Love Always

Here we are at the end of March and what a month of lessons, bumps in the road, and success it has been. I am sitting on my bedroom floor 2 pounds lighter than I was at the beginning of this month. Not quite my goal, but a mini success nonetheless. I went into the month with a strong head game and then I allowed myself to become a little lax and ultimately that ended up hurting me.

After my initial week of not having pop I was feeling really run down and it was a lot on my body to go cold turkey, so I decided to allow myself 1 a day to slowly ease out of it. What I should have done instead was fight through the uneasiness until my body readjusted. Allowing myself to have 1 pop a day was something I was able to stick to for the most part. There were some days where I got up to 3 a day, but those were far and few between. Obviously this is something that I need to work on, and mentally push myself harder to finally eradicate pop from my diet.

Aside from drinking pop I did a pretty good job at sticking to my 16+ hour fast. My body was feeling energized and lighter and I knew that fasting was the right decision for me. However, this past week I got hit with a pretty nasty uti, which left my body bloated with water weight and forced me to take medication every few hours, with food. This meant that my fasting was thrown out the window. Since I wasn’t able to fast I made sure to focus on smaller portion sizes during my meals to maintain my calorie intake. I can tell, though, that I am ready to get back to fasting. My body isn’t liking eating so early in the morning.

Going into April I have decided to put the goal of losing 7 pounds back out there. I know now where my head needs to be and I know what steps I need to take to get there. I will be traveling for 12 days out of this month, and with traveling comes the enjoyment of trying new foods. It makes me a little nervous on my goal of losing 7 pounds, but I know that I will be doing a lot of walking around and I will do my best at choosing healthier food options and smaller portions.

I may not have reached my goal this month, but I learned some lessons and I succeeded a little. It’s all about baby steps, not rushing the process, and making lifestyle changes that will last a lifetime.

Love always,

Jess

As week two of my goal of losing 7 pounds in March comes to a close I am feeling tiny bits of “I didn’t do enough.” I think that mainly stems from the fact that I started my period today. I’m sitting here with cramps and dealing with bloating and weight gain. Harumph!

Aside from my feeling a little gross I have had a pretty good week. On Wednesday I spent the day at the spa with my friend and felt really confident in my body and walking around naked. I haven’t really weighed myself the past couple of days because of how my period causes fluctuations on the scale, but I am definitely seeing changes in my body. Two of the biggest areas I see a change in are in my back and around my rib cage.

When it comes to my habits I didn’t succeed very well at going to the gym. I think being tired and also dealing with cramps lead to me being extra lazy this week. On top of that I spent a good deal of time in a car on Saturday and Sunday driving to and from San Francisco to see a dance show. As far as my 16+ hour fast goes I only accomplished that for 3 of the 7 days this week, but I kept my average fast at 15 hours for the week, so not too bad. I do find myself eating smaller portions in in general and making healthier food choices for my meals, which I find to be great progress.

During the first week of March I completely cut pop out of my diet cold turkey. This was extremely difficult on me mentally and physically. I was getting headaches nearly every day and I was constantly craving something to take its place. As a result I decided to allow myself 1 pop per day this past week. I know that sounds like a lot still, but to substantially cut down from 3 pops per day to 1 per day is a huge step in the right direction. I also didn’t have any pop for 1 day this week, and that was Sunday. Over the next couple of weeks I will continue to dwindle down my pop consumption until I am not drinking any.

As a result of my habits not being 100% and starting my period I didn’t expect to see any huge, dramatic results this week, but I am still well on my way to losing 7 pounds this month. Below are my week 2 results compared against my starting measurements.

Last night I was reading Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins and he talks a lot about how we need to own who we are and take the responsibility to change ourselves. He says, “Whatever your goal, you’ll need to hold yourself accountable for the small steps it will take to get there. Self-improvement takes dedication and self-discipline. The dirty mirror you see every day is going to reveal the truth. Stop ignoring it. Use it to your advantage.” If I am going to reach my goal of losing 7 pounds this month, and then continue to strive for goals each month after I am going to need to face some harsh truths about myself and face reality. I am going to need to dig deep inside myself and fight hard for what it is that I want. That means that I need to show up every day, regardless of how I feel. This week I let my feelings get the best of me, but next week I need to be better and do better. Until then, have a blessed week ahead!

Love always,

Jess

The month of February hit my family hard. We received two back to back cancer announcements within our household and the news did not sit well. We are a strong family and we know that we will fight this, but it still doesn’t make the news any easier. The stress from this news didn’t manifest in emotions for me, but rather it took a physical form within my body. I did not want to do anything that required physical activity and I wanted to eat anything that showed up in front of me. After two weeks of waking up to my 4:30 am alarm clock, brushing my teeth, and putting on my gym clothes just to crawl back into bed I decided enough was enough.

The week leading up to March 1st I was feeling extremely bloated, out of breathe, tired, and I could see acne breakouts across my face. It was then that I decided in the month of March I would lose 7 pounds. I’ve set out on goals like this before, but this time around I am determined and have my mindset in the right place. To do this I have reached out to a support group, but more importantly I have chosen 2 changes to focus on for the month of March. These changes include cutting pop (soda for you non-mid-westerners) out of my diet and fasting for 16-18 hours per day (intermittent fasting). The fasting part won’t be that difficult because it’s what I did my entire childhood without realizing it. My dad used to get on me all of the time for not eating breakfast, but it’s how my body naturally functions at its best. The difficult part is going to be cutting pop out of my diet. I have an unhealthy addiction to pop that needs to end. I often times find myself drinking up to 3 pops a day…I know, not good!

Now that I have completed the first week of March, here are some changes I’ve seen in my body and my first week results.

• My digestive system has gotten substantially better
• I can breathe easier
• I have more energy
• I feel lighter
• I don’t feel as bloated

To help keep myself accountable on this journey I am using 2 different apps, as well as relying on friends for support. The two apps I am using are Zero to track my intermittent fasting hours and HabitShare to keep track of whether I have successfully completed my goal for the day.

As you can see, I haven’t been perfect in my goals, but I have made a ton of improvement over the past week. I went from about 3 pops a day to just 1 pop on Thursday. My goal this month is to lose 7 pounds, not to be perfect every single day. There will be days I struggle and days I don’t succeed, but each day is an opportunity for growth. As I continue to grow I will make healthier decisions and eventually get myself back into shape.

Love always,

Jess

Oh man! This post is going to hurt, but one that is long over due. Can I be honest with you for a minute? 

I struggle just like everyone else.

Phew, there I said it. Sometimes we are so quick to only share the positive things in our lives. The parts where we are succeeding. Rarely does anyone show their struggles. Well I don’t want to be that person. I want to keep you guys in tune with where exactly I am in my journey. So what am I currently struggling with?

Food.

I love food. I really do. My problem is that I eat way more than I need to, and I eat things that aren’t getting me to my goals. It sucks to admit it to myself, but it is embarrassing to admit it to all of you. Probably because I’m afraid to let others down, but ultimately because I had a quick fix in weight loss before and I know that this isn’t going to be a quick fix. It was easy to keep going when I was losing 2-3 pounds in a week. It was easy to keep going when I saw my body changing before my eyes. 

I know, just like with everything else, that I need to be patient, keep up the work, and not give up. Some days it’s easier said than done. Other days I kick ass. For me the gym is not my weakness. I can get up every day for that and have been working out on average 5-6 times per week. I’ve got that down! Throw weights in front of me and I go, go, go. My weakness is food. The biggest of all of that is pop. I automatically grab a coke for my meals. At this point it’s habit and breaking that habit is difficult. 

soooooo difficult!!

It’s not that I don’t like water, I drink 100+ ounces of water a day.

i. just. need. to. break. the. habit.

At this point I don’t care about the scale. I don’t care about the inches. I need to break my unhealthy habits with food before I can focus on everything else. Because once I break those unhealthy habits I know that things will start working in my favor. I will start seeing results from all of the sweat I am dripping from my workouts. I will feel all of the energy come back to me that is being wasted on digesting crappy food. 

So what am I doing to quit this unhealthy relationship with food? Well for starters, tonight is my work holiday party, so I’m going to enjoy it. Then once I take my last bite I will start my intermittent fasting timer. Tomorrow morning when I wake up I will remind myself of my goals. I will speak kindly to myself, but focus on maintaining discipline throughout the day. I am reading books galore on habits, growth, self-love, health, nutrition, success, etc. 

Knowledge is power!

Reflection…

When the day is over I will reflect. I will love myself for the moments of strength and the moments of weakness. I will take note of what led to the struggle. I will find ways to establish better choices next time. Most importantly though, I will thank my body for carrying me through another day and let her know that she is beautiful and that I will work another day at making her the healthiest she can be. 

Breaking these habits isn’t going to be easy, but in the end I will be better for it. One day, one meal, one step at a time. That’s all I can ask of myself. As my friend says, be 1% better than you were the day before and eventually that 1% adds up. 

Love always,

Jess