How is everybody doing this lovely day? I hope you are all loving your bodies and being kind to yourselves! Here's your tip for the day: Drink water! Your body does best with AT LEAST 64 ounces of water a day (about 8 glasses of water). A lot of times when you are craving something, including sweets, it's just because you are thirsty. So drink lots of water, and when you are craving a treat, try drinking a glass of water first before diving into the ice cream (with the rationalization that your body must need dairy). Often it is just H20 that your body really wants. Also, if you drink a full glass of water 30 minutes before you sit down to a meal, you will be much less likely to overeat. I'm telling you, it works!
Onward, holiday challengees! You're awesome! And remember, water is your secret weapon!
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Friday, November 25, 2011
The Holiday Challenge Begins!
Alright, here we are, several days into our Holiday Challenge! I'm going to be posting a "tip of the day" as often as possible to keep us all motivated and focused on our goal, which of course is better health! Don't you always feel so blah by the end of the holiday season when you've gained a ton of weight thanks to all of the holiday goodies that are constantly surrounding you? Yeah, me too! So this year is going to be different! Now I'm not suggesting that you try to cut out the goodies altogether because that's just a recipe for failure (no pun intended). What I am suggesting is MODERATION! Instead of eating that entire plate of peppermint caramel brownies, why not just have one? And don't be afraid to throw things away if there gets to be too much stuff around. Your sweet neighbor who brought it over will never know, so don't feel obligated to eat it all.
Okay, now for today's tip: Be nice to yourself! You do not have to be perfect (in fact we couldn't be even if we tried), so don't be yourself up just because you slipped up. If you ate a little too much pie over Thanksgiving, forgive yourself and let it go. Keep your focus on the now, and just work on doing better today, or even this moment, rather than beating yourself up for yesterday. If there's one thing I want you to learn through this challenge, it's to love yourself. So be nice, and tell your body how much you love it and how grateful you are for it!
Okay, now for today's tip: Be nice to yourself! You do not have to be perfect (in fact we couldn't be even if we tried), so don't be yourself up just because you slipped up. If you ate a little too much pie over Thanksgiving, forgive yourself and let it go. Keep your focus on the now, and just work on doing better today, or even this moment, rather than beating yourself up for yesterday. If there's one thing I want you to learn through this challenge, it's to love yourself. So be nice, and tell your body how much you love it and how grateful you are for it!
Saturday, November 19, 2011
P90x Week 4
Today marks the end of my 4th week doing P90x, which also means weigh-in and measure day as well as fit test update. Before I get to all that, though, I want to review the past 2 weeks since my last post.
Week 3 went relatively well for the first part of the week, but by the end of the week I started feeling really discouraged because I didn't feel like I was seeing any results. But I also realized that I had missed reading my scriptures for the past few days. For those of you who are not religious, this may seem odd and totally unrelated to exercise and fitness. But for me, my relationship with God is central to everything I do in life. The more I am able to enlist God's help in even things that might seem unimportant to Him (although I believe that if it's important to me, it's important to Him because He loves me so much) and the more I have faith that He will help me succeed, the more successful I am. So as I study the scriptures and pray, I receive insight and inspiration, for example, about how I can organize my time more efficiently to fit in all that I need and want to do during the day, such as exercising as well as spending quality time with my children. Anyway, I hadn't been reading my scriptures, so I wasn't feeling as close to Heavenly Father or feeling the help of His Spirit, and I just felt down. So I recommitted to making that a priority every single day, and I've been feeling much better as a result.
I also started to lose motivation to keep going with my exercise and fitness because I didn't feel like I was seeing the results I wanted to see by this time. But I immediately stopped myself from thinking that way and took the time to realize that even if I I'm not seeing results yet, that doesn't mean that improvement isn't occurring. I know that my body is becoming stronger and more fit every single day that I exercise and eat well and that eventually I WILL see big results. I recognized also that I have often given up by this point in any program I commit to because I get sick or injure myself and have to stop working out. But this time I am at a level both physically and emotionally to handle the strenuous exercise schedule I am following without burning out or getting hurt. These realizations have renewed my motivation and kept me going.
Another big help is my commitment to doing EFT every single day. I have tapped about my weight concerns, about my concerns that I'll get injured, about eating right, about cravings, and about so many other things, and I've done it just about every day since starting the P90x program. I have never been this consistent with EFT before, and I am noticing a huge difference. Whenever some big emotional issue looms up and threatens to sabotage everything I'm trying to accomplish, I have managed to weather it fairly well and not let it overwhelm me thanks to tapping about it. That's not to say I don't get down and discouraged some days, but those feelings last for a few hours rather than days or weeks, and I am able to pull myself up and forge ahead really quickly. I can't wait until I am trained to help other people deal with their emotional blocks this way. I know it is a powerful tool, and I really love the idea of helping others transform their lives both physically and emotionally.
It didn't hurt also that this was a lighter week in my training due to periodization (changing up routines from time to time to keep your body from getting too used to any routine), so I was able to give my body a little bit of a break.
So now to the results at the end of week 4: I'm down 2 more pounds today, and I've lost several inches over my entire body, including a half inch from my waist! I was able to do 4 pull-ups (that's right: FOUR!) up from 1.5 a month ago, and I was improved on every other part of the fit test as well (except for the heart rate maximizer, but I attribute that to a dying hr monitor battery the first time I did the test). Hooray! I feel like getting through that big wall of resistance I hit last weekend was like a test. Once I passed it by not giving in and giving up, my body let go of a bunch of fat and basically took a big step forward in its level of health. I feel so excited that I am seeing results, especially when I've been working so hard. I'm proud of myself and excited to see how much more I can achieve!
I have improved so much and felt so good through it all for the most part that I'm actually going to move up to the classic P90x, which is a little more intense than P90x lean, the program I've been following so far. I will start with month 2 of that program and follow that for the rest of the 90 days since I started. I'm looking forward to the challenge.
Week 3 went relatively well for the first part of the week, but by the end of the week I started feeling really discouraged because I didn't feel like I was seeing any results. But I also realized that I had missed reading my scriptures for the past few days. For those of you who are not religious, this may seem odd and totally unrelated to exercise and fitness. But for me, my relationship with God is central to everything I do in life. The more I am able to enlist God's help in even things that might seem unimportant to Him (although I believe that if it's important to me, it's important to Him because He loves me so much) and the more I have faith that He will help me succeed, the more successful I am. So as I study the scriptures and pray, I receive insight and inspiration, for example, about how I can organize my time more efficiently to fit in all that I need and want to do during the day, such as exercising as well as spending quality time with my children. Anyway, I hadn't been reading my scriptures, so I wasn't feeling as close to Heavenly Father or feeling the help of His Spirit, and I just felt down. So I recommitted to making that a priority every single day, and I've been feeling much better as a result.
I also started to lose motivation to keep going with my exercise and fitness because I didn't feel like I was seeing the results I wanted to see by this time. But I immediately stopped myself from thinking that way and took the time to realize that even if I I'm not seeing results yet, that doesn't mean that improvement isn't occurring. I know that my body is becoming stronger and more fit every single day that I exercise and eat well and that eventually I WILL see big results. I recognized also that I have often given up by this point in any program I commit to because I get sick or injure myself and have to stop working out. But this time I am at a level both physically and emotionally to handle the strenuous exercise schedule I am following without burning out or getting hurt. These realizations have renewed my motivation and kept me going.
Another big help is my commitment to doing EFT every single day. I have tapped about my weight concerns, about my concerns that I'll get injured, about eating right, about cravings, and about so many other things, and I've done it just about every day since starting the P90x program. I have never been this consistent with EFT before, and I am noticing a huge difference. Whenever some big emotional issue looms up and threatens to sabotage everything I'm trying to accomplish, I have managed to weather it fairly well and not let it overwhelm me thanks to tapping about it. That's not to say I don't get down and discouraged some days, but those feelings last for a few hours rather than days or weeks, and I am able to pull myself up and forge ahead really quickly. I can't wait until I am trained to help other people deal with their emotional blocks this way. I know it is a powerful tool, and I really love the idea of helping others transform their lives both physically and emotionally.
It didn't hurt also that this was a lighter week in my training due to periodization (changing up routines from time to time to keep your body from getting too used to any routine), so I was able to give my body a little bit of a break.
So now to the results at the end of week 4: I'm down 2 more pounds today, and I've lost several inches over my entire body, including a half inch from my waist! I was able to do 4 pull-ups (that's right: FOUR!) up from 1.5 a month ago, and I was improved on every other part of the fit test as well (except for the heart rate maximizer, but I attribute that to a dying hr monitor battery the first time I did the test). Hooray! I feel like getting through that big wall of resistance I hit last weekend was like a test. Once I passed it by not giving in and giving up, my body let go of a bunch of fat and basically took a big step forward in its level of health. I feel so excited that I am seeing results, especially when I've been working so hard. I'm proud of myself and excited to see how much more I can achieve!
I have improved so much and felt so good through it all for the most part that I'm actually going to move up to the classic P90x, which is a little more intense than P90x lean, the program I've been following so far. I will start with month 2 of that program and follow that for the rest of the 90 days since I started. I'm looking forward to the challenge.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
P90x Day 13
As of this morning, I've made it through the first 2 weeks of P90x
workouts combined with healthier eating (Sundays are my day off).
Overall things have been going well, and I'm excited to move forward. I
have had a few ups and downs this week, though.
First of all, at the end of last week, at weigh-in time I had lost 3 pounds! I was feeling really good about how much better I was looking even after just one week. I imagine what I was experiencing was no more water retention thanks to the healthier foods I was eating. I was fine with that, though. You have to start somewhere after all.
This week has been a little tougher. I've struggled with more cravings and more hunger, something I didn't experience at all last week. I think part of it may be my body adjusting to a higher activity level as well as just my regular hormone cycle highs and lows. Part of it too, though, I believe has to do with how much I've been focusing on that and stressing about it. I did so well the first week and dropped that weight so easily that this week I started feeling all of this anxiety about every single thing I put into my mouth: "Is this going to make me gain weight?" "Are my portion sizes too big?" "Am I not eating enough and slowing down my metabolism?" "Is this really the best thing for me to be eating right now?" etc. I think I stressed so much about it and focused so much negative energy on it that it was constantly on my mind, causing me to think about food more and thus feel more hungry more often. By the weekend I had added back two of those pounds that I dropped last week.
On another note, this week I had a colonoscopy done on me. Six years ago I went in for one, and the doctor found polyps in my colon, something unusual in someone as young as I was at the time. As a result, I now have to go back every 5 years or so to get another colonoscopy. So this was my return appointment. On the upside, I have improved my eating habits and overall lifestyle choices so much that I knew he wouldn't find any polyps this time, and I was right! Everything looked great.
On the downside, the nasty, vomit-tasting stuff I had to drink to clean out my system in preparation for the colonoscopy combined with the anesthesia given to me during the procedure did a number on my system. Now, even though almost 3 whole days have passed since the colonscopy, I still don't feel quite right. I've been so tired, and I seem to now be fighting off some bug. Plus my body doesn't seem to be handling any food I give it very well. Every single time I eat now, I feel bloated and stuffed, only to feel quite hungry again within a couple hours. I think this weird reaction probably contributed to gaining back those 2 pounds this week.
Despite that, I am still glad I had the colonoscopy done. It was a testament to me that the way I'm eating now, i.e. a plant-strong diet, very little animal-based protein, no refined sugars, and very few processed foods truly are helping to create health and longevity in me. It really has been a long road of trial and error to finally find the right eating lifestyle for me, but I am grateful for how much I've learned along the way, and I'm excited to be doing something to share that knowledge with other people! (Did I mention that I signed up to be a Beachbody coach? I am so excited about it! Check out my website at http://beachbodycoach.com/coachdkmom. Beachbody is a great company with some really fantastic products!)
So, moving forward into week 3, I intend to really focus my energy on what I'm doing right and the success I've already had (like making it through 2 whole weeks!) rather than stressing about what I might be doing wrong. To help with this I will focus a lot of my EFT exercises on having confidence in and love for my body no matter what.
I'm also going to continue using a new nutrition product that I've recently discovered called Shakeology. I am really excited to see the results this new protein/nutrition drink will bring me. So far I've only been using it for about a week, but I really like the taste of it, so it helps me stay away from the sweets because I know I will be getting some Shakeology later in the day.
Third, I am going to focus on getting 8 hours of sleep a night whenever possible so I don't end up in overtraining mode. I am confident that as I continue to exercise, get enough sleep, and eat right, my body will be back to 100% very soon.
Week 3, here I come!
First of all, at the end of last week, at weigh-in time I had lost 3 pounds! I was feeling really good about how much better I was looking even after just one week. I imagine what I was experiencing was no more water retention thanks to the healthier foods I was eating. I was fine with that, though. You have to start somewhere after all.
This week has been a little tougher. I've struggled with more cravings and more hunger, something I didn't experience at all last week. I think part of it may be my body adjusting to a higher activity level as well as just my regular hormone cycle highs and lows. Part of it too, though, I believe has to do with how much I've been focusing on that and stressing about it. I did so well the first week and dropped that weight so easily that this week I started feeling all of this anxiety about every single thing I put into my mouth: "Is this going to make me gain weight?" "Are my portion sizes too big?" "Am I not eating enough and slowing down my metabolism?" "Is this really the best thing for me to be eating right now?" etc. I think I stressed so much about it and focused so much negative energy on it that it was constantly on my mind, causing me to think about food more and thus feel more hungry more often. By the weekend I had added back two of those pounds that I dropped last week.
On another note, this week I had a colonoscopy done on me. Six years ago I went in for one, and the doctor found polyps in my colon, something unusual in someone as young as I was at the time. As a result, I now have to go back every 5 years or so to get another colonoscopy. So this was my return appointment. On the upside, I have improved my eating habits and overall lifestyle choices so much that I knew he wouldn't find any polyps this time, and I was right! Everything looked great.
On the downside, the nasty, vomit-tasting stuff I had to drink to clean out my system in preparation for the colonoscopy combined with the anesthesia given to me during the procedure did a number on my system. Now, even though almost 3 whole days have passed since the colonscopy, I still don't feel quite right. I've been so tired, and I seem to now be fighting off some bug. Plus my body doesn't seem to be handling any food I give it very well. Every single time I eat now, I feel bloated and stuffed, only to feel quite hungry again within a couple hours. I think this weird reaction probably contributed to gaining back those 2 pounds this week.
Despite that, I am still glad I had the colonoscopy done. It was a testament to me that the way I'm eating now, i.e. a plant-strong diet, very little animal-based protein, no refined sugars, and very few processed foods truly are helping to create health and longevity in me. It really has been a long road of trial and error to finally find the right eating lifestyle for me, but I am grateful for how much I've learned along the way, and I'm excited to be doing something to share that knowledge with other people! (Did I mention that I signed up to be a Beachbody coach? I am so excited about it! Check out my website at http://beachbodycoach.com/coachdkmom. Beachbody is a great company with some really fantastic products!)
So, moving forward into week 3, I intend to really focus my energy on what I'm doing right and the success I've already had (like making it through 2 whole weeks!) rather than stressing about what I might be doing wrong. To help with this I will focus a lot of my EFT exercises on having confidence in and love for my body no matter what.
I'm also going to continue using a new nutrition product that I've recently discovered called Shakeology. I am really excited to see the results this new protein/nutrition drink will bring me. So far I've only been using it for about a week, but I really like the taste of it, so it helps me stay away from the sweets because I know I will be getting some Shakeology later in the day.
Third, I am going to focus on getting 8 hours of sleep a night whenever possible so I don't end up in overtraining mode. I am confident that as I continue to exercise, get enough sleep, and eat right, my body will be back to 100% very soon.
Week 3, here I come!
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