A Little Check-In

Hello hello everyone!

Sorry I've been so absent practically all over social media! It's been crazy trying to sort out my schedule and I've had a little medical problem pop up again.

Normally I try to keep this blog pretty upbeat, but it's also a blog about my life so I wanted to include you all in what is going on. 

Back when I was 15 I was diagnosed with clinical depression and anxiety. It really popped up after a traumatic experience and I was harming myself and considering suicide. My doctor put me on medication and counseling and things got better. Throughout the years since then things have been up and down. I've had times when I stopped taking the pills because I felt better and just ended spiraling back down into my depression.

This last round in 2012 I was put back on my antidepressant for good. I was underweight and eventually everything evened itself out and I got better and was back to normal. However, sometime last year I noticed that my depression and anxiety would creep up on me for no reason. I was having panic attacks regularly and would cry at the drop of a hat at absolutely nothing. 

I knew something wasn't right and my doctor agreed that something else was wrong that was fueling my depression and anxiety to pop back up in a cycle.

I go through times when I'm perfectly fine and then others when I can barely drag myself out of bed and have panic attacks just lying in bed.

Currently I just finished going through a downswing and am slowly climbing my way back to normal. I understood that while working out and eating healthy are good for my body and would help somewhat with my depression, it also just wasn't happening. I didn't want to guilt myself or negative-talk myself into making it in for a workout. So I just didn't. I let myself hermit and be quiet when I had the time and then focused on the obligations I had with other people; work, training clients, and therapy with my grandma.

Now that I'm feeling better I plan to get back into the swing of things.

Thanks to all of you who stick around during this lulls when I drop off the face of the earth.
I'll be back soon with some new things!

Our Engagement Photoshoot

Hello everyone!

I wanted to share with you all the amazing photography skills of our wedding photographers who did our engagement photos. 

When I first saw them on Facebook I was absolutely blown away by how stunning they look.

Without further adeu, here are the pictures!
Word of warning: Very picture heavy!

 

 

We had to hold poses for a long time so they could get every angle just right and we ended up cracking up too much that they had to keep reminding us to stop talking and laughing haha! It was so much fun and everything is just stunning!

WIAW: Food Struggles

Hello hello everyone!

I finally finally took pictures of everything I ate in one day. I can't tell you how long it's been since I've done a What I Ate Wednesday post with the always lovely Jenn

Pre-workout Snack

1/2 nanner shared with Michael & coffee

Breakfast

2% Greek yogurt with jam & granola

Protein shake 

Lunch

Broccoli, cauliflower & ground turkey patties/nuggets with barbecue sauce

(Recipe coming soon!)

Afternoon Snack

Protein shake & apple with honey roasted peanut butter

Dinner

Michael made some delicious tilapia with this adobo seasoning his parents got us from New Orleans

Homemade black beans & a whole wheat naan

I also had a small glass of pomegranate wine that's unpictured

Dessert

Raspberry sorbet

Something I've been struggling with a lot is eating healthy. I do well for one day and then the next I'm a huge carb monster that wants pasta and cake and all other manners of bad stuff for you. I'm thankful I have Michael around to keep me straight, but it's difficult when your brain is telling your body the only thing it wants is not on your list of foods to eat. I'm slowly working on retraining my brain to crave healthy food rather than junk (I have a post about that coming up).

I've got some great ideas for posts coming up so stay tuned!

Resolutions

Hello hello everyone!

Today I wanted to talk about resolutions.

No no, not mine (I haven't actually made any); I'm talking about the #1 resolution made year after year.

Losing Weight

I think losing weight is an amazing goal considering about 69% of the United States adult population is overweight! What I want to do here is help you create a game plan to get there. And not just any game plan, an attainable game plan!

A healthy weight loss is about 1-2 pounds per week. 

That's 1-2 of these!

Still think 1 pound is just one pound?

At the beginning of your weight loss you'll probably lose more than 1-2 pounds per week, that's normal, but please please for the love of Batman don't try and aim for 5-10 pounds per week, it's not attainable through healthy methods.

So, Brittany, how do I lose weight in a healthy way?

It all comes down to mathematics (no no! Don't run away!)

One pound equals 3,500 calories.

To make that attainable during the week you can break it down daily and then break it down to exercise and diet

Taking 250 calories out of your day doesn't seem so hard now huh?

A good plan to take control over your daily calorie intake is to use a food tracker like MyFitness Pal (I'm on there, find me!). It makes you aware of not only what you are eating, but how much.

I hope this helps you in your goal to create a healthy lifestyle and lose weight this year!

Starting The New Year

Happy 2015 everyone!

In one word it's been chaos.

It's barely over 2 weeks in and I'm running around like a bat out of hell trying to do everything.

Lemme try and get this rundown done:

December

Michael came home after 2 months of being out of state for work

I cried.

Michael got knee surgery, he ended up having a torn meniscus

 Ouch!!

They got it all fixed and the poor man was stuck in a straight leg brace for a month. He was quite cranky but very determined to get back. Currently he's able to move around without the brace on, but is still limited to the kind of movements his knee can handle.

We spent our 1st Christmas in our own apartment waking up at 3am like little kids.

Michael's family came over later that day and mine came over on Saturday. Unfortunately I was so busy that I didn't get any pictures.

I went wedding dress shopping and picked my dress

I, however, did not pick this dress.

We spent New Year's Eve at home and going to bed at 9:30

Real party animals here.

Eventually Michael was able to get back to the gym, albeit having to skip leg day and modifying any cardio

And working, lots of working.
That's about it! Hopefully I'll be back really soon with some new posts!

Oh Look, A Blog!

Holy cow Batman, could I go any longer without blogging?!

Oh you mean I have to actually write to make it work? Good god I'm horrible at this ha!

 

Anyway, I'm here to tell you I won't be here for a few weeks (ironic right? Probably could have gone without and no one would have noticed).

Things are chaotic now, but boy will they get even more chaotic! chaotic-er?

Michael has been gone out of state for work for the past 2 months and comes home Monday (yay!) however, he's getting knee surgery (boo) 2 days afterwards. So I will be helping him recover, then it's Christmas time, and before you know it it's New Year's!

 

So the poor little blog here is going to take a hit for a few weeks while I juggle everything at once while standing on one foot. We'll see how it goes.

 

But! I will be back starting in the new year with some new stuff, recipes, and more babbling!

 

Have a wonderful holiday and a safe New Year!

Bahamas Cruise Part Three

Alrighty here we are with the last part to my cruise trip!
I don't think I could drag it out any longer than I have! Apologies to all!

If you missed part one or part two you can find them here and here

The third day of the cruise we docked at the island of Nassau and it looked exactly like I expected it to. It was packed full of brightly colored houses under a bright bright blue sky.

We had a super early dolphin encounter on a separate island called Blue Lagoon so we hopped on the ferry boat that would take us over there. It was about 35 minutes away so it was a good long boat ride that allowed me to see all over the place.

I've never touched a dolphin and it was so cool! I've swam with dolphins in the ocean while I boogie boarded (you can't live around here without being in the water with a dolphin) but I never actually got to touch and see one up close. We got to dance with him, give him a kiss, give him a hug, and touch his teeth. It was so crazy!

It was also our anniversary so it was cool to experience something like this on that day.

After the dolphin encounter it was still pretty early so we trekked over to the beach on the island and plopped ourselves down to enjoy the views. To get on Blue Lagoon island you had to purchase an encounter on the island so thankfully it wasn't overrun with people. We got a shady spot and the water was way clearer and free of jellyfish!

 I swam around a lot and I even got to see some cool looking fish in the water.

Once we were done on the island we headed back to the ship to change and head out on the main island. It was pretty interesting to see and we stopped in on the pirate museum

The fourth day was an entire day at sea which Michael and I spent primarily in our room reading our books. Everyone and I mean everyone was on the pool deck so we could only find chairs in the sun and I was just tired of being in the sun the whole time. I was a little pink so I wanted to keep out of the sun. It was also flippin' hot and our room had air conditioning so that's where we spent our last day. By the end of the cruise I read 3 books, took a nap every day, and remembered what it was like to not have to be anywhere by a certain time. 

The week was definitely a much needed break from the hustle and bustle of every day life. I loved not being able to use my phone and just spend all my time and attention on relaxing with Michael. We talked and enjoyed just spending time with each other.

I did miss home and was glad to get home after the drama of all the flights, but it was definitely one of the best vacations I've ever been on.

We're already planning our next!