The Budding Ballerina

Oh my goodness, a post that isn't all about me!!!!

So my daughter, my first born lil preemie baby.... She has impressed me so much over the years. I know they say girls mature faster than boys, but she feels mature even for her age. But she's also tall for her age so she looks like she's 7 yrs old rather and 4. She shows so much compassion and tolerance for her little brother and friends in school that other friends don't get along with. (which kind of sounds like me when I was little. I would always become friends with the new kid, which is why I am still close friends with some of them!)

Recently she lost her first and second tooth. Both where painless on her side. It's possible they wiggled out early because she is a thumb sucker, however, it's not incredibly uncommon for kids her age to lose their first teeth either. Anyhow, she's working on it and we've found a way to help her.

Moving on, she starting taking pre-ballet this month. I kind of forgot that most dance studios take the summer off from classes and are usually only available during the school year. But our rec center had a one month class available, for dirt cheap too!!! Elyse has been asking and asking to do ballet. I had been really hesitant since when we put her in a dance class before, she was all over the place. Then again, she was 2. Now she is 4, about to be 5 and her listening skills have improved tremendously. 

She currently finished 2 weeks, (2 classes) and is in love with it. (yea, a former dancer's dream come true right?)We were watching the So You Think You Can Dance episode from this season, which is about kids, and a ballerina came on and Elyse says "She's a ballerina!! I'm a ballerina!" I did have to break it to her that she's a pre-ballerina, but she was still very excited about it. In the first episode, there was a very tall dancer. She is 13 and 5'10. This gave me hope that even though Elyse is tall, she could still be a ballerina if she wanted to!

So here I am, looking up classes to nurture her desire to dance. However, as one girl said on SYTYCD, "Dance is expensive!" we will have to see how much we can do for her!

I asked her last night, "what do you want to be when you grow up?" I excepted her to say "mermaid" or "princess" or "jedi". She said "Ice skating Ballerina".  Might need Sharon Emo to train her on that!

The life of the Less Caffeinated

Some thing I have been sticking to since my 3 Day Cleanse is that I have been sticking to drinking less caffeine. I love coffee. I mean, LOVE the way it tastes and smells and everything about it. However, I have been having such trouble losing weight and getting my body the way I would like it. So, its time for a change!!

2.5 years ago, when this whole "I need to change my eating and (lack of) fitness habits" started, I gave up soda. I would only have soda at restaurants or parties or in a mixed cocktail before anyways. I didn't really keep soda in the house out of habit. My mom never really let us have sodas in the house growing up.


So now, I still only have soda on the rarest of occasions. I've maybe had 1 soda in all of 2016.  With that I want to start with reducing my caffeine intake. My kids are kids, not babies, which means they sleep through the night and can occasionally entertain themselves and are less and less reliant on me. Which leads me to believe, I don't NEED a full cup of coffee, everyday. I've been having decaf or teas. This is why I say "less caffeine" and not "giving up caffeine".  There is still caffeine in decaf, and there is also caffeine in some teas, such as green tea, or black tea.

So far so good. Since I had to go through the first days in the 3 day cleanse anyways, which were the worst. I would hate to let myself get back in the habit of having caffeine just to attempt to cut it out again.

Also, in the beginning of the year I gave myself a goal of 1000 miles in a year. Thats 1000 walking or running miles. Lets say with the end of June being my half way, and I should only 500 miles left to go from there... I'm VERY behind. With that in mind, I have been trying to catch up a little and started running again.

Running this week has reminded me why I've stopped. I have been walking/running a lot this week and besides all the mileage that came with it, I also revamped my plantar fasciitis, have insane sports bra rash and blisters all over my foot. Yay!!!

I will be going back to long fast walks for awhile trying to catch up!!!

3 Day Refresh - Day 3 and 4

Hello from Day 2 post refresh!!!

Yesterday got away from me so I am posting a day late!

Day 3 - It was easier than the previous days, but hard at the end of the day. Being so close to the finish and yet not being finished. I was feeling an awesome allergy attack come on that morning, so I refrained from exercise except the regular scheduled kid chasing, house cleaning and teaching that evening. I did great in the morning without coffee, and for the first time, I actually thought the taste of shakeology was good! I would even stretch it to say delicious!

I have not be a fan of the taste of Shakeology. However, I am a sweet tooth kind of person and I always forget, it's not really a dessert! But I've grown to really enjoy it now. (I'm currently drinking their new cafe latte flavor and really enjoy it!) Through the 3 day refresh I was drinking the chocolate vegan. I didn't mind it at all. My husband was not a fan. However, I prefer it over the regular chocolate shakeology.

So day 3 went well, I stuck to the plan, I didn't have any carb cheats. Then at the end of the day, I was talking to my husband on his way home from work and I say "I want pizza" as a vent. He says "I've had a bad day. I'm okay with that." " well needless to say, we both caved and had pizza that night". I'm done with feeling guilty about my cheat meals. Guilt leads to stress, and stress leads to weight gain. So I just accept that I love food, and I love the taste of unhealthy foods. Just need to have them a lot less and in moderation!

However, I weighted myself before I consumed the delicious slice of heaven and as it turns out, I lost a total of 3lbs on the 3 day refresh. I understand that it may not seem like much but for where I am at on my weight loss journey, any loss is a win for me! Since I have hit my plateau, It has been incredibly difficult to lose anything. I've stuck with programs, changed them up and my eating is 90% better than it was even 6 months ago when I hit the plateau. I indulge on rare occasions (date nights, vacations, mom nights out) but these are not regular events. I work out daily, and by work out I mean I sweat a waterfall coming down my face, and continue to challenge myself with new workouts.

The 3 day refresh was one of them.

Review: Will I buy 3 day refresh again?  - Likely not. Unless I gain a lot of my weight back, I don't feel that I needed to spend the $50+ dollars for the shakes and fiber sweep. I feel like if I wanted to cleanse myself like that again, I would use the knowledge I got from it (3 shakes a days as meals, no caffeine, dairy, carbs. Add a fiber drink like psyllium husk, eat fruit, veggie and healthy fats and stick to it). Also, I have a hard time, as most people do, being completely restricted. Even for 24 hrs. Obviously, I added a few things off the menu and maybe my results could have been bigger. But in the grand scheme of it all, 3 days will not give you permanent weight loss. What I did get out of it was more than "results".

What I did get out of the program is getting my head back in the healthy eating game. Which leads me to day 4.

Day 4 or Day 1 post refresh: on day 3 I was thinking "Im going to make myself a REAL breakfast tomorrow. Eggs with spinach and mushrooms and its gonna be amazing!" Well I woke up and decided, I wanted to make better choices as I have been, but even better. So I stuck to my shakeology, happily had a salad for lunch. I am just in a better state of what foods are good for my end result. I am back into being motivated and staying on track! Woo hoo!! Even today, post refresh day 5, I went and enjoyed a cup of coffee. 5 min later, I got the jitters. FROM COFFEE!!!DRIP COFFEE!! I've never been one to feel the effects of coffee. Now I do!

On Monday I will be starting Master's Hammer and Chisel. Now that I've completed 21 Day Fix and 21 Day Fix extreme, I'm ready for a new workout! I will still be doing Bikini Body Guide 2.0 as well because I do believe an hour workout will help me out! We will see where it takes me!

3 Day Refresh - Day 2

Ok Day 2 has come and gone. Whew!!

Definitely Day 2 has been the hardest. Day 1, it was a hard adjustment but I was still excited about it.

Day 2, most of the day I was thinking... omg.... one more day of this!?

Day 3 (today) - I've woken up feeling sick with a cold or allergies which I don't think is related to this program. But will discuss that tomorrow.

So Day 2, I spent most of the day home trying to avoid eating out and sticking to the plan. I didn't exercise at all which is unusual for me. I took Elyse to school, Alistair to a playdate at the park, picked Elyse up, and did household work (cleaning, laundry, more cleaning, cooking, tutoring Elyse, more cleaning)

Side note: the more your kids are home, the more your house becomes a disaster.

This kept me pretty busy and it was actually really nice to slow down for a day, pay attention to the kids and the house and put working out and getting errands done aside. It was amazing. It was like being a new mom again when you are basically stuck at home because you're exhausted and you're just trying to get through the day with your child and the easiest (in a life that isn't easy at all) thing is to stay home, on the couch, ready to care for your child at any moment. Except, now I have 2 and they are kids and can cover my 3100 sq ft house floor with toys in 30min.

Anyways, I was tired, but not as tired as day 1, and I wasn't hungry, but I wanted something to crunch/snack on. So again, I went to my pita chips mid afternoon, and may have snuck in a few stale pieces of chex cereal that my kids left out. But all in all, I would say I was about 90% stuck to the program. I had all their shakes and no coffee, and drank my water, etc.

As of today, I have lost a total of 1.7 lbs. So, likely its water weight, but at least the scale is going in the right direction!!!

3 Day Refresh Day 1

I didn't post yesterday because I felt like I needed to get through the whole day before I could give my review!

So Day 1: Started out with  8oz of water which I warmed and added lemon juice to. Then on to Vegan Chocolate Shakeology and half a banana. I assume I was suppose to blend them together, but that sounded like more work. 

After taking a 3 mile walk with the kids I had a tea break and drank my fiber sweep. Tea was good, fiber sweep, not so much. I chugged than down as fast as possible.

After some time at the playground we went home for lunch. Lunch was their Vanilla Shake with the other half of the banana, 10 baby carrots and hummus. The shake was also not very tasty :(

After a grooling afternoon of chasing the kids around the house and trying to stay awake, it was finally dinner. Dinner was another gross shake and instead of going with one of the recipes in the book, I had a cup of carrot and ginger bisque. It did the job. 

Although I was about 98% sticking to the plan, I had a mid afternoon freakout about how sluggish I was feeling and has a few pita chips to mentally get me through the rest of my day. As a sahm, I feel like I have to have my guard up 24/7 and I also have to teach a Body Back and Fit4Baby class in the evening. I was a little embarrassed to say,  I still showed up to class tired and likely not in the best shape. 

I do feel that the sluggish feeling came more from the caffeine withdrawal than the food. Also, being on any kind of "cleanse" is a bit of a mental game for me. I binge eat the night before, then through the entire "cleanse" all I can think about is everything I can't have! It's almost worse! 

All in all, day one went by much more successfully than expected. When I got home from teaching all I wanted was to eat and was able to refrain.  I am not as hungry as I thought I would be today, but I am becoming a hermit because I don't want to leave the house and be tempted to make a bad decision. It's only 3 days! I can do this! I did not wake up feeling any thinner or lose a lot of weight (lost a pound) and that was a little discouraging with all the effort I've put in to NOT eat things. But thats okay!

Its nearing the end of day 2, and I'm in the same boat as yesterday. Tired, and all I can think about is a Togo's hot pastrami sandwich. Thankfully washington doesn't have a Togo's for me to go to, but I look forward to having one in July (which feels so far away) Hopefully I will have better results on the scale or with how I feel tomorrow!

Beachbody is now in my life

Most of my current journey revolves around a few things. My family and my own fitness goals. So these are the posts you will see from me!

You might think, "what about a job or career?" well, my family's wellness is my "job" in a sense and instead of focusing on a money making job, I am going to be better about embracing my young children while they are still young and I have the blessed opportunity to stay home with them. That being said, I do make a small income with falls in line with my fitness goals as an instructor.

As a fitness instructor, I do like to walk the talk and trainers need trainers too!!! I have had a life long struggle with my weight and body imagine, as I assume lots of people my age have had as well. Dieting was something I just ruled out as a possibility for the magority of my life. I would not consider changing my eating habits to have a better body, because, well, I love food and it's apart of my life!

I'm going to fast forward this story a little since we all know how I joined Fit4Mom's Body Back, lost the baby weight, gained it back with Starbucks and lost it again last fall. Before I re-lost the weight,  and I was struggling with losing weight but was having trouble with motivation. My friend Courtney recommended that I tried 21 Day Fix. As far as I got with that was ordering the program from amazon and reading the program. I still couldn't find the motivation and time to start the program. She had had amazing success from the program and I wish I had started then.... but I didn't. It was all too overwhelming with being a sahm with 2 jobs and training for a marathon at the time. (reasonable right??)

Well, when I started weight watchers last fall, I started an at-home workout program called Bikini Body Guide (not to be confused with Bikini Body Mommy, they are different programs, both great!). The biggest struggle with BBG was that it was at home. No one there to push me or to tell me to start the timer and just workout. But I got it in my mind "if you start a program, you can't complain about it unless you give it a real chance". Not that I wanted to complain, but I wanted to just start my healthy lifestyle again!

I finally finished that program mid-march. I lost a total of 20lbs with the help of Weight watchers. But I like to shake things up and the thing that BBG helped me with is getting comfortable with working out at home. I can still watch my kids and workout and not have to wait for cole to be home, or take them to a gym day care! (plus it made me stronger than I've ever been and was able to hold a 6 min plank afterwards and do 18 up and downs' on each arm in a row, and 40 push ups in a min......not to brag :) )

But, I like change. I like changing things up and learning new things. So I was cleaning out my cookbook cupboard and stumbled on 21 Day Fix(21DF) that I had ordered a year ago! I texted Courtney, she hooked me up with her coach and the next day I was apart of a challenge group! Since my 20lbs weight loss from BBG, I gain and lose the same 6lbs. So with 21DF, I lost those 6lbs. Then gained them back in the maintenance week because of holidays, then did 21DF extreme and lost 3lbs, and it was a hard program!!! However, with both programs, I had lost inches all over my body and gained in my legs where I could feel my muscles growing! So for me, these are wonderful results!!!

It's getting me away from the scale and helping me focus more on strength goals! I've really enjoyed the short workouts and sweat so much from them. So now I am about to finish my 3rd round and decided to become a coach. I feel as though these workouts have really made me stronger!! Which is helping me FINALLY get to my point. Beachbody is now apart of my life. I drink shakeology, and I press play to one of their workouts every single day. (except on vacations) I ordered another program called The Master's Hammer and Chisel and also 3 Day Refresh. Since 3 day refresh doesn't recommend a hard workout, I am going to restart Hammer and Chisel next monday. I will be starting 3 day refresh tomorrow and will post a review of day one!!!

I will report back about how its going tomorrow!!!

Lastly, I know I jump around a lot with things I'm "in to". But it's good to have hobbies and learn new things! I can't promise my journey with beachbody will be forever. In fact, I can with certainty say it won't be(unless I'm crazy successful at it) but it's working for me right now and as Autumn says "you're only promised today".

Update since the last post.....

Why hello there!!!

I completely forgot about this blog, and stumbled across it yesterday. I read through most of it and it really reminded me of so much I forgot about! Mostly parenting stuff, and how I clearly had more thoughts back then.

Now, I feel like a robot a little. Wake up, get Elyse ready for school, Alistair for stroller strides, feed them breakfast, drop her off, go to stroller strides, come home, do at home workout, pick up Elyse, make lunch, clean kitchen, put alistair for a nap, get stuff done around the house (or nap with alistair) make dinner, clean up dinner, go teach class/or go to mixxedfit/or sit with Cole and try to get some peace and quiet, help cole put the kids down. Over and over like its groundhogs day!

Its been over a year since i've posted, (looks like about a year and a half) and I'm still doing the same things! Still working on creating my happy and healthy body. Continuing to push myself with new programs. Since the last post, I've continued running quite a few more races including a full marathon and 2 disney half marathons.

Elyse is going to be in kindergarten this fall and Alistair will be going to preschool!! Yes, after 5 years, I will finally get 4hrs a week to myself. I love love love being a stay at home mom now. I've finally learned to enjoy and embrace it more. It was a very long road there, and still sometimes when in social situations (which is rare) I get awkward about saying I stay home as my job. But I've really started to take a lot more pride in it. More often now when I say I stay home with two young kids, the response is more positive. For example: "oh you have one of the toughest and yet the most unappreciated job in the world." I prefer this response over "oooooohhhhhh......." or "must be nice to be home all the time"

Anyways, still at it with the weight loss thing. I gained a little back last year when I started working part time at Starbucks. I was working only when Cole was home since my wages were less than an hourly babysitter. It was becoming too much stress and no time as a family. After 7 months, I had to quit and remember that my main priority was my family and not any kind of career. I was a barista, so it wasn't a career job anyways, but it was fun and challenging. Also, you got one piece of food per shift and as many drinks as you wanted per shift. Lets just say all the chocolate croissants and double smoked bacon sandwiches, mixed with tons of milk and sugar did not bode well. I gained 15lbs in those 7 months working there. I was also training for a full  marathon at the time, so it really shows how having those bad foods a couple days a week can really effect you over time even with a lot of exercise.

So I spent the fall and winter of 2015 all the way to now watching what I ate and exercising a lot. I joined weight watchers and started(and finished) Bikini Body Guide. Combo helped me lose all the weight. Now I'm back to trying to get down lower on the scale (or inches) from here. Again.

Also, since then I have become a certified instructor for Fit4mom. I am certified to teach Stroller Strides, Stroller Barre, Fit4Baby, Body Back and to run a Fit4mom running club. Currently I was teaching Body Back as well as Stroller Strides and Stroller Barre last year, but right now I am only teaching Body Back which I love teaching.

I doubt I will be able to regularly post since my life is pretty much the same with the kids and their schedules now. But maybe i'll surprise everyone and actually do it :)