Soooo, last night I had a dream that I was at a bakery eating the most delicious pastries and donuts ever. Ha ha!
I actually woke up feeling very satisfied. However, I’m wondering if fate is trying to tell me I need more donuts in my life. 😉 I think I should take heed.
In my last post I told you guys that I was going to cut out all the crap from my diet until my birthday (February 9th.) Well…since then I haven’t stayed away from ALL of the crap, but my motivation has returned and I’m right back to a good sensible diet once again. I’m paying attention to my macros and I’m keeping things in check. Yahoo!
Ya know, once in a while I’ll find myself in a “I really don’t care what I eat” rut and it’s not a good thing! For a few days it can be fun and actually therapeutic, however, I’ve learned I can’t stay in those ruts for too long. I’m just much happier when I’m working hard, pushing myself, striving towards goals and taking care of my body.
Sooooo, I’m happy to be outta that rut.
As far as my weight loss/health goals are going….I’m kind of in a weird spot right now. I feel good, strong and healthy, but I’d sure like to lean out a bit. I know that losing fat/leaning out is all about the diet, so I’m trying to be sensible, I’m trying to keep my macros in check and I’m trying to be patient!
Ya know, a couple of months ago I started noticing some great results. I lost 5-7 pounds on the scale, I felt leaner and I felt good! AND THEN, in November and December Kev was so sick and the Holidays were upon us. I didn’t pig out, but I just didn’t really care what I ate either. I gained back a few pounds and started to feel fluffy.
After the New Year hit, I decided to get back to work! I’ve been sticking to my workout goals and eating a very sensible/macro aware diet. It’s been great. BUT, I still feel poofy. Gah!
It’s a’ight though, I can tell my body is just whacked right now. I definitely feel like my hormones are out of balance. Over the years I’ve become an expert on my body and all the wackiness it goes through at times….so here’s my “unofficial medical opinion”….
I’m always a busy body and tend to run myself into the ground. I’m learning to be better and not do that so much! Anyway, when Kev was sick, I was so so so stressed, didn’t sleep as well and was even more busy than normal since I was holding down the fort all by myself. I know my stress hormones (adrenaline and cortisol) were through the roof!
Throughout my life I’ve noticed my body does weird things after a stressful event is over; as my body is trying to return back to normal. My body always bloats up (I can feel the difference between bloating and actual weight gain), I don’t sleep as well and my body almost feels nervous and jittery a little bit. I know it’s because I have so much cortisol coursing through my veins.
Oh, and when my cortisol levels are up, my appetite goes up and I eat more crap. AND, when I eat too much crap (namely carbs), my blood sugar goes up and my “hunger hormones” (ghrelin and leptin) get out of whack too! It’s a vicious cycle.
It’s actually quite complicated, but stuff like this really fascinates me! I’ve always loved medical stuff and learning how the body works. I won’t go on and on and on, but I will just say that my body is going through a “chilling out” transition right now. I know that for me, the very best things I can do to get my body back to a good equilibrium again is to…
- Get adequate sleep (IMO, this is the #1 important thing to do to lower stress and in turn, get the hormones back in balance.)
- Eat a balanced diet and a diet that keeps the blood sugar stable (spreading carb intake throughout the day and eating my carbs around the times I’m more active.)
- Get regular exercise. This is a tricky one because when the body is stressed out and flooded with adrenaline and cortisol already, you don’t want to stress the body out even more by exercising too much! There are some days when I feel that not exercising would actually be better for me. I’ve learned to really listen to my body. However, most of the time a little bit of exercise actually helps me and helps my body to chill out.
- Take time to just sit and relax every single day. I’ve had to teach myself to do this one because it doesn’t come naturally to me! I think I’m a bit of a workaholic. I try to either read a book, meditate, take a nap or just chill out on my phone for a little bit. I’ve learned to take time for ME every single day.
That pretty much sums it up. I’m happy to say that life is going very well right now (should I even say that out loud??!?) Kev is doing great, thank heavens. All of the kids are doing great. My baby is finally reaching an age where I can actually start doing (and finishing!) some projects I’ve been wanting to get to for years! I actually really love my life, I just don’t love it when it decides to fall apart on me.
Funny thing is, I didn’t even intend to talk about all this today! Ha ha. I will sum it up by saying that if any of you guys are trying/have tried to lose weight and are frustrated because your body isn’t budging, here is my advice…
- First and foremost, take a long hard look at your diet. Diet is KEY to losing weight/maintaining a healthy weight and long term health. Make sure you’re not eating too much (you need to be in a caloric deficit to lose weight) and make sure to fill your body full of good, clean, real food. Keep the junk food consumption to a minimum. Drink buckets of water.
- Realize that it is possible that your hormones are out of whack. Make sure to get enough sleep, manage your stress and eat a healthy diet. There can also be other underlying health issues that can mess with the hormones.
- Be patient and be consistent. Don’t give up. Just continue to take care of your body knowing that it will respond eventually.
I’ve been very, very bad at taking pictures, especially of myself lately. Sooooo, I took a quick cheesy selfie in the mirror today when I got home from the gym…
I’ve definitely gained a lot of strength and muscle since I joined F45 almost 6 months ago. It’s actually been amazing to me! When I first started going, I could barely do an assisted pull up (we use bands), I could only go halfway down on the ab wheel, I couldn’t lift as heavy and I definitely got fatigued much more quickly.
Now, I can do a lot of assisted pull ups quite easily, I can go all the way down when I do the ab wheel, push ups are a LOT simpler, I can lift so much heavier than I used to be able to and I have so much more energy! I looooooove it! Before I went to F45, I used 10-15 pound dumbbells for most of the exercises I did. I now pick up 15-28 pound dumbbells for the same exercises. Crazy.
It’s been amazing and so rewarding to see and feel the difference. That pic above is actually not a very good picture to show progress. Like I said, I’m patiently waiting to lose a little bit of this water weight/fluff. I’m hoping that in the next couple weeks my body will chill and deflate. I will then take some better pictures outside and compare them to previous progress pictures!
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Moving on…I got a new food scale the other day that I love!!!
Costco for the win!
I love having a food scale and use it all the time. I bought my old food scale at Ross about 8-9 years ago. It was great, but it was on it’s last legs.
It would get crumbs and gunk stuck in the buttons and on the display. I tried to clean it and in the process, I kind of killed it. Ha ha. I got water under the display and the numbers have been jacked up ever since. You can kind of tell in that picture; the last number doesn’t even show up anymore.
Soooo, I’m happy to have a new food scale. I love this new one so much more too! It’s bigger, the display is easier to read and it’s designed in such a way that crumbs and crap can’t get under the buttons. Woot!
I use my food scale every day. I measure my egg whites, yogurt, chicken, ingredients when I make recipes, etc. etc. It’s vital for counting macros and keeping track of stuff in My Fitness Pal. Oh, and my new one was $20, but I’ve seen a lot of other good ones on Amazon for cheaper.
Okay, enough about the food scale.
I thought I’d also share a very easy, “crazy night, busy mom” meal that I made this week.
I pulled these out of the freezer…
It was sooooo not a glamorous meal, but it worked! We had chicken burgers (from Costco) and fries (from Trader Joe’s.) I laughed when I read that the fries were “handsome cut.” Ha ha. Whatever that means. 🙂 I made sure the kids knew their fries were handsome though!!
Anyway, I make homemade turkey burgers and homemade baked fries sometimes, but you can’t beat the simplicity of this meal! The nutrition facts are pretty stellar too…
Love it. Now I must say that the burgers were not nearly as flavorful as my homemade ones, but they were decent. The fries tasted pretty much identical to my homemade ones though. In fact, all the kids thought they were my recipe!
Sadly, I didn’t take any pictures of the actual food! In my defense, I made this on a crazy night and I didn’t really sit down and eat it. I made it for the kids before I went to the gym, so I just snagged a few fries before I left. When I got home from the gym, I just finished up my little boys chicken burgers and called it dinner.
So not fancy.
Well, it’s late and I need to hit the hay. I will end with some darling pictures…
These pictures were taken while we were at church last week. I know I shouldn’t take pics at church, but I’m always trying to capture the cute things this baby (and all my kiddos) do!
Sooooo, that means I occasionally take stealthy pics during church. Anyway, the baby was enjoying his Froot Loops and decided he wanted to share with his older brother and sister. I laughed and laughed (stealthily, of course) watching him force feed them. Too cute.
I love these kids of mine! I just wish they would stop growing for a little while. Sigh.
I hope y’all have a wonderful rest of your weekend!!!
I was just telling my son how we used to give him a little baggie of cereal or fruit snacks to keep him occupied during church. It’s so sweet how your older kids help keep your little one occupied.
Both my husband and I have started to set sleep goals along with our other fitness goals. I don’t know if it’s making a difference in the weight department, but our days sure go a lot better when we get more sleep.
It makes me sad to see all my kids growing up so quickly, but it’s sure been fun watching the big ones enjoy our littlest one so much. 🙂 I just wish they’d slow down the growing process just a little bit.
I’ve learned that getting adequate sleep positively affects pretty much every aspect of my life!