New Month, New Beginning

Hi, all!

Happy Friday! How are you all doing today? It's May 1st, which means a new month is upon us. Today is a clean slate, what are we going to do to make it count? There are so many things that we can accomplish this month if we put our minds to it. I shared my goals a few days ago, what are your goals for the month?

Yesterday I had another good day and I ended April on a positive note, which I'm so happy about. According to my records, I was 1041 calories under my goal (for the last 4 days of April), I had almost 1100 calories burned and 201 fitness minutes in those 4 days as well. :) I'm proud of myself for staying on track these four days because it hasn't been without hardships. Sometimes I think I need to eat more in the evening, even after I've had my snack, but I work through it and realize that I don't need it. It's especially gratifying when I talk myself out of eating some that is not necessary (like some nachos or something like that). Often in the evenings, I'm craving some sort of carb, usually chips, and I know that is not something I need. There is nothing wrong with eating chips from time to time, but in the evening, I'd eat way too many of them, so I try to avoid them. It'll be much nicer when I'm living on my own again and I won't even keep those kinds of things around.

Tonight my mom, two youngest nieces and I are going out for Chinese tonight, so it'll be tougher to keep on track today, but I'm determined to stay on track. I've already determined what I'm eating (some delicious chicken and broccoli) and I've added it to my nutrition tracker. This is how my life is going to be, there will be times that go out for Chinese or Italian or whatever else. I will eat it and enjoy it, but I'll make sure that it fits into my day.

Oh, and I just wanted to share something that I find amazing. The shirt I'm wearing today is one that I bought on Saturday. When I was trying it on, I thought it looked nice, but it was just another shirt. Today it is more than simply a new shirt, I feel more confident in it. The reason for that is that I'm working out and eating better again. I feel better about myself when I'm working out and eating properly and I think it shows. I'm more confident about myself when I'm doing well. It's an amazing feeling, I love having more confidence.

My best friend is going to be here starting on Sunday afternoon/evening and she'll be here until the following Saturday afternoon. I'm so excited to have her here, especially since I've graduated. Her sister is getting married a week from today and my best friend is the maid of honor. I can't wait for the wedding, it'll be an amazing time with a family that I've known since I was 7. Plus, I'll be able to hang out with my best friend a few times during the week that she's home. Anyways, I'm off. I hope that you all have an amazing day and an amazing beginning of the month. Until next time!

~Sara~ 

Confidence

Hi all!

Happy Tuesday! How are you all doing today? It is another dreary day, sun, where are you?!? Today is just a blah day all around, I'm sick, hopefully it'll pass through quickly. What perfect time, huh? Just in time for the holidays. In fact, my dad is sick as well and my mom was last night. So, apparently something is going around. My schedule is all out of whack this week, with Christmas, and as much as I love the holidays, I despise when my schedule is different. It'll be wonderful to see my friends this week though, I'll get coffee with my best friend on Wednesday and then part of my group of friends are getting together for lunch on Friday. Plus, spending time with family on Christmas. What do you all do for the holidays?

Even though today is not a great day, yesterday was wonderful. Yesterday morning, I had a wonderful conversation with boyfriend and it made me feel incredibly thankful and grateful for him, even from afar he is uplifting me, helping me to get out of my comfort zone and have more confidence in my body. Let me give a little back story first. Anyone who really knows me, knows that that part about me that I dislike the most is my midsection. So yesterday morning, my boyfriend wanted to see what I was wearing. I hate taking pictures like that because that shows off my midsection and I can only hide so far under my clothing. Even though I didn't say anything negative about myself in my text, my man knows me too well already. He still told me how pretty he thinks I look all the time and that he loves seeing how I look in the morning before getting ready. Bless his heart for being such a sweet man. He is continually trying to build up my confidence level in regards to my body.

To me, the right kind of confidence is the most attractive thing that a person can possess. Is it really any different the other way around? Confidence is attractive, no matter the gender. I am more confidence about my body now than I was in the past, however when it comes to my midsection, I just lose all of it. So, it is something I am really working on. When I look in the mirror, I do try to look at my midsection and think positive things about it. I have been doing this over the past week or so and it is truly helping. This is something that I am going to continue to do, especially as I am transforming myself. I am hoping that by doing this, I will find fewer faults with myself later on, as well.

Yesterday morning, I posted about how I'm feeling thankful and blessed to have my boyfriend, and one of my friends wrote a few things that really stood out to me. It stood out to me because it was from a man's perspective, which I think is really important to understand. I was telling my friend about how special my boyfriend is to me and how I am incredibly lucky to have him in my life, then he told me that my boyfriend is probably feeling the same way about me. And it's true, my boyfriend does tell me how lucky he feels that I'm his. When he says that, I tell him how sweet he is but I sort of brush it off because I suppose I feel that my boyfriend could do so much better than me. He deserves the world and even though I may not feel that I am enough for him, he gets to make that choice. If you think about it though, both people in the relationship, probably feel that way. And, what an incredible gift that we can give our partner by choosing them. We are telling our partner that we believe that they do give us the world, they are our world. God... just thinking about it gives me chills. It is such a beautiful image. All I can say is that I am incredibly thankful and blessed to have a man in my life, who believes that I give him the world, especially when the feeling is mutual. It is a blessing to have someone in your life who makes you feel that way, because some people are not that lucky.

Well, this has gotten longer than I thought it would. But now I'm off to relax for a little while before bed. I hope you all have a wonderful evening or day (depending on where you are). I have a busier day tomorrow but it should be a good one. So, until next time!

~Sara~

First Low Carb Day Recap (Day 530)

Hi all!

How is everyone doing today? I'm doing much better this morning (get to this a little later). And I'm super psyched this morning! I decided to try on some pants that I bought a few months back and they didn't really fit when I bought them (size 20's), but this morning they fit a lot more comfortably than they did back when I bought them! They just about fit perfectly, and this is quite exciting for me! Even better, the big storm we are suppose to get today, we aren't suppose to get quite as much snow now (although it is snowing as I write this).

I want to recap my first low carb day, honestly, both days were difficult (for different reasons). Yesterday, I felt very satisfied, I ate a ton but I never made it to my calorie goal (in fact I don't think I reached any of my nutritional goals yesterday). I'll share that with you here:

Type	Carbs	Protein	Fats
Total	173	347	144
Used	120	118	87
Left	53	229	57

These were my numbers for yesterday, as you can see I was quite a bit under each category (especially protein). I don't think I could have ate more yesterday if I tried, because I ate 5 delicious meals. As I have stated in past posts, I really want to be eating healthy foods while doing this (and in general). But last night I had to give in and had these crackers, just to up my carb total (they added 40 grams of carbs, 10 grams of fat, and 6 grams of protein). I didn't get anywhere near my calorie goal either, 1687 was my total. That's a 503 deficit from predetermined deficit to lose weight. But I couldn't eat anymore last night, because my stomach was a little upset. I'm not sure if that was because of the drastic change of my diet overnight or if it was something else. All I know is that I'm feeling much better this morning. So today is my second low carb day, and I have a few goals today.

1. Eat more carbs throughout the day (to put me closer to my goal)

2. Eat more protein throughout the day

3. Eat more calorie dense foods (to put me closer to my calorie goal)

4. Continue eating lots of veggies

5. Add fruit to the mix (to add nutrients and carbs)

6. Continue drinking a lot of water

If I do these things, today should be better. But I have realized that I can handle the fewer carbs, honestly, I don't miss the carbs all that much. And the vegetables are very satisfying, which surprised me. I never thought that a salad could be so delicious, and my lunch showed me otherwise yesterday. I'm sure by making just these few changes will help me a ton, and I'm so excited to see my complete results at the end of the month.  

One thing that I really want to share with all of you is a forum posting from a group that I'm a part of on sparkpeople.com. A woman posted how she needs to gain confidence (don't we all), but she just assumes that when she loses weight she will just gain confidence. I responded to her post saying something along these lines, "You need to start gaining confidence now, because if you don't love yourself now, then you won't love yourself later on." Plus I told her about a few people that I know personally who are at a healthy weight and they are not confident, so being at a healthy weight does not ultimately mean that you will gain confidence. She really didn't like what I had to say, but oh well. I do really hope that someday she will realize that being thin doesn't give you confidence. Confidence is who we are, not what we look like. I may not be where I want to be (160ish lbs), but I'm no longer where I was (315 lbs). The more important thing, I have gained confidence and more happiness. I sincerely hope that this woman finds that as well. 

But I suppose. I have to finish my discussion post (as the initial posting is due by tonight) and start my paper. So I hope that you all have a wonderful day! Until next time.

~Sara~