Weigthloss Update... faithfulness

Just wanted to take a moment of your time and give an update on my weight loss issues... I have come to realize that my plateau as it is called is not because of my body needing a break but because I had lost faithfulness towards my diet and was coasting.  This resulted in my basically stabilizing at 38 lbs to go and then actually gaining weight.  This was the status of my last post. 

I am excited to say that I think I may have overcome this latest hurdle as in the last four weeks, I have lost a total of 8 lbs.  This is the resulted in re-lossing the extra pounds that I had gained during my "struggles" and some additional pounds.  The final result is that at my last weigh in... I was only 33 lbs away from my goal weight and I was back on track.

Since that weigh in... I have tried to remain faithful to both my diet and my water drinking.  And have increased my exercise so that I am not only doing Zumba and gardening...but I have added the "Couch to 5 K" program.  I am on week 2 and am enjoying it a lot.  Not only is my clothing beginning to be looser again but I also feel more energized and dare I say it.... yes... I dare.... sexier in my own skin. 

Do I still have extra lbs in areas that I don't like?  yes.  Do I still need to meet my goal?  yes.... but I do believe I will make it.  And then who knows what will happen next... toning?  a 5K? 

I don't know what is next on this journey but I praise God for taking me on it and for being control.  And I thank you for coming along with me on it.  I will be posting more details about my C2 5K experiences as it progresses.  If you have done this program, please add your experiences in the comments.

Thanks,

Samantha

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Roadblocks to my goal - Overcome or Stall

Over the last several months my journey to physical fitness has taken several stumbles and then it hit a major roadblock.  This has forced me to honestly re-examine both my motivations and my priorities.

When I started this journey, I was strongly motivated by my Dad's death at the young age of 67 due to a heart condition.  At the beginning of this journey, I realized that my boys would be in their young twenties having to deal with the loss of their mom.  This was my strongest motivation as I didn't want them to experience at such a young age what I experienced at forty.  Somewhere along the way, about after I lost the first 75 lbs, my motivation changed to one based upon getting positive (amazed from some people) reactions.  This purely selfish motivation caused the first series of stumbles on my journey.  You cannot change your life so dramatically for such a selfish motivation.  No matter how good it feels to receive such praise.

Then I received negative comments from people whom I love.  I know those comments were based upon my loved one's own feelings of inadequacy and on their perceived concerns about the changes that were taking place.  When someone you love suddenly makes a dramatic change in their priorities from a "bump on the log" lifestyle to an "active physical fitness" lifestyle... some people can get concerned and actually undermine the journey that their loved one is on.   And I want to be very clear...I am NOT talking about my husband, Bill.  He has been extremely and wonderfully supportive of this journey.  But the negative comments were a second stumbling block on my journey.

The last stumbling block was my own feelings of self worth (or lack of worth which is what originally helped lead me to 300 lbs of weight).  I began to feel guilty about spending the money on my Zumba classes, medicines and vitamins when I was scrimping and saving with coupons and strategic shopping to purchase food for the family.  And combine that guilt with the guilt from spending three hours a week on myself when I was at my Zumba class.  My self worth caused me to doubt whether this journey was the right path for me and my family.  What a load of "mushy" self depreciating talk that was.

All of these stumbling blocks lead to a four week period of over eating (not liking myself a lot during that time) and not taking any of my medicines or vitamins.  I did not even drink the minimum amount of water daily... some days, I only drank coffee and diet dr.pepper. The only thing I did do was continue taking my Zumba classes... but that was only three days a week.  I did not do anything on the other four days of the week so the exercise was not enough to overcome my bad behavior.  This became a major road block that resulted in me gaining weight on my last weigh in.

With all of these stumbles and the road block, suddenly I was faced with a choice.  Overcome or Stall.  Knowing that if I stall the 300 lbs were on their way back to the scale.  And I would be jeopardizing my son's future happiness by putting my health at risk.  I have decided that I have to re-focus on both my priorities and my motivations.

My health and happiness is a priority in my life.  Improving my health is not a selfish goal... it is one of the major goals that all Mother's should have.  The only way to truly take care of my family is to do all that I can to make sure that I am here to take care of them.  This means that taking care of myself is a priority.  And eating right, drinking water, and working out makes me happy.  I do an hour Zumba workout and I am feeling good & smiling during the whole hour.  It is exhausting but I always feel a slight sense of disappointment when it is over with.  I enjoy it.  And doing something that I enjoy that has a positive health benefit is a worthwhile priority.

My family is my motivation.  Ensuring that I am here to see my son's grow and mature as Men of God is one of the  strongest motivation that I can think of.  Being here to enjoy the golden years with Bill is the another one of the  strongest motivation that I can think of.  But the biggest motivation I can think of is that the Lord has made me a steward of this body and I cannot obey the Lord if I don't take care of this gift of health and life that He has given me.  I am not saying that other's who are obese are not following the Lord.  What I am saying is that the Lord has placed a conviction on my heart that I need to do this and that I am worth all of the time, energy, and money that it takes to make this life change. 

So I am now re-focused and re-committed.  The last two days, I have followed my diet to the letter, taken my medicines and vitamins, drank my water, and exercised.  I cannot wait until my next weigh in to see the result of my re-commitment and re-focus.  My next weigh in is Monday July 18th... I can't wait to post the results.  I hope you will commit to praying for me on this journey.  Please let me know if you need any support or encouragement and prayers on your fitness journey if you are on one.

Samantha

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Before and Present

I have never really liked to have my picture taken.  It probably has something to do with my issues with my size.  Until I started my weight loss "get healthy" journey, I was a 5'8" 292 lb "Fat Girl"  (I have never minced words with myself... I was FAT and I was not ashamed of it.).  The issue is finding before pictures. Luckily, my doctor requires a before picture and I was able to talk the nurse into giving me a copy of it. 

Samantha - Before

So here is the official before picture...me at 292 lbs.  I also thought a picture of me in a "happy" situation might be helpful.  Here is another "before" picture taken in August.

Family photo taken 1 month before I began this journey.

Now... just because I have lost weight doesn't mean that I like to have my picture taken.  So here is the latest picture at 185 lbs (107 lbs lost).

May 2011 family photo

As you can see things have changed substantially.  I strongly recommend to anyone who is just beginning a weight loss journey, that they take before pictures.  Then when you get discouraged you can look at it and realize how far you have come and get motivated to continue to your goal.

Next time I have a picture to post... it will hopefully be of me in my goal dress size and at my goal weight.

Keep on getting healthy!

Samantha

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30 day Challenge -- Day 1 results

I must be clinically insane... to attempt a 30 day challenge while trying to potty train a two year old.  Okay, I just had to get that "vent" out before I became accountable for my actions or in this case lack of actions on day 1.

Now for the official results of Day 1:

100 push-ups -- completed
60 minutes cardio -- 1/2 completed  only 30 minutes done
1 hour quiet time -- not done
Diet -- broken by over 400 calories (forgot that I had eaten breakfast with the boys)
Water -- only 80 ounces drank

Not a very good start to a challenge.  But to look on the bright side, I have lots of chances to "improve" today.  So how am I going to set myself up to succeed today?

My game plan for the day is... first, I am going to write down all that I eat so I won't forget about  a meal along with all of my water so I can make sure that I get in my gallon.  And regarding the cardio and quiet time, I am going to do them during the boy's afternoon nap especially the quiet time as I need to recharge with the Lord's word more than I need to cut coupons today.

I am very excited that I actually did 100 push-ups... it took me all day and I did the last five right before going to bed.  But I haven't even done a tenth of that in over twenty years.  My arms are letting me know that I did it though so I didn't imagine it. Today SIT-UPS....time to get excited and motivated.  I want to see this muffin top and the bat wings gone and in only 30 days, they should be a lot smaller.

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30 day challenge

I have been on a weight loss / get healthy journey since September 2010.  In that time, I have lost from 292 lbs to 185 lbs... a total of 107 lbs.  And dropped from a size 28 (3 X) to a size 12/14 (Large).  Now I am only 35 lbs away from my goal of 150 lbs and I am only 3 sizes away from my goal of size 8 (Medium). 

These last 35 lbs are going to be the hardest to lose.  I have decided to issue a 30 day challenge to myself as a jump start/ motivational tool.  And I would like to have my readers hold me accountable to meeting this challenge which has is a physical fitness challenge, a spiritual growth challenge, and a health challenge.  

The physical fitness portion of the challenge has two parts.  The first part of the physical challenge is a challenge issued by my Zumba instructor (Lisa).  ((Check out her website "Zumba by Lisa" to see some of the great routines that we do.))  This is a challenge is to do 100 push-ups and 100 sit-ups (alternating daily which exercise you do) for 30 days.  The second portion of the physical challenge is to do a minimum of one hour of exercise a day... cardio preferred.  It can be as simple as taking the dogs for a walk or as hard as an hour of Zumba.  

The spiritual growth portion of the challenge is to spend one hour a day in quiet conversation with the Lord.  This will be done through bible reading, bible studying, and quiet prayer.  I am focusing on the 'quiet' aspect to remind myself that multitasking while trying to do a bible study is not the best way to have a quiet time.  And I believe that you have to be 'still' to hear the Lord's voice at times.

The last portion of the challenge is the health challenge.  I have to admit that I have not been faithfully following my diet over the last three months and my weight loss shows it.  So for the next thirty days, I am going to faithfully follow the diet as my doctor dictated it to me.  And  I will drink a minimum of 93 ounces of water a day with the intention to drink one gallon of water daily.

To summarize… my 30 day challenge is to do the following daily:

• 100 push-ups or 100 sit ups (alternate)

• 1 hour cardio exercise

• 1 hour quiet time with the Lord

• Faithful follow diet

• 1 gal water daily

Let's see how well I can make this challenge a reality.  Maybe after thirty days, it will become not only a habit but a lifestyle?

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5K plans from spud to speedster

Just decided to get off the couch and try to make one of my goals come true… to run a 5K.  My family members are considering doing a family 5K run in June at the Ruston Peach Festival.  This would be in honor of my father-in-law who is over 85+ years and has been jogging since the 1960’s.  We are going to try to surprise him with all of his grandchildren, as many children as we can (the others will be cheerleaders) and in-laws jogging/walking alongside him.

So how does a former couch potato… no longer due to Zumba and two toddlers become a 5K finisher?  Enter “Couch to 5K”… this is a training program that is designed to get people like me ready for a 5K in 9 weeks.  Perfect… the 5K I want to participate is only in 12 weeks that give “miss procrastinator” three week lee-way before I start.  

Not so fast… according to everyone I have talked with… I will most likely repeat one to two weeks of the program as I won’t be ready to go the next step.  That gives me only 1 week lee-way….okay, procrastination stops here.  So... tomorrow, I begin day 1 of week 1 on the program.  Goodbye cold cruel (actually very comfy) couch … hello running world, Hope you get a good laugh at this former potato / spud.

Ah… just remembered in 5 short days my new layout rolls out, just in time for me to post an update on how my first week transitioning from spud to speedster went.  Post idea coming.

See you off the couch.

Samantha

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My journey to Physical Fitness -- The beginning (Motivation)

This is a picture of me at my heaviest (it is from a cruise that my husband and I took to Alaska in 2008).  During that trip, I ran from cameras and Bill had to force me to take any pictures.  Pretty standard for most women when they are over 300 lbs, size 28, and trying to force themselves into size 3x clothing.  As you can see in the picture... Bill can barely put his arms around me. 


Yet this is not what motivated me to start becoming physically fit.  I had convinced myself that I was happy with my body at this size... even though I was in constant pain from my knees, ankles, and back.  Even though I had nightmares about falling down (which as I was very clumsy... I fell quite frequently) and Bill not being able to help me up.  I was sure that I was happy because I had a good happy marriage.  There was no way, I could be happy in the rest of my life and not happy in me... Could there?  But I wasn't happy in the rest of my life.  I was working over 60+ hours a week sometimes to 80+.  Most nights and weekends I was working as I brought work home.  I was miserable as I was unable to get pregnant after years and thousands of dollars spent on infertility treatment.  I was happy?  No...I was hiding my unhappiness behind layers and layers of FAT.  And I was slowly killing myself. 

After we adopted our son... I still did not lose the weight.  After I was laid off... I still did not lose the weight.  This is a picture of me three months after I was laid off and at my oldest son's first birthday party.  As you can see... I was still my happy self.  Still working myself into an early grave.  Was it the adoption of my second son that lead to me finally beginning to care about myself enough to stop this cycle?  I wish I could say that is was the actual adoption event of either of my sons... or the fact that God had granted me my wish to become a Stay at Home Mom.... But I cannot.

What finally convinced me that I was killing myself and that if I kept on this way I would be visiting an early grave.  It was a grave ... actually it was my father's grave site.  In August, I went to my dad's grave site to put some flowers on it.  I was amazed as I am each time I go there at how young my dad really was when he passed away. (he was in his 60's).  As I was driving back, Cole was talking to Will (babbling actually as at that time you could only understand about every 2 to 3 words... but they were happy words) and I realized that I was putting their happiness in jeopardy.  In 20 years I will be in my sixties and they will only be in their twenties.  I did not want my baby boys to go through at such a young age the pain that I went through when I was forty.  And that lead to my journey to physical fitness.  I am not there yet... but as this picture shows... I am no longer in size 28 / 3X clothing.  And after loosing  90+ lbs (now in size 14 / xl/lg clothing) , I am happier and healthier than I have been in almost 20 years.  My knees, ankles, and back don't hurt anymore.  I can keep up with a 2 year old and a 9 month old without falling down from exhaustion.  And Bill can put both arms easily around me... which he couldn't do in the first picture (added benefit... I am no longer ducking away from Cameras).

My goal for this journey is to be at 150 lbs (size 8/6  or  med/small)  that is over half my original body weight... I don't know if I will actually go down that far but we all must have goals.  In my next journey post... I will go over how I lost the 90+ lbs and what I am doing to lose the last 50 lbs.  I hope you will follow along with me on this journey and pray for me at the same time.


Samantha

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