Holidays Without the Weight Gain?

WARNING: Long, AWESOME post.

So, I did something kinda awesome. I finished the WHOLE ENTIRE P90X3 program.

Yeah. That's 90 days of hard core workouts. Nailed it. Well, sorta.

I didn't follow the nutrition plan as strictly as I probably should have, cuz you know, there was cake occasionally, or pumpkin waffles...*drool*

Anyways, that's where my Shakeology comes in, like a superhero I might add. See, this stuff is like magic. It reduces my sweet tooth cravings (which are heavy duty), gives me all the nutrients I SHOULD be getting from vegetables,  and keeps me full for about 3 hours (thus preventing unnecessary snacking, like me driving to Einstein's multiple times a day). And it tastes FANTASTIC. *score*

And now for the results: I can do twice as many pull-ups as I could when I first started, I can curl 20# dumbbells (for a little while), and I can do lots of funky push-ups. I feel pretty cool. AND I maintained my weight the whole 90 days, through anniversary celebrations, birthdays, family get-togethers, and kids leaving their pop tarts lying around the house. Winning.

SO WHAT? I'll tell you: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years are gonna crash down on us all WITHIN the next 90 days. What's your plan? Would you maybe like a safety net so you don't gain an extra 15-20 lbs? You COULD even lose weight through the holidays...just sayin.

I've got a support group for other sweet tooth mommas like me that starts October 19th. Wanna know more? Just comment and I'll give you all the info, cuz we're friends, and I like you!

-Brooke

Happy New Year! Here are the T25 Results!

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Hey Friends!  I took a little vacation for Christmas and New Years...I hope you don't mind.  Did lots of fun stuff, like sleep in, play with friends and family, eat good food and enjoy the spirit of the season.  I hope you all did stuff like that too :-)

I got a new toy for my birthday last month, and for Christmas I got some sticky vinyl to use in it, so I made some stuff for our home.

But the big news is that I had a couple of KILLER catch-up days, and completed my goal of finishing T25 before the New Year.  Done :-)

Are you ready for the pictures?

And here's the "total transformation journey", whatever you want to call it.

To be perfectly honest, by the end of T25 I had stayed pretty much the same since 21 Day Fix.  Maybe lost a little tone, but my measurements were all about the same.  And since I really did eat whatever I wanted over Christmas Break, I'm definitely counting this as a win.

But now that's over, and I've started Insanity Max 30, WHICH I am loving.  No joke.  I'm done being injured and doing modifiers (except for my wrist, but I'm making it work harder) and it is kicking my butt.  AND I LIKE IT.

4 days into it and I'm already making progress. :-D

So.  What are your New Years Resolutions?

Clean Eating

Hey hey hey!  Yeah, I'm not sure I can pull off that phrase....  Has the Christmas/commercialism shopping bug hit anybody else?  I'm one of those terrible people that starts shopping for other people, and then I get side-tracked by how cute these shoes would look with this or that outfit.  Anybody else here like that?

Selfish Brooke.

On to the story.  I started my clean eating group for this month on Monday, and I've been doing much better this month than I did last month.  Already I've reached a new lowest weight and the group lasts through Sunday, which is also Fast Sunday, for those of you who are LDS and know what I'm talking about :-)  So, I'm very optimistic about my results this time around.  Here are some low-res pictures of the kind of food I've been consuming this week.

Teriyaki chicken with asparagus and brown rice

Quaker Cranberry and Almond protein oatmeal with blueberries and a little brown sugar

Of course my chocolate Shakeology :-)

And tonight's dinner of eggs, turkey sausage, and crescent rolls, which really wasn't super healthy, but it was a compromise meal so that the girls would actually eat.  Last night I made a taco soup in the crock-pot and put in large chunks of ground beef.  My girls picked out the ground beef and left everything else.  Eventually I bribed them into eating the beans they left in their bowls by promising a piece of chocolate afterwards.  I'm not ashamed.  They still came out of their room at 9:00 saying they were hungry, so I gave them carrots to shut them up...and they both ate all that I gave them.  And yes, I know I shouldn't be giving my kids food after bedtime.  I have my reasons, and I have weighed the pros and cons.  Pros: My kids actually will eat vegetables, we all sleep through the night.  Cons: my kids' teeth are still screwed up, we (yes me too) deal with a grumpier, sleep deprived "all of us".  Pros have it.  

And that is the story of how Brooke tried to eat healthy while not starving her family.  Stay tuned for the next chapter :-)