This is not even worth a blog post, but...

This really isn't blog-worthy news, but I am so excited because yesterday I had WIFI installed at my house! (ALL THE HEART-EYE EMOJIS!)

A few weeks ago, I received a promotional offer from Xfinity offering wifi for $19.99 per month on a 12 month contract. It honestly sounded way too good to be true, and it took me about a month to finally call, but when I did, I was so excited to find out that the offer was available at my house! We've had experiences with two other internet providers who sent technicians out to my home, only to then inform me that that our street was "maxed out," and I wouldn't be able to get the service.

I still didn't really believe it when a Comcast technician actually arrived and began hooking things up. We did have to get access to a port in my next door neighbor's backyard, but that was our only hiccup. After about four hours (yes, four), I HAD WIFI!

Is it ridiculous how excited this makes me?! Probably.

As most of you know, one of the biggest roadblocks I've run into whilst blogging was no longer having internet service at my house since we switched from Verizon in September 2015. From there forward, I blogged any time I was at Starbucks, school, or just anywhere with WIFI. When I was still in graduate school at Ole Miss, I would purposefully get to class an hour early sometimes just so I could work on my blog.

I'm so excited that I get to throw myself back into something I love. My craft has truly developed over the past few years since I first started, and I'm really excited to you guys back into my life a few times a week!

Fitness, recipes, motherhood, and more, and I truly do love sharing with you guys! I mean it when I say to check back often; I'll be around :)

Do I shut you down, or do I keep going?

"Do I shut you down, or do I keep going?"

That's a question I've had to ask myself a few times lately. About people. Life things. This blog, no doubt.

Hi, I'm Kate, and I'm a recovering blogger, turned network marketer, who literally got her start in networking through this blog (isn't it a cute little website??) and now can't even remember the last time she posted... And I mean truly posted. Not a sponsored ad or a product review,but a real post.

I still get emails all the time about writing a sponsored post, and I turn almost all of them down because WHOOOO has time these days?? Not only that, but I don't feel great about accepting, participating in, and getting paid for a sponsored post when I am hardly documenting my life here anymore.

What I would really love to do is come back to the blog and make it the space it used to be--a place for me to keep you guys updated on me, my journey, my family, my life. At the same time, I know the dedication and time I have to put into this blog in order to keep those updates coming regularly; its a lot of work! And it's a lot of work I feel that, despite being a work-from-home mom full time now, I don't have time for. I still don't have WIFI at my house (it's like we live in 1997 or something) and now when I head out to get work done at Starbucks or a nearby café, I'm typically chatting with new team members, customers, or wrapping people because ItWorks has taken over my life in the best way, and almost all of my ventures outside the home pertain to my business.


So what's been up?!

I am now a Triple Diamond with ItWorks! Global. I started this business on December 29th, 2015, on a whim. Most of you reading this probably remember that I was a teacher before retiring to be with ItWorks full time, and I absolutely hated it. It didn't take me long to discover that teaching was just not what made me happy, nor did I feel as if it was what the Lord intended for me to do with the rest of my life.
I quickly found that I had a passion for ItWorks that went hand in hand with my passion and love for fitness and healthy living. ItWorks has allowed me to share that journey with others and introduce my family and friends to products and a business that is changing lives each and every day, my own included!

At the time I'm writing this post, Vaught is three years old; today is his third birthday actually! Oh my goodness at how time flies and how he's grown. He is the sweetest, smartest, most loving child. He seriously brightens every single day; I am so grateful to be able to stay home with him!

I am still maintaining my weight loss from earlier this year, but I've not really lost anymore. I did gain some back (about 13 pounds), but I quickly lost it. I have to get on the scale regularly, or I will regress without even realizing it. If I'm not tracking my food daily and weighing a couple times a week, I will gain weight back. That's the biggest mistake I made last fall. My scale broke sometime around late October or early November and I avoided weighing altogether. Next thing I knew, I was back at my highest recorded weight since before I was pregnant with Vaught.

I'm working out at Orange Theory Fitness now, which has a studio about four miles from my house. I love the workouts! I'm getting in my weight training, along with some good cardio. I love challenging myself to see how many minutes I can get in the "orange zone" during each workout! And of course I'm obsessed with seeing and feeling my body change week to week. Every workout really challenges and pushes me; I'm always excited to see what the next fifty minute class will bring!

In May, I bought my dream vehicle, a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon (that's a pretty extensive name haha!) Because of ItWorks, I was able to make a five-figure down payment on it, and I also traded in my old car. For the first time in my adult years, I feel as if I made a big purchase the correct way, and I didn't feel as if I'd been cheated the second I drove off the lot. I didn't exactly get the interest rate I wanted though, so I'm saving up and am going to refinance with my insurance company in December or January... #adultingaf

It's that time of year again... FOOTBALL (cue the feels). I am so excited to be back in the Grove this fall, despite a Rebel team I'm not as confident about this year as I was the previous years. But I'm handing them much better than I am the NFL right now, so there's that.

Overall, I'd have to say things are going well. Not perfect, but nothing is. Life's crazy and busy a lot lately, but I'm making it. I hope to get some more updates and recipes posted for you all soon, so keep checking back!

Fit & Fearless

It's taken me years to finally get truly comfortable with my fitness routine and develop a healthy lifestyle that works well for me and keeps me sane. I'm not a cardio queen, but I love what some fresh air on an outdoor run does for me. I love logging miles at my city park while listening to music or sweating it out on the stair-climber at the gym. For the early mornings when I'm feeling a little lazy, a yoga routine is just the thing to wake me up, and I love learning and conquering new poses and transitions. And while I'm not the most muscular girl at the squat rack, lifting weights as given me so much appreciation for all that my body is truly capable of--from squatting more than I weigh now to giving birth, I'm quite confident in saying there's nothing this girl can't handle!

While I'm working to get in shape to be the very best version of me possible, I can't worry about whether or not I'm taking the best care of myself in other areas of my life--and that includes "that time of the month."

Yep, I'm talking about my period today. On my blog. In public. Putting it alllll out there, guys! I guess I'm one of those really lucky girls who's never had a time of the month that was a pain in the you-know-what, but I will say that being properly protected and taken care of during that time makes a world of difference in how I feel!

So when I was contacted about trying some new products from the U by Kotex Fitness line, I jumped at the chance! And how convenient that this invitation came just two days before my period arrived? Talk about perfect timing!

I made a trip to my Walgreen's to grab some of the U by Kotex Fitness products. Whether you're a pad or tampon girl, this line has got you covered!

I grabbed a couple of my must-haves for ultimate protection during my workouts; I don't play around about going hard at the gym, so I love that U by Kotex Fitness tampons keeps any leaks or mishaps away! I love how cute and compact these are; you just pull the applicator tip until you hear a click and it expands to full size. It also expands all the way around for a comfortable fit! These are shaped to fit and flex with my body, so no matter how deep the squat or how hard the run, I know I'm completely protected from leaks or period-related uh-oh's!

Can I also throw in how much I love this cute little carrying pouch?! It fits into my purse or gym bag perfectly (and discreetly)!

U by Kotex Fitness also has pads and liners, so I grabbed some liners too for those "lighter" days towards the end of my period. I love that this line has whatever products I need to accommodate my active lifestyle because I would much rather focus on good breathing techniques or proper squat form at the gym than worry about leaking through my spandex!

Your fitness journey should never be slowed down because of your period, and with U by Kotex Fitness, you can rest assured that you're protected! No, I'm being serious--kick butt and then rest easy because with this line, you'll have no worries!

To learn more about this new line that's perfect for your active lifestyle, click here, and don't forget to check out this new line at your local Walgreen's!

I've also got an Ibotta rebate coupon for $2 off for my fitness friends who want all the period protection with NO distractions using U by Kotex Fitness!

I'm so glad to have been invited to be a part of such an amazing new line for active girls like me! Thank you, U by Kotex Fitness!

"Why did it take you this long?"

I love honest people. I love people who speak their minds and aren't afraid to ask questions or stand up and say something. I'd like to say I'm one of them, but not as outspoken as I would like you to think. I have this blog, and I have the opportunity to use it as a platform where I'm 100% honest 100% of the time with absolutely no regards as to what others might think of the things I say, but that's far from true. I wish I could be that person all the time, but it's just not my nature.

But this isn't true for everyone. Not at all.

I was laying in bed on a Friday night a couple months ago (yes, I'm just now getting around to finishing this post and publishing it), and I received a Facebook message from my friend Amber (name has been changed). We were friends in community college, and we've remained in touch with the help of Facebook. We had messaged a few times previously about It Works products, and she messaged me again to ask about how I'd lost thirty pounds since early January. Then she hit me with a message that I immediately loved because it was something I knew I needed to address in some way as soon as I could. It was a little uncomfortable at first, but I felt better once I got it off my chest. It always feels nice to clear the air, no matter how you look at it.

In short, her message to me questioned "Why now? If you've been using the products for nearly two years, why are you just now losing weight so fast?"

...................................................................................

My fitness journey began in January of 2014, just a few weeks before realizing I was pregnant with Vaught. After having Vaught, I lost my 29 pregnancy pounds (plus some) easily, but I realized that my body had still changed drastically. I had an even larger stomach that seemed constantly bloated; it didn't help that despite eating lots of healthy foods, I was also consuming too many grams of sugar and carbs each day. Of course, I didn't realize this at the time, but looking back, that had everything to do with why I usually felt so gross, despite losing the weight.

In April, I decided to try It Works products after seeing several of my friends have tremendous results with them. I was super salty about ItWorks and very skeptical . I honestly was ready to throw money down the drain; I was ready to prove that this company and its products were complete bullshit.

My first month using the products was pretty much a flop; I liked the energy I got from the Greens, but I continued eating and drinking poorly (too much soda and Starbucks) and didn't really lose anything. So on May 30th, 2015, I woke up and stepped on the scale in our bathroom to see that I was back at just a few pounds below my pre-pregnancy weight. I decided to kick things into gear, use the products correctly and consistently, and get healthy over the summer. I remember posting my results after just 6 days; my friends and family went crazy! After that, I knew for sure that I'd found products that truly worked as long as I was willing to continue doing my part.

I lost more weight as 2015 progressed and reached the lowest weight I've been in my adult life in February of 2016, just a couple weeks after quitting my teaching job. By this time, I had become an ItWorks distributor and was sharing my success and my journey with other people, many of whom were loving the products too. Not only was a fan of the products, I quickly became obsessed with the business; it was doing so much for us already!

For whatever reason, mainly laziness and an acceptance that I would always be a little chunky, I started to get complacent in the summer of 2016 and slowly put on weight. It was small at first (5-7 pounds). And I hid it soooo well. It's amazing how far a little editing goes (editing, not photoshopping). By Christmas, I was back to the weight I was at Christmas 2013 (that day I stepped on the scale and cried the whole way to my parents' house for Christmas brunch). I was literally two pounds from that weight.

I still didn't get the motivation to kick it into gear until January. I honestly chose to ignore my size and continued wearing leggings and baggy t shirts to cover up; it helps that I work from home full time now and wasn't making a habit of going out all that often. I spent New Year's Eve on my recliner with a bottle of wine and a medium pepperoni and cheese pizza in my lap. I'm not going to say I devoured the whole thing by myself, but I'm also not going to say I didn't.

I woke up the next morning, January first, and looked at the empty wine bottle and pizza box on the counter. At some point that day, I made the terrible decision to get completely naked and look at myself in the mirror; in short, I was disgusted. And I knew I was 100% to blame and that I could fix the damage if I wanted to. I decided that day that I would.

I accepted immediately that I would fail. I told myself that I would start small, making one healthy change per day for the first couple of weeks and that I would eventually succumb to temptation and fall off the wagon. Knowing up front that I was going to eventually screw up helped; it made me less afraid of when that moment actually happened - and it came... eventually.

I began taking my ItWorks supplements daily-- Greens and Thermofit were my immediate must-haves. I eventually got the Shake, New You, and Core Nutrition and added them to my regimen as well.

I didn't drop carbs all in one day, as I've discussed in this previous post. Somehow, I'd still been tracking most of my food on MyFitnessPal, so I took some time to look at how I'd been eating, and I decided that I would change it a little at a time. I went from 250+ grams of carbohydrates per day to 150. After a week or two, I went down to 100, and now I'm comfortable at 75-90 grams of carbs per day.

Just as I did two years ago, I assessed just how much I was spending at Starbucks and how poor the quality of those drinks were and how bad they were for me. 59 grams of sugar, 450 empty calories.... For what?? Momentary satisfaction? Sure, they're delicious.... But I don't need them. I returned to whole milk lattes (size tall--the smallest size) and iced coffee made with two pumps of sweetener (instead of four) and half-n-half. These are just as yummy and much better for me if I'm going to be indulging in Starbucks!

Along with eating and drinking healthier and taking my supplements religiously, I also recommitted myself to my love affair with working out. Even if I'm not at the gym four times a week, I'm getting some good exercise in at least four times in a week! I go for a two to three mile run while pushing Vaught in the jogging stroller, and I'm known to stop at STOP signs for squats, lunges, or pushups! I doing more cardio while not forgetting about my strength with muscle-building strength and core workouts.

...................................................................

So far, this time around has been so much more clear and focused than my other attempts to rid myself of this extra weight for good. I didn't start seeing evident changes until I'd lost bout twenty pounds (I'm at a 37 pound loss now), but I could feel the change within the first five! It is truly amazing what your body is capable of when you get over yourself and give it everything you've got. I feel amazing, and I'm finally beginning to feel like I truly look pretty good too. It's funny that I use to pine over the stick-thin models in magazines; I wanted to look just like them. At twenty-six, I have so much more clarity on my body thought and how it works and should look. I will always be a little thick in the middle, I'll always have a big booty and wide hips. I've embraced it, hell, I even like it.

Don't let me fool you; it's not been easy. I have already had my fair share of accidental binges (they just kinda creep up on me), and I've slacked on days I knew I needed to try harder. I've literally been chomping down on chips, knowing that I was eating off my plan, and I've over-indulged in a brownie and ice cream more than once since I started this journey again. I think it's all part of living and learning and figuring out exactly how my body is going to work during this process. My weight loss has slowed in the past couple weeks, but my determination hasn't. I still have about thirty pounds to lose, and I will get there. I will!

As always, thank you all for the unending love and support. Thank you for holding me accountable each and every day! I could not do this without you guys and God!

Kate

Mind / Matter

Happy Valentine's Day! (I was writing this the day before and with the intent of publishing on Valentine's Day).

I'm sure it is not being published on February 14th, but hopefully I'm in the ball park!

I've just been a little bit blown away with my willpower in the past almost-six-weeks, so I wanted to write about that today, especially with all the chocolate and candy and love in the air. Perfect timing, Kate.

Before this year, I would use holidays of any kind as an excuse to "cheat" and eat poorly, whether for a day, two days, or maybe just one meal. I would say, "I'm doing to devour these cheese fries and this bread basket and this sixteen ounce steak because it's Valentine's Day, and I deserve a treat." You could swap out Valentine's Day with my birthday, Christmas, Thanksgiving, July Fourth, you name it. Holidays and "special days" were days when calories didn't count and healthy eating didn't matter. Maybe I would begin the day really determined, but at some point I completely disregarded my goals (and my stomach), said "to hell with it," and ate what I wanted.
This usually resulted in me being miserably full--of food and regret. Too much cake. Too much turkey. Too much chocolate. Too much, too much, too much.

All too often, these were the times when I would completely give up on my healthy regimen, with the mindset that I'd already screwed it up-I might as well quit and try again later.

Just like that night at my friend's house, during out "late night" girls' gab session (I wrote a little about it here), I knew I wasn't hungry, and on top of that, I knew I didn't need pizza. If I had been hungry, she had bananas on her kitchen counter, fresh fruit in the fridge; there were better options.
But I knew that cheesy, pepperoni pizza wasn't going to get me any closer to my goals at 1AM on a Saturday morning. Would it have tasted good? Hell yeah. But I wouldn't have felt any better about myself thirty minutes later.

In a nutshell, that's the mindset I've had this year when I get around my favorite foods or situations where the possibility of overeating is definitely there: Sure, this would taste good, but is it going to help me? Is it good for my body? Is it going to get me closer to my fitness or health goals? 

If the answers to any of those questions are NO, I stay away. Sometimes it's easy. Sometimes it's a firm, "No, thank you." And sometimes it means getting the hell away.

I'm constantly taking progress pictures before or after I work out or in the morning because in moments where turning down food and treats are really tough, I can see that I've made an incredible amount of progress, and I shudder at the thought of throwing it all away. I'm not at all saying that one helping of French fries or one chocolate brownie with ice cream is going to ruin six weeks of work, but I know myself and I know how easily my willpower could slip away if that little demon in the back of my mind has her way.

I will enjoy a plate of fries and a brownie soon; I just know I'm not ready for it yet.

I hope your Valentine's Day, no matter who you are, was wonderful. If you treated yourself in any way, I hope you enjoyed it! I hope if you're reading this and realizing that we share similar struggles, I can be a source of inspiration and hope for you. It often takes a little while to see big progress, but if you keep going, I promise it's coming!

I feel happier and stronger each and every day and all because I finally got my mind in the right place, ready to make big changes and be the healthiest I can be.

Thank you so much for being such amazing readers and for supporting me; I can't believe I've had this blog nearly four years now! I'm so thankful to have friends like y'all cheering me on! Love you guys!

My Answers to Five of Your Questions

1. What's your Starbucks order?
Two options.
One: tall iced coffee, sweetened, with half and half.
Two: tall latte, extra hot, made with whole milk, add whip on top.

2. What's your go-to workout in thirty minutes or less?
HIIT for sure (High Intensity Interval Training). This is the best way to get your heart rate pumping and body sweating and burning calories fast. I do this by walking, jogging, then sprinting in intervals on the treadmill, utilizing the incline as well, or by using my own body weight for squats, lunges, and pushups, then throwing in some high knees, mountain climbers, and jumping jacks!

3. Where do you get your recipes/snack ideas?
PINTEREST all day! But I definitely tweak almost all of them to my liking. I try to eat low carb, so that  means lots of lean meat and veggies and cheeeeeese, y'all! I love that I can have almost as much cheese as I desire--almost! As far as snacking, I'm a sucker for anything salty with a crunch, so it's sometimes difficult to get my snack fix when I'm really craving chips! I'm crazy about Triscuits (6 crackers = about 21 grams of carbs) and a Laughing Cow Swiss cheese wedge or 2 cups of SmartPop (7g carbs). And of course I love some peanut butter with carrot or celery sticks or apple slices!

4. How do you balance a healthy lifestyle with family life/motherhood?
I have two very understanding, loving, supportive men in my life in Vaught and Eric. Eric understands my need to be fit and healthy for our family, while Vaught reaps all the benefits of having a mama who can keep up with him and keep her sanity because I'm putting in the time and effort to take care of myself as well as him. I understand that every mother's circumstances differ, but even if I were still working full time, I would take strides to have those 3 hours a week to myself at the gym. I would still treat myself to a bubble bath once a week, a mani/pedi once a month or so... That was important to me even before we started a family and is important to me now. I do have my days when I just want to stay under the covers. I have days when I feel like I'm not doing a good job, but those days are rare and they usually pass rather quickly! I never thought I would look or feel this healthy as a mom at twenty-six!

5. Who is your favorite Disney princess?
It was once Cinderella; I liked that she wore a blue ballgown instead of pink. Then it was Belle because of her love for books. Now that I think about it, Mulan isn't my favorite princess, but she's such a badass; she chopped off her hair and taped her boobs so she could fight for her dad in the Japanese army. The one Disney princess I can't seem to ever let go of, though, is Pocahontas. I always thought she was the most diverse and most beautiful. Plus, she's pretty bad ass too! I watched that movie over and over as a little girl!

Give Your Body Time

Weight loss is hard. It is by far the hardest thing, the most difficult struggle in my life as of this time (and has been for the past 15 years of however long it's been since I became conscious of my body). It's harder than motherhood and childbirth (yes, I said that and I stand by it). It's harder than marriage and relationships.

Losing weight is a relationship in itself in that it's something you have to work at every single day. You screw up sometimes, you make decisions that ultimately make your body hate you (or vice versa) for a little while. It has its highs and lows, and when it's going well, it's going really well, and when it sucks, it effing sucks. 

"Weight" and "weight loss" and "my body" are a few, among many, words and phrases that are difficult for me to say and talk about simply from sheer embarrassment I sometimes feel when I realize that I'm twenty-six years old and am still working at this. I have friends and family who read here, former colleagues, classmates, former students, and maybe even a few people who just really do not care for me, and for the past 4 years that is mainly what you have come here to read: I am still working at this, still struggling, still fighting the same fight, though somewhat wiser about it now than I once was. 

I looked and felt my best about a year after having Vaught, but I've since lost that girl, not just physically but mentally and emotionally as well. I wouldn't know her if I saw her, and she certainly wouldn't recognize me. 

Fitness took a back seat in my life while I busied myself with other things, knowing the entire time I was letting myself go, if only just a little and if only for just a little while.

I have no idea how much weight I gained in the fall of 2016, but it wasn't pretty. My guess is right at 15 pounds, but it could have been a little more or maybe a little less (doubtful on the latter). I knew what I was doing to myself, but I was in this temporary mindset where I seriously did not care. 

And then I woke up the first morning of 2017, an empty wine bottle and cardboard pizza box left on the kitchen counter as proof of who I had let myself become and I decided, for good - no seriously - for good, that I did not want to be that girl anymore.  

It's so cliche to say you're gonna revamp your entire life starting with the first day of the new year, but think about it: could there be a better time? My goal is not to get skinny, for the good Lord blessed me with hips and a big booty that I actually really like and want to hang onto (lolz). My goal, instead, is to become the healthiest version of myself this year. I'm weighing, but the number doesn't control my life. I'm letting my body decide where it's comfortable each day, but I'm having to be patient in the process and truly listen to what it's telling me.

Maybe you're like me and you've finally had enough and are ready to get serious about your health, or perhaps you're brand new to fitness and are just looking for a good starting point. Here's what I can tell you-- these are the tips that work for me.

1. Give your body time.

 

I didn't wake up on January first of this year and immediately cut out all refined carbs and junk food. Cold turkey is only good on whole wheat bread; give it time. I remember taking my time to eat that day. I'd been eating junk all winter, so that's what my body was used to, but I fixed a green salad for lunch and still had some chips as a snack later then had some lean protein and veggies for dinner. I had a good workout that afternoon. The next day I made homemade tomato soup and instead of a full grilled cheese, ate an open-faced grilled cheese on some whole wheat toast instead. I worked out a upped my water intake. By the tenth day of January, I had cut carbs and sugar in my diet by about 70%  and was making smarter, healthier choices daily.

Do you see where I'm going?

One reason it was always incredibly difficult for me to stick to new diet regimens was because I tried to completely revamp my eating habits in one day. This may not be true for everyone, but for me, this was basically me setting myself up for failure. My body would go into withdrawal mode and I would go crazy wanting sugar and carbs and all the things it was used to.

Give. Your. Body. Time. It will get used to subtle changes each day and making healthy choices, coupled with losing weight, will happen easily and naturally.

2. Make friends with the scale.

So, the scale in my bathroom broke sometime in late November (PEFECT TIMING, right?!) I went about two months without weighing myself, which can be a bad and good thing. When I started getting healthy this year, I didn't immediately go out and purchase a new scale; I honestly was not ready to see the number because I knew if I weighed myself on the tenth day of January, I would be disappointed; I knew I weighed more than I expected. Finally, on January 19th, when I could definitely since some good changes within myself, I went to Target and purchased a new scale. I weighed the next morning and was so glad I'd decided to wait; I weighed only a couple pounds more than the number I was guessing.

Some people can weigh every day and the number not affect them, as it's normal for it to fluctuate a pound or two from day to day, but I decided that I would limit myself to weighing twice a week, no more. I've stuck to that regimen and am glad it's something I'm comfortable doing. So far, the numbers have only gone up once, and that was the morning after the Garth Brooks concert (I drank two margaritas with dinner the night before and there they were)!

3. Expect temptation and eat it for breakfast.

I knew temptation would come and I knew it would be really hard to ward it off if I wasn't prepared for it, so before going out to eat, dining out with friends, doing drinks, whatever was going on in my life, I gave myself a pep talk. Crazy, right? But it works! One of the very first trials was a night out in Oxford for my friend's going-away party in mid-January. I had a reasonable dinner and only a couple of drinks on the Square that I couldn't even finish because my body was so turned off to alcohol. After getting a cab back to her house, they ordered two pizzas for us to munch on for "late night." Guys, I literally sat cross-legged on the couch with a large pepperoni pizza in my lap as my friends ate slice after slice (they are, by my definition, perfect so they can do things like this). My mouth was watering at the smell, but I knew I wasn't hungry; my stomach was still not happy with the two cocktails I'd tried to make myself enjoy earlier. At one point I literally had to walk out of the room and get away from the smell because #pizzaislife.

It's hard, y'all. And see, if I had been truly hungry I could have eaten a small slice or at least half of one, but I knew that I wasn't, and though my brain was saying YASSSS, girl, my stomach and heart said Seriously, plz don't.

I woke up the next morning feeling so freaking proud; I knew that if I could turn down late night pizza, I could do literally anything.
 

 

4. Keep temptation around.
Sounds counteractive, right? It's totally not. I try to limit the cookies, crackers, and other refined carbs in my pantry, but they're there, nevertheless, and I totally don't mind them. I figured if I could withstand having them in my own house where I could binge eat and devour in private, perhaps I would be a hundred times more disciplined outside my home--going out to eat or to a party or wedding reception. It was really really hard in the beginning, just as it was to sit at my friend's house that night with a pepperoni pizza in my lap. But each day it gets easier, I swear. Each time I say no to a cookie for myself when I give Vaught a treat, I realize that by saying no, I've done something healthy for myself. Would one cookie hurt? No. Not at all. But it also won't bring me any closer to my fitness goals, so #boom.

 

5. Just keep going.
Even when you have a bad day and a gallon chocolate milkshake and jumbo French fries was the only solution, get up the next morning and jump back on it. Eat the brownie and go work out. Eat healthily so you can enjoy a slice of birthday cake at your niece's birthday party. Exercise a few times a week so you'll feel good and live a little longer. Health and happiness looks good on you! Do it for you, friend.