Powerful

 

Do you ever feel powerful?

 

Like you can just conquer the world?

 

I've been pretty stressed lately. Going back to work has really made it hard to keep up with school and I've fallen slightly behind. It's nothing a little hard work can't fix but it's stressful. I wanted to call in sick today because, well I am sick and just super tired. I knew that if I called in sick I would probably lose my job so I had to just tough it out and come to work today.

 

For some reason as I was walking to my car I felt powerful. My heels were clicking against the ground, I had my brand new purse over my shoulder and I had my healthy breakfast smoothie in my hand. I felt good, I felt great, I felt powerful. I have no idea why but I plan to capture that feeling as I start again on this journey.

 

I need to have the power to overcome.

 

To persevere.

 

To know I can do it.

 

To know I am worth it.

 

To know my daughter is worth it.

 

I invite you to all join me in finding your inner power. Because you all are worth it too!

 

Day 1

Hello everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

 

I'm happy to say that today starts day 1 of my healthiness journey part 2. If you've been following me for a while you know that I officially started my healthiness journey on August 13th of last year. Between that day and the end of December I lost exactly 40 pounds, going from 270lbs to 230lbs. Between the end of December and the end of July, I gained back 55lbs. But not without help ;-) I found out the day after Christmas that I was 7wks pregnant with my first child. She was born on July 31st, 2010. Now that she is here, my world has changed. She is now my world and I wouldn’t have it any other way but now I have to get back into the swing of things so I can be around a long time to see her and her children and maybe a few of her children's children grow up :-)

 

Today is a new day. Food will be on point from here on out. For breakfast I had a bowl of apples and cinnamon instant oatmeal. I plan to have an avocado-raspberry protein smoothie for breakfast so I can bring it to work but the avocadoes I bought yesterday weren't quite ready for eating this morning. Bummer. Lunch was a turkey burger with cheese and a little ketchup, a few deep fried eggplant slices (not great I know! But oh so delicious!), a bowl of corn, green beans, broccoli and spinach and a can of low sodium V8. Morning snack was some almonds and afternoon snack will be a cottage double (cottage cheese and fruit mixed up, yum!) Not sure what dinner will be yet, still have to figure that one out. Oh yea, the best part about my lunch? I only live 2miles away from work so I get to go home and enjoy my lunch with my daughter :-) How wonderful is that?

 

Exercise. Dun Dun Dun! I've officially decided that I will be getting AND completing P90X! I will also be adding in some walking and strength training with these cool kinetic bands I got. I'll have to show them to you guys later, they're pretty cool! Overall, I'm excited about this fresh start! I would love to be down 30lbs by Christmas. That's my official goal. Once I take my starting weight I'll let you guys know what that is. And before P90X I will take measurements to see the progress I make.

 

Anyways, I should skidattle!

 

Have a lovely Monday my dears!

 

 

P90X?

So Monday ends my 8 week maternity leave and I've decided to restart my healthiness journey on that day as well. I don't really have the time to go to the gym because although my mom would love to watch Kaliya while I go to the gym I would feel guilty leaving for a couple hours when I only have a few hours with her after work before she goes to bed. So I've decided I want to find something I can do at home. Enter P90x...

I've seen this infomercial more times than I can count but have never even considered buying it. The reason I'm starting to consider it is because it looks like a very intense workout that yields impressive results.

My question to you guys...what do ya think? Have you used it or know someone that has? Opinions? Anything would be greatly appreciated :-)

Let Our Stomachs Decide

I've always been a person that will eat until I'm uncomfortably full just because I think I can eat everything on my plate instead of simply listening to my stomach.

Recently for one of my science classes I read an article about an experiment that was done in Berlin. The study had two groups of people eat the same two course meal: one group in complete darkness and one in the light. After both groups ate their meals they were taken to a lighted portion of the restaurant to have dessert. The study showed that those who could see their food ate dessert that coincided with the portion size they ate. Thus, those with large portions ate less dessert than those that were served a small portion. The study also showed that those that ate in complete darkness and could not see and did not know what size portion they got, ate the same amount of dessert whether they had a large portion of food or a small one. The study proved the scientists' theory that our judgement of how hungry we are is based largely on what we know and see that we ate vs what hunger cues our stomach is sending us. If we cannot see how much we ate it's hard for us to gauge how hungry we are.

I know I'm guilty of this. Many times I've said something to the affect of "I only ate half my burger, I definitely have room for dessert" or "I ate my burger and my fries, theres no way I could fit dessert too". Well, what if half of a burger was enough to keep me full and content or what if after a burger and fries I was still hungry. Just because I saw that I ate a certain amount of food doesn't mean a thing in terms of my hunger. My stomach is the only thing that can truly tell me 100% whether or not I'm hungry but honestly I often don't have the 'patience' to wait the 20 or so minutes they say it takes for your stomach to let your brain know it's full.

I honestly believe that this is part of the reason I am overweight. I'm sure there are many others that can say the same thing. I'm restarting my healthiness journey now and I've decided to make a promise to myself to actually listen to my stomach. It's such a wonderful and powerful tool that we have so why not let it do what it was made to do.

Is anyone with me?

Introducing Kaliya Aria Kleckley!

Hellooooo Blogger world! Hope you are all doing well! I'm just checking in to introduce you all to my lovely daughter Kaliya Aria Kleckley. She was born on July 31st, 2010 at 9:02pm. Ironically enough she was born only a day after my last post where I explained that I was having a c-section on the 10th of August. Well, she decided it was time to make her debut earlier. My water broke around noon on Saturday July 31st and because she was still breech they went ahead with the c-section plans. Everything went really well and my recovery has been quite good.

I was off all pain meds only 2 weeks after I had her and was driving around that time as well. I just had my 6 week check-up and the doctor said everything looks good so I've been cleared to start exercising again! I've lost 35 of the 55 pounds that I gained during the pregnancy, so my first goal is to focus on those last 20 pounds. Woo hoo! I never thought I'd actually be excited to start exercising again haha but I've been craving it for the longest! And not just walking or biking, I can't wait to start lifting weights again so I can reshape this lovely body I have. I'm slowly getting back into the swing of things as far as planning out my meals and what exercise will be but I expect to start up full force within the next week or so.

Things have been quite crazy as you could imagine. I have a 6wk old baby, working full time and going to school part time. Wowza, I never thought I could juggle it all but it's actually not that bad. So once I get back into the swing of things you guys will be seeing a lot more of me and you're going to like it ;-) I'll leave you with some pictures of my baby...Enjoy!