Whenever people learn that I've lost a large amount of weight, the first thing they want to know is HOW I did it. So I will dedicate this post to answering that question and get it out of the way now.
The short answer is: beachbody workouts & running (aka exercise) + shakeologoy & eating clean (aka diet). Sorry to disappoint, but I did not take any magic pills, magic wraps, eat magic food, or any type of surgery. I did not sit on my couch all day and stuff my face with food and lose weight! Shocking, right? I actually put in a LOT of hard work, dedication, and made lots of sacrifices to get where I am now---and it was all worth it.
Now, if I still have your attention, I'll give you some details.
I am a binge eater, and when I was upset, I ate a LOT of food in one sitting. We ate a shit ton of fast food, cooked fattening meals at home, and in order to "relax" at night, I would eat large amounts of comfort foods.
June 2004, I worked up the nerve to finally leave my toxic marriage. Being a single mom, running a home childcare business and trying to find the real me was hard. The first year after my divorce I put on 37 lbs. I went from 118 lbs to 145 lbs. I went and saw my dr because I was exercising daily and not seeing the scale change and I had a few other issues I was concerned with. Come to find our my thyroid was crap. I was diagnosed with Hypothyroidism. The dr wasn't the best and just told me to take the meds and continue working out and it'd work its self out. Well it never did but I had so much on my plate I just thought that's who I was meant to be. I did continue exercising 1 hour a day at the gym because it was my therapy time.
September 2009 just a few days before my birthday I was at the gym on the elliptical doing my thing when I felt my left leg separate at my knee. I dropped from the treadmill in horrible pain. Usually there is no one else in the gym since its a tiny 24 hr fitness but that day there was some meathead looking guy lifting weights. He came running right over and helped me up, got me some ice and wrapped up my knee. I waited a few days and the pain was only intensifying so I went to the ER. After a few X-rays later was in a whole leg brace and on crutches and I had a referal to see a specialist. They were pretty sure I tore my menicus. I went to the specialist but all he talked about was surgery this, surgery that. And this girl was not down for that. Espically since I had been all over the interweb researching for myself. I instead went and saw my family chiropractor. He adjusted me a handful of times and started doing physically therapy with me for 6 weeks. After that he said it would just take time to heal but it would heal on its own. The only catch was it could take up to a year to fully heal. I would try to workout but each time my knee would really both me. So I pretty much gave up.
Fast forward to 2011 when I gave birth to our beautiful lil man Sebastian. I was sick all 9 months with this child. I threw up 1-2 times a day without fail. It was horrible. But I craved sooo much food at the same time. I ate horribly during my pregnancy everything salty, fried and sweet I ate. I ended up gain 80 lbs with this boy. I started the pregnancy around 140 lbs and ended up at 220 the week I had him. He actually came 2 weeks early so I can only imagine the rate I was going if I would have made it to full term that I would have topped off around 230 lbs. Thankfully with Sebastian I was able to drop the 80 lbs by the time he was 10 months old and was holding steady back at 140 lbs.
Then came baby number 4 in 2014! We found out two weeks after we found out we were moving to England, that I was pregnant with our lil Rowan. During the next 7 months, we had to plan our military move halfway across the world AND deal with a HORRIBLE custody battle with my ex. After my 5 months of morning sickness subsidded the weight started really packing on. In May alone I put on 25 pounds...no fucking joke. We had all our stuff packed up mid month, we were living in temporary military housing, trying to see all our family & close friends to say our good-byes and work out the last few kinks of our custody battle. My ex's lawyer was really good at trying to fuck us over at the last moment. And I ate my feelings to coop. I've always held my emotions in so eating them was the only way I could handle everything that was going on around me. Rowan was born August 23, 2014 (1 day before his due date) and the day I went into labor I weight in at 235 lbs ... I'm 5'1".... that's a whole lot of weight on a short person!
October 2014, 6 weeks after Rowan's birth, I made a decision to lose all the weight and get back to the 120's. I've made this decision at least a thousand times before, but for some reason, this time I was very determined to stick it out to the end. I wanted to quit so many times, but I persevered and in December 2015, I weighed in at 150 pounds (85 pounds lost).
My ultimate goal is to weigh 125 pounds, which would be a total of 110 lbs lost. From January - June I was stuck at 150-152. In June I was laid off from exercise due to a sever hip flexor strain and I ended up gaining some weight. Not a ton but July-September I was fluctating between 157-160. I started back to exercising and eating right mid August and I wasn't losing again. After getting no where with my dr on our military base I took my health into my own hands and late September I started seeing a UK specialist that helps people that battle thyroid issues and weight loss. I started seeing her September 25th and as of today October 20th I'm down 5 lbs. That's a HUGE deal for someone that has hypothyroidism.
As far as the changes I made to my diet? I did not cut out carbs, or eat just fish and broccoli. I didn't live on salads for the last few years. I cut back on my portions by weighing and measuring my food, tracked my calories and meal planned and prepped. Right now the dr I'm working with has me elimanting soy and sugar from my diet. I have already elimantated diary because my stomach doesn't agree with it. It doesn't mean that I occasional enjoy some ice cream because I do its just not monthly. HA!
At first, I ate all the usual stuff that I was eating before--I just ate less of it and counted those calories. Over many months, I began to make healthier changes (because I WANTED to, not because I felt like I HAD to). I was eating roughly 1200-1400 calories per day. Right now my dr has me on a 1200 calories per day and that's because of my thyroid condition. We will be changing it as I begin to lose more.
As for exercise Turbofire is what helped me lost the 80 lbs after I had Sebastian so of course it was my go to after having Rowan. I did Turbofire, 21 Day Fix, Insanity Max 30, ChaLean Extreme, Cize, Country Heat, 22 Minutes Hard Corps, and Hammer & Chisel (not in that order). March 2015 I started training myself to be a runner using a treadmill hubby bought me. I'm currently back to training myself since I had to take 4 months off completely from running due to my hip flexor issues.
And that's about it! I'm currently sitting at 151 lbs but I have a feeling I will finally be breaking this plateau real soon. ;) Currently I'm running 2.2 miles, 4 times a week and I'm doing ChaLean Extreme again because this girl loves weight training.
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