Now that I'm two months in, finally used to resident life, and have more spare time, I think it's the right time to start thinking about getting into a fitness regime. They say it takes a month to make a change, and this month is the perfect time to start.

I had every intention to join the gym this month, I really did. But every time I looked at a gym online, I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. It brought me back to the last few years where I poured a ton of money into a gym membership and barely went because I was so ashamed of going... While I love gyms and absolutely love a sweaty elliptical workout or a fun zumba session, I'm always scared to go do these things because I feel like a fatass, and I get SO self-conscious. I remember I used to be so into zumba classes back in Pittsburgh, but I stopped going because I got tired of looking at my jiggly self in the mirror while dancing. So at the end, I didn't end up joining a gym because I didn't want to shell out hundreds of dollars when I knew I wouldn't go. I refuse to join the gym near where I live because a bunch of my co-residents go there and that would be even more embarrassing.

So long story short, I've decided to spend at least the first two weeks of this month trying to get my nutrition back on point and start exercising at home. This week, I'm completely focusing on my eating habits. So far, I've succeeding in eating all three meals and snacks at home with no takeout, which is a huge accomplishment in my book because for the past two months, I've been eating takeout most, if not all, days of the week. Today I want to officially start calorie counting and drinking at least 64oz of water a day to decrease my bloat (god I feel so bloated!). I'll let you know my progress, and I have a fitness haul coming up as well, most likely next week when I start exercising. Have a beautiful Wednesday everyone!

Skinny Jeans Challenge: Results

Good (Sunday) morning everybody! I wanted to update y'all on my skinny jeans challenge results. Overall, I'd say that it was a successful three weeks! Definitely not perfect, but a great start towards adopting healthy lifestyle measures. By the end of even the first week, my skinny jeans fit! I'm super happy that I lost enough weight/water weight to fit into the jeans I bought, but I think there is definitely room for improvement. Let me go over how things went week to week. In case you didn't read my initial post, my goal was to make a series of lifestyle changes to help me fit into the pair of Lee's skinny jeans I bought at Kohl's. These included eating no more than 1500 calories/day, eating less than 2,000mg of sodium per day, balancing carbs/fats/protein intake each day, drinking 8 glasses of water per day, and exercising 5x/week. Yes I know, that's a lottt of stuff to change in just a few weeks! By no means did I expect to follow all of these "rules" to a T, I think I managed to do a decent job and stuck very close to these parameters.

Week 1
So the first week was great, as it always is. I managed to eat within 1500 calories each day, ate a balanced fat/carbs/protein diet, drank around 6 cups of water each day, and exercised 4 times during the week. My sodium was a tad higher than what I wanted, going upwards of about 2,300mg on a couple days. However, I was really happy that I was able to meet my other numbers really closely. By the end of the week, I was able to zip and button the jeans I had bought from Kohl's, which I wasn't able to do just a week prior! Not only did the jeans fit, but I also noticed that eating healthier, drinking more water, and exercising definitely boosted my energy significantly. I realized that I didn't need coffee first thing in the morning and that I was able to concentrate in class without it. Drinking water is something that reaaaaallly helps, especially if you have a lot of bloat like me. Even if you have a hard time following a strict diet, drinking at least 6 cups of water a day helps reduce some of that water weight, makes you less bloated, which just makes you feel a lot lighter and "skinnier".

Week 2
Alright so the second week is always the hardest. My first week was excellent, but my cheat day was Sunday of that week. I'm a firm believer that every dieter should have a cheat day that they can eat anything they want, just so that they don't jump off the healthy lifestyle bandwagon because they feel deprived. However, the biggest problem with cheat days is that it can be really really hard to go back to eating healthy again the next day. That's what happened this week. Although I was eating relatively well and didn't have any binge eating episodes, I did not exercise at all this week. My salt intake went a little higher than usual and I found myself making excuses to abandon my diet and just "eat those fries" even though they were covered in fat and salt. Not good! I was having some relationship issues, but that doesn't excuse my diet derailing. Overall though, I managed to keep my intake at 1,500 calories on 4/7 days this week, and ended up cheating on 3 of the days.

Week 3
Ultimately, you have to realize that part of adopting a healthy lifestyle is to accept the mistakes, learn from them, move on, and try to avoid them in the future. Although I might have messed up my diet last week, I shook it off and started fresh this past Sunday. I went back and reviewed where I went wrong and tried to stay clear of them this week. And I'm doing pretty well! I've exercised 4x already this week (going to be 5 this afternoon) and my diet is again calorie and sodium controlled. As far as weight loss, I don't know exactly how much I've lost since I don't like weighing myself. I can tell that I have lost some weight based on how my clothes fit -- the skinny jeans fit, my other jeans seem a bit looser, and my face seems less full. However, the benefits I get from a higher self-confidence, stamina, and energy are invaluable. I feel so much lighter, healthier, and happier when I do eat healthy and exercise. I've found that I really enjoy cooking and coming up with healthy meals to make for myself. As silly as it sounds, it combines my love of cooking and shopping, and I find it fun instead of draining. Pinterest has been a great source for quick recipes, and I may do a post on that soon!

The Low-Down on Food
I wanted to write a bit more about what I've been eating on my diet. I've been tracking all of my food intake on the MyFitnessPal app. I love that thing! For my main meals, I have been making them all at home. Although I'm able to cook more right now because I have more free time, I realized that taking one day during the weekend or week to make big batches of breakfast and dinner for the week really helps. For example, last Sunday I made my own healthy breakfast sandwiches for the entire week. For dinner, I've found a ton of great healthy recipes on Pinterest. Some of my favorite discoveries have been oven-baked chicken fajitas, baked chicken parmesan, and coconut curry chicken. For lunch, I usually just reheat and eat a serving of these dinners I made these all from scratch so I could control how much sodium, fat, and carb goes into each dish. Honestly, I found that even though most of these dishes only had 300-400mg of sodium per serving and lots of protein with little fat and carbs, they were still heavy on the flavor! Cooking at home has saved me so much money and helped me discover a new hobby! It's definitely healthier than take-out or frozen dinners. However, I know that things can really get busy sometimes, leaving you with no time to cook. For those days, I love keeping some "back-up meals" in the freezer and pantry. This requires some time hunting for healthy options at the grocery store, since a lot of boxed and frozen dinners contain tons and tons of salt and fat. Right now, my favorite backup meal is the Trader Joe's Shittake Mushroom and Chicken. It's a frozen chicken dish that only takes roughly 10-15 mins to cook, but it's healthy, especially when paired with brown rice, and the sauce comes on the side. I only use half the sauce packet and find that it's still very flavorful at only 400mg sodium  and 20g protein per serving. Another favorite pantry item is Annie's Macaroni and Cheese with Trader Joe's Turkey Meatballs. Although it's slightly higher on the sodium, it's a great comfort food and still relatively nutritionally balanced. I also love reheating chicken nuggets when I'm in a rush, and the Trader Joe's Chicken Drummelas are the healthiest nuggets I have found on the market -- 4 nuggets carry 15g of protein with only 240mg of sodium. I love pairing these up with some Alexia Sweet Potato Fries. If you do have a busy lifestyle and can't always cook at home, I encourage you to see if there is a Trader Joe's in your neighborhood and if there is, check out their frozen aisle. They have the best frozen foods section by far at very affordable prices! They even have recipe ideas on each label at the store, if you need a little bit more inspiration :)

Snacking is something that I'm very guilty of and has been the death of diets in the past. So I knew I had to spend some time at the grocery store finding good snacking alternatives. I'm veeery picky when it comes to snacks too! I have a huge salt tooth, so I love salty and crunchy snacks. One of my faaaaavorites has been the Brown Rice Triscuits with Sea Salt and Cracked Pepper -- I featured these in my last monthly favorites. They taste soooo good by themselves but go great with cheddar cheese or hummus on top too. The Tostitos Oven Baked Scoops satisfy my chip craving without adding a ton of calories, fat, or salt. Lastly, my recent discovery has been the Trader Joe's Reduced Guilt Air-Popped Popcorn that has very little butter and salt, but still packs a ton of crunch and flavor. This is my favorite late-night snack since I can eat a ton of these for very little calories. I also made sure to eat one serving of fruit and one greek yogurt every single day as a snack. I stay away from nuts because they just don't fill me up and are high on the fat and calories.

Lastly, water intake is something that I've found to be very important. Like I mentioned above, it reduces all that bloat and if you do go a little high on sodium one day, drinking water helps flush it out. I used to haaaate drinking water, but I keep one of those tumblers around me when I'm home and sip on it throughout the day. I try to drink two tumbler-fulls for a total of 6 glasses per day. Or, if I know I'm going to be out in class or something all day, I carry around a 33oz plastic water bottle that gives me 4 glasses of water per bottle. I find that having larger bottles of water help because you don't have to refill them as much. Another thing I've been wanting to try is fruit-infused waters, which I hear is another trick to help fulfill your daily water requirements.

The Low-Down on Exercise

Exercise is something that I've always hated. The thought of driving to the gym, spending 30 minutes huffing and puffing, and the thought of more fit gym-goers judging you always drove me to skip the gym and just sit at home watching Netflix. So yes, I know how hard it can be going to the gym when you're overweight like I am. However, realize that everyone who is at the gym is there for a reason -- to make themselves feel and look better. Some people want to gain muscle, others want to lose weight. There is nothing wrong with you being at the gym -- in fact it shows your motivation and dedication! Plus, there is always one other overweight person at the gym, so you're never alone. I've found that exercise has soooo many other health benefits than just helping you lose weight. Even though I've only been exercising for 2 weeks now, I feel like I have more stamina, more energy, and just a more positive attitude. I try to do cardio 3-4x/week for 30 minutes each -- mainly the elliptical, but sometimes a high incline walk on the treadmill or a YouTube cardio workout. And then 1-2x/week, I do a body-toning workout, usually one I found on Youtube. I've been loving Ellen Barrett's Burn & Firm Pilates, but there's countless other ones. Fitness Blender have over 500 videos of different lengths, target areas, and levels, so if you're bored of your current routine, check out their page! Oh, and if you do miss a day (or hell, even a week) of workout, don't beat yourself up for it. Instead, get back to it on the next day and try to stick to a routine. You are your only judge.

I hope that post was useful! I'm hoping to continue this journey for the next few weeks. I will definitely update this blog on my I progress since the middle weeks of a diet are often tough and where many people go back to their bad eating habits. But I hope everyone has a wonderful, happy weekend!

Skinny Jeans Challenge!

Happy April everyone! Still so hard to believe that this year is flying by so fast. Before you know it, I'll be starting my new life in New York. Agh, the feels. I had yesterday afternoon off and decided to walk around Kohl's, one of my favorite stores. I was in there for two hours! As you've noticed, I don't really talk about fashion too much on this blog. The main reason for that is my terrible self-esteem around my body. It's no secret that my weight's ballooned up in the past two years due to my binge eating disorder. My fashion sense is totally horrendous and most days I'm in my favorite LC leggings and an oversized top. I barely ever wear jeans anymore because none of them fit anymore -- yes I know really really sad. Last time I was at Kohl's shopping for jeans, I found that I really liked the Lee Jean's Relaxed Fit range. I wanted to pick up another pair of jeans from this line in the "skinny" fit.  I found a dark blue skinny jean that fit perfectly around my legs, but it would not zip up! And I refused to size up from the size 16. I loved the jeans so much that I'm determined to fit in them, hence inspiring this post!

I found this Skinny Jeans challenge on laurenconrad.com that I've been wanting to try for a long time. I figured that my new jeans-struggle would be the perfect opportunity for me to try this challenge and see if it works! It's a 7-day challenge, but I thought I would extend it to 14-days. What it boils down to is eating healthier, drinking more water, and exercising daily. The post on the LC website has a meal plan and the "rules" laid out very clearly. It's a little too intense for someone like me, so I'm going to modify it slightly. Basically here's my version of "the rules":

• Drink 8-10 glasses of water a day
• Eat no more than 1,500 calories per day
• Eat 3 servings of fruit and 3 servings of vegetables per day
• Keep carbohydrates to less than 180g and protein no less than 70g
• Reduce sodium to less than 2,000mg per day
• Exercise 5x a week

Seems fairly straightforward and easy, huh! By far the hardest thing to do (at least for me) is to eat enough protein, not go overboard on the carbs, and keep my sodium in check. The end goal for me is to be able to zip up my new jeans in 2 weeks! I'm hoping that little goals like these are going to help me lose some pounds before starting residency. I'll be weighing in on how I did in two weeks, April 16! :) Also, I ordered some whey protein, which means that I can start doing strength training again. I also ordered Lauren Conrad's "Style" as a pick-me-up, which I cannot wait to read! 

Stretching Routine

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you'll know that I've struggled with weight for the past year. It hasn't been unintentional weight gain. It's been weight gain from an incredibly unhealthy diet. I'm ashamed to say that I've been eating mainly fried foods and a lot of takeout over the past year. I'm also ashamed to say that food and stress-eating has been my main coping mechanism over the past year. I've tried to go back to eating a healthy diet several times over the past year, but I've relapsed every time. I haven't checked my weight, but I'm sure I've gained at least 20 pounds since last year.

Now that the majority of my medical school duties are over, I'm looking forward to finally shedding the pounds for good. Indiana has a lot of beautiful parks and nature trails. I woke up this morning intending to go for a nature walk to begin my fitness journey, but unfortunately it started pouring as soon as I put my clothes on :( guess I should've looked up the weather before making plans! Hopefully the weather will be clear the rest of the week so I can make it out to the trails.

Because of the rain, I decided to just do some light exercises at the apartment. I love the Fitness Blender videos for at-home workouts! However, I've been sedentary for SO long that the thought of doing a cardio workout was very daunting (hence why I want to start off doing fun, easy nature walks). Browsing through their video library, I stumbled upon a stretching video that I've embedded above. Oh my goodness, it loosened up my muscles soooo much! It hit all of my sore muscle spots and it was only 6 minutes long! I'm really looking forward to doing this multiple times per day, even at my work desk!

I honestly think this video is excellent for all of us girls who haven't exercised in a while, have stiff muscles in the morning, or need a nice warmup before a cardio workout. Also good for those of us who sit at a desk most of the day and don't get much exercise at work. Although this video isn't a calorie scorcher, it's still a good way to get your body prepped for more intense workouts. I can definitely see myself doing this routine in the morning, around noontime, and in the evening to help relax my muscles. I'm also looking forward to drinking more water and eating more calorie-controlled meals. I may even make fruit-infused water while I'm in Indiana for a little extra kick! Expect updates ;)

Words | Happy & Healthy #2

I'm super proud to be bringing this post to you guys this morning!

My last Happy & Healthy Words post was back in January, but things became so busy in the months following that I didn't get a chance to begin my health journey in January like I originally wanted. However, I'm super happy to say that I have been controlling my diet for the past THREE WEEKS and have even begun exercising again!!! Now, I'm not really following a catabolic plan where I'm shedding weight, but I have gotten my eating habits under control -- insanely much better control than where I was earlier this year, which was one of my biggest goals for this year. My diet is incredibly unhealthy and definitely needs a lot of modifications. I've let myself spiral out of control for the past six years to the point where I've gained a LOT of weight which I'm not proud of. So this year, my biggest goal is to be able to eat a normal diet and to lose some of the weight I've accumulated. I'm taking baby steps towards my weight loss goal, starting with regulating my diet.

The biggest thing I'm super proud of is the fact that I'm no longer eating out. No more getting takeout for dinner, eating at the hospital cafeteria during lunch, skipping breakfast, eating tons of salty snacks. That may sound like a fairly easy thing to do, but for someone like me whose not too savvy at cooking and so accustomed to eating take out, it was a huge feat. I'm super happy and feel so accomplished. And honestly, it's so much cheaper and more satisfying to cook meals at home and pack lunches. As a result, my sodium intake has dropped significantly. I feel like I have more energy and just happier. A lot of it has to do with the fact that the guilt of getting takeout is no longer there. Like I said, I feel very accomplished when I cook at home and it's a ton of fun trying out new recipes!

I hear that it takes 21 days to change a habit, and I completely agree with that statement. Now that I've spent 3 weeks eating at home-made meals, I no longer have huge cravings for McDonalds or fried chicken or greasy Chinese food. Of course I still want to eat these things and crave junk food from time to time, but I'm able to control myself a lot more. I allot myself one day (usually on the weekend) when I'm allowed to eat whatever I want. So if I was craving frozen pizza, I'd go ahead and eat a frozen pizza on Saturday night as a cheat meal.

I can't tell you guys how excited I am that I'm finally able to take matters into my hand and control my diet. I feel so much better already after only a few weeks of eating cleaner. I have more energy, I feel happier, I feel lighter and less bloated, and just so accomplished! The next phase of my health plan is to be able to eat a more calorie-controlled diet so I actually begin losing weight. Right now I'm eating about 1500-1800 calories a day but I want to drop it down to 1400 calories and begin exercising. It's the combination of eating fewer calories and exercising that really helps me shed weight. Right now, I'm getting around 50-60% of my calories from carbs. This week, I'm going to start eating a 40-30-30 calorie diet where I'm eating 40% carbs, 30% fat, and 30% protein.  I also have a bunch of other things I want to get improve such as dental hygiene, exercising, etc but I'm taking things slow and one thing at a time to avoid overwhelming myself with all these behavior changes. It's a slow process, but in my mind the more time you devote to changing one thing, the deeper that behavior will be engrained into your routine.

Hope to keep these posts up. I find these kinds of posts to be very positive and motivating and a good way for me to share my experiences and chalk out some plans for the future!