Working on me for me l Personal

I believe being happy with yourself is one of the greatest things you can do in life. For me I have set so many goals for myself this year, business wise and personal. I am not saying that I am unhappy by any means, because I am not... I LOVE my life. But I would like to feel better about myself in general. As some of you know I posted last year about my weight loss as I became a somewhat avid jogger. I did 2 5k's last year, during my busy season. I absolutely fell in love in jogging again, it was a way to free my mind and just have some me time.  Well, during this time of loosing about 35-40 lbs last year my foot begin to hurt. Me being me, didn't pay much attention to it, stretched it out every once and awhile, but I noticed it had gotten worse. During the winter some morning I could barely walk. With being a wedding photographer we are on our feet for many hours a day, I knew I wanted to kick this before my wedding season started in 2014. During the winter months I also slacked on training and exercise, but I am glad to be back at it and focusing on me.

2013 I over came a rather harsh knee injury, it took months to heal. But I pushed through that and started my healthier lifestyle for ME. My biggest eye opener last year was my doctor suggesting a weightloss surgery....I REFUSED!!! So it was time for a change......... I gave up dairy milk, and real cheese. I gave up sodas. I threw out all sweets and junk in my house. I threw out all bread and pasta. To this day I will not bring sweets in my house, because that is my weakness. I do not care for bread or pasta much so I will have it in my house, but it stays in the cabinet for quite some time before getting eaten. I focused to learning my diet first and foremost. Now, I could never be vegetarian, but I have added quite a bit of vegetarian and vegan things to my everyday life that I enjoy.

 Finding out I have plantar faciitis, I get to wear this super cool split to bed. Sike, it's really a pain in the you know what, but when I get up I can actually put weight on my right foot. So it is helping tremendously. And with this I know it can take months to heal, as I can't stay off my feet 24/7, it is a step in the right direction. This year with wanting this to heal ASAP, I have restrained myself from wearing flip flops, and if anyone knows me, I could live in flip flops. I tend to stay in tennis shoes, danskos, and my toms to support my arch.

 With the new year, I am back to clean eating. Not only for health reasons, but because eating this stuff keeps me energized and makes me feel so much better. If you don't follow me on instagram please do @crystalreyns I share recipes and dinner ideas on there.....a lot. I know everyone's first reaction to green smoothie is a turned up face, guess what, so was mine. I was scared to try it, but one day I did, and to my surprise it was awesome. So since then I have experimented with new recipes, and most I love. Very few have not been so wonderful.
 I focus a lot on meal prep. I make lists when I go to the grocery store to plan out my meals and snacks for the week. And I DO NOT go into the store hungry, cause that would be so bad for my diet.
Some of my favorite snacks are: cliff bars, vanilla greek yogurt with fresh blueberries, gluten free oats with honey and bananas with PB2, protein waffles with fresh fruit. 
Do I have cheat days? Heck yes I do!! I'm human, and I love food and beer, so cheat days are a must in my world. And it works for me; keeps me happy. :) 

 Last week I finally got T25 in. It was a program that was suggested to me by an amazing Personal trainer, Brooke Anderson of Pumps and Push ups last year. So I finally decided it was time to see if the foot was ready. And it's only 25 minutes a day, I should be able to do that between getting up at 430 to work a full time job and run a rather busy wedding photography business right???

 Yesterday was day 3, and probably the hardest of them all yet. I do not suggest this program to anyone just starting out on their healthier lifestyle journey. It will push you to a new limit of hating Shaun T. Yesterday I felt like if that man told me to do one more squat I would fall out.

My personal goals for this year: 

Heal my right foot

Become a fitter me, size 6/8 please!

Feel comfortable in my skin

Do my very first boudoir session just for ME

Pin It