My Weightloss Journey...One Year Down

Life has turned me upside down the past few weeks. Our home was opened as a provisional foster home and we have two new little ones. My daughter had an appendectomy, my husband has a hiatal hernia, my husband's car broke down, the two new little have both been sick separate times, we had hiccups in getting my stepson here for Christmas break and I have been swamped with paperwork to get certified for fostering. I've definitely been humbled this month.

I've managed to stay on top of tracking my food and getting my workouts completed. I didn't lose any weight last week but I also had an unwelcomed visitor. I did splurge on Christmas Eve and Christmas more than I wanted to.

I have one more week left of this year and I want to lose ONE more pound. This would put me at 60 lbs lost for the year. Even with PCOS, that's an average of 1.15 lbs per week. Although there were plenty of weeks that I lost nothing...

I keep getting compliments and questions about my weight loss. People ask if I am at my goal weight and a lot of them seem to think I have lost enough. The reality is I still weigh 178 lbs. I am still a size 13/14. I am super happy about that but I know there is still progress to be made.

Rather than focusing on the scale, like I have my entire life, I am going concentrate on strength training. I know that to change the shape of my body I have to train with weights. This will be a learning process for me.  

This is the first year that I have not given up midway through and gained all of my weight back. What exactly did I do to lose weight? I tracked all of my food intake. I use Weight Watchers' previous points system. I made sure to keep up my intake of supplements. I love AdvoCare. I workout. True story. lol I love FitnessBlender videos on youtube.com. I drink plenty of water and get plenty of sleep. Easy enough, right?

I would say the two things that made the difference was giving it to God because I know I can't do it on my own and I committed to the process through affirmation statements. Have a support system if at all possible. If you don't have one at home or work you find one online. I love Instagram because you can follow real people on their fitness journey and find inspiration and motivation.

I gladly welcome others to join me on this journey to get healthy! :)  

Celebrating Non-scale Victories!!!

I have had 3 non-scale victories this week and it's only Wednesday! I forgot how awesome they feel! I have been so focused on that scale not budging much over the last few weeks that I have gotten a little discouraged. I have still pushed on though. In the past this would have been the point that I threw in the towel. Did I mention this is my 4th time to lose weight? I also have PCOS which likes to play games with my hormones and can make it more difficult to lose at times.

Okay so on to the positive stuff!!! Monday I was super exhausted! Plus I have been stressed. I really wanted to binge eat. I had a ton of cravings and I only have 14 Flex points left for the week (which I plan to use on Thanksgiving). I had just went grocery shopping and had some junk in the cabinets. I have not complete convinced my family to go 100% healthy and they are a small army that overpower me! ha (I do encourage serving sizes and moderation) Needless to say we had bags of chips and sugary cereal to name a few. I contemplated and tried to justify my need for sugar and carbs for about 10-15 minutes. Instead I went and took a bath. I wasn't hungry anyways and it was 9pm. This may seem small and unimportant for some but when you are an emotional binge eater and you are stressed THIS IS HUGE! I almost always give into to my ridiculous cravings.

Yesterday we had our Thanksgiving celebration at work. We had didn't do a tradition feast but there was still a lot of unhealthy options. Luckily there were enough healthy options to pick from. My dear friend made a gluten free veggie lasagna. The real non-scale victory was staying away from the dessert table! Did I mention that I LOVE sweets? They are my kryptonite! Victory #2!

Another friend gave me a ton of her clothes that she doesn't wear anymore or never wore at all. I was super stoked. I love a good deal! ;) So I mentioned to her that I had a pair of the pants on and she mentioned them being size 13/14. I told her no, I thought they were 16. Got me thinking...so I went and checked. Sure enough they WERE a size 13/14!!! I didn't even know! At the beginning of the year I wore an 18/20. Victory #3!

There it is. Three things that I am super grateful for. Small things that matter. I am working on loving my body for what it is and what it can do now instead of hating it for what it's not. This includes not letting the scale define me. Yes, I need to be within a healthy weight but as long as I'm working daily at achieving that I am okay with it taking as long as it takes.

What are some of your non-scale victories that you need to celebrate?

Progress of 24 Day Challenge {Day 5}

I am super excited about my progress with the AdvoCare 24 Day Challenge!!! I started on Monday 10/3/16. I had been stuck at 192.2 throughout September. Between our move and the kiddos back in school my stress levels where crazy high and with PCOS that just makes matters worse. I am happy I was able to maintain and not actually gain during September.

However, I know that I needed to step things up if I wanted to keep progressing towards my goals. My next goal is to get to 180. See where I started here.

  

I weighed in on Friday 10/7. That's 4 full days of my 10 day cleanse phase of the challenge. I have already lost 3.6 lbs!!! I've never been on a cleanse that was this easy before! I actually get to eat real food and I am not in the bathroom 27/4. I work full time and it hasn't interfered with my job. I feel pretty amazing too. I will tell ya around day three I was a little irritable. I vented to a friend and got over it and by Thursday morning I was feeling great.

 

I feel better than I have in a long time. I eat 6-7 times a day. I count Weight Watcher points to stay on track with my calorie intake. I know all too well how quickly calories can get out of control! I do follow the Herbal Cleanse precisely with the exception that I have added an extra dosage of OmegaPlex daily.

I will post an update after my full 10 Days of the cleanse and then my weight and measurements after the 24 days! So stay tuned!  

Affirmations: Helping Affirm Who You Want to Be!

Somehow along the way we pick up negative thoughts about ourselves. They could have been given to us by others or we create them. I struggle with negative thoughts on a daily basis.

Affirmations have helped me be successful in the past. I just got out of the habit of saying them. I am excited to start them again. 

I have learned from my experiences in the past that affirmations should be phrased positively, be in the present tense and be possessive. They do not have to be super elaborate but they need to be specific. Envision how you want to be and then speak to yourself as if you are already that way. These help us to see ourselves in a new way.

Affirm the positive behavior that you want. Say your affirmations to yourself daily. You can say them as you drift off to sleep at night, when you wake up and throughout the day. Repetition will make them a reality.
 
My Affirmations:

• I am happy and enjoy each day.
• I am worthy of love.
• I have a healthy self-image.
• I have the desire and motivation to be healthy in body, mind and spirit. 
• I enjoy exercising and I am full of energy. 
• I have control of my anxiety and I remain calm when stressed. 
• I am working daily on becoming the person I want to be.  

I am struggling with my anxiety and being tired all of the time so I tried to write my affirmations to work on those things. I am going to my doctor tomorrow for my wellness visit and I am going to talk to her about always being tired. I am sure it's related to my PCOS but I wonder if there is something I can do other than what I am already doing.

Today was the first day to recite my new affirmations. I am going to do these for the next 30 days and see if there are any changes. I encourage you to write your own affirmations or use the ones above.

Why weigh yourself?

My personal experience with weighing-in used to be one of two ways; avoiding the scale at all costs because I didn’t want to “know” the truth or obsessing over it and weighing myself every few days or every other day. Both of these methods proved to be unsuccessful. 

Avoiding the scale is never good, especially if you are scared. There’s a good chance that you already know you’ve gained weight and by not stepping on that scale you are avoiding having to deal with it or take responsibility for the actions that got you there. At least this has been true with me. Admitting is the first step to recovery, right? 

Over weighing is not good either. Your body weigh fluctuates so much day to day. Factors like your hydration, whether you’ve went to the bathroom, if your Aunt Flo is about to visit and what you ate the day before can affect your weight. Weighing all the time became very discouraging and I felt like all my efforts were wasted. I would just quit trying. I figured, what’s the point? I would go back to my old ways, gain all the weight back I had lost and then some. 

I still weigh myself though. I have a set weigh-in every week. Only once a week. Never more. (Unless I am on a DietBet online and the weigh-in and weigh-out days are different). You have to know your weight if you are going to manage it. I find that Fridays tend to be the most accurate. On Friday morning I get up, go pee and step on the scale. I typically do really well during the week at work because I am on a schedule. I usually have my “cheat” meal on the weekend. This week I am down to 198!!! Super excited about that! Of course with the long holiday weekend and multiple get-togethers I am going to have to work extra hard this week to maintain it...

If you’ve been avoiding the scale…take that first step to taking back your weight and get on the scale. Then regularly weigh yourself but don’t over to do it. Talk to you next time!