Day one of the Mommy Fit Challenge:
Hey, y'all! I decided that, in order to gain more accountability, I will write every day along this journey of the 15 day Mommy Fit Challenge.
My husband and I both are doing this challenge. We decided that it's time for our family to be healthier and that we need to all do it together!
Slowly, I started eliminating sugary drinks out of my diet. I took on the Water Gallon challenge. I started drinking one gallon of water a day. Yes, it wasn't easy. It took me a week to figure out how to drink a whole gallon in one day. There were many days that I couldn't drink a whole gallon. Then I started to slow down after two weeks and just drink the amount for my body type. I downloaded the 'Plant Nanny' app on my android phone and put in all of my body information and the app calculated how much water that I need to be drinking. When I finish my cup amount, I get on the app and water the plant that I'm growing with the app. It helps motivate me to keep the plant alive and drink more water.
I don't crave sodas, when I drink all of the water that my body needs. I've realized that the more water I drink, the less I want anything else to drink.
I was scrolling down my newsfeed on Facebook one day and saw a page by Idealfit for their protein shakes and a free fifteen day meal and exercise plan. I've been trying to find a protein shake and exercise plan that is safe for breastfeeding moms, to keep my milk supply up. I chatted with someone from the site and she said that there are some nursing moms using the plan and shakes, but it would be best for me to talk to my doctor about it first, before using it. I saw the prices of the shakes and decided I would just wait until after I wean.
A week later, give or take a few days, there was another post from the same site. This time it was a post by "Trainer Nicole". It read "15 Day Mommy Fit Challenge". The word mommy definitely drew me in, so I of course clicked on it to check it out. Sure enough, it was a free 15 day challenge for mommies like me! Personalized for pregnant, post partum, breastfeeding, and those moms that just can't get rid of their "baby weight". I was ecstatic!
I signed up right then, without a complete commitment.
I joined the challenge's Facebook community and started joining in on conversations. I was getting motivated and decided that I was ready to commit to it. So I talked to my husband about it. Just when I thought I had enough motivation, he agreed to do this along with me. What??I was even more motivated!!
I downloaded my ebook that came along with the challenge and began looking over things. I'm going to be honest, it was intimidating. I had never done anything like this before. EVER. I always just ate what I knew and didn't really care how healthy or unhealthy it was. I would just do the bare minimum when it came to being healthy. Plus, there are so many meals for each day. I usually only eat three meals a day. I learned that eating small portions during those three meals and then a few extra HEALTHY snacks was healthier and better for me.
I've always loved exercising, so I didn't feel like that would be a problem. Looking over the exercises though, I was intimidated by those too. There were things on there that I had never heard of! But I was instantly comforted by a link to some videos that show me how to do the exercises. I realized that most of the exercises are some that I've already been doing, just with different names. Of course, there's more of them to do than what I've been doing, so it's still going to be a challenge for me.
My husband and I decided together that we wouldn't be able to stick to the meal plan completely, because of our budget. We aren't bad off or anything, we just didn't want to put ourself in a bad money situation from buying extra stuff that we normally don't buy for our family. So we just decided to replace a few of the things that we normally get with the healthy things suggested on the meal plan. For example, we replaced our regular milk with unsweetened almond milk, ground beef with ground turkey, regular spaghetti noodles with whole wheat noodles, and white bread with whole wheat bread. We surprised ourselves with how much we spent at the local grocery store, because it was a lot less than we thought! We both almost cried when we heard how much it was. Truly a blessing from God. Who knew that being healthier was affordable? I think now the challenge is going to be to make those groceries last the full two weeks of the challenge. Our toddler eats like a teenager sometimes and there are five meals for each day on the challenge!
In order to fit our budget, I decided to move some of the meals around and replace some of the lunches with a sandwich or tuna and crackers. Also, my husband decided to just follow the supper meal plans for himself, because he works during the day and his sandwiches are easier for him to eat while at work.
Here's our personalized MAIN meal plan for DAY ONE:
Breakfast: Chunky Monkey Oatmeal
Lunch: Sandwiches (Turkey) with a side of carrots
Supper: Baked Chicken thighs with brown rice and veggies
Some of the snacks that I have are string cheese, yogurt, berries, bananas, apples, wheat crackers, and oranges. I am just going to pick and choose.
We decided to wait until the end of the day to do our workouts, because my husband is wanting to do them with me and he doesn't get home untill after 4pm. While he's at work, though, I'm going to go ahead and do my normal stretching and work out. My normal work out is very similar to the warm ups in the challenge. I was surprised when I watched it, because I was like, "This is just the warm up? That's normally my full work out."
My normal work out:
Stretch
Plank
Butt touches with heels while reaching arms and pulling in
High knees with arm hooks
floor touches
walk in place
Squats throughout the day
I've also been using 5lb dumbbells within my workouts.
(Just a side story: Our two year old has found some 2lb dumbbells and has decided to work out along with me. So cute! And definitely encouraging!)
After about six months of these exercises (one month with the water challenge) I've seen the most results in my legs and butt, but my upper body is still needing work. I'm also needing to loose the extra stuff on my lower abs. I haven't seen the exact results that I want, so hopefully this challenge will take care of that.
We didn't realize how commited we are to this challenge until we started taking our before measurements.
And then there were the before pictures...I decided that I'm not going to share my before pictures with my blog readers, until I have done the challenge and take some AFTER pictures.
We are beyond excited to see where this challenge will take us, individually and as a family, and we are completely reliant on God to help us make it through. Doing things like this on a budget and having two babies under three isn't going to be easy. But we are determined! Please pray for us and we will definitely appreciate any motivation we can get! Thank y'all so very much!
