The Vicious 5 lb Cycle

I have spent years trying to lose weight.  Sometimes it was effective, and others it was not.  Before becoming pregnant with my son, I had managed to lose nearly 40 lbs, but it was a lot of effort.  I was eating a pretty restricted calorie diet, and working out 2-4 hours a day.  That was pretty easy when it was just my husband, Bob the cat, and myself.  Then I got to hear those magic words “You are pregnant.”  We were ecstatic to finally hear that news after three years of trying.

The pregnancy for the most part was uneventful.  I didn’t suffer morning sickness, and the little one didn’t dance on my bladder too much.  About 6 months in though, I started suffering from edema and pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH).  This caused me to swell like a balloon and my blood pressure to sky-rocket.  Funny thing is, I never suffered the true symptoms one gets from PIH.  I never had headaches or got dizzy.  I just had blood pressure numbers that were off the charts.

This went on for the remainder of my pregnancy, until eventually I had to have a c-section.  This was not how I wanted the pregnancy to go, but the end result was a beautiful little boy who is now 8 years old.

Moving on to the now.   I was able to lose the weight once my son was born, but it took work.  I was doing multiple workouts per day, and counting calories like a fiend.  This worked, but eventually burned me out.  Even though I was eating with in a range to maintain my weight, it was not working.  Slowly, but surely the weight crept back on, and it didn’t matter how much effort I put in to trying to lose.   Hence the 5 lb cycle title to this entry.  I lose and gain the same 5 lbs, and finally got tired of it.

I went to my doctor and had some blood work done after explaining my situation to him.  The results came back showing leptin insensitivity.  Leptin is the hormone that helps you realize you are full, and also tells your body to burn the energy.  I have no problem knowing when I am full, but am sitting in starvation mode when it comes to fat burning.  At this moment I am attempting to get my leptin back in to order by focusing on building a routine.  This means I wake up at the same time every day,  I eat at the same times every day, and I go to bed at the same time every night.  I also have to stop staring at the tv or my phone an hour before bed, to relax after the exposure to blue light to help me sleep better.

It hasn’t been easy, but I am nearly a week in to the plan and working hard to not give up on it.  The two difficult things for me are eating within a half an hour of waking, and no snacks.  The second wouldn’t be a big deal if I had decided to try the Transform plan, which requires two snacks a day.  I have learned to just place them all in with my lunch, and make certain to track my macros.  It is not going to be easy, but it will get done.

Until next time…

Stretching It Out

So, I have been quiet the past few days.  Things have been relatively busy here.  Nothing like fighting fleas when your cat is an inside pet!  This required stripping down a queen size bed, vacuuming, then spraying with Knock Out.  The little one and I headed out to the pet store during this time to get some Frontline and come home to chase and treat the beast.  While tedious, this proved to be something easily tackled on my own.  Still have four more rooms, but the main bedroom is done.  Yay!  The remaining weekend will be broken up to get the other rooms done, and then pray silently for success.

Exercise-wise I decided to find a nice yoga routine to do instead of my normal weightlifting.  Don’t get me wrong, I love lifting weights, feeling the muscle tension happen as you lift and release a dumbbell, but after a few days of slinging boxes at work, I wanted something different.  Yoga is this different.  For me, I don’t feel like I am working out in yoga.  I focus on the breathing and the motions to move from one position to the next.  Also, since I ran the day before, stretching seemed like the best thing to do.

I used Youtube to locate a new channel, and started of with a beginner’s stretch routine.  It wasn’t extremely long and I was able to do it while the little one slept on the couch. If the weather turns nasty like it is threatening to do today, I may pull up another routine to do this afternoon.

That being said, I am going to rant a bit.  I purchased a Fitfusion membership about a month ago, excited to do this on my TV.  Nothing against Fitfusion’s quality and quantity of videos — it really is pretty awesome — but there is no ability to use it with an Xbox or Playstation connection to your TV.  There is also no app for my Vizio Smart TV in the back room :(.  I have been using it on my iPad and computer, but was hoping to see it on a bigger screen.   I should probably write to the company and offer the suggestion to make it usable on these formats.  I’m certain I am not the only one who has ran into this issue.  We shall see.  Here’s hoping everyone has a lovely day!!

GiftRocket

I don’t make it much of a secret that I like to try and earn extra spending money through sites such as Bing, Swagbucks, and Achievemint.  All have been wonderful in providing me with splurge money.  The former two send payments through their sites.  Achievemint uses GiftRocket to pay out their gift, and this is my post on my experience with them.  I admit I had wonderful experience with GiftRocket. Once alerted that they had my gift card, I was able to easily access the site and choose to have my payment provided to me through Paypal.  You have other choices, but I already have a Paypal account and went with that.  When there was a delay, I contacted customer service and heard from them in a quick and timely fashion.  They explained the situation and stated that my payment was on its way.  They weren’t kidding :).  The payment was in my account the next day.  The customer service rep maintained contact with me through the process, and that is what makes a difference in my opinion of a company.  In a world where many forget the customer, GiftRocket does not.  I had a great experience, and I definitely would use GiftRocket again and recommend this site to all as a safe way to send gift cards to friends and family.  Want to check them out for yourself, then go to http://www.giftrocket.com/.

Guesstimating doesn’t always work

Perhaps when adding spices or trying to win a prize at the local fair, guessing a bit can be harmless.   However, when trying to win the battle of the bulge, literally, I realize my guesstimating is doing more harm than good.  While I am working out like a fiend, what I am shoving in is still enough to keep me at the same weight instead of going down.  What good is awesome muscles if you can’t see them.  So back to the grind of counting what goes in my mouth, be it bean or cookie.  

On a side note, I am currently in week 3 of P90x and doing fantastic.  The workouts are challenging enough, but not so difficult to make me want to give up.

On another side note, I have started writing again.  Not too many pages in, but it is a start to my creative side again besides the occasional blog, tweet, or status update :).

Until then…

So Sleepy

While I love this time of year, I find it is one that is always rough on my body. Fall, the time of chilly nights and hot days, and sinuses that pitch a blooming fit at every turn. I have still been working on getting my running and workouts in, but I find it so hard to want to come out of the confines of my warm blanket in the morning.

I try to tackle this with my Flonase and a cup of coffee, but even those tend to wane quickly. The most I can do is push through this, because soon outside workouts in my backyard will be a thing long held off until spring arrives again.

I hope you all are having a good day, and working through your own struggles. Still sitting at a one pound lose since last week. That just means I need to work on upping my game a bit in the coming days/weeks :).

Excuses will not be accepted

We tend to make excuses as to why we can’t do one task or another. I slept in so I can’t workout. Well, I ate poorly, so why work out. I could go on and on with this. I admit that there are times life throws us curve balls we can’t dodge no matter how hard we try, but for the petty excuses we need to stop. You want to be healthier, look better, feel better, then you better step up to the plate. Here is the reason for my excuses rant today.

No excuses! Just Smiles!

This is my son with an allergic reaction to penicillin. It is not so much the swelling, which is heartbreaking to see, that I want you to focus on. Instead, take a look through the blur and you will see a smile on his face. He is poofy, itchy, swollen, and —while he should be beyond miserable–smiling his little heart out. He refuses to use this as an excuse to ruin his day, and will do as he always does–make the best of it, and we should too. No excuses.

Today vs. Tomorrow

One Foot in Front of the Other

Gets you where you need to go. That is how I am trying to approach my weight loss this time. Just one step, and then another, and then another. There is no rush to get to the end, just as long as I get there.

Successes for me this week are:

Running a 13 minute mile without keeling over
Finishing up the last week of SparkPeople’s 28 day boot camp dvd (4 more days to go!!)
Slipping into a size medium dress (ranged for dress sizes 7-9!!)

I am getting there, one foot in front of the other, one step at a time.

Starting over (again)

Don’t take the title too close to heart. I am not upset at having to start over. I think the main reason is even when I came back after the birth of my son, I wasn’t all too ready to lose the weight and wasn’t quite ready to give myself more time. I don’t have the luxury of staying at home with my son, and that shouldn’t make you stay at home moms think I think you have it easy. I know you don’t, but that would be a job I would be quite content at having :). So long story short, I felt that giving time for myself was taking time from him, and I already have so little with him because of my outside job. I have come to terms with that though, and when I did officially “come back” I went from 190lbs to 168 lbs. This has been about a year steady at this weight, which means I do know how to maintain, but I am not ready to stop at 40 lbs or so over my “Ideal” weight.

I am making it a point to give myself my “me” time, and using my early mornings to work up a sweat before I head out to work, which I must admit controls my stress level. I am also attempting to be able to run a 5k. I am currently waiting on my new shoes to arrive, with Gore-tex!!–because soaked feet are no fun, even though I really enjoy the running/jogging part :).

This will not be easy, this will not be fast, but I have myself, my friends both irl and at SparkPeople, and you the random viewing of my blog to join me in this journey :).

My honest journey down The Honest Company Road

So, in a day and age where organic this and organic that is pushed at us from all angles, it can be quite exhausting to find a product that works for you.  I am in the same boat, and with trial and error have found a nice sampling of products that have won my heart, skin,  and home over.

This is becoming one of those items.  I admit I was quite skeptical of a company founded by a celebrity, especially with all the icky items being pushed on us every time we turn on the television.   I would be more specific, but in the interest of not ticking off someone who could sue me into the ground and out into China, I am leaving it simple.  I must warn my readers I tend to go into rants that totally veer from the main point of my blog, but I promise to always get back on topic.

And here it is, lol.  The company I am referring to is The Honest Company, created by Jessica Alba and Christopher Gavigan–https://www.honest.com/.  It provides families the chance to have diapers and household items shipped monthly to their homes.  These items are natural and crappy chemical-free.  Okay, so that last bit is paraphrased by me, but you get the idea.  Good products created with items the general populace can pronounce without pulling out a PhD.  I like that.  I also believe in a company who responds back to you even in a short comment.  I have found this to be the case when posting to the company’s Facebook page.  It shows a connection to the people who will help keep the company growing and expanding its reaches across the globe.

So, customer service check, but what about the products you ask.  Well, I have to say they give you the chance to try out some of their items with a free trial (you may opt out of the monthly membership any time after the trial ends, by the way).  I took that chance, and a few days after signing up received my package in the mail.  It contained 7 diapers, a pack of wipes, healing balm lotion, shampoo/body wash, regular face/body lotion, detergent, and hand soap.  All the sizes are enough for you to get a good idea of the product you are using and to decide which ones will work for you.

My opinion on my diaper sampling is very positive.  They are extremely sturdy, fit my little one well, and come in cute designs.  My favorite thing about them is that I do not feel that I am going to rip the strap off trying to attach it while my son is attempting gymnastics on the changing table.  In som more favorable words– these diapers do not feel cheaply made, they perform to my high level of standards on absorbancy and fit, and I will mention it again–they are cute!  The same can be said for the wipe as well.  They are just thick enough to get the job done, and were actually wet when I pulled them out of the package making them quite able to clean my baby’s booty.  So another thumbs up.

I have also had the ability to try out the other sample items as well, except for the detergent, so I cannot give an opinion on it yet.  However, I have just as high accolades for the items I have tried.  The first would be the hand soap.  It has a light fragrance to it. So I can wash my hands and not feel like I have bathed in a bottle of perfume.  The same can be said for the lotion. While the produce is fragrance free, the ingredients used to create it give a pleasant scent instead of that empty smell you get when using similar items.  It doesn’t leave your skin greasy, another one of my pet peeves with similar products.  I have also used the shampoo and healing balm on my son and found both to be just as great. I will have to wait for a few more tries with them both to give a full-on opinion, but do like how they have performed so far.

The final point to bring up is the cost.  A monthly shipment of diapers is roughly  $85 (that includes shipping if you just do the diaper package), and roughly $40 (that includes shipping if you just do the essentials package) and around $118 per month if you do both. I’ve done the math on my own spending habits, and found that I spent just as much, if not more, buying similar items at the local grocery store.  So the cost is doable, and they send it to your house. No driving to pick it up.  Nothing like something that helps cut out one store trip from our already busy days.

So, can a celebrity put a product out there that you can feel good about? The answer is yes. And that celebrity’s name is Jessica Alba and  the product/company is The Honest Company.

P.S.  As I try more of the products, I will give more feedback to you all :).