Day 13- I'm going to be a coach!!!

I'm so excited! Earlier this week I made the decision to become a coach! I will be trained by Beach Body to help others reach their fitness goals and to motivate progress towards a healthier lifestyle! Currently, I've lost 28 pounds and am still going! I am more active, energetic, and feel happier about body than I have since I started college! I love Turbo Fire and will be starting up T25 soon. Shakeology has seriously changed my appetite and my cravings for junk. Joining the Beach Body Challenge in January has changed my life by helping change how I take care of me!

Before picture... 215 lbs October 2014. 

10 Months Postpartum, Size 18, XXL

Progress Picture...28 lb LOSS. May 2014.
Week 17 of Beach Body Challenge.

Size 12, Large

Read my story on previous posts to learn about what I'm doing differently and my weight loss journey. This has been an amazing experience so far and I plan to continue working towards a healthier body and lifestyle- for myself and for my family!  I'll be starting my second challenge soon for T-25! 

If you want to do a Beach Body Challenge to kick off the summer you need to contact me so I can get you on board!!!

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I'm going to make some Shakeology and plan a workout this afternoon while I wait for my students to kill it at their competition! We're in Atlanta, Georgia for DECA and I am so proud of my students! I think if they've worked hard and prepared we could have some awards coming our way! 

We walked a lot today and yesterday. That's been awesome! Standing in line for Superman at Six Flags for 3 hours was not so awesome. We spent 6 hours at an amusement park and went on 2 rides! Woo hoo! But the time I've spent with my students and laughed was so much more fun. Today they're starting to compete, but we'll go tour the CNN Center later. 

I miss Taylor and Shane, but I know they're having their own "fun" this weekend as Shane flies solo with Taylor. 

Taylor and Shane having "Daddy/Daughter time" for breakfast!

Day 12- Beating Plateaus!

Day 12- Beating Plateaus!

Well, I think I went an entire week without posting... I'm not going to go back and try to make up what I missed... It was a good week though!

Yesterday I beat my plateau! I was stuck at 190 since mid march. It was my 25lb point which was a huge deal for me! I kept hovering in the low 190s and couldn't get past it. Reminding myself that it would eventually past if I put in the work, I saw my results yesterday. I weighed 189.5! Yes, a half pound down and I was celebrating! It wasn't about the number, but about the perseverance to keep going and to not give up. Today, I weighed in at 187.5! That's a 12.7% loss from my starting weight.

I'm continuing to get better at Turbo Fire and Taylor sometimes will clap and cheer me on or even start trying to do squats with me!

Seeing those small triumphs gave me a second wind of motivation, a much needed pay off, and confidence in the new habits I've formed. By the way, I LOVE eating grape tomatoes with my lunch!

I've decided that I'll finally post my before and "during" pictures this week. There will never be an "after" picture because I'll never be finished. This isn't something I'm doing until I reach my goals and then will stop and go back to the way it was before.

Weight loss aside, I have loved some of the things that I've done to help bring the Spirit into our home. It really does make a difference. So besides me reading to her, Taylor also has a love for me singing to her. She will just rest quietly in my lap while I sing to her. I don't get it- I sound like a dying country singer. Yeah, dying... in the process of dying. It's pretty bad, but she doesn't seem to mind. Maybe it's all those hours she sat in my belly while she listened to me teach at school. When she was little I used to make up songs or raps even about random Taylorisms. Our special song that always soothed her was "You are my Sunshine".

Lately, I've been singing hymns or Primary songs to her. I think she recognizes some from the ones she hears at church on Sundays- especially the Sunbeam song!

I love that the Spirit can still be felt when we're in the car together and I'm singing the Army of Helaman. I hope she feels something too. :)

Day 13- I Hope They Call Me On A Mission

Today at church we had the privilege of hearing from the missionaries during Sacrament Meeting. I loved their talks, passionate and encouraging testimonies, and invitation for us to rejoice in the Gospel! Shane and I have talked about it before, and we'd like to serve a mission when we're retired. I wanted to serve a mission actually before I met Shane and think I would love it. 

This weekend we had Shane's best friends and their wives come over for a BBQ. I did my best to work out before and ate a lunch to accommodate the extra calories for the festivities. My bun method is still my best friend at BBQs. I could even just use a half of bun and be fine. We didn't serve any soda and had our friends bring fruits and a garden salad. I did overeat on my favorite chips Ruffles Cheddar & Sour Cream and apple pie. 

But this morning, after breakfast, I was able to recruit our friends to do Turbo Fire with me! It was so much fun to work out with friends! We killed it! Their little boy even tried some of the moves with us. 

Day 14- Getting Prepared for Atlanta

This Friday I leave for a 6 day trip with some of my awesome students for DECA ICDC in Atlanta Georgia. I've made the decision that I will be taking my Magic Bullet with me to make Shakeology, KIND granola bars, grape tomatoes, mandarin oranges, and Turbo Fire to stay on track. I am excited because DECA is hosting a 5k while we are there and I'm going to register! I haven't done a 5K since before Taylor was born! I'm getting out of my comfort zone! With change, comes change!

Taylor is getting better at talking and is getting better at exercising her independence. Lately, she's been wanting to play in the trash can, turning off Shane's computer, or not following directions when we ask her to come to us. We just started doing time outs.... ahhhhh! Sometimes she screams and cries and other times she think it's funny to see if she can run away from  time out and out smart us. She is a clever little girl and really has a sweet heart, but she is definitely trying to see where her boundaries are. It's such a new learning experience for us- entering into discipline and rules. I'm really wanting discipline with love and guidance to show her how to behave and how to kind. We have no idea what we're doing though, but at least Shane and I are both on the same page and support each other when the other is having to handle a situation with Miss T. 

I'm going to miss them both so much! Last time I had a work trip, I came home after 3 days and cried when I held Taylor in my arms. 

I also discovered a new blog today that has tons of healthy, inexpensive, meal ideas! She lives in my neighborhood and really has put in a lot of work to her meal planning! I want to go to one of her classes I think. 

Day 11- Why be afraid?

So confession time... when I went to the IMC midwives earlier this week they weighed me as part of their regular routine. I remember that when I weighed in with them while I was pregnant their scale was ALWAYS 5 pounds above what I was weighing at home. Even if I weighed myself with the same clothes on and not eating or going to the bathroom in between, their scale always gave me 5 extra pounds. Sadly, my scale could be giving me a 5 pound kindness. Either way, consistency is what matters.

Consistently, I've been hovering between 190 and 195 for weeks. At the IMC, their scale put me at 200!!! I'm going under the assumption that I was probably at a peak for the day of 195 and their scale was giving me the 5 extra. I'm not crazy. I know that either their scale is wrong or my scale is wrong, but the two scales are always 5 off.

It doesn't matter that the scales are off, but what hit me at the IMC was that I still haven't dipped below 190. So I started reflecting on some of what I've learned from Turbo Fire. I asked myself, "Have I worked my hardest? If you don't know your limits, then you haven't been there yet. Can you push harder? Can you jump higher?"  I may have been saying that I care and want to lose more weight, but have I been acting like it? Nope. I know without a doubt, if were still doing the Beach Body Challenge with the motivation and effort that I was putting in at the beginning, I could've taken myself farther. Why not then? Why get comfortable? Why be afraid? Is it overwhelming? Yes. But the great success and changes I saw earlier this year were because I didn't care if it was scary, uncomfortable, or overwhelming. It only made me stronger. I don't regret it AT ALL so I need to be stop being afraid.

Even though today was supposed to be my rest day for the challenge, I did Hiit 15 and will be doing it again tonight. I ate one of my favorite salads for lunch:

Sunrise Salad:

arugula and spinach

cuties, peeled and segmented

glazed walnuts

low fat feta, crumbled

2 slices of bacon, crumbled

balsamic vinaigrette dressing

I'm calculating my calories and will be fixing a new recipe for dinner. I'll post it if it's a keeper!  I will reach my goal to get below 190 before school starts next Monday! 

Mommy bragging moment! Taylor has approached me today at least 15 times to want me to read to her. Different books and different times of day. My little girly loves me to read her books. She never is asking to get down off my lap to go play, she is instead saying "more, more, more" for me to keep reading to her! LOVE HER!!!!

Day 9- sprinng break 2014 woo hoo!

I feel so productive today! We started out our morning with prayer and scripture reading! I worked out to Turbo Fire for 40 minutes and then Taylor and I got ready to go to the park! She loved it so much! She cried when we had to leave. We did laundry together, made an art project with buttons, made some freezer meals, cooked Hawaiian Haystacks, read many books, played, repaired some broken picture frames, and even practiced going to the potty (not me, Taylor)!

It was such a good day. After Shane got home we ate (he said my Hawaiian Haystacks were delicious!) and then headed back to the park! I've  noticed a real difference in our home since we've been regularly reading scriptures and praying individually and together. The Spirit is stronger in our home and we are loving each other with a more Christ Centered love.

Above- Taylor relaxing after a long hard day of fun!

Day 10- We went to a park up north to meet up with some old friends of ours from where we used to live. Those moms are wonderful friends and I've really missed them! It was nice to see how their kids are growing and what they're up to! One of the friends at the park is my Beach Body Coach. She too has plateaued. For me, I think it's because I haven't been advancing in my workouts or in my nutrition. Change makes change. What I'm doing is maintaining. I don't want to maintain though. I want to change and continue to lose. Back to tracking calories tomorrow and working out hard even though it's supposed to be my rest day in the program.

I went back to IMC today about the IUD. Thankfully they were able to take it out... with a lot of yelling on my part. It really hurt! Hopefully my body will heal quickly and will be back to its regular scheduled programming in a month or two. My good neighbor watched Taylor while I had the appointment. When I went to pick her up she was all dressed up. Turns out her own little girl loves to dress up and had quite a fun time dressing up Taylor. I love having a girl because I too loved to dress up when I was younger.

I made cheeseburgers for dinner and should have made a salad with it but I didn't because of time. I should always prep a salad and eat it while I wait for dinner to finish. That used to work really well for me but I became complacent  and didn't think that it was necessary to continue that habit. I was wrong... I love learning lessons along this journey!

Days 6, 7, 8

Day 6- Girls Night!

I did my Turbo Fire workout right when I got home from work. Shane watched Taylor while I went with my best friend to meet up with our old friends that we lived with in college. We went to my favorite place- "Red Iguana" I ordered the same thing that I order every time. I know that it is a lot of calories but it's worth it! That's how I look at food now... some food definitely is not worth it. We had a lot of fun catching up and laughing!

 Day 7-  I love Saturdays!

We started our day right! Playing with Taylor, Shakeology, and working out to Turbo Fire! I made a budget and health friendly grocery list and then headed off to Costco with Taylor. I love Costco! We stocked up on canned fruit for our food storage, items for freezer meals, and lots of fruits and vegetables for the week! That evening, Taylor took a long drive up to Evanston WY to join my brother-in-law and his family for a BBQ. Shane stayed home to study for his CPA. He's working towards taking his first test later this May. It's a lot of work so we've been trying to make time for him to study.

Taylor and I loved seeing her cousins and spending time with their family. When it comes to cheeseburgers, I've learned to have just have one bun. I use the  same bun for one cheeseburger and one hot dog. Salad on the side, yes please! Water to drink, yes please! It was delicious and fun! My sister-in-law and I talked about making freezer jam sometime this summer! We both haven't done it before so I'm excited! In the fall, I want to learn how to make grape juice with my grandma.

Day 8- Sunday is a Special Day!

I've decided that I love working out in the morning and I end up being in a better mood the rest of the day. I'm wondering if I'll be able to wake up early enough to work out in the morning before Taylor wakes up...

I love going to church and feeling the Spirit. I love being able to hear the testimonies of others and to partake of the sacrament. Taylor is starting to run away now at church so that's a new adventure for us.  It's hard too because we have 1pm church and so we're there during the time that Taylor would take her afternoon nap.

I made a delicious dinner for tonight! It's a recipe from "Our Best Bites". I've made their Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas before, but tonight's was definitely my best version of it! Yes, I love mexican food and anything spicy. I know Taylor is my daughter because she ate half of one the spicy enchiladas! She's only one! She kept saying "more! more! more!".

Day 5- I figured it out!!!

I figured it out!!!! Today while I was at work I decided that I'd work out right when I got home. It worked! I worked out while Taylor played in her high chair. Hit 25 is my favorite! Then Taylor and I went to a fundraiser at the Which Wich sandwich shop in Midvale to support Hillcrest DECA. A lot of my students were there! They are so amazing! I'm so lucky to know and them and to get to work with them! I met with the owner and thanked him for working with us. Taylor was practicing saying "por favor" in the car on the way home.

After we ate our delicious sandwiches I took Taylor upstairs for a bath and bed time. She still tasted like pb&j when I kissed her goodnight. I realized though that tonight I wasn't tired. I still had energy to play, clean, or do anything my heart desired ( or that hanging out in my pajamas would allow).

I'm so happy that I figured out a better way to schedule my day though! Work, read scriptures at lunch, work, pick up Taylor, work out while Taylor eats a snack and plays, dinner, play, family prayer, Taylor's bed time, time with Shane and blog. So maybe my sink is full of dishes, but I'm happy and my family is happy!

Today when I prayed with Taylor I can honestly say that I know my prayers are being heard. I know that I feel closer to my Heavenly Father and that I feel humbled when I recognize all that He has done for me. I am so grateful for the Holy Ghost and know that when I listen and follow the Holy Ghost, I am able to recognize His voice more easily and more frequently in my day to day life.

Day 4- Listening to my body

I mentioned this before, but I AM SO TIRED!!! I don't know if I need to go to bed earlier or actually wear my contacts like I'm supposed to but I feel like I'm dragging. My eyes are tired and body is tired. The last couple of nights I have been so tired and it's only 8pm. Tonight, I fell asleep on the couch after I put Taylor to bed. Then I woke up at 8:15 and tried to do Fire 45 with what little energy I had. I Probably did about 10 minutes of it yawning the whole way through and decided- Hey! My body is trying to tell me I need to go to sleep.

Yes, I'm getting close to breaking my plateau and I want to work out regularly. But today my body is telling me something. I need to be going to bed earlier in order for my desired scheduled to be successful. In order for me to spend time with Taylor after work instead of working out, then doing dinner, and then playing with her/Shane and getting chores done... and waiting to work out until after she's gone to bed- I have to go to  bed earlier so I'm not wiped out by 8pm like I'm 80 years old. Even though I know an 80 year old wouldn't be able to keep up with Taylor, my point is made.

I am loving reading the Bible. Right now, I'm learning about Sarah. She had such an interesting life. I'm excited to learn more about the women in the Bible and the role they played in the life of the prophets. Speaking of women in the scriptures, when I was in Junior High I had really low self esteem. Well, not just in Junior High, but that was when I really didn't know my worth to Heavenly Father. My friend Shanda told me once that she wouldn't believe any of the bad things that I would say about myself. She said if I could find it in the Bible she'd believe me. Coming from a family who didn't read scriptures, I was confused. She then opened up the Bible to Genesis 29:17 about Rachel being beautiful and well favored. I'll never forget her showing me that. Later on in college, our Relief Society president introduced me to Proverbs chapter 3 about a righteous and virtuous woman being having far more worth than rubies.

I want Taylor to know her worth. I want her to know that she is a daughter of God.

Day 2- Making the time

I learned today that I have to make the time for fitness. I have to make the time to read my scriptures. I can't just go throughout my day and hope that this magical window of time will appear where I have NOTHING else that is tempting me to spend my time with. I could always find excuses why now is not the best time to meet these important goals. They have to be more important than a TV show, checking Yahoo News on my lunch break, or surfing Pinterest. 

I wanted to have enough time in the morning before I left to work to read my scriptures and have personal prayer. I was dragging though... with the Monday blues. So I placed my scriptures in bag and told myself I would find the time during the work day. During the precious 30 minutes of my lunch break, I pulled out my scriptures. I didn't want to get my orange hands (I eat Cuties every day for lunch) on my scriptures. So, I hopped onto LDS.org and read where I left off from yesterday. I read chapters 2-6 of Genesis. " Therefore shall a ^aman leave his ^bfather and his mother, and shall ^ccleave unto his ^dwife: and they shall be ^eone flesh."  I love this verse! Having read my scriptures and saying a personal prayer really helped to kick the Monday blues!

My chicken patty and fruit lunch was good, but left me starving when I got home. I'm going to have make some changes there. Also, I want to drink more water tomorrow. I am going to try to go through two refills of my giant water bottle. Maybe that will help. 

Shane and I spent our evening with Taylor going out for ice cream. Seriously, ever since I've been counting calories, I've really come to appreciate GOOD food. The ice cream I had was so not worth it. Which makes it easier to say no thanks for the next time. I had the smallest bowl they had, but for $5 and probably 400 calories... um NOT WORTH IT! I could make a salad that tasted better for cheaper and probably 150 calories!

I put off my workout because I was tired. I need to remember, that I get more energy when I work out! Even on the Turbo Fire workouts, they joke about how people complain that they're too tired to work out, but that working out is what gives you the energy. It is so true! I feel so much better after! So tomorrow I'm going to do 3 things:

1. Drink 2 refills of my giant water bottle at work
2. Work out BEFORE 8pm
3. Go to bed by 10pm.

Also, I received a phone call today about the IUD. Yep- it's completely in the wrong place. They wanted to remove it tomorrow, but it's too hard to get a sub on short notice and more work than it's worth for something that might only take 2 hours. I have an appointment for next week during Spring Break. They're hoping they'll be able to remove it, but it might require surgery because it is damaging my insides. Either way, I'm hoping it will heal by the time Shane and I are ready to grow our little family.