I have been trying to figure out how to start this post and
I think I am just going to start with the basics, sorry if you have heard this
more than once from me.
My entire life I have always been bigger, I have never
looked at myself and thought OH MY HECK you are out of control though. I think
this was a bad thing, because I never took any action.
In High School I was swimmer and I never fought to lose
weight that I definitely need to. I always did pretty well. I was able to
maintain my 195 lbs. with how active I was throughout.
After graduating from High School I began working full time
at a Bakery and part time at a retail store. I was lifting 50lb bags of flour,
sugar etc. and at the retail store I did all of the logistics in the back room
so I was lifting and running my entire shift. I probably got down to 180lb or
so. I never paid much attention to weight, I tried really hard to always have
the mentality to be happy with what you have and the rest will come easy “Love
the body you are in”. I found myself with lots of health issues that year after
graduating I had two surgeries within a month of each other. I lost a few
pounds with each surgery due to the lack of eating but, again I was never
paying too much attention. Once most of
the issues were resolved life just went on as normal.
When I was married in 2007, I was probably about 185 or so.
I remember I felt good about myself and didn’t have too many complaints. I knew
it wouldn’t hurt to lose some weight but, never did much about it. Along with
marriage came a career, custody of my husband’s little sister, buying a house-
LIFE! You all know what I am talking about! I started noticing weight slowly
creeping up on me. We would go on crash diets where we would get rid of
everything in the house that was “bad” and then just go buy it again 2 weeks
later because we couldn’t live on 1,000 calories or 600 calories as that HCG
one was.
In August of 2012, I was at Costco picking up our normal stuff
when I went to reach down and get Ryan’s three 48 (or however many are in
there) cases of Mountain Dew, when he said “no”. I looked at him as though he
was crazy. Three of these would last him about 2 weeks and it’s something he
had to have. I won’t lie, because Ryan drank so much soda it caused me to drink
soda. It’s just what we did. We went on vacation about 2 weeks after Ryan had “quit”
drinking soda and I knew that he would have them while we were there so I had
little hope it would stick. This man stuck to it and from there is caused us to
start thinking about what we were eating, why we were eating and how it would
affect our children in the long run. We started adding healthy things into the mix
but, not really sticking too much with anything. As Ryan started to see the
weight melt off we realized it was time for big changes.
In January of 2013 my work held a “biggest loser competition”
I put my money into the pot and knew I was going to win. By this point my
weight was up to 260lbs. seeing that number on the scale really put things into
reality for me. I was SIXTY pounds heavier than I was when I walked with my
diploma in hand just eight years prior. I found a protein shake that was easy
to make and easy to follow a meal plan. Ryan joined in and we started losing I
got to about 240 when the competition was over. I had done great and I felt
great. Over the course of the year life happened again, money was tight so I didn’t
order my protein shake or we had to go out and eat because *insert excuse*. I
realized in November of 2013 that I started gaining back the weight I lost.
In January of 2014, I told Ryan I didn’t want to make it
goal of losing weight, I just wanted to get back on the horse to do better. I
went to the mindset of “If I love myself it doesn’t matter how much I weigh”
even though, really folks, it does! It matters that I am 27 years old carrying
a whole extra person! It matters that I have a huge family history of heart
issues, diabetes and cancer! It was January 13th that we lost a baby;
we were told we would never have. It was January 14th, that I looked
at Ryan and said I think this is our bump that we need to be healthy. Regardless
of if we are supposed to get pregnant, we both have lots of weight to lose, it
was that day we drove to the gym and signed up.
On January 15th, I weighed myself at 5am before
heading off to the gym when I learned I had gained all the weight I had
previously lost and then some. I weighed 269lbs! It was at 5:30am that I walked
into the gym and make a decision to make better decisions for myself. Now I realize
that food is 80% of what will help us lose weight but, I need the gym. The gym
helps me not only physically but, mentally and emotionally. It was in that time
we realized that eating a prepackaged shake was not for us. In drinking those calories
and we were getting too much fruit and not enough vegetables. Ryan (my husband)
pulled out our juicer and went crazy with different concoctions until we
finally found something that we both could deal with, and now love! Every night
Ryan pulls out the juicer and juices carrot, celery, oranges, and an apple. He
then mixes it with pineapple, berries and flax seed for protein.
I found the weight slipped off, the first 20 and then I got
stuck. I went back and forth from 18-20 lost and I just finally hit a huge
milestone and I am absolutely thrilled. I have officially lost 26 teetering on
27 lbs.!! I thought this would make me feel better every time I looked in the mirror
but, I keep just looking and wondering why I didn’t notice it as much as I wished
I could.
It was June 18, 2014 that I decided to finally take a progress
picture. You see I had taken a previous progress picture but, hadn’t continued
as I should have. I looked at it in the wee hours at 5am and thought “really,
there is no progress here” but, what I found when I got the gym and thought about
putting them side by side was something amazing, something great and someone
who deserves the credit for the work I have put in.
I showed a coworker this progress picture and she asked how
I did it, I told her that it was eating my shakes, sensible dinner and gym time
that got me there. I told her that you know me, I eat, I cheat and I live life.
I realize that making a lifestyle change and not eating based off a processed
meal replacement that I can truly live. When I woke up previously and my shake
mix was gone I realized I didn't know the best way to eat. I can now say that I
know how to eat and what to eat and it’s cheap! I say it’s cheap, because it’s
much cheaper than eating out, going to the doctor for issues and eating so
often because crap food doesn't fill you up. My coworker then stopped me and
said “you sound like a commercial”, I laughed and said I get preachy about this
because it’s so easy! My entire life I have thought changing my lifestyle of
what I ate would be hard and really with how wonderful I feel I just want to
scream it from a rooftop! I will admit I have missed the last three weeks at
the gym because I have had a couple health issues but, I still lost! I lost
weight not going the gym, and eating sensible meals.
I share this progress picture with you to help motivate you
to make one change today or tomorrow because once you make that one change, two
is easier and three. Until you get to a point where its everyday you can eat
healthy and sensibly. Again, I am in no way a health nut/freak whatever you
want to call it. There are days I want a candy bar so I eat a candy bar, but
most days I crave fruit and always miss my veggies when I have not had my
shake.
All my love,
Katy
