Well holy moly folks, I’ve neglected this little blog!
I may sound like a broken record, but quite frankly life has been NUTS! Like really. I loooooove summer, but it seems like every year by August, summer becomes so insane that I start counting down the days until it is over!
It just seems like we’re always so busy, the kids start getting stir crazy and more impatient with each other, I get more impatient with them, the lack of a schedule starts to get a little old, the constant chaos, eternal mess and random children running in and out of the house makes me batty…and just like that, the magic of summer just isn’t very magical anymore. Sigh.
This past month has been FULL of a lot of fun and memory making, but I am worn out!
My darling little sister was in town visiting from Connecticut for a few weeks and we had a lot of fun. We went to Liberty Park (an old historic park in Salt Lake City), along with my brother and other sister and their families. We had a picnic, played on the playground, went for a paddle boat ride and rode the Ferris Wheel.
We spent a day at Lagoon Amusement Park and another day at a fun place called Obstacle Warrior Kids (like a Ninja Warrior kid’s gym).
We went to a fun Children’s Curiosity museum, went out to lunch/dinner several times, hung out and played cards a bit and my sissy even went to my yoga class with me twice. Loved that!
But man, this old lady is feelin’ tired!!
We also had two birthdays at our house, Kev’s and my baby boy who turned FOUR. Sniff, sniff.
Notice how weird it is that it looks like I’m missing an arm in that picture??? Super weird.
Oh, and Kev’s brother, mom and niece are in that picture too because they were in town for our niece’s wedding…..which also happened to be on the SAME DAY as our nephew’s (on my side of the family) wedding too! We had to divide and conquer, and Kev went to our niece’s wedding (which was 3 hours away) and I went to our nephew’s. Crazyness.
My darling baby (I know he’s four years old, but he’ll always be my baby. In fact, I still call all my kids my babies!) had a very fun birthday. I took my little boys to a fun indoor bounce house place and they jumped, ran and played to their hearts content.
I took this pic of them playing with the sumo suits. My baby really wanted to wear one even though I told him he was way too little for it! He loved it, lol.
We also went to McDonald’s for lunch, because that’s his very favorite place! Ha ha. We opened presents and had cake later on. Oh how I love these precious kiddos of mine! <3
The “engine” on my train cake looks a lot more like a boat, lol! Just sayin’. Oh, and this train cake was super easy to make! I made it several years ago for one of my other boys and it’s so simple and they always love it! You can click here for the instructions I followed if you so desire. 😉
So all of the fun craziness from the past few weeks has just about done me in! Ya know, just the typical life of a mother is hard enough to keep up with, without all the extra stuff going on! I’ve also been stickin’ to my Oxygen Challenge throughout it all! I’ve been getting in my workouts (love them!) and striving to stick with a consistent, healthy diet, which has been hard with all the partying going on! Oy!!!
But, I’ve survived….just barely. And that’s also why this little blog has pretty much gone to pot the past few weeks!
I’m also so happy to say that SCHOOL STARTED this week! Yahoo!
I really love summer and I really like my kiddos home with me, but MAN it’s exhausting and almost crazy enough to make me actually go crazy!
It’s been so nice to have a schedule, a quiet house and a house that stays clean for more than 5 minutes. I actually kind of forgot what it felt like to have a quiet house and a brain that can actually think and concentrate on one thought at a time, lol.
I snapped the annual pics of my kids as they headed off to school. I’m so glad I take pictures of them every year! It’s so fun, and a little depressing, to see how much they grow each year.
You can click here, here, here, here or here to see their Back to School pics from previous years if you care to. It’s so amazing how quickly they grow up, darn it! My son, who’s almost 15, grew like 6+ inches in the past 6 months. It’s been insane. I told him I don’t think I’ve ever seen a person grow so quickly, so fast. I feel like I could have almost watched him physically grow!
He couldn’t be happier about it!
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Well, as far as how my healthy living has been going….it’s been interesting.
I’m still stickin’ to my Oxygen Challenge, although I’ve been going about it an entirely different way this time! I’ve just had a completely different mindset. The jury is still out if it’s going to work in my favor. I’ll talk more about it in a sec.
I’ve really been loving the workouts for this challenge. So far, it’s just consisted of 3-4 great strength training workouts per week, with the option to add in a couple cardio sessions if you want to. I’ve been adding in a yoga class, a Pop Pilates class and a strength training class each week. It’s been perfect.
It feels so good to be lifting consistently, deliberately and HEAVY again. Yay! Weight Training is my favorite way to work out. It just feels so productive and I know how good it is for my body, my muscles, my metabolism and my overall health. I just really, really love it!
I’ve been feeling a bit stronger and think I might be seeing a little more muscle showing up too. Yee-haw! However, I’m still feeling quite fluffy and I KNOW I won’t really be able to see the muscle I’ve worked so hard for unless I lean out a bit.
I also know that if I want to lean out and lose some weight (~10-15 pounds), I have to eat a consistently clean and supportive diet. A healthy diet is far and away the most important factor in overall health, weight loss/maintenance, energy level, mood, hormones, etc., etc. etc. A healthy diet is ALSO the most difficult part of living a healthy lifestyle because it requires effort and dedication all day every day…and there’s also a LOT of emotion tied to FOOD!
When I’ve done other healthy challenges in the past (including the other two Oxygen Challenges I’ve done), I always dial in my diet big time, get really stubborn, work my butt off and see great results. For some reason, THIS TIME, I haven’t felt the desire to be so hard core. Instead, I’ve been trying to focus on making slow and steady permanent changes. I’m still very much committed and working hard, but it’s been a lot more of a gentler, more practical approach.
I’ve been trying to have a long-term, overall health mindset instead of a shorter-term, hit it hard, work my butt off, count everything that goes into my mouth type of mindset.
Consequently, progress has been slow. It’s required a lot of patience, but I think I AM seeing and feeling some progress. I feel good, I sleep well, my appetite is super regulated, I really don’t have strong cravings, I feel happy and my digestion is quite regular. I mention digestion because over the years I’ve learned that digestion really tells a story about how your overall health is. Pay attention. If you Google digestion and health, you’ll see a ton of great articles about it.
Basically, in a nutshell I’ve learned that when my digestion is good and regular, my body loses weight easier, my hormones feel regulated, I don’t feel signs of inflammation and I just feel healthier overall. It’s just a good indicator about how the body is doing overall.
As soon as I start slackin’ on my diet and/or my sleep, I can always tell because my digestion gets messed up and I consequently start to feel off; I don’t have as much energy, I don’t sleep as soundly and I just don’t feel as well.
Just an interesting tidbit.
So, with that being said, I can tell that what I’m doing right now is making positive changes in my body.
Small, yet significant.
Slow, yet steady.
I’m trying to think of this challenge as an opportunity to take a long hard look at my healthy lifestyle (or lack thereof), change up some of my bad habits and create and foster good habits! I essentially want to raise the bar for myself for the long haul.
So, instead of just going crazy and “all in” for the next few months knowing I will get great results, I’ve been taking a much slower, yet more deliberate approach. I’m just trying to be more mindful, conscientious, responsible and most importantly, CONSISTENT overall…forever…not just for the length of this challenge.
My coach throughout this challenge has been Jen Widerstrom and she’s been really great. She’s encouraged us to find a healthy diet that works for us; one we can stick to. It’s been a little challenging for me to come up with my own thang and not have as much direction in that area, but it’s also been really good for me.
It’s been more of a mental challenge for myself. I’ve essentially been giving myself therapy and trying to figure out what makes me tick, what causes me to lose motivation and what I can do to help myself live a healthier, happier life in the long run.
So…..here are some of the main things I’ve been focusing on and stickin’ to:
- Intermittent Fasting. I really should write a post all about Intermittent Fasting because I really, really love it! I have felt such good results when I stick with it consistently. Typically I’ve followed an 8 hour eating window/16 hour fast schedule, but the past 3 weeks I’ve stuck more to a 6 hour eating window/18 hour fast. It’s been good. I’ve definitely felt a difference. I really think it’s been the thing that has helped my hormones and appetite to regulate and my cravings to chill out. Time will tell if it helps me to lose a little weight and eventually maintain my weight for the long-term, but so far, I’m feeling optimistic.
- I’ve been making my sleep a lot more of a priority! This is huge for me. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you may know that over the years I’ve sucked at getting adequate sleep. I’m a busy body who just loves to go go go and cram too much into my life. I always seem to sacrifice my sleep and I KNOW my health has suffered so much because of it. I’ve also noticed as I age, it takes an even bigger toll on my health. So, I’ve been trying really hard to exercise a little discipline, get my butt in bed and make my sleep a priority! I know it will be a bit more of a challenge now that school is back in session, but I’m feeling a little stubborn and am determined to still stay committed.
- I’ve been changing up the way I exercise. Instead of running myself into the ground and “killin’ it” every time I work out, I’ve been trying to be smarter about it and workout in a way that supports my body instead of constantly breaking it down. I’ve been loving my weekly Yoga and Pilates classes. They have felt so darn good to my body, my mind and my stress level. They are still challenging classes too! I love how they work my muscles and help me to have better balance, be more flexible and increase my core strength. LOVE IT! I’ve also been adding in a lot more strength training and I’ve been loving it so so much. I really haven’t been doing a ton of “official cardio” other than the occasional HIIT or Boot Camp class I go to. I do feel like my Yoga, Pilates and weight training get my heart pumping though and I always work up a sweat! That sounds like cardio to me!
- I’ve been trying to eat food that I know helps and supports my body; just good clean, REAL food. Lots of veggies, fruit, eggs, lean meats, brown rice, quinoa, oats, plain Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, protein powder, nuts, seeds, etc. I’ve also been having little tastes of junk food here and there. I like to think that overtime it will become a nice, practical, livable lifestyle for myself, but I also want to see some results! If I don’t see actual weight loss/fat loss in the next month or two, I may have to rethink my process. I’ve really been trying to stay away from counting macros every day (although I still think macro counting is a great learning tool and can be a great part of a healthy lifestyle), I’m just hoping I can get results from just trying to balance my macros in my head and be mindful and careful with what I eat and how much I eat. Again, time will tell if this actually works for me and allows me to get the results I’m looking for.
- I’ve been trying to just CHILL OUT overall. I’m a busy lady; I think most of y’all are very busy people too! I’ve been trying to not over-commit myself, to say “no” if I need to, to spend more quality time with my family, to take some time to relax every day and just do more of what I want to do instead of what I think I should do…within reason, of course. This is also something that has been HUGE for me and I know it will only help me, support me and bless my life in the long-run.
Well, that pretty much sums it up. I really love all of these things I’ve been working on and I just feel very happy and satisfied with the lifestyle I’m living right now. I’m just hoping it will also yield the results I’m hoping for. I know that if I don’t get the results I’m looking for, I will need to look squarely at my diet. I may need to make some tweaks and dial it in a bit more. We’ll see.
I also have to say that it’s been super tough to stick to a squeaky clean diet this past month because of the pace I’ve been keeping and all the crazy we’ve been living! I’m hoping with school starting again, I can settle into a better groove and keep the diet a little tighter….yet still livable.
I’m a firm believer that there isn’t just ONE WAY to eat, exercise and live that will yield the BEST results. We are all different and I think the “BEST” healthy lifestyle for each of us is the one that we can stick to for the long haul! That’s why I think it’s so important to experiment, to try new things and to essentially become our own guinea pigs!
There is no failure as long as we keep trying and learning along the way.
So right now, I feel like I’m carrying out a huge science experiment on myself! In the process, I’m hoping to find some better ways to live that will help me reach the goals I would like to and then stay at those goals instead of just giving it all back after I’m done with a challenge. I also know that over time, our lives change and as we age, our bodies change. I think it’s okay and helpful to evaluate ourselves from time to time and change things up as necessary.
Well folks, it is late and I need to get my sleep!! So, I’m gonna wrap this up. I will keep y’all posted on my progress. I know that regardless of what happens, I’m always much happier when I’m living a life full of purpose and deliberately trying to navigate my life and make it what I want it to be! 🙂
I hope you all have a fabulous weekend! xoxo
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