Today:

I had a weird day.

I had a funeral, which had a lunch after. I ate crabcakes with sides of risotto and veggies, then it ended with one scoop of ice cream. That, however, did not stop me from eating ice cream later in the night…after a two hour nap. I would say that today was mildly unproductive, but I packed up my lunch for tomorrow, planned my workout, and I am ready to move on. No sense in me dwelling in what I did today. Besides, it could have been a WHOLE lot worse.

But here I am being honest with what I did, and I know what I have to do tomorrow in order to not just give up, but to get back on track. I think I am going to do a Turbofire workout tomorrow with my usual workout buddies, which makes me happy. Having friends to workout with makes the process much more enjoyable for me. 

I am also excited for Park to send me the Les Mills Combat videos, they seem like something that I would enjoy doing as well. 

I have been throwing around the idea of joining a gym too. My old gym offers great classes, so if they have a summer promotion, I may see if my workout buddies would be interested in joining along with me. I always liked that gym so maybe now is the time.

I also wanted to bring up that lately I have kind of felt like I have been under the microscope. Every choice I make and everything I eat has been judged and it hasn’t been a nice feeling. I’m trying a little TOO hard to make this successful, and sometimes it also makes me unhappy. Today that’s how I felt when I went and got ice cream. 

I’m a human. I’m not perfect. I don’t eat vegetables and plain chicken every meal. Sometimes I eat a roll with lunch and sometimes I have ice cream for dinner, and I shouldn’t feel guilty because it isn’t how I live my day to day life. I have been much more focused on what I am trying to do, and as much as I struggle, I am equally as motivated now to spend the summer getting to my goal, but I also don’t want to feel like it’s not okay to have bad days.

As I mentioned before, it’s much more than just a physical act of losing weight. I am still learning to say no (for the most part), I’m learning how to eat properly…find the foods that make me successful and also don’t make me sick, and I am learning the things that help me progress. My mental state is all over the place. It’s a slow journey to get my head where my heart is, but I know it is for the best and I’m not going to give up.

Late Watcher Wednesday.

I need to do a better job when it comes to keeping up with my posts on here. I have been so incredibly busy and it’s no excuse. Posting on here is something I enjoy and use as an outlet and I always forget about it, so it’s something I will keep trying to remind myself about.

Right now, I am currently assistant stage managing a show called “Great American Trailer Park Musical”. The plus side to this is I am very active, I am always walking, lifting, moving, and running around. I feel good moving around so much and being this busy. the downside is how late I am getting home at night. I’m getting no sleep and it’s extremely frustrating.

Regardless of that, the people in the cast are extremely loving and welcoming. That is one thing I always look forward to when I start working with a new cast- theater people are the best kind of people. I am appreciative. On top if that, I get to experience a whole new side of theater since I have never stage managed anything!

Being so busy, I haven’t had time to workout like I was able to last week. With that in mind, I have had to make sure that I pack my lunches, go to work prepared, and make sure I am writing down all my food. I had one night that I grabbed dinner with a friend, and one night I got a Wawa hoagie. But I chose the 4 inch hoagie and with a small bag of chips and when I went to dinner I got a salad. I did try to stress drink a milkshake but I took two sips and trashed it. It was a great decision.

I bought a new set of glass containers that have the measurements right on them so I have been using those to pack my lunches. This week, some of my lunch staples have been bean and mixed veggie salad with Walden Farms Italian dressing, chicken and a wild rice medley with BBQ sauce, cottage cheese, yogurt, fruit and baked lays. Every lunch I’ve packed this week has had some variation of 3 of these items.

I also have discovered putting peeled/sliced ginger and frozen mangos in my water and I’ve never felt so good. No
stomach aches, no bloating, I’m super hydrated. I highly recommend it for everyone who needs a good system flush. I feel completely different than I did last week. I let it sit overnight and drink it all day at work and it’s delicious!

I attached some pictures of the water and also what I ate for lunch and dinner today! 🙂 I hope everyone is doing well! Please feel free to share this and I hope it helps someone out there.

-Jaclyn

It’s been a while.

Things got quite frustrating for me recently. I impulsively deactivated my weight watchers subscription 2 months back, and since then I have been floundering. 

I did go back to WW and found out that I did gain some of the weight back, but I am jumping right back into it in full force. I bought myself glass containers to bring my lunch to work in, I bought myself groceries, and just started fresh. 

This is the first time that I have gained some weight back, and I am also struggling to get it back off. 

I’m not giving up. I had a setback today with Mother’s day, because god know I have no self control, but at the same time, it made me realize the things that i can’t do. I cannot put myself in a position where I may have excessive amounts of food in front of me, I need to measure things out, portion properly, pretty much avoid going out to eat because when I do…all bets are off. Things I am going to be much more aware of from now on. 

From now on, I am also going to not get my sticker at weight watchers, and just have my leader tell me if I gained or lost to keep me on track. I have thought about this before and never followed through but this time, I am going to do it. There is no reason for me to know what number the scale says if I am doing all the things I need to be doing. This week is my week. I took on last week the best I could, but still did not lose due to lack of sleep, lots of stress, and being incredibly busy..regardless of the fact I was working out. These are some more things I need to be much more aware of and be careful of. 

I have to say, I have been so thankful for my friends who have been encouraging me through this rough patch. They are the ones who text me to plan a workout with them when all I want to do is sleep…especially with how busy I have been. On top of that, they have similar goals as I do, so I don’t feel alone or dumb doing things with them to get there. On Friday, I made a complete ass of myself doing the Turbofire video, but I didn’t care because we were doing  it together and it felt nice to have support from people who understand. Having someone to do this with who understands can make all the difference. I’m thankful that we decided to do this and keep on going.

I think we all have to go through all of these things to realize what works and what doesn’t. This is not an easy thing. Constantly comparing myself to people who lose 80 pounds in 6 months doesn’t make it feel better either. But….I did read an article recently who lost 100 pounds over the course of 10 years and it gave me some more hope to keep going. It may have taken them a long time, but they got there. I’ve lost 40 in a little over a year and a half, so I can lose the rest of what I want to lose. 🙂

Thoughts for a Tuesday.

For the last 3 weeks, I have been a little bit (a lot) lazy with what I have been doing. I had the show then I got hit with such bad allergies and what I am positive was pneumonia again, I didn’t work out, and I didn’t feel right. I haven’t paid attention to what is gluten free and what is not on top of not feeling well… so I feel bloated, I feel uncomfortable, and I need to get my head in the game and not stray from it.

With being on spring break this week, I’ve also been a lot less active than I normally am at work. so I’m sure that didn’t help either. I’m spending the rest of the night focusing on prepping food for the week so I have everything ready. I am going to do simple start again since I know it works. I have oatmeal I can make for breakfast, lots of fruits and veggies, so it shouldn’t be hard to make some meals out of it.

When I get in these moods and funks, I need to just REMIND myself how far I HAVE come already. The weight loss process is not perfect. People gain, people lose, people stay the same. That goes for anyone whether you’re losing weight or not. Nothing is ever perfect and it’s going to be a long process, but it is possible to get to where I want to be.

Never in a million years did I ever think that I’d be able to lose 45 pounds. Never. While I still have a lot to go, I think that I will get there. I have the drive to do it.

Like I said, I have my moments where I am not perfect and my journey takes all kinds of roller coaster twists and turns, but I have been able to SUCCESSFULLY lose 45 pounds and keep it off, no matter how long it takes. I may not be at my goal yet but ever healthy meal I eat and every workout I do gets me one step closer.

These pictures are here to remind me that even when things get hard, keep in mind that I have made significant progress already, and whether it takes 1 more year or 3 more years, I will get to my goal.

Broccoli Slaw and Why I’m Currently Obsessed.

One of my main focuses for the month was to get in much more fruits and vegetables than I have been. To do that, I have been bringing veggies on the side of whatever I bring for lunch, making sure I have a fruit at lunch as well, a fruit for a snack, or mixing a fruit into yogurt or cottage cheese.

I have had quite a few goals for the month, but this is the one I have been able to focus on the most. With the show I did and getting sick (stupid allergies and asthma…) I have been a little nervous about working out, but I am making sure I am okay with food and prepared for that at least. That being said, I had a few days of too much fun with eating out with my cast mates last week. I enjoyed myself and I made sure I had some but not all of what I was eating, so I felt good about my choices. Sometimes you need to indulge a little bit for the sake of your sanity!

Lately, I’ve been living off of broccoli slaw. I like it better than lettuce because it doesn’t give me heartburn, and I can also measure out and put on the dressing without the slaw getting soggy at all throughout the day! I mix it with canned tuna, chicken, lots of veggies, craisins…it makes the perfect base for any salad. I’ve also been trying to eat as gluten free as I possibly can to avoid being bloated or feeling sick from what I am eating. I feel so much better already since I’ve been more strict about cutting out wheat. 

For lunch today, I mixed broccoli slaw with two pieces of chicken apple sausage and organic balsamic vinaigrette. This may be a new go-to staple in my diet because it was extremely light, delicious, and it filled me up enough hold me over until dinner.

For dinner tonight, I made a taco salad with broccoli slaw, ground turkey, one taco shell, some cheese, salsa, and fat free greek yogurt instead of sour cream. Very good. Broccoli slaw didn’t get soggy like lettuce does sometimes when I make taco salads. Super good.

Lunch for tomorrow was packed tonight while I was watching Dance Moms. I used the broccoli slaw as a salad base, I cut up a Weight Watchers colby jack cheese stick, and I mixed in 3 gluten free chicken tenders with my favorite Ken’s honey mustard dressing. I kind of tried to make a play off of my favorite salad from Friendly’s, the crispy chicken salad. If I was more patient, I would have also made a hard boiled egg to throw into it and also added some tortilla strips but I didn’t think of it until after and I’m super lazy right now. 😛 This is just a simple side salad dressed with balsamic and a chicken salad sandwich. My mom makes the chicken salad with light miracle whip, craisins, celery, and canned chicken on a light english muffin. It’s before I decided to go completely gluten free. Last, I made chicken salad again but this time just with the canned chicken, light miracle whip, and the broccoli slaw with a mini caprese salad on the side. Simple and filling. Super yummy!

I also wanted to share my official 21 day fix before and after photo! I’m really proud if all I was able to achieve in 30 short days! My next challenge begins in a week, and I will be doing the Les Mills Pump video. So excited to see how much more progress I can make!

Goals for 2014 and for April

Some of my Worst Habits

When it comes to losing weight, I need to be brutally honest with what is going on in the process. If i’m not being honest with myself and everyone else, the only person that it hurts in the end is me. Cheating yourself into believing that that you’re doing well does not do anyone any favors, especially not yourself.

So here I go with some of my WORST habits.

• Inconsistency- Sometimes when I have a something change in my schedule and I don’t continue with my routine, I have an unbelievably hard time getting back into the flow of things. This goes for anything. If I don’t pack my lunch the night before work one day the week in general seems to go to hell, if I miss a workout I have a hard time getting back into it and doing one. I’m not sure why I have so much trouble with this part of things but it happens every once in a while. I get into a really great flow and there will be one little glitch….I will have a trip, a rehearsal, or something change and I get thrown off. This is something I need to work on and I’m going to spend a little time focusing on.
• Controlling Portions- This is a focus of mine for the month of april. I always think I know portions really well, but in reality…I know I need to make sure I always have my measuring cups and my food scale on hand to make sure I am getting it all spot on. My biggest downfall is eyeballing it, and then saying “Well, maybe just another tablespoon…” All of that adds up!
• Overthinking/Stressing- My daily thoughts are split between two things: losing weight and what I am going to be when I grow up. I am constantly thinking about those two things and it is SO overwhelming. The less I stress, the more successful I am, but sometimes I can’t help it. I want to reach my goals so badly that I am constantly trying to come up with ways to do things differently and make myself better. I think in the past few months I have done a much better job of not letting these things consume my thoughts, but I still have my moments. That is probably one of my biggest flaws though.
• Eating when I’m not hungry. Simple enough.
• Not taking enough time to let things become a routine. I am a person who wants immediate gratification, but I need to realize nothing happens overnight. I need to take the time to re-evaluate, focus, and stay on top of things and I will reach the goals I am working towards.
• Being negative. My mind tends to be filled with much more negative thoughts than positive thoughts, and it’s not helping me in any aspect of life. I have to start focusing on the GOOD things that are surrounding me instead of all the bad. Instead of thinking about the extra helping of rice I ate, focus on the fact that I measured out my salad dressing at lunch…or skipped the snack bag of chips after work. I even need to think about all of the good things I am doing in my workouts as well as opposed to everything else. I’ve been making huge strides with what I can do physically. Spinning things like that will probably have a much more positive effect on me, but I just tend to focus on the things that aren’t working.

All of these are things I need to really focus in on, and I think I am going to do just that and make sure they are getting the attention they need (positive attention, of course). There is no reason they should be bringing me down anymore. I am going to do what I set out to do.

I never would do this this Team Beachbody stuff normally…

But now that I have seen some significant results in a short 8 days, I am so unbelievably excited now to finish out the rest of the challenge with the girls in my group and see even more progress I will hopefully make by the end of the rest of the 30 days!

with that being said,  now YOU can be a part of the challenge as well!

I have a new challenge group starting on April 1st!

I am SO so excited about this because on this next 30 day challenge I’m going to plan on trying a new program rather than the one I am doing now as well, called Les Mills Pump. It is a program that comes with a barbell, and based on lifting lower weights and more reps, and it seems like it would be RIGHT up my alley. I’m not much for high impact cardio, so I think trying that one can’t hurt! I may enjoy it plus it will switch my routine (although I must say, I really love 21day fix!)

The girls in the FB group with me are great and so supportive.

Do you need something like this to keep you going? Do you need ideas and a program to follow? We may be able to get you started on something you may end up loving! Comment with your email address if you want details about this 30 day challenge group starting April 1st, and how YOU can become a part of it! 🙂

If you choose to do it on your own, simply follow this link, make me your coach (Jaclyn) and choose whichever program suits you best! https://www.teambeachbody.com/signup/-/signup/free?referringRepId=354942

You saw what I did in 8 days, don’t wait!

21 Day Fit Progress Photo.

When it comes to my progress photos, I make them very honest. My approach when it comes to weight loss is unbelievably honest. The only person I am cheating is myself if I lie, right? So once I hit my goal, these progress photos won’t be as impressive if i’m sucking it in in all the pictures. So here I am as raw as it comes. I use the typical “Jersey” stance with the hand on the hip for reasons of arm comparisons though.

The first picture is day 1 of the 21 day fix, and this picture was today, day 9. The main differences I notice are in my arms and legs, you can see they thinned out a bit. When I flex my bicep is much more defined. My waist has more of a shape to it, the line is more curvy but I look like I thinned out a bit. My stomach also looked like it flattened out the littlest bit, but enough to be noticeable.

Those little bits of changes will add up each week, so hopefully by next week I will notice even bigger changes. I will keep the clothing consistent each week as well.

Thanks to everyone who follows along with my story! It means the world!

This is how I feel sometimes.

You wake up in the morning and get on the scale. You’re not quite happy with the number, so you move it to a different place in the bathroom. That number is a little better but not the best so you move it again. Then the last time you move it it says you gained 25 pounds so you say “Eh, forget it……may as well l go get some pizza.”

Have you had these moments? Where you’re so stuck on what the scale says that you think it just doesn’t matter anymore? I don’t want the scale to matter anymore. Yes…of course I still go every week to WW to get weighed in because I am paying for it and I feel like I need to when I go to the meetings but if it was up to me I would continue to do what I am doing without getting weighed at all.

I’m more excited when smaller shirts fit, and when clothes that never looked good on me before finally look good, and when my stomach looks more flat. Measuring tape getting shorter is much more motivating to me than numbers on scales. I don’t want to workout for the number on the scale anymore or ever, I want to work out because I feel like working out.

I hate the scales. Scales don’t have the ability to measure how strong I’m getting, how much longer I am able to run on a treadmill,  or how I dropped a pant size. The scale doesn’t measure how much muscle I am compared to how much fat I am….and I’m all about building muscle and losing inches at this point.

This picture is saying stop obsessing over what the number says on the scale, because unless you just go to the gym or workout and do something about it that number is not going to change, not matte how much you wish it would.  Standing on that scale is not doing to be the answer to your problems. It’s not going to tell you the true changes that are being made in your body.

I’ve been proud of myself with the changes I’ve been seeing and how consistent I’ve been with everything and I am getting results. Today I wore my jeans that are a size smaller and a tshirt with a sweater and looked smaller than I have in a long time. Feelings little bits of confidence again is a nice feeling.

Forget the scale, get away from it, and just go to the gym for you. Not for the number.
Do that much for yourself.