T-25 Beta Results

Well I finished Beta, and was quickly met by a virus going through my family.  It was one that liked to hang on.  I missed an entire week of working out, but I'm back in the game now, actually 2 weeks and 2 days into Gamma!

I finally took some pictures, too.  I got sick right when I finished Beta, and then I did not want to do after shots when I hadn't worked out, so I put them off.  I am 10 pounds down and feeling much better about myself.  In fact, I believe in my self and my ability to change my body.  That's huge for me.

Without further ado,

Getting Toned!

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!

Thanks Coach

Today marks the end of the 60 Day Challenge I've been doing with Coach Bendel.  She created a facebook group to keep us accountable, and that really helped me stick to my commitments.  It was fun to participate, and of course Steph had some *creative* assignments. I lost one more pound this week.  Clearly, I have not yet mastered the art of the selfie, but I think you may be able to see some progress!  Working out and eating better will continue to be a part of my EVERYDAY life.  Thanks for helping me to make this change!

T-25 Progress

Here are my progress pictures as promised in my previous post.  The first one is from this summer because I did not take a before picture.  At then end of Alpha I am down 8 pounds and feeling a lot better.   The scale has wobbled back and forth a little which I attribute to muscle gain; I feel much stronger. Beta is fun so far and I feel a lot more sore on the day we use weights.  I have some more revealing pictures, but I'm not comfortable sharing that with the world wide web at this time. 

In addition to exercise , eating cleaner has been another priority.  I've been trying to focus on getting a protein and veggies at lunch and dinner (breakfast is on the go in my car, usually toast, a banana, and coffee), reducing my carb intake, and eating more small meals through out the day.  I definitely have and enjoy a cheat sometimes, but it has really helped to cut out the overindulging I would do.  

I am proud of myself for sticking to this and thankful for friends who encourage me and keep me accountable.  

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 ;)

Cloth Diapering

If you're like most people you may think I'm crazy for using cloth diapers on my son, and I understand where that comes from, but cloth diapers are not all pins and plastic pants anymore.

The most common objections I've heard are:

• Isn't it more work?--to which I say, a load or two of laundry per week is better than running to the store for diapers, and really that one or two loads is nothing
• EWW, you'll get poop in your washer.  Hate to break it to you, but having a baby means that at some point there's gonna be poo in your washer.  Take a moment and think of what's in dirt.  Also a good washer will not leave and poo.  Furthermore, as long as the baby is exclusively breast-fed (I believe its true for formula as well, but I don't have any experience) their poop actually completely dissolves in water. 
• Isn't it hard to pin it?  I would assume so--my diapers don't have pins, they have velcro or snaps and they're not any harder to use that a disposable. 

WHY?????

Here are my simplest answers.  For more info, see the websites linked below. 

1. It saves money. Even if you buy the cheapest diapers out there, you're still going to spend about $1000 a year on diapers alone.  It costs around $300 for a decent cloth system.  Now I'll be honest, I've spent about $200 more than that because I wanted some extra diapers.  I've still saved $500 at least this year.  When the next child comes around, it will be even more savings!!
2. It's good for J's sensitive skin.  There's a lot of chemical and potential irritants in disposables.  Children have even had chemical burns from diapers.  We decided to cloth diaper before my son was born.  I am so glad we did because he ended up with eczema. 
3. It's environmentally friendly.  Yeah, I hugs trees.  We need to be good stewards of our beautiful planet.

 

Diapers we LOVE



BumGenius 4.0 pocket diaper

Based on the experience of a friend of mine, we bought all BumGenius Diapers before J was even born.  We bought most of them from cottonbabies because they run a buy five get one free sale and always have fast free shipping.  We chose the 4.0 pocket diaper as our go to diaper. 

The BG newborn All in One diaper was great for those early days and fit J for 4 months. 

Just in the last two months, Josh has been sleeping longer and we experienced a little irritation from wetness.  Luckily Kelly's Closet sent us a free Kawaii Goodnight Heavy Wetter as a gift with one of our orders.  They have super amazing soft fleece inside and work wonders for our boy's skin.  We promptly ordered 4 more (so we always have one clean for his last diaper). 

 

Diapers we LIKE

Although they weren't our go to diaper, Fuzzibuns work great.  I loved their newborn size because they were SO SOFT, however, their velcro was not the best and tended to stick to other diapers in the laundry.  We also used the size small pocket diapers.  They were good but not as trim as the BumGenius.  My husband would never use them because they only had snaps and he will only use velcro.  We had one of the Fuzzibuns Elite.  The adjustable legs and waist are nice, but not necessary (BGs don't have that).  It was also a lot fluffier than a BG so we tended to use them at night if we used it at all. 

Kawaii One Size diapers were good.  The fit is very similar to BGs and the price is significantly less.  Of course the quality is not quite as high, but I do believe they will last.  It was one of our freebies with another order.

Diapers that DIDN'T WORK FOR US

KangaCare Lil'Joeys and GroVia newborns both leaked like crazy.  Josh had very skinny legs, I had it on the tightest setting but they still just didn't work for him.  The Lil Joeys were the worst, so I actually sold them (another advantage of cloth diapering is they have a good resale value).  I save the GroVias in case our next child is chunkier.  These were my faves before Josh was born because of the adorable prints :(

GroVia One Size All in One Cloth Diaper.  I know some people who love these, but they just don't work for our J.  Leaking is not the issues, so on that note they do their job.  However, we've found we really need that barrier between J's skin and the moisture or he rashs out.  Everytime we'd try them he'd end up with a red hiney.  Also they only come in snaps so they are not husband friendly.  I don't really care for the location of the straps either. 

AND THE ALL IMPORTANT ACCESSORIES

I can't believe it took me this long to discover Coconut Oil.  Besides smelling delicious, it's super moisturizing for the skin.  I put it on Josh whenever he's a little red and always with his last diaper.  Before this discover, we were aquaphor addicts.

In the last few months since Josh has been sleeping between 10 and 12 hours at night, his very sensitive skin had some issues with the moisture levels, so we purchased a few different types of hemp lines for our pocket diapers.  Hemps holds something like 8 times its weight in liquid.  We stuff his diaper with a micro-terry liner (this is what comes with BGs) closest to the skin to quickly pull away the moisture, then a hemp liner underneath to keep the wetness far away from his skin.  The ones we like best are BabyKicks Hemparoo Joey Bunz. 

 

You'll also need a diaper pail, a cheap trashcan with a lid will suffice.  You want one that will let air in to reduce any smells.  We use a Planet Wise pail liner inside the diaper pail and we also have a small wet bag to take with us if we're out and need to change him. 

 

In addition, a good detergent is key.  We use Rockin Green Barenaked Babies in our HE-Machine.  One bag is 90 loads.  In 15 months we've gone through 1.5 bags, but I started using it on other laundry as well this summer.  It softens the water which helps it clean more efficiently and the laundry comes out softer. 

 

BioKleen Bac out is also a great product.  It can be sprayed on soiled diapers to treat them before they are washed.  Be conservative in using this, a little goes a long way and if not completely rinsed out of laundry, it can be irritating to the skin (if you're hypersensitive like our little guy). 

 

When baby gets older and begins eating solids, it's helpful to have a diaper sprayer.  We had a really tough time finding something that worked for us.  We tried to build our own using internet directions--turns out the directions were no good and it leaked like crazy.  We tried ordering a hose that attaches to the plumbing specificly designed and marketed as a cloth diaper sprayer.  Again we had leaking problems.  In the mean time I purchased a dirt cheap utility sprayer from Walmart that simply attacher to a sink (this works for us because we have a sink that is one foot away from the toilet).  It worked until the parts broke.  Finally we tried this and it's great for us, Sink Rinser. 
 

FOR FURTHER READING

http://www.kellyscloset.com/Cloth-Diaper-Information_ep_34-1.html#newtocloth
http://www.pinstripesandpolkadots.com/basics.htm
http://awesomeclothdiapers.blogspot.com/p/getting-started.html

The First Six Weeks

I wish I had an Erma-ism to use for a title here, however, the best I can do right now is that she always encourages us to make positive changes in our lives. 

The Back Story

If I were a superhero, cookies would be my kryptonite. 

I did an awesome job of not gaining too much weight while pregnant.  When I came home from the hospital I was already 18 lbs down.  By 3 weeks post partum, I had 4 more pounds to go and I'd be back to my pre-pregnancy weight.  And then I started grocery shopping. 

I did a horrible job of feeding myself during the 6 months I stayed home with my son.  It was survival.  Meals consisted of anything I could prepare and eat with one hand.

I ate a lot of cookies.  When exhaustion set in I'd drink a soda to keep going. 

The weight just crept back on.  I was ashamed and embarassed.  I've always had body image issues, heck what American woman doesn't (stupid anorexic models and photshop).  Then there was a picture of me with my son in a bathsuit.  Tears were shed.

I fear the scale.  It's been over 9 months since I've weighed myself because I just don't want to know.  I'm a size bigger than I was before J was born.  Some of the size bigger clothes were getting tight. 


My Problem

Dieting--I suck at it.  I hate the thought of never having another (fill in the blank) again,  I don't stick to diets.  I love baking and consuming baked goods. 

My Solution

I had an epiphany.  Though I'm not very good with long term goal diets, I definitely could manage short term diets (I guess I have commitment issues).  Six week spans were definitley doable.  A bonus is that it takes about 3 weeks to make or break a habit. 

This was the strategy, give up two bad eating habits, and pick up one good new eating habit. Soda and store bought cookies were given up (I only had one or two of grandma's homemade cookies, because it's just insulting not to eat what she makes).  A green and a bright colored veggie or fruit were added to my lunch each day. 

The Results

Let's be honest I wouldn't be writing this post if I hadn't succeeded.  I've gone 6 weeks without OD'ing on refined sugary goodness.   I don't miss it.  I feel healthier.  I won't go into details but my body has been much more predictable cooperative. 

Soon I will have to choose another mission for the next 6 weeks. 

Although I feel heathier, the scale still strikes fear in my heart like a Friday the 13th movie.  Soon I will overcome it though. 

For six weeks I have not eaten a cookie or drank a soda. Little by little, I will get back to healthy!