New LOW! Down 32!

My scale is moving so freaking slow but at least it is moving in the right direction. I hit my new low this morning of 225!! This is a total loss of 32 pounds. My goal weight is 160 so that is 32 pounds down and 65 to go! My lowest weight previous to this was when I got on my scale last week I was at 227.

I am trying my hardest to be below 220 at my cousin's wedding on March 13th. That gives me a total of 18 days to lose 6 pounds? I should be able to do this right?? I sure do hope so! I only lost a total of 6 pounds in the last 4 weeks so I have to work really hard to do the same in the next 18 days!

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Thank you all for your sweet and encouraging comments on my last post about plus size models! I find modeling especially plus size to be so interesting and I am glad yall loved it as well :) And aren't those models I posted pictures of gorgeous?! Dang! Those are some of my favorite plus size models and I find them to be so stunning!

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I am at work right now on my break at the lovely Anthropologie and I don't have much longer! But I have been wanting to plan a bandster reunion for us ladies to meet each other and maybe spend the weekend together. I realize that we all live in different parts of the country and some live outside the US but if we were able to set aside a weekend to all meet each other, that would be so much fun! I live in Alabama so everyone who lives in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee...we should all be able to meet up! Only if you want to that is haha. Or better yet if someone had like a beach house or mountain house or lake house...that would be fun! Im just brainstorming but if you are interested in having a little reunion weekend...comment :)

Have a good night! WATCH AMERICAN IDOL! Im at work so I am tivoing it but I cant wait! AHHHH! Go top 12 girls!!

Plus size models are beautiful

The facts according to Wikipedia:

What is a plus size model?

Plus size models participate in a variety of modeling jobs including print work, runway shows, and fit or informal modeling. Fashion modeling is the category aspiring models usually think of when they dream of being a model. Fashion plus modeling can include a magazine cover or layout, representing a plus-size manufacturer in print advertisements, or strutting down the catwalk in the latest Lane Bryant lingerie.

Requirements Include:

Height-
Between 5'8" and 6'0"
5'9" is pretty much minimum for larger markets although some companies represent girls who are 5'7" and 5'8" but this is rare.

Average Clothing Size-
Size 12, 14, 16
Sizes 10 and 18/20 are also used, but are not nearly as common.

Must be toned-
You may be "plus size," but you may have to be in shape to be able to model swimwear, lingerie or fitness gear.

Proportionate-
You should be in proportion. Your bust, waist and hips should be about ten inches apart in size (i.e. 42-32-42) or very close. In addition, the shorter you are, the smaller your size should be. Someone who is 5'8" would be expected to wear a smaller size (12/14) than a taller model. It is all about length and proportion.

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As many of you know, I went to school for four years for fashion design and merchandising. Modeling of all types is something that has always interests me and in particular plus size modeling because I am a plus size girl. I would actually love to pursue plus size modeling myself if I can drop a few more pounds and tone my body. My parents told me all during highschool I should pursue it but I think I held back because of the fear of the unknown. But I love reading other's opinions of what a "plus size" girl looks like. It stills amazes me how some people think that if you are a size 12, you are plus size. But I understand that compared to the average american model size 12 would be considered a good deal larger. By the way, just a few facts for you: The average American female supermodel is 5'10'' and only 115 pounds. On average, her measurements are 34 inch bust, 24 inches waist and 34 inch hips. But to make you feel better about yourself, the average American female is only 5'4'' and 170 pounds! Not to mention every time I see a super skinny model that looks emaciated, I desperately want to throw her a doughnut! I take pride in being a full figured woman and I believe plus size women are beautiful.

I became very interested in these facts and began researching some of today's plus size models. I hope you all find this as interesting as I do. Here are a few of my favorite girls :)

Plus size model #1: Whitney Thompson

She is the winner of cycle 10 on America's Next Top Model and the only plus size woman to ever win on this show. She is 5'10'' and 165 pounds, a good 50 pounds heavier than all the other winners on America's Next Top Model. I think she is gorgeous just the way she is. She said that she is honored to be a role model for young girls and show America what the real woman really looks like.


Plus size model #2: Christina Schmidt



Isn't she gorgeous?! She is Canadian born but currently lives in New York City. She was an actress for several years but decided to leave the acting world to pursue modeling. Christina is 5'6'' and currently wears a size 14. She clearly fits the size description of an average american female and she is absolutely stunning.



Plus size model #3: Crystal Renn



Crystal started high fashion modeling when she was only 14 years old. All the modeling agencies told her before she would be able to model, she needed to lose a third of her body weight. This sent her into a downward spiral of unhealthy eating and she struggled with anorexia and other eating disorders. After several years, she decided to become healthier and gained a total of 70 pounds back. This put her in the plus size model category and she wore a size 12, sometimes a size 14 and this is the size she is currently. She is the only plus size model to be on the cover of Harper's Bazaar and appeared in several issues of Vogue. She was also asked to represent Jean Paul Gaultier's spring 2006 collection.


And as we all know, the fabulous and gorgeous Marilyn Monroe was a size 12-14 at several times during her life

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My point being....which is more beautiful?

Or this...

Exactly. Point proven.

No matter what size you are, embrace yourself. Love who you are and what you stand for. Don't let people tear you down just because of what you look like. I can say I have truly mastered this part of my life. Ever since I was a little girl I was taught to love myself the way I am, whether I was a normal size 10 in middle school or now at a size 18 in my 20's. I know who I am and what I stand for and it has nothing to do with the size of my clothes. Look in the mirror and love yourself because you have so much to offer the world! Plus size women, we are all beautiful inside and out! Love your hips, your waist, your arms, your legs....love your curves!

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And while we are on the subject....
Just for fun, here are a few pictures of myself as a wanna-be model HAHA:

Ladies, have a fabulous week!

Alaska! Thanks for your comments!!

I just wanted to say thank you ladies for your comments/advice/suggestions for our Alaska vacation!

LDswims--Sounds like yall had a great time on your trip! You were very helpful and I will probably email you for some of the other questions I have!

Kim--Your uncle lives in Alaska?! I might get you to ask him some questions for me! That would be awesome :) And thank you for the Beautiful Blogger award girlfriend!

Band Groupie--I am so jealous you have been twice! The RV sounds like a fun way to go because our family has an RV as well. We go on trips all across the country in that thing. But this time we are doing the cruise adventure :) I need to get your email address so I can ask you a few more questions! I would love to hear your list of must-do's! Thanks!

Alexis--We are either leaving from San Francisco, Seattle or Anchorage! So if we leave from Seattle, I will definitely need to meet up with you!

Have you or anyone you know ever been to Alaska?!

I ask this question because my family and I are planning a trip to Alaska for this summer! If you or anyone you know has been to Alaska, please comment with advice, pros, cons, suggestions, your experience, anything!

We have all been wanting to go to Alaska for the past few years on vacation and this ends up being the perfect summer for all of us to go. It will be myself, my parents and my brother. Because my brother is in highschool, we have to go during the summer months either in June or July and we are thinking June might be the best month. Based on reviews, May through September is the best time for vacationers to visit and it all depends on whether you are interested in seeing the snow-capped mountains or wildlife or whatever else interests you. At first we were just going to take an Alaskan cruise but we have now decided to go on an Alaskan cruisetour. For those of you who dont know what this is, you take a cruise around Alaska (however long you choose...usually around 7 nights) and then you actually get off the boat and stay in Alaska for the remainder of your vacation. You can choose to stay anywhere from 3 nights on land all the way up to 16 nights. From talking to people who have been to Alaska, they said there are way too many things you will miss if you don't get off the boat and explore inland.

Here are my questions for you :) If you have vacationed to Alaska, know someone how has been to Alaska or just know anything interesting or helpful for planning our vacation, I would love to hear about it!

When did you visit Alaska? How long did you stay? Did you just cruise or take a cruisetour? What route did you take to Alaska? What city did you fly into/cruise from? What cruise line did you use? What was your favorite city you visited there? What would you do again if you went back? What would you not do next time that you did the first visit?

Thank you sooo much for your input!! I appreciate it :)

Time for some new pictures!

It was time for me to show yall some new pictures so here they are :)
They are from the past few weeks and very random!
Enjoy!

This was during one of my boyfriend and I's snowball fights! HA!

We don't see very often here in Alabama and it was absolutely beautiful!

How could you look at a sunset like this and say there's not a God? Just beautiful!

My dog, Buddy. He wasn't too sure about the snow.

Black and white. Love it!

One of many "action" shots...having a little fun in the snow!

This is Burch and I at my cousin Lindsay's bridal tea. Burch came at the end to help load up the gifts...he didnt understand why men arent invited to the actual tea haha

Lindsay with seven of her bridesmaids!

Me with my girls, Lauren, Lindsay and Leah!

Me with the bride-to-be in about 3 weeks!! I can't believe it! She is like a little sister to me and I love her more than words!

Burch and I just getting home from our Atlanta weekend trip...this trip was actually before the bridal tea but I uploaded them in the wrong order

In Atlanta with our good friend, Ashley.

At Sips and Strokes with my friend, Megan! Look at our cute shoes picture...its getting framed as we speak!

Burch and I on Valentine's night just before our fabulous dinner :)
Goodness, I need a tan...BAD!

100 followers!! Thank you all!!

100 followers!!

YAY!! This is super exciting! I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who follows my blog and takes the time to leave me comments! As you know, I read them religiously and your sweet words of encouragement are such an inspiration to me! We are all on this weight loss journey together, whether we are at the beginning of our journey or the end, and I love how uplifting we are to each other! So from the bottom of my heart, I appreciate your friendship. From each corner of the United States and the world we are helping each other each and every day. So thank you!

Time for a new post!

Happy Late Valentines Day everyone!! Hope everyone had a fabulous and romantic Valentines day! And for all you single ladies out there...hope Valentines day wasnt too hard to bare! Hopefully you went out with your single girlfriends and had a fun girls night out!

But as for me and my man, we had a great Valentines day! We spent the afternoon together...cooked a delicious lunch at home and snuggled on the couch together for a few hours. It was relaxing and nice not having anything to do. Then we decided to get up, get ready and run some errands. I figured it would be a good day to get some new cute lingerie (I needed some more anyways) and I also bought myself a new pair of spanx....amen ladies?!? I can always use some more spanx. I also bought a new dress to wear in a few weeks to my cousins rehearsal dinner and a new pair of shoes. I will post pictures of my new purchases soon for you! When I got home I found flowers had been delivered to my house from Burch...sweet thing he is!

Then we started to get all dressed up for our dinner date! Burch made reservations at a restaurant called Village Tavern here in Birmingham. I had never been there but it was delicious! We had a fabulous five course dinner and lets just say....all weight lose rules went out the door! We had an appetizer, salad, soup, steaks and dessert! Oh so yummy!! We had great dinner conversation and came home to watch a movie together! The end :) Valentines day isnt the most fun holiday when your single but when you have someone to share it with, its lots of fun!

And because of my lack of caring about what I ate for the past few days, I put 3 pounds back on! HAHA! I had gotten down to 227 which put me at exactly 30 pounds lost (YAY FOR ME) but after my Valentines Day extravaganza, I now weigh 230! Haha I will get these three pounds off sooner of later!

What did yall do for Valentines!? Hope you have a great Tuesday!! New Biggest Loser and American Idol tonight!! I love tv on Tuesdays :)

New LOW!!

Just had a second to get on my blog but thought I would give a quick little update!! I hit my lowest low this morning....

227.5 pounds!!

WOOHOO!! Have a great Tuesday everyone!!

Fills. Food. Fashion.

Goodness gracious! Where has the time gone!? I said I was going to post another blog the night of my 3rd fill (aka last Wednesday) but seems like time got away from me....

So update from the 3rd fill! It was the fastest I have ever been in and out of a doctor's office in a loooong time! But I went in...weighed....which came out to 233.5 pounds just like I figured it would. Looks like I paid the price for eating that Taco Bell the day before my fill! HAHA! Although I wish we could weigh naked at the doctor's office so the scale would read a little lower. Am I right ladies?! I weigh myself naked at home so I wish it were as accurate at the doctor's office. But anyways, she asked me about my eating habits....blah blah blah....and ended up giving me 1.5 cc's which was fabulous! She kept going back and forth between 1 and 1.5 but ended up giving me 1.5. So I was a happy lady....and that brings my total to 6.0 cc's in an 11 cc band!

Since Wednesday, I can DEFINITELY feel the restriction. Today my boyfriend and my mom and I went to Macaroni Grill for lunch and I ordered Chicken Parmigiana with steamed asparagus. After eating the first 3 bites of chicken and my asparagus, I was full and took home some leftovers for dinner!! I weighed in this morning (naked might I add) at 229.5!! So back down in the 220's! Goodness...if I can just lose 10 pounds and be below 220 for my cousin's wedding it would make me oh so happy! So that is what I am shooting for!!! 10 pounds and I have about 5 weeks!! Hard but not impossible!



So on a different note....SHOPPING AND CLOTHES :) These are two of my favorite things in the entire world if you haven't figured that would already. And I was thinking....I am 23 years old and more than likely, I will be getting married within the next few years. My boyfriend and I arent "there yet" if you know what I mean...we dont talk about the "M" word too often but it does come up from time to time. He is more ready than I am but he is also 3 years older than me. Anyways, my cousin who is basically like a sister to me is getting married in March and wedding madness is in the air! I have been with her from the beginning: dress shopping, picking out house stuff for their house, where to have the wedding, parties, teas, showers...you know it. And it got me thinking...as much as I love fashion and pay attention to fashion, there are hardly ANY fashionable wedding dresses for plus size brides!! Seriously! All the sample sizes are like size 10 or 12...which is technically a size 8 for all Im concerned. It makes me realize more and more how much I do NOT want to be a fat bride because I am not wearing one big silk tent with sequins all over it on my wedding day. And think about how hard it is to find really cute dresses for plus size. I mean there is always the trusty Lane Bryant and Torrid and Dressbarn but Im talking about actual fashionable, beautiful, couture dresses like Gucci, Valentino, Dior, Chanel. But I was looking on Saks Fifth Avenue's website and I came across a designer named David Meister that I like. His designs are very classic and simple but I appreciate the fact that he makes dresses for average size and plus size women. David Meister is a designer to celebrities of all shapes and sizes including plus size women such as Oprah, Queen Latifah, Kelly Clarkson and Jennifer Hudson. He also makes plus size wedding dresses that to be honest are beautiful and don't look like big white sheets. Here are some of his plus size dresses that I think are beautiful! If you appreciate fashion and designers as much as I do, you will love these! Have a fabulous Monday night!

3rd fill today...Not as excited as I was because...

....I have actually gained weight since I went last time. Ok the last fill I got was on December 30th so roughly a month ago. I weighed (with clothes on) 231.5 pounds. And here is where I need to insert something bad I did yesterday food wise. I knew I had a fill today and I told myself I was going to either do liquids all day or eat extremely healthy. But for some reason my self control went out the door big time. I made muffins with my boyfriend for breakfast which weren't too bad but a few more calories than I needed to eat for breakfast. For lunch I had a semi-decent meal. I went to Panera Bread (if any of yall have this where you live) and had half a turkey sandwich and half a cup of broccoli and cheese soup. I came home and looked up the calories online and lunch ended up equaling 700 CALORIES!! And to make yesterday worse, guess what I decided for some reason to eat for dinner?!?! TACO BELL! What in the world was I thinking?? I pull up at the drive thru and decided to order a beef burrito and a potato soft taco! OMG after realizing I made this terrible decision and after I had already eaten it all, I got on the computer to look up the calories! My delicious and fabulous (sarcasm) dinner at Taco Bell ended up being 900 calories! So on the day before my 3rd fill, I consumed around 2000 calories!! When you are used to consuming only around 1000 or 1200 a day, I think this made me gain some between yesterday morning and this morning. I got up this morning, took a nice shower, put on my "weigh in" outfit. For those of yall who dont know, I wear the same exact outfit each time I weigh in so I know my clothing weight is consistent. I get up on the scale and guess what it says?! Drumroll please...........234 pounds! I know we have all had these "no lose, sometimes gain" days and weeks but I am trying my hardest to be below 220 before my cousins wedding in 5 weeks!! Is my doctor going to kill me?! Lord, Im not looking forward to it. But it will make me feel better to know that today can be a start over day to losing those pounds to get my below 220!

Anyone else make stupid "taco bell" or any other fast food decisions like I do? Sometimes the self control just goes out the window, huh? Anyways, I will update yall tonight on how it all goes! Thanks for listening to me rant...it means a lot haha. I am also going to post more pictures from last weekend when my boyfriend and I went to Atlanta :) Thanks for reading! Talk to yall later!