With four back-to-back pregnancies, Momma Bird is feeling the need to get her life and body back.

I’m tuning into Z Living’s newest show, The Big Fat Truth every Sunday at 8pm ET along with my own personal goals and health.

Every Sunday different sets of contestants are trying to break their poor health habits. For instance, one week will show a group of moms trying to get healthier and show what habits are getting in their way and why they aren’t reaching their goals.

The Big Fat Truth finds the real reasons people are having weight loss struggles, and gives them hope along with the tools they need to use to transform their lives.

After each episode, I personally have felt more optimistic about getting my body and life back after recently having my fourth baby. I have felt spread thin having four very dependent children and looking for energy anywhere I can get it.

For me, both my weight gain and my weight loss is 90% on what I do & don’t consume, and 10% dependent on how much I exercise.

So what causes me to eat poorly?

I have narrowed it down to two things:

Sugar & Sleep.

Sugar:

Misery loves company. When I eat sugar my body wants more sugar. It’s a vicious cycle. When I don’t eat it, I don’t crave it. 

Sleep:

Being a busy mom with children who still get up around the clock, sleep is a valuable thing; maybe the thing I value most these days and past couple of years. I have noticed that when I get adequate sleep I make healthier food decisions and vice versa.

I am not always the one dictating how much sleep I get, but I have made it a priority to make better eating choices no matter how many hours of z’s I get.

I want to ditch my quick solution of diet caffeinated soda, and find energy through exercise endorphins instead.

Tune in with me Sundays at 8pm ET and feel inspired to find out what’s holding you back in being your best self on The Big Fat Truth.

And don’t forget to join the FREE Big Fat 30 Day Challenge to get health and wellness tips from executive producer JD Roth!

I’m really excited to tell you all about Z Living’s newest show Altar’d (premiering January 17^th at 8pm)! Z Living, the TV network dedicated to all things health and wellness, has tons of great new shows, but I’m most excited about Altar’d because of the positive and healthy transformations COUPLES make before their big day – their wedding day that is. These 90 day-transformations are not just about weight loss, it’s about shedding all kinds of baggage before the wedding.  The couples are separated to undergo their inspiring personal wellness transformations, with the big reveal at the altar. It’s so inspiring!

I know first-hand how simple changes to diet, exercise and self-care can lead to big transformations. I wish I had known this before I got married, or at least practiced it. I am just glad I now know what works for me. The picture on the left is what I looked like 6 months after marriage, and the one on the right is how I looked after I did some very simple alterations to my diet and workout routine. I am so excited for all of these people who get the chance to lose weight and make positive and healthy transformations  before they say, “I do”. Looking back, I wish I had embraced these type of transformations, too!

Just the other day my husband said to me he wished he had done things a little differently as well. He said he had wished he had proposed to me in the spring, when he told me he loved me, and that he would have married me in the summer when a wedding would have been much easier for me. Instead he reserved his feelings and we traveled like crazy all spring and summer, rarely ever making mention of marriage, just having fun. The very night before Dallin proposed to me, and right before I was going to sign up and pay for my fall semester for college, I walked into his room and asked, “are we ever going to get married?”  I had NEVER said something so bold to him our entire dating history. He said, “not to worry…we will talk in the morning and for me to get some rest!” I walked out of the room crying knowing I was going to have to break up with him if we were not engaged by fall semester. I couldn’t emotionally be with someone anymore that was taking this long to be in love enough to marry me… Or so I thought…. He paid little attention to me the entire next morning. (Little did I know he had a ring in his pocket and was just nervous) I thought he was thinking the same thing as me, that we had reached the end of our courtship. We went out to the court and played a silent game of tennis, then his sister yelled over the intercom “everyone we’re going to the boardwalk!” When we arrived at the boardwalk, I kept trying to hold his hand and he kept trying to walk ahead of me. My last attempt to hold his hand, I was like, “Dallin I really have to go to the bathroom” then he pivoted and dropped to his knee to propose!!!! I just about peed my pants! His family swirled around me and a huge crowd gathered around us. I was SHOCKED! I had no idea how to feel. I just kept saying FINALLY!  My emotions got the best of me and I started crying. I obviously said yes…but Dallin kept asking me over and over again if I did actually say yes! 🙂

 He planned our marriage date around BYU football games, he didn’t want it conflicting with the other major event that weekend, our marriage!!!  It was a couple weeks into my semester, and then we were off to an exotic honeymoon for two weeks. We close on our new home from our Honeymoon, and we barely had time to move in before were off to NJ for a week for our Open House at the Ocean City Yacht Club. It was a dream, but my grades were SHOT! It was a miracle I graduated with a GPA above a 3.5! My student teaching semester, which gave me a 4.0 for that semester, brought my GPA back up, however I was stressed out about it for two years.  Dallin learned not to bring up my grades to me, because I kinda blamed him for our mid-semester wedding and he had zero consideration for my grades. 🙂 As soon as I graduated, it was as if the biggest weight of the world was taken off my shoulders. I instantly was able to drop weight and focus on anything but school.  I also got off birth control, which helped with my post graduation/marriage transformation. However, when I started working out I didn’t notice immediate results.  I knew I needed more than just a consistent work out routine.

 I had to change my diet! I started with having a protein shake for breakfast instead of cereal, then I added a second one in for lunch instead of a sandwich and the pounds just came off. I also didn’t go for endurance when I ran, I felt that always tired me and I ate more throughout the day when I did. Instead I either did fat burn or sprint workouts.  I got just the right amount of muscle tone.

Don’t forget to tune in to the premiere of Altar’d Tuesday January 17th at 8pm on Z Living. I can’t wait to see the big reveals each week!