JOURNEY TO HEALTH

JOURNEY TO HEALTH

I have always fluctuated weight, if anyone was to look through my photos there are times where I am bigger and times where I'm smaller. Weight has and always will be one of my biggest issues, but a year ago I decided to embark on a challenge that I had never done before. A friend of mine worked with an online trainer, and while I think the trainer may not have been the right fit for me, I definitely think the tools and strategies I learned along the way have helped a ton. The concept of "eating clean" sounded SO dull and boring, I didn't think I would ever be able to do it. But it was that discipline and restraint that made me as successful as I was. During the three month program, I focused on clean eating and weight training and lost about 25lbs total. The photo above was about 2 months after I had done the program, and probably one of the times I was at my lowest weight other than the year before I moved away to university. I was happy with the changes I had made, I had never worked so hard at something and gotten the results I had. I was able to see what hard work and discipline could do, and was happy to continue having a balanced lifestyle. 

Getting engaged and planning a wedding is stressful at times, and I always knew I wanted to be healthier on my wedding day. I know deep down that I will never be a size two, but I definitely think there is a version of myself that is healthier and that is something I want to work on maintaining forever. I can confidently say that on my wedding day I was happy with the way I looked and the way the photos turned out. That does not mean to say that I think I was at a healthy weight, because I wasn't, but it means that I can look at the photos and be happy with who I was and not cringe or try and pick out everything that is wrong with myself. It may not be what others think is good, but another thing I have learned is to not let the influence of others affect how I feel.

After the wedding, I let things slip a bit, I figured "hey, I don't have to fit into a dress anymore so who cares!" And looking back I regret thinking that way, because then we received news that we were pregnant and I did not want to be pregnant at the weight I was. Unfortunately, 4 weeks after I miscarried, and I was extremely upset and in one of the loneliest places I had been emotionally. When I get stressed or upset, I tend to turn to food and that is exactly what happened. So here I am, 4 months married, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and a lot of chaos later and I have gained probably 10lbs. For someone who has insulin resistance and hormonal imbalances, this is not the place I want to be in. 

So why write this entry? I think accountability is a main drive for myself, the last time I had a community of people watching and wanting updates which made me not want to fail. I could say in my head over and over again okay today is the day, but there is no one to hold me accountable for that. By writing this I feel the drive and motivation to live the lifestyle I want to be the healthiest I can be. I took a meal plan that was a little dry and boring, and pushed myself to get creative. I love chicken but eating it plain every night is not what I wanted to do for three months. So I researched and had recipes approved by the trainer, recipes I still eat for dinner every once and a while because I love them so much. 

So here we go again, the love/hate relationship I have with my health will no longer be an issue. I do not want to have a restricted lifestyle but I definitely want to go back to eating mainly clean and healthy food. 

It is such a cliche, but 2015 I want to be the year of good health, because we want to start a family at some point again this year, and I want to make sure I am in the best health when I do!

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GOTTA HAVE IT: APPS

GOTTA HAVE IT: APPS


I think for the most part it is pretty much expected that we all have our phones in our hands at all times. I am one of those people who pretty much keep the essentials on my phone because I don't want it getting slow or having to search for the things I really want. Today I thought I would share my top 5 favourite iPhone apps and why I love them so much. 

01. Cuptakes: I am a sucker for anything girly when it comes to decking out my iPhone. For .99 cents I got this app a while ago and have been obsessed ever since. They have such a wide selection of wallpapers for your phone, and they add new ones every day so you have tons to choose from!

02. Instagram: This is a given, anyone who follows me knows I am a HUGE sucker for Instagram. It's free and it involves pictures (I love photography), what more could you ask for? I don't think I have used their filters in months though, I use a few other apps to edit my photos before I post them. If you are curious that will probably be a future post.

03. Clue: I wrote about this briefly in a monthly favourites post a while ago. This app helped huge for me, it is a cycle tracker pretty much. For someone like me who has irregular cycles, this adjusts every time you input data. It is the most specific and user friendly one I have found and I definitely recommend it to anyone who would want to use something like this. 

04. Timehop: For someone who is active on social media, it is interesting to see what you've said in the past on that specific day. Timehop is for that purpose, showing you what you were chatting about on that day. Today for instance, 2 years ago Sara announced she was pregnant with our nephew Weston (how it has already been 2 years blows my mind). It is something I find myself opening every morning before I crawl out of bed.

05. Pinterest: There is so much inspiration that is hiding in Pinterest. If I am ever board I always scroll through and can easily get lost. Before bed I often leave a few minutes to wind down and just find things that I like or things that inspire me. I have been a huge fan of Pinterest for years, it is the perfect way to organize and keep anything you could think of.

I think these apps are amazing, and could not live without them! 

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FRIDAY, FINALLY

FRIDAY, FINALLY

You are looking at my very first font creation! I invested in a typography app, and have been consumed in creating and testing it out. I thought this quote was fitting, especially for me. More often then not, I spend most of my time talking myself out of something that I am potentially really passionate about. This comes from the fear inside thinking it won't work out, so why try? But, I hope that as I continue to work on myself, this will slowly go away. 

Once again, it is Friday! Monday I go back to school and finish my last semester. This Christmas break was so relaxing and much needed! It has been the most time I have had off since I started school last January. This weekend there isn't much on the checklist, but I thought I'd share my to-do list this upcoming weekend:

01. Pack the bag: I want to make sure the trusty backpack is ready for Wednesday's classes, which also means clearing out everything that was in there from last semester.

02. Find Placement outfits: It is important to me to make a good impression, especially when it is my placement at a potential future job. I tend to sleep in a lot, so I want to make sure I am prepared in case I run late!

03. Have a date night: Before Kyle and I go back to the hustle of our life, I would love to be able to get a date night in. 

I hope you all have a great weekend! Stay warm, we are supposed to be getting a large amount of snow :/ 
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2015 BLOG GOALS

2015 BLOG GOALS


I posted a few weeks ago about my personal goals and resolutions for this new year, but I thought I would discuss my blog goals for 2015. It is no secret that this little piece of the internet has housed my views and experiences in this world so far, and I would like to continue writing and documenting my life, especially as a newlywed. So with that being said, onto some blog related goals I hope to accomplish this year:

01. Improve photos: I want to start staging photos and incorporating them into my blog. By doing so I hope that it adds a more visually appealing aspect to the content I write about. Photography is already such a large part of my life, so I hope to have both my blog and photography crossover.

02. Create fonts: I have an app on my iPad that allows for typography and creating fonts, this can help with the "branding" aspect, and what I want it to look like. 

03. Change the layout: I would like to get better with HTML and improve the layout of the entire blog, making it a bit more user friendly, easy to navigate, and crisp & modern. I was such a pro in high school at HTML, so I would like to go back to my roots and really experiment.

04. Write more: Ideally, it would be nice to write at least 2 posts every week. I have averaged about 7 posts a month, and I want to make sure I am writing quality things, as opposed to just writing for the sake of writing!

05. Buy a domain: I would like to make the jump and purchase a domain, and get rid of the .blogspot in my website.

06. Learn photoshop: This is important to add photos and a visual touch to my posts. Something I used to be really familiar with in high school, like HTML, it is something I would like to get back into and become better at.

This whole thing feels like such a labour of love, and has been an amazing outlet for myself. Being able to write posts about what I have learned or what I have created is so nice to look back on as the years go on. Happy 2015 lovelies! Cheers to being "goal diggers" ;)

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