Ive mentioned a few times here (I think) that I've really struggled losing the baby weight this time around. It's always been something I had to work at, but this time it really hung on. I think nursing actually did the opposite that most people say it does for me--it made my body go into "starvation mode" and want to hold on to every ounce to provide milk for baby. Which selfishly made me want to quit nursing, but obviously I knew that the fact that I'm able to breastfed without any problems is a gift and I would not give it up just so I could lose weight!
Anyway, I happened upon a Facebook page called "no diets allowed" a few years ago, mainly for the recipes. She would always post about "game on health challenges" but I didn't pay much attention to them. However, one night I saw that it was the last chance to join this challenge round that would last 6 weeks. It cost $20 to join and I impulsively made the decision to sign up at the last minute.
The main rules were simple:
1)Choose a healthy eating plan and stick to it every single day. I chose calorie counting, along with avoiding white flour and sugar.
2) Exercise 6 days a week for a minimum of 20 minutes. I found some great YouTube videos, as well as little running, ab workouts and my elliptical machine. All in all I do about an hour a day of 2 different workouts--cardio plus a little core or strength
3) Drink 70 ounces of water per day--no pop or diet pop (or alcohol, but I don't drink so that wasn't a problem ;)
4) Get 7 or more hours of sleep per night
5) Only weigh in once a week (I hated this part of it! ;)
There were also other healthy habits that I wrote about here, and there were many choices in that category. We also got bonus points for communicating with our team each day and reporting our scores early each Monday morning. A perfect score would add up to 700 points, with up to 30 bonus points available.
ok.....
So the results!
I lost 5 pounds and 3+ inches.
Honestly, for as hard as I worked it could have easily been 10 pounds, which is frustrating. Since I already eat healthy and work out daily, this just upped it a notch so I'm happy with that. I think someone coming from a junk food/non exercising lifestyle would lose a ton. However, that is 5 pounds that I've been holding on to for close to 6 months, so I am thrilled with that. I am fitting into my normal clothes much better now and my stomach has really firmed up a lot. Yay for progress!
I'm actually in the middle of the 5th week of a second round of the challenge right now, and still seeing more progress. I am finnnnnnalllllyyy within 2 pounds of pre-baby weight and feeling much more like my normal self.
Anyway, if you made it through this post, I wanted to say that I did not in any way write this to brag on myself. I just know for certain that there are other Moms out there who struggle in this area and it's always nice to read what other people did and how they did it. At least I know that I enjoy reading other people's stories.
I highly recommend this program. It's not a fad or magic. It just highly promotes healthy living and gives major accountability because you don't want to let your team down! Plus, I love that you can choose your eating plan, wether calorie counting, THM, low carb, weight watchers, etc. As long as it's healthy you're in. I also love that your score depends on how well you did with all of your healthy habits and not necessarily how much weight you lose (because I would totally lose big time).
If you're interested, check out the Facebook page here and the website here. The next round starts in a little over 2 weeks and if you need a little extra push to stay motivated, I highly recommend it!
0 comments:
Post a Comment