First off, I think it's important to touch on my background with running/working out. I said in my about me section that I have a love/hate relationship with working out, let me explain...
As a child I was very active always playing sports (particularly basketball, volleyball and track). I did dabble in running cross country for a summer, but decided I wanted to play volleyball instead and couldn't do both since they were the same season. After being a three sport athlete in high school I decided to play basketball in college. After a season and a half of sitting on the bench, I decided this wasn't the best option for my life, so I quit. But I did not quit working out. I ran all the time and worked out with my sorority sisters as well. I loved working out and had the time to do it while I was in college. At Christmas of my senior year, The Hubs proposed to me and I began the beginning stages of wedding planning. I was determined to be the skinniest I have ever been (mind you I was probably about 135-140lbs when I was thinking this) for my wedding and spent most of my last semester of college and all summer working out. I would run, lift and go to boot camp classes. I was literally 115-120 lbs and I'm 5'7. People started telling me to stop losing weight as I was getting too skinny. So I did. And that was the beginning of my burn out from working out. That fall after graduation I quit working out cold turkey. I was working full time and finishing up the wedding plans and I was stressed to say the least. I gained a little weight back before the big day in November but was still in a size 6. My original dress was a size 2 which I tried on in April or May and by November I was in a 6.
Our wedding day. I was around 130-135 here and in a size 6 wedding dress.
After the wedding the Hubs and I would eat out almost every night or get to-go. We gained weight together and fast. We both decided to go back to school to become teachers and working and going to school left NO time for working out. And we gained more weight. I can't remember getting on the scale at this point in my life so I'm not exactly sure what my weight or size was.... maybe a size 8-10 and I probably weighed around 150, is my guess. Not huge, but big for where I've been for the majority of my life. Two and a half years after we were married we were pregnant with Ella. This is where my serious weight gain began.
The Christmas before I found out I was preggo with Ella--about 145-150 here and probably about a size 8-10.
While pregnant we continued our eating out and my pregnancy craving was ice cream! I was huge in the middle of the summer (Ella was born on July 17) and hot and all I wanted was ice cream. We hit up Sheridan's or Cold Stone almost daily! :) I'll never forget getting on the scale at the doctor's office and it reading 185. I had gained 35lbs while pregnant with Ella, and at my 6 week postpartum appointment I had only lost like 5 lbs. (How is that even possible I was nursing and Ella weighed 7lbs when she was born!). You would think that was enough to get my butt in gear...oh no my friends, it wasn't. I stayed at this weight (give or take about 5lbs) for about a year after Ella was born. I was wearing a size 12-14 in my clothes and was not happy.
First family picture. I maybe was a little smaller than this, but for the first year after Ella was born I was this big--around 180 and in a size 12-14. Yikes, I was huge!
After about a year of "not caring"--I decided I must do something, especially if I was going to get pregnant again! So I started Jazzercizing, and following weight watchers...we didn't actually sign up, Sean knew how to calculate the points and we did our own thing. Sean and I also started doing P90X once or twice a week. We always enjoy working out together. I am pretty athletic, so it doesn't take me long to get back into shape, but those first few weeks/months are brutal. I mentally have to fight through it to keep going. Once I get past the barrier, I always ask myself why I let myself get out of "shape" in the first place.
Right before I found out I was pregnant with Mia. About 153ish here. (I think!)
Moving on...I dropped about 25 lbs with the working out weight watchers methods and was back to right around 150-155...not quite where I wanted to be, but at least back to where I was before Ella. And bam...pregnant again! I would have liked to be around 140-145 when I got pregnant again, but I didn't quite make it. This pregnancy I was determined stay fit and not put on a lot of weight...that worked for a couple of months, and then it stopped.
About 8 months pregnant with Mia here. Sorry I don't have a standing up picture of me while preggo with her--ahh the joys of being the second child!
I gained about 20 lbs with Mia and my ending pregnancy weight was around 170 lbs. Not too shabby for not working out and not really watching what I ate. The thing is I never loose a lot of weight after delivery. It doesn't work for me. I'm not sure why but I stayed right around 170 after having Mia. The difference here is I didn't wait a whole year to start working out again...I started when Mia was about 3 months old. I did the Couch to 5K with a friend and did the Susan G. Komen 5K in August. That was the start of my final weight loss count down. It's been a slow process, but totally worth it. I haven't followed any specific diet plans, just using MyFitnessPal to track calories and exercise. I don't use it too much anymore as I've kinda figured out what I can and can't eat. And hey, now that my weight is down, running is becoming a lot easier--go figure! I still want to lose about 5-10ish more pounds to get right around 130-135, but if not, I'm good just maintaining this weight...I'm definitely not going to stress about it. I'm just enjoying my new found hobby of distance running...who knew?!?!
This was taken about a month and a half ago--I need another updated photo of myself. I was about 148 here . More recently, I'm down to about 140 ish and in a size 8, pushing a 6 again, but not quite yet... :)
I used to say I would never run longer than a 5k...that three miles was my limit and that anything else was just boring...ha, ha. Then I started running a little further and a little further and realized, hey I can totally do this running thing. So I signed up for a 5k with the hubs (the one pictured below) and did it in about 27 minutes.
Terrible picture from my old phone
I thought, that wasn't so bad...and I wanted to sign up for more...so I did. And then I thought I could totally do a 10k (that's coming up next weekend), and oddly enough I signed up of a half marathon as well. I've trained minimally for this race...maybe a month with one long run a week. (I'm running 10 this weekend), but I'm going to give it a shot and hope I don't die! :) So my advice to myself...never say never because I truly NEVER thought I would ever run a half marathon...who is this girl?
Wow, I've never really written or thought much about my weight loss/gain story. It's feels good to write it down and get it out...
Talk soon,
Brit
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