Weekly Weightloss: How I'm Dealing with Gains

I have decided I'm going to be completely honest on here with my weight loss journey. That means losses and gains.

Unfortunately, this week was a gain.

I can't say I'm shocked by this. I kind of had a feeling. I know my body, I know how I was feeling, and it wasn't so great.

When the check-in lady told me I felt defeated. I felt like a failure. I was extremely bummed. Especially because I did stay within my points limit. I had been doing so well and then BAM, knocked on my A** again. I threw a mini pity party for myself.

Then I stopped. I looked at my chart. The arrow was still below my first weigh-in. I'm still down 9.6 pounds! That's an accomplishment! So why was I being so hard on myself for a 1.4 pound gain? Because I hate the feeling that I failed.

I have decided I'm moving on. I looked at my week and decided I need to make the following changes:

1) I HAVE to get cardio in. This was terrible last week, but I just need to do it.

2) I need to be more strict with my points. While flipping through my points journal I noticed that while I stayed below my points, I didn't eat great foods. I had sugar and carbs which really affect my body.

3) SLEEP! I have a Jawbone UP band that tracks my sleep. I averaged 5 hours/night. I need to make sure I'm getting enough sleep!

So yes, I had a bad week. Am I going to let it ruin my whole journey? NO! I picked myself up, and reset my mind to being focused. This week will be better!

P.S I've been craving Raising Cane's Chicken. I've had it on my mind for over a week. I did a good workout (earned 3 points) and went and got my chicken. I enjoyed every bite :)

My Weight Loss Journey: Beginning-11 pounds GONE!

** Warning, this is a longer post and no pictures. BUT it is personal and I'd love your comments on it!**

I've been here before. This feeling where I'm going to start new. Start this crazy, new fad diet. This feeling where this will be the year that I will make the change and a year later I will be a smaller size. I will have a healthy relationship. I will be happy.

These were all empty promises.... I felt horrible about myself. I was the heaviest I had ever been and I just didn't care anymore. It was easier for me to eat out for every meal than to grocery shop and cook. There was no one around so why bother? I had no self respect for myself, no motivation, and figured this is how my life was going to be.

In July I went home, and while I was excited to see my friends and family, I was also dreading it. Do you know what it's like to always be the fat girl in the family? To constantly need to do your hair, make-up, and look nice so people notice those things instead of how overweight you are? Do you know what it's like when your Mom and sisters can where the same cute shirt and you can't? Well let me tell you... IT SUCKS!

When I was home I had a really good talk with my parents. While they will love me no matter what, they could tell I gained quite a bit of weight since the year before. They worried about my health because I have horrible lineage. 2/5 of my Uncles just had major health scares and they are both in their 50's. My parent's told me I needed to get healthy.

Enter Weight Watchers. Now before you roll your eyes, hang with me. I was exactly where some of you might be. I rolled my eyes at WW. I even tried it in college and hated it. However, my Mom convinced me to try one more time. So I did. And I'm now on the right track.

You see, with the "fad" diets that are in (gluten free, SouthBeach, Atkins, Jenny Craig, etc) they are all very limiting. I didn't want that. I still wanted to have my Edy's Slow Churned S'mores ice cream. I wanted to have my carbs and dinners out. Weight Watcher's let me do that. Hey, as long as you track your points, it's your health plan. I liked that.

A surprising thing happened though. I began to become more aware of how much eating out was affecting my diet and my budget! I would eat out and total my points thinking "I could have made this for less points, and less money, and have leftovers!" So that's what I did. I cooked more. I looked at labels. I paid attention to how food was making me feel.

I've become one of "those" gluten free people. Not to loose weight, but watching my eating habits made me realize that I feel better when I'm not eating gluten. I enjoy shopping at Whole Foods and looking at the labels. I enjoy trying new things, even Kombucha!

Today was my 6th weigh in and I'm proud to say that I've lost 11 pounds! Better than that though, I'm starting to get my confidence back. I'm fitting comfortably into my clothes again. I have more energy and my digestion issues are so much better.

So Weight Watchers might not be the thing for you, and that's ok. But if you were struggling like me, get help for yourself. Stop doing the fads and find something you can stick with.

Simply, BE HAPPY & HEALTHY!

Getting Back on Track

I've been really awful at this blogging thing. However, I'm FINALLY done with school!!! That will be in a post tomorrow so make sure you come and check it out!!

For today I'm going to show you how to make a few great meals on a college budget. I allow myself about $100/month for groceries. Lately this has been really tough for me because I love fresh produce but it's so expensive! I was talking about this with a friend and she recommended a local store called Aldi.


Aldi is a chain store that opened in 1976. It only carries 1,000 products and is extremely less expensive. I only spend $42 on all my staples like bread, lunch meat, fruits/veggies for a week, cheese and crackers. The best buy was the milk though. I got a whole gallon for only $2.29 and at Meijer it's close to $4!!!

With all my fresh produce I decided to make a salad for lunch.


Look at this beauty! It has 3 different kinds of lettuce, cucumbers, apples, grapes, carrots and sliced roast beef. I also pulled a Janae and put goldfish on top :)

While I was doing all that chopping I also made a salad in a to-go container. This helps on time and the produce stays fresher in the Tupperware.


For the dressing I created this pretty thing. I love to combine salad dressings, especially ranch with a more acidic dressing because ranch is ALWAYS too creamy and rich. Today I was feeling spicy but didn't have any spicy dressing so I made this...


It's 1 tablespoon ranch, 1 teaspoon horseradish and 2 tablespoons spicy mustard. I may have used a bit more mustard. Make it according to your taste.

It was amazing with my salad. The spiciness of the dressing made the sweet flavors of the apples and grapes pop. Mix with the cheddar cheese crackers and I was in paradise.

I had a really great workout on the elliptical so I decided to treat myself to this for dinner.


I really loved this cheeseburger!! I've been craving one! I combined it with french fries and mixed vegetables.

The best part of my day was when I entered my info in Myfitness Pal. I was under my calorie goal and ate enough protein. I also drank ALL 8 glasses of water!!! Whoot whoot!!

Watch for my Blog to go under a change. I promise it's only for the good :)

Biggest Loser Update

Whoo Hoo Whoo HOO I'm down 12 pounds in a month!!! The competition at my apartment complex ended and I won it!! I received this great yoga mat, Jillian Michaels and Juliane Hough work out dvd's, a $25 giftcard to meijers and a BPA free water bottle!!! I'm definitely motivated to keep losing... my motivation is my brother's wedding in October :D. If you have any advice or success stories let me know!!

Biggest Loser Time

So, My apartment complex has just started a biggest loser competition. I signed up. I'm incredibly scared. I've always been overweight, well not always but for over half my life. It's attributed to genetics, a metabolism disorder, and plain gluttony and laziness. I've always wanted to lose weight but never had the ambition/will power to. I'm hoping that this will kick my butt! I have to weigh in every friday so I'll try to keep my progress posted! So does anyone have any advice? I don't have a trainer and plan on running. I want to do the chicago half marathon with my family in August! So wish me luck!!