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Hello everybody! Welcome back to Weigh-In Wednesday!

If you are new around here, please go check out my sweet co-hosts & make sure to say hi! 

Amy @ Write This Down
Bailey @ Being Bailey J
Ash @ A Step in the Right Direction

I'm also linking up with Skinny Meg with an actual workout for Workout Wednesday! (I hear we are calling her PregMeg these days...CONGRATULATIONS!) I love living vicariously through other people's baby happiness and after reading her fertility story, I couldn't be more happy for her!

So this week has been a slow one. Not bad and not good. I'm hoping that at least translates to no gain. I've been a little lax on my eating habits but nothing outrageous. I feel like even if I make a poor choice, I don't over do it portion wise. I have a few bites and I'm satiated which is a stark contrast from my prior habits. Yay for little victories!

Only 90 calories...it could be worse! (Cool Lime Refresher)

I just started Hal Higdon's 5K Training Program and I'm focusing on working my way up to running the whole damn 5K this time - aka learning to pace myself. The speed will come with working intervals and cross training. So far, so good. On an unrelated note, girl needs some Invisalign, stat. My two front toofers are driving me nuts (PSA: wear your retainer!).

I'm a sweaty mess...and I did a thumbs up. LAME.

I'm headed to Atlanta this weekend so I'm not sure how much blogging I'm going to be doing. The good news is that when I come home, I'll be back to my grandma sleep schedule with no more work until school starts in mid-August. I plan on getting very familiar will all the posts I've been neglecting! (This is provided that Nick and I don't kill each other in the 18 hours or so that we will be in a car.)

*Switching Lanes* So I'm writing this on Tuesday and if you read today's post you know it was my last night of work. Well last night. Whatever... I've been excited for MONTHS. Counting down the weeks, days, even HOURS and all of a sudden I'm really really sad. Like bawling sad. The couple I've been taking care of are just plain amazing. They've treated me like family from the beginning and the guy even gave me a signed copy of one of his autobiographies to remember them by. We will be staying in touch through letters and emails. 

My year off is swiftly coming to an end and everything is starting to hit me like a ton of bricks all at once. I'm leaving home for good in a month - like I won't be a resident of Ohio anymore. I'm MOVING to Indiana, not just moving in to the sorority house. It's different in a weird way. 

Like I've said before, aside from my family and Nick's family there isn't a whole lot left for me here in Cincinnati - at least not right now. I'm happy to be closer to my friends, to be near my alma mater, and to finally be starting my long medical training. I guess it's the realization of how much has changed in only a year that has me being all sorts of ridiculous. Bear with me loves, I just need a good cry or six.

Everyone has a cry face & this might be mine...ok, not really.

*Reverse, Reverse* To round out Wednesday, I thought I'd share a quick little workout that is becoming one of my favorite ways make my fat cry - tabata! HIIT workouts are amazing because you can be super efficient by getting the same (or better) results in a shorter amount of time! Be warned - they are TOUGH and you shouldn't do HIITs back-to-back and certainly not more than a couple times a week. Your body needs time to rest and repair.

I got the idea for this workout - the Love/Hate Tabata - because there are moves that I absolutely DREAD doing. Like when we have to do Burpees at boot camp, I secretly want to shoot laser beams out of my eyes. 

Life doesn't work like that. We have to take the good with the bad so I decided to counter every hateful move with something I could do until I'm blue in the face, like squats. Here are my loves and hates!

I hope you all like this one! I'll let you know how it goes when I try it this week (whoops...I guess I'll find out how hard it is soon). If you don't want to worry about timing, there are a bunch of FREE tabata timer apps out there. I will be posting a list of my favorite fitness apps in the near future, btw! Link up and make some new blog frands!

Now some questions for you:

Tell me one good thing & one bad thing about your weigh in week.

Have you been to Atlanta? What should I check out?

How do you stay motivated on vacation?

What are your love/hate moves?

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It's already Wednesday, my loves! My favorite day of the week(ok, this is so false.) It's my favorite blog day of the week, though!  

Tomorrow is the official end of my Advocare cleanse! Yay! I'm going to "extend" my clean-eating to Friday night which is the Kenny Chesney concert.  I plan on staying very hydrated that night, if you catch my drift. My friend's wedding is on Saturday and I have a date with some of my favorite Bloomington establishments - Nick's, Kilroys, The Tap, maybe some Pizza X cheesy bread. Basically a 48 hours pass for being really, really bad and having an epic time!  Then it's back to the kicking ass and losing pounds on Sunday! I'm not stopping!

My energy is high, I'm feeling really, really good and really motivated to keep going on this journey. For a few weeks I was head conductor of the struggle bus but things are really looking up! 

Not going to share solid numbers with you today. I'm saving that for Friday. I will tell you that I've hit a number I haven't seen in over a year. It's not even about the number for me today.  It's the fact that I've managed to stick with something I put my mind to and that I've reengergized my weight loss.  

I'm gonna say. I'm really proud of myself. Have I been absolutely perfect, amazing, awesome at the cleanse? No. Do I deserve a medal? Probably not. But I proved to myself that this doesn't have to be a horrible, awful experience. I am still able to enjoy life without relying on food to help make it special or memorable. I definitely have a long way to go still and a lot of goals to accomplish but I'm getting there and I'm making solid progress.

For Workout Wednesday, I want to share with you a fun little workout that's a little outside of the box. We have an amazing Nature Center in Cincinnati with miles of trails, community programs, birding, and more! I bought a pass last fall but really didn't start using it until this spring. Now I love it! 

I usually walk/run the trails but sometimes you want to get a complete body workout, too! Here is a workout for when you are walking the trails - maybe you have a nature center or community park near you that you can try it at! Let me know how it goes! (Don't be afraid to bust out some squats on the trail...everyone else wishes they would've thought of it.)

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Welcome!  I can't believe it's already Wednesday again. Life is going by quickly these days...

As always, please go check my co-hosts out!  They rock my socks off!

• Amy @ Write This Down
• Bailey @ Being Bailey J
• Ash @ A Step in the Right Direction

I hope everyone had a better week than the last one.  It felt like many of us were stuck in a rut or having some trouble. 

One way I chose to deal with my rut was to start the Advocare 10 Day Cleanse.  You can read about why here. (No, I'm not being sponsored in any way...I just caved to peer pressure.)

So far, so good!  I'm actually not having that much trouble with "eating clean" (...so why is it so hard all the other days of the year?). I'll definitely have an update for you later today or tomorrow! 

*Update*

Just woke up! So I stayed the same AGAIN this week. I guess I got a little overzealous over the weekend pre-cleanse. A quesadilla was eaten, several boneless wings, and probably 50 other things. Aside from taking the dog for a 20 minutes walk, I don't think I engaged in much physical activity. I was actually up on Monday when I started the cleanse. I'm not sharing exact results until it's all over but the scale is moving!  I don't want to jinx it!  Look for an update tomorrow morning!

The workout portion of this post is less promising. Summer heat has finally hit us here in Cincinnati!  Last night at boot camp, it was just kind of miserable.  It wasn't really that hot but it was muggy.  When you're sweating and the moisture is basically being enveloped on your skin, the cooling mechanisms just don't work. Instead of being tired from pushing myself, I felt grumpy and sticky.  I definitely could've worked harder.

Excuse time. Because of the nature of my work schedule, the only time I can workout is in the afternoon. (aka the hottest part of the day) So i haven't been running in a little over a week.  Not good for someone that has all these races coming up... I either need to suck it up and run in the morning when I get off before I sleep or suck it up and run in the heat. I sure wish I still had my gym membership but I decided to try the power yoga studio instead of purchasing a summer pass. Not a bad decision...but probably not the best value for my paltry salary.

Welcome to Weigh-In Wednesday! 

As always, we are so glad to have you linking up with us!  Please make sure to check out my co-hosts & like, friend, stalk, whatever them as you please

• Amy @ Write This Down
• Bailey @ Being Bailey J
• Ash @ A Step in the Right Direction

I'm not feeling too confident about this week.  I'm predicting staying the same or even gaining a pound or two.  In this post I discussed a little bit why.  I've been unfocused and unmotivated.  I've been lazy, overwhelmed, and not sticking to my commitments.  I let a few good weeks go to my head and I made the choice to go easy on myself. Well, I'm OVER IT.

So when I see a gain later today (after my sleep time, of course), I'll be happy for the kick in the ass.  I have far too much to look forward to in the next few months to lose steam now.  There will be plenty of time for fun along the way but I need to dedicate myself to my goals.  It's crunch time.  

Today I start running & training & sticking to my plans, again.  I don't want to look back a few months from now and wish I would've pushed myself harder. I've spent too much of my life doing just that - it's exhausting and disappointing. 

I hope the tone of this post doesn't seem too negative - I promise this is coming from a place of inspiration (will a little a lot of frustration mixed in).  

I hope you all had better success than me and I can't wait to read how your weeks are going!  

While I'm here, I want to remind you all to make sure you follow me on Bloglovin'!  Google Friend Connect will be gone on July 1st so it would be really sad to lose some of you!  I'm excited to say that I just hit 50 followers today! Thank you a million times!

One last thing before an update later on today.  I have a new button swap option under my "Sponsors" tab.  If you are interested, please go check it out!  All that I ask is that you place my button on your sidebar in exchange. I will do periodic social media shout outs and I am always open to guest posts or anything else you have up your sleeves! 

*Update*

Well I'll be a monkey's uncle...NO GAIN.  If we're getting technical, I had a 0.2 lb loss but that's the different between eating a marshmallow or not...

Wow. Just wow.  This is the part where I let my entire mood be affected by the scale.  I can't do that...Sure, I'm excited that I didn't do more damage than I expected but I'm still disappointed because I know I can do better.  Lesson learned, let's move on!

Eyes on the prize - I have some Dietbets that are wrapping up soon and I need a new dress or two for the wedding and the concert.  

Don't forget to link-up below!  Leave a comment if you're new :)

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 For the past few weeks, I've been participating in Weigh-In Wednesday, hosted by Erin @ She's a Big Star and Alex @ Skinny Jean Pilgrimage (seriously, go check them out!).  

Erin decided to pass the link-up on to someone new so I will be hosting along with my awesome co-hosts:

• Bailey of Being Bailey J
• Amy of Write This Down
• Ashlee of A Step in the Right Direction 

I'm so excited for this opportunity to connect with others on their fitness journeys and share our experiences!  

If you're new to my blog, WELCOME!  I'm so thrilled you are here! Look for my actual weight-in and my workout wednesday post later tonight.  I'll be talking about getting out of my comfort zone by attending my first hot yoga class.  Any yogis out there?

******UPDATE*****

As per usual, after I got off work this morning, I took a little nappy and then did my weigh-in.  I'm down -2.4 lbs for a total of -10.8 lbs!  It's nothing big but considering my end of the week follies, not too shabby! If anyone follows me on Twitter (@prettystrongmed) or Instagram (hwhita), you'll know that I had to watch the season premiere of The Bachelorette with some Oliver Winery Sangria. What you may not know is I also spent it with some Dove peanut butter chocolate.  Whoops.  

Please grab our button, tell us about your week, and make some new friends!  

Weigh In Wednesday Link Up