Thursday, October 23, 2014

Weigh In-Week 5/Update

So sorry for the day-late post! First, I have some exciting news. I finally got a new job. Before I was working in retail and had finally just met my limit with it. Out of nowhere, an eye doctor that I had applied to 4 months ago called and wanted me to come in for an interview, that day!! So of course, I came right in. They offered me a position different than what I had applied to before, but I think it ended up being more suitable for me anyway. The same day, I received a job offer from them and accepted! I had my first day on Monday and will also be working Friday. Then next week, almost every day. This is a full time job so it will definitely take some getting used to. Needless to say, I couldn't be happier with how things are turning out!

Now on to the weigh in. This week, I managed to lose another 1.3 pounds, bringing my grand total to 10.7 pounds lost! I earned another 5 pound loss star through Weight Watchers and am only .3 pounds away from reaching my first goal set my Weight Watchers. I had set a personal goal for myself to lose 10 pounds by the end of October, and I succeeded! I also had a non-scale victory recently.  I had bought a dress back in May as an option for my cousin's graduation. It was a little snug and I wasn't comfortable wearing it in public yet. Last weekend I put it on and it fit! Of course there is always room for improvement and it will look even better when I lose more, but I'll take this for now!

Thanks for reading again and hopefully I will have a new post up before Wednesday about a topic I have decided that I want to cover.

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Weigh In Wednesday-Week 4

Last week and this week I have been really nervous about weighing in. I've felt like I have gotten a little off track because of different things we have going on. Last weekend we went to the fair, this weekend we had my Mom with us. I think whenever you are with company, it automatically makes it harder to stay on track. I just knew that I had gained a ton of weight this week. To my surprise, I had actually lost weight. I lost 1.4 pounds bringing my grand total to 9.4 pounds. I was SO happy. This makes me .6 pounds away from losing my first 10 pounds and 1.6 pounds away from my first goal set by Weight Watchers. I hope to lose 10 pounds every month, even though I know that may not be feasible. So far, I'm extremely pleased with my results and can't wait to see how much more I can lose with Weight Watchers.

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Weigh In Wednesday-Week 3

I have to decided to start calling my weigh ins, Weigh In Wednesdays. So, for today's weigh in, I got on the scales and found out I had lost another 1.3 pounds! That brings my total since starting to 8 pounds lost. My goal by the end of the month is to have lost 10 pounds. I think that this will be possible, considering how I've been losing weight so far. I know it will eventually become harder and harder to lose more weight, but hey, what have I got to lose except weight? I also sent a comparison photo of my face before and after starting Weight Watchers and everyone was in shock, including myself! It's amazing the effect losing 8 pounds has on my face already. I do seem to show weight loss in my face before I really see it in anything else. I love getting on the scales every week and seeing the numbers drop!




Thanks for reading!!

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

A Weekend In Review

It has been too many days since my last blog post! I figured I would at least try to post tonight before the biggest day of the week for me, Weigh In Wednesdays. So over the weekend, my husband and I went to the Georgia National Fair. This is our first going by ourselves and only our second time over all. We hadn't even really planned on going until about last Thursday, I believe. We figured, what the heck, let's get out of the apartment and have some fun!

 So on Saturday, we woke up, got ready, and off we went to the fair. It's actually located pretty close to where we live, so we were there in no time. We got parked (a lot of walking!) and made our way through the gates. I just LOVE the atmosphere. If you aren't familiar with the Georgia National Fair, its a HUGE fair that is focused a lot around agriculture. There are many buildings with livestock, shopping, and exhibits. They even have a circus. They have cow shows, horse shows, sheep shows, and so many other things. We were there on opening weekend, so there were barely any horses there. :( Last year when we went with my parents, all of the horses were there and getting ready to show, so they had their manes braided with ribbon.


A 2 week old male calf.

Daisy, the 2 week old female calf.


We some how missed the chickens that apparently were there, which was sad. We also managed to miss out on the building that displays all the quilts and goods that people make for judging. With so many buildings, it's easy to skip over some. They also have rides, games, and other attractions. There is something for everyone! They even have 2 places in the fair to ride a mechanical bull, which was SO funny.

They also have "walking entertainment." For example, the talking tree. Yes it's on stilts, yes I was a little terrified, but amazed at the same time. They also have another one, called Mango and Dango. These I LOVE, but didn't get to see. Its basically the same concept, but its a man and woman. You can read more about them here.

About as close as I would get.


 I went into the petting zoo and saw this guy. Take a look at those horns!


Now I'm sure you're all wondering how I handled the fair food since I'm on Weight Watchers. The thing is, I didn't deprive myself. I knew before we went that there would be a ton of food vendors, and it would definitely take will power. Instead of getting the foot long corn dog like last year (yes, that's a thing), my husband and I halved a regular sized.  We walked around a bit more and decided to eat a real meal. We both got cheese steaks, which were not very good. Of course, we had to have something sweet, so my husband got fried Oreos and I got a small Dippin Dots. It's been at least 10 years since I've had those, so it was treat. Lastly, a coworker of my husband's told him that we had to try this place that had cheese sticks and such. We also split these, and they were fantastic! When I got home and starting to track my food in weight watchers, I was actually surprised that I didn't do as bad as I thought. Portion control helps a ton.

We didn't do much shopping, except for some honey sticks and some handmade soap. It took a lot of will power to not spend a lot with all of the wonderful products that people had to offer.

Clover, Watermelon, and Strawberry honey sticks.
All in all, we had a fantastic time. I chose to wear cowboy boots which, by the way, was NOT a smart choice. I took them off as soon as we got back in the car and was greeted by 3 very unfortunate blisters. :(


On Sunday, we pretty much just laid around the house and did a little cleaning. That wasn't a very eventful day for us, but it was nice to relax.

Thanks for reading and I will be back tomorrow for Weigh In Wednesday! :)

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Week 2 Weigh In

This week I had my second weigh in. I was extremely nervous because I was convinced that I had gained weight instead of lost. Apparently, there was one thing that I didn't understand about weight watchers until late last week. If you aren't familiar with Weight Watchers, you are given a certain amount of daily points, based on the information about your body that you give them, and from that, you eat accordingly. I wasn't aware that you were supposed to try to eat the entirety of your points. I was just eating so I wouldn't use up all of my points and would lose weight. That is probably how I lost 6.5 pounds in the first week. Then I read on the Internet somewhere, that you are supposed to try to eat all of your points, without forcing yourself. This is how you moderate your weight loss I guess. Needless to say, this worried me greatly. I was very nervous this morning when I got up to weigh myself, almost to the point where I didn't even get on the scales. To my surprised, I hadn't gained any weight! I had actually lost .2 pounds. Which isn't much. but considering that I was eating more than the first week, I still think its great.

I have already come to realization that if I do gain a little bit of weight one week, its not the end of the world. It is just merely a hiccup along the way, and its bound to happen. I especially anticipate this when I start incorporating exercise into all of this. I have decided to hold off on the exercise for now, until I can lose more weight. While I know exercise is important and vital to weight loss, I feel like I need to lose more weight before I'm comfortable adding muscle.

I hope you enjoyed this little update. I love seeing that I have readers, even if its only a few. It makes me feel good that someone is taking time out of their day to read what I have to say. Thanks for reading!

Friday, September 26, 2014

Wok and Roll

Instead of my weight loss updates, tonight I'm going to be posting a product review. For a little back story, my husband and I have been wanting a wok pretty much since we got married (almost 2 years!). We never really made it a priority to get one because for one, we didn't know how often it would be used and two, we didn't know if we had enough room in our cabinets to store it. Our interests in having one went on a hiatus for a while. However, a couple of weeks ago, we started discussing it again. I decided to start looking online at the cost of one. Some were relatively cheap but WOW, some were around $200. We obviously weren't looking to spend a small fortune on a wok, so I looked at target. They had one that looked good and was a 7 piece set. I had pretty much decided this was the wok for us.

On one of my Target trips, I decided to breeze through the kitchen section. I came across the area where all of the woks were and saw that they had the one that I had looked at on the Internet. I text my husband just to be sure that it was still OK if I bought it, and it was. The wok we chose is the IMUSA 7 piece wok set. It comes with a wok, a tempura rack (grill? I'm not sure what to call it), and many bamboo utensils to use. The wok is made of a very nice, sturdy material that is easy to handle as well.



Now for the review, OH MY GOODNESS. I really can't say enough about this wok. It cooks like a dream! It barely takes any time to heat up or cool down and clean up is so easy! I have made so many meals with this thing that I have lost count. It's so easy to whip up a nice, healthy meal in barely any time. And clean up? Its barely existent. The instructions (which also gives a couple of recipes!) tells you to never leave food in it when its not cooking. So, as soon as I get done cooking, I empty the food out, get a dry paper towel, and wipe any debris or grease that's left. With a wet paper towel, I come back through and give it a good wiping out. That's all it takes. You are supposed to use warm, soapy water to clean it, but I find that since I use it so much, the paper towel system works great.

I highly recommend this wok to anyone is who looking for a relatively cheap, nice option. I can't rave enough about this product and intend on buying the smaller version, their bamboo steamer, and may a couple of other things from their line as well. Thanks for reading!


My chicken, sugar snap peas, green beans, and onions. YUM

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Week 1 Weigh In

Today, I had my very first "official" weigh in on Weight Watchers. As I have said before, I do Weight Watchers Online, so no meetings for me! I was a little nervous when I woke up this morning because I wasn't sure what the scales were going to tell me. I had done a little "sneak peek" a couple of days prior, just to see if I had lost anything, and I had. What I wasn't prepared for was what the scales were going to say this morning. I nervously walked into my bathroom where my scales are, and stepped on. When the numbers finally appeared, I couldn't believe what they were. Since last Wednesday, I have lost 6.5 pounds! Needless to say I was beyond ecstatic! I ran into our bedroom where my husband was and practically shoved my phone in his face, which had my Weight Watchers application pulled up. He was very proud of me and I am very proud of myself. I took screen shots of my app where it said how much I had lost and immediately sent it out to my Mama, Daddy, and Sister. They were of course all very proud. This has been such a great start to a happier life. I cannot wait until next weeks weigh in where I have (hopefully) lost more! I think I have finally found something that is going to work for me and that, is an accomplishment all its own.
Woo Hoo!
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Monday, September 22, 2014

My Weight Loss Journey

As you may have seen from the title of this blog, I am the SHRINKING Southern Belle. Ever since I was a child, I have struggled with my weight. I have always been a "big-boned" person. As my Daddy would say, "You come from a family of big women." So it's safe to say, my genes work against me. My family also has a history of various diseases and, something that really made me want to lose weight, my own Daddy has Diabetes. It was an eye opener when I found that out. I actually cried because I've heard stories of amputations and everything else that I did NOT want happening to my Daddy.

It wasn't until I was diagnosed with PCOS that I really wanted to lose weight. For those of you that don't know what PCOS is, it stands for Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. I will make another blog post explaining more about that. Essentially, this makes it VERY hard to lose weight. It also affects fertility, which was a BIG deal for me. So, with all that being said, I finally decided that it was time to stop making excuses and start getting healthy. Late Wednesday night (September 17th) I officially became a Weight Watchers Online member. I chose the online program because I'm not much for sitting in groups and being in the spotlight, especially with something as sensitive as my weight. I went back and forth on whether or not I should start tracking my points the next day or start fresh on Monday. I went with the next day for one big reason. I knew, with my past history, that if I didn't start immediately, I never would. So Thursday (September 18th), I started tracking. So far, its been an easy process and the applications for my phone have really come in handy. I will possibly do a post about the apps and how they work for me. We will just have to play it by ear. I fully intend on keeping my readers updated on what I'm eating and my progress with weight watchers. Hopefully my readers will be able to be on this journey with me!

Thanks for reading!

An Introduction

Hey Y'all! Thanks for coming to my blog! I started this blog as a way to share with everyone else, products that I love and products that I don't love. Although, my MAIN inspiration for this blog was my choice to start living a healthier lifestyle. I hope to share my journey and opinions with anyone who cares to listen. Please bare with me as I get used to the blogging world. It takes a while to figure out how to use everything and hopefully soon, I will have a customized page. Eventually, I would like to start putting videos on YouTube, if there is enough interest.

So, a little bit about me. My name is Bethany, and I am a born and raised Southerner. I've never lived anywhere except from the South, and that probably wont ever change. I have been married to my wonderful husband, Aaron, for almost 2 years. As of August 31st, we have been together 9 years. It's a little something I like to brag about. :) Needless to say, we have been there for each other through A LOT. We don't have a cat or a dog (we live in an apartment, which means a BIG fee for animals) but we do have a cute little fish, Penelope. Maybe I'll share a picture at some point. I guess you could say that I don't have a "career." I was never one of those people that just knew what they wanted to be when they grew up. I have always loved to cook and bake, heck, I even made and sold cakes for a while! I have also always enjoyed anything crafty. My Oma (grandmother in German) has made beautiful dresses for years and has a formal shop. She doesn't sew much anymore, but, when she did, I was very much inspired by her. She's the reason I got a sewing machine! I do have a small business that consists of making vinyl decals and such for people, but I haven't made it big....yet. ;) I LOVE to plan and organize things. I am a labeling, list loving kind of woman! Although, when you look at my apartment sometimes, you couldn't tell. I like to consider it creative chaos. (hehe!) I will very much enjoy sharing my tips on organizing when I get a chance! I'm glad I have this blog to share my thoughts and ideas with everyone!

Thanks for reading!