Get Fit: Chelsea

This week, I am proud to feature Chelsea! She is a great friend and fellow teacher, and her dedication to getting fit was one of the biggest contributing factors and motivators to my own success story.  Now, before you read this, understand that Chelsea is serious.  She is hardcore. She is tough. She is disciplined. She even calls herself "harsh" - and the truth is, that's the approach you have to take if you are going to be successful.  She tells it like it is - one of the qualities that makes her a phenomenal teacher, and certainly why she has gotten such great results.  Thanks for sharing, Chelsea!

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Let’s start with the facts and a nice, solid before/after pic.  I’m 5’8”.  I started losing weight when I hit 175 on the scale (Size 12). I was 28.  As a New Year’s resolution, I committed to a diet and lost 33 pounds in 18 weeks which put me at 142 (Size 4).

Before: Taken July 2012

After: Taken September of 2013...after 4 months of successful maintenance

Look at the arms. You can tell everything from the arms no matter what your body type is (in my opinion).  I took this particular “after” picture because I could see my oblique for the first time. That shit in the after picture is good. I’m so proud of it.

I’ll try to summarize my experience, although my blog records all of it from the perspective of “after.”  I didn’t know I would be so successful, so it didn’t occur to me to blog beforehand.  Here is the full story on why I was DONE BEING FAT here.

Basically, I’ve been in the 150s my entire teen and early 20s life. I was an athlete. I had no problem being a strong size 8/10.  I never felt like one of those thin little fairy girls that could wear string bikinis and joke about how fat they were while enjoying a pair of size 2 shorts, but I felt good about myself. Good enough. On my wedding day I weighed 153. I normal number for me.  I was in the transitional year of post-college life.  I didn’t have the lifestyle of an athlete anymore. I was married.  I was VERY busy teaching, coaching 2 sports, and falling in love with The One.  I gained about 5 pounds per year. When I hit 175 and saw a few pictures of my ass and thighs, I realized I was losing myself.  And I didn’t even have the excuse that I had popped a kid out.  After Christmas Break of 2012, I was just beside myself. I couldn’t believe that I had a hard time wearing any of my clothes. I didn’t want to go out and buy Size 12 pants or Large tops because I was horrified that my body was that size. So, all of my clothes were way too small and I was very uncomfortable.  I knew I needed a black and white plan.

Eat this. Do this workout.

So I signed up for FitOrbit because I saw the program advertised on Twitter. I did it and NEVER cheated.  You see the results above.  FitOrbit gave me 6 months of an online trainer and meal plan for $300.  I think paying the money helped me stick with it at first.  There is an app with detailed workouts and recipes. You enter your goals and it makes a plan made for you.  So, no radical plan that cut out food groups or had me drinking juice only. Just good, solid clean eating.  Who knew?

Keys to My Success (in no particular order):

*NOTE: Some of this will sound harsh. I am delivering the same matter-of-fact attitude that I delivered to myself on January 1, 2013. Maybe it will work for you too.

1.     Commit to a meal plan and don’t play around.  I didn’t put one morsel of food into my mouth that wasn’t supposed to go there.  I know most people don’t have that discipline, but I’m fit and you aren’t.  Try it.

2.     Pack all meals. Prep all meals. No rash decisions.

3.     The family needs to be on their own.  Separate meals unless you have a fittie family that won’t fight it.  Don’t set yourself up for guilt or too much work. It takes a lot of time to plan and pack meals for yourself.

4.     Tell a few close (honest) friends what your goal is. They will keep you on track in times of weakness. (Thank you, Jen & Christa!)

5.     Make working out a priority. If you think you are too busy, you are lying to yourself. You aren’t. You just choose to make it an excuse.

6.     EAT CLEAN, UNPROCESSED FOODS.  Learn about it.

7.     Water only.

8.     Find a fit person and pick their brain.

9.     Don’t feel the pressure to eat socially. Go to weddings. Go to baby showers. Go to birthday parties. You eat beforehand.

10.  Be open about it socially if it becomes awkward. Tell people you are on a diet and you aren’t “cheating” today.  My opinion: if you do this regularly and people don’t see results, they won’t respect it. They will think you are a yo-yo dieter who is skipping out on their party food, but will binge on brownies at home. If you say you’ve lost 13 pounds by being disciplined and don’t plan to quit now, you will gain instant respect and they will leave you alone.

11.  Measure everything. Don’t eyeball it.

Please feel free to explore my blog if you want more of my perspective on losing weight.

Get Fit: Winter

Last weekend, Jo Marie shared about her commitment to getting fit and losing weight. (Thanks Jo! If you missed it, click here.)  This week, I am happy to introduce Winter.  She blogs over at Daily Balanced Living, and I've known her since I was a kid.  We went to church together, and even though I spent more time with her sisters than her growing up, I have always admired her for many different reasons.  This post is yet another to add to the list.  Thanks for sharing, Winter!

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Thank you so much for inviting me to be a guest on your blog Randi!

Almost exactly two years ago now is when this journey of mine began. I was a stay at home mom with four kids at home. With each of my babies I had suffered severe post partum depression. This last one was no different, my doctors gave me medication for it, but I also self-medicated myself when I felt my meds weren’t doing their job. I used food, alcohol, just whatever I could to numb my pain.

                                                                                               

When my daughter turned three I actually weighed more than when I delivered her. I am 5’6” and I weighed about 226 pounds. I was miserable. I was watching my life from the couch. I hated to be in family pictures, or any pictures at all. When I went searching for a before picture I found it really hard to find one. I was always hiding behind someone in all the pictures I was in.

When I looked in the mirror I thought the most horrible things about myself. Shopping for clothes for my increasing body was so depressing, I was wearing a size 18 at the time. I hated the way that I looked.

On top of all of this, my last pregnancy had wrecked the inside of my body. I was having periods that lasted 2-3 weeks and was in pain a lot. My doctor recommended a partial hysterectomy. After surgery, having six weeks of recovery and time to think about and evaluate my life, I made a decision to change my life.

No more watching life from a distance, I wanted to participate!

I began exercising with a friend at some free classes that were being offered near my house. There are two groups in Topeka that offer these free classes now, MAKIN Moves and Heat Up Topeka. This was a great starting point for me. I had always hated to exercise, but doing it with a group like that made it fun, I looked forward to it.

I started this radical diet called, “Girl, quit eating so much!” You won’t find a book on it; I literally just quit eating so much. What a concept! To eat healthy serving sizes of food, I also started eating more fruits and vegetables and whole foods. I quit acting like a garbage disposal for my kid’s leftovers. I really had been treating my body like a trashcan for all sorts of garbage. To help me track what I was eating and to be more aware I started using My Fitness Pal. It’s a great app that allows me to see my progress and be aware of the nutritional values of the foods I eat.

Something else that I did during this process was I asked God for help. Even though I was getting in better shape I still found that I had these cravings that just didn’t seem to go away. I read the book, “Made to Crave” by Lysa TerKuerst and learned so much about the why behind my cravings. We are created to crave God, not food, learning this changed the way I saw food. Starting June 16^th I will be leading the Bible study based on the book “Made to Crave,” feel free to contact me for more information about this summer study at dailybalancedliving@gmail.com.

Over the course of a year I lost 66 pounds. Now, two years later I am down 76 pounds and I wear a size 6. I’m not sure that I will lose much more weight; lately I have been more focused on toning and getting stronger. Some weeks I lose inches and gain a pound, some weeks I lose another pound, most weeks I maintain. I’m more concerned with how I feel instead of what the scale says.

I continue to participate in the group exercise classes, I really enjoy the kickboxing and I have taken up running. You could probably say I am even a little addicted to it. Two years ago I couldn’t run the length of my driveway without feeling like I was going to die, now I can run more than six miles. I’m not fast, but I’m consistent.

My life is completely different now; I love to be outside, working in the yard, playing with the kids. I have found that I enjoy hiking, climbing, camping, bike riding; you could say pretty much anything active.  There is this long list of things that I want to try now too, things that for years I couldn’t imagine trying.

Now when I look in the mirror I see a strong, fit woman. I have come so far; I love this version of me that I see.

Come and visit me sometime over at my blog www.dailybalancedliving.com

Get Fit: Jo Marie

I am so excited to introduce Jo Marie.  She consented to be the first of my guest posters about getting fit and staying that way.  She doesn't have a blog, but be sure to leave a comment about how she needs to start one! :) I count her among my greatest friends.  Thanks for sharing with us, Jo!

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How did I lose a bunch of weight?

First, I’m only writing this post because I love Randi. Randi and I got to know each other as young college grads carpooling together. We were young, new teachers and we were able to share many fun adventures as members of a great carpool. We shared laughs, tears, and stories and grew together as teachers, wives, and friends.

So, in true carpool fashion, I will share with you my story of weight loss.

In January 2013 I turned 30 years old. I weighed over 150 pounds (I’m 5’4”)

So, that’s me at over 150 pounds. And, I’d be totally cool with that if I was happy. But, I wasn’t happy. I was lethargic and using food a stress reliever in a serious way!

I realized I needed to gain control on my eating when, for the millionth time, I opened my kitchen pantry after a particularly stressful day at work. I was giving in to food. In a bad mood? I need a snack. Celebrating an accomplishment? I need a snack. You get the idea.

My plan: I decided I was going to walk while pushing my boys in the stroller 5 days a week and I was going to try to get rid of the processed food (junk) that I was addicted to. Most importantly, I made a commitment to making sure I got my daily servings of fruits and vegetables.

To be honest with you, this lifestyle change was actually welcomed. It felt so good to eat fresh fruits and vegetables. Since I was trying to get rid of a lot of processed foods I started making a lot of my own snacks. I made all kinds of yummy things using REAL, CLEAN foods. Don’t mistake this as saying it was easy. But, when I’d spent the last couple years indulging in comfort foods, it was fun to eat to live and not eat emotionally.  Below is a picture of me about 8 weeks into my journey. It was my son’s first birthday.

As for my exercise, I started off walking 1.5 miles 5 days a week. I did that exclusively for the first 6 weeks, and it was HARD. I’ve gradually built up endurance from there, and now regularly run 2-4 miles (but mostly 2 :) 6 days a week. If you had asked me when I started if I thought I’d be running, I would have laughed in your face!

Here were a few things that really motivated ME as I began the process. I know each person will have a different list of what keeps them going

1. MY BOYS! When I was 150 pounds I was out of breath walking up the stairs I found that my husband was the one that was engaging with them because I was sitting on the couch watching
2. I started reading a blog of a former coworker who was documenting her daily meals. She was eating only CLEAN foods. Through reading her posts I saw that eating clean was possible and, dare I say it, enjoyable. Also, another coworker regularly shared with me disgusting stories about GMOs, non-organic food, and the thought of continuing the cycle of processed foods became less appealing.
3. Zak and I signed up for a 5K in August of 2013. I didn’t want to embarrass myself with my time, so that helped me with my daily exercise.

The biggest key to my success was my prioritizing my health. I remember telling a dear friend that there weren’t enough hours in the day for me to exercise. I had a family, a full time job and I was running a business on the side. So, I had to let something go. In order to prioritize my health, I had to put my side business in the background. Best decision I’ve ever made!

So that’s my story. I’ve kept my weight off for 5 months now and I’m just thrilled with my energy level, and, let’s be frank, my appearance!

Me in October, when I’d lost most of the weight I wanted to:

And, finally, a redo of a picture of me on my 31st birthday.