Back to Basics Challenge Finale! Are you a member of the 300 Club?

I'm not a member of the 300 Club, not yet, anyway.  Our challenge ended this past Sunday, it turned out so much better than I thought it would! Here are some fun facts from our Challenge:

Number of people committed to the challenge: 28

Number of people who paid $25: 24

Number of people who finished all 8 weeks: 18

Amount of money they all get back: $33.33

Average amount of points the first week: 128

Average amount of points the final week: 247 (Thanks to the 300 Club Challenge, there were 4 who are official members and a couple more who came really close- including myself).

Most overall points: 1791 (average of 223.8 points per week- seriously impressive).
(Not to mention the people who lost 10-12 pounds in just 8 weeks!!!)

I showed you my first week's chart: 108 points.  Here is my chart

Week 8: 289 points.  You know what's crazy?  It wasn't as hard as you might think after increasing my points a little at a time.  The whole point of this Challenge was to teach people (including re-teaching myself) how to improve healthy habits.

A comfortable spot for me is getting around 150 points.  I work out often, but don't always choose healthy food options.  I'm a sucker for sweets, especially good baked desserts or ice cream.  I usually make room for those in my day.  Which is totally fine- working out regularly and enjoying an daily treat is fine, if you're trying to MAINTAIN your weight.  If you're trying to lose an extra few pounds (such as 7 lingering pounds of post-pregnancy belly and saddlebags) then you need to push yourself past that point of comfort.

A big change for me was to keep a food log, make a meal plan and follow it.  I knew that those things were important going into this challenge, which is why I made them all worth 5 points each, but I thought that I could still get by with my comfortable maintenance habits and eventually the weight would fall back to my oh-so-natural 147 pound pre-pregnancy (including pre-kid) body. But it didn't.

In order to shoot for the 300 club, I had to average 45 points a day.  In order to do that, I had to make a meal plan and stick to it almost every day.  I don't have time to plan meals, so instead I made a list of acceptable foods.  Here's an example:

Fruits and Vegetables accepted anytime

Breakfast:
Eggs
Cereal
Oatmeal

Snacks x2 (morning and afternoon):
Protein bar
Smoothie
Edamame
Popcorn
String Cheese
Beef Jerky

Lunch:
Sandwich
Salad
1/2 quesadilla
Leftovers

Dinner:
Protein
(If I know I'm going out or I do have a meal planned then I will decide what I will order at the restaurant or what else to eat with the meal I have planned)

Treat: 200 calories

The key to this plan is understanding that I only choose one option and I only eat when I'm hungry and I stop before I get too full.  Some people may need a much more detailed plan than this.  I, however, have been doing this a long time, and I am roughly familiar with calories in common foods.  If I'm not sure, I look at the label, or use a Calorie Counter.

The other key is that I have is to eat what sounds good, which is why I have a lot of options.  I don't limit myself to the same foods all the time or else that gets boring and I won't stick to it.  I eat fruits and veggies first since I'm trying to get as many of those as possible.  However, eating fruits and veggies all the time makes me crave salty snacks, which is why I have a long list of options to choose from.  I decided it's much easier to make a list of foods I CAN eat, than a list of forbidden foods I don't allow myself to eat.  (It's also not a healthy practice to fall into- just ask Intuitive Eating Ladies).

I'm not perfect at this and I don't pretend to be.  I know that if I wanted to lose the weight faster, I could, but my habits wouldn't last  That's why this Challenge was perfect for me.  It gradually got me back to healthier habits and then by pushing myself at the end, I feel ready to keep pushing myself for a few more weeks.  My current goal is to achieve 300 Club status and try to keep it until my half marathon on the 21st, (almost 3 more weeks).

I love the feeling that I've had this past week.  I feel thinner (even though the scale says otherwise, which is why I hate weighing myself), but I feel mentally stronger than before.  I feel empowered by pushing myself out of that comfort zone and being successful.  It is an empowering thing to say no to a treat.  Or go all week of Halloween without eating a single piece of candy.  Seriously people, it can be done.

Not only do I feel physically better, but my house is cleaner, I feel more energized and motivated to get things done.  I'd like to say that I'm more patient with my kids, but I'm not sure if that's really true.

I know that I'm not going to keep track of my points forever, but I'm excited to keep pushing myself for a few more weeks.  I'll also be glad when it's over.  Then comes Thanksgiving and the holiday season.  Dun Dun Dun.

I mentioned to my peeps in the Challenge about a new Challenge I'm hosting over the holidays: Maintain, Don't Gain. It's not crazy and totally doable.  All you need to do is maintain your weight during the holidays.  As long as you don't gain weight between Thanksgiving and New Year's you'll get your money back, plus the money of anyone who doesn't get theirs back.  I'll keep you updated with more details to come.

Something that I've learned a lot through my adult years is the power of goal- setting.  If you want to really achieve something, you need to set a goal, but that's not the end.  Once you set a goal, you need to make a plan to achieve it, and stick to that plan until you do.  There are a lot of bumps and diversions that come while trying to reach a worthy goal, so you need to be prepared for them and mentally strong enough to keep going when you are not successful.  Most worthy goals are not that easy and therefore you will experience some level of failure.  You need to be strong enough to get back up and keep going.  Those are the kinds of people that succeed.

Halfway but not Halfway

So I had a few major thoughts this week:

I have very little control in most parts of my life.  The things I put in my mouth and how I spend my free time are the few things I can control.

The Challenge is halfway over, but that's not when the good choices stop.

When I was in high school my dad was a very busy man.  He had put on a few pounds and I remember that one summer he decided to give up desserts and ended up losing thirty pounds.  It's not fair, right ladies?  The thing that I really remember is that when he decided to give up desserts, he said he felt like it was the one thing he could control.

I have a four-year-old, a three-year-old, and an eight-month-old baby.  I teach at least four gym classes a week, fourteen piano students, and I'm training for a half marathon.  I'm moving in five months and I've never packed an entire house with kids before.  There are very few things I can control.  My house looks like a mess when we spend the day at home, but it takes a lot of energy to take three kids anywhere.  I can't control my kids, but I try.  I don't have a lot of free time, but I try to make priorities.

I can control the food I put in my mouth.  I can control the food I keep out of my mouth.  I can control what time I go to bed.  I can control what time I wake up to exercise, if I exercise at all.   I can control what I do in my free time- whether I watch TV or read my scriptures.  I'm not perfect, but I always have choices to make.  The results in my health and my happiness are direct results of those choices I make.  We can't necessarily control all of the results or how our body will react.  (Weight loss depends on a lot of variables including hormones, water retention, and genetics).  Either way, you can choose to be healthy and that doesn't always mean being as thin as you think you should be.

Onto my second thought: I have been keeping track of points for four weeks for this Challenge.  I actually did some of my own goals and food logging for a while before that.  Although it's really helpful, it's not realistic that I can do that for the rest of my life.  The purpose of this Challenge is to help you (and me) remember the choices that we should be making.  Choosing vegetables and fruit over treats.  Making time to exercise, drink more water and get more sleep.  Be a better friend and motivate each other to make these good choices.  I recognize that there are only four more weeks of this Challenge, but don't put a time limit on these healthy lifestyles you are creating.  Remember how good you feel physically.  Remember how good you feel emotionally when you turn down a cookie because "it's not worth the points."

I know that I will let loose for a little while when this is over because I'm human.  But I also know that making this lifestyle change for 2 months won't change back to my previous choices overnight.  I can still be in control.

Back to Basics Challenge: Weeks 2/3

So, in a conversation I had the other day (with a husband who will remain nameless), we talked about what constitutes a treat, how many calories are in certain things, how much a serving really is, etc.  I wanted to explain something about this Challenge.  I realize that it's not perfect.  There are ways to really "beat the system."  You can aim low and do the minimum and you'll make it.  You can rationalize that a muffin is breakfast and not a treat even though it's made from a cake mix.  You can eyeball a cup of raspberries and call it a serving until you actually get a measuring cup out and realize that it's about half as much as you thought it was.  However, if you rationalize and try to cut corners, you aren't going to see many changes in your body.  If you want to see change, then you need to change.

I know a flaw in this challenge is the fact that if you have an awesome week, it will be really hard to maintain that pace in the weeks to come.

"I'm home, I don't have much going on, I can exercise, eat healthy, and have plenty of time to plan meals and keep a food log."

But you know that it won't be like that every week, so you hold back.  Avoid holding back.  The key to seeing change is trying your best even if it's not easy.  It's not easy to eat salads when you're at Disneyland.  Believe me, I've gone twice in the past two weeks, but did you know that they actually have really good salads there????  Seriously, I loved it.  Also, did you know that even though walking around Disneyland all day may not count as exercise in my book, but if you get up a little early, you can work out for 45 minutes before you go?  I LOVE having challenges like this to push myself into making better choices.  I've never regretted making those choices. I didn't miss the sleep and I know that I felt better because of them. In fact, I'm excited to see some of the changes I know are bound to happen if I keep this up for five more weeks.  Those choices are getting easier to make and I can keep pushing myself each week to do just a little bit better.

You know, I also love that Saturday and Sunday are the last days of the Challenge week.  Oftentimes we will slack off on the weekends, but when you know you need a certain amount of points to make it, you will make better choices on those days.  I didn't eat treats, I planned my meals, and I went to bed early.  Since my three "alarm clocks" don't know how to sleep in on the weekends, I appreciate the extra sleep.

Moral of my story:  Don't hold back.  Do the best you can and keep trying.  I promise you that you won't regret exercising often and eating the most vegetables you can handle.  You will feel so much better going to bed early and drinking more water.  And you know what, you might even learn to like smoothies, because I have!  I now have one every day.  Ryan's probably sad because now he has to share his Vitamix with me, but at least I stock the fridge with awesome frozen fruit, Greek yogurt, and salad.  Whatever works!

Back to Basics Challenge: Week 1

I learned a lot from doing the first week of this Challenge.  My biggest lesson:

Big fatty donuts from food trucks in Austin can cost you a lot of points.

Here's the breakdown of my week.




The first few days were awesome.  Then I went to Austin to visit my sister.  Which was even awesomer, just not for my healthy goals.  The thing is, Austin is known for it's amazing food.  So when you have two sisters with three kids under the age of 2 and no husbands or babysitters, what else is there to do other than eat that amazing food.  Which is exactly what I did and I never looked back.

However, I knew that I was going out of town, so in order to meet my 100 points goal, I needed to make sure I got some good, high points in the beginning.  I knew exercise would be my easy points, it always is.  The trick is not to cancel out those points with my treats.  This is exactly why I gave the point values that I did, it's WAY too easy to cancel out the good you do with burning calories when you eat them in treats.

I want to go through each of the points and note some specifics and hopefully clear up some confusion about them.

1. 30 Minutes of Exercise (5 points/ 30 minutes):  This is meant to be intentional exercise.  Did you get your workout clothes on and get a little sweaty?  The point of this is to CHANGE your habits.  If you are looking back on your day to figure out what you can "count" as exercise, then you're missing the point.  You need to do MORE than you're already doing if you want to see your body change.  So no.  Walking around Disneyland for 8 hours will not earn you 80 points.  Nice try.

2. Servings of Vegetables (2 points/ serving): I'm sure many of you are curious as to what exactly is a serving?  Here's a helpful link

What is a serving?

3. Servings of Fruit (1 point/ serving): See above link.  And you ask, why do vegetables get more points than fruit?  For the most part, vegetables have much fewer calories than fruit and therefore the more of those you eat, the more food you can eat with less calories and still get lots of nutrients.

4. Not eating within 2 hours of going to bed (3 points): A lot of you have voiced your dislike for this goal.  Here is my reasoning for it: A lot of people will have eaten their needed calories for the day by dinner.  If you eat dinner around 6:00 pm, then wait to go to bed until 11:30 pm, of course you're going to be hungry!  However, your body doesn't really need calories to sleep.  In fact, it's better to go to bed a little hungry so that you will wake up hungrier and have a more nutritious breakfast to jumpstart your metabolism for the day.  If you have had a crazy day and you haven't eaten dinner and it's 8:30, by all means, eat dinner.  If you're exhausted, go to bed.  The biggest reason behind this goal is to avoid bad late-night snacking habits and eating un-needed, bad choice calories.  (Because let's be honest, if we're eating at 10:30, it's probably not a salad or a nice lean chicken breast).

5. Hours of sleep before midnight (2 points/ hour): As much as we'd like to stay up and watch our favorite shows, or read some good books, the sleep we get before midnight has been shown to be more beneficial than the sleep after midnight.  And believe it or not, good quality sleep can make a huge difference in your energy level, metabolism, and overall health.  It's worth it.  And besides, when you wake up early, you're probably more productive than if you wake up later... maybe that's just me.

6. No soda (2 points):  But what about diet soda?????? I know.  So the point of this one was to get you to drink more water.  I figured it can be tricky to keep track of exactly how much water you drink, but if you are not drinking soda, try to drink water instead.  I know that diet soda doesn't have any calories in it, but your body needs water.  Just sayin'.  You can conclude what you will.

7.  Kept food log (5 points):  So this one helps me a ton.  Just by holding yourself accountable for everything that goes into your mouth.  I heard about a lady once who added up all the calories she ate through the Costco samples and it was really surprising.  (Not sure what it was, but a few hundred calories add up fast).  If you haven't done this one yet, you might be surprised.

8. Create a Meal Plan (5 points): So the point of this goal was to make your choices before the choice is to be made (just like saying no to drugs.... :)) If you decide beforehand what you are going to eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks, then you will have the food in your house and you won't have to make the choice when you're hungry, tired, etc.  What if you are going to a party?  Make a plan.  (I'm going to eat one dessert and a salad before I go so I don't fill up on other food... etc.) This would really help a ton, I know it takes some time, but sometimes big changes take a little bit of effort.

9. Sticking to Your Meal Plan (5 points): Self-explanatory....

10.  Motivation to other competitors (Limit 2 people/ day, 2 points/ person): Sticking to your goals is always easier when you are doing it with friends, right?  Helping each other can really be beneficial.  Obviously I realize that many of you don't know other people in the Challenge, so I created the FB page.  However, just to be clear: One FB post is 2 points.  If you comment on it, then you only get points if you add to the idea or somehow motivate them back.  I know this one can seem silly, but there is a lot to be said for community efforts in helping each other succeed.

11. Personal Goal (3 point):  This should be a goal that every day you can answer Yes/ No.  (i.e.:  your personal goal cannot be weight loss.  If you weigh yourself every day, then it's not a true measure of actual fat loss).  Make it something that you actually do as opposed to an outcome.

12.  Serving of high sugar/ calorie treat (per 200 calories) (-5 points/ 200 calories): This is my nemesis.  This is why I ended up with -22 points on Saturday.  Again, just to clarify, you subtract 5 points for every 200 calories of a treat.  If you want to break it down, you can.  For instance a 300 calorie bowl of ice cream could be -7 points.  Or a Gourdough's food truck donut and a quarter pan of Ghiradelli's brownies could be -30 points (just as a hypothetical example).  This is meant to help people be aware of the fact that eating these treats could easily cancel out exercise.  Of course, you'd still get the muscle gain and cardiovascular effect of exercise, just not the calorie loss.  Please let me know if this is still unclear.

One week down!  From here on out, we all need to increase or maintain our week's points.  Just so you all know, the points I received from people expanded a range of 100 points all the way up to 204 points.  Push yourselves and I promise you will see positive changes and you won't be disappointed!

Oh, and P.S. I will not remind you to send me your points every week.  I am changing it to Monday night at midnight so you can finish earning your Sunday points and have Monday to total them up and send them to me.  I would prefer that you email them to me so I only have to look in one place.  Tonight I had to jump around from email, text, FB, etc.

I also believe that as of now, there are 23 people still in the game.  May the odds be ever in your favor and may the force be with you!!!!

Back to Basics Challenge: Get fit, win money.

Hey friends!  I've been thinking about doing a Get Healthy/ Weight Loss Challenge.  A few years ago, a bunch of my friends did the 8-week Challenge from the Six Sisters.  I loved it so much that I organized it again another year with my family.

I'm ready to do another one, however, this time I am making up my own Challenge with a different competition in mind.  Instead of competing with other people, we will be competing against ourselves.  In the past while doing the other challenge, I didn't like the fact that we lost because it's easier for someone else to lose weight or give up sweets.  For this Challenge, if you continue to improve your own lifestyle through the entire 8-week Challenge, you will win.

In real life, the goal is to make changes that you can keep and continue to improve.  I find that we often make goals or go on a diet and then we plateau;  or worse, we give up completely. The most important thing we can do for ourselves is to stay healthy or become healthier, not deprive ourselves of our favorite things for a couple of weeks then binge on them when we give up.  (Can you tell I'm not a fan of dieting?)

Here are the rules:

1.  Sign up by commenting on this blog or contacting me via email, text, Facebook, etc. BEFORE MIDNIGHT ON SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 5TH. 

2.  Pay $25 to enter.

3. Print off 8 copies of the worksheet provided with this link.

4. Beginning Sept 7th (Labor Day), track your points every day for a week.  That first week's total will be your baseline (a minimum of 100 points).  Each week you will reset your baseline.

5. You will need to submit your weekly total to me by Sunday at midnight of each week or you will be disqualified.

6.  If you fall below the previous week's total, you will be disqualified and forfeit your $25 entry fee.  However, if you stay in, you, and everyone else who succeeds will split the entire money pot.

A few things you may be wondering:

- I developed the point system based on the things that will really make a difference in your physical health,  If something is worth more points such as exercise, food logs, meal planning, it's because doing those things will contribute more toward your overall health.

- You may have noticed that there is a "Personal Goal" box at the bottom of the worksheet.  This is to provide you a way to set your own goal that you have been meaning to work on.  It could be anything from daily scripture study to making your bed to complimenting your spouse to not yelling at your kids... etc.  You decide and keep track.

- This Challenge is all about improvement and consistency.  In other words, every week you will need to earn the same amount or more points to stay in the Challenge. (For instance if in week 1 you earned 100 points, then in week 2 you earned 110 points, that would be your new baseline.  Week 3 would need to be at least 110 or more).

- You can earn the points any way you want to.  If all you wanted to focus on is increasing your exercise and servings of fruits and veggies then you can do just that.  But remember, you need to get at least 100 points on the first week.

- Remember it doesn't matter if you earn 150 points and Joe Schmo earned 250.  As long as you both continue to earn the same or more each week, you'll both win.  This is why I was so excited to switch up the competition.  You aren't competing against anyone else, you just need to keep motivated and consistent.

- If only 2 out of 25 people stay in through the entire Challenge, you will each get $312.50. That's a pretty big winning just for continuing to improve your healthy lifestyle!  The worst that could happen is that everyone stays in and you all get your $25 back.  Not a bad deal either!

- This Challenge may seem tedious. Keeping track of daily points for 8 weeks will not be easy, but I have seen more success come from dedicated goal-making than when I am just "trying to do better."

- Remember, that although the initial urge would be to earn as few points as possible during the first week, the more that you change in your lifestyle, the more change you will see in your health.

Project Momma: Final Post 25 Weeks

I decided last week to wrap up my weekly posts for Project Momma.  It has been so good for me to hold myself accountable to the virtual world out there.  Making goals every week is not easy.  Meeting them is even harder.  ;)

Molly turns six months old tomorrow which means I have posting weekly for just under five months.  The before picture was taken on March 9th, the after picture was a few days ago.  Honestly, I was not excited about taking selfies every week (which is why I stopped doing it every week).  But until I compared them a few days ago, I had no idea that I looked that different!

Try not to notice the better lighting and the fact that I am smiling in the post pictures.

(Final Pregnancy weight: 194)
Pre Weight 5 weeks postpartum: 174 lbs.
Post Weight 6 months postpartum: 160 lbs.

This is still 10 pounds above my original goal, but had I known the hang up I would have with my knee, I would have expected a slower weight loss.

I am what you would call a pear.  Well, I have a pear-shaped body.  It's not a good or bad thing, it's just a body type that I was born with.  If you notice that my fat loss has mostly been in my mid-section.  Believe me, it's not because I did a million sit-ups, it's because my genetics tell my body where to add and take away the fat.  The first place I gain weight is in my hips, so that's going to be the last place I lose it.  As a personal trainer it was always frustrating to me when someone would ask how they lose fat in their stomach, or booty, or the back of their arms, etc.  I would just tell them that they need to eat healthier and keep working out.  If you really want to spot reduce like that, it's called lipo-suction.  :)

This is the first week that I have been able to run a couple of times in about three or four months.  It felt so good to get up at 5:50 am and run this morning.  Ryan had to leave for an appointment so I had a time-limit and I pushed myself so crazy hard.  I decided that I should set a time limit more often.

I still have a lot of goals that I want to work on.  This week I had a few experiences where I was busy being homemaker and realized I needed to take a few minutes to be Momma.  I played a game (Jenga) with Lucy and Liam.  I read Liam and Molly a few books in the middle of the afternoon.  (We always read, but usually at bedtime).  It is good for me to stop and realize that I can take a few minutes to connect with my kids and everything will still get done.

I went to Costco today and loaded up on the produce.  It's hard for me to eat as many fruits and veggies at the end of the week, I just need to plan better.   I actually made a smoothie that I liked this week!  It had blueberries (fresh and frozen), a banana, strawberries, a little bit of apple juice and a big spoonful of greek yogurt.  I had it for lunch one day and I loved it.  Someday I'll work in more veggies, but I'd rather just eat a big salad.  Baby steps.

I will still post some updates as well as other training and healthy-living tips.  Please message me or email me if you have questions about specific topics.  I would love to post things that you are interested in.

Until next time!  Thanks for the support in my Project Momma journey!  This is just a pit-stop though.  The journey to becoming a healthier and happier momma is never really done.

Project Momma: 24 Weeks

Did you miss me?  I didn't post last week because I was with the "Happiest People on Earth" in the "Happiest Place on Earth."  That's right, we spent three days at Disneyland with most of my family, 11 kids ages 6 and under with 10 adults.

We had a great time, however, it was so nice to come back to reality and a schedule.  Going on a vacation is great, but going to Disneyland with three kids under 5 for three days is not a vacation.  Now that we're home, early bedtimes and healthy food makes for a happier family.

As I think about the goals I want to focus on again, it's interesting because a couple of them will be a lot harder than before.  Taking Zoloft has had a couple of side effects- a change in my appetite and drowsiness.  The change in appetite is actually great because I don't have as much of an appetite, but I especially don't have an appetite for healthier options like fruit and veggies.  Boo.  It's been rough to get my five servings in.  It only means that I need to make more purposeful choices.

My other goal of waking up early is tough with the extra drowsiness, but I figure if I can wake up at 6:00 am for three days to walk around Disneyland all day, I can make the effort to wake up and read my scriptures, right?

I also realized that my original goals of Project Momma were set to finish when Molly turned 6 months old (next Tuesday).  Although I realize that many of my goals have been altered due to injury, emotional instability, and recognized priorities, I want to post my current results to my original goals next week.  It is really cool to see that even though my focus has changed, my body has still continued change.  The weight loss and fitness have not come as quickly as I originally thought, but I have continued to do as much as I can.  Walking four miles isn't going to give me the same results as running five miles, but it will get me closer.

I've realized that even though I will eventually meet my weight and fitness goals, there will always be ways to be a healthier, happier, better momma for my children and wife for my husband.  He has been so supportive in this journey.  He listens to my goals (and my whining) and always supports my efforts.

This week's goals: 6:30 am wake-up and 11:00 pm lights-out
Book of Mormon and Old Testament study every day (one verse is better than nothing)
Five servings fruits and veggies
Daily family connections

Throughout this journey, I have loved hearing from all of my friends and family.  Your support has helped immensely, but what I have loved most is hearing about the goals and changes you have made as a result of reading my posts.

The thing I have missed most about working full-time in the fitness field as a personal trainer and wellness consultant is helping others make their lives better.  Please message, text, email, or even call me to tell me about what you want to do be a better person in any of the roles that you play in your life.  I would love to hear from you!