Tips for Staying Healthy On Vacation & While Dining Out!

Why do vacations and trips always scare us to death when we think about staying on track for our lifestyle? Because it's a completely different atmosphere! You're on a different schedule, different foods are around you, and not to mention you're off your gym plan too!

But don't worry, follow these tips and the vacation will do as little damage to your progress as possible :) If you want to view my YouTube video on some tips, click here!

1. Portion sizes: You know I'm all about moderation not deprivation, but make sure it's MODERATION. You don't need the whole pizza, but maybe a slice or two are fine! Don't feel like you HAVE to finish your plate when you go out to eat at restaurants. Doggy bags are you friends and leftovers are sooooo tasty the next day. Ways you can watch your portion sizes are
1. Share your plate with a friend
2. Ask the waiter to split your dish in half! Serve you one half now, and save half in a to go box!
3. Don't order with your eyes! Sometimes our eyes are bigger than our stomachs, so try and order a smaller dish. If afterwards, you're still hungry, then you can always order another side.
2. Save on the calories: there are soooo many sneaky calories in dishes when you eat out! Try and lessen the calorie overload by:

1. Getting sauces on the side
2. Get grilled, baked, steamed dishes instead of fried, buttered, or creamy
3. Don't fill up on the table munchies (biscuits, breads, nuts, etc)
3. Allocate!  I'm always allocating my proteins, fats, and carbs!
1. Have open faced sandwiches or burgers! You don't need both buns for the taste! So just take one out and eat it open style!
2. If you're having a carby meal at night, lessen the carbs throughout the day! If you're having a fatty meal later, lessen the fats throughout the day
4. "I regret wasting calories on things that didn't taste as good as I hoped"

1. Don't waste your calories! If you don't like the food, don't eat it!
2. If you're at a buffet, look at everything before piling it all on your plate! Pick out the things you know you'll like instead of just filling yourself up with food you'll just regret later
5. Be annoying to the waiter! Ask how dishes are prepared, ask for no seasoning, ask for additional lemon, for steamed instead of fried, sauce on the side, etc etc. This is your life, who cares if one person gets annoyed!
6. KEEP ACTIVE 
1. Have a buffer for those additional calories! Add in activities like swimming, walking everywhere, going to amusement parks, etc. Keep active so that you don't have the DOUBLE negative of eating too much AND not working out! Add in some exercise/be active to help lessen the impact the additional food will have
7. Alcohol: Always aim for the less calorically dense choices. Don't go with the mixes with soda or juice because that's a lot of unnecessary sugars! Try vodka and water, vodka diet sodas, vodka sugar free redbull, or lightened up versions of your favorite drinks! Ask for mojitos with less sugar!

AND IT'S VACATION! Don't forget to enjoy yourself. Don't revolve your days around food or stressing about it all. If you're having a great time, food shouldn't be the center of attention! Spending time with your friends, family, loved ones SHOULD be! So have fun, relax, make smart choices, and you'll do great!

Erin Condren Planner Review and $10 OFF + Fit Summer CRUISE?!

Want to possibly join me and a bunch of other Fitness/Healthy lifestyle lovers this summer for a Fitness #HealthyBodyHealthyMind cruise?! Be sure to watch my YouTube Video where I talk about it! :D

Also in this video, I give a review of the Erin Condren Quick Ship Planner ($50) and the Happy New You Bundle Clutch (on sale from $33.20 down to $25!)!
I've been looking for a new planner for a longggg while because my life was pretty unorganized :P I had a separate planner for school/homework/planning and a separate journal for my Vmfitness Fitness updates/progress/etc. However, I would always leave my Fit Journal in my gym bag and never have it on me to update! But NOW, I have everything I need in one Planner! And I LOVE IT!
You can watch the video above to see my breakdown and review of the book, or you can keep on reading below!

Happy New You Bundle Clutch 

(on sale from $33.20 down to $25!)

This bundle comes with sooo many goodies! 

1. Monthly Budget Book
2. Wellness Journal
3. Snap-In Meal Planner
4. Snap-In To-Do List
5. set of Elastic Bands
6. Perpetual Calendar
7. Pen Holder

My favorite item from it would have to be the Wellness Journal, especially for this fitness/health lifestyle! If you can see in the picture below, it separates your days by meals! So you can put in what you ate that day from Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snacks, and there is also a section where you can write your goals, what activity/workout you did that day, and any other notes! In the beginning of this Wellness Journal there is also a progress update page that lets you write in your measurements for quarterly results, which I think is AWESOME.

 

And what's great about these little thin notebooks is that I can place it in the BACK of my Erin Condren Planner in the "Keep It Together" pouch, and that way keep everything together so I don't have to go scrambling for different books or journals or forget one at home and not be able to update it! Super handy to have! I also love the dry erase boards they include for "Oh! What to Eat" and "Oh! What to Buy" because since they're snap in, I can just snap them into the current week, plan my weekly meals and my grocery list/shopping list and I'm set! To see more about the Budget Book and the Perpetual Calendar, watch the YouTube video to get a glimpse of what's inside!

Quick Ship Planner ($50) 

Now we'll take a quick look at the Quick Ship Planner!

The Quick Ship is an option if you do not want a customized cover (although who wouldn't want one, with your own name on it and everything?! I actually went back on the site and ordered one that should be coming within the next few weeks! YAY! Love personalized things!)

How the Quick Ship comes: Shows the year view in months, then shows the full month so you can plan it out right in the beginning, and then the following pages are the weeks laid out. Each day is separated by Morning, Day, and Night, making planning and organizing appointments or your schedule a lot cleaner! At the bottom you have space to write whatever you wish, like meal plans, thoughts, To Do lists, etc! And on the left you have a whole section to write your goals for the week. I'm not sure if you're the same, but I always feel like writing things down sets it in STONE and makes it more legit and I'm more likely to actually complete the task if I write it down! A goal in your mind isn't as strong, but when I can SEE IT physically, it's just another motivational PUSH to succeed!

Near the end there are also additional lined pages for notes, and then empty pages for random doodles! I think I'm most excited to use these stickers that are included at the end of the Planner! Basically they're reminder stickers like "Birthdays, Doct Appt, Mani/Pedi" etc, and also there are 2 blank sheets of stickers included, so that YOU can write what you want on them! For example, you could make stickers that are for Bills or Paydays, or Laundry day, Meal prep day, workout, ETC! The stickers are also pretty easy to take off the paper as well, so if you want to reuse them for the next month, it's not too hard to just move the stickers around and save some mulahhhh $$.

I am SO SO excited to get to writing in my planner and just fill it with my crazy life and schedule :) I love cute organizational things like this because I feel like it PUSHES me to be more organized and scheduled! I'll probably upload a YouTube video later on the planner actually filled out and how I'm utilizing it for School, Life, Fitness, ETC!

If you want to get your own Erin Condren goodies to keep YOUR lifestyle organized, click the link below to get started AND to get $10 off your first order!
Be sure to check your email for the coupon once you've signed up!
https://www.erincondren.com/referral/invite/josiemai0120

Update on My Life: No more IIFYM, Hello Intuitive Eating

I know I haven't done a "What's Happening In My Life" long wordy post in a while... so I guess I'll do one now and update you all on what I've been doing these past few months!

A Closer Look at IIFYM - If It Fits Your Macros

Shedding Light on IIFYM 

If you haven't yet - read here about how I stopped my binging for good with the IIFYM lifestyle.

IIFYM Update and Transformation & Spinach Love

So I posted this a few days ago on Instagram, [remember if you want up to date posts, follow me on Instagram, twitter, or tumblr!] about how exactly I stopped my binging, and how I'm feeling now!

I'm so happy. I never thought I'd get to this point. If you followed me for a while, you KNOW how many setbacks and failures I had! (Never hid anything bout that, I was the setback QUEEN!) I thought I'd spend the rest of my life binging. Buying a pack of rice cakes, cottage cheese, peanut butter, and polishing it all off in 1 night. I thought I would never stop feeling disgusted about myself, only to continue binging from the days start to days end. I thought that I'd never be able to stop going to buffets and devouring all the food in sight, getting plates on plates, past the point of being stuffed. I never thought I'd be able to be NORMAL, eat normally, not always have food on my mind, thinking of what I could devour next. I was so angry at myself for letting it get so far, only to continue with the binges thinking "eh what's the point? I already messed up anyway!" NO.  I'm SOOO happy now, I've found a new mindset, I have a new relationship with food. Food doesn't control me. I no longer even have the URGE to binge! And haven't in SO LONG! It's an amazing amazing amazing feeling. I'm still eating majority healthy, but not freaking out about treats! A lot of you asked me how I got through. And here's EXACTLY what I did. Not saying it may work for you, but just sharing.

"My last cheat I SWEAR" Approach: How I Stopped Binging

How many times have you used THAT line huh?

From Layne Norton's Instagram

"Oh snap, I'm getting SERIOUS tomorrow... sooooo I might as well eat all the bad stuff I can now because I won't have any for a while..."

The next day comes around. You do fine for a few days... or one.... and then you mess up a tinyyy tiny bit... and that sets you off. You eat one cookie, which turns to 2, and then before you know it you've eaten the whole box!

"Ah crud.... messed up... OK starting fresh TOMORROW.... but since I already messed up, I should finish off that peanut butter too, and then tomorrow I'll start fresh..."

And repeat.

Sound familiar to you?

Cutting/Leaning/Fat Loss OH MY! And Kickstarting My Healthy Lifestyle Journey.... Again

So a lot of you have asked me about:

Cutting / Leaning Out Stage

However, I feel these terms are more for bodybuilders or competitors. They usually follow bulks or off season with on season leaning out to get to very low body fat percentages for competitions! And they are veryyy strict with their diets and workout, which in my experience, when I did this, didn't turn out so well for me because I rebounded back to the beginning of my journey - same [if not more] weight, measurements, and body fat.

So instead I like to call it the

Fat Loss Stage

aka. the 

Healthy Lifestyle

I say the Healthy Lifestyle, because basically if you're living the healthy lifestyle:

Eating right, keeping consistent workouts, and being body, mind, and health conscious, 

you should be losing fat because you're not stuffing it with the usual processed nasty fatty foods!

Junk Food Confessions & The Maintainable Lifestyle Rules

So I uploaded a new YouTube video HERE on my Junk Food Confessions, based off of Jenna Marbles video HERE!
Hope to make you all feel a little less guilty about your slip ups! <3
And at the end I kinda babble about the lifestyle and binging.

Soooo here's just a short little list of things I'm incorporating into MY own lifestyle to make it comfortable and maintainable!

• workout at least 4x a week
• have a treat when needed, but savor the taste and never have more than you need
• make sure your workout makes up for the treat
• broaden social activities to keep busy
• more family and friends time
• eat clean 80-90% of the time
• NO restricting [no no carbs, no fats, no protein, etc]
• no starvation
• eat when you're hungry, don't when you're not
• make sure to learn "head hunger" from "stomach hunger" - are you just bored or actually hungry?
• tips: drink water - then see if you're hungry
• get yourself busy with an activity
• if you're actually hungry, then eat!
• compliment yourself at least 1x/day and love yourself
• eat nutrient dense food over empty calories
• ex: if you're eating a treat, instead of a pure bar of sugar, eat something with whole nuts in it for some dietary fats and protein
• ENJOY THE LIFESTYLE

Make A Come Back!

Have you been slacking on your healthy lifestyle change?? 

Well GET BACK TO IT!!  

Do these simple effective steps!! 

• CHUG WATER LIKE NO TOMORROW! 1-2 gallons a day! Get rid of that extra water weight and flush out the toxins from your bod!  
• START AT YOUR NEXT MEAL! STOP PUTTING IT OFF! The more you do, the easier it'll be to keep putting it off!! Suck it up buttercup and start NOW.  
• Get back to your regular exercise routine! Lift weights, do some cardio! ANYTHING that gets that heart rate up and gets you to sweatin!  
• Eat healthy and don't restrict! Lots of people do this, end up feeling deprived, and then go crazy and get back to where they started. DON'T DO IT! Just eat HEALTHY! Baby steps! Cut things out gradually instead of cold turkey if you have to! Don't restrict like no carbs Or no fats. Eat a well balanced whole natural food diet!  
• Set achievable goals to strive for! Don't set yourself up for failure by aiming for "I'm gonna lose 10 pounds this week!" NO! If you set unrealistic goals, and then don't achieve them, you'll just be discouraged! So set goals like "no cheats this week!" Or "limit to 1 soda a week" or "lose 3 pounds by the end of this month!" All realistic!  
• Now that you have your goals, make a PLAN and strategy for how you'll achieve them!!! And then put the plan in action! Get to work!!  
• Lastly, don't be hard on yourself for your slip and setback!! It's the worst when you beat yourself up and feel guilty! Accept it, learn from it, move on, and know how to prevent it from happening again in the future!! Follow all these steps and you're on your way to your healthiest fit year ever!

Bounce Back from the Binge

Hey beautiful people! Sorry for my lack of updates! Been SUPER DUPER busy with school and comp prep and life in general! But I thought I'd update withhh another binge post.

Since my STOP THE BINGE post was so popular with you all, I decided to write this post on:

BOUNCING BACK FROM THE BINGE

Many of you have come to me either through e-mail or on instagram saying around the same thing:

Josie, I had a horrible binge, what do I do?

or

I had a horrible binge, and I can't seem to stop! I've done it ___ times this week! Help!

and so many other variations of the above.

YOU ARE NOT ALONE! 

Many of us have been through the same thing! I know that for me and others, it really WAS a binge eating disorder, but for some others it could just be a food control problem, which also needs to be fixed ASAP!

Here's what I USED TO DO after I had binged, that never EVER worked because they set me up for failure and just primed me to binge again, so DON'T DO THESE:

• Fasted the next day/ skipped meals to make up for all the food you had the day(s) prior
• Went VERY strict on clean eating
• Worked out for hours to combat the extra calories
• Felt Guilty & Beat myself up about it

And you know what happened after I did all that?

BINGED AGAIN.

Why? Because I was freaking restricting my body!

So, what CAN I do to set myself up for SUCCESS? And to NOT binge more in the future??

Here are a few things that I've found work in helping me stay in control after a binge:

• Go back to healthy clean eating the next day [no restrictions, no counting calories, just start the day new, fresh, and healthy!]
• Drink water like a fish! Water naturally purifies your body, so get all those toxins out!
• Drink some kombucha or probiotic drinks to reset your pH levels, or some dandelion tea to help out that liver of yours detox
• Exercise! But don't go CRAZY! Do some weights mixed with cardio to flush out the negatives and give yourself some happy endorphins! 
• DON'T RESTRICT - make healthier alternatives, find clean eating substitutions, don't cut out whole food groups
• MODERATION, NOT DEPRIVATION 
• CHANGE YOUR MINDSET

It's a LIFESTYLE change people! You think you can live your whole life without carbs or without fats or on low calories of around 600 a day? NO. Your body will end up KILLING itself, craving ALL this craziness that you've been depriving it of, your mind will go crazy and then you'll just KEEP REPEATING THE CYCLE OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

The main thing I learned was to NOT cut out foods completely. If you have a craving, try and resist. If you seriously can't, then have a taste! But DON'T have the whole box!

Don't say:

I CAN'T EAT THIS

because your mind will be like 

"OH SNAP, then maybe I should eat it all before I start over tomorrow!"

Instead, Say:

"I CAN have it, I just choose NOT to because it's not good for my body, it won't help me reach my goals, and I CHOOSE to not have it!"

BOOM.
Change your ways of thinking, and you can change a LOT of your actions!

BOUNCE BACK and STOP THE BINGE! 

I'll be filming a video soon for my YOUTUBE channel on more tips to Control Cravings/ Stop Binging/Mindless Snacking! So STAY TUNED!

Holiday Tips & thinkThin Bars

Hello wonderful fit fam!!  
Decided to share with you some Holiday Tips to stay on track this season!
But first, another review!!

 
The other day I got the chance to try out a sample pack from the company:

thinkThin® High Protein Bars 

 

Here's what they have to say about their company:

12 varied and delicious flavors make up the core offering of the thinkThin® line of protein bars and a pantry staple item in households across the country.

With 0g sugar and 20g protein, this mighty delicious food provides a burst of clean energy, a moment of relaxation, and satisfaction for those in need of taste and sustenance. It is also friendly for those monitoring their sugar intake.

This bar is the #1 ranked natural weight management bar (SPINSscan research). Our thinkThin®High protein bars can be enjoyed in the morning with coffee or tea, before exercise or for a delicious burst of energy any time throughout the day.

Sounds pretty awesome right??
These bars are:

• packed with protein
• sugar free
• gluten free
• dairy free
• vegan
• kosher  

Chocolate Covered Strawberries: Right when I tore open the packaging, I could smell the strawberries and chocolate! Seriously, it was like BAM! Right back to the days when I used to make chocolate covered strawberries for bake sales or class mates! However, even though there are no real chunks of strawberries in the bar, it still tasted very much like it! And the chocolate flavor is pretty legit too! After a while though the chocolate gets a bit too sweet for my taste personally, so I think next time I'd eat half the bar, and save the other half for another time!

Brownie Crunch: WOW. Took a bite into it and it tasted SOO good, thick and fudgy brownie bar! Great chocolate flavor, not too intense in sweetness! And it wasn't too hard to bite into either :]


Chunky Peanut Butter: You all know my obsession with peanut butter, so I may have set my hopes too high! It does have a peanut butter taste, but it's kind of mild, not really strong, or I guess not strong enough for my liking! I loveee my peanut buttery goodness! Also it was described as "chunky" so I was expecting nuts of some kind, however it didn't. It was crunchy from the soy crisps, so I guess that's where the "chunky" part comes in!
 
Creamy Peanut Butter : This is almost exactly the same flavor as above, but the texture is different! Again, the peanut butter taste wasn't very strong for me, or as legit as peanut butter should be. But this bar did not have the same crunch or grainy texture because it didn't have soy crisp like the Crunchy bar does. 

Cookies & Cream: On the outside of the bar, there's a nice sweet, light and creamy flavor! On the inside there's a nice thick and chewy chocolate almost brownie like texture. There's also soy crisp chunks which makes the texture kinda grainy and crunchy!

White Chocolate: The outer layer of this bar is a nice, sweet and light white chocolate. The middle is chocolatey goodness and there's actually cocoa or chocolate pieces! The flavor was light and mild, definitely not too sweet which was good!

Dark Chocolate: This bar was a bit thicker and harder than the rest. Not sure if it was supposed to be? And this was good because it was not  too bitter, like some dark chocolates tend to be!

Chocolate Espresso: This one tasted just like a coffee bean! There were also like, espresso coffee bean-like chunks on the inside! I'm not much of a coffee person [don't have to have it, but don't hate it either!] so this was an ok flavor for me. Kind of bitter, like espresso tastes!

Chocolate Fudge: This bar was softer than the others, which I really liked! It tasted like a pure chocolate candy bar. It wasn't too sweet or too bitter. Just perfect! I think it was one of my favorites!

Caramel Fudge: This was like the chocolate fudge one, where it was also softer than the other bars! It had a strong caramel flavor and smell and was pleasantly sweet. It was not overbearing at all. The outside layer was made of chocolate and the inside tasted so nice and caramely, another favorite!

Overall review:
I did like the bars! Some to me were a little too sweet though. What?! How can too sweet be a bad thing?!! Well when you've had a fewww... :P.. bars in one night, the sweetness gets to you! 
Now they aren't 100% clean because there is maltitol in it and soy, which through my research some say isn't a clean ingredient. BUTTT I will say that these are DEFINITELY a great alternative to it's unhealthy counterpart! 
Just saying, you'd want to eat thinkThin's caramel fudge bars over an actual caramel fudge! And these at least have a great amount of protein!
I think the best time to chow on these would be the morning or right after a workout, and get all that FANTASTIC protein straight to your gorgeous muscles, or to fuel you for the rest of the day! 

Thank you so much thinkThin for letting me try your line of protein bars! I thoroughly enjoyed them! 
Visit their online store to pick up some thinkThin products!

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It's the Holiday Season! I hope everyone has spectacular plans!!!!
Christmas time, the New Year, what a crazy, busy festive time of the year!

This means it is usually the time for all loved ones to come together, celebrate what the holidays are truly about, and also feast out on spectacular food. I know I bet you're like OH NOOOOOO! How can I resist my Great Aunt Maggie's cakes and goodies and pies?!?!

NOTE, it's a lifestyle, so you CAN have everything you want, just remember that one word:
MODERATION.

Take one cookie, or one piece of pie.
Don't be like me on Thanksgiving where I ended up eating half a Costco Pumpkin pie by myself over the span of 3 days...
I could have done it in 1, just didn't want to overdo it... :O

Here are some tips that will hopefully keep you in check during the Holidays!

Keep up with your food and fitness journal!
Check out a little more about these journals here. Try and keep up with it! I know I sometimes end up just writing everything in a hurry at the end of the night before bed, and because of this I may sometimes end up missing some things I ate throughout the day, or important feelings I didn't jot down right at the time I was feeling them! So try and stay on top of it!
Also write down your goals for yourself, whether it's to lose weight, be slimmer, fit clothes better, etc! And when you're faced with allll that temptation, KEEP IN MIND THOSE GOALS! Will they be sabotaged? If so, DON'T DO IT!

Fill Up On the Good Stuff! And eat Slowwllyyyy
If you're at a family get together, fill up on the healthy shtuff so you're full before the massive dessert table! That means greens, veggies, fruits, lean proteins, YUM. Also, try and eat slowly! Savor each bite! This way, people will already be on their 3rds and you'll [hopefully] still be on your first place! Not only does it help to say no when others prod you to get more food, but it also helps digestion because you're really breaking down all that food before it even hits your stomach!

Don't Tempt Yourself, Get Distractions!
If you don't want to tempt yourself, DON'T LOOK AT IT! Try and keep yourself occupied on your current food in front of you, or play with the little ones to distract yourself! Enjoy the "party" aspect of the season! Get social, talk to your family members, have a good time! Enjoy people's company! It's not ALWAYS about the food!

Make it Yourself!
Tell your family that you want to make a dish for the holiday feast-ivities! And when you do, look up a healthy recipe of a favorite guilty food of yours! I'm pretty sure everything unhealthy has a clean eating recipe somewhere online!

Portions
Maybe you'll let yourself indulge a little bit, that's fine! But again, MODERATION. You can try a little bit of everything, but keep the portion sizes reasonable!

Stay Hydrated
Sometimes we confuse hunger for thirst! So if you're at the dinner table, just had 5 plates and are about to grab that 6th, down a water bottle or half a liter of water! It'll fill ya right on up!

Don't Be Too Restrictive!
I always say this because I've learned from my past mistakes: If I'm too restrictive on myself, that "diet" mindset will soon backfire and send me spiraling out of control and I'll eat allll the naughty things in sight! So let loose a LITTLE bit. Realize how I said little! Don't go crayyyyzy on me now!

Mindless Snacking
Don't do this! Eat your food, and then set a point to stop! Don't keep going back to that food table to grab munchies after munchies. 

It's a holiDAY
If you do plan to indulge, try and keep your loose eating around the actual holiDAY!  Don't lengthen it out into a whole month or into the new year! End if right then and there once you're done with your treat meal! Then, MOVE ON.

Be Active
I know after you're stuffed full, all you want to do is snuggle on that couch with a warm fuzzy blanket and chill in your jammies all night watching reruns of Elf on FX.  Don't do it! Take a nice post-meal walk with your family! Or play with the little ones while they're on their sugar highs! Get moving a little! The little things do help!

Although these tips areeee pretty obvious, I hope they have helped a little bit!
Stay on top of it at the end of this year, and slide into the New Year an awesome, stronger, and better YOU!

Day 1: Operation Sexy Fat Flush

DAY 1 of Operation Sexy!
Or OS for short.
Remember if you're joining me on the ride on instagram, tag your photos with #OperationS so we can all check each other's progress!

Here are my Day 1 morning measurements:

Weight: 109 lb

Body fat: 21 %

Chest: 28.5

Bust: 30

Waist: 26.5

Upper arm: 9.25 unflexed; 10.5 flexed

Forearm: 8.75

Midway: 32

Hips: 33.5

Butt: 34.25

Thighs: 21

Knee:14.5

Calf: 13.5

A very handy guide to how and where to measure so that you get it accurate every time! And use this so that you know where to measure next time in case you forget!

And the next time I will step on the scale or measure my body will be Sunday, November 8!

Have to get in the game! Throw away ANY temptations you may have in the house! Or if you can't do that, just shove them into a dark corner somewhere where you won't be able to see them every day! Don't make it harder for yourself to stay on track!
Also, I have my written out workouts and my meal plan according to the "Fat Flush Plan" book stuck on my fridge so it'll always be there to remind me to eat clean.


Here are my eats through pictures:

Mixture of Cranberry juice and water with psyllium husk to get everything going smooothly ;) 

Scrambled eggies with spinach! I need to go grocery shopping

Grapefruit snack!

Lunch: tilapia with onions and bok choy

snacking on natural unsweetened applesauce

dinner: chicken breast baked with onions tomatoes and side of broccoli!

Workout:

Did a circuit that I made! But I had to stop my workout short because I legit felt like VOMITING! No more fasted workouts for me! Nooooo sir.

So there's my day! 

And now I'm thinking from now on I won't just do all pictures, it might be limited to just texts of what I ate that day because I don't want to take too long updating these for you guys!

<3

#operationsexy

Operation SXY & My Journey through Photos

HELLOOOOO Fitfam.
How are you all doing?
Recovering from Thanksgiving food-coma hangovers? Thought so :P
WELLL Just wanted to share what's been going on with me, and my plans for the future!
FIRST, I'll show you the progress and lack of progress I've made 

MY PHOTO FITNESS JOURNEY  

Sorry the pictures dates are kind of all over the place! Bare with me!

At this point in September, I was happy with my body! That's my goal to get back to!
From April 2012 --> September 2012

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My progress through May 2012 on the Fat Flush Diet Plan. 

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At my worst this past Summer 2012 - I had this sickening thought in my mind that my legs just weren't skinny enough so I kept working hard hard hard and keeping a very dangerous calorie deficit. You can see my ribs, and my chest bones were a lot more prominent in real life than in this picture. My arms were frail and weak and I was cold allll the time.
This was around the time where my fitness diaries read things like, "I feel so weak... I couldn't get up the stairs". My mom and dad told me I needed to start eating more and not be so strict on myself, I should have listened! I was killing my poor body. They even said they noticed times where my breathing was shallow and weak, and I didn't even notice that myself! 

*Update: Thanksgiving weekend: My parents say I look better now - obviously more meat than I had in the summer! They said I look "chubbier" haha, but not in the mean way, but more in a better "you have life in you" way. 
They said I also look more attractive now because my face is not the hollowed out cheekbones it used to be anymore. Make sure to listen to those around you! Especially the ones who are only looking out for your well-being. Sometimes they know best!
Don't try to aim for emaciated my #fitfam - you look BETTER with meat and muscle than just skin hanging off bones and your face :/

Me with more muscle and meat, wearing the same shorts as above - October 13, 2012

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The pics of me in the white were taken August 4th, 2012 as my "after summer/ before lifting weights" photos: SKINNY FAT!

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 These were taken the same day as my progress for the first picture I posted:
September 8, 2012 - One month after lifting weights
LIFT WEIGHTS LADIES!
This is the point that I'm trying to get back to :)

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April 2012 --> Start of October, 2012

April 2012 --> October 18, 2012

Summer 2010 --> November 16, 2012

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 On the left, me, nonflexed, as of November 18, 2012 - compared to the right during Summer 2011

 

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And these pics were taken post Thanksgiving Feast-ivities: No flexing: November 22

I'm actually really embarrassed to show where I am currently...
It sucks to see that I've basically gotten back to where I was at the beginning of my journey in May!
Seeing the pictures go from skinny fat, to lean, to fit, to some fat gain, to back to the start. 

But you know what? Now I know my body a little better after these 7 months of changing my lifestyle, so hopefully results will come a bit faster this time around by knowing the proper foods to eat, NOT starving myself, and working out correctly, with ENOUGH rest days incorporated to prevent any burnouts!

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So now: Operation Sexy is a go!

If you read my Instagram posts from a few days ago then you know a little about this "Operation Sexy" :)

If not, here's my post about it!

I was so glad a lot of you found you could relate to this!

I finally buckled down and realized this ^^  after reading about Christina's own slip-ups. Visit her Instagram account, she's SO motivational, and one of my good IG friends!!! I've been following her since the start of my IG, and I loved that we could relate because she was also a hard working college IG girl who lived in anonymousville like me back in the day! And has been super supportive of me the whole way!

So back to the point of my posts the other day:

I realized that I'm only cheating myself of ultimately attaining by dream goal body! And that's just not fair and makes me feel horrible.

If I had been committed since I came to school, how different would my body be now?

If I had kept it to one cheat a week (instead of the.... uhm.. many cheats a week) would I be happier with myself, my body, my will power and strength? Of course! 

So why did I slide back so far? Why did I let myself slip and take 10 paces backwards? Only to regret it all?

Well my fit friends, that's the process of life. 

It's never perfect, never as planned. You will have slip-ups, you will have downfalls. But what matters MOST is what you do with those set backs, how you react and respond. 

As I said in those posts above, you can always say "Oh I'll start tomorrow, so let me finish eating crap today" only to repeat it over and over, week after week, month after month. I know I have! And do I feel good about it? Heck no!

It's time to STOP. Time to train my taste buds to relax and chillll out for a bit! 

They say after 2 weeks, you can train your taste buds to like or dislike something! 

Interesting tidbit huh? 

And they say the longer you go without sweets, the more you don't crave them. 

It's actually so true! I remember my 2nd semester of freshman year, I totally gave up sweets! And after a while, I stopped craving them!

Well here I go. I'm starting new, starting all over. Determined to beat my weak willpower and replace it with a tougher, stronger, and better one.

And it turns out I won't be going on that big vacay after finals like I mentioned in my instagram posts above, but I'll still be heading off somewhere sunny! So time to pop out these bathing suits and get back in gear and in better shape!

It's very obvious that I have gained fat in the after pictures I posted above, so now it's time to start leaning out!
Eh, I definitely haven't built up a ton of muscle in 3 months, more has been fat due to my cheats and treats here and there, whoops! But I do want to see if leaning off some of this fat will bring out some of the baby muscle that I havee built up!

Now I'm no competitor, nutritionist, or personal trainer, so I have no clue how this process works. It's just trial and error. Trying to get as much info I can from google, bodybuilding.com, etc.

And if I'm doing this process wrong, WHO CARES?! I have the rest of my life to try and perfect it.

OPERATION SEXY

I'll be keeping my workout split the same as I had posted earlier, just with a little more cardio!

Workouts:

Monday - Abs & 30 min Cardio

Tuesday - Back and Bis followed by 20 mins cardio

Wednesday - Quads and Calves & HIIT

Thursday - Shoulders followed by 20 mins cardio 

Friday - Chest Tris & HIIT

Saturday - Glutes Hammies and Calves

Sunday - REST

And of course my Eating Rules have to get more strict!

I'm going to actually go back to the Fat Flush Plan book like I did when I first started my lifestyle change in May. Hopefully this will get rid of a lot of the water weight and some fat that I've accumulated over these past few weeks!

My food will be clean and fun, with a combo of healthy fats, protein, and carbs!

Although I don't count calories, I'll just try and keep them around 1500-1800 calories! Will be guesstimating my meals by eyeing them!

Also, I was texting the lovely Meg over at MegaMeows about the usual the other day: life, health, fitness, FOOD, and she mentioned that she's starting to just eat when she's actually HUNGRY!

I think this is a great idea.

I'm currently still trying to control my binges and cravings (I will do another post on this because I know a LOT of you are also struggling with this), and I think just eating when I'm hungry, instead of shoving food down every 2 hours, will give me a better relationship with what I eat, actually enjoying every bite that goes into my mouth.

RULES: 

NO processed foods

No sugars/artificial sweeteners
Try and go gluten free (thyroid issues)

No junk 

All natural foods
Aim for at MOST 1 cheat/week
[no cheats for first 2 weeks]
Drink at least 1 gallon of water a day

I'm going to continue to be lifting weights, add more cardio, combined with a more strict diet, BUT NOT too strict where I feel deprived! Hopefully this will lead to a more shredded, ripped, lean version of vmfitness :P

So that's my plan Stan! It may not be the most perfect plan, but hey it's all trial and error, again, like I said before, I have the rest of my life to figure out the perfect plan and combination of fitness, health, and nutrition for my goals and needs. 

Maybe I won't be able to get the dream body I want for my vacation by mid December, BUTTT I know that if  I stick with this till then, and through the New Year! I'd be so proud of myself!
New Year, new goals, new ME. 

Also, I think if I stuck this out, it'd be a fantastic birthday present TO MYSELF! January 2nd baby!! Like, "Hey GREAT JOB. Happy birthday, here's your goal body that you've worked SO hard for!" <3 

I'll try to update my Instagram more often with my meals and workouts for you guys so that you can see what I'm doing to change my body! 


When I started my lifestyle change in May, it took me around 2 months (around July) to truly like the way my body looked! Before I got emaciated-looking, and when I was leaner than I am now.

This is my new IPhone Background:

The top quote was posted by Christina on her instagram and I loved it! It's so true! It's all about that consistency and staying FOCUSED. That's how I was before I left school, and that's when I saw the most results! So I'll basically be trying to get the motivation I had in the summertime back, but I'll be doing it RIGHT this time around! No starvation, no low calories, no not lifting weights!

This time around I'm so excited to see the results that comes with this new dedication and motivation! 

If I can stick with it for just 2 months, heck, stick with this for just ONE month, then I'll have won. I'll have defeated my "current bad eating habits and ways" self.

Looking forward to the future to get a better version of the body of my past to beat the cheating/unmotivated mindset of the now.

Wish me luck.
#OperationS = ON



Disclaimer: I am not a personal trainer or nutritionist and do not provide meal plans or workout plans for anyone other than myself. In order to find out your goals and other nutrition and health information, use sources such as google, bodybuilding.com, and the like!