Perception is Everything

So as Danny and I try to get motivated to start our healthy eating and workout regimes since we decided we are done "spoiling" ourselves after the wedding, I find myself trying to comprehend my outlook on life and how I want to live it going forward.  Danny has been especially interested this time around (usually I always have to convince him) and it's refreshing.  As I eat my fruit on the bottom yogurt with the added chia seeds I picked up at the store, I reflect back on my journey and where I am now.  For the first time in my life, I don't have a time frame on my body.  I can live in the now and not look to the future.  Many times when I've set a weight loss goal for myself, I always had an end date on it.  The wedding diet was a big one.  If I could just get to March 16th, I will be be able to eat that piece of cake, those cookies, those carbs (insert unhealthy food here), I would say to myself.  Now that Danny and I are settling into our lives as husband and wife, it feels invigorating because I know that there is no time frame on it.  I don't have to go crazy with my diet and exercise.  I can just live for today and be the best that I can be.  I've spent too much of my life dreaming about being a better version of myself physically, but I've found that I will never be happy that way. I will only be happy if I accept who I am now, so that when I become a healthier version in the future, I appreciate it.  I've struggled with this a lot because after losing 20 lbs for the wedding, I still saw myself as the slightly overweight girl that I was before I started losing the weight.  Even after the wedding, I have kept off the majority of the weight, but I still feel like I'm not healthy.  I truly believe perception is everything and that's why I think its so important to live with myself today instead of hoping for the future.

Can I add "Healthier than you think" to the list?

I came across a blogpost from The Aspiring Southern Housewife who wrote Size Doesn't Matter.  This was a great post and if you have a few minutes, read it.  She mentions a site called, Size Wise which tests how well you know your size.  I took the online quiz and I was shocked with my body perception.  I was 5% smaller than I thought I was! Check out the Size Wise quiz and let me know what you think.

Another interesting read I came across was a book by Kjerstin Gruys called, "Mirror, Mirror Off the Wall: How I Learned to Love My Body by Not Looking at It for a Year".  I highly recommend this book because it will change the way you not only look at your own body, but how society shapes our perception of our bodies.

As far as my journey to a healthy lifestyle, I've realized that it's not a journey, it's life.  It has to be a part of my daily life.  I want to live each day as me and be happy with where I'm at today instead of hoping for a better tomorrow.

Half Marathon

Danny and I signed up for our first half marathon!! I am very excited since this is one of my bucket list items before I turn the big 3-0.  I haven't run seriously since before the wedding, but I'm hoping to fall into a routine again.  I am so lucky to have a supportive husband that is willing to do something like this with me! He encouraged me to start running when we first met.  I had never liked it since I never thought I was good at it, but ever since we started running to get in shape for the wedding, I've discovered I can do it.  When I achieve my goals, it is worth the pain that it takes to get to that point.  I can't wait for this new endeavor and to achieve the new goal I set out for myself! 121 days, here we go!

Happy Tuesday!

Happy Tuesday everyone! Today I had a successful day.  Tuesdays are always my Weight Watcher meetings day.  I know I've mentioned before that meetings are essential to my progress and weight loss journey and this week was no different.  For the last two weeks, I was struggling to get back into it.  For two weeks in a row, I either stayed the same or lost just a pound after picking up Weight Watchers again.  I thought this was unusual for me becuase I lost the first ten pounds so quickly when I first joined that I thought this time would be the same.  After day to day dedication to the Weight Watchers diet and working out almost everyday, I finally had a good week.  I lost a total of 4.2 lbs this week, making my total weight loss 16 lbs.  This was an awesome accomplishment for me because this was the exact weight that I stopped at the first time around.  I am very happy with the results and can't stop smiling when I look in the mirror.  I'm hoping to lose another 10 lbs for the wedding, but this was the push I needed to allow myself to know I am capable of achieving my weight loss goal.  Here is a before and a now shot showing the progress I have made so far:

Before                 Now

Today was also awesome because I found out my Zumba instructor teaches a class on Tuesdays and I was able to attend it today! She is so awesome and motivating no matter how bad of a dancer you are (AKA ME).  Her dances are so fun too so I was really excited to find out that I am able to go to Zumba class twice a week.

Weight Watcher Tuesday

I went to my first Weight Watchers class in over 3 months today.  Danny and I joined Weight Watchers soon after we got engaged because we knew we wanted to get fit and look amazing on our special day (I mean, what bride or groom wouldn't?).  I joined back in July and found a lot of success with the program.  After I had lost over 15 lbs from the program, I started to drift a little and before I knew it, I was back in my old habits.  I was eating out on the weekends, getting food from my favorite takeout restaurant, and forgetting about tracking my consumption of food because lets face it, it wasn't the healthiest foods I was consuming.  Just when I thought I was at the top of my game with the Weight Watchers program, I had stumbled a few times which unravelled everything I had been working towards.

Luckily, after going to the meeting today, I realized that even though I struggled with losing weight for the past three months, most of the struggle was owning up to my eating and exercising habits.  Matter of fact, I still have a 12 lbs weight loss since starting the program meaning I maintained most of my weight loss.  This accomplishment made me feel good about how far I had come.  Even though I hadn't lost any additional weight, I wasn't starting over.  I was picking up where I left off and that was an amazing feeling.  I know I will have to battle with my weight my entire life, but it's good to know that if I struggle I can pick up where I left off and develop healthy habits that will help me maintain my weight and healthy lifestyle.  A healthy lifestyle is important to me and my new family.  I want to make sure I can do everything I can now to prepare myself to have a long, healthy life for me, Danny, and our future children.

My next steps on this journey are to always go to my weight watcher meetings at work.  These meetings really are my anchor and they continue to inspire me every week.  I noticed when I struggled the most, it was because I didn't have this awesome support system.  Another goal of mine is to cook more at home.  I feel like I say this so much to Danny, but when the weekends come, I never seem to pull through! Once I finally have a normal work schedule, I'm hoping to be able to apply this on a daily basis or at least more often than I do now.  My last goal is to be happy with my weight and my progress.  Throughout my success with Weight Watchers, I was always concentrating on the number and not how losing weight made me feel.  It always mattered how much I lost and how much closer I was to the "ideal" weight.  I spoke to my Weight Watchers leader about choosing my weight goal and she said now that I am in a healthy range, it doesn't matter about the number, Its all about feeling comfortable within myself to know this is the healthy weight for me.  That was important advice for me to hear. 

That's enough Weight Watchers talk for now.  Hopefully soon I will blog about the many new and yummy recipes I found to try out!

Life Update

Since I haven't blogged in over three months, here's an update on everything that's been happening in my life.  We scheduled our engagement pictures for the end of September and at that point I had a total weight loss of 15 lbs.  I was ecstatic with the progress I had made and it reflected in the pictures.

Engagement Picture - September 2012

Also, the weekend after our engagement pictures were taken, Danny and I ran our first 5K together which was one of my original goals when I started this journey.  The 5K was so much fun and I enjoyed having someone to do it with and encourage me to my fastest mile (while also left me somewhat dying).  Overall, there was a lot that we had accomplished in the last few weeks.

At the Miller Paul Marut Memorial 5K Run in Concord, OH

Nowadays, I am continuing my healthy lifestyle aspirations and looking forward to the next step which is my wedding dress fitting in February! We have 95 days until the wedding!

Funday Sunday

Today is the first day of the work week for me and frankly, I didn't want to get out of bed to go to work this morning.  I spent the day before spending time with Danny at the local wine festival.  It was a great day that ended with drinks with friends at Willoughby Brew Co.  My body is feeling the bad choices I made yesterday however.  Since I have a big weigh in coming up on Tuesday I realized I need to get my butt in gear.  I went to the gym during work and ran 3.1 miles. Hopefully soon, I will get used to running more and more and will be able to run a 5K with Danny. This is one of my goals throughout the wedding process.  I not only want to lose weight and become healthier, but I want to create a healthy lifestyle for myself and my family.  Better start sooner, than later! Oh and 223 days until the wedding.  We still have so much to do, but I feel like we're in good shape right now.  I'm just focusing on losing weight and looking good for our engagement pictures in September!