It's time for an update....

I've been in my new house for 6 weeks. I absolutely love it here! I love the town, I love the conveniences, I love the friends that I have made in such a short amount of time. However, I have been completely thrown off my routine. I was getting frustrated with being stalled at 57 pounds. I haven't been to the gym in a few weeks. I went on Monday but I didn't go back.

Well, that brings me to this.... I just WON FREE PERSONAL TRAINING by a trainer local to me. This has me so incredibly pumped up again.

Here's what I just wrote to her in an email.

I just wanted to tell you a bit about me.
I'm 5'2" and I weigh right now 155. My highest weight was 218 and my starting out weight in August was 211.
I started about August 10th to lose the weight that I have and worked my hiney off. Since moving to this new city everything has stalled. I joined the Y but I don't love it. It's huge. I'm used to my little bitty gym where I knew everyone. And since moving, I've been kind of thrown off track. I worked so so hard at losing the weight that the last month I've just been relaxing. I haven't been to the gym much b/c I do own my own business and I'm trying to meet people etc.

I miss the gym. I miss feeling so good about myself. I'm starting to feel like that fat girl again that I so dreadfully hated. I still have a lot of fat on my body and I want to get rid of it. I'm smaller now than when I was on my wedding day. I want to get back into my routine. I'm so excited because this will push me back into beast mode lol I feel so so so so much better when I'm working out but lately I've just had excuses b/c I don't get enough time in the day to work and I have to make money to pay bills. But hopefully, life will be a little easier b/c I just hired someone to help me and my mom will be retiring in may and she will be helping me too.

Anyway, so yes, I've been quite down in the dumps lately because I got out of my routine. When I was working out I felt so darn good about myself and since I haven't I feel all those yucky feelings again. I don't like it and READY to work!
My original goal was 140 but at 5'2" I am sure my body could be smaller? I have no clue. I have ALWAYS been overweight. My goal is to wear a dress and to be able to wear shorts. I have loose skin from the weight loss and I still have a tummy that just needs to go. I'm ready so stinking ready.


This has been such an amazing ride. I feel so good that I've lost this much weight yet because I haven't been routinely working out and lately I'm starting to have all those yucky thoughts again. I don't like them and I want them to go away. I love the feeling I have when I'm training. I love that I feel so good about myself.

You have to FIGHT for everything you want. Eating Healthy is not easy. It takes a huge commitment. Going to Culvers or McDonalds etc is just so darn easy to do. It's so easy to eat the junk. DON'T!!! Don't eat it. It's all in your head to be healthy. Fight for your LIFE. It's 100% MENTAL!! Love yourself and get started!

I am fighting for my life and I'm fighting to love myself. I'm going to get this last 15 pounds off! WATCH ME!!

It's been a while....

How are you doing with your weight loss??? Today I was at the doctor's office because I thought I had strep throat and there was a little area that asked me for my weight and for the first time in my life I actually wanted to write it down! lol Oh yeah! I'm still at a 57 pound loss but I'm still eating healthy just haven't been able to go to the gym!

This is Me! 57 pounds gone! I'm hoping to get a cool photo shoot done of myself but I kinda want to do something new with my hair because I feel like a new woman!



I saw this photo on pinterest the other day and was like hmmm could I go blonde? What do you think??? I've always had brown hair. I have never gone out of my 'box' and done anything drastic.. I feel like it's time!!



Can I pull that off??!!! Should I do that and then have a photo shoot done??!!!

So what do you do to keep on track? I've said in the past I use my fitness pal. :) I love it! I haven't been logging my foods lately just because I finally feel like I have a grasp on what I should be eating ya know!

On Wednesday, I'm super excited because one of my new neighbors I am meeting with has lost over 100 pounds! We are going to have coffee together!

The one thing that scares me is keeping the weight off. It's SOO easy to order pizza and eat junk food and get off track! I have to look at the huge picture and be like um no you don't want to go back to over 200 pounds. I'm not saying you can't ever have another slice of pizza but eat it in moderation! Once a month treat yourself. That's it. But don't reward yourself with food. Reward yourself with a new outfit, or getting your nails done or something you just wouldn't normally do.

So, tell me if you think I'd look cute with that new hair do and I will go do it!

Back in the Groooooove of things!

Oh my goodness, I feel back to normal! If you read my last post (don't lol) I sounded down and depressed... It's absolutely amazing how much better you feel when you work out. I was on a 2 week break from working out and I dearly missed it. I was totally afraid I wouldn't go back to my work outs but I'm on day 3 of working out again and I feel so so much happier!!

Today, I even went to a new little shop (at least it's new for me) and I got the cutest little sweater! It's got print all over it. And if you know me I was the queen of solid black tees. I thought I could hide in those! I should have my friend take a photo of me in this cute little sweater and post it!

So I joined the YMCA on Sunday and went to work out for the first time on Monday!
I decided to try Body Step! WOW!!! that was totally different than the step class I had been doing.
Then yesterday I did Boot Camp..... WOAH!!! Oh my goodness... I'd never done some of these exercises! I had never even heard of these!
It really freaked me out when you put your feet on these sliding thingy's and get into the plank position and walk your hands across to the other side of the room and then go backwards. WOWWWWW!!

Then today, I tried Spin Class.... um.... booty is sore! lol I have a LOT less padding than I used to so my bootay is so not used to that seat!

One thing I absolutely love about my new YMCA..... There are people of ALL ages there. I am absolutely amazed seeing 70+ year olds working out! There was a woman in our body step class and she totally kept up! I was simply amazed!

Another thing.... I don't feel like I have to look gorgeous to go. I roll out of bed and go. No make up nothing. I'm there to work out not to look pretty. I had toured another gym in my new city and immediately felt horribly intimidated and didn't feel like it would be a good fit.

Bad thing..... The place is SOOOO huge on my first day there I almost walked into the mens changing room! OPPSSS!!

It's a tiny bit hard to meet people.... My old gym I think it was the same 6-10 ladies every single day. I knew all of them!

But it will be nice once I'm able to talk with people and get to know them!

If you are struggling getting on the work out band wagon just do it! You will feel SOOOO much better!

message me if you want to chat! You can find me on Facebook too.

ali

Crazzynessss....

The last week has been crazy! We moved from Minnesota to Wisconsin and have been working and working on the house and trying to set up my studio and Rock the Drops. All of my studio stuff is buried in the garage because we've been waiting ever so patiently for the downstairs to be done and today they will be finished! Finally! Can you say Amen!

I haven't been able to use the internet here either. I'm using the personal hot spot on my cell phone to be able to write this.


Oh and I haven't been to the gym in over a week... :( oh my gosh!


Let me tell you this... It's completely wearing on me. It's starting to drive me bonkers. It's amazing how good you feel when you work out. I've started to feel yucky about myself again b/c I haven't been working out. I have lost another pound through all of this moving but I have 17 more pounds to my goal and I'm going to do it.

I'm ready for my routine to be back. I still have yet to have time to go join the new YMCA.

So with that, I want to encourage you all to go work out! It makes you feel so much better about yourself. I hate feeling down and out. I don't like it one bit!!

I'm hoping I can go to the gym tomorrow and do STEP. No more workers at the house, no more deliveries that I have to be here for.... I think I can finally go!

But it's crazy the thoughts I have about working out. I'm scared that just taking a week off that I will not have the oomph to do the work outs. Maybe I will finally get off the plateau though?

I just like how I feel about myself more when I'm working out. Never did I think I'd be taking a week off!

Anyway enough about woe is me I haven't gone to the gym lol... Time for more upbeat Ali! I will get back in my routine.. This was just a little bump!!


I wanted to share with you something I made the other day....

Maria Mind Body Health
I found this lady through Jamie Schultz and let me say I was so happy to find her!
I went to her taste testing party about a month ago and bought a couple of her cookbooks.
Well, with moving and having everything in boxes, I really wasn't able to do anything. Well, the other day I promised my little girl that if she picked out a desert in Maria's cookbook, I would make it for her. :)
She picked out Fudgy Brownies and so I went to the store and oh my gosh the store had all the ingredients whereas where I was living before there's no way I could have found the ingredients!

I made these brownies and they are super super yummy... What makes me soooo happy is that my daughter LOVES them! We've been trying and trying to get her to eat more healthy but she just turns her nose up at it all the time.

You should really check out Maria's cookbooks. They are on amazon!

Whatever you do..... DON'T GIVE UP!

The last couple weeks have been very hard. I've been stuck between 51 to 53 pounds lost and I'm not seeing the scale move down as fast as it was in the beginning. Am I giving up??? No way!!!

People ask me all the time what I'm doing to lose the weight?..... Let me tell you this. It's not a DIET! I have completely changed my lifestyle. Every other diet I tried which I've tried many... I always ended up gaining the weight that I had lost.

Diets are DUMB! At least with my experience they don't work. You starve yourself, limit yourself to a certain way and then when you get to your desired goal then you go back to the way you were eating and guess what????? You put the weight back on.. I refuse to diet!

When I started I literally had to take one day at a time. It was hard. I wanted to eat everything (especially at 'that time'!! You know what I'm talking about ladies!!) and I was mad at people who could eat anything they wanted! lol But you know what, thru that determination to become healthy and not eat the junk I've lost so much weight and I'm so insanely happy!

Now, that I am on a plateau it really does stink but I refuse to give up! I refuse to let myself go by the wayside and not work hard for it. This just means I have to push myself even harder at the gym and really watch what I eat.

However, when your frustrated and on a plateau the LAST thing you want is for your husband to go down to Perkins and buy a bunch of muffins... lol My daughter wanted a muffin the other day and I was cool with him getting her one. Seriously, everything we have is in boxes because we are moving this week... Not only did he come home with 1 muffin for my daughter and 1 for my friend who was helping us pack..... he came home with 4 more muffins... Oh my goodness, those muffins were talking to me and telling me to eat them... Darn those muffins especially the one with oreos in it.... Did I cave and gorge on those muffins????????..... nope. I had about 3 bites and that was enough..

Through all of this because I've been struggling with getting off the plateau it's had me kind of feeling down... That with a few other things in life... moving away from a place I've lived for 9 years, saying goodbye to some amazing friends, not being at Imaging USA ( I totally wanted to go to that) lol

So when those muffins came into our house I was feeling down and before in my life I would have eaten them to make me feel better. I REFUSED to allow myself to eat them because of that. The couple bites satisfied me enough that the darn little things would stop talking to me but I didn't sit and binge them like I would have in the past.

I feel like having this attitude of Not Giving Up goes for anything in life.... Lately, I've seen a ton of marriages fail. It makes me so sad. I was almost one of them. I really was. I had in my mind that I was going to leave my husband because I was miserable.

I felt like we had grown apart especially after our miscarriage. The only thing that kept me here at that point was my daughter. I just couldn't do that to my little girl but I was so depressed and so angry I couldn't see past anything else.

I made a commitment to myself that I was going to change. The only person that could change me is me.... And the only person who could change my husband is my husband.

Once the weight had started coming off I started becoming more happy...more confident...more alive...I really think those endorphins do so much to you as a 'happy pill'... Seriously if you are feeling down I DARE you to go work out!

Anyway, don't give up on anything! Keep moving forward, FIGHT for what you want! Fight to be healthy, Fight for your Marriage, Fight to Love yourself... Fight Fight Fight and you will overcome!


On a side note..... I'm the kinda girl who just can't run... lol I couldn't even run a mile in high school I was so out of shape. I could have maybe run a half mile... Well, the other day I was meeting with a few of my best girlfriends saying goodbye to them and one of my friends was having a rough day. I told her to go and work out. She kind of hemmed and hawed about it... Thinking for a bit... and then maybe I will.... but I told her I'd go home change my clothes and meet her at her place.

I went on her treadmill and she got on her elliptical.... I swear I had a moment... I not only ran 1 mile..... and not only 2 miles but I ran 2.5 MILES.... We were listening to really loud music and I was telling her she could do ANYTHING that she put her mind to and that she would succeed in everything..... I was telling her this all the time while running.

I looked at how far I ran and in the amount of time and I was like there's proof you can set your mind to anything and you can achieve it.

Whether it's your weight, marriage, work, goals, etc you can do anything. You just have to believe in yourself and not let your head get in the way! Your head is your biggest obstacle.

Don't Give up! Don't Give In and you can do it! Believe in yourself. Make that change now.

I dare you to say out loud right now:

I CAN DO ANYTHING I SET MY MIND TO

I CAN LOSE ALL OF THE WEIGHT AND LIVE IN A HEALTHY BODY AND MIND

I HAVE A HEALTHY MARRIAGE

I LOVE MYSELF

I LOVE MYSELF

I LOVE MYSELF

I WON'T GIVE UP NO MATTER WHAT!!!

OH, I wanted to share this with you..... I'm kind of a dork, well no, I am a dork but I made this the other day and I'm going to make it into a physical button and put it on my purse... I want people to come up to me and ask me how...

Now that I am at a healthy weight I want to help those that are stuck..... I don't want to go up to anyone who is overweight like I was and say can I help you lol... that's totally not my style... I want to put this on my purse so they come up to me!

I have a heart to help people. I always have but I couldn't help until I was good with me ya know...

What are you feeding your heart?

What are you feeding your heart???? Self hatred, self doubt, fear, anxiety, stress, I'm not good enough, I am a failure, No matter what I try it doesn't work, self pity, guilt, I will fail before I even start so why try? I'm too fat, no one loves me, not even myself... I can't lose the weight, it just won't come off....

What is holding you back from becoming the person you are intended to be?

We all go through many many things in life. I have only met maybe a handful of people in my life that have not been in some way sexually abused or hurt in some way emotionally. Hurting people hurt people and behind every angry person there is hurt.

We have to stop allowing those people to hurt us anymore. They can never repay you for what they did to you. I was sexually molested by a friend of the family when I was 15 years old. It took me years to get over this. I remember going through some counseling over it and was asked if I could forgive this man. I said no. He hurt me too much along with all the other men.

They told me that holding on to that hatred and not forgiving that person doesn't hurt them at all, it only hurts you. It hurts and holds you back as a person. Who do you have a grudge against? They could care less about what you think so holding that anger towards them does nothing to them. It only beats you down and holds you back from being the person you are intended to be.

When I was about 20 years old we still were hanging out with this friend. My family didn't know about it until I was 21 years old. Anyway, I remember going up to him on new years eve and telling him I forgave him for what he did to me. I had decided to make the choice months before that he was no longer going to hurt me with the emotional side of things. I wouldn't allow that un forgiveness to tear me up anymore on the inside. I hated him. I despised him. But I was no longer going to let that rule my life. Forgiveness, it's a choice. It's not an emotion. It's not a feeling.. It's a decision that you make and say I will no longer let this person(s) to rule over my life. It's not saying what they did is ok. I full heartedly believe that forgiveness is a choice and it's something we all need to make.....

There are people who have been hurt and have held on to that hurt for so many years. You can literally see it on their faces. The anger, the bitterness, the un forgiveness that has held them back in life.

It's time to give that up. Let me repeat: it's not saying what they did to you is ok with you. It's not ok that these people hurt you but you are forgiving them for you. They will no longer have a hold on to you.

I've always hated when people say to forget the past. I'm sorry but you just can't forget the past. It doesn't happen that easily. What I think is we need to go through all of that emotional bondage and allow ourselves to love ourselves. We need to be freed from that anger, hatred, bitterness etc. It's not good for our souls.

I have allowed self hatred, insecurity, self doubt, fear, anxiety, worry etc etc to hold me back in life. I was able to forgive the people that hurt me when I was younger but this was the one area of my life that constantly beat me up. It is why I could not get a grasp on my weight. I couldn't get over all the SELF stuff. It was constant in my mind.

Like I said earlier, I am a Christian and it's so much a part of my life and who I am that I can't not talk about it. I am not trying to convert you or beat you down if you do not have the same beliefs as me. You are entitled to believe what you want but this is just so much a part of my life it's going to be in my posts.

I remember for the last two years when I would pray the only thing and I mean the only thing I heard from the Lord was this: Lose the Weight. I was angry that that was the only thing I heard. I was offended that was the only thing I heard. I was hurt.

But... I am so glad I started listening to the Lord... I'm so glad that I started to work out and eat right because all that self stuff started to melt away.

I can actually look in a mirror... not just any mirror but oh my goodness a full length mirror! I want one for my new house so I can look and see how cute I am before I go out the door. Did I just say cute??? oh my gosh! lol

I have never ever thought I was pretty. I've always seen the fat and self hatred that I couldn't see myself as a decent looking person. Now, I'm not nearly as gorgeous as a victoria secret model but I don't really care. I will not compare myself anymore to anyone. God made me who I am and I am glad He made me.

So, what's holding you back? What has a hold of your heart? What are you feeding your heart? love, happiness, forgiveness, joy, peace etc? or self hatred, un forgiveness, bitterness, resentment etc?

Stop allowing the hurts of the past to dictate your life now. Go through those hurts and overcome them. You can do it. You just need to be willing to let yourself be just a tiny bit vulnerable and allow to get through those emotions and forgive.....

If you don't, you will be stuck in the emotional turmoil and it will have a hold of you on your life. Many addictions are rooted out of the need to be loved and extreme self hatred..... Stop hating yourselves. Stop feeding your body garbage whether it's junk food, binging, gorging, anorexia, alcohol, drugs, etc. Start loving yourself. Start putting yourself first and working on you. Do it now!

Video Blogging LOL!!

This is my FIRST VIDEO Blog! haha Oh my goodness! Anyway, if you have 10 mins watch this. :)





If you have any questions please leave them in the comments! What would you like me to talk about in the future etc.