Its been a little over a month since I have rote and that’s because for a while there I had Nothing to talk about. I was going through the same cycles I had been. Still doing keto although I fell off the wagon for almost a week mid June. I was still struggling a little bit with my mental health and still working on myself best I could. But now I have some news to share!
I’m sure I have mentioned this before (or not?) but I live fairly close to a gym and I have talked about how I wanted to start walking there to work out but My anxiety was getting in the way. Well June 28th I did it! I got enough courage an I walked to the gym! A total of one and a half miles there and back! the first few times I was full of anxiety but Now I have made the trip almost a dozen times and not only am I confident about it I love it! I really feel as if the walk does my Brain some good. Its to the point now that I look forward to going to the gym and Its all I can think about for most of the day. It feels So Good to get back to moving again and doing something I can be proud of and that is good for my body.
I have been working on cardio for at least 20 min each time I go to the gym along with tanning and total body enhancement (idk if it actually does anything tho) and as of yesterday have started to add in some weights. I am still learning to juggle all of the things in my daily life along with my almost 2 hours at the gym (counting the total 40 min walking time) and I’m working on building other good habits every day!
I have mentioned Keto briefly in s few of my recent posts and I posted about it last year as well but its something I wanted to make a more in Depth post about. as a disclaimer I am not a Dr or a nutritionist or any of those things.
When I first learned of keto I lived in a hotel with my ex husband and I lived on Brussel sprouts and eggs for breakfast, an avocado and tuna for lunch and chicken and Asparagus for dinner with a few other things sprinkled in here and there. I didn’t even know I was doing keto at fist. At the time I had tried so much. I Studied so many different diets. I went Vegetarian. I watched All the health documentaries, I exercised, I took supplements. I did it all. But keto was what worked. Why did I stop? I have no Idea.
Over the last few years (its been 4) I have often thought about going keto again but I didn’t have that final push to actually do it. maybe It was because I wasn’t ready to give up all the things I knew that I would have to or maybe because I was worried I wouldn’t have the support that I needed. Then My Dr recommended keto. I had my push. I started brushing up on my keto Knowledge. I watched lots of Thomas DeLauer videos on YouTube. I cleaned out my kitchen of anything that would tempt me or derail my journey. then I went shopping, Several times at several stores. My Initial plan was to Get as much Keto Foods as I could To get myself set on the path to success. By my actual first day on keto (April 5th) I had all kinds of good solid keto foods.
If you dont know Keto rules are
1.) No bread, pasta, rice, sugar
2.) Avoid Bananas and other fruits (berries are ok in moderation)
3.) Less than 20-25 cards a day
4.) Eat lots of healthy fats
5.) Electrolytes are important!
6.) Lots of water!!
There are probably more but Those are the ones I could think of. Its also super Important to take Vitamins as with almost any diet. Other things that can make all the difference are MTC oil and collagen (pill or powder) Although Mtc can be Tricky (you could say lol) I am learning so much about keto every day. In the beginning I didn’t know half of what I know now and I’m sure that right now I don’t know half of what I will in a month or two.
When I first started I focused so much on what I couldn’t have that I didn’t realize all the things I could have but once I shifted my Focus to what I could have I actually started to enjoy Keto. It was always fun to go find new keto things in the different stores near me and now I could tell you keto substitutes or a keto way for a lot of things. Now I’m 7 weeks in and I love my new carb and sugar free life style.
In the beginning I sat down and asked myself what I wanted to come out of keto. My answers were
1.) Lose weight
2.) Manage my pcos
3.) Fix my binge eating
Keto has done all of these thing for me and more. One big one is that now my teeth are not as sensitive. I have paired keto with an fasting schedule and I hope to add in some exercise as well (I’m lazy lol forgive me) but for now I’m just focusing on fine tuning my keto. I plan to post keto things on my blog often and give regular updates so stay tuned for that. I will add in some keto information photos as well. Before I go I would like to remind everyone I am not a dr, nutritionist, so before making any Health Decisions please consult you regular Doctor.
I just found out that I can create polls on here! How cool in that! I’m not exactly sure anyone is even Reading my blog but I thought it would be fun to add in a poll.
Even tho I have been gone for some time and my mental health has been a little rocky I still refuse to give up on this weight loss journey. I don’t remember where we left off so Ill give you a run down of the last few months.
November/December: I injured my knee and then it was to cold to workout in my garage so i sold my equipment
January/February: My best friend and I joined a gym and were going several times a week. but after awhile schedule conflicts happened and we stopped going.
March/April: Near the end of march I wend to see my Dr and she suggested Keto. I have done keto before and it worked for me so i decided to give it a go once more. I started keto April 5th (day after Easter) I knew a bit about keto but I still dove in and started learning more about it. I learned lots of things and I’m still learning every day. I lost nearly 30 pounds my first month of keto.
So that brings Us to May. I’m still doing keto and I love my sugar and carb free life style. a lot of people tell me that it is a dramatic change and that they are not sure how I do it. but it almost comes natural to me. I never liked carbs that much anyway. Giving up sugar was a little bit of a challenge for me but I had such an Unhealthy relationship with food, mainly junk food and sugar that the change was incredibly positive for me. I don’t crave the things I use to and my old habit of binge eating is basically non existent now. Even though I lost nearly 30 pounds in the fist month keto is far from a quick fix. It takes a lot of Dedication and time.
There are lots of change that I still need to may in my life for my health and wellness. I’m constantly trying to get enough water and I want to add in some Exercise because there is always room for improvement.
Have you ever wondered why you try? Why you care? or What’s the point? Well, that’s exactly where I’m at. I’ve been struggling to make a post on this blog for over a month now. Even though I am doing things to better my life And I wanna tell you all about them. If there’s anybody even there that is. I’m going to try my best to get back to This, even if it’s just once every 2 weeks. With the warmer season coming, getting out and getting into the sun might be better for my mental health. Plus in just a couple weeks, I’ll be putting my garden in And we know how well that went last year. Talk to you guys about my new keto journey And all the big plans I have this year. Also, it’s nice to reflect back on the years past. So stay tuned and if anybody is actually there, drop me a comment And I’ll talk to you next time.
I’m late on typing this up by 5 ish days. (who’s counting tho?) I must admit the last few days of October I was cought up in the Halloween Festivities and Didn’t even have time to think about this post. October was good to me for the most part. I lost only 2 pounds but a total of 12 inches and if that’s not something to be excited about I’m not sure what is. I crushed my Monthly challenge to Exercise 4x a week. I could have done better with my nutrition but that’s a battle for another day. I wanted to share complete tracker page of my journal before I share my plans and goals for November so here it is.
In total there are 19 leafs filled in. There would have been more but I injured my ankle early in the month and had to take 3 days off. I probably should have taken longer but I didn’t want to go down a road of no exercise.
For November my Goals are
Continue to exercise 4x a week
Gallon a day challenge
Jump rope challenge
More Self care days
For my Jump rope challenge I decided to try to see how many jumps I could do before I just couldn’t go on. I got 50 in 5 min. Then I decided to just do time slots so for the first 5 days I’ll do 5 min and then on Day 6 and up I’ll add a min every day or every few days Depending how my body is handling it. I also decided to count and record how many I’m getting. Today I got 110 in 5 min. So I’m improving already.
Below are a few pages for this month
Hello November cover pageThis months Quote. November exercise trackerWhat I’m thankful for. My husbands name is in spot one!
I also have a calendar page after my Quote page and a Reflection page in at the end of the month but They had some personal information so, I didn’t share. Next month I’ll be sure to get pictures before anything is filled in. Hopefully this month is as good to me or better than last.
I have been working on the content for this post for a few weeks now and because I’m a Perfectionist that ment I started over allot. But I think I’m finally happy with what I have. I was looking for motivation and inspiration to keep me going on this journey and I stubbled Upon A post on Pinterest of a Bullet journal page. I had never even heard of a Bullet journal before that. So I typed Bullet journal into the ser h bar and Holly crap the stuff I found was endless. People were using this style to track and log everything from dreams and goals to Everyday tasks. There was so much to look at that I scroll Pinterest for hours. Then I went to YouTube and found more and more information. I thought what if I could make my own journal pages to help me keep track of my workouts, to keep record of my weight and measurements, and to write down all my goals. So I got to work and after Weeks of working I finally have something I’m happy to show you.
This First page is My October calendar. (I drew the candy corn and spider web) I found the treadmill Stencil yesterday and decided that it would be fun to add it to days I worked out as one of may ways to keep track. Other than that it’s just a calendar lol.
The next page is a quote that is important to me at this time in my journey.
My third page is one I have spent a lot of time on and actually Re did it several times before I was happy with what I had. This is my workout tree. The idea for this one is to color a leaf for every day of the month I have worked out. It make me want to workout because I enjoy seeing the leafs colored in.
The next page is a weekly check in almost like a tiny journal so I can Wright down how I feel I did that week.
The last page is my monthly reflection it’s a place for me to record how my month went, weight lost, quotes, challenges and things of that nature.
I will have more pages to show soon but for now I hope you have injoyed these.
Lately I have been struggling to find time to Wright in my blog. I also have been struggling to keep to my September challenge. I have to say that my original challenge to walk everyday has been a bust. Between my husbands and my conflicting schedules and The basics of being a stay at home mom, finding time is just impossible. I haven’t given up but I haven’t been able to walk every day as I had hoped. Now Its the end of the month and the end of my challenge.
Even tho my challenge wasn’t exactly completed I still plan to give myself full credit for what I have accomplished this month because even though it’s less than planned I moved more this month than I have in the past and even as I type this I’m working on my Exercise bike.
In the past i have had a habit of giving up when the going gets tough or life tosses me off my path. This time around that will not be the end result. Maybe its because my support system is light years different or because I have more resources now but this time I’m in it till the end. I love how I feel these days, every day I feel stronger and every workout is Easier. This challenge has helped me keep my head in the game and stay more active than I would have. So how did I do this month? Well in total I worked out 16 days… Not to good, just a day over half the month but as I said I walked more than I have in the past. Also this month I lost 8 pounds!!! Eight!! I know it doesn’t sound like much but that’s incredible to me.
October brings 31 new days, 31 chances to be better, and a new challenge. My October challenge will be to work out 5x a week. I realize this is almost the same as My walk everyday challenge but it may be more Obtainable for 2 reasons. One.. Workout is a larger category in general than just walking everyday and two I’m giving myself 2 days of rest a week. I also have a few thing I hope to accomplish in October such as
Lose 5 pounds
Work up to 30-45 min workouts
Work on my self care
It’s a small list but hopefully all Obtainable. So here’s to the end of September and the beginning of October!
Today marks my half way mark into my September challenge. If you didn’t already know I Challenged myself to walk every day of September. It’s been a Rocky start. But I’m hanging in there. Some days I counted my grocery shopping or laundry as my walk (lots of walking involved in both) and other days I walked a mile around my neighborhood in the rain…. Actually I did this 3 days in a row. Then I decided I wasn’t going to do that any more. I went on the hunt for a second hand Treadmill. I found a good one it wasn’t to old, it was digital, folded up, and Inclined. The best part only 25.00 I set up a time to pick it up the next day. I woke up and sent the seller a message that morning asking if I was still set for my 11 o’clock pick up. I got the response “It’s Sold sorry” I was devastated. I started looking again. Nothing. Then I came across an Elliptical. Digital display, works, 25$. I went and got it.
So if you haven’t already Guessed I’m changing my challenge from walking everyday to Working on my elliptical. I already got a work out in and it went a little something like This:
I went to the Garage where my Elliptical is currently at. I was ready I had my Alexa for music, I Created a small workout Playlist. I was pumped. I climbed up on my new machine with Full confidence. I started going and my knee hurt every time my foot came back down but I brushed it off as my creaky joints not being use to the motion and kept going after a minute or so my knee was OK. I was going a decent pace and my heart rate was in fat burn and cardio levels. I’m starting to breath deep and heavy. Fast forward a few min. About 5 min in and I’m breathing like I’m having a baby all over again. My heart rate is at Peak, and I’m doing all I can to push through. I reach the 8 minute mark, my heart is pounding out of my chest, The bottoms of my feet ake Like no other, my Legs are burning with the Intensity of a thousand suns and I’m Scream/Grunting my way through the burn as Eye of the tiger Is coaxing Me to just make that 10 min mark…. And I did it. The longest toughest 10 min of this Challenge but I did it. I got off that Elliptical and my legs hurt so bad I could have fell Right over but I felt Amazing. And I can’t wait to do it again tomorrow.
I’m a big girl, Most of my life I have suffered from Asthma so me and Running is a no. But I want to push myself to achieve my goals. I am challenging myself to walk every day of the month of September. I decided it’s a good place to start in my journey to be healthier. So far I’m doing good. I’m almost a 3rd of the way into the month and I have yet to miss a day. I do tend to get creative. One day we went to the store and Were in such a hurry we Power walked around doing our shopping and I counted my walk for that day. Yesterday I had to do laundry and so I counted carry my laundry baskets as part of my walk because I didn’t use the carts at the laundry matt. Than the same day I had to take a tote full of my daughters clothes to the re sale shop and carried the tote the long way around. Every day I find a way
Today however I wanted to push myself a bit. So I decided I would add some running into my walk in a HIT style. I walked to the end of my block then turned down my side road where the blocks are smaller maybe about half a regular block. Anyway I lightly ran a block than walked than ran then walked then turned around walked the block again than ran, walked, ran. It was hard. My lungs were on fire. I forgot to bring water. And my shins Burned. The first block was OK but as I kept going it got harder. I found myself tired sooner in the block but I still pushed myself and didn’t stop until I got to the end of the block. I feel so Accomplished.
It’s the small victories that get us through challenges like this. The small victories That help us push even farther. The small victories that add up to our bigger goals. I know I can run a block. So now I’m going to try it again Mayne not tomorrow but maybe the day after, Maybe Ill try every other day. And maybe by the end of the month That block will be a Breeze to run. I’ll never know till I try.
The Curvy Dreamer 