Hi babes! I am here to bring you my Project Comeback 2 month update! I can’t believe it’s been 2 months since I started Project Comeback!! I am honestly impressed that I have even made it to the point of doing a project comeback 2 month update for you, given my track record of starting and stopping similar challenges a million and one times last year. I think It’s safe to say that I’ve found a system that works for me, and I want to share my whole process wth you so that maybe you can take some tips away that will help you figure out what works for you so you can ultimately CRUSH YOUR GOALS too! YOU ARE TOTALLY CAPABLE BB! In fact, I want YOU to be giving me a project comeback 2 month update of your own in 2 months!!!! If you follow me on Instagram then you absolutely have heard me going on and on about #PROJECTCOMEBACK over the past 8 weeks, and while I originally created it as a little secret personal challenge for myself to pull me out of a major funk, what kind of friend would I be if I didn’t share the process of it all with my tribe of babes?? You KNOW my favorite thing is to share the best of the best with YOU in hopes of inspiring YOU to create a life you love that allows you to thrive!!! And that is exactly what Project Comeback has been for me over the past 8 weeks… a total life makeover, goal shifting, ground breaking, habit making experience that has been guiding me to a “coming back” of sorts to my best (badass) self!! Ok, let’s get in to this project comeback 2 month update, shall we?! 🙂

Project Comeback 2 Month Update: WHAT IS PROJECT COMEBACK?

If you missed my first PROJECT COMEBACK blog post you can read my full spiel about it by clicking here (PS: this whole project comeback 2 month update will make a lot more sense if you read the first post!!) but simply put, Project Comeback is a challenge I created for myself on January 14th, 2019 to overhaul my bad habits and lame excuses that were holding me back from crushing my goals. I took an inventory of all of the things (big and small) that I was unhappy about in my life  and decided that I would focus on shifting those areas for an extended amount of time. Project comeback is not about weight-loss (I get this question a lot since I have been posting body updates on my IG, TBH bodily changes are just ONE of the many positive side effects I have experienced since starting this)… it’s about me, recommitting to my goals and passions in a focused, loving, honest, and self-disciplined way. To start I decided I would commit to 3 months, but my overall goal is to create lasting habits that will far exceed 3 months. I want this to be my new LIFESTYLE…. not just a 3 month challenge… and I can honestly say it is starting to feel like just that; a lifestyle. My main areas of focus for my personal Project Comeback are: my eating habits, my yoga practice, my fitness goals, self-discipline, commitment, and becoming more mindful in all areas of my life. I call it Project Comeback because at the beginning of 2019 I hit a low point; I had to check myself and get honest about my daily habits, goals, and lack of progress. It was uncomfortable AF to confront myself honestly but once I did I realized that I felt incredibly far from where I wanted to be, and in order to make a big change I had to stage an intervention and create a major COMEBACK!

Project Comeback 2 Month Update: WHY I’M DOING PROJECT COMEBACK

In short: I want to feel better, do better, and truly thrive in my life. I got sick of falling “victim” to my impulses and bad habits that brought me momentary comfort while squandering my long term goals; I want to RISE to the occasion that is my life and make mindful intentional choices that make me feel GOOD and encourage me to THRIVE! Over the span of 2018 I really developed some bad eating habits that birthed an insanely dysfunctional relationship with food. Let me first say this: I have no qualms with gaining weight, but I FELT like absolute shit.. and I was gaining weight in a very unhealthy way: I’d eat until I fell asleep (literally I’d wake up with snack trash by my bed, who does that?? Not cute.), I’d binge eat when I was bored or emotional, I’d eat food I knew would make me feel like shit, I felt bloated all the time, I wasn’t listening to my body, and was not eating in a way that served my body or my mind. My workouts were all over the place, I rarely made it on to my yoga mat even though I was teaching yoga 6+ days a week, and on top of that I was traveling a lot and drinking more than usual (which is totally fine because BALANCE but it just wasn’t helping my situation) which made me feel like crap too; I was NOT truly prioritizing my health or making choices that support my overall goals and I basically hit a point where I got sick of feeling like a blob, I got sick of my complaining and whining, and I was SO over the lack of forward movement in my life.. basically I got sick of giving up and had enough of my own BS….enter PROJECT COMEBACK! . We have the power to create change. It is ridiculous to sit, whine and complain about our lives while simultaneously choosing to not take any action. We ARE in control of our lives – we can literally create anything we desire for our life; but, we have to get clear about what we want, strategize, commit and stay consistent. Nothing changes if nothing changes. My biggest takeaway over the last 2 months is that consistency truly is the key to success/progress in anything.

Project Comeback 2 Month Update: WHAT I’VE BEEN DOING FOR PROJECT COMEBACK

Like I said my main focuses for my Project Comeback fall into 5 categories: my eating habits, my yoga practice, my fitness goals, self-discipline and commitment, and the overall desire to become more mindful in all areas of my life. I came to these categories after listing out everything that was causing me distress in my life (I wrote down literally everything and then asked why after each statement and continued the process until I got to these categories) and was able to chip away at my list and ultimately came to these areas of my life that needed to change.

Project Comeback 2 Month Update: MY EATING HABITS & MINDFULLY CONSUMING

The first change I implemented was no eating after 8pm; now I just try to eat between the hours of 8am-8pm; the body NEEDS at least 12 hours over night to fully digest food from the day prior as well as time off from digesting food while you sleep to do its other important bodily functions! I have been sticking to this religiously over the past 2 months aside from maybe 3 times when I didn’t plan well (ex: teaching until 8pm and didn’t bring a meal with me to eat between classes/clients so then I had to eat at 9pm once I got home) Like I said earlier I used to eat until I fell asleep most nights, that was the norm for me, I didn’t even realize how it made me feel because I got used to feeling bloated in the morning! The difference I felt the morning after those few nights that failed to plan and ate close to bed time was shocking – I noticed a HUGE difference when I ate after 8pm VS the nights I stopped eating by 8pm. This new “8-8 eating window” has been a major game changer for me and I now make sure to stick to it.

The next thing was no more eating foods that I KNOW make me feel like shit (gluten, wheat, processed sugar, processed foods in general), better portion control (I would literally eat an entire box of cereal or an entire container of dates in one sitting YIKES), no more mindless snacking/eating, and lastly I have committed to really listen to my body when it comes to eating (i.e.: am I hungry right now or am I upset about something or am I just bored?) This has been something I have had to actively work at on a moment to moment basis. Changing this habit requires you to be PRESENT enough to ask yourself why you’re reaching for that 2nd or 3rd protein bar… the extra work is worth it though and the more you check yourself in the beginning the less you’ll have to moving forward because mindfully consuming will start to become second nature to you the more you practice it.

The last thing I’ve been doing in regards to nutrition and mindfully consuming is no alcohol. It started out as a 30 day thing but I lost the urge and just kept it going… for last 84 days. I have been getting the question of WHY I took a break so much on my IG so here’s the deal:

First of all, alcohol is highly inflammatory and high in sugar. Along with feeling like a bloated blob I have struggled with breakouts and my desperate desire to halt that alone has been major inspo to cut back on consuming sugars and inflammatory foods/drinks.  The flip side is (in my opinion) regular consumption of it is just not healthy; physically or mentally. For me personally it does me no good in relation to what I am working towards right now, it’s totally counter productive. Consuming it regularly not only inhibits my physical fitness progress, but it also leaves me with an unclear mind, an urge to binge eat and a plethora of excuses for why I can’t stick to my goals. Also I HATE feeling hungover. Like hate. I don’t hate much but I hate waking up in the morning feeling like shit. With that being said I did have my first glass of wine in 84 days last night and heres how I feel about it:

I made a conscious choice to enjoy one glass of wine with my dinner last night because I wanted to. I feel good about my choice because I wasn’t just doing it because everyone else was (my friend who I went to dinner with did not have a glass of wine, only I did), it wasn’t an autopilot choice, it wasn’t to take the edge off or help me escape any feelings: it was a mindful and well thought-out choice… great, good work Shay Shay. Did I really need to have that glass of wine? No. It tasted good (I guess) but it really was’t necessary, I enjoyed it (I guess) but I would’ve had a great meal and a great evening without it. I woke up today feeling slightly off and I don’t like it. I am not hungover by any means (can you be hungover from one glass of wine? lol) but I can feel the difference in my stomach ( it’s been gurgley AF all morning, yuck) and in my mind. I have zero urge to have another glass of anything because I much prefer feeling on point. I am not going to be an extremist and say I’ll never drink again but for the moment I am not planning to because I just don’t feel like it.

Project Comeback 2 Month Update: MY YOGA PRACTICE

I absolutely LOVE yoga!! So why then, was it so dang hard for me to make time for something that I love so much? I know why: a LACK OF SELF-DISCIPLINE and POOR PRIORITIZING. The reality for me is that I need to get on my mat daily in some capacity to function at my highest vibe, so I made it my priority to do just that, no matter what. Lately I have preferred to go take actual classes VS practicing at home because I really enjoy being guided by someone else, but there have definitely been days where I just couldn’t make that happen so I rolled out my mat at home. I talked a little about how I worked regularly scheduled classes into my daily schedule which you can read by clicking here! The best thing for me has been to block out the time in my calendar just like I would an important meeting…and for me yoga is an important meeting…with myself. At the beginning of the week I sit down and write out my schedule for the week and then I look at my favorite yoga teachers schedule for the week and write in the classes I am going to take. I try to piggy back schedule them on to other tasks/appointments and I have found that that makes it much easier for me to stick to my goals! The other fun thing has been to get clear about what I want to work on which gives me a good “why” to come back to when I am thinking about skipping out. I have always wanted to do a forearm stand and the splits so those are the 2 things I have been working towards, and I am happy to report I am progressing nicely in both and having fun while doing it! Yay!

Project Comeback 2 Month Update: MY FITNESS GOALS

My fitness goals are simple: I want to feel strong and be healthy. I am really not concerned with losing weight, but I did and do want to tone up and feel STRONG! I have been doing Rise Nation 3x a week (which is a 30 minute versa climber workout) and training with Taryn B. at Barrys Bootcamp 2-3x a week (1 hour cardio + resistance/weight training), plus a few hikes with Penny here and there. In total I’d say I workout for about 5 hours over the span of 7 days, which really in the grand scheme of things is nothing, but those dedicated 5 hours each week have made SUCH a huge difference in my body and in the way I do all things. My body has definitely visibly changed (I put some of my progress photos from IG below!) and I feel SO MUCH STRONGER yay! I’ve also noticed within the last week that I am running faster which is rad as well (TBH I have a love hate relationship with running)!! I do not weigh myself regularly but I did at the beginning of this challenge and I will every 2 months just to check in and track any changes numerically. I like the scale that I have because it doesn’t just measure your weight, it also measures your body fat % and BMI!

Here are my project comeback 2 month update numerical body changes:

I lost 4.4 pounds

My body fat % went down by 1.3%

My BMI % went down by 0.8%

Like I’ve said a million times before, I am not, I REPEAT I AM NOT fixated on numbers, but I think it’s good to loosely track progress in this way! It is after all, a good reflection of what you’re doing. I know using a scale is controversial but like with anything, if you use it mindfully it can be a great tool to help you keep track of your physical progress. I think it’s also worth noting that this is probably the healthiest I have ever gone about “toning up” and I am really proud of that. I am all about slow and steady progress. Slow steady progress is the type of progress that leads to lasting results.

Project Comeback 2 Month Update: SELF-DISCIPLINE & COMMITMENT

Self-discipline and commitment: the most important parts of this challenge for me. The reality is all of what I am doing here relates to these 2 things… essentially EVERYTHING I do in Project Comeback is helping me cultivate more self-discipline and a stronger commitment to whatever it is I decide to do in life, whether that be working out, yoga, or a business goal. How do I want to feel? How do I want to experience this life? What do I want in the long term? Are my short term choices supporting that? I wrote a whole blog post about self-discipline which you can read my clicking here!

Project Comeback 2 Month Update: MINDFULNESS

From mindless to mindful: I really wanted to become more mindful about everything in my life: my choices, my actions, my time, the food I’m eating, the drinks I am drinking, the people in my life, where my energy is going, etc. and while I will forever be a work in progress when it comes to this I have noticed a shift, and for that I am grateful and inspired to keep going. It’s easy to fall into patterns that are not good for us, these habits can sometimes become so ingrained in us that it gets to a point where we are no longer making active choices, we start to mindlessly do _______, _______ and _______  (insert whatever it is that you mindlessly do on a daily basis that is holding you back). I got sick of falling “victim” to my impulses and bad habits that brought me momentary comfort while squandering my long term goals; like I said before, I want to RISE to the SPECIAL OCCASION that is my life (yes it is an occasion, and hell yes it is special!! Yours is too!!) and make mindful intentional choices that make me feel GOOD! Take control of your life, you’ll feel like a badass, I promise.

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PSA: my goals are not all driven by “physical change”, but the physical changes are sometimes easier to share and track ( I am aware of and feel the rest!) so they are definitely part of my process! With that being said, here are some of my recent Project Comeback progress photos along with my most recent project comeback 2 month update that I shared on IG!!

 It’s truly incredible the changes we can create when we just DECIDE, SHOW UP and COMMIT!

 

↓ MY OFFICIAL PROJECT COMEBACK 2 MONTH UPDATE PHOTO ↓

That’s all I’ve got for today my loves! I hope you enjoyed my project comeback 2 month update, I tried to answer all of the most commonly asked questions I have been getting but if I missed any please leave me a comment below! xx Should I do a blog post and/or Youtube video on how to create your very over Project Comeback?! Let me know in a comment below!! Also, don’t forget to follow me on IG.. I’ll be posting another body update for you in the coming weeks that you don’t want to miss!!

PS: have you checked out my new vegan e-book?!