1 Year of Healthy Living and a Giveaway $50 to Lululemon

**LONG POST ALERT** This post is broken down into a few
categories

The Past Year

Today marks the day that I changed my life completely.  A year ago today I took a leap of faith and
started my first round of the 21 day fix. 
I had gained so much weight last year that I was close to 200lbs because
by the time I weighed myself (and cried afterwards) I had already been eating
clean and working out for 2 weeks.  When
I stepped foot on that scale I was 185lbs. 
My before picture was something I was not prepared to see.  I knew that I had gained a lot of weight, but
it wasn’t until I saw the picture that it really hit me.  I was the biggest I have ever been in my
entire life.  I was so unhealthy that I
went to the doctor’s to find out what was wrong with me because I could barely
make it home every day from being so tired. 
I felt like garbage all of the time and mentally I was so disgusted with
how big I had actually gotten.  To be
completely honest, a year ago I thought I would do this first round of the 21
day fix, get frustrated and call it quits and just come to terms with being heavy.  After my first round of the 21DF I had lost a
total of 10lbs.  I’m sure part of it was
water weight, but I had seen a change in my body and my mind.

I decided to do a second round of the 21DF challenge
group.  My first goal was to weigh in at
155 (30lbs weight loss) by August 25th because that was the day I
was leaving for Poland.  I honestly didn’t
think I was going to make it, but on August 25th I didn’t just cut
it close, I DID IT!  I weighed in at my
goal weight.  After I got off that scale
I was jumping with joy and could not believe that I did it.  Well, when I got back from Poland (10 days
later) I joined in on another 21 DF Challenge Group.  I had to have a new coach because my original
coach had stopped coaching so I had to adjust to this new person and adjust to
the way they did things.  They were
extremely engaging and I was so happy to share my results with the entire group
to show them that it CAN be done, you just have to put your mind to it.

After seeing how great it felt to share my story and show
others that you can do this too, I spoke with my coach and said I wanted to
become a Beachbody Coach.  I did that
from September all the way up until April. 
I tried really hard but the last challenge group that I ran was
extremely slow and not interactive at all and then I started getting
discouraged by that, along with not having time for my blog and my loved ones
so I decided to step away from coaching. 
I love when people tell me that it’s thanks to me that they got the
motivation to get back to the gym or back to clean eating regardless of if they
were one of my challengers or not.  I
wrote a whole entire post about why I stopped coaching and what you should know
before becoming a TBB coach and it’s meant to be informative not discouraging
or anything of that nature so if you want you can read that post here.  I also started a series on this blog called
Shape Up Saturday back in September as well.

My Results

Well I stopped weighing myself because I actually lost 41lbs
and reached my second goal (hitting 145lbs) and surpassed it by 1 lb.  I ended up weighing in at 144lbs.  I’ve weighed myself a few times since then
and noticed that as I work out more and more I gain a little bit here and there
due to muscle weight.  The last time I
weighed myself I was 150lbs so who knows what I’m at now.  I lost A LOT of inches.  I went from a size 10 to size 4!  Below is a list of my measurements.  I encourage you that if you are trying to
lose weight that you measure yourself and take progress pictures, the scale is
only one form of measurement.

Bust

Chest

Arms

Waist

Stomach

Hips

Thighs

Calves

Weight

I feel so much healthier and I feel so much better about
myself.  I challenge myself more and more
every day and I noticed that I take on projects that I never would have thought
to do a year ago.  I’m not as self
conscious as I was and I’ve been wearing clothing that I wouldn’t have even
tried on a year ago.  I’m still
uncomfortable in short dresses/skirts or even short shorts, but at least I’m
willing to try them on and give them a shot. 
All in all, the program was TOTALLY worth it!  Now I don’t really meal prep anymore using
the portion control containers because I know how much I should be eating in a
day so now it’s just planning out my meals and cooking all in one day.  After a year I still eat clean, although I
allow myself more cheat days than I used to because well, I want them haha!

What is the 21 Day Fix and what is Team Beachbody?

I used to get this question all the time.  People would always ask me how I’ve lost so
much weight and actually no one noticed the dramatic weight loss until I lost
40lbs, I think it’s because I started to wear clothing that actually fit me so
you could really see how much I lost. 
The 21 Day Fix is a program through Team Beachbody which has gotten
extremely popular and I even heard a radio ad for it now too.  Basically the program comes with the portion
control containers (don’t underestimate the size of them, you can fit a lot of
food in them), the shake mix, and the workout DVDs.  If you order this through a coach and not
through Amazon or eBay you’ll also have access to a coach who will help guide
you and even add you to their challenge groups. 
Make sure you participate in these groups  The more you participate the better for you
because you get more excited and motivated to get healthy and stick to this. 

The workouts are 30 minutes each and they are for 7 days a
week with two active rest days.  You get
strength training/toning, and cardio, along with Yoga and Pilates.  I’ve also tried 21 Day Fix Extreme which is
exactly what the title says, it’s called extreme for a reason.  Team Beachbody is also known for their other
popular programs like P90X and Insanity. 
They offer Beachbody on demand as well which is an annual subscription
(usually less than a gym) and you can stream any BB workout as long as you have
wifi. 

The meal plan is where I really locked in the most.  I followed those portion control containers vigorously
and drank my shake once a day.  I have
recently decided to take a step back from drinking the shake because I somehow
ended up with 3 boxes worth (I have autoship and I guess I never paid attention
to how much Shakeology I actually have) and I noticed that even though it
helped me with weight loss in the beginning I’m now craving more food to
actually chew on.  I read that this is
actually normal because shakes shouldn’t be used a meal replacement.  It should be used as a snack and after you
workout (but I unfortunately conveniently had it when I would get home from
work after working out because I was tired) and the human body craves the act
of chewing and actually eating food rather than drinking it.  I noticed that now since I work out twice a
day I’m hungrier and the shake just wasn’t cutting it.  I drink it when it’s convenient now and even
though I know it’s a super food, I just want to switch up my meal regimen a
little and see if I notice a difference. 
So far after eating an actual dinner I have noticed that I don’t want to
snack afterwards and I’m actually satisfied until the morning.  I think I’m one of those people who has to be
always chewing on something haha.

With this meal plan you eat smaller meals 5-6 times a day
rather than eating 3 big meals.  The
reasoning behind this is because once your body is hungry it goes into
starvation mode which then in turn the body stores fat instead of burning it
because it’s not sure when it will be eating again.  Whereas, if you eat throughout the day your
metabolism is constantly going and constantly burning.  

What it was like being a Team Beachbody Coach

Well, if you read my post that I linked earlier you would
have seen most of what I will say here (just shortened obviously).  It was a lot of work.  I knew it would be a lot of work in the beginning
but it was never stressed that it was THAT much work.  I had told my coach that I worked full time
and had a full time blog and what I was told by my coach and the team is that
you only need about 1 hour a day and take that time that you spend scrolling
away aimlessly on social media and put that into BB.  Well, it’s WAY more than 1 hour.  You have to check in with your challengers
throughout the day, post on Facebook at least 3-5 times a day to get the word
out and that was hard for me because people I went to high school with (I had a
really bad time) knew the nitty gritty of how I felt even in the worst of
times.  It was extremely hard to get
people to sign up with me because there are SOOOOOO MANY TBB Coaches now, and
social media doesn’t help you in that aspect either because now if I’m friends
with someone in California everything is done online and they tell their
friends about this and they sign up with me, any coaches in their area or their
circle just lucked out.  You don’t get
paid per challenger, you only get paid if they purchase something and if
someone is joining your challenge group and not purchasing anything you’re
basically working for free.  If a group is
not interactive I’m going to be completely honest with y’all, it’s the MOST
frustrating thing EVER!  I can’t stress
enough how frustrating it is.  I was
basically running a second blog because you have to upload information daily,
sometimes twice a day and no one was reading it so it was as if I was doing all
of this for no reason.  That was the last
group I had because my first 2 were amazing. 
Everyone interacted with one another and they shared recipes, issues,
workouts, etc.  Would I go back to
coaching?  Absolutely not.  I missed having more time for my blog, and I
missed actually spending time with my loved ones and not checking my phone
every 5 minutes.  I started wanting to
help out at least one person and I was successful in doing so.  

How are you still keeping up with it a year later?

You can’t think of this as a diet.  Diets fade and there are a lot of fad diets
out there.  You have to make sure you
turn this into a healthy lifestyle.  You
need to have a routine and you need to make sure you are selfish for a
change.  You may or may not get support
from friends or family, or they may even say “oh you can cheat this one time.”  I locked down on my meal plan and on my
workouts.  I explained to everyone how
important this is for me and to not tempt me. 
I made a routine for myself.  I
meal prep every Saturday/Sunday depending on my schedule.  There will be times where you want to give up
and say screw it this week I’m not prepping my meals, I’m just going to go with
it.  Or there are times where you say oh
I already had a cheat day?  I’m having
another and you’ll feel it.  Once you
start clean eating when you have cheat meals it’s extremely hard to adjust your
body, and it’s extremely hard not to get sick afterwards.  I can eat one slice of pizza, and for two
days I will have the worst pains and the worst bloat ever.  I’ve made this into a lifestyle and that’s
why I’ve been able to stick with it.

My worst fear

Most people who lose weight or start to see lots of progress
are fearful that they will gain it all back. 
My problem is that since I’ve been so obsessive over my weight and body
image since high school I had to make sure I took a step back every once in a
while.  I was extremely obsessive the
first two rounds of the 21DF.  The first
time I indulged was when I went to Poland and even then I was super scared to
do so.  When I came back I told myself
that I didn’t lose 40+ lbs overnight and I wasn’t going to gain it overnight
either.  That’s when I told myself I have
to take more cheat days.  My car accident
in September helped me take more cheat days because I was so upset about
everything that happened that I went back to emotionally eating and I couldn’t
work out except for Physical Therapy so that broke my obsession with the
21DF.  My worst fear is becoming overly
obsessive about being healthy and thinking about only that, like I did in the beginning.  

Any new goals?

My first goal was to lose 30lbs before Poland which I
did.  My second goal was to lose 40lbs in
total, which I ended up doing.  My third
goal was to stay consistent with my healthy lifestyle.  My fourth goal because well goal number 3
wasn’t really that hard was to get my booty back (I lost it along with the
weight lol) and abs.  I’ve accomplished
the booty part, but still working on the abs part.  I’ve been having trouble with the abs because
over the past 2 months my meal plan has been slacking.  I eat clean all week until the weekend, and
then I indulge a little more than I should. 
I have exactly 39 days to get abs haha. 
That’s when I’m going to Poland with the boyfriend and I wanted to be
super fit and have abs.  Once I get abs I
won’t really have any new goals besides just maintaining this lifestyle and
making sure I don’t gain it all back.

My advice to people starting their fitness journey

It doesn’t happen overnight-You’re not going to lose 5lbs in
one day, that’s just not possible nor is it healthy.  Healthy weight loss is 1-3lbs per week.  If you are losing more than that (besides
water weight which is basically what the It Works wraps do) it’s not healthy
weight loss. 

Do your research-Make sure that you are really researching
what supplements you are taking and consulting your doctor.  I know a lot of people who are sensitive to
Shakeology and said that it upset their stomach even when taking half a scoop
instead of a full one.  Those were the
challengers I told to stop taking Shakeology until they consult with their
doctor because I don’t want it doing more harm than  good. 
Along with this, there’s a lot of diet pills out there and other fad
supplements.  Make sure you research
everything.  There’s no magic pill to
weight loss, you have to put in the time and effort along with discipline. 

Keep Going-Ok, so you had a cheat snack when you know you
shouldn’t have.  That doesn’t mean “oh
whatever I’ll just start again tomorrow” this means you need to lock down on
your meals for the rest of the day and make sure not to cheat again.  Once you see progress, just keep going.  Once you lose the momentum it’ll be like
starting all over again.  For example
with me, I lost 30lbs and instead of saying eh I’m ok with that, I made another
goal to lose an additional 10, and I did it. 
I continue to make goals for myself so I don’t lose that momentum.

Fuel Your Body Properly-Seriously, this is super
important.  You’ll feel it when you fuel
your body properly vs. not, especially when you go to work out.  Drink your water!  Trust me on this one!

Don’t beat yourself up. 
So what if you had a bad work out? 
I have those too.  Some days I’m
feelin’ it and I can go all out and other days I take my time and burn about
half the calories as usual.  These things
happen but you can’t get upset with yourself because your body is telling you
to take a break.

Giveaway Time

Alright, well since it’s been a year I decided to do a fun
little giveaway.  I’m giving away a $50
gift card to Lululemon!  Let’s celebrate
healthy living!  All you have to do is
enter in the rafflecopter widget below and for a bonus entry comment on this
post why you want to win this gift card.  Also, this is not for international users and only within the 48 contiguous states of USA.

a Rafflecopter giveaway