Getting Healthy

{Salmon, salad, a tiny bit of mac & cheese with crystal light water}

Last Thursday I was soooo excited to get my new Victoria Secret swimsuit in the mail so I hurried up and tried it on...only to find that it didn't look like I wanted it to.

Is my body really shaped like that nowadays?

I spend so much time working to find clothes that compliment my shape, that I didn't even know what my shape was anymore. I just figured that a little exercise would magically take care of things.

Not that I'm uncomfortable in my body or embarrassed by any means {I'm still too confident for my own good sometimes} but I was just surprised at what the perception of my body was and what it actually looked like.

*Flashback to the summer after my Freshmen year of college {3 years ago}* 

I had definitely gained the Freshmen 15 and my mom asked if I would do the HCG diet with her.

It was my first time ever being on a diet, and I said sure! Why not.

If any of you know what the HCG diet is, you know that it is SERIOUSLY unhealthy.

You can only eat between noon and midnight, you can only eat 600 calories a day, you can't do any exercising, and you must drink lots and lots of water.

Every nutritionists nightmare I'm sure.

Suffice it to say I wasn't a very happy person.

My brothers were even begging me to eat a cookie so I wouldn't be in such a horrible mood all the time. I lost 7 pounds during that 2 week period, which ending up staying off only because I just went back to a decent diet and started exercising again.

What I did learn during the HCG fiasco, is how much I was eating and what kind of crap I was eating to fuel my body. With how consumed I was by what I was eating every minute of the day, I had a lot of time to take notes. I was eating as much as the boys were, drinking soda left and right, and honestly never ate fruits and veggies. So horrible.

Which leads us to now.

It honestly just hit me between the eyeballs when I stood there in my new swimsuit, 

looking at myself in the mirror....I just can't eat like this anymore.

I have cut the soda down significantly {I have maybe 2 a month?}, but eating pizza and random snacks from the kitchen aren't going to cut it. I need to make my body a priority.

I snapped a picture to remind myself what I'm working for.

I'm going to be a crazy nut & continue to refuse to step on a scale.

{Maybe when I'm down to what I want to look like, I will?}

But, in another week and a half, I'll take another picture of me in my swimsuit and see the difference a healthy diet and some good ole exercise can do in 2 weeks time.

Within the next two weeks I'm going to work on transforming my body by doing the following things:

+ Make conscious decisions to choose healthy alternatives when eating & snacking

+ Drink at least 2-3 bottles of water a day {even with Crystal Light it counts!}

+ Watch my portion size, when I eat to much I instantly get a stomach ache and we want to avoid that! Cut in half what I would normally eat, and see how much that fills me up.

+ Pay attention and listen to my body, when it says its full...it's full!
+ Take advantage of my Golds Gym & BYU Aerobic classes as well as my Zumba Kinect game that my awesome brother got me for my birthday :)

I'm a complete rookie at this people.

I've been researching the best recipes and healthy snack ideas,
 and I'm really excited to see where this will take me!

If you all don't mind, I would love to share my progress here and would love any food/exercise pointers you have tried out and have seen success with :)