A Thursday Weigh In, Run and VLOG!

For the first time in months I was not nervous when I stepped onto the scale today. I think the main reason for the loss of fear is that I didn’t feel guilty about anything. I was honest with myself this past week, I ate healthy foods, I ate reasonable amounts of those healthy foods and I increased my activity level, so really there was not anything to feel guilty about. As long as I am taking steps to become more healthy then regardless of what the scale says at the moment I know that the number on the scale will keep going down eventually, even if it is a bit delayed at times! But my positive outlook was boosted even a bit higher after I weighed in today! I lost 4.8 pounds this week (from 160.2 to 155.4)! Sure some of the loss is probably flushing excess sodium from my system, but I feel good about it. It is a start back in the right direction again! I followed up my weigh in with a delicious Chobani Pomegranate Greek yogurt and then headed out for another run (one mile again today). I did do a little pre-run video and a post-run video recap as well, which brings me to sharing with you my second VLOG!!!

I think I will continue to become less awkward each vlog I make (hopefully)! I love to write but it is also nice just to be able to “talk” to my readers for a change. I do not foresee myself becoming strictly a video blogger, but I do think I will add in video blogs on a normal basis into my normal blogs.

I did make a delicious salad after I finished up my vlog! I used an organic spring mix, roma tomato, cucumber, egg, grilled chicken a few croutons and lite ranch. We seem to be going through salad mix like crazy in this house lately! I guess that is a great thing, but I can remember throwing out so many things of salad in the past because it was starting to wilt, but lately it seems like we can not have enough salad in the house! Yogurt is another food item we seem to be eating like crazy. I eat a greek yogurt every morning and I have been eating a yogurt of some sort every night in stead of eating ice cream (I have a major sweet tooth) – so again that is just a small change in my diet that really adds up when it comes to calories for dessert/sweet tooth snacks!

My weight loss and fitness plan of attack is still the same as it has been all along, I just have to keep sticking with it – and I plan to do just that!

My Chipotle Addiction and a Few Delicious Recipes!

So last night was one of those nights that included making small healthy choices that will eventually add up. But this time it wasn’t small steps to get started back into running, it was learning to substitute less healthy choices with more healthy choices in every day life, and sometimes in life you have to grab a meal to go from outside the home. Although, I will not lie, Chipotle is a favorite of mine, and a mainstay in my diet (okay I am sort of addicted to Chipotle).

I have always been able to eat semi-healthy at Chipotle, luckily, but during my slip up (you know the time period I put fifteen pounds back on) I was ordering extras I normally would not order. So I was a good girl and ordered a burrito bowl with brown rice, black beans, steak, extra fajita veggies, corn salsa, tomato salsa, light cheese and lettuce (oh and then I add on Chipotle Tabasco sauce). Honestly, the only thing that my meal was “high” on was sodium. I could have skipped the cheese, but I didn’t really want to, it also fit into my calorie allowance for the day so I also did not feel the need to. I did skip the tortilla chips (did you know that delicious bag of chips is 570 calories?!?!), I opted for brown rice of white (obviously brown rice is the healthier option) and I also did not order extra steak (because really why would I need extra steak when this is already SO much food!?!?!). So those small changes added up to make it a more healthy meal (I am all about small changes that add up to something bigger)! Those small changes really did add up to a HUGE difference in calories as well.

Obviously I do not want to eat Chipotle every night – well let me change that a little bit…… Obviously it is not healthy or cost efficient to eat at Chipotle every single night, so I have been browsing some blogs today for some fabulous recipes and I have to say, I have found several that I am dying to try. I have never been great in the kitchen, but I am thinking about trying to “learn” to cook, especially with trying to eat more healthy, whole and less processed foods on a normal basis. My wife, she is a fabulous cook, but I still have a lot to learn.

With that said, I want to share a few recipes I am really excited to try:

These are only a select few of some of the amazing recipes I have recently discovered (maybe I will post more in the future)!  They are all healthy and all sound delicious!

Who knows, maybe one day I will be whipping up dishes in the kitchen and posting them for all of my readers on a regular basis (don’t hold your breath, but you never know)! But for now I am going to continue to search out some of the most healthy and delicious recipes I can find!

Feel free to leave your favorite healthy and delicious recipe links in my comments if you have one to share!

Stepping Out Of My Comfort Zone: My First VLOG

I have caved under peer pressure from other bloggers to finally give vlogging a try(video blogging)! So this is my first attempt at video blogging, it is mostly me rambling about starting to run again, not quite as fancy as so many other video blogs out there, but it is a start and quite honestly it is a huge step out of my comfort zone!

Okay, so as I said in the vlog, I was able to run a mile today for the first time in a while. It is a great start, although I am really hoping to increase both the distance and speed as soon as I safely can. It is so hard when your mind and body do not agree on how far and how fast you can run! I WILL achieve my goals again!

The Small Healthy Choices Really Add Up

I have been getting back into the groove of eating healthy and exercising again! I have to admit that I feel so much better when I eat healthy and exercise, it really makes an incredible difference not only how I feel physically but also mentally! I can’t believe I ate SO much junk over the past few months, it is nice to sort of “detox” off of the junk in a sense.

My dogs are quite happy that I have an increased desire to get out and about and get some extra exercise. The dogs benefit in the form of extra walks. Our chihuahua, Lily accompanies me on the shorter walks, and I usually take our boxer, Zoey, on walks alone because she can walk a further distance (Lily will collapse onto the cool grass and refuse to walk after a certain distance, it is pathetic, cute and annoying all at the same time).

I am also finding that opting to walk to the post office instead of having my wife stop by after work and walking to other local places I need to go helps me stay active as well. I really should re-learn to ride a bicycle though (I haven’t been on a bicycle in years!!!), of course I would have to buy one first and they are not exactly inexpensive.. It would be great to be able to cover more distance!! It would also be practical since I have no car for transportation purposes during the daytime.

Making healthy lifestyle choices is a huge choice, but it that huge choice is made up of lots of small choices that really add up. I am finding by just swapping out certain foods for other foods and changing things up a bit really makes a difference, I hope the scale shows that change on my next weigh in but most importantly I look forward to the day I can start seeing a noticeable difference in the mirror again. Hard work does pay off, but the journey is full of balance, sacrifice, sweat and lots of choices.

I Used to be Skinny (Part Thirteen): A Fifteen Pound Confession

I have a confession to make, I have gained 15.8 lbs in a relatively short period of time.

I tried to think of a way to lead into that confession. A way to justify the weight gain. I mean I started a new medication, that could be it, right? I battled through depression this winter, that makes it completely acceptable, doesn’t it? I hurt my knee (in the early winter time), so that justifies why I am (still) not exercising like I should, right?

Okay, so really there are no excuses to use, because they are just that, excuses, not really what happened. I am not going to blame those things. The truth is, yes I did hurt my knee which is why my exercise decreased – AT FIRST – I then stayed lazy after it healed. Another truth is I did battle depression over the winter and spring – but even after my moods stabilized – my eating habits did not stabilize.

The biggest truth of them all is the simple fact that my weight gain was caused by two factors: 1. Extreme increase in calorie consumption and 2. Extreme decrease in physical activity. Plain and simple that is HOW I gained the weight.

So it is what it is. I gained 15.8 pounds. I noticed when I gained 5 lbs. That seemed like “no big deal”, because of course your body can fluctuate up and down 5 lbs anyway, I didn’t quite take into account that meant it would also fluctuate down as well (my weight did not). At 10 lbs, I thought to myself, that isn’t “THAT bad”, thinking I had lost a great deal of weight anyway, so ten lbs wasn’t the end of the world. Now sitting at 15.8 lbs gained, I am thinking “Why in the world did I let this happen”.

Feelings of embarrassment, shame, guilt and frustration with myself swirl around in my head.  Some of my friends will probably wonder why in the world I am posting for the world to see that I gained some of the weight I lost back, but I find it to be necessary in continuing my weight loss journey. I started my weight loss journey publicly and I will continue on it, through the ups and the downs, publicly. Not only do I hope that my blogging  helps others, I also blog to hold myself accountable – and that is obviously something that I need at the moment.

So let the journey continue, but this time in the right direction.

Happy Birthday To Me.

ImageI just celebrated my 27th birthday on 5/2. I woke up the morning of my Imagebirthday to a pretty rose and a super sweet card. I spent the afternoon relaxing and online on my new netbook that my wife bought for me for my birthday (how amazing is she?!). My mom took me to renew my tags because she is awesome! When Tiffany got home from work we took Lily to Petsmart to buy her some birthday toys and treats (I share my birthday with our chihuahua baby Lily – she just turned ONE!!!). Picked up a burrito bowl from Chipotle (Yum) and spent the evening watching television. I wasn’t feel great so it was a pretty low key day and evening. But I did end my evening with cake and ice cream, thanks to my thoughtful wife. Oh, delicious sugar overload is okay every once in a while. ;)

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Getting my Groove Back

It is amazing how much change just a couple months can bring to someones life. 

My moods have improved SO very much, I really think my doctor has found the right medication combination for me, and I am hoping it continues to work. 

I have been maintaining my weight loss, although I do need to buckle down and lose the last bit of weight I have left to lose. But more than anything I am trying to be as healthy as I can not just physically but also mentally. Both are of equal importance. 

I need to get back into the groove of blogging again. I have gotten out of the habit of blogging and need to focus on it again! 

Finding Motivation in Unlikely Places

I will be the first one to admit that I have gotten “lazy” lately. I haven’t been as strict with counting my calories (but I haven’t gone crazy out of control either). I haven’t been exercising. I have been on a hiatus from running that began after some knee issues back in November. I really needed to find some motivation to get back to the gym, to get back to being healthy. That little nudge so to say to push me back into things. I found that in my email when I woke up this morning. Continue reading →

Handful Bra Review and Giveaway

Last week I came home to find a Handful bra waiting for me in my mailbox! I have to admit, I was pretty excited to receive this package. I have been lusting after one of these Handful bras for a while now so I was super excited to have the opportunity to review one for my blog!

I have always had a difficult time finding a bra that fits me properly. Sports bras have never been an exception to that rule. Seventy pounds ago I had even more problems finding bras, but even at seventy pounds lighter – I find I still have a hard time finding bras that I like. Now I must gush about how much I love my new Handful sports bra and give all the details of why I am feeling this way! I will also reveal any concerns/dislikes I have about the bra. Continue reading →

Surviving, Treatment and Goals.

Well, I survived the past two days! That sure is a start! My appointment with my psychiatrist went really well. He listened to me and my concerns about starting back up on medication. He assured me that having a mood disorder (in my case bipolar disorder) is not my fault. That it is the genes that were passed down to me. I just have to find a way to manage it to the best of my ability with the resources available. That is something I needed to hear. I felt like a bit of a failure because I could not get my moods under control , no matter how hard I tried to do so. Continue reading →