Motivitation Monday

I take like hundreds of pictures a month. I take pictures of my sweet Lulu and Charlie, doughnuts places with a sample of their doughnuts, pictures of the Mountain Man and me, and pictures of random things. Sometimes those pictures stay on my phone for when I need them and sometimes they end up a favorite of mine.

And then there are times that they motivate me and show me how strong that I really am. Like these pictures....

 

The bottom picture is right when I decided I was tired of being "overweight", the top right I felt so happy because I was losing some of the weight, and the left one is when we went to Lake Lure both of us had lost weight and I felt so much more confident. Looking back my first thought is that I should not have felt that happy with the way I looked, but then I remind myself I deserved to feel some sort of accomplishment with the way I looked. I had worked for that, I had sweat for that, I had made healthier eating choices, and I was a better person.

 

These pictures were taken June 2016 (Our 8 year Anniversary) to December 2016. I feel like I look so much happier because I am so much energetic and stronger. I maybe a smaller person in size, but I am a bigger person in my strength. I have done so many things I never thought I would and in these pictures I see a healthier, more tenacious, and happier couple because of the journey we have gone through.

 

 

I say all this to say that when I am having a day; I do not want to give up that doughnut, I do not want to work out, or I do not want to go for a walk. I remind myself to not give up my journey yet because I am not at my finish line.

 

So I leave you with this...

Are you at your finish line? What is your motivation to keep going?

 

Love,

Jamie Lynn

Sunday Meal Prepping

On Sundays I plan out my meals to help me to stay on track during the work week and hit my Macros. I like having a shelf in my fridge and a location in the kitchen that I can keep my food so that all I have to do is grab and toss into my Lilly Pulitzer Cooler and go.

Right now by breakfast tends to be one of two things, either overnight oats or an egg breakfast bowl. I make my overnight oats made with egg whites, protein powder, almond milk, a little stevia, and spices or fruit to my want. This time of year I warm up the oatmeal in the microwave. For my breakfast bowls, I cook turkey sausage and add it to egg whites, eggs, a splash of almond milk, seasonings, and veggies if I want. I love to top it with a little salsa verde.

Since it is cold I have been doing a lot of soups. I created a mock Dixie Stampede Veggie Soup that I added chicken to and reduced the fats in it; Unfortunately, while the flavor is spot on to me the texture is lacking. I have also been making a more macro friendly White Chicken Chili and  is it delicious. Both of these are tossed in the crockpot so all that I have to do is toss everything in and let it cook for a while and then I divide it all up into 5 servings.




Snacks right now have been Pretzel Thins or Greek Yogurt. I am really loving the Buffalo Pretzel Thins as my salty snack right now without the fats of chips and the Greek Yogurt gives me the sweet while hitting my protein macros.

Pretzel Crips Stock Photo

I would love to hear any tips you have that helps keep you on track during the week.

 

Love,

Jamie Lynn

I am back....

Hello! I apologize I have been gone forever! For the past couple of years I had a lot of work roles on my plate and while I loved them it did not allow for much time to blog. With some recent family needs I have stepped down from those roles which is allowing me more time with my family and more time to focus on my health, two very important things in my life.

Not teaching Summer School allowed me to hike to Clingman's Dome with my hubby and my momma.

 

 

 

Go to the Isle of Palms with my husband's family and get to see these two enjoy the beach.

 

 

It allowed me to spend some time with Baby C and do fun aunt things like the Sky Lift in Gatlinburg and take her on the tubing adventure of a lifetime, no seriously I lost my tube trying to help a little girl and got beat up by the rocks. Fun Times! I always have fun with her though and wait with baited breath to see what she says or does next.

 

 Not having so much on my plate has allowed me to focus more on my health and right before Christmas I got down to being 5 pounds away from my original Goal Weight, I got a little off track during Christmas and I am in a reverse so I am up a little. I will start cutting again in March to get ready for the summer. I am starting to lift weights more and have started following macros. I love following the macro diet lifestyle only because there are no "off limit foods" and I can tell my relationship with food is so much better.

Lifting and deadmills have made a dramatic difference in my pace with my 5ks. My pace used to be about 15 to 14 minutes per mile and this last race I ran was 10:24 and it was below 30 degrees during the entire run. I feel like this was great time, especially since I not only hate the cold but one minute I was cold because of the shade of the buildings and the next minute I was warm because I was out in the sun.

 

I feel like I not only smaller, but I feel so much stronger since the very first race. When I first started my journey I ran because it was convenient and personal, then I started some circuit classes, and now I do a mix of lifting, running, and my Saturday Body Sculpting Class. I feel like all this combined has made me a stronger person and is helping me to better reach my goal of better health.


As I move forward into 2017 I plan on keeping my health a priority and reaching my goals.

Love,

Jamie Lynn

She Did What?!

I ate a kid's meal from Wendy's last week! That is correct. I had a cheeseburger, French fries, and swapped my drink for a Frosty. You know what though... I do not regret it for one minute. It was tasty and satisfying.

I love eating in a healthy manner. It makes me feel good on the inside and strong on the outside, but sometimes you just want to eat something different. I just wanted a burger, I did not want anything else. I have learned that if I fill that void with what it truly wants in moderation then I am normally satisfied and I am not like a hungry bear searching for something to satisfy my cravings.

I had been running like crazy last week preparing everything for an upcoming business trip, celebrating our soon arriving wedding anniversary (7 years!), visiting grandparents, and still trying to stay on point with food. That running sure helped me hit my steps everyday, but my anticipation of only having one rest day ended up as two when I did not get home until ten one night.





My exercise for last week looked like this:
Monday: Elliptical for 35 minutes in the evening, burnt 482 calories
Tuesday: Body Sculpting Class. burnt 466 calories
Wednesday: Elliptical for 30 minutes in the morning, burnt 415 calories
Saturday: Jillian Micheal's "No More Trouble Zones"


My food last week was good except Thursday when I had a half price milk shake from Sonic. I enjoyed it, but at the of my enjoyment guilt slipped in and I was like I should have gone for the small and not a medium. You live and learn, in the past one slip up meant two days of slip ups. I would convince myself that I would just postpone my diet, eat whatever I wanted for a couple of days and get it out of my system. I would be cured! That never worked. Then I learned to wean that down to a day, but that was still bad because I would eat whatever I wanted to the point that when I woke up I felt horrible. Now, when I slip up it is for a couple of hours and I let it stay that way. I do not give myself a whole day of splurging, instead I eat a healthy breakfast and lunch then I try to eat that splurge in moderation or with something healthy on my plate. So our anniversary dinner was onion rings for appetizer with bread, I then selected grilled Mahi Mahi and braised spinach for my dinner. I did not like the braised spinach so I did not eat more than three bites. The milkshake is what killed it for me though. I had like 200 calories left and we all know that that milkshake had five times that amount.


In the near future I will be going out of town and I love to travel. I love the sights, I love the experiences, and I love the food. That is my downfall! I would really love to see the 150s before summer ends and if I want to I am going to have to stay on point with everything else! In the past I have tried not to eat into my exercise calories, but on active days I am starving if I only eat the 1,500 calories I allot myself. (I used to try to eat 1,200 calories until a nutritionist educated me, how did I ever do that?!) So I am going to try to up my intake to 1,600 calories max and see how that goes.

With all that in mind are my goals for this coming week:
Sunday- Rest
Monday- Elliptical
Tuesday- Elliptical w/strength
Wednesday- Elliptical
Thursday- Rest
Friday- Strength
Saturday- Cardio

Step Goals: 10,000 bare minimum
Food Goals: select healthy and enjoyable options
-log everything regardless if I go over
- try for a deficiency

What are your goals for this month?

Love,
Jamie Lynn

Motivation

Some days I think about giving up and throwing in the towel. Eating whatever I want. Watching TV or napping instead of working on the arm bumps. Some days I think it will be okay if I do not achieve my goal, I could be happy eating whatever I want or not working on slimming down. I would rock the curvy body again.

 

Then I think about when I started, I can remember going to get a pedicure with my Southern Sister and putting on one of the only pair of capris that I had that fit me and one of my husband's black t-shirts because my weight had gotten that high. I felt miserable, I was lacking all confidence, and I was willing to do anything to not feel that way. Do I want to go back there? No!

 

I do not feel that my beauty hinders on a perfect scale number, but I know that as the scale number goes down and as my arms become more sculpted my confidence goes up. As my runs become quicker and longer, my confidence hangs around more. When I have to buy new clothes, I get excited and no longer dislike taking photos of myself or looking in the mirror.

 

Would I want to give all this up to be able to gorge myself on whatever I want? No, because it makes me feel miserable when I do and for days after. My body actually seems to function better at the 1,500 calories that I try to consume everyday.

 

Do I screw up sometimes and overeat? Yes! But I get back on the horse and try again.

Do I get frustrated with the fact that it has taken 2 years and I am still not to my goal weight? Yes!

But then I look at pictures like this...

 

May 2014 (171.8 lbs)           June 2015 (167) 

     There is not much weight difference between the two and maybe there is not much difference between the overall look, but in my honest opinion my stomach looks slimmer and more than a 5 lb difference.

 

So that is my motivation, looking better and feeling better!

 

What is your motivation?

 

Love,

JamieLynn

Weekly Goals

On Sundays I prep all of my food for the week, this one little trick keeps me sane when I have weeks that include:

Ho Cakes and Biscuits at Paula Deen's



Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans, Mac N Cheese, Corn Casserole,
and Cheesy Meatloar @ Paula Deen's

Then the fatty food lover in me went and had to get cupcakes from the Sweet Shoppe of the South, a winner of the Food Network Cupcake War. It was yummy, but I will not hit my weight goals by combining food like this and not hitting my step goals. Try as I wanted last week I was always around 8,000 steps, so sad.

Enough of the negative though....while I feel another crazy week going on I am putting a plan together to help me stay focused this week.

1. Food Prep: Salads with quinoa and chicken, hardboiled eggs, overnight oats, and hummus with snow peas.

5 of everything except the overnight oats, they can only soak up to a max of three days.

2. Exercise Schedule

Monday- Run

Tuesday- rest, stay active

Wednesday- rest, stay active

Thursday- Body Sculpting

Friday- Run

Saturday- Jillian

Sunday- Run

3. Stay under my 1,500 calories everyday and get 10,000 steps in each day.

What are your goals for this week? What are you doing to stay on track?

Love,

Jamie Lynn

Progress Pictures

Hello! It has almost been a year since my last post because life got crazy, so this got put on the backburner. I have decided that blogging helps to hold me accountable and I often get asked how I have lost so much weight. With all of that said I am going to try my best to keep up with the blog much better this summer. Let me get you started with some progress pictures.

210 lbs (June 2013) vs. 167 lbs (June 2015)

210 lbs (June 2013)  vs. 167 lbs (June 2015)

Summer 2013 vs. Summer 2015
 (I wore this black dress in my engagement announcement pictures 8 years ago)

 

It has taken me a while to get here and I am so excited to say that I have only 17 lbs to go before I reach my overall goal of 150 lbs. I have fallen off the wagon a couple of times in the past two years, but I have never gained more than ten of it back when I did and I would quickly get it back off. My goal is that by the end of the summer I am to my goal weight.

 

 

How far have you came since the beginning of your journey? What are your goals for this summer?

 

Love,

 JamieLynn