The year started with awesome new friends made in the Team DDP Yoga chatroom. People like Marv, Heidi Sue, John NS, Mark Furniss, and George Fenmore (I know there are lots more, please don't get upset if I didn't single you out!). It was crazy at first. I had so much support, and so little confidence in what I could do. I remember at my 30 day mark, I took new photos, shared them, and John started pointing out all the little changes when I said there weren't any. That really kicked it off for me, recognizing those changes and starting to accept that this was really happening!
Fast forward to November. I hurt my shoulder. It wasn't earth shattering, but it slowed me down. A lot. Then, I let myself be convinced I was still doing the same level I had been, through the holidays and into January. By now, Mark Furniss was my accountability partner (still is!), and he realized I was lagging and started to push me to get it in gear. And I did!! I had gained about 5 pounds but maintained most of my inch loss. It was time to get serious.
March, April and May are a blur of me moving, doing the work, and eating clean. It paid off, I took off the 5 I had put back on, plus another 2. Having said that, in early June, my feet started to bother me even more than they had previously. It started in May, actually, but I thought I had it under control. Clearly not. I finally went to the doctor last week, and have achilles tendinitis in my left foot.
When I saw the doctor, he looked at me and told me I was thinner. I told him what I was doing and explained how it worked to him. He was so impressed with my loss, muscle tone, and the fact that I kind of went into catcher like it was nothing (I was showing him how my knees were kind of squeaking and complaining, LOL, he wasn't the only one who was surprised because I just dropped a catcher right there!) , that he ended up going to the DDP Yoga site himself, and asked me to write it down for him. He also told me that although I don't think my loss is amazing, he's very happy with it and can't wait to see how I look with all of it gone and that even if it takes 6 years, he's happy. I left feeling great! Strong, supported, and in charge, baby!
My visit to the physical therapist the next day wasn't quite so stellar. He looked at me and saw a chubby girl and decided I needed to cross train -- he wanted me ass on a stationery bike to "get some cardio". Whatever. He wasn't listening to me, but I DID get the exercises I need to strengthen my achilles and get this painful thing gone. (By the way, my average heart rate during a DDP Yoga session is about 128 and I can sustain that for about 35 minutes now before it starts going too high!)
So, let's get serious for a second. Let's talk about this year. First, here are the official stats:
Was it easy? No.
Would I do it again? Hell yes, and I'd do it better!
Have I learned anything? I have learned that I can do really hard things, and I have learned that if today's workout isn't the best, that's okay, because tomorrow's will be better. Every work out seems to bring a nugget of happy ability that wasn't at the last one, even the not great ones! This progression kind of tells the whole story I think!
How do I eat now compared to a year ago? Well, this is one of the most interesting parts of my whole story. Two years ago, my doctor had me watch Forks Over Knives and Fat, Sick and Nearly Dying. He told me he thought I would really benefit from what these movies had to offer. Now, understand, this was a new doctor who did not know me at all. I watched the movies, I dabbled with what I saw in both movies, even bought a juicer. They were very compelling. Over this past two years since that appointment, I had dropped much of what I started, but in mid May, Mark and I talked about my food, and he gave me some new ideas (that seemed a little whacky at the time), mostly for breakfast. Then I convinced my husband that we needed to tighten things down a bit and we have. I have eaten clean for about 3 years, but here's the thing, you can eat clean and gain weight if you don't monitor your portions and if you don't watch things fairly closely. So, in mid May I started tracking my food on myfitnesspal (I'm 1RadChick there if you want to friend me). After a few days, Mark told me I needed to eat more. So I upped my intake, adding more veggies and a protein shake once in a while. It helped. It helped to the point of that's when I lost the most recent 3 lbs! Yes. We are onto something. At this point, I'm about 75% plant based, 25% protein. My protein comes from buffalo (bison) , Grass fed beef, organic chicken, fish, shrimp, and turkey. That's about it, and we get most of it at Costco, which is awesome! I eat between 1500 and 1900 calories a day and I do have a protein shake (plant based, I use Raw Protein from Garden of life, mixed with almond milk), if I need extra protein when it comes time to workout. Funny thing, Mark told me that I needed more protein for muscle recovery because I was always complaining about sore muscles, and he was right. Once I upped the protein, my workouts got stronger and I had less muscle soreness. This week, I'm upping my water. I drink "enough" but I need to drink more. I know I do, so it's time to make that happen!
Do I take any supplements? I take a Raw multivitamin from Nature's Way called Alive! I also take CLA PM from GNC every night, and I am currently taking Turmeric as a science experiment. Lastly I take something called WobenzymN, which is to support my joints. I will follow up on how that goes.
Do I have any advice for folks just starting out? Take it slow. You didn't get overweight fast, you won't lose fast, and you need to respect your body. Listen to your body. If you are doing a workout and something hurts, don't just keep going, stop, evaluate, modify. DDP stresses this throughout every single workout, listen to him! Also, if something feels sore, ice is your friend. If you are a DDP fan, you've heard that his fellow wrestlers joke that he would fill the bathtub with ice after matches. I doubt it is far off. I'm at a point where I am icing my ankles and my knees to keep things happy. Not because I'm injured but because I don't want to be. Also, don't be in a rush to get to the difficult workouts. Take. your. time! Learn the moves, learn the poses, get familiar with how your body feels in the poses. Don't fret about how fast DDP is going, pause the video or skip the move. There is more than enough cardio in every workout! Oh and find an accountability partner or 5. Mark Furniss is my main accountability partner, but I also have other folks who keep an eye on me and provide feedback and support.
So that's how my year has been! A whirlwind of energy and movement, with lots of veggies and good stuff to eat thrown in! Stick with me, I think this next year is going to be even MORE incredible, because now I know what I'm doing and what I have to do to get where I want to go!
If you are reading this and want to know more about DDP Yoga, please DO click on the link at the right, watch Arthur Boorman's incredible story, and if you decide to buy, use that link because it provides me a tiny bit of money and I'm saving to go to the DDP Yoga retreat next year!
No comments:
Post a Comment