reclaiming me

In order for me to prepare your personalized monthly workout schedules, please answer the following questions not later than Sunday, 3/23/2008:

March 23? Oops. Of course, I didn’t join until the 24th, but still, it’s sad that I’m only now, five days later, answering this silly thing. Here goes nothing!

1. What workouts do you do, T-Tapp and others? What kind of a workout schedule do you currently keep (frequency, duration, etc.)?

I have a 3-1/2 weeks old newborn (March 5), and I’m only just starting to work out again at all. During this pregnancy (unlike my first, with my daughter), I became more and more inactive — at least in terms of formal workouts. We moved during my last month, and painted much of the interior of our new house, so that’s got to qualify for something! Just the same, I gained more than 50 pounds, and was horrendously bloated by the end. When it’s hard to even walk, it’s tough to exercise!

Anyway, I’ve only just started slowly working movement back into my routine, starting so far with Primary Back Stretch and OIP/HF.

2. When did you complete your most recent T-Tapp bootcamp? How many days was it, and what workout(s) did you use?

April 8-16, nine days, mostly TWO with Tempo Torso once, BWO+/SATI once, Inst 1/2 once, and one clinic. In other words, it’s been long enough that I’m overdue!

3. Do you have any health challenges that I should be aware of (e.g. joints, back, illness, surgeries)? Are you under the care of a physician? If so, for what?

Postpartum recovery — but that all seems straightforward so far. Other health issues: history of depression/anxiety (no longer under any treatment at all, though), major heartburn/reflux due to hiatal hernia.

4. Tell me what you feel are the three (only three!) primary problem areas on your body?

Mummy tummy (though this is where I usually don’t carry weight)
Butt
Thighs

5. Do you own a pair of cross-trainer type athletic shoes? If not, you’ll need a pair!

Have some 2250 Skechers, but I’d like to find another pair of shoes — not sure if I’ll simply get the same or shop for something new. I’d love to have something a little better looking (shrug).

6. Please list the T-Tapp workouts/DVDs that you own.

Instructional 1
Instructional 2
BWO+
TWO
SATI
SITTM
Tempo Torso
Tempo Arms
Ladybug
Ladybug POP
Tempo Lower Body
Hit the Floor

7. What is your body type in T-Tapp terms (ST, LT, or combo)?
If you are unsure, see pages 61-70 of the T-Tapp book or visit http://www.geocities.com/dyfalck/tips1.html#bodytype

Combo, bordering on short torso (in terms of inches, at least) — but I gain like a true honest-to-goodness combo.

8. Tell me anything else you’d like to add.

I’m looking forward to having my tuckus kicked on a regular basis. With my first child, I hit the gym hard and often, taking advantage of their childcare, as soon as she was old enough. Now, I live in a town where childcare at fitness centers is fairly well unavailable — so I’m going to have to squeeze in T-Tapp (yes, double meaning intended) wherever I can!

Tags: T-Tapp, Self-Motivation by Allison
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I’m really happy about this week’s results. I’m only up 1/2 a pound (and down 1.5 pounds from the 170 I hit last Thursday), and I’m down a whopping 2.5″ — pretty darned cool for a girl who’s supposed to be growing lots. This was the first week I’ve really had a consistent workout schedule since mid-June, and I feel great. Hooray!

Tags: T-Tapp by Allison
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(with apologies to Lyle Lovett)

Today is the halfway mark in the contest, and for someone who had a seriously slackerish May, followed by a VERY short-lived pregnancy (ie, chemical pregnancy)…I’m tickled. I even wish I’d taken my measurements a week ago today, because they would have been BIGGER than my starting measurements. But, c’est la vie, I didn’t — it probably would have discouraged me last week anyway.

Here’s what I’m looking at now:
Bust: 38.25 (-1.25)
Waist: 30.5 (-0.75)
Abdomen: 39 (-1.00)
Hips: 43.25 (-0.75)
R Upper Thigh: 24.5 (-0.25)
L Upper Thigh: 24.25 (-0.50)
R Lower Thigh: 16.25 (-0.25)
L Lower Thigh: 16.25 (-0.25)
R Calf: 13.5 (n/c)
L Calf: 13.5 (n/c)
R Upper Arm: 11.5 (+0.25)
L Upper Arm: 11.5 (+0.25)

Not too shabby. Obviously, I’d love to see that ^%$# hip measurement (oh, and the upper thighs!) go down several more inches, but you know what? I pulled back on my size 12 Levis 515s today, and they fit — unlike last time I tried, when they squeezed the life out of me and gave me a muffin-top. Much better!

On with the photos: I’ll so side-by-side comparisons of the starting pics with the midpoint pics.

[Read more →]

Tags: T-Tapp, Photos, Measurements by Allison
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Pair of jeans that fit
the body I have NOW:

$1.51
(okay, after a $20 credit from Eddie Bauer “friends”)

Haircut that finally rid me of the
bodywave-turned-out-to-be-a-bad-perm
AND will let me graciously regrow my hair:

.

$75
(I nearly choked. Won’t be going back there, but BOY does it feel good.)

Feeling like myself again, even
though I’m wearing a size 14:

PRICELESS.

Tags: T-Tapp, Photos, Self-Motivation by Allison
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Kirsten suggested I re-read this thread and consider these ideas as possibilities while she looks over my workout/measurement history. Rather than type out an email, I think I’ll put my responses online, here.

Have you ever asked yourself Why am I not losing?

Boy, is this a loaded question that does not have a simple answer. There are multiple factors that play a role in our body’s ability to function. Sleep, nutrition, hormones, exercise, water intake, stress, disease.

It is important to consider that the body is constantly in motion seeking to preserve balance wherever it can.

SLEEP

We all know that sleep is important. Experts say that 8 hours are ideal — some require more and some require less. Quality sleep with no interruptions is ideal but for moms with small children — they find this to be very challenging. During sleep, the cells are busy — repairing, rebuilding and carrying out the work that it doesn’t have time for during the day when we are awake.

Even though I’m the mom of a 2-1/2 year old, my sleep doesn’t suffer any more, except on rare occasions. I usually get at least 7-8 hours per night. From personal experience, I tend to be okay as long as I get at least six hours.

NUTRITION

We all know the importance of proper nutrition but understanding what your body specifically needs and how much can be a daunting task. Too many calories? Not enough calories? More protein? Less Carbohydrates? It’s enough to make your head swim. It is helpful to become your own “advocate” and research many different ways of eating (WOE) so that you can determine which plan suits your needs. Most experts agree that adding more fruits and vegetables, eating lean proteins and complex carbohydrates is appropriate. They also agree that reducing caffeine, excess sugar, and eliminating artificial sweeteners, artificial flavors/preservatives, fast foods and processed foods is a great first step on the path to wellness. I highly recommend tracking your food intake for one week so that you can objectively analyze your eating over several days. Read those food labels.

One final item to mull over - -how many years of poor eating habits, artificial sweeteners and/ or preservatives, yo-yo dieting, diet pills etc. do you need to recover from?

This one is always an issue. Always. While I don’t have a “diet” mentality, I definitely eat better at some times than at others. Since I’ve traveled twice to Colorado in recent weeks, that means more diet sodas and more processed food (junk on the road). Funny, I don’t drink many diet sodas while at home, but man…put me on a road trip, and WHAM.

I really rail against the idea of counting calories, but if it becomes necessary, I will. SIGH. I’m much happier when I’m simply eating the right foods — because then I don’t usually have to worry about “how much” of them I eat.

My current hypothesis re: dairy could play into this. Perhaps I have enough German lineage that my return to dairy (after a few weeks off milk) has triggered a puffiness/swelling in me? I can certainly say that my bust seems bigger, even within the past week, so maybe that’s it. Cutting casein will mean, by definition, cutting many processed foods, so it will be interesting to see what happens over my two-week elimination.

I’m drinking coffee these days, and I’m not ready to quit that.

Hormones

This could be an issue, but it’s hard to say. Recent change: I went back off the birth control pill due to some unpleasant side effects (namely, complete loss of libido, oops). I’m 25 days into my first “off” cycle, but my chart seems to say that my hormonal levels are pretty darned stable. Interestingly enough, I’ve noticed that the morning following days I take entirely “off” from exercise, my temp is roughly 3/10 of a degree lower.

Thyroid: Have had testing done before, told all (including TSH, T3) were normal. Granted, that was last summer, so things could have changed. Since my energy levels are fine (they were horribly low pre-T-Tapp), I don’t believe this is the problem.

Adrenal: Nine years ago, I spent every weekend at Skydive Houston in beautiful, “scenic” Waller, Texas — and in some ways, I’ve wondered if my adrenal gland has been off since then. Stopping regular jumping did correspond with my first major depression. I’m still on a very low dose of Effexor (37.5mg/day), and I notice that when I’m too late with a dose, I get what I’ve thought of as the cortisol effect — it’s like the fight/flight feeling, minus the urgency — an underlying sense of anxiety. T-Tapp has helped level that out, and I’m close to going every other day with meds.

Exercise

See my calendar, link to the side. Cheri suggests that some of the moves can be done daily, even on the days when you do no workout — I might start incorporating those. Otherwise, when I have off days (like my long break at the beginning of March), I feel awful.

My gut tells me that I need to be doing more cardio, and that my body is treating T-Tapp like a weight-training workout. Could this be true? Not sure.

Water
I do fairly well with this one (usually close to 3/4oz per pound of body weight), but perhaps have slacked recently. I’ll start counting glasses again to see what happens.

Possible Disease State
See info on dairy, above. If I’ve triggered a latent dairy allergy, could it cause me to puff this much?

Tags: T-Tapp, Feeding Myself by Allison
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