21 Day Fix Extreme Week 2

So since doing my do-over I feel GREAT! I feel as if the first few days before my really bad cold was prep to do this thing! I actually would recommend it to people who are just starting out with the 21 Day Fix to have a prep week or a teaser week to play around with the idea of what you are doing for the next 21 days.

Some people starting can feel overwhelmed because the way of eating is SUPER clean and if you don't eat that way already I would suggest by starting out by measuring what you eat for a few meals and starting to try out recipes that you enjoy and portioning them out with some kind of regard to the rules so you get a feel but you can EASE into the program.

SO week 2. I loved it. The workouts felt easier in the sense that I knew what was coming so I was able to adapt and follow along better than week 1 where I was still trying to figure out what was going on and also finding my groove so to speak. Week 2 was where I noticed changes and the ultimate motivation to keep going to week 3.

I have not really felt hungry at all through the plan with the exception of between lunch and dinner but some of that is just from boredom because that is when I am wishing the work day to end and then my real day starts because I am up and about with house stuff, homework, feeding my little, bathing them and then getting them to bed so my mind is occupied on other things which is good because it gears me up for dinner. I have let go of my steel cut oats and focused on doing the paleo thing for the last two weeks.

This is starting to feel like a normal eating plan and I have enjoyed week 2 way better than week one probably for the simple fact that I wasn't "fighting" it, I started to embrace the whole program. I am starting to see results which is crazy to me! 2 weeks in and my stomach is flatter I notice more tone in my legs too!

I can tell you that I am scared that I will eat a little more food and I will gain the weight back because it just happened so fast I am afraid I am going to lose it just as fast which freaks me out a bit. I have not heard of anyone having that happen to them but when you see some changes my first thought is WOAH I love this and hope it sticks around.

My measurements/weight starting were......

129.6
Arms 10.5
Waist 27
Hips 37

Week 2

125.2
Arms 10.25
Waist 26.25
Hips 36.5


AND finally a picture so you are able to see my results!

How I lost the baby weight!

How I lost the baby weight.

I think that when most women get pregnant one of their biggest fears other than the health of the baby is how their body is going to change and how much weight they are going to gain.

If you have been on a weight loss journey before the pregnancy I feel that the feelings and fears are far worse. When I had my first two pregnancies I gained 65 and 70 pounds and no one told me different with my first pregnancy. People just let me be with my first pregnancy and I honestly, I PROMISE YOU I HONESTLY THOUGHT that I would go back to 105 pounds after the first baby. I was pregnant by myself meaning I was the first of my friends to get pregnant so I was riding this one solo. My mother told me that I was all water weight and I had no reason not to believe her she to me, was an expert. She was right but not completely. I was left with 30 pounds after I lost the water, baby, etc. My second pregnancy went back down to 135 within 6 months of beating my butt at the gym doing the Body For Life program and eating a ton of chicken and broccoli. I actually hate chicken and broccoli now that I am more educated on healthy choices.

With my third pregnancy, I was well educated on health and fitness and had my healthiest pregnancy. I gained 45 pounds and had to work for 10 pounds of weight loss. I was scared that I was going to go back to my old ways and that I was going to get to 135 again and stay there. My body set point must be 135 because when I lost the weight that is where it stopped and I had to start fighting my body to get the weight off.  I can tell you that it was a journey and it was frustrating but worth getting back into my pre-pregnancy jeans. I am now at my pre-pregnancy weight 127 but I would like to get back to my 120 pounds that I was before I went on this binge at a wedding I went to the year I got pregnant with Molly. I never bothered to lose the weight because I knew I was going to get pregnant and that I did 2 months later.

How did I lose the weight??? 

I ate real food. I am not one to label myself to anything but I ate mostly Paleo. The only times I strayed was for my weekly pizza happy meal habit with occasional breadsticks.

So what did my meals consist of?

Chicken wings, chicken thighs, steaks of all kinds, seafood, homemade broth, all kinds of vegetables, sweet potatoes, potato, rice occasionally, pork of all cuts but mostly tenderloin it’s the most juicy cut and an occasional chicken breast thrown in there but I am not kidding when I tell you I hate chicken breasts. I did also eat chips and candy but in moderation and NOT every day. I also threw in some popcorn there. **I would have rather lost weight eating the things that I enjoy than depriving myself for however long and being miserable** That my friends is the secret to weight loss slow and steady = stress free long lasting weight loss

I did Beachbody workout programs. I did do Crossfit as well but only for about a month. I was getting exertion migraines and had to stop. I did Body Beast right after but, my arms started to get REALLY big (I am a super petite person and my arms were nearing 11 inches while the rest of my body was shrinking LOL) and I didn’t like that so I started the 21 Day Fix Extreme recently and I am loving the portion control and workouts and for the first time doing the 21 Day Fix I am not hungry! I feel that I am fine tuning the last bit of my weight loss.

I allowed myself time.

There were moments when I got really frustrated. Here are a few memorable ones! 

I couldn’t do all the moves to my workouts because of my Diastsis Recti.

My running sucked, I started back at a 12 minute mile from running a 9 minute mile.

I couldn’t lift 20 pound weights anymore.

I was doing Body Beast and my inches and weight were stuck for three weeks. With the exception of my ever growing arms I was stuck at a plateau.

**I didn’t realize what pregnancy did to a fit body because my last 2 pregnancies were lazy**

After you have a baby you must remember that inside things are happening and your body is healing. As much as we would all like it to happen losing the baby weight is not as easy as some super celebrities make it out to be. I wanted to have all the weight off by Christmas but I found that to be too soon for a goal time even though I was close, I was putting too much pressure on myself and changed it to a year after the baby was born. I did that because realistically that’s how long it takes for the body to recover from pregnancy. Now here I am at 8 month post fitting into my pre-pregnancy jeans but also knowing that I am not finished yet. I need to create the buffer I had of 120-125 to better suit my body.

This is pretty much how I succeeded. I took my time I was patient for the most part with plenty of impatient days and when I least expected it………last night, my pre-pregnancy clothes fit. No matter what journey you are on patience is the key and keep remembering why you are doing this which I hope is optimal health.

I realize this was a long post but I certainly hope that you read through it and if you need help please ask. I would love to help you out in any way that I can as long as you have the motivation to push through.

21 Day Fix Do-over

I can't even believe I had to start the 21 Day Fix over because I got sick and truly not prepared and now here I am on Day 2 with a sinus infection or sinus issues. I am pushing through this one. So I did day 1 yesterday and I am happy so far just super bummed that I thought I was on the other side of this cold and it is still getting to me. GAH! SO frustrating.

So I didn't take any pictures of my food but here was my menu for the day. I did add steel cut oats and I know that is not Paleo but seriously I can only eat sweet potato and yams and that is just going to be a lot for 30 days. Judge if you shall but its my life and not yours and if you have an opinion you are allowed but I am going to get results regardless so I will call it real food and not the paleo way.

Now that we got that out of the way.

Breakfast: 2 eggs, strawberries, broccoli

Snack: Steel cut oats, peanut butter a whole banana

Lunch: Steak, lettuce, cucumber, balsamic dressing, 2 servings sweet potato, avocado

Dinner : Zoodle lo mein with beef and zuchinni noodles

Workout: Plyo Fix Extreme


DAY 2

Breakfast: 2 eggs, strawberry, steel cut oats with peanut butter

Snack: chicken patties with 10 asparagus, sweet potato

Lunch: Steak with salad cucumbers balsamic and avocado with sweet potato

Dinner: Basil pesto chicken with broccoli and butternut squash

Workout: Upper Fix Extreme

Overall the two days were pretty good. I am feeling pretty ok today but this morning into now I have been feeling it in my head with this whole head cold and yesterday was the one runny nostril and one watery eye and today that is just all gunk. I am hoping that it passes soon so I can feel normal and strong again. Rest and relaxation is on the menu today. I will update tomorrow with how Day 3 went!

To a new beginning and hopefully I can remember to take pictures of my food LOL

21 Day Fix Extreme Day 2

Yesterday started out as a great day I woke up, had my breakfast and after that things went downhill from there.

I had duty yesterday so I had all my food packed and ready to go and a list of things that I was going to buy for lunch. Food was good. The bad part was that I had duty to right when I changed out of my uniform I got a call so I had to get back in uniform and gave up working out at lunch. As the day progressed so did this cold that I was getting. My kids recently have gotten over the flu so of course it is customary for parents to get it when the kids are done so it was my turn.

I was feeling weak, had a cough, and couldn't concentrate but I ate as scheduled and did the pilates workout since lifting didn't seem appealing to me. It worked but through the night it got worse and today I am DOWN for the count. I have body aches a cough and I am down for the count. My medicine is not working with my body and I am laid up and if it is anything like my kids than I am out for the rest of the week.

I am not one of those hard core girls anymore that works out when she is sick. It's actually not good for you and you are probably doing more damage than good because your body is working hard to fight off whatever you have, you are pushing it to limits beyond what it needs to be to heal the muscles that you have torn. It's not necessary. I feel like this happens to people some times when they need to take a beat so I am going to take a beat and re start the extreme on Monday again. I don't want to stress myself out over eating portions when I am just trying to eat something and get over this cold that I am just going to rest, relax, and get better. Hopefully I will feel better by Friday or Saturday and I will be able to do some yoga or something to stretch my lazy muscles back to life.

I didn't eat anything fantastic yesterday I went bland and boring because even though I had goals for this I was really doing it to cheer on a friend and help her get through it and I was not prepared :) SHe on the other hand was LOL.

Breakfast: 2 eggs, broccoli, sweet potato, banana
Snack: protein shake and strawberries
Lunch: Tuna, sweet potato (2 servings) salad with oil and vinegar
Dinner: Turkey meatballs and asparagus

I wasn't hungry or anything but was really full at lunch. I need to split my carbs but when I have duty it is hard to do that when I have to be in a car doing rounds so I did what I could with what I had and we all have moments like that right? I don't have pictures today but I will as soon as I resume!

Here is to feeling better! XO

21 Day Fix Extreme Day 1

I tried to remember to take pictures but all I got was breakfast and lunch but at least you will get some kind of an idea of what I was doing today.

I woke up, weighed myself 128 pounds and went on about my business. I started to make my breakfast only to find that my son has a fever and he has succumbed to the flu that my daughter had a few days ago. This shall be the worst day of it if it followed hers at all. Then I look out the window and I see......a lot more SNOW. Living in New England is the pits especially when you just came out of Alaska ha ha. This too shall pass right? One day I will miss it right?............

For breakfast I measured out my vegetables and meat and made soup. Broth is not technically on the food list but I make it myself, don't add anything to it, and with the colds going around I am not about to miss out on my mineral rich bone broth Jusss sayin'

I am trying to do it Paleo all the way so we shall see how this works. I can already imagine myself OVER yams and sweet potatoes ha ha ha. Hey Autumn add some plantains and yucca in there lady for variety LOL. Anyway! I ate my soup and let that digest and when I put my little to nap I went in and pushed play.

Plyo Fix Extreme was on the calendar and that shhh was no joke! There was a MILLION jumping exercises and speed skaters were a welcome break! It was probably the longest 30 minutes ever but with all due respect to the program it was probably because I didn't know what was coming so now that I know it will be a breeze. I was drenched in sweat and breathing heavy all the way toward the end. I can tell you that I burned some serious calories because my appetite was on point today. I felt hungry but the food was suprisingly enough. I did feel a moment mod day where I was afraid it might not be but I was good and felt satisfied.

Lunch was steak with sweet potato zuchinni and asparagus. That was delicious! I should have added my double carb here because my appetite hit the roof after I ate lunch. so I think I will try doing that tomorrow.

Dinner was turkey meatballs and broccoli. For my snacks I had a protein shake and a whole banana. My other snack was double sweet potato, nuts and half a banana. I went on this plan on a whim and didn't really go grocery shopping to sustain this so Thursday will have to be the day that I do that but I have enough in my pantry to make it work and I guess I will be able to show you how to do it on a whim huh?

Tomorrow is upper fix extreme so we shall see how that works. I will try to take a picture since I already have to be THAT guy and bring the laptop in with me LMAO I don't know if imma take a selfie if you know what I mean ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! I can't even! Anyway tomorrow is another day! 1 day down 20 more to go.

21 Day Fix Extreme

SO, I totally bought into the hype and ordered the 21 Day Fix Extreme program. I didn't do the 21 Day Fix ever really. I bought it and it sat on my shelf because I was pregnant and then I had diastisis recti and was waiting for that to calm down and then Body Beast came into play.

**REAL MOMENT** I only lost 4 pounds on Body Beast and I have lost a bunch of inches but I was REALLY bulking. My arms were growing and so were my legs and while I was losing inches I wasn't really digging the look that Body Beast was giving me. I didn't like it because my goal since I have had my baby was to get back into my old clothes.

I had a hard time with Body Beast and the lack of results that I wanted despite knowing the type of program I was doing and was sad that I wasn't getting what I wanted even though the workouts were less than an hour and were still tough........

Bring in 21 Day Fix Extreme. I have hit a plateau, I have done everything from eating paleo and very strict paleo to heal my gut and did the Beast. I have also gone to the doctor and got my thyroid checked, changed my birth control, and my weight has moved so it has not been for a lack of trying and seeing if it was something hormonal that was going on. I even gave up candy successfully when I took on my paleo lifestyle and made it a permanent fixture in my life. So here I am with a struggle to find a solution as to why this is happening so the last thing I could think of to hit this plateau was portion control.......maybe if I give my body that kick in the butt it needs and still do it paleo style I will be able to get rid of this weight and inches that are lingering.

The premise of the 21 day fix is obviously portion control. So I am at the lowest calorie bracket, I upped it one more so that I could adjust to the eating and the last 2 weeks I will bring myself down. With going up one bracket I only add a fruit, carb, veg and 2 tsp of cooking fats I don't see it as that big of a deal because I am going to do it the paleo way so the calorie count will still be low. If I gt hungry I will snack on more vegetables like carrots and that will also add for crunch as well.

I am going to blog every day and take pictures of all my food to keep me accountable and hopefully to encourage people out there to lead a healthy lifestyle and get ideas of what someone eating paleo and trying to heal their gut is trying to achieve this. We shall see how it goes. Tomorrow is day 1.

Self Love

Self-love............

It's something that is being talked about a lot in my world lately and examples of self-love not happening is around me and of course I am now paying attention.

This is something that I have a hard time with. Truly, we love other people but do we love ourselves. I find that I am most critical of myself, I can almost honestly say that with the exception of being in a really ugly relationship no one other than myself said anything derogatory towards me. I was and have been after I had children always hard on myself.

I was once 98 pounds and happy. I didn't see a problem with how much I weighed because no one ever told me otherwise, I went to the Army gained a ton of muscle and weight and felt great and again because no one said anything. Weight wasn't an issue. After I had my son I gained 65 pounds happily. I did not know what a healthy pregnancy was and no one said I was big I truly thought that I was going to go back to the 105 pounds I weighed because I thought that is what women do.

Boy was I wrong! I held on to 30 of those pounds! I didn't recognize myself and along with my ex mentioning my weight that is when my body dysmorphia started. I saw myself bigger than what I was and I always had something negative to say about my body. I hated my stomach and I hated what my child did to me. Mind you, I now know that it was all my fault and if I didn't open my face to all the Chinese, pizza, and double servings of my mothers cooking things would have been different. When you are 19 and having a kid common sense isn't there. Now, I know different.

I know a lot of things that are different and now that I am taking care of myself optimally in a way that I never have I am truly loving who I am on the inside and outside. I am becoming a different, softer person, that has more compassion, love and a lot less anger. I will throw it out there just in case. I love my children more than my own life and they absolutely make me happy! I was young and didn't know any better. Hell I didn't know life really. I look back and the journals I had when I was 19 and I was in NO way ready to be a mother never the less a wife to someone. Ah but such is life and it was and continues to be a never ending lesson in my life. I digress,

This year I am on a journey to love myself......it hasn't been easy........Last month was TERRIBLE in the self love department and I know that I need to change. I am done being stubborn and I am going to make changes to making myself love a priority in my life.

So what is my plan? Well first of all I am putting my health first. I am currently on the autoimmune protocol. What is that? It is an elimination diet to heal the gut and find what irritates it so that I can live a more optimal life. Lately, I have had a lot of digestive upset in the form of IBS symptoms and I know it is because of my yo-yo dieting and cleanses and things that I didn't know were terrible for me. I am starting my slate clean and eating meats, veggies, and healthy fats and concentrating on nutrient density and eating REAL FOOD. No shakes, no pills other than my birth control and probiotic I am just literally keeping it real. I feel like once I get my health in check and starting making better food choices, getting good sleep and reducing stress I will be better to come from a deeper place of love and slowly see the progress I have made in my health rather than look at everything that is wrong.

I think that I am going to make self love a series on this blog because it is something I obviously have a bunch to say about and I think that more women need to love themselves and appreciate the moment and season they are in right now rather than always looking ahead and taking care of everyone else but themselves.

Until next time! XOXOOX