New Beginnings

I’m going to hold all of you accountable for keeping me motivated. I’m beginning a new journey with myself (and my husband), to be healthy. To exercise, eat nutritiously, and be better examples for our children. We’ve tried this before in the past. Actually, we started our journey in January of this year. Doug lost 20 pounds and I lost about 12. And then we just sort of gave up.

The above picture was taken when Doug and I first got together. I was also about 2 months pregnant. This was 5.5 years ago.

The below picture was taken in October of 2011.
I look pregnant.
This is also 50+ pounds heavier for me.

And this is me now:

And this is actually a “good” angle, so it doesn’t look as bad as it is. Or maybe I’m just so hard on myself. Either way, I’ve gained 60 pounds since 2007 and I want to lose it. Forever. I don’t want to go back to this.

 

It’s HARD to change your lifestyle. It really is. It’s so much easier to just order pizza or throw together a huge thing of cheesy spaghetti or just sit around on the couch all day. It’s much much much easier to do those things, but the feeling you get AFTER you do those things? Not great at all.

I woke up one morning this week and decided I was done. I’m done hating myself. I’m done struggling with my body image. I’m done being lazy and unhealthy and slowly climbing UP the scale. I’m 24 years old. I’m not going to ever be 24 again. I am going to make the best of my life, not only for my sake, but for my children’s and husband’s. I want to be an example to everyone. I want to be someone’s motivation.

You know that feeling when you feel like you look amazing, and you’re feeling great about going somewhere because you think you look good…..and then you see pictures of yourself? Yeah. This happens to me every time I get “dressed up” to go somewhere. I feel good looking in the mirror but then someone takes a picture and I’m like, whoa. No ma’am. If you don’t know that feeling, good for you. I hope to get to that point some day. I want to be able to look at a picture of myself and not be so hard on myself. I’m my own worst enemy.

Doug has a family history that takes hours to go over at the doctor’s office. He literally answers yes to almost every medical family history question. I don’t want him to have to go through all that. It’s as simple as changing our diet and getting off our asses. I don’t want to lose my best friend. Ever. Some days I wish he would go away for a couple of hours lol, but I don’t want to be without him. I don’t want my children to be without a father. I don’t want an empty seat at the dinner table. I don’t want Kenzie to have to walk down the aisle without her Daddy. I want my family to be healthy. I want my family to be happy. And I think both of those things coincide. Without health, there’s not much to be happy about.

And so we begin.

I’m new to all of this. I have never had the mind set like I do right now. I’ve been dieting my whole life, but that’s a whole other blog post in itself (you could read this similar one to get a little background).  I tried 30 Day Shred, and did SO good for about a week straight, but then I got shin splints. They were so bad I could barely walk right. I was so frustrated. And then I just hit bottom. I gave up. It was so much easier to just give up. That’s what I do. I give up on everything. But not this time.

So here’s what I’m going to be starting out doing:

1. Drink water all day, errday. I used to hate water. Like it would make be gag. I stuck with sweet tea and Dr. Pepper. Well, pat on my back…..I haven’t had any soda for like a week now! AND I’ve figured out how to drink water: Add fruit! I love me some fresh lemon water and I’ve also thrown a few frozen blueberries with a splash of lemon juice in…oh my good gracious. It’s SO good! And sweet tea will be a treat for me now. Like only when we go out to eat or something (because that’s really rare, too).

2. Start 30 Day Shred again. I’m thinking five days a week, then walking/running on Saturdays, resting on Sundays. I’m hoping this won’t be too much. I used to love running back in high school. It just came naturally. I could run and run. I just don’t have anywhere to run around here. The park is too far to drive everyday and we don’t live in a neighborhood. I guess I can just look like a maniac and run around our gravel circle drive LOL! Hey, at least I’m trying people! ;)

3. Eat healthy. I’ve been trying to find some healthy recipes on Pinterest that will suit the whole family. I’ve got some picky eaters on my hands so this is difficult sometimes. But Doug is being open minded and that’s a start!

I would love pointers. Or motivation. Or words of kindness. Or success stories. Or if you are going through the same life changes I am, I would LOVE to talk to you! Email me, tweet me, whatevs!