Taking the Plunge

I've debated for 23 days now on whether I was going to let our blog readers in on my new journey, but I think now is the time!  Gulp...here it goes...
Growing up, I never had any trouble with my weight.  I was active, I ate decent food (not the best possible diet, but we didn't eat out much), and I stayed trim.  Then, as a lot of people experience, I went to college.  I gained weight in college, but was still at a reasonably healthy weight when I graduated.  And then I went to grad school.  While I no longer had a eat all you want buffet meal plan, I was also doing intensive graduate studies, working a part time job, doing part time ministry, and in a long distance relationship.  So a lot of my meals ended up being of the convenient fast food variety.  I tried to stay as active as possible, but time constraints made balancing it all difficult.  I did the classic back and forth of losing a decent amount of weight, then hitting a wall and giving up and putting it all back on.  That was my life through grad school and after getting married...up until I got pregnant.

I gained quite a bit of weight during pregnancy.  A lot of it was fluid retention.  Those of you who know me know how miserable I was with my swollen feet, ankles and hands.  It was a hot hot summer!  But a lot of it was me just not eating well, and I also started off my pregnancy overweight.

In labor about to leave for the hospital!

In a matter of only a couple months after Noah was born, I lost about 80% of the "baby weight".  The rest was slow going.  Noah just turned two, and I have been hovering within 5-10lb of my pre-pregnancy weight for the better part of a year or more.  I've done different workout and food logging plans, but nothing kept me motivated enough and contained a comprehensive workout and nutrition plan that worked for me.  I also had trouble finding the right accountability for myself.  The things I've tried have worked plenty well for other people, they just weren't the right combination for me.

So, about a month ago a friend from college was advertising a 60 day challenge on her facebook page.  Nicole more recently became a coach for Beach Body and has been leading online challenge groups for several month now.  I know several people who are affiliated with Beach Body, and I've seen lots of "advertisements" for these challenge groups go by.  I wondered if maybe that would be a good fit for me.  What appealed to me was having a nutrition and workout plan in place for me to work with, the accountability of checking in with a group every day, a coach to ask questions to and get advice from, and a flexible time structure that I can make work whenever in the day I need to with being a working mom.  I inquired about more information, and then Josh and I talked about it.

And so, I decided to take the plunge.  I chose to do one of Beach Body's newest fitness plans: PiYo which is a combination of Pilates and Yoga and has a clean eating nutrition plan that goes along with it.  The nutrition plan is really easy for me to follow with being vegetarian which has been wonderful.  PiYo is low impact but holy moley does it make you sweat!  It's a great workout, and I can do them in my living room which works great for our crazy schedule time constraints.

Part of the nutrition plan includes drinking Shakeology, which is Beach Body's protein/complete nutrition meal replacement shake.  This is probably what I was most skeptical of...is this just a ploy to get you to spend more money?  Is it really worth it?  Is it really essential?  Am I going to have to drink this stuff for the rest of my life?  I did a lot of research and talked to a lot of folks about Shakeology.  While it may not be completely perfect, and there are plenty of folks on both sides of the fence, the overwhelming feedback I got was that this stuff is the real deal.  It's not made up of tons of chemicals and artificial flavors and...well...all the crap that a lot of meal replacements seem to be filled with.  It is natural ingredients from real foods and, at the risk of sounding cheesy and like a Beach Body commercial, it really is the healthiest meal of the day.  I've pretty much fallen in love with the stuff.  Most days it's my breakfast, and I drink it around 7am and I stay full and satisfied until noon.

So all this to say, here I am, 23 days into my 60 day challenge, and I am proud (and a little nervous) to report that I have lost 6.4 pounds and 5.25 inches in my first 3 weeks of the challenge.  I feel better than I have in a very long time.  I'm wearing clothes I haven't worn in years.  And for the first time in forever, I feel hopeful and motivated in becoming a healthier me!  Below is a picture of me today.  I'm sure you can't tell much of a difference yet.  Six pounds isn't a ton of weight, but I can feel the difference and it's encouraging.  I'm also trying hard to document along to way, so that if I do get discouraged at some point, I can look back and be reminded of my progress.

Yes, I took a selfie in the bathroom at work.  Don't hate! 

Y'all, being a parent is no joke.  And for whatever reason, lots of us seem to fall into this trap of putting everyone else before ourselves.  I'm sure you've heard that so many times before, but it's true.  At least it is true for me.  I'm so busy taking care of Noah, keeping the house somewhat clean and in order, cooking, running errands, and doing my job, that I sort of lose myself in the daily grind of things.  Josh is an amazing partner in helping with all of this, but it still gets overwhelming for both of us, and we start to forget about our well-being and just focus on trying to keep our heads above water.  For whatever reason, this online challenge format of things is working for me, so I'm going with it.

And now you all know, too...which is terrifying...but hopefully you can each help hold me accountable as well.  So, I will be posting about my journey as a part of our family blog, because, well, it effects our entire family.  I thank you each in advance for your encouragement and support.  It's not easy talking about your self-doubt and challenges, but I'm hoping it will become easier.