Over the years as I have had babies I have had many problems with my back. Most of you know how I had a herniated bulging disc in my back while I was pregnant with Luke. While my morning sickness was the cause of the disc issues in my back. I have had back problems for years (since a car accident I was in during my high school years). After the delivery of Luke I was feeling pretty good for the most part… with the exception of my back. I would wake up in the morning stiff as a board. Isaac and I thought it was our bed so we traded it in on warranty for a new bed. While the bed was great at first within a couple days I was back to square one. It became pretty obvious that it wasn’t just “the bed.”

The other big thing I was struggling with was picking up Drew (my very heavy 2 year old). I always envisioned myself being a fun active mom and my back pains were getting in the way of that. I was determined to loose some of that “baby weight” and see if that would help at all with my back problems. So for the first time in years I stepped onto a scale. Shocked (kind of), I wanted to cry. I weighed more than I weighed when I got married and was weight lifting and swimming every day. Back then I was a size 14 believe it or not… by I was strong! It is funny how in your mind you don’t age like your body does. So as I looked down at the scale, I wanted to cry... I was 162 lbs! Usually I never got on the scale because it didn’t matter what it said as long as my clothes fit and I felt good. Well my clothes wasn’t fitting, i didn’t feel good and I wasn’t able to take as good of care of my kids. I wasn’t sleeping well (b/c of my back and nursing Luke) so I was cranky all day. I just didn’t have the energy to jump on the trampoline any more. Plus for the first after having a baby… my stomach wasn’t just going back like it did with the other four. What hurt the most was that my kids noticed. Every now and then one of the kids would bring up “mommy’s tummy.” Megan would even ask if I was pregnant again!

So when the new year came around and you hear of “New Years Resolutions” I thought I should make a resolution to loose weight. I had started in November working out on our tread climber a couple times a week and trying to make it to the gym once or twice to swim. It wasn’t cutting it though. I wasn’t seeing a difference. I was too inconsistent at working out. And I needed to change some things in my diet so I could stay healthy and keep working out. For a while I struggled with getting mastitis every couple weeks. So it made it hard to keep working out regularly. I will blog about this another time to share what I have learned in treating this with homoeopathics.

February was a big month for me… I spent almost all of my free time reading up on and trying out things like cooking with coconut oil, making my own bread, recipe books for low caloric/ cholesterol meals, and juicing. I had a goal to loose 20 lbs in 29 days. Not very realistic, but I was motivated. If I was going to spend so much time working out… well then I was going to have success. Well I worked out almost everyday, with the exception of a four day trip to Port Townsend. I started juicing about every other morning and sometimes every day. On the off days I would make everyone fruit smoothies. We started eating oatmeal at least four days a week (to help fill us up and keep our cholesterol down). Isaac would get up in the morning and shower while I juiced (about 6:15-6:30 am), I would eat something to get my metabolism going and then work out while he ate breakfast and did devos and prayed with the kids. I love our Bowflex tread climber because it is easier on my ankles and knees than other tread mills. I found that I burn a lot more calories on it in less time as well. I average about 400 calories burned in 35 minutes or 500 calories burned in 45 minutes every morning. I really like working out in the morning because I get to have quiet time with the Lord before the day begins… rather than being forced into my day because kids wake up too early. I either read or listen to messages/ worship music on my ipod. Then I go shower and we start our day. I love having work outs, showers, devos, and quiet time all done by 8 am. It has changed the course of our days. the kids and I have much more productive days and I feel so much better.
As for February, I didn’t loose 20 lbs, but I did loose 12lbs. Which was probably a lot more realistic for me anyway. Aside from loosing the weight, I was feeling good. I am able to wear my pre-pregnancy pants, and haul Drew and Luke all over (at the same time). And my back doesn’t hurt in the mornings. Normally I would not advocate weight scales… but I heard once… “The scale doesn’t lie.” Meaning if you are working out and eating healthy it will be revealed on the scale. If you are not, it will be revealed on the scale.
The past few months I have been spending more time focused on creating healthier habits such as juicing (which takes a bit of time cutting certain veggies and fruits), exercising, and going to bed earlier. Recently I heard my four year old daughter Megan talking to my son about jumping on the trampoline and it made me giggle. She said, “Maybe mom can do it now that she got rid of her big tummy.” They notice not just what I look like but how my size affects what I can and can not do with them. I am excited to continue this journey of healthier living and see where it takes me and my family over the course of the next year.

This is our compost for the chickens after juicing. Funny thing is they were only laying 2 eggs a day until the day after we started feeding them this pulp. Now we are at 10 eggs a day from 11 chickens! Obviously the days are longer now and it is almost Spring so that makes a big difference but we started juicing in January when we still had snow and we were getting a ton of eggs. I think this says something for veggies & fruit!

Info: We got our juicer at Costco $89.99, but you may have luck finding them online cheaper

Also Costco has been selling tons opf citrus in bulk which is great top juice… and you can freeze it for 5-6 months. Grapefruits, tangelos, cuties are all super yummy and a lot of cultures use these citrus’ for detoxing or cleansing.
Also you can freeze the pulp for smoothies… which I do unless I am using grapefruit (it doesn’t taste so good in a smoothie)

Health and Blessings!