Tip #4 Use Those Abs!

Stomach crunches aren't the only way to strengthen and tone your abs. You can work your abs in almost every activity you do: sitting, standing, cleaning, typing, and even lying down! Strong abs will protect your back, reduce the incidence of back pain, and improve your posture, stability and strength in everyday activities.

Contract your abdominal muscles as much as you can today. Start right now. Squeeze your abs and pull your belly button in towards your spine. Think of your abs like a sponge- you want to squeeze all the water out. To increase the contraction, bring your ribs downward about one inch toward your hip bones. Hold the contraction as long as you can. Go though this "stop-contract and-hold" process at least ten times today.

You're likely to forget as your busy day goes on (you've probably already stopped squeezing your abs just a few seconds ago), so do something to help you remember: wear a ring on a different finger, wear a different bracelet, wear different belt to remind you of your goal. Okay, get going- contract those abs tight!

Credit: Melanie Douglass

Tip #3 Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Keep sweet treats and salty snacks out of sight today. But just to clarify: these are not forbidden foods. Rather they are "occasional" foods that turn into "everyday" foods when they're sitting in plain sight, tempting us day after day. So place these types in the highest cupboard- like the one high above the fridge. If you have to actually grab a chair to reach a certain snack food, it will be ridiculously inconvenient to overindulge.

Then open your fridge and move anything that's a sweet or salty snack to the very back making it hard and out of sight. Remove any candy dishes or bags of treats from your sight. The simple rule of  "out of sight, out of mind" means you can still enjoy those snacks foods once and a while (as you should!) but not multiple times everyday.

Tip #2 Keep a Food Journal

Keep a food journal for today. Write down what you eat, how much you eat, what time and why you ate the food. If the journal goes well today, try to keep your food journal for a week or two- it will help you see where your heath habits may need improvement. It's too easy to forget about the little snacks and nibbles that happen throughout the day. A handful here and handful there can add up to hundreds of extra calories you don't even realize you're eating.
You don't need a fancy journal to keep track of your food intake for a day. Grab a piece of paper, use your day planner, or find an old notebook that you can tote around for a day.

Credit: Melanie Douglass

"This Could Be The Year"

I'm very anti "New Years resolution", simple because I think most of the time they are unrealistic, to vague or something that is out of our control.
That being said I do think it is a great time to have a fresh start and refocus on who you want to be and work on becoming a better day by day.

I plan to continue working on becoming healthier and get rid of this weight.
A few things

•  For those of my faithfully followers who have been here from the start you may remember my "Tip a day" from a book I have.... That slow died out. But I have a plan to bring that back!!! (Thanks to modern technology)
• More recently I will make a post saying "I'll blog more"  those post are about once a month, with no follow though. Hopefully with the new plan stated above there will be a post a day.

That being said a year is a long time 365 days to be exact! Things may change...who know what life will throw my way.
Last but certainly not least I'd like to thank all of those who have supported my in losing weight! I do believe this blog and social media has been big help in getting encouragement and support!

Current weight 253.2  I did enjoy my holidays....

Tip #1 Appreciate Your Body

Your body is Divine...with 206 sturdy bones, more the 650 dynamic muscles, 12 perfectly synchronized organ systems. and over 10,000,000,000,000 (trillion) life-giving human cells.

Your body is miraculous...Everyday your heart beats over 103,000 times, your respiratory system powers 25,920 breaths, your body produces a consistent 98.6 degrees of heat, and your produces almost 200 billion new blood cells each day.

And that's just the beginning... Every day your body and spirit work together to give you the fortitude to fulfill family, church, work, and community obligations. You take good care of everyone else it's time to take care of you.
Make a promise to yourself-right now-that you will appreciate your body as the precious gift from God it was meant to be. Satan is jealous of your physical body because he doesn't have one- and he'll continually try and seduce you to abuse, neglect, and despise yours. Don't let him.

Credit: Melanie Douglass

One Week

One week out of four in month ruins them all!
It frustrates me to no end that I can work so hard 3 out of the 4 weeks in a month but then the one special week comes and all is lost!
Between the cravings, bloating, and just plain feeling yucky it's hard to loss weight let alone not gain any weight.
The joys of being a girl...

Story time!

Once upon a time... I was hanging out with some friends. When we were parting way Spencer gave Savanna a hug and picked her up. He then gave me a hug and "picked" me up too. However my feet barely left the ground.
Now that is the most boring story ever, I know. But there is a reason for it other then to waste your time. I know Spencer was just trying to included me. However it just made me feel horrible and embarrassed that I was and am so heavy he can't pick me up.

This losing weight is very hard and I am struggling BIG time!!!!

I have successfully made it back up to 250. :'(
My body just loves to weight 245-250.