One-derland

Finally made it to 190lbs! YAY YAY YAY
I am officially 10lbs away from my goal! 180 here I come.

What have I been doing?

• Walking - I am up to 3.5 miles a day!
• Jogging - I am up to 1 mile every other day
• Leg lifts - 2 sets of 25 every other day (to tone the stomach)
• Protein smoothies - 2 per day; small meal for dinner
• Cut out the sweets - no carbs, no candy, no soda and NO SWEET TEA :(

It has been ten months since I have officially taken the steps to improve my life and my health. I am down 110lbs, size 12 and happy. There are still things I want to work on, toning is something that is a priority right now. I am happy with myself, my image and my health.

No more high blood pressure, no more breathing issues, no more borderline diabetic, NO MORE anything!

I am enjoying life!

Who am "I"?: Knowing yourself is the key to success

Know yourself, that's the best way to be successful on your own personal weight-loss journey.

There has been a lot I have had to learn about myself throughout this journey. It has taken me a while and I am still in the process of learning about ME. I just want to share with you some of the things I went through and experienced at the beginning of my journey that have helped me to remain successful.

Write it down

Being able to look at what exactly my goals were in plain blue and white helped a lot. At the very beginning of my journey I took the time to write down what my goals were, and not just how much I wanted to lose but what I wanted to look like, what my health goals were and the little things I wanted to accomplish. I also took the time to write out WHY I wanted to lose weight. WHAT my reasons for losing weight were/are and HOW I was planning on accomplishing this. I spent about two weeks journaling and reading what I had wrote. It was important to me to make sure that I had a clear picture of what I wanted so that when I needed a reminder I would have an easy reference.

Learn your past

This was not the first time I had attempted to drop some weight. Numerous times in the past I attempted to lose weight and none of those attempts was successful. I wanted this time to be different so I took the time to think about what went wrong during my previous attempts to drop my unwanted weight. I had to think about things I had done and didn't do, come up with things I thought should be done differently and also think outside the box for completely new ideas. I also had to think about the things that triggered me to binge eat and figure out what I could do to tackle the issues.

You're not alone

Seek help, seek someone to take the journey with you and keep you accountable to your process. In the past I have had accountability partners and none of them worked. So I decided to take a different approach, I decided to seek a counselor. Someone that did not know me but was trained to work with and help people that had things they want to overcome. In the past I asked close friends and family members to help by being accountability partners and in the beginning it would always work but then life would get in the way, they would become softies or let me bully them into letting me do what I wanted and hence I would "fall off the wagon". Be creative in your thinking, finding an accountability partner can be as easy or as difficult as you make it.

Seek medical advice

During my previous attempts at dropping some weight I never thought to speak with my doctor and see if they could give me some guidance. I was watching a show late one night and a woman was talking about how her doctor helped her by giving her a plan and monitoring her progress. At that moment it was like "ah-ha" and "duh" at the same time. Why had I not spoken to my doctor, shoot he was the one that was always telling me to lose weight and get healthy, he should be the one to tell me how to do it. I visited my doctor and together we came up with a plan and so far it has paid off.

Accept failure

There are going to be days when you eat what you want, skip working out or just fall off all together. It happens, but it is important to know that at that moment you make the decision of whether or not you will get back up and keep working or if you beat yourself up and fall back into your old habits. There are many days when I will skip a workout or eat something I shouldn't and I don't beat myself up, I just wake up the next morning and get back to the plan. We are human and we will do what we want but as long as you keep your plan in mind you will be ok.

This is not an overnight thing so stick with it!

Be sure to ask me questions or comment.

Nyki

1.1.11

New Year, new me, new life... This year I resolve to continue putting in the hard-work I put in during 2010.

Year-in-review (2010)

Last year I lost 91 pounds. I went from a very un-healthy woman that weighed in at 300lbs to my doctor celebrating my clean bill of health with me at 209. No longer do I have to worry about diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea and all the other ailments I suffered from.

In 2010 I got the wake-up call of my life when I was told that I was borderline diabetic and if I did not loose weight (....ASAP) I would soon be on the other side of that line.

I worked hard, lost the weight and......

For 2011

I have 30 more pounds to loose that I can work on at my leisure, most of my focus can be on eating right, toning and enjoying the new me!

thats it for now

Through Thick, Not Thin

Fair weather friends, those that are only friends with you because it serves a purpose for them. These types of friends do exist and are more commonly found than not. Within the past few months I have had the delight *insert sarcasm* to experience this first hand.

Losing weight is something important that I did for myself. When I weighed the pros and cons, went through the process of setting up my plan, met with my doctors and began my journey not once did I think to consider my friends and how my losing weight would affect them. Why should I have? This is something, like I just mentioned, was all for me, about me and I am the one that has been putting in the work.

So, as I begin to lose weight, as the clothes begin to get bigger, as life begins to change for me I notice that some people that I associated myself with and even considered to be friends began to become distant. At first I thought, well maybe they are just going through something and need time alone. Humm, so not the case and I found out how really delightful people can really be *sarcasm again*

Conversation with a friend

Me: "Hey wassup, how have you been?"

Friend: "Oh, hey, cool."

Me: "I have not spoken to you in a while, whats going on?"

Friend: "Just been busy, preoccupied with my own life."

Me: "Ok, I understand... Well, are things going ok?"

Friend: "Yup, things are fine."

Me: "Cool, so when you coming with me to Zumba? I know you will like it, its really fun..."

Friend: "I dont plan on coming with you to Zumba. Not interested"

Me: "Wow, ok. Ummm, did I do something to you?"

Friend: "Nope, just not in the mood to hear about you and your workouts, weight loss and all that crap."

Me: "Really, well ok, lets talk about you..."

Friend: "Nah, I would rather not. Just don't want to be bothered with you. You have changed and I'm not sure I like the "new" you."

Me: :"New" me? Whats that mean? I'm still me as far as I know..."

Friend: "Nah you are not the same, you have changed."

Me: "The only thing about me that has changed is what the scale (insert expletive) reads when I stop on it. What the (insert expletive) are you talking about? I'm lost"

Friend: "Thats exactly it, you were cool with the weight, now... I don't know its just not the same.."

Me: "Really? Seriously?"

Friend: "Yeah"

Me: "Ok..... It is what it is. I'll holla"

Friend: "See what I mean, just like that"

Me: "Yeah just like that... I see what you mean and yeah JUST LIKE (insert expletive) that!!!!!"

*hangs up*

Never would have thought, not something that I would even consider doing to someone. I guess not everyone is genuine. :(

In all honesty, I am sad, hurt and dis-illusion ed by all that. My bestie always tells me that I am not a good friend picker and she is right, after I met her everyone after that has been a disaster.

Ugh, JADED!!!

Sleepy Protein Post

Everything that I eat centers around protein intake. For example, breakfast this morning was scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese, onions, peppers, garlic and mango chutney.. Sounds yummy (I took a pic for you guys).

My snacks almost always have some type of meat like jerky, or a deli meat roll-up with cheese...

A couple of days ago I randomly decided to do a no meat, seafood only diet....*insert sarcastic yay* so for dinner I have been doing either shrimp or some type of fish. Tonight its salmon....

Needless to say my journey is still progressing and I apologize for the lifelessness of this post but I just finished an hour and a half on the treadmill and then leg lifts (front and back) so I am more than a little wiped out...

Love

Then and Now

For me, I dont want to say before and after, for me it is the "Then and Now" because thats how I think of it. I think of how my life was "Then", and what my life is like "Now.

"Then":

The time (which was most of it) of my life when my weight(and the issues it caused) dominated my life. I lived with health issues (my doc told me I had the insides of a 70 year old), emotional issues and just everyday issues. When I think about "Then" it is not all bad, there were some good times (the birth of my son, graduating from college, great friends), but most of it for me was all bad.. Today I saw a picture of myself at the heaviest I had ever been, 300lbs. When I saw the picture I LOST it, literally LOST it! It makes me sad to think that I let myself get that out of control, that I let my emotions and my dependancy on food get the best of me.

That was me, seven months ago... Wow, even looking at it now makes me want to hit the treadmill, do some squats and throw in a few leg lifts.... I am thankful though because without all that I went through "Then" I would not appreciate where I am "Now" and I would not have the dedication to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

"Now":

I can look people in the eye when they speak to me, I do not avoid public places or large groups of people... Let's just say that my confidence button was pushed and I am stepping out of my comfort zone and doing things I have never done before. For me the best part of it all was seeing the look on my doctors face when he read my chart, saw how much I had lost and saw the test results. My health has improved, no more borderline diabeties, no more high blood pressure, NO MORE!!!. I am blessed and thankful everyday. I run with my son, have tons of energy to keep up with the little man of my life and it makes me cry when he tells me how nice I look! Thats my motivation right there...

This is me now, 84lbs down and 36lbs to my goal... I am thankful for the "Then" because I have a "Now" that I can share with others.

Not many people who have lived with being over-weight are willing to share what its like to live that life, me, well I think people should know. It is definately not easy, not as simple as getting up in the morning and making life happen, living your dreams or having it all. For most, for me, it was a challenge, a battle, a fight... Something I never want to have to deal with again.

*tear*

The Routine

Hey guys:

As I promised, I am going to share what the routine is for me on a daily basis (no weekends don't change the routine)....

• 6:30am - Vitamin cocktail.. This is when I take my B complex, multi-vitamin and C...
• 8:00am - Fruit cup or instant grits packet... Something light that I eat at my desk...
• Lunch time - 3 miles around the track at Centennial Park (Nashville). I was walking around my job and realized I need a more structured walking route... That's just my personality type showing.. Structure works for me.
• 5:30pm - Zumba on Monday and Thursday! all I can say is LOVE IT!!!!
• 5:30pm - Treadmill at the house.... Every other day of the week (yes, all seven days). Minimum of two miles.... How long I stay on the treadmill is determined by how good the music is on pandora... lol

The food I eat is so random and in such small portions it is crazy. I eat about 5-6 times a day and it mostly consists of protein... Beef Jerky has become a major part of my diet because the protein keeps me going.



This is what I have been doing and so far it is working. I admit that I need to diversify my workout and include some toning and other types of workouts.


Well I am signing off for now!