Introduction

Yes, it's time for the obligatory introduction.  My name is Ashley- I'm a 31-year old mother of three beautiful children (ages 3, 1, and 2 months) and I'm obese.  It's hard to type that because prior to having children, I was in great shape.  I ran 5K's monthly, worked out daily, and ate (mostly) healthy.

I had already gained a bit of weight before I got pregnant with my son in November of 2013 and then made the mistake of taking 'eating for two' very literally when I should have only been adding an extra 300 calories or so to my daily intake.  I ended up gaining 50 lbs with him on top of the 30 lbs I had already gained prior to getting pregnant and was nearly 230 lbs at delivery.  This was 100lbs heavier than the weight I felt comfortable at.

I lost 30 of those before I got pregnant with my daughter in May of 2015 and started my pregnancy at 200lbs.  Again, I ate more than I should have (apparently did not learn my lesson) and gave birth at 240lbs in February 2016.

This time, I only lost 20lbs before getting pregnant again in November 2016 (I'm sure you can see where this is going).  Thankfully, this time, I paid attention to what I ate.  I didn't diet, but I did make sure that I was only eating what I needed for nutrition for myself and baby.  I started my last pregnancy at 220 and gave birth at 240.

By August 18, my weight had started to stabilize at 210 lbs and I started to diet.  I had a recurrent C-Section due to Pregnancy-induced Hypertension which turned into Postpartum Hypertension.  I was on blood pressure medicine (Procardia x2) daily to regulate it so I knew I shouldn't be exercising until everything had started to heal.  I weaned off the Procardia per my PCP and started exercising at 5W postpartum (September 14).

Before starting true exercise though, I fired up my FitBit Charge 2 HR.   I started slowly trying to increase my steps to make it above 10,000 steps a day (US Heart Association recommended amount). The week of August 21, I was averaging about 5300 steps a day. 

By September 14, on a 16:8 intermittent fasting diet at approx 1500-1600 calories, 8300 steps per day, and taking RSP QuadraLean Thermogenic, I had gotten to 203.3 lbs and I was excited about my weight-loss.  I had almost made it down to what I was before my second pregnancy (all progress is good progress right?).  I started working out using what I thought would be a nice, low-impact and quick workout- the Bowflex Max Trainer M5 we had bought last year.  It was rough and after 2 days, I had to take a day off (more on that later).  However, I discovered that one of my friends was a Beachbody coach and I let her talk me into signing up for Beachbody on Demand so I could start to work out in earnest.  On September 15 I signed up for Beachbody on Demand and got started.

Since then I've done numerous workouts (although not full programs, I get bored far too easily for that).  I'll be reviewing the individual workouts with printouts from my HR monitor and calorie burns as I go along.  In the beginning, I started with Cize and  soon added Walk On as my daily second workout (I'll review those as well). 

On September 29, at 197lbs, I started Yasmin birth control and 1 pill of Metformin ER per day.  My weight started to creep back up and I got discouraged.  In the first 4 days of taking it, I gained back 3lbs.  On October 3, I decided F it, I'm going to eat what I want and not work out for a while and reset and I'll start back when I feel better.  That didn't happen until October 16.

So starts the beginning of my weight-loss journey (again).  On 10/16/2017 my Weight Guru Smart Scale measured me at 202.4 lbs and 39.7% body fat. I've been doing random Beachbody workouts 1-2 times a day with a rest day on Sunday.  I've found some products that I really like that I'll be sharing with you (as well as some I'm not too keen on).

This will be as much a journal of accountability and honest feedback on many of these programs as it is a blog.  I'm more than happy to answer your questions if you have them, but be prepared to see all my favorite things.



NOTE/ DISCLAIMER:  I'm an Amazon Affiliate, so I receive compensation if you purchase any of the items on this or any blog pages, however the information listed here is my honest opinion and not an attempt to get you to purchase garbage.  I legitimately own and use these products daily.