For me I say 8 pm. I usually go to bed at 11 so I try and steer clear of food after 8 pm...keyword there "try"
4) Gut your cabinets and fridge of the junk. I found it was easier to eat healthy when I wasn't taunted with junk food..(sorry kids, if mommy is dieting, you can eat that good stuff too)
5) MAKE TIME to work out. I started with 30 mins a day...At first I felt guilty about abandoning Tug with Jerry as soon as we got home to work out, but if I don't do it when I first get home, or first get up, I won't do it. And don't tell me you don't have time, give me another excuse...=P

Seriously..I love carbs

As I sit here and daydream about mashed potatoes covered and gravy with big buttery biscuits I try and remember that I am doing this for a reason lol. I am currently on Phase 2 of my Slim in 6 dvd..It's rough..lol. My body is changing right before me eyes and it is weird sometimes..My stomach is getting smaller but it's weird seeing muscle under the excess skin lol.

Yes mom, I know my bed is not made lol. Focus! 

So a lot of people have asked me what I eat. I eat a variety of things. I was sticking mainly to nonfat, low calorie, but I change it up too. I think that a lot of people burn out on diets because they try to stick to an exact plan and get burned out easily. It's not about eating exactly one cup of tuna a day, or two banana's, etc. It's about a lifestyle change. Sometimes I have oatmeal for breakfast, sometimes I have fruit, sometimes yogurt. I usually snack on pretzels or salt free crackers, (or a snickers bar) lol. I give in to my cravings every once in a while or I would go crazy. And it works for me. 

Subway helps me change it up when I get bored. There are so many healthy choices there. For dinner I eat turkey burgers and vegetables or chicken or just a sandwich or Smart Ones frozen meal. I don't count calories or carbs. I eat when  I am hungry. I drink water allllll day long. I drink Vitamin water zero (less calories) and V8 Juice. 

The point is, I don't stick to a stringent diet. I changed my food lifestyle. And after a few months, my friends, family and co workers got used to it. I am worried about football season coming up though...I loooove me some football food and drinks during Sooner games ..=/ We'll see how it goes

Pretty? Who? Me?

Self image is a hard thing to grasp. For the longest time I never quite saw what others saw. I still don't. I have never considered myself one of the pretty girls. Cute, sure, but not pretty. No matter how much weight I lose I will never be one of those wafer thin girls with long gorgeous hair and delicate features. I have a short torso, and round face, and broad shoulders that would make women who wore shoulder pads in the 80's jealous. My chest has always been too big for my body and I could slap a woman for even thinking about getting bigger breasts lol.  I have thin legs that are well toned, but don't match the flabbiness that is my stomach...This is how I see myself. So when someone compliments me I thank them like a good girl should but in my head I am thinking "Pffft yeah right!". It's something I am working on. I was recently told that my body shape is starting to mirror Marilyn Monroe's. I can see that, but that doesn't mean I think that I am gorgeous.

"It's surprising how many persons go through life without ever recognizing that their feelings toward other people are largely determined by their feelings toward themselves, and if you're not comfortable within yourself, you can't be comfortable with others.

- Sydney J. Harris"

I have always been comfortable with other people. Just not with myself..I say that, but I guess on the outside I appeared comfortable but on the inside I was usually thinking about how something on them looks soooo much better than it does on me. I used to be one of those people who lied to myself and said "Fat is beautiful too"...Don't get me wrong. Some overweight people ARE beautiful on the inside. But if they are anything like me no matter how many times you tell yourself that you are fine with your appearance there are times when it makes you sick inside. I had to grasp that. It's not about wanting to fit in or look gorgeous all the time..It's about knowing that you are healthier, that you can do things now that you couldn't do before. I FEEL better inside. I get sick a LOT less and I am finally feeling comfortable in my own skin. Flab and all.  Being comfortable with yourself however is not an excuse to being unhealthy. That's the thing no one wants to hear.

In order to survive this journey I have had to tell myself every single day that I can do it. And that it is all worth it. It is worth it. It's not easy. It's hard and you have to train yourself to WANT it every single day.