End of Phase 1

Today marks the end of phase 1 for the Jamie Eason Livefit program that I started about a month ago. During this phase, as I mentioned before, we focused on building solid muscle to help burn fat later on in the program. Because our main focus was to build muscle we completely omitted cardio for a month during this phase. It wasn't really that hard for me to NOT do cardio because before starting the program I was very inconsistent with exercise anyway. I actually really enjoyed focusing on weight lifting and building muscle, I have always really enjoyed weight training, but now I am definitely excited to start cardio again to burn the FAT! Over the course of phase 1 I can definitely see a change in my waist/stomach. My jeans have started to fit much looser around my waist, and also in my legs. I lost about 2.5 inches in my waist and hips which was the most significant loss. Although I didn't lose inches elsewhere everything has REALLY firmed/toned up in just a month! I felt myself gain so much strength throughout the first phase and it absolutely amazes me. Feeling stronger each week definitely gave me the motivation I needed to keep moving forward and striving to lift heavier. I also lost about 5lbs over the last month which makes me extremely happy considering a lot of people don't lose much weight during this phase, so I am anticipating much more weight loss by the end of the program with the addition of cardio in phase 2 and HIIT training in phase 3.

Aside from the loss of inches and pounds, I have gained a LOT of knowledge by participating in this program. I have learned what "Clean" eating is, how to fuel my muscles the right way with the right foods, I have learned an immense amount of new exercises, I have gained muscle, energy (like a TON), motivation, confidence, and will power. Before starting this program I felt that all of my will power when it came to food and exercise was lost, I just gave up on myself and gave into every temptation. Now, I can say no and not even flinch. I would be lying if I said I didn't crave certain things every now and then, but there is always a CLEAN option to that craving and I divulge in that instead and am perfectly satisfied. Because this IS a lifetstyle change, if I decide to indulge in something "not clean", or perfectly healthy once in a blue moon I know I have gained my will power back, and that I will stop at that one thing and not continue. I know that I am strong enough to have one of my favorite things and then continue on with my clean foods the rest of the day and I won't feel bad, nor will I beat myself up about it. I still need to enjoy my life and I will and I have thus far. I have gained love for my body, I have gained love for myself and my life. My whole attitude has changed about life and I feel so much more happy on a day to day basis than I did before starting JE trainer and the clean eating lifestyle.

With Phase 2 there isn't a WHOLE lot of change in the diet, but we do start to phase out starchy carbs throughout the day and the goal is to have our last starchy carb (brown rice, whole wheat pasta, sweet potato etc) by 3 o'clock and try not to have much (or any) past that point. When we cut out the starchy carbs we will be replacing them with veggies such as (broccoli, zucchini, etc) and we will also be adding more protein and healthy fats to supplement the calories we are losing by eliminating the starchy carbs. As I mentioned before, in phase 2 we will also be adding moderate cardio for 30 minutes. We will tack that on to the END of our workouts as not to hinder our lifting performance by doing it before we lift. We will still continue to eat 5-6 meals every 2-3 hours throughout the day to keep our muscles fueled to enable them to build and for our fat to burn :)

I encourage anyone who is interested in building muscle, losing fat, wanting to gain confidence, wanting to eat healthy, wanting to gain energy, ANYONE to take a look at JE livefit trainer and give it a go. It is tough to give up your favorite things at first, but I promise, coming from ME someone who LOVES food there is ALWAYS a healthy version of whatever it is you're craving. Also, your cravings will drastically diminish, and altogether disappear after about a week and a half-two weeks of eating clean, it truly is amazing!

Start of phase 1-the end of phase 1 (I have gained the confidence to even post this on here, and it gives me the motivation to continue!)

I have seen some progress, felt a LOT of change in myself, and know I still have a long way to go but I am enjoying every step of this journey and can't wait to walk in to my bridal appointment on February 3, 2012 with all of my best girlfriends and feel absolutely amazing in every single dress!

First Snow

It's official. Today was our first snow of the season. I woke up this morning around 830am, looked outside, and much to my surprise (although I am not sure I should really be surprised) it had snowed, and everything was completely covered in white. It has since stopped snowing, but I know this is only the beginning and we are already behind schedule for the snow. I was actually starting to get worried we wouldn't get a white Christmas, which I wanted since we have to stay here over the holidays, I at least wanted to experience my first white Christmas so now I am not so worried anymore.

We still haven't really figured out anything for our anniversary, Christmas, or New Years but I found out that up at Niagra Falls during the winter months they have something called the festival of  lights. They light up the falls and have a 3+ mile long Christmas light display that you drive through along with ice skating and other fun holiday activities. I am really wanting to go up and do that for our anniversary or just to see because we only live about an hour away and its all FREE! It looks so beautiful and I definitely want to see the falls while we are here. I am taking the boy I babysit up to the Buffalo airport next Thursday, so I was also thinking of just driving up there after we drop him off because its only about 20 minutes from the airport, so we will see. I am determined to go up to the festival of lights so I guess I will have to do some sweet talking :)

Snow in our backyard

Hello, Decemeber

It is hard to believe it is December already!!! I remember last Christmas like it was yesterday, and I can't believe it has already been another year. So much has happened in this past year that has changed our lives: we found out we were moving across the country, we got engaged, my best friend lost her sweet angel Lyla :(, she got pregnant AGAIN with her little bunny Harlow :), we booked our wedding venue, we MOVED to New York, and now we are approaching our TEN year anniversary together! It's incredible to think that Bobby and I have been together for TEN years...these days marriages rarely last that long, but we have just been dating for that long and it makes me feel so extremely blessed to have found my soul mate at such an early age.

With December, along came our first snow flurry that lasted longer than 5 minutes. It didn't stick thank goodness, but it reminded us that winter is approaching and we better be ready! So, today Bobby went and bought a snow shovel and a couple brushes and ice scrapers for our cars...I think we had been living in denial that we were in for some brutal winters while we are here, but today was a reality check when we woke up to snow! I love the snow, I think it is beautiful I am just not looking forward to waking up at 6am to shovel my car out for work every day...if I had someone to take care of that for me *cough*Bobby*cough* I think I would be a little more excited and OK with the snowy winter days ahead. :)

We also received our stockings (with our names on them) in the mail today and I can't wait to get them up on our mantle. They are so cute and I am so excited about them :) I am still waiting for our Christmas cards and photobooks to arrive in the mail, hopefully they will get here by next week so I can start getting those out in the mail! This is the first year we have done Christmas cards, I figured now that we are engaged (and have awesome engagement pictures to use for them) its the best time to start this tradition that I have been wanting to do forever! I can't wait to get those in the mail, I hope they turn out as cute as they looked online, you just never can tell with some things like that.

I have so much to be grateful for in my life, and I am SO ready for 2012!

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving this year was filled with so many different emotions from so many different places. I was happy and grateful to have our wonderful little Simon family to spend the day with, I was saddened by some heartbreaking news from my best friends, while also being overjoyed by the news that she is having another baby girl Harlow in April, I missed my family, but also felt very blessed to have such an amazing man to share all of these emotions with me as they came.

We had our Thanksgiving meal over our friend Theresa and Pedro's, she cooked the turkey (her first ever) and some sides and desserts, I made ezekial bread stuffing, roasted garlic green beans and sweet potatoes (all things that are apart of my new eat clean program), and a few of our other friends brought dessert and cranberries. Together we created this incredible feast that not even Bobby could put a dent in. During the time we were finishing up some of the side dishes, I received a text from my best friend informing me of some extremely heartbreaking news about her dad....I just felt and still feel so heartbroken over everything that she has been going through over this past year, this was the last thing I ever expected to hear from her on this day. I had been anticipating the announcement of the gender of her baby, but instead received that tearful text. I just wanted to be able to be there in that moment and give her a big hug, but I couldn't. Her father is such an amazing man and it is hard to wrap my head around the thought of him not being around to see the birth of his beautiful grand daughter Harlow. I have been praying non-stop since I got the news and I will continue to do so for her family and for her dad.

Baby Harlow <3

As I mentioned a little...she did announce that she is indeed having another baby GIRL named Harlow and I could not be anymore excited!!! I was wishing and hoping and praying she would have another little girl and she is :) Little miss Harlow will just be absolutely adorable walking down the aisle at our wedding as our flower girl I can not wait to meet her in April! And now that I know she's having a girl I am wanting to buy absolutely everything in sight!!! I have such a cute idea of something I want to do so hopefully I can pull it off :)



Today, Bobby and I decided we would opt for a fake Christmas tree because we figured it saves money and is something we can keep packing around with us fairly easily, plus its less mess for ME to clean up. So, we got our first tree together...hard to believe after almost 10 years together that this is the first year we have EVER had a tree in our home but it brings a smile to my face and I am so excited about it! It is definitely going to be an on going project building up our personal ornament collection I think we have one ornament haha. We bought some simple red ball ornaments and the tree has white lights so it looks pretty. I ordered our stockings so they should be arriving next week so now we have the basic Christmas necessities and it feels wonderful. Bobby isn't a big Christmas fan at the moment, but I know when we have children he will be ALL about it, but I am glad he is so sweet and willing to give me some basic Christmas goodies that I have been bugging him about. I have so much stuff coming in the mail: stockings, our christmas cards, photobooks, my new Kindle Fire (Bobby's early Christmas present to me) and I am sure something else I can't even remember....oh yeah new windshield wiper blades for our cars LOL ( Gotta love Amazon).

Our Tree :)

Lastly, we got to skype with our little loves Austin and Calvin tonight and that just completed my holiday <3 I am SO excited for CHRISTMAS!!!!



Rocco Covalt and Family <3

Holidays

It's hard to believe sometimes that we are 24 and 26 year old adults, out on our own on this journey together. It becomes even more real when the holidays approach, especially this year. Usually for Thanksgiving we kind of do our own thing together because with school we never got enough time off to go home because we always knew for Christmas we would. Last year for Thanksgiving we went up to Oregon to my Dad's house which was a lot of fun and such a great visit, but this year since we are 3,000 miles away from all of our family we will most definitely not be going home for Thanksgiving, and we aren't flying back for Christmas either. We have reached a point in our lives where we want to finally start creating our own traditions as our own little family. We are engaged, getting married within the next year and a half, and soon after that will be trying to grow our family even more. Its hard sometimes to believe that we are at this point in our lives and I will admit it makes me a little sad, but it also is an amazing place to be with Bobby because I know what we start doing now for the holidays will carry on to when we are married in our first house, with our children, and so on and that is absolutely amazing to think about!

This year for Thanksgiving there are a hand full of Simon students that are from California like us, that will also not be going home for Thanksgiving because in two short weeks they will be flying back home for winter break. So, my friend Theresa and I thought it would be fun to get that little group together and have a Simon Thanksgiving together, so that is what we are doing. There will be 6 or 7 of us getting together, collectively cooking the meal together, and sharing this special holiday together at our friend Theresa and Pedro's house. I am really happy to have met such awesome people here in Rochester that we are able to spend such a joyous holiday together with. These are people who I know will be a part of our lives forever.

Christmas is an entirely different story. Everyone will be going home for Christmas, and pretty much Bobby and I will be left here. We decided that it would be too expensive to fly home for Christmas since we just flew back a month and a half ago, and I will be flying back in February for Laura's baby shower. Bobby has really also been wanting to start our own Christmas traditions together so that is what we are going to do. It is also going to be our TEN year anniversary together on December 23rd so what better year to kick off our own future Graham family Christmas traditions than this year. Believe it or not we have never gotten a tree together, and have NO holiday decorations (including stockings) so this year we are going to get a tree! I also want to get us stockings (although the ones I have been wanting from PB are SOLD OUT AGAIN!) and a few cute little decorations to start to build up our holiday decor collection that we can build upon over the years. So, although I am a little sad to be so far away from family and friends, I am so grateful and excited to have Bobby and I start our own Christmas traditions that we will carry on throughout our life together. It will also be our first WHITE Christmas together....maybe this was all just meant to be :)

LiveFit Phase 1

I wanted to share my most recent adventure, which is life changing one that I just started last monday! I had been very up and down with my "diets" and exercise which caused for my body image to really hit an ultimate low. I had read a lot about Jamie Eason's LiveFit program on bodybuilding.com and became really intrigued and motivated to start it. The LiveFit program isn't just one of those get skinny fast programs that a lot of people pay for (myself included in the past) it is a whole lifestyle makeover. It focuses on eating clean and eating to get lean. Cut out all processed junk and just eat REAL FOOD! Along with eating whole, clean foods there is also a workout routine that goes with each phase of the trainer. There are three phases: Phase 1 you focus on just building up muscle. NO CARDIO  and NO COUNTING. It's just all about portion sizes and building muscle. You are on an eating schedule, every three hours and end up having about 5-6 meals per day! It is hard to imagine eating that much, but when you are eating all healthy clean foods let me tell you its GREAT! I instantly started feeling so much more energetic, my mood was AWESOME, happy all of the time life is good! Along with the eating/food plan there are 4 days of weight lifting workouts the first 2 weeks of phase 1 and then the last two weeks of phase 1 there is a different combination of workouts that is 5 days a week (still no cardio). It is now Sunday, and I am preparing to start week 2 tomorrow and could not be more pumped! I feel SO good (besides the soreness) and more motivated than I have been in YEARS! I will be trying on wedding dresses for the first time with all three of my bridesmaids February 3 when I am in California for Laura's baby shower and I will complete the program a few days prior to leaving...perfect timing!!! I feel like this program came into my life at the perfect time! I joined the facebook group that an amazing woman created and there are over 3,000 members and a bunch of us branched off of that and made a group for all of us that started last week! There is an unbelievable amount of support for me every minute of every day that it makes it near impossible to fail and the fact that I just have SO much to prove to myself by finishing  this just pushes and focuses me that much more! I have set aside Sunday as my designated grocery shopping/food prep for the week day which is the key to success in this lifestyle. Always having clean food options on hand is what will propel you to cross the finish line with flying colors. I have actually been feeling so much joy and pride in the food I have been preparing, whether it be a full on meal or a small snack option I take great pride in everything I eat because I know it is helping me live a longer healthier life. Its hard to explain how I feel on a daily basis only being a week in to the 12 week trainer, but its nothing but positive! I will continue to write and update this blog on my progress and I hope to inspire and motivate others to take this journey as well! :)

Sticking with it

So lately I have been finding myself having a really hard time with the long engagement. I see so many friends that got engaged after us getting married before us and I will honestly say it makes me jealous. What girl wants to wait 2 years after getting engaged (waiting 9.5 to get engaged might I add) to have her big day? In a perfect world I wouldn't have to wait, and I would be able to plan the typical 9-12 month engagement and having our wedding next summer, but since Bobby is going to business school until June 2013 we decided together to have a long engagement and get married the August following his graduation. I will be planning the California wedding from New York  which requires a lot of email/skype/computer communication with vendors and multiple flights back and forth which adds up fast! I have to remember that when I start to wish and drive myself crazy about how far away the wedding is, it is the least stressful option and that is why we decided to do it when we did. I feel so lucky to have Bobby in my life because even when he is swamped with school work and class he still finds the time to talk my crazy thoughts through with me and helps me to remember all of the many reasons why we chose August 4, 2013 to be our big day! There are so many things going on in 2012 one being the arrival of my bestest friend's little bunny in April! I feel extremely grateful to have that summer while Bobby is interning somewhere yet to be determined to go visit her, take my time with finding the perfect dress, visit friends, find good deals on wedding goodies, or do pretty much whatever I want! I am the most indecisive person and having all of the time to change my mind (while it can be a little insane at times) is a definite blessing and allows me to have everything just exactly how I want it without having to meet unrealistic deadlines (for me in my situation).

So, the moral of this story is...stick with your gut instinct ALWAYS! It is always the right choice in the end, and although you may waiver on your decision I suggest going back and writing out all of the reasons why you made that decision in the first place. I think you will find it quite easy to remember why you chose the way you did to begin with. You just have to trust and believe in yourself :)