Time to rein it in!

So I have to admit that the "not eating so restricted" thing has been fun, but enough is enough. I had told myself that maintaining my weight would be so easy compared to losing the weight. I would just eat well most of the time and splurge from time to time. The thing is, for me in particular if I am not setting specific restrictions, I end up splurging WAY too much. I am ashamed to say that I have gained seven pounds back and I have GOT to rein this in before that number gets any higher. I have decided that I am going to allow myself one splurge meal per week and one splurge dessert per week. If I plan my splurges than I know that I have to eat well the rest of the time, no excuses. It is too easy to eat badly today and say, "oh well, I'll eat better tomorrow." The problem with that is, tomorrow rolls around and I say the same thing again. Before you know it, seven tomorrows have gone by and you still haven't "done better". 

I am going to do things a little differently this time, in that I am not going to set a goal weight. I am actually not going to pay attention to the number on the scale at all. I am going to put all of my focus into what I want my body to look like, because in the end that is what really matters. People who have super toned bodies do strength training, and they usually weigh a lot more than what you would think. Muscle, as we all know weighs more than fat and therefore negates what the scale says. As a woman in particular it is kind of scary to throw the scale out the window, but also very freeing. I am obviously not going to actually get rid of my scale, but I am going to let the way my body looks determine my goals verses a magical number. 

Let's see how this goes, I look forward to keeping you updated! If you want to check out one of my favorite fitness youtubers, I encourage you to. She explains things much more efficiently than me. Here's the link!

http://youtu.be/tEoc-E_I8HY

Thanks for reading!

Sarah

No Gym...No Problem!

Having a gym membership has become much more affordable in the past couple of years. Still, not everyone has access to a gym. Even though I have a gym membership, I don't always feel like fighting the crowd. Regardless of the reason, not being able to make it to the gym should never be an excuse not to workout. I know what you might be thinking, if you are like me your at home workouts tend to be a little all over the place. It is easy to lose focus and slack off with an at home workout. I have a suggestion if you find this to be the case for you. There is an app called "Pump Up" that can help you tremendously when working out from home. You will need to program your weight and age into the app to register. Once you have done the initial setup it will give you the option to build a workout. Here is where the magic starts! You will get to choose if you are working out from home, the gym, or if you are traveling. Once you select "home" the app will take you through a series of screens to customize your workout. You can choose how long you plan to workout, as well as if you are a beginner, intermediate, or advanced. Then you get to choose what body parts you would like to focus on, what equipment you have access to if any, if you wish to do cardio with your workout, and so on and so forth. Once you start your workout it will first take you through a short warm up. After that the app will take you through the workout by telling you exactly what to do, and for how long or for how many reps. There is even a timer that appears with each screen of your workout. Once you are finished with your workout, the app will also take you through a very short cool down and voila! Its like having your very own personal trainer. You could also have the app build you a workout for the gym, but this didn't really work for me because of the layout of my gym. My gym has the strength machines and free weights in one room, and the cardio machines in another. I do however HIGHLY recommend the app for at home use. I find it so much easier to focus at home if I have something telling me exactly what to do. I like this better than doing a workout video because it is customized to you, even down to the amount of time that you have available for your workout. This app will take away your excuses because it even shows you correct form. I first heard about this app from the recommendation of Carly Rowena who is a fitness youtuber that I subscribe to. Which brings me to my next tip, if you are working out at home and you don't have much time, head to youtube! There are plenty of fitness youtubers who post quick workouts focusing on just about any muscle group you can imagine. Carly Rowena is a great one, Blogilates is another favorite of mine, and I've mentioned them before but theLeanMachines have also been a big help for me. These are just a few of the tons and tons of youtube channels posting fitness content. Check them out and try a workout or two if you want to fit in a quick workout at home. I hope that these tips have been helpful! I have included a picture of the "Pump Up" app so that you know what you are looking for.

Thanks for reading,
Sarah

Circuit Training

If you were to go through all of my blog posts, you might be able to find a running theme. I change up my workouts every month or two. There are a couple of reasons for this. One, I tend to get bored with a workout when I’ve done it for too long. Two, after a month or two of doing the same workout it stops challenging your body. Your muscles get used to the movement and the resistance and you stop seeing results. I love cardio, but after a mile or two running starts to get boring. I also love strength training, but sometimes I don’t feel like I’ve done anything because my heart rate never rises. I have found the solution though! Circuit Training, it’s the best of both worlds! Circuit training is also versatile enough that it is easy to keep your body guessing. So an example of a typical circuit for me would be: Run ½ mile, 10 pushups, 1 minute plank, 30 seconds Russian twists, 30 squats, 30 seconds tricep plank, 5 pike pushups…then repeat. So I would run another ½ mile then stop and do my exercises on the mat. I run through the entire circuit 3 times. The gym that I go to is laid out well for circuits. They have an indoor track with a section off to the side with mats, medicine balls, and step risers. Like I said, circuits are versatile, so one day for cardio I might do 1 minute of jump roping and add 30 seconds of jumping jacks during the strength exercises. There are so many strength exercises that you can do using your own body weight so the combinations are endless. I try to include arms, abs and legs into each workout, but you could focus on one with each workout if you wanted to. Circuits have made my workouts much more enjoyable. About the time that I am sick of running, it’s time for strength exercises. Likewise, when I feel like I’m going to collapse if I try another pushup, it’s time to run again and I have a new burst of energy. This also makes my workouts fly by. I have seen more results in the last 30 days of doing circuits than I have in the last 3 months combined. I am back down to 145 and I have lost another inch on my tummy. If you get bored with routine, I would highly recommend that you try circuit training. I am so glad that I did!

Thanks for reading, 

Sarah

Skinny Banana Cookies

I had been craving something sweet for the past couple of days and I wanted something that I wouldn't feel super guilty about eating. I had some bananas that were on the verge of going bad, and in the interest of not being wasteful I decided to start there. I got on Pinterest and searched recipes for ripe bananas and I cam across this recipe, http:sixsistersstuff.com/2013/05/skinny-banana-cookies.html It looked super easy, healthy, and best of all it only had three ingredients! I had everything on hand except for the chocolate chips so I grabbed some on my grocery store run. I did detour from the recipe a tiny bit by adding a tablespoon of peanut butter. I also increased the recipe by one banana so that I could use mine up. That is why my measurements are a little different. These will definitely be a staple in my house from now on because they were AMAZING! My husband was not a fan of them but hey, that just means more for me! We have some friends that decided to try the recipe as well and they were a huge hit in their household. I hope that if you try these, that you enjoy them as much as I did!

Skinny Banana Cookies

-3 Ripe Bananas

-1 1/2 Cup of Old Fashioned Oats

-1/3 Cup of Chocolate Chips

-1 Tbsp of Peanut Butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mash bananas thoroughly, add in your peanut butter and stir until combined. Fold in the oats and chocolate chips. Use a spoon to scoop roughly 1 to 1 1/2 inch balls onto a greased cookie sheet. You might want to flatten these just a bit with the back of your spoon because they do not flatten much when baking. Bake for 12-15 minutes and then take them out to cool. After 15-20 minutes you should be able to lift them off the cookie sheet without them falling apart. That is it you are done!

I prefer mine warm, so I heat mine in the microwave for about 10 seconds before I eat them. They taste fine without being nuked as well though. I have included a picture of how mine turned out, next time I will flatten mine a little more. If you attempt these, please let me know what you think!

Thanks for reading, 

Sarah

The Color Run!!!

In October I wanted to do The Color Run really badly, but the girls that I had planned to run it with had other things come up. I contemplated running it by myself, but its not really the kind of 5K that you run alone. I was really bummed out because that was the race that I had been working up to for my entire weight loss. Sad story I know...fast forward to this past Sunday when an opportunity to run The Color Run with a great group of girls fell into my lap. I gladly accepted and registered with their team. I woke up bright and early this morning and was bummed to see that it was raining, but we pressed on! The rain unfortunately did not stop, but we had a blast! We froze, but we still had a great time! I have been warned that this race is a hard one to actually run because there are so many people, but we actually got a chance to bypass the biggest part of the starting line for the first wave. We were pretty much able to run the pace we wanted, occasionally having to dodge a walker or an umbrella. This race was new to me so I had no idea what to expect, keep in mind that my experience was probably a little different from most because of the rain. First off, the color stations were different than I was expecting. I would definitely suggest having something like a bandana to cover your mouth. I was spitting blue for quite a while before I learned to keep my mouth completely shut in those areas. When you are in the middle of a color station it is pretty much like running through a huge color cloud. If you don't want to get covered with color I would suggest sticking to the middle of the lane. The closer you are to the people throwing the color the more you are going to get, naturally. There were two color stations towards the beginning of the race and two more towards the end. The finish line is like a big party with color being thrown everywhere! They handed each of us a bag of color at the end of the race and we had a color fight with our little group. The color fight mostly consisted of us dousing one girl from our group who had come through the race pretty unscathed. One of the girls in our group timed us with My Run Keeper and we finished in 29: something. I don't remember the exact seconds time...I think it was 34. Regardless, we finished in under 30 minutes! I love running with a group because it pushes me. We were definitely running faster than my normal pace, but we were having so much fun that I hardly noticed! Now for the aftermath, because of the rain the color pretty well set in. From what I have read on a normal day, a good portion of the color dusts off. We got to the car and tried to scrub as much as possible but to no avail, the color was not budging! I was starting to get pretty worried. When I got back to my car I covered my seat with a huge beach towel, I came prepared. I changed into dry clothes and flip flops trying to hide as much as possible. I am a modest person, but my main concern at that point was getting into dry clothes because I was freezing! I cranked up the heat and headed home, feeling all warm and fuzzy on the inside. I know it sounds cheesy, but this race was a big deal for me. One of the biggest goals I set for myself when I first set out to lose weight was to be able to run The Color Run. I couldn't have picked a better group of girls to experience this day with. This was a huge check off of my list, and finishing with the time that we did is just icing on the cake. Girls if you are reading this, thank you for today! You all are great! I have included some pictures down below. The first two are before and after, and the third is what I looked like after scrubbing with baby wipes (they didn't do much). The last two are just shenanigans at the finish line. Oh and in case you are wondering, a good scrub in the shower took care of the rest!

Thanks for reading,
Sarah

No longer a journey...

Well hello there! I hope that you have been doing well, I know I have. We are fresh off of vacation, we went  to the Smoky Mountains and stayed in a cabin with lots of friends. It was a blast! I didn't gain weight while on vacation either so that was a win. Today is an exciting day though! Today marks one year since I started my blog and this weight loss journey! The weight loss part has been over for a little while, and my focus has been on eating healthy and maintaining. Regardless, today marks one year since my life has been on the right track. Today is the day that this is no longer a journey, this is my life. I have logged everything that I have eaten every day for the past year in my fitness pal. Counting calories was the easiest way for me to ensure that I stayed on track. However, it is time to move on from logging my food. I know what choices to make and I know roughly the caloric intake of everything that I eat. I am confident that if I eat the right way that I will be taking in the amount of calories that I need to maintain a healthy weight. I am still going to allow myself splurges in moderation. If I splurge at one meal one day I just have to make sure that I am eating well the rest of the day and the days following. It is not reasonable to think that I will never splurge, because that is just not real life. I am going to keep the my fitness pal app on my phone so that I can look up calories if I am out and want to try something new. I might use it to make sure that a splurge is worth it. It is a very helpful app and it has served me well, but now it will serve me as a reference guide instead of a journal. If I am completely honest, I am a little nervous about this change which reassures me that I am doing the right thing. This app can't be my crutch. I have to be able to do this on my own, even when I don't have a diary to answer to. I can do this!

 

Also, I wanted to let you guys know that I plan to start posting more. I am not going to promise anything, but my goal is to post once a week again. I have had some friends inquiry about me doing some posts about food, which is something that I haven't really done up until this point. So I might be posting a healthy recipe every now and then. I also have been asked to do a post going over what I eat in a day, so I might do a blogpost food log every now and again. I want to keep content coming, so if you have anything that you would be interested in reading please let me know. I told you in my first post of the year that I have some exciting changes coming this year. I still can't go into detail about these changes yet, but I can tell you that the ball is rolling! I look forward to being able to update you as I can!

 

Thanks for reading!

Sarah

Is this real life??

Look at me doing two blog posts in one week! This is just going to be a quick one, but I couldn't not post about this. As I have been shopping to replace my wardrobe, I have signed up to be on a lot of stores' email lists. I usually just glance through these emails and delete them, but every now and again there are some deals that are just too good to pass up.  That happened this week when I received an email from the Gap Outlet saying that they had jeans on sale for $19.99. Let me start out by saying that I am cheap, so I have never owned a pair of Gap jeans in my life. I refuse to pay $60 for a pair of jeans, but $19.99 I can do. The closest Gap Outlet to us is in Nashville and we were actually already going there this weekend to see family that was in town from Michigan. I saw the discounted jeans as soon as I walked in and grabbed a 6 which is what I have been in for a while now. Some of my 6's are getting just a tad loose, so out of sheer curiosity I grabbed a 4 as well. When I grab two sizes I always try on the bigger ones first so that if they fit I don't have to get depressed when I try on the smaller ones. I tried on the 6's and they were a bit roomy for skinny jeans. So I felt sure that I was setting myself up for a let down but I decided to try on the 4's. I still can't believe it but I am telling you, they fit! I haven't danced around like that in a dressing room in I don't know how long, but I was excited! I still am excited! I am aware that every store is different, and that just because I fit in a 4 at one store does not mean that I am a size 4 now. Gap could just run their jeans big. I am perfectly content being a size 6. The thing that I am so excited about is that a 4 is a size that I NEVER thought was possible for me! Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would ever own a pair of size 4 anything! I realize that this is not nearly as exciting for anyone but myself, but I just had to share my excitement with you guys. No dream is too big, and if you work hard enough you can far surpass your expectations! I hope that you are having a wonderful weekend!

Thanks for reading,
Sarah

In black and white

Well Hello there. I may not be updating as frequently but I still want to keep you guys in the loop. I have a couple of things to update on, and one of them is very exciting...well for me at least. I have been wanting to have blood work done now that I have lost weight for a while. The last time I had blood drawn, I had some numbers that were on the very high side of normal. On Tuesday I went and had a full blood workup, and I am SO pleased with the results! Last time my cholesterol was 186. The highest they want you at is 200, so for a 24 (at the time) year old woman, this number was bad. My current cholesterol is 138, so that is a decrease of 48 points! My LDL cholesterol, which is the bad cholesterol was 91. For this they want you at 130 or less, and this time my LDL was at 71 so that dropped 20 points. This next one is the one that amazes me so much. Your triglycerides level detects the levels of fat, when this number is high you are much more at risk for diabetes. The highest number they want to see for your triglycerides is 150, and last time I was at 144 so I was scaring that number to death. This time I tested at 62! You read that right, 62! That means my triglycerides level dropped 82 points! I have known that my body is much healthier for a while now because I can feel it, but to see it in black and white is an undescribable feeling. You do not realize just how much food can harm your body until you see something like that. Also a couple of years ago, I had been having stomach trouble so I went in for an ultrasound of my stomach. When they were doing this ultrasound, they found that I had fatty liver disease. I was under the impression that this could never correct itself. That you could stop further damage, but not correct past damage. So on Tuesday when my doctor said I bet your liver looks as good as new, my heart skipped a beat. She told me that your liver can absolutely heal as you lose weight. I didn't go as far as having another ultrasound to confirm this, but all of the bloodwork that had anything to do with my liver came back really low. This is jibberish to me but they test your ALK PHOS to check on your liver, and my number went from 107 to 76 so that is a drop of 31 points. I am now a firm believer that most diseases can be traced back to nutrition. The proof is in the pudding, so to say.

 

The other update that I have is that I have started P90X! I have been doing strength training for about a month now, and I do best when I am following a strict regimine. I liked the T25 program but I just felt like there wasn't enough strength training involved. I have also been doing some kettlebell exercises, which I love! I am only 3 days into P90X, but I love it so far. I finish each workout with ZERO doubt that I have gotten a good workout. I have the sore muscles to prove it! I have actually gained two pounds since I have been doing so much strength training, so I am now at 150 lbs. You would think that a gain would upset me, but I am not upset about this gain at all. I know that I have gained muscle, and that my inches are continuing to go down. I know that the more muscle I add, the more fat I will burn. So I am officially reporting my first gain, but I am happy about it! Let's tone it up!

Thanks for reading,

Sarah

Goodbye 2013 - Hello 2014

I think that it is safe to say that 2013 has been one of the best years for me so far. I have accomplished more in 2013 than I have in the last 5 years combined. I completely changed my life this past year, and I want to talk a bit about what I've done, and some about what I would have done differently. I also want to talk about my new plans and goals for 2014. First let's start with what I've done so far. I started my weight loss journey on March 22, 2013 after feeling I had hit rock bottom. I had found out that I was not ovulating and would be unable to get pregnant unless I lost weight, I was close to being put on blood pressure medication, and I was having terrible stomach issues. When I first started I decided that I was going to stick to a low calorie diet and an intense work out regimen. I limited myself to 1200 calories per day, and I was working out 6 days a week doing heavy cardio. When I first started working out, I couldn't run for more than 30 seconds at a time. At that time I was too heavy for my body to be able to handle the amount of exercise that I was throwing at it, and I developed what is called runner's knee. I was forced to take my workouts to the elliptical for a couple of months to allow my knees to heal and to get some more weight off to lessen the impact on my knees. After a couple of months I felt like I was ready to take my workouts up a notch, so with the help of compression sleeves for my calves I began running again. I started doing couch to 5k, and I eventually added in Insanity as well. I was consistently dropping weight and I began seeing health benefits as well. I finished the full 60 days of Insanity and then put my full focus into couch to 5K. I prepared and I finally ran my first 5k on September 29 and finished with a time of 37:24. I continued focusing mostly on Cardio and in October decided to add in some strength training as well to tone up.   I had a couple of issues with illness in the month of November and lost a lot of my motivation. I was still working out and sticking to my diet but I let the strength training fall by the wayside. The scale was still going down, but my progress slowed to an almost complete halt. Towards the end of December I found a new burst of motivation and started T25 and began doing a lot more strength training. Since doing this, I have seen more results in the past two weeks than I have in the past two months. My weight hasn't really changed in the last two weeks but in that time alone I have lost another half inch on my stomach and another half inch on each arm. I have lost a total of 72 pounds, and I am currently weighing in at 148.4 lbs. I am ovulating again, my blood pressure is back in the healthy range, and my stomach issues are completely gone. So that is the rundown for 2013. Overall I am happy with a lot of things, but in hindsight there are a couple of changes that I would make. I follow a youtube channel called TheLeanMachines, and about a week ago they did a video about why low calorie diets are bad for you. I will link that video down below so that you can get a more in depth idea of what I am talking about. The basics of it are that when you do a low calorie diet consisting of nothing but cardio you lose more than just fat, you lose muscle as well. This is something that I can attest to personally, I have lost a lot of weight quickly, but in the mean time I have lost a LOT of muscle as well. When you lose muscle you actually slow your metabolism which in turn zaps a lot of your energy. I have noticed this more and more the last couple of months, and I feel this is a big reason that I went into a "slump". I had no energy or motivation to work out. I still did workout, but I by no means put my all into it. Looking back, I would have not cut my calories so low and I would have introduced strength training from the beginning. If I had done that from the beginning I likely would not be facing the issue that I am now and that issue is, loose skin. Now don't get me wrong, I don't have hanging skin like you see in pictures of people that have lost hundreds of pounds. I do however have a wrinkling in my skin in certain places on my body. This is something that I am not 100% comfortable talking about, but I want to give you a true look into this journey. I have some wrinkled skin on my stomach and at the top of my arms just under my armpits. I am confident that I will not have this forever. It will go away as I tone up, I just wish I had done strength training from the start so that I wasn't having to compensate for that now. So here are the changes that I am making going into 2014. I am upping my calories to 1550 per day, I am adding a lot of strength training, and I am cutting back on my cardio. I will break each one of these down for you quickly because this is becoming a lengthy post. I am upping my calories to compensate for the strength training that I am adding. I need more calories to build my metabolism back up as I rebuild my muscles. I am adding a lot of strength training obviously to rebuild the muscle that I have lost plus some. In rebuilding my muscle I am hoping to give a boost to my metabolism as well. I am cutting back on the cardio because the muscle that I am going to be adding will be burning the fat that I have left, and I need conserve that energy to repair my muscles as I build them up. I had a short conversation with Leon from TheLeanMachines on twitter today, and he recommended that I put the majority of my focus on strength training. I still have a pocket of fat on my belly so I am hoping that adding this strength training will help me get rid of that once and for all. I have exciting plans for 2014 and I look forward to sharing those with you as they come to fruition. I hope that you all set goals for the upcoming year. Challenge yourself and you can see incredible change. I was going through old pictures trying to find the picture I wanted to use for my "before" pic for this post. I came across a picture that I had taken in a Target dressing room last February. The reason that this particular picture stood out to me was because the shirt I was trying on was almost identical to a shirt that I bought last month at Target. I had taken a very similar picture in the dressing room not remembering at all that I had taken the first picture earlier in the year. I didn't buy the shirt the first time because I couldn't button the XL. I bought it the second time in a Medium, and as you can see in the picture I have a little room to spare in this one. This picture is a true testament to what you can accomplish in a year if you put your mind to it. Let's smash it in 2014!!

Thanks for reading,
Sarah

Link to TheLeanMachines video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBLUCbLtCkw&feature=c4-overview&list=UUs_DvR0g9o7wDgmY3fzbhMw