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Tyra
Chicago, Illinios, United States
Simply put I'm a daughter, friend, sister, 2 time transplant recipient ,pain in the butt, bibliophile, avid YouTube viewer, nail polish fanatic,Catholic,lover of woodland creatures, TV Junkie, computer geek, loser of unwanted weight, know-it-all, professional ass kicker and master of napping... and not in that order
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      • Peace out Blogger!
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Thursday, June 28, 2012
In: 5 things.... , Blue Team , Learning along the way , Life Lessons , My Fitness Pal , Sunshine's Journey to 199 , Transplant , Wisdom

5 things weight loss has taught be about myself

1. My body is strong!
 In all fairness, after having two transplants I knew how strong my body is, but this weight loss journey reminded be how amazing the human body is, just when you feel like you've pushed yourself to the limit... you body let's you know (after the pain has subsided) that it can go further and do more


2. Love the you body (the way it is right now!)


(2) Haute Fox Dress size 1x
(1) Target Dress size 2
Looking at ahead can sometimes be harmful when it comes to losing weight, often times I get caught up in the "my goodness I so fat, I must have been ginormous before" syndrome. Even though I'm not at the weight I want to be, my confidence has grown so much, and I'm able to appreciate my curves (and show them proudly!) I can look at the mirror and say, "wow, Ty you look hot today" or "Man, you have awesome skin!" 50 pounds ago that was not happening, the goal was to pass the mirror and fit something... ANYTHING that fit

3.Clothes make a difference
I love bright colors, so I've purposely put away the black, brown, navy
s and grey's and brightened my wardrobe. I'm finding that bright color complement my skin tone and I'm even doing more form-fitting  fabrics like spandex... its time for me to step out of the box... so now I'm going with the "I'll try anything once" attitude. As you can tell I'm a bargain huntress... simple reason I don't want to spend a lot of money of clothing I won't be able to fit next summer...

4. Support is the key!
There is no way that I wouldn't have been able to do this and keep accountable if it hadn't been for the support my wonderful Blue Team! (And by extension SJT199). Even my sorority sisters have committed to being healthy. It's amazing what happens when you surround yourself with like-minded individuals who want nothing but to see you succeed and reach your goals. I am blessed to have found such a wonderful group of people who frequently have to talk me off the ledge when I have a sudden and fierce cake craving


5. I love myself! And that makes this totally worth it
As mentioned in a previous post my journey to self  love has been a long and arduous one. But (I've said it so many times before) this has been more mental than anything else... when I started to clear the junk from my body, I HAD to clear the junk from my head...there is no other way to look at it..


Until next time!


(1) Target dress http://www.target.com/p/pure-energy-juniors-plus-size-short-sleeve-kimono-dress-assorted-colors/-/A-13816212

(2) Haute Fox Dress  http://www.thehautefox.com/collections/dresses/products/diagonal-stripe-bandage-dress

Posted by Tyra at 2:06 PM 0 comments
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Friday, June 22, 2012
In: FAIL , Food , Salad

Summer Salad ....FAIL!


When I think of summer I always think of light eating, salads were always big at my house so I tend to gravitate towards them during the summer months, cause their easy to make, easy to share and light on the tummy. So for lunch I decided against my tried and true (spinach strawberry salad) and make an orchard salad, or maybe I should say my version of a summer salad... so I look in the fridge and what do I have...
  • spinach and radicchio blend
  • red and green apples
  • dried cranberries
  • cinnamon almonds
  • raspberry vinaigrette
  • Gouda cheese

SCORE!!! fun, yummy salad here I come! 

I was so excited to put it in my mouth and make it my own... I bit down and and instantly tasted the tart-ness of the apples and the crunch of the almonds, then I tasted it... the Gouda.. and it went down hill from there, then my fantasy was over and so was my orchard salad eating days. But no worries, I'm the girl who will try anything once, I will go back to what I know and research other summer salads... if any of my fair readers have any ideas... feel free to place them in the comments below.

Posted by Tyra at 12:27 PM 0 comments
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Saturday, June 16, 2012
In: Accountability , Blue Team , Everybody Changes , motivation , My Fitness Pal , NSV , Nutritional values , Snark , Transplant

Almost a year later

Since I'm not able to lift anything or exercise I figured I would revisit my blog  and apparently I haven't blogged since February... geez... I've been a busy girl... okay maybe not so busy....but LOTS of life changes. So let's take it slow....

SPRING (Feb, Mar, Apr)
This past spring, something snapped in me, I don't know what it was but for the first time I wanted to de-clutter my life and my body.... got rid of people in my life who really just negative and non supportive. It's always a difficult decisions, but one that I haven't regretted yet. This made me more determined to lose weight and get "me" back.... It was also during this time that I learned about my arch enemy.... my arms...but I can't complain... things are shrinking... and I'm happy about it!






flabby arms
SUMMER (May, Jun....)
My mother thinks I'm starving myself, she hasn't come out and say it... but she thinks I don't eat enough food...for the record my base caloric intake is 1310 (more when I exercise,but I am almost always under no more than 200-300 calories) Every time I go over, she tries to feed me...I have to remind her that I do eat cookies, I do have ice cream...I do eat food. But I just  make sure that it stays in my range... she continues to look at my like I've starving. Then I took this picture and she damn near lost her mind and determined I was too skinny (notice my arch enemy the hanging arm flab)... clearly she hasn't looked at the scale.

I brought a dress... that's not all that odd...but this dress doesn't have layers or an empire waist  to hide the belly fat ... it straight up and down and it shows everything and I brought it!!

Right before my birthday I went shopping for new bras... my boobs are completely unrecognizable they've gone from a 42DD to a 38C...I miss my boobs, and I fear if I continue to lose breast fat at this rate, I'll be a A when this journey is done... Fair readers please pray for my breasts (I can almost guarantee no one has asked for a prayer like that)

But the best part is my BIRTHDAY!! I turned 35 (and to be honest I totally don't think I look 35!)

So many positive and wonderful, and some sad things have happened since the last time I had an entry...but once thing that hasn't changed I remain committed and WILL reach my goal!


almost half there!

Almost a year since I decided to lose weight, and I'm half way there, * feeling positive and excited about the next half of my journey!


* So whenever I tell people how much weight I want to lose they look at me like I've lost my mind. My goal has always been to get healthy... not to get skinny...




Until next time ....

Posted by Tyra at 1:10 PM 0 comments
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Tuesday, February 28, 2012
In: Blue Team , Current Weight , motivation , NSV , Nutritional values , Snark

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

I have to write when the mood strikes me... and yes (a month later) it's hit me again (I'm such a bad blogger)

Fist of all let me say this to all my weight loss/ healthy livers... I hate, hate, hate those weight loss commercials, now I'm not saying that those programs don't work, (I used to do Weight Watchers... it works), but this dueling divas nonsense is getting on my nerves. Between Jennifer, Mariah and Janet I'm not sure who annoys me more ...okay...let me take Janet out of the equation, cause honestly she just  walking in an incredibly ornate show outfit with a semi- bored sounding voice over...

Now I have to chose between Mariah Carey and her 7 octive yet highly annoying voice mixed in with a dance beat that I haven't heard since the 90's.... the only plus size to this commerical is she is gernally wearing more clothes that she usually does... and that's not saying much OR we can go with Jennifer Hudson who sings a mirad of songs (non of which she wrote) which are supposed to be inspiring but really just annoy me further all while looking like a human bobble head wearing black and white.... lest not forget the expectional commercial where she is singing with her younger, heavier self... non of these are inspiraring me to do anything other than turn the channel, who did they test market this crap with....skinny bitches?!

For the longest time I've struggled with the "big picture" while losing weight..so far I've lost over 25 pounds and while that may seem like a lot, I'm still at the point where I can't really see a difference, yeah my clothes fit differently and some items are way too big for me now, but to me my body looks exactly the same... that was until  yesterday when I looked at my self...I mean really looked at myself. ... in a mirror.... NAKED ..

I normally don't look at myself naked, honestly I try not to, I figure I know what's there and what it looks like...no need to look and inspect...until I noticed that my boobs were smaller, then I turned to the side and noticed that my "roll" had deflated...then I looked at my thighs and realized they weren't as firm as the used to be... same with my stomach... then I noticed I had a mole right below my belly button... WHAT THE HELL!!!  Who knew that was there!! Clearly this means that I have to stand nakes in front of a mirror more often... maybe in six months.

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Posted by Tyra at 11:40 AM 0 comments
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Sunday, January 8, 2012
In: Everybody Changes , Keane , Life Lessons , Music , Weekend Update

Everybody's Changing

This morning I was in the car on the way to the grocery store, while listening to my Keane CD (one of my favorite groups) for some reason but every song speaks to me, every song feels like a confirmation of something I've gone through. I've longed believed that their entire CD would be on the soundtrack of my life...(could be because I'm so darn introspective and cerebral).

But while I was driving, I felt like this could be a  posting on the blog, don't because it;s extremely relevant to my life right now, but it's something that I think my readers would be able to relate to.

Life has a funny way of you giving you what you need when you need it (and I guess taking it away when you don't) For a long time I've felt like I was going through a transformation (emotional, spiritually, physically), and because of it I've "grown out" of a lot of relationships. I can't stand here and tell you that I'm the same person I was ten years ago...I'm not the same person that I was six months ago, and I think that's okay, I think as humans we are meant to evolve, we are meant to experience the good and the bad.

So "out growing" relationships. I know that I said it, but I have a problem with the word. It's not like they are clothes or shoes or something. I would never say that a person(s) haven't touched my life in some way, so that they haven't been there for me through difficult times, but I've recently realized that you can't keep relationships just for the sake of having one, if a relationship (friendship, partnership, marriage...whatever) isn't a shared experience where there is give and take, why would you continue to stay in a one sided relationship. Why you continue to change and the person is not changing with you? Someone recently told me that this view was a cop-out. So let me ask you this? How many of your high-school friends are you still in contact with? How many friends from college do you still hang out with? (and friending them on Facebook doesn't count)

Have you ever hear, "people come into your life for a reason, and for a season?" I believe that, that's why I try my hardest not to burn bridges, you never know when they might come back into your life.

When I decided to loss weight, I never in a million years thought that this would be a such an emotional journey for me, the changes for me emotionally have far outweighed the physical changes. It's almost become a therapy for me... when you loss weight, you are forced to reevaluate your life and take a long , hard, honest look at it. Things emerge that were hidden and you find things about yourself that you never knew. I think this is one of the reasons you hear so many people (who have lost weight) say, "a lot of my friends say I've changed" or "It seems like I'm losing friends" Before I went on this journey I would have simply said they were jealous, but now being in that position I realize what it is. Everybody's Changing, just not in the same way.


Posted by Tyra at 12:14 PM 0 comments
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Saturday, December 31, 2011
In: Life Lessons , New Years , Weekend Update

Reflections on Life Lessons

I always say, "When you know better, you do better" I firmly believe that. And because the new year is upon us I like to reflect on the past year and look at some of the life lessons that I learned.

  1. Family comes in many forms, blood relation has absolutely nothing to with it. I am eternally grateful for my family who ALWAYS stand besides me no matter what.
  2. It took me years to gain weight, it may very well take me years to take it off... and I'm okay with that!
  3. Never make New Years Resolutions....
  4. There is a difference between friendships and acquaintanceship....you learn very quickly when things get rough which one you're in.
  5. No matter how much I weigh, I can confidently say that I love myself no matter what
  6. Bullshit has no place in my life, if you like to spread it... go some where else...this is a bullshit free zone
  7. I need to take more risks... as far as I'm concerned the worst has already happened
  8. The hugs of a mom is the most magical thing, they can cure all ills
  9. I don't have the life that I wanted, but that doesn't make it any less important
  10. I'm still a work in progress
What life lessons have you learned this year? 

See ya next year !

Posted by Tyra at 9:34 AM 0 comments
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Are you a Sabatour?

I ain't talking about the Alfred Hitchcock classic either....

Before I begin let me just say that this is MY diary, and how I see things, my weight loss and my journey, you don't like it you can stuff it! That being said... let's continue


I am grateful for all the support and encouragement that I get while on this journey, but when does it become sabotage?

I've gotten to the point where I've become extremely sensitive of people telling what I should eat, how I should eat. For example if I tell you I have a tuna sandwich from subway, a your response should not be "WOW, that's the worst sandwich on the menu".... and so what if it is... I ate the sandwich and other stuff, and stayed with in my caloric, carb, sugar and fat range... so why should you feel concerned about what I put in my mouth.

I have found that people LOVE a fat person, they are cute, and cuddly and for the most part amenable, we are the comic relief. So when a fat person wants to become better, do better, it becomes EVERYONE's concern. And yes, SABOTEURS will emerge, they mask themselves as friends, family and coworkers, but the one we should all be concerned about is the one that we see when we look in the mirror. Lately I've noticed that I've been doing small things the sabotage myself, namely drinking things (outside of water) and not accounting for them in my daily dairy.. and I know what more than anything those sugary drinks will add up, and show up when you least expect it.

This whole, "NEW YEAR, NEW YOU" mantra is more than just something ad companies are using to help get people in the gym, it's actually something I'm taking to heart. I'm on this whole new spiritual, physical, emotional journey. I am getting rid of the bad, (relationships, feelings, you name it) and surrounding myself with pure positive energy. I can't stop others from trying to be the saboteur, but I know ones things for sure. I will no longer be sabotaging myself.

As always when you know better, you do better.... until next time!

Posted by Tyra at 9:20 AM 1 comments
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