Another year (and a decade!) coming to a close. What a year and decade this has been. Decade wise I got married, built a house, had twins. This year parenting wise we broke the pacifiers, transitioned out of cribs, took our first family vacation, potty trained. It’s been eventful, but all such a blessing to experience. Ups and downs and all arounds!
This year though I feel was my first true year on my postpartum fitness journey. Last November I blogged about my struggles, attributing my 10 lbs weight gain to my Hashimotos. In retrospect I now realize it was a common post-breastfeeding set back. Weaning from breastfeeding shifts your hormones yet again. That, and breastfeeding twins burns roughly 1000 calories a day, so when I was all said and done, I no longer had that built-in cardio.
On November 8, 2018 I weighed in at my highest at 148.2 lbs. One year later on November 16, 2019, I weighed in at my lowest of 134.8 lbs, a 13.4 lbs loss.
How did I do it?
The Short Version
I worked out 4-6x a week, 30-60 minutes a day, and I ate in a calorie deficit with a focus on whole foods.
The Long Version
My Workouts
Like I said, I worked out 4-6x a week, 30-60 minutes a day. This varied based on the program and what I could realistically commit to at the time.
January – March: Leaving my excuses at the door, I commenced my second round of 80 Day Obsession on Monday, December 31, 2018. I lost a total of 7.2 lbs and 6 inches in 13 weeks.
April – May: I followed along with the refilming of the 21 Day Fix and 21 Day Fix Extreme real-time workouts.
May – September: I did an unofficial round of 80 Day Obsession throughout the summer before my family vacation.
October – November: Beachbody debuted a new program, 6 Weeks of THE WORK. Created by Amoila Cesar, a NBA strength and transformation specialist, THE WORK is an advanced-level training program focused on strength, hypertrophy, endurance, power, agility, and mobility. It’s modeled after the training regimes Amoila creates for his pro athletes and celebrity clients.
This was exactly the program I needed for this time of year when I typically seem to struggle. From THE WORK I lost a total of 2.2 lbs and 1 inch, down 9.8 lbs and 7.25 inches overall this year. The end of the program is when I weighed in at my lowest.
November – December: I’ve been doing a mixture of Beachbody programs to get me through the holiday season. I try and move for at least 30 minutes a day, and I try and not let more than two days go in-between workouts.
My Nutrition
In addition to a consistent workout regime, I used a multitude of tools and methods this year to dial in my nutrition.
1. Ultimate Portion Fix
Beachbody’s color-coded portion-control containers became the foundation of my nutrition back in January 2018 with the launch of 80 Day Obsession’s timed-nutrition. But in April this year, Beachbody took it a step further and debuted its Ultimate Portion Fix nutrition program, an educational expansion of the container system.
2. Lose It
Although the containers take the guesswork out of tracking calories and macros, I still logged my food via Lose It the entire year (except for the week I was on vacation). This provided me with numerical data to use in tool #3.
3. Excel Spreadsheets
The nerd in me took things a step further and brought my data from Lose It into Excel. Every day I would input my weight, calories, and macros. I would then calculate my averages for both the week and month. This helped me analyze trends. For the first 6 months of 2019 I consistently lost weight each month; one month as much as 3 lbs, another month as little as 0.3 lbs.
During the summer I unintentionally maintained my weight. It wasn’t until halfway through 6 Weeks of THE WORK (mid-October) that I realized I needed to dial things back in if I wanted to keep seeing results. I like to think of this summer’s maintenance period as a bit of a diet break.
I know Lose It has its own ways of reporting, so this might seem like overkill to some; however, I find it easier to manipulate my own data. But, I’m also a computer person for a living. 🤷
Other Honorable Mentions
Enough talk. The real proof is in the progress photos! Below is a three-way comparison between April of last year, December of last year, and last month. The middle photo is an obvious regression, but one I didn’t fully realize until this year.
This is why I highly recommend taking progress photos. As horrifying as it may seem, it’s still another tool to help you on your journey. Trust me, I dread taking progress photos in fear I’ve regressed, yet every time I actually see I’ve made progress.
But there you have! How I lost 10 lbs this year. Right now I’m maintaining, which is 100% fine considering it’s not only the holiday season, but December is also mine and my twins’ birthday month. I plan to kickoff a third round of 80 Day Obsession on Monday, December 30th, which I’m so excited for. It’s a commitment, but I love the structure, I love the workouts, and I know I can see fantastic results if I put in the work.
How ’bout you though? Did you find any successes on your journey this year? Any setbacks? What tools helped you? Share in the comments below! 👇 I’d love to hear!