I AM HUNGRY!

I have been incredibly hungry the past few days. As a result I haven't been eating the greatest....The other day I ate almost an entire 8 piece fried chicken dinner by myself. That's just sad in my book. I wonder what's up with this sudden need to eat everything I see? Have a great weekend everybody!

Because I am a totally random person....

Pipe Bomb Stuffed Chicken Left On Road

Authorities in Connecticut are wondering who stuffed a raw roasting chicken with a pipe bomb and left it on a roadside.

Simsbury police Capt. Matthew Catania said a motorist noticed the chicken Friday morning. He said the bomb was large enough to harm a person if it went off.

The road was closed while the Hartford Police Department's bomb squad came and blew up the chicken.

Nobody was injured. No arrests had been made Monday night.

I just wanted to post some "pick me ups"

I just posted the pictures below as a little bit of a "pick me up" for anyone out there who might need a little "pick me up."

Have a great weekend!

Jamie

Changes

When I started this blog on March 29th I was wearing a size 14 pair of pants....Now, I down into a size 7/8! I just want to thank all of my cheerleaders out there for keeping me motivated! When I started this blog I didn't feel very good in my own skin....Now I feel like a completely different person....I feel like I could take on the world! I'll be honest I'm not seeing a lot of weight come off but I am happy that I am down 16.5 pounds from where I started!

Thanks again cheerleaders!

Jamie

Here's something a co-worker told me to try....

One of my co-workers gave me a little weight loss "secret" yesterday that I am seriously going to try. The "secret" is to take 1 tablespoon of Light Olive Oil 1 hour before you eat. Take it straight and you can't eat or drink anything for that whole hour. Don't mix it into anything either....She says that it tastes absolutely HORRIBLE if you do. Your supposed to do this twice a day. If done correctly it will make you feel fuller meaning you'll eat less and lose more pounds. She says it also works to strengthen hair, helps with joint pain, helps keep your skin in good shape, and so much more.

Jamie

P.S. I'm down another 1/2" on my waist!

Today's Affirmations and some "stuff"

1. Being sick sucks....so I'm not going to let it keep me down!
2. Being "good" all the time isn't always a good idea....Sometimes it's ok to be "bad!"
3. I'm not going to be discouraged by the numbers that show up on the scale!

I've been "bad"! Milk Duds have been my unglueing. Ever just start jonesing for chocolate and once you start you just can't seem to stop yourself? That was me yesterday. I feeling pretty miserable on top of my chocolate craving so right now I don't even want to know what the scale says....but I've decided that I'm not going to sweat it. Being "bad" every once in awhile isn't sooooo bad.

Jamie

Tips to Take Off Pounds

By Melissa Gotthardt, Prevention
For more than 50 years, Prevention's been creating, collecting, and perfecting advice to help you slim down. That's because we want you to look and feel good about yourself.

By achieving and maintaining a healthy weight, you can significantly reduce your risk of heart disease, diabetes, certain types of cancer, back pain, joint problems, and more. In other words, you can maximize all the goodies that life has to offer! Here's our best advice to get you where you want to be.

10 Reasons to Lose Weight
1. Live to see your grandchildren, great-grandchildren—even great-great-grandchildren
2. Be able to romp with all those kids
3. Keep your mind sharp
4. Increase your energy level
5. Protect your immunity
6. Reduce your risk of breast cancer, heart disease, and stroke
7. Manage menopause more easily
8. Reduce stress
9. Breathe easier
10. Feel fabulous!

10 Foods That Fill You Up

These foods will fill you up with the fewest calories:
Potatoes
Fish
Oatmeal
Oranges
Apples
Whole wheat pasta
Grapes
Air-popped popcorn
Bran cereal
Soup

10 Fun Ways to Burn Calories

Here's a list of activities with the calories you'll burn per hour doing them.
Jumping rope, 544
Roller-skating, 476
Bicycling, 408
Swimming, 408
Hopscotching with the kids, 340
Ballroom dancing, 296
Coaching your kid's soccer team, 272
Paddling a canoe, 238
Walking in the woods, 238
Playing Frisbee, 204
(Calorie figures based on a 150-lb person)

10 Easy Ways to Flatten Your Belly

1. Eat a bowl of raspberries. Packed with fiber, they fight constipation (that can swell your midsection like a balloon).

2. Drink lots of water. It's filling, calorie-free, and keeps your metabolism running in high gear.

3. Skip the cocktails. Sure, alcohol may be fat-free, but it's loaded with calories. It can also raise your levels of cortisol, a stress hormone that helps your belly store fat.

4. Sit up straight. Hunching forward makes your belly look bigger. For a slimming effect that actually trains the stomach-supporting muscles to stay taut, sit with your shoulders back, chin up, and lower back supported against the chair.

5. Plant a garden. All the bending, lifting, and twisting help shape your middle, and you'll burn about 350 calories an hour.

6. Move your hips. Hula hooping works on the same calorie-burning, waist-whittling principle as gardening—but with less dirt.

7. Hit the greens. Ditching the golf cart earns you a walking workout; whacking the ball tones and tightens your midriff.

8. Get a leg up. Crunches with your legs off the floor tone the upper portion of your ab muscles. Lie on your back with your legs propped up on a bed or chair. Curl up slowly, raising your head, shoulders, and upper back off the floor, then slowly lower. Do 10 to 12 repetitions, two or three times a week.

9. Reverse that crunch. To tighten your tummy from a different angle, lie on the floor with your arms at your sides, feet off the floor, and your legs and knees bent at a 90-degree angle. Contract your abdominals and press your back into the floor, lifting your hips about 2 to 4 inches off the floor. Hold, then lower. Do 10 to 12 repetitions, two or three times a week.

10. Do crossover crunches. To work the muscles that define your waistline (the obliques), lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Place your right ankle on your left knee and your hands behind your head, elbows pointing out. Lifting your head and upper back off the floor, twist, and bring your left shoulder toward your right knee. Hold, then slowly lower. Do 10 to 12 repetitions, then repeat to the other side. Do two or three times a week.What an Opportunity! Seek out new ways to be active—investigate a mountain vacation that involves hiking, or start viewing a chore such as raking the leaves as a great workout.

All-Time Best Recipe
Readers told us again and again how great this smoothie is for curbing cravings.

Classic Smoothie Recipe

Mix the following ingredients in a blender until smooth. Feel free to experiment, adding a touch of vanilla, cinnamon, or your other favorite flavors to taste.
1 cup fat-free milk (or soy milk)
1/2 frozen banana or 1/2 cup frozen mango slices
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup frozen fruit (We recommend strawberries, pineapple chunks, or blueberries.)Per shake (approximate): 220 cal, 1 g fat, 4 mg chol, 5 g fiber, 130 mg sodium

10 Smartest Ways to Slim Down

1. Eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Skipping meals can set you up for bingeing. Studies show that people who spread their food intake throughout the day eat fewer calories.

2. Pack snacks. Whether you're at the mall, in the car, or at work, keep yourself armed with healthy snacks to help you resist fat-and-calorie-laden temptations from vending machines and fast-food joints.

3. Team up. Enlisting the help of a partner or friend can boost your motivation and help you stay on track.

4. Start writing. Keeping a food or exercise log not only helps chart your progress, but it's also a great way to spot minor slips in your routine before they become major problems.

5. Compliment yourself. Treat you as you treat those you love. Focus on your successes, not failures—and give yourself a pat on the back each day.

6. Get moving. Whether you walk, run, bike, or swim, aerobic exercise is key to weight loss success. Work up to doing at least 45 minutes, 5 or more days a week.

7. Be a little selfish. You need to make time for yourself if you want to achieve your goal.

8. Have two helpings. Filling your plate with two kinds of vegetables, not just one, ups your nutritional intake and leaves less room on your plate for fatty foods.

9. Take one bite at a time. "Mindful eating," which involves concentrating on taste and sensation to make each mouthful an event, maximizes your food satisfaction and minimizes the odds of overeating.

10. Lift weights. Resistance training builds muscles, which boost the number of calories that your body burns throughout the day—making weight loss easier. Aim for two or three workouts a week.I Can Do It Instead of saying, "My weight loss efforts haven't worked before; they probably won't work now," tell yourself, "That's enough. I can do anything that I put my mind to." Create a new sound track in your head.

Keep Low-Cal Cooking Quick & Easy

Stock your kitchen with these low-fat, low-calorie staples, and eating right will be a cinch:
Fresh garlic
Butter-flavored cooking spray
Canned beans: Kidney, black, and navy are stellar fiber sources; rinse first to remove some of the sodium.
Fat-free chicken broth: Keep a can on hand to whip up an easy vegetable soup (add frozen veggies) or mashed potatoes so flavorful that you won't miss the butter.
Water-packed tuna
Grated low-fat cheese
Instant grain dishes: Think couscous, tabbouleh, even boil-in-bag rice.
Zesty spices: Chili powder, red-pepper flakes, and curry blends add salt-free zip to recipes. They're great as toppings for air-popped popcorn too.
Canned mandarin oranges: They're a creative addition to salads and simple desserts, especially when your fresh fruit supply runs low or is out of season.
A pack of pitas or tortillas: Use them as sandwich wraps, or cut them into wedges and bake to make your own low-fat chips.

10 Snacks Less Than 175 Calories

1. Half of a whole grain bagel: spread with jam or low-fat cream cheese

2. One almond, one date: Stuff the former into the latter for satisfying sweetness and nutty crunch.

3. Baby carrots: Eat a handful with a creamy dip (mix 1/4 cup salsa with 1/4 cup low-fat sour cream).

4. Whole wheat pretzels (1 1/2 oz): A bona fide snack food that's not junk food.

5. Banana: Portable, peelable, and around 100 calories.

6. Sweet potato: If you think of it only as a side dish to a meal, you're missing out on a great snack. Baked and cooled, it's a delicious alternative to fruit.

7. A cup of instant bean soup: Fiber-packed and filling—just add water!

8. Whole grain cereal: Low-fat, low-sugar choices such as Cheerios or Wheat Chex aren't just for breakfast. Slip 1/2 cup into a plastic bag to eat when you're on the go.

9. Low-fat string cheese (2 oz): The perking power of protein and the rich bite of cheese—without all that nasty fat.

10. Lions and tigers and bears: Oh my—animal crackers weigh in at only 12 calories each.

Cave In to a Chocolate Craving

You can say "yes!" to these chocolate cravings for less than 200 calories.

1. M&Ms (1 oz): A melt-in-your-mouth favorite, with only 140 calories

2. Haagen-Dazs chocolate sorbet (1/2 cup): Intense flavor at only 120 calories (and zero fat!).

3. Hershey's chocolate syrup (2 table-spoons): At 100 calories and no fat, it's a virtuous topping for fruit or angel food cake.

4. Chocolate truffle (1): Savoring the flavor of a small portion of the food you really crave can prevent you from pigging out on poor substitutes.

5. Chocolate mousse (1/2-cup serving): Prepare instant chocolate pudding with 1% milk, and fold in low-fat whipped topping.

6. Hot chocolate (1 cup): Make it yourself with fat-free milk and chocolate syrup, or just add water to an envelope of low-cal instant.

7. Chocolate tortilla roll-ups (1): Spray a large tortilla with butter-flavored cooking spray, and sprinkle with ground cinnamon, sugar, and cocoa. Cut into quarters. Roll each quarter from the pointed end around a thick-handled kitchen utensil, seal the overlap with egg white, and bake seam-down at 350°F for 10 minutes. Cool, and fill with low-fat vanilla yogurt.

8. Hershey's Kisses (7): This handful has a combined 175 calories.

9. Low-fat mocha latte (1 cup): Use chocolate-flavored coffee topped with 1% milk that you've whisked into a froth. Dust with real cocoa powder.

10. Low-fat chocolate chip cookies: Three of these traditional favorites are about 150 calories.

There's No Magic Number

Don't measure your success solely by the number on the scale. Your weight will naturally fluctuate by a couple of pounds some days. Give yourself a weight range of 5 to 10 pounds to allow for these changes. Use other methods, such as your clothes or tape measurements, to track your progress.

Seven Ways to Break Up Exercise Boredom

1. Change your venue. Bored to tears by your treadmill workout? Take a walk outside instead. Your after work routine has become too routine? Get up earlier. Changing where or when you exercise, even if you're doing the same activity, is a great way to change your outlook.

2. Find fun exercise. Investigate sports and hobbies that enhance your activity level. Backpacking, mountain biking, kayaking, even bowling can all burn calories—but they don't feel like workouts.

3. Act their age. Join the kids for a game of backyard touch football or tag. Capitalize on their infectious energy.

4. Make a date. Treat exercise as social time by pairing up with a friend or your spouse. By committing to someone else, you'll be less likely to skip your workout.

5. Count backwards. Ever notice how your trip back from a great destination seems shorter than your trip there? Apply that principle to exercise by counting reps backwards—from 10 to 1, instead of 1 to 10.

6. Lend a hand. Support causes such as breast cancer, AIDS, or multiple sclerosis by doing fund-raising walks, bike rides, or runs. Beyond the exercise, you'll feel good about what you're doing, as well as fortunate to have a healthy body to do it.

7. Gear up. Add a new twist to your routine with equipment such as a heart rate monitor or pedometer. Tracking your workouts with these types of devices keeps things interesting.One Slip Up Won't Stop Me If you've fallen off the weight loss wagon, stop feeling like a failure; focus on the challenge ahead. The sooner you climb back on, the sooner you'll see the results!

Don't Let Stress Make You Fat

Next time you've had a bad day at work or a fight with your spouse, or are just being pulled in too many directions, try one of these stress busters instead of raiding the fridge:

1. Get out in nature. The gentle swaying of windblown trees or the meandering of a stream can slow body rhythms that have built to a stress-induced peak.

2. Take the slow road. Hopping in the car to run errands may seem practical, but traffic's another stressor. Bike or walk whenever you can. If you must drive, don't jockey for position. Chill out in the right-hand lane.

3. Turn on the stereo. Soothing music has been shown to ease anxiety and lower blood pressure and heart rate, even under superstressful conditions.

4. Get up and dance. Besides being great exercise, it releases endorphins, your body's mood-elevating chemicals that help erase stress.

5. Savor silence. Even a total of 10 to 15 minutes of quiet time per day helps you eliminate the buzz in your brain and experience some serenity.

6. Laugh out loud! Humor can actually inoculate against anxiety: One study found that people who watched an episode of Seinfeld before tackling a stressful task didn't show the spikes in blood pressure and heart rate that their humorless study counterparts did.

There's Always Another Way Accept substitutions: If the late hour won't allow you to work out at the gym, don't give up on exercise that day. Take a walk around the neighborhood, pop in an exercise video, or do lunges around the kitchen as you cook dinner.

My New 'Do

I got my hair done yesterday. As I've posted before I am working on growing my hair out but with my work schedule I don't have a lot of time to "style," so I got it cut into a style that is easy to maintain as well as style on not a lot of time. I also got it colored, so I went from "blah" blonde to a really pretty natural brown color with a reddish hue to it.

Today's Affirmations and "Stuff"

1. My confidence is skyrocketing!
2. I'm shrinking in all the places I want to be shrinking!
3. Water isn't soooo bad.
4. I'm feeling more "girly"!
5. Walking is great for my body!
6. I can hardly wait to see what my body looks like at the end of the 30 day challenge!


I've basically been letting myself go since I was in High School, but I was always trying to get the weight off I just always lost interest and stopped when I didn't see enough of a change fast enough. I was able to maintain a weight of around 163 pounds (give or take a few pounds) for several YEARS (I kid you not), but things really came to a head when I got hurt at work this past December and just was not able to do very many things because of my injury. I sustained a ligamental sprain and tore some ligaments in my left hand (I'm left handed) and was rendered basically usless for over a month. But because I was hurt at work my boss' had to find something for me to do so pretty much I spent a month doing basically nothing in a corner by myself. On a trip to my regular Dr. when they told me to step on the scale I weighed in at a total of 178 pounds. I remember myself saying out loud "That's depressing." It got worse when the nurse took my blood pressure and she proceeded to tell me that it was "just a tad high for someone your age." I pretty much sunk into yet another one of my emotional eating binges and pretty much stayed in that rut until my mom suggested that we add a second dog to our family (our first dog is 19 and pretty much all she did was sleep after we added Laci we pretty much got our dog back) and that I would have to take the dogs for at LEAST a 4 block walk on a daily basis to get them the exercise they need. Now we have Laci, I'm a much happier me and I'm back down to 164 pounds and I'm now in a size 9/10 or 7/8 pair of jeans depending upon brand.

Today's Affirmations and just some random stuff

1. I feel more confident knowing I'm 4 pant sizes smaller.
2. I don't huff and puff near as much when I climb hills while I'm walking my dogs.
3. My bloggie friends are a great support system!

I checked out my blogging buddy Shari's blog this morning and I found this post (please click on the word post to go to the link). I'm just really happy that I have a pretty great support system out there in blogging land to keep me on the straight and narrow....So Thank You all! i'm not really all that comfortable in my transforming body yet and it feels good to now that there are others out there just like me.

Well the other day while I was out doing some clothes shopping (I finally have more than one pair of jeans that fit correctly!) I totally splurged and bought myself another pair of Maurices Sliver brand of jeans. The first pair I bought was $64 and this last pair that I bought were $69 and trust me they are worth every penny! I wore my new pair of Silver's to work last night and I felt much more confident in them nowing they fit in all the right places. I also bought a couple of shirts to add to my collection and can hardly wait for my next set of days off so I can wear them for more than a couple of hours.

On to 30 Day challenge stuff....I'm totally STOKED about the area's that I have already started slimming down in! You really have no idea at all! It's really a serious confidence booster to know that I can "squeeze" myself into a pair of 7/8 jeans and not totally cut off circulation to other parts of my body! This is seriously the smallest I've been inches wise in a VERY LONG time. I'm having hardly any trouble at all getting the inches to come off but I'm having a terrible time getting the weight to come off.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Jamie

Memorial Day a Little bit early

Check out this link, it's pretty cool to see that patriotism isn't completely dead in our education system today.

http://www.greatdanepromilitary.com/Battle%20Hymn/index.htm

10 Lessons Fitness Teaches You About Life

I found this article on fitnesscure.com and I thought that I would share it with everybody!

10 Lessons Fitness Teaches you about LIFE
Posted by Maria Kang on October 23rd, 2006

#1 No Good Pain, No Good Gain

In order to achieve results, you have to put your muscles under uncomfortable circumstances. You have to have the body and mind power to push yourself past the limits of comfort and to a place where you felt it was not possible to achieve. During periods of discomfort, your body will have to adapt to the new stress you are putting upon it.
Your body could react by losing body fat for energy, or gaining muscle for strength. At the same time, your body might negatively react by tearing a ligament, so be sure that you understand the difference between good and bad pain. Similarly, in life, you must also put yourself under circumstances that cause you to become fearful, unstable, and unpredictable.
These circumstances will challenge your mind to gain the survival tools necessary to adapt to this new environment it’s forced to live in. If you want to grow and develop, you have to take risks, and see how your body, your mind and your spirit adapts to the changes you are placing upon it.

#2 If You Want To Change, Something Has To Change

If you want to achieve great things in fitness, then you have to change your habits. Changing your habits is one of the hardest things to overcome because it is the bread and butter of who you are. But in order to create results, you have to identify the habits holding you back from achieving your goals, and change them.
While the hardest thing to do is identify the problem; the second hardest thing to do is create an action plan that prohibits you from repeating the pattern, over and over again. Just like in life, there are things that we want to achieve, such as saving more money, being kinder to others, or being less angry, but in order to change, something has to change.
So find what triggers your bad habits, and then create a different action to change them.

#3 Every Day Is A New Battle

It doesn’t matter how much you lifted yesterday, or if you did cardio everyday last week. It doesn’t even matter if you were Mr. Olympia, or just completed your best exercise set five minutes ago?what are you going to do right now to change your life, to progress you even further, to where you want to be in the future?
Every day we begin our day with specific short term goals, and every night we go to sleep having completed, or not completed that goal. But every day, is a new day, and the cycle continues. In life, we have to constantly remind ourselves that this cycle will not end until the day we die.
We have to constantly struggle to be better than we were yesterday, to test and overcome the limits of our body, mind and spirit is what creates a true champion of life.

#4 Get To The Core Of The Matter

Our body is a mobile, fluid, flexible machine that is held together through balance from the core muscles: your lower back and abdominal regions. In order to gain true strength, you must not avoid the strengthening and conditioning of this stabilization area. Bad posture creates muscle imbalances, which therefore places more stress on the core.
A common example is the lower back region, an area where most people will experience some pain in their lifetime. For many, the lower back is stressed due to increasing weight in the frontal plane; whether it is forward shoulders from continued slouching or belly fat that weighs down the front part of your body adding additional stress on that lower back.
As a result, our core becomes stressed due to this muscle imbalance. In life, most of your behavior and habits can be traced back to your brain and how you mentally perceive a problem or situation.
In order to change things in your life, you must get to the core of the problem: you must figure out why you do the things you do, and where it stemmed from, because if you don’t, it will reoccur again, and again, and again?until you find the reasons behind your behavior.

#5 Nothing Great Comes Without Sacrifice

Let’s face it. Even though becoming a healthier person is obviously a very good endeavor to shoot for, it is definitely a challenge to stay focused, determined, persistent and consistent. There are going to be times when you have to choose between two equally important things and you have to choose fitness.
There are going to be temptations to eat bad, drink, skip workouts, not workout as hard, etc. However, if you want to realize your fitness goal, you have to make these necessary sacrifices. The amount of what you are willing to sacrifice is what will determine how successful you will become. At the same time, while these sacrifices sound harsh, the good part is: is that the more you make fitness a successful habit, the less ‘perceived’ sacrifices you will have to make.
In life, everything comes with a sacrifice. If you want to change your life to get to higher goal, then expect sacrifice to be part of the game plan. Be prepared that the road to your destination will not be easy, and understand that nothing great occurs without sacrifice.

#6 Rejoice In Your Uniqueness

In order to win at this Fitness Game, you have to learn the rules and create your own Game Plan. You have to understand nutrition, exercise, supplementation etc. Now that you understand the time tested rules of what your body can and cannot do, now its time to make the plan work for you.
While workout programs and popular diets in magazines and books or helpful, they may or may not work for you for a variety of reasons. Your body’s ability to respond to these programs will be dependent on your age, ethnicity, sex, metabolism, past injuries, and muscle imbalances. So it’s up to you, to play with the different tools you’ve been given, and shape it to fit who you uniquely are.
Just like in life, while other people can succeed in achieving your similar professional or personal goals by doing a certain thing, it does not guarantee that it will work for you. You have to understand your different options first, then create a unique program, tailored to your strengths and weaknesses, and then follow it.

#7 If There Is A Will, There Is A Way

If you want to live to see your grandchildren, you will do it. If you want to win your first local competition, you will do it. If you want to finish a triathlon best in your class, you will do it. If you want to do anything, you have to find the will, or the reason, why you want to set that goal.
Once you are able to process these emotional reasons why you need to make a change in your life, or achieve that goal, then you found the key that will make you succeed. Finding your will, or identifying the emotional reason why you want to complete something is what separates the winners from the losers.
This emotional will is what will keep you strong when times are tough: when you don’t want to work out, when you want to eat bad, when you want to give up?this emotional will is what will give you the strength to build mental and physical toughness, because this emotional will is the spiritual element that will guide you when there is no light at the end of your tunnel.
One of the hardest things to do is truly identify when you are goal setting, the true reasons why you need to complete that goal: instead of asking yourself why you want to do this, ask yourself why you need to do this. Just like in life, if you are able to find the deep rooted, emotional reasons why completing your personal goal is important to you: then you are going to find every way possible, to achieve the goal you set yourself out to overcome.

#8 Your Number One Competitor Is Yourself

While we all want to be the fittest person in the gym, or the fastest marathon runner or the strongest person in the world, the only real competitor you have, is you. Your genetic capabilities and your environment will determine how far you can go.
These limitations challenge us to use the tools God has presented us with, and challenge ourselves to see how we can change the evolutionary course of our genes. While competition with others brings out the competitive animals in us, we must ask: what if there was no competition? What if it was just you? By focusing on you, you are able to bring out the best in what you have to offer and achieve.
In life, by focusing on your own personal development, every step of the competition, you are able to tackle problems and challenges because you understand yourself. By focusing on you as your prime competitor, you are able to test your personal limits and focus on your gifts as a competitor of not just fitness, but of life.

#9 Keep A Journal

If you want to make sure that you are doing everything correctly to win your fitness goal, you should document your food, your activity, even your emotions, so that you can always retrace when you did your best. This journal is not only handy to research when you ate or exercised the best, it can also help you understand when you did your worst, and why you did your worst.
While we would all like to have awesome memories, the fact is, is that sometimes we forget. Sometimes the habits or actions we create become second nature to us, so much so, that we don’t realize that it has become negative. In life you should also keep a journal.
This journal allows you to not only document your emotions and see how you process them, but also help you reminisce and reflect on the powerful emotions underlying what made you successful, or happy, during different periods in your life. By personal reflection, you find resolution in things you’ve done wrong, and restoration in things you do right.

#10 Create A Successful Environment

Sure it would be wonderful to have all your healthy meals cooked for you, and your home gym fully equipped with the latest and greatest fitness equipment, but only few can afford such luxuries. But in order to achieve success, you have to perceive success; your environment around you should scream success.
Create an environment that spurs your goal: have your food journal everywhere you go, don’t buy bad foods, place your favorite fitness model on your fridge, write encouraging quotes everywhere, hang around healthy people, join a recreational sport, walk up the stairs, park really far etc. Create an environment that helps you become successful.
In life, if you want to achieve anything great, create an environment where you don’t have to fiercely battle every day, because lets face it, it gets tiring to face temptation in the eye every day. Be in the company of people with similar professional, physical and personal goals.
Be in an environment that appears controlled, whether it is keeping a clean house, or fixing your bed every morning; create a mind frame that is positive and optimistic, a mind that can believe it can achieve greatness through hope and faith. Create a successful environment that loves you, so that you can love it and live in it, successfully in return.

I galdarn gone and done it

I've fallen off the wagon yet again! I was good all through my vacation and even for the first couple days after I got home. But yesterday was absolutely TERRIBLE! I gave in to my cravings for fried chicken and Subway. I'm not going to beat myself up too badly about it though. I am on the road to a new me. I can feel it, I'm just having a little trouble believing it cause I'm not physically seeing any changes.

So here are today's affirmations:

1. I believe that I'm on the road to change.
2. I WILL lose weight without dieting.
3. I haven't had a can of caffineated soda since Sunday.
4. I'm not going to give in to my craving's near as easy from now on.
5. I want to have flatter abs.
6. I can finally start visualizing what I'll look like in my size 6 jeans!

I was just thinking....

Where did our society go wrong? When did it become a "quest" to be the skinniest person? When did it become all about size zero's and eating disorders? Why can't we just love ourselves for who we are? Well I know the answer to that last question....Cause the media says that in order to be "cool" you've gotta look undernourished. That's just NOT healthy! I don't feel the need to be a size zero but I do feel the need to lose some weight so that I can live a healthier life.