I'm still here, I promise!

You may have been thinking that I dissapeared or gave up or maybe you haven't missed me at all. Regardless of what you may or may not have been thinking, I am still here I promise! I have not really felt like updating my blog because frankly, I haven't felt like I have had much to update you on. Don't get me wrong, the scale is not going up or anything but it is very SLOWLY inching down. The changes that I have seen in the last couple of months are so minimal that I haven't felt that they warrented a blogpost. I believe the last time I posted an update I was at 159 lbs, today  my weight is sitting at 148 which sounds like a big difference now that I am seeing it in writing. However, I have been sitting at that 148 for about 2 weeks now. I am still working out and sticking to my calories but I have not been putting my all into it like I was before. I got sick around Thanksgiving and missed a week and a half of working out, and motivating myself for workouts has been a struggle ever since. I am getting over yet another sickness now, but this one only kept me from the gym for about two days. I am still not feeling 100% but I have been forcing myself to workout anyway. I don't know what it is, I just feel like I have lost my umph and I really need to find it again. I have allowed myself to snack more through the holiday season than I planned to, and even though I haven't seen a gain I am sure that it has affected my progress. I haven't seen many changes in my inches in over a month now, and I just overall have the weight loss blues. I am telling you all of this because I really feel like this blog was a huge part of my motivation before and I need that again. I want to help people get a glimpse into a true weight loss experience, but this blog has helped me more than I could have ever imagined. I am making a couple of changes this week to try and kick my butt back into gear. I only have 3 lbs to go to reach my goal weight but I still have quite a bit of toning up to do. I am finally starting to see some definition in my arms and legs, but I am still working on my tummy. I have been doing lots of core work, and I am seeing some changes but I still have work to do there. I am determined to get my motivation back and get finally get the body I have been dreaming of. I said all of that to really just say this, I am back!

Thanks for reading,

Sarah

Tips for Transitional Clothes

If you have ever lost weight or even gained weight, you will know about buying transitional clothes. Transitional clothes are clothes that you know that you will not be in for very long for one reason or another. It could be that you are losing weight and you don't want to buy a whole wardrobe because you still have some to lose. That is the boat that I am currently in. It could also be that your clothes are getting a little tight, but you plan on losing weight. I have been in that boat as well. Whatever the reason may be, no one wants to spend a fortune on clothes that will last them less than 3 months. Over the course of my weight loss I feel like I have gained some experience in the art of buying transitional clothes, and now I would like to share my tips with you.

 

1.) Don't be ashamed to shop at a Thrift Store. Some people may cringe at the thought of purchasing used clothing, but the fact of the matter is you can score some good finds. I will admit, when thrift store shopping you will likely have to wade through lots of junk. Keep at it though because there are gems to be found! Be picky when you are shopping at the thrift store. Search for things that look like they have been well cared for. Today when I went to Goodwill, I was able to get 2 pair of dress pants from Ann Taylor Loft, a pair of dress pants from New York & Company, and a pencil skirt from Banana Republic all for $16.00.

 

2.) Buy items that you can mix and match. When you are purchasing items from a regular store, look for items that you can wear lots of different ways. Don't buy a shirt that only looks good with a certain pair of pants. Look for shirts that you can pair with dress pants, jeans, and skirts. Look for items that you can dress up or down depending on your accesories. Try to get items that will be as versatile as possible.

 

3.) Look for items that you can still utilize even when they are too big. This obviously applies more to tops. I can't think of any situation in which wearing pants that are too big for you sounds like a good idea. Look for tops that you can pair a belt around the waist with when they get loose. Look for sweaters that you can wear with skinny jeans and boots when they get a little baggy. Try to think long term, especially for items that you are spending decent money on.

 

Hopefully these tips and tricks will help you in your quest to find transitional clothes. If you have your own tips, feel free to leave them in the comments below!

 

Thanks for reading,

Sarah

Staying on Track While Celebrating.

Yesterday was my 26th birthday! I had a brief thought yesterday morning to just go crazy for one day and not worry about calories or exercise. It was a very brief thought. If you read my blog post about the weight I lost last year, you'll know that veering from the plan usually does not work for me. I am in a much better position to be disciplined than I was at that point. I am sure that I could have treated myself for the day and picked everything right back up today. I am not just on a "diet" this time. I have completely changed my lifestyle. So, yes it probably would not have been a huge setback. The reason that I mainained my calories (even on my birthday) was all because of a notifcation on "MyFitnessPal". The day before my birthday, I recieved a notification on MyFitnessPal that said, "SarahBabb has logged in for 200 days in a row!". 200 days is a long time. It doesn't specify this, but I have also never gone over my calories in 200 days. I decided that it would be an awesome thing to be able to say that I made it from start to finish of reaching my goal weight without going over my calories once. I am so close to the end that I can easily make it to my goal and still be able to say that. It is just a pride thing at this point.

Realistically, when I reach my goal weight there will be days here and there that I go over my calories. At that point, I will just be maintaining my weight. I will be eating around 1600 calories per day verses the 1200 that I have grown accustomed to. That will be very doable for me since I am so used to having 1200. However, at that point I will be doing things a little differently. If I go to a superbowl party and feel like having a few wings, I am going to. I will allow myself to splurge occasionally. "Occasionally" is the key word there. Obviously if I allow myself 3 splurge days per week, it won't take me long to start putting weight back on. One splurge day every other week or as special occasions come up is very reasonable though. I will have to retrain myself that it is ok to indulge sometimes. I just can't make a habit of it. I have a feeling that when I am done, I am going to struggle with food a little bit. What I mean by that is that if I do splurge and have a slice of pizza, I'm afraid that I will feel like I will immediately gain five pounds. It will be a new learning process of still saying no most of the time, but allowing a yes every now and again.

For now though, it is still time to be strict. Especially since the end is so within reach. In March losing 75 pounds seemed so far away and unobtainable. Now it is right there, and all I have to do is keep it up for a little while longer. Don't feel bad for me though, I still enjoyed some frozen yogurt at Sweet CeCe's for my birthday last night. There are still ways to indulge within your limits. There are ways to stay on track without feeling deprived. It is all about figuring out what works for you and being able to admit what doesn't work for you. What works for me might not work for you and vice versa. Experiment, and learn from your mistakes. That's what it finally took for me to be successful!

Thanks for reading,

Sarah

I DID IT!!!

I am very excited to tell you that I finally was able to run 3.14 miles in under 35 minutes! I really wanted to be able to hit that time for my 5K on September 29, but it just wasn't in the cards. I have ran several times since then, but on Saturday I decided to take another swing at the 5K distance. I took a different approach with this run and ran it in 3:1 intervals, meaning that I ran 3 minutes then walked 1 minute for the entire distance. I have to say, I really enjoy running this way. I was able to give it my all for that three minutes and just when I felt like I was running out of gas, I got to walk. That one minute walk was just enough to catch my breath, and by the time it was time to run again I was ready to go! I ended up running the full 5K distance in 34:45. There was no crowd cheering me in, but that didn't matter to me. I felt so proud that I had accomplished what I set out to do. Since I had proved to myself that I could run an entire three miles without walking, I no longer felt pressure to do it without walking. Brandon was asleep but I just had to tell someone, so I called my mom and we celebrated over the phone. I got home, and I immediately thought of my old Cross Country coach. I knew that she would be proud of me, even if it did take me 10 years to finally get the time she wanted from me. I decided to send her a message on Facebook, and this is what I told her:

Hey Mrs.               ,

I know you are wondering why in the world I am messaging you, but I wanted to tell you something that I hope makes you smile. I am Sarah Babb now, but I used to be Sarah Tucker when I ran cross country for you. You might not even remember me being on the team because I only did it for one year and frankly I sucked at it. I only sucked at it because I didn't try and I walked a large portion of the races. You used to always tell me that if I would just put forth an effort that I could easily finish my races in under 35 minutes. That is an effort that I unfortunately never gave you. I carried that same "not trying" mentality for a good portion of my life. I gained a significant amount of weight and on March 21, 2013 I hit my highest weight of 219 lbs. on March 22, 2013 I started the journey that has changed my life. I decided that I wanted to start running and losing weight. I had tried to lose weight before and failed many times, but this time I did it the right way. I changed my entire lifestyle. When I began running I could not run more than 30 seconds at a time. I have now lost 60 lbs and I am 15 lbs away from my goal weight of 145 which is what I weighed in high school. I wanted to let you know that I have finally put forth the effort, and I finally ran 3.14 miles in under 35 minutes. It took me a long time, but I wanted you to know that I finally did it! You were a huge part of my motivation and you didn't even know it. I just wanted you to know that you made a difference in my life.

With much thanks,
Sarah

I have not received a response from her yet, but I know that she will be thrilled. This whole thing has showed me that putting the pressure on is not always a good thing. It is good to set goals that will push you, but don't put so much pressure on yourself that you end up hindering yourself. Saturday was my best run yet, and I know that it was because there was no pressure. I was just running for me. I wasn't trying to keep up with anyone, I wasn't worried about feeling like a failure if I walked. I really wasn't even concerned with completing in a certain time to be honest. I was just running for me. I was running because I lead a healthy lifestyle now, and running gives me an incredible high. Causing yourself stress over losing weight kind of defeats the point. Stress causes your body to store fat making it very difficult to lose weight. You have to find a happy medium between being disciplined and stressing out. Keep that in mind if you are attempting to lose weight yourself. Don't be too hard on yourself. That is definitely a lesson that I am having to learn myself.

Thanks for reading,

Sarah

Weigh In Number 8!

It is good to be back, but we did have an AMAZING vacation. We were a little worried with reports of a hurricane, but we ended up having perfect weather. It was so nice to have 4 days on the beach with nothing scheduled, surrounded by the ones I love. I was spoiled with an amazing view, and I took full advantage of it by getting in LOTS of reading time. I did work out every single day but this time I had a partner! My wonderful mother got up with me at 7:30 every single morning to work out with me. She is so supportive of my weight loss. It was really nice to have that time every day for just the two of us. I only live an hour and a half from my family, but I do not get to see them as much as I like so this trip was a breath of fresh air. I stuck to my calories, and you will be happy to know that I did still lose while on vacation. Now that I have updated you with that, it is time to update you with my weight. At my last weigh in I weighed 165.6, and today I weighed in at 159.2. That is a loss of 6.4 lbs, and that brings me to a total loss of 60.4 lbs. That means that I am only 14.2 lbs away from my overall goal of 145 lbs! If you have paid attention to my last couple of weigh ins, you have probably noticed that my weight loss has slowed down some. That is to be expected at this point, but I am determined to reach my goal before the end of the year. Two and a half months sounds like a very realistic time frame to lose 14 lbs, but since this is the last bit of weight I have to lose it is more difficult. My weight loss has slowed from over 10 lbs a month to right around 5 lbs a month. I am going to have to really up my game if I want to reach my goal before December 31st, and believe me I am determined to. Now for the measurements. I have decided to no longer include my neck measurements since they have not changed in several weeks. I have a long, slim neck as it is and it is obvious that I have no more weight to lose there.


                                Starting                     Last Weigh In                   Current      

Thighs:                       28                            R-21, L-21.5                        B-21

Arms:                        14.5                               B-11.5                            B-11.5

Belly:                          40                                    33                                   31

Waist:                       35.5                                   28                                   27

Chest:                         43                                    37                                   36

Hips:                           44                                    37                                   36

Butt:                           47                                    39                                   38


            Inches This Weigh In: 6.5                   Total Inches: 72

My losses may be slowing down but as long as those pounds and inches are going down, I will be happy. I have tried to show you all the ups and downs of this process. I don't want you to think that because I haven't had a day or a week where I just blew it, that this process has been a walk in the park. Just because I haven't had to post a gain, doesn't mean that I haven't had days when I just wanted to quit. I actually had a couple day pity party when we got back from vacation, and it is the closest that I have come in the past 6 and a half months to quitting. I normally give myself at least 2 days after a vacation to get everything back in order and ease myself back into normal life. However, because of a lack of vacation time I was unable to do that this trip. We drove back on Wednesday and I had to go back to work on Thursday. I tried to get up at 5:30 Thursday morning for my workout and I just could not do it. All day I felt like eating awful food, and I had plenty of opportunities because there is always junk food at work. I made it through the day without blowing my calories, but when I got off I really did not feel like going to the gym. I realized that I forgot the lock to my locker and immediately talked myself out of going. I did do insanity when I got home, but I have never put less effort into a workout. My mind was just not in it. I woke up again at 5:30 on Friday morning for gym time, and I physically could not force myself out of bed to go. I had loss every ounce of my motivation, and I have no idea why. I did not do a workout at all on Friday even though I had already had my rest day for the week. I have no idea where that slump came from, and to be honest with you I still feel like I am clawing my way out of it. I can tell you with assurance though, that I am NOT giving up. I have come too far to give up now. I am just having to keep my eyes on that end, and I am closer now than I ever have been. It gets tough sometimes, but being over weight and miserable is tough too. I am choosing my tough, and I choose to keep going! I hope you will too!

Thanks for reading,
Sarah

Vacation Time Again

It is rare that we take two trips this closely together, but we are leaving for vacation again tomorrow. I am very excited about this trip for several reasons. My husband's family lives in Michigan, so when we get time off that is where we go. We always have a blast when we go there, but we haven't been on a vacation that wasn't to Michigan since 2010. It will be nice to have a change of scenery. We are also going on this trip with my family. My parents, my brother, his wife, and my two nieces will all be there. We have never done a trip with all of us, so I am definitely looking forward to that. Lastly, my family did not have a great deal of money when I was growing up. My father was a pastor and an appliance repairman, and my mother was a stay at home mom, going to school to become a teacher. (She has been a teacher for more than 15 years now.) There were families that were in a much tighter spot than us, but generally vacations were not a luxury that we got to enjoy. Our grandparents had a camp on a river in Alabama, so we got to enjoy that a couple of times per summer. We loved going there, and we definitely did not feel deprived. One summer my parents decided that even though money was tight, they were going to take us on a real vacation. They had both grown up traveling quite a bit, and it was important to them that we got to experience a trip like the ones they grew up enjoying. They really did not have the money to do so, but they took us on a trip to Gulf Shores. I was 7 and my brother was 10, and that is still the trip that I look back on with the most nostalgia. We had such a good time, and it is absolutely one of my fondest memories. My parents are in a much better place now, my dad is still a pastor and he is a school custodian as well. My mother is a 3rd grade teacher, and she was voted teacher of the year last year. They wanted a chance to take us on another family vacation, only this time with the addition of my husband, my sister-in-law and my two nieces. Gulf Shores was the obvious choice because it holds such a special place in our hearts. I will not be posting while I am there. I am just going to enjoy my family for a couple of days.

I will however, let you in on how I plan to stay on track. I plan to prepare the same way that I did for our last trip. I am taking workout gear with me, and I will be working out every day. We are staying in a condo that has a kitchen so I won't have to worry about fast food as much. We plan on eating breakfast and lunch at the condo, and will be eating out for dinner. This works great for me because it means that I can stick to my normal routine for breakfast and lunch. Since we are only eating out for dinner, I won't have to worry about fast food meaning that I will have much more options. The only time I will have to deal with fast food will be on the trip down and the trip home. I have my list of fast food meal options so I should be fine for those few meals. I wanted to do most of my workouts outside, but it is looking like we might have to contend with some rainy days while we are there. The condo that we are staying at has a gym, so I have no excuses to not workout. Hopefully I might even be able to get someone in my family to do a couple of workouts with me! My weigh in should be this Saturday, but I will plan on posting that when we get back. I hope you all have a great weekend. I know I will!

Thanks for reading,

Sarah

Race Day Update

I apologize for not posting this yesterday, but it was a crazy day. My parents ended up coming to visit to watch me run, so I spent the day with them. I know you are all wanting an update, so here it is. I finished the complete race without walking, I did not however make my goal of 35 minutes. I ended up finishing in 38:17. I was extremely dissapointed at first, so much so that I could not even be proud of myself for running the entire thing. I crossed the finish line and immediately burst into tears. I am sure that my husband and my parents thought I was having a mental breakdown, because it was not pretty. It was such an emotional day for me anyway because when I first started my blog my original goal was to complete a 5K without walking in under 40 minutes. I had done that, and I was emotional because of that. Then I had put this added pressure of completing the race in under 35 minutes, and when I was unable to reach that goal I felt like a huge failure. I felt like everyone would be dissapointed in me, but I was very wrong. My family was so proud of me for even attempting the race. They were even more proud to know that I did it without walking. Slowly throughout the day I was able to process more and more, and I eventually came around to feeling proud of myself. When I first started this journey I was unable to start with couch to 5K because even the first day included running for 60 seconds at a time. I had to start with my own intervals, so I began with running sections of 30 seconds at a time. When I ran for those 30 second sections, I felt like I was going to die. I went from barely being able to run 30 seconds, to being able to run 38 minutes without stopping. I'd say that is something to be proud of!

 

With that being said, looking back there are a couple of things that I would have changed on race day. 1.) I would not have started out so fast. There were so many people, and at first I was so concerned when people were passing me that I was running at a much faster pace than I am used to. This caused me to pretty much run out of steam by mile one. I never walked, but my pace had majorly slowed at that point. For my next race I will definitely pace myself better. 2.) I would not have gotten water from the water station. I only reached for water once and I immediately regretted it. I tried to gulp the water while I was running and I ended up getting choked. I coughed for a good minute after taking that gulp of water. On top of that, the water was very cold and that was a shock to my system. Between the choking, and the cold it really threw off my breathing for a while, and I ended up getting a side stitch shortly after. I blame this comepletely on my decision to get water. 3.) I would have kept walking for a bit after I finished the race. I was in such an emotional tizzy that I just sat down and cried. I should have kept moving and I should have stretched afterwards because I am VERY sore today. I never get sore after runs, and now I know that this is due to the five minute cool down.

 

Now that I have done what I set out to do and I have run a 5K without walking, I am going to do my next 5K a little differently. I have gotten a better time than 38:17 when I was running intervals before, and I know that is because the running sections are full force because your body has had time to recover in between. I assumed that I would beat everyone who was running intervals because they were stopping to walk. I was very wrong, almost every person that I saw running intervals beat me. They weren't so spent that they had nothing left. They ran fast on their running sections, and they walked very briskly on their walking sections. I am doing the Susan Komen 5K on October 26 and I think that I am going to run that one in intervals. Running 3 minutes and walking 1 minute. I have proven to myself that I can do it without walking, so now my sole concern is improving my time even if I do it by running intervals.

 

I really apprecite you coming back to check on my progress. You were all on my mind while I was running yesterday. I hope to be able to post a better time with each race that I do. Below are some pictures from race day. The first is a before race and after race picture and the second is my bib number. Thank you again for always coming back, your support means the world to me.

Thanks for reading,

Sarah