Big Day!!

Well today was finally the day where I hit my 100 pound weight loss! I am so proud of my accomplishment! It's tough work but this feeling is better than what any food tastes like! On to my new goal! 

Swimsuits

Typically really hate swimsuits. We took the kids to Watiki Waterpark in Rapid City SD this weekend. The last time we were there was almost exactly 4 years ago. The proof is in the pictures! Here's 2010...

Granted, I had just had a baby 8 ish weeks before, but wow! 

Here's today! Feeling confident in a swimsuit and my hubby bearing no coverup t-shirt either! 

We are loving different bodies and feeling confident in swimwear. 

Goal for 2014

This post could get a bit mushy and emotional, so if your not into that (Bel) you might not want to continue reading.

While your body is changing when you begin to lose weight, it is hard to look in the mirror and see the new you. Before when I was much thinner and gained the weight, I had the opposite affect. I had a difficult time looking in the mirror and seeing the fact that I had put on as much weight as I had. I called it body dysmorphic syndrome. I swore I was the same skinny person but all of my clothes were tighter. I remember looking in the mirror in November 2010 and I was appalled of my appearance. It was so hard realizing I had let myself get that far. Throughout my years of weight loss, I have never felt that I have changed from the girl that had gained all of the weight. I remember people asking if I had lost weight, so they must have noticed. Even up to this November, when I had numerous people at work telling me how skinny I was I couldn't see what they were talking about because I was still seeing Kendra from 2010 in the mirror. I knew I had lost weight, but my psyche wasn't letting me see it. Seriously just this past month, I was walking into a building and I could see a reflection in the mirror of the front doors, and I remember telling myself, "that girl is adorable and so skinny" It was me! I was ashamed that I haven't given myself the credit I deserve for working so hard.

Part of my goals for 2014 is to let go of things I can't control especially when it comes to others opinions of me. I care far too much of what others think of me and it consumes and controls me. So I am letting that go, but this also means that I have to let go of the person I was in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. I am not that girl anymore and she doesn't control me. I have grown so much and have changed in so many ways that I need to embrace who I am today and accept whatever that is.
One of my favorite quotes to help me remind myself of this is ....
 

I must accept myself in order to find peace. I don't know what happened today, but it hit me and I feel peace with me.

One thing that I am finding is journaling. My dear friend Emily got me a daily journal for Christmas, where you write down one thing that day, and this journal is for 5 years. It is the coolest thing ever. "This classic memory keeper is the perfect way to track the ups and downs of life, day by day. The 365 daily entries appear five times on each page, allowing users to revisit previous thoughts and memories over five years as they return to each page to record the current day's events."
http://www.amazon.com/One-Line-Day-Five-Year-Memory/dp/0811870197/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390448919&sr=8-1&keywords=daily+journal

So in this journal, I have decided to write down one line a day about something that I did for my health every day. It can be emotional, physical, spiritual, etc. So like one day, I wrote "I took a nap, like a two hour heaven sent nap. It was amazing" (I am not much of a napper, but on this day I NEEDED a nap). Another day it was, "I laughed on the phone with a friend and it was exactly what my heart needed." I am so excited to look back on the all the things that I have done for myself. I think it will help remind me of the great things I do that makes me a better person. This gift was perfect!

So for 2014, I see beauty, strength, bravery, drive, passion, grace, and humility, instead of thunder thighs, jiggly arms, weak core, cellulite, and love handles. I will not judge myself or talk badly about myself. I am accepting the flaws that I have, knowing I am not perfect. I will continue to let things go that I can't control. I will accept others opinions of me, as I can't change them. I will be happy with me!

Ok, done with the mushy stuff...off to bed!

Holy Hard Workout

So I have recently been dealing with a weight loss plateau. I have needed something to jump start weight loss again. From the research I have done, plateauing it normal and occurs after you have been trying to lose for 6 or more months. Research says to try new workouts or pick up the intensity of work outs. So I decided to look at some new ideas for workouts. I looked to my Pinterest board and thought one workout that I had just pinned might be a good one to try. It is a Fat Burning Treadmill Workout from the girls of the Bravo TV show Toned Up. It looked hard which I needed. I also hate running, but I know that running burns a lot of calories. It also has incline and speed which I thought was a great change up to my regular routines.

So I thought last night to give this one a try, HOLY HARD WORKOUT!!! I got through the first 2 sets and then had to modify it because it was too hard for me! So my new goal is to tackle this stinkin treadmill workout so I don't have to modify it at all. So instead of giving up on the entire workout I kept the incline, because it was targeting new muscles that don't get worked on a flat run. My butt and thighs were on fire! I set the treadmill to 12% incline and set my speed to 4.2 and walked (fast paced) for 22 more minutes, Then because I am intensifying my workouts, I went to the elliptical and and set the incline to the highest and heavy resistance. I then did another 30 minutes on the elliptical. Total last night I busted out 70 minutes of hard core cardio work. Pinterest has such great workout routines for all fitness levels. Find one that looks challenging and go for it. If you have to modify it, do like I am doing and make it a goal to not have to modify it. I know I hate running, but I do love my running legs and body in the making!

Oh and the best part is...I am no longer plateaued! Through tracking my food, cutting bad things back, and changing up my workouts, I lost 1lb. Whoop! 

Beer Cleanse vs Football Season

My team is going to the Super Bowl and I LOVE game day! Football gives me an excuse to eat yummy snack foods and drink beer. I also love beer! I am a wheat kind of girl but at home I drink Miller Lite at a whopping 96 calories per beer. Well it turns out when you drink Friday evening, Saturday evening and Sunday, you are consuming A LOT of extra calories! So after talking through my recent weight loss plateau with a friend, we came to the conclusion that I needed to eliminate some calories through my beer! BOOOOOO! This is sad for me but hopefully will help me work through my slump. Here's some good info on weight loss plateaus 

So I am doing some of these again. Tracking every bite, intensifying workouts, and continuing to increase veggies and fruits. 

So this weekend I only had 5oz of red wine and one miller lite after the Broncos marched to victory! And for the second game this what I was drinking

Some berry lemon infused water! I absolutely love my Aguazinger water infuser! You add fruits, herbs, veggies and it infuses! Love this thing! 

Here's to a healthier me as I embark to drink a bit less beer at the end of a great football season! 

Budgeting calories

Ok, in my initial post I referenced Dave Ramsey and how he not only helped us to become debt free with our finances but with our health as well. One of Dave Ramsey's biggest principles is living and sticking to a budget. When you write down and make a plan for your money you are budgeting. When you start to get good at budgeting, you start to see how much you can do with your money and you are telling your money how you want to spend it.

This is the same idea with "dieting"(I say "dieting" because I hate the word diet, it has a negative connotation because of all the crappy fads that are out there. To me you are healthier). When you begin to want to lose weight (debt) you have to look at your calorie consumption (bills). The best way to lose the weight (debt) is to write down what you are eating (bills) and log where your calories are going(budget) Your daily allotted calories is your budget. My fitness pal is an app that I used to help form my budget. They take your weight, activity level and how much weight you want to lose and create a budget for you to follow.

So you start to write down where you want your calories to go. You find out real quick the piece of cake, or quarter pounder with cheese is a waste of all of your calories. Your overtime or found money throughout the day is exercise. So let's say your budget is 1370 calories per day, you have to decide what food you can fit into the budget. I love to eat 3 meals with 2 snacks. My budget per meal needs to be between 200-400 calories and my snacks about 100 calories. Any exercise, will increase your budget. A spinning class burns about 800-900 calories an hour, walking briskly averages about 150 calories, swimming laps for 30 mins is about 300 calories.  Just remember that if you are trying to lose weight, you don't want to get into the mentality to eat the extra calories that have been added to your budget.

Once you start writing and tracking your budget, you will begin to see the results. You are telling yourself where you want your calories to go, just like Dave talks about telling your money where to go. You can plan your daily caloric intake with intent by prepping meals ahead of time and making good choices. Remember that if you are craving something like chocolate or salt. Give your self the chocolate or salt but in better ways. Like pita chips vs. chips, a hershey kiss vs. a whole candy bar. Also give yourself some grace when you start. If you screw up on one meal, don't let it impact your whole day's budget. Get back on track the next time you are going to eat, or go walk, do lunges up your stairs, do push ups on the commercial breaks etc.
I hope this helps! :)

Snacking secret

When you are watching calorie intake you probably know that your snacks can make or break your day. I try to stick to 250-400 calories per meal, so my snacks need to be filling, low calorie, and good for me. Nothing is worse than eating a snack that is crappy and being hungry before your next meal. Being overly hungry usually leads to binge eating. To avoid this, try snack prepping. Something we like to do is, prep a snack drawer in the fridge full of already cut and washed veggies and fruits in snack sized bags. This is easy as a mom as well to know what the kids are snacking on. We used to be very dependent on granola bars, fruit snacks, and goldfish. The kids now know, snacks come from the fridge drawer or the fruit bowl.

Here's another cool trick! I saw it on Pinterest and love this idea so I thought I would share. Mason jars are one of my favorite things btw...

Here I have a mason jar and an empty jello cup that I had saved from a holiday craft project. I don't throw containers away! There's always a purpose! Today the purpose is a built in dip container! 

I then filled up my jar with veggies or whatever. Mine happened to be carrots, but some alternatives to carrots are: cucumbers, squash spears, celery, bok choy, broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, apples, oranges, etc!

Take your dip of choice and measure out a serving or two. ( if your snack will serve for two times in the day). Mine is hummus! I love hummus and I typically try to make my own but haven't perfected how to make it so creamy like store bought. Hummus is super high in protein and fiber, so it is FILLING!  Anyway, measure out your favorite dip. Peanut butter, ranch, fruit dip, etc.

Next place your dipper into your jar and screw on the mason jar lid! Voila! Dip and a yummy snack! You might have to play around with different of sizes of mason jars and containers to find what works best! 

There I have 2-3 days of yummy snacks that will hold me over to my next meal. Snack away! 

Smoothie tricks!

I love smoothies! Smoothies are a great way to add some serious good foods hidden with fruit and yogurt. I found a great recipe on Pinterest that has coconut vanilla milk, pineapple, kale and spinach. I have all of these things so I figured why not try it and show some smoothie tricks. 

1. Use frozen fruits for your smoothies so you don't have to add ice! For my smoothie today we had some frozen pineapple in the freezer. 

2. Use an old spaghetti jar for your blender

I love this one because it has oz. on the side so you can measure easier. Also great for portion control. Fill it up! 

Then take your blender and unscrew the base from the large container

Once you have all you ingredients in your jar, carefully place the blade bottom upside-down and screw onto your jar. 

Then flip over and place on your blender

Look at all that kale and spinach! 

Yummy green goodness! Then unscrew the base and you can transfer into a cup, drink straight from the jar, or screw on the original lid and take to the gym, work or wherever! The best part about this recipe is this....

My sick little dude who is home from school loved it! Double win! 

Recipe for a delicious meal!

Here is one of our FAVORITE recipes! Oh my goodness! This salad has so many goodness going on! Kale is an awesome food and super high in fiber! Fiber is good you want high fiber in your diet!

Here is the link! It is also posted in my pinterest board "cooked it, loved it" We have added chicken and chick peas as well. Yumm! Yummm! Yumm!

http://pinchofyum.com/pomegranate-kale-wild-rice-salad-with-walnuts-feta

POMEGRANATE, KALE, AND WILD RICE SALAD WITH WALNUTS AND FETA

Author: Pinch of Yum

Serves: 4, as a side

INGREDIENTS

For the salad

• 1 cup pomegranate seeds
• 2 cups chopped baby kale
• 2 cups cooked wild rice (you can use leftover rice or buy precooked)
• ¼ cup toasted walnuts
• ¼ cup feta cheese

For the dressing

• ½ cup minced onion or shallot
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons honey
• ½ tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 squeeze lemon or orange juice

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Prep the salad ingredients (chop, rinse, toast, etc). Chill the ingredients in the fridge while you’re making the dressing if you want a cold salad.
2. Mince the shallot or onion and saute in ½ tablespoons olive oil to reduce the bite. When soft and fragrant, remove from heat and transfer to a food processor. (If you want a stronger flavor for your dressing, skip the sauteing altogether. The shallot in particular works well for this.)
3. Pulse the onions or shallot with the remaining olive oil, water, honey, apple cider vinegar, salt, and orange juice until smooth and creamy. Taste and adjust. Add additional olive oil or water to keep the mixture moving through the food processor.
4. Toss the salad ingredients together with the dressing just before serving. I prefer to serve this at room temperature or chilled slightly.

Look at the protein and fiber!! And under 300 calories! 

I have used other dressings as well! Play around with dressings. Just remember use dressings sparingly as that can add sneaky calories! 

Why a little less

I wanted to write this blog to help others who are changing their lives for the better. So many of our friends have asked how my husband and I have changed our lives so drastically. Why not write about to inspire others. So here is the "skinny" (pun intended)....My husband and I started Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover in June 2010. His principles have helped us become debt free, have a nice emergency fund, and beginning to invest and pay for our children's college, oh and paying off our house. Dave's principles also teach to "live like no one else so later you can live like no one else". We took this literally to life with our main focus of our health. So in 2010, I began working out with some friends from work. At my all time heaviest, I weighed 273lbs. but I didn't know my weight in 2011 because I was so embarrassed. My first run/jog, I couldn't even make it around 1/4 of the lap because I was that out of shape. I worked hard and I completed my first sprint triathlon in May 2011. I was then 227lbs. I kept at it and continued to push myself to try new things and to continue to work hard. It was difficult with eating and diet because my husband wasn't on board with me. He was overweight and in April 2013 he started to see that he couldn't continue to live overweight and out of shape. So when he got on board, our weight melted off. In December we both celebrated over 200lbs. lost. He has lost over 110lbs and I have lost 97lbs. We apply Dave Ramsey's logic of a budget and "living like no one else now so we can live like no one else later" to our health. The reason for this blog is to hopefully provide tips, insight, help, and inspiration to others who might be trying to live a more healthier lifestyle. We are by no means perfect. We are not fitness trainers. I had pizza tonight and loved every bit of it! We are human and we have really bad meals, but what sets us apart from others is that we have maintained this lifestyle for a long time and know that this is a life change. It is a way of thinking and change in everything you do. We did this without pills, shakes, or fads. It was done through discipline and tough work. But I know the difference in feeling good and not. So I hope that who ever reads this can find something that is inspirational or something that sticks. Just remember it is tiny little changes that you make, one at a time. So there is a "lot less of us in the nest"