Amanda's Journey

New Year, New Goals

January 3, 2021 by Amanda Leave a Comment

So the new year has begun and I am determined more than ever to start this year off right. I have set three fitness goals this year to help me move towards my goal:

Drink more water
Track everything I eat
Get movement in every day

I feel like by doing these things consistently, I will feel so much better and will lose weight. I feel like it is easy to sit here and list out all of these things, but I need to focus on actually doing all of this consistently this year so that I can reach my weight loss goal. I am feeling very positive and optimistic that I can do this and that I can be successful.

I recently purchased a couple of journals that I want to use this year to help me in my journey. I bought a fitness journal where I can write down my goals, plans, and keep track of what I am doing. I also bought a wellness journal where I can write down my thoughts and feelings and focus on my overall wellness. So I am excited to use these tools and feel really good about how I am starting out the new year.

I am trying my best to stay positive throughout the new year and focus on improving both my physical and mental health. If I have learned anything during the year 2020, it’s that life is not guaranteed and any moment could be our last. I want to make the most of my life here on Earth and enjoy every single moment. I don’t want to waste any more time on negativity and just focus on being positive and looking for the good in everything that I do. I am feeling very motivated and inspired right now and I am hoping to keep it going throughout this new year.

Switching Programs

December 16, 2020 by Amanda Leave a Comment

First of all, you may notice that the name of my website has changed, as well as my instagram username and Youtube channel. Lately, I have felt the need to make a change and I have decided to switch to a different weight loss program for many reasons. Recently there has been some information that has come out about WW that I am not happy with and I don’t feel comfortable continuing to give money to a company that doesn’t align with my values and beliefs. I am not going to go into detail about what has happened lately with WW, if you look on Instagram there have been several posts made about it as well as several videos posted on Youtube. Besides this, I also had been thinking about switching to iTrackBites for quite a while. As you know, I used to attend Meetings/Workshops until the pandemic hit and then everything went virtual. And it doesn’t look like my local Workshop is going to open up any time soon, if ever, and that was my primary reason for being a part of WW. I know that WW fired all of the guides that were part of my local Workshop and I wasn’t very happy with that at all. So I just made the decision that I am going to switch to iTrackBites because it is very similar to WW and it is very low cost since I only had to pay $30 for the pro version for a year.

So far I am liking iTrackBites and have settled in to using the Conquer Cravings program. This one feels very similar to the old Points Plus program on Weight Watchers where the “Bites” are calculated using the calories, fat, and fiber in the nutritional information. Obviously, I am going to have to enter all of my recipes into the app and that will take some time, but I am feeling happy about my decision and I’m optimistic that this will be a positive change for me.

As far as my weight loss this week, I am doing much better this week. Last week I had a bit of a hiccup and ended up gaining a few pounds, but I have already lost what I gained and then some, so I am confident that I will have a good weigh in this week. I decided to change my weigh in from Saturday to Friday since I’m not attending workshops anymore, I can pretty much choose which day to weigh in.

I can’t believe that next week is Christmas! I did all of my shopping online this year and it made things so much less stressful. Christmas is definitely going to look different this year because of the pandemic, so we will not be getting together with family and will just celebrate the holiday at home with our kids. So as I head into the last part of the year, I am focusing on being more present with my kids and enjoying this time while they are still young. I am also focusing on my own health and taking better care of my body because I definitely want to be around to see my kids grow up. I feel like the changes that I have made are going to lead to positive results and I am going to work hard to end the year on a good note.

Last Month of the Year

December 1, 2020 by Amanda Leave a Comment

So it is already December. I can’t believe it’s almost the end of the year. I don’t have very many nice things to say about this year because it has been an absolute nightmare and I am so ready for things to get back to normal. I know the coronavirus pandemic isn’t going to magically disappear with the end of the year but the hope of a vaccine being available makes me feel like we are going to be on the other side of this soon.

At the beginning of this school year we had made the decision to homeschool our kids this year and over the last few months I have realized that it wasn’t a good fit for our son, who just turned 6. So we decided to enroll him in a private school where we feel he will benefit a lot, while maintaining covid precautions as much as possible. So far, he has done very well and I am so glad we made this decision. I feel so much more at peace knowing that he is getting a good education and the interactions that he needs.

Unfortunately, with all of the stress of the pandemic and my lack of motivation to stay on track, I have gained a lot of the weight back that I had lost over the last several years. So I am basically back to where I was when I started Weight Watchers. I feel really bad about it and I’m disappointed, but I know what I need to do and I have been focused on making sure that I am tracking everything I eat and I am determined to not weigh the same as I did at the end of last year. So my plan for December is to work hard and stay focused. Thanksgiving wasn’t a problem this year because we didn’t have any family gatherings and I’m not sure if we will be able to for Christmas either. So we will just have to wait and see how things go over the next few weeks.

So I have all of my meals planned out for the week and I am determined to stick with my plan. It definitely helps that my husband is on board and is following along with WW as well. So I know that as long as we stay focused, it’s definitely going to be a great week and my weigh in on Saturday will be great!

Turning a New Leaf

November 7, 2020 by Amanda

The past few weeks have been crazy and I’ve had so much going on. We made the decision to send our oldest child to kindergarten in person, instead of homeschooling because it’s just not going very well for him. So we’ve enrolled him at a private school and he will be starting this next week. I’m a ball of nerves about it because Covid is really bad in my state right now and I’m worried about what could happen. So it’s just one of those things where there is really no good choice and we just have to do what we feel is best for now. I am thankful that this school requires face masks and they are doing everything they can to keep the kids distanced from each other. So we will see how it goes.

With all of that said, I also have not been doing very well with following WW and I’m really mad at myself about it, but today I am turning a new leaf and I am determined more than ever to stick with it. I’m not going to dwell over the past few weeks, I’m just going to move forward. So I am working on tracking all of my meals for the week and getting prepared so that I can set myself up for success this week.

I know that I can do this, I lost over 50lbs last time, I just need to stay consistent and plan ahead as much as I can. With the weather getting colder next week, my plan is to work out on my treadmill 30 minutes every day. I also know that I need to stay within my points as much as I can and track every single bite, even if I do go over my points, I need to track it. In the past I have found that if I stay within my points at least 5 days out of 7, I can easily lose weight. So I have my groceries bought and I am ready to tackle this next week and make it great!