I loved Chocolate.

Well, tomorrow will be exactly six weeks since I've been really working hard. Six weeks since I learned how to eat and how to properly use gym equipment. My days are so long - waking up at 4:30 every morning gets exhausting. I can't just go to bed at 8:30 every night, so I rarely get enough sleep. Having a job, a boyfriend, a family, and going to the gym gets very complicated. There are many fights...but everyone understands.

My plan at the beginning was 'lose fat'. A lot of it...haha. Now though, my goal has transformed into something from an entirely different universe. Not only do I want to lose fat, but I want to tone my body, learn about what I'm doing (anatomy, diet & nutrition, etc.), and I want to be able to show others how to better themselves. SIX weeks people. I'm telling you - this is almost the tiniest I've been since like...ever. I'm not skinny, I know that, but I'm way closer than I've ever been. I'm learning so much about my body. What certain foods do for me & how I actually FEEL after eating certain foods (not just how it tasted). I ate chocolate the other day and got so sick. I thought I was going to feel good...but then I realized that chocolate and sugar don't make me feel good anymore. I feel better after I eat some vegetables or a sweet potato. (Weird, I know...right?) DON'T get me wrong, I love my cheat meals...but I can't say that I feel great after them.

Speaking of cheat meals - make sure you have one a week. If you don't, you'll binge. Just throwing that out there. Its an awful feeling afterwards too. (You won't die though...I already had mine. LOL I still lost weight)

So many people message me (and Keely...that amazing person who taught me almost everything I know. :P) asking how its done. Am I on a diet? What do I do in the gym? First of all, I am NOT on a diet. I'm changing my lifestyle. That's your first step. If you're serious about being healthy, this is a lifestyle change, not a diet. Diets end, and well, the other doesn't. Workouts are going to be different for everyone. Keely and I work out together every single day (and Morgan now :)) and we follow basically the same program together. Sometimes I have to substitute an exercise for something she can do because I just can't do it (or vice versa).

Here is a picture she posted today:

It is an amazing quote. I wish everyone could read this. 

You can't just run on the treadmill for 3 hours a day, all you're going to do is get one of those sickly runner's bodies. (They come with loose skin if your starting weight is very high.) Those stupid pills don't work. You can't buy a bottle of pills and expect to magically lose 20 pounds. And last but not least, fad diets are AWFUL. If you want to lose the weight and keep it off, you have to LEARN what your body needs. Give it what it needs to live and not just 'low carbs' or 'low fat' because that's what all the celebrities are doing. They're lying to you anyways...they have personal trainers. They're just a face to put on a product to make people buy it. 

I have a lot more to say - but I figured it might come out wrong, if some of this hasn't already. Plus, I'm dying to go to sleep and have to be up in six and a half hours. So, good night. :)

- Katie

Like Nike - Just Do It.

If you aren't happy with your body then CHANGE IT. Don't complain about it while you're eating a bag of chips or a handful of M&Ms. I'm so tired of seeing everyone on Facebook talk about how they're going to start going to the gym and then they're like "Well, I didn't have time" or "I didn't have a workout buddy". Oh well. I started out by myself, and I'm not the only person who's had to do it alone or wake up at 5 am to get the the gym for the day. You can do it too, so suck it up and do what you need to do.

Every single person is going to have a different starting place and everyone is going to have different first steps. Whether your first step to becoming a healthier you is drinking more water, adding in weight lifting instead of just doing cardio, or reducing your calories from 3000 to 1500 a day, you can't expect it to be easy. Of course its going to be hard...that's why you haven't done it yet! I was so embarrassed when I started. I didn't want anyone seeing my body to even take my before pictures. I didn't want to admit that I ate like a disgusting 300 pound man (okay, not really...but you get the point) and I didn't want to be that girl in the gym only using 5 pound dumbbells. You have to start somewhere, and that was my starting point.

I am so proud of myself for coming as far as I have in only a MONTH. Imagining what is waiting for me at the three month marker? You better believe I am ecstatic! Just do what you have to do. Stop talking about it and stop making those frieken excuses.

- Katie

RANT

Okay, SERIOUSLY. It is so freaking RUDE to walk into a store when you know they are closing in 10 min.

We were slow alllll day today, and then at 8:49 an entire family walks in. You all know me, and I got so mad that they didn't have the courtesy to wait until the next day, or get there just a BIT earlier, so I walked up to them and asked if they needed anything - just like I do when any OTHER dumb people walk in as we're closing. Of course they said no and went along with what they were doing...messing up our perfectly straightened plus side of the store. Well, I don't enjoy people doing this, so what did I do? I followed them. Around every rack, and made sure to fix every single freaking thing they touched so that they'd get the hint. Did they? Of course not.

DON'T DO THIS TO PEOPLE. Its so RUDEEEE. Unless you've worked retail, you will NEVER understand how rude you are being. Seriously, here is a list of things to remember:

1. Take your things OUT of the fitting room.
2. At least TRY to hang things back up right - it makes it easier on us.
3. DO NOT WALK IN when the store is closing.
4. DO NOT TALK ON YOUR PHONE loudly when the store is super quiet. I really actually DON'T want to hear your ghetto conversation about how that guy was cheating on you.
5. Don't talk on your phone at the register. It just pisses off the cashier. (I talk as loudly as I can to you, and ask you as many questions as I can...so just don't do it. I'll piss you right back off.)
6. Don't put things in the wrong place. If you don't know where it goes, there is usually a rolling rack outside of the dressing room - put it there.
7. Don't separate clothes and hangers. ITS IRRITATING to find empty hangers or clothes hanging over a rack.
8. Don't double question a freaking price. Ask once, that's cool...but don't ask me to recheck. I WASN'T LYING THE FIRST TIME.
9. Don't ignore me when I ask you a simple question like "Are you finding everything okay". I'll make the rest of your visit a living hell.
10. DON'T ask an associate to find every white shirt in a large. You look for it, & we ring you up and tell you it looks good.
11. Don't expect the associate to be your personal shopper. Just don't do it. You have two feet, so do it yourself. We have 20 other customers to watch & help.
12. If you knock something over, try to pick it up, or at least TELL an associate. It pisses me off to walk up to a wall that has half the clothes on the floor. I don't care if you did it, but at least freaking let me know.


Well, I think that's all. Now be nice to the workers when you shop, I'll tell you first hand that its not as fun for us as it is for you. So do your part, and don't be that person we go home at night and yell about. Thanks :)

- Katie