What a YEAR!

One year ago today I started Wellness Walk.

A course my Beachbody coach had created based on what she learned during a nutrition certification.

When I started Wellness Walk I had been exercising regularly since August, yet not seeing much change in my body. I was ready to start working on my nutrition. This has never been something that comes easy to me, usually when I start focusing on some plan or diet I can make it a couple weeks restricting foods and always feeling hungry but then I just lose all motivation to continue. The diet sucks. I’m crabby and miserable. Everyone around me is miserable. I want CHOCOLATE! So … the diet goes out the window.

Wellness Walk touched on a variety of topics that helped begin to shift my perspective. I learned a lot during the three weeks of this course about myself. Began making small, sustainable changes in my life.

Still, slow going with regard to weight loss as usual for me. In December at my annual checkup my doctor officially put obesity in my medical file. That moment really sucked. Really, really sucked. Sure I knew that my weight was high. That I’ve needed to lose far too many pounds for far too long, but it’s just so hard. Impossible really. Why even bother? That was my mindset.

Yet, I knew I needed to keep working at making sustainable, healthy choices. I want to be active. I want to be there for my kids and maybe someday my grandkids. To be able to spend time with them, travel with them, just live life with them. Enjoy growing old with my husband.

So in January I signed up as a Beachbody coach. Why? I wanted to commit to drinking Shakeology daily and that amazing bag of superfood goodness is not cheap. Signing up as a coach gave me a discount to help mitigate that expense. (Then came my daughter’s love for Daily Sunshine and my Beachbar addiction and well, all the more reason to have that coach discount right? But I digress.)

As a coach I also got to hear some information about this new weight loss program Beachbody was launching in May. I kept hearing all these to-good-to-be-true things.

Lose weight happily.

Always be full and satisfied.

End emotional eating.

Eat out and go to parties while losing weight.

My initial thought: there’s no way all this can be true. But yet I truly hoped it would be. I so desperately needed all of these things to be true. I’d shared a little of my journey and some about this new program, 2B Mindset, with others. Two people agreed to join me.

Little did I know this truly would be the start of something pretty amazing in my life.

The creator of the 2B Mindset, Ilana Muhlstein, is my hero. She herself has struggled with weight, and everything that goes along with that, since she was 6 years old. Her story makes me tear up every time I hear her share. Listening to her explain food in a new way. The purpose of different foods for my body. How to craft a plate of food at each meal that makes sense for what my body needs. Her passion and excitement over veggies and water. So many little encouraging sayings and tips and tricks for difficult situations. Everything just clicked for me. I devoured everything within the 2B Mindset program and began making my blueprint for a healthier me.

Along the way I’ve found a confidence I didn’t even know I’d lost. Learned to love and appreciate my body as I never have before. Eating good foods for me has helped my body function so much better.

The hype was right.

I am losing weight happily.

No deprivation.

Feeling full and satisfied.

Changing my thoughts has truly changed my life. FOREVER. There’s no going back to my old mindset. This new mindset is working so well for me it’s here to stay!

This last year by the numbers:

From October 2 till now I’ve gone down 47.8 pounds. Evicted 34.6 of those pounds since beginning to shift my mindset with 2B on May 2!

I took the 2B Mindset Mentor course last month to learn even more about my new mindset. The science behind 2B. More tips and tricks. Especially for helping others who are needing solutions to struggles they face while working on their new mindsets. I wanted to learn more for me and to pay it forward to others who want to change their mindset.

If you resonate with any part of my story know that changing your mindset is VERY POWERFUL!

Learning what works and doesn’t for you is EMPOWERING.

You can do this.

Anyone can do this.

I’m here if you need support. Fill out my consultation form and maybe this next year … this one can be YOUR YEAR!

Elohim

I never have much time but have several coloring books. The latest coloring book with several of the names of God used throughout the Bible.

Since I’ve never really studied all the different names I figured this coloring book would be a good time to start. With my mom’s help I found a Bible study on the names of God and dove in today.

The first name in my coloring book and the study:

Elohim

From the study: “When we pray to Elohim, we remember that he is the one who began it all, creating the heavens and the earth and separating light from darkness, water from dry land, night from day. This ancient name for God contains the idea of God’s creative power as well as his authority and sovereignty.”
This world is a hot mess much of the time. Humans have not played nice and continue to screw up what God created in many different ways. Yet he created us anyway. Knowing all our faults God created us, sent his son to die for us so we could be redeemed and draws us to himself through his creation. In Genesis he says his creation is good. Multiple times. Living in CO I get to experience some wonderful pieces to God’s creation. Mountains. Rivers. Hills. Sunshine. Wild flowers. Aspen tress. So many beautiful things that point toward him and give him glory.

I may not always be the best reflection of God, despite being made in his image, but sure do try. One of the questions in the Bible study was this: “Since God made us in his image, he has instilled in us creative power. What are your creative gifts?” I don’t really see myself as creative. I do like to write and of course the coloring. Once in a while I get pintresty. But overall it’s not really how I’d describe myself. Interesting to realize that the side of me that is creative comes from God. He created me like him and he created literally everything. Maybe that is one of the reasons I find joy when I tap into my creativity, it’s a way to be closer to God and understand him a little better.

Happiest Place on Earth.

What a crazy week. We had a lot of fun. Walked 50 miles. Spent loads of time together. Saw lots of characters. Rode many rides. All in all we had a blast.

A couple highlights …

The girl getting all decked out as Elsa at the Bippity Boppity Boutique. She remembered doing this last time and was excited to become Queen Elsa for the day. To top it all off we went and met Queen Elsa and Princess Anna at the end of the day.

I will try and post more pictures later, our Internets don’t seem to want to cooperate right now.

A highlight from Tuesday was the Princess lunch at Ariel’s Grotto. This time we were able to meet Tiana and Tangled and Princess Minnie in addition to Ariel and Belle. We’ve seen Rapunzle from a distance but not up close and have only seen Tiana singing in California Adventure.

Wednesday we spent a few hours in the park before nap time and then met some friends for dinner and Big Hero 6. Fun to see friends from college and the movie was really great.

The highlight from Thursday was meeting Baymax and Hiro. Not to be outdone by AMAZING seats for Worlds of Color after a tasty dinner. We also ate corn and turkey legs as a homage to Thanksgiving and saw a bunch of characters in both parks, including a special run-in with the Fairy Godmother.

By Friday we were all WIPED and the girl was not wanting to walk around anymore (in hindsight we should have rented a stroller for her, but it’s so much easier without one!) … but we had a good day, got some last minute souvenirs, and watched the Disneyland fireworks from our hotel pool deck before being totally ready to head home the next day.

Saturday morning we ate breakfast in the hotel with Mickey and his pals, packed, wandered around Downtown Disney one last time and headed to the airport.

Long week and we were all ready to be home.

Thankful for our adventures and ready to see where next Thanksgiving takes us!

Why not?

So I was thinking we should buy another new car this year.

Not really but it looks like we will anyway.

The hubby needs a reliable car with all this driving and after the fun today of him shuttling us all to and from work/school/preschool since we only have one car that functions in the snow we will be starting the car shopping process again.

Ugh.

Just another thing to add to the most wonderful end to October and beginning of November.

Is it time for Disneyland yet?

10 more sleeps till we go to our happy place!!!

Fell off the wagon already.

So much for blogging every day this month.

There have been things I thought to write about and then seem to forget and not find the time.

Today I was gifted with the day off. It did not go as I had planned. I did not accomplish all I wanted to. But I did not have to go to work. That was wonderful.

The hubs and I went on a movie date. We so rarely get to do that and pretty much never make a matinee anymore. Definitely an older crowd this morning, but nice to be able to go and watch a movie and just spend some time together.

Life has been  in wack-a-mole mode and I feel like I’m the mole. No fun. With all the car issues we’ve been having (yesterday the truck started acting funny and today the check engine light came on) and the weather change today I felt like Eeyore most of the day.

Here’s to hoping tomorrow can be relatively uneventful.

Finished Home Alone with the kids. They really enjoyed it. It has been fun to watch movies I liked when I was younger with them and have them like them too. Also interesting to talk to them about how things are different now with technology having changed so much in the last 20 years.

Started the last week in my 21 Day Fix today as well. So far so good. Here’s to finishing strong and then getting started with P90. Happy the hubs is joining me (he started P90 today) and we can cheer each other on and encourage each other.

How’s that for random.

Think we can be done now.

Two accidents in 8 days. I think that’s plenty.

We can be done now for a few years right?

Praise God we are all safe and neither of the accidents were serious enough to cause much damage.

I’m sure I’ll betaking the car in again this Friday for an estimate and I wish they could fix it while we are gone to Disneyland for Thanksgiving. Maybe they can, I’m not sure how many of the days that week they are closed. At the very least it might mean I only have to be driving the rental for a week. Who knows though. With this new damage it might take longer than the initial seven day estimate.

Of course tomorrow is a Full Moon. Crazy people been on the road lately.

Argh!

mmm coconut.

I’ve always liked most anything coconut. Especially the smell.

Bought coconut oil spray for the girl’s hair. Coconut oil shampoo for her hair (which has been amazing for her hair too!) … maybe it makes me think of the beach and helps me relax or something.

This whole eating plan has been crazy but I’m getting used to eating better. Finally bought the ginormous vat of extra virgin coconut oil from Sam’s Club and have been learning to use it when cooking. I’m allowed six teaspoons of good fats every day and since I’m not always cooking with them I usually end up sucking on a few teaspoons of peanut butter or almond butter. At least I like those, wouldn’t want to do the same with olive oil.

Back to the coconut oil. Like olive oil I can’t just eat it plain. So tonight with my vanilla protein + unsweetened vanilla almond milk shake I decided to try adding one of the butters. Wasn’t sure about that though and then I thought of the coconut oil. Maybe that would taste good in my drink. So … Google … and I discovered this website 7 Ways to Eat More Coconut Oil … and decided to melt some and pour in my shake.

Pretty good. Had that hint of coconut flavor. Nothing overpowering, but I only used 1 tbsp. I’d eaten all my fruits for the day so it was nice to still have a different flavor in my shake tonight.

If I ever end up with more teaspoons left at the end of the day I’d definitely do that again.

I want to try out some of her other recipes, but maybe I’ll wait till after I’m done with the 21 Day Fix.

Sweet boy moment.

The boy never showed us his story last year. The one they work on and take to the Young Writer’s Conference.

Somehow, the story surfaced tonight.

After a frustrating day at work it was just what I needed.

His story was about the time he and I went on a ropes course on top of Vail mountain. Something I initially didn’t want to do, but he was too young (and too short, to go by himself. So I went.

We had a fun time together and it was really neat to read his story from his perspective.

Love that boy!

Sunday.

Seems we so often have too much to do and not enough time and I rarely get time to just rest on Sunday.

Today we went to church and ran a couple errands and now all I want to do is sit and do nothing. Nothing at all.

But there is laundry to be folded and kids that need attention and a dinner that needs to be planned here at some point.

The last couple days we did have fun with the homecoming festivities but sometimes I just want a nice calm quiet weekend with nothing.

Maybe next weekend.

November is here.

Where does time go??

I don’t even know when the last time i wrote was. Sigh. I spend my time doing other stuff that isn’t always the best use of my time.

So what’s new?

The biggest thing is that I’m [almost] halfway through my 21 Day Fix journey. I started the food … diet .. portion control … whatever you want to call it Oct 20th. I think the hardest part is limiting my carbs. Oh, and that milk, almond milk and coconut water are all “carbs” too. Eating a zillion veggies is also more challenging than I thought it would be and I’ve been schooled in blending in spinach (mostly yum) and kale (mostly not yum) and other veggies into fruit and yogurt smoothies. Workouts started on October 27th. Man some of those are killer! I’m grateful for the extra motivation to keep headed in the right direction though. I think the “Fix” is insane but honestly I needed a huge kick-in-the-pants change in my lifestyle. The way I was headed was not getting me anywhere but in larger clothing and that totally bums a person out!

My pants are already fitting better and little motivations like that help me stay focused. Sure I’ve broken down and ate something not part of the plan but then I’m right back where I need to be the next day and not shaming myself and diving off the cliff back to the way things were. Change is hard. I’ve had a few melt downs too when trying to figure out what I can eat and how to make something work when I don’t quite have all the right things on hand (like the time we warmed up the carnitas and I didn’t have enough carbs left for two tortillas and we didn’t have enough lettuce to make a salad). In the past I’d get veggies and not eat them, especially lettuce, before they went bad in the fridge. Not now. I think I’ve eaten more veggies in the last week than I’d previously eat in a month or two.

That’s pretty much the biggest things going on for me right now. Overhauling my life to include more protein and veggies and fewer carbs and sweet things. I’m going through Starbucks withdrawal. But overall it hasn’t been as bad as I’d thought. The first week I was hungrier, and not sure what on earth I’d eat, but now I’m even able to go out into the real world and keep portions in mind and making sure I eat more veggies than anything else and I’m not just surviving this but thriving!

After the fix: P90 with the hubs. He is going to start a few days before I finish my Fixin’ but I’ll just dive in with him after.

If this at all sounds like something you want to try let me know and I’ll get you connected with my fabulous friend Tiffany so you can get started on your journey too.