Last Day at the Restaurant!

So today was my very last day working at the restaurant! I'm a little sad because I'll miss some of the people I worked with, but primarily relieved for the opportunities that will open up now that I have more free time.

Tomorrow is when I officially start my new healthier, happier lifestyle. I'll start the fitness side of it with a pre-made calendar by my absolute favorite fitness blogger, Cassey Ho. She has a series on YouTube called "Blogilates." I found her about 2 or 3 years ago online and have fallen in love with her as a fitness instructor. Her videos are well-made and it's basically like watching a pilates class online. She's bubbly and upbeat and just makes you feel happy, even when you're seriously struggling to follow along with her. She's pretty tough! I'm starting out with a beginner's calendar because some of her normal calendar's can get pretty extreme. And the best part is... if I want to do more than the scheduled workouts for the day, then I'm perfectly able to! Her schedule is just the bare minimum that I will allow myself to do. I know I won't love all of the workouts, but the points is to push through them as a challenge to myself and my body.

As for the diet part of my weight-loss journey, I want to do something more progressive than extreme. I've tried cutting down and eating super healthy too fast before, and it seems to scare me off from maintaining the diet. I read a blog about going vegan and how the girl started by having one vegan meal a day until she was fully vegan. Now, I don't want to go vegan or even vegetarian, I'm a girl who likes her meat. But I want to apply this concept to "healthy meals." Healthy meals meaning non-processed whole meals with veggies, fruits and meat. The problem is that I really like food. And I don't mean it in the sense that I eat just because I'm bored or when I get depressed. I eat a lot of food because I genuinely like the taste and making really good food makes me happy. So I figure if I first commit to one healthy meal a day, as in fruits, veggies, and/or protein while avoiding any processed products, then maybe I can build up to two healthy meals a day and eventually all three. So my plan is to have one healthy meal a day the first week. By the end of it I can gage whether I can bump that up to two or maybe decide I need another week to get into the rhythm of it. Also, this whole committing to one healthy meal a day is doesn't mean I'm not allowed to have more than one a day, it just means I have to have one healthy meal at the bare minimum.

I'm also cutting out soda entirely, which I actually started this past week. In college, I never really drank soda. Maybe once a month max. It was just easier and more affordable to drink water. But now that I'm back home, where my Dad and brother are soda junkies, I've picked up the bad habit again. I know it's just useless calories that are holding me back further from my goal.

So tomorrow I will post my official starting weight, and I'm also going to buy a measuring tape after I get off work tonight so I can see how many inches I can potentially lose around my thighs and waist and such. I've never tried the measuring tape before. So I'm going to have to do a little research on how to go about it so I can have accurate measurements.

There's one last thing I have to mention because I'm so excited about it! I decided to ask my parents for a nice juicer for my birthday next month. I've never had one before but have always loved the idea of them. My dad decided to get me one that's top of the line and he ordered it today. I'll post more about it when my birthday actually comes around, but my hopes for it are that I can replace one meal a day with a juice concoction to cut a few more calories and get more veggie and fruit servings in during the day. I think I would only ever replace one meal with the juice because I don't want to develop any dangerous eating habits. I'm past that point in my life. I just want to feel light and free in my own skin and not be suffering from hunger or malnutrition constantly.

Tomorrow sparks a new beginning and I can't wait!

TTFN