Today I’m starting the final week of my 6-week workout program from Jessica Smith. It’s been challenging and really rewarding. I haven’t stuck to a program like this in a really long time. I was really worried when my mom went back to work, that I was going to lose my workout buddy and lose my motivation, but I didn’t. I stuck with it and really push myself on each workout. Sure, there have been a couple where my energy wasn’t where I wanted. And I skipped yesterday on the account of it being a “stretching workout” and I also really needed a nap a lot more than I needed stretching. But for the most part, I feel REALLY proud that I’ve killed each workout!

The last 2 weeks have started off Monday with HIIT workouts and I have to say, I love it! I love starting a Monday with high intensity and determination. It seems to set the tone for the whole week! The weather is supposed to be nice today and tomorrow, so I plan to finish each day with a walk/hike around our favorite lake with the dogs.

I REALLY want to work hard and hit my goals this week. I travel for work next week and I want to feel confident and more fit when I get there. It’ll be the first time I meet a lot of my coworkers. I work from home, and have talked to them all day everyday for the better part of 3 years, so I’m really excited to meet them. I fully realize that I’ll still be the biggest person in the room, but if I can work hard this week and shave some extra pounds off, I will feel confident and will hold my head high when I meet them.

What are your goals this week?

Mine: Meet my 7,000 steps/day goal day; Workout for 30 minutes each day; Walk the dogs each day the weather allows; If the weather is not good, aim for another 20-30 minutes of indoor cardio on those days; 1,200-1,350 calories a day.

Let’s talk about goals – when to set them, how to measure them, and when to adjust them.

A lot of people talk about setting SMART goals – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. I think all of that is great – extremely obvious – but great.

So when do you set a goal? A lot of people think you should set them right away. But for me, I needed a little time before I set very specific goals. I needed to start first. Once I started working out and eating better, I was able to get a better sense of what my body was capable of. I wasn’t going to set a goal of running a marathon if I could barely walk a mile. So once I had a solid week of being more active and counting calories, I was able to better set my SMART goals.

I am also a huge believer of setting both short term and long term goals. For instance – my short term goals range from week to week. What I accomplished last week can be built upon, improved, and reassessed for this week. For instance, last week I counted all of my calories, and worked out for 30 minutes, 6 days a week. My body felt great, I had a ton of energy and at the end of the week, I felt like I could achieve more. So this week, I’m still counting each calorie that crosses my lips, but I’m upping my daily activity to 60 minutes 4x a week, and 30 minutes the other 2 days, with 1 rest day. I’m also focusing on hydrating myself at a lot better, as my water consumption has been dismal.

However, my long term goals are different. I hope to get to a certain weight by the time I leave for my work conference on March 5th (I may share that weight with you further down the road, I may not, get over it!). That’s a month away, so that’s a little bit further out, but everything I do today contributes to that longer-term goal.

Ever further out than that is my long-term goal. I hope to lose 100lbs in the 2018 calendar year.

I also, one day, want to complete a half marathon. Sooner than that, I want to get back to completing 5k’s on the regular. So each day, I’m working toward my goal. Each walk I take is a little longer. Each calorie I consume fuels my body instead of hinders it. Because each of these goals are important to me, they’re completely achievable, and they’re mine.

Now let’s talk about how to measure your goals and progress toward them. This, for me, is the hardest. It’s important to set up measurable benchmarks along the way to assess your progress. For instance, if you want to be able to benchpress 100lbs by March, maybe you set up goals each week. 50lbs by Friday. 75lbs the next week, and so on and so on. That way, you can measure how far you’ve come and how you’re doing each week.

For me, a lot of my progress is measured each week on the scale. My main goal in the next month is weight loss. And even though many people advise against it, I weigh myself daily – At the same time, wearing the same thing, every day. I’m able to see how yesterday’s choices affected my body today. I’m able to see if I’m retaining water, or if I need to push myself a little harder on my next workout. However, even if I gain weight one day, I’m cautious to let it effect my mood and my progress. As long as my overall weight loss trends down, and I’m meeting my weekly overall goals, then I’m doing great!

Tip: Don’t get caught up in the day-to-day minutiae. Look at the big picture and the overall trend. If you’re hitting your weekly goals, you’re doing great! Don’t let a stumble become a head-first tumble downhill.

What are your goals? How often do you reassess them?

As a big girl, I’ve perfected hating myself and my body. The constant judgement from myself and others has become the norm. It’s sad but true. The self hate is on a constant highlight reel through my brain.

But when does it stop? How do we train our brains to love ourselves? I’m honestly curious because I have no. freaking. clue. I’m losing weight, I’m exercising daily, I’m sticking to my calories goals. But I still have this loop of self-doubt in my brain. I still sit at night thinking about what I could have done differently or how I could have been better (and often the answer is that I did perfectly good that day).

When I’m hungry, I feel great. I feel like I’m doing what I should be doing – starving myself. When I’m satisfied after a meal – even if it was a great, healthful meal – I feel guilt.

When does this go away? What can we do to train our brains to think positively instead of judgmentally and negatively? Let’s brainstorm!

I am finally feeling GREAT, losing weight, and hitting my stride! My body feels SO much better when it’s active and moving daily. I’m officially on Day 19 of my 6 Week Jessica Smith workout program and I’m really enjoying it!

Check out some of the calorie burns from my recent workouts! Freakin’ killin’ it!! 

At first, I was just half-assing the strength training days because they weren’t as fun as the cardio days. But now I’m realizing how important they are, and how good of a burn I can get from them. So this week, I stepped up my effort on those days and smashed the cardio days. My body is LOVING the activity and I’m smashing my step goal everyday.

Goal for next week: two-a-days! I would LOVE to kill my workout in the morning and do another 30 minute workout in the afternoon/evening to bring my workout time to an hour a day. I also want to increase my step goal from 6,000 a day to 7,000 a day. This is challenging for me, especially on strength training days, since I work from home. But it’s totally do-able!

I’ve been trying so hard to find my happy lately, but life has really been trying my patience. It’s days like today I feel broken down, stressed beyond belief, and just emotionally and physically exhausted.

What do you do to find your happy each day?

For a lot of bigger people, shame is a real thing that holds us back from beginning our fitness journey. I know this struggle all too well.

“I can’t hike as far as them, so I’m just not going to go.”

“I can’t lift as much as she can, so I’m not going to go with her to the gym.”

“I can’t walk as fast as him, so I’m not going to do the 5k.”

All of those things have gone through my mind at least once in my life. The shame of my body’s limitations held me back from even starting. But when I did try, I realized my strength came from my determination.

And, I found out who my true friends are!  My true friends would encourage me and cheer my victories, even the small ones. My true friends were my spotters at the gym. My true friends were walking beside me the whole way.

And you know what? Sometimes, I had to cheer for myself. When I reached a goal that seemed like a molehill to some, but I knew it was a mountain, I cheered for my damn self! Because you know why, no shame or embarrassment should ever stop us from starting. We may be slower, weaker, and breathe a little harder than some, but we’re capable. And our strength lies in our determination!

If there’s one thing that was instilled in me from early childhood, it’s been a healthy dose of Catholic guilt. Throughout the years, I’ve consistently apologized for everything. Things I’ve done. Things I haven’t done. Things I’ve said. Things people have thought I said. Things people have thought about me. All the things. All the time. It’s exhausting.

This week has been particularly difficult and enlightening. Some people don’t like me or agree with some things that I do. And this week, that dislike has been alarmingly clear and vocalized. The things they disagree with are things that I can’t help or change. To say it’s been frustrating and disheartening is an understatement.

However, a theme in my life has emerged – I apologize way TOO.DAMN.MUCH. for things that make me happy.

I like to dance with my dogs to loud music in the kitchen while I cook.

I use too many exclamation points in everything I write!!!

I’m goofy to the point of ridiculous.

When my dogs are happy, I am happy. And I’ll do almost anything to make them happy.

Toby jumps when he’s excited. I love that he gets excited when he sees me and allow him to jump.

And guess what? I’m happy. Or at least I’m trying to be. Somewhere along the line – whether it was moving to Alabama, or being sick for a year, or a combination of the two – I lost my daily spunky smile. But I’m working every single day to get it back and live a genuinely happy, grateful life.

I’ll be damned if I let someone bring down my happiness. I’m in control of my happy. And I’m not apologizing for being happy anymore!

My lunches have gotten really stale and I find myself going off track during this meal much more often than others. I typically have 3-4 oz of turkey breast, a couple oz of cheese, a hard boiled egg, and a couple of crackers. Sometimes I’ll throw in some baby carrots or fruit as well.

What do you eat for lunch? I don’t have a whole lot of time to make lunch during the day, so anything I can prep in advance or just pull out of the fridge would be very helpful! Thanks in advance!

Also! Check out the Sushi Burrito I had at Wasabi Juan’s this weekend! SOOOO Good!! (ask for the L.H.M. when you go!) #nomnomnom

I’m trying – really freaking hard – every. single. day. to find joy in this crazy journey. Surgery was about a week and a half ago and every day since I’ve been trying to find things to smile about.

My calcium has been crashing, my stomach has been tore up from these horrible calcium pills, but I’ve pushed myself to find joy in SOMETHING every day. And if I couldn’t find anything, I made something happen. My go-to’s lately have been: Happy music, playing with my puppies, sitting in silence outside, enjoying the cool air against my skin, taking drives down new roads, etc.

Today is good day. Today I started working out again and I started a new 6 week program! I finally bit the bullet and purchased Jessica Smith’s 6 Week Walk Strong Program and did Day 1 today! I’m already feeling better and more energized and I’m really looking forward to sticking with this program.

I’m so grateful for this opportunity. The opportunity to live a great, active life. I don’t want to waste it.

If there’s one thing I know and live by, it’s that “when you make plans, God laughs.” I first learned this about 6 years ago when I was having a particularly rough time. I was stressing about all the wrong things – boys, work, friends, etc. I had just had surgery on my foot and was stressing out about getting from work to meet my friends for sushi that night when out of the blue, I couldn’t breathe.

I was rushed to the hospital with blood clots in my legs and lungs. Almost 50% of people with blood clots in their lungs (pulmonary embolism) die instantly. Needless to say, it was a giant wake up call. I spent the next 10 days in the hospital thinking. I realized that not only did I want to live, but I wanted to have a LIFE!

Cut to six years down the road. I was feeling like crap – Zero energy, aches and pains, bad vision, and brain fog. I just moved across the country searching for some peace and adventure. I had just started a workout routine, motivated to drop pounds and increase energy.

I was looking forward to my appointment with Dr. Chen – a parathyroid surgeon – that Wednesday morning, hoping for some answers and to get surgery on the calendar – sometime, somewhere down the road.

I was NOT expecting surgery the next day.

Based on the continued elevated levels in my blood work and an opening in his schedule, surgery was scheduled for 8:30 am, Thursday, January 11th. I didn’t have time to freak out. I didn’t have time to plan. I just had time to do.

And I’m SO glad that I did! I’m now 11 days post op and I’m already experiencing less pain, more energy, and less brain fog! I’m so excited to see what’s in store for me!