Non-Expertise

Recently a friend over at Sparkpeople messaged me and asked me what my weight loss secrets were. I was absolutely flattered that someone thought that I was sucessful enough at weight loss to ask me my secrets. Let me tell you, I am no expert. In fact, somedays I think that I stink at it. However, having been on this crazy rollercoaster since July, I have picked up a few things. So I'll share for those of you that have been wondering what I'm doing.

First and foremost, remember that this weight loss/health journey is NOT easy. It's hard and there are days when you will not want to participate. Something I learned recently, was that you just have to push through the crappy days and then pat yourself on the back when it's over with.

Here are the things that I try to do consistently:

1. Drink LOTS of water. I have 3 water bottles. One for the house/car/gym, one for the car, and one for the office. As soon as they are empty, I fill them back up. Also, for me, drinking through a straw makes the water go much faster. Strange but true.

My current nightstand situation. H2O and chapstick, what else do you need?

2. Snack! I don't plan all my meals, but I plan every single one of my snacks for those times where suddenly I feel like I'm starving. This keeps me from reverting to my old "peanut butter cup" ways. Some of my favorite snacks are almonds, luna bars, sugar free jell-o, frozen blueberries, and carrots with hummus. I always take atleast 2 pre-packaged snacks with me to work everyday

3. Eat breakfast. I don't care how late I am for work, how tired I am, I ALWAYS eat breakfast. It gets the day going and keeps me from going crazy at lunch time. I try to have a smoothie but when I'm in a hurry a toasted english muffin with peanut butter and bananas does it for me. Plus I can wrap it up and eat it in the car if I have to.

My "Go-To" Smoothie

4. Hit the gym. No matter what's going on I'm always in the gym atleast 3 times a week. I'm lucky enough to have an awesome trainer, but even if you don't there is no reason not to get in a good workout. There are tons of great free workout videos, you can walk, run, walk the stairs for 15 minutes...anything to burn calories. And when you are at the gym give it all you've got. There is nothing better than peeling off super sweaty clothes and hopping into a luke-warm shower before bed.

5. Don't completely deprive yourself. I love ice cream and if I go without it, eventually I'm going to break down and you'll find 3 empty cartons of Ben and Jerry's Half Baked around me. I have an ice cream cone every night aftern dinner. NO joke. It's the Skinny Cow brand ice cream with way less sugar and way less calories but it does the trick. Find a healthier alternative to your favorite food and enjoy! (I also treat myself to a soda about once a month too)
6. Don't beat yourself up. If you have a bad day, make a bad decision, skip a workout, it's not a big deal. Shake it off, keep going, and do better the next time!

The last thing I can tell you is something that I haven't even completely mastered but I know it works. You have to find the fine line between tough self talk and positive self talk. When I want to make excuses about why I can skip a workout or why I can eat those peanut butter cups, I have to look in the mirror and give myself a little lecture. Some tough love...but you can't be too tough on yourself because that's not motivating at all. The other side to that is loving yourself no matter what. I try to look in the mirror every morning, tell myself that I'm beautiful, amazing, and blessed. I congratulate myself on my accomplishments and encourage myself for the road ahead. Honestly, if you don't believe you can do it, then it won't happen and as long as you keep going, it will happen!


My progress to date...I guess something is working!



Obsessed

As usual, I've found a few things that I'm obsessing over right now and I thought I would share because there is no need to be selfish!

My new bedspread from IKEA. LOVE! First of all it was only $40 and suddenly I've been sleeping a lot better. I usually don't decorate so girly but I'm loving this!

If you get nothing else out of this blog, go buy this dip. One of my coworkers introduced me to it and I've been addicted ever since. It's spicy and delicious. I'm trying to encourage everyone to buy it since it's a limited edition. I figure if tons of people buy it then they'll keep it around. SO GOOD. You can buy it at Publix. Find one near you NOW! (Apparently Publix is only in the southeast so if there isn't one near you I'll mail you some!)

I love Sharpie pens and will only use them at work when taking notes. Last week when hanging out at my local wally-world I discovered that Sharpie is now making these suckers in purple, also known as my new favorite color. Let's just say all of my notes since last Thursday look alike.

I noticed the left side of my face is constantly breaking out (which is abnormal for me because I'm blessed with really good skin) and I realized that I always hold my phone on that side. With the way work has been lately I'm ALWAYS on the phone (thank the Lord for unlimited minutes!) I started using my earbuds for talking and LOVE them. The sound is so clear, I can use my hands for other stuff, and my face can breathe! Yay!

I used to think it was crap that bottled water tastes better than tap water. I'm all about some good 'ol faucet water (I mean my mom works for the water department so it's gotta be okay!) but I decided to get Smartwater out of the blue one day and it is DELICIOUS. I mean it has this great crisp, clean, refreshing taste and I'm obsessed...even if it is a cool 1.79 a bottle...ouch. But it's worth every penny.

Finally, I'm totally obsessed with instagram (if you can't tell from my multiple instagrammed photos) It's probably the coolest app I have.

What are you obsessed right now? Share!

Hey Sexy

You ever just have one of those days when you look in the mirror and think "Damn. I look good!"? Since really battling my weight and being honest with myself about my body it's been a long time for me. But today it happened.

This chapter of my weight loss story starts back in January. I was having a particularly crappy day and my mom was in town so she suggested shopping. Out of the blue I decided to try on these red Ray-Ban sunglasses. I immediately fell in love but they were fully collapsable which was weird. So I called every single Sunglass Hut in ATL (literally) looking for them. Nobody had them in stock so I checked the Ray-Ban website. There they were! I ordered them that night and got my package in the mail a few days later. When I opened it I discovered that I had ordered the wrong glasses! I accidently got orange ones because they looked red on the website. I sent them back and found out that the ACTUAL red ones were available. I finally ordered the correct pair and they came in the mail yesterday!

Cute right?!

So I decided to plan an outfit around these glasses. I wanted to do all black with leopard to really make the red pop. I was in a hurry this morning because I had training before work so I wasn't really thinking and just threw something together.

So the outfit is whatever but look how thin I look!!! DAMN I LOOK GOOD!! haha! What a good feeling to look in the mirror and like what you see. It doesn't always happen like that for me so this was a really good way to start my day! I guess the day that I didn't want to go workout and went anyway immediately paid off (well, if only it were that easy...)

Also my not really a problem weight loss problem of the day is that all my rings are too big. So annoying but I shouldn't complain!

Have a great week :)

Friday Funny

Had to share...especially with all the single girls out there...

HAPPY FRIDAY Y'ALL!!!

photo credit: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/what-people-think-i-do-what-i-really-do

I Saw the Sign

So earlier today I got home from work with a headache. Before I even pulled into the garage I had decided that I wasn't going to the gym, despite skipping my workout on Monday for a dinner party. I had about 20 excuses for why it was okay to skip. I started writing a blog about how unmotivated I am and literally complained for about 3 paragraphs. Then I had a thought...

I kind of hated that I was being such a baby. That's when I got tough. I basically yelled at myself, put on my gym clothes and took my butt to the gym.

Okay so, no I'm not motivated, and I could easily take some time off until my motivation returns but what if my motivation doesn't return until I'm back to a size 18, what if it doesn't come back until I've gained back all the weight that I've lost plus some? Then where does that leave me? Where does that put all the hard work I've done for the last 6 months?

So I guess I learned a pretty valuable lesson today. If I waited to change my life, to get in the extra workout, to eat healthy, until I was motivated or until it was convenient either it would never happen or by the time it happened it would be too late. Maybe that is the secret to losing weight and keeping it off forever. I guess we'll see. In the meantime...

So stop making excuses about whatever it is and just do it. 

The Love Cynic

Secret: I'm currently sitting in my office avoiding anything that closely resembles work. I almost played hooky today but couldn't think up a good excuse. Luckily my boss (and all the other company big-wigs) are out of the office for a meeting...so maybe tomorrow will be hooky day!

(this is my actual to-do list from Monday...it's all crossed off now. I just didn't bother to make one today...)

Over the weekend, I went up to my old stomping grounds, Charlotte, NC. I spent one amazing year after college living in Charlotte. While I'm absolutely in love with the city and 3 of my best friends live there, I hated my job...which is how I got back to ATL last April. Anyway, I went up because one of my best friends is getting married next year and needed help wedding dress shopping. No brainer...of course I went!

It got me thinking about marriage. I used to think that by 25 I'd be well on the road to "until death do us part"...HA. I'm not even on the road to Valentine's Day being something other than Singles Awareness Day. After some bad breakups, bad dates, and bad examples...I'm not sure what I think about marriage. My love gene has been replaced with the cynicism gene.

(even after Miranda got married her love cynicism never failed)

I wonder where I lost my faith in marriage? Was it when I found out that the person that had me sending him pictures of engagement rings was living a double [possibly triple] life and seeing 2 other women? Was it when Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries ended their marriage after a mere 72 days? Was it when I looked at my parents, who are polar opposites, and wondered how the heck they ever got together in the first place?

Is it possible to be happily single? I mean right now, I'm [technically] single and I'm happy. I've decided that my future boyfriend is out there right now, hopefully getting richer by the minute, and one day our paths will cross. But that's the thing...I'm happy, yet I'm still hoping that he's out there. Could I be happy knowing that he may not be? and that its going to be me, London and Kinglsey (the pups) forever and ever amen?

(Please tell me you remember that crazy stunt when Dennis Rodman married himself)

I guess the truth is that I'm not THAT cynical. I do believe in finding your other half and spending the rest of your life walking hand in hand on the beach. I just don't believe that its as easy as it sounds. Dating is hard, relationships take work, and marriage can be rough. I guess the secret is that you have to find someone that you love enough, that always gives you butterflies, and that you can imagine waking up next to every morning whether you are happy, sad, or indifferent. Maybe I can learn from the mistakes of those that I feel made me cynical so that when I run in to Mr. Wonderful I will recognize him, appreciate him, and be with him...for better or worse, until death do us part. 

Happy early Singles Awareness Day to all you Bachelorettes! (I wonder what my future Valentine will be doing with his day?)

Fourteen

I'm alive! I know, I didn't blog much at all last week. Work has been INSANE. The company I'm working for is in a very huge growth period and there is TONS to do. I'm doing like 3 people's jobs at once. I also spent the weekend winding down in Charlotte with two of my best friends, which I needed for the weekend. So please accept my apology and don't write me off yet.

Last week, I wrote a blog over at Spark about the horrible plateau that is currently happening in my body. (You can read it here). After doing some research and listening to other people's comments I've decided that I have two problems...I'm not eating enough and my body is holding on to all the food I put in to compensate. So I'm working on it and hopefully I'll start back losing soon.

Since I've started losing weight I've been restricted to stretchy pants. I do not have a pair of jeans or slacks in my closet right now that fits. NOT A PAIR. That isn't a complaint, but it makes getting this fashionista dressed every morning a pain and all my outfits are starting to look alike...NOT CHIC.

Over the weekend I went on a pants quest. I went to the GAP because in the past it's been easy for me to find pants. The sales lady was very helpful (and won serious brownie points when she complimented my progress).  I haven't really bought pants in awhile so I wasn't sure what size I was. All my 16's at home were just a tad big (and end up sagging by the end of the day) but I didn't think I was quite slim enough to be a 14. So I asked to have both. Turns out, I probably need a 15...but since that's not available I had to decide what to do. I tried on the 14's kind of thinking that they wouldn't make it past my hips but LOW AND BEHOLD the heavens opened up and they made it over the top AND buttoned!! WOOOOO! They are mostly made of spandex because they are jeggings but I DON'T CARE!

I rocked them to work yesterday...

Yay for NSV's!!! (Non Scale Victories!)

i.o.u.

I know...I owe you a blog (or 5...) it's coming I promise!

Please don't cry. I promise to do it tomorrow!!

(what a cute kid though right??!)