My Journey

In my first post I mentioned that I have lost a decent amount of weight "several times".  [15-40 lbs each time]    Meaning I've lost weight (YAY!)  ...and then gained it back. (BOO!)   Of course it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that after I lost the weight, I slowly slid back in to my old ways... stopped eating healthy, stopped working out and the weight came back on.

Every time I start back up again, and the pounds start to come off I think "Wow, whenever I eat healthy foods and work out on a regular basis, my weight goes down, my body gets smaller and I feel way better!  Not just physically but mentally too!   ...And whenever my diet consists of crap and is the S.A.D (standard American diet) and I sit around doing nothing, my weight goes UP!  Ironic, right???"   You would think with this (totally obvious) "revelation" each time, that I would get it through my head and realize once and for all that for me, being fit and healthy is a lifestyle, not a temporary diet.  I am not one of those women who are blessed with a crazy metabolism and can eat whatever she wants, work out little to none and be a size 2.  And I'm not perfect... meaning I sometimes get lazy, lose motivation, get too busy, too stressed etc.

I like to think, however that each time I have to lose the *same* weight I've lost before that it gets me that much closer to staying on this path forever.

The most recent healthy lifestyle journey started in February of 2010 and it forever changed my definition of healthy.  I was tired of feeling ugly, self conscious, constantly trying to find clothes that "hid" my fat and felt that I felt I looked "my best" in a zip up Old Navy hoodie... because it was loose enough to not show my fat stomach.  (as if the fat wasn't apparent on the rest of my body???)   I reached out to as many people I knew who are knowledgeable in either nutrition or exercise and begged for help & advice!   I joined the YMCA that is 2 blocks from my work, and decided that my lunch break would be when I work out most often.   What I didn't know was that this time I was going to un-learn a lot of what I use to believe about food and learn a whole new meaning of the word "healthy".   I'll talk more about that in future posts but for now, I'm going to fast forward.

So where was I... oh yeah, so it's Feb 2010, I made the decision to get healthy.  I was committed.  I am 5'1" and weighed 155 lbs.  My goal weight was 125 lbs and I started working out and eating low fat, low calorie foods and losing weight.  On March 20, 2010 I got engaged.  In May we chose a venue, we set our wedding date for March 19, 2011.  By June/July I had lost 30 lbs and weighed the 125 lbs.   Unfortunately, my body really holds on to belly fat so even though I was small, I still had a lot more body fat that all clung to my belly.  So I thought I would try and lose 5-10 more lbs but I plateaued there and stayed at that weight for some time.  In November/December of 2010 I got down to 117 lbs, which was 2 lbs shy of my ultimate goal.