I'm about halfway through my weight loss and health improvement journey. Every step of the way has been tremendously difficult but I keep plugging away--3 steps forward, 2 steps back.
In a nutshell: Athletic, strong, healthy gymnast and drill team member as a kid. Married young, three kids.
SoccerBallet4-HWrestlingPianoSymphonyHomeschooling mom. Driving my kids around to all those activities (and putting their interests well before my own) meant lots of eating in the car, very little exercise and very little taking care of me.
And I'm going to be starkly honest and admit that I have loved junk food since I was a little kid. Not that Mom allowed us to eat junk food back in the day. And speaking of back in the day (I'm 43) in my part of the country (backwoods Pacific Northwest) there wasn't the proliferation of junk food available to us like there is now. When I was a teenager (driving and earning money on my own) I managed to down a lot of junk food. But because I was so active it didn't affect my weight at all.
Having over scheduled children, my crushing habit of and obsession with bad food, eating on the run and not having the chance (plus not being at all committed) to exercise of course led to rapid weight gain. I manged to lose 30 of the excess 40 before I got pregnant with number 3 but all hell broke loose with my body after number 3 was born. By then I was in my late 20s, the older kids' activities and my obligations were piling up and all my worst habits were compounding.
Flash forward to 2002: My highest weight was . . . let's just agree it was ungodly large.
That's when I joined Curves. I was so relieved and happy after finishing my very first workout there! I couldn't believe my body even had the ability to make it through a 30 minute workout. It was liberating.
I lost almost 50 lbs doing nothing but Curves and beginning to keep a better eye on what I was eating--but not dieting in the strict sense of the word.
I have managed to keep 30 of the 50 lbs off consistently since then, but losing any more than that has been a tooth and nail fight. For the last 4 years I have dieted and exercised very, very hard to get back down to the 50 lb mark but the minute I let up, the weight returns and I'm right back up to the 30 lb mark (sometimes even a little higher.) Probably the weight comes back because I go back to my previous habit of eating anything I want, anytime I want.
I have tried EVERYTHING. Every. Single. Thing. I have tried every combination of cardio and weight training and yoga and dance class as well as just about every diet program you can think of. I have fed the muscles to go with the exercise, I've done fads and low carb and low calorie and on and on and on . . . I'm one of those people who can work her a$$ off for weeks and weeks and weeks at a time but lose only 2 or 3 pounds. Granted, I tone up and it always looks like I've lost much more than I really have--and I'm grateful for getting healthier and looking healthier--but I can't break beyond the barrier that keeps me looking behemoth.
Starting in October of 2010 I tried the Hcg diet and had wonderful success. It was amazing and I felt like I was on the right path towards reaching my ultimate goal.
I did the Hcg for 40 days, then 3 weeks of modified, followed by 3 weeks of regular eating but trying to stay away from too much sugar and refined foods. January 4th, 2011, I started the Hcg diet again and could not stick with it. It was awful. I couldn't string together more than 1 or 2 days at a time of actually following the diet. I don't know what was wrong with my attitude that I couldn't handle it.
I decided I had to stop wasting my time and energy on that diet and instead tried to eat healthy, clean food, watch my calories and exercise almost daily. It all started off well--and I even mostly prefer non junk food now after all the years of cooking and eating my freinds' fantastic food--but somehow I just couldn't get into the rhythm of exercise.
I am an all or nothing girl. Since I wasn't meeting my exercise expectations, I felt like a complete failure and I just let it all go in the eating department. Tonight I decided I'd better try doing another round of Hcg.
Wednesday, Feb 2, and Thursday, Feb 3, are going to be my load days and then I'll do between 21 and 40 days of low calorie eating + yoga. I want so much to lose 20 more lbs--I want it so badly!!! My oldest son is getting married in July and I want to be in the realm of just "chubby" rather than obese. I'm still athletic and I actually do have a nicely curvy figure (I am one of the lucky fat girls to have a waistline! That's my only good feature : ) but I want to look like a regular woman who can shop in the regular sizes at stores. That's really all I want.
And, of course, world peace : )
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