It takes 21 days to create a habit.  21 days.  Three weeks. I found this on Pinterest and I absolutely love it!  I set mine up in the bathroom on the mirror and I may set up another one at work since I spend so much time there and I tend to get off track with fitness at work.   I made a deal with myself to work out every day for 21 days.  I started today and have already gotten my sticky note for today taken off. :]  

Karri, Brandi, and I are doing this challenge together, although they are amazing at working out and do it pretty much every day anyway.  They struggle with their eating, so they're doing her own challenge with eating and logging everything into  MyFitnessPal while I plan to work out for 21 days straight.  

I have been having green monsters for breakfast in the mornings and a salad for lunch with snacks in between.  This week, I made a point to buy tons of produce at the grocery store so that I can have fruits and vegetables for snacks.  I have hummus and green pepper strips planned for tomorrow and apples with peanut butter, as well as a few other things.  I'm trying to clean up my diet as much as possible and get back to real food.  I've been having an issue with the 2:00 slump lately and I crave chocolate like a crazy person... and I've been giving in to it.  I think I need more protein at lunch, so I think I might try adding a protein shake with a Blender Bottle this week and see how that goes.  I'm really struggling with the whole  "eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper" thing.  Supper has ALWAYS been the biggest meal of the day for me, which is probably one of the 4983409584 reasons that I am so overweight.  So I have planned to have a green monster and overnight oats for breakfast this week, which is about 400 calories, a protein shake and a salad for lunch, which will be about 500 calories, snacks are around 200 calories, and then eating something really light for supper around 300 calories.  I also have all of those workouts planned for this week, so if this eating plan and workout plan doesn't help me see results, I officially give up!  

I'll update you guys in a few days and let you know how it's going!  Until then, what are some of your favorite protein shakes?

--Future Skinny Girl 

Not going to lie to any of you guys. I started working full-time last month and have since fallen way off the wagon. I think the proverbial wagon actually knocked me off, backed up, and ran over me again. And it shows. Big time. I've gained 7 pounds since I started back to work. My immune system is also run way down. I haven't felt great in so long. I've been skimping on the green monsters and not taking vitamins like I should. I've been eating a lot of restaurant food. A lot of it. Way, way too much. I had a nasty sinus infection last week and this week I have mastitis. I can't help but think that my diet and lifestyle have contributed to getting sick. When I was doing so well with eating and exercise, I didn't get the flu while everyone else in the house did. My face is so broken out. I have no energy.

This ends now. I am getting back on track. My friend Karri and I have agreed to be wake up buddies and wake up each other before work to work out. Since it's still dark out at 5am and our treadmill is STILL BROKEN (pardon me, Mr. Skinny, you need to get on this!), I'll be using my very limited library of home workout DVDs. And by very limited, I mean that I have two: Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred and Yoga Meltdown. I'm not a fan of either.

I recently signed up for a dietbet with aforementioned Karri. I am straight killing it with it! I'm already 63% to goal and still have 3 weeks to go to lose the last 27%. You have to lose 4% of your body weight in 4 weeks to win and I am well on my way. You pay $20 via PayPal, submit 2 pictures of yourself on the scale to dietbet, and then weigh in from there. It's super easy with the dietbet iPhone app and I can't wait to win some money! I'm already planning on using the dietbet money for something fitness related for me. I think I might get fitted for some real running shoes so that I can have them for my very first 5k in April!

Yes, you read that right! I've officially signed up for my first 5k! I'm so excited for it! It's a color run, so I'm not crazy about having to be able to run the whole thing, but I would like to run at least part of the way.

So... Help me out here. What are some of your favorite workout DVDs? What was your first race? How did you do? Any tips for my first race??

Love,
Future Skinny :)

I love food documentaries more than life itself. I think the first one I ever watched was Food, Inc. and I was hooked from the first 3 minutes of it. I've since come to watch pretty much every food documentary that Netflix has to offer and every time I walk away feeling a little more disgusted with the food industry. It's so amazing that our food (meat) isn't more regulated and that there are so many genetically modified plants. I won't get on my soapbox regarding GMOs today because you will all truly believe that I am bat shit crazy. Instead, I just wanted to say that I've been putting off Vegucated for a while. I'm pretty "granola" as it is and didn't want to push my sweet husband over the edge with more crunch in our lives. Cloth diapering almost did that to him... But he loves it now. Go figure. Then came the compost bin. And then the extra recycling bins. And now, after watching Vegucated, I somehow convinced him that we should try to go vegan for 3 days. Just 3 days. And if it isn't so bad, we'll discuss doing it more from there. I don't mind if he wants meat or dairy afterwards, but I'd like to see if we can handle it for just 3 days. We did a clean eating challenge over the summer for 10 days and it was amazing for us to cut out processed foods and see how much better we felt. We still eat clean most of the time. So... Tomorrow starts our vegan challenge. Luckily, I just bought 2 gallons of almond milk today (I use it in green monsters) and I am already eating raw for 2 meals per day, so supper is the only thing I'll really have to worry about for myself. The boys aren't big meat eaters anyway so I don't think it'll be a huge deal for them. We shall see and I will certainly keep you all updated! I'm sure I will post plenty of pictures on Instagram: skinnygirlwantsout.

In other news, I weighed in this morning for the biggest loser competition and I lost ELEVEN FREAKING POUNDS this week!! I have no idea how or why or anything but I did it!! It had to be the raw eating for the most part. Otherwise, I know that I weighed in the afternoon for the first weight and first thing in the morning (nothing to eat or drink before) and that made a difference. My weight flictuates a lot during the day anyway. I'm really freaking excited and feel like I stand a chance in this competition. I was really downplaying my success all day in my head and out loud, but my friend Jamie (who is amazing) finally said, "Look, Heather, you lost 11 pounds regardless. The scale doesn't lie and it isn't broken. Just accept it!" So I did. I was able to squash that sneaky negative self talk and I feel much better now. If I win the competition this week, you'll know about it because you'll probably hear my screams all over the world. :)

Vegan readers: leave me some recipes!!!

Until next time...
Heather

I'm going to be honest with you all here. Those of you that read this the most are some of my best friends and my mom (hi, Mom!), so I can be real with you all. I posted earlier about the Largest Loser contest that I signed up for on January 1st. The first weigh in was held on Tuesday, January 7th. I had some errands to run before the weigh in (including signing paperwork to begin my new job!!) so I used that as an excuse to eat like crap for breakfast. I had a coupon for a free bagel from Chick-Fil-A (my absolute favorite breakfast) so I used it for breakfast and skipped my daily green monster. Bad idea, I know, but I used the excuse that it was my "last meal" before the competition started. Ya know, because I will never have an opportunity to eat a bagel for breakfast ever again! If there was an eye-rolling smiley, it would go here.

Anyhow, so I had the bagel and then did my errands. I drank a ton of water that morning and went to weigh in around 1pm. I stepped on the scale to weigh in front of a guy that has probably been in shape his entire life and I felt like the most disgusting person in the world, although he was super nice and professional. I stepped on the scale and saw a number that was 14 pounds higher than I weighed that morning on the scale at home. Wow. I was devastated, to be completely honest. That number totally negated the hard work I'd done so far to lose 15 pounds last year. I was back at my highest weight ever, the same weight I was on the day that I went in to deliver Lawton, according to their scale. No bueno. I could've cried right there, but I somehow held it together until I got to the car. When I got in the car,
I surprisingly didn't cry. I didn't scream. I was just... Numb. I felt like everything I did before was just completely irrelevant and stupid. So what did I do? Cured myself with food, of course! Back to Chick-Fil-A I went. Emotional eating was back in full force! After over a week of clean eating and mostly raw food, that CFA was definitely not what my body wanted or needed and I was amazed at how quickly I reverted to old habits that I thought I could control. I felt like crap all day after that. No energy. No desire to do anything. I did make it to 10,000 steps that day but just barely. Of course I didn't eat well for supper either because, after all, "the day was ruined."
I got back on the wagon the next day and had a green monster for breakfast, although I slept super late because Lawton refused to sleep the night before so Adam took him while I got some uninterrupted sleep (because he's the best husband in the world!). I felt better after eating relatively well yesterday (but still not great). It's so weird how one bad day can impact so much. I still don't feel as great as I felt before I had the bad day, but I'm finding that it takes about 4 days to feel great after a bad day. So... The crappy food I ate on Tuesday will impact me until Friday. Wow. Worth it? No way. Oh, and I also woke up on Wednesday morning with two new pimples. Ugh. I am back on the wagon today for sure and eating clean and hitting my step goal today. One day at a time... That's all I can do.
I also got a call yesterday to start my new job earlier than expected. I'm really excited to start early but I have so much to do! I'm nervous about meal planning and staying healthy while being a working mom. Any tips are greatly appreciated! How do you all do it?! When I was running before and doing so well, I was working at the doctors office and was able to simply go downstairs and use the gym on my lunch break, which was so simple and easy! Now I'll have to go to the gym either before or after work at peak times (which is a huge obstacle to overcome in itself) rather than my normal 10am time when the gym is completely dead. This won't be easy but I'm up for the challenge!

I have a post planned about motivation that is coming soon (don't worry, I have it written out in my head... Sort of.). I won't forget about you all but I don't know how much extra time I'll have to update as often as I have been once I start working, but I promise to keep you updated!

Until next time....

I've officially been using the Amazing Grass Green Superfood powder for over a week and I could sing from the mountaintops about how happy I am with it! My face is clear for the first time in my entire life and I am completely amazed. I haven't had clear skin since I was a preteen, probably around 11 years old. I have tried everything to clear my skin. I've tried expensive washes and cleansing systems, antibiotics, topical prescription creams, and basically everything short of Accutane because I just wasn't comfortable with it at all and nothing has ever worked! I am also drinking green monsters or green juice every morning and getting a ton of Vitamin A in those (according to myfitnesspal, I'm taking in around 700% of my daily Vitamin A recommendations), which is probably also helping. I also take Cod Liver Oil and a daily multivitamin which have Vitamins A & D in them and even those havent helped. I'm going to say that eating raw, fresh produce and the Amazing Grass powder have been the main things to help my skin.

I also have tons of energy and have been consistently hitting my 10,000 steps per day goals every day since I started. I've been walking and running and playing basketball with J every day and it's been so wonderful!! I feel amazing for the first time in a really long time.  I think that this journey, to me, is more about focusing on health rather than the number on the scale.  As a relatively educated person when it comes to the food industry, I don't want to be a person that loads up on 100 calorie pre-packaged snacks and starves my way to a lower number on the scale.  I vow to listen to my body and give it what it needs rather than deprive myself. 

I've gotten three friends started with it just since I started a week ago.  I truly believe in this stuff!  And, no, I was not paid or compensated in any way to write this review.  These opinions are my own and were not prompted by anything other than my feelings toward the product.  Amazing Grass has no knowledge of this post or the contents [although, if they were to see it and send me some free product, I absolutely wouldn't complain]. 

I have a post coming soon about motivation and the new challenge I'm taking on!  

Until next time,
Heather

I posted a picture on Instagram this morning of my sweet youngest boy eating a homemade Larabar that I made (if you aren't following me on Instagram, head on over and make sure to follow me at skinnygirlwantsout!). They are absolutely delicious and so much cheaper than buying them in the store! I've made several different types and this one is my favorite. The boys love it, I love it, and it's super easy. What more could I ask for in a recipe?!

Here's how to create your own:
1/2 c pitted medjool dates
2 tbsp. unsweetened shredded coconut
1 tbsp. chocolate chips
1/8 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/8 tsp. sea salt
Place all ingredients in food processor and process for 1-2 minutes until dates are coarsely chopped. Remove from processor, arrange into a "log", cut into 3 equal pieces. May be placed in wax paper or foil and frozen.
According to myfitnesspal (my BFF and favorite app), these come out to 124 calories and 3 grams of fat. Not bad at all for something that tastes a lot like a dessert or treat and they are filling!

I'm going to update tomorrow on the pros and cons of the Amazing Grass super green powder I've been using! Until next time, see you on the skinny side!

P.S. I totally forgot to take a picture of these bars before they disappeared from the cutting board! Maybe next time I'll be fast enough!

I have been really sucking at exercise lately... And by lately, I mean, forever. I have never enjoyed exercise. Ever. Not once in my whole life did I look forward to going for a run, or heading to the gym, or anything else. I don't even enjoy walking from my car to the store most of the time. It's never been anything I was taught to enjoy... Or even tolerate. So when I learned about the Fitbit, my world was turned upside down. Sure, I'd heard of pedometers and even owned a few that I flicked with my fingers a few times and watched the numbers change. Then it sat in a drawer, untouched until the next spring cleaning.

When I met my wonderful friend Brandi, an amazing mom, friend, and hell of a blogger, she told me about her Fitbit and I was in love with the idea. You can have friends on there?! And compete with them?! And it keeps track of your steps and activity?! Sign me up! I'm sold! I will walk seventy billion steps per day with that sort of motivation! I ordered it a few days later for a birthday present for myself and fell in love the moment it arrived... Then, I lost it. Yup, I lost it. I have no idea how or where, but it was gone. I emailed the fitbit team to find out if there was a way to track its location. I found out that there wasn't, but they offered to send me a new tracker for free to replace the one I lost! Best customer service ever! Only it took a few weeks to get to me and I allowed myself to get very lazy in that time. The holidays were beginning, I was looking for a job, I was beyond stressed. I just let myself fall to the wayside (as usual... There seems to be a pattern here!) and gave up on myself. I didn't have time, after all. Turns out, I DID have time. I just didn't have motivation. I'm back on the wagon now and my step goal for every day is 10,000 steps, which ends up being around 5 miles. I'm going to try to get 10k steps every day for one week and then I'll do it the next week, and the next week... Baby steps. I do so much better with small goals rather than long term goals. So, that being said, I've created some goals for myself for the month of January:

• Lose 7 pounds
  
• Complete the 30 Day Smoothie Challenge
  
• Get 10k steps every day
  
• One cheat MEAL (not day) per week
  

The Biggest Loser competition starts next Tuesday. Shit is about to get so beyond real up in here. In the meantime, you guys should check out a few of my favorite weight loss blogs by some of my best friends in the world (other than Brandi, who I mentioned above).
Karri is completely amazing in every single way!! I'm so honored to know her and she constantly inspires me to just keep going. Check out her blog as she gets healthy before venturing into the world of motherhood.
Alisha is such an awesome person. I am always in awe of her. She has lost 81 pounds and survived amazing trauma to come this far. She is truly a survivor.
Marcee is brand new to the world of healthy blogging, just like me, but she is such a natural, you'd never know it! She is hilarious, beautiful, successful, and such an inspiration to me.

Until next time...
Stay happy, stay healthy.  See you on the Skinny side.

I had a really great food day yesterday.... Until my sister called and said she was on her way with my new frenemy Evan Williams to celebrate the new year. I may or may not have enjoyed way too much liquor, BUT I did not go on a crazy eating binge during our fun, which is an amazing feat in itself!

I weighed in this morning and was 2.2 pounds lighter than I was at my last weigh in a few days ago. That puts me at 15.6 total pounds lost! I'm excited to restart my journey and finally get this weight off for good.

There is a weight loss competition in my town that starts next week, but sign ups are today. I'm excited to join in and hopefully I will bring home the big prize! I am so dedicated and ready to do this. Who's with me?? 2013 will be OUR year to win! 2012 was tough, with a lot of negatives. 2013 will be amazing for every single one of us.

Today is "tomorrow"! My new lifestyle kicks off today. Lawton woke up at 4am and we've been going strong since then.
I made a juice around 7am and it's now 9am. I feel great! I have more energy than I usually have in the mornings. We'll see if it lasts all day.

I've had a Jack LaLanne juicer for a few months but I've only used it a couple of times (honestly because I would rather starve to death than have to clean the damn thing more than every once in a while). I brought it out this morning and got it all ready and juiced my little heart out. I made a green juice this morning (recipe to follow) just because it seems to be really popular and one that everyone likes. I was pleasantly surprised!! It was really good, with just the right amount of sweetness. I used a lot of vegetables and several fruits, so I feel like I took in several servings of fruits and veggies this morning already. Once I had my juice, Jameson and Lawton couldn't stop drinking it, but I wasn't really crazy about them drinking it with the energy superfood powder in it (as if they need more energy), so I made them their own and they are full of vitamins for today as well! It's always great when the boys like healthy foods. You'll never hear me complain about that. :)

This is the recipe that I used for my juice:
2 big handfuls of spinach leaves
2 big handfuls of kale
1 stalk of broccoli
About 1/4 bunch of parsley
1 inch of fresh ginger
1 apple, cored
1 kiwi
1 banana
Handful of mixed frozen fruits, thawed (pineapple and mango)
1 scoop of Amazing Greens Superfood Energy Powder

You can play with the ingredients as much as you'd like. I have a feeling this would be hard to screw up! I will gradually add less and less fruit as I get used to the taste of a bunch of vegetables.

I'll keep you updated as I continue to juice! I would love to do a juice fast but I'm not crazy about doing that while I'm breastfeeding. Once Lawton is weaned, I'll try it for sure! For now, I'll juice in the mornings and eat clean for the rest of the day. I expect to have a LOT more energy and hopefully to drop a few pounds.

Until next time...

My life has been so full of "tomorrows". Tomorrow, I will start the diet. Next Monday, I will start exercising. Tomorrow,
I will be better. I will magically wake up and tomorrow will be the day.

Tonight, as I write this, tomorrow is my last "tomorrow". I begin a serious transformation tomorrow. The fridge and pantry are stocked with clean, nutritious foods. My running shoes are by the door, although I won't be running any impressive distances tomorrow.

Why tomorrow? Because I deserve to feel better. Because I should be able to chase after my sweet boys without losing my breath. Because I want to feel confident for the first time in my life. Because my sister is getting married and I don't want to be the fat matron of honor.

Just yesterday, I was walking with Jameson and Lawton. Jameson suddenly took off running and said "mommy, chase me!" Guess what? I couldn't chase him for more than 50 feet without having to stop. That ends now. I will be able to chase him. I'll be able to chase him for 13 miles, tackle him, and cover him with kisses if I want by the end of the year.

There are so many reasons that I can't even begin to describe here, but these will do for now. Will you join me on my journey? Watch me transform and I'll make it worth your while. :)