Week One-Day Six

I wasn't able to post earlier because life got really crazy. Between my first day back at work and leaving my little guy at daycare for the first time, today was awful.

Even though I wasn't able to get my shake in, I was able to do a partial workout. I got three quarters of the way done before my little man decided he needed attention.

Dinner tonight was a wonderful chicken taco rice dish. Another great recipe from Pinterest, it had ground chicken, onion, salsa, black beans and rice. We altered the recipe a little bit so instead of using your own seasonings we used a packet of taco seasoning and tortilla shells to make an awesome burrito.

So, overall today feels like a win. 😃

Fitbit Flex is a no go

I found my Fitbit but I'm not going to be able to use it right now. The metal band seemed to work okay but I didn't like wearing it because it caught on my son. I tried to go back to the regular band. Sadly, I broke out into a rash again. The metal band is very pretty and I found it on Amazon.

The band I used was the a standard Fitbit Flex band. 

And this is the rash I broke out in. 

Once my son is a little older, maybe I'll try to use the metal band again. It's just a little too bulky to wear while he's so young and needs to be held all the time. 

Week One - Day Five

I realized I started the post for yesterday, but didn't post it. So, instead of doing a day four I'm just going to move onto day five. 

Yesterday: I didn't have my daily shake but I had an overall healthy eating day. I found a really yummy healthy lemon chicken on Pinterest. Yesterday was also a rest day, so, I didn't workout but I did stay very active doing things around the house. 

Now onto today! I'm going back to work on Monday, which means I need to get a ton of stuff done. My list to get done before I start back is: 

Laundry- caught up, folded & put away
Dinner- prep 2-3 dinners so I don't have a lot of prep work to do when I first go back
Clean/re-org office space- I work from home and I haven't been in my office for 8 weeks, so, I need to get in there and do a quick once over
Trash- today is trash day (if the weather clears up) I will run it to the dump
Wrap x-mas gifts- I want to have all the gifts wrapped so I'm not worrying about this Thurs & Fri
Pack up my maternity clothes- I'm no longer in them so there is no reason to have them in my closet anymore
General Cleaning- I want to do a general deep clean around the whole house, so, Monday evening I'm not stressing

I'm also drinking my yummy shake this morning. I had to throw the berries away because they were really disgusting. So, I'm back to my green shakes. I used spinach, apples, pears, honey, chia seeds and cinnamon.

Since I'm positing in the morning, I'll try to do a quick post this evening with an update on my list. If I can't, then you'll get the update tomorrow.

Stretch marks from Pregnancy

During my pregnancy I carried only in the front. Despite my constant use of baby oil and lotions, I got severe stretch marks on my lower stomach.

I did a little bit of searching and found there are a ton of different products that say they will reduce stretch marks. After reading reviews for tons of products, one stood out to me. Art Naturals® Stretch Mark & Scar Removal Cream. I found it on Amazon for $16.00. It stood out because the reviwers felt strongly enough to post pictures of how well it worked for them and most raved about the product,



I will be using twice a day for the 4 weeks that I'm doing the exercise program and at the end I will provide a photo of what my stretch marks look like then and a review of how I feel the product worked.

**Note: This review was done completely on my own. I have no affiliation and am not being compensated for anything I say about this product.**

Week One - Day Three

Ok- well, I am obviously a newbie at the blogging thing. I somehow screwed up my day 1 & 2 posting. Maybe someday I'll get the hang of this. 😊

Today's workout went really well. I did two circuits with minimal modifications, which were:

Wall sit- 20 sec both times
Side Crunches 35 ea side
Plank- full 25 seconds in a modified position
Pushups- 10 modified ea time ( I'm going slow on the arm workouts because little man is 13 pounds and growing and I need to be able to hold him without pain.)
High Knees- 40 ea side instead of 40 sec

Then I did a lot of stretching. Right after I started to make my daily shake. I say started because while making it I found the berry bags had leaked in my brand new (5 day old) refrigerator. So, I had to clean  that up before I could finish my shake.

Today my shake consisted of spinach, frozen berry mix with kale, honey, chia seeds and whey protein. I'm not a huge fan of this one because the kale didn't chop well in the ninja so its really chunky/chewy. It was pretty gross but I managed to choke half of it down.

I fell off the healthy wagon a little bit today, I was brought down by a bag of chips and some jelly beans. Oh well, I'm not perfect and this is a work in progress.

Week One- Day One

My first day down! I think it went well overall. As it is Wednesday, that's the day I started on the HIIT workout plan. I did have to adjust some of the exercises: 

Wall Sit- 20 seconds

Plank- 15 seconds

Squat Jumps- 15

Lunge Kicks- 20 ea side

Push ups- all 15- but modified

High Knees- I did 25 per leg not 25 seconds

I only did one run thru of all the exercises because I started to feel light headed. When working out I live by one rule, listen to my body. If I start feeling dizzy, weak or light-headed I stop or take a break. 

After not working out for a few months ( I had trouble moving around staring in my 8th month), I will be taking it slow to start and working up to doing the whole workout by week 4. 

The healthy addition to my diet today was a shake. In my Nutra Ninja (best house warming gift EVER!) I mixed up a shake of spinach, green apple, pear, water, honey, cinnamon, and whey protein. It was delicious and gave me a healthy boost. 

In addition to having a shake a day, I'm going to be making sure I have the proper water intake. I have a 33 oz water bottle that I'll be using to make sure I get my daily intake. According to the Mayo Clinic it varies by individual, they do suggest for women about 9 - 8oz (72oz) glasses per day. So I'm going to shoot for drinking 2 - 3 bottles per day. 

Week One- Day 2

Day 2 and I'm still going strong. I got up at 6 am when my son started to fuss for breakfast, got him fed and then hit the ground running this morning with my workout and got my list ready for shopping.

Like most people in this economy, I pinch my pennies, shop sales and use coupons. Even with both my husband and I working, we still struggle some months to make ends meet. This is the most frustrating feeling because we try so hard to pay all of our bills in full, on time and put some money in our savings account. We both have student loans, a car payment, a mortgage and our utility bills. In addition to making the minimum payment on our loans, I try to put a little extra toward at least one loan of our student loans. By doing this even, I've been able to pay off one of our student loans 3 years early. I had to stop paying extra for the last two months because I am on maternity leave right now and I have a reduced salary coming in. Starting in January I'll be able to restart this and hopefully I'll be able to pay off another loan in 2017.

Well, enough about my financial rant, sometimes I just start typing and go off in a random direction.

So, my workout went well. I again had to make some adjustments which were:

Plank- 30 sec
Wall Sit- 15 sec
Push ups- 6 modified
Lunge kicks- 14 ea side

There were less modifications then yesterday, so, I take that as a win!

I've also pulled out my old fitbit. I'm hoping to use it everyday to track my activity. I had to stop using it because the band made me break out into a weird rash. I've bought a metal bracelet that will hopefully allow me to wear it.

My shake today was spinach, frozen mixed berries, honey, cinnamon and chia seeds. My shakes will be very berry heavy for the next week. I had a freezer mishap and they started to thaw. So, I need to use them quickly.

Post Pregnancy weight loss

After trying for six years, my husband and I were blessed with our first child. He is the joy of my life, however, the weight I gained during my pregnancy is not a joy. Prior to pregnancy, I had gained a little weight and was up to my all time weight high of 153-155 pounds. At my doctors appointment two days before he was born I weighed in at 196 pounds. I know that 40 pounds is normal, however, now that he's here I want to get rid of all of it and more.

This is the story of my weight loss post pregnancy and I'm hoping that keeping a journal of it here will help me keep up with my weight loss and exercise goals. My goal is to reach 145 pounds and lead a healthier life.

Prior to starting this plan, I had my post pregnancy 6-week appointment with my OBGYN and got the all clear for my health. This is really important because that appointment is in place to make sure that you have completely healed from pregnancy and to ensure you have no lingering health issues after pregnancy.

At my 6-week appointment I weighed 163 pounds, so, my goal is 18 pounds and tone my muscles. Below is my starting picture, when I've finished my 4-week plan I'll up the before and after.

I'll be following the workout plan that I found from HIIT you can find it here. It is a 4-week plan and with a healthy food plan, I'm hoping that in those four weeks I will be able to lose 4-8 pounds. I need to keep my weight loss goals realistic and healthy because I'm breastfeeding. If I were to do a crash diet with a severe workout plan I could hurt my son by not providing him with the nutrients he needs.

I'll be posting daily about my workout and my meals for the day. At the end of the 4-weeks I'll post a review about my opinion on the this workout plan from HIIT.

If you have a workout plan that worked for you, please leave it in the comments section and I'll be excited to look at it.