the Best Me I Can Be

Today may be day #9576 of my life, but it's only the beginning to The New Me! 21 days ago on Thursday, August 8th, I started to modify my eating habits, physical activities and mind set. I want this to be a permanent Lifestyle Change kind of thing, not just an "I want to look better next time we go to the beach" kind of thing. So far I have made myself very proud. I feel strong, healthier, more positive and productive, confident, and always ready to move.

I told Michael that next week or when he has time, I want to do a hiking/ work out photo shoot. The only other pictures I have of myself now are of me in a dressing room at Target, trying on different swim suits, but it's nothing I'd want to post on here.

Yesterday we met our actor friend, Jason, at Porto's Bakery then he took us to a new trail in Burbank at Wildwood Canyon that I really liked. It has great views since the first part was really steep, but it has been really hot lately (it was 100 yesterday) so we only made one short loop- it probably took us 15 or 20 minutes. Jason and I probably could have pushed ourselves to do three loops! But Michael said he wasn't really in a hiking mood anyway. A few people were filming a little project on the trail. I felt so bad for the main actor- he had on a full cowboy outfit. Only his face was not covered. We went to IKEA after that, then Michael and I drove to the Wal-Mart in Porter Ranch and I got 2 new pairs of Danskin brand work out shorts (for only $7 each!). I only had one pair before- the coral ones from Forever 21 that I love, love, love!! Maybe I can get a blue pair of those too? ;)

I feel that they are a great reward for doing so well and keep me even more motivated. It's better to reward yourself with stuff, I think. One of my favorite sayings I've read was "Don't reward yourself with food. You're not a dog." Recently I also read, "If you're tired of starting over, stop giving up!" Whoa. I discovered that you can type any song into YouTube then add "Zumba" at the end and a 3-4 minute dance video pops up. I haven't tried those yet, but it's on my list!

I have eaten a salad almost every day, mixing and matching different ingredients, so every salad is different. I have used low fat ranch, shredded carrots, mushrooms, corn, edamame, a bean trio.. I have added sunflower seeds and dried cranberries too, but sparingly! (Just to "get rid" of them.) I got super excited when I went to Ralph's last week and they had the Manager's Special stickers on the containers- 89 cents each! And I got three salads out of each. Here is a yummy one I made with a scrambled egg, ham and chickpeas on the morning of Day 14.

Still, I'm surprised I haven't gotten bored with those. I guess I eat enough of the other foods. And I'm not restricting myself from anything, even when I started, I knew I didn't want to waste what food we already had, so I was still eating pizza rolls and bagel bites, I just followed the serving sizes and added the salads and baked chicken and fruits.

I started off doing the 30 Day Shred. That lasted 10 days. I know that if I am going to keep this up, I have to stay interested. For a few days I began walking laps around the elementary school (that's when the bright photo above was taken- August 24th). I calculated via Google Maps that one loop was 0.4 miles and on the first day I did 10 laps! It was tiring, but I'm glad I did it. The next few days after that, there were two different guys who talked to me and a hobo looking guy on a bike, so now I have to stay inside. I can't wait to move to a "safe place". I started a 30 Day Ab Challenge, but add different exercises I found online and jumping jacks are the quickest and easiest for me, so I do a lot of those now. Today I tried the Plank-To-Push Up back and forth! Ha, those were killer.

Here is a little collage I put together and came up with the caption of ~ "I know it's not good to compare myself to other people (even celebs who are my height- Ashley Tisdale, Lea Michele) because they may have different body types & I can't afford a personal trainer. So I have to be my own inspiration!! I have done it a few times before, so I know I can do it again." 

Those times above were all during our time at Full Sail, so saying "I have a crazy schedule" is not a valid excuse. And I wasn't even exercising (aside from walking to school) just eating better. Like how people are supposed to eat- 5 small meals a day, instead of complaining about how fat they feel after eating half of a large pizza! Or saying "I really need to lose weight," with a doughnut in their mouth and another in their hand.. Yeah. The best part is probably that I don't even have to suffer through or push any bad cravings. Even thinking about those foods grosses me out most of the time. Instead, my mouth waters when I look at all the healthy meals on Pinterest. 

Time for 100 jumping jacks then my daily salad!