Gluten

Ok, I'll be the first to admit my eating the past couple of weeks hasn't been what it should be.... I want to but haven't been tested yet for a gluten allergy, but I do know that when I cut it out completely from my diet that my stomach feels so much better.... This past week my eating has been alright but I haven't been careful about the gluten and I think my stomach is letting me know, it has been really sore even to press on it and I've been crazy nauseous the past few days - which was a normal thing before I started cutting gluten out, it's been so bad I've had ultrasounds done of my stomach and many doctors appointments and they've said there's nothing wrong.... But once I cut gluten out my stomach feels 100% better, the pain is gone, I'm no longer nauseous. Lately it's been hard to get through a workout without feeling like I need to run upstairs to puke, and I've had to drink several cokes to help with it which I HATE! Cokes are so horrible for you and your diet and anything carbonated makes me bloat and have more of a belly, so I don't even like drinking carbonated water unless I have to. 

Anyway, I have to go to the doctor to drop off some old records today and I need to talk with them about getting tested for a gluten allergy/sensitivity even though from experimenting with my diet I'm pretty sure that's what I have. 

1 1/2 months of lifting results

Here are my results after lifting for a month and a half. I still have lots of work to do, but at least I'm not nearly as flabby as I was. That's me trying to lift for 15-30 minutes a day 3-5 days a week.

I cannot wait to see what my arms will be like in a few more months, especially because one of my friends is coming up with a lifting program designed just for me, so I'm hoping and I'm sure I'll have amazing results from it. 

Progress is progress no matter how small

Somedays I feel like my body isn't changing, I'm not seeing results, and get so frustrated.... And then I take progress pictures and realize how much my body really has changed, the weight didn't show up overnight so I can't expect it to come off overnight, on top of that I'm building muscle because I don't want to just be skinny/fat, I want to be ripped and strong. 

That's 2 1/2 years difference, in the picture I took today I wasn't flexing, I did put some weight onto my arm but the muscle is finally starting to show on it's own. I cannot say how excited I am for my arms to lose that flab and fat. 

My biggest tip and it makes people laugh hearing it from me, is don't be afraid to lift! I used to say I wouldn't lift because I would look "bulky" but that was just my lazy excuse. 

What I eat

That's Ok, first off what I eat to lose weight/stay healthy may not work for everyone.... It took me months of experimenting to figure out what worked for me, but people are always asking me what I eat so I figured I would post it here. 

Every Sunday is meal prep day where I cook my lunches and dinners for the next week so I won't be tempted to cheat. 

Breakfast: pretty boring every morning I have 2 Simple Truth (Kroger's natural/organic brand) frozen gluten free blueberry waffles and a glass of organic whole milk. 

And then for my lunch and dinner I eat the same thing, on Sunday I cook 2-3 packages of Simple Truth chicken tenders with Bragg's seasoning and I'll eat 2-3 pieces with each meal, I'll cook brown rice, quinoa, quinoa/brown rice mixture, sweet potato fries, mashed sweet potatoes, mashed cauliflower, wild rice... Healthy carbs - I stay away from anything white - white potatoes, white flour, white sugar. And I stay away from gluten and wheat as much as possible. And every week I cook 2 bags of frozen veggies that will last me the week (Monday - Friday or Saturday), I do like to roast fresh veggies when I get the chance (just a little extra virgin olive oil drizzled over top, salt, and garlic powder). 

Sometimes to change it up I'll use ground turkey and add taco spices (I try not to use store bought taco seasoning because it's filled with crap), minced garlic and cook it, drain the grease off of it and then just eat it with guacamole (which I could live off of lol), some plain Greek yogurt in place of sour cream, and a little bit of cheddar cheese (this is a treat because I normally only let myself have my glass of milk in the morning and besides that I stay away from dairy), I'll either eat that warmed up in a bowl or in the summer I'll eat it on top of a salad - idk in the winter I'm not a big salad fan, it's just too cold. 

Another meal I make is I'll use sweet ground turkey sausage sautéed with a package of frozen onions with peppers mix (you can find it at Kroger), I drain the grease and add wild rice, brown rice, or quinoa to it (whatever I have on hand that's cooked), and then add a little organic spaghetti sauce and stir it up. 

Snacks I'll eat fruit, veggies, nuts (15-20 nuts), Kind bars, Simple Truth protein bars, or Luna protein bars (the peanut butter chocolate one taste like a Snickers).

I normally eat breakfast at around 6am, morning snack between 8:30 and 9:30 depending on when I'm hungry, lunch at around 11:00 or 11:30, afternoon snack between 1:00 and 3:00 depending on when I have time and when I'm hungry, and dinner around 5:30 or 6:00 If I'm working out after work I'll often have an extra snack and then have dinner later then normal. 

This is my meal prep from this past Sunday. 

One of my favorite snacks is fresh fruit with chia seeds. Btw chia seeds are one of the most amazing things ever!! They give me tons of energy, make me stay full longer because they expand in your stomach and take up more room. And they're pretty cool added to your drink but do get a weird slimey texture that a lot of people don't like. 

And what I drink.... Water! I drink at the least 100oz a day but try for more, and yes you'll have to pee a lot lol I do drink sweet tea a lot - I'm from the south and we love our sweet tea! I've tried making it with stevia and it's pretty good but that is one of the times I'm more willing to use white sugar lol I also drink lots of hot tea. 

And again, this will NOT work for everyone, I just wanted to post it because I get asked all the time what I eat. And no I don't count calories, I'm weird I can weigh myself everyday and I don't mind if my weight goes up a little, but if I go over on my calories even by a couple I'm extremely hard on myself. But when I do put them in I'm at around 1200-1400 calories a day. 

My babies <3

I forgot to post about my babies in my first post, we don't have any human babies yet lol But for our anniversary this month Drew and I went to the humane society and adopted the 2 sweetest puppies, Molly is around 11-12 months old and is part mountain cur, she is so sweet and just wants to please us and for us to love her. Bruiser is around 13 weeks or so and is part lab part red healer and is an absolute mess lol He gets into everything and is in trouble all of the time, but he's so cute you just can't stay mad at him lol 

Hey Blog World

Hey blog world,

I started a blog a few years ago but never really posted on it and I really wanted and needed a place where I can write down my thoughts, talk about clean eating, fitness, dancing, weight loss, etc as much as I want without getting on anyone's nerves lol I figure no ones going to read a blog they aren't interested in.

A little bit about myself, I'm 22 years old and from Kentucky but now living in Tennessee with my husband, I'm currently a nanny for a sweet little girl but starting next month I'm going to start working at a preschool again, I'm going to miss Camille like crazy but I am SO excited to start teaching preschool.

I have been married to an amazing guy for 3 years now and we've only been together for a little over 3 years, we dated for 3 months when he proposed to me, and we got married less than 2 months later because he was deploying in a few months and we wanted a little bit of time together before being separated for 12 months.
I met Drew in June of 2009 but at the time I was dating one of his "battle buddies" (someone he was in the same company with in the army) they both deployed a week after I met Drew and by the time Drew got back the next year I was single again, I still remember I was spending 4th of July weekend at my sisters house at Ft.Campbell and I was doing some laundry and for some reason I was in their house alone when someone knocked on their front door and just walked in, scared me to death! lol And at first I didn't recognize him, the last time I saw him he was a little over weight, pretty pale, and clean shaven, now he was really skinny, had a desert tan from Iraq, and had a beard since he was on leave... He was wearing this funny outfit that didn't match but somehow suited him and his personality... We started talking and joking around, he ended up talking my sister and her husband into the 4 of us going to dinner and a movie and letting him drive me back home to Elizabethtown that evening... That whole why there I just prayed he would ask me for my number.... He didn't! But a couple weeks later it was my birthday and I got this strange happy birthday text from a number I didn't know, turns out he talked my sister into giving him my number. We started hanging out after that and in early September we went on a walk together and he asked me "so are we dating or what??" and I answered back "ummm... I think so, are we?" and we've been together ever since haha!

A little bit about my weight loss journey now...
My weight has always been up and down, I was always a chubby kid/teenager, in high school I did finally get down to the smallest weight and jean size I had ever been, then I graduated (in 2009), got a job, and gained about 30lbs, and then slowly gained another 20lbs... When I got married in 2011 I was over 200lbs, the heaviest I had ever been! When Drew deployed I decided to join a gym and start losing weight but I had NO idea what I was doing and ended up only getting down to 174lbs, then he came home and I gained back all of that plus a little and jokingly called it my "happy weight" because I was eating out all of the time with him... Later in 2012 I tried losing weight a couple of times but never stuck with it, I would rather just eat pizza at least once a week, Chinese every week or two, run out almost every night and buy a candy bar, and drink 3-5 cokes a day...
Finally January 1, 2013 I decided I needed to change and to make it a lifestyle change not just a quick change that would only last a few months, right after deciding that one of my friends on Facebook invited me to a private accountability group on Facebook, I joined and honestly I'm ashamed to say I didn't expect much from it, and I didn't try that hard at first, I bought lots of processed "health" foods that were not actually healthy for me but I thought if I ate them the weight would magically fall off lol In May 2013 I had no idea where to get started or what I was doing really but I decided to start clean eating from May - October I lost a little over 40lbs and I was constantly eating, never hungry. Also later on in May I cut cokes out cold turkey and lost 5 inches from my belly that first week! Now I do clean eating/paleo 95% of the time, and try to only cheat every couple of weeks.
In November I went through some personal problems on top of the upcoming holidays and gained around 10 lbs back, but in January I started over full force and have lost almost all of that again and plan on losing another 30 or so lbs.
When I joined the accountability group last year I was a cardio queen and told myself that lifting weights would make me bulky.... I've slowly added weights in and I love it! I love seeing my arms slowly tone up a little, my back and shoulders looking stronger, my legs are starting to look better than they've ever looked, and I don't look bulky lol!
Oh and the members in the accountability group.... Most I have never met but have slowly become some of my closest friends, who else can truly understand everything I've gone through this past year and pushed me and supported me when I just wanted to quit.

The top left is from high school at 150lbs and I was not very healthy, the top middle is a little over a year later at around 180lbs, the top right is from my wedding day at over 200lbs, bottom left is 11 months later at 174lbs, bottom middle is 9 months later at over 200lbs again, and bottom right is 14 months later back to 150's/160's I weigh more now than I did in the top left picture but I'm in 1-2 jean sizes smaller, so muscle really does take up less room than fat.