Tuesday Tunes and Weight Loss Wednesday Go Hand in Hand.

I haven't done a Tuesday Tunes post in a while. And I'm not supposed to do Weight Loss Wednesday until tomorrow. But this week, they go hand in hand.

Because today, my friend and former American Idol contestant, Melinda Doolittle, released a new single. It's the first original song we have heard from her in a while (she released an amazing Christmas song last year) and so it's kind of a big deal. Melinda is an incredible vocalist and amazing person who has been in my life since I was 19. I am so proud of her and was ecstatic for this single, especially after reading her blog about the meaning of the song, which is titled "Never Giving Up". You can read the full blog here, but the snippet that hit home for me was:

Even when life takes a different path that I could have ever imagined, I will always be a big dreamer and I won’t give up until it happens. The song focuses on love, but really it’s about life. It’s about knowing myself and what I’m capable of, and not letting anything…the words people say, how hard the journey is, how delayed the winning seems…make me stop the fight. I’m so much stronger than people give me credit for and I refuse to give up on ANYTHING.

I relate those words to my weight loss journey. The weight hasn't been dropping as fast as I had hoped. I, at times, am frustrated with myself. The two weeks where I was in and out of the hospital visiting my dad plus the three weeks with bronchitis really set me back and I even thought about throwing in the towel. But I didn't, and I pushed on when I could. Because I cannot, and will not give up until I am at my goal. Melinda's song is helping me with that. I have two favorite lyrics:

"Even if the fall leaves me broken, even if you tell me it's hopeless, I'm never giving up".

"My whole life in front of me, I won't stop until I see. I'm never, I'm never giving up".

The first one is a reminder that I will have days where I slip or fall, and times where I am broken and feel like I can't do it anymore. Or others might tell me it's hopeless. But I still can't, and won't give up. The second one hits home a little harder. Because before my weight loss journey, I really didn't care enough about myself to get healthy and to live a good life. But now, I see that I have a whole life ahead of me, so many adventures waiting to happen. And I am certainly not going to let those pass me by, and I am going to be healthy enough to dive full force into those adventures.

With all of that being said, I am very happy to announce that I have lost 19.5 lbs. Can we just go ahead and call it 20? Please? Probably not but it's damn close! I am trying to lose at least 3 more lbs before my next period so I don't stress out so much when I gain 5 lbs overnight thanks to mother nature.

I am noticing definite changes now. My face, tummy, and butt are smaller. My chest is smaller, too. My arms are much stronger, my thighs are much stronger. I am faster. I have more endurance. Before the Hanson show we did a 1 mile walk for a good cause and I wasn't tired, at all.

I did want to share a recipe I made over the weekend. It's SUPER easy and fast, and cheap.

Ingredients (this is for 2 people):
2 Chicken Breasts
Pepper
2 Tomato Slices
2-3 Slices Avocado
2 Slices of the cheese of your choice (I picked pepperjack, Mozzarella would be good also).
Olive Oil

Pour 1 tbsp of olive oil in a pan and cook the chicken (I season it with pepper). Once the chicken is cooked, place in a baking dish. On each piece of chicken, put 1 slice tomato, 1-2 avocado slices and 1 slice of cheese. Bake in the oven at 350 for just a few minutes, enough for the cheese to melt.

Take out of the oven and serve. I served with a side of brown rice and sautéed mushrooms.


And pictures:

Face shot. Left side is from June, right from just last week. I can def see a difference around my eyes, chin, and cheeks.

 

The body shots are below. Having a hard time getting them to go side by side. The first is from our girls trip in July. The second is just a few weeks ago. I can't quite get an accurate full body shot (will try to do so next week) because I rarely take those pics and the one here is with me in a long skirt, so it may not be an accurate photo. But, if you look at the tummy region, you see a big difference.

 

Have a good rest of the week! I'll be back sometime before the weekend, I'm sure!

 

Buy Melinda's Single on Itunes