Reflection: Eight Week Fitness Challenge

Fitness is a family affair. Looks like The Boy is ready for some higher box jumps.

Thanks to the brilliance of social media, college friend Whitney updated her status on facebook indicating the last night to sign up for the Fall Fitness Challenge was rapidly approaching. Every time I check Whitney’s blog, she has either had another beautiful baby or completed another major running event. And she has a pretty rockin’ bod, so my interest was piqued.

The rules:
Off-limits for 6 days every week: no dessert, no soda, no eating after 8 pm
To do for 6 days each week: study scriptures 15 minutes, complete the weekly challenge
For 5 days each week: 30 minutes of exercise

The weekly challenges:
1. Maintain a daily food log
2. Get 7+ hours of sleep each night
3. Eat 5 servings of vegetables daily
4. Drink 64 oz. of water
5. Complete 100 sit-ups and 50 push-ups each day
6. Eat 4 servings of fruit daily
7. Eat 5 small meals daily
8. Walk or run 13.1 miles throughout the course of the week (equivalent of half marathon) in addition to 30 minutes of daily exercise.

This seemed manageable so I signed up. And by manageable, I meant easy.

While this wasn’t the hardest thing I’ve ever done (ahem…natural childbirth), it certainly created a deeper self-awareness that I wasn’t anticipating. When I looked at the rules, there were certain areas that I thought would be a walk in the park while others would be more difficult. I was wrong on almost everything. Here’s the break down.

Daily stuff.

Initial Thought. Simple. I don’t do a lot of dessert, I haven’t taken a sip of soda since I was 16, and I meet with a group of women to do p90x at 5 am (3 times a week).

Reality. The scripture study was harder to prioritize, but I now do that at 6 while eating my post-workout meal. No eating after 8 was harder, even with the two-hour accommodation for nursing mothers. But the hardest part was the daily grind. I would finish at the eleventh hour, pleased with my accomplishment, only to realize I was starting all over again when I woke up.

Food log.
Initial thought. Easy-peasy and a good idea so I can dial in my nutrition.
Reality. I am past the stage of needing to write down what I eat and drink. I’m generally making good food choices and since I’m not a big believer in the calories in/calories out theory, the food log became a huge pain in the butt. If it had been included in the entire 8 weeks, I probably would have quit. However, when I am ready to make some serious progress in body composition/performance or work on a particular area of my health, I will keep a food log. Until then, it’s not a sustainable habit for me. Plus, I don’t want to look at fitday.com for a long time.

7 hours of sleep
Initial thought.  Terrified. My babe is not the best sleeper and I felt this challenge would be the one that made me lose since it felt entirely out of my control.
Reality. Awesome blossom. Forcing myself to go to bed earlier than the 7 required hours (because I didn’t know how long I would be up at night with the baby) was liberating. Things were left undone. I started simplifying my life. I rearranged my priorities. Only the most important stuff got done. I eliminated a lot of guilt for self-imposed projects that really weren’t that important to begin with. And I was well-rested. Rested Mama = Happy Mama

5+ servings of veggies per day
Initial thought. Easy.
Reality. Easy. Being a Paleoista who doesn’t like meat makes veggie consumption pretty commonplace.

64 oz. of water
Initial thought. Easy
Reality. HARD. What?! Why?! I’ve spent 29 years not slowing down to drink water so correcting that in a week was a pretty lofty goal. On the plus side, my perpetually chapped lips went away (apparently a sign of dehydration) and my kids started drinking a ton of water throughout the day with me. (Side note: if I were running the challenge, I probably would have changed the amount. Take body weight and divide by two. Drink that amount in fluid ounces. For me, 64 oz was about right, but someone who is 200 pounds needs more water than someone who is 110)

100 sit-ups and 50 push-ups
Initial thought. This will be fun.
Reality. It was fun. My husband and I raced on our sit-ups, discovering I can do 100 in a row without stopping (with room to spare). And the daily push-ups were a great jump start to getting better at true-form push-ups. I performed most of the 50 on my knees, but increased my regular push-ups. I can now go all the way down to my chest (rather than just halfway) and am knocking out 3-4 at a time. Push-ups were the very essence of impossible for me and now I’m hoping to get 10 by the end of the year.

4+ servings of fruit daily
Initial thought. I don’t know if I like this one….PCOS + lots of fruit = bad news.
Reality. Worse than I thought. I started resorting to olives and avocado as my fruit sources since all of that extra sugar reignited my sugar demons. Which fed well into the next challenge…

5 small meals daily
Initial thought. I can do this, but it’s going to be hard since I will be out of town at a training
Reality. I didn’t go out of town–sent my husband in my place. This challenge sort of screwed up the metabolism I’ve been working so hard to reset. Once the sugar addiction is gone, my body doesn’t need to eat every few hours. From the literature I’ve read recently, apparently that is evidence of being a sugar-burner rather than a fat-burner (and is not our body’s natural response if we are eating optimally). I don’t know anything about that. I just know for me, three meals a day is enough. But being the competitive being that I am, I soldiered through and my body took a hit for it. I can’t decide if I regret it or not since the learning experience was valuable.

Half marathon
Initial thought. This is going to be so rad!
Reality. Both kids were sick this week; fitting 13.1 miles in my spare time while the Littles needed extra mom efforts wasn’t ideal, particularly since I wasn’t comfortable taking them out into the freezing-booty-cold weather. I would actually like to complete this challenge again since it made me ask myself why I haven’t been walking more in the first place. My body feels better for it. The grocery store is only about 1.25 miles away, so I could load up the double stroller with my kids, meat, and veggies. The library isn’t far. Our church isn’t far. And importantly, Redbox is only a mile away. It’s invigorating to be outside and once we’re all on the mend, I am going to repeat this challenge to see if it’s a permanent change I’d like to make. I can see it definitely being a summer habit if nothing else.

Lessons Learned.
So what’s the take-away message for me? Quit thinking about food all the time, start drinking more water, walk to close places I might normally drive, and practice push-ups if I want to get better at them. Not a bad way to spend 8 weeks. Big thanks to Morgan for organizing the whole sh’bang.

Primal Blueprint 30 Day Challenge

About every month or two, I start reading a different Primal/Paleo/Ancestral Health blog. Despite how much good stuff is out there, I just don’t have time for more than one blog a day, so I cycle through several different ones, falling into routines that generally last a few weeks before I’m ready for a change.

How fortuitous that I was drawn back to Mark Sisson’s stuff on Friday. I love his site for a million reasons, not least of which includes how comprehensive Mark’s Daily Apple is. He’s pretty much my go-to on anything I need help understanding.

The Primal Blueprint 30-Day Challenge starts today. It includes a plan for eating, fitness, sleep, sun, and play. The flier offers a much better explanation than I can:

Of course all areas are important–eating, fitness, sleep, sun, and play–but the real reason I’m pumped for this is because I’ve been looking for some motivation to get better sleep. Or any sleep for that matter.

My sleep patterns don’t resemble a pattern at all right now. My son is receiving therapy three hours away from our home (in a different time zone), so we’ve spent a lot of time on the road and out of our beds. The baby isn’t sleeping as well as normal, which means I’m sleeping even less well. At the end of the day, I’m too tired to go to bed, which seems utterly ridiculous. Instead of sleeping, I usually end up on the couch in a mental battle between my desire to go to sleep and my unwillingness to stand up and brush my teeth. Somehow, that turns into watching reruns of Arrested Development on Netflix.

10 pm is not my finest hour.

I’ll be working on all areas (I’m in the middle of a Whole30), but sleep is my main focus. Just the kick in the pants I need, and not a minute too soon.

And perhaps I’ll even tackle a few of the Mini Challenges, though squatting to poop probably isn’t going to be the first one I try…

Primal Blueprint 30 Day Challenge

About every month or two, I start reading a different Primal/Paleo/Ancestral Health blog. Despite how much good stuff is out there, I just don’t have time for more than one blog a day, so I cycle through several different ones, falling into routines that generally last a few weeks before I’m ready for a change.

How fortuitous that I was drawn back to Mark Sisson’s stuff on Friday. I love his site for a million reasons, not least of which includes how comprehensive Mark’s Daily Apple is. He’s pretty much my go-to on anything I need help understanding.

The Primal Blueprint 30-Day Challenge starts today. It includes a plan for eating, fitness, sleep, sun, and play. The flier offers a much better explanation than I can:

Of course all areas are important–eating, fitness, sleep, sun, and play–but the real reason I’m pumped for this is because I’ve been looking for some motivation to get better sleep. Or any sleep for that matter.

My sleep patterns don’t resemble a pattern at all right now. My son is receiving therapy three hours away from our home (in a different time zone), so we’ve spent a lot of time on the road and out of our beds. The baby isn’t sleeping as well as normal, which means I’m sleeping even less well. At the end of the day, I’m too tired to go to bed, which seems utterly ridiculous. Instead of sleeping, I usually end up on the couch in a mental battle between my desire to go to sleep and my unwillingness to stand up and brush my teeth. Somehow, that turns into watching reruns of Arrested Development on Netflix.

10 pm is not my finest hour.

I’ll be working on all areas (I’m in the middle of a Whole30), but sleep is my main focus. Just the kick in the pants I need, and not a minute too soon.

And perhaps I’ll even tackle a few of the Mini Challenges, though squatting to poop probably isn’t going to be the first one I try…

Next Steps

I’ve been blabbering about this AHS business for 2 weeks, so now what? It’s nice to get smarter, but it’s pretty much only good for inducing guilt if I do nothing with my newfound knowledge. Where much is given, much is required.

So here are my next steps, in terms of my PCOS, my family, the continuing education that I need/want, and the AHS folks who inspired me.

Next Steps for PCOS and the inspiration behind it

• Realize I’m not totally crazy with my self-experimentation (Richard Nikoley) and be deliberate about those experiments (Seth Roberts). Richard Nikoley presented on self-experimentation and reminded me I’m not the only crazy experimenter (he doesn’t use soap or shampoo and smelled pretty good from where I was sitting). Seth Roberts spoke about which foods make his brain work better and systematically experimented on himself, taking daily math quizzes to assess progress. Fascinating! My experimentation has produced self-healing and I’m thrilled to learn from two others who do it better than I do. My only regret is I didn’t know of them earlier.
• Supplement with magnesium (Nora Gedgaudas and Robb Wolf). This has been on the radar for about 8 months, but I’m now just kicking myself into gear. Going with Natural Calm since my OB and pediatrician approved it (still nursing).
• Go gluten-free (everyone). Embarking on A Year Without Gluten. I don’t eat much of it in the first place; however, I am going to fully eliminate it from my splurges. Goodbye homemade flour tortillas. I miss you already.
• Get to work on my PCOS study (Lynda Frassetto). I am pretty excited about this one. Being a card-carrying nerd, I’m designing a PCOS-Paleo study. I definitely don’t have the resources to do it perfectly, but I am still designing one for personal fulfillment. I’ll be seeking out volunteers to participate in the near future, so give me a heads up if you are interested. More information to follow once I get all the kinks worked out.
• Switch to cooking with coconut oil and clarified butter and lower my chronic low-level inflammation (Guy-André Pelouze). Coconut oil has a higher oxidation point than olive oil, so that’s my new cooking oil of choice. Fats can still oxidize in my body if I’m inflamed, though, so just another reason to lower my inflammation further.
• Rewatch presentation From Cave to Cage and figure out why in the world I wrote down: Consider taking up MMA (Tucker Max). What did Tucker Max say that made me want to start mixed martial arts? There are plenty of physical fitness activities that seem better suited for me. (Aside from the fact that Tucker Max is the very last person on the planet that I would ever want my daughter to know–I say this with 99% surety that he would not be offended) I don’t like fighting, I don’t like violence, I don’t like sports, I don’t like competition, and I don’t like getting punched in the face. Seems like a pretty poor fit, if you ask me. I’m baffled by my notes.

Next Steps for the Family

1. Look into neurofeedback/biofeedback for my 3yo (Nora Gedgaudas). My son’s anxiety, tantruming, and sensory issues seem to have improved about 75% or so (percentages are arbitrary) since going on a Paleo diet, but I know there is more that could help him. Hoping this is an answer or at least something that leads me to an answer.
2. Everyone off gluten. No matter what. Period. End of story (everyone). Too many reasons not to. It’s challenging, but better than the alternative.
3. Get the babe eating more hard, raw foods for her jaw development (Michael Mew). I think I’ve mentioned several times how much I enjoyed Dr. Mew’s presentation. In speaking to him after the presentation, he advised my baby girl work on her jaw development by eating hard food that are about 1.5 times the size of her wrist. Yes, sir!
4. Look into heavy metals testing (Dr. BG and her sister Marisa). Dr. BG’s sister Marisa shared some similarities between her child and mine. She said heavy metals testing made a difference. Definitely worth looking into.
5. Keep my kids away from dairy (Pedro Bastos). One of the initial challenges I had when taking my son off dairy was the fact that he is in a period of rapid growth. I though I might keep him on dairy until he was older and then remove it when his growth slowed. Pedros Bastos suggested that because children are growing so rapidly, perhaps that is the most important time to stay away from the cow, sheep, and goat’s milk. Noted.

Sciency Business I Need to Understand Better

1. Gut flora (Dr. BG and Tim Gerstmar)
2. Causes of lipid oxidation and the oxidation process (Guy-André Pelouze)
3. Evolutionary psychology (S. Boyd Eaton)
4. Weston A. Price and Frances Pottenger
5. Draining nature of plants and congesting nature of animals (Don Matesz)
6. Why liver used to control our blood sugar, but the pancreas does now (Michael Eades)

Consider Reading

1. Baby-led Weaning by Gill Rapley and Tracey Murkett
2. Mismatch: The Lifestyle Diseases Timebomb by Peter Gluckman and Mark Hanson
3. The Evolution of the Human Head by Daniel E. Lieberman
4. Primal Body Primal Mind by Nora Gedgaudas
5. Ronald Krausss’ meta-analysis on saturated fats
6. Wild Health: Lessons in Natural Wellness from the Animal Kingdom by Cindy Engel
7. Strong Medicine by Blake F. Donaldson
8. The Stone Age Diet by Waler L. Voegtlin
9. Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine by Randolph Nesse
10. Food and Western Disease: Health and Nutrition from an Evolutionary Perspective by Staffan Lindeberg

Phew! That’s a lot of homework. Given my personal history of setting overambitious goals, I imagine I will only be able to do one item per category before AHS12. But that’s good enough for me.

A Little Piece of Medical History

As a woman with PCOS, I felt misunderstood more often than not. My diagnosis was lonely (what the heck is PCOS?!). As I discovered my support system, it was extremely liberating to meet other women who got it, but they still couldn’t understand my whole situation because mine was different.

Don’t get me wrong, I love connecting with women with PCOS (and with their spouses). So much of their stories resonate with me and I get it. But I’m still a different person. As are they.

I’m sure I’m not the only woman who feels this way. As women with PCOS, we have a desire to connect to one another because of our shared affliction. To feel normal. To feel understood. This is a basic human trait.

But ultimately, the journey is our own because our backgrounds, family histories, genetic make-up, environmental factors, life choices, etc. are highly individual. Some of our symptoms may be the same, but they manifest themselves at varying degrees of severity. We cope with them differently. Hair loss may be the most devastating for one woman while hair growth may be the factor that pushes someone else over the edge.

We are each an Experiment of One. I have seen tremendous success in treating my PCOS through nutrition, even more than I’ve reported here on the blog. I have spent years gathering information, comparing stories and remedies, trying everything under the sun, tweaking until I find something that works. And tweaking more to find something that works even better.

I am working with the hand I’ve been dealt. I have learned so much from other people’s Experiment of One, and finding what works for me. It’s not a quick fix, but it took 24 years for me to develop PCOS (more if we take genetics and family history into account), so I can’t really expect to figure it all out in one fell swoop.

In communicating with other women, I find our shared and different histories intriguing. So will Paleo work for you? I believe it will. You may not have the same results that I have, but that’s because we’re different and need different things.

After a full year of living a Paleo lifestyle (nutrition-wise), I recognize there are a number of things in my past working for and against me. The following list is certainly not comprehensive, but I think it allows me to reflect more accurately on my success.

Things I Was Doing Before Paleo That Made Me Healthier

• No smoking, drinking, drugs, energy drinks. Ever. Twenty-nine years old and these things still haven’t touched my lips.
• No coffee or tea after age 14. Stopped cold turkey.
• No soda or carbonated beverages after age 16. Thirteen years ago, I made a New Year’s Resolution to give up soda for a year and I liked it so much, I never went back.
• Limited sweets and candy before age 18. I just didn’t like it until college, where easy access and fierce hunger made sweet treats much more appealing.
• Exercised for 2 years straight. My bestie was a phenomenal workout partner, and we exercised nearly every day in some capacity for a full two years before I started Paleo.
• Limited sugar for a year. For a year (about 4 months pre-Paleo), I was having a dessert once a week or so, if that. I had also given up chocolate for a year before that.
• Homemade everything. In an effort to eliminate all the unnecessary Franken-sugars in my everyday foods, I cooked and baked everything from scratch. Bread, hamburger buns, yogurt, sauces, anything I could think of.

Things I was Doing Before Paleo That Made Me Less Healthy

• Doing nothing about my periods. I was nearly 16 before my period started and I’ve only had 11 periods on my own without birth control or doctor inducement. I knew this was not normal, but never realized it was not good. After all, I was told how lucky I was whenever it came up.
• The Costco diet. Processed foods ruled my life.
• Rice and potatoes at every meal. When I wasn’t eating a frozen burrito or pizza, I was eating rice or potatoes. I am half Filipino, and a meal is not complete without a serving of rice. Not even Thanksgiving dinner.
• Vegetarian. I’m recovering, slowly but surely. I always counted chicken broth as my meat source and figured that was enough. Which means beans and cheese were a daily occurrence when I was concerned about my protein intake.
• Environmental factors. Mom smoked in the home, car, and worked in a casino. There was a lot of smoke in my life.
• Homemade all of the wrong stuff. Unfortunately, in removing the sugar, I also added a lot of whole wheat.
• Chronic dieting. Also included not eating at all.
• Chronic cardio. Two hours a day, six days a week.
• Food Guide Pyramid Checklist. Yes, I had one of these. I followed it to a T.

For me, knowing where I come from helps me make decisions about where I’m headed next (and where my children are headed). A year of Paleo, and I’m finally starting to see myself. It’s challenging and not that fun to confront my medical history, but once the right changes are made, oh, it hurts so good.

Positive Paleo Media

I found this article in my Spam folder of all places.

It’s a totally favorable article written by Barbara Bates on FitDay about the Paleo lifestyle. I get over-the-moon giddy when a non-caveman (or woman, in this instance) does not implicate all Paleo followers as nut jobs.

My favorite statements:
Is the Paleo diet for everyone? I believe it is an excellent place to begin and expand from on an individual basis.

Awesome. Thanks for giving us a chance!

There is no doubt that the food we eat has an affect on our health.

Actually, a lot of people doubt this, so THANK YOU for being so bold about it.

The eating and lifestyle habits of our healthy ancestors provide us with a good framework; it is up to us to study their ways, evaluate the benefits or drawbacks and experiment on an individual basis in order to determine what is best for each person.

Amen to that. She puts the responsibility back on the individual to research healthy eating and then determine how our bodies respond to certain foods.

—–

And in case you missed the sweet Nightline piece on March 1 about Paleo (with Robb Wolf), here it is. Have I ever mentioned I love Robb Wolf? Because I do.

20 Girls in 30 Days

My current training is beyond lame. I don’t feel that bad about it since I’m still having a hard time finding my 2-kid groove, but a part of me wants to actually move heavy things that do not consist of car seats, groceries, and crying children.

Solution: 20 Girls in 30 Days.

My husband and I are embarking on this challenge to complete CrossFit’s Girl WODs. In any order I choose, I will take on Barbara, Helen, Fran, and the remaining 17 other lovely ladies. Here’s looking at you, Eva!

This is not an April Fool’s joke (but I kind of wish it was). My training needs this, but oh, how I may regret my decision after starting down Angie in the face. 100 push-ups? Really? My max is 4. And that’s to say nothing of the inordinate amount of pull-ups in these WODs.

Realistically, my 30 days is likely to extend to right around 60-70 days. I’m still waking up at night to nurse my baby and am just not getting enough sleep yet. And thankfully for my sleepy self, recovery is just as highly valued as the exercise itself. However, my Happy Goal would be to complete them before my 29th birthday (50 days).

I also know I need to stay Paleo for this and not have another binge week. During my Binge Week, my IT band pain and left shoulder pain returned. Once I was on Paleo, they mysteriously disappeared again. Spooky.

So wish me luck. I’m off to conquer Angie. Or maybe she’ll conquer me.

Cindy broke my bag o’ waters

No person was harmed in the filming of this deadlift.

During my first pregnancy, I didn’t exercise at all and I paid mightily for it during recovery. I didn’t make the same mistake with my second pregnancy, faithfully doing something nearly every day of my 41.5 weeks.

Ten days overdue was no exception.

After 3.5 rounds and during my 8th squat of a modified Cindy*, I felt a familiar pop; a pop I had only felt once before. Stopping dead at the bottom of a perfect 90 degree angle, I felt a warmth spread across the lower part of my body.

I couldn’t determine if my water broke or if I was overzealous about hydration that morning. I went inside to see if I was in labor, leaving my workout partner in the garage wondering if her cash-out would include rushing me to the hospital.

Hard contractions didn’t start immediately like they did with my son, so my firm excuse for quitting early was null and void. I cleaned myself up, went right back outside and pounded out 2.5 more rounds (for an even 6) before my time ran out.

I’m not a hardore CrossFitter. I’m not even a good CrossFitter. But I feel like I could have made main page with that workout. Forget chest-to-bar pull-ups. Doing a WOD at 10:30 am and delivering a baby (without an epidural) at 2 pm. Now *that* should be the next CrossFit benchmark. Perhaps we can name it Mimi.

(Happy Valentine’s Day!)

* Cindy is one of the CrossFit WODs listed with the Girls. AMRAP in 20 minutes of: 5 pull-ups (mods: ring rows), 10 push-ups (mods: on an incline), 15 squats.

Seven

My email inbox brought spectacular news on Friday.

That’s right, I was named Whole9’s 2010 Whole30 Success Story Contest Winner.*

(bashful smiling commences)

The immediate outreach from the Whole30 community is overwhelming and the united celebration over my little story has me truly humbled. And inspired.

Several months ago, a dear friend from high school (Sara, I’m lookin’ at you, girl) mentioned she did a strict seven-week Paleo program in conjunction with her OnRamp CrossFit classes.

Every so often, I toy with the idea but ultimately deem it unnecessary. I’ve been through two Whole30 cycles and do relatively well when I’m not being 30-days-strict. Do I really need seven weeks?

But the outreach from Whole9 friends instilled in me a renewed vigor. It is an honor to be one of their many success stories, and a privilege to continue it.

Seven weeks it is.

Not everyone needs seven weeks, but I do. I want to shed the excess body fat (of course), but more importantly, I have a slew of bad behaviors that are technically Paleo, but not doing me much good (e.g. eating fruit because it takes too long to make a kale salad–3 minutes). Those need to stop.

So starting this morning on a rash decision, my husband and I are seven weeks on. No splurge. No cheat. No quitting. We are tracking this seven weeks to see what kind of improvement we make. Measurements, photos, benchmark WODs, the works. My sidebar includes a link to my training and as much of my food that I can track while still taking care of two babies.

Measurement summary (photos to be revealed after 7 weeks):

• Height: 5’7″
• Weight: 140 pounds
• Waist: 35.25 inches
• Hips: 38 inches
• Bust: 36 inches
• L Thigh: 23 inches
• R Thigh: 23.5 inches
• L Arm: 11.5 inches
• R Arm: 11.5 inches
• L Calf: 14.75 inches
• R Calf: 14.75 inches
• Neck: 12.5 inches

And of course, if you would like to join us for your own Whole30 on February 25, the more the merrier.

* If you’ve read my story, you will know the real prize should go to my husband. Living with PCOS bites; living with someone who has PCOS–that’s pretty hard, too. He is amazing.

UPDATE: Results of the seven-week challenge found here

Getting Pregnant with PCOS

My second miracle*

Paleo is being heralded as the new goddess of fertility by many proponents, as learning a woman is pregnant after going Paleo is a pretty common tale.

That being said, I did not transfer over to Paleo until after my babies were born. My experience getting pregnant with PCOS is firsthand; my knowledge of getting pregnant on Paleo is from a secondary source.

My miracle babies came to me after I’d given up hope of every conceiving. Imagine my surprise when I got not one, but two kids while in the throes of my PCOS struggles. They are almost exactly two years apart, both being born in June (with a due date only one day apart). September is evidently my fertile month.

Before my first baby, I went on the South Beach Diet–pretty low-carb. I lost weight and did a so-so job of keeping it off. After four months I felt I was really starting to get a grasp on this weight loss thing with a net loss of 10 pounds. It was during this same time that I learned I was 9 weeks pregnant.

Before conceiving my second baby, I cut out added sugars from my diet and started exercising regularly (both of which improve insulin sensitivity, or so they say). I also started lifting weights and was following a modified CrossFit-style workout regimen. The sugars were out of my system for about 9 months and the CrossFit workouts were a part of my regular routine for two months. I took a pregnancy test and voilà, pregnant again. Needless to say, both children were shockers.

After getting pregnant the first time, several women said, “Oh it’s totally normal to get pregnant after losing 10-20 pounds.”

Really? How come I never knew this? But more importantly, why was this happening and why didn’t the doctors tell me in the first place? Perhaps because it’s totally depressing when you can’t lose weight in the first place.

I personally believe being overweight is a symptom of a systemic problem, rather than the actual problem. Weight gain/retention has a whole lot to do with insulin resistance and hormones. When the 15 pounds begins to melt away, it’s likely that insulin sensitivity is increasing and hormones are becoming more balanced. Getting pregnant just happens to have a whole lot to do with insulin sensitivity and regulated hormones.

If I were to have a do-over, I would go Paleo from the start. My insulin resistance has decreased tremendously and my hormones are finally starting to balance out. To anyone who is struggling getting pregnant, my very first suggestion would be to eat Paleo. I wish I had done so and saved myself all the heartache.

Obviously, I can’t change the past. However, I’ve been Paleo for 5 months now and let’s just say, considering my new lifestyle and 7-month-old baby, I’m being very careful in September. And all the rest of the months too.

* Photo Courtesy Rachael Pullman Photography

I love when quitting is the best answer

Two summers ago, I resolved to complete what I then thought was the ultimate proof of physical fitness: the marathon.

After years of avoiding an exercise I loathed so deeply, I finally took the plunge for that 26.2. My real goal was to do whatever it took to have a body strangers would lust after. For the year prior, I exercised fanatically and changed my eating habits drastically. Still, I only lost 1 pound. Despite rumors that it might actually help, I still found excuses to avoid running. I may have chosen the plague over running.

But after losing one solitary pound in a year, I realized how uninterested I was in taking 20 years to get rid of the excess baby weight.

I paid $120 for membership in a group training program and started running in July, which coincided perfectly with Houston’s notoriously sweltering heat and humidity. I bought shoes ($130), dri-fit socks ($15), dri-fit running clothes ($85), a hydration belt ($45), and anti-chafe body gel ($12). I spent every Saturday morning hating my life. Come to think of it, every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings as well. You see, the unfortunate thing about running is that if you don’t like it, you have miles and miles to think about the extent of your dislike. I find that around mile 4, I’m pretty much done. My legs aren’t tired, nor are my lungs. I’m just bored. My only solace was that on January 1, this thing would be over. I would have completed a marathon (just like a bazillion other people have done).

By week 2 of training, my weight started to change. +2. Pardon me? Perhaps I didn’t make my goals clear. The number was meant to go the other way.

I was reassured by friends that it was perfectly normal and quite common even to gain weight when you pick up running, but that would eventually reverse. I thought they were stupid, but had no personal schema to verify this gut feeling (which incidentally, was getting bigger by the week, according to my scale). I would just have to trust them until I could complete my own exploratory data.

Week 3 saw another pound increase and by this point I was ready to shoot myself. Week 4 did not include any weight gain (hallelujah!), but was that muscle I was losing? Why was I getting squishier?

This trend continued. Luckily, on my Week 6 long run, I had a full 58 minutes to think about what I was doing. And more importantly, why I was doing it.

I was running to lose weight. Oh yeah, and to be able to say I completed a marathon. They do it on The Biggest Loser, so surely I could too.

But did I want to spend the next 21 weeks running just because Tara from the green team did it? Or was losing weight more important to me? I couldn’t have both.

After finishing my 6 miles (in August. in the afternoon. in Houston), I walked through my door, logged my time, and quit.

Training for and quitting a marathon: $407
Recognizing a greater vision: still $407

Life lessons don’t come cheap, but failing never felt so good.

The new black

Erwan Le Corre is my hero*

MovNat/Paleo Fitness was ranked the number one trend in 2010 by Outside Magazine. Congrats Erwan!

This, plus gluten-free diets are listed in the top 10 health and fitness trends of 2010. The world is waking up!

Unfortunately, the Shake Weight and tone-up shoes/clothes also made the list which, according to Miguel de Cervantes, may invalidate my case.

Tell me what company you keep and I’ll tell you what you are. –MdC

Let’s hope we are a little more legit than tighter clothing as a weight loss mechanism.

* Photo by Emily Shur

On Becoming Vibrant, Sexy, Strong

I grew up in the Supermodel Era. Cindy Crawford. Naomi Campbell. Claudia Schiffer. Tyrese.

Modeling was a big deal. These women (and one Tommy Hilfiger male) were household names because of their modeling, not because they were dating someone famous.

At the same time these models were encouraging little girls to look like Kate Moss and Christy Turlington, there was also a societal kickback against the media’s influence over dictating the preferred appearance. Eating disorders and body image issues were being blamed on the fashion industry; and yet, we still couldn’t get these models out of our heads. All the girls wanted to be models.

We watched the celebrity news circuit to see what Helena Christensen was up to or what new bra Tyra Banks was showing off. We bought magazines at our school fundraiser to pore through and pretend we were those teenagers gracing the pages, happily getting into a limo at Prom. But thanks to the media’s dichotomous relationship with perceived beauty, even as a 12-year-old I was vaguely aware that these models were supposed to be selling me their body more than their clothes.

I distinctly remember a section displaying the newest Calvin Klein jeans when I started to really look at the women and girls in front of me. I repeatedly thought, “Why is she so special?” Not in a spiteful, scornful kind of way; rather, sincerely curious.

To me, these women looked so hollow. Something about them felt more like apparition, completely unsubstantial. They weren’t real women to me and I didn’t want to look like them.

During this same time, Gabrielle Reece was firing up the volleyball circuit. She was a woman I wanted to look like. I couldn’t pinpoint what it was about her, but I was drawn to her in a way the fashion models couldn’t compare.

Looking back, it’s evident why I was drawn to Gabby Reece. She was vibrant and alive. Feminine and sexy. Strong and athletic. She was healthy. Not really adjectives I could use to describe the D-list models selling me hair accessories.

And still, I spent years chasing the waifs. I eventually came-to, realizing there was something so much sexier about a strong woman. Posture and confidence, glowing skin and a fire in their eyes.

A healthy woman is vibrant, sexy, strong. And I’m becoming that woman.