I gained 5 pounds on Vacation!

Heartbreaking, right? Probably not to you, but definitely for me. I didn’t workout last week while I was on vacation, aside from Monday. I had some health issues that had me really scared and anxious, and I couldn’t focus on anything else, so I laid on the couch and ate too much fast food. I am A-Okay now though!

I am back home, as of yesterday afternoon, and I am going to try my hardest to get back into my workouts! I made chicken and green beans for all of my lunches this week, got more protein snacks and Greek yogurt so I have something healthy when I get hungry. It has been hard to learn how not to stuff my face when I feel even the slightest bit of hunger, and eating all of the fast food I ate last week, It is going to be hard to get back into making healthy choices. I missed fast food, I missed burgers, and fries, and onion rings, etc. I love those foods, and choosing healthy options over those has and will always be hard to do in my life.

I think I pulled a muscle in my leg, so tonight I am going to work my arms and hopefully it gives me that motivation to continue working out this week. I need to find the will power within me to continue this journey, because as of right now, I don’t really want to. I have always been a lazy person, but I don’t want to be that lazy person anymore. If you have an suggestions on finding that motivation, please help a girl out! I usually watch inspirational YouTube videos, but right now not even that is helping.

My vacation was still a lot of fun, and I got to see my boyfriend for the week, who I missed very much. We didn’t really do a whole lot, but I enjoyed just spending time with him and his family. It was also great to get a week off of work! I needed a break before things start to get busy at my job. To end my blog post for today, if you haven’t seen Ready Player One, go do it now! It was a fantastic movie and well worth seeing in theaters!

Do you work out on vacation?

Last week I turned 25, I had high hopes to spend it with my boyfriend who currently lives about four hours away. At the last minute my boss gave me a week off to visit him, so this week I am in Idaho! Woohoo for vacations! I am hoping to look at apartments and jobs with him this week so I can get moved up here and no longer have to be so far away!

As for my workouts… I am little bit lost on what to do. I don’t have dumbbells here, or any workout equipment I can use, so I am going to have to improvise even more! This morning I did 3 sets of 15 squats and my ab workout, but now I am sitting here writing this post trying to think of other leg workouts I can do. I know I can do pushups, sit ups, burpees, and crunches, but I want something that is going to maximize my leg day today!

On Saturday I went to Albertson’s here and got Greek yogurt, and protein snacks so that if I get a little hungry I can have those instead of going and buying something, but to be honest, I’ve already had Del Taco, and Jack in the Box while I have been here, and it was worth it. I know I can’t eat like that all week while everybody else is working and I am sitting around all day so I also might go get some healthy foods that I can cook during the day while I am alone.

I am going to look around and see if there might be a gym that does a free day pass or anywhere that I could go workout that has the equipment that I need, or I might just go buy some dumbbells and work my arms, chest, and back all week. I don’t have anything I can use as a stepper that is low enough i don’t fall over, and high enough that I actually feel like I have worked my legs, and I don’t feel like cans of soup are going to weigh enough for my arm workouts. I also forgot my yoga mat. So this week is going to be trial and error, but I am still going to try. Workout out at home is harder when you are staying in somebody else’s house!

If you have any tips, let me know! I am by no means a professional when it comes to being healthy and exercise, I am still learning and this blog is to help keep me motivated, I would love any and all help during this journey to becoming fit and healthy. My ultimate goal is to lead a healthy lifestyle and be the best me I can be. I will update next week about my progress and what I do this week!

My workout from my bedroom!

Working out at home is really easy, and really hard at the same time! I managed to do all of my workouts this week, but finding the motivation was a little bit harder outside of the gym. I really enjoyed being able to just roll out my yoga mat and workout while watching some American Idol, which is shaping up to be a great season if I say so myself! Here’s what I did each day this week:

Everyday I workout I do Abs, which is 30 second dead bugs, 30 second heel touches, and 30 second bicycle repeated 3 times.

Monday: Nothing, no workout on Monday’s!

Tuesday: Leg day! I started with yoga for 15 minutes, and then did 15 step ups front facing with each leg, 15 step ups sideways with each leg, 15 lunges, and 12 squats, repeated 3 times. I then meditated for 10 minutes.

Wednesday: Arms!  I started with yoga for 15 minutes, and then did 12 triceps kickbacks, 12 overhead triceps extensions, and 6 push ups, repeated 3 times. I also did 12 Bicep curls, 12 hammer curls, and 12 twist curls, repeated 3 times. I used 8 pound dumbbells for all of these exercises. I then meditated for 10 minutes.

Thursday: Chest and Back! I don’t currently have a bench for these, so I use a chair. Hoping to get a bench soon. Once again I started with yoga for 15 minutes, and then went into 12 incline DB bench presses, 12 incline DB fly’s, 12 incline DB close bench presses, repeated 3 times. After those I did 12 flat DB fly’s, 12 flat DB pullovers, and 12 rear delt raises repeated 3 times. I finished with a 10 minute meditation.

Friday: who wants to workout on Friday? Not me! So I didn’t. If I ever do, it is usually just a cardio workout on a bike or treadmill.

Saturday: I started with a 20 minute yoga session, and then did my Ab workout, and did 30 minutes of cardio on a bike.

Sunday: I started with 20 minutes of yoga, and then did 40 minutes on the bike, did my Ab exercises, and meditated for 10 minutes to finish.

That is my weekly workout, Saturdays and Sundays are not always the same, but the rest of the week is. Occasionally on weekends I will go to the gym with my friend and whatever her workout is that day, I do that with her.  She is currently soaking up the sun in another country right now so I am on my own for a week!

I have also been tracking what I eat on my fitness pal and paying close attention to my macros. It is hard trying to keep from going over on my carbs, but I will get there. On Sundays I meal prep 4-5 days for work lunches, so currently I have honey garlic chicken in the crockpot, and I will make some quinoa to go with that. I have oatmeal or cereal for breakfast, but have been trying to have eggs or something with less carbs. As for dinners I just try not to buy food, so anything home made and not deep fried is good for me.

I hope todays blog wasn’t a total bore! I just wanted to put my workouts out there and maybe if anybody needs a workout to do at home they can try some of these! Or if anybody thinks that I need to work on what I am doing, definitely give me suggestions! I really have no idea what I am doing or if any of this is going to really help me get to my goal weight. As I learn I will definitely makes changes to my workouts and my food choices. If you read all of this, thanks for being a trooper and I hope you have a great week!

 

Blog Goals

Hey there! I want this first blog post to be an introduction to what I am doing here. My name is Rachel, I am in my mid twenties and reside in Utah. I have been overweight since I was about 8 years old. I was not raised to eat healthy, I was not raised to watch my figure, I didn’t know what carbs and calories were. My parents would sit me in front of the Television with a bag of potato chips and Dr. Pepper. I would sneak snacks to my room in the middle of the night, and ate a whole lot of fast food. This resulted in a lot of weight gain, and a lot of bullying in school. However, I wasn’t one of those kids that let those bullies get to me. I had my close group of friends and we called ourselves the hippos. We didn’t care, we thought we were hot stuff back then.

Well here I am now, 24 and according to the BMI I am obese. I don’t actually consider myself obese, but I am definitely overweight. I love who I am, I am body positive and think all women should love themselves, but I need to lose weight. 24 years of eating foods that are not good for the body and very little physical activity, has led me to (at most) weigh 240 lbs. I am tired, I am weak, I am anxious 24/7. I need change.

So this year I really got into eating healthy and exercising. I started out meal prepping for work, making better food choices, and going to the gym 5 days a week. I got protein, and pre-workout, multivitamins, and fish oil pills. I went all in. And then after a few weeks I started to slack, I was buying more fast food, I didn’t want to go to the gym, I was going back to those bad habits I had developed. It was easier to grab McDonald’s than to cook chicken. Thankfully I have a friend who has helped hold me accountable. When I start losing my motivation she tells me to pick myself back up and keep pushing on.

I am now 3 months into eating healthier, exercising, and over all making better life choices. At my last weigh in 3/17/18 i weighed 228 lbs. I’m down 12 pounds in 3 months! I have now started working out from my bedroom. I have a yoga mat and some dumbbells, and it turns out some of the furniture I have really comes in handy too. I recently used my ottoman to work my legs! It’s definitely a little harder to hold myself accountable at home, when I can just lay in bed and watch shows on Hulu and eat chocolate, but I am still going strong.

This finally brings me to the point of my blog! I am starting this blog for me, myself and I, to keep me motivated, to give me reason to continue making positive life changes. If I have to write about my at home workouts, then I have to actually do them! Crazy, I know! It’s snowing outside, and I am writing this from the comfort of my warm bed, sipping on my hot cup of coffee, and just generally excited about the direction my life is headed in. Thank you for joining me!