Healing with Harvey

I'm sorry for the lack of posts lately.  I have a lot on my plate!  But the good news is that I am being active and am also counting calories.  I am down 5 lbs from my highest weight.  I am happy about that!  I'm just taking each day at a time, and not letting it all stress me out.  In the grand scheme of things, it's okay if it comes off slowly.

I thought that I would share my page that I made for my son and his story.  For those of you (all two of you!) that still read this blog and wanted an update on our situation, you can find all the nitty gritty details here:

Healing with Harvey

I post on there at least weekly with photos and updates.  Check it out if you feel so inclined.  The more people that know his story, the less little babies that might get hurt by being burned!  That's the goal anyway...  :)

When Your World Falls Apart (Warning: Graphic Photos)

So I disappeared. But I had a very valid reason to suddenly vanish from the face of blogland. My son was involved in a major accident at home and we ended up in the Burn Trauma Intensive Care Unit for nearly a week. He had 2nd and 3rd degree burns on his face, neck, chest, back, and arm. It was the worst month of my life. He avoided skin grafts by nothing short of a true miracle. They thought he would definitely have to get them, but he managed to heal up on his own. It took over 6 weeks for his wounds to close, but we are finally in a place where we don't have to do daily wound care. Both mama and baby are VERY happy about this.

I will be creating a separate blog that details his journey (and my own) because I don't feel like a weight loss blog is the most appropriate place to lay all the gory details out, but I did want to post something on it to kind of explain where my head has been. To say my focus on my health went out the window is an understatement. It seemed so silly to me to be worrying about extra fat on my body when suddenly we were worried about skin grafts, scarring, and breathing issues. Now that we are a bit further out from the trauma, I have refocused and want to be healthy so I can play with my little boy like he wants and deserves. However, I have a month of stress eating to recover from. Here's a quick snapshot of the horror we saw over the past month:

Pretty much a mother's worst nightmare.  He was badly scalded by some hot food from a crockpot that fell on him.  Horrible horrible horrible.  He has several years of recovery ahead of him, but his scarring should be minimal.  The doctors don't think his face will scar which is a straight up miracle as it took the brunt of the burn.  God really does listen and answer prayers.  His arm will be scarred and he will have to wear a pressure garment on it for a couple years to try to flatten potential scarring, but given the extent of the burn (25% of his body) we feel pretty dang blessed that this is the worst we have to deal with.  

Anyway, it is hard to sum up with words how much this event affected me and changed me so I will just summarize it by saying it was traumatic and I wouldn't wish it upon my worst enemy.  I am glad that with each day that passes we are closer to having my happy healthy boy back.

Yesterday at the park--looking pretty dang good!

So that's where I've been.  And now I am just trying to get back on track and eat good clean food and move my body.  Scale said 174 this morning.  It is what it is, and I will get myself back to where I used to be soon enough.  Somehow the weight gain doesn't seem quite as devastating to me as it used to.  :)

The Time Will Pass Anyway

This.

This has been on my mind a lot lately.  It sometimes becomes a daunting task to look at the work that has to be done in order to achieve my goals.  I get discouraged and think I will never make it so I just give up.  But in reality, the time is going to pass anyway.  I might as well dedicate that time to improving myself.  Maybe it will take 5 years.  Maybe 10.  But SOMEDAY I will get there.

Speaking of goals, I've got some:

• Pass the Army Fitness test
• Deadlift 200+ lbs
• Do a kipping pullup
• Do a standard pullup
• RX a Crossfit WOD
• Run a sub 1-hour 10k
• Run a sub 30-min 5k

I have got a LOT of work to do.  I am basically starting from ground zero on both my strength and my cardio.  I'm still not cleared to run, but I have been power walking each night after I put my babe down to sleep.  I've also started doing Crossfit during my lunch break.  I am SO sore and am SO happy about it.  I may not reach these goals this year, but SOMEDAY I will reach them.  I just have to keep striving for it!

21 Day Sugar Detox: RESULTS!

It's been 21 days, and on all but one day I was sugar free.  I had a small cheat when a friend made us homemade bread for dinner.  She didn't know we were detoxing and I just didn't feel it was worth it to throw away her hard work just for a perfect three weeks.  Some may choose differently, but I felt it was the right thing to do in the situation.

Anyway, let's get to the fun stuff!  How did my body like being without sugar for three weeks?  After seeing the results, it is safe to say my body loved it:

If you add that up, it ends up being 14.25 inches lost.  I'm most happy with the change my waist made!  I can definitely feel the difference of those now-missing 4.5 inches.  I will confess that the day before I took my measurements I had actually weighed in at 178 lbs but just couldn't bear to post that weight as it ties with the highest I have ever weighed (other than while pregnant).  So all in all, I am VERY happy to be dropping down back to a place I am happy with.

So what's next?  Well, the detox ended yesterday but I am still sugar-free as of right now.  I like the way my body is responding to the lack of sugar, and I believe I will continue on this course and only have sugar when it is a special treat.  I think if I can keep eating clean and really get back into working out, I might be able to hit my big goal.

Oh yeah, my big goal!  I would love to be down THIRTY pounds by my THIRTIETH birthday!  That would be from my starting weight of 178 which would put me down to 148.  I will actually be happy around 150, but 28 by 30 doesn't have the same ring to it!  ;)

It's going to be a LOT of work and dedication, but I'm motivated.  One, I want to be back to a "non-overweight" weight range according to the BMI.  Two, I want to fit into the bulk of my wardrobe again.  Three, I am sick of being out of breath doing simple stuff.  And four, and most importantly, I want to be in top fighting shape for when I get pregnant again.  I do not want to have another pregnancy where I can't work out.

Plan of attack:

• Continue clean eating with extremely limited sugar
• Power walk  for 45 minutes each weekday
• Crossfit on MWF for an hour

That will mean that I will be working out twice a day 3 times a week.  While it is a bit intense, I really feel like it is the best course of action to get me to where I want to be in the time I have to get it done.  

Anyway, if you are on the fence about trying the detox I say to DO IT.  I am so happy with my results, and most importantly I feel a lot better.  Wahooo!

Week 2 of the Sugar Detox

I'm almost halfway through the sugar detox!  And let me tell you, the end of last week was rough for me!  I wanted treats in the WORST way!  But I persevered and this week has been MUCH easier.  Thank goodness!  Too bad I have a massive cold and have been laid up in bed.  I wanted to start exercising this week, but it looks like that has to be put on the back burner for a few days.

In keeping with the theme of sugar, I saw this video today and thought I would share it.  It definitely explains some of my behavior regarding sugar lately.  I'm even more glad now that I am doing this detox!



I'm also seeing great results on the scale!  That is very encouraging.  So if you are thinking about starting this detox, I definitely recommend you bite the bullet and go for it!  You will be happy you have done it.

A week and a half to go!

21 Day Sugar Detox

*taps mic*

Hello?.....Anybody there?....

My oh my.  Life gets away from you sometimes, doesn't it?  I haven't posted since October and I'm pretty sure that's the longest I've ever gone without an update.  And you know what they say: silence on a blog is never a good thing!

So what's been going on with me?  I've officially finished physical therapy as of Monday (woot woot!!) and am cleared to start an "aggressive power walking routine" which just makes me chuckle.  I've never really considered power walking to be "aggressive" although I do know it can be a great workout.  So I will be starting that shortly.  In the months of being unable to be active, my weight increased far more than I'd like to admit.  I've found that in order for me to truly be successful, I have to combine working out and eating right.  If I'm not working out, I tend to eat far worse than I would if I was.  I know that isn't logical, but that's definitely the way it is for me!

Now that I am in the clear, I have also started to get my diet back on track.  To kick it off, I am doing a 21-day Sugar Detox with Hubster.  It's a gradual detox so you don't just cut everything out at once, which makes me happy because I am clearly addicted to the sweet stuff after the holiday season.  Here are the "rules" of the program:

Week 1:

Remove all obvious sugars that include:

Cookies
Muffins
Doughnuts
Candy
Chocolate
Cake

Week 2:

Continue with week 1 protocol and also remove not-so-obvious sugars that include anything with:

Artificial sweeteners (ALL of them)
High fructose corn syrup
Corn syrup
Maple syrup
Honey

Week 3:

Continue with week 1 & 2 and also remove any and all products that contain white flour that include, but not limited to:

White bread
Cereals
Pasta
Bagels
Croissants

I'm currently on Day 3. The first day was easy, but it is getting a bit harder with each passing day. Man, I want those tasty goodies! But I know that if I can just break up with them for a little bit, my cravings will be significantly less in the long term.

In the spirit of tracking all the dirty details of a diet on the internet, I'm also going to be tracking my progress. I took before measurements and will take measurements again after the 21 days. I'm not expecting a huge decrease, but it will be interesting to see nonetheless. Without further ado, here are my numbers:

If you saw that number and thought, "Holy shiz! She's gained a lot of weight!" then you are not alone my friend. That was my very thought. It's easy to deceive yourself into thinking you look better than you do, but numbers don't lie. Or pants. My pants definitely don't lie. So it's time to get back in the game and really make an effort. I'm turning 30 this year and I want to be in much better shape for that day!

And with that, I leave you to go eat a nice healthy salad for dinner. I'll update you on my progress soon!

Christmas on an Elk Ranch!