Ready, set, go! Thank you in advance for coming on this weight loss journey with me. Truth be told, I am somewhat new on my journey to losing weight not because I haven't needed to shed a few pounds over the course of the last 5 years but because it wasn't until recently when it became clear that I was on a slippery slope to being an unhealthy weight for my stature.
Hi, I'm Christy. I'm a wife, Mother of 2, stay at home parent, former Student Affairs professional, practicing Catholic, with a Masters in Anthropology. I love crafting, hiking, sharing fun times with friends & family, and as of lately, I really do enjoy working out. As of today I am 40yrs old, 5' 6" at 160 lbs even.
For the first 35 years of my life I never struggled with my weight. I have always eaten healthy, usually balanced, and enjoy being physically active. Along with this I've given little thought to my body image and I've always been the "right size" porportionally. Well, this rosy life came to a screaming halt when at 35 I had my first child and at age 37 I had my second. With each pregnancy I gained 10 pounds for a total of 20 from where I had been the majority of my adult life. Coupled with being almost 40 yrs old, my body's metabolism & hormonal balances have changed. But I live a healthy lifestyle, so why wasn't this weight coming off? This wondering later led to being frustrated & discouraged as I would occasionally start a work out program or alter my eating and never saw results.
Then we moved from Michigan to Ohio and while I am happy now, the transition wasn't easy as we knew no one & had no family here. Combine a sense of loneliness to my new found poor body image and well, I gained another 5-10 pounds that continued to fluctuate for 2 years. At my worst I was 30lbs over my "normal" weight and 40lbs from my "ideal" weight.
Fast forward to September of 2012. I weighed 175lbs on a bad day, 172lbs on a good day. My oldest is full time in kindergarten and the youngest has a couple mornings per week in preschool. This stay at home Mommy finally has a consistent chunk of time to herself. Upon discussion with my husband it was agreed that in fact this would be "my time" to focus on whatever I needed to do for myself. I also decided that it would be acceptable for me to put my son in the "tot room" at the gym at least 2 days/week. Which means I can workout 4 days/wk with an occasional Saturday morning if the family had no plans. This time is PRECIOUS and I am determined to make the most of it. Every work out I do, I push myself further. After 5 weeks of busting my butt & calorie tracking (I'll blog more on that later) I actually lost 3 pounds! I broke the first barrier...it happend...I lost weight!
I felt like I had found the key to weight loss. It was so FREEING and motivating! So far, I've lost a total of 12 pounds. In a perfect world it could have been more-though I'm not discouraged- however, there was a host of barriers in my way since late October and I haven't been as consistent with my goals. I'll blog more about the barriers too as they are important to identify and cope with to be successful.
My exercise goals for this week are to work out 4 times for an hour, burning approx 400 calories each time. I plan to identify a new exercise to incorporate into my routine that targets the thighs. I also plan to include 5 lb. weights with my squats and spend one day on my arms/back.
My eating goals for the week include not drinking my calories (focus on water & tea) and staying at or under the 1200 calories established by myfitnesspal.com based on my weight loss goals and not to eat after dinner.
Oh yea, my weight loss goal. I plan to lose 15 lbs from today's weight. I do not have a goal "date" in mind mostly because I am completely afraid of disappointing myself! I am seeing results little by little thus far. Weight loss is a learning process and I'm definitely learning about my body, my will power, my need to let go of feeling guilty about this n that, and so on.
I am a turtle in this race. I will keep going. I will make my goal. I"ll be taking it a week at a time and reviewing my "regrets" along the way to make room for improvements. And I appreciate you cheering me on!
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