Feel Great In 8

To start this post, I must catch up a on few things.

First thing:  When Alaska was 6 months old I decided it was time to stop being a pansy about getting my body back.  I worked really hard to lose weight and get my body to a healthy state of being and was indeed headed in the right direction, but then Christmas came and my plans were thwarted by lots of yummy treats.

Second thing:  It was really hard to get back on a regular schedule of exercising and eating healthy after the holidays.  I was lacking the motivation and routine.

And then while clicking around on facebook I saw that my aunt needed some team members for something called Feel Great in 8.  I didn't even know what it was, but I knew it was something I wanted to be apart of. Who doesn't want to feel great?  I let her know I was interested and before I knew it I was signed up with a team complete with my two aunts and my mom and was reading down a list of things to do each day.  Things like eating 5 fruits or veggies, drinking X amount of water, reading scriptures and saying prayers, eating healthy foods and exercising.  It sounded hard.  Really hard.  Especially drinking the water.  But it was a check-off list, complete with little boxes for each item, for each day, for a total of 8 weeks.  I know my strengths, and checking things off a list if most definitely one of them.  Give me any list of anything and it will be done by the end of the day.  No compromises.  I am really good at list checking.  So I decided to give it a try.

And it has changed my life!  I know, so cliche.  But seriously.  I am a better person.  I can drink 64 oz of water in one day.  I know.  Gasp!  I never drank a swallow more, but I could get that required amount down.  I took my measured water with me everywhere so that I knew at all times how much more I need to drink.  During those first 8 weeks I never drank out of a 'people glass', never.  It was me and my water bottle at every sit-down meal and I wasn't shy about taking it in with me to restaurants, either.

When the program started I had a nine pound loss as a goal and totally ended up losing 11!  I was stoked.  I was now the weight I was when I got married.  All baby fat gone.  Only thing was, I still looked like I had the baby fat 'cause my body had changed so much and my muscle mass was down.  So I was a chubby, light person.  But light none-the-less and was so excited!

There was a 2 week break between rounds and I totally busted up during that two week rest, and I could tell.  I wasn't eating my vegetables/fruits or drinking my water and having more sweets and refined flours than was necessary and my stomach revolted.  But if I didn't have to follow the program, I wasn't going to.  I had a junky tummy for the most of those two weeks and I hope that when this next round if over I can do better about following the rules than I did before.

We're two weeks into the second round and I am already down 4 more pounds.  It's so satisfying to me how I don't need to go hungry and still peel pounds off.

Three things I learned about myself:

one: I won't eat an apple unless it's cut up.  And by cut, I mean very thinly sliced.  My mom had always told me that if I weren't hungry enough to eat an apple, then I must not be very hungry.  I would nearly starve before eating an apple.  And now I know why.  'Cause I would never cut it.

two: Sugars and fats don't bother my tummy as much as refined flour does.  Candy and frenchfries I can eat with no problems, but if I eat a doughnut or piece of pizza I can count on a clenchy tummy.

three: One of the requirements is to eat 5 good foods a day.  I prefer to get a headstart on my fruit consumption at this time, but if I don't, then I tend to not eat anything.  Which creates problems at 7:30 pm when I have already had dinner and cannot eat after 8 pm without losing points and still have to eat a good food.  Lesson learned, anything is better for breakfast than nothing.  And it's probably better to have carbs in the morning rather than at dinner anyways, so eat away at that cereal!