First Time Mom and Losing It

“I participated in an Influencer Activation on behalf of Influence Central for the SPLENDA® Brand. I received product samples to facilitate my review as well as a promotional item to thank me for my participation. All opinions and reviews are my own.”



One of my favorite ways to exercise is to Zumba! It's so fun that you don't even feel like you are exercising and the music is pretty amazing. My sister and I have been Zumba-ing for a while now so we wanted to get our mom and my best friend involved with it too. My mom is pretty shy when it comes to dancing so she will usually do it when it's just me and her at her house. My best friend wanted to try it too so I decided to have them all over my house to get an hour of Zumba in and then relax with some incredible smoothies, fresh fruit and a little goodie box.


Since I knew my downstairs neighbors where out of town, I took the opportunity to hold the Zumba class in my home. I ]popped the Zumba DVD into my player and we danced away. We all sweated like crazy while still having fun. Here are my girls posing right before class for their before shot. We plan on doing it at least once a week and take after pictures in a few months.


Since we didn't want to ruin all of the calories we burned while doing Zumba I decided to make some Sweet Swaps by replacing regular sugar with SPLENDA® in our smoothie. I went over to the Sweet Swaps website to find a smoothie recipe that we could all enjoy after a hard workout. I went with the Banana-Peanut Chocolate Smoothie to get the extra protein in from the peanut butter and the extra yumminess from the chocolate. Just swapping SPLENDA® for regular sugar can save you tons of calories! Click on the link to find the recipe for the Banana-Peanut Chocolate Smoothie Recipe.





The SPLENDA® Brand is helping everybody to make smart choices by giving recipes ideas at the SweetSwaps.com website. They want to give you great ideas, tips and tricks on swapping out full sugar for SPLENDA® Sweetener Products.


Head on over to the SweetSwaps.com website and tell me which recipe you would try. 

Weight: I gained 0.4 pounds for a adjusted total loss of 54.6 pounds. I was surprised to see a gain after having a good week. I decided to take some measurements and see if I lose any inches in a couple of weeks since the scale has not been good to me.

Nutrition: I was lucky to get to review a whole week of the Diet-To-Go meals (review coming soon) so it was super easy to stay on track. The meals were so satisfying that I didn't even have the urge to snack in between meals. I did go out to eat a couple times for dinner but  limited my portions so I would keep my calorie consumption under control.

Exercise: I went to the gym twice and did some Zumba YouTube Videos one day. I found my old iPod and took it with me to the gym to listen to my oldies but goodies. I walked a lot and ran around with my daughter in the park. I love that she is more into the jungle gyms than the swings now.

I found an awesome strength training video on MagRack and did it three times this week. I was pretty amazed that I could do everything on the video. I even did the bicycle core exercises which is something I couldn't do before. I bought this really thick and large anti-fatigue mat that I found in a discount store and laid it on top of my area rug. This gave me extra cushioning so I wouldn't bother my landlord downstairs.

Last Weeks Goals:

• 7 days of Diet-To-Go meals - GOAL MET!
• Gym 3 days or Exercise DVD - GOAL MET!
• Strength Training 3 days - GOAL MET!
• Continue Plank Challenge - GOAL MET!
• Yoga, Pilates or Stretching 1 day - 

This Weeks Goals:

• Dr. Oz Rapid Weight Loss Plan 5 days 
• Gym 3 days or Exercise DVD
• Strength Training 3 days
• Pilates 1 day

Weight: I lost 2 pounds for a total loss of 55.2 pounds. It was nice to see a loss after 2 weeks of gains and a week with a zero.

Nutrition: I made a lot of healthy choices and ate at home all week except for one day. I recreated a lot of my favorite high calorie foods like Chipotles, Buffalo "chicken" and chips. I got back into my cooking groove and got really creative.

Exercise: I went to the gym twice and did a Zumba DVD at my mom's house. My daughter had a blast watching me exercise and even tried the dance moves and floor work with me. I was pretty proud to be setting a good example. I did some strength training with free weights at home three times this week. I took my daughter out to the park several days this week and got her to stay out of the swings by running around with her in the little jungle gyms.

Last Weeks Goals:

• Gym 3 days or Exercise DVD - GOAL MET!
• Strength Training 3 days - GOAL MET!
• Restart Plank Challenge - GOAL MET!
• Yoga or Pilates 1 day
• Track calories and water

This Weeks Goals:

• 7 days of Diet-To-Go meals 
• Gym 3 days or Exercise DVD
• Strength Training 3 days
• Continue Plank Challenge
• Yoga, Pilates or Stretching 1 day