And the results are in!

So I have completed my first team beachbody challenge. I have went from 279 pounds to 248 pounds! I also lost a total of 28 inches all over my body, 10.5 inches in my stomach alone! I went from a size 26 jeans to a size 22 (with being able to fit into a size 20 in some styles). I also went from a 3x shirt to an XXL! Most importantly, I learned how to eat healthy, and I feel amazing! My bloodsugars have dropped from the 200's to under 160, still working but in the right direction! My next challenge is 21 day fix, which I will talk about in a later post. Here are my in-depth stats: Starting Information (I lost 4 pounds prior to starting T25, so that's why it is at 275). Weight-275 Waist-56 inches Hips-57 inches Chest-54 inches Arms-17/17 inches Thighs-23/23 inches 30 day results Weight-258.2 inches Waist-54.5 inches Hips-54.5 inches Chest-52 inches Arms-15/15 inches Thighs-21.5/21.5 inches 60 day results Weight-248.2 Waist-50 Hips-52.5 Chest-49.5 Arms- 13.5/13.5 Thighs-20/20 My pictures Day 1 photos

60 day photos

The scale, the evil tricky scale.

Okay, so I am not going to lie, I am obsessed with weighing myself. This can be a good or bad obsession, and sometimes I struggle with which it is for me. I like to weigh myself, because it gives me an idea of how I am progressing for the week. I usually only beat myself up on weigh in day, because I see everyone elses scale moving and mine being over or stuck. It's hard to focus on inches or how I feel or the way my clothes fit, because we live in a society that views the scale as the most important number. I am getting better with it, but it can be discouraging when it doesn't move. So what do I do to overcome this? I focus on my good bloodsugar numbers (morning fasting have been in the 120's, almost normal whoo!), trying on new clothes that fit in smaller sizes, and my inches. It is not easy though, but I also think about what I am doing with my eating and exercising, along with my water consumption and I ask myself am I doing what I need to be doing to see that number drop? For instance, I was waiting too long to eat, and then I would overeat because I didn't eat for several hours. I stopped doing that. Another thing I am working on is drinking a gallon of water a day, this is hard because I don't drink enough, but it keeps me fuller long and takes away those "fake hunger" feelings, yes they do exist. The other thing I am doing is trying to not eat after 8pm. I am a night snacker by nature, and this not only affects my weight because I eat right before bed, when my body is most sedentary, but it also spikes my bloodsugar. Since implementing these a bit, I got to see the scale moving again. That's one of the things I love about Team Beach Body, is it teaches me to listen to my body and adjust it based on what I need. So to anyone who struggles with the number on the scale, I am there with you, I understand. But please keep going and ask yourself some questions. What am I doing differently? What do I need to do to fix it? DO NOT GIVE UP! I promise, the scale will eventually move in the right direction. :-)

Transformation Tuesday

So as promised, on Transformation Tuesday, I am posting my Day 1 and Day 30 pictures, I have about 4 weeks left in the program. I can't see a big change in the pictures, but I can feel the change! :-) If you are serious about losing weight, eating clean and having a great support system, then please contact me or check out my website! This program truly is amazing!

Clean eating and the fabulous fitties

Today I am going to talk about Clean Eating a bit and my amazing support system/challenge group. Clean eating I think for me has been the key to my weight loss so far. I never realized how much bad stuff is in the food we eat. I am an ingredient checker to the max now, I stay away as much as possible from anything with preservitives, GMO's, BPA, etc. I try to eat organic when I can and stick with food that is as natural as possible. The challenge of course comes when eating out, but I've been having fun finding places that offer local, fresh, organic ingredients. Pita Jungle is a huge favorite, Chipotle as well, even Panda Express is allowed. Woo hoo! No but seriously, I don't even crave the bad stuff hardly at all anymore, except for maybe pizza, I love pizza. The previous times I've tried to lose weight, I would eat well but still eat things that weren't great for my body. I purged my entire fridge/pantry and everything I buy fits into my lifestyle. So when I have an urge, I am forced to eat something healthy. Unfortunately with my diabetes, I cannot consume many carbs from grains (rice, quinoa, bread, etc.) it all raises my sugars. But I can eat fruit which is a huge relief, as it helps kill the sugary cravings. I also eat five times a day, and this week has been rough, as I haven't been eating as often as I should and it's messed up my whole metabolism. Crazy how your body becomes so used to something and when you change it, your body reacts. My body reacted by gaining weight. Hopefully with going back to work next week, it will fix my body. I've been lucky to be home for the first half of my program and haven't had to do much meal planning. Tomorrow is my first real experience with that. Will blog about that on a different day. So part of my program is to join a Facebook Challenge Group. This is probably my favorite part of team beach body. As part of my program, I have to post every day in the group talking about my food, water, workout and shake consumption for the day, and any hurdles or wins I may have had. I also must post transformation pictures from the start, 30 day and 60 day as my program is 60 days (some are longer, some shorter)and I must measure myself and post my weight every saturday (or as we call it Staturday!). This group is amazing, you get to see people's transformations, you can ask questions and they are always there to support you as they all want us to succeed. It's so wonderful to have a support system. I also got to meet some of them at a huge Beach Body event where we learned about the business aspect of Beach Body, heard awesome transformation stories and got to do two workouts. We share recipes and we challenge ourselve and use that group for anything we can in order to help us reach our goals. Especially after a tough week like this one, I can start fresh, knowing that my fitfam has my back and I not only want to make myself proud but them too. Beach Body is amazing in every aspect! <3 this program!

Shakeology-Shake What?

So today's post is all about this wonderful drink called Shakeology or Shakeo as we fitties like to call it. This is an amazing meal replacement shake that not only tastes good, but has wonderful ingredients. So what does it do? What's it cost? Can't you make it yourself? It does many things, for me it keeps my full for up to 3 hours, and lots of energy. I drink mine for breakfast, right now since I'm not working, right after my morning workout. I make mine with 4 ounces almond milk, 4 ounces water, ice and a product called PB2. Beach Body is awesome and they give you 30 days worth of recipes and I've tried a good amount of them and haven't found any that I didn't like. They also offer a 3 day cleanse using Shakeology, which I did and lost 8 pounds. The great thing abou Shakeo is is provides you will all your veggies and vitamins for the day, and it helps clean out your system of all those nasty toxins. Now, for the cost. It is 125-130 bucks a month, but I always use the comparison of McDonald's breakfast. I love the egg white delight meal with a coffee and a fruit yogurt parfait. This cost over 6 bucks a meal. If I ate that 5 days a week (which to be honest I did A LOT) it amounts to the same cost as my Shakeo!! So is it really expensive? Nope, you just think it is because of that big number thrown at you, and quite honestly, I don't think I would be getting the same results as I am right now without it. Not to mention my bowels (I know, gross) are super good now and I have always had issues with that (I suffer with IBS-D) and it has pretty much stopped. Beach Body offers Chocolate, Vanilla, Greenberry and Strawberry; As well as Vegan Chocolate and Vanilla. I am currently using Chocolate and am trying Vanilla this month. I strongly encourage anyone with questions to contact me, I am more than willing to answer any questions. :-)

Team Beach Body Saved Me...Seriously

So you have my why and my before pictures. So what exactly am I doing? I get this question a LOT. I am doing Team Beach Body, mostly known for their crazy programs like Insanity and P90X. They are sooooo much more, I can't even begin to express how they have saved my life, I get teary eyed thinking about it. What makes it so different? Many many things. The most important thing, as least for me, is that it taught me how to eat, what to eat, and that I am NOT alone in this journey. Exercise is something I always loathed, so I wasn't motivated by that at first, and some days are harder to push play than others. So, what is Team Beach Body? It is a health and wellness lifestyle, that incorporates clean eating, a meal replacement shake called Shakeology which in itself is AMAZING and then the workouts and there are soooo many!!! The other great thing about Beach Body is the amazing support system, which I will post about later. Today I want to talk about Exercise, my least favorite thing in the world. Currently my program is T25. It is taught by Shaun T and is a 10 week exercise program (Shaun T is the insanity guy...). It has two programs, Alpha and Beta. Alpha is your foundation and Beta kicks your butt (or so I've heard, I'm on my first week!). The workouts are by no means easy, but you have a person who modifies it and is low impact if you need it (and let me tell you, I've needed Tonya on MANY occasions). The focus of my program is on my core, which for me is where alllll my weight is located. It is 30 minutes long (25 for exercise, about 5 for stretching) and on Fridays we do two! There is a set of 10 discs (5 for Alpha and 5 for Beta) and each disc works different areas, much like they do with personal training and each week the workout schedule changes. You get this cool calendar (see below) that you can track and see your workouts! Abs and Total Body Circuit are my least favorite, Core Speed is my Favorite so far and Cardio is a close second. They give you everything you need when you get the challenge pack, and the discs are yours forever! My pack included resistance bands, my calendar, a 5 day meal plan, and a quickstart guide. Awesome right? You also then get invited to this thing called a Challenege Group, through Facebook (this ties into support, will touch on later). I've learned to love squats, but I want a butt and that inner thigh muscle I see all these hardcore fitness junkies with and squats are the key to that! I have to say since I started this program, I look forward to doing my exercise program pretty much every day and if I have to miss a day, I miss doing it. This is HUGE for me, since I am not someone who gets those endorphins from working out, to me it is a job I don't like, but show up because the results have been awesome! I do get sore, I do get tired (Fridays especially, they wipe me out), but when you see the results and see it working, it gets easier. Last week for instance, I wasn't getting enough water and my body wasn't working out as hard. I kept yelling at myself because I knew I could do the workouts but my body was fighting me! Obviously, I figured out that my water intake must be there, as my body depends on it for strength and it can mess everything up! Needless to say I am killing my water intake now, cause I want the next 5 weeks to be amazing! My big reveal will be on my 30th birthday and I want it to really show!! So how has it effected my health? I never ever have to use my inhaler, seriously. I take my control medications (Symbicort and Singulair), but I haven't had to use my puffer since I started! It feels great to up steps and not get winded, or run/walk a mile or bike ride 4 miles and know that I won't be out of breath. I've also cut down my Symbicort from twice a day to once a day! You will have to wait until I post my 30 day stats to find out how it's affect my weight, clothes and inches. Sucks, doesn't it? Haha!!! I will post about Shakeology (or Shakeo as we fitties call it) and clean eating in another post. I encourage anyone interested in the exercise programs that Beach Body offers to contact me, and I will send you a list or talk with you on what type of workout you are looking for. Here is my calendar (I've marked off my workouts, as you can see I finished all of Alpha!)

Here we go...again..oh wait...

So as many of you know, and you can tell from this Blog, I have tried several times to lose weight. I wanted to update you all on what is currently going on in my weight loss/life journey. I am now an active coach for Team Beach Body, and I am in LOVE with this program. I will get into the program a bit later on, but first I want to talk about where I am in life and most importantly, my why. So why now, why this time? What changed? All great questions. First off, I am turning 30 August 1st and this has probably been the biggest wake up call for me. I met a great guy that I fell madly in love with, and the only thing I could think about was spending my life with him and could potentially have met my soulmate. So about a year into our relationship, I decided that I wanted to get healthy, so that one day I could have a baby and be a healthy, active mom. So I went to the doctor to discuss my health. As most of you know I have several health problems, the main ones being Asthma, Depression, Hypothyroidism and Type 2 Diabetes. I met with a different doctor than I usually do and come to find out, my health is declining and at a quicker pace then expected. At that point I weighed 279 pounds, and the doctor told me I needed to lose 10% of my body fat (27 pounds) before she would even consider talking about babies and anything else. So at that point, I decided I needed to change me. No more excuses, no more letting others influence me, it was time to take this Diabetes serious. Unfortunately, my relationship ended (all good on that front, we are still friends and involved in each others lives) but instead of turning to food, I turned to health and exercise. I began walking, and watching what I was eating for about a month. Then I got in touch with my friend Amanda who also has health issues and was about the same weight, and she told me about this program she was going to do. At first I was a little skeptical, because it was expensive to sign up, but then I saw what she was doing and what it taught her, so I had to give it a try. I am currently in my 5th week of the program and I feel amazing! Here is my starting before picture. I will post my after picture in another entry. Team Beach Body baby! #beachbody