Hello, Month Eight of Pregnancy! (LONG)

Ever since I found I was pregnant at the end of March I swore to myself I was going to blog. I attempted to at least twice a week since then. FAIL!  My blog stopped a week before I found out I was pregnant, haha. It truly shows my how all-consuming pregnancy can be! I used to read for leisure every night, but it's been all pregnancy and baby reading since March.

Today I am 31 weeks pregnant. If you're like me, I knew next to nothing about pregnancy durations but soon became an expert. You're pregnant for ~40 weeks. A full 9 months, which ends up making you think/feel it's 10. Anyway, so today I entered my 8th month of pregnancy. Completely surreal that my kiddo will be here in about 2 months. It's been long and quick all at the same time (that's what she said, HAHA!).

I've been completely lucky to have an easy pregnancy. In my first trimester I definitely felt more tired than I ever thought possible. I could remember so many days during the workday thinking I could easily pass out sitting at the computer. At first, I was determined to keep up with my gym schedule. Ha! The fatigue won that battle. Also during the first trimester, I experienced bouts of nausea from aversions to most food. It wasn't too bad and I never experienced any pregnancy-related vomiting. Quite honestly, I was a little bummed that so many women I know or hear about lose weight during their first trimester because of morning sickness. Of course I couldn't shed weight without working for it. I didn't gain any weight either. Another change I experienced in my first trimester was nipple change. Extreme sensitivity and change in appearance. Any breast size I lost during losing 45lbs, I gained back immediately. I also started experiencing insane headaches. At the end of my first trimester experienced Mother's Day in a different way. This was when I started a journal to Kit. I did genetic testing and found out the gender. Baby boy, Kenneth "Kit" Hugh, gave us "normal" genetic results (whatever that means...).

In my second trimester the fatigue was lifted. I was eager to up my twice a week workout to at least five days. Ha, my sciatic nerve had a different plan for me! That's when I started seeing a chiropractor weekly. It took a few visits for me to really see what a difference adjustments made! I see her every three weeks now. Somewhere between then and now I've also added the treat of prenatal massages, too. :) The chiropractor took away more than 95% of headaches, acid reflux I was starting to experience, most of my sciatic pain. And the BIGGEST difference I'm most impressed with is the fact that she seems to have fixed my knee injury from a year ago! I love her. Anyway! During the second trimester is when I definitely saw consequences of slacking on exercise and diet. My legs lost their tone and definition. I started to gain a little weight, but nothing extreme. The change in my legs though did (and still does) really bother me, but I noticed when I hit the gym I experience sciatic and hip pain. Also, my belly began to grow, but didn't "pop" so I felt like a whale at the gym. Not quite like the cute pregnant women I love seeing at the gym!  On July 3rd (18.5wks), lying on my tummy I felt his first kicks! It was absolutely THE most exciting moment in my entire 27 years of life. I may have gotten a little obsessed with squishing him by lying on my tummy to feel his kicks that day. Then on July 4th Bryce got to feel a couple kicks! From then on his kicks from the outside have just gotten stronger and more frequent. During my anatomy scan (had mine at 21 weeks), Bryce and I got to see Kit for a long time and swore he had my bone structure! But let's face it... he still looked like a weird, skeletal aquasaurus.

Third trimester, I've been feeling pretty good still. Just in the last week my acid reflux has come back, which Tums can kind of keep up with... I would say that's my only symptom complaint. My belly is getting bigger. Only a few weeks ago was the first time someone who didn't already know I was pregnant commented on my pregnancy. I can feel my core muscles trying to fight to keep from being stretched too much. It's strange! I experienced one day where I felt my pelvic bones feel like they were pulled apart. Also, two days ago I felt a day of hip discomfort. Luckily, overall I'm just slower and needing Tums. OH! And I have a lot more freckles on my face now! My next chiro appointment, I'll make it a point to address the acid reflux. So, speaking of acid reflux, I've learned of the wive's tale of having a hairy baby if you experience acid reflux... I had my 4D ultrasound and Kit has hair! The tech said it's not a lot of hair, but more than peach fuzz. There was one part of the video where she pointed out what was hair... Looked like a lot to me!!!! I had a ton of hair, so I can only expect he is born with dark hair like me! My biggest shock though was the uncanny resemblance my baby has to his daddy and all the males on his side!!!! I swooooore that he was going to look like me because of that anatomy scan. I'm excited that we got to see he has at least one dimple! I'm hoping for two dimples like ME! I just can't wait to see what he looks like. I'm sosososososo in love. I think seeing him in real-time and actually seeing what his flesh looks like made the surreal real. I'm pretty sure for three days straight the only thing I said to Bryce was, "my baby is so cute!!!!" Also, he flipped us the bird twice. Just thought I'd throw that in there. :)

I'm emotional! I think everything is so sweet and/or cry-worthy. I've been getting watery-eyed since my first trimester just seeing cute baby clothes, hearing certain things like "that's our son" (strangers), old people, EVERY TIME I hear Macklemore's "Same Love" when he says, "damn right I support it" (HAHA, my eyes are watering just typing that!)

I'm getting so close! I have two months left. I need to be patient in regards of the last things we need before Kit gets here. I can go crazy AFTER my baby shower. I've met my financial saving goals that I made for before I start maternity. I'm pretty proud of that. That includes his first 6 months of daycare, a head start on college savings for him, and a checkings account for him. I even have saved aside money for the big items that are a bit pricy on my registry so I don't have to freak out if I need to buy them myself. Another thing I need to be patient with is unwarranted advice and comments! It's like people lose filters when they know you're pregnant. "You'll see when you have your baby..." (no shit) "I don't know how you do it..." (do what?!) "You should(n't) do XYZ..." (I didn't ask). Continued rant... the rudest thing I experienced was from a person who was surprised to find out I was pregnant a month ago and made comments like, "oh wow, it's hard work" "I hope you know it's not easy" then asked me, "so who's the father?" Mind you this person only knows me through work and sees me every 6 weeks or so. I'm immediately thinking, "how would you know who the father is regardless of ANYTHING?" but I told her, "my boyfriend of almost 5 years" then she asked me if he was excited, I replied, "yes, and he's going to be a really good daddy" (which he IS, undoubtedly), SHE LAUGHS AT THAT and says, "you're so funny." I don't think I could have been more annoyed and offended. I just walked into my work's breakroom and ranted. HAHA clearly I'm not over it!!!! Whatever! OKAY!

His nursery is coming along! Just need a few more things to complete it. It's forest themed, which just happens to go with his name, Kit (baby fox!). I just love it. His room is connected to Bryce's study, which Milton hangs out in. So, that's the boys' area. My GIRL area is the rest of the home, haha. :)

Soooo... that's my update!

xox,
M

Turkey Burgers with Zucchini

Got this recipe from skinnytaste.com for turkey burgers with grated zucchini incorporated as a replacement for eggs AND adding some more veggies into your diet.

The recipe calls for:
1.25lbs 93% lean ground turkey
1/4 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
1 small grated zucchini
1 Tbsp grated red onion
1 clove grated garlic
salt
pepper
spray oil

This makes five patties. I wanted to double the recipe so I had enough for the week if Bryce wanted some or if I wanted to have one for dinner in addition to having one for lunch. I couldn't find whole wheat bread crumbs, so I settled on brown rice bread crumbs which had only 40kcals versus 100kcals PLUS.  Works for me!



Skinnytaste claims that this patty alone has 156kcals, 6.8g of fat, 18.6g of protein, 5.5g of carbohydrates. *MY* calculations were a bit different, considering the servings size of Jennie O 93/7 Turkey is 170kcals... it just didn't add up right. But, whatever! So my calories ended up coming slightly under 200kcals and with 22g of protein.

Next time I think I'll be adding in more garlic for an extra bit of flavor. But these are pretty delicious! The zucchini helps keep these patties incredibly moist. I'm a fan! I've had a patty for yesterday's lunch, dinner and today's lunch. So far not sick of them. I'm also going to try a spinach version too.

Enjoy!

Xx,
M

Hypoxi

This may get long... (that's what he said!)

Where to begin? Let's start with the lessons (trying not to sound extremely negative and call them huge, fat regrets!)...(this got so long it just turned into a Hypoxi blog)

Hypoxi Training-  a few weeks ago I went for a consultation session of Hypoxi training after doing a little research (there was very little scientific research available) since a co-worker was seeing results in weight loss. Essentially, the claim is you can target fat loss in certain areas. I wanted to lose stomach fat. You wear a scuba-like suit that uses vacuum technology while you keep your heart rate at what seems like an aerobic level for 30 minutes on a treadmill. You cannot eat 2 hours before your session, nor 2 hours after. After the post-2 hours you can have protein only and then 4 hours after that you can eat as normal. The big kicker, you cannot do any other exercise on the same day (if you really, really want to, you can 6 hours after Hypoxi). Despite logically and intellectually knowing better, I handed over my card and set up my appointments.

Back to my consultation, I voiced my concerns about cutting my workouts back so significantly and still seeing results that others see. Didn't make sense to me. She convinced me that since I had been in a 'plateau' that this would be perfect and to just give her ONE week where I didn't go to the gym on the days I did Hypoxi. You do a minimum of 3 sessions a week. And a maximum of 4 sessions, "because you need to let your body rest." I did scheduled for 4 appointments a week. I wanted maximum results! I was excited to try this out. She kept reassuring me not to worry, and that I'd have results.

My initial thoughts after the workout, the physical workout is nothing. The only reason I sweated was due to the fact that I was vacuum-sucked into that hot suit, in a small room with the weakest fan blowing. The vacuum sensations on the stomach was interesting. But the suit really did irritate my skin around my arm pits, but later I found out that was just due to her not carefully suiting me up. The sensation of being taken out of the suit is really nice. It feels like your body can finally breathe and move freely. I feel like I felt lighter since the suit can be really restrictive. I could only imagine that it has a similar effect on your mental being, too.

My second session, I got my measurements done. Four measurements just from the tummy area. They also weighed. Their scale is off by exactly 1 pound, too! Haha. This session I had a different girl working with me, and she put me in the suit properly so I didn't have the irritation on my upper arms. That was nice.

On my third session, I was downgraded to a smaller suit since she had noticed that the suit seemed to be big on me. That session definitely felt like, "wow, THIS is what it's supposed to feel like?!" the vacuum sensation was a lot stronger, so I was feeling pretty good about this whole Hypoxi thing.

Fourth, whatever. Nothing exciting.

On my days off I am going to the gym and doing my normal work outs. And I seriously looked so forward to my gym days. I looked forward to the feeling of sweat and accomplishment! I also looked forward to not having some ridiculous diet where I can't eat for 4.5 hours!

Weeks 2 begins. Monday the girl wants to weigh me to see my progress. I GAINED 4/10ths of a pound. Nice. Really nice. That could have been attributed to water retention from crawfish. Whatever, not a huge deal to me...

Seventh session, the girl wants to check my measurements. So, I join her in the private room, and pull up my dress and she starts measuring. I'm hearing a lot of, "hmmm... " "umm... I'm getting 'off numbers'" "hmm.. I'm going to have so-and-so measure you since she measured you the first time..." "I can't figure out where she did her measurements" I asked what she meant by, "off numbers" and she admitted the numbers were bigger. I was pissed. My torso is only so long... how can you not figure out where she did the four measurements? She tried to smooth it over with, "don't be like that... think positive... don't worry..." my instant reply was, "this is a very expensive thing to 'not worry' if I'm not getting results." Her: "you will! you'll get one more session in before your measurements tomorrow!" I don't know why she was saying it as if it were a positive thing. I had to bite my tongue to prevent myself from saying how it makes little to no sense as to why I would be excited that I get an extra session in before my measurements, because if this worked then they should be eager to get my measurements with minimal sessions, right? Ugh. I got suited up then did my 30 minutes on the treadmill. This workout was insanely horrible, my heart rate could barely get to where it needed to be and my legs (especially in my right leg) felt so stiff. I really feel my pissed off mood took its toll on me.

Eighth session. The girl who did my measurements suited me up and had me do my workout, shower and THEN I did my measurements. So, I'll do the math for you, I got 8 sessions before I got my progress measurements taken, when people normally get them after 6 sessions. So, the measurements are done in centimeters and the girl is making comments like, "ahhh..." "good..." "looks good..." so I'm elated. Once she's finished, she breaks down what the average results are for progress, two sessions ago. I essentially only lost HALF of what they normally see. I am pissed again. She tells me she's going to downgrade me to a different machine that targets legs, butt and stomach. So you see lesser results, but she wants to "jump-start my metabolism"................. I, by then, am getting a bit defensive, but trying to be as nice as possible. I mentioned that originally I was told that the fact that I was extremely active before and lessening that would NOT mean that I would run into a problem with seeing results. She says, "we don't mean to stop your outside workouts completely, only on days of Hypoxi" I told her I was continuing to workout on the non-Hypoxi days... Then she asked me what exactly I do at the gym. I told her the things I do. She suggests what I should do for the next 2 weeks, in conjunction with Hypoxi. She didn't want me to build muscle "because it reflects differently on the scale." First, my biggest concern isn't the scale. Hypoxi claims inches lost, not necessarily big weight loss. Second, you need muscle to burn fat. Increase of muscle results in increase of fat loss. Whatever, I didn't argue with her. But then she proceeds to tell me how I've been OVERDOING it in the gym. I call BULLSHIT. I'm not down 47lbs by doing the wrong thing. So, before I leave, I ask her what my actual measurement loss is... 1.8inches. After two weeks.. Not even 2 inches. Again, that's FOUR measurements on the stomach. She mentions "in the second month..." second month? Hell no! I told her there was no way I was going to do a second month. She replied with, "well I guess if you can't afford it... but if you can, you need to" EFF THAT. One positive, I was down 1lb. Haha. One pound in two weeks. What a joke, but hey it's a loss.

So the weekend came, and I was just so angry at myself for falling for such a bullshit thing. I kept thinking about all the reviews I had read, all the people I had seen in the Hypoxi studio (obese and old people)... The reviews were a lot of "just had a baby" women or women who were just starting to work out. Of course they saw results. Now I know why they originally started the Hypoxi studio in Sugarland. Anyway, with my fuck all attitude, I did not track my food at all. I drank beer. I literally rode my ass to the gym the last hour that it was open, since I didn't want to work out with my crappy mood. I gained and retained, massively. 4 pounds gained from Friday to Monday.

Monday morning, I cancelled my Hypoxi appointment. I was still so pissed, I wanted to have a real workout. That evening, I had a major motivational 6 mile walk with my friend Sara, where I felt like I made this horrible decision and flushed my money down the drain, but I can be the only one to pull myself back up... Six miles of walking at Memorial, she really helped me gather my sanity back, haha. I had perspective again.

Tuesday, I got advice from co-workers as to what I should do about my last two weeks of Hypoxi. I decided I'm going to work out no matter what. So, it was a matter of will I do a warm up at Hypoxi then go to the gym? Why waste my time? One co-worker suggested I should just go and express all my feelings about it and see what they have to offer, if anything. I went, neither the owner/manager or the other girl was there... It was the owner's mother filling in. Ha. So, I told her I wanted to cancel my appointments since I felt it wasn't working. She said she'd have the owner/manager call me. It's Sunday evening, still haven't heard from her.

I think Hypoxi works for those who don't have a consistent exercise regimen nor eat well. I also think Hypoxi's results are closely related to water loss.

Since Monday night, I am down a solid 6lbs. Not bad! I definitely used this big, expensive lesson this week. I ate great. I spent as much time working out as my body and mental spirit felt like! I saw the results. One HUGE thing I saw this past week though, my endurance has easily been cut in half! I noticed I didn't have the strength or maybe even muscle memory (just a guess) just after two weeks of cutting my normal work outs so drastically. SO! Going to get back to where I was and keep trudging on...

Xx,
M

See by Chloe

See by Chloe ($78 at Sephora)is my new favorite perfume! I'm not normally big into perfumes since I typically get headaches from strong perfumes, but I'm big into this perfume! It's number one at Sephora right now, too. It's extremely light, fruity, sweet and girly. For perfumes I tend to lean toward sweet, vanilla scents. This particular scent just lifts my spirits. I was initially surprised that I was gaga over a perfume that's main note seems to be apple.  Back on the light factor, I honestly feel like you cannot overdo this. Spray 20 spritzes and you won't smell like a street-walker.

I think the biggest setback for me is that it doesn't have the lasting power I wish it did. I don't like to reapply during the day. Since I like the scent so much I may consider buying a smaller size to carry in my purse, IF/when they come out with a roller ball or something.

Xx,
M

Crap, it's been 5 months!

Excuse my French... but FUUUUUUCKKK! In the past FOUR months I've gone from -38lbs to -45lbs.

I know that is still good. But still. Four months... 7lbs. My biggest setback was injuring my knee (in heels at work, ugh!) in September, thinking it was just a minor thing, I kept working out on it, making any kind of intense cardio unbearable. In November I started physical therapy on my knee. It's a ton better now, but not quite where it needs to be to do what I want to do.

I went on two little trips during that time, not to mention birthday celebrations. A whole lot of excuses for not tracking every morsel of food into MyFitnessPal app. I don't even know how I've let January slip past me. My scale is broken, but I know how I feel when I'm losing weight. I don't feel that way. When I start feeling that way again, I'll bother messing with the scale, ha. In any case, I know I need to go back to being incredibly anal about my intake and logging everything on MyFitnessPal. It's what works for me. And the lack of understanding of intake is where I see so many people fail when they have the exercise component down. I have exercise down.

In January I did Chalene Johnson's 30-Day PUSH Challenge. I set 10 goals, and a sub-goal (quarter goal aka by April 30th) be down ANOTHER 40lbs. Ha. I just KNOW I lost January, so I have to go back to what I know works for me. Even though I can't go as hard in the gym, I've been going for longer durations.

Three months... I can do it! I promise, my next bloggy blog will not be about health.

xox
M

September, September!

Hello, hello!

Happy Labor Day out there to everyone... September is going to be a big month for me! I have been inspired by Shay Carl to set a few goals to accomplish in the month of September. I am pumped! I've gotten Bryce to join me in this, too. I also got a couple co-workers to set some goals, too. October 6th is my 27th birthday!!!! I'd like to feel like I used my last month of being 26 in a positive way. Here go my 3 goals:

(a few places I posted my goals)

1) Be down 45lbs! At this very moment I am down 33lbs. That means I am upping my past goals of losing 10lbs in a month to 12lbs. In order to reach this goal I've set some sub-goals, which is written on my calendar. 

      -NO CHEAT MEALS!!!! Just day 3, this one has been a temptation! I have considered breaking this rule every day, ha. So far, I'm holding strong. It's just not worth it!!!!

      -Drink more water. I tend to slack on this at times.

      -Drink my Shakeology once a day.

      -Workout 6 days a week and push myself without breaking myself.

2) No buying beauty products! I have a horrible habit of wasting $$$ on beauty products. 

      -Avoid e-window shopping

      -Don't go into a retailer unless I need something specific.

      -When grocery shopping, avoid the cosmetics area.

      -Put extra money into savings so I'm not tempted to spend it.

3) Finish 3 books! For a little bit there I slacked in feeding my brain and imagination with reading. It took me quite a long time to finish Middlesex even though I loved the book. I don't know why I was doing that. I used to read a book every week... My three books are The Kill Order (20% done already), Clean and 50 Shades of Grey.

      -Bring book in bubblebath, instead of being glued to my iphone.

      -Bring Kindle to the gym some times.

      -Use reading as a winding down tool in bed before sleep.

      -When bored, pick up one of the books instead of going for NetFlix, YouTube, etc...

I hope some other people would like to set achievable goals for the month of September! 27... here I come!!!!

xoxxx,

M

Health Journey: Month Four

Hello, hello! I'm updating from a hot, epsom salt-filled bath due to the fact my right knee is acting up again! I was having issues with it during my first month, too. I hope it's just a tiny hiccup because I don't want to slow down! ;)

I've noticed a pattern with my weightloss. Two weeks struggle with losing anything, then two weeks I shed. I'm not complaining, but I need to remind myself when I'm frustrated feeling like "it's not working." It is! So last month I said I was hoping to lose another 10lbs (making a total of 31) in a month, but that didn't happen. I also set out what I thought was an achievable goal at total loss of 29lbs. TWENTY-EIGHT! One pound! Boo.

I'm actually FINE with it. Normally, I'd be beating myself up, but I'm proud at the loss so far. I am really getting to a point where I'm reading my body better. Which is why I can tell I've been retaining water. I've made it a new "goal" to pay closer attention to my sodium intake to avoid holding onto water weight. It's all good. :)

My eating has been pretty on-point, but in the past two weeks I've been struggling with funky sleeping (lack of) and not feeling like spending hour upon hour at the gym. I guess I've been going through cycles! Today, a start of a brand new two weeks, I'm planning on putting in extra gym time. Last week I put in about seven, this week I'm aiming for ten.

Ah, back to the 8lbs lost... My trainer said all of that loss was fat and not muscle! Woohoo! In the past I've lost lean muscle here and there. I'm also down 16".

Even though the scale measures my accomplishments, right now I'm focused on BACKFAT! Ha. I am hoping to not see a hunk of fat back there soon! Soon... Or in the next few months. ;P

I have two sessions left with my trainer. I won't be continuing with her for the time being since it's costly, I feel like I've learned invaluable things from her, and I have a good support system which also helps with accountability.

Anywho! I'm feeling good, feeling proud, clothes are fitting better and still feel determined.

Switching to shower-mode!

Xx,
M