I can't believe I've been at this for 4 full months now! SUPER LIKE! However, not all fun and games. Month four I almost quit. Here's the tale.
I have a very hard time committing to things in general. My typical pattern is to get totally stoked about something, do it great for 3 months, then give up because I tell myself I'm not capable and the depression creeps in which makes things extra challenging.
It was not shocking that the day after I posted my update pictures, which showed amazing progress, my depression decided to visit me with a vengeance.
It was very hard to stay focused on my progress, because all those awesome feel great feelings I had been experiencing disappeared. The month also proved to be a challenge health wise. Overall, I felt physically yucky. This did not help me wanting to continue.
During this past month I stopped running. There was a point when I realized that showing up, mostly on time, to my training sessions was the best I was capable of. I did not judge myself for working out 'less'. Instead, I kept telling myself that it (the depression) would pass. That I just needed to keep showing up.
Eating? Holy moly! This was where the feelings of ick set in. I ended up stopping my protein powder intake temporarily as I found it wasn't helping my mental hunger. I pretty much ate the equivalent of one candy bar a day. Throw in a few pints of Ben&Jerrys here and there, and I had a nice mixture of uncomfortable feelings of shame.
HOWEVER!!! I did not let the shame bring me down. I did not give up, in fact, I told myself often, 'that pint of ice cream probably wasn't the best choice tonight, but it is okay. Eating it doesn't make me a failure. Right now, my best is eating ice cream, and that's AWESOME!' These words helped me get thru the hardest times this month.
My darkest moment hit me the last Thursday in October. I had rescheduled my normal Wednesday workout to thurs for that week. I opened my eyes thurs morning around 830am, and proceeded to have a mini break down. My session was at 10am. I laid in my bed very upset. About 35 mins before ten I messaged my trainer, I wasn't coming. I was surprised at her response, which was not shaming or angry at all. This was the first time I missed a session due to depression.
My 'day off' was intense. I was SO CLOSE to sending a break up txt to my trainer. Thankfully, I've taught myself not to make major decisions in the middle of an intense emotional reaction. The cool thing that happened was I came out of the day not wanting to feel that way again. Taking that day was THE BEST thing I could have done. I came out of it re- energized and ready to step back on my new path! Grateful.
Although my eating was off, and I stopped my runs, I kept moving. I often found myself walking, and one day I took myself and mr mutt on an epic 6 hour walk. That was awesome! I went on a ton of 1-3 hour walks, which was also very good.
I noticed that my clothes were still fitting loose. Although I was terrified and convinced I had gained all my weight back, I kept telling myself my pants were still loose. This helped.
At any rate, I was FORCED on the scale earlier then I expected. I was very surprised to find out that my weight was 1 pound different from last months number! Shock! Happiness! Relief!
I am SO proud that I was able to get thru the depression and take the next step on my journey.
I'm looking forward to month 5!!! ROCK ON!!!
Friday, November 2, 2012
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Month 3 Progress- Oct. 2012
Greeting fellow inspirers! Yesterday I hit day 1 of month 4!!! This signifies a great feat for me, as I generally feel very unmotivated when I hit month 4, and give up. Today, this is not the case! If fact, I'm looking forward to my run later today!
I've been feeling many huge improvements in regards to how my body is moving. I can do a full squat. I can train harder and go longer. I'm running at a great pace for someone my size. When I stretch my hamstrings my heel can touch my butt! Ha! I'm working on engaging my body in great form throughout the motions of the exercise I am doing at any given moment.
Outside of the gym I've noticed that I have much more stamina to get thru my days. At the end of the day, when I've laid down, there's a very obvious feeling of 'time to sleep NOW!' It actually hurts to keep my eyes open. I've noticed a huge change in how I feel when I wake in the morning. There's much more awareness around whether or not I need more sleep, or if I'm ready to rise. When I do get up I'm rested and ready to attack my day. The morning fog only lasts 15-30mins vs. 1-2hours.
Clothing. I've noticed small things. Making another belt notch, noticing my sweatshirt hanging lower then it has in the past, but the most interesting thing is how my underpants are fitting me. Yesterday I put on a pair, and they literally hung off me. They are freaking baggy! Baggy underpants? Really? Whoa!
I had some blood work done this past month. All my numbers are great! Cholesterol is awesome! Which I'm glad to hear. My blood sugar level is still higher then what I'd like to see. But I'm not diabetic yet, and the numbers have dropped from my last round of blood work. I feel very good about this!
Another thing that I've come to realize over these past few months is, how I frame my training in my mind makes all the difference. The term 'exercise' holds a lot of negative association for me. I think of exercise as laborious and a very difficult task to accomplish. I've decided to deem the term 'training' in place of exercise. For me, training offers more options. I'm training my body, which is much more inline with how I'm working toward something, a goal, that inspires me. I'm training myself to change my old habits and create awesome new ones. I'm working toward something... This feels so much better then 'I'm exercising today' that's boring. 'Im training my body hard today!' That's exciting!- At least to me. I suggest working at changing your mind frame around fitness if you're having struggles.
I'm going to leave it at that for this month. I'll be posting three month comparison pictures at some point this month.
Stay Tuned! And thanks for reading my blog!
(The photo pictured it a movement I was unable to do 3 months ago)
I've been feeling many huge improvements in regards to how my body is moving. I can do a full squat. I can train harder and go longer. I'm running at a great pace for someone my size. When I stretch my hamstrings my heel can touch my butt! Ha! I'm working on engaging my body in great form throughout the motions of the exercise I am doing at any given moment.
Outside of the gym I've noticed that I have much more stamina to get thru my days. At the end of the day, when I've laid down, there's a very obvious feeling of 'time to sleep NOW!' It actually hurts to keep my eyes open. I've noticed a huge change in how I feel when I wake in the morning. There's much more awareness around whether or not I need more sleep, or if I'm ready to rise. When I do get up I'm rested and ready to attack my day. The morning fog only lasts 15-30mins vs. 1-2hours.
Clothing. I've noticed small things. Making another belt notch, noticing my sweatshirt hanging lower then it has in the past, but the most interesting thing is how my underpants are fitting me. Yesterday I put on a pair, and they literally hung off me. They are freaking baggy! Baggy underpants? Really? Whoa!
I had some blood work done this past month. All my numbers are great! Cholesterol is awesome! Which I'm glad to hear. My blood sugar level is still higher then what I'd like to see. But I'm not diabetic yet, and the numbers have dropped from my last round of blood work. I feel very good about this!
Another thing that I've come to realize over these past few months is, how I frame my training in my mind makes all the difference. The term 'exercise' holds a lot of negative association for me. I think of exercise as laborious and a very difficult task to accomplish. I've decided to deem the term 'training' in place of exercise. For me, training offers more options. I'm training my body, which is much more inline with how I'm working toward something, a goal, that inspires me. I'm training myself to change my old habits and create awesome new ones. I'm working toward something... This feels so much better then 'I'm exercising today' that's boring. 'Im training my body hard today!' That's exciting!- At least to me. I suggest working at changing your mind frame around fitness if you're having struggles.
I'm going to leave it at that for this month. I'll be posting three month comparison pictures at some point this month.
Stay Tuned! And thanks for reading my blog!
(The photo pictured it a movement I was unable to do 3 months ago)
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Isagenix Review
In my search to incorporate optimal nutrition while building muscle and losing weight, I was introduced to a company called Isagenix.
I decided to do some research on Isagenix, and quickly found that there are very few, hard to find, negative reviews of their products. I felt suspicious of this, but decided to give it a try regardless. And, according to all the positive reviews, I was curious.
Isagenix's main products are the cleanse and shakes/meal replacements. The idea is that you start off with either the 9 day or 30 day cleanse, see amazing results, and feel so great that you want more.
Seemed okay to me. I ordered the 30 day system.
The first product I tried were the IsaLean Shakes. The flavors are chocolate and vanilla. I admit, they arn't bad, but I had to play around with how much water to add to make the texture right for me. I found a bit more watery was good for me. Personally, I preferred the vanilla flavor.
The second product to try was the Ionic Supreme. This stuff is pretty gross. However, I do not react well to the taste of higher amounts of ginger, and this stuff has enough ginger to make me gag. I found watering it WAY down helped this issue.
Next, the Cleanse For Life. This liquid was much more tolerable, and with a little added water, tasted reasonably pleasant to me.
Snacks come with your order. These are small, cocoa powdery wafers. They are odd when chewing, but not bad, and the taste was fine.
Lastly, they included Accelerator and IsaFlush! capsules which are to be taken daily as directed.
To start, for me, the shakes resulted in feelings of slight ick. In the, 'what am I putting into my body?' type of way. The ingredient list of the shakes is HUGE, and filled with words that are not easy to know their meanings without consulting a dictionary or Google. My mother always taught me, when buying a product, read the ingredients. If you can't pronounce it, or don't know what it is, it's probably smart to avoid. Sound advice. Although I've not always stuck to my mothers advice, as I start to focus on my health, I'm starting too take her words seriously. Unfortunately, when reading the IsaLean shake ingredient list, I did not feel empowered, I felt confused. I feel this is not a good thing for me. When choosing supplements or meal replacements, I do not prefer complexity, I prefer simplicity.
Some Isagenix advocates could potentially say that I'm simply not knowledgable of what these named ingredients are. Or that I'm not educated enough to understand the 'big' words listed. I consider myself of slightly above average intelligence and overall life knowledge/experience. If I'm having trouble figuring out the ingredients, I know I am not alone. Simplicity is not an unreasonable feature, if you, like I, desire it.
On to the Cleanse For Life product. In all honesty, I felt nothing happening. I guess when I picture a cleanse, I picture things, like toxins, being flushed out of my system. Nothing that I would have considered a flushing experience happened. In fact, quite the opposite. Yep, constipation and irregular bowel movements that were painful was my experience.
Next up is the Ionic Supreme. I've read that this stuff causes amazing energy. To be honest, I cannot say one way or the other if this is true. Here are the factors based on my experience. I've been working with a trainer for about two months, which consists of regular exercise. I currently have amazing energy and my mood is super positive awesome! However I've found that whenever I workout regularly, I experience the same type of energy and enhanced mood. Therefore, I do not feel able to say if the Ionic Supreme really helped in that department.
Let me reflect on the Accelerator and IsaFlush! capsules. In all honesty, I was not clear on what the Accelerator capsules were supposed to do. I can, however, attest that the IsaFlush! capsules didn't seem to work for me. I wasn't clear if the IsaFlush! capsules were simply Isagenix's version of a laxative. At any rate, it wasn't flushing shit. (pun intended)
The only product I really liked of the lot were the cocoa powdery wafers or Snacks. The directions state to take two as a snack during the day, when needed, to curb hunger. These worked well for me. I felt full for a good 2 hours after consumption.
My overall assessment of Isagenix is that it wasn't for me. Particularly on any sort of long, ongoing, sustainable basis. It seems no different to me then a specialty product that, although prides itself on amazing nutritional benefit, you'd have to rely on for the rest of your life in order to be effective as an amazing weight loss product. Meaning, I'm not convinced that once one stops taking this product, one would actually keep the weight loss achieved from Isagenix.
If continued meal replacement is what you want, and can deal with that on a long term basis, this product might work well for you.
Isagenix may also be a product to consider when focusing on major lifestyle changes around food is too challenging for you currently. After all, it is pretty simple. Two shakes, one meal of 600-800 calories a day, and snacks in between. If you follow this plan, you will lose weight, and have more healthy nutrients in your system.
Isagenix does advocate toward healthy, organic eating.
It is of my personal opinion that learning to eat a consistent, healthy diet, and obtaining nutrients from that diet, is ultimately going to be a more effective, long term, weight loss plan.
I advocate for supplements to support weight loss and muscle growth. At this time, I would not encourage meal replacement products on a long term basis. I once did, but as one learns, beliefs and ideas can change.
Eat fruits and vegetables. It's the only diet proven to be 100% safe, and if consistent, effective.
As this Isagenix review doesn't cast an 'amazingly positive super great products' point of view, I expect more then a few people will try to convince readers, through comments, that I'm full of nonsense and I don't truly understand how the product works or what makes it so amazing. Be aware, they will be convincing.
I would like to emphasize, this is MY EXPERIENCE of the listed products. If you're at all curious about these products, by all means, create your own experience! Make your own, well informed, decisions.
I decided to do some research on Isagenix, and quickly found that there are very few, hard to find, negative reviews of their products. I felt suspicious of this, but decided to give it a try regardless. And, according to all the positive reviews, I was curious.
Isagenix's main products are the cleanse and shakes/meal replacements. The idea is that you start off with either the 9 day or 30 day cleanse, see amazing results, and feel so great that you want more.
Seemed okay to me. I ordered the 30 day system.
The first product I tried were the IsaLean Shakes. The flavors are chocolate and vanilla. I admit, they arn't bad, but I had to play around with how much water to add to make the texture right for me. I found a bit more watery was good for me. Personally, I preferred the vanilla flavor.
The second product to try was the Ionic Supreme. This stuff is pretty gross. However, I do not react well to the taste of higher amounts of ginger, and this stuff has enough ginger to make me gag. I found watering it WAY down helped this issue.
Next, the Cleanse For Life. This liquid was much more tolerable, and with a little added water, tasted reasonably pleasant to me.
Snacks come with your order. These are small, cocoa powdery wafers. They are odd when chewing, but not bad, and the taste was fine.
Lastly, they included Accelerator and IsaFlush! capsules which are to be taken daily as directed.
To start, for me, the shakes resulted in feelings of slight ick. In the, 'what am I putting into my body?' type of way. The ingredient list of the shakes is HUGE, and filled with words that are not easy to know their meanings without consulting a dictionary or Google. My mother always taught me, when buying a product, read the ingredients. If you can't pronounce it, or don't know what it is, it's probably smart to avoid. Sound advice. Although I've not always stuck to my mothers advice, as I start to focus on my health, I'm starting too take her words seriously. Unfortunately, when reading the IsaLean shake ingredient list, I did not feel empowered, I felt confused. I feel this is not a good thing for me. When choosing supplements or meal replacements, I do not prefer complexity, I prefer simplicity.
Some Isagenix advocates could potentially say that I'm simply not knowledgable of what these named ingredients are. Or that I'm not educated enough to understand the 'big' words listed. I consider myself of slightly above average intelligence and overall life knowledge/experience. If I'm having trouble figuring out the ingredients, I know I am not alone. Simplicity is not an unreasonable feature, if you, like I, desire it.
On to the Cleanse For Life product. In all honesty, I felt nothing happening. I guess when I picture a cleanse, I picture things, like toxins, being flushed out of my system. Nothing that I would have considered a flushing experience happened. In fact, quite the opposite. Yep, constipation and irregular bowel movements that were painful was my experience.
Next up is the Ionic Supreme. I've read that this stuff causes amazing energy. To be honest, I cannot say one way or the other if this is true. Here are the factors based on my experience. I've been working with a trainer for about two months, which consists of regular exercise. I currently have amazing energy and my mood is super positive awesome! However I've found that whenever I workout regularly, I experience the same type of energy and enhanced mood. Therefore, I do not feel able to say if the Ionic Supreme really helped in that department.
Let me reflect on the Accelerator and IsaFlush! capsules. In all honesty, I was not clear on what the Accelerator capsules were supposed to do. I can, however, attest that the IsaFlush! capsules didn't seem to work for me. I wasn't clear if the IsaFlush! capsules were simply Isagenix's version of a laxative. At any rate, it wasn't flushing shit. (pun intended)
The only product I really liked of the lot were the cocoa powdery wafers or Snacks. The directions state to take two as a snack during the day, when needed, to curb hunger. These worked well for me. I felt full for a good 2 hours after consumption.
My overall assessment of Isagenix is that it wasn't for me. Particularly on any sort of long, ongoing, sustainable basis. It seems no different to me then a specialty product that, although prides itself on amazing nutritional benefit, you'd have to rely on for the rest of your life in order to be effective as an amazing weight loss product. Meaning, I'm not convinced that once one stops taking this product, one would actually keep the weight loss achieved from Isagenix.
If continued meal replacement is what you want, and can deal with that on a long term basis, this product might work well for you.
Isagenix may also be a product to consider when focusing on major lifestyle changes around food is too challenging for you currently. After all, it is pretty simple. Two shakes, one meal of 600-800 calories a day, and snacks in between. If you follow this plan, you will lose weight, and have more healthy nutrients in your system.
Isagenix does advocate toward healthy, organic eating.
It is of my personal opinion that learning to eat a consistent, healthy diet, and obtaining nutrients from that diet, is ultimately going to be a more effective, long term, weight loss plan.
I advocate for supplements to support weight loss and muscle growth. At this time, I would not encourage meal replacement products on a long term basis. I once did, but as one learns, beliefs and ideas can change.
Eat fruits and vegetables. It's the only diet proven to be 100% safe, and if consistent, effective.
As this Isagenix review doesn't cast an 'amazingly positive super great products' point of view, I expect more then a few people will try to convince readers, through comments, that I'm full of nonsense and I don't truly understand how the product works or what makes it so amazing. Be aware, they will be convincing.
I would like to emphasize, this is MY EXPERIENCE of the listed products. If you're at all curious about these products, by all means, create your own experience! Make your own, well informed, decisions.
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Month 2 Progress- Sept. 2012
Why hello readers!!!
Today marks two months of working out with my trainer, Jeri. Check out her web page at EverchangeFitness.com.
I am feeling great! Some of the results I have noticed are apparent in how my clothing fits. My pants are being held up by a belt on its last hole, that I had to make! As for my shirts, I notice that they are falling a bit better. I've also noticed that I have a more streamline line on my sides. Meaning, my tummy is not sticking out to the sides as much.
As for my energy, it's sky rocketed! I'm doing more in my days and having the energy to last the whole day. It's a great feeling to not be quite so tired all the time.
I'm sleeping much better now that I have a bed that is not falling apart! This has greatly improved my quality of sleep hygiene.
My emotional health is fabulous. I've warded off depression for two months now! Which is a great feat for me. I am very proud of myself. On that front, I've stopped taking Abilify altogether. Therefore, I have less toxicity in my system. Also Abilfy is a major factor in all of my weight gain over the last few years. So stopping that medication has helped me not only feel a cleaner energy overall, but now I'm no longer fighting against the pill from hell with weight loss.
So that's it folks! Next update will be in a month and will include 3 month progress pictures.
Adios!
Today marks two months of working out with my trainer, Jeri. Check out her web page at EverchangeFitness.com.
I am feeling great! Some of the results I have noticed are apparent in how my clothing fits. My pants are being held up by a belt on its last hole, that I had to make! As for my shirts, I notice that they are falling a bit better. I've also noticed that I have a more streamline line on my sides. Meaning, my tummy is not sticking out to the sides as much.
As for my energy, it's sky rocketed! I'm doing more in my days and having the energy to last the whole day. It's a great feeling to not be quite so tired all the time.
I'm sleeping much better now that I have a bed that is not falling apart! This has greatly improved my quality of sleep hygiene.
My emotional health is fabulous. I've warded off depression for two months now! Which is a great feat for me. I am very proud of myself. On that front, I've stopped taking Abilify altogether. Therefore, I have less toxicity in my system. Also Abilfy is a major factor in all of my weight gain over the last few years. So stopping that medication has helped me not only feel a cleaner energy overall, but now I'm no longer fighting against the pill from hell with weight loss.
So that's it folks! Next update will be in a month and will include 3 month progress pictures.
Adios!
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