So close!

Gah! LOOK AT THIS! 

I only have 0.8 pounds to lose to hit my 4% goal on my diet bet!! Seriously, this is nuts. I can't believe I'm only halfway done and I'm gonna smash that goal.

I know that I will hit that goal by tomorrow morning when I weigh myself. Now anything else I lose is just cake. Not the kind you eat. Or I should say, not the kind I eat. Anymore.


This is absolutely bananas, you guys. (Wink, Wink) I'm so effing proud of myself right now. I ran into a friend today that hadn't seen me in awhile and he noticed I was smaller. That probably feels better than any of this other stuff. I wake up every morning actually excited to go to the gym (WHAT?!), and that's making all of this so much easier. I am getting super nerdy though. I can't stop taking selfies and checking myself out in the mirror. No one told me this was a side effect of getting healthier. Is it just me or what?

Also, for anyone else trying to get healthy, I recently subscribed to this fantastic youtube channel, VanAwesome. The guy really is quite awesome, and his project is called The Handsoming. You should check it out. He's hilarious and motivating. And there are cats in his videos. Can't lose with this one:

My new Sunday routine.

Since I seem to have less and less time on the weekdays- I'm now making it my new Sunday tradition to buy and prep my food for the week. I spent $122 on ALL healthy food and then spent the last hour prepping everything for the week. I have the following in my fridge right now: 4 to-go containers with baked chicken and brown rice with veggies, 8 baggies of baby carrots, 7 baggies of broccoli, 10 baggies of seedless grapes, 6 mini containers of hummus, and 10 banana halves in baggies in the freezer for my protein shakes. It only took me an hour to get everything ready for the whole week! No more excuses for not having the time, because I just proved it barely takes any time at all.

For those of you that aren't fatties, you probably won't understand this. There was a moment in the grocery store where I had to stop and smile. At the checkout counter, there was this overwhelming feeling of pride. In the past, I think I always felt a little bit of shame when I paid for food I shouldn't be buying. There was a little voice in my head that thought the checkout person was judging my purchases. That feeling completely went away. Not one item in my cart was unhealthy. Not one. And you know what? It feels good.

I'm gonna make this week my bitch.

Can't stop me now!

So, it's officially been 8 days since I started my diet bet. I'm down 7 pounds. That's nearly a pound a day. I did not think it would be dropping that fast. The funny part is, I've been working out for over a month and a half now. The weight is only coming off because I finally changed the diet. I've heard that weight loss is 70% what you eat and 30% working out, and that seems to be pretty accurate. I'm loving this getting up early, getting my work out in, and off to work with my packed lunches (and sometimes dinner for the long days). I can honestly say my confidence is through the roof right now. It feels so good to finally take control of my life.

I should also add that my goal is shifting a bit from just training for a half marathon to a different end game. I've been following a lot of different fitness sites, videos, and Instagrams with super in shape chicks. All of them are fitness models, of course, but their bodies are ridiculous. The biggest difference is they are lifting instead of just doing cardio. While I do still want to keep up with the running, I've decided to put a little more effort into the lifting part. Doing the personal training sessions is a good start. I'm logging everything we do so I can do it on my own when my sessions run out.

I mean, look at this chick.

Is that not the most motivating picture you've ever seen?! Her workouts are crazy, but clearly they work. Honestly, my goal has changed to just being an all around badass. I mean, why not? I don't care if it takes me a few years (which it will), I'm going for it.

Was my diet this week perfect? No, but it was a billion times better than last week, and definitely the week before that. I'm just taking tiny steps at a time, and I'll get there eventually.

Now, on to my beauty rest so I can get up and do this all over again tomorrow : )

Life is good.

I am a woman in process. I'm just trying like everybody else. I try to take every conflict, every experience, and learn from it. Life is never dull. - Oprah Winfrey

Saw this quote on the book of Faces this morning, and thought, this is wonderful. My life is certainly never dull. I'm feeling that some of these new additions to my life are becoming a habit. I took a break yesterday from working out and realized I missed it. I honestly did. I'm starting Week 6 tomorrow morning of my 5K training. That's crazy. And this morning, I had my personal training session and after I was finished, decided to do 30 minutes on the Elliptical. I don't recall having ever done 30 minutes on that devil machine. When it was done, I felt like I could have done more. I only left because I have work to do.

Either way, all of this is just a new learning experience. I'm learning that I actually enjoy working out. I actually look forward to eating my healthy meals because they motivate me onward. This is certainly brand new to me. I hope that this is just the start of a beautiful friendship between the gym and I. Yes, I threw a movie quote in there ; )

I hope all of you have a freaking fantastic week! Get it in!! (Whatever your "it" may be.)

I DID IT!!

Whoa. You guys. I seriously just ran for TWENTY MINUTES!! I cannot believe it. No really, I, Nikki Willson, ran for 20 minutes straight. How in the heck did I do that?! I feel like at some point today hell is going to freeze over and little piggies are going to be flying overhead. This is the best feeling in the world right now. I'm doin it, y'all!

I survived Day 1

Today was one big ol' successful day for me. I woke up at 5 am for gym time. The rest of the day was spent drinking tons of water. Seriously, I had to pee like every ten minutes. But I made it a whole day with NO COFFEE! I can't believe it. I didn't really have any headaches or the other crap that comes from caffeine withdrawal, so I'm happy! I do feel like my bed is calling me already and it's only 8 pm, but whatever. Sleep is awesome. I stuck with the diet plan of small meals spread throughout the day and honestly enjoyed it. I feel fantastic! Most of it is probably pride because I have never felt this good about accomplishing something. Particularly with my 5K training this morning. I'm honestly terrified for Saturday's workout because it's a solid 20 minutes of running. But I'm going to do it. I'm glad I started blogging again, too. It's a nice way to push myself through the day and know that it's better to share that I did what I was supposed to. Being healthy is way cooler than not. And even though I can rock being a big girl like nobody's business, I'd rather stick around this earth a little longer.

Here's to an awesome first day!

Willpower

I have it.

This morning, at 5 am, I made the journey to my favorite morning spot to pick up that ridiculously high-caloried Venti Iced White Chocolate Mocha with Skim Milk and No Whipped Cream (and yes that's how I order it, I may or may not be high maintenance). I also decided this morning that I wanted a donut. The beautiful donut pictured below. Very quick side note: Googling through all the other donuts to find that image was just ridiculous.

Anyway, back to this donut. I bought it. It should have been a sign that the coffee and donut rang up as $6.66. But nay, I continued onward to the eating of the donut. For some reason, after like two tiny pieces of it, I decided to save it for later.

Cut to 10 hours later, when I've completely changed my outlook on my diet (see previous post), and I see this donut just waiting in the Starbucks wrapper for me to come back to it.

F. My. Life.

Conveniently for me, I happen to have a roommate that LOVES donuts. And a higher metabolism than just about everyone else I know. Also, pretty sure he's the only person in the world with a 12 pack set of abs, but I digress. So this is what I did.

I brought the donut to Dave and said, "Can you please eat this so I won't?" There was maybe a millisecond of thought before he snatched it out of my hand and started devouring it right in front of me. I swear, I watched all of this happen in super slow-mo. I stood there silently, watching Dave pull milk out of the fridge and pour a glass. I watched as he scarfed that thing down like he'd never eaten a meal before in his life.

The best part: his attempt at making me feel better about it. First, he tried pretending that the first bite was horrible and was headed towards the trash. He followed that up with a "Psych!" (yes, he commonly uses outdated phrases of this nature) and shoved another bite down his throat. Then, he seriously had the gall to say "I'm so proud of you!" out loud. Only it sounded like "Ohmf tho prouth off ooo" because his mouth was full of donut and there were crumbs spraying every which way. Le sigh.

Either way, I am proud of myself for giving that delicious donut up. I'd rather see it bring my roommate and bestie that much joy than keep me from my goals. So there.

Have a good night, all! I've got a gym appointment I can't miss at 5 am!

Let's try this again, shall we?

HEY YA'LL! I've decided to get back on the blogging about my health journey. This time re-focused, more determined, and on a path already! I may have stumbled with the last round of keeping up with my goals, but the thing is... we all stumble sometimes. The key is to pick yourself back up. I think I've finally figured this whole thing out. I've mentioned via my primary social media outlet, Facebook, that I felt something click. Well, I have. I'm in the middle of Week 5 on my Couch to 5K training. My workout tomorrow morning looks like this:

Today, I stumbled upon something incredible. There's this website: http://diet.bt/17uc3GZ
It's called Diet Better. It's freaking genius. You pick one of the "games" and you pay $30 to "bet" on yourself losing weight. Specifically, 4% of your weight in 28 days. If you lose that 4%, you and the rest of the folks who did the same, split the pot. Right now, the game I'm playing has $62,250 to split between the winners. Money is DEFINITELY a motivator for me. Here's what that translates to for me:

-No more coffee. Sorry, Starbucks, you're gonna take a hit financially.
-Only water to drink for the next 27 days.
-Planned out meals that contain more things like vegetables. (WHAT?!)
-A LOT more Cardio.

I am going to kick ass at this. If you wanna play with me, click the link above and sign up!