Weight Goals

We finally cleared out the majority of our junk food at home. I say majority, because I have a reward system that consists of ice cream when I reach a certain goal. More on that later. For now, I’m trying to get our family meals back on track. Lean meat (if any), lots of water, and more fruits & veggies. Have we totally given up processed crap? Nope. I still rely on Velveeta Skillets for dinner when I’m running behind. And sometimes it’s a lot easier to pop a waffle in the toaster than to make eggs. Just sayin. But for the most part, we’re getting back to it.

Now, I’ve laid out a few goals for myself, and the one at the top of my list I would love to reach by my birthday in October. My first goal is to run at least 6 miles without stopping, in a little over an hour. My second goal is to lose 40 lbs. by the beginning of next summer. That will put me at a healthy weight. And my third goal is to finally switch over to a mainly vegetarian diet. I say mainly, because sometimes I just want meat, and I won’t deny myself. Now, it’s going to be tough. And I will slip every now and then. This is why I’ve set up several “rewards” along the way. This is where the ice cream comes in.

For the entirety of this "weight loss journey" I’ll treat myself to 1/2 a cup of my favorite ice cream or a candy bar for every 5 lbs. lost. I will also put two dollars in a jar for every pound I lose. If I can lose at least 12 lbs. by my birthday, I’ll treat myself to a concert. At 20 lbs. lost I’ll get to add some crazy color to my hair. When I reach 30 lbs. lost, I’ll get a finger tattoo that I’ve been wanting with my jar money. And finally, at 40 lbs. I’ll buy myself some new clothes from my favorite store and a pair of new shoes.

So why now? And how exactly do I plan on doing this? Come back tomorrow to find out!

It's Easy & Good For Me?

So, in my attempt to get things back on track in the “weight loss” department. I’ve started to replace a meal with a Rockin Wellness shake. It’s not meant to be a weight loss shake, I just do it because it makes me full. And it keeps me full for a long time. Before I was doing those slim-fast shakes but after about a month or so I noticed that they would make me feel awful. Tired, sluggish, and down right nauseated. So when my co-worker suggested I try this out, I happily took the sample I was offered. And man, am I glad that I did.

First, let me just say that I like the idea of incorporating smoothies, and shakes into a balanced diet. I’m all for the idea of getting all of these fresh vegetables and fruits, and tossing them into a blender first thing in the morning to make your very own yummy concoction. Yay for healthy eating habits! But in reality, when that alarm goes off at 5 am, I hit the off button. Then when 6 am rolls around, I hit the snooze button. Why? Because I’m freakin lazy in the morning. The mental picture of waking up all wide eyed, bushy-tailed, with a huge smile on my face getting my healthy breakfast on, is just that. A mental picture. In reality, I wait till 6:20 am before opening my eyes. Then, I finally drag my grouchy butt out of bed ten minutes later. This may or may not be the reason why I’m always rushing in the morning. Zero will power, remember?

So, when my friend said: “Hey, you should try this. It’s simple, organic, healthy, and it gives you energy without the crash.” I was all over that shizz. Now, I’m not always one to read ingredient labels because my daughter makes shopping trips insanely difficult. I usually just grab and go. Then, when my sister-in-law comes over she goes over my groceries with a fine tooth comb. I’m either praised or scolded. So I was putting my trust in the idea that my coworker had read the ingredients. I brought my package home and when Kim looked at the ingredients on the back of the bag, I was rewarded with a thumbs up. So below are the list of ingredients for your inspection.

Ingredients: Cacao, Goji, Maca, Hulled Hemp Seed, Chia, Flaxseed, Lecithin, Green Tea, Yerba Mate, Vegan Probiotics with small amounts of Brown Rice Protein, Stevia, Guar Bean, Banana, (less than 2 grams) organic sugar cane

 You can go to their actual site if you want more information.

Immediately after drinking 8 oz of this stuff with Soy Milk, I was FULL. Not that, “Oh my gosh this hurts to move” full. No, I was given this “I ate something satisfying and I don’t have to unbutton my jeans” full. That alone was worth the 30 bucks I spent. Since then, I’ve switched over to almond milk, and I’m still getting the same fullness. But the best part about this shake is that after 3 days of drinking it first thing in the morning, I’ve noticed I have more energy. I get to work and I am ready to go! What’s even better is that it lasts a good 3-4 hours, which is perfect. I feel so awake within minutes too. There's hardly any waiting. Before you couldn’t talk to me till I had my coffee or sweat tea. And even then, it would take at least an hour for my caffeine high to take effect. By that point I would already be on my second third cup. So to go from that to only 8 oz. of this delicious stuff, I feel like this is a really good trade. My first of many steps to finally lose the extra weight for good. :)

I will admit that my diet hasn’t been the greatest. I've slipped and slid. But, we’re back on a pretty tight budget so that cuts out a lot of our dinning out. It also forces me to stretch out ingredients. So, it looks like a lot of the junk will be cut out of our lives. I’m trying not to mourn the loss of chocolate chip cookies. I’m hoping that with this new budget, and want of change will be enough to get me back on track. My running and working out took a back seat last week because of all the rain we got. And my treadmill is officially broken so I couldn’t run inside. This week was a lot better though. Now if only I could really stick with it this time. Here's to motivation and CHANGE! Have a great weekend, y'all!

Progress and Setbacks

Back in February I weighed 170 lbs. I lost 3 lbs., and then in March I went back up. I still haven’t worked up the courage to take another picture of myself (again) to show my progress though. I feel like I have a lot more to go, physically and mentally, before I can do that again. But on the bright side, I have lost weight since I started getting back into my routine. I’ve since lost 5 lbs. in a little over a month. This wasn’t as much as I had hoped, but enough to keep my motivation at “full speed”. I keep having to remind myself that I have to have control if this is going to work. And yet, at the same time, I need to know it’s ok if I go over my calories, or miss a work out so long as I make it up. We all have bad days, and I’m no exception.

For the most part, I’m feeling better. I’m preparing my snacks for the day early in the morning before work. I’ve tried to cut back on my meat intake. I limit myself to either turkey, angus, or chicken breast ONCE a day if at all. The angus is very (very) limited, but sometimes I want need a burger. But the majority of my diet is pretty much veggies and fruits. I also started taking the “back way” to work, which is just a two lane road that cuts through the country. I do this so I won't pass ANY fast food or convenience stores on my way to and from work. This has helped out my wallet, and I don’t make any impulse stops. I still drink my sweet tea BUT I also limit that too. I’ve been doing this for almost two weeks now, and I can feel a change in the way my body feels (inside). I’m not so tired, and my migraines aren’t as frequent. That alone tells me I'm going in the right direction.

But how my body feels (outside) is another matter altogether. I still haven’t gone to see a chiropractor because we really can’t afford to spend the money on a visit right now. So my back continues to be an annoyance. It comes and goes which really irritates me. I can be mid-run when all of a sudden my back feels like it’s about to give out. Have you ever had that sensation where a bone feels like it needs to be popped, but if you bend to much it hurts? Well that’s how my back feels. I’ve tried pushing through the pain in hopes that it would indeed pop, but it never does. It's gotten to the point where I can’t even put Emery in her crib because I can’t bend below the waist without it hurting. I’m hoping as soon as my husband gets his next job, I’ll be able to go have someone “readjust” me and pop my body back in place. Fingers crossed.

Then, I have the issue of shin splints. Or what I think are shin splints. When I was younger and played basketball, I had these two bumps/knots that would appear on my shins. They caused a lot of pain. When I talked to my coach and a doctor (who didn’t actually look me over) they said I had “shin splints”. I iced and I rested, but they didn't go anywhere. The pain subsided. Sometimes, they didn’t hurt at all and the bumps were hardly noticeable. But they never really went away. Even on days that I had no pain at all I could still feel tiny bumps where the bigger ones would usually come in. They haven’t been very bad, and before two weeks ago they hardly ever flared up. But last week, after hitting the one mile mark on Wednesday, I was in pain. My legs would barely carry me and they wobbled a lot. I had to cut my run short.

Now, every time I go for a run, my shins start to really hurt around 1.5 miles. I push through it because I know these bumps are the cause. If they weren’t in existence I would be going much farther and probably a bit faster. I know this because I’m never really tired or out of breath when I stop running. I just can’t handle the shooting pain going up my legs anymore, so I stop. And even afterwards, when I’m just walking to cool down, I get a cramping feeling in them. Not sure if that’s even possible, but it sure does feel like cramping. I’m hoping with some icing that they’ll go back down soon. Or at least stop hurting. I’m also looking into getting new running shoes so maybe that will help? In the end I may just need to go see a doctor to get some meds for them. Either way, I need to figure out something for all of these aches and pains because I’m only 24, and they’re really putting a cramp in my fitness game. And we all know dieting will only get me so far.

Going Meatless

A loose vegetarian? This is the term my friends Olivia & Kim used when talking about their recent (well, actually it’s been awhile) eating habit changes. They sticks to mainly a vegetarian lifestyle, but every once in awhile they’ll allow themselves to eat meat. Now, I don’t think that their change came from feeling sorry for animals (although I’m sure it did strike a cord), but more from them wanting to make healthy decisions about what they put into their bodies.

Now, I’m not sure how 100% vegetarian’s/vegan’s feel about this term, but I feel like it’s the right word(s) for what I’m aiming for in my life. I’ve talked about how I love meat before, and I know that a lot of our meat gets pretty mistreated when it’s in animal form. It’s pumped full of hormones/chemicals, which can be really bad for us humans. But even with that, I love meat.

But for my health and my family’s health, I want us to make a change. I want our diet to be mainly vegetarian, with only small portions of meat/poultry from time to time. I know this isn’t something that can happen overnight. My husband refuses to go vegetarian at all, unless I can find some good substitutes. So, I still buy chicken breasts and ground beef. Which makes the temptation that much harder to resist.

I recently discovered the vegetarian section at our local Wal-Mart (don’t judge, I’m limited on store choices) though. They carry this brand called Morningstar Farms, which has several vegetarian/vegan products! I tried out their Chik’n nuggets a few weeks ago and I loved them! So did Emery. So I went and bought some more, along with some meatless meat crumbles. Last week I decided to make our Velveeta Cheeseburger Skillet with the crumbles as a substitute for the ground beef and I thought it tasted really good.

My husband on the other hand, didn’t. Emery was more into playing with her food that evening instead of actually eating it so her reaction doesn’t count, lol! But, the week before last I made meatless burgers from a different brand called Boca and my husband enjoyed those. So, it’s a work in progress and we’ll eventually get there! It’s all about making them taste good. And since I’m a “first timer” in the kitchen, it might take a little while. Here’s hoping it won’t take too long though!  

Where Do I Begin?

Well, as of tomorrow, Christmas break will finally commence. Which means, 5 1/2 weeks of no school!! No homework, no stress. And one week of that break, we will be back in beautiful California. I’m. So. EXCITED! I have one more final tomorrow, which has me in a nervous state, and then some peace.

So for now, let’s catch up. Thanksgiving was pretty much like any other day. My family had made no plans so we went to my husband’s grandmother’s house. We had an early dinner, my husband stayed at his mothers to spend time with his cousin (I wasn’t all that thrilled), and Emery and I made our way home. We spent the rest of the day playing, watching movies, and eating junk food. Ok, I ate junk food. Emery was only allowed a few cookies and the rest was fruit. On black Friday, I opted out of the early morning chaos and instead we went later in the day with Kim to do a little bit of shopping. That afternoon Kim, my brother, my dad, and I went to go watch "Breaking Dawn Part I" and "Immortals". On Saturday, Emery and I went to have dinner with Kim and Olivia’s family. It was a vegan Thanksgiving! Very different, but still delicious! The rest of the weekend was lazy, amazingly slow, and filled with naps.

Emery is learning new words every day! Both English and Spanish! So, I’m pretty thrilled about this. But with more words, come more expressions. And boy can she be expressive. She stomps her feet, says “NO”, and she’ll shake her finger at you if you don’t “play” by her rules. She’s pretty much spoiled. No matter how much we try and correct it by disciplining her she just gets away with whatever at her babysitters (and at my parents) so she doesn’t really care. It’s been a bit of a battle, but hopefully with some consistence disciplining, her attitude will eventually calm down. Or, it’ll just get worse and we’ll really be the epitome of the phrase “You’ll pay for this when you become a parent.” Either way we’re in for it. But in all seriousness, I’m enjoying watching her grow. Even with the teenage attitude she seems to project at times. I’m completely in love with her.

My husband was “offered” another job. But it won’t start till February, if he wants it. For me, it would be awful. The money is a lot better, but he’d be leaving a lot early and getting home pretty late. Had this offer come up before Emery, I would have sucked it up because we need the money. But this job would mean less time spent with her. She already has two days out of the week that I barely get to spend time with her, and I just feel that having both parents gone a lot would really effect her in a negative way. So we decided to just think it over, see what changes his current workplace is going to be taking on (if they’ll benefit us or not), and then finally make a decision sometime in January. If the offer is still on the table.

My weight is holding steady at 159 lbs. As much as I feel like a damn failure, I’m also pleased that it hasn’t gone up. Especially with all of the food for Thanksgiving, at our office (everyone is bringing baked goodies at least twice a week), and with Christmas coming up too. I’ve been slowly letting go of red meat. I do really well for a few days and then all of a sudden I just crave meat. So I indulge, and then go back to poultry, veggies, and fruits. But, I’ve also discovered the vegetarian/vegan section at Wal-Mart (don’t judge) and I’ve found a couple of tasty “meatless meats” in that section that I’ve actually enjoyed. So even though the transition has been a slow one, I’m well on my way to becoming a “loose vegetarian”.

I started running again! After my little spill, I had to kind of ease back into running. I’m a bit frustrated because before I was doing 3 miles and not feeling very out of breath or tired. Now, I’m barely doing a mile and a half before I start to lose it. My breathing gets all out of whack, and I feel like I just have to stop. Sometimes I can push through it and reach two miles; others I barely make it passed one. So yea, I’ve been a bit annoyed, but so long as I don’t have anymore injuries I should be back up to speed in no time.

I didn’t take very many pictures in November. Maybe about 10-20 at most? Very disappointed in myself for that. I’m all about pictures and my camera is always with me. I guess I just got so caught up all of these finals, and trying to get all of my projects completed in time, that I haven’t had enough time to really go out and take pictures. But with this break, hopefully I’ll get myself back on track with that too. Ok, so that’s about it for me today. Hope everyone else has been doing well!  

Vegetarian

Recently, I decided I needed to take a different approach to my diet. I need to start really watching WHAT I’m putting into my body. Counting calories has been great, and I’ve lost 10 lbs with doing just this and working out. Unfortunately with life being a bit more hectic than usual, eating on the go, and not having a lot of time to keep a consistent work out going, I’ve realized that just counting calories isn’t going to cut it. At least not if I want to keep loosing.

So, recently I’ve looked into vegetarianism. Now, before I go any farther let me just say I love meat. I am from Texas after all. I love a nice medium rare, 12 oz. steak (great, now I’m hungry) just as much as the next Texan girl. But, eating this all of the time is no bueno. Not that I eat a steak every night for dinner. But I do catch myself eating friend chicken, chicken, or beef in/with a lot of my meals. I really feel like this needs to stop. I think I need to be focusing more on whole foods. Lots of veggies, fruits, and a lot more water. A lot like clean eating.

I don’t plan on being completely vegetarian exactly. Like I said, I love meat. But, I think that I need to cut as much of it out as possible. My plan is to really limit beef, and just stick to chicken (not fried chicken). Slowly wean myself off of them both to where they’re pretty much nonexistent. Maybe only include them in two meals a week? I don’t know how well this will work, or if I’ll even be able to stick with it. Especially in a family that loves meat, and will not alter their diet just because I’m altering mine. LOL! But, my main goal is to have more veggies and fruits than I do meats.

This week I ate meats. I had some hot pockets that needed to be finished up, and I’m the only one that eats them. Excuse? Maybe. Tomorrow I’ll be doing our weekly grocery shopping, so I’ll be going through a whole foods and vegetarian cookbook to get some ideas on recipes and ingredients. If I fail miserably, well at least I tried, and learned a few recipes! 

Clean Eating!!! Well, Trying To...

So, I thought I had myself all prepared to go on this diet, and then again, shit happened. So, I just tried to not eat so much. On some things, I watched my calorie intake, and other times I just made sure I didn’t go for round 3 at the buffet. Bull shitting aside, I’m back on my calorie counting. On Tuesday I did a “mini detox”. I ate fruit for breakfast, drank a ton of water, had a healthy choice meal, and then it was a fruit for dinner. I might/might not have slipped in a cookie somewhere in there, but I plead the fifth. I know, I totally suck at diets. Seriously, I want my high school motivation back. I was way more strict back then.

But, back to my point: I have decided to start documenting through photography what I eat every day, for thirty days! I got the inspiration from Jess, over at IROCKSOWHAT. This one will be tough people. I’m hoping it serves as a daily reminder/ motivation/kick in the ass! Kind of like a “Don’t eat that shit because you know you have to post it” thing.  So yesterday was my first “official” day of this. I had my strawberries for breakfast, but by 11:00 am, I was STARVING! Still, I held out. My stomach needs to get used to not always having a lot of food in it. Yea, that’s gonna be fun. The button, so you guys can take a peek, will be at the bottom of this post and later I'll post it on the side column somewhere.

Now, I’ve been thinking a lot about why I really want to lose weight. I know the main part is for my health. My weight constantly going up and down is not healthy for me. Plus my immunity system sucks so that should improve. I also want to lose weight for Emery. She can’t have a mom that gets winded climbing stairs now can she? But as vain as this may sound a huge part of why is also to look good. I don’t mean a “knock out” with fake everything, although a boob lift is totally on my wishlist after we officially decide no more kids. But, that will never be me. I just mean that I personally hate fat rolls on adults that always complain about being fat and never do anything about it. Bitching won't get you closer to weight loss. I understand that there are circumstances and there are conditions that people can’t help. If you’re of sound body and mind, you want to lose weight, but you're just lazy, then I think that’s ridiculous. And this is exactly the direction I was going in. I was becoming one of those people that didn’t care about themselves. Don’t get that confused with “caring about what others think”, because I don’t. I was complaining about being fat but not wanting to actually work to lose it. I was wishing that just magically it would all disappear. Yea...not gonna happen. I know that I once had control over my weight, and I want that back. I want that back for ME.

I know this won’t happen overnight as I’ve stated many times. And I’m going to slip up every now and then. But I feel like my motivation has come back full force. Now if only I could get off this stupid running stall out, and I’ll be golden!