I'm A T-Tapp Success!

No, I am not at my goal weight.  No I am not "done."  Yes, I have made amazing progress.  Yes, I still have a long way to go.

Over a month ago I was contacted by the staff at T-Tapp.com and was asked to write a T-Tapp Success Story!  They had noticed that my posting about the success I have experienced doing T-Tapp  was very encouraging to other women on the T-Tapp Forums!

After getting encouragement from several friends and online friends I decided to take them up on their offer and I wrote the following as my T-Tapp testimony.  It will be live on their site, I am told, on Tuesday, August 12!

Here's what I wrote for that story:

My T-Tapp Success Story

Before I began T-tapp in June 2012, then 11 months of doing T-Tapp!

First I need to give you some background for you to see how significant this “Success Story” is in my life. As a child and teenager I was very aware that I was not skinny like all the models and popular kids in school. I started my first diet in junior high. Through high school I tried every fad diet that came along (that I could afford), and even tried diet pills and ended up anorexic during my senior year, getting to my lowest adult weight of 135 (I am 5 ft 10 in and have a large bone structure). After recovering from that I swore off dieting. I went to college the next fall and during my freshman year I gained weight like never before. I ended up weighing 185 when I went home for summer break. That summer I succumbed to my anorexia again, but this time I was an exercising maniac. I did alternated aerobics and weight lifting while eating next to nothing. By the end of the summer I was down to 150. I kept on my regime, eating one small meal a day (if at all), living on diet pills and diet pop. I even became an aerobics instructor that year. This continue until the next fall. Then I became engaged to my best friend, swore off dieting, and promptly put on 20 pounds when I went on birth control pills to prepare for being married.

Fast forward 15 years. I had not dieted in the least, and had gone through 8 pregnancies. I had lost the baby weight after my first baby, but never again. I was usually around 220 - 240 between pregnancies. Then I found the Atkins Diet. Long story short, but I lost weight and got down to 190, but it wreaked havoc on my health. After another pregnancy, the loss of a dearly beloved niece, and a miscarriage I suffered from severe adrenal fatigue (diagnosed by a naturopathic doctor). I began to take my health seriously. I ate right and took supplements and was able to recover and went on to have more babies. I then seemed to be around 240 – 250 between pregnancies. After my 10^th baby I even did Curves for over a year and got fit and lost a few pounds, but had to step down after I got pregnant with my 10^th baby.

Fast forward again. I didn't diet again until I found myself pushing 280 pounds after spending months in the hospital with our 11^th child, Esther, who has Down Syndrome and was born with a heart defect, which required open heart surgery when she was just 3 months old. All the hospital food and sitting around really did a number on my weight, and being 45 didn't help either. I also, for the first time, hod my blood pressure elevated high enough to require that I go on high blood pressure medication. So when Esther was 1 ½ years old we were introduced to the Body For Life regime and both my husband and I tried that. I was able to regain my health and strength over a period of 3 months and drop about 30 pounds, but then it stalled. The program was just not doable in the long run when I had a large family to care for. 30 – 45 minutes every day and eating separate meals just didn't work. I was able to maintain the weight loss, but even thought I tried several times, I just could not stay with the regimen. One benefit from losing the extra pounds was I was able to go off of high blood pressure med, but my BP was still hovering in the upper ranges of normal. Good but not great.

Two years after starting BFL I was still at 250 and I got pregnant at 47 years of age. We were surprised to say the least. Due to some pregnancy complications (mostly due to my age) I was on bed rest starting at 30 weeks, put on high blood pressure medication again, and ended up having Carese 3 weeks early via emergency C-Section due to cord compression. She was so tiny but so healthy. I was thrilled to be able to go home with my baby so quickly. I was looking forward to gaining the strength that I had lost during all the bed rest! Only problem was, I injured my knee when she was 6 weeks old, and it turned out to be a major knee injury requiring me to be on crutches off and on for the next 4 months. Needless to say I got weaker and gained more weight, topping out at an all time high non-pregnancy weight of 285. My blood pressure also remained high, requiring me to stay on medication.

Just after I was off crutches I heard about T-Tapp! I was sent a link to Charlotte Siems website (http://charlottesiems.com/ ). I was amazed that a fellow mom of 12 could lose all the weight and keep it off for years. I knew that if she could do it, so could I! I ordered the MORE 2 and did my measuring and started my 14 day boot-camp the middle of August 2012. I still had pain in my knee quit often and iced it every night. I also got involved in the T-Tapp Forums and found a great resource for encouragement and advice! After just a few weeks of T-Tapp I was pain free and going quickly up and down the stairs and I was able to discontinue using blood pressure medication with the approval of my doctor. It was amazing! I was losing about 4 inches per week for the first month or so. I was consistently doing my workouts three times a week. By the beginning of December I had moved on to MORE 2 and I had lost over 40 inches! I was struggling with some shoulder and back issues by then (due to nursing my baby in bed at “my old age”, so as I turned 49 I found my self very limited in what I could do in my workouts. I continued to do what I could and turned to the T-Tapp forums for help too. I learned about Magnesium and finally gave it a try. After over a month of back spasms, they went away the first time I sprayed Magnesium oil on my lower back! They did come back, but each time I used the MO and used ice and they went away again. I started a nightly routine of spraying MO and after a few weeks they were gone. My shoulder continued to give me trouble, but that was easier to work around than back spasms!

Through the rest of that winter and spring I sporadically did MORE 2 and tried to eat relatively healthy foods and even did a few bouts of being sugar/white flour free. My inch loss slowed to about 4 inches a month. I was very busy processing our newest journey, that of international adoption. After a wild month of fund raising in April I decided to take May off – no workouts, eating whatever. That was the first month since starting T-Tapp that I actually gained inches – a whopping 16 inches in just 4 weeks! Not good!

Once our paperwork was submitted for our adoption and we began the wait, I realized that I really needed to get ready for two trips abroad! But I had pushed myself too hard for too long. I was still nursing a toddler “at my age” and not getting enough sleep most nights. I just couldn't get myself moving, yet I pushed myself to get some projects done anyway. Very quickly I found my self showing signs of adrenal fatigue again. So I did a short round of juicing, resting and taking supplements recommended for adrenal fatigue. When I hit day 8 of the juice fast I simultaneously “hit the wall” and could not go on and heard about an awesome new book about eating healthy for moms! I worked my way off of the juice fast and started doing my MORE 2 workouts while I waited for the book. I started the “Trim Healthy Mama” way of eating three weeks ago and it's amazing – even makes use of some of the amazing things that I learned about from the T-Tapp Forums!). It's healthy and balanced, and I'm eating a wide variety of foods and does not seem like a diet at all. This is very doable for the long run as I'm eating nearly all the foods that I like to eat, with just a few tweaks and being careful about which foods I eat together! I was sure I would gain back inches eating this way, but I didn't, I continued to lose inches! I also started a 28 day T-Tapp challenge so I was doing my T-Tapp faithfully again for the first time in months (I still have a little shoulder pain, but I am finally able to do all the movements again!). From the beginning of June until now I have lost 31 inches (including re-losing those 16 inches that I gained in May), for a total overall inch loss of over 70 inches in 11 months. I was finally able to use a friend's scale and found that I have lost about 30 pounds since I began this T-Tapp journey.

Best of all I'm starting to have some energy again. Also my blood pressure is now averaging the BP of a teenager! It's the lowest it's been in over 10 years! I still have days where I struggle, but I've had some wonderful days of tackling long ignored projects too! I know I have not even made it close to my “goal weight” but I really have no idea what that weight will be. I have about 70 pounds to lose to get to the weight I was when I got married, but with my T-Tapp “long, lean muscle fibers” I might still fit into my wedding dress but weigh more and be in better shape! My daughter is very similar to my build at her age, so if I go by her measurements I have about 45 inches to lose – now that sounds very encouraging and do-able to me!

So, you may ask, “What is so successful about your story?” No, I'm not at my goal “measurements” and no where near my old idea of “ideal weight”, but I have made great strides in the past 11 months. With the exception of one month, I have consistently lost inches, even when I was rarely doing my T-Tapp. I'd go for weeks without doing a workout and yet find I had lost little if any strength or endurance! But when I am consistent with my workouts, I do lose the inches faster. I have succeeded at losing 2/3s of my extra inches in less than a year. That is success. That is inspiring. I'm inspired to keep on keeping on – for the rest of my life. My goal is to be able to do the 15 minute workout someday. 15 minutes, three times a week for life sounds wonderful. So does finding a new “goal measurement”. So if you take anything away from my story, remember to “do what you can,” take your measurements, and throw out that scale!

That's it, that's my story up to last month.  As of this week I've been doing T-Tapp for an entire year.  I've never done any exercise program for that long!  And I'm back at it even after our family vacation!  In fact, I'm going to try doing the Basic Workout every day and see how that goes!  Also, I am now doing the BWO+ that I had mentioned in my testimonial as something I hoped to do someday!  I've been doing that workout for almost a month now!  Hurray!  I'm due to measure, as I try to measure 1 - 2 times a month, but my measuring tape is missing!

Happy Birthday to Priscilla!

The girls had fun at our yearly family reunion!  We all did actually!

Today is Priscilla's 3rd birthday!  We had really hoped to have been to visit her by now, but that was not in God's plan.

Esther wanted me to smell the flowers!

 However, we did get our I800a approval letter in the mail today and we have already gotten it notarized!  This is the last document that we have to send in so that our dossier can be submitted.  I do still have to get it apostilled, and sent in, so it looks like we will be getting submitted around the end of August or beginning of September.  That means we'll probably be travelling to meet her late in September or sometime in October.  Yes, that is right around the time that Jeremy and Samantha are getting married - but God knows that and has all this in His hand!

Esther flouting all the rules - eating in Daddy's chair!

We have had a very busy summer, but I'm not exactly sure what we have been doing that has made it so busy!  Ha!  We did just get back from a week long camp-out and boy am I tired!  Here are some highlights of our summer so far (our camera was missing for nearly a month, so there aren't very many photos, sorry about that!).  I'll post photos of our camp out next time around - too tired to find the camera tonight!

Jeremy  on his birthday really digging into his gift...
Sam's not so sure about his love of gummy bears!
Jeremy is still working away at the bear, but he's down to the feet now!

Right now my near future is full of thoughts of starting our school year early, but also the need to do a school room purge to prepare as well.  To prepare for our camping trip, we gutted half our trailer and rebuilt it to work for our family and it was a great improvement.  But right now, our front porch and yard are in need of serious tidying due to the destruction phase of the remodeling.

Our goats are doing well.  We were able to sell the two wethers so we are now down to three goats, and only one of them really giving milk.  We will probably be getting one more goat in September and depending on how that works out, we might sell one of the ones we have now.  The little girls are doing so well on the goats milk.  It's really helped them with their gut issues!  At least up until we went camping, but I'm sure they'll get all healthy again soon!

Esther all ready for church too!

I got the book Trim Healthy Mama just over a month ago and we've been eating so healthy (at least the three oldest girls, Daryl and I have been).  I'll post an entire blog post about that one soon!

I was so excited to get my copies of Three Decades of Fertility!  I gave one to my mother, sold one to my friend, and have given a couple of others away too.  I did find out that I only get commissions from PDFs sold through my link, so I'm working on placing an order of the paperbacks to resell locally and to give as gifts too.  I'm reading through the book and it has amazing stories and great wisdom to glean from these women!

Car seats donated to our family in honor of our adoption,
from Evenflo directly - amazing providence!

Overall this summer I've been just staying home.  I love to be home most of the time.  I just feel like I do everything better if I'm not running around doing things away from home.  Maybe it's because I'm getting older, maybe it's because it takes a lot of time to keep a busy, large family running...dare I say "smoothly"?

My boys and their toys!

Or maybe it's because I'm 49 years old and still nursing a toddler?  I've tried to wean her, but she wants nothing to do with that operation!  She'll take a bottle on her terms, and she's one strong willed little girl!  I've got my hands full with her already!  We are working to get her to understand that the world does not revolve around here.

Princess Carese all ready for church!

 Each one of our children has had to be "de-throned" as I call it.  Sometime between 2 and 4 it becomes obvious that the child thinks that they are royalty and that our family was created to serve their needs...but they soon find out that they are wrong.  But it takes a concerted effort on my part to de-throne them as it's not easy and they do not like the process at all!  Princess Carese is hanging on just fine still, but her time is coming and she's had hints of it already!

She's a beautiful princess though, and her antics keep us appreciative of the gift that she is.  Instead of an empty nest, ours is bursting with little and big people and every size in between.  Each child is such a gift to our family, with their unique talents and personalities.  With so many living together we also have ample opportunity to see our sinful natures and know where we need work.

Growing up with most of my older siblings having moved on, I rarely had to deal with irritations and frustrations in the daily scheme of things and I was able to come to a pretty high view of myself.  But God wasn't willing to let me live with that thinking and has been pushing me to my limits most of my life...constantly causing me to realize my need for Him and His grace in order to overcome my sinful tendencies.

Time to close my rambling thoughts for now...once I find the camera (somewhere in the trailer I'm sure), I'll post a camp out blog post!  Until then, enjoy these last few weeks of summer!  I know I will!