Progress

Most people have heard of Insanity - Shaun T's max interval circuit, high cardio, 60 days

People who make it through have great success. They drop lbs, clothes sizes, inches, improve fitness, etc.

So here's the deal. I am now on day 46 (tomorrow) of Insanity. I absolutely LOVE it. It is hard as everything, but every time I finish a workout, I feel so accomplished! I'm burning major calories per my polar ft7 HRM. Now to those successes others have.

At the end of 3 weeks - people (some) in my fb group had really started losing weight; others were down a pants size. If anything, my shorts felt tighter. BUT I had taken my measurements on day 1, so I had my husband do them again and I was down 7 inches overall. Okay, I'll take that.

- end of month 1: down 3 lbs and another 2.5 inches - making it 9.5 overall.
- Clothes still fitting the same.

Now I'm in the middle of week 2 in month 2. Month 2 is a beast!! I haven't done my measurements yet (I'll do those this weekend at the end of week 7) and I've tried to stay away from the scale because it has not moved more than 3-4 lbs (I still peek )

I see myself everyday, so I still see my lovehandles and big stomach and back rolls that I'm trying to get rid of. I'm thinking they aren't going anywhere, I'm not losing any weight, my clothes don't fit looser - why am I still doing this?

 

I sure hope you can see the difference, but even if you can't, I can! I am sooo glad I took those AWFUL before/day 1 pics. (I even deleted them at first; my husband had to retake them.) I used them as fuel to keep going and now they are proof that what I'm doing is working. Do I wish I could say I've lost 15lbs or gone down 2 sizes, of course. But I also know that that has to come eventually. I still have a long way to go, but I'm heading in the right direction.

This is so far out of my comfort zone; I hadn't planned on showing these to anyone until I was a long ways away from my day 1, but I hope this helps someone who feels like quitting keep going. Every day you're doing something, you are improving! 

Halfway with Team Beachbody

Yep, I finished month 1 of Insanity! Woot, woot! I am now wrapping up my recovery week and have 2 more days of Core Cardio & Balance left. I will take my 3rd fit test and move into month 2 on Monday.

I can't lie; I'm super nervous about what's to come in the 2nd month. Between my Fb accountability group and the progress group on MFP, I have gotten glimpses into the Max workouts and it sounds scary! I also have to start month 2 while on vacation at the beach! But I'm going to suck it up and get it done. Workout clothes are already packed!

As for the announcement, I went ahead and signed up to be a Beachbody coach. I'm not sure how I really feel about this or how involved I plan to get. My basic reasons for doing it were to get a discount on my orders and since I'm a walking advertisement for it, I thought I could help people choose to improve their health and fitness and make a little income too. I have had one person order and also gotten one who told me it all seemed a bit too sales-y.  I've heard different sides of this, so just know that jury is still out as to my final feelings. I'll give it 6 months and get back to you; I think that sounds fair.

So if you're out there and thinking that you'd like to try Insanity (totally recommend it!), P90x, Turbofire, TurboJam, HipHopAbs, etc, I'd love to be your coach. I do believe in the accountability portion of this - it definitely helps to have people pushing play right along with you to give you that extra bit of motivation. If you already have a beachbody program and just want to be a part of our support group, leave me a comment and you can be added. If you need help deciding on the best  program for you, we can figure that out too! Click here to sign up and be added to my mailing list.
Or go HERE if you've decided and are ready to COMMIT to a program and see some great results!

Keep pushing play!

This is INSANE!

No really, it is.

I have completed 23 days of Insanity! I have 4 more workouts in Month 1. I did take before pictures and my measurements. I would totally recommend that for anyone on a weight loss journey. I did not "see" a difference, but I still took pictures and measurements on Day 15. I lost a total of 7 inches overall and 2.8 lbs. :D

I am also taking pictures at the end of each week. I did a Day 21 progress comparison and there is a noticeable difference.  Major reduction in my back rolls and my top belly, that was hiding my belly button, is now more providing a little shade for it! :) These pictures are no where near ready for public consumption, but they do serve to remind me that I can't stop!

Someone in our Fb group: Insanity and Mayhem pointed out that we did Cardio Power & Resistance for the last time. We have 2 Plyo's, a Pure and a Recovery left! That's it for Month 1! I am so freaking excited and pleased with myself. 

So here's my plan for tracking my progress: before and after pictures, of course (that's day 1 and day 63), every two weeks ~ measurements and weight, every week ~ pictures from front, both sides and back. I hope to be brave enough to post my before and during photos soon!

That's it for now. An announcement coming soon about Beachbody!

Unboxing: Birchbox-June

Well, I just received my first Birchbox. It was okay.

FYI - birchbox is 'handpicked beauty and lifestyle samples, delivered to your door for $10/month' as per the website. Again, I was excited, so I recorded the actual opening of my first box!

Unboxing: Insanity

Woo-hoo!

Okay, I officially decided I was going to do Insanity in May. I was all prepared to order it and then a coworker said her husband had downloaded them and she'd make me a copy. I however got tired of waiting and wanted to make sure I had the real thing and could submit my before & after photos to Beachbody.

I did a little hunting and found the videos on Vimeo and the workout calendar on a blog, so I was able to start while I waited for my order to come in. I am also a member of FB group for support and that helps a lot. I also post on a check-in on My Fitness Pal (MFP). The one thing I don't like is all of the Beachbody coaches with their, "do you have a good coach to help support your goals, yada, yada, yada." Yes, I do, now leave me alone!

Anyhoo, I recorded me unboxing my Insanity set and uploaded it to YouTube, so here ya go!

I'm a Unicorn

or at least, my uterus is. This is one heck of a way to start posting on this thing! At least I'm talking to myself for now. I eventually plan to list the dates/deets of our year of TTC under that little tab up there, but that won't be happening today. So let's just hit play on this movie that is my life.

I was recently referred to a R.E. (reproductive endocrinologist/ infertility specialist). I had my initial appointment on March 22. It went well, the doc seems nice enough and proactive. The plan was to do b/w that day and see if I needed any medicine to jumpstart my cycle or if I could just wait because I had indeed ovulated (O'd).

CD 1 was 3.31, so they got me in on 4.2 to do baseline b/w. We scheduled a mid-cycle ultrasound and CD24 b/w appointments.The nurse told me that someone would be calling me in the next few days to set my date for a hysteroscopy (HSC).

Yeah, how about they called me the.next.day (my b-day!!) for an appointment today! I went with it since the husband was already off. ***I guess I started writing this and saved as a draft - finishing now***(I lose my dates now, but somewhere in there were a couple of u/s where the nurse was trying to show me my ovaries and fallopian tube and just couldn't find the left ones; at one appt one of the other doctors came in b/c she couldn't find it and wasn't familiar with left pelvic kidneys - shocker - and he could only say that yes that was my kidney on the left.)  I was put to sleep for the procedure (which is always a little nerve-wracking!) and when I came out the doc said he thought I had a unicornuate uterus.

A do-what-now?

He said where as a normal uterus is shaped sort of like a martini glass, mine is more like a tube going off to the right. The question was what, if anything is over on that left side. Some ladies have what's called a rudimentary "horn" that is just chilling out over there connected to nothing. Some of these can be functioning and allow an embryo to implant which would be dangerous - similar to an ectopic in a regular ute-having person.

Fast-forward b/c I'm getting bored. I had an MRI that confirmed the right unicornuate uterus (UU) and nothing on the left. And that is where we stand now.

Trying this again!

Well, I didn't get too far into this whole blogging thing, now did I? Seeing as I'm still battling the same three things I mentioned in my one and only post back in August, I guess I can just pick up where I left off. I find myself reading blogs about HHJs, TTC and WL a lot. I am hoping that having a place to get this stuff out will be helpful for me during this process.