Mid First Week Report

As usual, my plan is not going off without a hitch, but it's okay. :)

Monday and Tuesday went very well, and I've been doing pretty well with my macros all week, but I haven't gotten my workouts in as I was planning. Today is cheat day. YAY.

See, Wednesdays and Thursdays are a little crazy for us. Wednesday, we have dance classes from 5:30-7:00. Thursdays, Matt works a full day at the hospital, comes home and tries to sleep before going to his home care job overnight and straight to another full day at the hospital Friday morning. It's crazy. So, that kinda threw off the workout schedule.

As far as my new Plexus journey, my box arrived yesterday!!! Matt and I are splitting it for now until we can afford to get 2 Triplex combo packs per month. I had my first official Slim pink drink yesterday, and we both took a ProBio5 (their probiotic)with dinner. This morning, we both took 2 BioCleanse capsules, and Matt took 2 Xfactor capsules. Well, we are both feeling the cleanse already... especially Matt... at work... Sorry, honey!

I am so happy school is almost over! The next big thing is our dance recital. We have 5 children performing this year, and I'm in 2 performances myself! It will be quite a day!!

Anyway, I hope you are all taking care of your own O2 masks! Have a great day!

My egg whites didn't turn out too bad ;)

Mommy Makeup Tutorial with outtakes hehe

I don't always wear makeup, but when I do, It's minimal, quick, and simple. Since there are tutorials on everything under the sun nowadays, I thought I'd make a post about my mommy makeup routine.

*Step 1: Moisturizer. I ran out of my Olay face moisturizer. So, I used some baby lotion.

*Step 2: One fingertip of foundation to reduce the dark circles under your eyes.

*Step 3: Black Mascara just to make eyelashes visible.

***TAKE THE PICTURE, PHONE!!!! LOL***

*Step 4: Lipliner because it's just fun. ;)

***TAKE THE PICTURE, PHONE!!!!! LOL***

*Step 5: Lipstick to give the impression that you have it together. ;)

There you have it! Throw your hair in a messy bun, grab some coffee, and own this day, Mama!

New Before Pics and Day One of MY Journey Begins!

I am so excited to begin MY journey today. I put that in all caps everytime to constantly remind me to own it. Own this journey. Own this plan. Own my motivation. This is MY journey this time.

I am currently 150 lbs. My goal is 130 lbs. I had Matt take new before pics for me. I am trying to focus on looking ahead to future gains, not on all I lost... So, posting these requires some bravery. I have to reject all the feelings of shame that I'm tempted to feel. It's not because I'm just ashamed of how I look. It's because I lost so much that I'd worked so hard for. So, please do not think that I think a 150 lb 5'4" woman is in terrible shape. No body shaming here, and that has to start with not body shaming myself. <3 Oh, I should take measurements too. I'll have to do that next time.

I lost my food scale. So, I'm just using measuring cups for now.

After the kids got home from school, and we picked up our new fish from a neighbor, we all piled in the van to meet Daddy at the YMCA. Boy, that childcare is a total game changer!

I didn't want to do my floor exercises in front of everyone at the gym. So, I hit all the leg machines they have. I did one set of 20 at a challenging weight. Then, did one more set of 20 at one level heavier. I also did 15 minutes on the good old stairstepper. I got 50 floors in. 

After the YMCA, we got Little Caesars for the kids since we were pressed for time. We dropped off the 3 that had a dance class. Then, Matt went to Applebee's to get us some salads (Grilled Chicken caesar). I took all the croutons off of mine and didn't use the dressing. It was so good!!

When we got home, I jumped down to the basement with Isaiah and did my floor exercises. Wow! good workout!! Give it a try! Just switch the sets and reps. They got those switched around!

So, here's my day in my notebook. As you can see, Selah got a hold of it. I was under my protein, and over my carbs and fats. Not too shabby for day one, though!!

Whew!! I worked hard today!!!

Okay, but what's up with the Plexus thing??

A couple weeks ago, my friend, Sarah Centers, started talking to me about Plexus. She is a Gold ambassador, and she has seen incredible results with the products for herself and her family. She invited me to be a part of a 7 day challenge on Facebook. I tried their product called "Slim". Today was the 7th day. So, I'm out!! :(  Anyway, I watched the videos of people giving their testimonies about how the Plexus products have been life changing for them and their family. I especially related to the burned out mamas who tried it out of desperation to feel better, have more energy, and not be so grumpy with their families. I desperately want that too. By the 6th day, I was wanting what these people had. I talked to Matt, and we came up with a plan to make it work. Now, I am a Plexus ambassador, and my Triplex welcome pack will be coming to me in the next few days!!

I want to document my experience with Plexus on myo2mask so you can learn about this with me. The first thing I want to do is write a list of my whys:

1. I want to be a happy wife and mom.
2. I want more energy!
3. I would love to be able to get off of my antidepressant.
4. It would be a great bonus if I actually did make a little income with this company.
5. I want to help my husband and family be at their best.

So, it is another new adventure for me! If you want to join me and try this out, let me know. They often have those 7 day facebook challenges, and I'd love to have friends and family to walk with me in this. If you want to check out their product line, here's my fancy schmancy Plexus website: HERE.

I am a little skeptical. I have trust issues especially with sales companies... So, Plexus is going to have to prove themselves to me!

MY Journey. I'm getting excited!!

I am old school. I like to write things down in a notebook rather than use an app. I took that screenshot of Jessica Enslow's plan, and plugged in my own info. She uses iifym.com to calculate her macros. It's very simple except at the end after it asks where to send your macros, enter your name and email, but continue on the site. Use the sliders to adjust your percentages.

This is exciting! It's already empowering to see this start to come together. This mama is no longer in autopilot. I am owning this!!

Now, I need to plan my workouts.

Check out Jessica Enslow's plan on her YouTube video HERE.

Making the Journey Mine

Okay. Here it goes...

Last year was great. Last year, I started seeing that I could be stronger and more fit than I thought I could be. I started weight training. I started learning about macros. All of my progress came to an abrupt halt due to circumstances beyond my control. Then, I just slowly quit. I quit calculating my macros. I quit working out. I quit blogging. I just got so discouraged.

Well, I'm ready to move on now and make my health and fitness journey my own. It's very good to give credit where credit is due, but as one of my midwives taught me, the greatest coaches teach you that it's all about you, and you don't really need them to succeed. The greatest coaches empower you; they don't use you to promote themselves.

So, I've gained 15lbs over the last 9 months, and I've lost any muscle development I'd gained. All the kids are odd numbered ages now:13, 11, 9, 7, 5, 3, and 1.5; and we recently joined the YMCA as a family. It's nice. Free childcare makes a huge difference!

I have to do this. I will do this. I put too much stock in a person and I gave that person way too much credit for my success. The truth is that I worked my butt off last year. I pushed myself. I dedicated myself to following a meal plan. I am grateful for the tools that were given to me to succeed, but I did the work. It is important for me to remember that.

I found another mom of 7 on Instagram named Jessica Enslow. She is in amazing shape, and since she's a little older than I am, a little shorter than I am, and has had as many babies, I feel like what she does is something I could do too. I am going to start here.

I also signed up with Plexus today. I hope these health products help me have more energy and maybe I'll be able to even get off my antidepressant. Who knows. I just know that my body needs some recuperation after 14.5 years of pregnancies and breastfeeding for almost all that time.

I have to prove this to myself, and I will. I hope you're all doing well. It's really nice to be back.

Here are some pics from this evening. I did legs and abs with Isaiah. Selah got in on it too!

Baby Fist Bump! Let's do this!