App Find and Weight Watchers Update

Last night was my weekly weigh-in and the scale and I are still speaking; I am down .2. Now I know some people think oh that's it, but when you are someone who has struggled so much with weight loss you see down .2 as a successful week. To me any week the scale doesn't go up is a successful week! Also, add in that I haven't been sleeping thanks to stress, allergies and sinus issues and add in not working out because I was afraid of my balance and the .2 loss means even more. Yay me!

A small loss is better than a small gain
I will take .2

Now more fun finds...

As an executive assistant/office manager I don't have a very active work life, meaning most of the time I'm behind my desk. I was watching my FitBit numbers one day and thought wow that's all I do in a day..I could do better. I realized once I get involved in my work I lose all track of time, so I found an app for my phone that actually reminds me to get up and move! It's free and called "Stand Up".

This is what the app looks like on an Iphone

You can program it to which days you want reminders and the length of time between reminders. I started with just weekdays, but then last week when I was lazy I turned it on to get me moving a little. I have it set to go off every 35 minutes. You can customize the reminder message that pops up, mine says "Get Moving!!!!!".

My settings
Very easy to set up!

This is what the message looks like
when it pops up on my lock screen

I have seen my FitBit numbers increase so much. I've also noticed I'm more productive at work from taking those quick breaks and moving my body. 

If you are like me and struggle to get your steps in I highly recommend checking out this app. Also, if you don't already have a FitBit or some form of tracker I recommend one of those too. Want to know more about FitBit, check out my previous post "Keep Moving The FitBit Way" It has made me so much more aware of my activity or lack of during the day. 

Time to Heal

I am not even sure where to start to catch you up on my last few months. It's been sort of a whirlwind. I'm sorry I didn't post at all while going through things.

My craziness really started the beginning of May. After joining Weight Watchers, and loving the program, I knew it was time to start working out again. I was not in the mood for the gym one morning so I went for a walk. I decided to head to a field/park near my home and follow that path. It was a beautiful day.

Pictures from my walk
It was such a beautiful day to go out for a feel good walk

I was enjoying the sun, the breeze, and my music. I was on my way back when I came around the corner and a giant, horse sized Great Dane and it's owner appeared.  I usually love dogs and have never been afraid but something about this dog threw me a little. I decided to walk very far off the path and out the dogs way. Well he had a different idea in mind. Within seconds he broke away from his owner (a very small women who could barely hold him any way) and came at me. Next thing I know he is latched onto my arm. I wish I could tell you what I did next to get away, but I don't remember. The next thing I remember is being halfway down the path looking at my arm bleeding and trying to get even further away from the beast. The owner's daughter came over to help. I called my parents to come and get me from the park, luckily they live nearby. I had to walk all the way across a big field holding my arm. The owner's daughter, while very nice, told me this isn't the first time they have had problems with the dog and think it might be inbred. I couldn't believe it. Why would they bring him to a park, why?!?!  My parent's arrived and helped me clean up the area the best they could. I gave a report to the police officer and off I went to the emergency room with my parents. They cleaned me up, gave me massive dose antibiotics and said yup that will probably scar.

My mom took this picture of me in the emergency room
Somehow she had me laughing and smiling

I spent the rest of the day being cheered up by my truly amazing, wonderful, and loving family. My nieces checking on me and doing my hair. My mom and sister helping me with my bandages. My dad making me smile being silly. I love them so much. I spent the rest of the weekend trying to change my bandage with one arm and taking it easy. In addition, to my family, the wonderful man in my life checked on me constantly and sent me cute photos of him and his son to cheer me up.

To help me not be afraid of walking outdoors, they somehow talked me into going for a walk.
We had a blast playing in the fields behind my parent's house

Kaitlyn always knows how to cheer me up

As the month went on I started to heal a little more, still a little cautious of the outdoor walks I stuck with the treadmill. I was losing weight on Weight Watchers and enjoying, but then I started really changing the way I had eaten for the last year. Instead of healthy non-processed foods, I found myself eating more processed foods. Instead of gluten free I ate lots of products with gluten. I didn't notice not feeling well so I thought it was okay. But then life happened, I started going to more summer parties, I started eating more desserts, I ate doritos like it was my job, I went on vacation with my man and his family and ate lots and lots of fried food. Somehow I had spiraled into a whirlwind of processed food, sugar, carbs, and fried yuck! But hey I felt fine, so it must be okay...until it wasn't!

Just a few of my many indulgences...
don't be fooled by the s'more picture, I had many more than just one

One day I woke up and my tongue was swollen and painful, the side of my stomach hurt a little, and the pain in my mouth made me cry. I couldn't eat or drink, and was barely able to speak without pain. At my mom's suggestion I found a wonderful ENT Dr. who diagnosed my mouth infection.  It appears the very high dose of antibiotics I was on for the dog bite, combined with all the bad food, set my body into a tailspin of bad. While on the outside it appeared the different bad food wasn't bothering me, on the inside was an entirely different situation.

So where does that leave me....well I have spent the last 2 weeks living off bone broth, chicken soup, organic greek yogurt, and caulimash (mashed cauliflower). I am resetting my poor screwed up digestive system and healing the mouth infection at the same time. It's amazing that the less you eat the less you need. I do miss solid foods and flavors, but if this is what my body needs right now to get back on track, then that's what I am going to do.

Bone broth. I must admit it tastes really good
and even better, I made it, talk about feeling proud

All natural! It doesn't sound as exciting as other flavors but I actually really enjoy it
Even when I can eat other things I will continue with this yogurt.

I know it will take time before I am 100%, but I will get there. I will learn along the way and remember the horrible pain of what I went through and never repeat my mistakes again. I am so thankful for the support system I have. My family and the wonderful man in my life helped me through it all. My poor mom, getting text msgs from me about feeling miserable and encouraging me nonstop to push through it, and helping me come up with a plan of attack every step of the way. My man, who loves to cook, wanted to make me something I could eat. He made the most delicious batch of caulimash I have ever tasted!!! Instead of being cranky that I can't enjoy his foods, he told me to just keep finding recipes that I can eat and enjoy and be healthy and he will make them for me. My coworkers checked on me constantly while I was out and sent me funny emails and texts to keep me smiling. My wonderful boss let me pick up work and work from home so I wouldn't fall behind.

Caulimash!!  He made it so delicious I now crave it.
I keep trying, but so far it doesn't comes out the same when I make it

I've been given the chance to help myself, to move forward and be a healthier better version of me and I will not take this opportunity for granted! This is no longer just about weight loss, it's about my future and my health.

After a rough month it was time for some much needed fun!
Mini golf last weekend

Keep Moving...The FitBit Way

Once again I have slacked with my blog posts, but I am back! I think winter is leaving me a little uninspired. I am ready for summer and sunshine. The only downside to summer and sunshine is less clothing, so of course my mission to better health and weight loss is never far from my mind even in winter.

Winter is pretty, but I am ready for warm spring and summer weather

I've been maintaining for the most part, but it really is time to push forward. I recently started getting up early again to fit in a morning workout, I have to admit I missed those workouts, so I am glad to start that habit back up. I haven't been able to hit the gym as much with a busy and weird schedule, but I always try and do some sort of workout and of course I track my food intake with MyFitnessPal.

Do not listen to your sweat pants, they can not help you in the summer!

The biggest push to keep moving, even when all I want is my couch, actually is coming from around my wrist. Huh? You say.  Let me explain. A few months back my mom got a FitBit Charge and loved it!! My dad went out and picked up 3 more the next day; one for me, one for my sister, and one for himself. The family that FitBit together stays healthy together!

If you are looking for a little motivation and a fun way to track yourself, I highly recommend a FitBit. I have the Charge model, It has a neat display that will show me calories burned, steps, stairs, miles, and yes even the time. There is an option to wear it at night to track your sleep, but I was so busy thinking about sleeping that I didn't, whoops.  It has a neat app for my phone that tracks everything and I can sync it with MyFitnessPal to see how I am doing with my food intake.

FitBit Charge
It's lightweight and very comfortable to wear
Website: www.fitbit.com for details and other models

We all have different goals set, but keep each other motivated. Now instead of being lazy some Saturdays I find myself walking around with my mom and sister in the backyard. I can't even imagine what the neighbors think watching us walking, high stepping and twirling. Doing it together makes it way more fun.

Ha it's like my mom when I don't reach my FitBit goal for the day
Love you mom!

I recently upped my goal from 1600 calories burned a day to 1800 calories burned a day. Now this may seem easy, but when you have a full time desk job and a couch to go home too, it's actually more of a challenge than I thought. It really does have me moving around more. I get up from desk and walk around, I started using the printer on the other side of the building, I take the stairs and sometimes I just march in my office. Luckily my boss has a FitBit as well and knows I am not losing my mind, he even joins me some days.

FitBit Charge showing my calorie burn from yesterday.
Way better now that I remind myself to move more!

I see a shopping spree in the next few months for some cute summer clothes, because mine from last year are going to be too big on me this year!! Thank you FitBit for keeping me motivated and moving and thank you to my mom, dad and sister for their constant support and encouragement.  I love you guys!

Family = Best support team!
 I also want to be a good role model for my nieces

**I am not affiliated with the FitBit company in any way. 

I just love the product and wanted to share! **

Fall Into Fun

Fall time...to me it means leaves changing, pumpkins, hay rides, and festivals. Usually by this time my family has already been to a handful of fun events, but this year between my nieces busy social life of birthday parties, my new dating life, and other scheduling conflicts it has been more a challenge to get us all together, but we did it!  This past Sunday, it just happened that all of us were free and we took advantage of the moment and went to a harvest festival a few towns over.

My dad, nieces, and me waiting for the hayride

Well...it definitely wasn't as big as the promotion lead us to believe but we were together. The wind was blowing, but the sun was shining. 

My sister and me on the hayride...could you tell we are sisters?

My dad and brother-in-law hanging out on the hayride

They didn't have the best pumpkins to pick from, but we wandered around the fields and my nieces enjoyed saying ewww at every squished pumpkin. Some of the bushes had prickles on them, Kaitlyn helped me pick them off after. Maybe she will grow up and be a nurse like my sister. 

I'm pretty sure she was saying ewww look at that one!

We could have waited for the tractor to come back and get us from the field, but since we are a family that is healthy together these days we decided to would walk the rest of the way. Now I felt even better about the festival, I got my workout in for the day since I overslept that morning. 

Group shot my mom took from of us walking back

Not much else was really going on at the festival, but don't worry dad and I make any place fun! Oh look a wheelbarrow....

Who needs a festival of events when they had wheelbarrows
Good thing I lost some weight!

So the festival definitely wasn't the best one ever, and will probably not be one we attend next year, but we got to spend some time together walking around and laughing. Luckily they also didn't have much tempting festival food like funnel cake, french fries, and cookies so it didn't make it hard to resist. Since we were all hungry after the wind walking we decided to head over to a local restaurant and have a good dinner with plenty of healthy and delicious options for all of us to enjoy!  

This is called a warming up in the restaurant and excited for food selfie

Nature Walk

Last night my mom stopped by my place for a little to help me pick out some outfits, catch up on my online dating stories (that's a post for a whole other day), and just fun girl talk. I love our time together, It was so much fun! While we were talking about eating and working out she asked me why I stopped walking. I looked at her confused and told her that I am on the treadmill every morning at 5:30. She said that's great, but what about your outdoor weekend walks and walking in the park. I thought about it for a second, why had I stopped walking outside around town or in the park. I didn't even find other parks to walk in like I had hoped to do this summer. Okay sure the summer was a little humid, but not terrible and the bugs were annoying, but not the worst. Even after she left I couldn't stop thinking about my outside walks. I love those walks. I always felt so refreshed and rejuvenated after one of those walks.

Nice way to start the weekend and my workout! 

This morning when I got up and went to get into my normal workout clothes and hop on my now normal treadmill routine, I stopped myself, time to go back outside. It was around 6:30 and pretty chilly...I loved it!! I had on long sleeves and my headphones and loved every second of my walk. I watched the sun finish rising, the squirrels start running around for the day, the air was calm and pretty quiet with not too many people up and out yet. I did about 3.5 miles, it wasn't my fastest time, but I really enjoyed taking everything in and being in the moment. You can bet this will be back on my weekend routines!! I'm so glad my mom said something to me and reminded me how much I love my outdoor walks.

My squirrel friend
Stayed in front of me for at least a 1/2 mile before
finding just the right tree to hop in

Hope everyone has a great weekend and if it's nice out, go outside and enjoy it!!

Love the fall weather.
I'm definitely looking forward to more weekend walks

My after walk low carb breakfast
Eggs over messy with some cheese, a little salad
and a big cup of coffee

Running For Great Finds

For so many years my go to exercise/stress release was walking on the treadmill.  I'm fortunate to have a treadmill in my condo and I also have the gym. The beginning of this year as the weather got a little nicer, I realized I was tired of being cooped up from winter and needed to get out. One morning I was getting ready to venture out around town and thought...hmm where am I supposed to put my things. I carry my house key, a little wallet with my ID, and cell phone. Since it was still chilly out I was wearing my vest so I had pockets, but I was on a mission to figure out what everyone else out there was using, because they definitely weren't wearing their purses.

I love how free I feel walking this trail

I found a walking belt on amazon.com that seemed pretty neat, the SPIbelt. It claimed to be big enough to hold all my stuff and small enough not to drag me down and it wasn't expensive. I got it in the mail and all I could think was no way this will hold all my stuff, but surprisingly it did as it claimed. I have been using it for the past 4 months. Lately I have been adding in a mix of jogging and running and noticed it bounces around a lot and gets a little annoying, plus when I want to take pictures along the way, getting my camera out and back in wasn't the easiest

SPIbelt. Small but surprisingly fits plenty for you to hit the trails.
(I'm still working on my selfies)

I told my dad what was happening and we took a trip to Sports Authority, where he found me a belt called Nathan's 5k. I tried it out around the store and knew my dad was on to something. Yesterday morning I got up to walk the park and was so excited to try out my belt. I put everything in there, including extra keys since I had to drive to the park. It was so light and comfortable I forgot I was wearing it. I was able to stop along the way and take out my phone easily to grab some pictures of the park. Jogging, it didn't even budge. I absolutely love this belt and highly recommend it!

Nathans 5K belt. Lightweight, plenty of room, stays put while jogging and running

Change of Scenery

Weekdays for me are pretty routine. Get up and get ready for work. Go to work. Go to gym. Then usually home with the occasionally meeting or drill at the firehouse on Tuesday. Weekends are my random. Anything is possible on the weekend. But my favorite random is when I get up a little earlier and go for a walk outside. Fresh air, sunshine, room to breathe and enjoy the air, squirrels and birds.

The last few weeks have been crazy, nonstop. Some fun stuff and some not so fun stuff, but either way I was starting to noticed all the noise in my head. What noise am I talking about you ask? The noise of always thinking, thinking, thinking, planning, wondering...okay you get the point. By last night I was torn between going to bed and pulling the covers over my head and sleeping late since it was going to be Saturday or wanting to change up my day. Maybe changing things was just what I needed to clear the noise. But how was I going to do it? I mentioned it to my dad who suggested I try a park path he likes to ride his bike on. My dad rides anywhere between 20-30 miles a day on his bicycle, and has found so many neat areas, paths, and adventures. I loved the idea, but had never been there before; usually I just walk around my town in a big circle. I googled the park and found a map of the are, and thought to myself "I need to go there". My dad knew I was a little nervous since I didn't know the area; he offered to go with me and skip his bike ride for a day. I felt bad he was going to miss his daily ride, but he assured me it was good for him to switch up his routine too and he wanted to go. Outside, I played it cool, inside I was more excited than a kid on their birthday!

Pic from one of my dad's rides. 

We love to see where he goes!

Saturday morning I woke up even before my alarm, my dad came and picked me up and off we went!! We started walking and I can't even explain the sense of freedom that came over me. Everything bothering me, the noise included was gone. It was just my dad and me walking along a beautiful trail, the sun shining, the birds chirping, he and I catching up. He showed me where he likes to go on his bicycle rides and gave me some tips about the area. We also talked about his new iphone app called Cyclemeter. The app tracks his location on rides and even does his calories, speed, distance, all of that neat stuff. In addition, the app sends out an email or text every 30 min to let my mom, my sister, and me know where he is. This way we can't lose him. I checked it out when I got home and the app also syncs with my calorie counting app/program called myfitnesspal. Since I'm looking to explore more I thought this would be a great app to use. I downloaded it and will be using it on my next walk around town or out on a new adventure. 

Park views and 9/11 Memorial in the park

We finished up and I am already thinking about when I get back there again. It's amazing how a change of sceanery and good company can totally help you regroup, refocus, and feel relief from the daily grind and noise. I told my dad how much I enjoyed the walk, but I don't think he really knows how much he helped me today and how just by him offering to go with me made my day! 

Views from along the path. I told the deer to smile, but he didn't listen

Ups and Downs

Usually when I talk about ups and downs in the weight loss world I am referring to the numbers I see on the scale; however, this time it's about the daily journey. Over the last few months I have dedicated a lot of time to learning about food, exercise, and being healthier. Only over the last few weeks have I felt like I was finally on the right path. I had a better understanding of what different carbs and sugar could do to my body. I learned what happens when I cut out all carbs and workout, not a pretty picture. I learned to make going to the gym a fun habit and walking around my town something to look forward to on weekends. I was feeling pretty good about it all and then....

A few weeks ago was Memorial Day. I woke up and went for a long walk since I had the day off. It was a refreshing and invigorating walk. I reflected on the past weekend and how for the first time in months, and I mean months, I stayed within a good calorie range. I didn't over eat, I didn't over indulge, but I was satisfied and did enjoy myself. I did all that on holiday weekend, yeah I was feeling pretty darn proud.  

Early morning lake view from my walk

My family and I went to the parade in town and I shared a delicious ice cream with my sister, who also recently lost a bunch of weight and looks amazing.  So where is the down part you ask?  Well, on our way back to the car my adorable 3, almost 4 year old, niece looks up at me with her big brown eyes and tells me her legs are tired from walking. So I pick her up and walk with her on my hip. My mom and sister both told me not to since I have suffered from back problems in the past, but nope,  her legs were tired and she knows her Aunt is a big sucker for her, so onward we went.  Later that evening I knew I had made a big mistake. My back was screaming in pain and as the night went on it just got worse and I found myself crying to my mom why didn't I just listen to them. 

Getting ready for the parade

Here I was, I had been so good with the gym loving it, I was up and about and enjoying every moment and now I was down on the couch hoping to walk straight the next day. I woke up and decided I could crawl to work or be smart and take the day off. Thankfully I have an amazing boss and I was able to take the day to recover. As I sat on the couch, I felt bad for myself. What about all my hard work at the gym, what about how good I was doing? Then it hit me. Sure I might be down and out for this week, but I will be back in the gym in no time. And even more motivated to strengthen my muscles and tone myself so things like this don't happen again. I must stay strong and fight on. Let my body heal up and then make it better than ever before.

Sharing some ice cream 

So sure I miss the gym and wish I was going, but this has taught me once again how incredible the human body is and how important it is to take care of it. And also how important it is to remain positive. It's hard, but it's better than being negative and making yourself more upset and probably doing more bad than good.  I saw this online and thought it was appropriate for my post today. I'm not sure who said it, but I agree with them 100%

Cindy