Cardio and Kiddos

So it's been super hard to lose weight, which it is for a lot of people. But I was doing all the right things, working out and eating at a good deficit. I should have been losing weight. I've basically been battling the scale for the past three years when I got pregnant. I've been in the 190s for the past three years. I've gone up and down about ten pounds, up down, up down. Over and over and the weight just wouldn't come off. I also am just completely exhausted all the time and can barely think. My brain feels foggy. I went to the doctor and she checked my thyroid. It was very underactive. I got medicine to control it. It says that it can take about a month to start feeling better from the medicine. I've been on it for two weeks now. I don't really feel a difference in my energy or an improvement in the brain fog yet. But I have lost 7 pounds. I don't even know why. I've been exercising and eating at a deficit JUST like before, like the exact same c

Let's talk about food. Food is so amazing. I totally believe that food is fuel. But I've almost always had an addiction to it. I overeat. I eat too much of the bad stuff. And that's really been my problem for several years. I workout hard every week. I'm at the gym at least 4 times a week. But what I put in my mouth at meal times was just awful. No wonder I never really saw my weight going down. For the past few weeks I've been really counting my calories again. But not even just calorie counting. I've been cleaning up what I'm eating. I don't want to eat just 1500 calories. I want to eat 1500 calories of food that is going to nourish my body and fuel it. I don't want to waste my calories on junk. I've been weighing my food on a digital food scale and that has opened my eyes so much to how much I was truly overeating before. But I love crunchy snacks. Enter in the healthy and easy microwaved potato chip. The terribly oily and salty potato chips f

Here we are at the end of 2015. It was not exactly the year I thought I would have. I turned 30 and was sure I would be in shape by this time. I am still so far away from being at my goal weight. However, I have many, many non-scale victories to celebrate. In 2015 I became a regular at the gym. Like every day. I ran my first 5k. I tried so many new classes at the gym. And now I look forward to a challenge in the gym and am not afraid to try new things. The past few weeks I've been better with my eating and my pants are starting to fall off. My main problem is my eating. I workout a ton. But no matter how much you workout, if you still eat like crap, you won't see changes. That is what I have learned this year. Honestly. It's so true. I have worked my butt off to the point where I have no dry spots left on my clothes. But yet, I end this year at just a few pounds lower than at the start of this year. And those few pounds I lost were just in the past few weeks. The eating HAS

Well guys, I have been trying to lose weight since my baby was born... 18 months ago. I hadn't lost anything other than the 8 or so pounds immediately after he was born. I was breastfeeding him and expected the weight to fall off.  It didn't.  I am still breastfeeding him and I heard that some people just hang on to the weight when they nurse. But still, it's frustrating. But I had not been good about my eating. Or exercising. So why should I expect to lose any weight really, right? So as I posted, I joined the YMCA at the end of February and ever since I have been going 4+ times a week! I have exercised SO much in the past few months and feel so proud. My fitness level has gone up tremendously. I went from literally never exercising to doing it every day! Surely I would lose weight then right? Wrong. I still wasn't losing anything. Almost two months later and not even a pound lost. But guess what? My eating was still awful. I just didn't care what I put into my bod

A few years back, I was using the Polar FT4 heart rate monitor and loved it! I loved it all the way up until the battery died. Then you have to send it into the manufacturer for them to replace the battery. That is such a hassle. So I tried to pry the back open by myself without the tool, which ended up basically just ruining the device. Then I started using the body media fit, which I also loved, but didn't love the monthly subscription fee. A few months ago I bought the Polar FT7 Heart Rate Monitor  (affiliate link). You can change the battery to this one by yourself. I have to say that this is by far my favorite way to track my calories and heart rate during a workout. The body media I felt did a great job tracking the calories I burned, but it didn't tell me my heart rate. I'm a very visual person, so I absolutely love seeing all the data that the Polar FT7 gives me. It's important to me to see what my heart rate is during a workout to make sure it is not too high.

So we rejoined the YMCA and I started going at the beginning of March. I am happy to say that I have gone at least 4 times a week since we have joined. Here we are at the end of April so that makes two months of actually going to the gym and working out on a regular basis! I have had so much fun. I have taken so many classes like Zumba, KettleworX, Step (which is my FAVORITE!), and Piloxing and many more. I've tried almost every class! I finished the YChange program and signed up for a second round. The disappointing part. I've only lost 2 pounds. It's a little discouraging but I know what the problem is. Although my exercise has been great, my eating has sucked. Really bad. And I don't drink enough water. So I absolutely know that's where I need to make changes. It's so hard. Exercising is easy. Food is hard. It's hard to break the bad habits. Night time is when I really struggle. After the kids have been bugging me all day long it's hard to care about