When technology works in your favor!

For those of you that use My Fitness Pal to log all your calories and exercise, have you ever gotten tired of how long it would sometimes take to find certain foods? And if you couldn't find them and wanted to be accurate, you had to take the time to enter the product in yourself?

That was one of the biggest reasons I would stop logging every once in a while, I got so tired of how much time it could take to log my foods.

Worry no more my friends!!! I'm not sure if this is exclusive to iPhone owners or if it works for all smart phones but two days ago when I was adding food to my dairy, I noticed this to the right of the search bar...

YOU CAN SCAN BARCODES!!!!

Isn't that freakin AWESOME!? I absolutely LOVE this feature! It makes it SO much faster to enter in food if you have the box/container that your item came in. Just scan, adjust amounts an servings according and BAM! Add it!

If you couldn't tell I love it when I figure out something "techy" :) I also love hen that technology works in our favor to help us achieve our goals easier!

Happy Thursday Friends! Hope the first week of the New Year is treating you well!! :-) 

Recommitting!

I really wanted to take advantage of this time of year and feed off of and contribute to the motivation that A LOT folks have making their New Years Resolutions! I also felt that it was the perfect time to get my booty back in gear to tackle what I wanted to originally accomplish by May.

Even though I won't lose 52lbs in a healthy way by my original goal of May 21st, I'm going to make it a point to lose that one pound a week until that date which should give me the following results...

"Starting Weight": 209.8 lbs

Goal Weight Loss: 20 lbs

Goal Weight: 189.8 lbs

Date to Complete it by: May 21st, 2013

What I plan on doing first, tackling PORTION CONTROL! I'm the freakin WORST at over indulging!! It's amazing what results I've seen just by starting out with portion control! haha!!

Any of you have a new plan? How's your progress? What might you be doing differently this time around? What are your goals for 2013?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! 

A Little Bit of Everything

Piggy-backing off my post a while back about being SCARED....well, what I feared at that point, finally caught up with me! Crap :-(

I was STUNNED to see a 0.8 lb weight loss after completely dropping all activities and eating habits to stay healthy while we were getting ready for our big move. It breaks my heart to report that when I stepped on the scale a week ago, I saw 213.2 lbs. NO...#*$&*$^#*%...WAY! At the time, I honestly wasn't quite sure how to feel about that number, or process what that number was. That number....that's the heaviest I've ever weighed in my ENTIRE life.

You could say that ANGER was definitely one of the immediate emotions I felt. Just angry at myself. I have NO idea why I struggle with going back and forth with this weight loss journey I'm trying to focus on. This is the THIRD time I've fallen backwards since I committed myself to this journey almost two years ago. Something's gotta give! I can sit here and try to think of a million reasons why it got to this point. But I don't want to. Plain and simple. I stopped. Yeah, I was in the middle of a major move, the holidays are here, I've been learning how to adjust to our new life here, the weather is awful and I don't have a treadmill to keep up with jogging....but honestly, why couldn't I go for a walk? Why couldn't I keep up with my jogging when I'd come so far before we moved? Or try to find some indoor workouts?

I may never figure out the answers to those questions.....but what I do know is that if I want to keep up with the changes I want to see in myself, I need to make motivation a first thought at the beginning of every day. I want to transform, I need to transform for my sake and my family's sake. That's honestly all the motivation I need. Thank you for that food for thought Tim :-)

Speaking of Tim and Tim Arndt Fitness...you guys have heard me talk about Tim before. I've known Tim for quite some time and I swear he has the best timing with things! When I made the BIG committment to losing weight back in May, shortly after Tim came out with his limited time Transformation sweatshirt that I just had to buy because that's exactly what I wanted, to transform myself. Me in my Transformation hoodie! :-)

Even though this hoodie is no longer available for purchase (as far as I know), Tim just came out with an entire new collection of shirts and bracelets that I LOVE LOVE LOVE! His new tag line is PERFECT...

"Fitness is SIMPLE, it's just not EASY" - this is SO true!!!

How many of you out there wanted to get fit/start your fitness journey, but didn't know where to turn or what to do because of being overwhelmed by all the information out there!? Let me be the first to raise my hand! I still, to this day, get incredibly overwhelmed on what route to take. Should I start a jogging program? Weight training - where the heck to start? What kind of eating program should I try along with my fitness program? Etc, etc! As Tim puts it amazingly...

"it's a tag-line I've used for quite some time now.  I started using it because the more I learn about fitness and exercise the more I realize that it isn't that complicated.  Even so, hardly anybody is doing it!  What gives?  Well, the honest to goodness truth is IT'S HARD!  And guess what?  The human body does not like this!  It likes to take the path of least resistance in just about anything.  For example, how many of you can honestly say your reading this with perfect posture right now?  That's what I thought!  It's SO much easier to let your shoulders hunch forward, relax your muscles and let your body's structure (bones & ligaments) keep you upright.  Imagine what that does to your daily calorie burn!  There's some food for thought.

Too many of us are letting ourselves get caught up in the complexity of health and fitness.  Things like muscle confusion, super slow training, slow burn, Crossfit and a host of other marketing programs have made it difficult to figure out what is the "best way" to get in shape.  I've had many who were really motivated to want to transform their bodies or improve their health but didn't do it because they didn't know how to go about doing it.  Uh, try walking!  Seriously, it truly is a simple concept!  I've helped hundreds of clients transform their bodies and health through the most basic workouts.  The key was they worked hard during them.  I'm pretty sure in the old days farmers and hunters were pretty healthy and in good shape and they didn't give a single thought about what the best way to get healthy or fit was.  They just worked and worked hard!

Think about it this way, running is simple, we all know how to do it.  But a 100 meter sprint or running a marathon is not easy.  That's why I decided to make some shirts and a hoodie with this tag-line on it.  To be a constant reminder to you to keep your workouts simple but to push yourself at the same time.  This my friends, is the secret to getting results!" - Tim Arndt

Okay, be honest, how many of you sat up straight after reading the first bit of Tim's newsletter?! hahaha! I know I did!! Tim has a FREE newsletter where he offers fitness tips for FREE of charge! Who doesn't like free stuff?! If you liked what Tim had to say above, I highly recommend signing up now, you can do that HERE!

I absolutely did NOT hesitate purchasing something from his new line! Here's the shirt and bracelet that I just purchased...

*also available in BLACK

Check out all the other Tim Arndt Fitness swag available HERE! There are zip up hoodies, men's shirts and women's crew neck shirts available too!! :-) I seriously can't wait to get my hands on my new items! His presale is happening NOW and all items are discounted so get your FAST before it's too late!!! :-)

For more info about Tim Arndt Fitness and the services he offers, check out my "People/Sites/Blogs I Love" page for Tim's Facebook page and more!

As much plugging as I've done for Tim, NO - I am not getting paid to do this in any way shape or form! I'm just THAT passionate about Tim's philosophy regarding fitness and the help that he has given me and continues to give me for free is just incredible. It's a no brainer that we all need to make a living, which is why I'm very thankful for people like Tim that are just as equally passionate about helping people succeed and achieve their goals, that they're willing to do stuff like this. I can sit here all day and rave about it, but you should take the time to check it all out for yourself ;-)

If there is anyone in the same boat with me, experiencing the frustration, please feel free to share and vent to get that frustration off your chest, like I have, to hopefully help you move forward with your goals! :-)

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE! :-)

Guest Post: Melissa Gets FIT!

With all the chaos of moving that has happened is still happening I have felt SO "out of whack" with my journey to becoming healthier and it's unnerving. When I was REALLY starting to feel pretty disconnected, in a funk, a dear friend of mind posted her before and after photos of her progress and BAM! It was the perfect motivation for me that came at the BEST time!! :-) I am SO unbelievable proud of this girl for what she has done to make herself a priority to feel great. She is a first time Mom and I don't think it's one bit selfish to make sure that she does what she needs to, to be the best person she can for her son and family. Not a lot of people realize how hard it is to even find the time to exercise with a kiddo, let alone how hard it is just to sacrifice some time from them to workout. I get it. It's like you're between a rock and a hard place, struggling with the guilt you sometimes feel when doing something for youself when you think you should be spending that time to do things for you family. It might sound silly to some, but for mothers, it's our daily reality to put ourselves LAST.

I want you to meet Melissa! She has graciously taken the time to write me a little something about her journey because I feel like it will inspire someone out there! :-) So, it's about time I stop blabbing so you can read about Melissa's story.....

You know being a mother and wife, you tend to put yourself last. Everyone else seems to be more important. When my son was born I put myself first, for once. I set a goal for myself to lose 50 pounds. Yes, just having a baby you'd think there was more important things to worry about, but I was unhappy with myself before I got pregnant and wanted a change and it was the perfect time.

I started out slow. Having just had a baby there were limitations. I started out by walking around the block for about ten minutes or so each time. Then my walks got longer, walks turned into runs, runs turned into races. I also added circuit training videos for when my son was napping. I then added an app on my phone to help me count calories. Simple changes make the biggest impact. Of course I had to sacrifice things that I loved to eat but it was worth it.

Now my son is eight months old and I've have reached my goal of 50 pounds! I feel amazing! It wasn't so much the way I look but the way I felt. I felt...well, bad before. Now I feel I can take on the world. I have so much energy to play with my son and do things with my family. If I can give anything from this experience it is...never give up. Only you can change what brings you down in your life. My dad once said something that I keep with me daily. He said "You know, turtles are amazing creatures. To get anywhere they need to stick their neck out." Hence, my obsession with turtles now :-) I hope my story can help you in your journey. If it's not weight loss but for life in general. Never give up and make sure to make yourself important. 
 
Much love,

Melissa Strohe

Thank you so much Melissa for taking the time to share with my readers! Now the moment you all have been waiting for, Melissa's before and after pictures.....

Just. Stinkin'. Awesome!

The biggest thing that sticks out to me about what Melissa said is starting SLOW! One of my favorite quotes or sayings out there right now is, "it took time to put on the weight, it's going to take time to get it off." In Melissa's message, it's also important for YOU to WANT to make that change, it won't happen otherwise ;-)

I know speaking for myself, Melissa has given me hope that things happen in life and that great things like this take TIME and effort. I hope I'll be this girl posting before and after pictures, soon enough!

HAPPY MONDAY!! :-)

Scared

When you are a wife, mother to a toddler, run your own business, have a job as an apartment manager, volunteer as a Financial Adviser for TWO sororities and prepare for a major move across state...it is definitely a struggle to make yourself and your health a priority.

I haven't stepped on the scale in over a month, and let me tell you....I was SCARED! Scared to death is a more accurate description. I haven't been eating very well, started drinking pop again (thanks to our bosses that supply A LOT of junk during peak season when we're turning over apartments during the busiest time of year) and I stopped running altogether. I decided that I needed to face the music of my poor choices rather than continue to avoid them.

I find it quite entertaining that when I had the sudden urge to get on the scale tonight, I was holding a large glass of milk in one hand and cookies in the other! HA!!

I walked into our bathroom, turned the scale on, and took a deep breath. When I stepped forward onto the scale, I closed my eyes and held my breath.....I opened one eye to see what the "ugly" number was looking back at me and.....

I LOST .8LBS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

 AHHHHHHHH! I screamed so loud my daughter jumped 10 feet in the air. I weight myself two more times just to make sure that I was really reading 196.8lbs!

 That makes my total loss 12lbs (down from my heaviest at 208.8lbs) on the nose but 7.8lb loss for MFP when I originally joined that site before I gained all my weight back and then some. I'm going to take this .8lb weight loss as a little gift or a "reality check" and run with it! LOL!

I plan on recommitting to my running/eating routine after we get settled from our move (I know, lame excuse, but I'm barely holding onto my sanity enough as it is with everything else that's going on and I know that running is suppose to be therapeutic, but it's more stressful to find the time to actually do it at this point). I saw this tonight on a friend's Facebook that made me laugh...

I've been really "re-inspired" this week, by my friend Susan. She just started her own journey to getting healthier for her little munchkin and watching her work towards her goal and celebrating her victories with her, makes me miss having my running routine or making better food choices and working on my journey. We've been actually talking about getting together to do some fun stuff that includes exercising with our kiddos! I know I'll get back on track when our lives have a little more stability. I canNOT wait for more stability and routine, let me tell ya! :-) I may have to adjust the end date for my goal a little...but I'm okay with that. I'm only human and life happens ;-)

Hope the rest of you that are out there trying to get healthier are doing amazing!!!

Much Love,

Caty

Vacation Jitters

I get REALLY scared when it comes to keeping on track with my eating when I'm about to go on vacation. My little brother was recently married on June 30th and I stay with my family for over a week and a half.

Time and time again, when I visit, I never fail to eat (what feels like) my body weight in food very quickly when I stay there. Even though I'm 26 years old, there's just something that happens when you stay at your parents house where you feel like a kid again and great food is in abundance ;-) Do you know what I mean? Not to mention, I usually end up eating out of boredom (not that my parents house is boring, because it's not AT ALL) when people are gone during that day and have to work during part of my visits. It gets lonely, so I eat.

I made it a goal of mine to make sure that I did NOT fall into this pattern again! And here's what happened when I put my mind to it...

HECK. FREAKIN. YES! That's right! I LOST 2.4 lbs while I was on a vacation that included a huge wedding celebration with AWESOME food and the left overs of that awesome food the next day! LOL! I'm so stinkin' excited and proud of myself for FINALLY conquering that urge to just indulge in all the food that's in front of me when I visit.

I won't lie, I was extremely surprised that the weight came off because I didn't get to run at all during my visit and then when I returned home, it's been absolutely GROSS with these high temperatures, so I have absolutely no motivation. I also can't bring myself to get up early to run because I stay up so late getting to all the stuff I avoided to do all day because it was too hot to want to do anything! YIKES! I'm convinced that the past three days I've just been sweating off the pounds.

Thanks so much for checkin in on my and reading my update! I know I've been slacking on the blogging but life is happening and it's great ;-)

Life Happens

Life has totally gotten in the way this week and I haven't been out to run since Saturday :-( I had a couple huge sewing orders for my business that I had to finish in a shorter amount of time than normal, so I had to dedicate all my time to getting them finished by today, but that meant I couldn't get a run in edge wise. I know that sounded a little bit like an excuse, but my husband can vouch for me! ;-) I have never had a problem making time for a run, but it was definitely impossible with the time crunch. But last night, I was going to get out for my jog. I was determined to fit it in....

Well, yesterday I had what, HOPEFULLY, is my last dental appointment for at least 10 more years! When I showed up to the dentist, it was my second visit in two weeks to have fillings replaced that were put in about 10 years ago. I looked at the dentist and said, "I don't want to come back for ANOTHER visit, so just do what you gotta do to have me done TODAY please." It was only hours later that I would totally regret that request. It felt like someone took a baseball bat to my head. Not to mention that shortly after my appointment was over, I was SO numb, I couldn't feel the entire bottom half of my jaw because for some reason my face didn't want to get numb with the first round of Novocaine, so they had to give me a second round. I couldn't form words when I talked and I couldn't stop laughing because of how I sounded.

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I wish I'd looked this good with the way my face hurt, but I definitely didn't! LOL!

As you can probably guess, I did NOT get to run like I wanted yesterday no matter how determined I was to do it. With every step I made, my head THROBBED :-( And on top of that, I pretty much blew my calorie intake out of the water! :-( I felt pretty guilty already for missing my run, but then to consume so much food....I was feeling pretty low.

BUT, it was just one day. I hadn't planned on making it a daily happen and I felt like it wasn't even a moment of weakness. For some reason, my body just wasn't satisfied. My stomach kept growling like CRAZY! Sometimes to the point of hurting if I didn't eat. I made good choices throughout the entire day, but the saying is true, that you can have too much of a good thing sometimes ;-)

If you have a "bad" day like mine, it's okay, you're allowed to beat yourself up a little but don't DWELL on that fact that it was a bad day (which was tough for me to not to but I got through it). It matters what you do to pick yourself back up after the bad stuff happens. What will I be doing?? As soon as I publish this post, I'm headed out for a run ;-) Damn you "Runner's High", you're addicting!!

To end this post on a good note, aside from my struggles yesterday, this has been a great week for me. I jogged three straight miles for the first time in my life doing interval training, I hit 30 days in a row for logging onto My Fitness Pal (this is the most in a row I've ever logged in before and I plan to crush this number haha) and my weigh in was Monday...I LOST 3lbs!!! WOO HOO! :-) 

HAPPY HUMP DAY! :-)