Well, it worked great! The first few days were HARD. I lost my milk and spent the rest of the week chugging Mother's Milk tea and nursing literally ALL DAY to build my supply back up. It was really, really not fun. And I am not a person that likes "meal replacement" products. I like "real" food. I was actually losing weight pretty steadily before at about a pound every week or so. Not anything to get excited about, but it was effortless. Once I began the RVL, I lost almost 8 pounds the first week out. And that's without the capsule (not a capsule girl either, plus, I'm nursing) and without exercise (due to having a baby attached to my boob 24/7). I felt really great after the first week and actually really enjoyed having the shakes. It can get so hard to stop and fix breakfast for myself in the morning, and no matter when I do, even if it's EXACTLY what I am feeding the boys, they come over to me and give me cute little smiles and cuddles while they slowly pick away at my food! With the shakes, it was nice because I could sneak into the bathroom or laundry room and slam my breakfast before anyone came begging to eat it. :)
I lost about 20 pounds in 2 months, and that's counting the week off I took for both Thanksgiving and another week for Christmas. Thank you RVL! Seriously the easiest weight I have ever lost, all while drinking chocolate shakes. Yum!
After Christmas, I made the decision not to go back on RVL. I miss it for sure, but I was gettting bored. Boredom is not good for a weight loss or exercise regimen. I had added in kettlebells for working out as soon as I could in November and fell in love with them. I am seriously, seriously obsessed with them. I contemplated personal training as a career before I got married (I even had some classes at UVU), but I had to quit school and work my booty off when we got married to put Wes through school. Anyway,back to kettlebells...they are wicked awesome for weight loss, working out, destressing, having fun, etc. I seriously look forward to my workouts. I have always enjoyed exercise, and believe me, you name it, I've done it. Kettlebells and yoga are hands down the BEST in the results you will get and the fun you will have. The other cool part about kettlebells...they burn 1,200 calories an hour. 1,200! So when I work out for 1/2 hour or 45 minutes I've burned over 600 calories! How cool is that?! Added bonus: I really think the kettlebell workouts got me through the last couple months when I couldn't get away from my kids or really leave my house much for months. C'mon moms, you know you love your kiddos, but you NEED some space every so often to make you a better mom right? Well, this was a great alternative for me while I didn't have that. I got through an extremely busy, stressful time of year and kept everyone (including myself) healthy, happy, and enjoying the season's magic. What a blessing!
Wes got me a new kettlebell DVD for Christmas. I was so excited I put it in to check out the different workouts that day. I quickly learned it was a faulty DVD and has to wait for a new one to be sent out. Bummer. Oh well. It didn't take long because they ship from California. In the meantime, I wrote the trainer that makes the DVDs, Lauren Miller, and she sent me a workout schedule. I started following it, excited to lose that last 20 pounds I've had hanging around since I had Kolton, and promptly, one by one, each of the boys got a nasty cold, and now I have it also (watch out, Wes!). Jonah has by far been the worst. I finally got 4 hours of sleep last night, and I got maybe one for the past two nights before that. He has been so miserable. He's exhausted and so am I. He hasn't napped very well either, poor guy.
Here's his favorite place to sleep right now when he does:
And I feel like a human binky. Needless to say, my workouts have been pretty inconsistent since Christmas, and I'm pretty darn disappointed about it.
I'm one of those people that LOVES the New Year's Resolutions. But, I've had to learn patience this year so far because everything has started slow, everything needs something to happen before the goal can begin. I feel like I am playing the waiting game, and I hate the waiting game. But I realize that I am a lot less patient than I thought. I'm trying to learn patience quickly so I can hurry up and get to the next thing....just kidding.
Waiting to get better to lost that last 20, waiting to see where we will be living, waiting until our house sells, waiting to hear back about a couple classes, waiting for Joyschool to start again so I can get back to the normal routine, waiting to be able to sleep through the night, waiting until later to fold that last load of laundry so I can keep my promise to Wes that I will stop what I'm doing and come to bed instead of trying to do things while everyone's asleep and crawling into his arms at 2AM (sorry Babe!), waiting to find a bigger kettlebell, waiting for new glasses and contacts, waiting to find out where our sweet Tucker will be finding a home with, waiting for some FREE TIME....you get the idea. Lots and lots and LOTS of waiting.
But you know what? All that waiting has made it very, very easy to slow down and let things go. Which is exactly what I need right now considering what we have all been through around here lately. Slow is good. I even got to take a nap yesterday, which got me through the rest of the day on the little sleep I've had. We've been able to play to our hearts' content with new Christmas toys, read lots of books, I've been able to give everyone loads of massages (we all love those around here), let the boys snuggle in my bed at naptime and stay in their jammies all day - a lot. I've been able to sort and purge and get the house ready for whenever we move. I've been able to have an open and unoccupied mind open to receive all kind of inspiration and peace. I've been able to stop what I am doing and snuggle my baby when I nurse him, which has been really hard to do the past couple months. I've been able to sit down and blog, knit, watch movies, review my goals,work on a couple big projects, catch up with old friends, catch up on a cute quilt I am making, sit down and play my keyboard, flute, and guitar. I've been able to listen to Harry Potter with the boys in the car, take a couple trips to the library (one of our fave places) and actually, to Wes's delight, actually sit down and do nothing while watching a movie. It's been a really fun and relaxing few weeks.
I've also started remembering and missing certain things that really feed my soul: ice skating, horses, any kind of art, writing, yoga, helping others, biking, getting ready and shopping for cute clothes, cooking really good food, and volleyball to name a few. It's been fun to not find myself, but remember parts of who I am that I have forgotten. So being patient during waiting periods has been a huge blessing and renewal time for me and probably my family as a whole.
I definitely hope that life doesn't ever go back to the speed it was moving the last couple months, and I know it won't drift by as slowly as it has lately. But now I think I have a feel for a happy medium. I just need to make sure I have the patience to prioritize and gradually add things in, and rely more on my husband for help instead of trying to do it all myself. The hardest part about setting goals for me is that I can get overly ambitious and want to accomplish everything NOW instead of prioritizing what can be done later. It always seems that everything I want to do is important to be done now.
I think for now, my priority is rest and routine and continuing my organizing of the house. Joyschool starts again next week and then my time will be a lot more occupied. I think we all need to rest up and finish getting over our colds until then. I'm just grateful we've been able to have this special time together, and prolong the holiday festivities just a little longer.
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