I have had this blog entry and the next entry planned for quite a while now. I said in my last post of 2016 that I was going to make up an entirely new system for myself with my weight-loss journey. I did just that over the first weeks of the new year, however, I was putting off writing about it as I haven’t quite seen the results I was hoping for. Last Friday was originally when I wanted to post this particular entry (and then part 2 the following Friday), but when I was going on my third consecutive week of my weight not budging one bit, quite honestly it was frustrating me beyond belief. I felt maybe I shouldn’t share this new system just yet since I haven’t had the results I have hoped for at this point… but a month is far too early for me to just throw in the towel and give up. In many ways my new system is helping me out a lot and I do feel a lot better, even if the number on the scale doesn’t reflect that yet.

I have completely changed around the way I do things this time around. From eating plans, to water consumption, even to my gym schedule. Over the next two entries I want to take you on a typical day for me now. The first section, is going to explain how I start my day and go all the way until the end of the work day for me. The following entry (I may post by the end of the week, if not then next week for sure!) will be from when I leave work, to the gym, and then onto dinner for that evening. So here is how I start my day and continue throughout the day through work.

6:00 A.M: Well… to be perfectly honest I usually don’t get out of bed until about 6:10 a.m. every work morning. I do all the normal morning routines… cleanse my face and moisturize, brush my teeth, do my hair, and spend way too much time doing my makeup. But once all of that is done I head downstairs and always make sure I have something for breakfast. Whether it is a protein bar, quick bowl of cereal, or something along those lines I always make sure I have something. I have been making smoothies/protein shakes a lot lately for breakfast. The reason I like doing this is it is easy to bring with you (especially if you have one of the single serving sized blenders… if you don’t have one I highly recommend it. They are pretty inexpensive) and depending on what goes in, it is fairly filling and keeps me full throughout the morning. The one pictured I made with 1 cup of frozen cherries, 1 cup of plain 0% fat Greek yogurt, ½ cup of unflavored/unsweetened almond milk (I sometimes use soy), and 2 scoops of vanilla protein powder. This smoothie ends up being about 370 calories which really isn’t bad for breakfast. You need to start your day out right to power through it.

With my breakfast I always take my vitamins and supplements. Now, that is a personal choice. Quite frankly I probably take too many vitamins but they are all for different purposes. I take omega pills (I take these mainly for my skin, but they have so many other great benefits as well), I take a multivitamin, a hair, skin, and nails vitamin, along with an Olly pre & probiotic gummy. I also take a vitamin C tablet, but I really only do that around this time of year to boost my immune system a bit. It may be over kill at this point, but truthfully I just went a little vitamin happy when my wellness card from my health insurance was reimbursed and purchased a bunch.

Don't you just love my motivational/positive desk décor?

Once I get to work and settled in for the day I usually decide to have a cup of green tea. Green tea is supposed to be great for metabolism and giving you a boost. Typically I make my cup with 2 tea bags and I leave the tea bags in the cup the entire time I am drinking it, just to make it a bit stronger. I do not add any sweeteners or anything to it, just plain green tea. I have been considering looking into and researching green tea extract to maybe just put into my water because quite honestly I can’t stand the taste of green tea, but until then this is how I do it.

I find it really funny that you can see me taking this in the reflection of the pencil sharpener.

Next is staying hydrated. This is SO IMPORTANT. I know I have preached about drinking enough water so many times but with good reason. Your body is made up of a certain percentage of water, so it is important to keep water coming in to replenish the water that is naturally lost throughout the day. Look, I know how hard it is for many people to drink water. I personally have no problems with drinking water, however, I do find it harder in the colder months of the year and have to make myself get in my eight glasses, but honestly 64 oz. is not that much water to consume. I take my reusable water bottle with the built in filter to work with me every day. This bottle holds 32 oz. of water and I try my best to make sure I drink one full bottle by lunch time, then I usually finish the second before I leave work, but essentially I have the rest of the day to finish the second up.

12:00 P.M: Lunch time!! To be completely honest once 10:00 or 11:00 hits I am ready for lunch, but I always wait until noon to eat so I am not counting down the hours until dinner. What I have been doing is making all my lunches on Sunday so everything is ready to go in the morning and I can just grab a container from the fridge and go. My biggest problem before would be either forgetting to make my lunch the night before or just being too rushed in the morning that I wouldn’t have a lunch to bring to work, resulting in getting take out or something just not very healthy. By making everything up for the week on Sunday, it eliminates that issue all together. I shared a picture here of a little collage of the many different meal prep lunches I have done so far. Helpful hint: Check Pinterest for ideas! A lot of these were ideas and/or recipes I got from there.

My main focus over these first few weeks of the brand new year have been dedicated to figuring out the best system and process that will work for me. I reinvented the wheel in a sense for myself. After lunch comes that is pretty much it (at least for as far as this blog goes). I have been going to the gym again as well, but I am saving that for my next post. I want to share my second half of the day for that post as well as share what I have in my gym bag.

Although I haven’t seen the numbers on the scale go drastically down, I still have lost about 5 lbs over these last few weeks and have kept it off. Sure that has been a tiny bit disheartening and frustrating, but the main goal for myself during all of this is to get and feel healthy again, and I already do to a certain degree. The most important thing to me is to have more energy again and just all around feel healthier. Overtime the weight-loss will just come hand in hand with that. So far so good!