Bob! Jillian! or not….

I know I shared with everyone a while back that I was putting on weight and struggling to get pregnant with no results. We have finally gotten back all the reports from the doctors and I have a pretty bad case of endometriosis, again. My uterus is the size of a woman who is a few months pregnant and I’m not ovulating. Well that would explain it wouldn’t it? I’ve been in a good bit of pain too. My husband and children would also agree that I’ve been moody. So, as it stands, I’ll have to have surgery soon then begin taking fertility drugs.

Now, unfortunately, this is not my first go round with this condition so I am all too familiar with the routine. It is still the same as it was ten years ago when I went through it. I’ll have to do hormone therapy for a couple of cycles and then have a laparoscopy. After that I’ll start taking Clomid. Lord willing, I will get pregnant after that.

In the meantime, I have to get healthy again. My goal is not to lose weight – although I do hope to drop 20 pounds – but I really just want to be healthy again. After all of my children were born I used the same routine to get back into shape. I stopped it at some point a couple of years ago but I am ready to implement it again. This routine always helped me get past the emotional mumbo jumbo, gave me clarity and an abundance of energy, and it helped me to maintain my average weight. At 5″3′ that would be about 130 lbs. I just want to be as healthy as possible going into the therapy and then surgery, and of course, prayerfully have a healthy and safe place to carry our baby.

My recent motivation for all of this is my husband. He, in less that three months, has managed to drop over 25 lbs. He is just looking real yummy right about now (sorry hubby’s work people but a girl’s gotta be honest). In any case, I’m not feeling so yummy so I’m making some changes. Besides that, Lysa TerKeurst and Ms. Chickadee have been blogging about their journey towards greater health and it has definitely inspired me.

I’m posting my routine here because this blog is therapeutic for me and for some strange reason telling all of you about my plans and vision holds me accountable. I am in no way advocating that anyone else should adopt these practices without speaking with their personal physician. I am not a doctor. I only know what has always worked for me. With that in mind, if you do have questions please feel free to ask them in the comments section.

I have discovered a couple of books over the years that really spoke to me about good health maintenance. One of the first was the Fat Flush Plan by Louise Gittleman followed by The Maker’s Diet and Perfect Weight America by Jordan Rubin. A Couple of years ago I found Holy Cow by Hope Egan and this year got completely motivated while reading Beauty by God by Shelly Ballestero. I took from each of those books what worked for me or what I needed and combined them to create my perfect plan of action and maintenance. There is no one diet or lifestyle formula that fits everyone. You have to customize to find what is best for you.

By the way, they have plenty of copies of most of those books over at Paperback Swap (if you sign up for Paperback Swaps free service please put my name down as your referral so I get credits for more books .

I have also found a health site that has some great tools that I can use: SparkPeople.com. It is a totally free site and if you sign up over there be sure to befriend me so we can support each other. I’m also looking for accountability buddies.

Here is my plan for every day:

Morning routine:

• Drink 1 tablespoon of lemon with warm water (assists kidneys and liver)
• Mix 1 tablespoon of psyllium husks with water and drink (aids in elimination and balances hormones)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of lemon flavored Cod Liver Oil (omega 3s help way too many things to list them here)
• 1 teaspoon of flax seed oil (more omega 3 and studies show it aids in regulating insulin)
• Take vitamins and supplements (I take fucothin, vitamin B multi, )
• Drink 6-8 cups of cranberry water ( eliminates water retention, cleanses accumulated wastes from the lymphatic system, and also helps to clean up cellulite – so they say)

I buy most of my products from the Whole Foods store. I get my pure lemon juice there (it has no preservatives like other well known brands) and the cranberry juice for my cranberry water. It has to be real cranberry juice with nothing else added – not the “no sugar added” cranberry juice like you get at regular supermarkets. I also get my oils, vitamins, and supplements there.

This seems like a lot but when you consider all of the over processed food we eat then you can realize why we might have to do this to get balanced. I’m sure if we were back in the Garden of Eden we wouldn’t have to worry about supplementing because everything we need to thrive would be within reach but… we live in a fallen world.

I already exercise but I could do more. I typically walk for at least 30 minutes each morning while praying. What can I say? I’m a multi-tasker! I also get up with my husband three mornings each week for circuit training. I’m going to add some cardio to that though, at least 30 minutes worth. If I had Jillian Michaels here to scream at me until I puked then I could probably go a bit longer but, until she hops her happy lil self on a plane and heads to Louisiana to torture me I’m only doing thirty more minutes worth. Got that, Jill?

I’m also doing a semi fast to reboot my body and reprogram my brain. I won’t be having any sugar, grains or starches for the first couple of weeks. Can you say headache? Oh well, I’ll make it. I need to stop eating so much of that stuff anyway. You start to not appreciate it after a while.

By the way, I do have the 30 Day Shred by Jillian Michaels, somewhere. I’ve heard it’s great but until I find that sucker I can’t confirm that. I have no idea what I did with it. Could you please pray that I find it? (or maybe not!) We’ll let the Lord decide if I should do it. hehe!