Old Navy’s New Activewear for Women Collection

This is a compensated post brought to you by Old Navy. All opinions are 100% mine.

 

I was so excited when Old Navy asked me to review their new line of activewear for women! It couldn’t have come at a better time since I just started using an exercise machine at home and started a routine with crunches and lunges as well. I would love a gym membership, but alas, my home gym will have to do for now!

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Kat Checking out the selection

Old Navy has some amazing new items in their line of Active Wear for women. I took my longtime friend, Kat, of Kit Kat Plus Celiac (blog) and we hit the local Old Navy to check out all they had to offer! I browsed online before heading to the store and I love that you can find out what is available at your local store and in stock before you head there. That made me get very excited about doing my shopping trip!

When we first got to the Old Navy Activewear section, I loved the brightly colored shoes! I think I will have to come back and get them. I especially liked the orange and purple ones.

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I picked a pair of Old Navy Compression Capris to try with two different shirts. The first one, A Mesh-Bubble Tank was cute and came in a variety of bright colors. I am kind of boring, so I was thrilled to see they offered it in more basic colors like this one I chose. I did like it, but didn’t think I would like it when working out. It seemed to showy and I was looking for something more practical.

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I loved the Compression Capris! They were comfortable and I didn’t feel like too much was “hanging out”. I loved that they made working out a very comfortable experience. Less friction when moving as well as a feeling that I was not constricted in my movements. What made me feel amazing, though, was my husband said I looked “sexy” in them. I hope he wasn’t just buttering me up for something!

Kat found a couple outfits in the activewear for women line as well and I think she looked amazing in them!

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The second shirt I tried was the Mesh Top. I settled on this one because I liked how it would breathe well and it was a bit less restrictive that the first shirt I tried on.

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Overall, Kat and I had a blast modeling our active wear outfits and the staff at Old Navy was super helpful!

Hcg Diet Update & Review of the EatSmart Precision Premium Digital Bathroom Scale

As you know from following along on my blog, I started the Hcg diet about a month ago. I have a confession: I didn’t finish it.

It wasn’t the products that made me quit or a lock of motivation, but rather a turn of circumstances. I have had more stress thrown at me this month than I could handle and I did what I typically do. I ate. I used food for comfort. I stopped caring.

This was hugely disappointing to me, because I did lose some weight in the first 2 weeks. I lost 5.2 lbs in the first week and 5.7 lbs the second week. This was a total of nearly 11 lbs lost in two weeks. I was doing well, and I was so happy I was losing. I started out at a weight of 243.8 lbs and went down to 232.9 lbs. I then shamefully jumped back into my old ways and gained back all the way up to 239.3.

I wanna say, I didn’t intend for this to happen. and I don’t intend on giving up on it, entirely. I just think I need a break in order to get my affairs in order before starting over again.

The diet taught me a couple things and I didn’t completely bomb it and stop eating better. I learned that I can “survive” and not snack constantly and actually have changed that about myself. I no longer feel the need to constantly have food near me. I have also learned that I can feel full off a smaller amount of food. I plan to use this knowledge to get a better grip on my eating habits for my long-term future.

You may be wondering how I was able to keep such close track of my weight loss down to the ounce. I was using the EatSmart Precision Premium Digital Bathroom Scale. I have done a review for EatSmart in the past with their food scale and I absolutely adore this company. They make some very nice products for not only weight loss, but healthier lifestyles as well and they are high quality. The EatSmart Precision Premium Digital Bathroom Scale was no exception.

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The Scale features a very slim design and “step on” technology. This means, unlike many digital scales, you don’t have to tap the scale to get it going, you can just step on it as you would with a traditional scale.

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Pros:

I loved the sleek look and step on technology. I love that it calculates not only lbs, but also ounces (as well as Kg). This scale is very high quality as I have come to expect from EatSmart.

Cons:

The Scale features a shut off to conserve energy. While this sounds like a great feature, in practice it can get kind of annoying because it shuts off rather quickly. I also wish it had a weight loss tracking mode so I could see progress.

Verdict:

The EatSmart Precision Premium Digital Bathroom scale is perfect for just about anyone seeking a high quality scale that is basic in function and digital.

To purchase:

Check out the EatSmart Website to purchase the EatSmart Precision Premium Digital Bathroom Scale for the current price of $32.95 (on sale from $59.95!).

Weigh in for Phase 2 start of Hcg Diet

So here it is, folks, you get to find out info I don’t like to share with anyone; my weight on day 1 of the Hcg diet I am doing sponsored by Creative Bioscience.

I ended up doing and “extra” load day. In phase 1 of the diet, you are supposed to eat a ton of fatty foods for 2 days. I failed on the first day because I just didn’t have time to eat as much as I should have that day. I read online that the two load days are highly important for when you enter phase 2, so i decided to start over and do another 2 days. I ate so much and was ready to eat something healthy. My husband said, jokingly, he will “sacrifice his body and health for me and eat up any junk we still have left in the house.” Very funny. :D

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So here I am on Day 1 of Phase 2. This is the hard part of the diet. In the original protocol, one is supposed to eat 500 calories a day. I will not be doing that, as I know my willpower is not that strong and I will be setting myself up for failure, but also because as a diabetic, I cannot just skip meals (the original protocol asks you to skip breakfast) or live on such low caloric value. I am instead doing a 1,200 calorie diet. I suspect that although I will not lose as fast or as much as I would by following the 500 calorie protocol, I will still lose because that is a far cry from my normal diet of I don’t even know how many calories. For breakfast I had 3 egg whites, a half a grapefruit sweetened with stevia extract and a cup of coffee sweetened with sweet n low. (Some people say you can only have stevia extract, others say Sweet N Low is fine and since Creative BioScience approves Sweet N Low, I am going with their word on that).

So here comes the official weigh-in and “before pictures”. Trust me when I say, yes, I know I look pregnant and yes, I know my gut is huge. I have a typical apple body and thus alllll my weight is in my middle section.

I am *gulp!* 243.8 lbs. *sigh* I am super nervous showing these pictures of myself, but in an effort to be transparent, and honest, here I am in all my non-gut sucking in glory:

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(By the way, I am using an EatSmart Precision Premium Digital Bathroom Scale which I will write up a review for soon!)

And yes, My kitchen really is that small. It is 2 1/2 feet wide by 10 ft long of floor space.

I can’t believe I have abused my body for so long and allowed it to come to this. I was thin as a child and I just ate like no body’s business. I am an emotional eater. I eat when I am depressed and full of anxiety, which for most of my life has been all the time.

I am hoping while on this Hcg diet from Creative BioScience, I can not only achieve weight loss, but also detox my body from all the crud I have put in it over the years and learn some healthier eating habits. The funny thing is, I don’t hate healthy food. I love vegetables, tofu, chicken, salad etc. Its just that I also love carbs and I also don’t know when to stop when I start with eating.The problem really is, I love ALL food. ;)

Anyway, here’s to my success! I will be blogging about this journey as I go along!

What are some of your goals this year? Do you want to eat healthier or lose some weight?

Day 1 of the Hcg diet

The day was finally here for me to start my Hcg Diet. I was nervous and I did a lot of research on how to do this dieting plan. The original protocol was for a 500 calorie a day diet, but because of my diabetes, my Dr thought a 1200 would be best along with some walking daily

The Hcg Diet has 4 phases:

  • Load
  • Lose
  • Stabilize
  • Maintain

For days one and two, I am in phase one, “Load”. This means I was to eat as many fatty foods as I wanted while starting the Hcg1234 drops from Creative Bioscience. I actually found that I had to almost force myself to load up because the drops were really helping me with appetite suppression. This is a good sign already as I normally really struggle with this area when I try to restrict my diet.

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Through my research, I have found a lot of conflicting info about what is and what is not allowed on the diet protocol. I will probably play around with certain foods and see if they effect my progress and adjust as needed. I can’t say for sure how long I will be on this diet. I said I would try to take the 90 day challenge from Creative Bioscience, but I also know that if I feel ill, I will need to discuss the diet’s effects on my health with my Dr.

One thing great about Creative Bioscience is, they have 24 hour Hcg diet support available for their customers at no extra change. I found the first gal I talked to to be very kind, helpful and motivational, however, the second person was honestly kind of short with me and wouldn’t discuss things, just tell me I had to do it this way or that way and when I said I had doubts, she simply said, ” You don’t HAVE to do it, you know.” I found that to be a bit of a de-motivater and sort of rude when I was calling for support. This diet will be a huge change for me and I know I don’t ‘have’ to do it, but I would like some motivation and support even though it is hard. I suppose it is just hit of miss with the support there, but I am happy none the less, that it is there.

I am now in the second day of Phase 1 today and I am doing my second Load day. I will update with my weigh in and “before” pictures in the next post!

 

 

 

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Kicking off the New Year right with a Big Goal!

A very common goal for New Year’s resolutions is to lose weight. I am no different. Part of the reason I got my breast reduction was so exercising would be easier. I am lucky to be armed with some tools to make the goals easier to reach. For instance, thanks to Eatsmart prodcts, I have an amazing Precision Premium Digital Bathroom Scale to keep track of my weight loss. More on this awesome product later!

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I am also finally starting my 90 day challenge with Creative Bioscience in a couple days. [Read more...]