It's been a year!

It's been a year! A few weeks ago I celebrated a year after I began my weight loss journey, as with every journey it has not been easy. I've had my ups and downs -more downs for sure {as in lowering my weight} ;-) something I am very proud of. Last year in June I joined a team of 50 bloggers working our way to lose weight, get healthier and drop inches all with the help of Shaklee Corporation.

I was ecstatic and surprised when I was chosen and I worked hard towards getting back on track. As we worked on changing our lifestyle we also supported each other something I am very grateful for. We made friendships that are still there and we celebrated each loss be it in weight or in inches or defeating daily challenges.

Last time I updated you on my weight loss was in Spring, I talked about how someone was trying to tell me something and I was certainly listening. I even managed to get my lowest weight since 2002! I was motivated and documenting my meals, counting calories and staying active. I rode my bike, danced at home with the help of my workout DVDs and even used Pinterest to help me stay focused. I was so inspired I shared with you my new playlist.

I know I shouldn't focus so much on my weight, but this also meant that I was shrinking a little in my measurements. I was watching my portions, drinking lots of water, making time to exercise for at least 30 minutes a day and my confidence level was at its highest in a longest time. 

Determination, you decide you want to achieve a goal and you begin making changes in your life to reach it. You map out all the resources you'll need to succeed and get to work on it. You set your mind to it and each and every day you take little or big steps towards achieving it. The mind, is quite powerful. It guides us towards what we want. 

You set your goals, you work on it by exercising and watching what you eat a few weeks later you begin to notice differences sometimes within a day or two you start to notice that your clothes fit differently, that you sleep better, you are in a better mood. 

For the past 2 months I have been focusing on our move, no this is not an excuse but this is me being responsible about my actions. About my choices, the last 3 months have been extremely busy. We first traveled to visit family in Southern California and Mexico then began packing up our home and preparing for our big move. It took over our daily activities and some days I felt frustrated because I wasn't making time or taking out time out of my day to workout, to prepare a home cooked meal or watch my portions. 

What makes it worst is that on some days I barely drank any water. I don't consider this a failure in my weight loss journey,  in fact I consider it a test of what I learned over the course of 10 months. 

My clothes still fit, but I know and feel I've gone up a little. This is about to change. Because this week, I'm ready to take back my health. I'm ready to make better choices. I'm ready to drink water. This week I've been watching my portions, I've been increasing my water intake and I'm already up to 48 ounces a day. I'm slowly but surely getting back up.

Although I ate my emotions, I managed to not gain too much 5 pounds total. I am not a robot who can program her mind, I am a human being and this is definitely a journey with  its own set of challenges, curved roads, detours and such.

But I am not giving up! I will not give up, it is a learning process and although I may have the occasional drive-thru meal it does not mean I am stopping. :-) This number will soon change to a smaller one and with working out regularly, eating balanced meals, controlling my portions and drinking much more water I will soon reach my lowest weight in the past year. I'm confident because I know I can do this.

We now have steps to climb to get to the bedrooms which means I am moving more than before at home. I climb those steps up and down roughly 20 times on any given day. I'm going for short walks as I get more and more comfortable on doing so here {there aren't any sidewalks! yikes! and there is a river nearby with many trees which equals to wildlife something I'm not very comfortable with -God forbid a snake falls on me! EEEEEKS!}.

I am also preparing our meals at home, we didn't have a kitchen to cook in for a couple of weeks so eating out was the only option... Now I can prepare and cook meals at home and it is making it easier in fact my family is very happy about eating homemade meals :D

Each day represents new challenges and of course I try to find new inspiration and motivation everywhere. The key is to keep going, keep moving forward and learn from yesterday. I do keep reminding myself that I've come a long way from last year and yes I am still a work in progress. :-)