are YOU insane?!

In all of the almost five years that Clay and I have been married, we really haven't gone on a real vacation. Like, longer than a weekend vacation. So when Clay's family decided we should go somewhere for a type of family reunion, Barb, Brandon's wife, thought of Catalina Island. I hadn't really heard of it before, but I had seen it on one of the episodes of The Bachelor - it was some romantic getaway on an island off California. Yeahhhh! Sounded like a great idea :)

To make a story short, we already started planning months before we were going. We are going the end of June and bought our flight tickets clear back in March. Needless to say, I've been pretty psyched about it. We had also started a family weight loss competition with a pot of $350 for the winner. So to help Clay and I out, we decided to buy the workout DVD's of INSANITY!

We had gone through P90X, although we never made it through a month of that, and those are back in storage in Minnesota, so we needed something. It was a great motivation to get ourselves beach body ready for Catalina.

Well, with a month left of the competition and 3 weeks away from vacation, sadly, I've done nothing. Ok, so I can't really say that. I just haven't lost much. I have been working out. But within the last few weeks I've actually gained weight. I don't know how the heck that has happened. I haven't done anything differently. I have also been super, super tired and exhausted all the time. Ok, so you're probably thinking, are you pregnant?!?! NO! :) ha ha I have an under active thyroid and the only thing I can figure out the problem is that my dosage is not enough. Under active means it's contributing to a low metabolism rate which probably explains the weight gain. I haven't had my blood checked for about five months, so it's possible. My symptoms all relate back to when I first found out I had hypothyroidism - I was sleeping all.the.time. I never noticed anything with my weight though because I was always active, working out, working, going to school, etc. Ok, I'm just rambling on now.

Along with Insanity, I've tried to incorporate their meal plans and kind of count calories and be better about healthy eating. So I have come to a conclusion, which you've heard before, but it's like a light finally clicked on in my head - exercising more leads to better eating habits. It's so funny, you would think you wouldn't have energy for the rest of the day if you work out and "use" all your energy with a workout. It's just the opposite. I find myself making bad food choices when I don't workout, and then I never want to make dinner, do chores, and clean up the house. And so even with my energy level low because of my medication (of what I'm blaming it on right now until I go see a doctor) right now, I still find myself with more energy throughout the day when I get a workout in, even if I only survive ten minutes on the treadmill. Oh, and the Insanity workouts? Really, I've only done like five days of it! HA HA If you've ever done it, or know someone who has, they'll say the warm up is a workout itself. It's SO TRUE! You're literally dripping sweat. It's nasty. So that's my justification some days that at least I raised my heart rate for
ten minutes during the warm up :)

I'm sure you all enjoyed reading my post, that is if you're still reading. Guess I just wanted to remember this moment so I have no excuses in the future saying I won't have energy afterwards if I workout, etc. and yadda yadda yadda :) One thing I do miss? Nursing. Never thought I'd say that. BUT. . . I miss it for the reason that I could keep my weight down :) ha ha Agree? I won't tell you how much I've gained after I stopped, but I'm glad I made it through the hard times to nurse as long as I could and did.

Ok, the end . . . for now. Until Catalina . . . :)