Make Change Happen FOR YOU!

First off,  I had a really frustrating day.  It was one of those days where I let the negativity get to me.  I'm usually not like that, but it happened.  And then I taught a HARD spin class ..and felt like Elle Woods:

 

This right here proves my theory...you CAN out-train a bad day. 

Second, I taught my last Tuesday spin class tonight.  It's bittersweet to see it come to an end, but I got a lot of thank you's tonight, so that made me smile.  I look forward to actually getting to be a student again for a bit.  The only way to grow is to learn more. 

So after I started feeling more like myself, I sat down after my workout and healthy meal to chill.  Here's what I ate, doesn't it look festive and fresh?

I cooked this all together and topped with a little goat cheese! I could bathe in goat cheese and be so happy. 



After dinner, I turned on the TV and became riveted to Extreme Weight Loss.  Think The Big Loser, only focused on individuals, not an entire team competition. 

If you want to get motivated about losing weight....wait, scratch that, just changing your life in general, you need to watch this show.  I am truly touched right now.  I literally just speed showered during the commercial break so that I could get back to watching. 

Jami is originally from Chile (HOLLA, I spent 4 months there in college, have a tramp stamp of the Chilean flag to prove it!) and was adopted at 2 years old by an American woman.  She has never been close to her adoptive mother and she has been working to meet her biological mom most of her life.  She has also struggled with weight problems, tipping the scales at 292 pounds.  She wants to lose the weight so that her biological mom will meet her and be proud of her.  TEARS flowing!! 

Watching her tell her trainer that she wanted to do this for someone else hit home with me.  I feel like I've had that same motive for part of my weight loss journey.  When I got engaged, I was like "I want to lose weight for Jarrett, so that I can look amazing on my wedding day...and then in a bikini on our honeymoon".  But as I watched Jami say this to her trainer Chris, I saw him respond exactly as I would now.  He said "you have to do this for you, not for anyone else."  How profoundly true is THAT!?

Amidst the negativity and then in watching this amazing show, I came to a major realization today.  You have to make change happen for yourself.  You can't do things for other people.  Whatever your goal is, make it for you and only you.  Since starting to lose weight in April, I've visualized my goals. but in a different light.  I want to lower my cholesterol (because it's bad, but it can be lowered, I just can't eat chocolate and cheese every day).   I want to run on a regular basis again.  I want to get up early in the morning, not hit my snooze button and just get outside and enjoy God's great earth He's given me.  I still want to look great in my wedding dress and bikini, not for my fiancé....but for me.  I want the reflection he sees of me to represent health, vitality, and a beautiful strong woman.  Much like Jami tonight, I want to make the change happen. 

And on that note...Jami just did her final weigh in....in a bikini...and she rocked it.  You GO girl! I am motivated. 

Do it today.  It all starts with trying.  Don't be afraid to embrace change.  Don't wait for your life to begin.  Start.  NOW. 

Good night! :)

That's what I love about Sunday...

Hello lovelies!  So I was looking at my calendar today as I turned it to July (I'm a few days late) and I noticed that Sunday is TECHNICALLY at the BEGINNING of the week.  Yes, I know, a lot of you are probably like...umm hey Rebecca, that's the way it's always been, duh.  You know how we're always like "UGH MONDAY, beginning of the week, I can't wait until it's Friday...."? Well, what if we applied that thinking to Sunday instead?  Not the UGH part, because how can you be all negative about Sunday?  It's a chance to start over, to be renewed, refreshed, and ready to face the other 6 days of the week.  Just some food for thought.  I'm going to try to adopt that attitude from here on out so that Mondays are less painful. 

Guess what, I FINISHED THE BATHROOM!!!! Now, I will say, my paint job is not professional, and this bathroom has really high ceilings, so at certain points I was dangerously hanging from a ladder just hoping to throw some paint on the wall at all.  But it's done!  Here are a few pictures...

 

Before and During....

 

 

After!!!

 

Since I live at the beach, I picked a lovely light gray color called Coastal Pleasure.  It turned out super cute and mellow.  I bought a girly new shower curtain and new, fluffy white bath mats.  Look, even Tink likes them:

 



All in all, I'm glad it's done.  I don't love to paint. I may tackle the guest bedroom on another weekend and cute that up too, but not this weekend :)  That was quite the workout on Saturday. 

So since I'm taking on this new attitude towards Sunday being the first day of the week, I'm going to do the following.  Clean up my diet, starting today.  Breakfast consisted of 2 hardboiled eggs topped with some homemade fresh salsa and some diced turkey. YUM, very filling......and pretty:

Go on a long walk/run.  Confession, I have not worked out since like Wednesday.  Time to bust out the running shoes and just get out there, sweat it out, and just enjoy being outdoors for a bit.

I'm going to meal prep big time this week and make sure all of my lunches are packed a day ahead of time.  Last week was just not good for my diet.  I finished the cleanse and just basically enjoyed every bit of food that I haven't had in a few weeks.  BUT, I cheat every once in awhile.  Back on track this week for sure. Plus it's cheaper to bring your own lunch, as in...it's free :)

Last but not least, I'm going to finish up some hovering projects/wedding things that keep lingering that I just haven't checked off my list.  Like respond to a few emails, start getting addresses for my invite list, and finish registering.  It's hard to believe it's only 5 months away, so it's time to start wrapping a few things up.

Ok y'all, have a GREAT Sunday, let me know how you're renewing and getting prepared for the week ahead....

I am blog-tarded...and how I spent my 4th :)

OK so first things first, I would like to send a SPECIAL thank you to Beth K at Hang On Honey for helping me with a few blog items.  I did not realize that I was a no-reply blogger (I didn't even know what that meant, geez, I am not tech savvy sometimes)....well, I take that back, my dad did mention a few weeks back he couldn't leave a comment.  But I just assumed that is because he's of an older generation and just couldn't figure it out. :)  Sorry Dad!!!  But I think I've regulated this now, so everyone, please feel free to comment, on the hour, ever hour, so that I know this is working right.  YAY!

She also sent me some awesome tutorials on creating a button, so that's in the works once I find a good picture of myself that doesn't make me look fat, tired, or drunk when I'm not even drinking...

The 4th of July has come and gone, and I have to say, I'm pretty sad to be working today.  It's pretty quiet, lots of people were smart and took today off.  I was not one of those people.  This is what I'm doing right now...teach me how to snuggie.....

 

 

The 4th was great though.  I feel like my intestines have been in revolt since ending the cleanse because I went from eating lots of fruits and veggies, to eating burgers covered in cheese, slathered in mayonnaise, surrounded by non-wheat bread.  It was a great day though.  We spent the day between not 1 but 2 parties....we are wild and crazy people :)  There were lots of fireworks, hotdogs, and ice cream.  I can't wait to have kids so that I can dress them up like this on the 4th:

 





HOW CUTE IS THAT LITTLE NUGGET!!!

 

Now the weekend approaches with questions like......what should I do this weekend? Should I stock up on groceries, should I watch more HBO than I can stand OR....should I paint my guest bedroom and bathroom? Truth be told, I'm not thrilled about this idea.  I always start off really jazzed up for a home project, only to hate it halfway through, complain, moan about it, and possibly delay finishing it for as long as possible.  But the condo we are renting is painted blue...not the exact same shade of blue in all rooms, but it's a little too dark for me in the guest area.  And my landlord is my boss, and he's cool with it, so I'm about to turn bright blue into pewter gray over the weekend.  Plus I feel like getting that fresh paint smell in the house may make me giddy (or high) enough to do a few more projects.   Now that you all can leave real comments, please let me know what you think of my paint job :) Before and after pictures to follow.

 

Not much went on in the world of fitness this week....well wait I take that back.  Next week is the last Tuesday night class I'll be teaching Spin.  Insert sad face here. There were not a lot of folks coming each week and more were sticking to a MWF schedule.  Which is totally fine, but I will miss teaching my class each week.  I still have a lot of subbing opportunities though, which is great.  I was actually really sick on Tuesday and not able to teach, so I'll be announcing that this coming Tuesday.  Please say a little prayer, as I do have a few regulars that will be a little bummed, but it will be ok. 

 

How was your 4th and what are your plans for the weekend?  Ya'll have a great weekend, tune in next time for what will hopefully be an "after the paintbrush" post....

 

 



CLEANSE UPDATES!

Hi everyone!  Sorry for the long hiatus from blog world...it's been a crazy few days...

So it's day 10 now, finishing up this cleanse, and I have to say....I have never felt better!  Now, because I am kind of a slowsky and didn't take pictures, I won't have any body images to post up.....unfortunately.  Work has been crazy and I just haven't had time to document that day by day BUT....I am definitely seeing results....physically and on the scale.  Overall though, the biggest change is the level of energy I feel.  It's amazing how I don't feel sluggish at the end of the day.  I've actually been attacking some workouts with a ferocity I've never know rather than whining and just going through the motions. 

I had some interesting bumps in the road along the way with this cleanse.  So remember how last Thursday I was all gung ho like "don't give in, don't let the bad food tempt you, just stay away from the pizza..."  Well, that all went out the window on Friday.  I proceeded to have 2 glasses of wine and some pizza at a new restauarant with my best friend.  It wasn't like dripping with grease and cheese, it was more like wood fired and DELICIOUS, but it was still pizza, so there's no getting around that.  But the interesting part about all of that is that I could TOTALLY tell on Saturday morning that I got off track with the food part.  It felt like a huge rock in my stomach.  I also was slightly dehydrated from the vino, can you say headache? 

This is me on wine:

ALSO.....I picked a bad time to do this cleanse, as I had to sample wedding cakes.  I picked them up Saturday after my training session at the gym...and they smelled of sugary, sweet goodness.  I did manage to eat small samples, but it's been hard having those in the house.  Get your cakes from Publix, for real, they do great work and the cakes are delicious. 



I kind of had that moment like Miranda did in SATC when she pours dish detergent on her cake. 

 

I did have one small weigh-in victory.  I landed on the scale on Saturday at the gym and weighed 161.  WOOT.  I know part of that is from the cleanse, the other part is from sweat/water weight loss, but I was happy with seeing some movement.  I can tell that my clothes fit better and that I have less of a fat roll when I sit down.  I did a little happy dance in the locker room at the 2 pound weight loss.

 

 

Overall, I was very pleased and will definitely do this again.  Perhaps closer to wedding time.  Hope you guys have a very happy 4th of July (God Bless 'Merica), be SAFE, and I'll be back to regular posts now that it's not so insane around here.