Fitness with Fluff

  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...

(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 ...

  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 ...

  I might be a little biased, but I have the cutest fitness fluff around. Everyone deserves the same amount of support that my dog gives me. Who wouldn't want to push harder when you have a squeaky Chewbacca being chewed in your ear?  But let's back up. Working out and fitness has never been my thing. The only fitness I could refer to would be how many donuts could I fitness big mouth of mine to be completely honest. I have never been in a shape other than round throughout my entire life.  My weight has yo-yo'd back and forth. I've tried a few different things to make this weight fall off, but nothing has ever stuck with me. Recently, I began playing a game of medication roulette: blood pressure medication, metformin for my PCOS all on top of anxiety medication. At 28 years old, this is not the most idealistic situation to put myself in. Who and what is to blame? Is it genetics? Sure, maybe part of it. Is it the steroids in chicken nuggets that I ate as a child? Probab...

"You know how there's some fat people that are mean and they don't play with you? Well, you're not like that. You're FUN fat!"  -7 year old little boy, circa 2008. FUN FAT. The quote you see above was taken from a little boy for that I used to babysit back when I was in high school. He was super excited that day because it was the first day that we got to swim in the new in-ground pool that was dug that summer and he couldn't wait for his "fun-fat" babysitter to let him finally go outside. Oh words straight from the mouths of babes... For years, I have thought back to this genuinely sincere and innocent comment he made that day. It's one of my favorite stories to tell because it's just so comical to think of fun fat as a compliment. But really, I couldn't think of a better way to sum up my life over the past 28 years than with those two words. My name is Taylor. I am fluffy, sometimes funny, always obsessed with my four-legged fluff (...