My journey to Texas....

( my trusty co-pilot Sofi)

I want to say I decided to leave on Monday August 27th, but that would be a lie. Actually I wanted to leave that Sunday but because of many circumstances, one of them being the Republican convention, there were no moving trucks. The other event that was going on in our area at the time was a visit from Issac the hurricane. But after 24 long hours of driving by myself and trying to out run a hurricane me and my faithful co-pilot made it safe and not so very sound to Texas. However I have to say that even though the trip was not a walk in the park it showed me how fearless I am. If I can drive from Florida to Texas I can drive anywhere, of course that is if I have my best friend GPS with me.



To put the cherry on top of my life ice cream right now I'm staying with a family member that hates dogs. But not all is bad on this journey of mine, me and my roommates found the perfect house for us. Ah and how can I forget we have a new pet that found us while we were walking under a blue full moon. A beautiful all dark gray kitten followed us home, we named her Blue. All in all I think I'm going to enjoy living here. In my opinion it has the perfect blend of quiet country living and bustling city life. I even like the city scape better than Tampa's city scape. I still have to find a job which hopefully I will do soon. I set myself many goals for when I came to live here in Texas, goals that will make me happy. Today I achieve a very important goal that puts me in the direct path to the things I want. I got accepted to a very good culinary art school. I had to submit many applications and and an essay, take several test but I made it and just at the last minute too. I wonder what's next for me and my sidekick's Sofi and Blue? I think what ever comes it will be exciting and fun because we deserve it. Till next next time oh readers who ever you are.



Gicelle

 

Soda substitute

I've never been a soda addict like so many people now a days but from time to time I craved the bubbles. Being a diabetic soda and concetrated juices are basically poison to me. When I found out I was diabetic I immediatly stop drinking sodas and juices leaving only water and 2% milk safe for me to drink. But I'm determined to look for healthier and satisfying options out there. I did find the perfect (in my humble opinion) substitute for soda. It has no carbs no sugar and zero calories and just as satifying. My mother started drinking these but I've never wanted to taste them, they looked questionable to me : ). One day though I did taste one and it was refreshing, it quenched my thirst and satisfied my craving for bubbles. I had my cousin Michelle taste them and now we're both obsessed with them. I really do contirbute a big part of drinking these mineral waters with losing my weight. They can be found at wal-mart, spanish stores and even some gas stations like Shell. If you get them at wal-mart they sell a case of 12 for $7 or singles for .88c. I really do invite you to taste and substitute this drink with your regular high sugar, high calorie drinks and see the differance. Until next time.

PLUS Fashion

(Torrid)

Being a plus size girl most of my teenage and adult life buying clothes was never that exciting for me. There was not a lot of option for junior plus size clothing. Until now, thanx to the beautiful fashion goddess. No offense to Lane Bryant but we don't need you anymore, lol, we have options. The other day I was eating lunch with a plus size girl-friend and I was telling her about the different places I like to shop.  To my surprise she didn't know that they sold plus size clothing at the stores we were discussing. If there is any plus size girl out there reading this, listen to me carefully, there are lots and lots of options out there, the secret it to look for them. Since I'm currently unemployed I took the time to do a little research on the matter. I have a list of stores that sell plus size clothing. I might be trying to lose weight but I'm not going for the stick figure look, just trying to get healthy. Speaking of, if you're trying to lose weight, we usually all say the same thing, when we lose the weight we will go shopping. In my opinion you should start shopping now, I know it has helped me get more motivated and confident. Plus looking pretty everyday makes you feel good and helps your self esteem. For example, I have always been self conscience of my arms and back, I never bought anything without longer sleeves. But now that I've lost of couple of inches on my arms I decided to go for it and one day I did it, I put on a shirt without sleeves. I'm not at my ideal weight yet but it feels so good and liberating to have more clothes options. Not because I didn't have them but because my insecurities didn't let me wear them. So go shopping, be daring, wear that dress that you're afraid of, you know which dress I'm talking about. Lose the weight but also lose the fears and you will gain yourself. I will put down below just a short list of the sites and store I know. When I do more fashion blogging I will add more to the list.

(old navy)



Plus Fashion List:

• Forever 21  ( $, 12-20size )
• charlotte russe  ( $, X-LG )
• alloy  ( $, L-XXXL )
• oldnavy  ( $, 16-30size )
• sheinside  ( $, L-XXL )
• lightinthebox  ($-$$, L-XXL)
• hips and curves  lingerie  ($-$$)
• ashley stewart  ($-$$, 12-24sz)
• torrid  ($$, 12-32sz)
• kiyonna  ($$$, 10-32sz)

xoxo

Gicelle

(kiyonna)

"It’s a new era in fashion - there are no rules. It’s all about the individual and personal style, wearing high-end, low-end, classic labels, and up-and-coming designers all together."

— Alexander McQueen





Upate

Soooo... just wanted to give a quick update on my weight loss progress. I'm weighing 183lbs and if I can just lose 2 more pounds from here until the end of July it would be ten pounds total for the month of July. I'm so proud of myself. I know I can lose at least another 10 lbs in the month of August. Specially that I plan to do more exercise and to kill two birds with one shot I will be walking with my niece and nephew. That way I can exercise and spend more time with both of them before I leave Tampa. The only bad news of late is that my juicer broke the motor went crazy. But I still have my blender and I can work with that for now. I'm so excited about my life now, looking forward to new great experiences. Speaking of experience s I had a date the other day, just a practice run but I'm looking forward to many more.  ; - )




Just living is not enough... one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.

~Hans Christian Andersen

Emotion......freedom.

"Sometimes pain become such a huge part in your life that you always expect it to be there. You don't remember a time when it wasn't there. But the one day you feel something else, something that feels wrong, only because it's so unfamiliar. and in that moment you realize you're happy."
 ~Lucas Scott-One tree Hill

(Michael, Shayla, Sofi and mom)

Hey you out there reading this, thank you for being witness to my life. When I decided to start this blog I wanted to write about myself, about my world, the good and the bad, to have an outlet, a public diary.  I guess I've written a small part of my life, the process of me getting healthier and I am getting healthier in so many ways, physically and now emotionally. Let me just tell you some of my history so that you can understand what I'm talking about. These past 4 years have been liberating but at the same time so painful. I made a decision that I don't regret because I did it for the safety of my loved ones, but sometimes life surprises you. I had to call child service on my own sister not because of her but because of her then boyfriend. He was physically, mentally and emotionally abusing my niece and nephews. My niece would come to my house and cry for me and my mother to help her. My older nephew had to leave the house at the age of 17 not yet out of high school. I really don't want to go into so many details because I'm trying to let the wounds heal, their almost there. They sent someone to their house and found enough to investigate them for months but they didn't find enough to have the man removed from the house (which was my intention not for the kids to go into the system). What happen was that my sister took away the kids from us, my mother and I had raise her kids with her and she shut us out. They were out of our world all of them and our world was shattered into little pieces. My older brother decided to take my sisters side after everything happened. That felt like a betrayal because before I called the DCF he said that we had to do anything to protect those kids. But some people just talk and take no actions. That night I lost a brother, a sister, 2 nieces and 2 nephews, and from then on it was just me and my mom. Four long years were lost without each others company. But I did gain some people and things in my life, my dog/daughter Sofi, my cousin Michelle, my own life. My own life, I didn't know what to do with it. Then there came a spark in the month of December 2011 a spark in the form of a book called Normal gets you nowhere by Kelly Cutrone. It gave me the small spark I needed to get my life started again, to get healthy, set goals, come out of my depression. I decided to move out of Tampa, Fl. work to find a career I love, surround myself with positive people that love me and to find someone to love and he to love me just the way I am, with flaws and all. Two months ago life thru me a curve ball my sister became ill and was hospitalised, we went to her side. The relationship is so fragile we started with baby steps, planting the seed and watering it hoping that it would grow, there is so much pain in our hearts. Today after 4 years my mother and I saw my niece Shayla and my nephew Michael, bliss, sunshine in our hearts. One step further into the healing journey. Yet there are still shattered pieces out there and I'm not sure if those I wanted to put back.....

(Me and Shayla)

Even if happiness forgets you a little bit, never completely forget about it. ~Jacques Prévert

4th of July

 I miss you : (



Today is the 4th of July and I wish I was somewhere at the beach cooking and eating BBQ, but I'm not. My dog had an operation yesterday so I preferred to stay home and monitor her.  Plus even though this is the 4th of July is my 4th day of juice fasting, no food for me : ( Anything to get healthier and this time I'm very much determine to succeed. I kept on waiting for something to happen, something to change like so many other people do, a miracle. I realised that I needed to change and I needed to take action to be able to receive a reaction. Any who today has been a better day than the past 3 days where my body craved every food I didn't know I even wanted. I can't deny that I'm hungry but I have been drinking enough juice and eating nuts in between meals, I think is mostly mental. I'm so looking forward to weighing myself on Sunday. I do have to admit that I feel better overall. The skin on my face is becoming clearer and I have more energy. The only way I can describe it is when you are very dirty, sweaty, and grimy you go ahead and take a cool shower and it feels so good to be clean again that's how my insides feel, lol. Well let me leave you because I need to eat my nuts : )

xoxo
Gicelle

Day one...OMG

( I made chinese rice the day before yummy)



I woke up and my morning started kind of rocky, I over ate the day before(well the whole week lol) and took to many medication which my body didn't tolerate. Woke up felt the nausia coming but like a trooper went ahead and made my morning smoothy. I drank half a cup couldn't keep it down and the same thing happend when I tried to drink the rest. I ended up having my breakfast/lunch at almost 6pm. Then around 10pm I had my dinner, overall day not good. The reason why I say this is because I didn't have a consistant day of drinking juice and eating nuts I had to cheat, I made lipton soup. Just to make things real clear here I didn't get sick because of the juicing but because of my meds. My program should consist of drinking min. 3-4 and inbetween eat nuts for snacks and I'm adding tea. But I am optimistic that tomorrow will be a better and brighter day. I also want to start meditating but that will have to wait until my body is some what adjusted to its new routine. Anywho I weigh myself and I'm currently at 191lbs, I still need to measure myself. I took the before pictures but those I won't show until the 60 days are up. I also took pictures of my face without makeup to see the difference in skin and how doing this better it.

(all the bad foods were thrown away, I will miss you not really, lol)

(healthy fridge: veggies, fruits, drinking and mineral water)

Ok well of to bed since I have to wake up early and take my doggie Sofi to the vet because she got into to the cactus and her face is swollen. Two years renting this house and the month we leave she gets hurts by the cactus, like the song says isn't it ironic don't you think, lol.

Goodnight

xoxo

Gicelle