Week 3 -- A Blog with a Purpose, I Hope

When I started this blog it was all about DIY and crafts (cool crafts, not crafty crafts) with a little real estate and home staging.  Lately it has morphed slightly to fitness plus the other stuff.  I'm not going to stop blogging about DIY and the rest of that but I am hoping to transition to a blog with a meaning.  And I hope that meaning is going to be helping people deal with and avoid eating disorders.  With that said, I need to tell my story.  Sorry to the skimmers.  This may be long.  And there will be a nutrition and exercise plan at the end...

When I was very young I was in the normal size range.  I was healthy.  I LOVED to eat.  My grandma used to tell me I was such a good eater.  The thing is, I didn't want to be the "good eater."  My cousins that were my age were not good eaters.  I wanted to be like them.

Starting out early as a runner.

But I wasn't like them.  They were picky eaters and I wasn't.  I liked everything except for carrots and I ate everything except for carrots.

Then I hit the awkward stage.  I got fat starting around second grade.  That was when I went on my first diet.  I don't remember what I ate.  I'm sure my mom made sure I was healthy.  But I do remember losing weight and feeling so good I ran and slid on my classroom floor because I was so happy that I was losing weight.  I remember being in the third grade and on weigh-in day I was 73 pounds, which sucked because the other fat girl on the bus with me was in fourth grade and weighed 72 pounds.

Christmas in 3rd grade.

My friends were all smaller than I was.  I was taller and bigger so I always slouched when I was around them.  I weighed 110 in fifth grade, 126 in sixth grade, and I was so happy that I could lie in seventh grade because they just asked us our weight.

Even after I "grew into my weight." I was still bigger than my friends, who boys always liked.  My freshman year of high school I weighed 147 pounds.  I'm 5'8" and I thought that was HUGE.

14 years old and so freaking cool.

Then something happened.  I broke my neck (which I can write about in another post if you're interested) and I couldn't eat for a week, then I didn't want to eat much for a few weeks.  I ended up losing around 12 pounds.  Granted, it was muscle (as well as fat) that I lost so I wasn't getting leaner, I was just smaller, but I liked it.

Broken neck -- 15-years-old.

I liked it so much that I stopped eating.  The next year (after I broke my neck) I played soccer so I got a ton of exercise.  There were days where I would eat a package of gummy raspberries (because they were fat free) and maybe a can of soup if it had less than 2 grams of fat.  It was all about fat grams.  The goal was to never eat more than 2 per day.  I lost weight.  I started to get a lot of attention and compliments and I ate it up.  I wanted more.  So I lost more weight.  I would take my dad's Phen Phen pills so I wouldn't be hungry and would lose more weight.  At my low weight I was 119 pounds.  People would ask me to stop losing weight because I was too thin.  I loved that.  I didn't see myself as too thin.  They were "compliments" to me.

17 years old, 119 pounds

One of my favorite parts of my body was my collar bone.  I loved to see it -- I still do.  Look at the collar bones on me at my Junior Prom.  But I was bummed because this dress was a size 10.  I couldn't believe I was so low in weight and still a size 10 (even though I could fit into my friend's size 3's)!

Junior Prom

Then something awesome happened.  A boy liked me.  And not just any boy.  He was the most popular boy in the grade above me (senior).  He even liked me enough to drop a bunch of money on professional pictures of us together.  Haha!

After he graduated he left for two years to serve a mission for our church.  And guess what.  Other boys liked me.  I loved the attention.  LOVED it.  The thing is, I know they were originally "attracted" to me because of how I looked.  And the problem with that is that I did it the wrong way -- by pretty much starving myself.

I was in the musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers my senior year.  I thought I had a big abdomen so I duck taped my waist like a girdle to shrink it.  

   

"Alice"

Superman cape made for my 2-year-old brother.

I continued to starve myself until I was 20 and went to BYU-Hawaii where I paid for a cafeteria meal plan so I ate twice per day.

When I was 21 I served a mission for my church.  I ate no candy the entire time.  I was so worried about getting fat and I asked people all the time if I looked bigger.  One day someone finally said "maybe" and I freaked out.  I started starving myself again during the day and would binge and purge at night.  I took diet pills too.  This time I went from about 135-140 to 126.  People started to notice and compliment me.  I was looking great!  Then I had a good friend recognize the pattern and she set up a surprise meeting for me with our mission president (the man in charge of the 200+ 20-year-old missionaries).  He was an OBGYN and he and his wife talked to me about my "anorexic and bulimic tendencies."  She told me they knew I would do it again, which totally gave me permission (in my mind).

A couple of days later I got a phone call from my mission president that basically said that if I did it again I was being sent home.  I didn't do it again until I was around 26.  

This cycle of horrible eating habits and borderline disorders continued until after I was married.  I tried every diet I could -- Atkins, Weight Watchers, etc.  I even had lipo (which I still totally love, don't get me wrong).  The only thing that ended the cycle was when I learned how to do it the right way.  It's all about education!  Now I know that eating healthy (with a balance of carbs, fat, and protein) and lifting weights (as well as doing cardio) will get me into those pants that I want to be in and my body won't be starving.

At my fittest I weighed 132, was 19% body fat, and fit into a size 3 (although I was comfortably a 6).  I was healthy and eating often.   Compare that to when I was 17, starving myself, 119, and in the same size.

When I feel it's necessary I will probably post about my suggestions on how to deal with teenagers like I was but if you are in the situation with your daughter, please email me.  I want to help.  I want to educate her.  She needs to know that she can be healthy and lean without starving herself.  But mainly I want her to not think about food ALL THE TIME like I did.  And maybe that will take a counselor, which I am not.

So today is week 3 of my nutrition and exercise plan.  I'm doing pretty well with the exercise part.  I'm eating healthily but not exactly what the nutrition plan says.  It was so much easier when I didn't have kids.  ;)

Nutrition:

Pre Workout (6:00 AM)
200 cal bar or shake/banana and PB/etc.

MEAL 1 (08:00 AM) 
0.5 cup Cereal-Oatmeal-Measured Dry
1 Egg-White-Fresh
1/2 Apple
1 Egg-Whole-Fresh
0.25 cup Milk-Nonfat/Skim
322 cal

MEAL 2 (10:00 AM)
0.5 cup Cheese-Cottage-Lowfat 1%
10 Kashi TLC Crackers
1/2 Apple
270 cal

MEAL 3 (12:30 PM) 
Meal Replacement Shake/Bar
160 calories

MEAL 4 (03:00 PM)  
1 oz beef jerky
10 Kashi TLC Crackers166 cal

MEAL 5 (06:00 PM)
1/3 c brown rice
3 oz-wt Chicken Breast Skinless-Roasted
1 cup Beans-Green,Snap-Cooked
239 cal

MEAL 7 (09:00 PM) 
0.5 cup Cheese-Cottage-Lowfat 1%
0.5 cup Cucumber-Slices
0.5 Tomato-Medium Whole
100

Program Totals:
1500 calories (approx)

Exercise:

Cardio:

Eliptical Machine

Intervals 3 min Jog 2 min Sprint

30 & 30 Minutes

6 & 5 days per week

Day	Body Part	Exercise	Sets	Reps	Weight	Rest	Speed	Notes	Exercise Info
1	Chest	Incline Dumbbell Chest Press	3	15		Superset No Rest	2/4/2	Superset with other 3 sets back exercise	Details
1	Back	Cable Lat Pull Down	3	15		Superset No Rest	2/4/2	Superset with other 3 sets chest exercise	Details
1	Chest	Dumbbell Chest Press	10	10		Superset No Rest	3/5/2	Superset with other 10 sets back exercise	Details
1	Back	Seated Cable Row	10	10		Superset No Rest	3/5/2	Superset with other 10 sets chest exercise	Details
2	Legs	Leg Extension	3	15		Superset No Rest	2/4/2	Superset with other 3 set exercise	Details
2	Legs	Seated Calf Raise Machine	3	15		Superset No Rest	2/4/2	Superset with other 3 sets exercise	Details
2	Legs	Leg Press Plate Loaded	10	10		Superset No Rest	3/5/2	Superset with other 10 sets exercise	Details
2	Legs	Seated Leg Curl Machine	10	10		Superset No Rest	3/5/2	Superset with other 10 sets exercise	Details
3	Shoulders	Rear Shoulder Fly Machine	3	15		Superset No Rest	2/4/2	Superset with other 3 sets exercise	Details
3	Core/Abs	Ball Crunches	3	15		Superset No Rest	2/4/2	Superset with other 3 sets exercise	Details
3	Shoulders	Shoulder Lateral Raise Machine	10	10		Superset No Rest	3/5/2	Superset with other 10 sets exercise	Details
3	Core/Abs	Forearm Bridge	10	60sec		Superset No Rest	Hold Constant	Superset with other 10 sets exercise	Details
4	Biceps	Standing Hammer Dumbbell Curl	3	15		Superset No Rest	2/4/2	Superset with other 3 sets exercise	Details
4	Triceps	Cable Triceps Press Down	3	15		Superset No Rest	2/4/2	Superset with other 3 sets exercise	Details
4	Biceps	Incline Bench Dumbbell Curls	10	10		Superset No Rest	3/5/2	Superset with other 10 sets exercise	Details
4	Triceps	Barbell Skull Crusher	10	10		Superset No Rest	3/5/2	Superset with other 10 sets exercise	Details