Remember...It's NOT A Punishment!

Time to fess up...this last month has been rough...I could give all the excuses in the book for why I "fell off the wagon" for the last month. I could tell you that the stress of my summer class and a new  job affected my eating habits. I am sure there are ALOT of excuses I can give you...but excuses don't give results, they keep you from getting results. 

The real reason is that I simply just wasn't focused and didn't stay on track!

The biggest hinderance for me is that sometimes I forget that living a healthy lifestyle is NOT punishment...It is so easy to get wrapped up in all the things that I "can't" eat by eating healthier. Then I deprive myself of things. But honestly, after awhile of deprivation and frustration I end up eating those things in LARGER quantities than I should be. 

So I have gotten back on my calorie counting ways as of yesterday. I have decided that the best way to retrain my brain and not seeing eating healthy as punishment is to focus on eating right for 21 days straight. They say that doing something for 21 days makes a habit and in order to keep this up, I need to make it a habit. 

I have been finding new and healthy recipes on Pinterest to make eating healthy more fun and tasty. The first one I tried the other day was a healthy pancake recipe. 

The recipe contains: 

1/2 Banana, medium ripe

1/3 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen

1 Egg

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup of yogurt

--------------------------------

These pancakes were the BOMB! 💣

I typically don't eat breakfast just because I either don't wake up early enough or don't feel like eating that early. However, I am trying to start eating breakfast and this was a great and easy recipe to help that change begin. What made it even better was the amount of calories that are in that recipe. 

I used a cool website called Calorie Count (www.caloriecount.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php) to analyze the recipe and find out how many calories are in the recipe. The recipe makes 4-5 pancakes, depending on the size. 

The recipe is about 394 calories leaving the individual pancakes at about 70-80 calories a piece. Pair that with some fruit and you have a good healthy breakfast. The Carbohydrate count is a little high, but luckily eating them earlier in the day you leave yourself PLENTY of time to burn it all off! 

You can also use different things in your pancakes like chocolate chips and such for a little treat every once in awhile, but it is just a quick and easy pancake recipe that isn't to unhealthy. 

So hopefully, with continued effort and discipline, I will get closer to my goal of not only weight loss, but also living healthier and feeling better!

The next step to living healthier will be to implement a gym routine! So stay tuned for that!

How to Come Back From a Weekend of Fun (and Food)...

    

Summer is upon us! It is a time of the 4 "F"s: family, friends, fun and also food...So many summertime foods are just too good to pass up. And with all the summer barbecues and camp fires that are approaching, it is important for me to remember my goals of losing weight and not binge on all the pleasures (food) that summer brings!

This weekend...haha...that wasn't the case 🙄

This Memorial Day Weekend, my family purchased a new fire "pit". It was so cool and so much fun being able to hang out with family and friends and have s'mores! And yes...I did have s'mores! 😝 This weekend was a really fun weekend and it was not as awful as it potentially could have been with all the s'mores, burgers, hot dogs, and hard soda's. I was really happy to be able to control myself a lot more than I normally would have done. The reason is because I inputted EVERYTHING into my calorie counting app called "Lose It!" and didn't lie. This was the first step in assuring that I didn't lie to myself and knew what I was consuming. 

On Friday, I ended up going over my calories by 150 and Saturday I managed to stay under my calories. 🙏🏻

So, now that the weekend is basically over, I am here thinking of how to get back on track and continue the process towards my goal. For anyone that has "fallen of the wagon" this decision can make or break your weight loss journey. You are left with two choices. No. 1: Continue eating unhealthy and abandon your goals of losing weight or No. 2: You start a new day and keep taking steps towards your healthier lifestyle. 

I personally have already taken steps to get over my "bad weekend". Today, I tracked all my calories and was sure to not go over. I also went and worked out today to try and work off my weekend "fluff". 

I would love to encourage you and let you know that just because you had a bad day or a bad weekend does not mean that you are so far gone and that you have to abandon any hope of losing weight. Take it from someone who has fallen of the wagon so many times, yet here I am back on and continuing down the road to a healthier me! 😬 

Some tips to bounce back from a weekend of over eating: 

(http://www.webmd.com/diet/obesity/what-to-do-after-overeating?page=1)

• Relax! No one is perfect in their eating habits. The key is to not make a habit out of it.
• Don't Give Up! You may have a bad day, that just means to be more conscious the next. 
• Cut Back A Bit, But Not Too Much! Don't try to skip meals to make up for the calories you ate. That will give you the opposite affect. Instead, cut back throughout the day with a series of small meals packed with fruits and vegetables.
• Skip the Scale! You will probably weigh more, but that's not because you've gained body fat. It could be water retention. 
• Stick To Your Regular Workout! Don't try to do a MEGA WORKOUT to get rid of all the excess calories. 
• Track Your Calories (if you aren't already)! This helps keep you aware of all that you are eating. 

Continue on your journey! We are all on this journey together and we will overcome our struggles one day at a time! 

A Long and Tough Journey ~ Purpose of Blog

Hello There! First off, I want to thank you for checking out my blog. This is a project I have been considering for quite awhile now, and I am so glad that you have taken the time to read my story.

Unfortunately, this story does not start out happy and full of wonder. It starts out with a war. A war within myself. 

For as long as I can remember, I have been fighting this war, and felt like it would not end with me as the winner. There have been so many days where I felt like giving up...I felt like I just couldn't overcome this struggle and should just give in...I felt controlled by food and being overweight...That is my second biggest enemy.

This war started to affect so many other areas of my life and brought to light my biggest enemy. The one thing that was holding me back from winning this war was ultimately myself. I started to become depressed and felt horrible about who I was. I wasn't a bad person, I just didn't like how I looked or felt. As I began to feel more and more helpless, my depression grew and so did my anxiety. For those of you who know what this feels like...you know it's not a fun feeling at all...It's one of the worst feelings to be honest. You feel anxious about all that you have to do, but also feel so depressed that you just...don't do anything. 

I tried hard to hide all that was going on inside myself, but those closest to me knew that I was at war. They tried to help me, but I couldn't get over the thoughts that filled my mind, dragging me down to the point where I felt like I could not return.

Years later, I have realized that I have not lost this war and I am nowhere near the point of no return. The only way I will lose is when I give up on myself. And I can't and won't let that happen!

The purpose of this blog is to reach people who deal with the same things I have dealt with for so long, and still deal with to this day. Having problems with food and body image can really impact your life and I am taking the long journey towards finding a healthier me. And this journey will be life-long because at any moment my enemies can come back and try to over power me. But I can't let them win. Not then, not now, not ever! 

This blog also serves the purpose of being a way for me to document my journey. The ups and the downs. Learning to celebrate the little victories and also remember the short comings. Only then can I see progress and know that I am fighting and not giving up on myself.

"I can do all this through Him who gives me strength!" ~ Philippians 4:13 (NIV)

Also, please be sure to vote in the poll above or comment below on how often you think I should post!