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Have a good night!! With love,
I will be the first to admit that I am a lip product junkie. I’ve always been really into darker, vampy lipsticks for years. Especially red and plum shades of lipsticks. But recently I’ve been really loving pink shades, especially during this past spring. Now that it’s summer, I’ve started to try more matte lip glosses. And since those lip kits by Kylie Jenner are so expensive, I’ve experimented with a bunch of drugstore brands’ matte lipsticks. These three were my favorites, and I’ve been loving wearing them during these first few weeks of summer…
NYX Lingerie in Baby Doll
This gloss is a lot lighter than I would have originally chosen for myself, but my cousin gave me this tube and I fell in love with it! The only thing is that because it is such a light color, application can be frustrating because it can be difficult in order to get the matte look right.
Maybelline Vivid Matte Liquid in Nude Flush
This color is so pretty as well, but I especially love the formulation of this product. It’s so smooth, but it is also has staying power.
NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in Antwerp
This color is such a pretty rosy color on, but in the tube it looks more muted than it does in person. It’s still super gorgeous and it’s definitely my favorite right now!
Here’s what they look like on…
I hope you’re all having a great summer so far! Let me know what your favorite makeup looks are, I’m always up to try something new!
With love,
I’ve been seeing so many bloggers and vloggers try their hands at “What I eat in a day” posts, that I thought I might try my hand at it! I documented everything that I ate in one day, and going though the pictures now it doesn’t really look like much… This day was especially busy for me (great job picking the day, Liz!), because I started a volunteering gig for the summer, so my day was pretty much taken up by exercising, getting ready and attempting to make myself look presentable, and volunteering. I woke up kind of late, too, and since I don’t like eating before I go for my run, that means that I didn’t eat a breakfast.
For my lunch, however, I went with more breakfast-y foods, and I made Minute Oats oatmeal with blueberries, half a banana, granola, and agave. I also had wheat toast with peanut butter.
I am a firm believer in healthy snacking. I think that five smaller meals in a day is so much better for your metabolism than three big meals, so I love Kind bars like these, especially when I am really busy and I can’t sit down and eat something. I think I literally ate this as as I was walking out the door and as I drove. This one is my favorite, since it has dark chocolate, and it’s so good!
Another snack that I had were the rest of these Harvest Snaps green pea crisps. I love these! They’re such a satisfying snack when you’re craving something salty (but they’re not too salty either, which is nice). I honestly think that I like these better than potato chips.
For dinner, I met my dad at a local restaurant. It is a fantastic creperie, and my family loves going there. We probably go at least once a month, and all of their crepes are amazing! I tried their special for the day, which was their pineapple pizza crepe (I left off the ham since… vegetarian life!) and guys… It was SO. GOOD. I can only hope that they have this crepe when I go back next time, because I am not exaggerating when I tell you that I think it may be the best thing I’ve ever tasted in my life.
When my mom came home from a business dinner, she brought back some goodies for us to share, including these macarons! They were so delicious, and it was such a nice surprise, since I hadn’t had macarons in 2 or 3 years! There were three different flavors and two of each, so my mom and I both got to try each flavor. There was lemon, black raspberry, and chocolate. They were all good, but the chocolate was definitely my favorite 🙂
I really enjoyed doing this! Even if I was that basic girl taking pictures of her food, but I really don’t care, haha! I love cooking and eating (obviously), so whenever I make or eat something interesting for a day, I’ll be sure to share. And by “interesting,” I mean other than my usual Morningstar Farms “chicken” salads and yogurt. Because that’s what I eat for the majority of the time. Oh, and those mini Babybel cheese things. They’re bomb. I could live off those.
With love and food,
Oh, Target. I think that I (and every human on earth) could easily get lost in this place. This is the only place where I can go into the store thinking that I’ll only need one simple thing, like makeup wipes, and get distracted in two seconds flat. Usually by the clothing section, since you can see the Junior section right when you walk in the door. Which is mean when you don’t have an awful lot of money to spend and there are so many cute sundresses and skirts and things to get distracted by.
I had a bunch of things that I needed to pick up for my upcoming vacation at the beach. I’m sure I forgot a million things that I need for the trip. I’m sure that I have one or two Kmart trips in my future this coming week. This is what I got tonight…
I was completely out of both the Daily Brush Cleaner and the dry shampoo. Both are things I use nearly every day. I’ve been out of the dry shampoo for weeks. If I’m honest, since finals week. In May. I’ve been putting baby powder in my hair as a makeshift dry shampoo. Thank God I remembered today!
I’ve also been wanting to try a setting spray, and I picked this one out because I love ELF products, it seems pretty portable and easy to throw in my bag, and it was $3. So if it sucks, it was only three bucks, right?
I bought this on a whim because I have been looking for the perfect orange lip product since last summer, and I thought i would give this one a shot. I tried it on when I got home and I fell in love. The formulation is perfect and made the application so easy. It dried quickly and is matte, no streaks. I’m probably going to wear this cream lipstick every day for the rest of the summer. And I’m probably going back to Target soon and buy the rest of the NYX Liquid Suede line. It’s so much better than the NYX Lingerie gloss I’ve tried!
I’ve been wanting a new workout bra, and this one was pretty cute and held me in nicely. Believe me, I was jumping around in the fitting room to test it. Everything short of a plank. You have to make sure you’re spending money on something that’s functional, right? (I hope I’m not the only one that does that)
The detailing on the back is too cute, and I loved the color. It looks paler in this picture, but IRL it’s a brighter baby blue. Other than black and my bright pink Nike sneakers that I wear during every workout, the majority of my workout clothes are blue. I’m happily adding this one to the docket!
This tank top is so cute! The criss-cross straps in the back is what caught my eye originally, and I think this will be something nice to wear when I’m at the beach. It’s just what I needed… something casual and cute to throw on!
Okay Dad… If you’re reading this, STOP READING!!
I got my Dad a card for Father’s Day, and I thought this one was cute. I thought the blurb was funny and I definitely think he’ll like it.
That’s everything I got on this Target trip. I know I’m not the only one who goes crazy there… I went with my mom and she did too, haha! What about you guys, is there such a ting as a person who can go to target and only pick up one or two things? I don’t think so. But you learn something every day, right?
With love,
So on Friday night my family decided to go to the mini golf course about 20 minutes from my house. This was our first outing of the summer… The first of many! The weather was gorgeous and perfect for mini golfing, and we got there right around the time the sunset was starting. If you know me, you’ll know that I am obsessed with sunsets. I love watching them and taking pictures of them. Whenever I watch one, I take a million pictures, and tonight was no different! Here are a few of my favorites from the night…
Every sunset is gorgeous, but this one was so much fun to watch because it seemed like every moment it morphed into different colors every time you looked at it. Which didn’t help my obsessive picture-taking at all!
Also, while we were golfing, we saw that a mama bird guarding her layed eggs in the mulch next to the fairway of the course. It was hard to miss her, since if you got even five feet near her on the course, she would puff up her feathers and sqwak at you until you walked away. Here she is…
If you can’t really see her, neither could I at first! She camouflaged herself really well in the mulch, but you could definitely hear her from many holes away. As you can see, the golf course had put flags around her so no one walked through her area, but I know I wouldn’t dare walking anywhere near her! I would be afraid of being pecked to death by this angry momma. It was crazy though, because while I was there I watched a girl a couple of groups behind me try to walk up to the bird and attract her away from her eggs so that she could see them. I think the poor bird almost had a conniption!
Today, I’m pre-writing a lot of posts for while I’m on vacation next week. I’m heading to the beach with my dad’s side of the family, which is a yearly tradition for us. I’m so excited, I can’t wait! And of course, I’ll write about my adventures while I’m there, too!
Happy summer! With love,
It is so frustrating to look at myself in the mirror, and after more than two years of hard work, think to myself I hate the way I look.
Every once and a while I have a night like tonight. I look in the full length mirror in my room and analyze every inch of my body. My thighs are too chunky. My legs have cellulite. My arms are too flabby… What is with that fold of skin where my arms meet my chest? My abs aren’t defined, and the area above my belly button is still stubbornly fatty. I look at all of these imperfections and I break down. I either get angry and punish myself with more sit ups or I cry. I feel like everything in my life has gone wrong, and there’s nothing I can do about it.
Sometimes I even have a panic attack. I drop down to the floor and hyperventilate, thinking to myself that I don’t want to go back to the way that I was. I so desperately don’t want to gain those pounds back… but I’ve worked so hard and this is what I get? This?
After a minute or two I calm myself down enough to go to bed with tears still in my eyes. I fall asleep promising myself that I’m going to do fifty squats in the morning. Match that up with a run and a kettlebell workout. Maybe even some yoga. And I do. And I’m sore for a week for overworking my body.
This is nothing, however, to how it used to be. When I was younger, I would do this every night. I remember once in middle school, I was so upset with my reflection, that I unrolled the yoga mat and attempted an extremely difficult workout on YouTube. When I couldn’t complete the first set of exercises successfully, even though they were way out of my league at the time, I sat on the yoga mat and cried, looking down at my thighs. They look like beached whales. I repeated this in my head as I punched my legs over and over. I hit them so hard that my legs buzzed with pain. I woke up with a bruises in the morning.
This was not one of my finer moments, and there were certainly many more nights like this. It’s difficult to think back to how miserable I made myself back then. I compared myself relentlessly to the pretty and popular girls in my grade who were all skinnier than me. There was absolutely no mercy for myself. Every inch of me was under scrutiny. And since I judged myself so harshly, I figured that other people must have judged me just as much. As I walked down the hall, I imagined what my peers were thinking as they passed me. No one could ever have thought of nastier insults about me than I made up about myself.
Fat cow. Legs and arms like beached whales. Obese bitch. I repeated these like mantras over and over in my head. Over. And over.
For the most part, I’m usually pretty happy with the way that I look now. I think it’s the endorphins from exercising. However, I’m still obsessive over everything. I check myself in the mirror every time that I pass one. Even in reflective surfaces I look for my reflection… My cell phone screen, picture frames, store windows. If I’m not happy with what I see, it effects my mood. I feel the need to check and make sure that I’m still small. That the fat fourteen-year-old hasn’t come back and gobbled me up like a piece of cake. It’s a subconscious habit that I’ve had for years.
It’s not only frustrating. It’s exhausting. Why can’t I just be happy with myself? Don’t I deserve that? After losing seventy pounds, can’t I just be happy?
The problem is, when I started the weight loss journey, I thought losing the weight would solve all my problems. That if only I were 120 pounds I would be happy. If only. I’m under that weight right now and I can still make myself miserable like I did when I weighed in at 185. It’s all in my head. I know that. But that knowledge doesn’t make nights like these any better.
I think what helps me the most is knowing that I’m not alone. When I was younger, I thought I was the only one who felt this way. Now I know that there are so many girls out there who struggle with the same self-image issues that I do. I try to preach to myself self-love, replace those hateful words in my head with words of love, but honestly, it doesn’t work for me if I don’t feel like I believe it. I try not to compare myself to other women around me, but with social media it is so difficult. Honestly, Instagram and VSCO is what triggered tonight’s hate-fest. I just need to teach and reteach myself not to give in to the temptation to compare my so-called imperfections to so-called perfections.
I wish I could go back to the moment where all this started. It was in the third or fourth grade, right around the time that I started puberty and realized that I was bigger than the other girls, and apparently that wasn’t a good thing. I wish I could sit my nine year old self down, and tell her to listen up. Believe that you’re beautiful. Because if you believe that you are, you are. Or in ten years, you’ll still have the same sad thoughts at nineteen that you did at nine.
Girls, if you’re reading this, I implore you, please don’t do what I do. Please love yourselves. Don’t over-analyze your bodies and make yourself cry and have panic attacks. It’s no good. Believe me, I know. Please, please, please, take every chance that you can to love your bodies, because they’re beautiful and they sustain you through this life. Hey, you’ve made it this far with it, right? It (hopefully and prayerfully) hasn’t let you down yet. Learn this lesson and take it to heart. And maybe someday, I’ll get there, too.
With love,
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Rm 12:2
“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.” Psalm 139:14
I don’t know about you, but when I’m out running, I need to listen to songs that I love and can sing along to and just make me want to dance. Because if a song doesn’t make you want to break down and dance it out, what’s the point, right?!? These songs pump me up and get me in the zone, and most importantly, they distract me from the fact that RUNNING SUCKS. Like, it really really sucks. But it’s good for me, so I do it anyway, and these songs have been getting me through those hellish runs in the scorching (beautiful) heat this summer!
Can’t Stop the Feeling!- Justin Timberlake
I. Adore. This. Song. Every time I hear it, I feel the need to dance like a crazy person, even if I’m driving. If you want incredibly fun workouts to do at home, I found this amazing YouTube channel called Saskia’s Dansschool, and they choreographed a Zumba routine to this song! It’s so so much fun, so if you want to check it out, CLICK HERE!!
Good Intentions- Chainsmokers feat BullySongs
The lyrics on this song kind of suck if you really listen. But when you’re running, it’s all about that beat, and this song has a rocking sound to it.
Work from Home- Fifth Harmony
All of Fifth Harmony’s songs have this heat to them, and this song is no exception. This song makes me want to work it and slay that last mile.
Toothbrush- DNCE
I am in love with DNCE’s new EP, all of the songs are so upbeat and fun!
Rock Bottom- Hailee Steinfeld
This song is just beautiful and it also features DNCE, which is another new favorite of mine, as previously mentioned.
Hymn for the Weekend- Coldplay
I love Coldplay’s new sound in this! Drop that beat.
Sit Still, Look Pretty- Daya
This song speaks to me, and makes me push myself to be a Queen who don’t need no man to run her miles for her!
No Money- Galantis
Again, this song speaks to me. On a spiritual level.
YOUTH- Troye Sivan
This song is so smooth that it gets me in the cool down mood. And Troye is amazing. Have you seen the music video? It’s seriously amazing. Go watch it.
Hide Away- Daya
This is such a good cool down song. When I was at school, they played this song during the cool down at my Zumba class and it is so soothing to stretch to.
So go ahead, hit play, work it out, and let me know what you think! I also reserve the right to add songs to this playlist, so if you want, you can follow the playlist on Spotify and see what all I add this summer! I’ll post music updates here on the blog, too.
Happy Running!
Today was such an incredibly beautiful day. I took a long run in the sunshine, and afterwards I took a shower and played with the new hairstyle afterward… I blew out my hair and then curled it with the 1″ curling iron, put in the texturizing cream, and then hairsprayed the crap out of it when I was done styling, and I love how it turned out! So, on a gorgeous sunny day like this, what’s a millennial to do but take some selfies?
Also, when I was in my backyard, a visitor turned up on the deck! I’ve named him Unicorn Kitty, and he’s been a wandering around the neighborhood for years, but he’s been hanging out on our deck more often lately.
He is the sweetest thing on earth. While I was taking the pictures, he would follow me around and brush up against my legs and purr. I love cats so much, I wish I could take this little one in! Such a sweetie. If only allergies weren’t a thing.
Right now I’m celebrating the 10th anniversary of The Hills and I’m watching an old DVD set of the first season. I’m a sucker for old reality shows like that, and Laguna Beach.
I’m going out of town tomorrow, but I will have a summer workout playlist up in the early afternoon before I leave. So check back tomorrow for all of my current favorite songs to run to!
So I had a most eventful day today! I went running with one of my close friends from high school in gorgeous 80 degree weather, which was so much fun. We went out to get smoothies together afterwards, which was so much fun, too! Then, after that, my dad surprised me with exciting news… I made Dean’s List for the spring semester, and I am so beyond thrilled!
After a celebratory dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, a creperie in the city near me, I went to the salon… And I took the plunge! I’ve been wanting to try the long shaggy bob since last summer, but I haven’t had the guts to try it until now! This is the picture that I found and showed to my hair stylist, who did such an amazing job!
I asked for this cut, and for my hair to fall just under my collar bones.
This is before the cut… Look at how tangled the tips of my hair looks! There was so much damage that needed to be cut off.
Aaaand this is after!!
I am so in love with this cut! I have had long long long hair for years, so it was a much needed change. I haven’t had short hair since I was four or five years old! But I hadn’t gone to get my hair cut in a year, and my hair was really damaged from that. We’re talking two inch split ends, here. What can I say? College kind of distracted me.
That, along with the niggling desire to get this style cut, I decided to go for it! I thought I was going to cry when she cut my hair (I lost about 8 to 10 inches!), but when she started cutting, I felt exhilarated and excited! I got layers to frame the face, and my stylist used a 1″ curling iron and styling cream after blowing out my hair. I watched her so that I could try to duplicate what she did on my own. After my appointment, I went out and bought a ceramic 1″ Revlon curling iron and Pixie Play Crafting Cream from Garnier from Kmart (the total for the purchase was around $19… and I bought a nail polish, too!), so hopefully those products work. After I get used to the new hair-do, I’ll probably post what I do to maintain the look!
But seriously guys, I learned such a big lesson today. If you ever really want to do something, just go for it! Even if it turns out to be a mistake, at least you did it, right? After all, hair will grow back 🙂
Learn about how I lost 70 pounds, and kept it off.
Hello everyone! Long time, no blog.
I’ve been wanting to write a post about my weight loss for a very long time, and I think that I am finally in a place where I not only feel like I am able to write about the journey fully, but I really want to. So buckle your seat belts, ladies and gents. This is going to be a loong one.
Here are some pictures documenting my weight loss, with my most recent “after” picture in the top left and the “before” picture in the bottom right.
I had always been bigger, I was one of those girls people would call “bigger boned” or, my personal favorite, “stocky.” Blame it on genetics and the fact that I had absolutely no knowledge of what a balanced and nutritious meal looked like. The self-esteem issues, which should really have their own blog post documenting them, started pretty early for me… Around the time I started to go through puberty, which for me started in the fourth grade, was when I started to think that I was different. I was convinced that all of the girls in my school were smaller and thinner than me, and I convinced myself that I was fat. I wasn’t obese at the time, but I was bigger. I was not, however, the biggest girl in my class, like I was convinced that I was. I have never been diagnosed, but as I look back on my memories of how miserable I made myself, I think I had BDD (Body Dysmorphic Disorder), and it is still something I struggle with to this day. But as I said before, I will write another blog post about my struggles with self-image and confidence.
Because of this, ever since the sixth grade, I have gone through two week to month stints of crash diets and intense workout programs that I would find online or in Seventeen magazine. They never lasted long. I would eventually grow tired of these and I would revert back to my unhealthy eating habits. We’re talking rich mac and cheese or TV dinners as after school snacks. I would drink coke like water. My weight increased steadily until I reached 185 pounds in my junior year of high school. I wasn’t happy with how I looked, and I would look in the mirror and cry. I made myself so miserable.
A night in February, 2014 was when it all changed. I can’t explain it, but one night after I finished my homework, I decided that I wanted to work out. There was no pivotal moment where I thought to myself now is the time where I make a change, like in all the other weight loss transformations I’ve watched and read before. I just wanted to work out.
And for some reason, it stuck. I started exercising every night after dinner, doing YouTube videos in my room on my beat up violet yoga mat. After school, instead of snacking, I would ride the exercise bike my father had bought at Kmart some months before. I went from biking one mile to two to eventually fifteen miles every day, all the while documenting my completed exercise routines in various fitness journals and calendar printouts.
I can also attribute a lot of my weight loss journey to the girls over at Tone It Up. I discovered them through Lauren Conrad’s Bikini Boot Camp (one of the programs I attempted to complete multiple years in a row but was never successful with) while I was in middle school, probably around 2011. I fell in love with the workouts that they posted on YouTube, and in 2014 I started following their Weekly Schedule, which they post on their website (click here to check them out!) I’ve followed them ever since. I should really write an entire post/review about them and their products, because, besides their free content on their website and their YouTube, they have published a great book and put out multiple workout DVDs that I’ve used and found really helpful. Tone It Up really kept me in line with my workout routines and kept me accountable, especially when I made a TIU Instagram account. The women in the Tone It Up community are all such incredible, supportive and beautiful people and I would not have been able to accomplish what I have without their support. This, along with the inspiration that Karena and Katrina, the TIU creators, provide.
However, when I went to college in the fall, my lifestyle changed tremendously. I started going to the free gym provided for us in the student center and running around the lake on campus to keep up with my fitness. Thanks to this, I was able to swerve the freshman fifteen. The biggest challenge was finding something good to eat amidst a wide selection of all different types of food. That, and not eating ice cream with every meal just because it was there. I will write more about how to keep fit in college soon. Maybe right before school starts again in August?
Ever since I have gotten back home from school, I have gotten back to following the Tone It Up Weekly Schedule. Right now, they are doing their Bikini Series, which is an exciting 8 week program that they do every year. This is my third year following the program, and even though I had a late start due to finals week, I’ve been able to keep up on the workouts. I just haven’t been so religious with my Insta check-ins this time around… Oops!
I would like to say that I am in no way perfect. I am, however, more confident and physically fit than I ever have been before. I can run a mile in about ten minutes pretty easily. I learned what foods are healthy to eat and how to work out regularly. I am even planning on someday soon getting my personal training certification! But most importantly, I’m happy. And one of the biggest lessons I have learned through all of this is that if something makes you happy, you have to work toward it and fight for it, no matter what.
P.S. If you want, you can follow my fitness Instagram account @ellietonesitup, and we can keep each other accountable!
The Ginger Introvert 