Dealing with obstacles and setbacks (a story of adrenal fatigue)

Dealing with obstacles and setbacks (a story of adrenal fatigue)

 

adrenal fatigue

Before the drama began – loving life

Well this has been a long time coming.  I’ve been meaning to sit down and put all of what’s been happening with me for the last year, since my transformation story, on paper.  So much has transpired I’m trying to decide exactly where I should begin.

Ok, I’ll start from July of last year, I went to Jamaica to celebrate my bff’s 40th and had an absolute blast!  I was at the tail end of my metabolic reset, in which, I had only gained four pounds.  I totally enjoyed all the fine delicacies and didn’t count a thing.  I was on vacation, loving every minute of it and I vowed I would never ever ever diet on vacation again.  I know I ate a surplus some days, the food was amazing and I was determined to try everything.  I got back and had gained all of ZERO pounds.  WHAT????  So back to Cathe STS Meso 3 and over the rest of the summer I was lifting heavy and eating at cut.

adrenal fatigue

Nov. 2012 – Back to post baby weight & devastated

I noticed the end of September, my weight started creeping up slowly.  Since I was lifting heavy and eating right, I tried not to become concerned.  Well, my son transitioned to wearing a pump to manage his diabetes, and I didn’t have one full nights sleep for over three weeks.  I had to get up every three hours to check his blood sugar.  You talk about exhausted… 9pm, 12am, 3am, 6am every single night.  By the top of November I had an extra 20lbs and I couldn’t believe how I’d gone from toned and svelte to thick and fatty.  I just knew it had to be my thyroid, and though my numbers looked fine, I decided to switch from synthetic to a natural thyroid replacement pill.  My numbers plummeted and though in cut mode the weight didn’t budge.  I was back to my after baby weight and all the muscles I was so proud of, seemed to disappear into oblivion.  You talk about devastated…

I felt everything people would write me about…frustrated, scared, anxious, and obsessed with that scale.  I couldn’t understand how I went from nicely toned with just a wee bit of fat to shed, to a thick girl with layers of adipose tissue that seemed here stay!  During the next few months the doctor and I worked on getting my thyroid level right.  Though the temptation was there to slash calories drastically, I absolutely refused.  I ate at a small deficit 10-15% and took off an extra 200 to account for the low thyroid.  Lifting and cutting and still nothing moved much.  Well the cutting business, wore on my nerves, so back to TDEE I went.  I figured if I wasn’t losing or gaining at cut or TDEE then why not enjoy my food???

adrenal fatigue

Fat starting to come off – noticing muscle gains (20lbs heavier)

So, I believe it was March or April, I’m still looking for answers since my thyroid numbers were now level.  Goodness, though I’d shed a few pounds, I was stuck at 170lbishhhhhhh.  During my hunt for some type of viable explanation, I found a Sweaty Betties vid, on adrenal fatigue.  Things started to make sense.  Severe stress, lack of sleep, growing older can all contribute to causing adrenal fatigue.  Lord knows I was sleep deprived, and the start of the gain was when I was getting up all through the night….ahhhhh haaaaaaaa!  Light bulb blew up…lol… I mean for weeks no sleep and I was absolutely stressed in general with family issues, plus the strain of my full time job and my 2nd job that I love, EM2WL.  Well, I read and watched more vids and started the supplementation suggested, but, I was still having sleeping issues.  I found that my free T3 was a bit too high so we backed down on the thyroid med a little bit.

Ok, so now I’m sleeping ok, thyroid numbers are good, I’m lifting heavy, I invested in the Body Media Fit (boy did I underestimate my numbers, but that’s for another blog, in time…lol), eating at small cut, starting to see some fat loss but still stuck in my big clothes.  So, I decided to take some pictures and bam, I see some muscular maturity…more dense muscle than when I was at 154lbs. Yes still almost 20lbs heavier but I could see that all the gain wasn’t just lumpy fat, but that there was some nice growth that transpired unbeknownst to me.  I got excited and then the brain starts saying over and over…”now it’s time to shed all the excess fat so you can start wearing some of your smaller stuff…aren’t you sick of wearing the same three jeans?”  Oh my gosh, I then became obsessed about the numbers…YES!!!  Exactly what I type a few times a day to others, NOT to do!

adrenal fatigue

More mature muscle and v-taper development

After whining to the Kikster one day, I realized, I was causing myself unnecessary stress and I said that is it!  No more scale…No more logging… and NEW CLOTHES BABY!  Oh yes, the sausage queen went into retirement.  I hit the outlets and bought nice fitting jeans.  Matter of fact, I went all out and bought tops too, even though my top size didn’t change, hey, I went for the gusto.  Feeling good again because a sausage I was not any longer…lol.  My plan was to weigh in after a month, but now way over a month later, I have no desire to step on the scale.  Listen, during my no scale or logging time..whew, I haven’t been stressed about a single number.  And logging for over a year has taught me how to hit numbers,macros, blah blah.  So no sweat there either.

adrenal fatigue

lost 1/2 inch in waist…I’ll take it

What’s been happening since?  All the jeans I bought are looser…tehehe.  The ones I’m wearing today were a bit snug when I bought it.  I could hear Kiki’s voice saying, ” Now the purpose of your shopping trip is to “desausage”…why are you going to buy those sausage makers?”  LOL.  I know I should have left them right there, but they were on too good of a sale.  Oh so glad to report they fit smashingly today.  Also, the break from all the tracking has allowed me to shift my focus to physical goals.  I’ve always wanted to dead lift and squat my weight.  My lift sessions have gone to another level.  Not worrying about all the tracking keeps me nice and mellow.  I also decided to stop dwelling and focusing on the negatives…I wish I looked like this, look at that lump, why can’t I see a striation here or there yet…blah, blah, and negative blah.  Now, I congratulate myself on new feats tackled and I point out the positive changes I see in my friend, the mirror.

Ok, ok, ok, so I can’t tell you I’ve lost x,y, or z, BUT, I can tell you I’ve lost a half inch off my hips, waist, and thighs.  I can say I surpassed my dead lift goal, met the squat goal, and I’m blowing past other personal records during my lift sessions.  I can also see a nice progression which others have noticed too.  I have also conquered the hardest part of the journey…the mental voyage.  And lastly, I can say I’m enjoying the stress-free non-tracking lifestyle and appreciating every positive thought I now have about me:-)

 

Summer is here…and you’re not ready (Self Acceptance)

Summer is here…and you’re not ready (Self Acceptance)

self acceptanceAs a trainer this is the absolute toughest time of the year.

Sure, New Year’s Resolutions can be annoying (lots of peeps that have no intentions of doing what it takes longer than the first month), but there’s nothing like that warm Spring/Summer air to bring out the impatience in us all.

I literally gain 5lbs at the start of every warm weather season simply from stressing over the volume of complaints and “I need to lose weight this instant” feelings that come from all across the board.  If this is you, please know that it’s a very common thought right now, so you are not alone.  But, it’s not helping you.  If I could get even 20% of clients to realize that the stress they are causing themselves (and me!) is LITERALLY compounding the problem.

It is so painstakingly hard to watch how the warm weather changes people.  The patient suddenly become irate, fluctuations that were easily dismissed during winter layer season becomes inconceivable, magazines/TV/movies show perfect/airbrushed/starved/surgically modified/beautiful people frolicking in the sun.  Even “plus-sized” models are like size 10 with super flat abs (riiiggghht…really?!), leaving all but a whopping 10% of us being content in the body that we are presented with.  Then we spend the entire summer wishing we were something other than we are, until all of the true “fun in the sun” has come and gone, with us on the sidelines feeling sorry for ourselves.

I often wish that I could take an extended vacation…to rip out the mags/books/movies/scales/too small clothes, etc. from the homes of EVERY woman, and take her shopping for something that does fit and flatter her NOW.   Then, I’d drop her off at the nearest PACKED beach to take a good, long, look at the 90% of people there who also aren’t happy with the way that they look.

REAL people have rolls, stretch marks, blotchy skin, etc.. and don’t look like people in magazines.  Heck…the people in magazines don’t even look like that!  LOL.  And the ones that do look good enough to grace magazine covers (temporarily – for a 2 hour photo shoot), put in excessive amounts of time, realize that the look is temporary, and that the picture will be altered once taken.

self acceptance

Because of my field, it’s so hard for me to read a magazine or watch a movie/commercial without reading deeper into how it might be making women feel about themselves.  I look and see the reality of it, but it bugs me knowing that most women won’t.  Those magazines amplify/exacerbate the feelings of body discontentment that  is so common with our society.  Granted, we will all be faced with the temptation to feel dissatisfied, and possibly even the need to justify it — “Well it’s different for me because…” — but the point is that it’s not different.  There is a fine line between wanting to improve, and deeming ourselves unworthy of life because that change won’t come instantly.  Putting our lives on hold, and dwelling on it really doesn’t change it.

And literally makes it worse.

It’s not that having physique goals or wanting to improve ourselves is wrong, but the drastic decisions that we might make in haste because of the urgent feeling, is what we have to be careful to avoid.  We already know the devastating effects of attempting quick fixes, yet when a big event rolls around, we may allow our rational to become compromised.  Hastily made decisions (for summer, wedding, vacation, etc) can cost us months of hard work, or cause us to keep changing things every 5 minutes out of insecurity/doubt/urgency to see results, while actually running in place (net effect = zero results).

Big events and special seasons are tough bumps in the road on this journey, but we must stay the course and work towards self acceptance.

Summer…only the strong survive.

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“Trust your body, trust the process” – Eat More 2 Weigh Less

trust the processGuest Post from Jen

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything about my progress and my ponderings.  Most of you have read my story, and I’m still chugging right along on my “transformation.”  So .. here goes!

Gosh. Where do I start?  A few weeks ago on a Monday.  My newsfeed at MyFitnessPal was filled with a plethora of scale angst and cries of “when am I going to see some progress.”   I’ve had my share of both.   Then I got kicked.  Not physically, but it was still pretty effective.   Kicked with some Tough Love.   Sometimes we all need that, don’t we?  My friend Denise (TheMedalist) had these words for me :  “I realize pursuit of perfection is the DNA of a Type A personality. But, I think it comes at a HUGE cost. Frustration. Angst. Scale wars. And most of all, sadly, a failure to enjoy what you’ve already accomplished that deserves to be celebrated. It makes this Type B just shake her head.”   That got my attention, and set me to pondering.   Of course, she was right.

May 2011, I decided that I was going to start taking care of me a whole lot better than I had been.   Was  going to try to work less, schedule time to exercise, and grab hold of my eating which was woefully out of control. Nothing was FEEDING me.  I was going non-stop, not sleeping, not taking time to eat properly, and certainly wasn’t exercising. I was exhausted all the time.  I had no work-life balance. I had no time for JEN.   I set out to finally Get With It  – for ME.   My goal?    To leave work each evening with enough time to sit down to eat a meal and go to the gym; lose 40 pounds and get back into a size 12. I’ve accomplished all those things. In fact, I’ve surpassed the goals I set for myself.  I joined a gym for the first time in my life, discovered heavy lifting, got my eating under control, conquered my cravings for “extraneous bread like substances,” lost 50 pounds, passed by size 12 to a size 8, quit the job that was sucking every bit of life out of me, and am working toward a career change that I’m passionate about.  But!  I didn’t stop to celebrate my accomplishments. Instead, in my driven Type-A style  – I wanted MORE.   Size 8? Yea, that’s great, but oh…size 6 is calling out to me.   And my scale – it isn’t showing me the NUMBER that I think in my mind is an “acceptable small #.”  So, I’ve taken Denise’s words to heart. I’m CELEBRATING my success, the completion of my goal.    I have accomplished what I set out to do. I am feeling so very, very Jen-like.  I am happy with my body.  I am fit, strong, healthy and full of energy.

If I never lost another pound, I’m totally FAB.

trust the processWe lose sight of that.  We lose sight of celebrating US.  The wonderful people that we are.  Our accomplishments.   Look around you right now.  Do you see it? YOUR accomplishments? Your successes? I’m positive that they are there.

What I’ve definitely learned is that you must trust your body, trust the process.   To be successful, I’m passionate that you must make slow, steady lifestyle changes.  Changes that become the new norm, your new automatic habits, your new way of eating and moving.  As Kiki often says:  Don’t do anything to lose weight that you are not willing to do for LIFE.   Your nutrition, your fitness should enhance your life, not control it.  I totally believe in keeping it REAL, and enjoying the NOW.   So what if you don’t weigh “x” today or wear size “x” today?  Did you yesterday?   What matters is how you feel today, tomorrow and years from now.   Winning = getting to the FAB you one step at a time, and enjoying every step of the way.

What’s next on my agenda?  I’m in the homestretch.  I’m tweaking my bodyfat and leaning up a bit more. Let’s call it “vanity leaning up.”   I want to see more ab definition, a sleeker back and just an all over sleeker, more defined me.  How am I doing it?  Not much different than I have been. I’m back to eating deficit, and am lifting heavier  – training for strength 3 x week. I’m in control of my eating and am fueling my body.  My average TDEE is 2250, which is a bit higher than it was in October. Same weight. I took a break from October – January and ate at TDEE and trained for strength. I’m now totally pumped and ready for 1800 deficit calories with one day every week eating at TDEE.  I’m already seeing lost inches and my size 8s are getting looser.  Where do I expect to end up?  An EASY, comfy size 6 at 170 lbs and 21-22% bodyfat.

Trust the process.  Consistency and persistence will win the day.

Jen
www.GetWithItForLife.com
HarlanJEN @ MyFitnessPal

Setting realistic, maneageable fitness goals

We recently discussed “baby steps” and the simple act of changing ONE habit at a time.  So let’s talk life application and your fitness goals…

In his book, The Power of Less,Author Leo Babauta shares some interesting data:

  • Adopting one new habit at a time results in an 85% chance of success
  • Adopting two new habits at once: a 35% chance of success
  • Adopting three or more new habits at once: less than 10% chance of success

WOW!  According to those stats, most of us put ourselves at a 3-5% chance of success! (or less!)

But remember, it’s not just the “choosing” of a new goal/habit that makes you successful. You must also make sure that the habit is realistic.  Simply saying, “I want to run a marathon” or “I’m going to add more cardio”  is much too broad (even if it is the ultimate goal).  The couch to 5k programs are a great example of  this, as they take a “big” goal, and break it into manageable pieces (aka habits), until the “true” goal is accomplished somewhat effortlessly.  So a manageable habit would be along the lines of “I’m going to begin a C25K program”, or “I will add 30 minutes of cardio twice per week”, etc..

To declare, “I’m going to clean up my eating this month!” is not sufficient either.  Break down the specifics of what “cleaning up your eating” means to you.  This will be different for everyone.  Let’s take a walk through this process to see how it could look:

Suppose that cleaning up my diet means that I want to: lower my sugar intake, increase my protein, eat more fiber, and drink more water.  I would then look at this list of items and decide which one would have the greatest impact.  Let’s say that I know that my protein is WAY too low for my muscle building/maintenance goals, so I decide to increase protein as my first fitness goal.  I would take this one step further and decide how to increase protein.  I would think of how and what types of proteins I like to eat, and then break it down a smaller goals.  If I love organic beef jerky, I may decide that I will add an extra pack of jerky to my meal plan three times per week for the next month.  This is in addition to what I already eat.  So this would mean that I am adding protein to my diet.  Or, I may decide to add a protein shake to my day, on top of my usual eating. This adds protein to my diet without changing any other factors.  Once this has been done consistently I can then tackle more proteins if I’m still not at the level that I want to be at.  Or, move to the next goal (i.e. fiber).   But trying to attack all three macronutrients at the same time typically doesn’t pan out well.fitness goals

The same goes for a goal to “lower sugar intake” (again, too broad).  Instead of attempting to cut all sugar out of  the diet all at once (not realistic), break it down into smaller attainable goals.  An example would be to remove one soda (or Salted Caramel Frappuccino, Kiki) from each day, if prone to drinking multiple sodas per day.  Simply cutting a daily soda out of the diet reduces sugar intake, which in turn lowers carb intake.  Lowering your carb intake will naturally increase protein to carbohydrate ratio.

See where this is going? One change, sparking multiple results.

Are we saying that you should cut all sodas and Fraps from your diet and run a 5k?  Ummm, no (and I’m sure we all know, that Kiki will do neither).   We’re looking for major impact items here, remember?  If you only drink soda a few times per month, or despise running, those may not be your “wow factor” items.  Only you know what you need to work on, what is unnecessary “excess,” or what you are willing (or NOT willing, as in Kiki’s love of sweets/hatred for cardio) to let go of.  Make room for things that you love, in moderation, change (add OR subtract) what you feel you can/should change (without being unrealistic with yourself – don’t force yourself to eat quinoa, for instance, if you can’t stand it).

Yes, these seem like simple things that we all know and have heard since the beginning of our journey, but yet sometimes the simplest things are the ones that we neglect.  We want to “multitask” EVERYTHING, including our weight loss.  In the long run this accomplishes nothing other than putting us on the fast track to nowhere – with habits that cannot be maintained.    Although it seems that progress will be snails’ pace when it is one thing at a time, these things add up over the course of one, two, or ten years, leading to a changed LIFE.

Baby Steps: Set yourself up for success! – Eat More 2 Weigh Less

From an original thread in the forums:

I ADORE how more people are realizing that the process requires baby steps. I’ve noticed (as I’m sure many of you have) that it’s the people who try to “change the world” or do everything at once that have the most difficulty with the entire process.

Increasing calories, trying to hit macros perfectly, doing a reset, decreasing/increasing exercise, adding in weight lifting, running a 10k, going Paleo, zigzagging cals, IFing, adding Peanut Butter back in to the diet, drinking protein shakes, adding HIIT, giving up diet soda, switching to low carb/high carb, going to college, getting a degree, becoming a doctor, inventing a cure for cancer…

Ok, so I’m getting carried away…

But you get what I’m saying.  Trying to conquer the world during your first week/month/YEAR of EM2WL (or most anything, for that matter), is gonna put you on the fast track to insanity.

One step at a time is all we can do.

Think of all things on your journey that you feel you need to work on:  increase protein? drink more water? eat more veggies? not get on the scale as much? add good fats? let go of quick fix mentality? (aka stop watching The Biggest Loser, or reading mags that fill you with doubt…) and pick ONE that will have the greatest impact.   

Do that ONE thing, until it is second nature. Then add the next step. There is no rush. You have nothing but time, this is the rest of your life.

Side note:  For some, simply increasing calories is putting more than enough on their plates (pardon the pun), and they need to only focus on that.

When we tackle ONE new thing we have an over 80% success ratio.  When we try to tackle TWO things, that rate drops as low as 20%

“ONE thing at a time!” you exclaim…”but that may take over a YEAR!”

EXXXXACTLY

Set yourself up for success!

Have you considered the changes that you need to make? Which will have the MOST immediate impact? What ONE thing will you be working on?

Mike’s Weight Loss Journey *update* Down 30lbs!! & Lesson Learned

Mike’s Weight Loss Journey *update* Down 30lbs!! & Lesson Learned

find the beginning of Mike’s Journey here

Mike gives us an updated look, in his own words, at his journey so far, the ups, downs, doubts, and hitting a plateau….

weight loss

6/29/12

Hey Guys,
So I have been at a weight loss plateau for a couple of weeks, and want to let you know why (for people that may think they are doing good).

I was getting frustrated with EM2WL for a few. REAL frustrated. I have been at 285.4 for 3 weeks and have not lost. I have been hitting my numbers (or so I thought) for the last 3 weeks.

Anyways, I was like 3 seconds from seriously cutting calories. however, before I did that, I made an effort to parse through ALL my numbers/date for the last month. What I found was pretty shocking and I know why I plateaued.

1. Alcohol – Yep, its a killer for me. Over the last month I have let wine back in, and the bar on the weekend. While I was “leaving room” for my wine, while drinking it I would get careless with my food a bit.

weight lossThis resulted in me not estimating my calories well/eating less health choices. We all know alcohol gets processed first by the liver, and can lead to fat retention due to other foods not being processed properly.

2. Two binges, because of drinking, completely wiped out two weeks worth of work. Two Fridays in a row me and my buddies drank a ton, and hit jack in the crack afterwards (when drunk the justification is “Damn I’m working out I can eat!”.)

Anyways when your running at a 500 calorie a day deficit, a drunk time + trip to jack in the box will wipe out your progress for a given week, Nuclear Holocaust style.

3. I needed a mental break. While we all know that weight loss is hard work, its nice to take some time off to recharge the mental batteries. I took off from working out and counting calories (I did NOT eat unhealthy, and ate basically what I eat on my healthy days anyways).

So I sabotaged my own weight loss, and my first inclination was to blame EM2WL when I had no-one but myself to blame.

Things I hope you take from this.

Because we are running at TDEE – 15%, in some cases being 300 calorie deficit, one slip up during the week can sabotage that weeks weight loss. Thats a 2100 calorie weekly deficit. One night of drinking, or one errant jack in the box trip that sends us over our TDEE can ruin the hard work in that week. We may not gain weight (hitting our Maintenance weight), but you might kill that weeks weight loss.

I was lax on this, however I am recharged, and re-doubling my efforts.
Ill be burning about 3000 calories with 2 hikes this weekend to kick off my getting on track week.

 

weight loss

7/12/12

Hey Guys,

Just doing my monthly update. I am down 30lbs in I think ~3 months (may 3 1/2). I had a rough patch for a week or two (of binging a bit) but I got back on it, and now moving down again.

Gotta keep my head in it and keep pushing forward.

Mike

STOP Spinning your wheels and Get OFF the Rollercoaster!

 

 

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