Motivational Wednesday: Before and After

 

It is amazing that people can sometimes pickup that you've lost weight (visually), when all you can see is what clothes are no longer fitting, and occasionally looking in the mirror.  We don't actually see ourselves everyday. 

Which got me thinking... What better motivation to keep losing weight, to realize that you have actually made progress, and keep working on losing what you have to until you reach your final goal!

So, today, our motivation is before and after pictures, and for me that me a progressive before and after, so I can see the difference.

We're going to start in 2013, because, lets be honest, I rarely let myself be photographed. 
  


February 16, 2013

In 2013, I had given up on Weight Watcher, seeing little progress.  So here is a head shot.  I was about 270 at the time. 

January 9th, 2014

 In the end of 2013, I weighed myself at the doctor and got the shock of my life when I weighed in at 301 (in my clothes, no shoes).  My mother and father (and my boyfriend) all weighed less than me, and that freaked me out.  I started back with Weight Watchers.  Here I am at about 270.


July 10, 2014

In March of 2014, I stopped with Weight Watchers due to a family crisis.  I started to gain a lot of weight back.  I got back up to 270.  Pardon the skirt, because you can't really tell what I look like on the bottom. 
So on August 2nd, I started back on weight watchers.  I still wasn't seeing a change in weight.  I decided to talk to my doctor.  We put me on a 1,800 calorie eating plan, put me on Belviq, and started working on more exercise activities. 

And this is what I look like currently at 255.2 



So look at the difference....

Before                                            &                                                After



 

Before                                            &                                                After

 



So here is to losing it...
Slowly, but surely! Cana Elene

Wednesday Motivation

We all need motivation, but today I thought to touch on something other than working out.  I'm talking about a support group and great apps to help.

I use MapMyFitness (http://www.mapmyfitness.com/) and Lose It! (https://www.loseit.com).  Both of these work with Android and iPhones, and the apps will communicate (mostly) between each other.

Some people find great support from Weight Watcher's meetings.

And then we have the personal motivation.  For me it is my wonderful boyfriend, Mike.

Our Monthly Trip out of town.

And my best friend, Becca.

Renn Fair!

And even family health might be a motivation.  I don't want to be going on 70 and have the same health problems that my parents have.  Or even the health problems my Truey had.  If I can prevent it, I will.

What are your motivations?

So here is to loosing it... Slowly, but surely! Cana Elene

Wednesday Workout Motivation!

I'm a huge Doctor Who Fan, and I am so excited about the upcoming season premier the day before my 30th birthday!  So I have tried this week to think of something wonderful to workout to that has to do with Doctor Who.

And look what I found!

This is all the motivation I have this busy week!  But I'm still so excited!

So here is to loosing it... Slowly, but surely! Cana Elene

Wednesday Workout Motivation

  

I'm always looking for ways to motivate myself to loose weight.  But a bigger problem is to remember what I've lost, and what I've accomplished.  So I started looking for some motivation.

First, I found this great idea to motivate workouts:  Money.  Let's be honest, that is a great way to motivate just about anyone.  Putting a $1 in the jar for everytime you work out, I think is a great idea.  For me, I'd be a $1 for every point of activities I earn on WW.  I use their activity tracer, so I'm going to use that to help me start tracking money for my work out jar.

The other thing I found that I really liked was using marbles (or pennies, or whatever else I have lying around the house that is small and in large amounts lying around the house) to keep track of pounds to go and track pounds that you've lost.  I think that this was a great idea because no matter how frustrated I get on my weight loss journey, this would always remind me of what I've already accomplished.








For a workout idea this week, I found myself trying to find arm workouts that don't require weights right now.  I don't have any, so I'm starting out slowly without weights until I can afford them.

Both of these workouts have been good, though I'm able to do more with the 5 min to toned arms than the Weight-free Arms.

So here is to loosing it... Slowly, but surely! Cana Elene

Wednesday Workout Motivation - What gets you going?

Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.

What great works to help motivate you to loose weight and work out.  So, what are you doing?

I'm currently walking 5-6 nights a week with my boyfriend Mike, and we've been doing this since the end of March.  But, I realized as I weighed in on Monday that there are a lot of areas that aren't worked on when you are only walking.  So I did something I do a lot of when I need inspiration: Get on Pinterest.  I found a lot of great suggestions.  Below is the one I'm going to use (along with walking) for the next 60 days.  The great thing about this one is that I can do this on my breaks at work (yay! no getting up early to do it!)

I think this will be a simple thing.  It is stair step.  But I've also thought that if I have to, I'll mix it up.  Because if I have realized anything, I have a tendency to get bored.  So I found some great beginner's work outs on youtube.com.

I found this one.  It was pretty good.  I was only able to do about 8 minutes out of a 30 min workout.  But my goal is to try and do this same workout until I can do the whole thing.  It might take a few weeks, but I think I can do it.



So what motivation do you take and where do you get your inspiration?

So here is to loosing it... Slowly, but surely! Cana Elene