Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Well, another week in the books. I followed my workout routine and calendar. I am finally starting to crave my workouts. I never, ever in a million years thought I would say something like that. I was probably one of the most sedentary people you have ever met. Some of my favorite hobbies include reading, watching movies, talking on the phone, and my most favorite, napping. I work out at the end of the day, because it is easiest to fit it in my schedule at that time, and it doesn't interfere with my sleeping and time with my son. So, after I but my son to bed, my new routine is to go get my workout clothes on and drink a big glass of ice water and start my workout. I look forward to them, its my "me time". I feel so much less stressed and I feel like I am at least a couple inches closer to my 100 yard goal. My workouts help me achieve my overall goal of being healthy and losing weight. During this week I have lost another 1.5 pounds, which brings my total lost to 5.5 pounds. Only 124.5 pounds to go! I'll admit I was a little bummed to see that I had only lost 1.5 pounds, compared to the 4 pounds I lost the previous week. But hey, a loss is a loss. As long and I don't gain, I am doing it right and my weight is headed in the right direction. This week has had some challenges which I knew would happen when I went back to work from vacation. The number one of those being, STRESS! My job is relatively calm right now, but it can become so stressful so quick, that you never know from one minute to the next what the stress level will be. My week was pretty calm, until Friday around lunchtime. I have a boss who loves to bake and she brought in a ooey-gooey treat made from marshmallows, chocolate chips, butter, and golden graham cereal. When she first told me what it was that morning, I declined, knowing that it was something I knew I would love. But, at lunchtime, my day got hectic, and I did what I normally did, I stress ate. Not a huge piece, but it was a piece and I immediately felt guilty. How could I be so stupid and blow it! I was so mad at myself for doing it. Then I thought to myself, this isn't productive and you need to think positive. So, I made a promise that I would eat super healthy the rest of the day and work extra hard at my workout that night. I did all those things, heck I even did an extra abs workout to help counteract my yummy treat. I went to bed feeling ok about my little slip up. After I got up Saturday morning, I weighed myself, which is now my habit every morning. To my surprise, I had lost another half a pound! Oh joy! Saturday was a day I had prepared myself all week. It was my wonderful husband's birthday. I had planned some pretty awesome surprises for him, one of which included eating at a restaurant that isn't exactly healthy. All the meals are 5 courses and include dessert. I was pretty good here, I ordered chicken and for dessert I had strawberries Romanov, which is strawberries dipped in sour cream and brown sugar. Trust me, that was the lightest of the options. As we were eating, I kept telling myself, its okay to have a treat night, as long as you've earned it by working your butt off, which I had all week. I plan on working super hard this next week and posting more weight loss. Oh, I almost forgot, my work just started a 12 week weight loss challenge on Friday. You have to pay to enter and at the end, whoever wins gets a big cash prize. I don't encourage gambling, but if I were a betting man, I would bet on me. I want that money so bad and I am going to win it! Lastly, here are 2 pictures for you this week. The first of me sweating like a pig after my workout because my coach asked us to post one on our Facebook challenge group page and the second of my handsome hubby at dinner yesterday. Until next week!

Fresh Start

Well, I did it! I survived my first week of my new lifestyle. I worked out everyday this week, except today. Sundays are now my rest day. Because they are my rest day, I think it will be easiest to update this blog every Sunday. So look for another new post next Sunday! This has been a great week for me. I was off work all week, so it was very easy to start to focus on me and my health. I started by doing my first workout on Monday morning while everybody else in my house was fast asleep. When I got done, my beautiful son was there and ran to me and gave me a big hug and said, "I love you Mommy!" If that isn't all the motivation I needed to keep going, I don't know what else is.

That night was my son's second birthday party. I had a huge cake staring me in the face.

Now before my commitment to lose weight and get healthy, I would have probably eaten 2 huge slices and licked all the icing off my plate with joy. But, I was good. I did have a small piece, but even that didn't taste great to me. I kept telling myself that I was getting healthy for my son. The rest of the week we did fun things, like go to the movie and out to eat a few times. But, I have been changing the way I look at things. I have been eating way more salads than I ever have in my life. But, ya know what? I am actually starting to like them. I am starting to realize the healthier things I put in my body, the better and more energized I feel. It's like you learn in school, everything has a cause and an effect. My body has been effected by my choosing to be unhealthy and treat it poorly. I am severely morbidly obese because I have not been active for years and have chosen to eat mostly unhealthy things. I will now share some before pictures. These are extremely embarrassing to put out there, but its like my coach said, I am saying goodbye to this body and trading it in for a new healthier one.

I am happy to report that in my first week of working out, I have lost 4 pounds. This is not much overall, but to me it is huge. I am just that much closer to my goal. I am motivated to keep going and work on taking care of myself. I know it won't be easy, but I am worth it and so is my son. Now, many people have asked me what I am doing to achieve my goals. I am doing a Beachbody challenge with a workout called Turbofire and drinking a health shake called Shakeology. I am not putting it out there to guilt trip people into buying it or to sound like a used car salesman. But, it works! I have proof in myself and others that I know. I am most likely going to become a coach and start selling their products. If you are interested in doing a challenge with me or hearing more about it, please let me know. Keep working hard and thanks for all your support. I have been tremendously overwhelmed and blessed by all the support I have gotten as I have started this new journey in my life. Thank you all so much!

Here goes nothing

For over half of my life, since the age of 14 I have always been the fat girl. I've been on diets, done weight loss programs, tried medication, and at one point, even considered gastric bypass. I was raised in the South, where everything is better fried, with butter or sugar. It's in my blood, it's part of my culture, it is who I am. I grew up with a morbidly obese Mother, who wasn't always the best example. When I was 20, she had gastric bypass. She tried to convince me to do it and even told me she would pay for it. But deep down, I always knew that if I was going to lose weight, I had to do it myself and teach myself the correct way to eat and be healthy. At the age of 27, I lost my Mom. It was a very scary time in my life. Losing my Mom at such an early age was very hard. I miss her so much that my heart still aches constantly. She never got to see me become a mother, never got to hold my child, I can't call her in the middle of the night with all my silly first time mom questions. In short, missing her has left a tremendous hole in my heart. Now, when she died, I realized a pattern in my family. She died at 64 years old, just like her mom did and just like my dad's mom did. With the thought in my mind that I was only going to live to 64, I decided that my husband and I should start trying to have kids. If I was only going to live to 64, I wanted to enjoy them as long as I could. One year and one week to the day after my Mom passed away, my beautiful, healthy, happy son was born. It was the best moment of my life, one I would not be able to share with my own Mother. While I do believe in heaven and my beliefs tell me that my family will be with me forever; it didn't take away the immediate pain of not having my mom there to hold my son and tell me how perfect he was. I know in my heart, that if my Mom had taken care of her body, she would still be here with me and enjoy watching my son grow with me. My life hasn't always been the easiest, and food has always been there to comfort me. If I'm happy I eat, when I'm stressed, I eat, when I'm sad I eat. Basically, food is my drug of choice. I am sad to say that I now weigh over 300 pounds, this is very hard to "say out loud" into cyberspace for all of mankind to read. It is something I am very ashamed of. For all the success I have had in my life; graduating from college, getting married to the man of my dreams, having an excellent career, traveling around the world, buying a house, and most importantly having a wonderful little boy, there has always been the nagging in my mind that I have failed miserably at taking care of myself. I need to learn the tools and find the motivation to lose the weight so I don't become like my Mom and live to see my grandchildren. I don't want to be ashamed of who I am and what I look like. I know that as a woman, I have tremendous pressure to look a certain way and I know that no matter their size, most women struggle with their self image. But my goals overall, are something I look forward to achieving. One of the first ones on that list is to be able to buy clothes in a normal sized store and not be forced to shop at places like Lane Bryant or Torrid. Some of the other goals I have for myself are to lose 130 pounds, finish a triathlon, run in the park with my son, and fit back into my wedding dress by my 10th wedding anniversary, which is November 2014. While I have been contemplating these goals for a long time and seriously pondering it since my son was born almost 2 years ago, I have often wondered how I could do it. Then the idea of this blog came to me. I thought if people start reading it and following and then I will be held accountable by them. I need that extra motivation and drive. After I came up with this idea, an old roommate of mine from college, Erin, posted something about starting a fitness challenge that was all women. I thought to myself, "I can do that, it's only for 3 months and Erin looks amazing. So, if I follow her plan, maybe I will start to look amazing to." When Erin and I were roommates, I was the skinniest and healthiest I have been as an adult. She would always motivate me and make me go the gym and take classes with her. One of my favorite memories of when we lived together was when we would go to an abs class. In this class, you have to have a partner, mostly so they can hold your feet down while you did sit-ups. While I was doing them I would mumble to her about hating this and asking why she made me come. All the while, Erin would just have her typical Erin smile and tell me to keep going that she knew I could do it. For these reasons, this is why I know Erin would be a great motivation for me. She gets me, she has seen all my insecurities and knows the passion I have for my son because she is a Mom too. So I am going to try and write in this "diary" on a regular basis. I'm not sure what the schedule will be, but it will be regular. I will post pictures of my progress and talk about my ups and downs. I start the challenge with Erin on the first of September. I am really scared, but also very excited to take hold of my future and start learning new habits. Come along for the ride! I hope you find this inspirational, funny, sad, and just plain real. Thanks for reading and I will post next after I start my workout routine and new eating habits.