I am a woman at the age of 38 years and I have been running. To where you ask, well anywhere away from the reality of my struggle with weight. You must understand that as a child I was thin, long legged girl who could eat whatever I wanted. My family wasn't the greatest purveyors of healthy food. I grew up eating food that was very high in fat. When I was a child it didn't affect me as much since I played outside for most of the day. So climbing trees, riding my bike around the neighborhood, playing with friends kept my issue at bay until I became a teenager. As most women know when you hit puberty your body changes and mine went totally off kilter. I kept eating the same way, but the pounds were no longer falling off. I started to gain weight and as we all know it goes on really quick but it is harder to lose.
I acknowledge that this is my fault, I know I wasn't given the best role model for healthy eating, but I wasn't making any decisions that I wasn't aware of. I loved hamburgers, I could eat them for every meal of the day and I started to notice that I was getting bigger but, I really didn't want to do anything about it. When I started my sophomore year in high school I was almost in a size 12, I didn't like it but I didn't do anything about it. I knew I needed to start watching what I ate, but my parents kept so much junk food in the house that my will power was none. That is a crock of course, I know that I could have made changes and I wasn't ready to change.
When I graduated from high school I was almost a size 14, I was still okay with myself or so I thought. I spent just the amount of time in front of the mirror to put on some makeup but, I never really looked at myself. Something I regret now, I wish I had really looked at myself, I might of made changes to my life to become healthy.
I kept my weight about size 14 for the next six years, not exercising or trying to change my awful eating habits. It wasn't until I was 23 when someone would come into my life that would change my thinking about how I want to live my life. My sister had a co-worker that moved away and was coming back for a visit. He lived in California, I in Texas and for a brief 4 days we were inseparable. A month later I was in Las Vegas eloping with him. That was 15 years ago in August.
My husband is a very well traveled and is a food connoisseur. I on the other hand had a limited exposure to anything new food wise. Even after I moved out of my parents home I was still eating the same small amount of things all the time. When I moved to California my husband was kind of shocked to know that I had never tried Chinese food, fish, Indian food and the many other things that he loved. I was steadfast at first in not trying the food he reveled in. Slowly he cracked my crazy ideas of what food actually taste good. He would tell you now that he believe he had to de-progam me from my eating habits.
Now your probably wondering what this all has to do with my weight. It had everything to do with it, I ended up getting to a size 18/20 before I hit bottom. Here is the moment that finally opened my eyes for the first time in my life. I just turned 37, yes 23 year later from the start of my weight struggle and my 8 year old son was going down the same path, also my mother had been diagnosed with Adult onset Diabetes so I knew there was no turning back from that moment. I knew I never had the role model I needed to make better choices and I needed to stop this from happening to him. I woke up that morning with a determination I had never had before. On that date I weighed in at 225 lbs. I was heartbroken that I had let my body get out of control. For me it is not about being skinny, it is about being healthy. So I started to work on this body.
I lived in a loft in Texas at the time with my family and below our loft was a gym, it was free to tenants so I started to go there and use the treadmill. But after 10 minutes I was bored and wanted to stop. It wasn't keeping my attention so I tried the stationary bikes and other gym machines. I couldn't stay motivated. So left disgusted with myself, I thought it is mind over matter right. Right. I decided to walk around the little town I lived in, it had a creek that ran through it, it was a pretty town so I decided if it could keep my attention I would walk, it did. I have a droid phone and there is an app called Cardio Trainer, I downloaded it and it has been the best thing I use on a weekly basis. It uses GPS to track where you walk and it tells you how fast you are walking and the amount of calories burned based on weight and speed. It has been the best motivational tool for me. I could barely walk 1/2 a mile without huffing and puffing and thinking I was having a heart attack. I kept walking though and before I left Texas in August of 2010 I weighed in a 146 lbs.
It wasn't easy, it was hard but I walked 7 days a week. Sometimes on the weekend, I walked twice a day. Since moving to Vegas I have gained about 8 lbs. When I lived in Texas there was not much to do besides work out, but here in Vegas there is lots to do. So I am still on my quest to weigh in at the correct weight. Getting closer to my goal has shown me now my work is still not done. I still have to tone up, all of that extra weight has to be turned to muscle. I need to track the final leg of my journey so I can stay motivated to finish what I started last year. So I know this seems like to much information but, I want to write this down so as my son gets older he can see that it can be done, that if you want something bad enough you can achieve it. I want it and I won't stop until I am there.
I am not going to sugar coat anything in this blog, this is going to be a real glimpse into a woman's struggle to find weight bliss.
I will log my workout information each day and I will give updated weigh in info every day. For some fitness experts weighing yourself every day is not recommended, I understand but for me it is motivation to the extreme. It keeps me pushing myself every day. So stay tuned world I am on my way!!!!
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