Over the last year there have been a ton of changes in my life...
Work… I was laid off due to a lack of government funding for General Construction. It was lame and at bad timing however, it gave me a new perspective on many things such as my old boss. I had learned a lot and it was time for me to move on. I later found another position as an Office Manager for a Masonry Contractor. I like it for the most part. I work with a nice family and some great guys. I just wish we were busier, as I’m sure everyone in the construction field does.
Love life… I got engaged last June to the love of my life Ramone.
Here’s the story if you didn’t already know.
On Saturday June 11th, we had begun our one year anniversary like any other Saturday. We woke up and went to breakfast. After breakfast, Ramone had suggested that we adventure out to Sequim to a wild game farm to feed the animals up close and personal. I was completely excited because of my love of animals.
After we made our way through the farm, Ramone had suggested that we visit Dungeness Spit. Dungeness Spit is a beautiful hidden beach in Sequim. You park at the top of the large cliff and hike down to this beautiful beach. The full hike takes 8-12 hours. Since we had many other things planned for the day we only hiked down to the beginning of the beach and soon returned to the car.
Ramone then suggested that we drive to Mt. Walker. The mountain is known for a beautiful view of the Seattle Skyline on one side and a view of the Cascade Mountains on the other. It was a little foggy and the view was not good as we had hoped for that day, but the drive was fun and we still really enjoyed it.
After we had made it back down the mountain, we had decided to head to Kingston to take the Edmond's Ferry. Apon returning back on the mainland we had decided to grab some dinner in Seattle then adventure out to Alki Beach. Since Ramone had never been to Alki it was fun to drive around as the sun was beginning to set we had found a private beach where we had sat down to watch the sunset. I then had made small talk about the seaweed on the beach and Ramone had then got up to look at the seaweed and then came walking back to me and got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. It was the most romantic day, so after crying like a baby and hugging Ramone, he had reminded me that I had not answered the question.. So of course the answer was YES!!
We are currently planning our wedding. We have decided to get married May 17, 2013 in Honolulu Hawaii. This is where we took our first vacation together. So far we have our venue and photographer booked and we get more excited by the day. My mom and sister are coming up next month to go wedding dress shopping!
Unlike many brides I am very excited to go wedding shopping for one reason in particular, dress sizes. Since September 28th 2011 I had began a challenge to get healthy once and for all. I had not planned to loose a ton of weight and hadn’t even began thinking about my wedding dress nor wedding dress shopping and the terrors of not having many options because of my size. I had however thought of one thing... the wedding pictures. My fiancé had made a comment to me about how he could never post any pictures of our life on Facebook unless I had approved them. I then began to think about that, and he was right. I would always go over any pictures anyone had and delete the ones I didn’t like or make them crop out my body. I never noticed how much it affected other people. I then began to think about our upcoming wedding, and how many people would be taking pictures and how they will be in our family’s homes for years. I couldn’t go around and "approve" everyone’s pictures and better yet its not like everyone that was there wouldn’t know what I really looked like on that day.
I hate even putting this picture up because its a reminder of how bad I let myself get. This was me at my heaviest on 9/28/2011.
So I decided to make a change. I got completely naked and stepped on the scale and got real with the number I saw. Over the years I had let my weight just keep creeping up and never really thought much about it, except for the annual doctor’s appointment. I would leave the appointment making excuses to myself and then I would go stuff my face to feel better. But this time I took that number and got serious.
I made change slowly; the first to go was energy drinks and sweets. You would be so surprised how bad the headaches get from the withdrawals of lack of energy drinks after drinking at least one a day for the last couple years.
Within a month I began to notice a little weight coming off. Which was great, I began to feel proud of myself and I began to feel better over all. After that month I began to incorporate foods I had never liked but I made myself eat them because I knew they were good for me and because I had read a quote that had stuck with me, "To weigh what you’ve always weighed eat what you’ve always eaten." After a couple of weeks I began to love a lot of these foods. Some of these include Green Tea, Cucumbers, Avocado, and Oatmeal. I also changed my eating schedule. Prior to my quest for better health I had typically eaten lunch, energy drinks, large dinner and wine. I would also eat sweets often. I would hide how much I ate them so that others wouldn’t know. But after a few months my eating schedule had changed. For breakfast I typically eat Oatmeal, Fruit and a large glass of water. At 10am I eat a small snack. Usually this consists of a piece of fruit, or a few nuts (10 Almonds – 12 Pistachios etc.) At 1pm I eat a salad (more info below.) Three pm I eat a small snack either fruit, veggies, nuts or half sandwich (double fiber sandwich thins) etc. For dinner I typically have salad, veggies, sometimes soup or sandwich. Then at about 8pm I have green tea and 1 small piece of Dark Chocolate. I never get bored I am constantly reading new recipes and things to try but my diet is very simple and even more simply put is that its not a diet but a lifestyle. I don’t feel deprived (the small piece of chocolate helps with that) and I eat well and I’m never hungry. I keep my calories around 1200-1400 a day. The salads I mentioned above are home made, every Sunday I make a weeks worth in small Tupperware containers so that all I have to do is add dressing and my lunch is complete. This helps me stay on track and helps when I am super hungry and normally would grab something unhealthy. I also learned that salad dressing can have more calories than the salad itself. So I use oil vigingrette and red wine vinigar.
After losing 35lbs with the eating lifestyle change I decided it was time to kick it up once again. So I joined a gym. I’m not going to lie I had to work hard. I began going to the gym 7 days a week. This meant going at 5:30 am on weekdays and at 7 am on weekends. I would even go twice a day in some cases (working different body parts of course, too much in one area can do more harm than good.)
Last month was my birthday (March 15) and I was able to say with all of my lifestyle changes I had hit my 50lb weight loss. I was so proud of myself. Not only was I able to donate have of the clothes in my closet, I was able to fit clothes I hadn’t been able to in 6 years. Now I am setting new goals such as 10 more lbs before dress shopping and to be at my goal (-85lbs) by the end of August. So my blog will be more about eating healthy what I’m doing to make changes and how my progress continues.
Here are my before and during pictures at -50lbs
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