First picture was at 202 LBS in December 2010. Second is at 158 LBS In December 2011.

This first photo is at 202 LBS December 2010. Second is from TODAY! :) At 153 LBS!

And if this doesn’t blow your mind, I don’t know what will. These two photos were taken ONE WEEK apart. I am the SAME WEIGHT in both photos. The only thing I did differently during this week, was Pilates!!

I really hope this serves as some motivation for you!! I want you to succeed so much that I’m risking public embarrassment for the cause. Hah!

As for weight loss, how is everyone doing? I’m sad to say that I’ve gained a couple pounds since I started school. (Due to an increase in stress and lack of exercise.) I am now, however, getting back on track! I hope all is well with you and I would love to hear that! Leave me a comment and let me know! Love you guys!

I would like to take the time out to say welcome to all you newbies and CONGRATULATIONS on taking the first step to a new you! By taking the time to subscribe to this blog, clicking on those emails that you regularly receive from me, and just so much as thinking about getting healthier- you’re accomplishing a major feat. &We’re so honored to be your motivation as you reach for your goals. We’re just so glad you’re here :)

OKAY- So today, I was scoping around the internet aimlessly (maybe while I was supposed to be studying) and found a picture that really hit home for me. So, naturally, I have to share!

HOW MORTIFYING IS THIS PICTURE?! I’ve lost DOUBLE that huge pile of fat in this picture. How did I ever move with so much restriction? To imagine the pressure that weight must have put on my heart makes me want to cry. Why do we do this to ourselves? For one minute of satisfied taste buds? So not worth it! I run into people all the time who confide in me and share their disappointment of only losing one pound since their last weigh in. I’m sure you’ve felt that way, too, one time or another. One pound less of fat on your body is one pound less of pressure on your heart and organs. Getting heart disease is one pound further away. Before you know it, those one pounds add up to be a lot!

Your body may not lose weight as fast as your patience wants it to. Your friends may lose double the weight that you do. Every single body has a different recipe and no one’s body is the same. You will hit plateaus, you will get discouraged, temporarily give up, and gorge yourself until you explode- but you’ll overcome. I’ve said it so many times before, weight loss is SUCH a mental game. You must rise above that mental barrier and realize that one pound is still improvement! If you lose even one pound a month- this adds up to 12 pounds a year. Losing 12 pounds a year can reduce your risk for stroke, heart disease, and dementia by 10%! So tell me….

“Even if you’re walking as slow as you possibly can, you’re still lapping everyone on the couch.”

I bet you didn’t know that not all fat was white, did you? Yep, there are actually two types of fat. White fat, and brown fat.

White Adipose Tissue (WAT) is what we normally refer to as our “body fat”.  We want to BURN white fat.

Brown Adipose Tissue (BAT) is brown fat. Brown fat is BENEFICIAL because it helps you burn calories and it burns the unhealthy white fat as fuel. This process gives off heat and consumes a lot of white fat. Researchers have found brown fat to be more closely related to muscle than to white fat.

Women typically have 2x as much brown fat as men do, lean people have more than obese people do, people with normal blood sugar have more than those with high blood sugar do, and younger people have more than older people do. Brown fat is made up of iron-containing mitochondria (the powerhouse of cells), which is best known for creating energy. More mitochondria = more energy! Brown fat helps burn excess calories for heat. If you use proper techniques, you can use brown fat to your advantage so excess calories aren’t stored as white fat which will end up as undesired belly fat.

COLD stimulates brown fat to burn excess white fat and glucose for energy. This is why Michael Phelps can consume over 12,000 calories a day. He isn’t just exercising that much, the cool water of the pool stimulates his brown fat therefore he needs extra calories to keep the weight from piling off.

Tips to activate your brown fat and trick it into burning white fat:

• Use ice packs on your back/neck for 30-60 minutes while relaxing at night (when your insulin levels are higher and more sensitive). Why the back of your neck? Because almost everyone has brown fat in their neck. Doing this for 30 minutes burns 100 calories!
• Soak your feet in cold water at night or first thing in the morning when you first wake up. This will stimulate heat throughout the day. Soaking your feet in ice water for 5 minutes burns 90 calories!
• Suck on ice cubes throughout the day.
• Have something cold for dessert.
• Take a cold shower as soon as you wake up (if you can stand it– I have to have my shower scolding hot!). If you can take a shower at 75 degrees F for 3 minutes, you will burn 120 calories. (I think hearing that number, I can force myself to take a cold shower!)
• Lower the temperature in your house by 5 degrees. This will burn 100 calories a day.
• Drink ice water. This itself will burn 60 calories.

I hope you all will try to incorporate some of these things into your daily routine! As for me, I’m going to go soak my feet in some ice water :)

PS; newcomers, don’t forget to subscribe to this blog and comment to let us know who you are and how you found us! Stormi & I would love to get to know you all!

-Samantha.

 -Stormi

Hello fabsters!!! So nice to meet you all! Like Stormi said, I’m Samantha :). This is me:

I’m 23 years old, I have a wonderful boyfriend of three years, a son who just turned 2 on Friday the 13th (talk about terrible twos), and I’m a restaurant manager at Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar. I’m also an artist, a photographer, and a traveler.

I’m going to cut straight to the chase. I don’t remember a single time in my life since grade school where I wasn’t overweight. I honestly have absolutely no reason for it either. I’ve always loved food and hated exercise and gym class. I was always the quiet kid sitting in the back of class wearing a hoodie to hide my body because I was uncomfortable in my skin. I had friends, but because of how uncomfortable I was, I was never popular and didn’t even start dating until I was almost out of high school.

By the time I gave birth to my son on January 13, 2010, I knew I was at my all time high. I didn’t even know how much I weighed until a friend of mine in California decided to join Weight Watchers and wanted me to join with her. I went out and bought myself a nice digital scale from Walmart. I stepped on, and was absolutely mortified. 236.4 pounds. Two hundred and thirty six.

I knew I had to do something. I joined Weight Watchers Online on September 20 2010. Between that day and April 18 2011, I lost 39.8 pounds and got down to my all-time low of 196.6 pounds. I eventually fell off track, and I will admit it was for no real reason at all. I wound up gaining all but 13.4 pounds of it back. As of January 1st 2012, I am back on track. I have such a wealth of knowledge about healthy eating and how to lose weight, but I needed a shove in the right direction.

Stormi (she’s my best friend btw!) has inspired me to make myself be the healthiest mama I can be for my son. My goal is to lose 90 pounds to get down to 130 pounds, and I will not stop until I get there. I will be co-blogging with Stormi from now on and I will be bringing even more tips to help you all out there as well! Be on the lookout for contests and challenges in the near future, a new header picture featuring Stormi and myself, and most of all my first post tonight! So please, if you will, introduce yourself in the comments of this post, even if you’ve introduced yourself to Stormi already, so we can get acquainted! :)

-Samantha.

I want to know what decisions you’ve made towards living a better, healthier, and skinnier lifestyle. Leave a comment underneath and let me know. I want to challenge you all to better your lives. Whether or not that means to lose weight, just be healthy, have less anxiety, get organized, or just plain be happy. You can do it- even when you feel like you’re stuck in a rut and feel like you don’t know how to take the first step towards your goal- take a deep breath and analyze your situation and have a long long talk with yourself.

This week, I’m challenging you all to get a little more organized. Clutter in your lives (whether it means your messy bedroom or your email inbox) can actually cause clutter on your body! (aka: extra pounds!) This week, make yourself a goal to DE-CLUTTER your life. Throw away all the crap that you’re hoarding because you feel like someday it will mean something- it won’t. Go through all your old clothes that are too big for you and give them to Goodwill- because you sure won’t need those XXL’s anymore! Go through your email inbox and unsubscribe to all of those stupid emails that you don’t even bother opening! De-clutter and de-stress your life. That’s your challenge for this week. Let me know how you do!

1) Baked Mozzarella Sticks:

Ingredients:

-Mozzarella (or any kind, really) cheese. (try to find some made with 2% milk. Less fat that way.)

- Bread crumbs (plain or with additional flavor of your choice)

- Egg whites (amount of egg whites depends on how many cheese sticks you’re making)

- Marinara or salsa for dipping

Directions:

1) Cut your cheese into stick like strands (or balls, or whatever shape you want, really.)

2) Throw your cut cheese into the freezer for about a half hour (optional, but the sticks will be a lot less messy if you freeze them first)

3) Pour your egg whites into a bowl & your bread crumbs into a separate bowl. Dunk your cheese sticks into the egg whites, then into the bread crumbs, and place on an aluminum foil lined baking sheet.

4) Bake for 7 minutes at 350. WATCH THESE VERY CLOSELY. You want your cheesesticks to cook, but not to turn into an ooey gooey cheesey mess. (unless you do want them too, in which case, go right ahead!)

&VOILA! Baked cheese sticks that aren’t so bad for you. See? You can have your cheese and eat it too!

Found my recipe here: http://www.wearenotmartha.com/2009/05/baked-mozzarella-sticks/

I’ve made you a handy little print out with a list of all the important antioxidants that you should try to tie into your diet. The benefits of these foods, even beyond the antioxidant count, are amazing. There is a long list of why these foods should make it on your plate and antioxidants are merely just one.

Whole Grain Spaghetti:

Spaghetti Squash:

Because I was so surprised at how well this turned out (and I’m a die hard spaghetti fan), I want all of followers to go out and buy what they need for this recipe and try it out this week! It’s inexpensive and one spaghetti squash makes SO much food. Here’s what you’ll need:

Ingredients:

1 Whole spaghetti squash

2 Avocados

Salt

Pepper

about 1/2 lemon’s worth of Lemon juice

2 tbsp Olive Oil

3 Garlic cloves

1/2 an Onion

Chopped basil (as much as desired)

Directions:

There are many different ways to cook a spaghetti squash. You could cut it open, spoon out the seeds, and fork the insides FIRST, then boil, bake, or microwave it. OR you could boil, bake, or microwave the entire squash before you even cut it open. Now, the squash is extremely hard to cut open if you haven’t cooked it first, so I decided to cook it first. The downfall to this, is it takes a little more time. Here’s what I did:

• Preheat your oven to 375 F
• Pierce your squash several times with a large knife. (To prevent squash volcano explosion mayhem in your oven.) &Place squash in preheated oven for 1 hour.

• About 15 minutes before your squash is done, gather the avocado, onion, salt pepper, garlic cloves, lemon juice, olive oiland basil into food processor, blender, or my personal choice- my handy dandy Magic Bullet.

• Pulse the ingredients until they’re smooth. Add more olive oil if it’s too thick for your liking.

• When your spaghetti squash is finished baking, get it out and let it cool until you can touch it without burning your hand off. I used my ove-glove because I’m impatient :)
• Cut your spaghetti squash in half length wise with a sharp knife. (It’s way easier to cut now.) Begin spooning out the middle seeds, just like you would a pumpkin. These seeds CAN be baked later, I’ve heard they’re amazing.

• Get a large bowl (this squash makes more spaghetti than you think!) and get a fork and fork out the insides into bowl making long spaghetti like strands.

• Mix in your avocado sauce, serve, and enjoy!

Now, check out this picture:

This is a body scan of a 250 LB woman vs. a 120 LB woman. Study this picture. Look at the pressure on all of her bones and joints. Look at the size of her heart because of how hard it is working every single day. This photo was very eye-opening for me. Now that you’ve seen what being over weight does to your insides, I know you’re ready to learn how to exercise.

EXERCISE 101:

Have you ever walked into a gym and been so overwhelmed that you just didn’t know where to start? You’re not the only one. The gym is a scary place to a newbie. Here, I will share with you the most important things I know about the gym and what to do once you get the motivation to step inside.

1) Stretch. Getting limber before your work out is super important. Stretching reduces risk for injury during exercise and also helps the body become more flexible. Stretching after your work out is just as important; it helps get the heart rate down. Plus, stretching feels amazing. Never miss a stretch!

2) Cardio melts fat. If weight loss is your ultimate goal, cardio should be your partner. Cardio consists of any exercise that brings your heart rate up. (Healthy cardio range is around 160 Beats Per Minute.) This could be the running on the treadmill, dancing in your living room, jumping on the bed, or using the elliptical until your calves explode. When you’re doing cardio, your goal should constantly be watching your heart rate and making sure it rises and stays in that healthy heart rate zone. Cardio will melt away your fat.

3) Resistance training will not make you look like a body builder. No you will not get massive gross looking man muscles if you lift weights. So many women stray from weight lifting in fear of this. Lifting weights will burn many calories while building muscle. The more muscle you have, the more calories your body burns in one day. Make sure that you’re not going to easy on yourself when you’re lifting. The rule for the weight of your weight- is if you can do more than 3 sets of 12 reputations it’s too light. If you can’t do 3 sets of 12 repetitions- it’s too heavy. Find your happy medium and don’t be scared to feel the burn.

4) Do not work out the same body parts two days in a row. Your body needs time to rest and repair. As I’ve said before, the burn you feel during your work outs is your muscles literally tearing apart. If you work the same muscles day after day- they will not have enough time to heal correctly, could cause injury, and you will definitely not build as much muscle as you would like.

5) Interval training. When doing carido, play with intervals. When you’re running, sprint for a little bit, then walk for a little bit. By doing this, your body’s heart rate is shooting up then gradually being lowered before shooting back up again. This is an extremely heart healthy and effective tactic for weight loss.

6) Intensity. You know what your limits are, but in the world of weight loss, we tend to convince ourselves that our limits are a lot lower than they really are. If you’re doing a specific exercise (be it cardio or resistance training- whatever) and you feel like you can do it with ease, crank it up a notch. Exercise is good no matter the level of intensity you are doing, but letting yourself slack off will delay your progress. You should make the gym a place that you vigorously attack every single time. Just know when it’s time to crank up that intensity so you’re constantly challenging yourself.

7) Focusing on the core. Core strength is an amazing aid in weight loss and helps so much with breathing, balance, and toning. Though if losing weight is your ultimate goal, core building exercises (such as pilates & yoga) should not be you priority, but tying them into your work out routine 2 days a week would be ideal. This was my body when I had done Pilates for one month- I hadn’t even lost a pound- just gained muscle.

BEFORE :                              AFTER:

8) Plan your work outs. Just like planning your meals, if you set yourself a deadline every day to get to the gym (or where ever you work out) you’ve won half the battle. Just getting there is the hardest part. I stumbled upon a GREAT BEYOND GREAT idea on how to motivate people to attend the gym. Watch this video for more information:

Find their website here: http://www.gym-pact.com/

9) Variety. How boring does it sound to do the same thing over and over again? Super boring and unexciting. Which is why diets are usually an utter failure. Switching your work outs up each day or each week helps keep motivation high and makes it more exciting. If you’re doing the same thing over and over again, your body will eventually hit a plateau, even if you’ve been consistently been losing weight until that point. When this happens, switch it up! Change your exercise and keep your body on it’s toes. This will help knock you out of your plateau in no time. Just don’t get discouraged.

10) Be confident. How mortifying does it sound to you to go to the gym and work out in front of people? You’re not alone. This is the most common complaint I hear from women that are looking to shed some pounds. They’re embarrassed to work out in front of people. When you’re at the gym, you must remember, everyone is there for the same reason- because they’re concerned about their health. I used to be embarrassed to work out at gyms because of the way I looked. I can assure you there has not been one time where anyone has come up to me and laughed or made a joke to my face. Just plug your headphones in, turn your music up loud, and drown them all out. You’re doing this for you and you deserve to feel comfortable while you’re doing it. Soon enough, you’ll be the one owning that gym.