It’s been a couple weeks since I started the 21 Day Fix portion control plan, Shakeology, and workouts.  I’ve had some major results after just one and a half weeks (down 5lbs!) and was really happy and felt SO motivated!

Theeeeeennnnn, last weekend happened.  My husband rode his bike 150 miles from Brooklyn to Montauk. I KNOW! Amazing.  So proud of him.  But guess what happened while staying with my in-laws?  I had wine.  And I had pizza (I actually encouraged the ordering of said pizza after he got home from the bike ride). And then it was my brother in law’s birthday and there were burgers and hot dogs on the grill and his wife made this DELICIOUS birthday cake…funfetti with chocolate pudding in the middle. That’s right, CHOCOLATE PUDDING!!! It was so good!   Meanwhile, my son was having kind of a hard weekend.  Poor sleep and lots of mysterious crying makes me tired and worried. I hate when I can’t ask him what’s wrong.  So by the time we got home on Sunday, I was feeling pretty crappy about everything.  I hadn’t worked out, I made poor food choices (though to my credit, I tried hard to keep my portion sizes of the food smaller than my norm), and I was sad about my son.

Monday morning I really felt bad.  Like how on earth did I actually think I could do this?  What was I thinking?  I can’t!  I’m too nervous and stressed about my son, I couldn’t even make it one weekend without eating food that was less than smart…ugh.  Just down and dejected.

BUT guess what I did?  I worked out.  And I made my shake.  And I logged into our accountability group on Facebook and poured it all out there.  I told them everything.  And how I felt way less positive and felt I’d failed.  Guess what happened next?  The girls swooped in with supportive comments that made me feel so much better.  And by mid afternoon that Monday I was back in the game.  I got my mind right and I DIDN’T GIVE UP.  For me, this is a huge victory.  Any other time I would’ve faded off into the sunset.  You wouldn’t be seeing any more blog posts…it would be like all of this never happened.  Because I thought I couldn’t do it.  I thought I wasn’t strong enough or disciplined enough.  But guess what?  I am.  And you are too.  It’s mindset.  Get your mind right and your body will do as it’s told.  The accountability group is such a big part of this.  Having people really supporting you and cheering you on despite slipping up, it’s just the greatest.

And you know what else?  If I think back on the weekend, I am proud of myself.  Because this journey is also about how to deal with life.  And life sometimes brings you wine and pizza and cake with chocolate pudding.  It’s how you react to those things…do you let 2 pieces of pizza be the end of it all?  NO.  This is the thing!!  Consistency is KEY. Did I gain some weight that I had lost?  Yes.  Is it now just 3 days later and I’m almost back to where I was? YES.  Seeeeeeee?  Times get tough.  For everyone.  There’s really never a great time to start exercising or eating right.  Always there’s an excuse waiting in the wings.  If I had said, “Well, I guess I messed up, might as well just quit”, then I’d be right back where I started and getting re-started would feel impossible.

So, once you start…NEVER QUIT.  You can do this.

He never quits.  Neither will I.

 

I wanted to share a little something that happened last night after putting my son to bed. I knew I had to video it because it was a real cool moment for me.

The basic gist for those who can’t or don’t care to watch the video, is that after a frustrating/sad evening trying to communicate with my son who can’t yet speak, I would normally be VERY excited after he was tucked in bed so that I could make myself an enormous bowl of pasta, a couple huge glasses of wine and call it a night.  Pasta is delicious, fast, easy and perfect after a crappy evening being confused and nervous and sad trying to figure out what’s wrong with my son.  Why he understands some things so well and other things just NOT AT ALL.  And the wine…well, that was just a given.  Of course I’d have wine.  GOTTA HAVE WINE!!!!  Lol. But last night, even after it having been tearful at one point for me, I left his room after putting him to bed, I opened the fridge and just started grabbing the ingredients for a good, healthy meal.  WITHOUT EVEN THINKING OF PASTA.  It didn’t even occur to me.  And I didn’t think of wine either!!! I KNOW!  It’s crazy.  And I just thought, “Omg, I would’ve been soooo gluttonous just a couple weeks ago, and look at me now peeling carrots!”  Because even peeling a carrot felt too overwhelming and just too much, you know?

But not now. Now, with the support of the AMAZING gals in my 21 day Accountability Group on Facebook, I’m just feeling really proud. And surprised that not only is it way easier than I thought it would be, it’s actually kind of fun.  I’m serious!  We’re taking pics of our food (which really helps you think twice!), sharing recipe ideas, giving virtual high fives for killing a workout even though it was the last thing you wanted to do, and laughing at moments of weakness and then cheering them on when they brush it off and KEEP GOING.

So, yeah, last night was pretty cool.  I feel really happy about it. 🙂

It’s about to get real up in here.  The eagle has landed.  21 Day Fix dvd’s, the rainbowy portion control containers, and a bag of vanilla Shakeology (with matching Shakeology cup so I can show off and act all cool) has arrived at my door step and I’m SO EXCITED!!! But I absolutely had to video my reaction when I opened the box and saw the portion control containers.  So for your viewing pleasure, here’s how it went.

And I mean, I get it, I do. Really. I think that once I actually use them, I’ll see that it’s plenty of food. I’m anxious to try them out and I’ll let you know how it goes.

Hey party people!  Welcome to my new blog!  Here is where I’ll be sharing my health and fitness journey.  It’s gonna be preeeettty awesome, so I highly recommend you read and share with all your friends. It’s going to be an amazing show.

As of today, my goal is to lose 65lbs.  SIXTY FIVE.  Yeeeah, so this is gonna take a while.  Come along for the ride as I let Beachbody trainers kick my butt back into shape while I help others do the same.  OHHHHHH yes. That’s right my friends, I’m officially a Beachbody Coach and there ain’t nothing you can do about it!! Ha!

There’ll probably be videos of me doing burpees at some point…if I can ever actually DO a burpee.  There will be sweat and pulled muscles, maybe some complaining about how freaking hard it is to lose weight especially in your 40’s, there’ll be me struggling to avoid asking my husband if we can “just order a pizza” or “can you go get us some wine?” There will definitely be pictures of me holding shakes with a big ‘ol smile on my face and tons of selfies of myself in workout gear with dated captions and weight loss results.  I mean who WOULDN’T want to see that, right?  RIGHT?

In all seriousness, this is my life.  It was time to change before I let worry and stress destroy me. I’m lost and it’s time to get found.  I’m tired of being tired.  I’m sick of wearing the same men’s t-shirts and sweatpants and shorts because girl clothes don’t fit right.  I’m so freaking over it.  And mostly I’m tired of feeling sad.  Life handed me some challenges I didn’t expect.  Ones that are hard on the heart and tough on the mind.  But letting it weigh me down is hurting me so much.  I’m at the bottom of a really big mountain and I have to get to the top.

March 23, 2016 I decided it was time to make the first step upwards and start to exercise every day.  I chose to do an oldie but goodie…Slim in 6 with Miss Debbie Siebers.  I had ordered it back in 2002 when I had first moved to NYC.  Those infomercials were just as intriguing then as they are now! 🙂 I didn’t want to go TOO crazy since I hadn’t been consistently active in about 5 years, so I decided that I wouldn’t change my diet too drastically.  Baby steps. I basically cut out my gallons of Coffee-mate Italian Sweet Cream creamer and cut back big time on the vino and late night snacking.  I didn’t really watch portions at all. BUT I worked out almost every day.  The most consistent I’ve been in years. And guess what?  I hardly lost any weight at all. Womp wooooomp.

The first 5 weeks I yo-yo’d between my starting weight and 2-3 pounds less, but nothing was really happening.  Well, if that isn’t just the crappiest feeling.  To be busting your butt and doing WAY more activity than you’ve done in forever, only to be like…um, what the heck?  WHY AM I NOT LOSING A MILLION POUNDS RIGHT NOW?!!!

Sooooo, that’s when I realized the memes are right.

In the end, I lost 5lbs in 6 weeks and a couple inches here and there.

Now I’m ready to take the portion control bull by the horns.  I’m going to let Autumn Calabrese and her 21 Day Fix be my next step upwards.  I’m still waiting for the dvds, my rainbow colored portion containers and Shakeology to be delivered (should be here tomorrow), but in the meantime, I got a free trial of Beachbody OnDemand so I was able to start the workouts within 24 hours of ordering! Weeeee!

Today is Day 3 for me, so I gotta run and do Lower Fix so my legs feel like rubber juuuuust in time to pick up Edward from school. 🙂

So c’mon in and follow my journey.  Sit back and relax.  No, wait, don’t sit.  Get up!  Move!  Better yet, join me!  Click the “Contact” link  and we can do this together! Don’t do what I’ve done and let it get so out of hand that you’ve got to climb Mount Everest. Let my story be your reason to NOT EAT THE DORITOS!  (even though they’re delicious).

 

 

PS: you might notice that I STARTED writing this post on May 9th.  Took me 4 days to have the courage to share it.  Gahhhh!  I’m scared! lol!  Hold me!