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

Going Low-Carb!

So I'm going to let it all out there! It's my blog & I'll do what I want! Sometimes I share personal things, sometimes I talk about my favorite TV shows. Sometimes I talk about 9/11. There's no common theme up in here... it's just what I want, when I want, and that's how I like it! :)

I'm gonna get a little more personal right now, and share with you "my new thing." I say this, knowing how I am... I start things and I never finish them. I admit it! BUT- this new ADHD medication something inside me has got me motivated. MAYBE it's the fact I'm getting married in less than six months {Eek!} but I don't care what it is, as long as this "thing" sticks!!

"My new thing" is a low-carb diet. I went to the doctor, primarily to tell him that all I want to do is sleep, and I've been eating better, even exercising more, and still- nothing! I didn't feel right and I knew this wasn't  the way I was supposed to feel, and quite frankly, I just didn't like it. I diagnose people every day with ADHD, so I knew I had that. Like knew beyond a shadow of a doubt. But this was something different. Well, he blamed my not sleeping well and no energy and yada yada to my diet. Go figure!! If I would have walked in there with a bloody arm he probably would have blamed it on my morning Mello Yello. But, I had to finally put my tail between my legs and realize... he went to medical school and I. did. not. I'm sure he knew what he was talking about, and if he didn't, I could say "I told you so" to him, but only after I tried things his way. He suggested a low-carb diet and ditching my morning Mello Yello the sugary drinks. I told him there's no way I'm cutting out the soft drinks cold turkey again. Last time I had MAJOR headaches. He suggested cutting however much I drink now in half, and keep cutting in half every week until I'm completely off of them. Well it didn't take me long to realize he wants me off them in two weeks!! I will try low-carb, but my Mello Yello is my baby and I just didn't know how I was going to feel about getting rid of it altogether.

I talked to a couple friends who have had great success with low-carb diets. One suggested staying under 20 carbs a day.

Do you know how many carbs are in my morning Mello Yello???

Forty! Seven! 

And still. I couldn't fathom my life without it. 

But, for the past four days, I have been successful!! I am not drinking two soft drinks a day. I'm opening up a can in the morning and if I don't finish it, I don't finish it. I think only one of the four days so far I've finished it. The medication really makes my mouth dry, so I'm drinking more water than ever!  I've been eating a protein bar in the morning, which, really isn't low-carb, but I might still have to find something low-carb I can eat on the go. No time for fixing breakfast...I love to sleep too much!! I've been eating boiled eggs for lunch. And I've made the BEST quesadillas for dinner. I've been switching it up between that, grilled chicken salads, and steaks the past four days.

After dinner tonight with my new friend Laura :) I learned that I have been eating less carbs than I thought!! I obviously had no idea what I was doing, and had been counting the total carbs on all my nutrition facts! Well, come to find out, with a low-carb diet, you subtract the Dietary Fiber and the Sugar ALCOHOLS (not the sugar) from the Total Carbohydrates to give you what they call "net carbs!" Who knew?!?! I probably would if I'd read info on the Atkins diet, everyone tells me. But anyways... so those tortillas I had been using on my low-carb quesadillas that I thought were 10g of carbs each are only 3!!!!!!!!!! Woohooo!! So I've been limiting my carbs, and still eating less than what I thought!! And, a little birdy told me I can eat bacon on a low-carb diet, so, I'm basically sold.

I'm now on a mission to find low-carb everything. I know it's possible! I want to do this so bad!! I know things will come up.. like my Christmas bridal shower, and, you know, the holidays. But if I give myself something to look forward to, and limit my "cheat days" to a cheat meal, or not three cheat days in a row, I think I'll be okay. It's for sure better than what I've been doing!!

And Laura told me something else that you probably already knew but I didn't... I can trade my morning Mello Yello in for an ice cold Diet Dr Pepper and save myself the 47 carbs!! Diet soft drinks have 0 carbs. I am not a diet drink fan, and I'm sure they're equally as bad for you but just in other ways, BUT... it will satisfy my craving for yummy liquid tasting drink in the morning {a.k.a. not water or black coffee} and will work on weaning me off caffeine as well!! I know I won't be finishing the cans, but it'll be a much better substitute! So now I will for sure be staying under my goal of 20ish carbs a day!! I'm excited!!

I'm really going to try to track what I'm doing. I'll try harder to share with y'all as well. :)

I've been tagged! Q&A time!

Sweet Maggie from A Carolina Love tagged me to do this neat little Q&A that I miss oh so much from those Myspace days. When I always got bored wanted to procrastinate I would  fill out those quizzes. Here's an example of one of those old quizzes {from 2005}. Thanks to Maggie tagging me, you now know totally new & completely random things about me! I know, I know....you're ecstatic. :)

Okay, now, here were the rules.

1. You must post these rules.
2. Each person must post 11 things about themselves on their blog.
3. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.
4. You have to choose 11 people to tag and link them on the post.
5. Go to their page and tell them you have linked him or her.

 And here were the questions Maggie asked me....

1. What is the one item you have to have in your fridge/pantry? 

If you know me, you know I am ADDICTED to Mello Yello. It's my absolute favorite drink in the world, and for SOME reason, people don't think stores still sell Mello Yello. Well, they do! I love me an ice-cold can of Mello Yello during a meal. Lucky for me, I rarely finish a can. Therefore, I waste a lot of Mello Yello. But I'd rather waste it than ingest it all. It is a soft drink after all! But, one I have, and always will love. :) Here's proof:

Yes, this is a picture that was taken in my dorm room during my freshman year at Appalachian State. I was {obviously} in love with Mello Yello then...and that was 2/9/2006!! {Don't judge me. I only know this because Webshots tells me when pictures were taken via my old Kodak camera. I just thought it'd be funny to prove my point through a almost 6-year-old picture!} 

2. Is there a song that evokes an emotion/memory from you no matter what? (can be a happy, nostalgic, etc)

The honest truth is that every song reminds me of something...some time or some person or some situation I was in or some time in my life. I love that so much because just hearing a song you haven't heard in such a long time can take you back & you can feel those feelings or be reminded of how far you've come just by hearing a song. 

Side note: I put this blog on hold and had to take a drive. So I shuffled my iPod during the drive to see what songs on there made me think what. And this is what I found: 

Des'ree's "You Gotta Be" reminds me of a summer Saturday in the 1990's, having very little care in the world, feeling encouraged, with the sun shining, and the windows open all throughout the house. It really makes me feel happy, empowered, and carefree. I will always love this song, no matter how silly I think the music video is. Man, I swear I could make such better music videos than 90% of people who actually get to make music videos.

3. What do you feel is your biggest accomplishment to date? Could be personal or professional.

My biggest accomplishment to date would have to be a professional one. I feel like I have not "accomplished" too too much in my personal life, yet. ;) Obtaining my Masters degree in Counseling is something I was determined to do, and did as quickly as possible. I had my mind made up & was motivated to succeed! Of course getting licensed as an LPCA & getting a j-o-b fall right on into this category, because without those two, I can't do what I went to school to do.

4. Would you rather go the rest of your life without ever watching your favorite show/movie or without reading your favorite book?

I would go the rest of my life without ever reading my favorite book again, duh. I've already read it & I seldom read the same book twice.  But I could watch a funny TV show over & over again! 

5. Skydiving or bungee jumping?

Skydiving! It's something I think I'm too chicken to do. BUT I think I would love it if I did it. Tori amp; I did the skydiving simulator on campus last year, and it was fun! :) 

6. Where is the one place you want to go before you die?

NEW. YORK. CITY.
Seriously, if you know me, or have talked to me in the past....year, you should know this. I have blogged about it and said it over and over again to those around me. I think someone's gonna get tired of hearing about it & just buy me a (one-way) plane ticket. :) Please do.

7. If you had a book written about you and your life, what would you want the title to be?

Dang, this is a toughie. I have absolutely no idea. Maybe "Fabulous Fulfillment" - :)

8. What would you want your 15 minutes of fame to be for?


For donating an organ to someone who really needed it and some really cool ironic or coincidental thing happening between myself & my organ recipient.

9. Is there a hobby or activity you did when you were younger that you've given up, but wish could start again?


I really miss sleepovers with my friends. Staying up all night, talking, doing hair, playing games, prank calling people, you know...typical sleepover stuff. The only time I have a "sleepover" is when I visit my out-of-town friends for a night or weekend and need to sleep at their house, but there's not really sleepoverish things going on...you know, because we sleep. I really valued that time with my friends and miss those days so much.

10. What would be the hardest food to give up forever? (Mexican, Italian, cake, etc.)



Chocolate. Basically anything chocolate.

11. If you could be amazing at one thing, what would you want it to be?
Doing.....this:

Wow! What a trip down memory lane for me! :) I love love love reminiscing.
NOW- onto those who I wish to tag! Note: I'm probably not going to tag 11 people. I know, I'm a party pooper! But I'll tag those who blog the most who I think have the slightest bit chance that they'll wanna do something fun like this too! :)
And I choose...
Meredith from The Davis'
Joy from Just The Three of Us
Ashley from Life With Busy Bea
Winter from Deeper Than The Ocean
Erica from My Life as a Ledbetter
Abby from The Randomness of Abby
Laura from Taylor Tales 


Now...your questions are...
1. What is the happiest movie you've ever seen? What's the saddest?
2.  What's the biggest lesson you think you learned in 2011?
3. What bold thing are you just scared to death to try?
4. What is the most out-of-place thing in your purse?
5. What's your favorite app on your smartphone? And if you don't have a smartphone, why in the heck not?
6. Are you Team Kim or Team Kris Humphries?
7. What's one thing you would tell your 16-year-old self?
8. Who is your celebrity look-a-like?
9. What websites do you visit on a daily basis?
10. What's something on YouTube you want to share with others?
11. What is your favorite quote or Bible verse?


Now I can't wait to see who responds! I love stuff like this. :)

Total rambling on my part....rambling with a purpose

I love how the Lord moves in you when you least expect it.

I know how people say God gives you a peace beyond understanding, but for this season in my life, I am praying for energy & motivation  beyond understanding! The Lord needs not only to move in me, but move ME! Set my heart on fire for what HE desires in my life & help me move towards that goal. I'm telling you now, it won't happen otherwise. I am human. I am lazy. I lack(ed) motivation. I procrastinate. I at times wish to take the easy route. So God, I know you're listening: Get. Me. Going!

I am excited about starting anew. Starting a new day, a new week, a new semester, a new internship, new friendships, and my new business in Mary Kay! The desire of my heart is to make things different, BE BETTER in all that I do. Put forth more of myself & make more of an effort.

I realized (one of) my problem(s). I have a lot I want to do, and get overwhelmed with that to-do I-want list, that I just say, "I'll get to it." And then by the end of the day, I'm tired, and that "I'll get to it" turns into "I'll get to that tomorrow." And then tomorrow it was, "What was I gonna do again?" & while I think about it, I get on Facebook! Oh, the life...

So tonight I began my list of everything I want to accomplish in a day. That way, I can attempt to hold myself accountable when I sit on Facebook. I can ask myself, "what else do I have to do before I can spend time on here?" Because Lord knows I will be on Facebook, getting sleepy, & then head to bed without getting what needs to be done done! There are silly things on this list, like "make the bed" but I am so Type-A. I need a list. I need to check things off the list. And if it's not on a list, it might not get done. What can I say? I am my father's daughter.

Tonight I was going through my Mary Kay order, sorting everything out & bagging everything into cute pink bags with ribbon, and I came across my new microdermabrasion set. {Please note that I also have ADD, so, I am easily distracted.} I thought, "Oh wow! I wanna try that tonight!" but I am so weird about applying skin care. I want it to be first thing in the morning or right before bed. So what did I need to do? Get in the shower & wash my face so I can use the microdermabrasion set. I always get so side-tracked with what I need to be doing {clean my kitchen!} & go off into LaLa land, doing what hit me that very moment. That's got to stop or else I'll get nothing done. BUT, my face feels FABULOUS tonight!!

Side note: In the shower I had some NICE prayer time with the man upstairs! I love it when that happens! I feel like the shower is "my prayer closet" as my preacher, Mike Devine, calls it. It is a {pretty dim lit} "box" where I am warm & comfortable & not worried about anything or anyone else. It's the perfect time for one-on-one with God if you have time to just stand there under the relaxing hot water. :) In that prayer time, I developed my "I Story" for my business, which is my inspiration for joining Mary Kay and what I hope to achieve in the future. I would love to share it with you some time.

My simple point in this was to say that I am excited for the future. Excited for the days & weeks to come. Excited to see my business grow and for this semester to be one of the best, as well as fly by! ;) I am excited to see what GOD will do in my life and who He will bring into it! Lord, prepare my heart for this season because I can not do it without you!!

OH! & another thing I want to start doing is GETTING PLACES EARLY! If you know me, you know I'm never early and rarely on time. I am sorry. It's inconvenient, rude, and so on & so forth. I know and I never intend to be late it always "just happens!" I want to strive to be on time, and early if possible, but let's not get carried away. So what does that mean? Ok, so, I have to be somewhere at 9:45ish in the morning. I will be realistic and give myself two hours to shower, dry & fix my hair, apply my makeup, eat breakfast, find something to wear, & take my dog out. {Yep, that will take about 2 hours} What does that mean? I have to get up at the latest by 7:45. The dishes need to be done and a(nother) load of laundry started. I am going to set my alarm for 6:45, snooze til 7 {a bad habit of mine I don't think I'll ever be able to break} & get up & see what I can get done in those 45 extra minutes I gave myself!

It's 1:33AM now, which means I will hardly get five hours of sleep. Ironically enough, another thing I absolutely have to start doing is get more sleep. Good thing I'm sleepy now so it probably won't take my usual 30-45 mins to get to sleep.  Let me tell you: five hours of sleep isn't nearly enough for me, so pray for me as I begin my day tomorrow. Pray I can get up & get going! Pray I stay productive during the day. Pray I can get everything on my list done. It's realistic. It's possible! Let's just hope that I maintain this blessing I call motivation that I received tonight out of nowhere. I am praying for energy & motivation beyond understanding...because Lord knows this girl needs more than 5 hours of sleep!!

Any suggestions you wanna send my way as I begin this venture to betterness? Send them my way! & I apologize if this was complete nonsense-sounding, rambling to the nth degree. It's late; forgive me!