It’s no secret that I’m not a fashionable person.  I’ll ALWAYS choose comfort over fashion.  Most of you know that I live in a hoodie…

I’ve always wanted to be fashionable. I don’t think I’m incapable of it. I’ve just had body insecurities my entire life. Well, strike that… I’ve had body insecurities since I was 9 years old. You see, I was the first girl in my grade that had to wear a bra because I was growing boobs. Yes, BOOBS in the THIRD GRADE! Yeah, maybe this is TMI for some of you but come ON… I’m a girl… and girls have BOOBS! 😉

Soon after that, my Mom married a country guy. You know… home-cookin’ country guy. We lived in what felt like the middle of nowhere where we ate fried chicken and drank whole milk. That was during my pre-teen years… The years you start to turn into a woman. Well, it was then that my battle with weight started.

Well, now I’ve lost weight. Strike that… I’ve lost a LOT of weight!

Now, I’m not where I want to be.  I still have about 20 lbs to go.  But the stink of it is that I still see allllll of those problem areas I had 50 lbs-ish ago when I look in a mirror. Insecurities aren’t something that just go away. I SO wish they would. I’m sick of not feeling great about myself! I feel like I’ve earned confidence. But, as many of you know… it’s just not that easy… it’s not a light switch that you can just turn off and on.

I was hoping to lose an extra 10 lbs before the photo convention in Las Vegas that’s in 1.5 weeks (AHHHHH!) and have been putting off buying clothes until that happened. Well, my stress levels leading up to it haven’t helped in that arena. Again, not gaining was enough to make me feel victorious!

This is where you come in… IT’S A CONTEST!!!!!!

I, sadly, am not good at dressing for my body type… and was hoping that some of you out there would be much better at it than me. I essentially need four outfits for Vegas.  You send me what you think will work… if I pick yours, you’ll receive a $10 iTunes gift card!  I’ll pick between one and four winners. 😀

I warn you now… I’m TOUGH to buy for!

Things you’ll need to keep in mind:

• I’m quite frugal. But, will spend on staple wardrobe items (jeans, jackets, etc).
• My bust and hips are the exact same measurement. My waist is about 6.5″ smaller.
• Problem areas: belly, breasts and arms (I’ve always carried a lot of weight in my arms. That’s why I don’t wear tank tops 😉 )
• I’m convinced that the size of my chest adds the appearance of 20 extra lbs.  I VERY much struggle with finding clothes that flatter me because of this.
• Also, I have cleavage in everything… and not on purpose! It’s just the way it is. In high school I wore a turtle neck with everything.
• Speaking of that… I’m pretty modest. I suppose that comes with the territory!
• I like quirky stuff. I don’t like looking like everyone else.
• I have very strong calves. Strangely strong. Taller boots don’t fit me. 🙁 That makes me jealous of those that can.
• I still have 15+ lbs to lose before I feel great about myself.
• clothes from stores like Anthropologie, J.Crew, ModCloth, etc. don’t usually fit me because of my aforementioned large chest.
• I have very short legs… even for a short person. Petites still have to be altered to fit.
• I struggle in uncomfortable shoes. I SO wish that weren’t the case! I think that to wear uncomfortable shoes, you have to have been wearing them since you were very young. Your muscles and feet form to fit them. I went from waiting tables in Shoes for Crews to combat boots in the Army… Now all of my shoes look like they were made for old nurses. Not that there is anything wrong with being an old nurse!

Here’s a recent photo of my body. 🙂 A confession… because of bullet point 4 (that my chest adds the appearance of 20 extra lbs), for my healthy train photos, I use a chip clip to pull my shirt back so that I can see the changes in my waist better 😉 Don’t judge me!

See, told you it’d be a challenge!

If you’re up to it… send me an inspiration board with what you think will be an amazing outfit. Also include where I can buy it and how much it costs. I’ll pick a winner (or four!) on Friday morning. Email me at style(at)bobbiandmike.com

Oh, and… a quick disclaimer: Because I’m doing this with online shopping, that doesn’t guarantee that I’ll love the outfit once it gets here or I go try it on. So, if you see me in Vegas and I’m not wearing the winning outfit… you’ll understand. 😀

Thank you all SO much for being such a big part of my life. I would be absolutely honored to wear an outfit that our incredible blog readers picked out for me.

~bobbi

PS. I won’t be surprised if I get zero contest entries… my list of “things to keep in mind” is a bit intimidating!

It’s that time of year again! The 5th annual top lists.  (wow… has it really been five years?!)

First up, my favorite… families. 😀

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*absolutely no bias whatsoever… I swear!

Well… we made it through our first month on the healthy train!!!!! 😀 YAHOOOOOOO!!!!!

The numbers are blowing my mind…

Our top 5:

Stacey Dickey – 7.88%
Rich Foster – 7.74%
Rebecca Dryer – 7.57%
Kristi Livingstone – 6.75%
Kayla Joy Hurst – 6.51%

WOOT WOOT!!!!!!

I’ve been LOVING the #healthytrain twitter accountability stuff… it’s so motivational. Thank you to those who are participating. 😀

Now, as many of you already know… there is a Healthy Train Facebook group. You also know that I’m not the best at keeping up with it. 🙂 I noticed that one of the healthy trainee’s had taken the reigns of the page… so I asked her to be an admin! She was a bridesmaid in a wedding that we photographed… and she’s from Awesome City, USA.

I went through the archives and found a photo of us from that wedding. Meet Stephanie… she’s on the far right. January, 2007… Oh, and that’s me… pre-healthy train 😉

She’s an incredible motivator… and I’m excited to see what role she falls into with the healthy train. 😀

This week she asked me if it’d be okay to start a spark people page for us… I said HELLLLL YES!  Just do it and tell me what to tell our blog readers and we’ll make it happen. 😀 Here’s what she wrote:

A handful of people on the facebook group have mentioned their use of the Web site www.sparkpeople.com.  This site is a completely FREE resource committed to healthy living through goal-setting and lifestyle changes.  They use a positive approach and emphasize the difference that small changes can make toward building momentum and reaching your goals (it only takes a spark to start a fire…I think that’s kind of the notion behind the name).  It has a nutrition and fitness tracker, fitness videos, optional meal plans, and TONS of articles and other resources on health, fitness, nutrition, weight loss, goal setting, etc.  In addition to the many resources, they have a very active online support network made up of millions of members.  When joining, members have the option to create their own “SparkPage” and network with others on the site via message boards and “SparkTeams.”

Here’s where Healthy Train comes into play!  🙂  Due to the interest expressed on the FB group, we have created our own healthy train SparkTeam (“Bobbi’s HealthyTrain”).  At this time, the team is co-lead by Spark members/Healthy Train participants Kayla Joy Hurst and Stephanie Beck.  There’s a link to it on the fb wall, but the team is set to private (keeps random Spark members from accidentally joining if they aren’t familiar with Healthy Train).  If anyone doesn’t belong to SparkPeople but is interested in the team, it’s as simple as heading over to the site and creating an account (free like mentioned before) so that we can send an invitation.  The fab thing about SparkPeople is that you can use the parts you like and disregard the parts that you don’t.  They don’t push diets.  The site provides a whole lot of autonomy in tailoring it to your own needs.  When I joined, all I was interested in was the free nutrition tracker, but then I got completely addicted and started using pretty much everything on the site…and it’s been COMPLETELY worth my while given that I’m closing in on a 30-pound loss since I joined!  🙂  There’s something about the site that just gets me excited and helps me stay motivated.  Even when my momentum wanes (as it does for anyone on this journey), I still find my way back because I really just enjoy being a part of the site – I’m constantly learning more about myself along the way.  Yup, did you hear that?  I’ve actually ENJOYED weight loss thanks to this site!  Who knew????  🙂  [You’d think they’re paying me to promote…but NOPE.  It’s just great, and I love telling others about it.  They call it “Spreading the Spark.” ]

So, in a nutshell… to join the SparkTeam: Create a SparkPeople account and then message Stephanie there to request access. Here’s her Spark profile 🙂

As for our personal healthy trains 🙂 I’ve lost 0.78%. and Mike lost 1.33%. 😀 CHOOOOO CHOOOOOOO!!!!!!! Not a lot but certainly no gain. 😀

A couple of b*tchy business things to get off of my chest:

• For those who haven’t weighed in… that needs to happen first-ish thing on the Friday of a weigh in.
• I mentioned this when I announced the healthy train… if you don’t weigh in within two weeks of an official weigh in date…. I’ll unfortunately have to remove your name from the list. No exceptions. 😉 This healthy train is something that I, along with many of you out there, take VERY seriously… and those that aren’t taking it as seriously needn’t weigh us down. Pun intended. 😀
• If you’re not already on the healthy train, please do not ask if it’s too late. I extended the deadline more times than I’m embarrassed to admit. No more. 🙂

That being said, just looked at the google doc and less than half of you have weighed in…. many of those that haven’t weighed in were the ones BEGGING me to extend the deadline. This takes a lot of time for me to organize and put together so… time that I don’t really have. 😉 Please please PLEASE do not let me down again… because if you do I’ll send Jack Bauer to punch you in the belly. k? k. 😉

I’m SO sorry to be such a hard ass… if you knew the big picture of all of this, you’d understand. 🙂 (wow, two “bad” words in one post… I’m on a roll!)

Alright, back to being positive.  Remember… it’s allllll about big picture, not week-to-week. Don’t let yourself fall off of the train for one or two bad decisions. This isn’t an all or nothing kind of thing. Just keep heading in the right direction… that’s all you can ask of yourself.

Much love friends… and keep on chugging! CHOOOOOOO CHOOOOOOO!!!!!!

~bobbi

PS. Vegas in two weeks… wish us luck!