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Year 2 and What's New

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2 YEARS 👉🏼 2020-2022 July 8th is my anniversary with myself. I saw my social media memories pop up that day and almost shared it, but decided that I’d wait until I had the time to really cover all of the information I wanted to about this. This now marks 2 YEARS that I’ve been working on myself: physically, mentally, and emotionally.   I made the decision to share this on social media as a piece of accountability and during that first year, it truly helped keep me motivated. Knowing that I have even one person watching me and keeping up with what I am attempting to accomplish was enough to keep me going. I worked out mostly at home using Beachbody, which I am forever grateful for, with the occasional appearance in the gym, until I stepped away from that “for good” for personal reasons. I was learning to make more positive healthy food choices and slowly started dropping old habits. I focused heavily on the scale and. inches lost, utilizing my scale as a tool and positive experience.
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What I've Lost < What I've Gained

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It's hard to believe a year has already passed. I am struggling with writing this because I thought I would be so much more excited about where I would be at the end of my first year, but it's not at all what I thought it would be like.  I know that this blog puts aspects of my life on display that wouldn't fit into a 280 character tweet or a minute long story on Instagram or Facebook. This one encompasses a lot of information because I made a commitment to myself that in starting this, I would be as transparent as possible in hopes that what I'm doing and going through may help someone else.  Last July when I made the choice to put myself first and focus on becoming a healthier version of me, I was focused on losing. I just wanted to lose weight. I wanted to stop taking medicines for medical issues that I could control. This is the focal point the reality in which I am living in.  Or at least it was. In 365 days, I have lost weight. I have lost inches off of my body. T
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I Read a Self-Help Book and Now I'm Ready to Host My Own Talk Show

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Life has a funny way of just smacking you in the face when you least expect it. Little things pile up, which turn into big things. Big things result into needing big feelings to get through them.  For me, and this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, I don't deal well with stress. I mean really, who does? I just know that my brain is already all over the place enough. I don't need help when adding to the chaos that is my day to day, but life doesn't care if you're not ready for changes, stress, and worry. When the stress packs on, I try to grasp at anything that makes me feel more "in control" and let's be honest, it doesn't work. It makes things WORSE. As I get older, I realize I am a control freak of sorts and I definitely do not like anyone or anything controlling what I do.  There's just no way to control everything around you and this is a hard pill for me to swallow.  Lately, there have been many situations in my life that are just bey
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Looking a Little More Fluffy

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  My absolute favorite Barrett look is when he gets all fluffy. Living in Florida, the fluff gets hot for him so I don't let him stay fluffy for long, but damn if he isn't the snuggliest little dude ever when his hair gets all long! However, I don't like me as much when I get all fluffy. It's not nearly as cute to see or snuggle up to I'm sure! 😅 To be transparent, I want to talk about the successes AND the struggles as I power through this weight loss and healthy lifestyle journey I'm on. Right now, I am driving the struggle bus a bit.  Really, the number on the scale is not everything and I now know that. In the past, I have focused so much on that little digital number and would get super discouraged if I saw fluctuation, especially if it was headed in an upward direction. But losing weight is so much more than that. It's about the way you feel, the confidence you have in the way you look and yourself in general, but more importantly, maintaining a susta
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9 Week Control Freak Results

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  9 Weeks.  45 Workouts. Consistency and just freaking trying, especially on the days where I don't want to. I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THESE RESULTS, Y'ALL! Slowly and steadily, I am seeing the results that I've been working for. I've celebrated birthdays, transitioned between different work positions, and have struggled with bouts of stress and anxiety from life curveballs that are beyond my control in just a few short weeks. However, I didn't use food as a crutch like I would in the past and chose to deal with that stress/anxiety by consistently working out in the comfort of my house. Every day was not perfect with my nutrition or in a workout, but I refused to let myself fall completely off track. Photos on the left (grey sports bra) were taken on January 3, 2021 after a LONG 15 hour car ride back from Tennessee. Photos on the right (black sports bra) were taken yesterday, March 6, 2021, as I finished up my last workout for  9 Week Control Freak.   Starting Weight (1
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Progress Update with a Side of Cheesecake

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(February 8, 2020 - February 6, 2021) The blog really is my new best friend. I'm sitting here eating a piece of cheesecake while writing this. No joke. It's dad's birthday and at one point in my life, I would feel guilty eating something so sweet while dieting. Oh what a sin that would be! But I'm not dieting. It's a lifestyle change. If I want a piece of cheesecake, I'll eat the damn piece of cheesecake! But I'll compensate for the it by eating intentionally during the rest of the day (which is exactly what I did.) For those of you that have been following my weight loss journey, I started out posting updates on Facebook and Instagram. Sure, I still share those moments on there but I try to keep them short now to spare those that would rather scroll past my 8 paragraph-long posts. My long-winded posts are here now and like this blog, I'm glad you're here, too!  Today's post is just a progress update over the past seven months, focused in on the
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Shifting Your Direction

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  Self-care.  It's honestly confusing. I know I have been all about posting how much exercising and eating better has changed my way of thinking and overall mindset lately. These things have truly added so many positives to my life: I feel better and have more energy, I am able to make better choices about what I need to fuel my body, and I am able to feel a sense of pride that I've never felt before knowing that I am trying to make a lifestyle change. But that does not mean that every day I want to do a workout or ride my bike. That does not mean that I want to say no to what used to be my go-to comfort food on a bad day. It definitely does not mean that I am happy with the way that I look when I see myself, no matter how much weight I've lost.  IT. IS. A. STRUGGLE. January of 2021 has already brought in unwanted change in my life across so many areas and it's only month 1 of 12. (WTF - how is it already February?) In the last two weeks specifically, I have struggled
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