30 Days progress

So I have reached my first target of 30 days doing DDPYOGA, I have been doing the workouts anything between 3 to 5 days per week. I had been attempting to run, which was not working out. I run too slowly & I'm getting bored doing it. I would rather spend my valuable time doing DDPYOGA. So that's all I am doing now (as well as healthy eating).
Weight loss had not been good at all this month but then last Tuesday happened. I lost 2lb which made me very happy.

I have had my 30 days progress photos taken. I realised after my day 1 photos that the clothing that I was wearing were too baggy, so it would be difficult to notice any difference in my body shape. So for today's photos I have decided to wear a very unforgiving top that shows every bulge (shudder). At least I will be able to notice changes when I get to my 60 day photos.


I'm still loving the workouts as we are currently doing Energy! and Fat Burner, with an occasional RHC thrown in too. I may attempt Strength builder this week as I love that workout.

I have a new yoga partner :)

Yay I have a new partner in crime for doing my DDPYOGA workouts with now. My husband has decided to sign up to team ddpyoga and now we are doing 3 workouts per week. As he is very new to this, we have spent this last week doing the Diamond Dozen stuff so that he can get to know the positions & the muscle resistance right. I am then going onto doing the Energy! workout afterwards.

I have also been running twice this week, managing a distance of 1.83 miles on Tuesday and 2.83 miles on Thursday. I think the combination of the yoga & the running seems to be working very well.

Happy new year

Sooooooo......... Well the pain relief didn't quite last. I wish it had but I'm also very grateful to the 2 days of absolute bliss that I had after the initial pain from the injections had worn off.

As Christmas & new year have now passed, I can now concentrate on getting fit & losing weight. I started back on my DDPYOGA on Thursday and it felt good. I had my husband take some photos of me so that I can see the progress that I have made in the future. They are here....

 

 

Please excuse the mess in the background & the state of me. It was post-workout photos lol. These were taken on 2nd January 2014. I will be having the next lot taken on 1st Febuary for the 30 days progress marker.

 

 

14 years of chronic pain....

So here goes. I have not always been the huge size that I am now, believe it or not, before I left school I was a size 10 - 12 in UK dress sizes. Then the joys of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) reared its ugly head, teamed up with loving drinking too much alcohol & good food meant that the weight piled on for me.

When I was 24 I became mum to my gorgeous son L who was born extremely premature at 27 weeks gestation & I was very lucky to survive the pregnancy as I had a condition called H.E.L.L.P. Syndrome which almost killed me.
Due to all of this, L is severely disabled with Cerebral Palsy and autism. He's a very loving lad who loves to live life to the full though.
I also have 2 other boys who are equally as gorgeous, C is 9 and has his own disabilities which are Hypochondroplasia (a form of Dwarfism) and a Thyroid disorder as well as severe asthma. D is my lively 3 year old who is the hardest work out of them all.

So this brings me onto the subject of pain. Ever since L was born I have been suffering with chronic & widespread pain across my lower back, hips & legs. I have been on strong painkillers for so many years now, I can't remember what life was like before them. Before D was born I was having great fun at my kickboxing club & managing to adapt the training to my own restrictions, to the extent that I worked my way up to getting my brown belt. I was on target to take my black belt grading within the next 9 months, when I found out the next week I discovered that I was pregnant with D. That put paid to my plans, as the pain levels soared massively during the pregnancy & never left me after he was born either.
These past 3 years have been the worst on my health as I have had difficulty even being able to walk at times. I have felt like giving up on trying to keep fit & healthy so many times, which would have been the easy option for me to do, but I am too stubborn for that I there are still things that I would like to achieve in life. So I kept going back to my doctor & asking for any other tests to be done, or any different pain medications that I could try. I was seen by a few different physiotherapists for short-term courses of treatment which worked for a few weeks then back to square one again.
My husband had a private healthcare package for himself through his work, so he chose to pay extra for me & the boys to be covered too. This is what has been the major turning point for me.
I was referred to a private physiotherapist who is currently working on massage & acupuncture to relieve the pain for me. She also referred me to an Orthopaedic Consultant to see what could be causing the pain. I had an MRI scan which showed that my spine is actually in pretty good condition with only minimal disc degeneration in relation to my age.
So I was offered Facet Joint steroid injections to the lumbar area of my spine. These were done under sedation & I had 6 injections done. I'm not going to lie & say that the injections were ok. No they hurt like hell once the local anaesthetic had worn off but now that I am 2 days on from having the procedure done, I have noticed the difference already. Before I had this done, it sounds strange but something that most women take for granted, I could not do without extreme pain. This was to be able to shave my legs in the bath, as it caused so much pain in my hips & I had very limited movement too.
Well, tonight I managed to shave my legs in the bath without too much pain. I have a much greater range of movement on my hips already. Still early days & I have to take it easy for the next few days to allow everything to heal.
My next plan will be to get back on with my DDPYOGA programme & to hopefully get myself down to a healthy weight. 
Once I figure out how to put photographs on here, I will be documenting my DDPYOGA journey though posts & photos.