July was a good month for me, I finally broke through one of my anxiety and started walking to the gym the end of June and during July I did it 23 more times! I lost 10 pounds this past month, a few inches and I gained so much confidence. I stuck to my keto and only had a few cheat days. I checked into help for some of my mental challenges and I planned a vacation. all in all July was a win for me. so with that I wan to say good bye July!
Its finally August! My favorite month! What’s not to love about August?! Its the month before the summer turns to fall yet its still so full of sunshine and fun days. Its the month of sunflowers, it holds national watermelon day and August 6th is both National root beer float day (my favorite) and My birthday!! My daughters birthday is also in August. This August will be full to the rim for my family. We will be going on zoo trips and visiting our local petting farm, My daughters birthday, camping over my birthday weekend and A family vacation to Frankenmuth MI at the end of the month. although I have a month packed full of activity’s I still have Goals for the month such as:
Keeping it keto (with exception for vacation)
lose 10 pounds
work on self care
tidying my home Daily
walking more
save as much as possible
I’m sure there are a few more but these are the main ones. August is my month to shine!
My relationship with food has always been Rocky and I’m sure some of you car relate. I thought keto would Improve this for me but I was wrong in some ways. The even that brought me to this realization was Camping. My little and I went camping with my grandma, Aunt, sister, and cousins. we left for cam Tuesday morning and were meant to stay till Friday but my little and I came home Wednesday due to it being to cold during the night. Anyways I decided that I would let myself have a non keto treat during camp. when we went to the store I first could not bring myself to chose anything that was along the lines of unhealthy. Then last min I just grabbed some of my old favorites and tossed them in the cart. then later that night When almost everyone was asleep I Binged on junk… Donuts, cookies, chips, chocolate and 3 smores.
I felt absolutely terrible about myself… but then I didn’t because I thought back to when we were at the store and I realized how hard it was for me to chose something that was unhealthy for myself. Yes I did have a junk Binge but I have not had Sugar or junk since Easter that’s 74 days. When I look back before I made my keto decision I could fill a cart with snacks and junk think nothing of it. I didn’t eat strict junk but I at a lot of it, and I ate to fill my feelings. But yet I would eat and I would feel so guilty for what I just did. and the kicker is I felt guilty no matter what I ate.
The relationship I have with food is so much more mindful since starting Keto. I don’t look at eating the same way I don’t feel ashamed of eating and I stop and I think about what I am putting in my body now. I look at the nutrition label, I watch the sugars, I read the top Ingredients. Before I didn’t care and now I do. my relationship with food is Improving and It took a Binge for me to realize it.
Today I was on YouTube and came across a video of someone doing a walking workout made by another youtuber. She was sayin that the workout was supposed to burn between 300-600 calories or something like that and yet was not a super hard workout. I was intrigued for a few reasons. One being that doing the Ring fit challenge I was only burring around 60 calories and It just wasn’t adding up to results for me. second reason is that I like to try new things and decided what works for me so I did!
You can find the Video HERE. Its By a creator Called GrowWithJo. When I first clicked on her Energy was amazing It made me Excited and Ready to get into it! Grow with Jo Also Mentioned you can see results in one workout. I didn’t test this however because With my Access weight I didn’t think it would be visible. When the Workout started I Was Enjoying myself from the beginning! I loved the up beat music The creator was playing and felt as if it really kept me going! there was also A counter that Kept track of how many seconds left before changing moves and that also helped me a lot.
Although I was only really enjoying myself I was only able to make it through 25 min of the 60 min workout before my legs literally could not carry on…. but I Burned 436 calories and my heartrate was in cardio or fat burn zones the hole time. Whereas when I do my Ring fit I barley get into fat burn zone. So I think I want to do a challenge With this workout and Drop the Ring Fit Challenge for now (Don’t hate me lol) I don’t want to be that person that doesn’t fallow through but I also really need to find something that’s going to work best for me in my journey. So the First Challenge is to actually get through a full 60 min. I also would like to do this 3x a week but I don’t want to set anything in stone just yet! If you are looking for a nice work out check out GrowwithJo and This Video. And if you would like me to check out any other Fitness related things leave me a comment!
There are lots of benefits of Intermittent fasting such as Weightless, normalizing Insulin sensitivity, decreasing inflammation, Improving brain function and slowing ageing just to name a few. Paring fasting with Diet and Exercise has don’t wonders for me. I typically Fallow the 16:8 Method that means every day I Fast for 16 hors and eat for 8.
A typical day for me looks something like this:
Wake up at 10 and exercise
Have my coffee be 12-1 (coffee brakes my fast)
Eat lunch around 3
Dinner between 7:30 – 8:30
Fast till I have my coffee the next day
For me fasting has helped with so much more. I have a binge eating disorder. Its a hard thing to admit because I am embarrassed by it. When I binge Its like I have no control over food. Like I am outside of myself watching all of these bad Decisions and I cant Stop myself. A lot of times I binge at night. But Since starting Fasting Its like I finally have a grasp on it. I have been fasting for almost a month and what I noticed is on the days where I don’t fast Its like the binge disorder try’s to rear its ugly head. sure its healthier foods now but its still there. But the fact that Fasting Has this Incredible power Over my Binge Disorder is amazing. I’m still learning a lot about a lot of things but Every day I’m healthier now than I was before.
I don’t know If I have actually mentioned my numbers Before But My start weight was 334 pounds and I am ashamed and Embarrassed to admit that I let myself slip that far. I had been heavy all my life. But 334 was a new high for me. A lot of things happened that lead to me being unhealthy. At one point I lost a significant amount of weight and then Ended up pregnant… I lost even more weight during pregnancy. Then Came Breast feeding…
I just want to say that Breast feeding is wonderful and amazing. I don’t want what I’m about to say stop anyone from doing it… Anyways… When I was Breast feeding I wasn’t producing enough milk and I was being told I wasn’t eating enough and more specifically that I needed to eat more carbs. I was desperate to feed my baby my own Breast milk till she was a year so I was eating Massive amounts of oatmeal 3 times a day along with other meals and wasn’t still being told it wasn’t enough. I wont get into specific details but Eating more and not producing enough milk was leading to stress and all three were leading to weight gain. In the year of best feeding I put on 50 Pounds. But the Important part was my daughter was healthy.
So I stepped on the scale today before jumping in the shower and It smiled back at me… 299.4 I cried instantly I was so proud of myself. I hit goal #1 Then I started to notice all the little things… How different It felt when My husband husband wrapped his arms around me. How Far I could wrap the towel around my body now. How Different it felt when I bent over to pick something up off the floor. How My stomach Looks when I’m sitting her Typing on my computer. Its the littlest things that are making Me feel so Much more confident.
I have so far to go yet. My next goal is 275 and I know Its just a mater of time before I get there and Im so excited! I hope to share my journey with all of you!
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’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!
As we say goodbye to August and Hello to September I have been thinking about what kind of challenges I want to overcome this month. I live in Michigan and That means September brings a lot of Change. The leaves will start to turn color, the air will become more crisp, it will be time for Apple picking and Pumpkin patches, sweaters and Fall boots, and lots more things to love about the change of the seasons. And yet all the good that comes with September It also is filled with reminders of things I would rather forget. Things of my past that I may share with you later. This year I Want to stay focused on my journey and less in my past so I have decided that I will do a challenge this month. And by that I mean I will choose a goal to accomplish every day this month no matter what. I will make a promise to myself to Accomplish that one thing. Now Today I read some of the Rachelle Hollis book Girl wash your face so Im feeling a bit Inspired. She talks about how we tend to take promises serious when we make them to others but on the other hand will almost always brake a promise to ourselves. This got me thinking about it and she is 100% true.
I am going to make a promise To finish the challenge I chose to set for myself. The problem is that I have no idea what change to give myself. I have a few Ideas but I’m still on the fence. My first Idea was a water challenge but I’m really already doing that so It wouldn’t be much of a change. Next I thought of a work out change but It has to be more narrowed down than that. So I have came up with :
Walking every day for a minimum of 10 min even if it’s walking in place.
Do yoga every day
And that’s it. For some reason I thought I would be able to come up with more but that’s all I got. Sure there are more I thought of but I’m trying to have something that’s a little challenging but also Obtainable for someone just starting out. I would love to hear some of your ideas for monthly changes. If you have an idea please leave me a comment. But until then TTFN
The Curvy Dreamer 