I Have Returned!!!!

I have returned like a phoenix rising from the ashes!!! On a less dramatic level I have decided to change the forum of my blog. Over my yo-yo diets and mixed results I have realized that keeping up with my blog was just as up and down as my dieting. I wish I could say that I am a girl who wont have to diet for the rest of my life, but unfortunately I am exactly that girl. As long as I watch my portion sizes and exercise regularly the weight loss will come gradually and I am going to continue to work hard to reach my goals.

I have been throwing my body into a tailspin with the crazed amount of dieting and then completely falling off the wagon. Luckily, I come to my senses before I gain all of my weight back but I am still not happy with the way I look, as most women aren’t (if you are though good for you, I envy you).

The one thing I do love and always will is my curves.  I always get compliments on my hourglass figure but I know secretly all of those kind people are thinking the same thing I am…If I was little bit smaller hour glass that would be even better!

I get it now, I need to love me while trying to make improvements along the way. I think I fell short with my “weight loss only” blog because the subject was limiting. I am Graphic Designer and Artist and not expressing that part of me in my blog was making me lose interest. So like I said before I am changing the forum of my blog.

I am going to focus on loving my curvy figure and myself. I want to share my life experiences, my favorite things and of coarse weight loss. I feel like this way my blog will portray who I am better and maybe help others, like myself, find the confidence or advice they may need to live a happy and healthy life. No matter what size or shape you may be I hope this blog speaks to you and if it is still lacking a little something then send me an e-mail and give me your feedback. I can't wait to make my next post!

Stay Happy and Healthy Curvy Goddesses!

Sincerely,

Lisa

It's a New Dawn, It's a New Day, It's a New Life for Me....and I'm Feeling...Good!"

Good Morning to all, Happy Hump Day!

Today I would like to discuss the importance of Vitamins! Most people don't give the generic Multi-Vitamins they shove in their mouth everyday a second thought..

"Vitamins are good for you therefore who cares what is inside of them!"

Well, I happen to have a family who are obsessed with vitamins, everyone has something different which is specific to their needs. The reason I am focusing on vitamins is because it promotes a healthier lifestyle and in many cases it can assist you in losing weight.

Here are some important choices, especially for women...

Biotin

Hair, Skin and Nail Heath

Found in foods such as oatmeal and soy, Biotin, a water soluble B vitamin, assists in energy metabolism in cells. Biotin is essential for the intermediate metabolism of carbohydrates, proteins and fats.In addition, Biotin helps to support healthy skin, hair and nails.This retails at $6.99 which is great for all its benefits!

 

The Cleaner

Detox



 Helps Remove Waste Pounds
*Colon
*Liver
*Parasites
*Skin
*Urinary
*Kidneys
*Toxins
*Blood
*Lungs
*Stomach
*Yeast
While this is not considered a vitamin, the all natural veggie compound helps shed excess weight due to blockage in the intestinal track. I am going to try this one before I head to the beach in August, but it had great reviews. The Cleaner is a Powerful, Comfortable, East, Fast Acting All-in-One Formula. It is a powerful total internal cleansing support system. It includes organ and parasite cleansing in easy to swallow capsules. After use of the Cleaner, clothes may fit loosely in the stomach area due to the elimination of waste.The Cleaner is fast and powerful yet gentle enough to allow you to travel, work and continue your normal routine. This retails for $14.99 and is meant to last for the 7-day period.



Multi-Vitamin Packs

These are the mecca of Multi-Vitamins, instead of just one pill that is supposed to give us our necessary vitamins for the day, Naturemade offers packs of vitamins. If you have trouble swallowing pills, this is not nor you. But otherwise these daily packs offer you twice what normal single capsule vitamins offer. I can personally say that these packs make me feel much better day-to-day than just one regular multi-vitamin, but everyone is different... Retail is $11.79 at your local Target!

• Provides nutritional support for breast, bone, immune and heart health
• Features the B Vitamins to help maintain energy levels

 Nature Made Women's Pack is guaranteed to meet our high quality standards – it is made from carefully selected ingredients under strict manufacturing processes.

• No Artificial Color or Flavors
• No Preservatives
• No Yeast or Gluten

Weight Management

Glucomannan (Konjac Root)

Dietary source of fiber(from Konjac Root) to help maintain blood glucose levels already within the normal range. In some studies, glucomannan has helped improve glucose tolerance.

Basically it makes you full so that you are not craving food all day long and for someone like me, sitting in the office all day it is a lifesaver and helps along with a proper diet. No eating cheeseburgers everyday on this ladies! This retails at $9.99 at you local Vitamin Shoppe but it can be found in any drug store.

Stress Relief

Yogi Tea

Although this is not a multi-vitamin of some kind it is packed with herbs and vitamins to help ease stress and anxiety. In fact, doctors often prescribe this tea along with medication to people with actual stress or anxiety disorders. In most cases I would run to a very large wine glass of pinot noir after a stressful day, maybe even week haha. But for the case of dieting that is not the best option so this Yogi tea is a great substitute, it won't get you drunk but it will give you a euphoric sense of calm... Good enough for me! This retails at $4.49 at most drugstores.

So there you have it! Some essentials for many different situations. Visit the Vitaminshoppe website and click on the vitamins and supplements tab and then choose the option to look up supplements according to your health concerns. I find it helpful to always check the rating and read some reviews from customers.

Happy Dieting!

IM BACK!!!

Okay, So its been a few months since I have taken the time to write on this blog and I am sad about it. I kind of fell off the wagon so to speak with my eating habits. My workout habits have not changed however, so I have been able to maintain my current weight with a little fluctuation.

For those of you who don't know I graduated from college with a degree Graphic Design in December of 2010. The obvious sucky job market caused me to work at Pier 1 Imports. I was pretty much their work horse, I am pretty strong so I spent most of my shifts there moving furniture, unloading 30 foot trucks of merchandise at 6am and moving heavy displays all around the store. As you can imagine this, along with standing all day helped keep me in shape along with my workout regimen.

Everything has changed in the past few weeks. Due to my schedule at Pier1 I didn't have time to plan meals or sit down and type on my blog because my schedule was so inconsistent. Now I have and Administrative Assistant job for one of the larger General Contracting companies in my region and I work Monday- Friday 8am- 4:30pm. It's early for me, something I am not use to but I love that I know what to expect and I can plan everything accordingly in my schedule, not to mention I have weekends free now which is amazing. The down time in the office gives me a chance to write on this blog again!!

I am no longer making barely above minimum wage and although this job is not in my field of study, it's a start and I love this grown-up feeling I have coming to the office everyday.

I currently reside in Baltimore where I went to school and where Pier 1 was located. Now I am working closer to my parents house and I have decided in order to pay off some debt and student loans I am going to move home with my parents for a little while until I save up enough money to either buy a house or rent a nice apartment. I feel a little lame doing this but many people I know have done the same not to mention studies show that in this current economy over 89% of recent college grads move back to their parents house.

But anyway on to the dieting. I have been reading a lot on diets, nutrition and over all general health. I hope that these big changes in my life along with some newly acquired knowledge will help me get back on the horse to my ultimate weight loss goals. I hope that my insight can help others who come across my blog as well!

Happy Dieting!

(I missed my little tag line hahaha)



My sister Sara and I at our Friend Cristen's recent wedding. My dress is from Pinupgirlclothing.com which has prefect clothing for curvy women. I am obsessed!



Day 17 There are gaps...I know, I am stressed

So I have not been as consistent lately with my blogging and dieting for that matter. It is so hard for a strict diet to coincide with life when you are surrounded by others who eat and do as they please. Some of my friends are dieting, it has be helpful to talk with them about my woes with my diet. However, there are more people in my life who aren't dieting, and certainly don't need to. I have been very wrapped up these past few days with events like bridal showers, birthdays, fundraisers and many others... not to mention a few very important people in my life have birthdays coming up. Sadly between the stress of bills and trying to be a part of these events y diet is yet again falling by the wayside. It is discouraging and upsetting to me but all I can do is keep on trucking. My friends Hailie, Katrin and I have set a goal for April 11th to lose 10lbs. If we succeed then we get one cute outfit for ourselves and go out for a night on the town. This has also been a lot of motivation for me.



So this morning I woke up late but I still had a few hours to get a workout in before I go in for my shift at work so I had some oatmeal and raspberries and headed to the gym. I was pissed to find out that I had been going to the gym for over a week now and no one who works there bothered to stop me to let me know my account balance had a late fee tacked onto it. I was of coarse pissed, I had my credit card stolen at work a few weeks ago, so I canceled the card and ordered a new one. In the meantime I gave someone at their finance office my account routing number so that the fees could be taken out directly and they lady I spoke to said everything was good. Well, apparently it wasn't because a month later I am now trying to pay a balance which has a bunch of late fees tacked on, I was pissed but luckily we had it sorted out. But that put me in a fowl mood and I only ended up doing 40 minutes of cardio and leaving. But I just did my 1 hour pilates video and I feel much better. I am going to make some tilapia and asparagus for a late lunch and pack a nice chicken salad to eat at work. The stress is building with all the things I have going on but at least working out helps take some of that away.

Day 16 Home Visiting

I am marking today as day 14 only reason being is that I didn't have time to workout yesterday and I didn't eat between the hours of 5am-3pm and then blew it all away when I ate Chipotle when I took my brother and sister to the movies. Grils Night Out with all of my girlfriends (minus Brittany) was so much fun! It was wonderful only paying 7$ for the ticket, having 4 differnet cocktails thmemed according to the boutique, food  and limo rides to each store and we got to go shopping!!! It was a much needed event with my loves athough those little snacks and cocktails didn't really fit into my diet.

Today I woke up at Hailie's after a wonderful night and came home, I decided to make a mexican chicken salad and although some of the ingredients are more fattening then I should have I am okay with it because it is already noon. I am going to spend the day relaxing and enjoying the day with my family.

Day 15 Feeling an Itch for Chocolate

Went to the gym really early this morning it feels good to be done early so I have some of the day to look forward to although I work until late and then turn around and work at 6am on Thursday morning. I just had some lovely oatmeal with frozen raspberries on top which I put in the oatmeal halfway through its microwave cycle. It was so yummy and had just the right amount of bitter are sweet flavors plus it made the oatmeal pink! I am most likely going to have a grilled chicken salad for lunch and I am packing a shrimp and spinach wrap with mango salsa and some sliced apples with peanut butter for a desert/ side dish. I hate working until close because I either have to eat really late or starve so I need to start packing dinners or myself.


Last night I made some yummy shrimp and Hawaiian stir fry with half of a baked potato, no salt or butter. It was so good combining the stir fry with the potato...

Of coarse it is getting close to that time of the month so I have seriously been craving chocolate so I am going to have a little bit of sugar free jello chocolate pudding and do some research for more low calorie chocolate desserts in an upcoming post.

Day 14 Bored but Happy

So this morning I had to wake up super early and take Gene to work, his car has been in the shop for a few days. After that I headed to the gym and did 40 minutes of cardio, 20 minutes on the elliptical and the other 20 on the bike. I also went tanning, a bit vain but like I have said before I hate being so pale. I ate one of my 90 calorie bars before I worked out. I didn't feel up to eating a ton so early. But when I got home I made a lovely egg white omelet with some fat free cheddar and mild salsa. I make this dish quite often but today it actually looked pretty so I took a picture.

I used...

1/4 cup fat free cheddar (45 calories)

9 tbls egg whites (60 calories)

4 tbls mild salsa (20 calories)

Yesterday I had some lightly breaded halibut for lunch topped with mango/ginger chutney and some steamed spinach on the side it was delicious. The chutney is from Trader Joe's, my favorite place to shop when I can get over there and their chutneys, sauces and accents for food are low in calories and so delicious. This mango and ginger chutney had a nice spicy kick to it beyond the sweetness. Yummy! For dinner last night I had a grilled shrimp salad minus the tortilla strips it normally comes with, which rounded out to 466 calories with the chipotle apple vinaigrette dressing.

My breaded Halibut with Mango and Ginger Chutney

Day 13 While I was gone...

Soooo as it is apparent I have not posted in a week. It is terrible I know but there were fun activities and holidays to which dieting was not an option and I am a firm believer in making the best of every situation, not to mention drinking heavy amounts of beer during St. Patricks day with only some oatmeal in my stomach is just plain stupid. It seems like I am making excuses but truly I planned these event before my dieting revelation. Anyways, I had a wonderful week/ break from the blog.

I did keep with my diet between March 13th-17th and 18th-present day. I ate the usual egg white omelets and oatmeal with blueberries for breakfast. For lunch and dinner I did the occasional veggie tacos, chicken salad and grilled tilapia with brown rice. I also tried a few new recipes.


This one was simply grilled chicken breast, which was stuffed with a little cheese and steamed spinach. It was on top of a bed of steamed veggies, peppers, onions and zucchini. There was maybe half a cup of tomato sauce on the top and it was delicious and only 480 calories!

This was a bit messy but very yummy!

This meal was a little higher in calories but it was delicious and helps provide energy! I used two whole wheat tortillas which I fused together with 1/4 cup light cheddar cheese. I placed about 1/2 cup of tomato sauce and a few thin slices of fresh mozarella on top. I added some chopped onions, spinach and chicken on top with some seasoning and then placed it into the oven at 350 degrees for about ten minutes. Yummy!

Chicken, onion and spinach tortilla pizza!

I just did my favorite  Windsor Pilates video workout and then I ate an egg white omelet with some light cheddar cheese and salsa. I am going to the gym shortly and then off to the store for some healthy groceries!

Day 12 Revved Up!...But feeling ill

So the beginning of my night last night didn't go very well, I was very upset and down in the dumps. Gene was being very sweet and told me he wanted to take me to dinner. He was looking around for places that he and I could both enjoy because of my diet. We decided on Copeland's New Orleans style restaurant. I had a wonderful steak salad, there were very tiny onion rings as a garnish on the salad which I ate and shouldn't have and I also had some crawfish bread. I was very disappointed in myself although the bread and the onion rings were not enough to but my calories to far over the edge, I still should not have caved. But I have to say nothing comforts the soul more than good southern comfort food.

This morning I felt really terrible and since I was feeling under the weather, I have a long shift ahead of me this evening and I have Shamrock Fest tomorrow I decided to not go to the gym and just mellow out until I have to go into work. I had some Special K cereal this morning, about 300 calories all together with skim milk. Alex is still visiting so were just hanging out at my place and doing nothing, kind of nice every now and then to just do nothing.

I then became inspired to paint my nails with something crazy on them so I went with a St. Patty's Day theme!

I am so excited for Shamrock Fest its ridiculous. I am going to enjoy myself tomorrow with the beer and the food they have there, I am going to try to watch what I eat but I feel like special occasions like this should be enjoyed. But I will be right back on my diet by sunday.

Oh by the way I lost ...


3 more pounds!!!!


Hope everyone has a great weekend, I know I will. Happy Dieting!

Day 11 Rainy Day

Have you ever noticed that rainy days make you feel very lazy, let me tell you it affected me to the max this morning. I was having a hard time getting up but once I did I had some oatmeal and my vitamin. I went to the gym shortly after with Alex ( my best guy friend). Having him there although we didn't really work out next to each other motivated me, he would occasionally come check on me which put on the pressure. I got a good workout though.


At the gym I got into the St.Pattys Day spirit by listening to the Dropkick Murphy's Pandora station...It was awesome and very high energy, great for the gym.

When we left the gym we went to go get groceries and I got the usual items, no artificial starches or sweets. Then we went back to my place and I made us grilled chicken stuffed with steamed spinach, onions and a little ricotta cheese. I also made some steamed broccoli for a side dish. I forgot to take a picture of it, I was just really hungry but I will make again this week and I will take a picture. Late lunch rounded out to about 450 calories. Hope everyone is having a great day aside from the rain!

Happy Dieting

Day 9 Relaxation

I have had a lovely day off today. I enjoyed an egg white omelet with spinach while waiting for my laundry to be finished. I have done a little cleaning around the house and even got to some painting. (my grammy would be proud) I am going to head to the gym in a little while after I eat a nice salad for lunch. My workout clothes are still in the laundry so I have to wait for those to be done as well. I got an e-mail form my grandmother today showing me all these hilarious photos of food and other inanimate objects doing strange things in photographs. It was so interesting to me I decided to do a little research so that I could share.

             

               "Marilyn"

"Many Passionate Fans"

The artist's name is Terry Border and surprisingly he has a blogspot site just like I do! Here is the link "Bent Objects"


I think that the site give a funny twist to food and how appropriate for my blog as well. Off to the gym I go, hope all of you had a good day.

Happy Dieting!

Crazy Cravings!

Certain times of the we all cravings, it is hard to ignore at times. Often times satisfying these guilty pleasures can only lead to guilt. According to psychological scientists Eva Kemps and Marika Tiggemann of Flinders University, Australia, review the latest research on food cravings and how they may be controlled in the current issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

"We’ve all experienced hunger (where eating anything will suffice), but what makes food cravings different from hunger is how specific they are. We don’t just want to eat something; instead, we want barbecue potato chips or cookie dough ice cream. Many of us experience food cravings from time to time, but for certain individuals, these cravings can pose serious health risks. For example, food cravings have been shown to elicit binge-eating episodes, which can lead to obesity and eating disorders. In addition, giving in to food cravings can trigger feelings of guilt and shame."

I for one have an extremely hard time ignoring these mental images of cheesy nachos and banana split sundaes. Tonight I had one of those cravings and instead of diving into a pint of Brownie Batter Ben and Jerry ice cream I decided to make instant fat free/sugar free pudding. To some the sound and idea of anything sugar free/fat free mixed with chocolate is unappealing. To be honest it was to me to but these puddings are so well made it is hardly a sacrifice. The cold delicious flavor of the chocolate pudding satisfied my craving and POOF! No guilt! I added a dollop of light whipped cream on top (within my calorie limits) on top to add  to the decadence of this craving substitute. All around the pudding rounded out to 150 calories with the whipped cream on top. Yummmm

Day 1 New Beginnings

I love myself, I love myself, I love myself. I have always struggled with my weight, trying countless diet plans, pills and delivered meals. It is so discouraging for someone with my body chemistry to have such difficulty losing weight. I am very curvy, I always have been... often friends and even strangers have commented on my drastic curves and telling me I am beautiful. I always accept those compliments, they are nice to hear but that is not how I feel about myself, I haven't for many years. Sure, I can put on a very flattering dress or outfit and feel on top of the world for a day or night, that feeling is instantaneous and does not last. When I take those close off is when I struggle to look at myself in the mirror. I should love myself, there are fleeting moments when I do but I want that moment to last.

I have decided to buckle down, more than ever to make a dramatic change. I am now out of college with a sort of sucky part-time job which leaves plenty of time for me to work out, eat right and continue my search for a better job. I am not only after a better body but a better lifestyle, one that is active and goal oriented. I have always gone after my goals but there has always been something there to distract me or make me stray...but NO MORE.

If any women who are shaped like me or have the troubles I do with losing weight and they happen to come across this blog, I sincerely hope it helps. Revealing personal things like this is tough but I need to keep a daily blog so that I can monitor my own progress and force myself to keep going and if I can help someone else in the process then I am happy as a clam.

This blog is not going to be all serious, I am actually a funny person when I want to be. Here are some of the things this blog will include....


      - My weekly shopping lists and the cost
      - Videos with my thoughts and feelings about the process
      - My daily workouts
      - Recipes I have tried
      - My changing stats (Measurements and weight *** lets hope for success***)


As of now I weigh 218 lbs, this is extremely hard for me to admit publicly because I use to be around 160.


My Measurements (inches)

Waist- 28
Hips- 48
Arms- 13
Thighs- 28
Calves- 16
Bust- 38

Wish me luck everyone! I will be posting a video shortly along with a few photos from day one. Happy dieting (lets be honest its not that happy, but I hope to be soon.)