Monday!

Good evening readers!

I do obligatorily hate Mondays. But I secretly actually like Mondays. Why? Monday is Zumba day! It's a great way to start out my week with a fun but effective workout. Here is the all-important workout selfie: 

Definite sweat today! (Ignore the duck face, I was exhausted!) My legs were super sore from T-25's lower focus on Saturday, so this was a challenge. But a fun challenge! I mean I burned 3200 calories today, so it's worth it.

I also followed my diet pretty well today, so it was all-in-all a pretty fantastic day.

Wedding planning is moving along. We heard back from the church today on available dates at the end of April/beginning of May, so now we just have to decide on a venue and hope a date or two match. Which means we're getting closer. Maybe by tomorrow we'll have something concrete!

Until then, readers.

Kayti

Weigh in: Week 2

Good evening readers!

Sorry for the lack of post yesterday. I had a couple glasses of wine and fell asleep at 9pm. On a Saturday. Because I'm a rockstar.

But, before sleeping I took my stats. And here's the verdict after week 2.

I lost 2.5 lbs! That brings my total to 7 pounds!

I didn't lose any inches yet. Boo. I know I'll get there once I start doing more weight training. Right now my focus is on cardio to boost my stamina.

I feel like I am also doing better mentally. I think I have finally just decided that this is my wedding, I only get one, and I am going to get what I want. And damn what other people think! How did I come to this conclusion?

I went out to lunch with my sister-in-law Sam yesterday. She just got married to my brother on January 21st, so she went through all this recently. She had a lot of good advice about being true to yourself and not making decisions for others. It was something that I knew, but apparently needed to hear from someone else. 

I know that I have vocalized my high stress level in previous posts, and a lot of support has come of it. Today my future mother in law, Kris, gave me this anti-stress gift:

I actually think it's helping! I mean, we've failed this Destiny raid a good two dozen times, yet I'm not angry. I've also received a lot of encouraging texts and phone calls, so thank you to all of those who were worried. I'm doing much better.

And thanks to all of you for reading, I appreciate it. Hopefully we'll take this blog all the way to the wedding!

Until tomorrow, readers.

Kayti

Healthy affects everyone!

Good evening, readers!

I have some pretty awesome coworkers. Normally Friday is our "donuts and pizza" day. But since I have been eating healthier, everyone decided to bring a healthy lunch today instead!

We had lettuce wraps with avocado and fresh fruit, and it was awesome. Plus, we all benefitted from eating something healthy.

Bill and I saw another venue today, and it was also really nice. This decision is going to be more difficult than ever, and I know we need to make it pretty soon. All three of the places we are considering have their pros and cons, obviously. I wish I had seen a venue that just made me think, "that's the one!" but I haven't, and there isn't really time to keep looking for "the one" within our price range. I would be happy with any of the current options, I just can't decide between them!

Random: why did no one ever tell me how awesome the salad bar is at Ruby Tuesday? I could live there. Just saying.

Tomorrow I have to give my little walking buddy back to his rightful owner, but at least we can get in a nice long walk tomorrow morning in the expectedly beautiful weather!

Tomorrow is also the week 2 weigh-in. Hopefully we see some positive results!

Until then, readers.

Kayti

I actually ate my vegetables

Good evening, readers.

Today felt like a weird day. Does that ever happen to you? Like things just feel "off" somehow, but you can't pinpoint it? It's not a bad feeling, and today wasn't a bad day. Actually, compared to the rest of my week, today was a pretty good day.

I woke up late. For those of you who know me well, I am never late for anything. Lately I have stopped using an alarm, as I always wake up before it anyway. Apparently that was a poor decision. I wasn't late for work, but I did have to rush and eat my breakfast in the car (a protein shake and a fiber one bar). Because of this, I felt way hungrier than usual by lunch time. 

I was starving, but I made it through with only a little slip. I got some encouragement from an old friend and my sister-in-law. Sometimes you don't even know what you need until you get it.

When I got home I made our favorite dinner - chicken and vegetable stir fry with white rice and egg rolls. It's one of the only ways to get me to eat my vegetables, I swear.

I took 12000 steps today and burned 3000 calories. I didn't actually add up my calories today, but I know I for sure have a deficit of at least 1000.

I am wondering, readers, if you think I should post some healthy recipes to go along with my blog? I don't know very many off the top of my head, but it would be a good way to get me to try different things!

Wedding planning today was surprisingly not overwhelming for the first time ever. And that's funny, because we got some actual price quotes from some venues today. Seeing what things are actually going to cost (not just a food and beverage minimum) can be a little shocking, but I was surprisingly calm. I think I had spent so much time worrying about the money that I more or less already knew what the numbers were going to look like.

I also bought some items online to do what is called the "bridesmaid proposal."

And buying that stuff made me think of a good way to combat all this stress. Every time some wedding decision gets overwhelming, I just turn my focus to something in the wedding I am actually looking forward to. When I can't decide colors, I can look at dresses. When we can't find a good DJ, at least I can work on our registry. When I can turn my mind away from the issue for a bit and then return to it, it usually doesn't seem nearly as bad as it did previously.

Thanks for listening, readers. Good news: tomorrow's Friday!

Until then,

Kayti

Improvements

No worries, I'm not going to shave my head or anything.

I had a better day than yesterday, so that's saying something.

I took 11,000 steps, burned 3000 calories, and consumed about 1600 calories. I didn't exercise much today, just a lot of walking. But as Bill says, I've earned a day of rest after two days of intense exercise (Zumba Mondays and Yoga Tuesdays). My coworker even treated me to a mini Rice Krispie bar (thanks Aja!) and it was a really nice treat. Thanks to whoever commented about the 90%/10% rule, which made me feel a whole lot less guilty about allowing myself a treat every now and again.

I'm also really thankful for all the support I have received through this blog thus far. I am happy to hear that I have even inspired some of you to begin or resume your own fitness journey. Please feel free to let me know how you are progressing. We can do this together!

After last night's meltdown (exacerbated by a dog who wouldn't come when called) I am feeling more like I have a grip on things. We are seeing another venue on Friday at the request of my mother. But I swear we are making a decision on venue and date after that. I swear it.

Until then, readers.

Kayti

Good days, bad days

I almost didn't write a post today.

Sorry, I have no cute pictures of puppies or workout selfies to share.

Today was not a good day for me. I'm really stressed about making wedding decisions, and I haven't even made one yet! I have no idea what I want, and every time I think I've finally decided something I get stuck wondering if it's actually my decision anymore.

I went to yoga today, and it wasn't even relaxing. I cheated a little on the diet. Again, not enough to make me gain weight, but enough to feel guilty.

I don't mean to complain, and I'm sorry if this post is annoying.

Hopefully tomorrow is a better day than today.

Until tomorrow, readers.

Kayti

Monday Motivation

Good evening, readers.

I'll keep this short as it's late and I am tired.

It was incredibly difficult to find the motivation to roll out of bed this morning. Which is why I'm glad we are dog sitting for the rest of the week! 

That's Cy, our friend Jenn's dog and my walking buddy. I enjoy our early morning walks, usually between 5 and 5:30 am. It wakes me up and gets me moving, and just makes the day a little bit better. I wish we had our own dog so I could do this every day! Someday... What motivates you to keep going?

It wasn't really the best day for me diet-wise. I had my normal breakfast and lunch, with chicken, rice, and green beans for dinner. But I did a little stress eating this afternoon. It wasn't enough to throw me off track, but it was enough to make me feel guilty.

I did burn 3300 calories today, and took 17000 steps. That's what a good Zumba class will do for ya. Hopefully it all balances out.

And we'll just ignore the whole wedding situation for the moment.

Until tomorrow, readers.

Kayti

Week 1 Weigh In

Good evening, readers.

That's me, treating myself to a dark chocolate hershey bar. Why? I lost 4.5 lbs this week! I guess all that hard work was worth it, and I feel like I've got a really good start to this long, long journey.

I didn't lose any inches, but I know that will come with time. At least I am seeing some positive  movement somewhere!

Today we went to the Wild outdoor hockey game with my brother and sister-in-law. At lunch we talked a lot about the wedding planning, and I think we may have made some decisions. I'm going to keep them mum for the moment, though, as we still have to check on some things before we can finalize.

Look at all that progress made today! It's been a banner day in the Flynn/Emerson (Flemerson?) household.

Until tomorrow, readers.

Kayti

Dining out - it can be done!

Good evening readers,

It was a pretty stressful day in wedding planning land. Here's what I worked on for a sold three hours today :

Yep, that's my chart comparing the important aspects of our possible reception venues. Why? Because I have an entire drawer full of Post-Its (thanks to my 3M engineer fiance) and had to find some use for them.

I thought that this exercise would help me figure out what was actually important to me in a  venue, as well as uncover any missing information. All it really did was make me even more stressed because I can't make one darn decision.

Today's diet and exercise routine wasn't my best day, but it wasn't my worst day by far, either.

I did the "Speed 1.0" video of T25, but I forgot to put my FitBit on for a few hours after my shower. Thus I only logged 6,500 steps and burned a total of 2500 calories, but the real total is actually a bit higher.

For food today, I skipped breakfast. I know this is bad, but I looked in my fridge, freezer, and cupboards, and nothing seemed appealing to me. So I just made some coffee.

For lunch I had a veggie burrito bowl from Chipotle, which, according to their nutrition calculator, clocks in at 490 calories. I also had two cups of popcorn as a snack for 70 calories.

For dinner we went to Buffalo Wild Wings, where I had 5 traditional salt & vinegar wings (my favorite!). The website says that a snack size tradition win is 850 calories, but that is with sauce. Since mine had no sauce I'm going to say 750. I also had the veggies with some ranch dressing, so lets go right back to 850.

Overall, I still had a calorie deficit for the day, although its only about 1000 calories. But it does show that I can dine out and maintain my diet. This has always been a hurdle for me when dieting, because it's so hard to know how much you should actually be eating when a giant mound of food is shoved in your face.

Tomorrow we will see what kind of progress (if any) this first week has brought us.

Until then, readers.

Kayti

Is Cheat Day Okay?

Good evening readers,

I'm going to keep it short and sweet (hopefully). 

It was a pretty normal day for me. I ate basically the same things (about 1200 calories). I only have 10,500 steps today, as I did the ab workout for T25, and you don't get a lot of steps with that.

I burned 2,841 calories. I don't really have a photo to go along with this because it was just a normal day.

My question for you all today is this: Is it okay to give yourself a cheat day?

I had a glass of wine today. And two Girl Scout cookies. I don't really consider that a "cheat day". It's all about moderation, right? I didn't eat the whole box of cookies, after all. I just know that my birthday is in a month (March 21) and I get a lot of free food coupons. I was thinking that I could make that my cheat day, and have one day that's free of calorie counting and worrying about what I eat. But how do you keep on track after that? I've tried this before, and that's always the hardest part.

Any thoughts on the validity of a cheat day, and how to keep on track afterward?

I don't think I can even talk about wedding planning at this point. It is so overwhelming to think of the sheer dollar amount that I start to break out in hives at the thought.

Until next time, readers.

Kayti.

Knowing Your Body

Good evening, readers!

I think I may have overdone it a bit yesterday. I spent a good 20 minutes stretching when I got home from work because my calf muscles are so tight. I decided to honor my body and take a day off from my vigorous workouts. So I did this instead: 

I wasn't a total slacker, though. I still took 11, 768 steps and burned 2,900 calories.

Food was pretty similar to every other day. My dieting menu is pretty boring, but I like the routine. It helps me stick to it.

Breakfast:
Oatmeal - 120
Banana - 110

Snack:
Apple - 90

Lunch -
Yogurt - 80
Sandwich - 160
Pears - 40

Snack:
Cheese stick - 80

Dinner: 
Soup - 160
Salad - 60
Bread - 120

Looks like that's 1020 calories. Not too bad. Don't worry, I always eat dessert :)

I've started working on a pro/con comparison chart for the two venues we are seriously considering for our reception. I know its a bit nerdy, but it's a big decision! I mean no matter what we choose it will be the third most money I have ever spent on something, behind our house and my car. So I'm going to weigh all my options as carefully as possible.

Also, if anyone has any good calf stretches, I could really use them!

Until next time, readers.

Kayti

What does the T stand for anyway?

Good evening, readers. It's that time of night again!

Today I participated in my least-favorite exercise routine: T25.

Yep, that face right there sums up exactly how I feel about this nonsense. What does that T even stand for? All the workouts are 25 minutes long, so the 25 makes sense.

I'm assuming it stands for Torture. Torture for 25 minutes = T25.

I'm only doing it until my Cize DVD's get here. I'd rather dance than jump up and down like a fool (some would argue those are two in the same). Last January/Febuary, Bill and I did the entire 5 week cycle of T25. I lost about 20 lbs and could finally do a respectable pushup, so I know it works. It's just torturous.

Today's food looks pretty okay, I suppose.

Breakfast: 

Whole wheat toast with homemade, sugar-free raspberry jam - 120 calories

Banana - 110 calories

Snack: Apple - 80 calories

Black coffee - 0 calories (Gods gift to dieters)

Lunch:

Yogurt - 80 calories

Turkey and cheese sandwich - 160 calories

Diced pears - 40 calories

Snack:

Special K bar - 90 calories

Dinner: 

Talapia filet - 110 calories

New potatoes - 150 calories

Colby cheese - 120 calories

Let's get the calculator out here... Looks like 1060 calories thus far. (I just want you all to know that I write this blog post and THEN eat dessert, so I don't have to log it here. Don't worry, it's never over 200 calories).

For activity, I did my daily walking as well as my T25. According to the ol' FitBit, I've taken 13,676 steps and burned 2,936 calories. That's another pretty good calorie deficit day. And now I'm sick of saying the word calorie.

Wedding planning? Still stressful, still stalled on the whole "where are you going to have your reception" situation. I've started really crunching the numbers, and hopefully I will have a nice big chart full of statistics to show Bill when he gets home from Oregon.

Until then, readers.

Kayti

Taking it to the Mat!

My new and exciting fitness activity is... Yoga! (Yep, that's my feet on a yoga mat. I didn't want to awkwardly ask someone in my class to take my photo, considering I know no one in there and making friends is not really my forte.)

It doesn't seem that hard when you're doing it, but man am I sore the next day. And I can already tell I'm getting more flexible.

So besides my daily walking, I went to my one-hour yoga class. I walked 11,942 steps and burned 2820 calories.

And I ate exactly the same things I ate yesterday. Because I'm boring.

So I'm doing well on the calorie deficit situation. Technically, according to math and stuff, I should have already lost like a pound between yesterday and today (1820 cals today, 2000 something yesterday). And you need a 3500 calorie deficit to lost a pound, right? Ha! We'll see what the scale says.

Again, nothing to report on the wedding planning front. No venue chosen, no date set, no decisions made... at this point the decision to make a decision is going to be a milestone.

Although I did look at some dresses online to day for the fun of it. But we'll keep my opinions on that subject mum for now.

Until tomorrow, readers.

Kayti

Diet: Day 1

Does anyone else's face get all red like this after a workout?

I don't think this photo really does it justice, but my cheeks and nose get red and splotchy. Any ideas on what causes this and if I can prevent it?

Welcome to the diet, day 1. I'm not doing any crazy fad diets. I've decided to count my calories to make sure I have less coming in than going out.

Today I did an hour of Zumba, plus 20 minutes of brisk walking during my lunch break. According to my Fitbit (aka my bestie) I took 15,387 steps (about 7 miles) and burned 3,138 calories over 90 active minutes. Not bad for a Monday.

So here's what I've eaten today:
Breakfast: Low sugar instant oatmeal - 120 calories
                 Almond milk, unsweetened, 1 cup - 30 calories
Snack: Coffee, black
            Medium apple - 90 calories
Lunch: Yogurt - 80 calories
             Turkey & cheese sandwich - 160 calories
             Sugar free diced pear fruit cup - 40 calories
Snack: Special K bar - 90 calories
Dinner: Lean Cuisine - 280 calories
             Banana - 110 calories

I also drank about 80 oz of water today.

According to my calculations (legit needed a calculator for this) I've consumed 1000 calories. That means I have a deficit of 2100 calories. It also means I need to eat something, because that's not enough calories for one day.

Could I have made better choices? Probably. I mean the sodium content in that Lean Cuisine was through the roof. But hey, at least I said "no" to the free cupcakes at work!

As far as wedding planning goes, we didn't make any progress on deciding anything. I did talk to my mom for about an hour, though. She always makes me feel better, especially about all the stress wedding planning is causing me.

She said, "Don't go crazy, but if you really love something, we can make it work." 

My parents and fiancé are pros at easing my anxiety when it comes to making decisions. Not gonna lie, I have a pretty killer support system.

Until tomorrow, readers.

Kayti

The Ugly Truth

So that's me. Today. And my very cute fiancé in the background.

I don't hate my body. In fact, I appreciate all it does for me. So now I'm giving back to it by working hard to keep it healthy.

Here's my stats. No judgment.

Bust: 38"

Waist: 30"

Hips: 48"

Thighs: 31"

Arms: 16"

So obviously there is some room for improvement here. I hope to lose a total of 20 inches, hopefully from the hips, thighs, and arms. I am also looking to lose weight, and will keep you updated on how much weight I have lost (but not my actual weight - everyone has secrets).

While some might think it embarrassing to put such personal information on the internet for everyone to see, I think knowing the numbers and having a concrete goal will help me feel like I'm actually progressing. It will also give anyone reading this a clear marker of whether or not my methods are working.

We did a lot of wedding "planning" today, including two venue tours. I say "planning" because we talk about a lot of things, but nothing is actually decided.

For example, today we discussed whether or not we want to write our own vows. Over soup, salad, and breadsticks at the Olive Garden I promised Bill that I would always be the Princess Peach to his Mario, the Kortana to his Master Chief, the Kazooie to his Banjo, and his forever player 2. Apparently we are NOT allowed to write our own vows anymore.

We saw two possible venue locations today. We have now seen 6 total, but have narrowed it down to our two favorites. Hopefully we will make a decision soon and be able to set a date.

My favorite part of today was finally getting this back from Continental Diamond:

Sparkly! I love that my ring is simple, classic, and elegant. It is something that I will be proud to wear for the rest of my life :)

Thanks for reading. More updates tomorrow.

Until then,

Kayti

Here Goes Nothing

Planning a wedding is stressful.

Trying to lose weight is hard.

Bright idea! Let's do both of these things at the same time, shall we?

My name is Kayti, and I'm getting married! I'm also a stress eater. 

Planning a wedding+stress eating=Disaster.

So here I am, writing this all down, but why?
1. I think writing this blog every day will hold me accountable for my food intake and exercise.
2. It's a place to organize my thoughts.
3. It might be nice to have a record of my wedding planning process.

We have not set a wedding date yet, but by my calculations I have 420 days in which my caloric output should be greater than my caloric intake.

Buh-bye, Ben & Jerry. It was nice knowin' ya!

So here's my promise to anyone who might be interested in reading about my journey:
I will post my daily food intake, my daily exercise, and any wedding planning activities that took place that day. DAILY.

And if you are reading this, hold me accountable! I need someone to tell me to stop eating already. 

If you have ideas for me about weddings, exercise, or diets, I would love to hear them!

Tomorrow will be an adventure in self-confidence, so stay tuned!

Until then,

Kayti