My Progress

Today was my last day of boot camp and I was not happy about it! I got super emotional last night thinking about saying goodbye to all the sweet girls who have been there with me from the beginning. 

It is crazy to me how friendships can form so fast! These women (and Double A, who clearly hates pictures..) have been such an incredible support group for me over the last couple months, and have been SO encouraging. If I was struggling through a workout, all I needed to hear was "you're doing great, Abby- keep it up" and I always did. I can't thank Operation Boot Camp enough for providing me with such great support and encouragement!

Aside from the sappy stuff, just the numbers are absolutely incredible. On the first day of boot camp I was overweight, ate like crap, and was very very out of shape. Our first PT test was ROUGH. I walked for a majority of the mile, and my time was 15:43. Today I ran the entire mile (for the first time) and my time was 11:35. Just that is so amazing to me! I have asthma and have always struggled with running. The fact that in two months I could go from hardly being able to run for two minutes (seriously) to completing a mile run in 11:35 blows my mind! 

Push Ups

Day 1: 5 regular, 17 facilitated (on knees)

Day 30: 10 regular, 13 facilitated

Day 60: 20 regular, 10 facilitated

Sit Ups

Day 1: 17

Day 30: 22

Day 60: 25

Tricep Dips

Day 1: 12 regular, 25 facilitated (knees in)

Day 30: 25 regular, 12 facilitated

Day 60: 30 regular, 12 facilitated

Is that not amazing?! I'm so lucky to have had this incredible opportunity to change my life for the better! The changes in my body have been so noticeable and pretty astonishing if you ask me! I feel like a NutriSystem commercial! Hahaha!

So, so wonderful! I still have a good way to go, but OBC started me on this incredible journey and I plan on finishing it! My goal is to be able to run the Charleston Bridge run in April, but don't tell my dad ;). 

Thank y'all SO much for your support and encouragement over the last two months! The absolute best compliment I've received is that I inspired someone to kick start their own fitness goals, and I've heard that quite a few times now! If just one person can be inspired my progress so far, I have succeeded!

Make a change. You deserve the best for yourself.

XO- Abigail

Lesson learned!

Y'all. I really don't even have anything of validity to say, because truth be told this weekend I ate like CRAP! Total and complete crap. I'm not kidding. Judge me. Yell at me! 

Friday wasn't so bad, but I didn't eat enough! I was in bed until like five, oops. But I went out on my DATE and had some awesome sushi at a cute restaurant in five points! 

My date had never tried sushi (crazy, right!?!) so we split a California Roll and his roommate's recommendation of the rock n roll! The rock n roll was crab, avocado, cucumber, the usual- wrapped in squid and then fried. Pretty tasty, I won't lie!

I went to the lake on Saturday and consumed approximately 814170 calories in beer and APPARENTLY had some really awesome cheeseburger... I'm so ashamed! It was the first time since boot camp started (July 12th I think?) that I've really cheated. We get a "free day" with boot camp but we're still required to write down what we eat so our trainer can scold us appropriately. I wasn't so bad for the rest of the day, I had a subway sandwich for dinner. 6 inch ham on wheat with lettuce, provolone, and lite mayo. In comparison to the burger, it was an upgrade for sure!

We were supposed to come back to Columbia on Saturday night but the lake was so fun we wanted to go out on the water another day! This wasn't the best decision for me food wise though! Since I was a visitor in someone's home, I wasn't really in control of what I ate! (Not to mention we were in the deep south and everything is deep fried!) We went to a hole in the wall restaurant off the lake for breakfast on Sunday morning and I seriously had chicken fingers. Seriously. Chicken fingers. Like WHAT? Where were all of you to yell at me when I was making these poor decisions?!

As if I hadn't eaten badly enough all weekend, we went to Gilligan's for lunch and I had a steak and some steamed oysters. And a few bites (okay, a lot of bites) of the most delicious hush puppies I've ever eaten. Meanwhile, my phone was dead for the duration of the weekend, so I have no pictures to show you of the delicious fattening food I ate all weekend!

While it was all pretty darn yummy, it was NOT WORTH IT. I had boot camp this morning at 5:45 and I have never felt so sluggish or gross! I was dying. My body is so used to eating healthy organic food that this weekend really messed with me! I feel bloated and nasty :/ I need to do a cleanse or something! I probably still have hamburger grease and beer emanating from my pores. Ew. I have Zumba at 9 this morning and I am 100% back on the grind! No more fattening bad foods for me. If you ate like crap this weekend too, don't let it discourage you! You just have to let today be a new day and don't fall completely off the wagon! All is not lost! 

Getting healthy is not about a diet, it's a lifestyle change! We all know it's not easy to cut things out of your life, whether it be a toxic ex, a crappy friend, or fattening food. We are ALL going to fall off the wagon sometimes. But you have to realize that you should be the number one priority in your own life, and whatever is bringing you down has to go. Only allow things, food, and people in your life that make you feel better, and make you want to be better all the time. I know it's easier said than done, but if you make the conscious effort to better yourself every day, the realization will come to you. Be the most important thing in your life! Make yourself happy! 

Happy Monday, y'all. 

XO- Abigail

Adventures as of Late

As some of you may know, I've made some drastic changes in my life lately. A month and a half ago I began working with a program called Operation Boot Camp to improve my health and fitness. Let's just say improvement is an understatement. I have completely revamped my eating habits and am hoping to use this blog to help hold myself accountable for what I eat when boot camp ends in two weeks! :( Part of the process with OBC is to write down every single thing you eat and at what time, etc. We have a check list to see if we've gotten enough protein, fruits, veggies, etc. 

Writing down every single thing I consume has helped me SO much to not eat junk! Who really wants to write down "big mac- 7 pm"... "Then I fell asleep and felt disgusting for 2 days," right?! 


You will notice I talk a lot about big macs... The truth is, I love them. I feel like if I tell myself constantly how awful they are for me and how gross they make me feel, it will make me want them less. It's not working. 


I'm hoping this blog will work for me as a pseudo- food journal! Not to mention, I love photography and constantly take pictures of my food. I think food is BEAUTIFUL. I think everything is beautiful. If you don't find beauty in the simple things in life, it's just not worth living. I want to share my love for food and life with you! 


I'm also an aspiring journalist and love to write. Chances are, I will frequently add some "Abby advice" (as I like to call it) to my blog posts! I am learning more about myself with every passing day, and I'm loving it! It is so rewarding to fall in love with yourself after 21 years of consistently trying to impress and please others. Boot camp was the first thing I have done truly for myself in quite some time, and the results mentally are far more impressive than my physical results. If I can make anyone smile with my posts or advice, my job here is done. 


That being said, let's get to the FOOD! You should know that for the last month and a half I have been eating pretty simple, basic (and often bland) foods. Granola, cottage cheese, fruit, grilled chicken, peas. I'm gonna try to spice it up for y'all! In lieu of spicing it up, I splurged a little bit last night (translation: I ate like crap last night). I went to Zoes last night for dinner and had steak rollups and rice pilaf!

Dee-lish! The steak rollups tasted somewhat like a philly cheesesteak, and had the first cheese (aside from parmesan and feta) that I've eaten in a month and a half in it! It was awesome, but I'll admit I felt a little crappy afterwards! My friend got a chicken salad sandwich and fruit, but dug into it before she'd let me take a picture. I guess that means it was good!

Today I had class on campus from 9-5:15 (INSANE!), so I had to eat lunch on campus. I was slightly wary of this, because Russell House boasts restaurants like Chick Fil A, Sbarro, etc. It is so hard for me to go to Chick Fil A and not get those delicious waffle fries! So I decided to go to the Colloquium Cafe right next to my class building. I was pleasantly surprised by the plethora of healthy options they had! They had soups, salads, healthy sandwiches, healthy EVERYTHING! Plus they have Starbucks, so I was basically in heaven. I decided on a half chicken ceasar salad (no dressing!) and a side of fruit. 

Y'ALL. It was so good! I'm a big fan of the Instagram app on my iphone, and use it to edit pictures often, but this yumminess needed no enhancements! It was just that beautiful. I was so happy that there's healthy options on campus! The freshman fifteen IS avoidable, little ones! 

I have noticed as of late that there are far more healthy options than people either notice or would care to admit. I'm not sure if it's ignorance or if they're content with being unhealthy, but so many people consume unnecessary calories, sugar, sodium, etc. There is a healthy version of EVERYTHING. I'm not saying that people should give up their monthly Five Guys burger- everyone needs to indulge and reward themselves sometimes. But food gives you energy for the day! And food that is bad for you just kind of makes you feel icky. So tomorrow, instead of getting that Chick Fil A sandwich and french fries, just get a grilled chicken sandwich on a whole wheat bun, and get water instead of soda! Cutting back on little things like this will make big changes eventually!

Sorry for the length of this post, I'll try and keep it shorter next time! Hope you enjoyed, friends! I'm so excited about this new venture!

XO- Abigail