If you missed the first installment, feel free to go back here to read it. Before I continue on with my story, I want to emphasize that this is my story. I am going to detail what has been working for me. I am well aware (and hope you are too) that what worked for me isn't necessarily going to work for the next person for any number of reasons. So. Moving along. As I mentioned, I had decided that when the kids went back to school in September (2010) I was going to start working on losing all that excess weight I had been carrying around. I have been asked numerous times what motivated me to start the process. For me, the primary reason I wanted to lose weight was because I wanted to be able to be active with my family. I was to the point where I was getting my heart rate up just walking up half a flight of stairs. When you're that out of shape, it's really tough to get excited about going on a hike or bike ride with your family. That was and still is my primary motivation, but there was also the aspect of not liking what I saw in the mirror. I have never been a person to dwell excessively on my looks (I'm a comfort over fashion person to the core), but it was hard for me to feel confident in myself when I felt like all anyone could see when they looked at me was a heffalump (side note: I don't know why I assumed other people were thinking that about me, it's not how I think about other people at all) who probably sat on her butt all day eating bon bons and watching soaps. Which was absolutely not true. I was surfing the web and drinking Mountain Dew (or going to Target and drinking Mountain Dew...free refills!) thankyouverymuch. I wish I could tell you exactly how to really dig up that motivation. I can't. All I know is that without being mentally ready for it, I would have given up very early on. I can tell you that one thing that really helped me was to set small goals for myeslf. Rather than focusing on the overwhelming task of losing 72 pounds, I gave myself three managable goals.
Goal 1: Lose 27 pounds to reach my pre-pregnancy weight with Wyatt (almost 2).
Goal 2: Lose 25 pounds to reach my pre-pregnancy weight with Elliot (almost 4...are we noticing a theme here? Yes, all of my goals revolve around pregnancies).
Goal 3: Lose 20 pounds reach my pre-pregnancy with the girls (8 and 10).
With those goals in mind, I dug out my tennis shoes and started going to a step-aerobics class at the Y three days a week. I had taken step before, but it had been years since I had been a regular attender and boy did that first class kick my butt. I came home starving and exhausted. I was so hungry that although I tried to make healthy snack choices, I just wasn't feeling satisfied with my apple, so I moved on to the foods I knew would help me feel full. Cheez-it's and a chocolate dipped granola bar. I continued on in my workouts this way for two weeks. Go to class, come close to death, come home and stuff food down my throat. Oddly, the scale didn't budge during those first couple of weeks. That's when I decided I needed a bit more of a plan. It can get really overwhelming to try to wade through all the different diet options out there and some of the recipes call for bizzare ingredients or are just too time consuming to make. I needed a plan that was easy to follow. Enter Advocare. A friend of mine had been using and distributing Advocare products for a number of years, and it sounded like it was just what I needed to get myself moving in the right direction. I started off with the 24-Day Challenge (modified because I was still nursing Wyatt). I had a fiber drink and meal replacement shake for breakfast, a SPARK mid-morning, a post-workout recovery shake after step class, a healthy lunch, and SPARK in the afternoon, and a healthy supper. I also took ProBiotic Resore in the morning, an Omegaplex in the evening, and Catalyst with my SPARK (all Advocare products). Part of the challenge is training your body to stop craving sugar, so I also gave up soda and my beloved nectar from Starbucks and started drinking a lot more water. On day 1 of the challenge, I weighed myself and took measurements of my arm, shoulders, waist, hips, thigh, and calf. A scary and rather sobering experience. At the end of the 24 days, I took my measurements again. I had lost 8 pounds and a total of 5.75 inches off my body. I was so happy with the results that I decided I was going to continue on with the challenge. By January, I had lost 26 pounds. Just one measly pound away from from my first goal. I had been using Advocare products for about 3 months and was still loving them, but I decided I wanted to change things up a little. Another friend of mine recommended the book Cinch! by Cynthia Sass. Cynthia does a great job of explaining how to put meals together and has 100 recipes in the book to get you started. There's also a 5-day fast forward option in the book that I decided to try. It wasn't easy to stick to, but it was highly effective. By the end of the five days, I had lost 7 pounds (which I know is excessive but I think was largely water-weight...I had slacked a bit over the holidays) and had reached my first goal. I continued on with a combination of Advocare and Cinch! for the next few months. I also decided to take a break from my step class and joined the boot camp class at the Y. I loved that class because we did something different every time so I never got bored with it. At this point the weight was still coming off, but definitely not as fast as it did in the beginning. By June I was within 5 pounds of reaching my second goal. And there I sat for the rest of the summer. I am a person who thrives on routine. With the big kids home for the summer and our impending move in August, routine flew out the window. I joined a twice a week kettle bells class at the Y which I loved but I typically only made it once a week. I also wasn't doing quite as well with my eating. However, one hurdle that I have finally jumped over is the, "Well, I've already failed so I guess I'll just give up," mentality. I can have a bad day, week, month, or even season, but that doesn't mean I'm just going to roll over and let it get the best of me. Once again, I decided that in September (2011), I was going to kick it into high again. I joined kettle bells (and didn't miss a single class until the last one when I took my kids up to the Children's Museum) again and started another round of the 24-Day Challenge. As of today, I have lost 60 pounds and 36 inches off my body since I started this process last September. I have reached my first two goals and am 12 pounds away from reaching my last one. More importantly, I feel great and have the ability to be much more active with my family. As promised, I have posted a current picture of myself. But before you see it, I need to tell you a few things. A) I still hate getting my picture taken. It's awkward and I'm not photogenic at all. B) I'm still not at my goal weight. C) I'm currently in the process of getting my thyroid whipped back into shape. One of the symptoms of hypothyroidism is a puffy face. That combined with the fact that I'm not quite at my goal means that my face looks, well, puffy.
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Thank you to my dear friend Michelle for snapping this picture for me. I plan on posting another picture when I reach my last goal. Even though I know I'll still hate getting my picture taken.
