More of what I've learned on Nutrition

Following the Insanity Meal plan: 

I was fairly strict on following the meal plan, which I really liked and it wasn't hard, and I definitely didn't feel like I was dieting! I was actually TRYING to get in enough calories each day considering how much I burned exercising and nursing. But I wasn't eating JUNK, I was eating healthy stuff; little to no sugar except natural sugars/fruit; protein with each of 5 small meals a day; lots of fiber; lots of veggies; all whole grains; and all meals are balanced with whole grains, lean protein, veggies, and healthy fat. I have learned a lot about nutrition. I honestly thought I knew a lot about nutrition before, but I had so many misconceptions about health. For example I thought all HOME-COOKED meals were healthy. WRONG!!! OMGosh. I loved to cook with cheddar cheese, sour cream, heavy cream, pasta, cream of chicken soup, cream of mushroom soup, fried foods, white flour, sugar, fatty meats, etc. 

FATS. Lets talk about good fats and bad fats. We need fat....good fat. About 10%-20% of our calories should be from good fats. For example Unsaturated fats like Avocados, Nuts, Olive Oil, Seeds, Canola Oil and things with Omega 3 like Salmon, Flax, etc.  Ok let's talk about bad fats. Saturated fats and trans fats (which cause heart disease) are found in animal products (meat and eggs), high fat dairy (butter, cheese, anything other than non-fat milk and yogurt , coconut and palm oil (anything that solidifies when cooled). Not to mention all that yucky pre-packaged processed stuff! We should have less than 10% of these fats in our daily calories. Lowering fat intake will help lose weight. But we need to really control intake of those Saturated and trans fats for overall and heart health! I use the olive oil mayo if I used any at all on sandwiches or mixed with tuna. If I eat eggs I do the 3:1 ratio 3 egg whites and 1 egg yolk. I now drink skim-milk, eat non-fat greek yogurt, and if I use cheese I use mozzarella, not cheddar. I use Avocados on sandwiches and dijon mustard. I don't use heavy cream or butter in my cooking anymore, sour cream, cream cheese, or creamy sauces.  And when I eat salad I use Olive oil and Balsamic Vinegar or a Vinaigrette. And I'm not even gonna talk about eating out, that's a whole different ball game.

Lets talk about FIBER. I didn't know anything about FIBER. I didn't know what had fiber in it!! Now that I am eating fiber all the time I realize what has it. PLANTS!!! Whole wheat, whole grains, cereal, vegetables, leafy greens, beans, legumes, fruits etc. I had never bought whole wheat english muffins or whole wheat tortillas before! Fiber helps you lose weight and helps digestion. My last week of Insanity I made some muffins. Whole wheat blueberry muffins with whole wheat flour, ground flax seed, and wheat germ in them. WHOA!! I swear that's what made me drop my last 3.5 lbs. in one week. Those things were packed with FIBER. Start reading the labels for Fiber...you will be amazed. 

Stay tuned for more on Sugar and Protien:) 

My Fitness Journey

  After my pregnancy I told my husband that I wanted to lose weight no matter what. I didn't care if I had to pay for a gym membership or whatever, I was determined to do it, whatever the cost. So I started looking around at gyms. YMCA was a little too...ghetto for me (at least the one here in phoenix) but still a good/cheap option, the other option was a club close by that we got a discount with through Robert's school, but they didn't take kids at the child care place under 2 years old. So that option went out the window. Then Beach Body came along. I knew I would lose the weight quicker than going to a gym every day. In the long run it would be cheaper. And I would have a support group, which I knew would be the most valuable part. I couldn't have done it with out my challenge group. So it was a no brainer. I bought the Insanity program and ordered Shakeology-the Healthiest meal of the day, for one month.  

I have always been skeptical about those people when you see their before and after pics. I honestly believed they were two different people and it was all a scam. Well who knows about them, but I have seen it work for ME and it was honestly miraculous to me. I couldn't believe how fast my body changed week to week. After my first week I started noticing changes. On average each week I lost about 1-2 lbs. doing the Insanity program through Beach Body and following the meal plan. I never missed a day working out. 6 days a week, 60 days. Each work out the first month was about 40 min and the second month some of the work outs go up to 60 minutes. 

 Let me tell you of the condition I was in before starting this program. I had had a baby 2 months earlier. I started out that pregnancy still with all my baby weight from my first pregnancy, about 30 lbs. I exercised on and off moderately but never enough to lose weight. In the 3 years between my kids, I never really lost weight, although I tried little things, nothing ever made an impact. During my pregnancy I stayed active, and ate healthy trying not to over eat like most pregnant girls do thinking and rationalizing "I'm eating for two!" So although with my pregnancy I gained about 31 lbs total, after I had the baby I was only about 5 lbs. more than before I got pregnant. Ok so here's my weight over the last 5 years: 120 when I got married, 164 at 7 months pregnant with baby #1 (Brady was 2 months early), 145/150 after baby #1 (Brady), 181 at 9 months pregnant with #2 (Catcher),  155 after baby #2, 130 now 4 months after baby #2. I still would like to get down to 120/125, so I'm not done yet:) But I went from a size 4, to a size 12, then 14, now back down to a size 4!!!! It is a miracle.

Anyway the a couple weeks before I started Insanity I started "working up to it". I knew Insanity would be tough and I couldn't start "cold turkey". I started lifting weights, running a little on the treadmill every day etc. little things to get my body slightly in shape before my Insanity challenge pack arrived in the mail. Regardless, my first day of Insanity was TOUGH! I think I almost passed out. literally. But I kept going. By week 2 I wasn't feeling like I would pass out anymore. By week 3 I felt like I could actually keep up pretty well. Week 5 was recovery week. Which meant an easier work out every day focusing more on muscle development. I got comfortable with that and then BOOM, week 6 killed me!!!! It was like I started all over again! I couldn't keep up, 60 minutes was a LONG work out for me! I wanted to give up and be done with 30 minutes still left! BUT I pushed through. I didn't think, I just kept getting up every morning, putting on my work out clothes and shoes, and pushing play. I just tried to keep up and do my best, pushing a little more each week. My consistent results are what kept me going. My challenge group kept me going. And the knowledge that my goal was so close...those size 4 pants, kept me going. And I am so proud to say that one week after I finished Insanity, I wore those size 4 pants in our family pictures, and I didn't think I would be able to only one week earlier. 

I DID IT!!! SIZE 4!!!  I CAN'T BELIEVE IT WORKED! IT SEEMED SO EASY ONCE I WAS COMMITTED TO DOING IT, AND I KNEW WHAT TO DO EVERY DAY. I JUST FOLLOWED THE PLAN!!! 

Stay tuned for more on what I learned about Nutrition in following my meal plan.... 

Before and After Insanity

Here are my Before and After pics!! I lost a total of 18 lbs. and 18 inches!!! 7 inches alone off my waist! And I couldn't have done it with out Beach Body, Insanity's Shaun T., Shakeology, Carson Carothers, Melody Anthony, Brittany Marlatt, Laura Sample, Robert Potter my wonderful husband and wonderfully patient children Brady and Catcher:) I feel amazing mind/body and spirit, I feel healthy, I have more energy and muscle and wearing size 6 again feels amazing! I had my second baby 4 1/2 months ago and I'm still nursing and going strong. After Catcher was born I was a size 14 and 148 lbs. Now I'm 130 lbs and still working on fitting into size 4, maybe in a few more weeks:) Thank you everyone for your support!!

 Before in my bathing suit

After in my bathing suit

Halloween 2012

Brady Bee- loved to run around bum first trying to sting people:)

 Catcher Bumble Bee- 4 months old:)

 The Beekeeper, his bees and their flower:)

 So this year for our costumes I didn't have to do TOO much sewing. I made my flower head and that's about all. Which was a bit stressful trying to figure out how to do it, but we did it, as always. With the help of a foam wreath as the backbone, some wire, felt, pins, and made a hood with a tie to hold it on my head. Robert did lots of hunting at second hand stores for those cute little bee costumes and my sweet green outfit. And since my parents ARE Beekeepers they let us borrow their Beekeeper's hat! Robert got the white suit at Home Depot in the paint section which worked out perfectly. Unfortunately there weren't ANY costume contests this year, so we didn't win anything. But we had a few people tell us at both parties we went to that we should win Best Family Theme Costume. And someone said that next year at Robert's school they would put in a word for having a costume contest! So we'll be ready with a new idea for next year's contest:) We had lots of fun dressing up this year, even though it was a bit tricky trying to get my flower head through doorways:)

 Brady and Dad in a hot air balloon at the BooFest in Phoenix!

Brady and Catcher

Brady at 7 months in 3-6 month outfit

Catcher at 2 1/2 months in the same outfit and same chair

Brady and Catcher 3 1/2 years apart

Brady at almost 5 months old still wearing NB outfit.

Brady at 4 1/2 months, Catcher wore this outfit in the hospital the day after he was born!

Catcher at 2 1/2 months grabbing onto toys for the first time.

Brady and Dad, almost 6 months still wearing 0-3 month outfit.

Blue eyed Brady at 7 1/2 months

Catcher SMILING 2 1/2 months

Catcher holding toy -2 months

Even though Brady was 2 months early, Catcher is still WAY bigger than Brady was, even with Brady's adjusted age. Brady was 2 months early due to Pre-eclampsia and was 3 lbs. 3 oz. Catcher was born on time and was 8 lbs. 8 oz. Even when we brought Brady home from the hospital about 6 weeks after he was born, he was only in the 5 lb. range.
Brady's nick name was "Turkey" cause he was always doing turkey-like things and we'd say "what a little Turkey", and Catcher's nick name is "Sweetie", he's such a big sweetie and loves to SMILE and will smile so easily! He even loves the sound of Brady's voice and will smile when Brady is next to him talking. Brady is so cute with Catcher, he will hug him, kiss him, rub his tummy, wants him to "play" games with us, and talks to him and plays with him. They are so cute together! We love our boys!
Do you think they look alike? Besides the difference in eye and hair color??

Baby Blessing

Since we've been home from the hospital, Robert took a week off of work to take care of us which was so nice but went by way too fast. This first picture is the first time in his new swing and we got a smile!:

Proud big brother! (and silly):

Baby Catcher brought Brady a present! He loves his new train set!:

Catching some rays to help his biliruben levels go down. He has had jaundice pretty bad so we've given him lots of light and he is all better now. 

I have a bunch of BOYS:

Blessing day:

We weren't sure we wanted to bless him so soon (9 days old!) but we figured out next fast Sunday would be our first Sunday in our new ward in AZ which we probably wouldn't do it then so we'd have to wait till he was 3 months old, and if we waited any longer his little blessing outfit would NOT fit...so we just did it:) He was able to wear the same blessing outfit that my mom made for Brady, so that was pretty cool. Robert gave a very sweet blessing for Catcher and we were so happy to have all of our family who lived in Utah come and participate in the blessing and have a picnic with us. Our little family on Catcher's blessing day:

from left to right: Wendy holding baby Walker, Lance holding Aria, Meiken holding baby Beatrix, Mike, Grandma Ruth, Grandpa Joseph, Ben (in front) with his bulldog Mac, Megan holding baby Catcher, Robert, Brady (in front), Becky, and Brad. This is the most beautiful family picture! 

We sure are enjoying our new baby who is so sweet. He just eats all day, sleeps really good at night, and poops every diaper:) Last night after we watched the fireworks for the 4th of July he ate more than he's ever eaten (30+ min. straight) then slept more than he ever has before, 5 1/2 hours! Brady is a good big brother and doing really well with him and the transition. And of course Robert is the best dad ever and loves his little Catcher. And now we are very lucky to have my mom here helping out for a week! 

Labor and Delivery!

Ok so here's the baby story...the long version (if you want the short version check Facebook). 

I don't know why I ever expected to have a "normal" birth, I should have expected some curve balls. I have been so blessed this whole pregnancy with no Pre-Eclampsia...and healthy healthy healthy, and normal. But my last couple weeks we got thrown some curve balls. Week 38 I found out I was Group B Strep positive (fairly normal, but just add it to the list) which meant I would have to receive an antibiotic before birth so baby didn't get sick. Or to avoid the small risk that baby could get sick I could have a C-section. (NO!) Then week 39 I found out baby was breech (he had been head down up until then). Great. So then we had to get busy flipping baby and making some decisions. I went home and tried everything to try to get baby to flip: swimming, chiropractor, pelvic rocks, polar bear position, rocking on hands and knees etc. Then I went to talk to the doctor the next day to see if he would be willing to manually turn baby. If we wanted to go that route we had to do it asap as to avoid going into labor or having contractions while trying to turn baby (this is a procedure they usually do at 37-38 weeks). Then if successful they would induce labor right away to avoid baby flipping again on his own (also add induction to the list of unnaturals- and not in the Hypnobirthing plan). Or we could wait it out and hope baby turned naturally and hope for our natural vaginal birth, with the risk of baby not turning in that case the only alternative for our footling breech was the dreaded C-section. So the doc (Dr. William Parker-who has delivered 7500 babies) was willing to turn baby but wanted to do it asap. We fully trusted that he would be our Hero. He said we had a better chance of manually flipping baby than waiting and hoping he flipped on his own. So it was a go. He told us to be at the hospital by 6:30am the next morning. (eeekk! EARLY!) So here is a picture of me at 6:30 am at the hospital ready to have a baby at 39.4 weeks pregnant:

This picture is of me holding up what I thought was a joke, but what they called an "ice pack". Thanks American Fork Hospital. Seriously? A woman is in labor and needs an ice pack for back pain and you give her a rubber glove filled with ice because you can't have real ice packs anymore cause some idiot got freezer burn or something once and now we're all being punished?? Thanks. Awesome. Hilarious. 

So apparently flipping a baby can be wicked painful...so with all this unnatural stuff anyway, I thought bring on the epidural. I'm glad I did cause I could still feel them trying to turn baby and it was SOOOO painful even with the epidural. So with all the pushing and pulling, trying to turn baby either way, he wouldn't go. So then they asked me yet again..."C-Section?" NO! I'm not giving up yet! I asked if we could try again. By then I was having contractions every 2 minutes with all the pushing and pulling my uterus around. They said ok, let's wait an hour then try again. Meanwhile we were talking about how if you put frozen peas on the baby they don't like the cold and will turn away from it. So we didn't have peas, but we tried an ice pack. I sat there for an hour with an ice pack on my tummy where baby's head was hoping to scare him down. They also gave me some medicine that was supposed to temporarily STOP contractions so they wouldn't have to work against them while trying to turn again. Doc and Midwife came back to try to flip baby again...and within 2 minutes he gave in and flipped right around!! I TOTALLY attribute it to the ice. We ICED him! And the doctor helped too. 

Ok next: bring on more drugs...start the pitocin, the induction and give me that antibiotic for the Group B Strep. Contractions started right away...I was having them every 3 minutes...getting more painful.....and my epidural from flipping baby had worn off by now. I had the epidural thing still hooked up in my back with the option to push a button for a dose if I wanted to. I wanted to see how things went, and be free to push it only if I wanted to. So....again, pitocin, bla bla unnatural....push the button, things are getting painful. 

And I know you're telling yourself...too bad she went through all that practice of Hypnobirthing only to have a totally unnatural birth. But to you I say NAY! NOT a waste of time at ALL. In fact I'm very glad I was prepared with it cause I totally used it and it totally helped me relax and stay calm and breath during the flipping, contractions...and what was to come.

Ok so by now it was like 3 or 4 pm and Robert and I were just hanging out watching movies waiting for labor to progress and baby's head to get engaged. His head was still down, but very high up and not even close to being in my pelvis yet. I was only about 3 cm dilated. So we wait. We wished we had some board games to play, I wasn't in the mood to watch Sports Center or a movie like my husband. Then while talking to the midwife about what to do...we could try to manually move baby's head more over into the pelvis (doc would have to do that, and he had left to go back to the office for some appointments, but he was just minutes away) I had a HUGE LONG 5 minute contraction. She wanted to break my water but with baby's head being so high up and slightly off to the side we didn't want to risk something else like the cord slipping out before the head. Then with that HUGE contraction baby's heart rate dropped from 140 to about 60 beats per minute. They called the doc immediately for him to get down there in case they needed to do an emergency C-section. They threw an oxygen mask on me and had me get on my left side. Meanwhile amongst pandemonium I was just doing my deep breathing and relaxing knowing that everything was gonna be fine. And a minute later baby's heart rate went back to normal and we were fine. 

About 10 minutes later while still lying on my left side, something scared me out of my hypnosis- a burst! WATER!! My water broke and it felt like 20 gallons of water rushed out of me. Weird feeling! (remember I'm a first timer, my first was a C-section and I had never been in labor or had contractions before). 

That was fun. So then my midwife checked my dilation and to see if she could feel the head. And she felt......FEET.    

WHA????!!!!!!????!!!!!!

Seriously????!!! They thought maybe during that big contraction he had flipped or that that was what caused the contraction. So now with water broken, and feet down: C-Section. You CANNOT deliver a footling breech baby, way too many risks. So we got the doctor in, and got prepped for our last resort, the C-Section. I still had the epidural in, so they just gave me another dose of it instead of doing the spinal block (where you can't feel anything).

Here we are getting our surgery gear on:

You think that you shouldn't feel anything for a C-section, but...either that's just the way epidurals work, or it didn't work that well for me, cause I could fee A LOT of pain! I'd say I could probably feel at least 50% of it. The anesthesiologist kept telling me he could give me gas and knock me totally out so I wouldn't feel anything, but I didn't want to be OUT while my baby was being born! So I toughed it out! 

Right when they cut me open...they saw that the head was down......AND the feet!!!! WHA??!!  So they then realized had they known that they could've still tried for the vaginal birth just trying to move the little feet out of the way. They regretted not doing an ultrasound to make sure he was a footling breech, but then again they had never seen anything like that, so they didn't even think it was possible. But then again, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!! So we are a little bumbed we didn't know that, but oh well. We did our best. 

Again those Hypnobirthing techniques came in very handy. I was hardly able to relax, but just trying to stay calm, and breath and relax really helped get me through. But there was also a lot of tenseness and screaming. I kept wanting them to tell me why it was hurting and what they were doing exactly so I knew what was going on. They would tell me things like, "Yes we are cutting away your old scar tissue, yes we are using scissors", and  "We are cutting open your uterus", "we are pulling out the baby", "we are pulling out your uterus", "we are stitching up your uterus, then we will put it back in"  (OOOOUUUUUUWWWWWW!!!!!!!!) 

Thank goodness for Robert for letting me squeeze his hand and for helping me to relax. Bless the Anesthesiologist, he wanted to give me more meds so bad so he didn't have to see me in pain. I kept asking him, well is the pain gonna get worse? How long would it take for it to kick in? I wanna hold my baby asap and I don't wanna be knocked out, I think I can do it.  YIKES, it was painful, but luckily didn't last too long. He gave me some morphine at the end, which helped a lot. 

So when they pulled baby out...and I heard that cry, I just started crying. What a mind-blowing experience at it's climax. The poor anesthesiologist thought I was crying out of pain, but I told him, "it's just emotional"....I was overjoyed. What a sweet sound.

Mom crying. Cute little baby. Happy and Proud Daddy. 

Cute little baby boy still with out a name:

And the name we decided on is:

Catcher Jacob Potter

born at 5:24pm on June 22, 2012

8 lbs. 8 oz. 19.5 inches long

Robert came up with the name "Catcher" in a day dream-moment of brilliance-one day about 5 months ago. He presented it to me. And of course I was like, "WHA?? HUH?? NO." I came up with a huge list of names, and he didn't like any of them. Great. So we decided to wait till he was born and then decide. It was torture not having a name till he was born. Then after looking at him, I didn't really think he looked like a 'Catcher'. Out of the blue I thought he looked like a 'Jacob'. Robert liked it right away, so we decided that would be his middle name. Brady already thought his name was Catcher and was set on it. We figured if we gave him any other name, Brady would be very mad and confused. Robert was set on it too, and it had grown on me, so there it was. Catcher Jacob. 

    

Here is Brady meeting his brother for the first time. He just woke up and was still not aware of what was going on yet. But he got some cookies and warmed right up and then was so excited to finally meet his brother.

My brother Ben was our first visitor that evening. Proud Uncle:) Ben also helped out taking care of Brady while we were in the hospital. Brady loves Uncle Ben!

My Grama Ruth and Grandpa Jo came to visit the next day. They are proud Great Grandparents again!

Robert's sister Wendy holding baby Catcher. She just had a baby herself about 2 months ago, his name is Walker. She and Lance were awesome enough to also help take care of Brady for a couple days while we were in the hospital. After spending so much time at their house, when Brady got home he kept calling our baby "Walker" :)

Here are the cousins Catcher, Walker, and Brady:

We got a visit from the Derricks in the hospital, Becky holding Beatrix, Mike, Meiken holding Catcher.

I'm outnumbered:

Our little family of 4:

Me with my new CUTE baby! (Brady took this picture:))

Going Home!:

Recovery really has been a breeze. With Brady it was so much worse for some reason. I remember I was so loopy and didn't feel I could get out of bed for days. I didn't feel ready to leave the hospital after 3 days, and then when I got home I stayed in bed for weeks. This time I took a shower the day after Catcher was born, and wanted to walk around.  I felt great, took a different medication than I did with Brady which made me not as loopy and drowsy. I was in and out of bed and walking around and feeling almost 100% except just tired and with some minimal abdominal pain. 

We are so happy to have tried our darndest to have a natural vaginal birth, and in the end we are happy that we are all healthy and happy. We love our rolly polly little Catcher Jacob and couldn't be happier to have him in our family.