Fitness & Healthy Eating Part 2

So it’s already time for the next installment of my journey towards fitness & healthy eating! I cannot believe it’s already been one month since I last shared with you! Seems like it was just yesterday! So for those of your who missed my introduction to my journey towards fitness & healthy eating, you can find Part 1 here. 

Since my last post, I’ve hit a couple milestones. First milestone is that I have been eating healthy and being conscious about what I put in my body for 55 days STRAIGHT.  It hasn’t been easy especially when 10+ days of that were on VACATION! But I made myself a promise to stick to my guns and just do it. I packed a lot of healthy snacks while on vacation and tried my best to stick to the most low calorie cocktails I could find, vodka and soda with a lime. I will tell you that those lava flows and pina coladas  looked tempting, but I am so proud of myself I never gave in! Throughout this whole journey,  I’ve been trying my best to eat real food, not junk. I haven’t been starving myself OR drinking just shakes. My whole life and the way I cook and eat has changed. 

(The photo isn’t my most glamorous, but it is something I AM PROUD OF!)

My second milestone has been exercise related in that I have pushed myself way more and accomplished workouts I didn’t think I’d be able to get through. We have added more lifting into our workouts and I am so proud to say that I seriously LOVE it. There is something about lifting and being a woman that makes you feel intensely strong and pretty much like a badass. Being able to jerk a 28 lb. bar with 30 lbs. on it is no easy task, but I did it. And that is something I am immensely proud of! I have set some new goals for myself to practice the exercises I suck at: mainly burpees and pushups. I hope to start practicing them every day and hopefully build up my strength and endurance. 

 (This was the day I FELT it) 

My third milestone is that finally the other night, I felt the thinnest I have in a long time. It was the night I finally “saw” it. Some days you see it and some days you don’t. There are days I look in the mirror and feel like my hard work hasn’t achieved anything. But then there are some days I look in the mirror and see small changes. Throughout my whole journey, I haven’t seen quick results. But this journey isn’t about quick results and the results I will see will be permanent. 

I am still getting quite a few questions about what I am eating and what I am doing for my workouts… So I figured the best way to share with you all would be sort of a day in the life. I will share with you my week in food and exercise. 

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This week wasn’t the best in eating, but I still made it in under my calorie goal for each day and I wasn’t forced to eat every single meal at home. I ate out at Buffalo Wild Wings and our local Ag day function. It is totally possible to not skimp on your healthy eating even while eating out. It just takes some research. I log all my food using MyFitnessPal. I know some people don’t need to log their food, but I have found it to be super helpful in learning WHAT I put into my body and what’s in the food I eat. MyFitnessPal breaks down the ingredients and gives me nutritional info for all of them. At the end of the day, I get a pie chart showing what % of my daily foods was fat, carbs, and protein. When I first started, I was totally starving myself of carbs! Carbohydrates are necessary for you to be able to put in a hard workout and aren’t required to be cut from your diet in order to lose weight. Nutrition itself has been such a learning experience for me and I am STILL learning more and more everyday. It is still amazing to me that you’ve really got to feed your body in order to lose weight. 

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This week in exercise has been one of the hardest weeks TO DATE. We really stepped it up a few days and I still feel like I am getting my ass handed to me! But it’s a good feeling! I have been sore this week more than most, probably because we added a lot more strength in lifting to the workouts. I honestly have become one of those people who SWEARS by her protein in helping repair my poor beaten down muscles. I feel like one of those those “bros” at the gym with their protein! HAHA! Not really, but seriously. I LOVE my protein after my workout! I use AboutTime Chocolate and it’s DELICIOUS! 

And finally, my measurements. As I said before, my changes have been small. But small steps are big steps. Overall, I lost 1/2 INCH IN ONE MONTH! 

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So there you go! It is my hope that through sharing my own personal journey with you all that I will inspire you to start your own journey towards finding a new you! If I can inspire just one of you to start, it will be worth the time spent sharing! I will be there alongside you the whole way! It’s not easy, it’s tough. And some days I just feel like OD’ing on ice cream, candy bars, and lots and lots of cheese… But I don’t. I maintain my will power and have found a few indulgences I can have without ruining my day nutrition wise! There is a way to eat healthy and still enjoy your food and cooking, I am living proof! 

If you have any more questions, please feel free to ask them below or if you aren’t confident in sharing below, email me: jenny@prairiecalifornian.com!

Here’s to a new you!!