PATIENCE = PROGRESS

Hey guys! I took a new progress picture yesterday and wanted to share! I also have a picture from when I first started my weight loss adventure about a year ago! NO JUDGING HERE! I, along with a lot of other girls, used to be embarrassed to say what my weight was out loud. But with where I am right now stronger inside and out, I don’t care anymore! This is MY journey and MY blog and I am here to be completely 100% honest with myself. If I’m not honest with myself then it will only be that much harder to achieve my goals! So here we go…

 In the top picture  I weighed a gross 250 lbs and in the newest progress pic I am down to 216! I am a tall girl so my weight (from what doctors have told me) should be around 180.  But for me, I’m not aiming for a specific number, I’m aiming for more so a specific body type. Which is strong, muscular definition (and no not to look like a man!) and lean. When your lifting it is very important to not weigh yourself on the scale constantly! Your body will be changing and turning that fat to lean muscle which is what mine started to do. Before I started carb night and just tried to eat cleanish I kept weighing myself and getting discouraged because the scale wasn’t going down…but yet I noticed I was getting leaner. Then it hit me. I was gaining muscle! I was loosing inches, but not lbs. Instead of weighing yourself, try measuring yourself! You definitely see a difference!

I started off with eating low carb, doing cardio, and some lifting. I now do carb night, lift heavy, with cardio 2 or 3 days a week,  and train 5-6 out of 7 days a week. I didn’t do any crazy crash diet here. I was patient with this whole thing (as much as I didn’t want to be!). I keep my lean proteins, green veggies like spinach asparagus, kale, and mixed greens in my diet. I changed my fats from eating cheeses to eating a little bit of cheese and getting my fats from avocados, coconut oil, olive oil, nuts, and seeds, AND LOTS OF WATER. As long as you eat clean and train hard theres no need for diet pills or crash diets! Your only hurting your body!!

A lot of my fat as turned to lean muscle mass which I am pumped about! I feel great, and super motivated now that the holidays are over…aka no more distractions by delicious holiday foods!

I shall get to it now!

Before:

250 lbs ugh I hate this pic.

And heres my current pics!

Catching up.

Hello all!

Ok we have some catching up to do. Lets see when I last left off was my first carb night. I most definitely went overboard with the amount I ate that night. I was pumped to get back to eating healthy and cutting the crap out again and training hard. My next carb night I had was wayyyyyy more controlled and I felt a million times better the next  morning!

That time I had BBQ pulled beef, mashed potatoes, and carrots for a traditional dinner. Then over an hour later I had one chocolate chip pancake. Then an hour or so after that I had 3 peanut butter cookies. Got some better sleep that night than the first time, and the next morning I felt tight and not bloated!! I was sooo excited!

heaven on a plate

for some reason I always crave pancakes when keeping it low carb.

happy Keeley!

After that night I had a week of training and then I would be off to Seattle for the holidays. This made me verrrrry nervous. I was just getting the hang of carb night, and now all those delicious holiday treats and wholesome carb filled foods that you devour to the extreme one time out of the year was fast approaching. I told myself I wouldn’t fall for it! I would stay dedicated and not go back to those old ways.

That week came and went, and in the middle of the week I made the executive decision that I was going to enjoy myself. And that doesn’t mean eat like complete sh*t. That means that I would portion my meals out and eat what I wanted in a controlled amount. I knew just from that one week I wouldn’t gain back a boat of lbs. But I also knew that while on vacation I wanted to spend it relaxing with my family, working out, and not counting every little thing that I eat. I have been eating clean enough for a while to know what a good portion amount for me is. But I also knew that upon returning I would just have to keep working my butt off.

And thats just what I did.

beautiful

Seattle

freshest shrimp I’ve ever had!

I’v been back on the low carb eating until tomorrow (my next carb night) and working hard in the gym. I decided to push my carb night back a couple days to fully recover from vacation. Even through New Years Eve My friends and I had a low key  nights where I had two drinks (which were no carbs) and raw tacos on a lettuce leaf. The next day I wanted to be nice and well rested to kick off my new year with a squat and leg day!!!

Christmas gift

NP in the sled

Oh and I got to use my new lifting shoes and lever belt that I got as Christmas gifts!!

Gifts that I got from one of my closest friends! She’s the besssst!

Ok and now, last but not least! I have a couple progress pictures from this past fall and winter. I am really excited about this because it just continues to show how far I’ve come! And even if I get a little discouraged if I’m not dropping a certain amount of weight at a certain pace, this just goes to show that when you work hard and consistently lift (with some cardio of course)  lean muscle really takes over fat and does its thing. I will leave you with those progress pics and that is all for now! I will try and be better about posting more often as the progress continues!

left side is not flexing and the right side is flexing.