10 points for Gryffindor: Progress Photo 2!

Good morning all you wizards, witches, and muggles out there! I am totally a wizard. I have documentation to prove it 😏 I hope everyone is doing magically :) Okay, I'll calm down with all of the Harry Potter stuff....well I'll try to! 😋 

My next progress photo was not taken until February 11, 2017. I am not entirely sure why that is the case, but I would assume because I wanted to wait until I lost a certain amount of weight, kept forgetting to take one, or just was not happy with how slow it was gong in the beginning. It was probably a combination of all three. I was still weighing myself consistently for the most part. I want to include those measurements in my posts because it wasn't all consistently me losing weight each week or at each measurement. There were bad weeks where it would go up as well as good weeks where it would still go up or stay the same. Without further ado, I present to you the time in between progress photo 1 and progress photo 2:

Dec 10, 2016: 163.8 lbs

Dec 27, 2016: 166.9 lbs

Jan 2, 2017: 163.8 lbs

Jan 8, 2017: 164.3 lbs

Jan 17, 2017: 163.5 lbs

Jan 24, 2017: 162.4 lbs

Jan 29, 2017: 162.4 lbs

Feb 5, 2017: 160.9 lbs

As you can see, there are times where I went back up or just stayed the same. Also, was not exactly weekly but close enough lol 😆 Now, for progress photo 2 (these are incredibly hard for me to look at). I really was not happy with my hair 😥 I know that seems so silly, but it goes into my self-confidence (or lack of). I feel more comfortable with longer hair and that was the shortest it had been in years. I digress, back to the photo.

Progress Photo 2

My second progress photo is from February 11, 2017 with me weighing in at 159.9 lbs. 🙈 Ten pounds lost! I realized I should have mentioned in my last post, I set three different goal weights to break it up. My first goal weight was 145 lbs, second goal weight 135 lbs, and my ultimate dream goal weight 125 lbs. 145 lbs was the weight that I've always reached before, but I never would get past it. It was like trying to get past Fluffy when you didn't know all you needed was music to put him to sleep. I just did not know how to get past it. I would always plateau or just fall off of the wagon and not get back on. 135 was a weight I felt I would be happy with and was also in between 145 and ultimate goal weight. 125 is always the goal weight I've had in my head. I am not entirely sure why, but it has always been the dream and the weight that has always seemed far out of reach. I know now that it is not all about the weight on the scale, but in the beginning, that was my focus. That is why I don't have other measurements, and I really wish I did! They show you that even if you're not losing it on the scale you're definitely making progress somewhere! You could be gaining muscle and losing fat, but the scale as the only metric won't show it. The second half of January, I started fitness bootcamp and incorporated it into my routine. Mondays and Wednesdays were now dedicated to fitness bootcamp and Tuesday and Thursdays for Zumba! I also increased exercises from 3 days a week to 4 days a week! Fitness bootcamp was about an hour long, and depending on what Zumba video I followed, it was anywhere from 25 minutes to an hour. Fitness bootcamp is a conditioning class where you improve strength, shape, and endurance. It really helped me start shedding pounds. You complete the exercises at your level and modify exercises as you need to. I pushed myself a lot in this class and loved it! I was also still just focused on calorie counting. I wasn't focused entirely on what I was eating or my macros. I know only calorie counting does not work for everyone, but it was working for me. It was also easier for me to just focus on that one thing in the beginning and keep me on track. I wasn't eating terribly, but I wasn't eating the greatest either. However, as I continued, my eating started to get better and healthier little by little. Small steps still count in the end! Even if it's small, progress is progress!

"It is better to take many small steps in the right direction than to make a great leap forward only to stumble backward." -Louis Sachar

Lots of Love,

Ari <3

P.S. Halloween is just a little over 3 months away! 🎃 Yay! (Hopefully we don't run into any trolls 😝) I am thinking about being Kitana or Harley Quinn, but I can't decide 😖 Sometimes I lean towards Harley Quinn sometimes towards Kitana. I have been thinking about this since last Halloween 😆 Anyways, any thoughts? Much appreciated 💖