Hello, There!
Long time, no blog. Because…life. I have dozens of posts to share but it feels wrong to jump into business as usual without an update on some of the things that have kept me from blogging.
Of course my #1 blog detractor is also the cutest blogging distraction. He turned 11 months old today, and while he is growing and developing well now and getting pretty darn cute, that also means, he likes to do things like pound on my computer and delete important emails, and he still doesn’t believe that naps should happen with any regularity or predictability. His siblings are all competing for the next position of blogging obstacles.
The time since Punkin’s birth (his adopted grandma gave him that nickname and it is sticking) has been challenging for me personally. Keeping up with his needs and all of my other obligations plus finding ourselves with very limited funds this year has made it so that my personal needs have fallen to the bottom of the barrel and hung out there for most of the last year.
We all love makeovers, right? I don’t care if it is a house (I just bingewatched all of the Flip or Flop Episodes on Netflix recently), a wedding (David Tutera, anyone?), or a person (like What Not To Wear), we love to watch transformations from shabby to chic. In real life, transformations don’t occur in a 30min time slot, but they also don’t occur just by sitting around waiting for them to occur. A few months ago I knew I needed to make some changes and invest in myself, even if it would be difficult to allocate the resources or time to do so. Here is what I have been working on:
Makeover #1 My body
After everyone of my five babies, I have lost weight quickly in the first few weeks after childbirth and then added an extra 10lbs or so while nursing. I followed the same pattern this time, only my weight gain didn’t stop after the 10 pounds. Between not sleeping…at…all with all of the pumping and feeding issues we’ve had this time, my more advanced maternal age, and emotional stress and eating brought on by many factors including the death of a beloved cousin, the weight kept coming. I weighed 10lbs. more than I had at the time of delivery and nothing in my closet fit. It was time to either invest in a new wardrobe or a plan to change my health and I decided on the latter.
After hearing amazing reports from my friend Carla, I decided my plan was to contact Lalona at Health 2 Order. Lalona offers several services, but I needed the big guns. I had her plan my menus for a month. She customizes the eating plan to your tastes and schedule and provides you the entire shopping list and all of the recipes you need. I have always been really dubious of diets. I also hate just trying to avoid foods that are “bad for you” because it is hard to find anything at all to eat some days, and those foods become more and more appealing. By following her plan, I wouldn’t be nearly as tempted to dig into the cookie jar because my hunger was satisfied by eating the healthy items on my plan. I’m not sure how she calculates everything, but the menu seems to be low calorie, low carb, low sodium, etc., while being balanced, focusing heavily on eating lots of vegetables and fresh food with real ingredients.
Staying on the plan and resisting the foods I shouldn’t eat was much easier than allocating the time for grocery shopping and preparing meals on a regular basis, when we had gotten in the habit of driving through Little Ceasars a little too often. Working with Lalona, she has given me some other options for crazy days, like foods I can eat at restaurants sometimes, and even drive thru meals for those days when I just don’t have the time or energy to cook.
I lost 6 pounds quickly in my first week. Since then I have lost an average of about 3 lbs/week (minus the 2 weeks when I was throwing 3 events and constantly surrounded by cake. I just held steady then). For a total of nearly 25 lbs. lost to date (A little over 2 months since I began). The more closely I follow her plan the more I lose. I should mention that I haven’t been doing any serious exercise to speak of, unless chasing my toddler counts. If I were ready to add that to my plan, my results might be even more dramatic. Lalona is also a personal trainer and can advise about exercise, as well. I may use her exercise planning service soon, when I am ready to take that next step.
The meal planning and shopping list service is pretty amazing, but I think what I appreciate as much, is that I have constant access to Lalona. I can text her when a situation comes up that doesn’t fit with the plan and ask her what to do. I can request recipes for particular kinds of food or occasions. And did I mention that every recipe she has given me has been delicious! Most days it feels like I am treating myself well, instead of depriving myself of the fun foods that other people are eating. (I still have to figure out what to do at parties since I’ve been conditioned to associate food with fun and parties are such a big part of my life).
I would like to lose another 25+ pounds and will keep working with Lalona to do so, but am pretty happy not to be back in the range where most of my clothes will fit and I am still nursing. It feels so good to have made this change.
BIG NEWS: If you have wanted to try Health2Order, go run and sign up starting at Midnight tonight! Lalona is running a 24 hour sale (JUNE 15 ONLY!) where the full month menu planning service is $100off! That is a third of the cost off! She won’t be offering a sale like this again for a year! So if you have been thinking about giving it a try, NOW is the time to do it! Just tell her that Kendra (My Insanity) sent you when you are filling out your form with all of your eating preferences.
I know her system works and is good for your body. I’m so glad I made the decision to make this a priority in my life right now.
Check back tomorrow for the second part of my make over!
DISCLOSURE: I paid for H2O services out of pocket because I felt this was the best way to go about losing weight. I may receive credit or compensation for referrals from this post.
[…] I told you about my 25 lb. weight loss transformation. Come back tomorrow for a little more makeover madness […]