My "Skinny" Jeans Fit

With one week left of T-25 Beta, I mustered the courage to try them on.  They've been put into and pulled out of the donation bags at least three times, and worn one time since my son was born.  He was three months old and I was taking him to the zoo with a girlfriend.  I was rocking a muffin top but I blamed most of that on skin that was still recovering from 9 months of stretching.  My mom saw me getting changed and commented about how much flatter my stomach looked.  Filled with new found bravery, I reached into the back of my closet and pulled them out, carefully inserted one leg at a time, pulled them up, did a quick squat, and grabbed that zipper.  And it went up. And the buttons buttoned. While they were still tight--to be fair they are A&E stretch jeans--they were looser than they were when I squeezed into them to go to the zoo, when I was the lightest I've been since J was born.  I'm pretty sure that's how it feels to make it to the top of Mount Everest.

All of this makes me very curious about what the scale will say next week.  I know that my lightest postpartum weight was about 20 lbs lighter than what I was at the beginning of this journey, but  I really don't think that I have lost that much.  I guess we'll see.  A few other pairs were tried on, and while they don't quite fit, I now have hope that they will.

I've talked about T-25 here but not too much about the diet changes I've made.  Since my beachbody coach made us take some pictures of the food we ate sometime for our challenge, I figured I'd share some.  I'm not the most committed dieter, and I allow myself to cheat on the weekends, but this challenge has definitely cleansed my palate.  Mainly I've been swapping processed foods for more whole food options, eating more small meals, eating more veggies, and I started to eat nuts as a snack--who knew!

My favorite mid-morning snack, craisins and almonds.  I put 1/4 cup of each in a container almost everyday and snack when hunger strikes.  If I eat it all, that's about 300 calories.  

 This I do as lunch or a snack.  Snap peas and hummus.  I like to have carrots with them too.  Carrots and Snap peas, practically no calories.  I measure out a serving of hummus which is about 130 calories.  If I pack that for lunch I usually add a Greek yogurt and an apple.  Both of these snacks take a long time to eat for a relatively small amount of calories, which is what really helps me, because I can house like 10 cookies in them amount of time it would take me to eat either of these and possibly not even feel full.

 Finally here's a dinner I cooked.  What's missing?  That's right, carbs.  I have tried to minimize the amount of carbs I eat after my workout.  Can you believe as a kid I refused to try things like asparagus!?!?  I'm so ashamed of myself.  I really just started to cook it this year thanks to pinterest, and I'm sort of obsessed.  Mix 1.5 TBSP of olive oil with one clove of grated garlic, some salt and pepper.  Roast in the oven at 425 for 20 minutes.  SO GOOD!!  Soon we will be grilling it! I can't wait

If I'm hungry after a workout I'll often have a rice cake with peanut butter and a small cup of milk  to hold me over until dinner.  Finally, I take this drink to get some apple cider vinegar goodness in which, among other things, helps your body break down fat and get it off your belly.




See ya in one week  with my T-25 10 week results!

Fate, Friends, and T-25

Well, I've been rather absent lately.  Don't worry I have been crocheting!  However, I've also been busy with something else.  Something I've been meaning to do, but lacked commitment and support.

That all changed because of inspiration and encouragement from my friend, Stephanie.  Since my son's birth, I've yo-yo'd with my weight and exercise.  I lost a lot when he was born, even got into my pre-pregnancy jeans before he was 4 months old (please note, I did not say they were comfortable).  Then I began to pump to save up milk for him and did what ever I could to increase milk production (this meant lots of oatmeal cookies), then the added stress of getting back to work.  In the struggle to do it all,  I found myself eating--and craving-- all kinds of processed junk.  If Chips-A-Hoy were around and my husband wasn't, well guess what was for dinner.  I just did not make myself a priority, and when I tried to I caught the mom guilt.

Maybe I should call it the mom-daughter-wife guilt, because to go to the gym I had to leave my precious baby and either get my husband to watch him (which was unlikely because we have opposing hours most days) or get my mom to watch him, which I felt guilty for because she also watches him during the day.  Then I had to drive to the gym, try to get a work out in, and get back home as quickly as possible so I could have more time with my son before bed.  Just to be clear, my husband and mom never complained about watching him, it was totally my feelings.  In order to avoid leaving I tried working out at home, but I wasn't consistent for a variety of reasons.

I've been trying to do better for about a year now.  I've limited sweets, when it was warm I'd take Josh on a walk or to the park everyday.  And then we had a messed up summer and I was thrown off track.  Then I got busy working on my crochet business in addition to all the new NJ SGO and evaluation requirements.  Excuses, excuses...

Then, I noticed my friend Stephanie, who'd just had her second baby in the spring, posting some awesome pics of healthy meals and then some pictures she posted about how her body changed.  I was amazed.  In my mind I never believed my body could be great again, but then I looked at her.  The next thing I knew, she was announcing her new career as a beach body coach!

I was interested, but not sold, mostly because I did not believe in myself.  I messaged her a couple times about it, and then she made me an offer I couldn't refuse.  Part of her job is running challenge groups.  She started a group called "Moms on the Move" just for moms who were friends with her.  There was no cost, except for whatever workouts we chose to follow (I started with Jillian's Yoga Meltdown which I already had), and any supplements (like shakeology) you wanted. So for me it was free.   There was a points system and we were supposed to check in daily.  It started on January 6th.  My first two weeks were rough because of going on a conference at Hershey Lodge that first weekend, but I kept with it.

I committed to eating cleaner (mainly giving up carbs at lunch, soda, and dessert--I have a huge sweet tooth) and working out at least 3 times a week.  Baby steps.

Then one fateful Wednesday morning, during a content team meeting, that just happened to be two of us that week,  I mentioned this challenge group I was in. It had to be predestined, because my co-worker, Neshea, had the T-25 videos but really needed an accountability partner.  So we began to work out everyday afterschool.  January 27th was the day we started and I am happy to say, over three weeks in, we have not missed a day (yep, even with all the snow days--we both did them at home), and I've done doubles every Friday!

The changes in my body amaze me.  Every time I look in the mirror I think "Change can't happen this fast," but it has!  My stomach is  WAY tighter, my legs feel and look stronger, and I have so much more energy.  My attitude has done a 180.  I finally feel like this IS something I can do!  I've lost 8lbs so far.  There's a week and a half until I finish T-25 Alpha, and I'm so excited to share the results.

Sorry to sound like an infomercial, but this has made such a big difference in my life, I just had to share.  Thank you to my friends, Steph and Neshea, who have helped me get here, and my family for supporting me and watching J-man for a bit so I could sneak in my workouts!

You can check out Stephanie's Blog Here
Stay tuned for a follow up post around March 1st with my 30 day results.  Pictures included ;)