Week 2 Weigh-In

Breakfast: 4 egg whites w/onion; yogurt
Lunch: chicken and mixed veggies w/2 cutie clementines
Snack: baby carrots
Dinner: turkey and black bean chili
Exercise: 30 minutes treadmill, 15 minutes upper/lower body Cybex machines, 5 minutes rowing machine, 15 minutes stationary bike
Snack: TBA (I'm thinking a yogurt and then later an apple w/PB2 would be nice)

What a week! Sorry I've been slouching on posting lately. Starting back to school/interning this week didn't leave me with much energy or inspiration by the time I sat down at the computer at night. I kept up with myfitnesspal, for sure, so the diet's still good (no worries there!). I would like to think that the weeks to come will prove to be a little easier to keep up with posting every day, but no promises yet! I will try to at least post my meals everyday, like I have been, but I'm not sure how much actual content I'll be able to get down. Sorry!

Overall, this week has been amazing! I am in love with the place I'm interning at -- the people, the kids, the environment, the experience I'm getting there, the independence (and yet support) I'm given -- It's truly been a great experience so far, and it's only been four days! Really hopeful that within the next 7 weeks I will have grown that much more into the professional I hope to be someday. And that's not to say my other rotations haven't been great, by the way, I just have been looking forward to this rotation since undergrad and was worried that the reality of being there wouldn't live up to all the expectations I had built up over the past two years... Worry eliminated! It's great!

But enough about that, I'm also in a fantastic mood because weigh-in was today and I was happy with the number on the scale (how often can you say that?). My goal was to have lost at least 10 pounds since I started this journey (again) on January 2nd.

Starting weight: 262.2
Previous weight: 254
Current weight: 250.2

So I lost 3.8 since last week, bringing my total up to 12 pounds lost so far this year! I met my goal of 10+ pounds lost and feel great! I've been telling myself all week that regardless of the number on the scale, I will be happy because the entire week I've felt lighter and have been noticing changes about the way I feel in my skin. I don't know if this makes sense to anyone, but it's been a long time since I've been able to "suck in" my stomach. Not that I can completely, now, but I can feel those muscles working that I haven't felt in such a long time. That's such a non-scale victory for me! I love feeling all these changes within me because they give me motivation to continue, whether or not I get a good number on Fridays.

Another thing that really keeps me determined when I'm feeling discouraged about my actual weight is a list of questions I read a few months back in Made to Crave by Lysa Terkeurst:

- Did I overeat this week on any day? 
- Did I move more and exercise regularly?
- Do I feel lighter than I did at this time last week? 
- Did I eat in secret or out of anger or frustration?
- Did I feel that, at any time, I ran to food instead of to God?
- Before I hopped on the scale, did I think I'd had a successful, God-pleasing week?

Hope these can help inspire and motivate you to continue like they have for me.

Wearing the "Big Loser" shirt my mom bought me the other day. Underneath the logo it says "Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. --Matthew 10:39"

Hope you have a great weekend! 

'Night y'all!