Wedding Weight Gain and How to Deal with it

So I recently got married (about three weeks ago), and I have gained quite a bit of weight. Between stress, family dinners, and so much more, I have gained back about 10 pounds. After the wedding, I also got sick and couldn't breathe just sitting on the couch, so I wasn't able to jump back into exercising. After all of this, I continued to eat unhealthy after the wedding. One 'cheat meal' turning into two, into three, and then just a full week of eating unhealthy. There were a lot of leftovers from the wedding, and in my brain I thought that it was better to eat them than to let them go bad. Was it really better? Definitely not for my waistline.
Luckily, I had the foresight to pawn off the rest of the wedding cake onto someone else because I cannot control myself around sweets. At all. That didn't mean there weren't  other foods to ruin my diet. There was leftover 'corn surprise' (which is essentially corn bread with more butter than I care to think about), leftover potato salad, and more... With me being sick as well, that meant that I really didn't feel like cooking and my husband definitely isn't much into cooking. He'll do it if I ask, but isn't it just easier to eat out? Again, not really. But I really didn't feel like cooking.
Being tired all the time, made it super difficult to really do anything. I don't think I got more than 5,000 steps for maybe two weeks. I've been in serious denial and haven't actually checked my fitbit app in a while. Which is another mistake. When you don't keep track of what you are (or aren't) doing, it's easy to be in denial of what you are actually doing. Not keeping track of food and activity will let you keep those rose colored glasses on and not realize how bad it really is.
I didn't really realize that I was walking so little and eating so much. (Corn bread alone has 150 calories in one serving). I haven't been drinking nearly enough water and my sleep is extremely restless at night.

So how on earth do I fix this?

First, get rid of all of the bad food in your fridge and pantry. If you're anything like me then if it's there you're going to eat it. So just getting it out of the house is the easiest way. Now, if you have a spouse or children, like I have a husband, it's not always that simple because they do enjoy those foods and get upset not having them. My solution to this was to have a completely separate shelf for his food that I'm not allowed to touch. I put it at the very top of the pantry because if I don't readily see it than it's not really there.
I also meal prep. It can be difficult to find the time or energy to make food for an entire week, but I do it in little bursts. Also, having a crockpot and rice maker do really make it easier. You can dump meals in either and just forget about them. My crockpot has a timer, so I'm able to leave the house even while it's still on. My rice maker (as most will) doubles as a steamer, so I can steam veggies quickly too without having to turn on the stove and worry about my cat around an open flame.
I usually make 4 servings at a time and just store them in the fridge or freezer until I am ready to eat them.
Good meal prep ideas: pasta salad (with chicken for protein), baked chicken breasts, chili, protein waffles (I use Kodiak Protein Pancake mix and a couple scoops of protein powder), and turkey tacos (for low carb, I use romaine lettuce instead of tortillas.)

Second thing I do, is keep better track of what I am actually eating and my general activity. Seeing how unproductive you are, can really be a motivator to get moving again. When I was sick, I couldn't really lift weights or run on the treadmill, but I could have gone for more walks. Even just little activity is better than nothing.
After the wedding, I found it more important to edit all of the photos that were taken (about 600) and print them out. This took about three days. But couldn't I have split it up into shorter periods and had it last a longer time. Instead of working on the photos for three hours a day, I could have cut it down to one, so that I could've found more time to exercise. Then after printing, it was figuring out what photos were going to go where and hanging them up on the wall or putting them in albums. Which they still haven't made it up onto the wall... I'll get to that eventually though, right?
Even right now, I'm writing this blog post instead of working out. I'm in my exercise clothes, all ready, but I just keep putting it off.

The best advice I can give is to just jump right back into things.
You don't feel like working out. Tell yourself that you'll just work out for five or ten minutes and if you still don't feel like it then you can stop. Chances are though, you'll continue to work out for the rest of what you have planned.
Just keep reminding yourself why you started this in the first place. Whether that's hanging up pictures of woman in bikinis or plastering motivational sayings on your wall, you need to figure out why you're doing this before you can really move forward. Write down a list of why you want this.

My list would be something like this:
1. Health
2. No more migraines
3. I can actually run without feeling embarrassed
4. I want to be strong
5. I don't want to be insecure about my body

I still haven't fully gotten into the swing of things again, but I know that I will. My health is too important to me to go back where I was a year ago.
I just need to keep looking forward and take one day at a time.
And so do you.

Working Out Without the Gym

Personally, I don't feel like going to the gym every day. Getting out of the house can be a huge task for me on some days, but I generally try to work out at least ten minutes a day. These exercises are also really great if you don't have a gym nearby or you can't afford a membership.

First off, I suggest trying out a bunch of different workouts to find what makes you happy and what you find fun. You're more likely to want to exercise if you find out what you actually like.

I like to look on Pinterest for workouts. There's always great new workouts posted there and they have great variety. There are also many workout routines, specialized  for certain parts of the body (like arms, legs, core, etc.) or even a full body workout.

Stay away from '1000 Calorie Workout' and other such workouts. They generally won't actually burn that many calories, probably not even half. If that's the workout for you though, go for it; just don't be too disappointed when you're not burning as many calories as you might think. These workouts are more designed to make you tired or exhausted. You're putting out a lot of effort in a short amount of time, for very little payoff compared to other workouts.

Like "do 1,000 jumping jacks to burn one pound of fat". That is a lot of jumping jacks! I don't know about you, but I could find a better use of my time than just simply doing one exercise all day. That is also a lot of impact on your joints and can be very painful after a while.

I have bad knees and just doing 100 jumping jacks can be quite painful because of the way the knee joints have to move. If you're set on doing jumping jacks, I suggest Plank Jacks; they are lower impact on the joints and can activate more of your muscle groups.

I also like looking up challenges for specific body parts (thighs, core, etc) because it does give me something to do every day. I'll be more likely to work out every day when I have a specific challenge in front of me. I don't suggest doing the challenges that by the end of the month (or week), you're doing 100+ of a workout. Doing too many reps of a single workout, especially without any rest days, can actually make your muscle smaller and weaker! There isn't enough time in between for your body to heal itself, so the muscle are simply breaking down again and again without any build up.

Keep in mind that it takes 2-7 days (approximately) for a single mass of muscle to repair itself, so if you're not letting your body heal, than you can seriously injure yourself. Trust me, I pushed my body too hard a few times and ended up tearing the muscle, which is extremely painful and took about two weeks to recover. That means that I couldn't work out that muscle for two weeks, rather than the smaller 2-7 days if I were to have not overexerted myself.

Here are some basic workouts that are great for indoors and small areas. I'll put an * next to some of my favorites.

For weights, you can take a water bottle and fill it with water or sand and use those as dumbbells. Fill as you need more or less weight. If rocks will fit through the nozzle, you can use those as well. Make sure you have a good grip on the bottle - don't get one too big in circumference that you can't hold it comfortably.

Core:

Sit Ups

Crunches

Jumping Jacks

Jump Squats

Reverse Crunches*

Leg Lifts

Plank

Side Plank

Oblique Crunches

Bridge

Bicycle Crunches*

Mountain Climbers

Star Crunches

Heel Touches*
Toe Touches

Legs:

Squats (Traditional, Sumo, Plie, Pulsing, Split)

Jump Squats

Calf Raises*

Jumping Jacks

High Knees

Butt Kicks

Side Leg Lifts*

Inner Thigh Pulse*
Lunges (Forward, Reverse, Split, Walking)
Bridge

Arms:

Rows

Push Ups

Overhead Tricep Extension

Drawbridge

Bicep Curls

Tricep Kickbacks

Small Straight Arm Circles

Tricep Dips
Lateral Arm Raises
Front Arm Raise

Butt:

Squats

Donkey Kick

Fire Hydrant

Bridge Pulse
Lunges

Cardio:

Jumping Jacks

Running in Place

Walking in Place

Jump Rope

Burpees
Marching in Place
High Knees
Walking

I'm not saying that you have to do all of these exercises at once, these are just some really great options! It's also nice to have variety with your workouts so you don't get bored and end up giving up just because you don't find exercise entertaining.

The Change

I have never been one to get up and just start doing crunches or go out for a walk. I've definitely never thought of carrot sticks or an apple as a snack. But we're changing that! Everyone has to start somewhere.

First, I suggest changing your habits slowly.
Change that comes on too suddenly has a tendency to be too much of a shock and can be overwhelming.
I also suggest changing your diet first, before changing your exercise routine. Eating healthy is the foundation to any weight loss program. Let's just say: if you eat like crap, you're going to feel like crap.

When I first started my diet, I went out and bought as much fruit and vegetables I could afford. I'm on a rather tight budget, so I thought that going on a diet was going to break my bank. To my surprise it actually wasn't that bad. I don't remember exactly what I bought or how much I spent, but it wasn't that bad. I bought things such as: bananas, apple, cucumber, spinach, and other such foods that can only be found in the produce section of the store.
I already had chicken breasts in my freezer, so I just stuck with that for my meats and didn't eat anything else.
I really suggest doing research, or looking at recipes, for losing weight and what to actually buy. (I will write on this later)
Try to stay away from fad diets, such as the 'Lose 10 lbs in 7 days', the '3 Day Military Diet', juice cleanses, and others. These are short term diets made for short term results. All of these types of diets generally lead to starvation  (which puts your body into hybernation mode slowing down your metabolism), vitamin deficiencies, and other such medical issues. Generally, after you finish these short term diets, you will gain all of the weight back in just a couple of days.

When I first started my diet, my weight fluctuated so bad because I didn't really know what was good or bad for me. I had never thought about what I put into my stomach before, or read labels. This was all completely new!
I was eating so many calories in a day, I don't even want to know how many!
Definitely count all of your calories! The app 'MyFitnessPal' has changed my life! It allows you to input any food and it will give you the nutritional value of anything. I have yet to eat anything that I couldn't find on this app. It sets daily goals for me and I try really hard not to exceed them.
To have successful, consistent weight loss, you're going to want to cut out or minimize the consumption of: fats, sodium, and sugar. Calories are not my personal, main concern because if I go over on my daily limit I can always burn them off at the gym. Because there is really no way of 'burning off' fats, sodium, and sugar, those are my personal concerns. Sodium will make you retain water, causing the lower belly pooch. Unrefined sugars and fat will cause you to gain weight. (I personally don't know exactly why, but I've noticed a considerable difference in my weight loss since cutting these out.)

The next fun part: adding exercise into your new routine.
At the beginning, after the diet wasn't doing enough for me, I went up to gym every day for 15 to 20 minutes. I have a gym at my apartment complex, so I was able to just walk right up and start exercising without having to go through the trouble of finding a gym and paying for a membership. If this is not available to you, I suggest working out at home. There are a lot of body weight exercises out there that you can do right from your living room!  (Eg. Squats, push ups, running in place, jumping jacks, etc.)
If working out everyday isn't your thing, I suggest working out 3-5 times a week at the least. No less than 3! If you really want results, you're going to have to work for them!
Even a 15 minute workout, 3 times a week is better than not working out at all.

This is what has worked for me and I really hope that it helps you. Even a little is great!

Getting Started

Let me just start by saying, I am still really new to this whole 'healthy' lifestlye. I have never, ever been one to exercise and to actually find it fun. I got a D in P. E. and my fastest mile was 18 minutes.  I wasn't fat, but I had absolutely no muscle mass. All through high school, I was the 'fatter' friend. Luckily, I was blessed with a high metabolism because I definitely didn't go out of my way to do anything physical.
Through high school, my weight fluctuated between 150 and 160, 165 being my heaviest. I was never happy with my appearance, having a muffin top and all, and I never really thought I could look like those woman in magazines.
Let's just fast forward a couple of years. I am now 22.
I recently had a hip injury (Jan 2015) and had trouble walking for a couple months. I knew I was gaining weight, simply because I wasn't doing anything. I layed in bed all day, sleeping a lot, and eating a lot. It was extremely painful for me to walk around or bend in any way.
When I first stepped on that scale (sometime around August) I was in complete shock! I weighed 180 lbs! I couldn't believe it at all, I seriously thought that the scale was broken.
Just before my accident, I had managed to get my weight down to 125 lbs, so I ended up gaining 55lbs in less then a year!
Needless to say, a bit of depression set in because of this situation. This was the heaviest I had ever been in my whole life! It took me three years just to go from 140 lbs to 125!
How could I possibly lose all this weight? It was just so overwhelming to think about trying to lose 55 lbs. I gained it easy enough though.
So far, I have lost nearly 20 lbs since I started taking my health and weight loss seriously.

This is going to be a journey of my weight loss.
What has worked for me, what hasn't, all of that good stuff.
I hope you all stick around with me through this!
I'll be posting some of my favorite recipes (from other people), my own recipes, motivation help, and more!