The Journey

Like most woman, after having a baby I had weight to lose, but for me it was over 75 lbs of “baby fat” (I'll spare you the exact numbers) to get rid of. I was miserable and for the first time I hated my body. I knew I couldn’t let this control my life and I decided to do something about it! I couldn’t wait until Shae was 6 weeks old so that I could begin working out, so the day she was I put in that Turbo Jam DVD- and sat on the couch and watched it. OK so I tried, right? I eventually got back into the swing of it and established a routine while watching what I ate. Fortunately, I was nursing at the time and the first 30 pounds fell of in a few short weeks. Then came the plateau, you know, where you stop losing and start to think that all that hard work was for nothing! Then, Jeremy and I discovered Tony Horton’s P90X program and bought the set. And of course with a new routine the pounds started falling off again, but wait, here comes the plateau again! At this point I’m no longer nursing so every calorie has to count! And boy they did! After the first 30 days I started to see a difference in the way my clothes fit, in my energy level, and in my self esteem. This has to be working! So, why not give it another 30 days? P90X is based on muscle confusion and it includes 3 days a week of weight training, a day of jump training, one horrific day of yoga, and another day of martial arts; all nearly 90 minutes long. Well, if you work this hard to get your body in shape you start to care more about what you are consuming! For me that’s the hard part. But I buckled down and I opened a free account at www.myfitnesspal.com to help me calculate and keep track of my calories. I created a profile with my goals and current stats and discovered just how much food you could eat for 1500 calories a day if you choose the right food. You don’t have to be hungry and you don’t have to suffer; great news because I hate suffering! My biggest challenge at this point was to drink water, sounds simple enough but if any of you know anything about me, it’s probably that I don’t drink. Anything. Even water. Jeremy and I have turned toward lean meats and away from a large quantity of red meat; you would be surprised at how much you can do with chicken! Shortly after starting the second phase of X I dropped another size, that’s 3 sizes since Shae’s birth. Not too shabby! (I’m half way there!) My next challenge is that my measurements aren’t changing, the weight is slowly and steadily coming off but the inches are hanging on. As I was finishing up the third phase Jeremy and I went on a Caribbean cruise. They have an entire city on those ships! And part of that city is a full gym and fitness trainers that provide free seminars for those interested in their health between bites of pizza and soaking in those cancer rays up on the deck. Well, we were part of that group. My mother in law and I went to a seminar on detox and learned just how bad Coffee, Refined sugars, Additives, and Preservatives (CRAP) are on your body. Jeremy and I followed it up by meeting with the personal trainer, ordering the detox vitamins, and setting new goals; well I set new goals. Jeremy, as most of you know, is far from needing weight loss but is more health conscience than you would expect. When you are exercising, eating right, and detoxing, it’s hard to know which on is responsible for your results but I’m assuming it’s the combination. I have been losing a steady 2 pounds a week for the last couple weeks and have set the new goal to lose 20 more pounds by the first of May. Most days I feel it is very attainable but of course there are those days that it seems just beyond my reach. It has been and I’m sure will continue to be a journey and I am grateful for the never ceasing support of my husband and for the knowledge and education that I have been fortunate enough to find. This post was much longer than I expected but keep up to date on our journey with short weekly updates on Mondays. Thank you and many blessing to each of you in your own journey of life.