Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from 2016

Things I've learned with weight loss...

I know it's been awhile, but here I am! I sort of broke up with the 21 Day Fix. In true Redhead fashion, I found ways to "cheat" while still staying on the plan. I hired a friend of mine who was sort of doing nutritional counseling. Basically I started tracking my food, eating super clean, focusing on the glycemic index, and on gut health. Combined with my efforts starting in January, I've now lost around 46 pounds. I know. I KNOW. I can't believe it. Until tonight when Timehop showed me a picture from 2 years ago, I didn't see the weight loss. I saw that my face looks thinner, but I didn't see everything else shrinking. I can't believe I'm about to put this on the Internet, buuuut here goes: I was determined to not be a "fat AND sad" person in my "before" pics. :)  So here are some things I've learned while losing weight: 1. I physically take up less space. Sounds like a "duh" statement,

A Fat Kid's Honest Review About the 3 Day Refresh: Day 3!!

IT. IS. FINISHED! I know, I survived. I lived to tell the tale. You know guys, it's really  not that bad. I had a headache last night (presumably from the lack of caffeine) and a brief headache this morning (which was quickly quelled by a black cup of iced coffee), but overall... It really wasn't that bad. In fact, I told the Bearded Wonder already that I'd totally do this again. I generally wasn't hungry unless I missed a snack time waited too long to eat. Everything was really filling. Though funny story, the last 2 days, every time I drank my Vanilla Refresh shake, I tasted corn. So weird. This afternoon at lunch I was looking at the ingredient list, and what's the 3rd ingredient? MAIZE. It's apparently for protein. Gross. Don't get me wrong, I love corn. I have nothing against creamed corn. But my shake with fresh pineapple and coconut extract in it still tasting like corn? Not  a fan. It was so weird. Imagine a shake made out of this. Y

A Fat Kid's Honest Review About the 3 Day Refresh: Day 2

Day 2 is just about done. Suffice it to say... It was a bit more rough than day 1 . I felt pretty good after yesterday so I figured today would be just as easy. Eeeehhhhhhh.....  Don't get me wrong- I was super chipper before I drank the Fiber Sweep this morning. See? I took a picture for you guys! Told you it looks disgusting. Thankfully it doesn't taste like it looks Here is today's lowdown: 8am: ~10 oz. water 9am: Cafe latte shakeo with 1/2 banana, cinnamon, 1.25 c. water, ice 10am: Fiber Sweep 11:30am: Green tea (I ended up sipping this over the next couple of hours just because of my schedule) 12:30pm: Vanilla Fresh shake with vanilla extract, cinnamon, 1.25 c. water, and ice, 1/2 banana, spinach/strawberry/avocado salad with vinaigrette. (My shake was so gross today, you guys. So gross.) 4:45pm: 1 c. veggie broth with chopped up herbs (I was desperate for food and made this really quick. More on that below) 6pm: Vanilla Fresh shake blende

A Fat Kid's Honest Review About the 3 Day Refresh: Day 1

Heeeyyyy friends. It's been awhile. :) We've been off The Fix for about a month now, and suffice it to say I have been in Hog Heaven. Are you guys familiar with the phrase "Hog Heaven"? It's a very Southern term, and it looks something like this... Yep. I saw it. I ate it. It's just that simple. OK if I'm totally honest, it wasn't that  dramatic. I mean I still tried to not eat EVERYTHING I got my hands on, but overall I had little to no self-control. I think it was because I totally OD'd on brown rice and shredded chicken. I just couldn't do it anymore. The end of the last round of the Fix was really hard for me, because I stopped being able to eat the staples we'd come to rely on. Enter the 3 Day Refresh . It was a safe but dramatic enough option for me to kick my butt in to gear. It's a bit drastic, but it's also only 3 days, and frankly- I need to undo some of my edible sins before the next round of the fix starting Mon

When you have a setback in your fitness journey.

As an almost life-long dieter, it was about time I had a setback in my newish fitness journey. This blog has always been my glass box to stand in and be honest about my weight loss adventures, and today is especially painful as I admit a few things. First, I haven't worked out in 5 6 weeks. Second, I've gained 1.5 lbs this week since we're off the Fix right now and I've eaten with all kinds of reckless abandon. Are we still friends even though I just told you I really suck at this sometimes? I have legitimate excuses for some  of the time I didn't work out- hubbies had the flu and I was taking care of him, I had a nasty cold, I threw my back out, I hurt my knee... But if I'm completely honest, there's still a solid 3 weeks where I didn't   have excuses. I just didn't work out. Sometimes I was busy, sometimes it was pure laziness. I'm not proud of it, and I can't go back and change it, but I can  start again. Which I did today!

It's happened.... It's here...

I'VE LOST 20 POUNDS!!!  I was going to go for a girl power vibe here, but this was just too good to pass up.... You guys. YOU. GUYS.  I'm so pumped. So freaking pumped. I've lost 2.5 lbs since Monday on round 3 of The Fix, which is about what I lost during my entire last round. Granted, I didn't have my whole heart in it that time- I know I didn't. I cheated with my food, I found excuses not to work out... The program's not going to work if I don't work the program, you know? I started to feel sorry for myself, but I'm  the one who made the choices to eat junk and not work out. That's unfortunately how this works.  My dream of eating a bread basket with no calories will never be realized. Le sigh. ANYWAY. I've been trying really hard with my food this week, though it's still been tough. The Bearded Wonder was diagnosed with the flu last Thursday, and I developed a nasty cold on Monday. We still ate fix-f

Round 2 of the Fix is over!

Well we've ended our 2nd round of the 21 day fix! Now, I started this blog with the intent of being honest and accountable with my weight loss journey. So it's in that mindset that I have to tell you my whole heart wasn't in it this last time. I don't know why- maybe I got arrogant from my first round and thought I was all of a sudden a weight losing goddess? Maybe I figured I'd just keep  losing weight after such a great round? I have no clue. Regardless, I'm the only one that suffered from my empathetic attitude. In 3 weeks I lost 2 pounds, though I did still manage to lose 6 inches from my body. That brings my final weight loss total in 2 rounds (though technically a round and a half, if we count my laziness =P) to 17 lbs and 16 inches! Not too shabby, huh!? I mean really, 2 lbs in 3 weeks is still great. 6 inches in 3 weeks is still great. But I constantly found excuses to not work out, or eat "treats" when Heaven knows I don'

We lost our dog

OK not really, I wouldn't be blogging if we lost our dog. I'd be sobbing into a pint of ice cream while laying on the floor gnashing my teeth. Isn't she cuuuuuuuuute?? What I meant to say was that we lost the WEIGHT of our dog between the 2 of us. I know, sneaky. That was mean. #yolonoregrets #Icantbelieveisaidyolo #iapologizeforsayingyolo Anyway. Today is "weigh-in Monday" a.k.a. "gird your loins and hope for the best Monday". Years of diets have made me fairly pessimistic with weigh-in days, so I always fear the worst when it comes time to step on the scale. Instead, I lost 2 lbs this week! Which brought my total weight loss up to 15.5!!! Thanks Mashable ! And xtina. ;) Even more  impressive? My darling Bearded Wonder. Now, in case you weren't aware, men sneeze and lose 5 lbs. They blink rapidly and lose 8 lbs. It's just a cruel and scientific fact. Husband has lost 36 lbs. THIRTY. SIX. AS IN 4 LESS THAN 40. AND IS MORE THAN TWI

21 Day Fix: Round 2

So we finished our first round of 21 day fix! We decided to take a week off and then resume on Monday the 8th. Someone asked me why we decided to take a week off- why didn't we just keep doing it? Well, in short... I guess I wanted to see what would happen. Would I continue my fancy new healthy habits, or would I go back to huge spoonfuls of nutella and endless pieces of bread? (Shut up, this is a judgement-free zone!) The greatest gif of all time. Thanks Makeagif ! So how did we do? I'm sure you're all just dying to know. ;) Thanks Bookish ! Well, we did... Ok? It started out pretty good. We still had a lot of food prepped from the Fix so it made sense to just keep eating healthily. I tried a donut sample from Whole Foods (which means it was probably super  healthy), and I took 1 small bite and had to throw the rest out- it was just too sweet! I went out to dinner with a friend and we split a sandwich and the fries. It was just enough, I was really satisfie

IT. IS. FINISHED!!

Well, we're officially done with this round of the 21 day fix! I thought it was Monday, but hubbins gently showed me that 21 days would end Sunday. Suh-weeeet! I'm sure you're all chomping at the bit to get our results... Ready?? I lost 13.3 lbs , and the bearded wonder lost 27 lbs . TWENTY-SEVEN. As in an average of 9 lbs a week! I can't get over it. I mean I'm pumped about my weight loss, because 13 is still an incredible amount to lose in 3 weeks, but he literally lost twice as much! I'm also down 9 inches and he's down 14. GOOD LORD, Y'ALL. We're endorsed by The Rock. True story. (Thanks Reaction Gifs!) I'm so unbelievably proud of him, and of me, really. We've both worked really hard on this (though he's worked harder- I can't lie. =P ) and we have the results to show it. So while we're saying we're officially done for this week, we're kicking up round 2 this coming Monday. We don't really have

2 weeks down, 1 week to go...

Well friends, we're 2/3 of the way through now. This time next week will be our last day, and I'll hopefully be plotting to go buy some ice cream. I'm mostly kidding. This week was honestly really hard for me. The 21 Day Fix is generally easy to follow, but I swear I hit a wall this past week. There's a lot of prepping of food, there's more dishes to do and more frequently (because there are 2 of us, so double the food containers/prep stuff), and you still have to work out every day and eat great food every day. I had it this past week. I was sick of the dishes and the prep and the continued effort. I spend a lot of mental energy figuring out meals and snacks, AND prepping them. My husband is super helpful, don't get me wrong, but I do the majority of the planning (though  he is fantastic with helping prep).  I swear, if he wasn't doing this with me, I definitely would've given up by now. It's just so.much.effort. It doesn't help that th

Working out on The Fix as a fat kid

Good. Lord. Y'all. As you all know, the Bearded Wonder and I have been doing the 21 Day Fix (henceforth known as "The Fix"). It' a program that combines portion control, healthy eating habits, and working out. The working out part is no joke. It's only 30 minutes a day, but it's still 7 days of working out. They mix it up though, so you're not just doing pushups every.single.day. I'd probably stab my eyes out if that were the case. We do ours Monday-Sunday in this order: Total Body Cardio Fix Upper Fix Lower Fix Pilates Fix (HOLY CRAP DID YOU GUYS KNOW PILATES IS FREAKING HARD?!) Cardio Fix Dirty 30 Yoga Fix (HOLY CRAP DID YOU GUYS KNOW YOGA IS ALSO FREAKING HARD?!) There's also a 10 minute Abs Fix workout we can do to add on, or in lieu of one of the 30 minute workouts. The workouts are all hard, but they're... doable. This whole program is making me re-evaluate the way I do things. So for working out, generally they do a

1 week down, 2 to go

We've officially completed 1 week of the 21 day fix!! For those of you just tuning in, the Bearded Wonder and I started the 21 day fix program last week . It's gone pretty well so far! We've decided to weigh ourselves each Monday to keep ourselves motivated. Drumroll please... I've lost 8.3 lbs and Beardy's lost 10 lbs!! Woooo!!! You know it's big when Ron's excited.  Suffice it to say, we're pretty freaking excited. He said he's feeling pretty good and his stomach is feeling good (TMI, but we both have intermittent tummy issues). I'm feeling faboo! I don't feel uncomfortable in my skin, my stomach feels much more settled (amazing what happens when you stop eating crap, amiright ?). Also, I've noticed that I don't feel sluggish or exhausted all the time. So good.  That's all for now! I'll update soon on the workouts- pinky promise. =)  xo A Redhead

The fat kid does The Fix

Have you heard of 21 Day Fix? I'm kind of the last to pay attention to things these days. Like ebates. Have you guys heard of or used ebates? Because seriously, it's awesome. Go sign up with my link . MAKE ME MORE MONEY. But I digress. I've heard of 21 Day Fix before through various friends but never really paid attention to it. My 29th birthday showed up this past November though, and I decided that I wanted to change up my body for my 30th birthday. To look like I'm wearing Spanx when I'm not, to be frank. Know what I'm sayin'? Naturally, I did nothing for a couple of months. Except talk about how I have "soooo  much time!". January hit and I realized, "Crap. My 30th is THIS year. I should probably actually start doing something!" Here's the long and the short of it: 21 Day Fix takes a lot of effort, but I don't have to count calories. I. DON'T. HAVE TO. COUNT. CALORIES. There is still a lot of prep and e

25 Easy Steps to... Priming a Vanity.

There are 2 things I've been pretty consistent about the last few years: trying to lose weight/get fit, and decorating/redecorating my house. We redid our master bathroom, but haven't touched the vanity. We're currently redecorating the guest bathroom and I have decided that DARNIT. I'M REDOING THE VANITY.  So off to Google I went. I didn't want to sand it. I wanted to prime and paint this puppy, then gloat forever. Several blogs recommended the primer below, swearing by it and promising beautiful results via their perfectly refinished furniture. So I bought it. The ladies who's blogs I read all swore that I had to have a foam roller to use it. HAD TO. As in it would fail miserably if I used anything else. I found one at Michael's (exactly $4 more than their promised $.50, not that I'm mad... ahem.) and figured I was ready to conquer the world. So behold! 25 easy steps to priming your bathroom vanity. 1. Start with way too much confidence sinc