#backtobasics

Well here we are. I loved keeping a blog of my progress with losing weight and looking back at what I was going through and experiencing. I miss friends and family getting the enjoyment of reading and being so proud of what I was accomplishing. Blogging can be super stressful, it's hard not being able to donate the time you want to to it but I will be making a priority out of it now! 

A year ago my life completely changed. I won't go into detail but many people in my life know. I was so scared of what was going to happen next. I felt like I digressed back to what I was before I lived in Nashville. I took it very hard. It made me think I was letting so many people down. I seemed so happy but I wasn't. I was sad a lot. I took quite a bit of time to myself.

Of course during this time I fell back into old habits. I was eating so badly and being lazy. I didn't move from the couch. It was pathetic. I woke up one day and I didn't recognize the girl in the mirror. I gained all my weight back that I had lost and I just wanted to stay in my t-shirts and shorts. I didn't feel pretty and was so ashamed.

But besides all the negativity I was facing, I had ALOT of positivity in my life. I had an amazing support group in Nashville. I made some wonderful friends and honestly without them I would probably be back in Memphis. (Nothing wrong with that but I love Nashville so much as my new home!) These girls came into my life when I really needed people. When I first moved to Nashville I didn't know many people and so I had to completely start over to make new friends. These ladies are truly angels and just really have no idea the impact they made on my life! 

So here we are again. I am going back to the basics of my diet when I started February 27, 2012. I luckily have my blog to remind me of what helped me. So thats exactly what I am doing. Eating right, working on myself, and exercising. 

Being ridic at my bestie's wedding 2 weeks ago.

I joined a gym....Now what?

Hello everyone! I hope you enjoyed a nice long Memorial Day weekend. I know I did. I got to hangout with some of my college buddies and did a whole lot of shopping.

So today instead of lounging around, relaxing by the pool (which I should have done a little, I’m looking a little ghostly these days), enjoying a cook out and drinking I decided today is the day I am joining a gym! I finally found one that is about a mile away from where I live and I did not know if there would be anyone there today to help me join but I thought I would give it a shot.

Luckily they let me join and showed me around. I even got half off my enrollment fee (hey saving a little money anytime I can is alright with me!) So I got a nice cardio workout in. I ran/walked 1.92 miles! Super proud of myself for that (I’m sure I will be feeling that in the morning) and then I did some AB exercises to help eliminate my muffin top….yes I have one.

So I am sure like many of you the gym terrifies me. I see people who are super fit and just get nervous like I can’t work as hard as they can. Plus I got a good amount of weight on them. Its very intimidating. Plus I have NO clue what I am doing. I mean how long should I work out? I have always heard an hour. Well what the heck do I do for an hour? I remind myself that to live an active lifestyle it takes baby steps.

I am committing myself to 3 weeks of exercising 4 times a week for at least 45 min a session. I will do 2 days cardio and 2 days strength training. After much research I have learned this is a way to go. I always thought oh I need to just do cardio until I lose a lot of weight then I can add in weight lifting but that is a myth.

After three weeks I am hoping to up my game and be able to do more. I really want to become a gym rat. I always feel so much better after working out. I was doing pretty good at the beginning of my diet but adding a full time job and moving I just kept saying “ok Monday, I’m joining a gym.” Once you start getting into routine of it, its super easy. But getting off and getting back on seems to be a challenge for me. I’m honestly tired of excuses I make and taking my life in my own hands. 

Don't give up on something you believe in

Hello everyone,

I hope you have been doing great on the healthy train. I somehow missed boarding and then tripped a few times to finally get back on it. BUT nevertheless here I am.

My life has been a rollercoaster of emotions. I had family issues to care to, traveling, moving to a new apartment and a whole lot in-between. Oh yes and work. Can’t forget that.

So here I am. Between all the craziness of March and April I am finally glad to be settled into my routine yet again. I will brief you on what has happened in my life the last two months.

March-  Started off the month with my bestest friend and former college roommate getting engaged! I could not be happier! I’m also a bridesmaid and boy am I excited! I cantwait to stand by her side on her big day! I got to visit Jackson, MS for my yearly “reunion” It was the big St. Paddy’s Day Parade! I had a blast seeing everyone I love! Went to Memphis a few times to see my family. And that’s March in a nutshell (from what I can remember).

April- What an emotional month this was. Some good and some bad. I will say the most exciting part was my trip to NYC! Yes I finally made the trip I have wanted to make for a good 4 years. It was so nice to be there. It totally made me fall in love with the city all over again and evaluate myself and living in NYC one day. What I learned was that I DO want to be there one day, but in order to make it and survive I have a lot of growing up to do which there is nothing wrong with. I need to grow in many ways, business wise, health wise and mature a little more. I did get to see one of my very best friends living there and enjoyed having a glass of wine with her!

Now we are in May! I just moved to my apartment at the end of April and I have been trying to make it home the past two weeks. It is super weird I have never lived by myself before but I think I like it so far. It was a big adjustment for me. I did not want to and to be honest the weekend I moved I was crying off and on. I couldn’t decide if I was happy or sad. I think a mixture of the whole situation took a toll on me and I did things I was not proud of like turn to food. I promised myself I would never do that again…be an emotional eater and there I was. I felt like such a hypocrite. Who can I help and motivate others when I can’t do the same for myself?  I felt like hiding from the world. I was not happy with myself.

Like I have said time and time again. Dieting is probably one of the hardest things you can do. It’s so easy to fall down and harder to get back up. Some eventually give up and wave that white flag. Not me! I refuse to give up on something I have worked on for the past year of my life. I am not where I wanted to be at this point in my diet but that’s ok. It’s better to make those healthy changes then not at all. I don’t want to have another failed attempt at a diet. I want to make it last and I will! I have started an instagram to post my daily meals and coordinate with my blog. It will help me stay on track on a daily basis and help me blog more!

 Check out my new Instagram! Just search username Kellysjourney!! 

I know some of you are probably sick of this song and dance I go through but I am just being my honest self. I am just like every person out there struggling with a diet. It is certainly not easy and I applaud anyone making a healthy change in their life!

Time to face the music

Well Biggest Loser, my new favorite show, has completely inspired my new blog post and boy this couldn't come at a better time. I think it is time for me to face some of my fears to move forward with my life and to be happy.

Fears:

Being Alone

Pushing Away My Loved Ones

Failing To Reach My Goals

Gaining All My Weight Back

So let me address my fears. They all kind of tie in together but I will try to address them each.

1. Being Alone

    -I feel like I have never been the pretty girl or what not. I have been teased a lot in my past, but I mean who hasn't though? It is awful and it really is something that has stuck with me for as long as I can remember. But now I am ready for it to go away for good. I know it holds me back from trusting others and letting someone in to love me. I have always watched my friends have boyfriends here and there and I have never experienced that. I remember this one time I was told "Well Kelly you have a great personality and a lot of love to give, just an all around catch, but you need to lose weight if you want a boyfriend" Well...let me tell you how much I enjoyed that comment. I mean it was something that was always in the back of my head but for someone to say it to me was so heartbreaking. I guess between the teasing, rejection and etc. I turned to food to fill that void. I also came to the conclusion I will never find love. Maybe thats why I put so much time and effort into my friendships and family. 

2. Pushing Away My Loved Ones

    -I feel for the ones closest to me because I know I can be a holy terror at times. I find its easier to push people away because it is my way of testing them to see if they actually care for me (I'm aware how crazy that sounds). I know I put my all and give too much sometimes. I feel like I have to make up for not having the most wonderful of personalities by treating my friends and family to material objects. I tend to go above and beyond sometimes. Now do not get me wrong you should do nice things for the ones you love. But also know when enough is enough. I am taking this time in my life to learn to be more selfish (in a good way) as in doing for myself and others in a nice balance. I have to constantly be around my friends and family. I am not a fan of alone time because I am scared it will stay that way forever. 

3. Failing To Reach My Goals

    -If you know me you know how much I love New York. Ever since I was little I knew that I was going to live there and have this fabulous life of the rich and famous. Well I know one day I will get there. It may not be tomorrow or next year but it will happen! Sometimes when I see someone following the path I thought I would be going down I get sad. But instead of getting sad I should support them and continue to work hard on myself and how I can achieve my goals.

4. Gaining All My Weight Back

   - This should not be a huge shock as one of my fears. I know I am not the best dieter in the world. I do not workout every day and sometimes I have cheat moments. I am human, I can't be perfect all the time. But I have to remember the only way to live is being healthy. I am constantly working on myself and seeing what works for me and I would hate to fall back into old patterns of sodas only, fast food on the regular, and the most exercise I'd get be walking to the fridge. The old Kelly is just exactly that. OLD! I am a new and work in progress Kelly. I won't say improved yet but a work in progress. I am discovering this new confidence. There are certain tools I need to stay on track for life and I plan to explore those such as trying out a trainer to help me with my working out because I have the healthy eating down to an art but I need a push in the gym. 

So what are some of your fears? I am putting mine out there to get them off my chest. I feel a lot better especially after the hellacious past week I had. I felt alone, sad and many other emotions. But now I am working on myself and the things I need to do to be completely happy. Oh and I am 3 pounds away from losing 70 pounds!!! Eeeekkk!!!!

and then there was Spaghetti Squash....

Hello my loyal readers! How is everyone doing on this monday? ehhh It's monday...no one likes mondays. But I do! I think because I get so excited for Biggest Loser to come on and it just gets me motivated for the week! If you haven't watched tune in to NBC on Monday nights 7-9pm (central time) !! Plus follow me on twitter because I love to live tweet during it and actually have been tweeted or re-tweeted by the contestants on this season and the specialist. (ALL I really want is for Julian Michaels to take me through a workout. Can you imagine? She's a tough cookie)


Anyways.... I posted this super yummy dish on my instagram because I was inspired by a fellow instagramer (someone who instagrams) Skinny Time  who posted a picture of spaghetti squash and spinach. I have been dying to try the spaghetti squash for some time now and after researching how to make it, it didn't seem too difficult. It is a nice refreshing substitute from pasta and I am the biggest pasta lover so take my word on it!

So here is my first creation with spaghetti squash....

Spaghetti Squash w/Spinach and Parmesan Cheese

WW+= 3 Points

Serving: 5 

Fat: 6g, Carbs 10g, Fiber 3.1g, Protein 6.4g

-1 Spaghetti Squash

-1 packet of frozen spinach (thawed out)

-1 tbsp of olive oil

-1 tbsp of minced garlic

-1/2 cup of parmesan cheese (shredded)

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 

2. Cut squash in half then peel out the seeds (just like getting ready to carve a pumpkin)

3. Place both slices of squash on a baking dish and sprinkle a little salt and pepper 

4. Bake in over for about an hour or so until very tender

5. Let it cool off for a minute or two then gently fork out the squash and place in a bowl and set to the side. Should look like this.

6. Then in a skillet put the olive oil and garlic. After a minute add in the spinach and saute that for about 5 minutes (not too long or the spinach will dry out) 

7. After the spinach is ready add in the spaghetti squash and put in about 1/3 of the parmesan cheese and mix it all together (be careful when stirring because it could get mushy)

8. Then garnish the dish with your leftover cheese and there you have it! Super easy and yummy! 

Hope you guys like this dish! Try it out and post your creations on instagram using the hashtage #kellysjourney I would love to see how you liked it!!!

What motivates you?

Well we are officially a little over a month into the new year. Is everyone sticking to their declarations or resolutions so far? Thus far, I have lost 8.2 pounds in January! Pretty good if I say so myself. After the holidays I had gained a few pounds so I finally passed the mark I couldn't seem to pass. I know the first month is pretty easy because you are super motivated. I know I was and kept losing weight. The moment my weight loss slowed down, I felt like I would slack a little bit such as not working out as hard as I could. Losing your motivation can be easy but then again your motivation SHOULD push to go a little further.

So what motivates you? What helped you decide to make this change in your life?

Let's see for me my motivation was to gain confidence in myself and to live a happy healthy life. I think  for a long time I let the negativity of my past hold me back. I always worried what people thought of me and I just wanted everyone to like me. From grade school to college, heck even now. I like to be well liked and try my best to keep that going. I have also struggled with many issues and I learned that holding them on my shoulders is only making itself worse. I would deal with illnesses or death in my family by turning to food. I knew that life was an up and down battle of good times and bad times and I knew that life would throw me curveballs but I couldn't turn to laziness and food to make myself feel better. I knew if I start losing weight I would be on the road to being confident in myself.

I am now 63 pounds down and I am so happy with where my life is going. I completely got rid of all the negativity that was holding me back and starting a new life. I am growing up into the person I know I was suppose to be!

So I hope you think about the things that may be holding you back and completely get rid of them. Write them down then throw it in the trash! Or the things that are motivating you continue to drive your success.


Anyways I wanted to show you the past two weeks of my instagramed pictures! I have breakfast, lunch  & dinner covered! Make sure to follow me on Instagram: Kmccollum124 and if you make a healthy meal or want to share your success use the hashtag #kellysjourney I would love to see what you guys are doing!

Top Left: Grilled Chicken Salad w/Skinnytaste Blue Cheese Dressing

Top Right: Pork Chops w/Shallots & Mushrooms, Spinach, & Risotto

Bottom Left: WW Spicy Curry Chicken, Carrots & Yellow Rice

Bottom Right: Steak, Spinach & Asparagus 

Top Left: Whole Wheat Waffles w/Strawberries

Top Right: Chicken soup, Cheez-Its, Turkey Sandwich

Bottom Left: Leftover Teriyaki Chicken, Risotto & Green Beans

Bottom Right: Bella Monica Gluten Free Pizza (8pp) Very YUMMY!!

Anything you would like to see me make for you guys? Let me know! and Check out my instagram!!

What you do today can improve all your tomorrows

Hello readers! How have you been? I have been super busy lately and I celebrated my 24th birthday on the 24th! I got to celebrate the previous weekend with some wonderful friends and had a blast! So I guess I am a year older and wiser. Well I don't know about that but I have grown a lot from 23 to 24. I moved away from home, got a big girl job, started a diet, and so on.

Glad I got to celebrate our birthdays together! My best friend Kyle and I!

So I have been kind of having "writer's block" and I was like what can I write about? Luckily I have a few posts to work on. Sometimes it is hard to think of things but I have talked to a lot of friends and family about staying on track. Look diets are not easy. It takes a lot of work and dedication. You have to eat right, work out and avoid temptation on a daily basis. But it doesn't have to be so hard if you organize your life around your diet so you can enjoy the things around you.

Sundays are my relaxing day to plan out my week ahead. I make lists on lists on lists of things for the week. From planning meals out, shopping lists, what workouts I will do that week, etc. I love schedules. I don't think I could survive without them.

I know a lot of the time I think to myself, wow there is not enough time in the day to do everything I want/need to. I go to work from 8-5, workout, cook dinner, get ready for the next day and then if time allows I try to watch my shows for the week.  I mean my work week goes by so fast now because I feel like I am constantly doing something. Oh yeah I try to get 7-8 hours of sleep each night.

So how can you eat healthy and workout and enjoy some quality relaxing time? Simple!

-Plan your meals out for the week
So I love cooking and planning out meals. I am obsessed with my weight watchers cookbook my mom got me! I use it all the time! It lets you know serving sizes and how many points. I love it! And since many of the recipes are for on average 6 servings so I usually put my leftovers in plastic containers and have that for lunch and dinner the next day. (There you save some time on the 2nd day because you don't have to cook!)

-Research healthy tips online
You know what I have found, surprisingly, Instagram is a great tool for recipes and such. I type in certain hashtags like weight watchers, diet, biggest loser, healthy, etc. (I am starting to use #kellysjourney for my healthy posts on instagram) I even found some great workouts on YouTube.


-Plan workouts
So my goal is to workout at least 4 times a week. I do cardio one day, strength training the next. I learned a workout from watching Biggest Losers (my new favorite show) where you take a deck of cards and each suite stands of a workout (Diamonds=squats, Hearts=pushups, Spades=jumping jacks and Clubs=burpees) so if you draw a Queen of diamonds, you would do 10 squats. Let me tell you it is super hard, yet effective. You can do it in your home and I suggest starting off with half a deck at first. I jumped on it and did a whole deck and I felt like it took me a week to re-cooperate.