July 19th, 2016: Forgot to Whine? What??

Oh man! I forgot to whine yesterday! I know, I know, it's a shock to me too! LOL. On Sunday I decided it was time to step up my weights. I use a bar in Y Pump and I grabbed a heavier one. We use hand weights in there too, and I grabbed the next step up. We do light weights because we do 5 million of the same thing over and over, so if you have heavy weights your arms will rot off. Ok maybe it's not that serious, but in the heat of the moment, I feel JUST like that. Haha. Oh and I'm very vocal. I usually have the ladies in there giggling at me. Hopefully it's not an annoyed giggle...I mean...I'm really just being silly. But it's a very light-hearted group and they are soooooo nice! Everyone at the Y has been so encouraging and sweet to me. I seriously miss them when I'm not there. I'm a social kind of girl, so I love the interaction and building relationships. I 100% believe that it's way easier to go to a gym where people know you by name and know your story and what you've been through, than to go in to a gym with your headphones on and tune out the world. But that's just me. I know that what works for me doesn't work for everyone else. And that's ok. So anyways! I may have only made some minor adjustments in the weights, but boy can I feel it! My abs feel it the most. She worked our whole dang bodies on Sunday and we got to use the medicine balls, which I really liked. But shoo...I have just GOT to have the most amazing abs under this fat roll!

So, I think I've mentioned before that I am already very conscious about the idea of having too much loose skin. I know that I've seen a ton of people lose the amount of weight I plan to and some have it really badly and others don't. One thing that I don't have going for me is how stretched out my skin has been for such a long time. I've been over the 200 pound mark for at least 13 years. And in the upper 200-370 area for at least 8 years or so. So I've been big for a while. One good thing is that I'm 33. It would be fantastic if I were doing this when I was younger...but, it's too late for that.

I've done some reading on things that can help with skin elasticity, primarily due to weight-loss and I've found some pretty interesting things! Some stuff I already do, like drink lots of water, exercise (haha), moisturize daily, wear sun screen...but then there was Fish Oil Capsules..yup gonna add those to my vitamins, and I read that recent studies show that your skin elasticity can be incresed by 20%  if you eat foods that contain Lutein. It's an antioxidant in egg yolks, spinach and other leafy greens. Heck yea! I like fresh Spinach, and you already know of my love affair for eggs. I could eat them daily. So that's cool to know!

I also found a list of fruits & veggies that are proven to be great for your skin elasticity: Red Peppers (nope), Oranges (oh yea), Grapefruit (nope), Strawberries (I had some today!), Broccoli (I love it), Carrots (I like em, had them today too, haha), Mango (hmmm), Apricots (nope), Sweet Potatos (I need to start eating those), and Avocados (my new love). So yea...I can eat most of those! Lol

I've had some people ask me what Vitamins I'm taking, so I'll go ahead and throw that in to today's blog. Currently I take a Women's Daily Vitamin, B12, & Magnesium (it has been a miracle worker for my chronic migraines). I'm about to add Fish Oil. I was taking Biotin, but it gave me acne BOO! Lol. So I quit taking that. Oh and I take Fiber pills too. I am not a HUGE lover of vitamin pills, simply because I know it's better for your body to receive those nutrients from your food. BUT, I do think it gives me some piece of mind to know that I'm getting all of my nutrients one way or the other. I had already planned on adding the Fish Oil Vitamins because I can't stand to eat fish. So I'm missing out on some really important stuff!

Today was my day off from the gym, but it was also my day to finish my last root canal. I'm hoping & praying I don't have to have anymore of them. They are insanely expensive! So I worked until 1:30 and then headed over for my root canal. Then afterwards, I haded back to work for an hour. I didn't want to miss any more work than absolutely necessary since I have to leave work to see the Chiropractor on Thursday. Sheesh, I feel super busy just talking about all of this stuff!

After work, since I didn't have to go to the gym, I headed to my Bestie, Barb's house. We've been friends for 22 years! I have a small group of friends that I've stayed close to most of my life and I love them so dearly. She's definitely one of my main gals. I can always count on her to be there for me and support me, even if she doesn't agree with me. And those kind of folks are hard to find! We just had a nice, short visit, because I wanted to get home and get dinner made and head to bed! This garbage for sleep, is really catching up with me! I was wondering if it might be the B12 vitamins that I've added. But I looked it up, and can't find any real evidence that they could be causing it. I don't know, but hopefully I get it figured out soon.

Well that's all I've got for today. Here is the breakdown of my Food Choices for today:

Breakfast
2 Boiled Eggs, and a pack of Oatmeal = 286 cals

Lunch
Half ham Sammy, cottage cheese, baby carrots, and the same Berry blend I had yesterday (sooo yummy) = 387 cals

Afternoon Snack
Yogurt w/granola = 185 cals

Dinner
Doc's Chili w/a small Chicken Salad = 534 cals

And that brings my total to 1392 calories for today. :) Y'all have a good night! I'm going to hit the hay!!