Project Self Love: First Month Review

Hey everybody! I made it the entire month of June! We're into July and I'm so excited to see where this month takes me and how much further I'm able to push myself.

I posted this picture to my social media today and I got a lot of questions regarding what exactly I'm doing to get healthy. Because I have received so many questions, I figured that I'd do a blog post to answer all questions. Am I following a program? No. Am I starving myself? No. It's as simple as this. I am taking care of myself.

Well it's not that simple, it's a lot of hard work. But I don't believe in gimicky weight loss programs. I do think they work for a lot of people, but its something I'm really not interested in. I believe if you honestly want to be healthy and lose and maintain weight you need to figure out whats right for you. Diet programs that involve taking supplements and drink mixes and food delivered to your door is only temporary. Unless you want to pay for that for the rest of your life. All I have done is use MyFitnessPal as a way to track my calories, carbs and macro-nutrients. And make sure that I exercise at least 30-60 minutes a day five days a week. 

One of the reasons I have never stuck to something like this before, is because I didn't exercise. I would just eat 1200 calories a day and call it good. This time I started out with healthy eating and exercise. I LOVE EXERCISING! I'm still pretty slow, but give me a treadmill, elliptical, and a bike and I am set. I soon plan on starting weights, but I don't feel quite there yet. I'm lucky enough to work at a company that has a gym in house and I happen to live right across the street. I like to work out on my 30 minute break, and then for at least 30 minutes after work. Some days are definitely harder than others, but I always feel so much better after a work out.

These have been my workout LIFESAVERS. The pre-workout tastes like crap, but it let's me push a lot hard and for a lot longer than normal. After I started working out I had really sore calves for a few weeks. Once I switched out my regular breakfast for a protein shake the soreness has gone away and I'm definitely noticing a difference in the toning of my legs especially. I don't love this protein powder, but I didn't think that opting for the cheaper one would make any sort of a difference. Trust me, it does. I will be splurging and purchasing the Quest protein powder once this runs out.

WATER!  I have started drinking mainly water. I have cut out all sodas and a lot of crystal lite. I LOVE putting fruit in my water. My favorite is lemon, strawberry and mint. It keeps the water flavored enough that I want to keep drinking it. I make sure that I drink at least 4 of these (32oz) a day. I am a really fast eater. So when I have finished eating and my brain is telling me I still want food, I drink a glass of water and then 10 minutes later I'm fine. I also fall victim to severely dry skin and this has completely fixed that problem.

My fitbit is one of my biggest motivators. I love this baby, and I bought my new band on Amazon. I love seeing my constant progress.

This stuff is awesome. Yes, it does make you poop. But I feel so good after. Especially after those days where I don't eat as well as I want to, it cleans out all the toxins and I just love this stuff. And for those of you who don't drink tea, this is herbal so it's caffeine free.

As far as food goes I eat a lot of chicken, fish, veggies, whole wheat products, ground turkey and egg whites. I have replaced dairy milk for Almond Milk which is only 30 calories a cup. I try and find the healthiest alternative for what I'm craving. For example: my work has a different food truck here every week day. Last week a friend of mine got these delicious looking nacho fries with buffalo sauce (I know, my arteries are clogging just thinking about it) and I was craving buffalo sauce hard core. So instead of giving in and just going to feed that craving, I went to the grocery store and bought buffalo sauce, which has zero calories, and made grilled chicken with buffalo sauce. And it was just as satisfying and I know that what I was eating my body wasn't going to react badly to. If you are interested in any of our recently used healthy recipes, let me know in the comments and I can do a separate post with recipes!

Thanks for following my journey, I'm excited for the months to come!