Pretty T is BACK in 2013!!!

I totally can not believe that it's been over a year since my last video update!  I'm happy to announce that I'm back, and I'm ready to finish this!

Current Goal: To be under 200 pounds by June 1st!

I feel like this is a totally reasonable and attainable goal. I'm getting married this summer and I do not want to be a bride tipping the scale at over 200 pounds! To kick things off, I bring you my first official video update since December of 2011!

I'm so happy and so excited to be back!  I can't wait to get back in touch with all of my followers! I missed my little internet family!

xoxo Pretty T

Embrace the Drive!

Yesterday was the first day since January that I woke up with the feeling that I have been chasing after for 5 months.  The feeling that I'm ready.  I. AM. READY.

I'm sure most of you know exactly what I am talking about.  That feeling when your mind goes clear of all the clouds of doubt and weakness, and you find your drive.  All the things that were able to hold you back seem to vanish.  I found my drive and I'm embracing it.

Like I mentioned, I have gained some weight since my cruise in January, and never got it back off.  I've been maintaining unhealthy eating habits ever since... and even though I haven't gained any more weight since the cruise, I've been just hovering around the same weight for so long.  I'd go days of dieting, and then a couple days of eating horrible, rinse and repeat.  Every time I'd try to diet, I was never really "in it".  My mind wasn't there.  My drive wasn't there.  All I kept thinking about was all the sweet treats I wanted to eat... Ice cream, M&Ms, just junk!  So because those thoughts were always in my head, my healthy eating would last three days tops before I would plummet back off track.

Well, yesterday was different.  It was so different that I felt like I had to come back here.  I found my spark again!  I'm ready to do what I have to do.  I'm not quite sure where this feeling came from, or what I did to achieve it... but I'm holding onto it and I'm not letting go!  Time to start back where I left off and complete my goals!  I feel like I have more motivation than ever.  I'm getting married next July and we want to start having babies :)  I'm not going to let my weight to be a wrench in the gears of my happiest life moments! I've got this bull by the horns now!

xoxo PrettyT

Since January...

Hey everyone!  I'm back and ready to fill you in on all that's happened since just before the end of that last weight loss competition.  First off.. I DID NOT WIN!  Despite the fact that this was a family competition, and one would assume that people would not use any despicable means of robbing anyone of an earned win... we had the misfortune of having a scum bag among our group of honest, hard working competitors.

Hope it felt good....

I was already 2% ahead of the person in second place, which was a decent lead with only 2 weeks left in the competition.  I worked my ass off and dropped 5 more pounds before the last weigh in.  I was so excited, as was my boyfriend... there was no way anyone else could have beat me... until we got the weigh-in pictures from my deceitful sister-in-law and her *bites tongue* lovely husband.

He was down over TWENTY POUNDS from two weeks prior.... twenty!  No one loses twenty pounds in two weeks after months of dieting just out of nowhere!  My boyfriend was furious and immediately called his sister and demanded both live video proof and an explaination.  We FaceTimed with them and saw the scale.  Then she precedes to tell us that for two weeks all he ate was one yogurt for breakfast, and one yogurt for dinner.  He literally starved himself to cheat out a win.

Now... don't get me wrong, I know that stuff like this happens during weight-loss competitions.  People will go through all kinds of extremes to win... laxatives, diuretics, wrapping themselves up in plastic and sitting in a sauna... whatever... but you do not expect that family would do something like that to each other!

It caused some intense tension... especially when she tried to defend what he did and said "I don't know why you're mad about it, you should be proud of him and congratulate him!"  That set us off.  How are you supposed to be proud of someone who used such a deceitful tactic to cheat a win away from his FAMILY?!  I don't think I could even do that to a stranger!

Needless to say, we did not let our feelings go unknown... what sucked was now we were all going on a one week cruise with the two of those immoral twits, so it was awkward.  Thankfully there was enough of us to keep it from ruining my time, it was just weird to have such tension.  I didn't even want to look at him.  The fact that he had no shame what-so-ever in what he did just baffled me, and the fact that my boyfriend's sister continued to defend him just stirred the pot.

So anyway, to sum up the rest of what went down, I gained some weight on the cruise, naturally, but I have yet to let it go.  I had a pretty crazy semester at school with my first clinical rotation at the largest hospital in my state so it was hectic.  I haven't gained a lot of weight, but I haven't been watching what I eat or exercising at all as of late.  So now, I'm ready to get going!  I'm not back on YouTube yet, but I will be as soon as I'm done with finals week over here!  I'm super excited to get back in action!

So tell me your opinion, do you think it was right for him to do what he did to win the competition?  Why or why not?  Let me know your opinion in a comment!

xoxo Pretty T

Weigh In # 2 - VIDEO UPDATE

Well, now that the new video is up, I can officially unveil the current leader board stats of this past Sunday's competition weigh-in!

Current Competition Leader Board

Thank you so much to all of my subscribers on my YouTube Channel and those of you who take the time to follow and read my blog.  You're all seriously amazing and I love you all!  Thank you all for the support!!! I couldn't do this without you!

xoxo Pretty T

I. Feel. Awful.

Could this be my Kryptonite?

So in spite of the fact that earlier this evening I posted this little fan-dango, things have changed.

I wasn't going to write this, but like I promised, no matter what, good or bad, I'm going to keep this whole process as real as possible, and what is real right now is I FEEL HORRIBLE.

I made my earlier post after having a pretty serious "cheat day".  I'm almost embarrassed to admit what we did, but at the time it just seemed like it was all in good fun.  We also started eating at like 2pm, so the fact that we were stretching out eating over the course of the entire day made it somehow seem less "bad" for us... not sure of that logic now that I'm saying it out loud....

We ordered a whole party-platter triple dipper from Chili's, along with a rack of ribs with french fries.  We ate it over the course of two football games (gotta love Sundays).  It didn't all get eaten, and honestly, it was after eating only that when I made this previous post.  I was being honest then.  I didn't feel bad, guilty, anything like that. We had food left over so I was proud of myself for not feeling the need to give in to my "clean the plate" syndrome.  I was fine.

I was fine until we decided to add dessert to the mix.  I know that I am to blame for what I did.  I should have just said no.  I was already full, why did I feel the need to add dessert?!  I was just going to get a small bag of peanut m&m's because even though at the time I wasn't craving sweets (should have just listened to myself here), I knew my boyfriend wanted dessert and he wouldn't have let himself get what he wanted if I didn't have something too.  So a small bag of peanut m&m's was going to be my way of getting dessert without going overboard.... until I hit the ice cream aisle.

Long story short, instead of going home with a dessert that would have been 278 calories, I left with a pint of regret costing me 1120 calories!!!  Now I'm full to the point of discomfort and in such emotional distress that I got out of bed to write this, because yes, it's midnight and I'm laying in bed feeling fat, bloated, uncomfortable, and pumped full of guilt and regret.  I'm remembering how much I hate this feeling.

Maybe this is a good thing.  Maybe I needed this reminder of just how horrible I feel when I eat like this.  My body feels like it's disgusted with me.  Funny thing is... I didn't even enjoy it the way I thought I would.  It was tasty, but could I have eaten a fraction of it and still felt satisfied with that? YES.  I need to learn to listen to myself... really listen to myself.

I'm going to go lay back in bed now.  I'm so full and uncomfortable that I can't even fall asleep :(  I really feel like crying right now.  I hate feeling like this!  I hope that next time I go to indulge in the desires of a compulsive over eater that I go back and read this and listen to my own advice. 

It's not worth it.

xoxo Pretty T

2nd COMPETITION WEIGH-IN !

Today was the 2nd weigh-in of our "Biggest Loser" competition!  I am so blown away at how much weight I have lost so far!  Honestly, I'm not even sure how or why the weight seems to be falling off so easily right now, but I'll enjoy it while it lasts!!!  I'm not revealing my weight and percent lost until the new video on my YouTube Channel, but, as always, here is a preview of this week's leader board!

That being said... today was 25 days straight of eating clean, and we finally decided to let ourselves have a "cheat day".  So I hope by Thursday my weight is still at least the same as it was today during the weigh-in hahaha!  I feel so bloated after consuming such a sodium-packed food fiesta!  I feel good though.  I didn't feel guilty after eating it and I stopped myself from finishing up the food just "because it was there". So, yay :)

Thank you so  much to those of you who follow me on Project Pretty and take the time to read and comment on this blog.  I don't have words to express how much it means to me :)  Much love!

xoxo Pretty T

Fig Newtons Minis? Yes Please!

Only 4 WW Points Plus!

I was shopping in the grocery store last week and stumbled across these little treasures! Fig Newtons Minis! I instinctively took out my WW Points Plus calculator to figure out how many points I was looking at before I got too excited.

4.... hmmm...

Four points is a bit much (for me) to spend on such an empty snack.  By empty I mean that it has no real nutritional value, just tasty calories.  So, having the crazy cookie craving that I was having at the time, I decided to whip out my iPhone and "ask Google" what people thought about these intriguing little packets of yum.

I didn't have to search too far before I stumbled across someone's review of them, and they seemed to think it was worth buying, so into my cart they went!

Fig Newtons Minis

Let me tell you, I was not disappointed!  In fact I thought they were so tasty that I decided to write about it just in case there is another person out there standing in the cookie aisle with their phone out trying to find out of people think these treats are worth buying!

Like I mentioned, they are 4 WW Points Plus, and you get about 8 - 9 cookies in the bag.  They taste just like regular fig newtons, just bite sized!

Now I want to compare these delicious little treats to this next product that I almost got swindled by!

 Meet Newtons Fruit Thins.  I saw these advertised on TV and thought, "Oooh! The goodness of Fig Newtons without the calories! Maybe I can actually enjoy these!"  BEEEEEP WRONG!

I was so excited too, it was kind of sad haha.  I whipped out the calculator, entered the data, "Oh great! Only 4 points!" .... until I saw the serving size!

THREE COOKIES

Yeah, there is no way that it is worth 4 of my daily points to chow down three measly little cookies! And they're not even the real deal! They're the "thinned down" version of an awesome cookie!

So if you're interested in any of these snacks, go for the Fig Newtons Minis all day long!  Definitely worth a try!

xoxo Pretty T