I weighed 140 pounds at our wedding
Before I start with how I lost my weight I should cover how I became overweight. I'll start with after I got married. Due to many different reasons I became depressed. I finally went to the doctor about it and was put on an anti-depressant. Well the one I was on, of course made me gain weight. Who does that? Women get depressed so easily about their weight and doctors try to fix your depression with a medication that MAKES you GAIN weight? Maybe they should rethink that. So then of course I am even more depressed because I'm starting to put on the pounds. I work very hard to get off the medication and finally do but now the weight gain has really begun. At this time I also quit retail and get a job as a branch manager for a bank. A desk job is really not for me. Due to my busy work schedule I develop some terrible eating habits of a Venti Mocha and blueberry scone from Starbucks for breakfast and then usually pizza or Taco ell for lunch followed by Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner with LOTS of beer because I HATED my job. Now I'm up to a whopping 175 pounds! At the time I'm thinking to myself how did this happen? Looking back I'm lucky that's all I weighed.
Garry and I decided the time was right to start a family. I'm thinking we won't get pregnant right away. I have some time to lose this weight I have put on. Nope. We get pregnant the first month. Yes I am extremely excited but I know the road will be difficult. My first doctor's appointment I weighed 186 pounds! YIKES! It's sad when your doctor looks at you and says he would be happy if you didn't gain any weight during your pregnancy; the worst part is my husband is sitting in the room hearing all of this. It's humiliating enough to actually be confronted about your weight but then to have your husband hear it was a big wake-up call. I did great the first 4 to 6 months only gaining about a pound each month and the doctor was very happy and then all the sudden the cravings kicked in hard core and all I wanted were corn dogs and chocolate. I was seriously chugging Hershey's Syrup straight out of the bottle. The day I came home from the hospital with Ava I weighed 225 pounds. I was so happy to have this wonderful baby girl and at the same time so depressed to be at the weight I was. I then decided that I had to get back down to a healthy weight for myself and my new baby.
Me at 225 pounds
The first 70 pounds:
I have to say that the first 70 pounds was so long ago that I really don't remember specifically what I did to lose the weight. The big factors were: We stopped eating and drinking at Buffalo Wild Wings every night. I made an effort to make healthier choices. I would go for long walks with my best friend who I use to work out with back when I was in great shape. I was pretty embarrassed because we use to go to the gym and work out Monday - Friday and we looked amazing. Now she is still looking amazing and is walking with me, the fat girl on the track, instead of doing her normal run. She is such a great friend and I'm grateful that she took the time to keep me motivated when I really needed it. My husband was great too. He would take me for runs and make me run. He would pull my arm and drag me along when I didn't think I could go any further. He loved me unconditionally and was there to motivate me in a positive way. I was losing the weight and feeling good. At about the same time I plateaued, Garry and I were driving and listening to talk radio. A doctor comes on and starts talking about weight loss and makes a statement that will stick with me forever: A person's weight is determined by 80% what we eat and 20% exercise. Really? I have been busting my butt to only be focusing on the 20%? I need to get my eating under control. I try weight watchers but not really into the whole point system. Jenny Craig was offering a special 20 pounds for 20 dollars. I sign up and it was one of the best things I did. I had no idea how bad my portions were. I remember putting my cereal into my nice big Pier One Imports bowl and my Jenny Craig Cereal only fills the bottom part of the bowl. I'm thinking no wonder I weighed so much. So I look at my bowls and plates and realize they have to go. I shouldn't hear an echo in my bowl while I'm trying to eat my breakfast. I don't follow Jenny Craig perfectly but I do lose my 20 pounds and I'm very happy but I decide not to renew my membership. The food was yummy and I really liked the people who counseled me with my weight loss. Now I'm down to about 155 pounds. I'm doing great with a total weight loss of 70 pounds.
I think I can do this on my own. I download an application on my iPhone. The MyFitnessPal. I love this program. When we go out to eat I look up the healthiest choices to make sure I stay within my goal of 1200 calories. It's amazing how some of the meals I use to order are around 1000 calories. One meal that I even thought was healthy was 1000 calories! Again - no wonder I was so overweight. I did this for some time but really wasn't seeing any results. I was just maintaining. I'm starting to get pretty aggravated with the fact that I'm eating 1200-1500 calories and working retail again and I just can't lose anymore weight.
I think I can do this on my own. I download an application on my iPhone. The MyFitnessPal. I love this program. When we go out to eat I look up the healthiest choices to make sure I stay within my goal of 1200 calories. It's amazing how some of the meals I use to order are around 1000 calories. One meal that I even thought was healthy was 1000 calories! Again - no wonder I was so overweight. I did this for some time but really wasn't seeing any results. I was just maintaining. I'm starting to get pretty aggravated with the fact that I'm eating 1200-1500 calories and working retail again and I just can't lose anymore weight.
Me at 155
At this time, I'm ok with my weight. I'm not at my goal of 127 but I'm not crying when I look in the mirror anymore. Garry says he wants another baby. Sure, why not? It's only been 10 months. Of course, we get pregnant right away. I go and see my doctor again. He was very impressed with my weight loss and said I could gain the 25-35 pounds for this pregnancy! I was really excited. I can gain weight and boy did I. We also get orders to move to Okinawa, Japan. With the stress of moving to another country, and the fact that we basically had to eat out for about 3 months straight I gained the weight right back. But this time when I delivered Sophia on August 24th I weighed only 204. Haha I said "only" 204 pounds. Yes the cravings had kicked in as well and even earlier with this one and yes I was chugging Hershey's Syrup again.
Me at 204 Pounds
So here I go again....Unfortunately and at the same time a blessing in disguise, Jenny Craig isn't in Okinawa, Japan. I'm lost. What do I do? How do I lose ALL this weight AGAIN? How could I let this happen...again? I am really desperate because Garry deploys to Afghanistan for 7 months in November. I don't want him to leave remembering me as fat. I had to have another c-section with Sophia so I'm supposed to wait 8 weeks before I start to exercise. I start working out at 4 weeks after giving birth. I bought a new workout DVD. This is just another weight loss workout that I purchased during one of Sophia's 3 am feedings. The cardio workout is pretty intense especially for me. I could maybe get through the first 5 minutes before taking a break. It is no joke jumping up and down for 30 minutes. It reminded me a lot of my cheerleading days and of course was depressing to realize how bad of shape I had let myself get. Oh well, I keep at it. I'm doing pretty good with the workouts and only doing what I can physically handle. I did just have major surgery in my abdomen so I don't want to make things worse. I lose about 10 pounds doing this and we are getting into the October time frame and I'm starting to get desperate. I'm still wearing my maternity clothes and Garry will be leaving in almost a month. I REALLY don't want him to remember me still wearing my maternity clothes. Because I'm so desperate I purchase the HCG diet drops. I did it for 2 weeks and I lost 20 pounds. I would not recommend these drops to anyone. I was miserable the whole time. I had no energy and starving. I did make it out of those maternity pants and into my fat jeans before Garry deployed. I felt a little better but still had a long way to go.
I'm down about 30 pounds weighing in around 175. Garry has just deployed. I'm an emotional wreck. Sophia is 3 months and Ava isn't even 2. How am I going to do this? Plus we are going straight into the holidays. I try to skip out on Thanksgiving but have some wonderful friends who don't let that happen. Then my mom comes in December and we eat out and of course there is Christmas. I'm starting to do better emotionally and the weight loss is slow but steady. I meet with a trainer who talks me into a boot camp class. I have heard nothing but great things about it and a friend was joining the class so I'm all for it.
In January, I join a babysitting co-op at the church on base. I love it. The moms are amazing and the kids are fun. Ava and Sophia get to play for 2 hours while I get to go to the gym. I just have to sit 3 days out of the month. I start running on the treadmill and become addicted. That is how I fell in love with running. It took a while to get at a good pace but I just kept at it. At first it took me an hour just to do a 5k but I kept at it because every time I wanted to stop an AFN commercial would come on about our troops who are deployed and what they are doing. I kept thinking to myself, I don't have it as bad as those who are deployed so I have to keep going. I start my boot camp class also in late January. My weight is 156 waist is 33.5 hips 40. I could only do 10 push-ups, 0 pull-ups, and 36 sit-ups.
The class is hard and a great workout. The instructor is focusing on our nutrition however my weight isn't coming off. I'm stuck again. She says to increase my protein. So of course I not only increase it I decide to cut out carbs completely. I have done this type of diet before and had amazing results. Only problem, I have 2 little ones at home and no energy. I can't even run a mile without dying. I started losing some weight again but I physically can't keep doing this so I put back in the carbs. What to do now? A friend contacts me about the it Works body wraps that helps to detox the body. Ok. I'm interested. I purchase the wraps and I'm in love with them. I see a huge difference in how my stomach looks and the weight loss. My instructor even notices the difference. I tell her I'm using and just started selling the it Works body wraps. She is really excited and we start discussing about the toxins that are in our food and environment. She recommends 2 books to me that have changed my outlook on how we eat. The first is The Eat Clean Diet by Tosca Reno and Clean, Green, & Lean by Dr. Walter Crinnion. If you haven't read them please do.
February rolls around, I have signed up for a 10K. I'm excited and nervous. My friend, Jenny and I have never ran this distance before. We decide the week before we are going to do a trial run. On a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon (around nap time) we pack up the girls and head over to Camp Courtney to do a practice run. I have to admit we did great considering I was pushing a stroller with 2 girls. The route on Courtney is extremely hilly but we did it in within the time allotted for the race. The next Sunday we do the race and we are both excited with our results. Without a stroller and on a flat surface I completed my first 10K in 1:12:41. I feel great.
I loved my boot camp class. I am having fun, working out with some great ladies, and losing weight. Now the weight loss is extremely slow but it's coming off. In early March the class ends. I lost my final stats from the boot camp class so I don't remember what my final measurements were but I had lost 8 pounds in 8 weeks. I could do 30 push-ups, 0 pull-ups, and 60 sit-ups. Overall great improvement and I was happy. I do another 10k race around this time. It was another great run. I completed it in 1:10:41. I took exactly 2 minutes off my time. I would have done better however my knee started giving me problems at mile 3 and crapped out on me during mile 5. It was awful. At first I thought I won't be able to finish this run. I couldn't believe it. I was making great time. I didn't feel tired and now I'm wondering if I will be able to finish the last mile. I just kept thinking one foot in front of the other, one foot in front of the other. I couldn't stop to walk because if I did it would be game over. So I just kept slowly running putting one foot in front of the other. I see the finish line and I run as fast as I can and cross the finish line taking 2 minutes off of my last run. I felt great! With the exception of the knee that is killing me.
Now I have another friend who has a personal trainer who comes to her house and she has been trying to get me to join her so we could get a group discount. I decided to give her a try. She is amazing. It's great because I can workout with Ava and Sophia and I don't have to worry about finding a sitter. We start meeting in April. During our initial meeting I get a huge lecture about how terrible the HCG diet is to the body and how fad diets just don't work. Yep. I got it. They don't work. Well they do work, however the weight just comes back and usually even more weight comes along with it. My beginning stats with my new trainer are. Weight - 151.2 pounds. Measurements: Arm 12 1/2" Chest 36 1/2" Waist 35" Hips 40" Thigh 20 3/4". Body Fat % 33.2% Starting Relative Age: 42 Push-ups: 20 Crunches 45 Calf Raises 20.
One thing that I thought was extremely interesting was my Relative Age. The scale my trainer has actually measures your body fat in each section of your body. You hold on to some handles and stand on it barefoot and where your body holds your fat determines your Relative Age. Basically how old your body is. I had the body of a 42 year old and I'm only 35! I still have lots of work to do and Garry will be home in mid June! That doesn't give me a lot of time to hit my goal weight of 127. That's a weight loss of 3 pounds a week.
We start working out. My first thought was we are working out at someones home and not a gym, these workouts can't be that hard. Boy was I wrong! There were three of us working out together with our trainer. One friend actually threw up! I came close to losing my breakfast but was determined not to. I also have to say we got twice the workout. There is nothing like doing a minute of push-ups and then running across the base to get your kid because she decided to run to the soccer fields then running back to do the next exercise which usually ended being squats. I'm sure the whole base got a good laugh at watching us workout and chase after our kids.
Having this personal trainer has opened my eyes to so much. She is also a huge fan of The Eat Clean Diet. We talk about our food choices and why we make them. What we are doing right and how can we make better choices. She discusses how our body's changed after having babies. Not just our stomachs but also our posture and what we need to do to fix these problems. Cutting out anything that has enriched flour and sugar. Reading the ingredients at the grocery store and if we can't pronounce them we don't buy them. Making things ourselves not only is healthier but usually better on our budget. She also gives us homework to do. Stretching and cardio. Our health and weight is what we put into it.
She learned our strength and weaknesses. When doing an exercise that I was terrible with she would come over, watch and correct. She never accepts excuses. One day I told her I was tired of eating baked chicken with brown rice and steamed veggies. Her response, "How are you going to fix that?" We then discuss other healthy meals that are just as easy to prepare as my baked chicken meal. She watches our online food journals. She discusses our food choices and better ways to improve them. If we eat to much we get a lecture, if we don't eat enough, we get a lecture. I was upset because I had lost weight but my Relative Age had gone up from 27 to 31. Her response, "You ate a hot dog Kim!" My response, "That's protein, isn't it!" She then discusses with us how bad hot dogs are and because of the eating habits I had over Memorial weekend I had lost some of my lean muscle. I didn't realize that a couple little hot dogs could do so much damage but because the body doesn't recognize it as food it doesn't know what to do with it. With my workouts and activities my body needed energy and because it's easier metabolize lean muscle for energy instead of a hot dog that's what it did. She also says something to the effect of, "and I'm sure you had some enriched flour and sugar right?" My response, "well duh. I had to have a bun with my hot dog." Can a girl get a break? I guess not. She wasn't giving me a hard time she was just explaining the results of my actions. What I thought surely wouldn't matter actually did. There are some things I refuse to give up and she is ok with that as long as I keep it in moderation. We tackle one thing at a time and I know I am making much better food choices than what I was doing before.
These are my results at the end of 2 months and 2 weeks before Garry came home from his deployment. Ending weight 139.2 pounds. Measurements. Arm: 12" Chest: 34" Waist 31 1/2" Hips: 38" Thigh: 21 1/2" Ending Body Fat% 29% Relative Age: 31 Push-ups: 30 Crunches: 100 Calf Raises: 30. I lost 12 pounds, 7 3/4" and 4.2% Body Fat! My body is also younger than my actual age!
The lesson's I learned throughout this weight loss journey:
Focus on eating healthy. Fad diets don't work. I really had to change how I look at food and my eating habits and my shopping habits. No, my eating habits are not perfect but if I make great choices 80% of the time I'm fine with that. The really, really, bad choices I try to keep to once a month. I am still amazed that 80% of your weight is determined by what you eat. Before I was eating my 1200 calories a day but that was 1200 calories of mostly crap. Now for the most part I'm eating 6 small meals a day. I have protein with every meal. I log my meals. I also make a meal plan for the week that outlines all 6 small meals. I still crave my chocolate but I make a cranberry almond bark with 60% cacao. It's my healthy treat at the end of the day and my reward for eating well. If I lose weight during my weigh in at the end of the week I get to make another batch that will last me the next week. I will NOT eat another hot dog.
No excuses. There is really no excuse to why I can't exercise or eat healthy. If I put my mind to it I can do it. If I can't think of a way I email or talk with my trainer or a friend to help me find a way. When I hurt my knee during the 10K race I stopped running for a few weeks. To help recover, I used the stationary bike and the elliptical machine. I didn't just say, "Oh, I hurt my knee. I'll have to stop running. I'm no good at it." or "I hurt, my knee and have to take 3 weeks of rest so I can't do any exercise during that time frame. I'll just go sit on the couch." I found a way to stay in shape and to recover from my injury without losing any of the progress I made.
Strength training is just as important as cardio in weight loss. I grew up thinking cardio, cardio, cardio to lose weight. Building that lean muscle boosts your metabolism and then you get to eat more! Unfortunately increasing your calorie intake doesn't mean you get to increase your chocolate intake.
My motivation. My motivation are a lot of things. The first is my girls. I want to set a good example for them and show them how to live a healthy life. I want to have the energy to play with them. The second is my husband. He is always in great shape and he was deploying to Afghanistan for 7 months. I knew he was going to come back in even better shape and I wanted work just as hard for him as he was for me. Last is me. I want to feel and look good for myself. I was tired of never having any energy and always being sick. I have two little ones that I have to keep up with and I need all the help I can get.
I am still working out and while I haven't reached my goal weight I love the changes I have made. I have currently lost a total of 70 pounds! It has been a long and difficult road but I'm getting there. What can I say...I really did work my ass off.
Garry's promotion to Major a month before deployment
Me at about 175 Pounds
I'm down about 30 pounds weighing in around 175. Garry has just deployed. I'm an emotional wreck. Sophia is 3 months and Ava isn't even 2. How am I going to do this? Plus we are going straight into the holidays. I try to skip out on Thanksgiving but have some wonderful friends who don't let that happen. Then my mom comes in December and we eat out and of course there is Christmas. I'm starting to do better emotionally and the weight loss is slow but steady. I meet with a trainer who talks me into a boot camp class. I have heard nothing but great things about it and a friend was joining the class so I'm all for it.
In January, I join a babysitting co-op at the church on base. I love it. The moms are amazing and the kids are fun. Ava and Sophia get to play for 2 hours while I get to go to the gym. I just have to sit 3 days out of the month. I start running on the treadmill and become addicted. That is how I fell in love with running. It took a while to get at a good pace but I just kept at it. At first it took me an hour just to do a 5k but I kept at it because every time I wanted to stop an AFN commercial would come on about our troops who are deployed and what they are doing. I kept thinking to myself, I don't have it as bad as those who are deployed so I have to keep going. I start my boot camp class also in late January. My weight is 156 waist is 33.5 hips 40. I could only do 10 push-ups, 0 pull-ups, and 36 sit-ups.
The class is hard and a great workout. The instructor is focusing on our nutrition however my weight isn't coming off. I'm stuck again. She says to increase my protein. So of course I not only increase it I decide to cut out carbs completely. I have done this type of diet before and had amazing results. Only problem, I have 2 little ones at home and no energy. I can't even run a mile without dying. I started losing some weight again but I physically can't keep doing this so I put back in the carbs. What to do now? A friend contacts me about the it Works body wraps that helps to detox the body. Ok. I'm interested. I purchase the wraps and I'm in love with them. I see a huge difference in how my stomach looks and the weight loss. My instructor even notices the difference. I tell her I'm using and just started selling the it Works body wraps. She is really excited and we start discussing about the toxins that are in our food and environment. She recommends 2 books to me that have changed my outlook on how we eat. The first is The Eat Clean Diet by Tosca Reno and Clean, Green, & Lean by Dr. Walter Crinnion. If you haven't read them please do.
My first 10K at the Okinawa Marathon
I loved my boot camp class. I am having fun, working out with some great ladies, and losing weight. Now the weight loss is extremely slow but it's coming off. In early March the class ends. I lost my final stats from the boot camp class so I don't remember what my final measurements were but I had lost 8 pounds in 8 weeks. I could do 30 push-ups, 0 pull-ups, and 60 sit-ups. Overall great improvement and I was happy. I do another 10k race around this time. It was another great run. I completed it in 1:10:41. I took exactly 2 minutes off my time. I would have done better however my knee started giving me problems at mile 3 and crapped out on me during mile 5. It was awful. At first I thought I won't be able to finish this run. I couldn't believe it. I was making great time. I didn't feel tired and now I'm wondering if I will be able to finish the last mile. I just kept thinking one foot in front of the other, one foot in front of the other. I couldn't stop to walk because if I did it would be game over. So I just kept slowly running putting one foot in front of the other. I see the finish line and I run as fast as I can and cross the finish line taking 2 minutes off of my last run. I felt great! With the exception of the knee that is killing me.
My Second 10K Time 1:10:41
Now I have another friend who has a personal trainer who comes to her house and she has been trying to get me to join her so we could get a group discount. I decided to give her a try. She is amazing. It's great because I can workout with Ava and Sophia and I don't have to worry about finding a sitter. We start meeting in April. During our initial meeting I get a huge lecture about how terrible the HCG diet is to the body and how fad diets just don't work. Yep. I got it. They don't work. Well they do work, however the weight just comes back and usually even more weight comes along with it. My beginning stats with my new trainer are. Weight - 151.2 pounds. Measurements: Arm 12 1/2" Chest 36 1/2" Waist 35" Hips 40" Thigh 20 3/4". Body Fat % 33.2% Starting Relative Age: 42 Push-ups: 20 Crunches 45 Calf Raises 20.
Before Photos
One thing that I thought was extremely interesting was my Relative Age. The scale my trainer has actually measures your body fat in each section of your body. You hold on to some handles and stand on it barefoot and where your body holds your fat determines your Relative Age. Basically how old your body is. I had the body of a 42 year old and I'm only 35! I still have lots of work to do and Garry will be home in mid June! That doesn't give me a lot of time to hit my goal weight of 127. That's a weight loss of 3 pounds a week.
We start working out. My first thought was we are working out at someones home and not a gym, these workouts can't be that hard. Boy was I wrong! There were three of us working out together with our trainer. One friend actually threw up! I came close to losing my breakfast but was determined not to. I also have to say we got twice the workout. There is nothing like doing a minute of push-ups and then running across the base to get your kid because she decided to run to the soccer fields then running back to do the next exercise which usually ended being squats. I'm sure the whole base got a good laugh at watching us workout and chase after our kids.
Having this personal trainer has opened my eyes to so much. She is also a huge fan of The Eat Clean Diet. We talk about our food choices and why we make them. What we are doing right and how can we make better choices. She discusses how our body's changed after having babies. Not just our stomachs but also our posture and what we need to do to fix these problems. Cutting out anything that has enriched flour and sugar. Reading the ingredients at the grocery store and if we can't pronounce them we don't buy them. Making things ourselves not only is healthier but usually better on our budget. She also gives us homework to do. Stretching and cardio. Our health and weight is what we put into it.
She learned our strength and weaknesses. When doing an exercise that I was terrible with she would come over, watch and correct. She never accepts excuses. One day I told her I was tired of eating baked chicken with brown rice and steamed veggies. Her response, "How are you going to fix that?" We then discuss other healthy meals that are just as easy to prepare as my baked chicken meal. She watches our online food journals. She discusses our food choices and better ways to improve them. If we eat to much we get a lecture, if we don't eat enough, we get a lecture. I was upset because I had lost weight but my Relative Age had gone up from 27 to 31. Her response, "You ate a hot dog Kim!" My response, "That's protein, isn't it!" She then discusses with us how bad hot dogs are and because of the eating habits I had over Memorial weekend I had lost some of my lean muscle. I didn't realize that a couple little hot dogs could do so much damage but because the body doesn't recognize it as food it doesn't know what to do with it. With my workouts and activities my body needed energy and because it's easier metabolize lean muscle for energy instead of a hot dog that's what it did. She also says something to the effect of, "and I'm sure you had some enriched flour and sugar right?" My response, "well duh. I had to have a bun with my hot dog." Can a girl get a break? I guess not. She wasn't giving me a hard time she was just explaining the results of my actions. What I thought surely wouldn't matter actually did. There are some things I refuse to give up and she is ok with that as long as I keep it in moderation. We tackle one thing at a time and I know I am making much better food choices than what I was doing before.
These are my results at the end of 2 months and 2 weeks before Garry came home from his deployment. Ending weight 139.2 pounds. Measurements. Arm: 12" Chest: 34" Waist 31 1/2" Hips: 38" Thigh: 21 1/2" Ending Body Fat% 29% Relative Age: 31 Push-ups: 30 Crunches: 100 Calf Raises: 30. I lost 12 pounds, 7 3/4" and 4.2% Body Fat! My body is also younger than my actual age!
My 2 Month Photos End of May
The lesson's I learned throughout this weight loss journey:
Focus on eating healthy. Fad diets don't work. I really had to change how I look at food and my eating habits and my shopping habits. No, my eating habits are not perfect but if I make great choices 80% of the time I'm fine with that. The really, really, bad choices I try to keep to once a month. I am still amazed that 80% of your weight is determined by what you eat. Before I was eating my 1200 calories a day but that was 1200 calories of mostly crap. Now for the most part I'm eating 6 small meals a day. I have protein with every meal. I log my meals. I also make a meal plan for the week that outlines all 6 small meals. I still crave my chocolate but I make a cranberry almond bark with 60% cacao. It's my healthy treat at the end of the day and my reward for eating well. If I lose weight during my weigh in at the end of the week I get to make another batch that will last me the next week. I will NOT eat another hot dog.
No excuses. There is really no excuse to why I can't exercise or eat healthy. If I put my mind to it I can do it. If I can't think of a way I email or talk with my trainer or a friend to help me find a way. When I hurt my knee during the 10K race I stopped running for a few weeks. To help recover, I used the stationary bike and the elliptical machine. I didn't just say, "Oh, I hurt my knee. I'll have to stop running. I'm no good at it." or "I hurt, my knee and have to take 3 weeks of rest so I can't do any exercise during that time frame. I'll just go sit on the couch." I found a way to stay in shape and to recover from my injury without losing any of the progress I made.
Strength training is just as important as cardio in weight loss. I grew up thinking cardio, cardio, cardio to lose weight. Building that lean muscle boosts your metabolism and then you get to eat more! Unfortunately increasing your calorie intake doesn't mean you get to increase your chocolate intake.
My motivation. My motivation are a lot of things. The first is my girls. I want to set a good example for them and show them how to live a healthy life. I want to have the energy to play with them. The second is my husband. He is always in great shape and he was deploying to Afghanistan for 7 months. I knew he was going to come back in even better shape and I wanted work just as hard for him as he was for me. Last is me. I want to feel and look good for myself. I was tired of never having any energy and always being sick. I have two little ones that I have to keep up with and I need all the help I can get.
I am still working out and while I haven't reached my goal weight I love the changes I have made. I have currently lost a total of 70 pounds! It has been a long and difficult road but I'm getting there. What can I say...I really did work my ass off.
