[149.6]

         You read that right, 149.6. I am down 3.5 lbs. (I bought a new scale that syncs with this fabulous iphone app- get it here. )I know you probably hear this from every weight loss person on the planet, but I feel so much BETTER! I had a work meeting Monday 11 am, then worked from 3pm to 3am and I was not exhausted. The following day I worked from 3 pm until 7 am the following day. Two 16 hour shifts in a row with 6 hours of sleep in between and I didn't feel completely drained. My overall energy level has improved. This does not mean I haven't struggled with my food choices or 'cheated' a couple of times. I have. Had some biscuits and gravy this morning after my 16 hour shift, in fact. However, I am learning that one bad decision- one weak moment does not need to derail a lifestyle change. It can just be something that happened and a platform to do better for the next meal. That is a mindset I have struggled with every day of my journey and I feel like I am starting to cope with that and better myself with it. So that is a victory.

     

     I realized I never posted my before photos, so here you go. This is the 27 year old, yo-yo dieting, two time mom bod. I would say that these pictures are hard to post like everyone else does, but they're really not. I have no shame in this body. It's not perfect, never has been, never will be. I am looking only to be more comfortable in my skin and a healthier person in general. I hide the flaws of this body really well in my clothes, and if the raw reality of this photo gives someone the boost they need to start then that's worth it to me. No secrets here. I am thinking of posting progress photos monthly. We'll see.

     Here's a few food photos from this week. Got a little creative with my allotted food in the bottom left photo. Took my brown rice, veggies, and eggs- added a little soy sauce and called it stir fry. It was great. PS, yes I do eat salads in a mixing bowl sometimes. YOLO. 

     Meal prep keeps me on track more than anything else. If I know I'm going to be out of the house, I prep all my meat and veggies the day before to make sure I stick to my diet while I'm out. I'm a big fan of the cafeteria at work, so that's always a struggle and meal prepping helps. (Why do I like hospital food so much?!) I also went to the gym 4 times last week. Most days I do the treadmill and do interval training where I'll run for 90 seconds (that's my max before I feel like dying) and walk for 90 seconds. I do that for 20 minutes, cool down for 10 minutes, and be on my way. Typically I try to stay on there until I have gone 2 miles and burnt at least 250 calories. I also do some weight training afterwards for 20 minutes. Typically light weights with my arms and some weighted squats, leg press, and calf raises. I've been pretty good about going, so I'm impressed myself in that way. I don't know why I dread going to the gym so much. I feel amazing every single time I leave. 

And above you see two happy girls. One with junk food and one without. Catch up with you guys after this week :)

[153 lbs]

 

     Day one is in the books and I'm so excited and so on track. I have learned through a lot of trial and error that preparation is key to success when losing weight. I know myself well enough to know that when I get hungry- I want food now. &It may come as a surprise, but I freaking hate cooking. It's kinda like salmon.. I wish I liked it, but I just freaking don't. So, Sunday night I went and bought everything needed for our diet plan. I spent about $90 for 8 days worth of the plan for both me and my husband. However, we will run out of fruit and veggies before the end of the 8 days, but I didn't want to buy it and it go bad before we eat it. So, it'll end up being a little more than $90, but what's too high of a price for your health? Right?

   So, I came home that evening and prepped all of my food for the week. I cut up tomatoes, onions, and bell peppers and put them in my fridge for easy access during the work week. The diet calls for 2 cups of green, leafy veggies per day on the plan. I'm not a huge vegetable fan and if I don't like something I won't choke it down just for the results. I do like brussel sprouts, so I roasted some of those babies up for the week. Slathered them in 1 tbsp of olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic. Threw them in the oven at 400 for 35 minutes and bam.

I have had quite a few people tell me that they have gone out and bought the Four Day Diet book because of my recommendation. It is important for you guys to know that I don't follow the plan to a T. I do modify some things and make them fit my tastebuds without compromising the effectiveness of the diet. For instance, I can't just be eating some plain brown rice. That's disgusting. So, I prepped my rice with a can of Rotel and added my black beans to the mix. Then, I prepped my salad for the work day so that I could save some time in the AM.

I am a part of a big fitness community on Instagram. I love all my fitness people for their daily motivation. They have taught me things over the years that have been invaluable to my journey. Through that community I learned of a really neat website called Dietbet. In summary, it is a website where people bet a certain amount of money (usually $20-$35) that they can lose 4% of their body weight in a designated amount of time. All of the money goes into a pot and whoever meets that 4% lost at the end gets to split the pot. The website guarantees that if you win your diet bet you still won't lose money. It is a FABULOUS way of using money to motivate you to reach your goals. I have wanted to do one for a long time and I joined one that starts today and I am so excited! (No Halloween candy for me.)

It's actually a really embarrassing realization when you start a diet and you get halfway through the day and realize.. hey, this is the first time I have felt hungry in a long time. Day one wasn't horrible. I work 3pm-3am and yesterday I went to the gym and did the treadmill at an incline for 40 minutes and had all my meals packed but didn't have time to even eat it all because I was the triage nurse and every pregnant person in Madison County wanted to have their baby on Halloween. I will be weighing in every Monday, which is a real accomplishment for me because I typically weigh myself every day. I have decided to do away with that habit and start fresh with weekly weigh ins. My husband is holding up strong too. He works from home and has always struggled with snacking from boredom and stress. So the fact that he's stayed on track during the World Series when the Dodgers are down 3:2 is a real feat. Haha.

Oh, and a lot of people have messaged me asking where they can buy the The Four Day Diet Book that I'm following. You can snatch it here. It is worth every dollar. Hoping you guys are on track to your goals this week along with me!

I'M BAAAAACK

My, it has been a while since I have updated this blog. So much has changed in six years that one blog post update on my life would probably turn into a novel. I have been on a fitness journey for the last six years, maintaining my weight all the while and fluctuating anywhere from 150-155 lbs. I am not unhappy with how I look, which makes finding my motivation for getting to my goal weight really difficult. I was thinking of how to better motivate myself and thought I would start a blog. I was going to start a brand new one and then thought.. why would I do that when there is so much history in this old one? Embarrassing photos? Absolutely. But they are mine. They are me in the raw and they are the real deal journey of an overweight young adult trying to find her confidence and I can’t pretend to be embarrassed by that. So, I decided to just continue this old thing with a lot of new updates. This is going to be a long post.

The last time I wrote in this blog was December 2011 and I was 158 lbs. I remember that time in my life. I had just moved back to Indiana after living in California for a couple of years. It was the end of the first year of our weight loss journey and I had lost roughly 65 lbs over the course of that year. My then boyfriend (now husband) had lost over 100 lbs. We had only been together for a couple of years and in that year we had accomplished so much together that we thought was impossible. Losing the weight was the single best thing I have ever done for myself. I invested time into myself and it paid off. I have kept the weight off over the last six years, even through two pregnancies. That is something to be proud of.

This has been more than weight loss to me. I am so much more confident that than 220 lb girl that walked across that stage at my high school graduation. I am healthy enough to chase my kids around and keep up with them. I am small enough to fit on a roller coaster. I am not so big that I fear being the last person in a room of people because I’m wondering what comments they’re thinking about my weight. The mentality of weight loss and weight maintenance is a true lifestyle change. In the last six years, I have thought about every single thing that goes into my body. Every calorie. I have planned work outs and cheat meals and meal plans to stay on track. I have had week or month long benders where I fall back into my old habits. That’s why this is a journey that I will be on for the rest of my life.

(Can we just talk about how sexy he is? I mean really.)

I am 153 lbs today. Six years, a marriage, two pregnancies, home-ownership, and a college degree later and I have lost five lbs since that last post I made six years ago. Doesn’t seem like much, but to me it says that I have kept the weight off and I have taught myself how to truly fuel my body with food rather than pleasure it with food. My goal weight is 135 lbs. The lowest I have been on my journey was the Summer before I got pregnant with my daughter, Parker, and I was 145 lbs. I was in the best shape I had ever been in my life and I felt like a million bucks. I want to be back there.

Those of you that know me personally know that I am a HUGE Big Brother fan and I applied to be on the show for their 20^th season in the Summer of 2018. The application said that my body should be ‘pool ready.’ I would have no shame going on Big Brother in a bathing suit right now in my not so pool ready body because it is my body. It is my story. It is my blood, sweat, and tears. However, what better reason to motivate me to finally get to my goal weight than getting on my favorite show of all time?

Ever since I had my daughter, my blood pressure has been high and I have been medicated. How does a 27 year old woman who has lost 70 lbs need to be on medication for high blood pressure? This drives me absolutely crazy. So, this journey is going to be about more than losing weight. It is going to be about getting my health back and getting off of these meds. I am making this blog to hold me accountable for this transformation I am going to undergo over the next few months. I hope you enjoy following me and I hope it motivates someone else to hop on the bandwagon with me.

My husband has agreed to do this with me again, and I know better than anyone that we are unstoppable together. So there will be an over abundance of half naked photos of both of our fluffy bodies to track our progress. Our weight loss journey began because we were watching Rachael Ray one day and saw Dr. Ian Smith on there promoting his new diet book titled ‘The Four Day Diet’. Something clicked in our minds that day and we immediately bought that book, started the diet, and that was all it took to get us addicted to watching that number on the scale drop. So, for the beginning of this journey, we are going back to old faithful and doing the four day diet as a kick start. I know that it works and I have come to know that I do much better with some structure in the initial phase of losing weight. Once I get in the groove, I am able to stay motivated while cooking my own meals, but until then I need some guidance. Here are our goals:

    Stormi                                    Ray      

Starting Weight: 153 .           Starting Weight: 252
Goal Weight: 135                    Goal Weight: 225

       Goal Date: March 1^st, 2018   Goal Date: March 1^st, 2018

Let's see how this goes.

Monday December 19th, 2011 [158.5]

  , it's the day after our regular weigh in day- and I've gained a pound. Which I'm not so upset about- because I still feel like  I see a difference in the mirror. I've literally worked my ass off and done nothing wrong (eating wise) this week, so I'm really hoping that's a pound of straight muscle. We've stuck to our work out routine to a T this week except for yesterday. I've been adding my personal training Wii game to the mix and still going to Zumba twice a week :) These next couple weeks are going to be kind of scattered because of the holidays and my trip to New York at the end of the year. We'll see if that works out to my disadvantage. Hopefully not. Anyway, here's my picture update for this week compared to last week:

   

I definitely see a difference. More in the side picture, as usual. But hey, I'll take what I can get. I've cooked a lot of interesting things this week. I'll update with some pictures here later after I email them to myself.

December 15, 2011

Yesterday was a good day. I woke up, did my laundry, and cleaned the house. I had some Pineapple flavored Greek yogurt for breakfast. (Chobani is the best Greek yogurt everrr!) Then for lunch I had an Amy's Kitchen brand of sweet and sour chicken&rice instant meal. After lunch, I went and picked up Clorissa and we did our Pilates work out. After working out our back, butt, and legs- we headed off to our Zumba class at 5:30. I definitely feel like I get sooo much better of a work out now from Zumba than I did the first time I went to the class. Now that I've got the basics of the moves down, now I'm working extra hard to perfect them- which ends in a massive amount of sweat. :)

After Zumba, I came home and started cooking dinner. I made whole grain spaghetti with mushroom and onion spaghetti sauce. I cut up and simmered some mushrooms, corn, red bell peppers, and green chilis- then I mixed them in the sauce. I also tried a recipe that I found for some cheddar bay biscuits- they were amazing. They tasted just like the ones from Red Lobster. Probably not the healthiest choice- but hey. Anyway, here's a picture:

It was such a good dinner. Cooking is officially a hobby :) Tomorrow is a rest day for us, so I'll probably spend tomorrow getting the house ready for the work week and do some organizing. &Saturday is another Zumba class at 9 a.m. My mom AND grandma said they would go. HAH! This is gonna be awesome :)

ONE YEAR!

Today, December 13th, 2011- marks the one year anniversary of my boyfriend and I's weight loss journey. We have worked so hard this year to get the bodies that we can finally honestly say that we're happy with. I can say that neither of us are 100% there yet, but after seeing how far we've actually come this year- I can say the only thing I feel right now is pride.

This was us when we started in comparison to where we are right now. Such an amazing progress and such a wonderful accomplishment. I am so so so so so proud of the both of us. We've sweated at the gym for over 250 hours this year. We have sacrificed our favorite comfort foods, our sleeping in, and in some cases- more money in our wallets in order for us to meet the ultimate goal of our weight loss. Losing weight is not easy. It's one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life and I am so lucky that I haven't had to do it alone. I've always had a motivator. I listened to the stories of my boyfriend's past and how his overeating and overindulging as a child had lead him to bad eating habits as an adult. I watched him be so unhappy with himself for over two years of our relationship. Now, he looks like a completely different person! I am so overwhelmingly proud of him AND myself. I wouldn't have been able to do this without him.

All together- He and I have lost 136 LBS combined :)

Here's to a shameless victory and hope for that last 25 LBS to disappear in the future!

December 11, 2011 [156.5 lbs]

Today is weigh in dayyyy! Yay! I lost 2 lbs this week, which is amazing. I think adding Zumba to our daily routine has really helped. We went to another Zumba class on Saturday morning. After that, we came back to my house and did some pilates. I worked last night and the customers gave me the run around alllll night- so I got some extra cardio in there, too. I was there until like 2 a.m. and by 9 I was starving to death, so I'm guilty of ordering little cheeseburger slammers for dinner. BUT it was only my second meal of the day and I still lost weight, so that's okay.

Today, Clorissa came over at 9:30. We started off with a half hour of Zumba, did our planned legs/butt/back pilates, and ended with some more heart throbbing cardio. Death. As for food today, I've only had a banana. I need to hurry and cook some lunch before work. I'm not sure what I want. ANYWAY: Here's my pictures for this week (first picture) in comparison to when

Definitely seeing some improvement, which is always motivating. Hopefully, I'll be down another 2 lbs for picture day next week :) As for our exercise plans this week:

Monday: Rest day.

Tuesday: 9:30 Meetup.

 cardio/upper body&arms/abs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WOvIKdG7AwM#!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4bBk2oidYvE#!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1DS7G9OjfQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=M_JtR_9ogow#!

Wednesday: 4:00 p.m. Meetup.
Zumba/legs/butt/back
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LHfe0rG_THk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fzZSCsw6i2c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TmktEl7KZxQ

Thursday: 9:30 a.m. Meetup.

 cardio/upper body&arms/abs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WOvIKdG7AwM#!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4bBk2oidYvE#!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1DS7G9OjfQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=M_JtR_9ogow#!

Friday: Rest Day.

Saturday: Between 8:30 - 9:30 a.m

Zumba?/legs/butt/back
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LHfe0rG_THk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fzZSCsw6i2c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TmktEl7KZxQ

Sunday: 9:30 a.m. Meetup.

 cardio/upper body&arms/abs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WOvIKdG7AwM#!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4bBk2oidYvE#!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1DS7G9OjfQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=M_JtR_9ogow#!