Days 50-56: 8 Weeks Down! Phase 2 Complete!

We have officially completed 8 weeks of the Jaime Eason Live Fit program!  The past four weeks really challenged us.  I don't feel as though we gave 100% and even though we have seen results, we probably would have seen better had we pushed ourselves harder.

Sarah's Progress:
Weight at Start - 131
Weight After Phase One - 127.2
Weight Now - 124.4

I have had a lot of fun pulling out old clothes and wearing things I honestly thought I'd never fit in to again!  It's a great feeling to pack away my larger clothes.  My hope is to only have to pull them out if we decide to have another baby. :)  

I can tell that others are noticing a difference and have been surprised at how many people have said something about my skin looking better.  I knew healthy eating was linked to better looking skin but it didn't cross my mind as something I should expect out of this lifestyle change!

Here are my progress photos from when I started the program to today.

 

 

 

Jason's Progress:
Weight at Start - 183
Weight After Phase One - 173
Weight Now - 171

Jason can of course just look at a gym and gain muscle.  BLAH!!

Here are Jason's progress photos from when he started the program to today (sorry couldn't get his last photos to line up).

 

 

 

 

Eating Clean:
During Phase Two we only had one cheat of frozen yogurt on Father's Day.  Most days I didn't count my calories like they tell you to do.  My issue certainly was never going over my allotted calories, but more than likely I didn't do a good job eating as many as I was supposed to.

Weight Lifting/Cardio:
During phase two we were able to add cardio back into our routine.  I was pretty happy to get back on the elliptical!  It has also been exciting to see how much more weight I've been able to lift.

Moving Forward:
Overall I feel like we really should have given more to Phase Two.  There were a few days we weren't able to work out and even though we ate clean (except for our one cheat) I worry that I didn't eat enough calories on some days.  In week 10 we will be starting carb cycling and I think this is going to take a lot of thought and preparation.  If we only give the same amount of effort we gave in Phase Two then we will not see the best results possible.


This week I am doing a post with several recipes that we've made.  If you're interested in trying something new they are certainly worth it!

Days 43-49: What I've Learned

This week we were back on track with our eating and workouts. It felt good to get back in the rhythm of things! We just completed week 7 so we are down to only 5 more weeks of the Jamie Eason LiveFit program! Jason and I have had several people say that they wish they could do something like this and my answer to them is always the same, "Of course you can!" There are a few things I have learned in the past 7 weeks that have truly been live savers so I thought I'd share them today.

1.Do your research and plan a head: It isn't smart to jump into something without having some sort of idea as to what you're getting in to. When I decided to start this program I sat down and explored everything posted on the website so that I knew which resources were available, what types of workouts I'd be doing and what foods I was expected to eat. I printed out the approved food list and the weekly the nutrition plans and even now I carry those printouts with me everywhere I go. The LiveFit pages on BodyBuilding.com are of course my main source of information, but there are a few other great sites I've come across that I've gotten a lot of good ideas from:

oThe Gracious Pantry - This blog has so many amazing clean eating recipes! The person who writes this blog likes to take every day foods that we all enjoy and figure out a way to make them clean so that those who want to eat healthy can STILL enjoy them!

oCleanEatingMag.com- Has some quick and easy recipes and even a few budget recipes. Might not even be a bad idea to subscribe to the magazine.

oGreen Plate Rule- Another great blog that has recipes, shopping lists, and they even talk about meal prep, which is extremely important for staying on track.

Meal prep will make your life 90% easier!  I usually go grocery shopping on Sunday afternoon (see my grocery list method here) and on Sunday evening we cook enough to at least get us through the middle of the week.  I bought 10 containers that I could easily portion our daily meals in to. I measure out my meats and carbs and then fill the rest of the container with veggies. Doing this saves so much time and I don’t even have to think about what to eat because it is all ready to go! This has really helped to keep us on track because when you have too much time to think about what you want to eat, you may think until you’re so hungry that you decide to give up and have a burger!

2.Find a support system: I am so lucky to have my husband going through this program with me along with another friend at work.  It really helps to have someone to talk to and bounce ideas off of.  We can learn from each other’s experiences.  Not everyone is going to decide to go through a lifestyle change like this at the same time as someone they know and I hope that won’t discourage them from doing it anyways.  I honestly can say that I have found the most encouragement on Instagram. There are so many people out there doing the same thing as you!  You can find recipes, encouraging words and so many success stories!  I love seeing people succeed in bettering themselves physically.  It is so encouraging and helps me to see that ANYTHING is possible!

3.Don’t be afraid to try something new: I don’t have a lot of past experience lifting weights.  When we started the program I will admit that I was a little uncomfortable in the gym doing things I have never done before.  I felt self-conscious when the person beside me was lifting more or when I couldn’t even do 5 girl pushups.  I had to resolve that if I wanted to move forward I was going to have to start somewhere. I just let that fear melt away and decided that no matter how uncomfortable I felt, I was going to do every workout the plan called for.

I am also not a very good cook.  I haven’t spent much time in the kitchen so trying to throw together a bunch of clean meals is completely outside of my comfort zone.  So truthfully, I still don’t do much of the cooking.  Jason is just WAY better at it! But when push comes to shove I will get my butt in the kitchen and throw something edible together. I have experimented with a few different recipes and have found that it can be kind of fun!

4.“Can’t” is a bad word: In Jason’s family the kids grew up being told that “can’t” is a bad word.  They were not allowed to say that they couldn’t do something; they had to at least try.  I love this and I think it is important to incorporate this in to your everyday life.  Think of all of the amazing things we could accomplish if we all lived by this philosophy!

There is no faster way to spiral downwards than to start telling yourself that you can’t do something.  I have had several people tell me they would like to change their eating habits, but they just can’t give up the foods they have grown so accustomed to eating; but how many of them have actually tried?  I thought I couldn’t give up all of the fatty foods I was eating every day, until I decided that I could.  That is seriously all it took.  I just decided to change my mind set and here I am!

5.Stick with the plan: If you make a to-do list, do you tend to stay on track with the tasks you hope to accomplish?  More than likely you do, and that’s because you have a plan!  If you stray from the list or never reference it, how easy is it to accomplish everything you set out to do?  Not impossible, but you’re probably doing it the hard way.  If you start a plan, my advice is to make up your mind to be extremely strict and to stick with the plan completely, and this is probably most critical when you are first starting out.  In my case, I knew that if I let myself have the occasional cheat food I would probably start a pattern of occasionally cheating all of the time.  Same with the working out; if I skipped one workout I knew I’d be more tempted to skip another.
 
Now I haven’t been perfect, but in the first 6 weeks of the program I remained strong and decided not to veer whatsoever. I had my first cheat food of frozen yogurt on Father’s Day and then I just pushed it out of my mind and re-focused on my clean eating so that I didn’t let future cravings pop up.  Had I let myself indulge in a little frozen yogurt when we first began, I am certain I would have tried to justify doing it again and again.

The last 7 weeks have been tough, but by doing the things above we have done a great job of staying on track to accomplish our goals.  Can you do it?  Of course you can!

I will leave you with a photo of an amazing meal Jason cooked last week! I am working on getting the recipe from him so I will post it this week! For now your mouth can water thinking about it! :)

Days 38-42: Loss of Momentum

As I mentioned in my last blog, Jason was away for most of last week on a business trip and with him gone I found it difficult to juggle everything that needed to be done. This is the most I have struggled since we began the program because it seemed like there was so much to do and not enough time or energy.  The momentum we had going definitely took a hit!

Even though I pushed myself to go to the gym on Tuesday, when Wednesday came around I found myself so busy with work that I didn't pull myself away long enough to get to the gym.  After work there was so much to do to help run the dojang and get ready for the next day that I didn't get a chance to work out.  On Thursday I had a work event I had to attend during lunch and to be honest I was just so tired after work and still had to get ready for the next day so I missed my 2nd day of working out.

Friday went better and I finally made it to the gym!  Had a really good arms/abs workout and that evening I did line drills at the dojang for my cardio.  Felt much better to get back on track.  We were out of town yesterday so I took my rest day and will be doing cardio/shoulders this evening when we get home.

Eating pretty much went the same way and I feel like I really fell short.  I was so intent on not eating anything that wasn't clean but I also didn't feel like eating what I had prepared.  The only solution in my head was to just skip some of my meals.  Obviously this was not the right thing to do and I'm sure my metabolism suffered.

I knew we would be traveling on Saturday so I decided to pick up some Questbars to keep on hand for our snack.  I kept reading various Instagram and blog posts with clean eaters/body builders eating these and using them for various recipes so I had been looking forward to trying them.  Wow!  I mean seriously WOW!  They are so incredibly good!  We tried the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Peanut Butter Supreme and the Chocolate Peanut Butter.  These are something I would definitely have to have in moderation!

 

I also have to admit that I CHEATED for the first time on my food.  For Father's Day we took my dad to a few different places around town.  We prepared a homemade clean lunch, watched Aria feed the ducks at the park, took him to Barnes & Noble to pick out a book and we finished by taking him for frozen yogurt at Spoons.  I will say it was a choice and not a moment of weakness.  I decided that I would join the family and had a very small serving of non-fat, no sugar added, chocolate frozen yogurt.  Don't be fooled by the non-fat and no sugar added part.  I checked the ingredients and there is nothing clean about what I ate. But I will say that it had only 6 grams of sugar compared to the 18 grams of sugar in other choices. I topped it with strawberries and almonds which isn't bad considering in the past it would have been Butterfinger and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

 

 



I honestly don't regret my cheat, but I will say that I don't feel I've earned it, especially not this week.  Even though I don't really consider this a step backwards it is safe to say that I did not make any progress this week in my weight loss/body building endeavors.  All I can do is move forward and work even harder for the next two weeks so that when we take our pictures at the end of Phase 2 I can show that even a short loss in momentum can be recovered from.

I ordered a jumper and a dress from an online sale held by the girls of How Two Live (love them!  check out their blog!) and they came in a few days ago.  I was so eager to wear my new clothes and am really encouraged by my progress when I look at the pictures of me in them!

 

Its things like this that really keep me going and motivated to continue to strive for a better me!  So here's to a brand new week!  And in case you were wondering Jason had a great Father's Day!  Aria and I ordered him some Brother Thomas coffee from Melbourne, Australia.  We have an amazingly talented friend who roasts his own coffee beans.  We can't wait to give it a try!  Aria and I love this amazing man so much and are so thankful to have him in our lives!  Happy Fathers Day to all!

Days 32-37: Whirlwind

The past 6 days have been a complete whirlwind!  I'm glad to say that I ended the week on a higher note than it began.  Now that we are working out 6 days a week, we've had to alter out workout schedule so that we do workouts where machines are not needed on Saturday.  Our gym at work is not open on the weekends so we've had to improvise a bit. 

We went to Houston on Friday night to take our dojang to spar with another dojang.  We stayed the night with my aunt and uncle so on Saturday I wanted to take advantage of being in a bigger city with better health food options.  Our first stop was to have lunch at Whole Foods.  I have only been to a Whole Foods maybe once or twice and I had heard about their great food.  Let's just say I was in Heaven!!  They had so many choices with ingredients listed so I could tell exactly what was okay for me to eat.

Next we went to a place called My Fit Foods.  They have pre-assembled healthy meal options for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack time.  I had heard good things so I thought I'd drop in to check it out!  I knew Jason and I would not be in the mood to cook when we got home so I picked up a few things for us to eat.  I will say that I couldn't eat here on a daily basis because it is not cheap, but if you need a healthy meal fast or would like to go out to eat this place is a really good option!  I forgot to take pictures of what we ate so I don't have anything to show for it.

When we got home on Saturday I was supposed to do Shoulders and Cardio, but I was just too exhausted.  I decided to make Saturday my rest day and instead did my work out on Sunday.

On Monday I officially kicked of the week with legs.  I wore my larger pants to work and decided it was truly time to retire them.  They began to feel uncomfortable because they were sagging way too much! 

Jason left on a business trip very early this morning and Aria had a hard time sleeping so my day did not start out the easiest.  I found that I was tired and just not interested in working out today.  Without Jason here to hold me accountable I truly thought about skipping going to the gym.  But I made myself go anyways and I was really glad that I did!

This is how I felt before and then after my workout:

I'm looking forward to Jason getting home so that things can get back to normal (whatever that is)!

Days 29-31: Drop the Attitude

Going into the week I knew we would face a lot of new challenges as we begin Phase 2 of Jamie Eason's LiveFit program.  I tried to prepare myself mentally but I seem to be struggling a bit. 

I have been extremely anxious this week because we started our 18 month old at a brand new daycare that I'm not yet 100% comfortable with.  I realize this doesn't seem like a big deal to some, but the new school does things very differently than our old school and the lines of communication are not yet well established.  I am glad that I was able to recognize this as an outside stressor, but it definitely had an effect on my attitude in the gym.

On Monday I stayed home with Aria so I had to go to the gym by myself to do my back workout after Jason got off of work.  I don't mind going to the gym alone, but the first exercise on the list was a wide grip overhand pull-up.  I physically do not yet have the strength to do a pull-up so I felt a bit frustrated that Jason was not there to help and encourage me.

On Tuesday, Aria's first day of school, I was overly negative in the gym for chest/abs.  We had several new exercises to do and I got extremely discourage that I "couldn't" do them.  When we went to do the side-to-side pushups I commented that it was "too hard" and "stupid".  For the knee/hip raise on parallel bars I whined that it was "too hard" to lift my hips up.  The toe touches of course were also "too hard".  I did them but I complained the entire time.  I think I would have felt better about the gym visit if I would have dropped the attitude and tried to give it my all even if only to do one perfect rep.  I decided it was time to press the reset button.

Today I made the decision to lighten the mood a bit (despite still feeling stressed) and give a better effort for leg day.  Jason really pushed me hard and I think it was probably the best workout I've had in a long time!  I upped my weights and sometimes Jason would make me up them even more because he new I could handle more.  Below I was doing the leg press and started at 180lbs.  After Jason completed his set I sat back down to do mine and when I finished I noticed he had set it to 200lbs without telling me.  I was surprised that I was actually able to do it!

I felt my confidence level come back today all because I changed my attitude and I even tried to end the workout with a little fun with the hubby!  On our list today was donkey calf raises.  You have to get a partner to pretty much jump on your back to do the calf raises.  I had no intention of letting Jason, or anyone else for that matter, jump on my back but I was happy to jump on his back.  I kept slipping off (probably due to trying to get the perfect photo) so Jason was not overly happy with me.  But I got my picture!!

 



 

 

Days 23-28: Four Weeks Down - Phase 1 Complete!

As Phase 1 comes to an end I can hardly believe that we've been doing this for 4 weeks.  It feels like this is just what we've always done!  Here is a little summary of the last 4 weeks to show the differences we've seen from when we first started.

Sarah's Progress:
Weight at Start - 131
Weight Now - 127.2

When we started I was comfortably wearing a size 8/9 in pants/skirts.  I found that my pants were really starting to sag so this past week I decided to take a chance by trying on some of my pre-pregnancy clothes.  I couldn't believe it when I was able to fit in size 5 pants, 2 of my old suits, size 6 shorts and a pair of old jeans!

 

 

Here are some progress photos!  I can really tell that my waist is getting smaller

 

 

 

 

Jason's Progress:
Weight at Start - 183
Weight Now - 173

Jason also had problems with his pants sagging - big time!  He bought more jeans and then lost more weight, so they now sag too!  His body is of course responding faster than mine and he looks great!

 

 

 

Eating Clean:
I have really enjoyed coming up with new things to eat.  I am so proud to say that I did not cheat even once on clean eating.  I did "cheat" a few times with clean desserts but it was so great to know that splurging on a clean treat isn't really cheating!  I really limited how many times we took in desserts though because even if it is clean, in my option it defeats the purpose if you overindulge.  But having a few clean sweets really helped to keep me away from the things I shouldn't have. 

One night we made protien cookie dough bites found on Sarah Evans' Facebook page. And of course there was my Mother's Day gift - clean chocolate covered strawberries!  As a celebration treat for completing 4 weeks of the program we made this Cookie Dough Greek Yogurt which wasn't too bad!  Jason found it on Pintrest and I tweaked the recipe a bit.  We split the recipe below and actually couldn't finish the entire thing.

1 cup plain Greek yogurt (recipe called for vanilla Greek yogurt, but we only had plain on hand)
3 tablespoons of natural peanut butter
1 tablespoon of Stevia (I used a little less)
2 tablespoons of dark chocolate chips, chopped
1/8 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon of almond extract (recipe called for 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla instead of almond extract but we ran out)

I went grocery shopping today and because we are really trying to prepare for the coming week my basket was full!  It is so crazy to look in my shopping cart and not see even one piece of junk food (by the way there are paper towels below the food so my cart wasn't as full as it looks below).

Weight Lifting:
I was pretty nervous about weight lifting.  Everywhere I looked there were pictures of body builders who looked great, but don't really have the body I'm hoping to gain.  I looked at the term body building as a negative thing at first, but when I really considered it, isn't that exactly what we are doing?  Trying to build the body we want?  Once I looked at it like that I had no issues with admitting to body building!

I really pushed myself to do things I have never done before because I thought they were too hard.  Barbell squats, pushups, and walking lunges never would have made it into my workout routine 5 weeks ago.  I look forward to going to the gym to see how much more I can push myself today than I did yesterday.  And it doesn't hurt that I have a great workout partner who always tries to make it fun!

Moving Forward:
I am so incredibly encouraged by the results we've seen so far and I can't wait to see what's in store!  The start of Phase 2 is going to be extremely challenging.  We are adding 30 mins of cardio into our workout several days a week and being that we do weights during our lunch break, we will now have to do cardio at a different time in the day. 

Also, instead of eating lunch at lunch time and dinner at dinner time, our "dinner" like meals now have to be eaten as our mid-afternoon snack which means we have to take 2 full meals with us to work each day.  This will mean that we will have to do a lot of food prep so that we have easy to grab meals ready to go at all times.  This works out well for Jason because it was always so hard for him to eat before leaving for the dojang to teach taekwondo each night.  I think it will work out well for me because I won't have to do as much multitasking each night in order to juggle Aria and cooking dinner.  As you can see I've already started portioning out exactly what we will need so that we can grab it and go!

So here we go with Phase 2.  We will need lots of prayers and lots of patience but I can't wait to see the results!