Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Update.

Hey guys. Quick update. Sorry it took me so long but we are home from the hospital. Thank you for all the love and prayers!! We got home Saturday afternoon and my girl is doing much better. And I am back on track and full speed ahead. I have a blog coming later. Just wanted to wish you an awesome Tuesday!

Remember: treat your body like you would treat your dream car. Keep it clean. Fill it with premium fuel. Keep it moving. And don't forget to show it off!!

Xoxo

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Non weight loss blog: our hospital stay.

Hey bloggers. I just wanted to update those of you who may not be on my Facebook.

We have been in the hospital with my baby girl now since Tuesday morning. We came to the emergency room because she had slept the entire day on Monday, hadn't drank anything or peed and she was breathing very rapidly.

After spending hours in the emergency room and being told she was negative for pneumonia according to her X-ray on Sunday (our first ER trip) we were almost sent home. Then the emergency room doctor said he wanted to see how she was when she was awake. When we woke her up he called her "punky" and said he wanted her to be observed for a while.

So we were admitted to the hospital Tuesday afternoon and we are still here with no sign of when we are going home.

She got a second chest X-ray and it turns out she does have a pneumonia. She also has RSV, which is a respiratory virus that to an adult is a cold but to a child under 3, it affects them like the flu. She also had an ear infection that somehow the ER doctor didn't diagnose.

She has been through blood work, she has had two IV's, she has been catheterized, has had two X-rays, poked, prodded, and pulled at in every which direction and I must say she is such a good girl!!!! She is my little champ.

Last night was the first time she was really up and walking around a bit. We put her on portable oxygen but she just wanted to GO! She pulled the oxygen tube right off the machine.

Today we are hoping to wean her from the oxygen but she has to be completely off of it for 12 hours before we go home so we are sitting tight.

By the way: making healthy choices and staying on plan when your baby is in the hospital and just wants YOU and only YOU is near impossible. I really don't know what to expect at weigh in if I do make it there on Saturday! Hopefully I don't gain and they fire me from WW already ha. Wouldn't that be something.

Here are a few pics of my girl.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

A Slew Of Things!!

Up 0.2lbs 

Yup.

UP! 0.2lbs. 

and again, I'm okay with it. I wasn't at first, I can't lie. I was pretty bent out of shape and not because I gained this particular week but because I have been stuck in these same 4lbs for 2 months now. Because since the beginning of November I haven't been able to lose even 5lbs. But you know what changed? My fitness level. My measurements. My perspective on things. Which is why, that dag on scale can SHOVE IT!

As you know, I don't know how I would have gotten this far without my WW leader, Stephanie. She broke it down for my after I stepped off the scale upset. She asked me "What have you done, RIGHT?" and she proceeded to list everything I said and categorized them as POSITIVES. Then she wrote down "0.2. Negative" ...... You see the big picture??? I know I do!!

So ....onward!! 

On a MUCH brighter note.....I HAVE BEEN HIRED TO WORK FOR WEIGHT WATCHERS!!!!!!!!! I found out yesterday and I am so beyond excited. Training will begin as soon as I get my paperwork and send it back. So happy to be on board with the WW team! I will start as a receptionist and when I get to and maintain my goal for a while, I will become a leader - God willing, as with all things. 

FOODIE ALERT: 
I love food. I love it in a much different way than I loved it in the past though. Now I love to see how GOOD healthy food can taste and see how well I can cook, have it taste delicious, and have it all be premium fuel for this engine. Tonight I threw down. 

Skinny taste chicken thighs with artichoke hearts and feta cheese. Find recipe HERE. 
With a side salad: Arugula lettuce, crumbled goat cheese, red onion, alfalfa sprouts, cherry tomatoes, turkey bacon, 10 spritzes of olive oil, and a delicious balsamic vinegar with apple pulp that I found today.

It was unnecessarily delicious and 7PP's for the entire meal!

I also tried vegan pizza the other day with spelt crust and DAIYA cheese. It was also pretty freakin' YUMMY! I didn't make this one though, I ordered it from VeggieGrille





So after my meeting today, where I proudly announced that I can now do REAL pushups, I walked out and my friend in the meeting jokingly challenged me to a pushup contest so I non-jokingly said "right here, right now"
We both pushed out 20 REAL pushups on the wet ground outside of our meeting! :)   

I posted this on my FB page earlier but I wanted to relay the message here. I love being healthy. I love being surrounded by health conscious people. But when I sit and think about it, there was a point in time that I believed I was a "healthy fat girl" because I didn't have diabetes or high blood pressure (Yet).
I believed that I must be okay because I had a boyfriend.
I believed that I was big boned and wasn't meant to be thin.
I believed that 200lbs was a "good weight for me".
I believed that Lane Bryant had cute clothes so there was no need to shop in other stores.
I believed that people who focused all their efforts on what they put in their mouth and how much they exercised were wasting their lives away and not enjoying life because "life was about food".
I believed so many things.
So many lies.
It's hard to fathom that this SAME BRAIN was capable of thinking those thoughts. They're the lies that I told myself so I didn't have to make a change. The lies that I told myself so I felt accepted.
They're just that - LIES.
and I am SOOOOO glad that I have seen the light and know the truth.



Until next time, Love and hugs.


KJB

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

HANDS IN!

Hey my loves!!

Thanks for all the feedback on the poll :) It's a mixed verdict but all we know is that we don't like blogs with no pictures at least! lol Obviously, I wasn't going to do all of one thing but I was just curious to see which you liked best. The winner was the blogs with pics though, so I will definitely keep switching it up!

So, yesterday during my WeightWatchers interview (which there is no verdict to yet but I will keep you posted!), I was asked what my biggest struggle or hurdle has been on this journey.

My answer was this: Becoming my own best friend. 


I believe I have talked about it before and I know Weight Watchers posted something on their status about it recently but this has been a huge challenge of mine that I am proud to see I have finally overcome. I've always been good at lifting the spirits of others and lifting people UP but I always would struggle by putting myself DOWN. I have learned that I need to talk to myself in the same positive light that I talk to others, especially on the times when I don't do so well with my tracking or exercising or whatever it may be.

Being asked this question left me curious about what others struggled with so I asked my friends on my Facebook page - Facebook.com/skinnyjeansdreams .

The majority of the people who answered my question, responded that emotional eating has been their biggest hurdle and I can SO relate!!


So the question is - WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?? 

If there is one thing I know for sure it is that this journey is a mind game and it's a game that takes practice!! For me, when I have the urge to emotional eat, I ask myself the following questions:
  1. Is eating this going to make me feel better? 
  2. Will I feel worse? 
  3. Will eating this cause me to stress about something else other than the issue at hand? 
  4. Is it worth it? 
Then I ask myself, "what are the alternatives?" 

99% of the time, the alternative I come up with is exercise!! Take one example: The two year anniversary of my father's death. My boyfriend was out of town that weekend and I was home alone with the baby, thinking about my daddy and going through all kinds of emotions. I was very tempted to emo-eat but I knew that wouldn't solve the problem. So, I got out the jogging stroller and I went for the BEST jog of my life! I couldn't stop running. I cried and I ran and I ran and I cried and when I got home, I felt a million times better than I would have had I made that plate of nachos! I felt like I had made the best possible decision. Although I still felt sad, I was now high on life and knew that my daddy was looking down from Heaven proud of his girl.

I can't say I am always perfect with this, as I do have my emotional eating moments! So I looked up some tips to help tame emotional eating. You can find all the tips HERE on the MayoClinic website but I will share with you a few that stood out to me:
  • Get support: Lean on the ones who love you and if you can, lean on the ones who love you that are conscious of your weight loss efforts. They will most likely deter you from emotional eating and instead be there to lift you up!
  • Take away temptation: I don't keep much, if any, junk food in my house and it's for good reason. If it's there, it's for the taking. And if it's not, out of sight - out of mind. So when I am feeling the need to emotional eat, I may just overeat some grapes rather than eating a whole box of pop-tarts. It fulfills the need to munch while still keeping me on track. 
  • Keep a diary: The website says to keep a food diary, which being a Weight Watcher, I obviously recommend but also keep a personal diary. I have kept a diary since I was a kid and it has helped me through every emotion and situation I have ever been through. Sometimes I just scribble. Another reference to my dad: I have pages on pages in my diary of angry scribbles. I was so ANGRY at everything when he passed (that's a whole different blog story. I am just using it as an example) and I just scribbled out all my emotions on paper. That goes for good emotions too. When I am overwhelmed with how much I love my daughter - I WRITE! Writing is good for the soul and it keeps your hands busy and out of the cabinets! 
There are other useful tips on that website but I just wanted to share with you a few that have worked for me. Any other tips that you have, feel free to share them in the comments section or on my FB page! We are all here for each other on this journey.

HANDS IN!! 

 GOOOOO LOSERS!!!! :) 


A few randoms:

Date night with my honey Saturday :) 

Yes, I love me a little ME!

And don't forget to check out my little snippet on Ivillage! I'm mommy # 3 on this article. CLICK HERE!

Have an awesome night!! 
xoxo

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Take a car ride with me!

CONFESSION: I am currently in love with video blogging.

I think it's a cool way to get a glimpse of someone's life and since I try to be as transparent as possible with my readers, I like to let you have a peek into my day to day. So here's another one for you :) Two, actually.

Since blog reading is a form of entertainment - us bloggers being the entertainers, of course I want to please my audience so be sure to take the poll at the end and let me know your opinion!!

Now, take a ride in the car with me...



And since we're here...I'll let you in on how my car rides really go. FYI - this is not just for camera. I always rock out this hard to JHUD!! haha P.s. I can't sing.



Have a very BLESSED day!! :)

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Sometimes the scale just doesn't give a damn!

Hey folks!

Weigh in today: Down 0.4lbs

If I would have posted this a few months ago it would have went something like, "Man I worked so hard and I did everything right and I ONLY lost 0.4lbs" 

But that is why this is a JOURNEY and along a journey, you learn lessons. Along a journey, you change your opinions about certain situations.  Along a journey you learn that things don't always go as expected. Sometimes you leave for your journey right on time and hit traffic, which makes you late anyway. Sometimes you're cruising along your journey and you get a flat tire, hit an unexpected red light, detour, or pot hole. BUT as with any journey, if you just keep on going, you get to your destination and when you get there it makes the entire trip worth it because sometimes if things aren't worked hard for, they aren't worth having.

That is how I look at my weight loss journey. I was hoping for a bigger loss this week. I did fantastic all week food wise, worked out like a madd woman with INSANITY, drank a ton of water, and got in all my good health guidelines but sometimes the scale doesn't give a damn about your efforts. It's as simple as that. The metal devil.

So, as I still celebrate my scale victory, because every loss counts towards something, I am celebrating my NSV's of the week and I have a few:
  • I met my weight loss inspiration this week - something I thought I'd only dream of. 
  • I finished an entire week of INSANITY - a workout I never thought I'd be physically capable of. 
  • I can FINALLY do REAL pushups with no modifications!! And I just reached this goal this week!!
  • I am in the process of being hired as a receptionist for my beloved Weight Watchers!!!! (it's in the bag!)
So far, 2012 has been FANTASTIC for me and I just know good things will continue to come my way because that's what happens when you only allow yourself to be surrounded by positive energy!

One last celebration!! - MY MOMMY REACHED ONEDERLAND TODAY!!!! I am so happy for her!!!! So honored that I was able to inspire my family to jump on the healthy bandwagon and that they are doing so well!! 

Celebrate your NSV's as well as your scale victories with me!! Leave a comment and let me know what you're celebrating today!

Friday, January 13, 2012

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

A trip to NYC that I will NEVER forget!!!!

If I wait until I finish everything I need to do today to post this blog, I will never get it done so here it is!!

Yesterday was.....incredible. Absolutely, positively incredible. Just a recap: I found out last week that Jennifer Hudson was going to be in NYC for a book signing yesterday. I told my sister in law that I was thinking about going. She told me "If you don't go, I will drag you there myself. You have accomplished so much, she's your inspiration, and she needs to know it!" So in a matter of an hour we had decided we were going.

In case you need to refresh on how much I love Jennifer Hudson, you can check out posts here, here, here, and here

Fast forward .....

2:30am yesterday we drug ourselves out of bed, into a cab, and onto the bus NYC bound!

Posing in the bathroom at 3am! 

sitting at the bus station 4am...

We arrived in NYC at 7am and made our way into the big city. I haven't been there since I was young so I was in complete awe. I love that city!! 

We stood outside of Good Morning America hoping to get on TV but we didn't want to waste any time getting in line for the book signing...


Of course along the way we had to stop and take our touristy pictures in Times Square ! 

We arrived at Barnes and Noble on 5th Ave. at 7:15...those 3 people in line were the only people ahead of us! I was so excited we were going to be one of the first people to meet her and seeing as how they were music fans, I figured I was going to be the first weight loss success story to meet her, which made me even more excited!

Yes, we waited for 5 hours out in the cold!! It was so worth it!!
Anxiously waiting!! 

Video #1 : Waiting for JHUD




We met some awesome friends in line and I'm so upset that we forgot to get their contact information! If you guys are reading my blog, make sure you email me! This young guy Dan doesn't realize how much he could do with his interest and knowledge about celebrities. I told him he's the next Perez Hilton!

Waiting...waiting....loading up on caffeine.....looking like super stars....and waiting some more LOL

We went in to get our books....then waited some more!

Now would be a good time to explain something: Bridgit and Peter, the other two winners of the Story Of You contest have become good friends of mine! The only way I was able to afford this trip was because I won that contest and they deserved to be there as much as I did! I also purchased them books. I would have loved to purchase all my WW friends books but then I would be broke so please don't take it personal that I only did it for Bridgit and Peter!

So after all that waiting.....we made it inside the book store...and then waited some more. Here I am, dorky as ever, excited as ever!



Then the moment finally came....there she IS!!

Signing MY book!! 

I told her that I was so excited to meet her, that she has been a huge inspiration to me with my weight loss journey, that I lost 94lbs, and that it was on my bucket list to meet her. The above picture is her reaction to me saying that meeting her was on my list of things to do before I die. Cannot believe she held my hand and everything!! 

Her shocked face when I told her how much weight I lost :)
When I showed her my before picture, she asked me if she could keep it! I have no idea what she might do with it but I sure as heck told her yes! I was wishing I put my contact information on there! LOL! 

Then, despite the fact that there was supposed to be no posing for photography, I asked her for a photo. The security guard started getting madd but JHUD didn't care, I sure as heck didn't care, and Tamara didn't care....
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She is everything I imagined her to be!! She is just as beautiful in real life as on camera and just as genuine! I was on cloud 9! ....I still am! It's incredible to experience something that you thought you may only dream of. Thank you Jennifer for being my first inspiration to take this journey of changing my life. 

So after I hugged Tamara for the longest time ever and we cried together, went to the bathroom, and semi calmed down, I recorded a reaction:



Then we celebrated: 





So after all that excitement....the day wasn't over....we still had all day in NYC! So we did what you do in NYC...we shopped, we drank more coffee, we hung out in Times Square, and we took pictures!
*Stay tuned after the pics...there is more awesomeness coming!*

I died......


and then went to Forever 21 Heaven!!! Four stories of non-stop F21 shopping!!! 

Now I'll give you 3 guesses what we bought, first 2 don't count....

Yup....we both left with nothing but workout clothes! haha I want to go back when I am at my goal weight and buy some SUMMER clothes!! 

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Hanging out (and charging my phone!) in F21

Only in NYC 

Free hugs that cost $1 donation.... -_- 


Yes, we split it!! It was to die for. 


Sooo....after allllllll that there is still more awesomeness!! One of the very first blogs I started reading was the one and only Bitch Cakes aka Sheryl Yvette. If you don't already follow her blog, which you should, check her out at Www.sherylyvette.com . She is one of the coolest people ever! She is taking a bit of a break from blogging for personal reasons, but take the time to catch up on her because you will fall in love. 

Anyway, being in NYC, I mentioned to her that I would love to meet her so she invited me to attend her Weight Watchers meeting!! How cool? Hanging out in NYC and attending a WW meeting with all new people! 

Her meeting was super hidden in a basement and it actually turns out that it's the same meeting center that Jennifer Hudson attends! But she wasn't there last night lol. 

I told you it was super hidden! lol
But we finally found it! And found Sheryl! 

So excited to finally meet her! 

and her adorable WW leader Melanie! 


So after that we walked her to the subway she was catching and then we booked it back to Penn Station to catch the bus home! 



On top of ALL of that.....I received an email from the territory manager for Weight Watchers telling me that she has already heard so much about me and asking me to fill out a questionnaire so that we can set up an interview to work for them!! So of course as soon as I got home I did that...just waiting to hear!!

Thank you all for all the love and support!! Yesterday is definitely a day I will NEVER forget!!!

HUGS!!!!
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