My Weight Loss Journey: 9 months later...

In the beginning of November, I "went low-carb." Read all about it here.
To make a long story short:

• I started in the first week of November 2012.
• I had 12 cheat days over Christmas break {and was already/still down 8 lbs!}
• I started working out in January 2013
• I remained consistent with my low-carb diet 
• I was down 25ish pounds on my wedding day!!!!! {04.27.13}

Thanks to some great friends and their help/advice with their successful experiences losing weight/living life eating low-carb {shout out to Samantha & Laura!}, I learned a thing or two.

I learned it was possible & did not have to be excruciating!

I learned I could have one cheat day a week & it wouldn't hurt me at all.

I learned I can still have pizza, and ice cream, and chocolate, and cheese, and bacon, and a ton of other yummy things! 

In January, I also learned that somewhere along the way my pancreas decided to {hopefully temporarily} quit working.

A high-fat diet was the only *guess* as to what could have caused it.

I am not so sure anymore.

Just for the record, the medical bill was not worth sticking around for the specialist to come take a guess at the cause.

Lesson learned. 

I consistently ate under 20 carbs a day for six days a week.

When I tell people that, it blows their mind!

Apparently that's not a lot?! 

I now know that everyone's carb tolerance is different.

One person may be able to consumer 60 carbs a day & maintain their weight, another person may be able to eat 80, while some may only be able to eat 40.

Everyone's different & I was recommended to slowly start introducing carbs back into my diet and figuring out what my specific carb tolerance was.

I didn't do that. 

After our wedding day, we went to Jamaica, and ate, and ate, and ate.

And we went home, and didn't really look at what we were eating.

Then we semi- counted our calories, but weren't doing anything specific.

...Okay, Alex counted his and I didn't. :)

Meanwhile, I was working out 3-4 days a week consistently, mostly running on the treadmill {2ish miles a day}.

I am proud to say that I have maintained an approximate 20 lb. weight loss!! 

If you know me, you know I'm a picture freak.

It didn't take me long to find some "before" & "after" pics.

Here's some before pictures...yikes! 

I will say it warms my heart to know that Alex proposed to me at my largest. He must really love me! ;)

And now, my "current" pictures...

{I'm hesitant to call them "after" pictures. Hopefully I will be able to do that after this next go-round!}

the night before our wedding ♥

hottie hubby lost 20ish lbs too with low-carb pre-wedding! proud of him!

Yes, that's a bikini! I hadn't worn one of those in 2+ years!

So I said all that to say this...

I am starting round 2 tomorrow! 

I had so much success during round 1 & I've binged long enough to start feeling blah & seeing the number slowly increase. 

For some reason, I have such motivation this time! 

I am not even worried about missing my daily Mello Yello(s) or not eating fast food.

Now, I will have to grocery shop tomorrow.

And I am dreading that more than going on a diet. 

I'll let ya know how it's going and will be posting on Instagram {@nsmullen} some of the yumminess I make! Follow me! :)

Wish me luck & feel free to comment with some advice or encouragement! :)

♥,

Nicole

Bathroom Transformation

There really has been so so so so so much progress made on the house in such a short amount of time! I haven't blogged much about it because I didn't know the best way to go about doing it, you know, with not everything being completed yet, etc. Any suggestions would be helpful! But I did use this picture in a previous post as a bathroom decorating inspiration:

The bathroom's not nearly as big as the one in this photo but the light blueish gray & white with silver color scheme is what I was after!

Today we basically completed the bathroom. Little decor things need to go in there, along with towels, but the major stuff is done.

Here is a couple BEFORE pictures to give you an idea of what we were working with:

notice the floors & the scratched up door

notice the vanity...yikes!

an old light fixture...

and the chip on the wall started looking like this...

then later grew to this...

and the floor was ripped up...

and the "chip on the wall" eventually grew to this monster, which required professional assistance.

The vanity was GOING to be painted, but it was rotting...

so we ripped it out {I use the word "we" lightly}, along with the toilet Alex broke... Oops!

This is a glimpse of the mirror "before" & into the curtain-less shower

As you can see....we had a lot to work on! Again, I use the word "we" lightly, and often times out of context, haha, but still... you get where I'm going here! And just so you know, the "chip on the wall" was peeled paint. You know, that inconvenient "texturized" paint that the previous owners must have applied right to the dry wall! We attempted to start peeling and quickly got to a point where we could peel no more.

And remember: this is what I want it to look like in the end:

Well, after "we" had to have a professional to come in and give the walls a good sanding and a coat {or two} of skim coat to give us a clean, flat wall to work with..."we" could begin!

The walls were painted "Going Gray" {that's the color name} and ceramic tiling was put in and new molding was put around the base of the walls. A new vanity was put in as well, along with a new light fixture, and the much-needed toilet.

I really really really wanted to take the mirror off the wall & find a cute white framed mirror to put in its place. Unfortunately, the bathroom mirror is glued to the wall with magic glue because not even taking a hammer to that thing would budge it!! The ends were turning colors though & it was just not a pretty mirror, so Alex's mom came up with a great idea!! She thought of finding some molding at Lowe's, painting it, and gluing it to the super super super glued mirror to appear as if it were a frame!! BEST. IDEA. EVER! Saved me some money on a new mirror & it looks great!!

Again, we need some little decor-ish things in there, and some pretty towels, but this is what we have so far:

the new paint, molding, toilet, & ceramic tiling

the new vanity

And this SHOWER CURTAIN! ::

I am seriously so in love with this shower curtain. It's actually a Water Shed shower curtain & liner (2-in-1) but the idea of that scares me, so we also have a liner that's white! But I found it at Home Goods for $12.99!! Such a deal compared to if I would have found it {& of course I would have bought it} at Bed Bath & Beyond! But I was looking for something to match, something that wasn't too boyish, not too girlish either...and this shower curtain was just sent right down from Heaven!! You can't tell from the pics, but it's a paisley print with the color of the walls, black, white, and a bright aqua/turquoise-ish color.

Got my bathroom scene pic at Hancock Fabrics on clearance...Gotta love a good sale! ;)

full effect???

new light fixture & the molding turned mirror frame...

This was seriously the most transformed room in the house, which is why it's probably my favorite! It gives the house a{nother} pop of color and feels so bright, fresh, & clean! Exactly how a bathroom should be, in my opininon!

Do you see my inspiration in the finished product? 

Basically all that I got from it was the paint color idea/room color scheme & the idea of a white framed mirror! 

Either way, I consider this room a MAJOR success!!!