My Weight Loss/Get Fit Journey

As some of you know, I’ve been trying to lose a little bit of weight since the beginning of the year. This past fall and winter, I put on quite a few pounds and everyday I would look in the mirror and just not be happy about it. I realized that some of my eating habits were because of stress. I am a person who absolutely loves to eat, so mix stress with loving food and you’ve now got me…a little bit of incredible bulk :-/

Our oldest daughter Jessica was asking Jim and I to join the gym with her (which is literally at the end of our street). We decided to go ahead and try it for a year and started the beginning of January. I knew that exercising every day would also help with my high cholesterol level, not just my weight. I also knew that just going to the gym was not going to help me enough with my weight so I also started a calorie counting program. I never was a real fan of diets, but I do think I am a teachable person, so I decided to give this a whirl to see how it goes. It was a challenge…I’m always up for a challenge. What I didn’t know was how incredibly unfit I was and how the first few days at the gym felt like I was slowly torturing myself to death…sad I know :( What I also didn’t know was how FREAKIN’ much I was eating everyday without even realizing it…even sadder :( This to me meant a definite life style change needed to be made.

Though I have been working hard, the past two weeks have been super depressing, as last week I didn’t lose any weight at all. I decided to try a different kind of calorie counting program than the one I was using. The new one is a little more detailed and gives me a bottom line every day; it tells me if I went over calories eaten and what was good and bad about what I had consumed each day, it has helpful tips and is just much more informative than the old program. That was a week ago.

Today, I weighed in at the gym. Btw, I have hated their scale since day one…because it was honest. My scale was a liar and I didn’t realize it until yesterday when it said I lost 10 1bs in one night. Broken, broken, my scale was broken…and so was I when I stepped on the gym scale in January. I weighed in at 156 lbs. I hadn’t weighed that much since I was pregnant with my girls. This was SO not cool. To some of you that may not seem a lot, but for my height, it was more than I wanted to be. I weighed 103 lbs when I got married, so I gained a lot. My goal is to be 135 lbs. Today, I weighed in at 146 lbs! I am down 10 lbs in 8 weeks!!! Boo-yah!!!! I have 11 lbs to go.

I have to tell you, it feels pretty good to be able to get on the treadmill and run with out feeling my stomach going in a direction of its own. This was so sad to me that this was happening…but big grin today when I became conscience that is was not anymore!!! I can now wear a belt that I’ve had for a long time that never fit me but what feels even better, is my whole entire self. I don’t even want to miss a day at the gym because I just feel better after I’m there. Though if I do, it's no big deal.

I believe that food will always be a struggle for me. Some say that nothing tastes as good as thin feels…well, not necessarily to me. I get cravings for food that I sometimes feel as though it’s an addiction. They are extremely hard for me to conquer. I am learning to pray and turn my food cravings over to the Lord and to focus on food as a fuel. I’ve learned that drinking lots and lots of water helps immensely. I am also learning that I can still have a lot of the things that I love to eat…I just don’t need to eat so much of it. Most of the time, those things would make me feel horrible but not now as I eat in moderation.

My goal is not to look like Reese Witherspoon…I’ll never look like that and would never expect to, though I do want to be happy with what I weigh and what I look like. So, I am anxious to continue my journey…it’s exciting! Here’s to optimal fitness and good health =)