Clean Insanity

So my last health update was about my mental health.  I am happy to report that things are continuing to look up in that arena.  I stopped taking the antidepressant (with my therapist's approval and advice) a few weeks ago. I was nervous that the depressed feelings would swoop down on me again, but so far they have not. I do think the depression was largely hormonal and now that I'm about 4 months post-weaning the hormones seem to have leveled out. The therapist also helped me get a grip on the non-hormonal aspects of the depression. I probably would've stayed on the pills longer, but to be honest, thanks to therapy I realized I really do want another baby soon-ish and I didn't want to take anything while pregnant. (I'm not pregnant though, for anyone wondering.) I just want to have some time where my body is hormone and drug free before getting all hormonal again.

I also wanted some time to get my body in shape and healthy.  I lost all the baby weight within a year of having Lukas, but I never got into a solid workout routine.  I never regained all the lost muscle or definition and I haven't felt "good" about how I look in a long time.  I felt OK, but not good.  So before going and getting all baby-big again I decided I wanted to slim down and get healthy first.  It may seem backwards, but I have the goal of losing about 13 pounds before getting pregnant and gaining them all back.  I figured that if I could get in a good workout routine NOW and eat healthy NOW, then I'd have a better shot of only gaining the 25-35 recommended pounds the next time around.

So, I've been hitting this from two sides wholeheartedly: workout and eat clean.  And I couldn't be happier with the results!

I'm am currently in week 7 of a 9 week program called Insanity. I love it. I work out 6 days a week for between 30 to 60 minutes per day. (I wake up early or fit my workout in after dinner.  This is a big time  commitment, but it is me time that I need and that is important!)  The program is seriously insane.  I still cannot get through an entire DVD without having to stop and rest at some point.  It is hardcore.  And I LOVE IT!  If you're looking for a new workout program, this is worth every penny!  I took pictures at the half way point and can't wait to compare them to my after pictures in two more weeks.  I am gaining muscle, toning my body, shrinking my stomach and feeling all around amazing.  I honestly haven't felt this good about the way I look in at least two to three years.  Maybe longer.

The other part of my little health revolution has been clean eating.  I touched on clean eating a couple weeks back when I first started.  I'm now 5 weeks in and feel great.  My trusty old blender turned out to be not so trusty, so I'm now the proud owner of a Vitamix and LOVE IT!  This morning I drank a kale, spinach, swiss chard, celery, cucumber, pineapple, mango, banana smoothie for breakfast.  Delicious.  Mr. Cob and Lukas have also been clean eating and they both are actually eating the food...because the food TASTES GOOD! It's simply real, minimally processed foods.  I've been cooking recipes from the Clean Eating Magazine nightly and most everything has been great.  Clean eating does require forethought and planning, but it is completely do-able.  If I can do it, you can do it!  I plan to write a detailed post soon simply about clean eating and some "how tos" for the busy mom.  But for now the simplest tip is this: Don't buy/eat any food that has an ingredient that you cannot pronounce or do not know!

All around I feel good.  I'm happy.  And the scale is moving.  I'm down almost 8 pounds in 5 weeks.  This may not seem like much, but on my 5'4 frame, it is to me.

Mr. Cob and I are going on vacation in October and I'm actually looking forward to going bathing suit shopping in a few weeks.  I'm excited to continue on this health journey and make it a part of my entire family's life.  It's not a diet.  It is a lifestyle.  (Luckily, I've deemed red wine to be a "clean food".  I mean, wine is made from grapes.  Grapes = clean.  Logical, right?)

So that's what's been going on in my world.  Healthy, clean and insane!