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.

New Year's Declaration

Well everyone it is 2013. It seems like only yesterday I can remember Y2K and everyone freaking out that the world was going to end or like the Mayan calendar running out in December. Nevertheless here we are today! We are two weeks into a fabulous year. 

As always the new year brings a new you. A lot of people like to make a few resolutions to get healthier or better themselves in some way. Now I know personally I have made resolutions a hundred times and it lasted until maybe March. So instead of making New Year's resolutions, I am making New Year's Declarations!

1. I declare to stay focused on eating healthy and always tracking my meals through Weight Watchers.

2. I declare to go to the gym at least 3-4 times a week.

3. I declare to become a better person on the inside as well as the outside.

4. I declare to never give up on my dreams even when they seem unreachable.

5. I declare to help others when asked.

6. I declare to always stay positive and not to sweat the small things.

7. I declare to blog more even if I am not doing well on my diet.

8. I declare to make a difference.

I feel like "declaring" something just makes it more powerful and kinda makes me excited. I know a lot of people are tired of making the same old resolutions and not following through. Hey I've been there! Trust me I know the feeling. 

So make a list of things you would like to do whether it is healthy lifestyle, traveling more, seeing your family more or shopping less. Whatever it may be, stand up and make a statement! Declare that this year, 2013, you will stick to it as best as you can. 

I feel like I am getting started on the right track. I have been preparing my meals for the week, taking my lunch to work, and cutting out soft drinks. 

A lot of people have been asking so I am working on a lunch post. Pictures and descriptions of easy lunches you can make. I am going to try and do a 30 day of lunches. Now remember this is in the works and will take awhile because I sometimes take the same thing for lunch a day or two in a row. Here is a little preview of some of my lunches so far! I am also going to try to do my instagram meals of the week too since I am highly addicted to my new weight watchers cookbook!!

My Lunch and Afternoon Snack included.

I love Turkey Sandwiches and Soup!

Until Next Time,

Kelly 

#2012taughtme

So I knew I wanted my next post to be about 2012 coming to an end (not the world just the year). I saw #2012taughtme trending on twitter so I thought about what this past year has taught me and here it goes...

 It has been a year of ups and downs, highs and lows, and everything in between. I am declaring 2012 the year I started growing up. So let's see how it all started shall we?

I was a college graduate, living at home, babysitting once or twice a week and eating my feelings because my life was in shambles. I thought the world was going to play out for me one day and I would live this fabulous life of the rich and famous. Clearly I needed to get over that and I did. I made the decision to start of a diet. As the world's biggest yo-yo dieter I was scared.. I did not want to fail at yet another diet. I wanted to truly do this and I did. (I have lost 60 pounds so far) After starting weight watchers I could see my life going in the direction I dreamed of.

In May, I moved to Nashville with one of my friends. It was hard to move away from my family but I had to start growing up. After a few weeks I landed a job. I was so lucky to fall into this position in a communications department of a huge corporation.  I am able to pay my own bills and rent. I never thought I could do this.

I had so many wonderful things going on and it felt almost too good to be true at times..

I still never felt like I was changing. I still saw this extremely overweight girl in the mirror. I had people tell me all the time how great I looked, they loved reading my blog, or how proud they were of my accomplishments. With a hundred wonderful things being said it felt like the few who liked calling me "big girl" or make fun of what I was doing could totally tear me down. I try to be such a strong person but it is hard to be criticized for something you work so hard on.

This year I am going to try and block all of those things out. This is for anyone who has been made fun of or anything. DO NOT let anyone or anything tear you down. Remember that you are working on becoming a better person and they just have making fun of others to get them through the day.

So 2012 has taught me that I am working on becoming the person I was meant to become. A little hard work and determination can go a long way. I know what is important to me and that is family and friends. I cannot wait to see what 2013 has in store for me. Hopefully more weightloss and success. Who knows maybe a boyfriend or something (haha)