How to stay motivated to work out

Hey guys!

So lately I have lost some of my motivation to work out. I dunno at the end of the day I just come home and want to be lazy, making the gym sound like the last place I want to be. I am going to try and wake up early tomorrow and start working out in the mornings, I think that would help me out the most, it just means I would have to wake up at 5:30 am. So early, I don't like waking up early but since I work at 8:00 in the morning it would be the best time. Part of motivation includes making sure I have all my work out clothes set aside the night before. This is such a huge time saver when I wake up that I don't have to search for my clothes. I am also going to start establishing a bed time routine so that my body gets used to going to bed at a certain time, this will help with the early morning hours. Well wish me luck, hopefully these tricks will work this week. 

XO

Caitlin

Princesses workout to! 

Weight Loss Plan

Hello guys!
As you all know I have started early on my goals/resolutions. Why not now? One of my major goals of 2015 will be to loose weight. I have seriously let myself go as in I have gained about 15 pounds in the last three months. I think the weight gain had to do with a combination of a lot of things but mostly due to depression. I was clinically diagnosed with depression summer of 2011 and I have been learning to combat it it in many different ways. I am not completely in control of it and before now it was getting better. However lately it has been pretty bad. Depression gets worse when you go through trials in your life and this one On Trying to Start a Family  is the biggest thing causing me to be gloomy these days. The winter months don't help much either but I am trying to get out of the house more to help me in this area. Anyway, I didn't realize how bad it had gotten until I fixed our scale and weighed myself. As soon as I saw the number I wanted to cry, I haven't been this big in my life. EVER. It was scary looking at that number and really made me realize the bad habits I was getting myself into.
I now have a weight loss plan, starting Friday, day after Thanksgiving! I'm starting early and I'm excited to see where it takes me next month. I am excited to continue it as one of my new resolutions for 2015 and to really change my habits for a healthier lifestyle.  I am about to get super real with you guys. I don't feel quite comfortable revealing how much I weigh currently. All I can say is that I need to loose about 50 lbs. These are my before pictures:

As you can see my upper body is the area I want to work on the most. I will be doing arm exercises as well as back, abs, and chest exercises to help with my weight loss. I am finally confident enough to post these and say that YES I am starting on this journey and you can do it too! I know that a healthy lifestyle will be key for me so I wrote down some of my goals for fitness in my planner. 

This is my current planner cover and its the best cover ever! I love the Christmas tree, so cute and adorable. I also found a use for the chocolate colored band and I think it fits perfectly and ties in with all the neutral colors on the cover. 

In the back of the Erin Condren planners there is a section filled with lined and blank paper that you can use for notes. I have almost used up all my lined pages for things like blog ideas, makeup wishlists, books to read list (which I do plan on sharing), meal planning staples (our favorite meals so I can reference it when meal planning), a Christmas gift list idea etc. Basically a lot of lists. I decided for some inspiration to use my planner to help with weight loss so I created this weight loss plan.

If you can't read my writing the daily goals are:
Eat only 1707 calories per day: I calculated this using a weight loss calculator for my height and weight, you can find a bunch all over the www.
45-60 minutes of Cardio per day
20 minutes of strength training every other day
No Sugar: extra sugar such as candies, sweets, treats, brownies, etc. I understand that sugar is in a lot of things so I am just cutting out the sweets and extra stuff.
No eating out except date night if we are going out: I have a bad habit of doing this on work days, especially because I don't pack lunch the night before so if I wake up late then I forget to pack lunch while I am running around and am forced to eat out. It's bad news. No more I tell you!
Eat Breakfast everyday: This will force me to wake up earlier, which means I should have more time to pack a lunch helping with the previous goal.

I also put some motivational quotes on the page to help inspire me to not give up:

"get up every morning and tell yourself I CAN DO THIS!" I loved that one.

"The only way you will see results is if you stay consistent." Very true so I am hoping I stay consistent and I am motivated to do so.

"Stop Wishing, Start Doing."

I am sharing these photos and my plan with you to make me accountable. I want to report back on my plan in a month and let you know how its going. I hope to see results and I will share meal plans, recipes and other tips as I go along. For now I am just working on these goals because establishing a healthy habit is the hardest step for me.

What are your weight loss tips? Any yummy recipes I should try?
XO
Caitlin
PS if you would like to get an Erin Condren Life Planner you can sign up HERE and receive $10.00 off your first order. You can also check out my other posts on my planner: HERE, HERE, and HERE

Resolutions Reminder

It has been two months since January already! I can't believe how fast this year has gone by. I am surviving in school, Girl Scout cookies are coming today, and I have a great job! I couldn't be more pleased with how the month is turning out. Although it is coming on quickly, I am headed to Albuquerque, New Mexico for an Anthropology conference in three weeks. I am really excited. My partner and I were one of the few research teams that were accepted to the conference who are undergraduate students. We have a lot of conferences we are presenting at this month but the one in New Mexico I am most excited for.

I still haven' decided on grad school quite yet. I am keeping my grades up so that if I want to attend I don't have to worry about that. In the meantime, I was looking over my resolutions I made at the beginning of the year to see how I am doing. And I must say, I am doing really well. 

Here is the original list:

1. Watch all three Lord of the Rings movies (yep back on the list for 2014, I will see them all this year)
2. Watch the second hobbit movie
3. Read The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I have always wanted to read this book, maybe I should make it into a book club for the blog or something.
4. Visit Range Creek Canyon. It is this really cool Freemont Indian site that was found in Utah and has been undisturbed since the Indians left the site. Meaning it looks like they could have lived there only yesterday. This year I am going to go visit it.
5. Blog more. I really want to blog a lot more, and grow it into something grand. Since I started my blog on November 27 I have had 2,800 pageviews. That is a lot, and comes down to about 77 pageviews per day. I am in love with the fact that people are reading my blog and I am excited about that.
6. Open an etsy shop. I have mentioned this before a few times and I am hoping that I get it done this month.
7. Visit Zions National Park, again I have never been here before so I want to go see all the beauty of it.
8.  Read my scriptures every day,  I haven't been to good at this and I want to better my relationship with God.
9. Keep my fish alive. We got a Beta fish last month, and I have a bad track record with fish.

10. Graduate from college. This is happening folks, 2014. I can't wait. 

So far I have done, 5, 7, 9, and 8. Although I haven't been reading my scriptures every day I have improved my relationship with God. In the works I have 1, 3, and 4. Number three is part of the post I put yesterday about my BOOK CLUB! You all should come join me, seriously. This month's book: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling. Has been really good. Surprisingly it is a quick read, I am almost halfway done and I started it Wednesday night. So if you want to join, the book is super quick and she is funny. The F-word is in there a couple of times so sorry about that...

I am impressed that I already have 4 of the 10 goals I set for myself done. I am pretty sure I am not going to do number 6, I decided that an etsy shop just wasn't for me. All the other goals are still in the making. Including Lord of the Rings, I watched the first movie (more on that later). 

How are your new year's resolutions going? Any progress on that checklist?

Have a great week everyone, and for those of you at Utah Valley University, have a fabulous Spring Break.

XO

Caitlin