OOTD & Daily Update 03/27/15

Since I do not have classes today, Fridays are my appointment days.  I have to admit though I do normally wake up confused and wonder why there are so many people walking around campus since it feels like a Saturday morning.. and then I remember that it's not.

Today is actually kind of warm however spring is still being a tease and we are forecast to get more snow I believe tomorrow.  Today we had rain.  Since I was up nice and early on a day that I should be sleeping in, I went 110% for comfort. 

This top just understands me - thank you Brandy Melville.  I wore this today as I drank both a medium latte from Dunkin Donuts and a grande latte from Starbucks within 3 hours.

Incase you noticed, yes I did change my hair up a little and an entire blog post about it is coming up!

*Shout out to the rain for trying to make my hair curl against my will*

Jeans and the signature Bean boots round out my outfit. I love my Express jeans & they are insanely comfortable; my one recommendation is to try them on because you can probably go down a size.  The jeans do run slightly large and I could probably comfortably fit into a size smaller than I bought but I ordered mine online - they were having one of their very many sales/deals - and did not feel like exchanging them a the time because they do fit well enough I just need a belt.

Top - Brandy Melville

Jeans - Express

Socks - J.Crew

Boots - L.L. Bean

The other day, J.Crew was having a 30% off spring styles deal online and needing a little spring in my life I decided to put in a small order.  I am ordering more and more from J.Crew Factory however since there was a sale I wanted a few monogrammed pieces.  I was extremely excited when I found out I had not only one package today but four - one for each item ordered apparently!

My lucky day :)

I do have a few other items from various places so I'm going to do a small spring haul post soon rather than showing this stuff and then having an absolutely tiny post being like "oh hey look what else came too!"

Let me know in the comments below any ideas for posts!

Until next time,

Xox

Weekly Update: OOTD 03/17/15 & 03/18/15

Since a goal of mine was to blog more, I am now going to try to do outfit of the day posts and I will fill in other blog posts around them about products I love. I may do a look through some of my outfits this week type of post instead of an everyday thing so let me know below what you'd be interested in seeing! 

Today is St. Patrick's day!! I don't own much green despite being Irish so I had to work to find an outfit for today... This is not the best quality picture but you can get the idea!

 All black green everything today, or well at least I tried, even with my sock :)

Top: J.Crew

Jeans: AG jeans in Ballad 

I also treated myself this holiday, and what better way to celebrate than with booze! JK with a GREEN cupcake! You need to get you green foods in don't you?

Since the cold front never really left and warm weather has been such a tease, I needed a warm and cozy outfit to make it to my early class.  This is my flannel, no I did not steal it from any boy, it is from the mens section of LLBean, my dad has the matching one.

Top: LLBean

Jeggings: Zara

Boots: Trouve (from 4 or 5 years ago) - any black combat boot will work

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

            My fitness journey has been a long one to say the least.  I’ve learned a lot over my journey and though at times I get frustrated and feel like I haven’t been making progress, I have to focus on how far I’ve come.  One of the most important things that I have learned is to be proud – be proud of myself, be proud of my accomplishments so far and be proud of my body.  I know that I still have a long way to go both physically and mentally but I am working on seeing the positives instead of negatives in regards to my body.  I know that I will never be tinsy-tiny; I will never be model skinny; that is not the way that my body is built. I am okay with that now.  At the beginning of my journey I just wanted to be skinny, I wanted to be small and I had the completely wrong ideas about how my body would be.  Now, I want to focus more on toning up while also losing fat.

            Even though I am not currently seeing the progress that I want to, I am still around 20 lbs below my highest weight.  I went from being a size 16 to now fitting into a size 10.  I still look at myself and feel that I am big and I see all of the things that I still need to improve.  I need to remember that there was a time I would’ve been ecstatic to be a size 10. 

Here are some of my small goals to help me get to my ultimate goal:

1.     Control my eating.  I am all about everything in moderation but the key word is moderation. It is also important for me to not use food as a reward - that is not a mindset that I want to have.
2.     Establish and stick to a workout routine.  I am currently doing the Bikini Body Guide (still) and I will probably go through it again when I complete it.  I miss going to yoga and pilates and weight training so I am going to work on incorporating everything back into my routine.
3.     Find positives and things I like about my body.
4.     Focus on toning instead of the numbers on the scale.
5.   Not let thoughts about my weight and the food I am eating control my life - I want to enjoy everything during this journey.

My goals are still weight loss related but I want to learn to be happy and be confident during all of the stages at this progress.  I do not want to hate my body at any point and I no longer want to be cruel to myself.

I know that the working out that I am planning for myself seems like a lot but I have come to genuinely enjoy working out.  Working out is a major stress relief for me and I will go to the gym if I am upset or angry to get my aggression out and let the endorphins kick in.  My best advice for working out is to find something you love, it is important to start small and work your way up and to stick with it.  If you aren’t used to working out, it can or will be miserable in the beginning but if you stick with it you will notice progress – you will notice that it becomes bearable and you may even begin to enjoy it.

In the comments below let me know your goals! If you are interested in more fitness posts I have a tumblr and instagram: both blacktsskinnyjeans where I post most of my fitness related tidbits.

Oil as a Primer?

Typically face primers are to make your makeup last and people with oily skin know that oil does not help your makeup stay put. MAC’s face prep&prime oil may be the exception to the rule. I was very skeptical when I saw the oil on the MAC website but the reviews were pretty good and I figured why not give it a shot and I am so glad that I gave it a try. 

1.   It feels great on your skin when you apply it – especially with the harsh winter air/cold that strips your skin.
2.     It does help you makeup apply smoothly
3.     Also helps keeping your makeup from caking on dry patches
4.     You can mix it in with your foundation like you can mix in a lotion

After I apply my moisturizer in the morning, I put a couple of drops of the oil on my fingers and rub my hands together and then smooth and press the oil into my face. I then put my foundation on my hands (without washing the rest of the oil off) and use my fingers to apply my foundation.  Then I apply my concealer etc. aka, I finish putting on my face, which I do normally set with powder, and my makeup stays.  When I wash my face at night, I have noticed that it is washing off more foundation than it used to – I use cleansing oil and when I rinse it off my face, I wait until the water runs clear.  The water used to run clear after one splash, now it takes a couple so my makeup is definitely sticking. I also believe that it has been helping my skin.  My skin has been SO dry recently and after a week of using this, I looked in the mirror after I woke up and my first thought was that my skin looked good. The bottle is pretty small but you do not need to use a lot of the oil. I wasn't one for primers before, that was definitely one part of my routine that I would skip/was lacking in; I only used eye primers because face primers did not show much of a difference.

Have you tried the new priming oil? If so, let me know your thoughts!

Until next time, xox

What Am I Eating?

I have been on a MAJOR eggs kick recently.  I switch off between a whole egg and egg beaters/egg whites - sometimes when I am making a scramble I use both.  Eggs, bacon, avocado and tomatoes is always a good idea in my head.  Here are a few ways that I have been preparing eggs.

Sunny-side Up

Sunny-side up is actually really easy to do if you put a cover on your pan. Crack the egg into a greased pan and cover with a lid - the lid helps to steam the top of the egg and saves the bottom from getting too crispy while waiting for the egg to cook all of the way through.

Scrambles:

I typically use 1 whole egg and a couple tablespoons of egg whites or just egg whites to make my scramble.  I mix the eggs with some milk, paprika and pepper in a cup before adding them to the pan. I almost always add in tomato and onion but I also love adding in bell pepper, chives/scallions, mushrooms etc. It really turns into a hey have some scrambled eggs with your veggies dish.  I love mashing half an avocado on the side and mixing it in with the eggs as I eat!

Over Hard

Two ways: 1. flip the egg and let it finish cooking or 2. use the same method as the sunny-side up and remove from the heat once cooked but keep covered to let the yolk steam longer. 

I also make fried eggs, hard boiled and soft-boiled eggs.  I tried recently to make a poached egg but I have not gotten that method down yet; let me know you're tips and tricks for poaching eggs in the comments below!

xox

Branching Out

Part of trying to get through a lot of my collection is using things I forgot I had or haven't used in a while; I've been mixing it up and trying out new colors in looks.  Red is now one of my favorite shadow colors to use.  I use it in everyday very toned down makeup looks and it looks neutral until you actually pause to look at me and see that it is red.  I also make it look more dramatic and pair it with peaches and golds - my thinking was to pick colors from a sunrise or sunset to work with.

Be bold this year and try out a new color! Eyeshadow, blush, lip color, hair color any color as long as its something new to you! It does not have to be wildly dramatic, it can be just a touch outside of your comfort zone. You never know, it could be one of your new favorite things!

My Story: Weight Loss Edition

“Begin at the beginning, and go on till you come to the end: then stop.” - Alice in Wonderland

Here is my story:

Weight has been a constant factor in my life. When I was younger I was never considered “overweight” but I always felt bigger than the rest of my friends. I was tall even as a child so my height and weight were always perfect for someone the year older than me (e.g. when I was 11 I was the right size for a 12 year old). I was an average sized child weight wise, my weight wasn't a concern to doctors.  I new I looked bigger than my friends but never would factor in that I was also taller than most of the girls and boys.  In elementary school and sixth grade I was a major tomboy but so were most of the other girls. In middle school insecurities really began to come out, no longer a tomboy, wearing more tight fitting clothing and hitting puberty was rough. All of my friends got boobs first - which is a big deal when you are a teenage girl trust me. Then seemingly overnight I went from an A cup to a C cup (it actually was 3 months but that was still extremely fast for me) which was the biggest cup size in the group. Before I was uncomfortable about having nothing and then I became too aware of having too much.  I wore a lot of big sweatshirts with my tight fitting shirts. My hips also widened - typical puberty things, the whole gamut.  By this time I had hit a growth spurt (close to 6 inches in a year and yes it was painful) and was now not just a little bit taller than my friends, I had inches and inches on them.  While my friends were all size 0's I was a size 8 and very uncomfortable with being so much "bigger" - now I realize that 5'7" and a size 8 really is not big at all but at the time I felt like I was a hippo.  They could all borrow my clothes and I couldn't bother anything of theirs because it was all too small. 

Fast forward to high school. I left my friends and my comfort zone behind going to a private high school. That is where my distinctive weight gain began. I had the freshman 15 4 years early, okay maybe not 15 but close. That year I jumped up to a size 12.  Sophomore year my weight spiked again. That was the summer I spent in a cast, lots of eating and lots of sitting with barely any exercise.  After tears from having to buy new pants and barely fitting into anything I owned I still wasn’t as motivated to make a change. I was still wishing the weight away, none of my friends had to watch what they ate or exercise a ton so why would I? I could squeeze into a size 14 but a size 16 was more comfortable especially by the beginning of my junior year. 

The picture on the left was the summer between my sophomore and junior year of high school and the picture on the right was the fall of my junior year of college

Halfway through the first semester of my junior year that changed. I do not know at what moment specifically I decided that I wanted to change my lifestyle, it may have been after a physical or one of my many nights in tears because my clothes did not fit but I’m not sure; I just decided enough was enough and I was going to take matters into my own hands. I was steadily loosing weight for a while, I had even broken 180 and was comfortably wearing a size 14 and occasionally getting into a size 12.  My highest weight was probably 195 lbs.  Junior year I started birth control - my cramps were getting so bad that I would need to miss school and they were physically making me sick, in addition to feeling like I was going to faint when I stood up.  When I went back for my 1 month check in, they like to monitor your blood pressure when you first start the pill, I had lost close 15 lbs instead of gained weight like most people - I was ecstatic.  That was a lot of weight to lose in a short period of time but keep in mind I was overweight and shocked my system by starting to eat healthier and working out at least 5 days a week; I know it is still a lot but at the time I was happy.  I was feeling so much better and starting to gain confidence, I loved the feeling and wanted to keep making progress. Then senior spring came and I slowly gained back some of the weight but thankfully not all of it.  Looking back on it, my actions were slightly obsessive, watching everything I ate and if I was hungry but it wasn't meal time I would have tea or an apple, I had to do sit ups before bed or I couldn't sleep sort of obsessive.  Obviously that life was not going to be maintainable for me and is not the healthiest way to lose weight.  I took progress pictures compulsively during this time - I still like taking pictures to track progress but it is not as often anymore.  Now I look at pictures and think “wow I looked smaller” when at the time all I saw was fat. This time with pictures I do see progress, I'm not looking at how far I still need to go.

The summer before college was motivation to lose weight but partying with my friends and enjoying the moments before we all left for our different school stopped me from making much progress. This time, I would not gain the freshman 15, I was absolutely determined not to be another statistic. Freshman year I actually lost close to 10 pounds, bringing me down to around 175 lbs and fitting into a size 12 comfortably.  Since I’ve started college I have been consistently losing the weight again and toning up. I do tend to sabotage myself over the summers, I know, I'm backwards.  For the past three years my weight has fluctuated from my lowest, 169 lbs, to 183 lbs.  

This was my progress from the start of my journey until last spring, I have gained some of the weight back since these photos were taken

I will make progress and then I backtrack. I was able to maintain the bottom row of the pictures above for a while and then I slipped back into old habits. I like looking at measurements better because sometimes the number on the scale can be discouraging. This time I do completely believe that I have the right mindset going into things. Most recently, over this Christmas break, I have gained some weight and it is discouraging since I was working so hard and making progress before break. It is difficult for me to get in the mindset to workout and eat well and in moderation when I go home but I am determined to find a way.  Most recently I have started the Kayla Itsines Bikini Body Guide and I have been using some recipes from the Tone It Up Nutrition plan as a way to kick start my weight loss this year.  When I say it has been a journey I am not kidding.

This was my Week 0 photo for the BBG challenge, me and all of my post-break bloated glory at 178 lbs

This has been and will continue to be an adventure.

xox