A Little... Naughty

Two weeks ago became the start of an addiction for me. A pretty CRAZY one that gets my heart racing and my cheeks flushed. It makes my mind race and my lungs weeze.

Sometimes I even cough and it makes me slow down a lot when I am whinding down off of it.

Oh dear friends. I HIGHLY recommend this addiction.

Can you SMELL the peer pressure?

It is the ever naughty dance workout ZUMBA.

The first time I did it I literally blushed the ENTIRE time. Not only did the instructor have a ROCKING body that would make a teenage girl envious, she was easily in her late 50's!

Granny got it going on!!! ;)

So there I was trying to keep up with someone who is about 30 years my senior, and I was panting and dying. There were arms flying to the left, and then arms flying right towards my face. When I would finally chance looking around again I would be completely caught off by all the booty shaking and hip thrusting.

Women REALLY like doing this in public??? HA!

Talk about a culture shock!

The part that made me giggle A LOT was that I went to this class with a large group of my mommy friends. Here we are, a group of five or six of us mommies getting our dirty dancing on!

WHAT WILL OUR CHILDREN THINK OF US?!!

I will never look at those innocent little mommies again. The way they got their grooves on, I now KNOW they all got some dirty secrets lying under those pure exteriors. No goody goody can move the way these ladies were moving. It just isn't natural.

I now go at least twice a week with my mommy friends. (haha!)

And during this time I have lost another 5 pounds on top of my 8 two weeks ago. This total's 13 pounds in 2.5 weeks.

And wait! There is more...

I can now shake my money-maker too!

And! *gasps in shock* I enjoy it!

What workouts do YOU enjoy doing?
ps. The instructor wasn't really that old ... I tend to be a tad bit dramatic. She really did look amazing though!
A note for postpartum mommies: This is a GREAT article to keep in mind.

Weigh-In

Yesterday my husband and I weighed in! It was a GREAT first week. I'm pretty proud of both of us. I haven't measured anything yet because, honestly? It becomes overwhelming. I'm okay with just the number on the scale and the percent sign it creates afterward. ;)

So.. my starting weight was...

WAIT FOR IT...

WAIT FOR IT...

279.

 GAG. COUGH. blush.

And yesterday I was 271. That's 8 pounds. 2.9% of my body weight GONE! :) My husband lost 5 pounds as well. Yay! Here's to another bomb-diggidy week y'all!

Love Nikki
ps. Some of the weight-loss may have been water weight. This next week will not be as amazing but I will work just as hard and have added carbs back in last Friday. My diet has been healthy and filling. :) And so far so good on nursing.

Raquet Ball... Have You Played?

Have you ever played raquet ball? I hadn't really until yesterday, and today- I have tennis HAND! My husband and I decided we wanted to work on some cardio at the gym but I was a little bored with the monotonous eliptical machine. So we reserved a court, grabbed two raquets and the little blue ball and went for it.

While my husband was trying to get a ball rally going all I could picture in my mind was this picture::

And to make this image of ME running even worse, there were easily 200 crazy women folk doing ZUMBA in the gym while we were being illuminated against it with the brightness of our glass encased court. So now picture this cute chubby little girl, as a chubby BIG me in a lighted up FISH TANK!

For shame people. For. Shame. I now give you permission to sanitize your brain.

As I would stand there like a zombie hyper-focusing about my jiggling bottom in my TIGHT yoga pants, PICTURING that some crazy zumba dancing lady was going to stop, point her fingers and LAUGH at my saggy fanny, Josh would yell, "C'mon babe! HUSTLE!" Trying to snap me out of my deer in headlights trance, he had no idea that he was actually contributing to a completely NEW hellish nightmare that goes something like this::

If you are wondering what the significance of the picture above is, let me enlighten you!

7th and 8th grade P.E.

"LETS HUSTLE GIRLS!!!"
"Enough TALKING and more RUNNING ladies!"
"HANSEN! Quit dilly-dallying and go after the BALL!"

Apparently I have never been much of a hustler when it comes to sports. And nothing miraculous changed yesterday just because I was trying to show off to my husband! Looking back on it now, I am pretty sure most of the working out yesterday was being done by my husband. Poor guy.

But to no avail. I did redeem myself for one slight moment...

And guess what! Lucky Josh... It was HIM that got it square in the face.

Great game babe! GREAT GAME! ;)

ps. Yeah, I wish I could totally take credit for any injury caused to my husband during this test of wills... but the sad truth is I have a HORRIBLE swing. If I ever was lucky enough to actually make contact with the ball, it generally went towards my husband's face. ha! Whoops!

All images were found on BING. I take no ownership to any of these artistic properties... just enjoying them like everyone else!

Comment Response's

Yesterday I typed up a blog about what this week entails for me eating wise. My comment responses below that post are quite a bit mis-leading. I have had a lot of GREAT feedback and I wanted to thank you all for your advice and suggestions.

I would also like to mention that Sunday night I will be eating a normal- extra yummy meal for dinner. My free-meal. And then starting Monday I will be eating a normal healthy diet. Infact it will be the same way I ate two years ago... the way I am SUPPOSED to eat. This week was meant to wean myself off of processed foods and sugar. I think it has done its job very well but today I am going to add a LOT more dense nutrient based foods, such as veggetables to my meals. (Thanks Sara! ) :) Keep up the feedback... It actually helped solidfy an inner battle I was having with myself. I will go into it more next week. :)

Love Nikki
A GREAT link my sister-in-law sent me: http://www.choosemyplate.gov/pregnancy-breastfeeding/weight-loss.html and another link: http://kellymom.com/nutrition/mothers-diet/mom-calories-fluids/

My Vomit-inducing Meal Plan...

Yesterday I had a problem that I never thought I would have. Ever. I struggled eating ENOUGH calories! What, say what? Yes I know. How could someone who LOVES to eat... not have enough to eat?

Well here's the deal. I am also now a nursing mom of a 11 week old. I need to amp this business up or I am going to stop producing milk for her.

So anyway, yesterday I sat down on my "My Fitness Pal" and recorded my last few pieces of food into my food journal and my jaw dropped. I had only eaten 1100 calories in the entire day. Thinking back I knew that I had spilled half of a protein shake in my van (wah wah... bad move!) and had substituted out my hard boiled egg for plain oatmeal with fresh strawberries. Can I add that substituting out my proteins for some carbs was also a HORRIBLE move! I could literally feel the oatmeal eating a hole from the inside of my stomach, creating a path straight to my butt. No joke. Due to this new highway to my butt, I really need to get these cravings under control. The only way to do that is to cut out the carbs as much as I can this first week. That said, because I nurse I need to make sure I am eating at LEAST 1800 calories every day.

So here are what my meals are supposed to consist of (and due to the nightmares I had of big macs and whoppers coming to invade my body, I will make SURE to eat all of my nasty-liscious shakes!)::

Every morning I wake up and have a frozen berry, peanut butter and whey protein shake.

As the day moves on I am supposed to have three more of these without peanut butter.

I say "supposed to" because HOLY STARS these get disgusting REALLY fast! 

These are some of my favorite snacks right now.

My house also smells like it is in a constant state of bad gas.

By that, I do mean farts.

Have you ever noticed how HORRIBLE hard boiled eggs smell?

Well let me assure you, it IS the eggs and NOT me!

(Add about a quarter of the package of ranch seasoning to a pound or more

of non-fat cottage cheese, and you get a pretty incredible high in protein dip/

salad dressing.)

This was my lunch today. Believe it or not, it was 300 calories.

Very high in protein, very low in carbs...

 and just the right amount of fat to help with nursing!

(Don't worry... I am only eating this way this week. I realize it looks weak

and if I start feeling as if my stomach is crawling outside of my body through my

throat in search of more food... I will adhere to its call!)

Also, lets not forget how stuffed I am from those DISGUSTING shakes.

I might have just said that with a British accent. You will never know. 

And for todays special!

EUW!!!!!

Haha! Actually the truth is... I look forward to my lean cuisines after the gym.

Some of you may hate them, but they aint too shabby on a hungry stomach!

 

Well. There you have it. Pretty much what I have been surving on all week. I guess that explains why I only ended the day with 1300 calories last night. (I had some carrots and cottage cheese, and another egg to increase my caloric intake.) Nothing on here looks THAT good that I am just JUMPING to overeat some more. Is that the point of this first week? Yup. I think so.

Good. Then it's working.

Starting Over...

Hello hello my dear readers. And so it has began... and I can hardly move my arms to type this due to HARDCORE working out! :) Yesterday my husband and I weighed in with some new freinds to start off a Spring weight-loss/ lifestyle change contest. Can I tell you a secret? I think I might have punched the scale. I mean... it had to be off right? There's NO WAY I'm back at where I started again. Just no way.

Well, alas it is the sad truth. I have to start over. I know some of you are probably thinking, "eh... no biggie, you know you can do it."

While other's are probably thinking, "YOU IDIOT! How could you do that to yourself again?!!!"

And then there are those who are with me in thinking, "HOLY CRAP BATMAN. I have to do THAT all over again??!" Boy am I in for a ride. *insert face palm here*

Last year I got down to 234.

Right now I'm at *cough* (I will divulge in a week... lets just say I AM starting over.)

And lets add that HOODIES are NOT my friend right now...

My husband is coming along for the ride this time too!

This makes me happy since I am the one that kept bringing home the junk for him

to eat right along with me. :( Poor guy!

 This is where I used to be:

But this is where I want to be (a little more rounded out and soft, just like

the hubs likes it! haha!)

And this is where Josh and I will be together at the end of this!:

I love my family. I adore my children. And I love my new home. With all of that I still fight the war against over-eating. I scoff at people who try to tell me how to fight it... when they have never been there themselves. It is a fight I will have for the rest of my life. But I want to have that life... and so I will sacrifice this year of yummy pleasure eating to a torment of hell in the gym and nasty tasting food that will kill the taste buds, so that my children will have a mom AND dad as they grow. (Whew! That was a terrible run-on sentence, wasn't it?)Because... aren't  my children worth it?

Wasn't she worth all the weight in the World?

...And aren't Josh and I worth it?

I would like to think so...

So come along for the ride because it is going to be a rough one full of silly moments and terrible disappointments. It will also be full of triumph and friendships that are tested...  and I can use ALL the encouragement that is out there.

Because aren't we all beautiful? 

It's Been... Awhile!

Hello hello everyone! Today I am 39 and 5 days pregnant! You know what that means, right? Baby Lyndi will be here ANY day now and I just wanted to leave a quick update about how I've been doing.

Well...

Not so great weight wise! But that's okay. I am not going to allow myself to feel guilty or to beat myself up over this pregnancy's weight gain. I am resigned to the fact that me and pregnancy are not friends and this has been a pretty intense year for me. So- weight gain was inevitable. The new question is... WHAT am I going to do about it now?

As soon as I have my baby girl and get cleared I am on a new mission. Same idea, just some new motivation.

I hope you all come back to help support me along the way, and I hope I can inspire any other new mommies to join me too! :)

Because remember... WE ARE ALL BEAUTIFUL! *Even if we are the size of a beached whale at nearly 10 months pregnant! haha!