Weight Loss

Part of what I love about living frugally is when we find discpline with our finances, discpline in fitness often follows.  It is possible to lose weight and eat healthy foods all on a budget.  After my 6th child was born, I had 40 lbs to lose and very little time to work out.  I was desperate to not only lose weight, but build my metabolism, strength and energy too.  Enter Holly, AKA Fit Yummy Mummy.  Following are some blog posts telling my personal story about using her program–which I am still an active participant in. (Please note:  You do not have to be a mother to use Holly’s program, but it is for women age 18 and older only.)

 

I’ve been getting a lot of emails lately asking for more information about Fit Yummy Mummy. I don’t mind at all, but there’s so much to say that It’s worth writing a post about. First, here’s my before and during pictures. The picture farthest to the right was taken this Sunday. I won’t reach my fitness goals until March, but every day is better than the day before.

 

I first found Holly, aka Fit Yummy Mummy, from a youtube video. I might have been searching for smoothie recipes–I can’t remember. Anyway, I was impressed, but skeptical. I found her webiste and was taken back by how long her sales page was and when I tried to exit, a pop up came. You know the “Wait, wait, don’t go” kind of popup. Those types of things make me wonder how legitimate a business it is.

I continued to haunt her on youtube and finally shot her a personal email. I just found out I was pregnant with baby #6 and was determined not to gain 50+ lbs again. But I knew I needed help. She gave me the standard answer. Don’t diet while pregnant. Eat healthy foods. After the baby’s born we can talk about weight loss. Grrr.

Fast foward. Grant is born after I gained 50lbs…again. And I received an email from one of my subscribers that said she broke down and bought the FYM ebook after I mentioned it and LOVED IT! Really? I promised myself as soon as I sold enough products to pay for the book, I’d buy it. It was right after I got home from Family Camp and had to find enough fat clothes to pack for the week. It was frustrating and I didn’t like how I looked in our memory pictures. Plus, I tired easily. Dragging all that extra weight around was hard work.

Babies are worth it, but a lot of extra weight is no fun.
I couldn’t wait to download her book and once the purchase was made, I was shocked at how much stuff I got. It was an ebook of over 100 pages, plus exercise videos, plus a meal planning guide, plus a quick start guide, plus, plus, plus. Her stuff made sense. It is current on the research for the best ways to lose weight. I could do it with grocery store food and basic home equipment like a stability ball and dumbbells. I could use protein supplements if I wanted to, but I didn’t have to. She promised the exercises only took 15 minutes a day. I could do this.

The e-book package came with a one month free membership to clubFYM (after the first month there is a subscription fee that you can cancel at any time), where Holly posts her new workouts every month plus pops in to give advice and encouragement daily. Even better it’s a place where I keep my personal journal, recording how I feel about the journey and write down my favorite meals, recipes and workouts. It’s a place where I can connect with other women on the same journey and give and receive encouragement.

Without ClubFYM I would have given up long ago, like I always do. Even though her program is the best, and I get more good food than anywhere else, losing weight and getting stronger is hard work. Sometimes I don’t feel like making good choices. And after so many bad choices in a row, I feel like giving up. But the FYM girls understand this and encoruage me through it. I can do this, and you can too.

I think my favorite part about club FYM are the challenges. There are 4 (at least) a year and are free for club members to participate in. If you are taking part in a contest you have short homework assignments 3 times a week to help stay on track. And you get lots more of Holly in the form of live video chats and teleconferences. Here’s my motivation board which was one of my assignments from this challenge:

I whole heartedly endorse Fit Yummy Mummy. I even tried to get my dad to join, lol. If I love you a lot, I’ve mentioned it, because it has made my life better. And I want you to have some of the happiness I’ve found.

Disclaimer: Because I like FYM so much, I signed up as an affiliate. I make a commission from the sales of her ebook (only if you purchase through the button on this page) but not from the sales of the club FYM membership. I would have written this post even if there were no affiliate program, but I wanted you to know.

Part 2:  After the First Challenge

 

I just posted this over at Club FYM and wanted to share my joy with my Grocery Shrink friends. I wrote in an earlier post about how I discovered Fit Yummy Mummy and how it’s changed my life. The last 12 weeks was the FYM Fall Transformation Challenge that I participated in. As an exclusively breastfeeding mom, I doubted my ability to make quick changes in my appearance. But I stuck to Holly’s basic program and lost an average of a pound a week. I still have 20 lbs of excess fat to lose and a lot of muscle to build and should reach my final goals in March. What I’ve experienced gives me hope that I will reach those goals if I keep living the FYM lifestyle. Planning and Consistency is the Key to Where I Want to Be.

Here’s my final entry for the challenge:

FINAL STATS

Mom to six ages 11, 10, 8, 6, 4 and 6 months
Height 5’6”
Weight 157.6..145.4 -12.2 lbs
Size 12…8 -2 sizes
Bust 40…38 -2 inches
Waist 34…32.5 -1.5 inches
Mommy Belly 40.5….34.5 -6 inches!!!!!
Hip 40.5….38.5 -2 inches
Thigh 23 7/8…..22 -2 inches

Total 12.2 lbs and 13.5 inches lost

Reflection:
I’m a different person than I was 12 weeks ago. Not just smaller, but stronger inside and out. Emotionally I dealt with being a 7 year veteran homeschooler and putting 2 of my kids in Christian school. The transition was heart wrenching but has been good for our family. We also had the stress of inviting a reality TV crew into our home for 2 days. That 2 days of filming required 4 weeks of prep—cleaning out the spaces that get little attention and no one ever sees. Holly’s program is so perfect, because it only requires 15 extra minutes a day. I can do that even amongst the stress.

The FTC took place over 6 birthdays in our family (including mine) and I learned how to remove sweets from my definition of celebration. Saturday night before the end of the challenge, my oldest daughter scored her first goal in soccer. My dad took us all out to IHOP to celebrate. I was really worried about it, but ordered the spinach omelette with fresh fruit and was able to enjoy the moment with everyone without sacrificing my goals. I had an aha moment:

No matter where I go, there is a positive choice in the options. And when I make that good choice, it FEELS better than anything sweet can taste.

I could enjoy watching the others eat mounds of whipped cream over fluffy white flour pancakes with 6 different syrup choices, and it was okay, because I am reaching for something that is bigger than the moment.

My youngest baby is 6 months old and this is the smallest I have ever been with a 6 month baby. Even though it is my 6th baby! Before FYM I had some thoughts whether it was ever possible to have a trim figure with 6 babies and 35 years old. It is possible!

I feel so strong. When I move, my back is straight and I can feel the muscles in my posture. My legs are strong and powerful. I can run the stairs in my home doing chores and not get winded. I’m so excited because I will only get stronger, yet I will weigh less. It’s like putting a huge engine in a little red sports car. I can MOVE!

Losing weight has always been a battle for me. I had childhood onset obesity and currently weigh 3 pounds less than I did when I was 12 years old. My daughter is almost 12 and when I shared that with her today as she helped me with my photos—her jaw dropped. I’m so thankful she has lived an active healthy childhood and not dealt with the emotions of childhood obesity. Genetics and my past don’t matter as much as my NOW habits. I can have a better body than I did when I was 12—even after 6 babies.

My goals this challenge:
1. To Lose 12 lbs—Met!!!
2. To be able to do real push-ups (I can do 6!)
3. To balance my posture so my shoulders are level—Yes!
4. Consistently Plan My Meals—I would go with spurts on this one. For several days in a row I’d plan it all out, and then for a few days I’d record what I would eat instead. While I prefer planning ahead, both methods worked well for me. I’ve been used to eating 6 small meals a day for several years so the biggest change was upping the produce and decreasing the bread.
5. Do my exercising first thing in the morning for a metabolism boost all day. I did great with this one until the early morning crazies got to me. If I didn’t get it done first thing in the morning, I did it before lunch. Still a huge improvement.

The biggest dare I took, was doing my exercises no matter what. Which meant sometimes I was the only mom jogging around the soccer field at 8am on a Saturday morning. I had to get past the fear that people would look at me and think I was weird.