Long Weekend.....

Most you know how crappy the weather was this weekend, well in the

great state of Iowa anyway!! (rain, rain, and more RAIN..)

Yep we are headed toward flooding again, and still more rain to come in the next few days.

The BF and I tried to keep ourselves busy indoors in order to not get too depressed that we couldn't go

bicycling this weekend,

I priced a lot of stuff for our garage sale in 2 weeks,

got some drinking time in (of coarse... how else do ppl spend their 3 day weekends..),

got some shopping in,

we went bowling one night!,

and then we just relaxed some also!

My bf carried a flag in the Memorial Day (parade)

As far as eating goes... ugh... it's just not fun to keep track of what you eat when you

are trying to enjoy your weekend, especially in between drinks. ;)

I did not weigh today because I was a little afraid, but today has been a good day,

Honestly I needed a day of detox, so eating good and drinking lots of water was a GREAT choice!

If you are in need of some encouragment I found this video today

and it's very insightful and fun, interview with Dani from Biggest Loser!

We all know how much I love the Biggest Loser, and also Dani who was the Season 15 winner!

MyFitnessPal

I Love this app!!!

Why you ask?! Well there are so many features!

-You can keep track of your calorie intake on your phone.(which most people have on them ALL the time)

-It has a TON of food choices in the database
-Most restarant's are listed
-You can see how many calories you burn based on your weight!
(there's a lot of different exercise choices.)
-There is a barcode scanner so you can scan Anything Anywhere at Anytime!
-You can see the summary of all the nutrients you took in during the day.
 -You can add your friends so they can see your working out and entering your food journal diary.
-You can also set your daily calorie goal for whatever you want per day.

There is just SO many things!

Please add me if you are a part of this app! 
(kdlarson22)

 This is how mine is currently set!

You strong, Girl!!

This weekend I put my willpower and my strength to the test! I'll be damned if I didn't prove to myself that I am strong and I able to work hard and get my  brain into it.

I went home Saturday morning after sleeping at my parents house, the BF was out of town which always calls for cocktails (hence why I DIDN'T drive and stayed at my parents. :)  As I was laying on the couch eating breakfast I thought to myself.. hum I should ride my bike to my parents house this morning, that way I can get exercise in and also I won't have to spend gas money to get back to Ames.  

I made up my mind and nothing was stopping me after that! Once I talk myself into something 

I feel let down if I don't follow through!

I took a shower got dressed in biking gear and hit the road! 

One hour and 13 miles later, I was feeling STRONG! 

I'm not sure the exact mileage cause my  speedometer isn't 100% correct.

After I got to Ames I was feeling really good, I was confident in myself for actually finishing something I said I was going to do, also for actually accomplishing it and not giving up.

When the BF and his brother got back to town they decided they wanted to ride, so

we thought it would be fun to try a new trail, we headed south to Bondurant where they are

paving a new trail to ride.

Come to find out the trail isn't done yet... or else we just weren't smart enough, we

followed what we thought was a trail and it took us to a lake

and around the lake and that was it... so we ended up just turning around and heading back to Founder's.

I think we all may have been relieved to not ride very far cause the boys roofed a garage 

and I had already rode 13 miles that day so we were all a little pooped...

we had a few drinks and headed back to the house to grill!! 

Total I rode about 16 or 17 miles on Saturday! 

I'd say that's pretty awesome since I haven't ridden much this year yet... Definitely felt it Sunday though. :)

NO PAIN, NO GAIN!

(Also I stepped on the Scale this morning cause I thought it would be a fair

number since I  burned 1500 cal Saturday and ate fairly well... no such luck

287lbs. the darn scale just doesn't want to agree with my new

changes... Soon enough I guess.)

Timeline

Just wanted to give myself a timeline of where I have been and where I want to be as far as my weight lose!

*287 highest weight May 2013 (after IUD)
*285 current weight

*283 the weight that haunts me
*280 Last week
*278 when I started "17 Day Diet" Oct 2012
*260 Florida  Trip Nov 2012
*245 what I weighed when I went on my first date with Scott 11-11-11
*240 what I weighed when I started running 2009
*220 what I weighed on our CRUISE 2010
*200 while I worked at Burgie's 2007
*199 Jump for joy I'm in One-derland!
*180 what I weighed before I started working at Burgie's Coffee shop (in High School)
*165 GOAL WEIGHT

To see this I'm hoping will be my motivation to be able to cross off milestones and keep me looking ahead to the long term goal of being healthy and fit so I can live my life completely!

 It's a little scary for me to put out there for all of you to see my different weights, it makes me feel insecure but guess I'm doing it so I can feel that sense of accomplishment when I am able to cross numbers off my timeline! :)

This is me around Feb or March. 283 I'm pretty sure.

(I'm giving credit to Jennifer at http://www.fatchick2fitchickblog.com/ for inspiring me to do this from her blog!)

Goals & Struggles

After finishing the book Unlimited by Jillian Michaels it was clear to me that in order to be successful at anything in your life you have to set goals, big and small, and they have to be specific not just, 'oh someday I want to be a superstar', being specific about your big goals and making small daily, weekly, monthly goals in order to reach the bigger goals you have.

I've decided to share a few with you guys that I came up with:

-Be physically strong, push my body

-Gain stronger willpower to say no to the things that destroy my small goals

-Art Journaling (getting my hobbies back in my life)

-Eat healthy

-Incorporate exercise into everyday life

-Finish School (currently going for Business Administration)- hope to be done at the end of Summer 2014

-Lose 122lbs

Things that I feel hold me back from reaching some of these goals are:

*I feel if I fail everyone will be disappointed in me... which shuts me down, and makes things even worse.
*I've had some relationships in the past that have caused me to be insecure with myself and hard to trust others.
*I feel even more insecure because of the weight I've gained.
*I feel like I make up reasons for those around me to not love me 100% and I often push them away to keep myself from feeling hurt and defeated.

In the eyes of fear, Jillian explains that you need to follow those who have gone through the things you fear so you have something to cling too when the road gets narrow and you feel your about to pull back because of the fear you are facing.
There are a few blogs I follow in order to keep my head on straight and that have or are going through the weight lose journey that I want to be on they include:
Paige at http://joyjourneypaige.blogspot.com/
Mama Laughlin at http://www.mamalaughlin.com/
Skinny Meg http://www.skinnymeg.com/
A recent find http://www.fatchick2fitchickblog.com/
I love to read all of these blogs because they are encouraging and they talk about some of the major struggles they are having or have had on their weight lose journey!

I road in a previous blog {here} explaining about the successes I had last week and what it took me to get to the point of being successful, well I'm gonna be completely honest as soon as I celebrated and jumped for joy I got off track again, today is the first day I have gotten back onto my plan, I bet you can all see why when I fail I shut down and think I will never be able to accomplish this because in the past that is what I do, I fail and then I turn to the things I fear the most (food) to comfort me which in turn brings me back to or higher weight then I was when I got myself to be successful.  {I tell ya if you could get inside my brain and straighten it out for me that would AWESOME!}

The one thing I feel the most is The weekend, that should be the time I jump for joy because I have freedom on the weekends, but that is the problem, Freedom...  When I get into a routine during the week, where I can get my mind to a place of being successful, then the instant Friday at 5 o'clock hits all HELL breaks lose in my brain.... I can't just give up on myself like this... it's become a vicious cycle I can't seem to get around, it's like a MAJOR road block!

Any suggestions from you guys?!?! I could use any help I can get....

Raw Honesty

Here I sit, staring at this blank page, wondering what in the world I am going to share with you all next, even why I take time out of my day to write a blog.  I started this blog I think about 4 years ago and at that time it just seemed fun, something I could share random things on... you know different life events and life lessons, anything that came to mind was what I wrote about to share with the world.  It seems I still do that often I don't really have a blog theme it's just whatever comes to mind that I need to express to the world in hopes that it will be cleared out of my head and put in a place that I can look back and see progress and growth in my own life.  I've shared some of the happiest times in my life and some of the not so happy or even depressing things that I've faced as a person in the peak of my young adult life.  Obviously you can't share EVERYTHING on here... it is the internet and you never know who accesses the information that I've had in my head and laid out in years of blogging to the world, but I want this to be a place that I can share my inner most desired goals and hopes for my future, as a young women who is facing this harsh world.

As I reflect, I hope that everyone who reads my blog is in some way gaining knowledge or insight to their own lives and by me sharing things that I am going through you can learn something for yourself that may make your life more adventurous, fun filled, and joyous.

I struggle so often with the ups and downs of life and am so reaching out to find clarity for all the harsh things this world today has us all tied up in that we often times drown in and can't get back up and catch our breath.
I'm talking about obesity...
I'm talking about health...
I'm talking about crime...
I'm talking about the world of employment...
I'm talking about all the things you see often see on the TV or the news that hinders the way we are able to live our lives as free Americans with Big Dreams.

 As we all think about the things that drive up to be who we are and who we want to be, we have to keep in mind that we CAN accomplish anything we set our minds too!!!  

I am currently sharing with you all about my struggles and successes with weight loss and although I haven't completely grasped the hang of it I hope you will all hang with me and keep encouraging me to continue pushing myself to my goals.... As I move forward with my blog I would like to start sharing more successes then failures and more positive outlooks with lots of goals in the future! 

THANKS FOR BARING WITH ME THROUGH THIS JOURNEY AND I HOPE TO NOT DISAPPOINT BUT TO ENCOURAGE ALL OF US TO KEEP OUR HEADS UP IN LIFE AND MAKE IT ALL THAT WE WANT!!! :)

Hooray for Success!

I just wanted to update you guys about my progress so far with 30 Day Shred!!! I have lost 7lbs... YAY! I can finally see myself having progress! The bf and I have been walking every night after dinner or if it's raining going to the gym and then we come home and do Level 1 of 30 Day Shred (man am I sore... not sure how I feel about Level 2 or 3 yet...).  After we workout then I make a healthy shake as I posted about before !  I am still mastering what tastes the best... it's a really fun process to see what you can mix together in order to make a green shake... ususally anytime I add spinach it will be green. :)  Nothing like feeling healthy and happy about myself! 

I've found that the only way I have got myself really motivated is to REALLY want it... it didn't work before cause I didn't want it very bad... also making it my sole focus at this time in my life

has helped me a lot! I have a lot of support with my bf (who is becoming a gymaholic) and my parents are big supporters also.. they want to see me happy and successful and it is finally starting to sink in

and really make a difference for me in my life.

I'm learning this one step at a time! 

Happy Monday!

Smoothies and Accountability

Not to long ago I did a post on how I was going to do the Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred ,well I did do it and I still do it occasionally, but I'm going to stress myself the next couple months to focus on working out and getting healthy since I have NO SCHOOL to worry about! :) (can you tell I'm excited about that!) I want to actually do the 30 day shred for 30 days in a row or more consistently, so you guys are my accountability now to keep me on track! Starting tonight!

I am going to weigh tomorrow morning to get a starting weight and also I will measure to see if I lose inches

as well, I also have talked myself into seeing how long it takes me to run a mile, so that way at the end of the

summer I can see how much I have improved! 

For years my dad has used a VitaMix blender to make all kinds of shakes and smoothies and health drinks

and anything you can think of (that thing will literally blend anything!), I was always inspired by it

cause really you can put anything into a blender and if you have to plug your nose to drink it

at least your getting all the vegetables and fruits you need! 

Well, I finally got my wish, my dad decided to upgrade to a new VitaMix because his was getting pretty 

outdated... (keep in mind this is like a 500 dollar blender!) and he was kind enough to hand down

his old one to me! :) Guess what I have been doing this past weekend.... 

Yep.. blending anything and everything!

I started with a shake that was a bunch of random stuff I found in the fridge and in our fruit rack.

Jicama, carrots, cucumber, celery, avocado, and lemon juice.

This one wasn't too bad! After I made this one I had to go to the store to find more stuff I could blend that I knew was good for me! :)

Ginger root, cucumber, kiwi, apple, spinach, kale, celery, coconut water.

This one was WAY to much ginger, all you could tastes was the ginger! :/

Just for a refreshing start to my day I added a few orange slices to my water. :)

Happy Monday!

Goals

I'm finally done with School!!! :) (for the semester!) 

That being said I decided to take the summer off because I feel that my health

and my life are more important at this moment then finishing school!

This summer I plan to truly educate myself and put to practice the things I have been learning and would 

like to still learn about eating healthy and pushing myself to a healthier lifestyle.

We all know that I have struggled or complained about my weight a lot in last year... well

I know that I am the only one that can help myself to make my life all that I want it to be.

I am reading Unlimited by Jillian Michaels right now (I plan to read a lot this summer), and

it is about how to achieve your true inner goals and how to figure out

what your goals are.

I have a hard time knowing what it is I want to do, which effects my drive in life... you have

to have a main goal or at least something you want to accomplish long

term in order to live your life fully.

If any of you have heard of The Secret it's a movie that goes into detail about how to train your 

brain and your thoughts in order to get what you want.  Unlimited reminds me a lot of 

the movie.

I encourage all of you to sit down and figure out what all your goals are and what you want to accomplish short term and long term, that's what I will be doing during this summer!

My DIY project from the weekend. 

 

Gonna start doing more of these!