February 4, 2011

It’s been a little over two weeks since I last checked in. I could say I’ve been busy… but then again, I’m always busy. So I’m here to take my slap on the wrist and move forward. Thankfully during that time I stayed true to my diet, although not as much on my exercise routine. Being a working mom with a fiancée who works nights makes it difficult to fit it in. The first few weeks I would force myself to pop in the DVD the minute my daughter went to sleep… but the last few weeks it has been harder and harder as I’m just exhausted from work and home life. So what was once 6x during the week has now morphed into just once or twice during the week supplemented with a long bike ride on Saturday and walking on Sunday. It’s not what I told myself I was going to do… but we all have to make concessions. Plus, it’s much more than I used to do on a regular basis.

My diet itself has gone great. I pretty much only eat meat and veggies, with an occasional piece of fruit. Snacks are pretty limited, but right now I’m grooving on almonds a lot! I’m rarely hungry and it makes me wonder why I ever ate all that other stuff before. I’m still going to Medi twice a week and can happily say that as of this morning I have lost 20 pounds since January 1. I’m back to wearing cute clothes from before I was pregnant and people are starting to notice the difference. My fiancée has also started his own program – he’s not doing the whole Medi thing, but still watching what he eats and being more active. Together we have vowed to get healthy for our daughter!

In a related note, I wanted to share a success story from a friend of mine from high school. She was also overweight and in 2010, while her husband was deployed with the Army, she took it upon herself to make a drastic life change. Two days ago, she posted a picture of herself next to her old jeans (you know… the pics we always see). She has lost 120 pounds and looks amazing! Whenever I am having a little craving or feel like there is no way I can keep it up, I look at that picture of her. If she can do that… I can certainly get to my goal weight too! We all can!

January 19, 2011

It has been 20 days since I started changing myself into a healthier and happier version of myself. I’ll admit I had my doubts that I would even make it past week 1. But, after proving to myself that it was indeed possible to eat better and make time for exercise while being a working mother, I decided it was time to push it a little harder. I joined Medi Weightloss Clinics to force myself to stick with it and be accountable to someone other than just myself. They take all the measurements you could possibly imagine, including the extremely disgusting total pounds of fat. No matter how good you feel about yourself, thinking about yourself in terms of actual fat pounds is enough to make anyone diet. There are some vitamin supplements and of course tons of “good for you” foods you can buy, but I chose to go the ‘au natural’ approach. The program is laid out for you and is based on the science of how we store and burn fat. After seeing my fat number, I was all ears!

I spent the last week eating nothing but protein – no fruit, no veggies, no pasta (no, not even the whole wheat kind) – just meat, meat and more meat. I limited myself to around 500 protein calories a day. The goal was simple, really, jumpstart my body and transform my metabolism into constantly burning fat (or being in a constant state of ketosis). Did I mention I was kind of a science geek in school? This is really the only way that makes sense to my scientific mind. I actually test myself daily to make sure I’m still in ketosis. If not, then I know I didn’t do something right that day. I thought there was no way I would make it through last week on just meat alone… and 500 calories, who was I kidding. Surprisingly, I was hungry only once the entire week, and most days it was actually a stretch to hit 500. I continued exercising – Pro90 is still doing the trick during the week. I added bike riding to the regime on Saturday, putting my daughter on the back in her seat for the first time and she loved it. Then, came Sunday… My family came to visit and we all went to Disney’s Animal Kingdom for the day. I can proudly say, though, that somehow I managed to stick to my diet, despite the smell of theme park delicacies.

My official weigh in was Tuesday and I am down another 4 pounds, more importantly it was all fat. The doctor said that while most people lose more during their first week, it is mostly water, and I likely took care of that on my own last week. We are both pleased with the results. I am now at the weight I was before the birth of my daughter some nineteen months ago (Yay!) but I have no intentions of stopping anytime soon. I have lost 4 inches around my waist and dropped 2 sizes. More importantly, I have more energy to chase my little angel around.

I get to eat fruits and veggies now, in limited amounts. The whole goal is to retrain myself on what I should eat and in the right amounts. So far, so good!

My success and determination has triggered my fiancé into taking control of his life too. Our daughter is the most important thing to us, and now is the time to get healthy for her so she grows up knowing that lifestyle. I’m still searching for a healthy Mac & cheese recipe (since she would live on that stuff if she could). I won’t be able to eat it for a while, but I am definitely looking forward to it!!! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

January 10, 2011

I’d like to think I’m like a lot of moms. My day revolves around my daughter. I am one of those “crazy” moms, though, who tries to do it all. I work full time as an Energy Analyst. My fiancé works most nights. So, I’m practically on overdrive from 6:30am until 8:30pm, if I’m lucky. With a super challenging schedule it can often be hard to eat healthy or squeeze in that much needed workout. But I vowed this year would be different.

I’ve always been a “bigger” girl, but never to the point of disgustingly obese or anything. I’m simply not a petite girl. I’ve always been comfortable with my body, but acknowledged I could easily stand to lose 20 pounds. It wasn’t until the birth of my daughter 18 months ago that I saw a much dreaded number on the scale and I said enough is enough. But it was tough to focus on myself during those first months. I was lucky just to get 6 hours of sleep a night, let alone squeeze in time to take care of myself.

A friend of mine posted this site on Facebook and I figured why not. I had already told myself I was starting 2011 differently, making a conscious effort to take better care of myself. I ordered a fitness DVD set and started planning healthy, yet quick meals. So perhaps journaling about my thoughts and struggles would be a good accompaniment to my lifestyle change.

I am happy to say that I started Jan 1st bright and early at 6am (yes, it was a Saturday) and completed day 1 of my new workout program (Pro90 – it’s P90X lite really). I am not setting strict guidelines of calories (although I have an idea in my head), but am focusing more on cutting back on my portions and cutting out a few bad foods. It has been 9 days and I can report losing an amazing 8 pounds!!! The best part was on day 5 when I looked in the mirror and noticed that my clothes fit better. There is nothing like near instant gratification to keep you motivated.

So the quest continues…and I plan to stay with this routine for 90 days. After that point, my hope is to have changed my lifestyle and found ways to fit in time for me in my life. I need to be healthy for my daughter and for my family… and 2011 is just the year to do it!