Workout Wednesday- How My Journey Started

First things first. This post has me feeling the most vulnerable that I have ever felt in my whole life. That's not even an exaggeration. It's extremely difficult for me to make this information public knowledge and I am scared out of my mind to hit "publish." Here goes nothing. 

Here is a little bit of history to get you caught up in my current health situation.

I have never been "tiny." I had an extremely active childhood and that continued through all of my schooling. I played a lot of sports in high school, each one ending because of an injury. My weight through high school fluctuated between 145 lbs. and 160 lbs. 

I graduated in 2009 and by the time that I got married in 2011, I weighed 170 lbs. I felt ok, but not particularly healthy. 

 

2 weeks after I returned home from our honeymoon, I got extremely sick. Because of how sick I was, I had to be put on numerous medicines just to get my sickness to "slow down." These medicines caused me to gain a huge amount of weight as I was on them for over a year. 

  (This is towards the beginning of my sickness.)

(This is towards the end, when we were getting my sickness under control.)

In April of 2013, I really tried to start getting into shape. At this point, I was the heaviest that I had ever been weighing in at 220 lbs. I started to workout and eat healthier and before I know it, I was starting to feel so much better. I found out that I was pregnant with Jameson about 6 weeks later and because of my history of miscarriages, my doctor advised me to stop working out until later in my pregnancy. I continued to make sure that I was eating healthy when I was able to eat. I struggled with Hyperemesis Gravidarum which is basically extreme morning sickness. I struggled up until the time that Jameson was delivered. I was 215 lbs. at my last appointment before Jameson was born.

6 weeks later I weighed in at 205 lbs. 

Now I am 6 months postpartum.

I decided something really needed to change when I got on the scale and was 205 lbs. 6 weeks ago. From there I decided to thoroughly exercise clean eating and some hard cardio workouts. I have been at this for about 6 weeks now and am down to 193. I am proud of the progress but am looking to make this a lifestyle change not just a short commitment. Long term I would like to see myself at a healthy 165 lbs. I am motivated to get this weight off and really trying to be patient with myself because I know that it took me more than 6 weeks to put on.

There are 3 major components to my weight loss success thus far:

1.  Clean Eating. 90% of the groceries in our home are organic and most of them are also gluten free, dairy free, etc. I do not think that you need to eat gluten free or dairy free if you do not have an allergy but I do believe that sometimes the healthier alternative with food choices may be gluten free or dairy free. A lot of my motivation when it comes to this is that I want to make sure that when Jameson starts to eat with us, we are setting a good example with our food choices and are proud of what we are feeding him. Our local grocery store makes it very easy to shop and eat organic because they have an entire aisle devoted to Organic living. We visit a few other aisles to get our fresh produce and a few other things, but we try to avoid most aisles just simply because of the temptation. I really, really love food.
2. Working out. These two words don't feel like they give my two hours of hell each morning justice. I bust my butt every morning from 9-11 at the YMCA. I chose to get a membership at the YMCA because they provide fantastic childcare for Jameson while I am working out. I really devote myself to some hard cardio for those two hours. I hate every second of it an my only secret is that I watch Netflix the entire time. Thank goodness free wifi is included in my membership. I will eventually change up my workout so that it is not just cardio, but for now I am just trying to get this weight off of me and this is working for me. 
3. Support. My husband Sean works out with me and motivates me at home. He is really encouraging when it comes to clean eating at home assisting with meals when I need a little break. I also have multiple friends on their own weight loss journey. This helps tremendously. My family checks in with me quite a bit too. I love all of the accountability and I am blessed to be surrounded by so many encouraging people.

*Side note: Sean has a "reward" program that he has set up for me for every 10 lbs. that I lose.
-10 pounds: New workout tank. 

(ACHIEVED! Woohoo! This is the one that I chose.)
I found it at Target Clearance but you can buy it online here:
- 20 pounds: New workout outfit head to toe. Headband, Shirt, Pants, and socks.
- 30 pounds: A new pair of extra expensive "fancy" jeans.
- 40 pounds: Shopping spree! By this time, I will definitely not be fitting in my current clothes. This is something that I am really looking forward to. I mean, what girl wouldn't be excited?

Ok back to business...
A few of my weight loss goals moving forward:

1. I would love to have lost 25 lbs. by the time the new year arrives. This is a steep goal and I will be happy with anything that I achieve, but I am going for it full force. 
2. Ultimately, I would love to see myself at 165 lbs. This would be a total weight loss of 40 lbs. From there I will focus on toning up. I think that I have the potential to weigh anywhere from 155 lbs.- 165 lbs. This would bring my total weight loss goal to close to 50 bs. 
3. I am currently a size 16 in pants. I started at a size 18 and would love to end up at a 10 or a 12. I am curvy and don't mind the double digit pant sizes at all, but lets be real, I have some room to improve. 

 One of the tools that I am using as encouragement on this journey are these 2 jars:

I transfer a pebble from the "Pounds To Go" jar into my "Pounds Lost" jar every time that I lose a pound. This is a great visual for progress along the way and I would encourage you to make a set to keep you accountable if you are on your own journey. 

I got all of my supplies from Walmart. It cost me about $10 to make the set. They were very easy to make. First, I layered some scrap book stickers and put them on my jar. Then, I added the adhesive tape around the lid. I got my pebbles from the floral department. Right now there are 12 in the "pounds lost" jar and 28 in the "pounds to go" jar.

Let me know if you have and questions or words of advice for me as I am still new to this whole "healthy lifestyle" thing.

 xo Kelly