The 24 day challenge

I started my Advocare 24 day challenge on September 25. Here is the summary of the challenge:

http://advoarmy.com/schedule/06083516pm_Cleanse.pdf

I know that's a lot to take in, but the main point is eat more fruit, lots and lots of fruit. 

http://advoarmy.com/schedule/06223740pm_MAX_Phase.pdf

The main point of this one is add more protein!

It's important to note, that the whole plan can be done product free, just follow the food recommendations and it will be a great thing! Because I'm breastfeeding I'm not supposed to take the herbal cleanse tablets or the MNS packets, but it worked great without those! If you want to use just one product, I recommend Spark. http://www.advocare.com/products/active/A7093.aspx

You mix spark into your water in the morning, and the B vitamins and caffeine and other stuff gives you tons of energy! For me, that energy made it easier to say no to cravings. If you're willing to buy a second product, I recommend Fiber. http://www.advocare.com/products/well/W4162.aspx

Also a drink mix-in, after drinking this first thing every morning, I was shocked at how few cravings or hungers I had throughout the day. The probiotic and Omegaplex are also products that I liked, but there are lots of similar products on the market. 

Now I'm going to tell you all my fears about doing this whole thing, and my resolution of these fears. In the past, caffeine and B vitamins have made me jittery and not able to sleep at night. Also, sometimes babies can be sensitive to their breastfeeding mom drinking caffeine. So I started out with a half serving just to be careful. Everything was fine, so I went to the full amount and felt great! In fact, I started getting tired at the right time of night to go to bed, when before I always had the problem of accidentally staying up too late.  I was also afraid that "dieting" would mess up my milk supply. Then I realized that I would be eating way more nutritious food that would make me and my baby healthier. My third fear was that I would miss all of the food I denied myself and gain even more weight than I lost when the 24 days are over. It turns out that I love feeling good and being used to making good food choices! I learned that eating all this healthy food made me not so hungry for other things. What fears do you have about trying a "diet"?

Here are my tips for a good 24 day challenge:

1. Don't calorie count the first time you try this! It's stressful and too much to think about. Just eat all you want of the foods that are allowed and not the ones that aren't. (Unless you are already used to calorie counting) 

2. Put reminders to eat (and what you will eat) on your calendar in your phone. Unhealthy eating often means skipping breakfast or lunch and then binging at dinner or after dinner. Remembering to eat needs to be a top priority!

3. This isn't specified in the challenge, but I ate a banana for my morning fruit the first 10 days, even though it doesn't have a low glycemic index. (My trainer told me to)

4. Also not specifically mentioned is the dressing on the salad for lunch. Ranch and other creamy dressings are full of saturated fat and not allowed. Many vinaigrettes are loaded with sugar. Balsamic vinaigrette usually doesn't have much added sugar or any other bad stuff, so it is your best choice! The olive oil in it is so good for you, so don't even think about skipping it even if you feel like you don't need it. 

5. Keep it simple. If you want to try some new recipes, go ahead, have fun. But you don't have to make something elaborate every day, that will wear you out quick. I made a batch of brown rice and then portioned it out and kept it in my fridge to reheat quickly at each meal. Grilled or baked chicken or Salmon with your favorite seasoning sprinkled on top tastes great! Add 2 or 3 steamed vegetables and you have a meal everyone would envy. A quick and simple dinner for yourself means that if your kids or husband need foods that you're choosing not to eat, making that for them  isn't too hard. 

6. This tip changed my life: it's ok to eat the same thing every day! Your body appreciates the consistent fuel. If you're eating good food that you like, you won't mind. It's so much easier to eat healthy if you don't have to come up with and decide on something different every day. 

Other tips that I've heard include: COMMIT! And plan ahead. Those are good too :P

Now for the results, drum roll please

...........................................

On October 18 I weighed 257lbs, that is 13 pounds less than when I started!

And I was down 39.5 inches since starting Bootcamp in June!

Starting over

When a person has one kid, they are overwhelmed with the amount of work to take care of the child and cook and clean and go to appointments and everything. When that person has a second child, they are used to the amount of work required for one, and adding the second is even more hard work. Hopefully by the time they have a third child, they are used to taking care of the first 2, so the third is just as hard, but not 3 times as hard. Does that make sense? Your capacity to take care of things increases gradually as you are required to do more.

When you have 3 kids, and get taken care of 100% for a month, you forgot everything that needs to be done. After I had recovered from surgery and was on my own again, I was floored by how quickly my house became dirty. And it just kept getting worse. And the kids always wanted to be fed. I had to go grocery shopping, and I didn't know what to buy. 

My point is, it was a rough month. I was getting depressed, and I eat bad food when I'm depressed. And that made me more depressed. Everything felt so out of control. I was consistently going to Bootcamp and pushing myself to exercise hard, but I felt like the exercise made me even more hungry.  I gained 10 more pounds, putting me at 270 lbs. 

I asked my trainer for help, and she recommended the Advocare 24 day challenge. I didn't think I could do it because I'm still breastfeeding, but there is a modified version that is approved for breastfeeding mothers. So I'm starting September 26 (right after I get home from our family vacation to Disneyland). 

Roadblock

After about of month of doing Bootcamp, I woke up one morning with what felt like digestive distress. I've never had food poisoning, so I thought that might be the cause. When it hadn't gone away by that night, I went to the ER. They said my gall bladder was inflamed. Gall bladder attacks normally last 1-5 hours, and I was going on 17 hours. They gave me the option to go home and see if it went away or to check in and get it taken out in the morning. I couldn't imagine having surgery with a 2 month old baby at home! My husband is great and supportive and does his best, but all 3 kids for who-knows-how-long while I recover? It wasn't going to happen. So I went home.

The pain didn't go away. The next morning I texted my Bootcamp instructor that I wouldn't be there because I was sick. She told me "don't say you're sick, say you're fighting it". Probably good advice if you have a cold... That night I was calling people desperately making arrangements so I could have surgery.  Luckily, my amazing sister-in-law agreed to come stay with us for a week. So I went back to the ER, and the doctor looked at the chart from the night before and was surprised I went home. To him my gall bladder was clearly infected and needed to come out. 

The surgery went well, and I felt totally fine after a couple of days. After abdominal surgery, however, you have to be careful not to get a hernia. So I wasn't allowed to go back to working out for 4 weeks. Then my scar got infected and I had to take it easy for 2 additional weeks. During that time, my parents came to town and took care of EVERYTHING, and also fed me well...so I gained about 10 pounds. 

Boot camp

Tomorrow morning is my first day of boot camp. I'm afraid. I'm terrified. I don't have the energy to do laundry. I don't have the strength to stand for over 15 minutes. Why do I think I can do this?

While I was still pregnant, I decided to prevent post-pregnancy weight gain by signing up for this. I knew I'd be very weak to begin with. I wasn't in good shape before getting pregnant, and I was practically on bed rest my entire pregnancy. 

I'm afraid I won't be able to do any of the exercises. I'm afraid I will be too sore to function the rest of the day. I'm afraid I won't even have the energy to get out of the door in the morning to go. And I'm afraid my two kids, that I'm dragging along, won't cooperate with the plan. 

So, instead of getting to bed early so I have more energy, I decided to write down my feelings about this along with my reasons for doing it. Hopefully, this will keep me going tomorrow and in the future when I start questioning if this is a stupid idea. 

1. I like the instructor. Her personality is highly motivating to me. 

2. The peer pressure of this environment is going to push me to keep going. 

3. I need the structure to even get started, on my own I tend to do nothing. 

4. The strength I gain from doing this will make my body hurt less and work better. 

5. This boot camp will provide therapy and healthy eating motivation that I desperately need. 

I really hope this will work out. 

Introducing Corinne

I just had my third baby and I'm turning 30 this year. I weigh 250lbs and I don't want to. Ironically, it isn't "baby weight" at least not directly. I weighed 220 when I was 22, before I had my first baby. During each of my pregnancies I have lost 20 to 30 pounds from being so sick, but afterwards I quickly gained it all back and then some. A year ago I weighed the most I ever have at 285lbs.

I have so many things I blame for the weight. Pregnancy sickness made my muscles atrophy. Pregnancy sickness messed up my relationship with food and cooking. I can trace clear signs of food addiction all the way back to when I was 15.  "Postpartum depression" is the latest culprit, giving me chronic pain and low motivation.

The solution is supposed to be diet and exercise.  Well, I eat when I'm happy, I eat when I'm sad. I eat when I'm lonely, I eat when I'm enjoying time with friends. I eat when I'm bored, I eat when I'm busy. Each of these times I'm describing bad food choices, by the way, I really can't think of any occasion when I make good food choices.

My body hurts too. Is it depression? Excess weight? Regular aging? Arthritis? Fibromyalgia? Cancer? I become such a hypochondriac when I think about it too much. Where does it hurt? Knees, low back, upper back, hands, feet, hips, shoulders, elbows, ankles, and ribs.  All this pain is exhausting and discouraging. How can a person persist in exercising while feeling this way?

I feel so typical in my situation it's disgusting. But documenting "my journey" with a blog sounds...fun? No cliche? No, just helpful. And I need all of the help I can get.

(This is me two months ago, the day before giving birth)