DDPRadio and Me: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

As I think the whole world knows, I do a program called DDP Yoga. It is a very intense, challenging, and amazing program that combines yoga, rehabilitation moves, and dynamic resistance into a series of workouts that make your body lean, mean, and healthy. I started my journey in June of 2013. I was unhealthy, overweight, unhappy, and miserable. I got out of breath walking across the room to the bathroom. I was killing myself, slowly.

Fast forward!

A couple of months ago, I was forced to admit that I was injured. My Achilles on my left foot was so sore that I was limping. I kept buying different shoes, spending lots of money, thinking I could “fix” it. I went to Physical Therapy and got help. I found out that even though I have been doing DDP Yoga like a crazy woman (5 workouts a week, about 300 minutes a week), my hips were weak, my glutes were lazy (don’t go there, that’s my favorite joke -  I have a lazy butt), and I had injured my Achilles because I pushed through instead of working to strengthen these core muscles. Now, don’t mistake this as me saying I don’t work my core! I do Red Hot Core, which I dare anyone not to sweat through, but, my OTHER muscles were compensating. So I got hurt. I reached out to DDP. He emailed me back some suggestions and it opened a dialog. We got to talking about food, and I ended up agreeing to join an accountability group he had started.

At this point, I had already been logging my food on My Fitness Pal for over a month (username 1RadChick, hit me up with a friend request!). I had dialed in my calories, was watching what I ate, and had just decided to try eating plant based. I joined and started sharing my food each day. Every day, we share our food logs. It’s been eye opening for me, seeing how different everyone eats, and knowing that everyone is succeeding. At this point, my weight loss has been very slow (in my eyes). I’ve lost 39.6 lbs in 13 months. Yup, it’s a great loss, but for me, looking at some of the folks doing this program, I’m losing at the pace of a snail or slower. I was frustrated, but I am not willing to do drastic crazy diet measures to lose. I want to lose in a manner that is sustainable and healthy and fits me for the rest of my life. I have spent a lot of energy repairing my metabolism from yoyo dieting, taking diet pills, eating Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, Nutrisystem, and just plain starvation. I am done with all that now. As the kids say “This shit just got real!”

Earlier this week, I popped a quick message to the accountability group saying “I’m so frustrated, WHY am I not losing??!” DDP himself replied, asking me for 5 days of food diaries and a few other questions. I sent him what he wanted. When I looked at the diaries, I saw 2 entries that were not my finest choices, but I shrugged because I knew the background and I knew that they were *still within my calories and my vegan lifestyle.* I had managed to keep legal even with challenges, so I just sent them off. A day or so later, he reached out again and asked me to appear on DDP Radio. I said “Yes, as long as you promise not to Diamond Cut me on the air.” He agreed.

Wednesday night I called in. I was on the line as they played that amazing opening music. My accountability partner, Mark Furniss was on Facebook chatting with me, living it with me, and asked me if I had my heart monitor on. We laughed about that for a couple. Now I wish I *had* worn it! LOL

The first thing DDP said, after we went through formalities of my short bio, was “So September, you had Ice cream…. Really? You think ice cream is something you can eat on a diet? And gluten free pancakes?” I don’t really know much of what he said after that, because, those were my only 2 bad choices in 5 days and I literally lost it. In MY head, I was now a food shamed failure. I heard my biggest mentor call me out and thought I had failed completely. Obviously, that was NOT the intent or the reality but that was MY reality. Fortunately, I had a notebook handy, and I managed to jot down ideas that came from him and from Stacey Morris on how to improve things and get the weight loss hopefully moving. Everyone was as baffled as I am (and as my doctor is) as to why I’m not losing more quickly. The call out on the bad foods? It was just meant to jostle me into remembering I’m trying to lose weight… not maintain. (I get that now, then not so much!) I was on for almost 20 minutes! It was crazy amazing. And at the end, they asked me to come back. And I really will!

After the show, I sat and cried. For 3 hours. I remember thinking “Its not worth it. I don’t care. I’m quitting.” Mark Furniss is a totally amazing accountability partner. He is in Ireland, 8 hours away, and had a new baby born to he and Susan last Thursday. He stayed up with me, for almost an hour after the show, (that’s like 3 am his time!), and talked me down. He made me understand what had REALLY happened, versus what I heard. I also talked to John NS, Christina Russell, and Liz Collins. I have the most amazing people surrounding me on this journey, I really do. Mike Mullins also reached out. Just crazy caring! I railed at all of them, lashing out in anger, pissed off at the world, and knowing that I eat more cleanly than most of the people in my life and who I associate with online. Dammit I own my food, it doesn’t own me! I kept reiterating my frustration and man, it’s a good thing DDP wasn’t in the room because I might have Diamond Cut HIM before he could calm me down! :D Yep, really, ask Christina.

Thursday morning I woke up and logged onto my computer. I had several messages waiting for me, congratulating me on being on DDPRadio and telling me how awesome I was. Wait, what? Awesome? What? Becky Curtis-Parker caught me and told me I had done great. Jennifer Singletary commiserated with how I felt but said I did really well. I started to blossom a little tiny bit. But I was still really angry with DDP. I wrote him a long email. I told him I felt ambushed, hurt, frustrated. I hit send, (rewrote that sucker 5 times), talked a bit more to Becky and she said no no no! Send him a “read me first”… and talked me back to reality. So I did. He wrote back, apologizing profusely because of course he never meant to hurt me. He is proud of what I’ve accomplished but wants me to have even more success. He was using me as an example. And he was thrilled to get my Read Me First (although he got it after he started replying!)

By mid day Thursday, I had started to regroup, and open back up and get back to living life at 90%. I was exhausted though. Really exhausted--Mentally and physically.  I left work a bit early, went home and did my workout. It didn’t go well, and I didn’t really finish, but I did it, and it counted. I ate right all day, and felt good about all of it. I also exchanged emails with Stacey Morris and got clarification on some of what was said that was confusing to me. On the show they told me to eat no more than 27 grams of sugar a day. Well, I didn’t hear “added grams”, so I was trying to figure out how the heck you can only eat 27 grams when a freaking banana has 14. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t live on bananas, but after going many many years with them being on a “never eat” list, I’m not cutting them out ever again! So Mark worked with me a bit too, ironing out my food, and providing input on it. It was a good day.

This morning I weighed. And burst out laughing. Honestly. I am down 1.2 pounds this week. Really. I’m .4 away from 40 pounds. And this after whining that I wasn’t losing. My weight hasn’t budged by even a pound for almost 4 weeks, and now today, bam! Down.

So today, I sat down and really looked at My Fitness Pal. I looked at my goals and I decided to re-examine them. I made some adjustments. Are they going to be easy adjustments? I guess it will depend on the day. Are they crazy? No. Are they difficult? Again, it will depend on the day. Can I do it? Hell yes. Do I want to? Hell yes!  I’ve also agreed to a 2 week challenge of not eating complex carbs at dinner. (That’s what I am doing, no complex carbs. The whole challenge is no carbs, just veggies and protein.) Last night I had a protein shake with some tofu added for a bit of extra protein and some amazing roasted veggies.

In short, I got this. And. I am so SO very grateful to DDP for everything he does. He is an amazing human being, and I only hope I can be half the person he is. Thank you for being there, listening, pushing me to be more, and knowing I can be more. It really means a whole lot. More than you could possibly know. I am also grateful to Mark Furniss (http://heroddpyoga.blogspot.com) for being the most supportive (and yet realistic) accountability partner ever. Lastly grateful to the Team DDP Yoga folks who reached out and pulled me back to reality and made me see perspectives other than my own. My apologies to everyone I lashed out at, life happens, thank you for caring enough to stick with me through it. J

If you want to know more about my plant-based eating experience, which started as a 40 day experiment and has taken on a life of its own because I feel amazing, I have a facebook group set up here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/323525631145417/

Plant-Based Eating, the First 14 Days and How it Fits with my DDP Yoga Journey

For the past two years, I have been slowly modifying my eating habits to be even more healthy than they had been. Previously, I had still eaten some processed foods, and some artificial sweeteners, but I reached a point where I decided I was going to make some serious changes. I had gone to a new doctor, and to be honest, his approach was very subtle and worked much better than being told “Just go to Weight Watchers.” He sat with me and asked me if I would go home and watch 2 movies. He said he just wanted me to watch, I didn’t need to check back with him or anything but please just watch. I went home with a card, with the movies “Forks Over Knives” and “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead” written on it.

 I watched the movies. In fact, I watched both of them twice. While what I saw was thought-provoking, I just couldn’t even imagine eating either way. However, I DID make some good choices that day and decided to make some small changes, a little bit at a time.

Fast forward a year to 2013. In the middle of 2013, I started doing DDP Yoga. I also decided that I was going to start to eat clean again. I had slipped since I met that Doctor in 2012, and my weight had gone up again. As I started working on the DDP Yoga, I realized I was craving fresh foods, lots of veggies have been a part of my life for about 14 years, but now I wanted even more of them. A piece of fruit here and there, and I felt great. As the months went by, I started to want less protein.

In late May, I shared  that I had shaken up my eating plan. I started to eat brown rice and veggies for breakfast, then protein and a huge salad for lunch, followed by protein and a ton of veggies for dinner. This was a comfortable way to eat, but I noticed, again, that I wanted less and less of the animal protein. I was having more and more veggie burgers for dinner-- or a simple green juice drink for dinner. Things were changing.

  Sometime near the end of June, a fellow DDP Yoga person, Slim Gillian, posted on his blog that he was doing a 40 Day Plant based Challenge. This sparked my interest and curiosity. I started to research a bit and realized I was a turkey burger and maybe an ounce of goat cheese a day short of being plant-based.

In the meantime, I had an Achilles tendinitis flareup, and went back to that doctor from 2 years ago. I told him I was about 75% plant based, and he did new bloodwork, mumbling something about a baseline.  I think he knew from talking that I was almost ready.

For the past two years, Mondays have been “Meatless Mondays.” Therefore, when June 30^th rolled around and was a Monday, it was an easy leap. It is now July 13^th, making it 14 days since I started this journey. I’m doing great! I’m finding it fairly easy to eat enough, in fact, I’m having to be careful not to overeat, still. I’m not eating processed foods, unless you count the occasional Kind bar! My breakfast is still a big bowl of brown rice with steamed veggies, most days, other days it might be a plant based protein shake made with almond milk or a big glass of my favorite “green juice”, a copy of Jamba Juice’s Tropical Greens drink, which contains kale, pineapple, and apple juice.  Lunch is a huge salad, as always, with a sweet potato, quinoa, black bean burger or a portabella mushroom cap with some hummus on it. Yum! For dinner, I’ve been having lots of grilled veggies and the occasional veggie burger. On the weekends, if my husband and I have a large-ish lunch, which we do sometimes, I might have a green juice for dinner.

How do I feel? I’m starting to notice little changes. My skin feels softer, I’m sleeping more soundly, and I have SO much energy! It’s crazy. I thought I’d be dragging around, but I’m not! When I do my DDP Yoga workouts, I’m finding that my heart rate is a bit lower than it’s been, which is awesome! I’ll be excited to see what the next set of bloodwork looks like, I expect it will be even better.  Oh yea, and I lost 2 pounds in the past 2 weeks. Bang!

I am still taking the same Raw vitamin (Nature’s Way, Alive! 50+ for Women) I’ve taken for the past 2 years. I haven’t dropped that, because I figure it’s not hurting me. Other than that, I’ve been clean of everything including aspirin, Tylenol, Advil, etc. for so long I don’t know how my body would react if I took them!

So that’s where I am! I’ve started a Facebook group for my fellow DDP Yoga folks who are eating plant based. Feel free to come join us!
Until next time!

Recipe, Greek Spinach-Turkey Burgers

A friend at work, who has had great success with Weight Watchers, gave me this recipe. I tried it out and I have to say, these burgers are totally addicting. I LOVE them! I will have to admit, I haven't had one hot yet, I ate the entire batch cold, on my salad. :) She didn't tell me the original source, but here is the recipe.

Greek Spinach-Turkey Burgers

Makes 4 (I make 6, they are BIG! You need to adjust the calories)
PER SERVING (1/4th of recipe, 1 patty): 203 calories, 8g fat, 420mg sodium, 3g carbs, 1g fiber, 1g sugars, 29g protein -- PointsPlus® value 5*

Ingredients:
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 tsp. chopped garlic
4 cups chopped spinach leaves
1 lb. raw lean ground turkey
1 egg
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/2 cup crumbled fat-free feta cheese (I used a non-cow milk feta, and it wasn't fat free)
Optional: large lettuce leaves, sliced onion, sliced tomato

Directions:
Bring a large skillet sprayed with nonstick spray to medium-high heat on the stove. Add onion and garlic and, stirring often, cook until softened, about 4 minutes.

Add spinach to the skillet with onion and garlic. Stirring often, cook until spinach has wilted and excess moisture has evaporated, 3 - 5 minutes.

Remove skillet from heat. Once cool enough to handle, carefully blot away any excess moisture from the onion-spinach mixture with paper towels. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine turkey, egg whites, basil, oregano, salt, and pepper. Using your hands, mix well. Add cooked veggies and feta cheese to the bowl. Using your hands, mix until uniform.

Evenly divide turkey mixture and firmly form into four patties. (Cover and refrigerate if not cooking immediately.)

Bring a grill (or skillet or grill pan) sprayed with nonstick spray to medium heat. Add patties, cover, and cook for 5 - 8 minutes per side, until cooked through. If using a skillet or grill pan, work in batches, removing skillet or pan from heat between batches to re-spray. (And don't worry if your lid isn't a perfect fit when covering!)

Eat your patties with a knife and fork or, if you like, wrap them up in some lettuce leaves with onion and tomato. Enjoy!

MAKES 4 SERVINGS (or 6 if you are me!)
These are so so awesome. You will love them, I promise!

Is it really willpower?

I get a lot of comments telling me I have great willpower. I am often confused by them. I don’t consider myself to have great willpower. In an effort to resolve my confusion, I looked up willpower, and came up with words like dedication, determination, commitment, tenacity.  

I guess I DO have this. I have committed to doing the work to make my life the best it can be and improve my health and well being. Is it rocket science? Nope.

I am striving to make good choices, especially in regard to food and my DDP Yoga workouts.

First, food. I am not a rockstar with food. Clearly, I’m not. If I were, I wouldn’t have weight to lose, and I’d be one of those people who just goes through life, eating to live. I love food. Really. Food is wonderfully enticing and fun and delicious. But, I have committed to a choice of health and well being, so I have to negotiate food with that thought in mind. Is it easy? Heck no. But it IS rewarding.  It is gratifying to, each and every day, at bedtime, look back on the day and recognize all of the good food choices I’ve made through the day. Do I make bad choices? Of course. I’m human.

But, in the spirit of “living life at 90%” I try to keep the majority of my food in the realm of REAL food. I don’t eat much processed food, I eat a ton of veggies, and I keep my focus on the things I CAN have, rather than the ones I can’t. I don’t find substitutes for my old way of eating. I wouldn’t be where I am right now if I had continued to eat those foods, so it seems like it’s a smarter use of my ability to choose to find new foods and new good eating habits that serve my lifestyle, rather than bending my new lifestyle to fit my old way of eating. A great example of this is bread. I’m gluten free (for the most part, again 90%, still a work in progress.) Let’s be real, gluten free bread? Not tasty. Not worth it to me. Some people like it, find good brands, and continue to eat bread. Me? Not so much. I’m SO much happier having a nice burger with a lettuce wrap or even eating it with a knife and fork. Do I miss the bread? No, I think I actually enjoy the burger better without the bun, because I really taste all of the flavors. I will admit that I miss toast a bit once in a while, but I am thriving on whole grains, like steel cut oatmeal or oat groats, muesli, and homemade lowfat granola. I am loving my food, eating well, and not ingesting all kinds of ick.

Second, about my DDP Yoga workouts. I post and tweet them. I do it because it gives me accountability. It is a choice to do the workouts and put in the work, and I keep myself accountable by posting on Facebook and Twitter.  Sure, I have an accountability partner, and he’s awesome, but face it, he’s 6,000 miles away, what’s he going to do really do if I decide to go off the rails? He can’t control me, I have to do this for me, and I have to make a choice that I want to improve my health and quality of life. It’s all on me. He is merely there to guide me and try to remind me that I made a great choice and need to stick with it.

I get questions about working out alone, asking how I stay motivated. Have you seen my pictures? Yea, that. That’s how I stay motivated. In the shower, in the morning, soaping up my arm, seeing the muscles ripple and realizing that *I* am doing that, I’m shaping my body into something beautiful in about 30 minutes a day. Am I perfect with my workouts? Nope. There are days where I am lazy, days where I start and am too tired or too whatever, and I stop early. But, when I do that, I hold myself accountable and make sure that the next workout, I finish what I started.

The way I see it, I have THIS life, this ONE precious life. I have this limited time to do the best I can for my body and to thank it for all that it does for me, every day. I want to be that 80 year old woman, on the beach, doing yoga. When I was a kid, I spent my summers at the beach. The woman who took care of me disappeared at 5:30 am every day. One morning I snuck out and followed her. She went to the beach and it was the most beautiful thing ever. She did half an hour of yoga… and she did it every single day. At the time, I had no idea what it was.  I just knew that Olga was beautiful and what she was doing was important to her. She lived to be 97! She took care of herself.

So, yes, I guess I do have willpower. But it’s not magic. It’s just good, clean hard work, determination, and commitment. Like anything else, if you commit to do something, you will succeed. I had a friend who used to tell me “do what you say, say what you do”. I’ve never forgotten those words, and find that they are good guidance in almost every part of life.

Own your life!

Quinoa & Brown Rice Salad in a Jar

I started a new job a couple of weeks ago, and there isn't much nearby for good, clean food. This past week I faked it fairly well, but I knew I needed to come up with a solid solution for eating clean.  I had seen a website with salads-in-a-jar and thought those might be interesting, so I decided that this weekend, I was going to pursue more and find out.

I found The Yummy Life and her blog had four different versions of a quinoa salad in a jar. I went foraging in the kitchen and found I had just about everything to make the Mediterranean version, sort of, so that's what I made!

I had some organic precooked quinoa and brown rice with garlic that we had purchased at Costco, so I used that instead of cooking normal quinoa because, um, yea, I don't know where I put the raw quinoa, but it's very safe. :)  I figured out that the recipe called for 1/2 cup of quinoa and this packet had just about 2 cups so that meant I could make 4 jars, which is perfect, because, one day this week, I am going to leave the building and go explore at lunch.  I also didn't have Greek olives, but for some reason, we have 70-11 cans of pitted black olives so I used some of those that I chopped up. I also didn't have roasted red peppers, but I had a gorgeous raw red bell pepper, so I used that. I also didn't use puny pint size jars, I love spinach so I used quart jars and packed in a lot of spinach instead of the 1-2 cups she used. Yum!

Here's a link to the recipes: The Yummy Life

Oh, and one more thing. I didn't have ground chia seeds, but I did have whole ones, and I had this little OXO spice grinder that I was given many years ago for Christmas by a dear friend. Mine has a glass jar. Apparently they now come with acrylic jars. Anyhow, I found that I could dial down the grinder and grind my whole chia seeds! So happy. :)

Here's a photo of my Mediterranean Salads chillin' in the fridge, ready for me to grab and go in the morning. I hope they taste as good as they look!

If you decide to give these a try, let me know. I will report back on how they taste. Have a fabulous day!

how DDP Yoga has changed the way I think...

First off, Happy New Year!

Many of you know that for the past 6 months, I have been doing DDP Yoga. During that time, I have had a lot of success with the program, losing over 25 lbs and more than 35 inches. I won’t lie, it isn’t easy. But, it is possible. It is possible for anyone.

Whenever I share how much I’ve lost and how long I've been doing this, people ask me how I stay motivated. I have been thinking about that a lot. How *do* I stay motivated? I realized that the answer is easy and complicated all at once.

I take one day at a time, one workout at a time, sometimes one move at a time, and even, in some of the more difficult workouts, one minute at a time. I accept my actions for what they are. Every time I move, I am taking a step toward better health, flexibility, and overall well being. For me, that’s the goal. Losing weight? It will come, with dedication, determination, and a whole lot of focus.

“Comparing yoga to DDP Yoga is like comparing a bicycle to a Harley-Davidson.  They both have two sets of wheels, but that’s where the similarities end.” 

-Diamond Dallas Page

When I started doing DDP Yoga, in June of 2013, I did a grand total of 52 minutes in the first week. 52 minutes. A whole 7 days and that’s all I did. But, that was 52 minutes MORE than I did the week before. It was a win. When I started, in that first week, I took my photos. I “cheated” for the leg stretch photo, seen below. I held onto the wall, and lifted my leg, then flailed wildly, laughing because I really thought I was going to fall. And I did fall. More than once. I struggled with all of the photos, actually… it was really hard. It was hard to look at myself and face what I’d created. It was hard to acknowledge that I had not taken good care of myself. I felt like a failure. I had failed my body. My one and only precious body. But you know, I had to stop thinking that way and pick myself up, take the photos and move forward. I had my husband take the photos. THAT was the hardest thing ever. Then, because I survived that, I decided to post them, publicly for all the world to see. What if they helped someone? Just one person. What if.

Here’s a progression photo, showing that Day 1 photo, along with each month since. THIS is motivating. Looking and SEEING how much more flexible I am is enough motivation to prove to me that this program works. It’s shaping me into a whole other person. Yes!

Because of a chance encounter with someone on the team ddp yoga site, I started a google doc with my minutes and workouts. I kept it through the whole 6 months, in fact. I didn’t really look at it much, as far as comparing what I was doing to what I’d done, until a couple of weeks ago. I really looked at it. That’s when I realized that I did 52 minutes that first week. Now, on average, I do over 200 minutes a week! Really. Insane, right? I actually try to do more than that, and some weeks I am closer to 300 minutes, but with the holidays and other factors, it’s been closer to 200 lately, so we’ll stick with that.

Right there, what I just listed, that’s motivation. That’s how I stay motivated. Well, that and I hang out on the Team DDP Yoga site and have people I am accountable to, both there and on Facebook. I know that, if I were on this journey in my own little house, in my own little world, with no outside influence, and no contact with anyone else on a similar journey, that I would roll up my yoga mat and let it sit in the corner as a good intention that never came to fruition. But, because I’ve built up a network, a clan, a tribe of people who support me and share this portion of my life journey, I’m eliminating weight and inches and building a body that I can be proud of. Every day, I make it a point to compliment myself on some part of my body. It used to be that I’d like my hair, my eyes, or once my ears. (Not kidding.) Now, I’m reaching a point where, on a regular basis, I catch sight of my arms in the mirror and stop and think “wow! those are some nice looking arms.” The other day, I actually looked at my leg, flexed it and thought “yes, that’s how I want my calf to look.” HUGE stuff. Really huge. For me. Maybe not for someone else, but for me? Really big. I’m waiting for the day when I decide I like my behind. (Hey at least I’ve stopped calling it my “caboose.”) :)

Oh yes, and I eat whole, real food. At the moment, I am dairy free. Eventually, I will also be gluten free, but that's another post for another day. :)

Until then, you will find me, 5 of 7 days at least, on my mat, doing whatever Diamond Dallas Page tells me to do, and striving to do each move better than I did it the previous time.

How about you?

Want more information?
DDP Yoga