Changing Me: A little bit about what I'm doing exactly

"In one year, what would you wish you had started, today?" "Tomorrow you will wish you would have started today." "We live our whole life in the present. We only have right now, so now is the time to start. No more procrastinating what I want for my life." -those are some of the realizations I had to come to, to start changing. I was finally ready. Before, I wanted lots of food. More than I needed. Now I want health and a fit body. This is my 3rd blog post now, I didn't realize I had so much to talk about but here we are!

Last week I out uo 152.4 on the scale. This morning I am at 150.8!!!!! Over a pound and a half lost!! Needless to say i am ecstatic!! That whole "no cheat days/meals" paid off!

These are the kinds of numbers I need to put up in order to meet my goal. I completely expect to be in the 140's by next week and today is also another milestone... I'm officially smaller than Daniel has ever seen me! Soooo cool :)

I have found my exercise/sport that works for me. And its running. As of this week, my current 5k time is 32:12. My goal is to run it in under 30 minutes by November 2nd, which is the day of the Run Or Die 5k race at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds. I haven't signed up for it yet -don't really have an extra $45 lying around (and I need new running shoes... anyone wanna sponsor me?? Haha) but even if I can't run in the race I decided I will still train to beat that 30 minute mark by that day. Currently I'm doing a speed training program. You train a min. of 4 days/week. Day one you sprint 300 meters, then walk 100 over and over for 5k. Then day 2, you just run a full 5k. Repeat day one, then repeat day 2. The next week (my current week) you sprint for 400, walk 100, next day run the full 5k and next, the sprinting again.
The sprinting intervals get longer and longer and you can go faster and faster at your 5k. So those are my current workouts but I reaaaaally need to start lifting weights. I need to work on my upper body and core strength. Gotta get me some of them 6 pack abs all the young'ins are sporting ;) (hey, I can dream!)
But really though. It would be raaaad to have a 6 pack!
I told my sister Bella that by Halloween I will beat her at pushups (currently she can do 15... and I can do... 1! Haha... told you i need to work on upper body strength.) My legs are getting shredded and I want the rest of me to match! Plus if I put on more muscle, the fat will melt away even faster... which I need if I wanna meet my Christmas Eve Goal of 135 lbs! So to kick off all of that I'm gonna do these challenges:

I added pushups to the second one. I'll start off doing one and then +1 everyday except the rest days and by halloween i should be able to do at least 27 :)

I have been super good this week. No cheat days at all, eating super healthy, exercising as much as I should be. And last week I was under my weekly calorie goal by like 250! (From exercise, not starving myself.)

A typical day for me food-wise, is usually (plain! Not that flavored kind in packets!) oatmeal for breakfast with a splash (1/4 cup) of milk and sprinkled with cinnamon. Or a bowl of cold cereal like cheerios or total if i want a semi-junk food treat.

Few hrs later I'll have a huge green salad (typically a whole head of romaine lettuce, 4 cherry tomatoes, one serving of feta cheese, some almonds or walnuts, a few croutons -i looove croutons- and topped with some light poppyseed dressing I picked up at BigLots which only has 40 cals per serving but I always double it cause I eat a lot of lettuce and it is the bomb.com).
So that keeps me full for awhile! Sometimes I chop some bell pepper in place of tomato. Sometimes i use both (depending on what I have) and sometimes I crumble a couple slices of bacon on it. That's right, I eat bacon. WHEN my calorie allotment allows for it and it is in moderation! I don't go bacon crazy! (I have cooked and eaten a whole pound of it before). Other days I might just have a tuna sandwich on homemade bread. Or chicken breast/mayo/cheese/mustard sandwich. The list goes on and I don't eat seconds because I'm trying to lose weight and honestly, i just don't need seconds.
My MyFitnessPal app calculates all my macronutrients and yes, I am able to get 100% of my daily recommended amounts of my essential vitamins and minerals on just 1300 calories because for the most part, I chose nutrient-dense foods.

So anyways, then I usually need a snack before dinner. Apple slices with peanut butter are a fave. Today I ate fishy crackers, even though they aren't healthy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no need for me to get discouraged. I only had a couple handfulls (really tho) and so I still stayed under my calorie limit. It is almost always fruit though, for my snack.

Dinner is usually a meat and a biiiig pile of a cooked veggies. Either 2 boneless skineless chicken breasts (you can get a huge bag of those frozen babies at Costco for like $25 bucks. Hella worth it.) Or it'll be a pork chop or one 4oz steak or turkey burger etc. And the veggie is typically squash from our garden or broccoli, spinach or green beans cause those are all my favorite. Sometimes I do steamed or sauteed bok choy or swiss chard. With a little salt OMG #nom!

Aaaand that's it. In bed by 9 usually, full night's sleep and repeat the next day with whatever variation fits into my 1300 calorie days. Last night I had a no-sugar-added banana berry smoothie cause I ran and I deserved it! But I don't usually eat back my workout calories.

My 1300 allotment is -500 calories from what my body burns per day if I do no exercise. If I were to go for an extra long run and burn an additional 500 I might eat a couple hundred back but that's cause you don't want to have a deficit of over 1000 because it may slow your metabolism. So usually my calories are cut and I workout on top of it. My runs usually burn 400 calories +/-. Oh and unless my run ends right before a mealtime, I have a whey protein shake (chocolateeeeee!) Immediately afterwards. If you don't have a smartphone or don't want to/can't use MyFitnessPal to figure out how many calories to eat, you can go here: http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/ For a good BMR calculator.

I feel amazing physically. I have lost 22 lbs and it makes a difference. I now get up in the morning and my feet don't hurt from the weight! I have a lot more energy! I just have this happy feeling!
I used to not like to turn my head down cause then I would feel how big my double chin was getting. Now I do it on purpose to see if its gotten smaller. (Yeah, I'm weird).

Emotionally, I feel amazing too. I feel happy. That's the best way to describe it. I'm just tickled with my accomplishments I guess. Not in a cocky or conceited way at all, but I'm proud of what I'm doing and for the first time in years I'm getting back some confidence and self-esteem this whole weight loss thing is working for me, nothing is gonna stop me now! I am changing forever!

"Potential is worthless if it is never being developed and used"

Don't let your excuses and obstacles stop you! Challenge yourself!