The 21 Day Fix

The 21 Day Fix

Yesterday marked Day #1 of my 21 Day Fix. I have to admit that I wasn't very well prepared. I didn't even really read the meal plan until yesterday morning. Nevertheless, I was able to follow it from what we had already at home. 

Food

Here's what a day of eating looked like:

Meal 1: steel cut oats with strawberries

Snack: banana

Meal #2: chocolate Shakeology w/ coffee

Snack: cashews

Meal 3: Chicken Breast topped with red roasted peppers, spinach, and mozzarella cheese with a side of green beans

*Note: I did not eat all the food that I was allowed. I could have eaten one more purple container, one more green container, two more red containers, two more yellow containers, and 2 more teaspoons.

Allow me to briefly explain how this works. Each container corresponds to a food group.

Purple - Fruits

Green - Vegetables

Red - Proteins

Yellow - Starches
Blue - Cheese/Nuts/Avocado
Orange - Seeds/Dressings
Teaspoons - healthy oils (olive oil, for example), nut butters (almond butter, for example), and seed butters (pumpkin butter, for example)

There's a simple formula, based on your weight, that tells you how many of each container you can eat daily. I love this!! I am retraining my brain to know what a portion looks like! I have also realized that I don't eat nearly enough protein during the day.

For my weight loss goals (and adding in 400 extra calories for breastfeeding), I am allowed 3 purples, 5 greens, 5 reds, 4 yellows, 1 blue, 1 orange, and 5 teaspoons.

Exercise 

The 21 Day Fix also comes with exercise DVDs. Each DVD is only 30 minutes. Yesterday, I did the "Total Body Cardio Fix." 

This, paired with the fact that I sucked it up at volleyball on Saturday, helped me come to an important realization. I am in bad shape. The worst. Worse than probably ever before in my life. As I did the 30 minute workout, I was struggling. Struggling hard. I even did the low modification and still was dying. There were a few times that I couldn't even keep up with the low mod girl! Gone are the days of Melissa and I doing the highest possible intensity modifications at Zumba, jumping and hopping around to make it more difficult than even the instructor would do sometimes. *sigh*

Then I hear Autumn Calabrese say to keep moving, no matter what intensity level you are working at. It makes me think of something I've read before...

I am not exaggerating when I tell you this. I finished my low mod, fat girl version of the first 21DF workout. I walked out of my bedroom and when I stepped down on the first stair heading toward the living room, I thought my legs were going to collapse. They felt like jelly and were barely holding me up. I had to hold on to the railing. It was sad. It was pitiful. This workout would have been a breeze for me a year ago. Not anymore. I am determined to get back to that place where I would have done the highest intensity version of the workout. I want to be able to do that again. I will be able to do that again. It will just take time. In the meantime, as my whole body aches and struggles to move around today, I'll remember...

It's a Beautiful Day for a Walk

I'm starting to learn more about what is involved in being a Beach Body coach, and I'm excited to get started! I think I need to go ahead and do the 21 Day Fix (starting on Monday), learn more about all of the programs, and then after that I will try to start my first challenge group!

I had a delicious green smoothie this morning! What a healthy start to the day.

 I also went on a nice walk with my baby girl, which of course means I'll share her picture with you. I can't help it! She's so darn beautiful :)

Saturday is the Annual Chili Classic Volleyball Tournament. You have no idea how freaking excited I am!! I have been missing volleyball desperately since I didn't get to play while I was pregnant. I haven't played a game since November 2013. Such a tragedy! Anyway, I can't even explain how I excited I am for Saturday.

Another thing I'm starting on Monday...Shakeology! I've sampled it before, and it tastes pretty good from what I remember. I just need to get the okay from my doctor to take it while breastfeeding my little munchkin. Guess we'll find out at my appointment tomorrow.

I'm determined to not only get back to 145 pounds, but to pass that up and get to my original goal weight of 140. It is on!!!! :)

Going Forward!

Must. Go. Forward...

In November 2012, I weighed myself after Thanksgiving dinner and a depressed, unhealthy almost 200 lb. girl decided it was time to make a change. 

I worked my butt off! I meal planned, tracked my food and exercise using My Fitness Pal, and did tons of exercising! I joined the gym. I played volleyball. I ran. I did Zumba, yoga, TurboJam, TurboFire, Hip Hop Abs, some thighs and butt program that I can't remember the name of! I lifted weights. I had an awesome workout buddy! I did all the things that healthy people make a lifestyle of. I was down to 145 POUNDS and feeling better than I have in years!!

But then...I got pregnant. I am beyond blessed to have a beautiful and healthy daughter! I never thought it would be possible to love a little person so much! But along with my precious little Parker came 55 pounds! Well it's time to get moving again because I am remembering just how much I hate being overweight. I'm remembering just how much I love being healthy. I'm remember how much I love fitting into cute clothes.  I am now a Beach Body coach. I don't know what all that entails yet, but I am ready! It's time to go forward. 

My Motivation:

• To be a good example for my daughter
• To complete more Beach Body programs and help others reach their health and fitness goals too!
• To find a cute dress for Phil & Melissa's wedding next October
• So I can wear all my cute swimsuits I bought last year
• To feel good and have more energy!

This is the Jenny who is on her way back...

Now I just need to find my heart rate monitor...

Little Baby Cole

It's funny. I looked back at my blog, which seems like it hasn't been used in forever. I read my last post before now. The last time I used it, I wrote about how I hoped that I was pregnant. Well (drum roll please)...

I was ONE day pregnant when I wrote the last one :) Now I'm 17, almost 18 weeks, and couldn't be more excited. I have to say, being pregnant is not all the fun and awesomeness that I expected it to be. Of course it's worth it, and I would go through this a million more times to be able to meet my sweet baby boy or girl. However, the first trimester nearly killed me. I've never been so exhausted in my life. I'm talking lay on the couch, can't/don't want to move, completely fatigued. I never threw up, but got nauseous on a few days. I think the worst part for me has been the headaches. I've tried so many things to get rid of them. I'm even seeing a chiropractor and old friend, Jeanne Engert. Anyway, I don't want to complain too much! I saw the most perfect explanation of all of this the other day:

Anyway, this blog has completely been about weight loss and leading a healthy lifestyle. I had a very successful year last year, and it was so hard for me at first to slowly watch the pounds creep up on the scale. It was downright depressing. I've finally (I think) accepted the fact that I'm going to gain weight, and I'm going to be starting over again. *sigh* But I know it will be worth it. 

I wanted to write this post to post pictures of our latest and greatest purchase - baby furniture! I really love what we picked out, and we finally ordered it yesterday.

I guess that's all for now. Hopefully now that I have a more normal amount of energy, I can blog more. I sure did miss it!

One Year Later

Well...

I did my yearly "weigh myself after Thanksgiving" expecting to get annoyed with myself once again. Not this year! 

Over the past year, my lowest weight was 146. My sustainable weight where I felt the best was 155. This is where I've been for a while. On the day after Thanksgiving, I was at 162. Sure, it's not ideal. I had to force myself to look at the big picture. Last year, on the day after Thanksgiving, I was at a mind boggling 196. Even though I've put on a few pounds and went over my usual 155, I still weigh 34 pounds less than last Thanksgiving. And that's a win in my book!

I ovulated yesterday. Bring on the two week wait! This is the second month we've tried to get pregnant, and it's seriously made me realize how terrible I am at waiting for things. I am a "please me now, give me what I want" kind of person. When I want something, I get it. I am not one who enjoys waiting around for things. So what I'm trying to say is that this is kind of like human torture. I know there's really no reason to get all crazy about it, but it's just so darn exciting!

I've decided I'm going to start making fruit smoothies for breakfast and vegetable soup for my lunches. I have a butternut squash in the oven right now that smells delicious! 

That's all for now. Fingers crossed that in 9-10ish months, Josh and I will have our own little bundle of joy! :)

Here Goes Nothin'

It's been a great year for me health wise. I've lost a significant amount of weight, and I just celebrated one full year without smoking! I was really into this regular exercise and healthy eating lifestyle, and unfortunately over the past two months I've kinda fallen off the bandwagon.

My current weight is in the mid 150s, and I know exactly why. I've quit exercising daily, and I haven't been planning meals. I've been eating out a lot, and I've been consuming more calories. I really, really want to make it to my goal of 140, so starting tomorrow I'm getting back into it.

My mom is getting ready to start the Military Diet, and I thought...hmmmm! Why not give it a shot? My brother's girlfriend Janelle mentioned that it gave her energy, made her feel good, and helped her lose a few pounds. I found the food plan here: http://themilitarydiet.com/military-diet-plan/.

I want to be in the best shape possible when I get pregnant, which will hopefully be soon! :)

Wisdom Teeth Extraction

Everyone who said "it's not that bad" is a freakin' liar! This is terrible, terrible...and I wouldn't wish this kind of pain on my worst enemy. Let me give you a little recap of my past 52 hours.

Tuesday @ 1:00:
The surgeon tells me that unfortunately my bottom two wisdom teeth are going to cause me quite a bit of a problem. Apparently if I had taken care of them sooner, I would have been fine. The bottom two teeth grew in and got too big. The root grew down, and it wrapped around the nerves below my gums. He said the top ones would quit hurting in about two days, but the bottom ones would cause me quite a bit of pain until about Sunday. 

He wasn't lying.

Fast forward to Tuesday @ 1:25:
I wake up in tears even though I was knocked out. How does that even happen? I was still out of it, but I was in horrible pain from the second I woke up. My grandma wanted to drop me off at home before she got my prescription, but I wasn't having it. I needed painkillers.

I know almost everyone goes through this in their life, and you might even think I'm being a baby. Let me clarify. My top two teeth haven't hurt me one bit. It's those bottom two that were a problem from the start. 

Tuesday around 2:00:
I got home and took my pain killers. That was an ordeal. I was bleeding a lot and I couldn't take a pill without swallowing a lot of blood, which instantly made me nauseous. I slept the rest of the day and only woke up to take medicine, which made me sick every time. 

I've been alternating Vicodin and Ibuprofen every two hours, and taking Amoxicillin three times per day. Every time I get close to medicine time, the pain becomes almost unbearable in my bottom teeth. The first day I would just lay there and cry. 

I thought I would be taking less and less Vicodin by now, but I can't or my mouth starts throbbing and makes me feel funny. Not to mention the terrible pain and my swollen cheeks. Here's a picture of my cheeks today:

You can tell they are slightly swollen, but the real swelling is on the inside of my mouth. My inner cheeks have swollen over my teeth, causing cuts and bleeding inside of my mouth. I'll spare you a nasty picture of the inside of my mouth.

So far I've only eaten mashed potatoes, pudding, blended veggie soup, and ice cream. I decided to try some macaroni and cheese for dinner, but it really hurt to try and chew (all my bottom teeth are sensitive). 

Looks like it's back to this delicious carrot soup tomorrow:

This turned out to be a really bad week to do this. Josh's uncle passed away and his wake was tonight. We went for a little bit and I was all loopy (thanks to the Vicodin) while we were there. The funeral is in the morning. Then tomorrow evening, I signed up for this painting class for my friend's birthdays, but I honestly am not feeling up to it at all. I feel like crap and I just want to lay here, sleep, watch Homeland, and do nothing. After the painting class, I'm supposed to go see my friend Katie for her going away party. She's moving to KC for a nursing job. Any other time, I would be way excited about tomorrow's festivities (funeral excluded), but I'm not sure how I'm gunna make it through the evening. I'm just hoping that tomorrow I'm feeling much better! 

So if you want some words of wisdom, here they are: Get your wisdom teeth removed before you're in your 20's or leave those suckers in your mouth for life. This it totally not worth it!