Sunday, July 18, 2010

“This is not my life”


As sit here listening to KSON, writing a different blog the DJ started talking about weight loss and wanting to go comfortably to the beach! It made me realize I have not made a proper blog about my absolute favorite product the bodybugg. I know this blog is generally about everything Autism related, but I think this is also Autism related.
When we get the diagnoses of Autism, moms tend to drop our lives as we previously knew it and we do anything and everything Autism related. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it can lead us to neglecting ourselves, which is a really BAD THING!!! Dad’s also do this when they become Dad’s. Dad’s then become the provider and need to do everything to keep their families afloat. When you get the Autism diagnosis this only gets intensified as our costs of living also go up. Even if you don’t do biomedical, your cost goes up for child care, for all the things your health insurance barely covers for a child with Autism like Speech Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, my favorite Vision Therapy, advocates, lawyers, etc! I could go on and on about all the things we pay for that people without Autism would never ever think about, but you get the point!! Also many mom’s I know with thriving careers end up taking steps down in their jobs if not quitting all together because all the things above also suck you dry of time.

I am just like you. I used to sit at home reading in all of my spare time about Autism and what I wanted intervention I wanted to try next and what I could only dream about affording next (right now that is Stem Cells in Costa Rica). I also neglected myself. I thought I did not have time to exercise and take care of myself.

November 8, 2008 the reality of the situation changed. My husband was admitted to the hospital and a week later we were preparing for heart surgery. He was 39 years old, at the time I kept thinking this can’t be happening, “this is not my life”. And for anyone who knows me, the statement “this is not my life” means something or someone is going to change!!! I also thought someone needs to live for the children, hell we have 4, this would not be fair to leave to Ashley and Nick to take care of the younger children, they deserve their own lives, at least as long as they can!!

One of the local PITAs I know had already been talking to me about this crazy product called the bodybugg. She started at a size 20, but with this product she had gotten down to a size 6 and lost an amazing 85 pounds and kept the weight off until she became pregnant. This is an amazing mom of two kids with Autism, who I know will lose it again just out of self determination!!! She sold me on the fact that there was no crazy fad diets, no eating crappy packaged foods that use crazy spices I would not use at home or or chemicals I would not subject my children to, and that you can eat what your family eats and even though it is basically calorie counting system, it is so much more. You strap this little devise on your arm and magically it tells you how many calories you burn every day. In the calorie counting world this is revolutionary, no longer is there any guessing of how many calories you burn you actually know how many you burn. Then you hook the bodybugg up to your computer and download that information to their website, which is included for 6 months. Once downloaded you put in what foods you eat and can compare the calories you actually burned to those you ate and drank. The goal is to eat 500 calories or what ever you amount you set as your goal less then you burn. Bodybugg has already put in many common foods calories into their system for you, including Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, El Pollo Loco, etc, and it also gives you the ability to add your own custom foods and even custom recipes. You can literally figure out how much a serving of Momma’s homemade Lasagna calories are in just a few minutes.

I also personally bought a food scale; this really helped with any guessing of how many calories I was eating. A great example of this is my favorite local pizza joint (That Pizza Place in Carlsbad) does not have a calorie guide, I can’t put in how many calories of their pizza I eat, BUTTTTT I can weigh the pizza, and pick Pizza’s Huts comparable crust pizza and change the setting from slice to ounce and get a very good guess of how many calories I ate.

The one thing I really truly regret is that I did not do on day one of my life change was take measurements. Yes the measurements you don’t want to know, your waist included, YIKES!!! So the only true measurement I have on how much weight I have lost is pounds and my bra size. Ok even the pounds is questionable, I went by the last time I had been to the doctor, since I didn’t even own a scale when I started.

I am happy to report I have lost 45 pounds, 8 inches in my bust size (no cup size, just excess fat), and went from a very tight fitting size 16 jeans to a nice fitting size 6 since I purchased this on December 24, 2008 and kept the weight off for a year. I also did not give up any of my favorite foods or beer. Instead I did moderation of everything I ate. I also like to eat so I exercised, A LOT! The more you exercise the more calories you can eat. Don’t let that scare you. My best friend is a single mom, who works 30 minutes from home. She took this system and lost the same amount of weight from accounting for her food alone. Everyone I know who has actually done the product as designed has done the same. It is truly amazing.

Since going back to work, I have figured out a great trick, you can burn almost as many calories as exercising an hour at any time of day, if you do a good heart healthy exercise for 20 minutes in the morning. The morning is key word!!! The earlier you exercise the long your metabolism is on high and the more calories you burn through out the day. No I don’t have any scientific proof, but I have a bodybugg that says I am right and walking the supermarket does not count. You need to be almost to the point that you can’t talk walk while working out, just on the edge of winded, where your heart rate is up!!!

There is only one reason to not purchase this product, and yes its only one. The reason is that you do not have the inner strength to have accountability and try, so if that is you, please sit back down on the couch, get the High Fructose Corn syrup filed soda or nasty chemical poisoned diet coke and a bag of chips and watch your DVR, because this is not the system for you. I will say this is also not the blog for you, but hey a reader is a reader, so let’s not go crazy, so just sit back down and continue you to read, I have very impressive persuasive skills and one day I may get you to come to the healthy side!!

So let’s get back to the statement, “I also neglected myself. I thought I did not have time to exercise and take care of myself.”

I also thought taking time for me was “selfish”. Let’s get this excuse over and done with, exercise and good health is SELFLESS NOT SELFISH!! In this life of Autism we need as long of a life as possible because we don’t know what is going to come up next, budget cuts, teacher changes, special education director leaves, etc. We also honestly need the stress release exercise gives. It is great for helping with the depression, guilt and other life challenges Autism throws at us.

So as usual, PITAup change your life and the life of someone with Autism! You will thank me, I promise!!!

1 comment:

  1. PS I bought a NEW bodybugg (since I dont have my old one) :) lol so I re-begin the trek to weight loss again!

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