Working Out and stuff

Prepare yourself for zero pictures. Today is for reading.

I’ve gotten lots and lots of stuff done around here. But nothing is really fully done. So pictures seem meh.
I’ll try to get around to a sorta-done-stuff picture post in the near future.

For now I just wanted to update you on some little things.

The real thing I wanted to mention was that 21 Day Fix I told you I was doing, over 21 days ago.



It’s a beach body (that’s a workout video company) work out plus diet plan I decided to do because I was feeling like it was time to start caring about my eating and working out again. (Did I ever tell you that because I was SO intense about my eating and working out as I was aiming for a VBAC, I ended up back sliding to the extreme after I had my VBAC? Like for a good month after I had Ruby I ate only pop-tarts and ice cream. Not kidding.) I got sorta on a normal food path -- but not fully, and then with all our food allergy issues and what not food and me were kinda on bad terms.
I thought it over for like a year, (but it’s been almost 2 since I had Ruby -- I CAN’T believe that! Time flies) anyway…I thought it over asking myself this question: “I eat healthy because….” and I’d try to fill in the blank.
I knew I wasn’t going to be able to eat well until I could answer why I was doing it. (Before the answer was VBAC. Now that answer didn’t apply.)
I tried all the “right” answers in the blank. Most often trying, “to be a good example to my girls.” But none of it would inspire me to be healthy for real.
So I just would randomly say that half sentence in my head trying to see if I could figure it out. “I eat healthy because….”
Seriously like a year went by and I couldn’t come up with anything.
I wasn’t terribly unhealthy. I still had an acceptable BMI. But I lost all my muscle. And I knew for sure that I felt better --- more fit and just a general overall sense of wellbeing --- while I was pregnant with Ruby than I felt afterwards. And I mean that’s saying something. I felt better 9 months pregnant than I did a year postpartum. I was HEALTHY while I was pregnant. I was “meh' not.

So, there I was…no reason to be healthy. No way to motivate. I was debating if I’d ever care enough to try.
Then one day the sentence passed through my head just kind of on it’s own, and I answered it! No real thought’s provoked it, so no real thought answered it. Just the depths of me spoke.
“I eat healthy because I want to.”

And then it’s like a light bulb went off.
I guess up until that point that didn’t seem like a good enough reason. So it didn’t even come up. Before I was eating well for something bigger than myself: a goal for me and my family -- this lofty thing that seemed worthy to me. After it was over I guess I didn’t feel worth taking care just because I was me. Because before I had kids I didn’t eat healthy or work out. So I guess I didn’t really attribute the idea to something I would do for myself.

Anyway, once I had that light bulb moment I felt 100% on board with being good to my health just because I wanted to. Because I like being healthy. I like how I feel. I like not feeling sluggish and dull. I like feeling strong and sharp.

BUT…because I’ve kinda dragged myself along this healthy path in strange and emotional ways thus far, I didn’t feel like I could revisit something I’ve done in the past right now. I wanted a fresh start.

I saw the 21 Day Fix and it looked perfect for where I was at. And since I decided I would do it, I did it. (I have that gear, I get in.)

I did the work out every day but one or two I think. I forget now. I think I was sick one of the days (stupid swollen glands in the spring -- no one likes you!) and another day Blake and I had a date night and we just didn’t want to work out that late at night. (Date nights are rare for us -- so we just went for it and said it’s the healthy choice to refresh ourselves.)

I ate the plan probably like 85%-90% perfect.  We had a couple dinners in there that messed it up. And a couple days that I needed to cheat just enough to not quit the whole thing.

SO in 21 days I lost 5 pounds getting me to official pre-pregnant weight and I lost 12 inches over my body. The best part being 2 inches off my not-baby bump. And I just felt SO much better. SO much. Also my skin cleared up a ton. (I think it was the true absence of dairy, outside the date night dessert I ate. Non-dairy is an “our household" thing, not a "21 day fix" thing. My girls have a dairy allergy so we don’t keep it in the house,  I often have it when I am out -- but I just stuck to no dairy it better on this plan because I wasn’t eating out.)
The feeling better is my favorite part. I feel like my body is clothes now. I don’t know how else to say it. Before I felt like my body was there, but now it feels so much more toned I feel like I’m wearing it. I don’t know if that makes sense or not -- but that’s the way it is.

I’m not posting before and after pics right now. I don’t know why exactly. Just feels weird. I took them, but don’t want to right now.” Maybe another time?

I don’t think anyone has to do the 21 Day Fix to achieve this -- it just looked doable to me. And though it costs some money -- it’s actually cheaper than joining the Y for us. (Which I do plan to do eventually. I love swimming laps and want to get back into that eventually.) But anyway for me it was worth the price.

I was so pumped about how well it went that I actually went ahead and got another one of their programs to do next. I’m sure I could have kept up with the 21 Day Fix and saw more results. But -- ok time for the embarrassing part --  I really wanted to try their Brazil Butt Lift program.
With the 21 Day Fix I was seeing awesome results on my abs -- I could see abs definition after it -- not really -- but closest thing I’ve ever had. But I wasn’t seeing much change at all in my hips and butt. And my hips and butt are my “problem area.” So I ordered it. Blake was skeptical but I pointed out there is the money back guarantee and that’s still cheaper than the Y. So he said “ok, but don’t be afraid to use that guarantee.”

So I ordered that and took like half a week off from diet or workouts while it shipped and we had Blake’s family in town helping us with the floors. (During that time I put 2 pounds back on, eating icecream with the fam every night. mmm. so good, so bad! And I also made my skin break out more again with that icecream and other dairy cheating.)
And then I started the Brazil Butt Lift a last week on Monday.
I haven’t eaten any certain way at all this week. Just anything. I’ve also been accidentally hooked on Mocha Frappes (YES, the cheap McDonalds ones…sorry Starbucks.) because I got treated to one on Mother’s Day and my taste buds haven’t let go yet! Working on that. So I know I’ve had at least one if not more this week (it all blurs together anymore. who knows.) So I’ve lost NO weight. BUT in one week I’ve already lost one inch off of my waist, one inch off of my butt, and one inch off of my hips! That’s shocking to me.

This workout is H-A-R-D! I mean crazy death hard at some points. Harder than any workout I’ve done so far in my life. (I’m not cross fit person -- but I’ve gotten fit before.) If I had started with this one I’m pretty sure I would have sent it back and called it all off. So I’m glad I did the 21 Day Fix to break me in (which is also hard in it’s own right. But not THIS hard.) But the hardness is working. And some parts are already getting easier. But then again some parts feel harder since I’m fatigued in certain spots on certain days.
My butt already looks different, and the cellulite on my thighs is very close to gone. And I can tell my butt is a different shape because all my underwear (which I hunted down specifically looking for something that was cute yet wedgie free) are giving me wedgies nonstop. (I’m both excited at the change in my butt, and kinda dismayed that all my hard-saught after underwear are no longer good ones.)
 One week. That’s awesome.

It’s set up for any kind of butt, so if you don’t feel like your butt is like mine (which is big and more pear-shape-body-type-like), you may still like it. He sets of a different routine (how you vary the 5 different work outs) for different butt types to help you get a good butt for you. The different routines cover anything from “too flat and square” to “ too big." And it doesn’t just do your butt. My arms are super worn out today from yesterday. And there is an ab workout that decimates me (after I thought the 21 day fix was attacking my abs…this blows it out of the water.) But I have that lower ab/hip v-shape thing getting carved out on me now -- like for real -- and I can see the start of some abs on the side, like a little square thing almost showing up --- and I’ve never had anything like that before, assumed I never would. It kinda love it just because I am breaking some unwritten law “thou shall not have abs” that doesn’t actually exist.
 (And just being honest -- I don’t plan on keeping these abs at all -- because we do hope to expand our family via my abdomen in the near-er-than-not future -- so this is really just a point of total shocking entertainment for me at this point. I’m honestly just trying to be overall fit again. But this is pretty cool. I do kinda hope to keep my butt I’m achieving -- regardless of future baby-belly, but I don’t have much money on that. lol. But I’d rather start out strong on the booty, since I have to start somewhere.)

Anyway. This program is technically 60 days long. Two months of following your own special routine. So we will see what happens.

I just wanted to update you on on it like I mentioned I would before. (Sorry it’s photographically evidence free -- maybe when I finish the Butt Lift. But no promises. You’ll just have to take my word on it. I don’t ever make stuff up on the blog -- I like to keep it as real as I humanly can.)


And like I said -- I’ll take to take random pics around my messy house to update you on the happens around here.
(It’s not so easy to make sure I work out AND work on the house -- I’m not sure how well this is gonna all go -- but I’m doing it because I want to! So -- that’s a pretty good motivator! )