Positively Weightless: January 2016

I think I am going to try to do an end of the month reflection post every month (as long as I remember to haha) from now on with my page. Still being at the beginning of a new year, I think this would be something positive to finish up another month with so here goes nothing:

January 2016

Well, I started off this brand new year with a goal in my head, and although the year is still new, I was hoping to have a bit of a better start to it. I really only went down in my weight a tiny bit, not nearly as much as I would have liked, however, my weight did not go up and that makes me extremely happy. Over the last year or so my weight was, although slowly, increasing steadily. The fact that I stopped this is enough (for now) for me. I said at the beginning of the year that I was not going to put myself down over a lack of progress. Am I a little frustrated? For sure! But I will not let it deter me from making future progress.

That being I just wanted to take a few moments and type out my thoughts. Today I learned some not so happy news from a colleague that has made me think all day. I am not going to go into any details about it, however, it has made me think so much about the present.

Not too long ago I posted about living one day at a time, and I guess this post is really just a repeat of that in a way. That being said: Never take anything for granted and truly appreciate each and every day and thing and person you have because you truly never know when that can change. Things can happen so fast and you may never know when, where, and even why. Enjoy life each and every day. When you are upset with someone you love never leave the house angry or go to bed angry. Never give up on someone or something. Everything can change in a second so appreciate everything you can in the moment.

Dwelling on a lack of progress in January is going to get me nowhere, so it will stay in the past. I am going to appreciate everything I have and make today a better day. I want to enjoy life and make every day golden. If everyone had this attitude the world would probably be a much better place. Tomorrow is guaranteed for nobody, so appreciate life each second that goes by and never get yourself down over things that cannot be changed because they are in the past.

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Everything in life needs balance. It truly is a huge part of everyday life and is something that really makes one successful in life. I think we've all heard the quote “All work and no play makes jack a dull boy,” from Stephen King's The Shining at some point, and this quote (at least to me, I will let you all interpret it as you wish... There isn't too many other things as an English major that annoyed me more than someone telling me what a quote meant rather than saying it was their interpretation. Sorry I'm rambling) is showing just how important balance is. Anything in life, whether it be a weight-loss plan or a workout schedule require it.

Eating healthy and exercising more are more than just that, they are lifestyle changes. You do them over and over until they become a habit, however, they shouldn't be what you focus all of your attention on. I think that is why I let myself get off track and gain some weight back. In a way despite all of my previous advice to avoid this, I set myself up for failure. I focused most of my time and effort that wasn't being directed toward school work at the time on losing weight. I did not balance my life out at this time. This journey should not be your only focus. Most likely if you are putting so much pressure on something and focusing all of your time and energy on it, you'll tire of it and it will eventually end up on the back burner. Much like my weight-loss, I also put my writing on the back burner once I started working full time. I do not want either of these things to happen again.

If you are starting out this journey or jumping back onto the path, remember to not make it your one and only focus. I believe I mentioned this in a previous post, but don't deprive yourself of anything. By that I of course mean you should eat some junk food occasionally, because if you cut it out completely you most likely will be a lot more tempted to binge eat. Going from eating those things all the time to never eating them is only setting yourself up for failure. Working out is another. Make sure you are giving yourself the proper amount of rest to go along with working out. If you put too much strain on your body without giving it the proper time to heal, you could do some serious damage to your health. That also means that you should make time for things you love to do as well.

In a nut shell, my biggest piece of advice that I have learned as of recently would be to never deprive yourself of anything, but especially of what makes you you. Live a balanced life. Balance the salads and the cupcakes. Balance the laughs and the tears. Balance the work and the play (I know nobody wants to be considered dull)! It is so easy to let life take over and before we know it another year is over. Living a healthier lifestyle can sometimes contribute to that, but it doesn't have to! Just be sure to live every day to the fullest and never let one thing take all of your focus.

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I decided my next post would be of a healthy recipe I would like to share. I have been thinking of adding recipes, meal plans, etc. into this page for a little while now, so I figured I would start with one of my favorite recipes for a quick and healthy dinner, that I actually came up with on my own. Hope you enjoy!

Stewed Tomato Pasta

Ingredients:

-1 serving of dry pasta of your choice (I went with organic angel hair, but really anything would work.)

-1 can of stewed tomatoes (I like Italian stewed the best. Has onions, celery, and seasonings in it already.)

-Garlic (I typically use about 2 cloves fresh, but used jarred chopped garlic this time.)

-One pouch of garlic and herb tuna.

-Cooking spray

First a small sauce pan should be placed over medium heat (or medium/low depending on your stove) and a sprayed with a light coating of cooking spray. The water for the pasta should also be put on to boil. Once the cooking spray has a little time to heat up, the garlic should then be added and stirred frequently so it does not burn.

Second open the can of tomatoes and drain the juice, but make sure you save it. Once the garlic has had sometime to saute, add the juice to the pan. While that comes up in temperature, cut the tomatoes into about 1 inch cubes, or to preferred size.

As soon as all the tomatoes are cut, add those to the pot as well and turn the heat up to medium/high-high. The pot should come to a boil so the liquid can reduce down and thicken into a sauce.

Third once the pasta water comes to a boil, cook the pasta as directed by the package. Note:You should always salt pasta water immediately after it starts to boil and just before adding the pasta.

Fourth once the sauce has cooked down a bit and has started to reduce, then the tuna can be added. This is an optional step, the sauce doesn't have to have tuna added to it. Mix the tuna into the sauce very well. The sauce is done at this point. Taste it and add any seasonings to taste until the flavor seems right for your preference.

Fifth once the pasta is cooked completely, drain it! Put it in a bowl, add the sauce on top.

Final Step: Enjoy!

This recipe can be changed quite a bit depending on your personal preference. I've made it with many different proteins including shrimp and chicken instead of the tuna. You could also make it a vegetarian dish and leave the meat out completely and add more vegetables such as zucchini.

The dish could be broken into two servings, or eaten as one bigger meal (I tend to eat a lighter breakfast and lunch and have a bigger dinner). If you eat it as one big meal, it is about 450 calories all together, so not too bad for your bigger meal of the day!

This is something I just threw together quickly one night and have been making ever since. I hope you enjoyed reading my recipe! Let me know what you think!

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I think my time away from my blog gave me a lot of time to reflect on things and come up with ways to make this page a little better. I am so eager to post lately and there really is no explanation why, but no complaints here! When life got in the way and I started getting busier, my writing basically went on the back burner just like I hoped it wouldn't. My weight and progress also went along with it. Which is in a way leads me into my next topic. This post is going to be a little different. I have two topics I want to spill my feelings on that in a way coincide with one another, but also stand alone, and this post more than the others is not directly involved with weight-loss or dieting or anything of the sort. Although it can relate to those things, they really are both things that I think most people can relate to their everyday life.

One thing I have really learned pretty recently is to take things one step at a time. Every single day is a beautiful and unique day in its own and it really is important to remember that. You should not punish yourself for something that is over and done. Leave the past in the past and move forward. I know more than anything that this is a very hard thing to do. My mind always seems to wander to troubles from the past that it really shouldn't be wandering to. Something silly I said to the wrong person three days ago, feeling guilty that I forgot to return a text message, eating a caloric meal that I should have thought twice about. Like I said, silly things that should be over and done. Most people that are really close to me will agree with the fact that I over think EVERYTHING! Although I am sure there are situations that this may come in handy, this really is an unnecessary trait to have. Every day is a brand new day and should be treated as just that. There is no use for feeling guilty about the cheeseburger and fries you had for lunch yesterday because you can't change that. Leave the past in the past and grow from that experience.

If you are reading this because you are indeed on a journey to a healthier you, as I am, then just remember to take things one day at a time. Although you do want to have a long term goal to strive towards, treat every day in your weight-loss journey as either a success or a day to improve in the future from (notice I did not say failure). If you just keep feeling guilty about the days you cheated or just didn't do as well as you hoped, you will get absolutely nowhere. That is half the reason I gained so much back over the last year, I kind of gave up because I figured 'why not?' But not anymore. I am now going through this one day at a time.

The second topic I wanted to bring up is negativity. You can literally find it everywhere, even in the most unexpected places. If you start to have real success like I did my first time around at this whole weight-loss thing, you're most likely going to have someone who just doesn't like it. Someone who criticizes the way you're doing it saying things like “Oh that doesn't work!” or anything along those lines. Those things simply spawn from jealousy. Anybody taking the steps to better themselves and/or live a healthier lifestyle should be applauded and should never have anything negative thrown their way, but it happens. I can with 100% certainty say it happens. Don't let it get to you! Simply recognizing the fact that you want to make a change and seeing that a change is needed is a HUGE DEAL, nobody can take that from you. Nobody. Don't ever forget that.

There are so many things that can stack up against you on any big journey in life, the key is recognizing that they cannot be changed and move forward. If someone can't be anything but happy for you, they do not deserve a spot in your life. If you had a bad day, leave it in the past, move on, and be able to say you learned something from it. Both of these lessons are very important. You will never get anywhere in life if you let them devour you.

Before I sign off I was looking for any comments anyone may want to offer. I was thinking of expanding this blog's horizons (just a bit) and maybe doing different types of posts sometimes. I'm not completely sure what kinds of posts I will do, but my first thought was maybe the occasional healthy recipe I am fond of or even an occasional daily meal plan or something along those lines. Any thoughts?

As always, if you're still with me and read through all this thank you for the love and support! :-)

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Here I am again, sitting at my computer pondering what I would like to talk about next on this page. I've been thinking about it for a little while now and I realized something. I am in a way starting this journey over since I let myself fall back into my bad habits a bit. No, I am not starting back at the very beginning with this, but this blog almost has a new meaning now. Instead of me offering my advice based on my success, I am almost in a way telling more of an ongoing story (although I was doing that in a way before) and taking any of you lovely people that take the time out of their day to read my words along with me. That being said, I think the rest of this post should be about forming habits, and which ones I kept from before and what new ones I am starting to form in this process.

I would say one of the very first things I taught myself to do when I started getting healthier years back was measuring everything I ate. Saying it like that makes it seem like a lot of work, but really it isn't. The first thing I did when I decided to get myself back on track recently was buy myself a new set of measuring cups and spoons and bought a brand new electric food scale. All of those things can be purchased for less than $20 at the right places, so not a huge expense. Before I would measure absolutely everything! From salad dressing, to ice cream (always slow churned!), to meats... EVERYTHING and ANYTHING! This really makes one aware of exactly what a serving of something is and in my case made me realize just how much I was overeating before. Let's face it, pretty much everyone at some point is guilty of sitting down with an entire bag or box of their favorite snack and mindlessly eating from it. This is what avoids that.

I've also started doing a few little things to almost in a sense trick myself into forming new healthy habits. I work right down the street from a little corner store/gas station that has a little restaurant in it. Many days I would be lazy about taking my lunch and figured I would just get something from there, but of course I would never make a healthy choice when faced with all the other terrible for you but tasty foods they offered. Just last week I decided to buy myself a new designer lunchbox (it was on sale too! Win win!) and a bunch of handy food containers that will make portion control a breeze. I know I will want to bring my lunch now because it is so easy and of course because of my adorable new lunch box. I've in a way made the decision to pack my lunch over getting take-out that much easier.

Another habit I'm trying to make for myself is drinking more water. I know I do not drink enough. Some days are a lot harder than others to stay hydrated and for no real reason. Some days I simply just don't want to drink it. So to make myself aware of this a little more throughout the day, the first thing I do when I get to my office is take two of the bottles of water I have in the refrigerator out and put them on my desk. That way they are sitting right in front of me and I see them all day long. It reminds me that I have to drink them and I do because of this. Just another little trick I used for myself to get these habits into motion.

Everybody is different, and nobody knows what will work more than you for yourself. Those are just a few of the things I have had success with, but do what works for you and experiment with new ideas! These little tricks should quickly form into habits and will eventually help you reach your goals as long as you stick to it long enough for the habit to form! Forming healthy habits is a very early and very important step when trying to get healthier!

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