A New Beginning

Like most women, most of my adult life has been spent on trying to lose weight and trying to  fit into those jeans I’ve had since high school. (Speaking of jeans, who can fit into those skinny jeans?? Do you ladies not have calves??) Anyway, I’ve tried every diet in the book, you name it I’ve tried it! From the Atkins diet to the cabbage soup diet *YUCK!* to the Southbeach diet to the detox diet…and the list goes on and on. Some were successful and at one time I even lost over 30 pounds doing a combination of the Atkins and cabbage soup diet. I literally starved myself and deprived my body of the nutrients and vitamins it needed to be healthy. What I found with these diets were that they were all temporary. There was always an end to the diet. Lose weight for vacation. Lose weight for reunion. Lose weight for wedding. What happened after the event? Yep, you guessed it! I went back to eating cheeseburgers, pastries, pastas, chips, etc…..and gained all the weight back and then some that I worked so hard to lose.

In the meantime, I was putting my body through stress with the constant weight gain and loss.

So what changed…..?

Every morning, I walk up 2 flights of stairs to get to work. And every morning, when I get to the top I am breathless, my legs are wobbling and my chest feels like it’s going to cave in. There is no reason or excuse as to why I should be feeling this way. Overall I’m pretty healthy, no health problems here. I’m overweight yes, but not obese by any means and I still like to think that I’m fairly young, so WHY WAS I FEELING LIKE THIS?

The answer came to me one day. I EAT LIKE CRAP AND I DON’T EXCERCISE. Who would have thought?!

I finally decided that THIS HAS GOT TO STOP! It’s time to make a change for good starting today. We all heard it before….”it’s not a diet it’s a lifestyle change”. Well, I’m sorry but if you have me eating 1 carrot and a rice cake for breakfast, that’s a diet! Who lives like that? I need real food, food that tastes good and food that I will crave.

I’m lucky to have a supportive husband who is in the same boat as me. I’ll be honest with you…a couple of months ago we were lazy, lethargic, sedentary and so easily tempted by food. So we decided that if we were going to make this lifestyle change and if it was going to work, then we had to do it together. We need to be each other’s strengths when the other is weak and each other’s support and encouragement.

So we decided to start an exercise program called P90X. Yep, that infomercial you see on TV late at night with all those people showing off their guns. Well, we’ve both been doing this for about a couple of weeks now and already I feel a difference. I feel stronger and although I’m not SO concerned about losing “weight” but more concerned about getting physically fit, I do feel the pants getting a little looser. BEST feeling in the world, right ladies?

We’ve also started eating a lot healthier. Cooking our meals at home and making sure that our food consists of mostly fish, organic meats, veggies and fruits. We also try to do a couple of meatless meals a week. Sounds difficult but it really isn’t once you sit down and plan out your meals. I often go to Food Network and search for healthy recipes. There are hundreds of recipes to choose from and I usually base my selection on how easy the recipe is and how long it’ll take me to make. I am no chef and my time after an 8 hour work day is precious and I choose to not slave over a hot stove. Grilling and stir frying are both easy and fast ways to cook a healthy meal.

It’s going to be a long road and a work in progress but for the first time in my adult life, I feel confident that I can finally accomplish my weight and physical goals. It feels so great knowing that!

As Tony Horton would say, “Do your best and forget the rest!”