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Survival Mode… is sometimes an unavoidable place… but its a place you can’t stay for too long!!!

3/14/14

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Survival Mode is sometimes an unavoidable place… but its a place you can’t stay for too long!!!

Wowsers! Today marks the finale of Get Fit’s Rock Body Boot Camp… It has been an awesome and emotional adventure for me! I’m not sure that I had even shared that I was doing bootcamp… but let me tell you these last 8 weeks have changed me big time! The last 8 weeks consisted of a coach for accountability and encouragement, sugar detox, complete meal plan, texting pictures of meals for accountability, intense workouts, weekly before, during and after pics and weekly measurements with weigh ins. I remember the kick off meeting and hearing the team of coaches saying “Trust the process – it works!” And they couldn’t have been more right.

Our second week of homework required a little soul searching and answering our WHY… here’s what I shared with my coach.

Why did you decided to start RBBC? 

I started bootcamp because I needed to make some huge lifestyle changes. We have had a very hard two years as a family. In the beginning of 2012 we prepared our home for foster adoption. We started the process when our oldest children were almost 3 and 1 and we started the process when we did because we thought we would be waiting for quite some time to get a placement because we wanted to keep the age of the child we would bring home younger than our youngest… if that makes sense. We thought… we would be waiting a long time. Literally the day our home study went to county we got the call for a little 7 month old baby boy… and Jax came home just a few short weeks later. So we had three kiddos under the age of three. I am so thankful for God’s graciousness to us during this entire process… but it literally has been the hardest most painful experience we have ever experienced. I would take him to weekly visitation with his birthmom… and it felt like it would take days for us to recover… and then do it again the next week. During those initial months when Jax came home we made some significant medical discoveries and spent a great deal of time with specialists… at one point we were given a significant diagnosis…  But just wrestling with what that all meant was just a lot to carry. Thankful that Dr.s are sometimes wrong… and that he doesn’t have what he was diagnosed with but there are still a ton of unknowns!  On New Years eve of 2013 we received a call that Birth Mom had had another baby… Literally the boys are one year one day a part and we were told that he was premature born at 33 weeks but that he was detained and they were in need of a placement. The challenge with his placement is that because it’s a new case… it comes with more unknowns of whether they would reunify or not and the boys continued to visit with her every week. Even though other children had been removed Jax was actually the first one to actually be adopted out of the system and we still had no clue what the courts would decide. But we were willing to take that risk! We loved being able to keep siblings together and to grow our growing little family. Jax was officially adopted in November 2013 and rights were terminated for Keags in October but an appeal was filed for his case so we are in the middle of waiting it all out. So for the last two years my goal has been to just make it through the day… it was emotionally hard… as well as working hard just to care for their very dependent needs. And I know that through that time… I  kinda think that I ate my way through the hard stuff. I guess I could also say drank my way… because I was addicted to Starbucks’ caramel brulet latte. 🙂

I have been so thankful for my job which has been an incredible outlet to get out of the house… challenge myself creatively… meet some incredible people… and get outdoors all while working it around our family’s needs but the challenge with that  is that I work so many late… late nights to keep on top of everything. Which just left me even more exhausted. So I made the decision to make a change… for me and for our family. I need to get out of survival mode. I need to stop trying to figure out how to just make it through the day and figure out how to make changes that will invest in our future. If momma is exhausted… and tired… and frustrated… it’s hard on everyone. So I wanted to put myself back in control of my days… in control of my eating… in control of me. I was tired of seeing myself tired… and wounded from such a hard year. And I was pretty disgusted by the 35lbs I put on during that time. And timing is great because it helps me make the significant changes before we really get going with our busy season.

What motivates you to see this through to the end of the 8 weeks? 

honestly… probably my stuborness. I told myself that I was going to do it… going to accomplish it and I really want to see myself, my habits, and the way I feel change!

What do you hope to gain from this process?

I hope to gain strength on the inside… and I really want to grow my love for working out again and I’d like to loose quite a few rolls and that awful double chin 🙂

 

We were challenged to find a picture or quote that we could use as inspiration throughout bootcamp… I found this on pinterest (http://www.pinterest.com/pin/71987294017902223/) and I love it!!! I feel like it summed up me and my goals. I am a fighter… I like a good challenge… and I wanted it to show on the outside!

I want to say something about survival mode… I think survival mode isn’t something that anyone sets out for but sometimes it just happens. I think life can throw us life that we just didn’t see coming whether it’s a birth of a child, a death of a loved one, a new job, a move, an illness or in our case adoptions… so for a time… for a season you do whatever you need to make it through the day. I don’t think survival mode is a bad place to be… its just a place that we are not intended to stay.

 

One of my sweet friends has been asking for before and afters… and while I won’t quite share the photos of my before & afters that I’ve been sending my coach every week… I will share this side by side comparison. It’s “that photo” … the photo that stops you dead in your tracks… the photo that slaps you upside the head with your reality. The photo where you can’t even believe that it’s a picture of yourself. Jared did say that it was a really bad photo on a really bad day and that he doesn’t ever me actually looking like that… but either way it was enough to kick my booty into change. The photo on the right is me after 8 weeks of RBBC… My goal wasn’t to see the number on the scale decrease… it wasn’t even about the size of my clothes… it was about getting healthy from the inside out. (And yes… that is my clean laundry pile on the ground back there… somethings gotta give… at least it’s all clean right?)

Ok… transparency time… as if the above photo wasn’t transparent enough 🙂 It was hard… but what was hard about it surprised me… It was hard to realize that I didn’t feel like the athlete I used to be… it was hard to face just how much I had gained… it was hard to figure out how to put myself as a priority. The second week I weighed in my sweet coach asked me how it went… and I think I  pretty much burst into tears. It was hard and I struggled with feeling guilty about how much time I was taking for the gym and food prep. Felt weird to put myself on a timer to make sure I was actually eating good meals. Let’s be honest up until that point… I ate whatever I could get my hands on whenever I could fit it in between taking care of my crew. My coach literally encouraged me it’s like adding a whole extra person to your family… you are adding yourself back in. And she was absolutely right. I think mom guilt eats away at you no matter what you do… but what I actually found was that it brought awesomeness to our family.

My fear was that I wouldn’t spend as much time with my family because of how hard I was working with meal prep… the TRUTH is that I gained precious time as my two oldest kids started helping me in the kitchen. They lit up at the chance to pour and measure… (which also means that I learned a great deal of patience while we were at it too) My fear is that I would be stuck doing extra work as I cooked clean meals for me and cooked for the rest of our crew… The truth was that our family tried a lot of new foods. I made as much as I could for all 6 of us. There was a little bit of gagging… and dry heaves when it came to the mashed cauliflower… but for the most part they were surprised at how good it tasted… I was surprised by how good it tasted. My 3 year old little boy begs every day for a “spinach smoovie”… My fear was that even after working out for weeks I would still be weak like I was when I started… And I was shocked at how I built up strength and my body just started changing. I noticed that the couple of steps up to our front door became little skips… and getting my booty off the floor after changing diapers suddenly wasn’t so hard. I noticed that I didn’t hurt to wake up every morning and that I was more eager to start the day. I found that I started looking forward to my gym time…  I found that bootcamp had changed me… it had changed our family! It’s kinda nice to be married to another photographer… thankful for him snapping a couple of shots for me today!! I’ve been asked a couple of times what my actual results were… I lost 19.8 lbs… which I will proudly round up and call it 20 lbs. Which means I lost 11% of my overall body weight. I lost a total of 15.5 overall inches which include bust, waist, hips, arm, and leg. Literally 5.5 inches of that came from my waist… CRAZY! When you trust the Rock Body Bootcamp program it totally works.

One of the things that I feel like was really helpful was a perspective on my reality. I know that I am harder on myself than any coach ever could be. Bootcamp is filled with lots of extra fitness opportunities like Boot campers extra workouts and bonus homework. For me early on… I had to communicate to my coach that there would be things that I just wouldn’t be able to do with my little reality of responsibilities but that I was doing everything that I could. So if I didn’t make it to a get fit work out because I had sick kids… I could supplement it with an at home work out. Or if chia seeds literally made me sick… there was some flexibility in the meal plan  and that I could still see results right where I was at. Or if I completely didn’t see that today the meal plan said “slow cooker” untill 4:00pm… I had options. I almost completely stuck to the clean eating with the exception of those two chocolate covered strawberries on valentines day – which I totally took a picture of and sent it to my coach. But I didn’t want to wait any longer or say some day when I can make it to every and all 6  workouts for the week – then I will do it. For me… I had to say I’m going to do it now. Now is the time for me to see the change in myself. Now is the time to dig out of survival mode and get healthy.

I never looked at the finale date… or where I would be in 8 weeks – I just kept looking at how to make it through this day… and to do this day well. So that meant if I challenged myself to just make it to the gym… we call that a win. Or hold plank for 30 seconds straight instead of my 10 seconds in the beginning… it was a win. The first time I held plank for a minute… I did a happy dance! Or if I lifted 5 more lbs today than I did the day before it was a win… or how about the day I didn’t come in very last for the 1/2 lap… now that was a win.  I say all of these silly things because they were all very real wins for me at some point and I think that they can be real fears to hold some people back. But you just got to take that first step and trust the process!!!

I want to say a HUGE THANKYOU to a couple of special people… First of all my bootcamp coach – Michelle!!! I am so thankful for your encouragement and accountability! So thankful to have made a new friend! And I am confident that you were just the right person to walk this road with me… I appreciate you! I am so thankful for my sweet friend Tara… always being a loving friend… with an encouraging smile. A beautiful example of a wife, momma, friend and lover of fitness with an incredible gift of inspiring others to love fitness too! I am thankful for Erica and her passion for Get Fit and creating not just a gym but a community of people working towards being the best they can be. (might sound cliche… but seriously true!) Huge thank you to all of the trainers… Kayla, Holly, Bobby, Jamie, Michelle, Michelle and Nick!!! You seriously challenged me and I am thankful for every workout… every time you taught me something new… and I might even be thankful for the endless amount of burpees.

 

For more information on Get Fit Inspiration Studio and the classes and programs they offer you can check out their website at  http://getfitmodesto.com/ And I believe the next bootcamp starts in April… nows the time to do it… Survival mode is sometimes an unavoidable place… but its a place you can’t stay for too long!!!

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  1. Eryn Crawford Kesler says:

    Love this and I love you! Your transparency is inspiring!! Way to go, you look amazing, and I love that you are working to match your beautiful insides!! That’s my favorite part about you 🙂 xoxo

  2. Sophia Stanton says:

    So enjoyed reading this. Thanks friend for being so willing to share. You’re an inspiration for sure

  3. Liz Evans says:

    You are awesome Kori! Thanks for sharing

  4. Rose Ruggirello-Miano says:

    Beautiful Story!!!! Great job Kori!!!

  5. Jessica Grimbleby says:

    Beautiful words. Thank you for being so open and sharing about the process. It really is an inspiration.

  6. Kerri Bentley says:

    Good job Kori! I did a bootcamp this time last year, it was great and hard. I did not work out like I should have, but I was mostly wanting to change my relationship with sugar:) You look fabulous and are inspirational. I love reading your blog, so real and gracious! Keep on keeping on, you are a great example to your kiddoes!

  7. Tiffany Dillon says:

    Love it Kori!! Great job momma!!

  8. Melissa Ballard says:

    Thank you for sharing!! Congratulations on your life style changes!

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