1. Clothes
I mean who doesn’t love going shopping for clothes and realizing nothing fits your new body. I mean I don’t have the budget to buy a completely new wardrobe so I’ve been trying to shrink a lot of my current clothes, but when I go shopping and notice that I went from wearing an XL/L to a M (especially when my size in pants decreases because I’m bottom heavy) I feel really proud.
2. Learning that healthier food is actually delicious when prepared correctly.
First of all once you start clean eating you realize how much fat, salt, and sugar is literally in EVERYTHING you purchase unless you’re making it yourself. Once you learn how to cook delicious and healthy you tend to get picky about what you put in your body. Now just to give you an idea I have found healthier alternatives to eating pizza, salsa, stuffed peppers, tomato sauce, cocktails, and tacos! Yes, I still eat those. Stay tuned to this series because those recipes are coming up in the coming weeks.
3. You feel lighter and clean.
You really do feel like you weigh less. Your extra jiggle doesn’t get in the way.
4. Workout Buddy
It’s always easier to stay motivated when you have someone doing it with you. If you are a person who has no self control I highly suggest having a partner in this. I have pretty good self control when I set my mind to it, however in the beginning of my weight loss journey my boyfriend wouldn’t eat in front of me so that I wouldn’t have the urge to eat some of his fries. I also had a group of girls in a forum that were always inspiring each other. We were pretty much each other’s cheerleaders throughout the process.
5. Progress
What I’m talking about here are your before and after pictures, weight, and measurements. I’m currently on the 21 Day Fix. So what I do is take a before picture on day number one and then take an after picture on day number 21. I weigh myself in the beginning of the 21 days and at the end.I also measure my chest, bust, arms, waist, stomach, hips, thighs, and calves. This way even if I only lose 1-2 lbs but then ending up also losing a couple of inches I know that the number on the scale is not something I should be paying attention to. Also, after 21 days I did not see a change in the mirror but when I compared my before and after pictures I was presently surprised at how much I had actually lost. It was incredible!
6. Achieving Milestones
My original goal was to lose 30lbs, then once I lsot the 30lbs I decided I wanted to lose another 10lbs and then just tone up. After the 10lbs I’m not even going to bother with the scale because of the fact that at that point I’ll be weighing muscle mass and that always weighs more. I noticed that once I lost so much weight and started feeling better I actually noticed that I was pushing myself in everyday life. If I was told I couldn’t achieve something in every day life I said no I totally got this! It’s weird how weight loss changes your whole entire thought process.
7. Compliments
I have gotten so many compliments it’s ridiculous. People keep saying how much I’ve lost and everyone keeps asking how I did it. Some people asked me if I was ok health wise because I lost so much. I am definitely ok. I’ve lost 30lbs over the course of the past few months (since June) so that is a healthy weight loss. It’s crazy how much one person giving me a compliment is so encouraging.
8. Muscles/Tone/Loss of Belly or Other Problem Areas
Once you start seeing your body transform you get excited and want to keep going. I may not be as toned as I want to be but I’ve lost my belly which had gotten out of control and even my legs have gotten smaller which I never thought was possible since I’m bottom heavy.
9. Overall Health
I’m going to tell y’all something. Before I started this weight loss journey I was feeling so incredibly weak and tired that I went to the doctor. We ran a bunch of blood work to see what was wrong with me. When I got the tests back and it said I was negative for everything I was tested for it was bittersweet. I was excited because nothing was wrong with me, but I was also worried because I kept thinking, “what the heck is wrong?!” I saw my friend post on Facebook about the 21 Day Fix and I decided to try it because first of all I was feeling pretty crappy about myself and secondly I thought maybe this would help my health get back in check. Well I’m still tired, BUT I’m 90% better than I was before. I can actually get through the day. Now when I’m tired it’s just because I should probably go to sleep earlier haha.
10. Happiness
Getting in shape is about you working to make yourself better. If you have the wrong mindset or wrong attitude in trying to get in better shape, then you are obviously not going to be happy. But if you do it right no matter the progress, you should feel happier about yourself.
Now moving on to the bathing suit.
This bathing suit is from a brand called Swim Classy which I’m actually a promoter for. They are huge on this campaign called #LoveYourself it’s pretty much all about positive vibes about yourself. Not only is it about body positivey but it’s about loving your flaws. Now the great part is since I’m a promoter if you hop on over to the Swim Classy website and use code JGTH at checkout you’ll receive 25% off your order! How awesome is that???? A couple of months ago I wore a bathing suit here on the blog for the first time in a few years. I was definitely not as confident as I was in this post just because I have a different mindset and I do love myself and my body now. I’m so incredibly happy.
Also as a side note, this bathing suit can be worn multiple ways, just check out their site to see!
