V Watts' Thoughts...

Hey Y'all!  I'm a total Blogging Loserette!  Blah! But today I want to introduce you to a very special Lady, Veronica!  I remember Veronica was one of the very first ladies to contact me over a year ago right after I started the blog!  We instantly connected over our common past.  I fell in love with her instantly and to say she has been kicking ass and taking names in her weight loss journey is an understatement!  Enjoy! 

Hi you guys! My name is Veronica. I live over at V Watts' Thoughts; I met Darci via her friend Holly some time last year. I remember connecting with her right away because of her cutting sense of humor. I ♥ her big time. Today I wanted to share with you all my weight loss journey and how it's been going so far. I still have about 25-30lbs left that I'd like to lose. I feel determined to make my goal. I hope you enjoy reading on how I've lost 55lbs so far.

50 Pounds Lost - Front Progress Picture

I have quite a few people that are asking me how I've lost this much weight. The answer is several things really. The scientific answer is exercise and eating right. But if it were that simple I would have had success a long time ago. See, I've been on this weight loss journey for yyyyeeeaaarrrsss now. I did lose 80lbs in my early 20's. And for those who've read my very first post, you know that it led to a 6 year struggle with bulimia. I was skinny, yes, but I hated myself the entire time.

50 Pounds Lost - Back Progress Picture

Then I got into recovery on August 25th 2008. Within the first 2-3 months of recovery I gained about 35-40lbs. Of course I was upset by this but I had to want recovery more than I wanted to be thin. Then as I began to get my mind right again about eating and exercise I began getting back in the health game. I would have a few successes, 5 pound loss here or there. But I'd inevitably gain the weight back. I get very close 180lbs and it felt like everything would just stop. I never really felt good about my body. Even when I would lose a good deal of weight my mentality was still, "Well, I've been much much thinner than this before so why should I be excited about being this weight?"

50 Pounds Lost - Side Progress Picture

Around October of last year Cole and I started seeing a couple's counselor. He was a Christian and thus he worked a lot on our spiritual wellness as much as our mental wellness. He opened my eyes to see just exactly how negative and controlling I was about myself. In general and to the naked eye I am a delightful person. I thrive on being nice to people and being the comic relief. But I compartmentalized the angry/negative side of me. It was something only myself and perhaps my husband ever got to see. It was a very painful truth but one that needed to be addressed.

So, what did I do about it? I started to pray that God would begin to change my heart about the way I saw life and chiefly about the way I saw myself. I prayed that I would allow Him to cut myself slack and love myself just the way I am. I prayed that I would be able to let go of the reins and stop trying to make things happen from within my own strength and to allow Him to help me make changes occur. In the Bible there is a verse that reads "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" Philipians 4:13

And I can truly tell you that I didn't notice the changes at first. I can tell you that it took practice to start having a better attitude about weight loss. I had to remind myself that I am worth loving even if my weight and body aren't where I want them to be. I can't pin point the day it happened but all of a sudden positivity began to flow from within me. I even started to see my setbacks as just a tiny harmless portion of this journey. I didn't dwell in sorrow about it like I used to. I was looking at my body that was still around 210lbs or so and I liked what I saw. I used to have a body that looked good in a bikini and at 210lbs I can tell you with all surety that my body was not bikini ready but I.loved.my.body. It wasn't a vain love. It was a love that went beyond putting restrictions on myself like: "I will love my body when it looks like xyz".

Weight loss began to happen for me. I hadn't seen this type of success before on my personal journey. I only have 45 minutes to workout at the gym so it's not like I was in beastmode and having fantastic 2 hours sweat sessions. I do know that I also had to give over to the Lord my eating habits. I loved food. No, I adored food. No, I WORSHIPPED food. When I began to realize what type of power I allowed food to have over me it was both sad and scary. I prayed that God would give me the strength to resist binging. Do I still have the urges, yes. But I feel like I have much more stability and soundness of mind to make wiser choices.

Christian or not, I'd like to share the sermon that my pastor gave yesterday. He is starting a new series about the power of the tongue (or words). It explains almost to a T what changes took place in my life to get me to where I am now. I was so surprised and excited as I was listening to him preach. It was as if the Lord had given Justen (my pastor) the diary of my life over the past 6 months. Again, even if you are not a Christian I think you might enjoy this. It talks about the power that your words have to lead you towards success or failure. It's about 30mins. I've also included the power point so you can see the points he is talking about. I challenge you to listen and take a read. It will have you thinking differently about the way you talk about yourself.

Listen (look for Part 1).

Power Point

So, I'm a total loser and I don't think the links to the sermon or PowerPoint work!  Ugh!  Sorry about that!  If you want to hear/see them let me know and I will see If V can get us hook'd up!  Doesn't Veronica look AMAZING!?  More than amazing...STUNNING! GORGEOUS! INSPIRATIONAL!

Stay tuned for some new stuff on the blog in the next week or two!  Eek!  I'm excited! 

Love you, B Faces! xoxo

Boo! It's Halloween! Plus Some Winners Too!...

 

 

Boo! Do I have great news for you!  Eek, I rhymed!

 

First up, the Pink Slate Boutique giveaway ended yesterday and the THREE winners are...

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Congratulations!  Kayla L, Heather B and Katie G!  Shoot me an email at darcispear@yahoo.com and I will get you hooked up with your $15 gift cards!  Holla!  Yay!  Thanks to everyone that entered the giveaway, I think it was a total success!  If you haven't popped over to Pink Slate recently, you totally should - I'm dying over the new arrivals! 

 

Including both of these...

 Morning Sunshine Tank

 

 Rising Star Cardigan

(available in Red, White and Black)

 



Thank You!  Thank You!  Thank You!

Amber and Sunny you are the BEST!

xoxo

 



Now, let me introduce you to one my favorite ladies that I have yet to meet in person, Sami from Simply Sami!  Thanks for taking over today, Sami!  #chicago2014

 



Happy Halloween everyone! I am Sami from Simply Sami. I had Darci guest post for me a couple weeks ago when we were moving into our house! Here is a little bit about me.....I spent all summer training for my first half marathon! I ran it in September and it was awesome! I have another half at the end of November. I am a mom to Nathan and the wife to Brian. My boys are my everything! I blog about my running, my family and my weight loss. I have lost around 40lbs and getting close to my first goal of being under 200!! 

This will be Nathan's 4th Halloween! I was going through his picture's the other night and found his Halloween photo's! I may be biased....but he is one cute kid!! We go trick or treating in a really nice neighborhood in Rockford. Mostly, because there are a ton of people, lots of lights and they all have great candy!!!!!!!!!!!! 

His first Halloween (2010)! We made a Mr. Potato Head pumpkin! He wasn't too thrilled with it at first, but he warmed up to it! Arrrgh!! Nathan was a little pirate!! We didn't trick or treat this year...we handed out candy. Mostly to kids that were not dressed up and had Walmart bags to carry their candy in. I felt so bad for them. They must have been like 8-12 years old. I wanted to kick their parents in the head. 

The next year (2011), he was a little older and able to walk. This was the funnest Halloween yet! He ran around to every house so fast and was so excited about saying Trick or Treat to everyone! He also wanted to take handfuls of candy from every bucket instead of just one! My little skeleton! 

Last year Nathan was Mr. Snowman! This was my favorite outfit! He LOVED IT...................until we put it on and then he wasn't so happy. Especially since I asked if we could take pictures. Then we started trick or treating and he was totally into it. Running around to every house, but forgetting to get his candy! Haha! Everyone that saw him commented on his costume...plus he was carrying his snowman around with him...after a while tried to put Mr. Snowman in his bucket, he fell out and thankfully someone picked him up and returned him to us!! 

This year Nathan is going to be a yellow Crayon! I feel like a horrible mommy....I waited until the last minute to buy his costume and Target had like nothing left and of course I am broke....so here we go. We tried to do a homemade Batman costume, but he wanted to be this instead. I hate spending like $30 on a costume! This was only $18.99!! (Yeah, I know, I am cheap! HA!) 

He is certainly the cutest little crayon I have ever seen!!! 

 

Next year I am going as Samantha from Bewitched and Brian is going to go as Darrin....he just doesn't know it yet! This was the first year that we, as a couple, didn't dress up and go out. I guess that is what we get for buying a house right before Halloween! Womp, womp. 

Thank you to Darci for having me guest post today! I hope you enjoyed pictures of my little guy! Have a fabulous Halloween!! 

Isn't Nathan just the cutest!?  Thanks again, Sami for posting today!  Love Ya!

 

It's supposed to be raining black cats and rabid dogs around SEK today, fingers crossed I can convince Jack to just hand out candy! 

 

xoxo

The Joys Of Pregnancy...

Today Erin over at Homemade Happenings is guesting!  If you don't follow Erin yet, you will after you read her post today!  I laughed so hard and kept saying "that is so true" the entire way through!  Enjoy!

 

 

Hi, I’m Erin! I blog over at Homemade Happenings. Usually I’m writing about my day to day life which includes my husband, Andy, of 11 years or our two boys, Aiden age 7 and Brennan age 4. I also blog about yummy recipes I make and show off my crafting goodies which include scrapbooking, card making and holiday/homemade gifts. Lately I’ve been doing a lot of blogging about pregnancy because, well, I’m pregnant! Baby is due February 16^th! I have some of the easiest pregnancies known to man, err, WO-man, but today I thought I’d write about some of the ‘fun’ that goes along with being pregnant.

These are the ‘joys’ of pregnancy:

· Mom Farts. Let me explain. You know when you were 20 and you could sit down to go potty and just potty? Yea, well, when you get pregnant you don’t just go potty when you sit down. You also let out a mom fart. All of that pressure on everything from having that baby in there taking up all that space makes that little toot just pop out! The first time I did it, with my first pregnancy, I couldn’t believe it! I mean, I’d heard other women do it while in a public restroom but I just thought they were gassy. Then I sat down and let one rip and I thought ‘Well holy hell! What did I just do? Where did it come from?? I didn’t feel it coming!” Yea, Mom Farts.

· Once you hit about 25 weeks (give or take) getting out of bed or off the couch becomes an exercise all in itself. And if you’re lying flat on your back? Forget it! You lay there like a cockroach dying, legs and arms flailing trying to get enough motion built up that you miraculously roll over and live to scurry about for another day.

· Once you hit the 3^rd trimester you might as well say goodbye to shaving your legs and maintaining your …. nether regions. Your belly is so big that you can’t see around it. I have a friend who one time was doing acrobatics trying to shave her legs and ended up nicking her nipple with her razor. Youch! To me it’s not worth it. If your doctor can’t handle getting a little road rash while helping you deliver she/he shouldn’t be in that profession.

· Acne. Of all forms and in all areas. Depending on who you are you can get acne about anywhere during pregnancy. Your hormones are all fired up and you’re like a hormonal teenager all over again (minus the tiny waist and perky boobs). Acne on the face. Acne on the chest. Acne on the back. Acne on the shoulders. Forget about wearing cute, cool, comfortable tank tops! Invest in turtlenecks and face masks.

· Smells. Yes, you get smelly, and by smelly I mean you stink. Not all the time, but when you do work up a sweat trying to get off the bed you should just head straight to the shower and scrub your arm pits! Suave Clinical Strength deodorant does the trick. (Side bar: Trying going through this as a hair stylist. How many times did I lay someone back in my shampoo bowl only to wonder if I was gassing them out by my stench? Talk about embarrassing!)

Now, just because these joys of pregnancy don’t sound so swell doesn’t mean the rest of the pregnancy stuff isn’t super great! I mean, what’s neater than feeling your little one bouncing around in there? And the first time you hold them? Sigh, stenches, pimples and flailing were a small price to pay! 

Thanks to Darci for asking me to guest post! She’s one of my all-time favorite bloggers. No one can compete with her Vlogs and sassy posts! I hope you stop by Homemade Happenings and say hello to me! I love making new friends!

Erin

Seriously, I agree with everything Erin wrote...except one...I totally made The Husband do my WO-man scaping for me!  It was hilarious, but I just couldn't...I kept picturing the women on the Birthing Class videos with their 1980's bush-fro's!  I mean, no!  Just no!  LOL!  Make sure to go say hello to Erin, you won't regret it!

 

xoxo

Round 2...

Hey Y'all!  I know I've been falling off the blogging wagon here lately, but work is legit killing me!  So being the gorgeous genius I am, I came up with the fabulous idea to have some of my blogging girlfriends guest post for me on Tuesday and Thursday for the next few weeks!  Yay!  I hope you are as excited as I am, don't worry I know you are!

First up is one of my favorite reads (and not just because her newest little man shares a name with my Main Man Jack), Annie over at One Crazy Mama!  Enjoy!

Hey I'm Annie over at One Crazy Mama. I've been blogging for over a year now and this is my very first time guest posting at one of my fave biotches blog! I first started blogging about losing post baby # 1 weight and I lost weight then got knocked up again and now here I am again trying to lose the baby weight. 

Annie, One Crazy Mama

Let me tell ya life after my first bambino, Hunter, was rough. I was crazy. Literally. I had post partum depression and my world was turned upside down. I didn't think it would be like that. I was imagining some perfect fairy tale that breast feeding would be easy and my baby would sleep at night and I would have the magic touch and be able to calm him easily. Wellllll lets just say that wasn't the case. I was stressed. My husband was the only one that could calm him down and bathe him and put him to bed and basically do everything. I gave up breast feeding and basically everything. I cried all the time. Finally after 5 weeks I got help. I went to counseling and got on meds. Things were looking up in all areas but losing weight. I became the mom I wanted to be. It wasn't perfect but nothing ever is, right? All I know is that I could finally calm my baby, bathe him, put him to sleep and was just all around confident as a Mother. I put everything into being a Mom and wife but put nothing into my health. So most of the 50 plus pounds I gained stuck with me. 

Fast forward 18 months and I finally lost the rest of the baby weight. I finally started thinking of myself and it paid off. I wasn't at my ideal weight yet. I still had about 20 lbs I would have liked to lose but nope I got pregnant! A little over 2 months ago I had my 2nd precious baby boy, Jack. I would have loved to tell you I didn't gain as much weight but womp womp womp...I did. I was much healthier throughout the pregnancy though and made better food choices most of the time...My first baby boy was 9 lbs 8 oz and a seriously tough birth. My second was 7 lbs 3 oz and an easy peasy birth. I think the healthier eating really paid off. 

Jack - 2 Months Old

So hows weight loss going now? Pretty good. I've been mainly focusing on eating right because finding time to workout with two is no walk in the park. When I get the baby down to nap my 2 year old wants time with me...when they are both napping (hallelujah) I want to clean and get things around the house done. But since I am breast feeding I'm burning lots of cals and eating 1800 calories a day has been giving me a 2-3 lb a week weight loss. I try to go on walks with them and when the hubs is home I will sneak in a run to clear my mind. If he's not home and I need to clear my mind I drink...haha, but seriously...try it, it works. As for numbers I have lost 32 of the 50 pounds I gained this pregnancy. I'm hoping to start running more next week when I start taking both boys to day care for an hour so I can get that in. 

Another point I want to make in this overly rambling post is that the second (or third, fourth, fifth...etc) time around can be tons different than the first. Luckily this time I did not suffer from post partum depression and have been so confident with little man, Jack. I gave him his first bath not the hubs and I was so happy about that. So new moms - don't give up. Things can be rough with a new baby but they always get better. One bad day will be followed by five great days so just keep on keeping on. Yeah your hair may be as greasy as a McDonald's fryer and you're not sure how long you've worn the clothes you've been wearing, but keep at it...it always gets better. 

Hunter and Jack thinking "somebody get me outta here!"

We all have our struggles and hurdles and we will get over all of them. This time it will not take me 18 months to get to my ideal weight. I can do this! I may not feel like it sometimes but I do not have any excuses I am going to be a hot mama again! Please, if you're on a similar journey let me know. I love hearing other's stories it's so inspirational. I will be posting more about my weight loss on the blog. Thanks for reading!

I just l.o.v.e Annie!  She is so sweet, so real and so determined!  Make sure to go over and tell her hi!

Annie, remember this picture?  Yeah, so I'm gonna need your address come Spring because I know you will be that Hot Mama again and I can't wait to see you rock this bikini!

xoxo 

Iseminger Chronicles...

Hey Y'all!  I'm guest posting for Ashlee today over at Iseminger Chronicles!  If you've ever thought to yourself, "This shit would never have happened before I had kids..." then you should head over and check out today's post "Only After Kids" here!

Anniversary Weekend Recap will be up later this week!

Giveaway City!

I posted a Giveaway on my HomeGirl (Instagram @darci_spear) Friday evening for a super cute handbag perfect for Fall, if you haven't entered head over there now and do it!

Be sure to stop by tomorrow for a Jamberry Nail Review and Giveaway!  You won't want to miss this one!

 

Make it a great Monday, Y'all!

xoxo