My 21 Day Fix Experience

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have been doing the 21 Day Fix and have absolutely loved it. I love that it combines both eating clean and working out. I felt a little overwhelmed at first with the clean eating but I dove right in and found it to be surprisingly simple. 

You get these cute little colorful containers that help you pick the right portions of what to eat throughout the day. The green container is for vegetables, purple for fruit, red for protein, yellow for carbs, blue for healthy fats and cheese, and orange for seeds and oils. 

My salad consisting of half a purple, a red, 2 greens, half an orange, and half a blue

Delicious!

Depending on your calorie needs, you get a certain number of each container per day. I love the freedom in this program! I got to choose how I ate all my "colors" each day. I didn't feel like I was on a restricted diet. I think that most people on the 21 Day Fix plan all their meals and snacks ahead of time, but I found something else that worked better for me. Since I am home most of the day, it's easy for me to go to the fridge for a snack or a meal. I just kept the fridge well stocked with healthy choices and made a checklist. Every time I ate I marked my checklist. If I ate out, I would mark my list after I came back home. This saved me a lot of time! 

The first few days I was hungry and made sure I ate everything that I was allowed to eat. I was surprised at how quickly my body adjusted to my new eating habits. Most days I am too full to eat my allotted amount. 

The workouts were another adjustment that I had to make. The plan is to workout for 30 minutes everyday. The first workout was really tough. It was a total cardio workout that combined cardio and weight training. I could barely move after it! 

Just finished the first workout! I can't move but I can still smile! 

I really liked doing the workouts though because they were all just 30 minutes each! I feel like I can push through anything for just 30 minutes. Plus there was always someone in the videos doing a modified exercise for if you couldn't keep up with the regular exercise. I loved following the modifier! I was able to still keep moving and doing the workout throughout the whole video! The workouts consist of cardio, weight training, pilates, and yoga. Even though I couldn't move after that first workout, I was really surprised at how quickly I just started feeling better overall! 

Something else I did to help me through this change was to make a motivation collage. On my motivation collage I put pictures of different outfits or clothes I wanted to buy, quotes, and things I wanted to accomplish. I would bring the collage into the living room while I did my workouts and would look at it any time I felt like quitting or slacking off. 

My motivation collage right beside my workout! 

Time for the results!!! I stuck with the 21 Day Fix and didn't have hardly any "cheat" foods. I only missed one workout the entire time. I lost an overall total of 8.5 inches and 11.2 pounds! That's just in 3 weeks! I can't wait to see what my final results will be after I stick with it! I plan on making this my new lifestyle! I know that I'll probably throw in a few more "cheat" meals here in there but I plan on continuing with clean eating and working out! I just love how I feel overall now! 

Before on the Left and After on the Right

Healthy Hills

I've been meaning to blog for awhile now but life got busy. It took a while for me to find my footing with balancing 2 kids, but I think I'm finally getting the hang of it. I wanted to restart my blog life off with something that's become important to me: my health. I don't know if it's my age or becoming a parent or seeing the effects that aging has on my family, but over the past year I have become more and more conscious of my health. 

Me and my loves

Like I said before, it took a while for me to find my whole footing with parenting 2 kids so my health took a back seat until I decided to get serious about it in December. My husband and I competed in a weight loss competition with my sister and her husband that started the day after Christmas and lasted for one month. During the course of that month, we tracked our calories and tried to cook healthier dinners at home. We ate a lot of whole wheat foods and I tried to really cut back on eating anything processed. I attempted to see fruits and veggies as snacks instead of cookies or chips. We of course won the competition by losing a combined weight of 22 lbs. Woot woot!!!

My favorite salad: spinach, grilled chicken, and strawberries with a lite vinaigrette dressing. 

Ever since then I have been gradually losing weight and becoming more active. I joined our church's Run for God program for the second time back in January and ran my second 5k in April. It went great! My time can definitely use improvement but I was just excited that I ran a whole 5k just 6 months after having a baby! Along with running I've been playing church league softball. We had such a fun season! I'm so sad that it's over! 

Running my 2nd 5k!

My husband and I made it a point to stay active even while we were on vacation. We ran a couple of miles on the beach and even rode our bikes to get groceries one day. I've learned that it's a lot easier to stay active when you make it fun and when you have someone to enjoy it with! 

After our blazing hot afternoon run!

My weight loss started to slow down a lot last month so I decided to try something new. One of my friends recommended I try Beachbody's 21 Day Fix (here's a link to her coach's page). I excitedly signed up and started on July 7. I chose this program because it had a nutrition plan as well as a workout plan. Once I finish I'll post more details and my before and after pics, but so far I absolutely love it! 

I've learned lots of things over the past several years as I have started working toward a healthier me:

• Be prepared to do the work and commit! The 21 Day Fix is working great for me now, but I wasn't ready for it a year or two ago. I've tried quick and easy fixes but that only works temporarily. 
• Make it fun! It's a lot easier to quit when you hate what you're doing. Have workout friends or running buddies. I absolutely loved the 2 running groups that I've been a part of. They have been so much fun and have kept me accountable in my running and workouts. 
• Take baby steps! I tried to do a diet/lifestyle change all at once and it did not work out at all. I hated it! It was too much too soon! I picked one thing a week or a month to change. One small change I made a few months ago was I started using unsweetened almond milk for my smoothies rather than regular milk. For a little while that was all I changed in my diet. A little bit later I started buying plain Greek yogurt instead of regular yogurt (this is something I'm still getting used to). I love using plain Greek yogurt not only as a yogurt, but also as a replacement for sour cream or mayo. 
• See food as fuel! As Americans we love our food and we love to make extravagant dinners and desserts, which is fine; however, essentially food is to fuel our body. We place a lot of social and emotional importance on food. We even have what we call "comfort food". The last few months and years I have been trying to reprogram my mind to see food as fuel and not just something you put into your body at a social gathering or when you've had a rough day. 
• Stay active! The more you move the better you'll feel, well the better you'll feel eventually. When I first started my workouts, it was really tough and I was really exhausted. After just a few days my body started getting used to it and I began having more energy instead of less. It's amazing what just a little bit of exercise can do for your body. 
• Love your body! God only gave me one body to use to glorify Him so it's up to me to take care of it. I don't want to miss out on anything that He might have in store for me because of the poor health choices I've made.

Obviously I'm human and make lots of mistakes, but I'm just trying to be a better, healthier version of the person than I was last year. I'm exercising more than I was a year ago. My refrigerator is full of more vegetables and healthier options than it was a year ago. I have more energy than I did a year ago. (Yes, I realize I was pregnant a year ago, but you get my point). My main goal is to be a healthier version of myself, whatever that might mean. Who knows, next year I might be running a half or a marathon. Probably not, but hopefully I will be improving on my 5k time! I'll leave you with one of my favorite motivational quotes:

"In moments of doubt, close your eyes and imagine yourself a year from now. Then get back to work."

Potty Training Update

It's been 3 weeks since our big potty training weekend and I'm finally getting around to giving our potty training update. The fourth day after we potty trained was rough. It was our first day to be away from home for an extended period of time. We had 3 accidents before nap time and I was ready to give up. We had our first accident at church, which I didn't feel like it was too bad since we were there for 3 hours.

We stopped by our house before going out to eat for lunch in hopes that she would potty there since she wasn't using it while we were out. I made the mistake of offering her a piece of candy if she would go potty before we left. She would sit down on the potty but wouldn't use it. She kept crying and getting worked up because I wouldn't give her the candy until she actually went in the potty. She eventually had an accident while standing right next to her potty because she was so worked up. I felt awful; she felt awful. Thus I decided that I wouldn't use candy as an incentive again. It was just too stressful for her and me.

We headed out to the restaurant in hopes that she could make it through lunch without any incident. Toward the end of lunch, she said that she needed to go potty but as I picked her up I noticed that there was already a puddle in her chair. I was ready to throw in the towel right then. I felt like everything that we had done the three days prior was all in vain.

I spent the afternoon all upset until I finally decided to give up. I didn't decide to give up on potty training, but I decided to give up on stressing about it and pushing it on her. If we were home she would tell me when she needed to go potty, I just couldn't get her to go when I needed her to. As I had learned earlier, pressuring her did not work and only upset both of us. I decided that I would have her sit on the potty whenever I needed her to try to go, but not pressure her to use it. I knew that she would get it eventually. In the meantime, I just planned on carrying lots of towels and plenty of changes of clothes.

Over the next few days, the only time we left the house was to go to her grandparents' houses. She used the potty great there, except for pooping. She only had 3 accidents that week and hasn't had one since. At some point during that week she finally understood that she needed to try to go any time I put her on it and not just when she needed to.

At some point during the week she started running a fever. I didn't mention her potty at all because she was feeling so bad, but she did fantastic. We even made it to a trip to a doctor in her panties with no issues. The doctor diagnosed her with croup and gave her some medicine. Thankfully, she started feeling better by the next day.

Looking out at the trucks while waiting to be seen by the doctor. 

On Saturday, we ventured to a festival that was about an hour drive away. I felt like this was our first big test. I had plenty of changes of clothes and fully expected to go through them all. However, she did fantastic and I only had to change her because of the amount of ice cream that she spilled on her clothes. I finally felt confident that she had gotten it.

This girl loves ice cream!

Our true test was the drive to the beach. It took us about an hour longer than it should had because we pulled off on an exit every time she said that she had to go potty, but we made the entire trip with no accidents. It has been so cute seeing her in her bathing suits without that extra diaper padding while at the beach. We even took her portable potty to the beach with us and she used it right there on the beach (we surrounded it with beach chairs to give her some privacy of course).

Running on the beach

The biggest thing that I wasn't expecting with potty training was the disruption in her sleep cycle. She has started waking up an hour earlier and as soon as she wakes up, she wants to go potty and starts crying if I don't make it to her in time. She will also periodically wake up throughout the night and want to go. I know this is great for wanting to be completely potty trained, but I just really enjoy my sleep.

Overall our potty training went really well. I really thought it was a complete bust on that fourth day, but she has done great since then. I know that we won't ever be completely accident free but it's such a relief to know that it's not going to be an every day, every location occurrence. Thanks to all my friends and family who tolerated my endless questions and offered support throughout this process. Those first four days were tough but it has been totally worth it since then! 

Potty Training: Day 3

Before I got Caroline out of bed this morning, I put her potty in the bathroom. As soon as we came downstairs, I showed her where I put her potty. She was not a fan and immediately tried to push it out the door. I put it back and explained that we're going to use the potty in the bathroom from now on. She didn't want to use it right away so I didn't push her. A few minutes later she said she needed to go potty and immediately ran to the bathroom. She used her potty and we did an extra big celebration for using the potty in the bathroom.

She loves wearing her hat

Next we ate breakfast. Robbie fixed us all pancakes or as Caroline calls them "cake". Once during breakfast, she said that she needed to potty so we ran in there. She only sat there for a second then decided she was done. After breakfast, we went outside. I still wasn't able to get her to put her Minnie Mouse panties on, but at least she put on her shorts.

She loves her sandbox!

It was super hot outside so we didn't stay out there very long. We came back inside and started watching our Jake. Hopefully once this is all mastered we can cut back on our tv time again. We  kept our shorts on so that we could practice going potty with having to pull down shorts. The rest of the day at home was mostly uneventful. She woke up from her nap with a dry pull up so we went straight to potty. We also made it outside to play again. 

Playing in her house

Bubbles!

We decided that we would try to take our first venture out and about. We headed to Chadwick's Churn to get ice cream because we thought that it would be a fairly fun and short trip out. We tried to go potty before we left, but nothing came of it. Robbie was able to get her to put on her Minnie Panties along with her shorts so everything was looking good. We all enjoyed our ice cream and had a good time. We ended up seeing some friends of ours while we were out. Caroline started playing with a little girl that is in her class at school. She said that she needed to potty so we ran inside. She sat on the potty for a second then jumped off. Her panties were just a little wet so I went ahead and changed her clothes and headed back out. While playing I noticed that she was squatting and grunting so I hurriedly picked her up and took her to the potty. She had pooped so we dumped it in the toilet and talked about how we needed to poop in the potty. We changed pants and got ready to head back out. As I was washing her hands, she said potty and immediately started peeing everywhere. It was an absolute mess. I took off her bottoms as quickly as I could and sat her on the toilet seat while I cleaned up the mess as best as I could. Needless to say, we left right after that. 

Enjoying our ice cream with sprinkles!

It probably would have been better if we had stayed home because I knew that she had not pooped yet today and had drunk a lot of water at dinner without going potty. I just really wanted to venture out and see how we did. As far as being home goes, she's pretty well potty trained. She goes potty whenever she needs to. My problem is that she won't go when I ask her to try. She'll sit on the potty for a second then say all done. If I make her sit longer, she gets all stressed so I'm trying not to stress her out about it too much and just letting her go on her own at home. The problem with that is that she doesn't have enough time to get to a potty out in town like she does at home, nor does she give us enough time to get her there. She tells us as she's going. I'm sure we'll get the hang of it eventually though. I'm just learning to accept that it's going to take a lot of practice and patience. 

Potty training: Day 2

Well here we go with day 2 of potty training. Before we left her bedroom this morning, I took off her pull-up and told her that we were going to use the potty again today. She was so excited she immediately headed toward the door. Once downstairs she went straight to her potty and sat down. It was only for a second but she was so excited about it. We ate our breakfast and went back to playing with the toys that she was so excited about yesterday. While playing, she would suddenly stop and say "potty". She would hurriedly sit on her potty but for no more than a few seconds. She did several times over the course of five or so minutes. Then all of a sudden she sat there and pooped. I was so excited! We celebrated and did our bathroom routine of flushing and washing our hands. She was so excited. 

After returning from the bathroom, she started playing with her toys, but, once again, she wanted to just sit on her potty to play. We started watching Jake again to get her off the potty. About an hour into it, she coughed and peed a little on herself. She immediately started crying and ran to her potty. It was so sad how worked up she got about her accident. It took me a few minutes to calm her down. She didn't have any more accidents inside after that though. 

The rest of our day was fairly uneventful as far as the potty training goes. She would randomly say "potty" then jump on it. Sometimes she would immediately jump back off and other times she would actually go. I mostly just let her do her own thing. After nap I tried to get her to put her new Minnie Mouse panties on, but she wouldn't have it. I laid them out for her to look at. Randomly she would pick a pair up and I'd think that she'd be ready to put them on, but she mostly just used it like a piece of toilet paper to wipe. Haha! We'll try them again tomorrow I guess. 

For dinner we had some friends stop by to grill out and give me a little bit of the socialization that I've missed out on being stuck in the house for 2 days. Caroline wanted to go outside with everyone so I convinced her to put her shorts on to go outside. I'm not sure whether she had an accident while we were outside or not. She ended up dumping some water on her so it was hard to tell whether she was wet from pee or water. We're going to try going outside again tomorrow so I'll try to watch better and keep her away from water so it will be easy to tell. As long as we stay in the living room we should be good to go though. Haha! 

This was the only picture I took of her today. She was excited to play with her playdoh and cookie cutters once again. 

This is a picture of the tower that she built. I love that my daughter builds symmetrically. 

Potty Training: Day 1

Today is the big day that I've been looking forward to/dreading for awhile now. I'm 22 weeks pregnant and today I started potty training my 27 month old daughter. It is going much better than I had ever imagined. I've been talking up using the potty with her for several weeks now to help build her excitement. Yesterday we went to Walmart and I let her pick out which panties she wanted to wear. She picked out Minnie Mouse undies and I can't wait to see her in them. I had bought a potty at a consignment sale and already had it ready to go. I am using the 3 day method, or a variation of it, so we have Thursday-Saturday blocked off to stay home and learn to potty. I wish that I could include links to all of my references but there are more than I can remember. I basically googled potty training or 3 day potty training and read all the sites and blogs as well as asked several of my friends who have potty trained in the last few years. I put together what I thought would work best for us and I'm hoping I'm right so far.

The morning didn't start off exactly like I had planned. When I walked into Caroline's room, the first thing I noticed was her diaper laying right in the middle of the floor and she was standing in a puddle of pee on her mattress. It really upset her so I calmed her down and told her that we're going to start using the potty for our pee. She got really excited! I cleaned up the mess, dressed her in only a t-shirt, and headed downstairs to begin our day. I showed her the potty, a new potty book, and her sticker chart.

New potty book, sticker chart, and potty

Then I set my phone to go off every 15 minutes. When my phone would beep, I'd set her on the potty. I also tried to catch her and put her on the potty if I saw that she was peeing or pooping. I missed the first several times because I was trying to get everything set up. I fixed her a bowl of pretzels to snack on throughout the day and some "special potty drink" (a.k.a. Kool-aid). This drink was a big deal because she normally only drinks water and milk. 

Special potty drink, milk, water, and pretzels

I also brought out some toys that she hasn't seen in awhile to help keep her occupied. I tried to avoid watching tv as much as possible mostly because I was afraid she'd get sucked into a show and not pay attention. We kept the potty in the living room and played with the toys on the hearth. 

She loved playing with all of  her toys that she hadn't seen in awhile.

While she was playing with her toys, I noticed that it seemed like she was trying to hold something in. I kept sitting her on the potty but nothing. This was about an hour and a half into it. Then all of a sudden she squatted and pooped. I quickly jumped up and sat her on the potty. One of the little poops actually ended up in her potty so I let that count for her first sticker. We wiped and took our potty to dump into the big potty and wash her hands. I then let her pick out a Mickey Mouse sticker to put on her paper. She wasn't as excited as I thought she would have been but oh well. About ten minutes later, she was playing and started peeing. I quickly jumped up and sat her on the potty again. After she was through, we did our dump the potty into the toilet routine and washed our hands. This time when we came back she was more excited about the Mickey sticker. She immediately wanted another one so I told her that she could have one when she used the potty again. She immediately sat down and peed a little. I was so ecstatic! I felt like that was the moment when it clicked that she was supposed to put her pee and poop in the potty. But then she realized that if she sat on the potty the whole time, then there would be no way she would miss and would always get the stickers. I couldn't get her off the potty. 

Playing with her toys while sitting on the potty. 

I eventually had to bribe her with watching her favorite show on tv to get her to get off the potty. We turned Jake and the Neverland Pirates on from Netflix and I had her sit on the couch with me. Each episode has two stories in it that are about 12 minutes each. I turned my timer off of my phone and would just pause it after each story and have her sit on the potty. This worked really well and she went every time. 

Next was lunch time. I had pulled her table next to where the potty was in the living room so we could be eating nearby. We had a super healthy lunch of frozen pizza. Part of the way through eating, she suddenly said potty and jumped up and sat down it. Next thing I knew, she was pooping! I was so excited that she chose to get up on her own, mid bite, and go poop in the potty! We did an extra big celebration for this one! After our bathroom routine, we started chowing back down on our pizza. About 5 minutes later, she said potty again and ran over to the potty. This time she peed in it! I couldn't believe she was going on her own so fast! After lunch we watched a couple more episodes of Jake then headed up to her room for nap time. I put a pull-up on before nap and explained that we only wore those to sleep in. 

Pooping on her own for the first time!

Pizza goatee!

 After nap we came back downstairs and returned to playing with our toys. Ever since those two instances at lunch, she has been going to the potty on her own so I haven't had to use my timer. She has done such a good job with going potty! I'm hoping that once the potty is moved into the bathroom that she'll continue keeping up the good work! Here's to hoping for a successful day 2 tomorrow!!!

This girl loves her potty!!!

My Wrap Experience Results from January

I talked a few months ago about My Wrap Experience and wanted to share my results with everyone. I want to start off by clarifying that during these 2 and a half weeks, I didn't change anything in my diet or exercise routines. I normally drink a lot of water so even my water intake stayed the same. The only changes that took place were because of the wraps. 

I took 2 separate measurements periodically throughout my experience. I measured about an inch above my belly button and 2 inches below. I measured my belly separately because of the way that I am shaped. I figured that since my belly is shaped like there's an invisible string tied around my waist at my belly button that I should measure my upper stomach and lower stomach. I'm glad I did because I didn't lose inches evenly. 

So for my final results...(drum roll please!)...I lost 3 inches above my belly button and 3.75 inches below for a total loss of 6.75 inches! I was so excited!

The reason that I am posting this so much later is because I was waiting to mention that the day that I took my last measurement was also the day that I found out that I was pregnant with our second child! So I was doubly excited and a little bloated. I can only imagine what my results would have been if I had worked a little harder at my diet and exercise and had not been pregnant! I'm definitely going to try the wrap again post-pregnancy!