1 Month Done!!!

Wow, how the time flies. I can't believe I've been on this journey for a whole month now. I've learned so much about healthy eating, living, working out, and most importantly myself. I'm learning that my weakness is definitely impatience. A lot of days I get impatient with my progress and get discouraged that it's taking me so long to get to my goal. I do seek solace in the fact that this is now my lifestyle no matter what. So whether or not the weight comes off when I want it too I've chosen to eat clean and workout so my body is healthy. Not just so my brain can be happy with a warped image anyways. I'm not as tired as I used to be and doing day to day tasks aren't as taxing as they used too. Even though the outside is reflecting slowly my insides are pretty instantaneous and that's rewarding enough for me right now.

Anyways, this past month I've managed to lose about 6.5 pounds and a couple of inches around my waist and hips. Here's the complete before and after:

Before

After

Along with my general healthy livingness I also completed blogilates juneonfire calendar (WHOOP!! WHOOP!!). Here are those before and after pics.

Juneonfire before

Juneonfire after

Next month we'll get to see my before and after pics for my 21 day challenge. When I complete it I think I'll do it again for something else. Maybe go vegan, give up the rest of refined sugars, make every workout day, or something like that. Or I might just do the same generally living healthy thing, I'm not sure yet. This month I'll be continuing with blogilates doing the thisismyjuly workout. She's having a nike shoe giveaway and it would be absolutely stellar if I could win a pair!!!

The type of nike's available to be won

Well that's about it. Before I end I want to thank you all for your support and keeping up with me. Even though I don't get to know who individually reads my blog especially since none of you comment (*hint, *hint) I do appreciate you more than you know. Just knowing someone cares makes me stay accountable. Looking forward to the many busy months ahead of us :).

Week 4 Update!!!!!

Today was a little upsetting, I feel like I backtracked a bit. My weight went back up a pound so not detrimental but I'm more sad because I really wanted to push and see if I could lose a whole ten pounds this month. now I've only lost 6.5 pounds this past month. However on the bright side I did lose 3/4 of an inch around my waist and a whole inch and a half around my hips. That's why I'm glad I do measurements because even though I didn't lose poundage I am still getting smaller. Here's my current measurements.

Waist - 29 in
Hips - 41 in
Thighs - 29 3/4 in
Arms relaxed - 14 in
Arms flexed - 14 1/2 in

This week was definitely a lesson. I got distracted and let myself stray from healthy eating and working out and it showed in my end results. It also reminded me that I am going to struggle along the way but as long as I keep myself optimistic and don't get discouraged when set backs happen I can still do this. Wish me luck everyone.

My mantra this week

Post pictures!!!!

Days 29,30,31

It's definitely been an eventful last few days!!! Well, here we go.

Meals- Daily Budget 1691 calories
Day 29 

My whole days worth of food!!!

Meal 1-353 calories
Meal 2-150 calories
Meal 3-349 calories
Meal 4-276 calories
Meal 5-354 calories

Meal 5!!!

Meal 6-331 calories

Total caloric intake-1814 calories, 1418 calories after workout (396 calories under budget)

Day 30 - today was a bit rough 
Meal 1-292 calories (3 banana berry crepes topped with greek yogurt, recipe here)

the final result :)

Meal 2-398 calories
Meal 3-498 calories (guacamole and tortilla chips)
Meal 4-1229 calories (Chuy's tortilla chips, queso, salsa, a bit of brown rice, refried beans, and vegetarian enchilada)

Total caloric intake-2417 calories, 727 calories over budget, no workout today

Day 31 - also very rough
Meal 1-378 calories (3 banana berry crepes filled and topped with greek yogurt)
Meal 2-300 calories (salt and vinegar kettle chips)
Meal 3-1300 calories (fettuccine Alfredo with Italian sausage and french bread topped with basil pesto)
Meal 4-500 calories (strawberry swirl cheesecake and New York cheesecake topped with caramel sauce)

Total caloric intake-2528 calories, 1326 calories after workout (489 calories under budget)

Workout
Day 29
Today was Day 27 of my juneonfire blogilates calendar which meant lower body and back. Today consisted of some MAJOR butt work. I was burning and in pain but I pushed through hard because I knew this was the one area that I needed to work the hardest on. I felt an unbelievable adrenaline rush from the fact that I could actually keep up today. I really feel like since this is the last week of the calendar I feel empowered somehow. It makes me happy to think I've been doing this so long. Good stuff today, good stuff.

I so sweaty

Day 14 O-ffically O-ver!!

Day 30
Today was really rough. I didn't end up working out tonight because right after work I went out to eat with a coworker/friend to eat. By the time I got back it was too late to have a productive workout so I chose to just double up tomorrow.

Day 31
Today was a beast of a workout, In total I went about 3.5 hours, most of it was toning however. Since I missed yesterday I did Day 28 and Day 29 of my juneonfire blogilates calendar. This meant both cardio and arms and abs plus for kicks I decided to do the other arms and abs days from the first of the month just so I could say I did every single video on the calendar. Totally owned by the way. One particular video, bikini blaster 3: abs,abs,abs, kicked my but though. Overall I was pretty proud. The time for my mile this week wasn't as great, 10 minutes flat, but I know it was because I had to run outside and I HATE running outside. Just didn't push myself as hard since it was not my normal way of running. Everything else went really well though considering how long I was working out.

Post workout pics

Day 15 definitely killed

Days 26, 27, and 28

Alrighty everyone first day of the new format!!!! Basically how this is going to work is that I'm only going to include my caloric intake for each meal per day in list form unless I tried something new that I need to share. Besides that, just assume that the meal was one of the ones from my current meal plan or a previously mentioned meal. I'm going to try and get in the habit of taking pictures of the meals too so I don't have to describe them all the time so you'll have those next blog (beware I may reuse the same picture for a meal if it's the same, no reason to reinvent a wheel that's already functional!!!). I will also be referring to snacks now as meals since of course they count towards me eating. Then at the end I'll do the same with a brief summary of my workout. Ok, here we go.

Meals (Daily Budget 1697 calories)
Day 26
Meal 1-432 calories
Meal 2-193 calories
Meal 3-300 calories
Meal 4-408 calories
Meal 5-252 calories
Meal 6-355 calories

Daily Total- 1941 calories (244 calories over but 665 calories under after workout)

Day 27
Meal 1-400 calories
Meal 2- 300 calories
Meal 3-325 calories
Meal 4- 491 calories

Picture of meal 4

Daily Total- 1516 calories (181 calories under and 1002 under after workout)

Day 28
Meal 1-467 calories
Meal 2- 150 calories
Meal 3-349 calories
Meal 4-300 calories
Meal 5-369 calories
Meal 6-263 calories

Daily Total-  1898 calories (kind of a lot, about 200 calories over, but I had to recover calorie wise from my workout yesterday, plus there was no workout today)

Workouts
Day 26
Today was day 24 on my juneonfire blogilates calendar and that meant cardio cardio cardio. . Since I already know I probably won't workout Wednesday I assimilated those videos into the 5 days I am working out. So, with that, today I did a total of 8 videos (about 85 minutes). Now for the good stuff. I definitely have to comment about the new video, heart on fire, that came out today because it was death. I did it but not gonna lie, it sucked. It hurt so bad but soooo good and I had sweat EVERYWHERE (see pics below). I was sooo on fire but it felt good because I actually was able to complete pretty much all the reps today. I don't know if I'll be able to do it that hard again tomorrow but only time can tell right? As far as numbers, with my app I'm estimating this workout burned around 900 calories for everything I did during the workout.

Post pics!!!

Day 12 doneski!!!!

Day 27

Today was day 25 on my juneonfire blogilates calendar which meant abs. However, I started out with 2 more of the videos that were scheduled to be done on Wednesday. One of them as the ever so dreadful burpees. Can't say I totally owned it but I actually went all out today so I'm still proud of that. It took me about 25 minutes to do the 100 burpee challenge because first I see what burpee I'm supposed to do then pause it and do it. This way I make sure I get them all in without having to worry about trying to keep up with her pace. I'd rather go my pace and do it right than rush through and hurt myself. Smart huh? Anyways back to abs. I definitely struggled today plus they kept stopping to buffer so it took longer to do (when it stops I restart whatever rep I'm on so I get the full effect, gets painful when I have to start over 3 times or more :-/). I was really sleepy and exhausted from the cardio so I can say this wasn't one of my better days ab wise. I think it's because I put all my effort in to the cardio at the beginning of the workout. Whatever the reason I still survived and am so glad I did it!!!

I was soooo tired, but you have to train insane or remain the same

Day 13 torn to shreds :)

Day 28
No workout today since I work late and have a test tomorrow but up to date I've done over half the videos I was supposed to do today on my juneonfire calendar. I just have 2 more tomorrow and today's workout would have been made up. Wish me luck!!

Summary
So that's my update for the last 3 days. How are you guys liking the new format? Is this easier to read? Do you like this way better or the old way? Comment and let me know!!! Thanks for reading and have a magical fantastical day :).

Post Week 3 Weigh In!!!!

Not going to lie going in to today I was scared to wake up and weigh in. For some reason I thought I was going to be disappointed with my progress because I didn't feel like I lost any weight. I think it's because I was psyching myself out by randomly stepping on the scale to many times (I stopped doing that on Wednesday because I knew it was destructive behavior). But anyways, I woke up and weighed in and guess what!!! I lost 1.9 pounds!!!! Like are you seriously, almost another 2 pounds. This is insanity!!! I'm soooo ecstatic with my progress so far. All together in the last 3 weeks I have lost 7.5 pounds. Honestly I did not anticipate such results so quickly. I'm stunned and I feel like I'm doing it the healthy by not starving. For once I'm being healthy and losing weight and I don't feel hungry or like I'm going to go stir crazy. I finally feel like I've found something that works for me.

As promised I did get a tape measure yesterday so here are my current measurements:
Bust-37 inches
Waist-29.5 inches
Hips- 42.5 inches
Thigh- 26.25 inches
Arm flexed-14.5 inches
Arm relaxed-14 inches

So next week my goal is still going to only be to lose a pound. I'm not going to intentionally push for anything more than that so what happens happens. Also starting this week I will only be doing 3 posts a week (Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday/Saturday). With my schedule picking up this is more attainable plus it will be more convenient for you guys to read more than one day at a time. I will also be presenting my meals in list format as you've been seeing the past few days. On Sundays I will also be including that days meals along with the post week update.

Alrighty, that's it for announcements. For today,day 25, my meals were:

Meal 1 (1156 calories)
Mini pancakes (equivalent to 3 large pancakes) with homemade syrup and strawberries

Meal 2 (271 calories)
Tortilla chips, half an avacado, and 3 mini oatmeal craisin cookies (got the cookie recipe from blogilates in the recipe tab here)

Not bad today, even though I  didn't eat too many times I still ate all my suggested calories for the day since I had such a large beakfast. Overall a really exciting and productive day. I even did laundry, prepped my chicken for the next few weeks, and cut up my carrots. Today was definitely a Sunday Funday

Welp, here's the post week 2 pictures, have a fab day!!!

Starting to shape up finally!!!

Day 24

Today was a bit more laid back. I definitely didn't eat as much but I did eat 3 meals.

Meal 1 (348 calories)
Greek yogurt, a banana, and 1/4 cup of walnuts

Felt super healthy and it was of course yummy

Meal 2 (450 calories)
Homemade wheat thins and half a cup of guacamole

Meal 3 (681 calories)
Homemade Oatmeal Crasin cookies with peanut butter and banana ice cream

My caloric intake was 1479 calories and after my workout I had  514 calories left out of my 1697 calorie budget.

Today on my blogilates juneonfire calendar it was arms and abs. I was literally shaking soooo bad. I stuck with it though and for some of the moves I did every single rep!!!! I didn't get as sweaty as yesterday's cardio but I definitely am just as sore. Another week of workouts successfully completed :).

look at those slim arms!!

Day 11 done!!!

Day 23

Today went really well I do say myself, I even got coconut water to try for the first time. See!!!

Pretty legit :)

Anyways, my meals were as follows:

Meal 1 (416 calories)
3 egg whites, 2 wheat tortillas, pico de gallo, and a half a grapefruit

Meal 2 (170 calories)
Homemade wheat thins with a little over half a banana

Looks delish right?

Meal 3 (339 calories)
Peanut butter and banana sandwich (2 slices of whole wheat bread, 2 tbs of crunchy peanut butter, 1/3 of a banana)

Meal 4 (326 calories)
Homemade wheat thins and a half cup of homemade Greek yogurt guacamole

Meal 5 (251 calories)
Turkey burger salad (iceberg lettuce, onions, tomatoes, and  mushrooms) with balsamic vinaigrette dressing, and coconut water.

It was soo fresh and delicious :)

All together that added up to a caloric intake of 1502 calories, only 195 calories under my budget. I was happy that I got all my meals and calories in today and it really wasn't that hard because I packed them all and pretty much ate all but the latter at work. The coconut water definitely was interesting in taste. I was expecting it to have a stronger coconut taste so that through me off but it wasn't a bad taste, just different......lol. I have another can waiting for next week when I do another strenuous workout so we'll see then if I've adjusted to the taste.


For my workout it was cardio and I made maaaajjjjjoooorrrr strides today. The first thing on my blogilates juneonfire calendar was to run a mile and guess what? Totally ran it in 8 MINUTES AND 45 SECONDS!!!!! Seriously you don't know how big of a deal that is!!! The fastest I've ever run was in like 4th grade I think, or maybe it was jr. high, I don't know, but all I remember is I did it in 9 mins 45 seconds. So legitimately that's the fastest I've ever run a mile in my life. Complete success, it's days like these that I know for a fact my healthy lifestyle change is transforming me from the inside out. Anyways, sorry about rambling, I was just really excited.


Next on the calendar was more cardio and then we ended with a butt workout appropriately labeled the what makes you bootyful butt challenge. Let me tell you I full on died with all this cardio madness because after I finished today's workout I had to finish the last of my videos from Wednesday. Those consisted of the 100 burpee burnout, food baby HIIT workout, and the till the world ends challenge. I actually did the latter 2 first and then ended my workout with the burpees so I could completely burn out and give it my all. I did do all 100 burpees and completed my goal of focusing more on my form. My roommate who's seen me workout since I started even commented on how far I'd come with my burpee form!!! I even jumped up at the end of each burpee when I usually just jump my feet to my hands and stand up. I felt imaculate after doing it and I had sweat dripping everywhere after my workout. I just laid on the floor for at least 10 minutes after words.

Top left is after my mile, bottom left and right are after the rest of the cardio including the burpees. 

Sweat was all over the floor, ridiculous!!!

All and all it was a fantastic Friday, I ate right and owned my workout. Looking forward to finishing out the week strong tomorrow. I should be getting a tape measure tomorrow too so there will be measurements along with my post week 3 update on Sunday. My goal for tomorrow is simply stay on track and make it through more reps during my arm and ab workout. Wish me luck!!!

Day 10 of 21 day challenge done!!!!