Eat... Exercise....Lose Weight...Plateau.. Repeat

Have you ever had a long term goal, you make progress and then you kind of hit a wall? While you can't seem to get quite passed this wall you start to scramble looking for a way around it?

That's about how my fitness/health journey has gone. I was on a roll and then January I hit a wall and have not been able to get some breakthrough.

I have been scrambling to find a plan that works, diet after diet, excuse after excuse. It's easy to just stop and settle where I am but that would be giving up. So what do you do?

You keep fighting eventually the wall will come down. Instead of trying to look for a new system why not just use the one that I like and the one that was working for me. This doesn't just mean I can pick myself up and continue on. It involves a lot of reflection, honesty, planning and hard work.

I had to look back at why I really wanted to reach my goal. Why do I want to lose weight and be healthy? There are so many reasons. This ignited my fire and motivation to get back out there and do it.

I had to be honest with myself - that hard lecture. No more excuses. You are paying for a gym membership get your butt there and do the workout.

The planning part is a little more work for me I took a look at what I was doing before and what can I change to continue to lose weight. Myfitnesspal is great because I can track my calories and my Macros on here. So it involves cutting a few hundred calories and making a new eating plan.

My plan from the beginning was to write this blog to hopefully reach out and help others through their challenges losing weight, to be some sort of motivation I hope and to also motivate myself.

If you have questions, or comments, or need to talk or pray let me know I would love to talk with you. Sometimes in the middle of struggle we just need someone to help us through.

Whatever you do... Keep going and remember why you started the journey!

The Struggle is Real...

 We are starting the 2nd week of January and this is when most people give up on their resolutions and I totally understand why. Change is hard and sometimes it's easier to continue to do what we have always done. This last week was so hard and exhausting. 

I am a goal setter, its an easy way for me to track progress and grow. Every year I always reevaluate these goals. This year my big focus is on a healthy lifestyle and being intentional about the food I eat and to be more active in my free time. Setting goals for myself monthly, weekly and daily has motivated me. 

 No matter what goal you set for yourself temptation will always come knocking, and you have to decide do I give in or do I ignore it? It took everything within in me to not give in and this week was a battle.I may not have exactly reached the goals I wanted to last week but I learned a very important lesson and set a plan for this week. I know that I can do this, that I am strong and can say no to the temptation. I can achieve the goals that I have set for myself. Not every day will be a win but as long as I stay in the fight I will win. I will win because I am so hungry and determined for the end result, I want it so bad. I want to live a healthy and full life. 

You will reach a moment on your journey where it seems hard and maybe even impossible. You have a choice you can stop where you are or you can push through. You will never reach your full potential if you don't keep going. It's the fight that makes you strong. Success is just on the other side. So take a deep breath, remind yourself that you got this. Be brave and take that step forward

Happy New Year

Be Proud of Every Step You Take

Well I haven't done a good job at keeping this thing up to date! I remember when I started this journey I wanted to inspire others and hopefully build a support group.

The last year has been quite crazy yet amazing! Life has taken me in a direction I never expected, more than I dreamed of, and better than anything I could ask for. Being able to take steps forward and make a few changes pushes you to be better and to fight for the goals you set.

 Every time I start to lose weight and then mess up, I start over. I decided this was unhealthy! The only way to succeed is to fail and then try again. Messing up teaches you to forgive yourself, pick yourself up and move forward. Progress is progress. It may have taken 2 years to get where I am at... but I got here. I fought some very hard battles and not every day is easy but I also refuse to let those hardships rule over me.

I am strong and I will beat this! What's standing in the way of you reaching your goal? How do you overcome it? If you fail get up and try again, be brave and courageous and go out there and show the world how strong and beautiful you are! Whatever you are facing or struggling with can be beaten, and you don't have to do it alone!

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” ~ Winston S. Churchill

I haven't post anything in 10 months... I put a pause on this journey for about 6 months. I learned some very interesting and unhealthy habits about myself and have also stumbled to get back on a path where I feel in control again. The last 6 years I have developed Binge Eating Disorder (If you aren't sure what it is, google it.). I have worked really hard on controlling it and I refuse to let this define who I am or to allow the enemy to use it against me (I am still working through this it is an everyday battle). With this I am emotional eater so when I am feeling anything.. I find comfort in food, which isn't helpful. 

For me the battle is just getting up and going to the gym...actually putting in the work and prepping my food for the week and sticking to what I have planned. In case you didn't know I am really good at planning and I love it!

One of my dear friends and I were talking about how we want to get back to the gym so she signed up for a membership at the gym and we have gone 3 weeks in a row at 5am. I love working out and I have so much energy and mood all round is just better.  The hard part still is what I eat. I have worked with a few people on this and I have all the tools I need and I know what to do... Now I have to stick to it and follow through with what I plan for myself.

I constantly think about this process and I have learned this is not something I can just walk through by myself. I desire to be healthy, fit, in shape, toned... etc. I have to fully 100% give this desire to God and daily ask for his help.. not just once a day but throughout the day. It is such a hard process but it is so much harder to fight a battle without any weapons or armor and I constantly have put myself in this position and I fail every time. I am so tired of falling down and getting back up and running.. and doing this process over and over again!

This time I stand, but I don't stand alone..because I have partnered with God, I have let him in on this battle and with him I will not be defeated... I will stand rooted him and in victory!

Surviving The Holidays

Making it through the holidays and not gaining any weight can be quite the struggle.. but it is not impossible. Once Thanksgiving hits, it's baked goodies and parties galore. The toughest one is when someone brings in baked goodies and hands you the plate and says you need to try these and then stares at you to eat the cookie. I internally panicked trying to figure out how to get out this situation.. and ended up eating the cookie.

Christmas is my favorite holiday but this year being super conscious and focused on everything I eat, have quite a few times said to myself I can't wait for the holidays to be over.... but the thing is this is a never ending cycle. There will always be something... work meetings, birthdays, parties, going out...summer! The only advice I have for you is enjoy it. I went to a Christmas Party and purposefully ate dinner before going. When I got to the party everyone tried to justify eating and drinking. " It's OK, its Christmas you eat." or "You are on Vacation you are supposed to indulge." DO NOT justify going crazy and eating. However I did grab a tiny dessert plate and I took small servings of the things that I really wanted to try (when I say small like a couple bites). Also decide do you want to eat or drink your calories. The idea is to enjoy the party and enjoy the food but don't go crazy! It would be torture to go somewhere and watch everyone eat all this delicious food why you try to convince yourself not to do it.

Christmas Dinner... I think is usually a lot like Thanksgiving. Whatever the meat is.. make sure to get enough Protein(generally this helps you stay full longer and your body needs it). then do small servings like 1/4 c of 3 or 4 sides and only have 1 plate serving of food. Drink a lot of water through out the day and just before you eat. Then of course dessert.. take only a piece or 2 very small pieces. I did this for Thanksgiving and it worked. I wasn't overly full and I didn't feel bad about what I ate because I put thought into what I really wanted and stuck to it. I didn't gain any weight from this.


I am finding that having a plan set and sticking to it is what has really worked for me. I have to plan ahead.. If I try to just wing it I fail miserably. Having self control is a hard thing to teach yourself but it is possible. I have found that in this journey if I am focused on what I am doing and put some time into it. I will get the results I want. There are days where it is hard to say no to the junk or yes to going to the gym and some days you really mess up.. but you just start from where you left off... Just pick yourself up and keep going. None of us are perfect... I believe that reaching that success of a goal you have to fail and then learn from it and keep going. You have only truly failed when you have given up. You can do this!

Merry Christmas.

Struggle Brings Strength

The last couple of weeks have been quite the struggle (although one week was Thanksgiving so I'm not going to count that). There have been several moments where I have thrown my hands in the air and said "not today." I indulged more than I should have and put myself in a place where I allowed myself to be beaten down and I let the negativity take over more than the positivity and more importantly the truth.

The lovely thing about any journey or adventure is that there are scary and tough moments... There is breakthrough and you look back at the memory of it all and proudly say "look what I did!" I remember the first time I conquered my fear of jumping off a diving board... I probably stood on that thing for 15 minutes... a friend said to me in that moment "if you can do this you can do anything!" I immediately jumped off. Looking back at that moment and other very tough moments like graduating college, you look at what you have faced and how you got through it.

The more we fixate on the fear itself it festers and cripples you even more. We have to find hope in the situation we face and grab a hold of that and just jump. You are a lot stronger than the struggle you face..you just have to convince your mind that you are stronger.

So how do you convince yourself you are stronger, and that you can push through and keep going? How do you take a step when you don't want to?

You just have to...

As I sat in my trainer's office yesterday and cried because I was so disappointed in myself she reminded me a few things... First of all I am stronger than everything I am facing in this very moment... So much stronger!

Secondly I am not alone in this process, I may be fighting this fight for myself but I am definitely not fighting it by myself.

Lastly, God is bigger than all of this and although it may not always feel like it he is there for me always.

It's OK to have the bad days.. but face them! Don't try to run or quit or walk away because when that happens, we are defeated. If you need encouragement or motivation, find someone who will speak that over you. Words are very powerful thing. I have them written everywhere. Find some quotes that will help motivate you... Make I AM statements that are positive and read them everyday. This will have influence over you. If you need encouragement and you don't know who to talk to... I would love to give you some! Those who are fighting this similar battle as mine... I pray that in those struggles you find hope to cling to!

Detox For The Weight Loss

A lot of times when people hear you say the words "I am detoxing" they automatically assume you are probably doing some weird juice thing or starving yourself. Usually their response is "that is not good for you."

What if there was a way for your body to detox naturally? Which there is because I just did it for 10 days. The planning may be the hardest part but following the plan is very simple.

The first thing you have to do is figure out how many calories you need to eat and be able to lose weight(about 2 lbs a week). There are a couple websites you can use to figure out how many calories you should be eating:

myfitnesspal.com
calorieking.com

I prefer Myfitnesspal because it also tells you how much carbs, protein, fat, and fiber you should be eating.

The next step is to plan out your meals I eat 5 times a day

Breakfast
Snack
Lunch
Snack
Dinner
I sometimes drink a protein shake at night to help with cravings.. especially if I went to the gym at night.

The foods you want to pick need to be lean, clean and healthy.

 and you want to make sure you are getting enough calories, carbs, fat, protein, and fiber
planning the meals is the hard part... You really have to play around with food. Also make sure to pick food that you like eating.

Once you have designed you meal plan for a day you will eat that same plan for 10 days. After 10 days you can change out the foods.

It is not an easy process! The easy part is you don't have to put a lot of thought into what you are eating every day because you already have a plan. The hard part is sticking to your plan and fighting against your urge to eat whatever you crave.

It is very doable! Once you commit to this stay focused on it... The more focused you are on what you are eating the more in control you will feel! Trust me your body will detox.

I know this because I did it and at the end of it I lost 11 pounds and the best part is I continue eating the same way I have been but changing the food I eat.

Stay focused and be determined and you will achieve the goal you are shooting for. If you have questions or need help with this let me know...