Before and during: My weight loss story...

Last week I was excited to share two weight loss transformations of real women that I also consider friends, Natashia and Blaire. As the woman behind Braidouts & Barbells it didn't go unnoticed by myself that while I've achieved some degree of weight loss success, I'm still not what I'd consider and "after". With that said I'd like to take you behind the highs and lows of my before and during weight loss journey.

Now don't get me wrong, I've developed the mindset that healthy choices and fitness are no longer choices that I will exert in intervals as the need to lose weight arises. At this point in my life moving and challenging my body in new ways is a must and honestly fast food, fried food and bread don't come close to satisfying me like a delicious meal made with a variety of healthy combinations of food. I still love donuts and pizza, they're just not high on my list these days. With all that said I've got to be honest to you my readers in saying that I chose to showcase before and after's to kick off the New Year and frankly I don't consider myself ready to make the declaration of "after" because I've still got work to do!

209lbs to 181lbs

After the birth of my children, in my early twenties, I can clearly remember happening across "The Firm: Aerobics with Weights". It was a steep purchase for me at the time for an exercise video but I made the investment having gained over seventy pounds with both my children. Everyday after work I'd commit to an hour of the Firm and the weight dropped- easily! I never counted calories or adjusted the way I ate, I simply committed to one hour a day five days a week and voila! The fat was gone in no time! Fast forward to age forty-two, I've been working out consistently five to six days a week, logging my calories on My Fitness pal and really altering my way of life. I socialize a lot less and exercise a lot more, despite that from the beginning of my "official" journey last February to now I've lost close to 30lbs with my highest weight being 209lbs standing at 5'4.

Weight loss over forty has not been easy, but I won't let it be an excuse either. I've always loved my curves but it seems I may have been so comfortable with them that I didn't realize when my weight became out of control until I began to loathe the sight of myself in pictures, particularly on Facebook! I started purchasing Spanx and body contouring undergarments to hide the bulk, and I can remember going out with my husband feeling ashamed, my confidence had dwindled! My husband and I were enjoying life and once we started dating it's more than fair to say that our football parties, outings and dinner dates caught up to me fast. I also realized how much I loved food, I was obsessed with cooking and eating good food, I loved experimenting with new recipes, cakes and pies and my waist (which was always tiny in comparison to my hips) expanded greatly. I begin picking up the healthy habits I maintained before I met my husband like going to the gym and eating "better". After about a year into my weight loss I realized I had become one of those people that always talked about losing weight and working out but failed to actually drop any pounds. Then I got serious, I had to get below 200lbs, that was my first mission.

Myrtle Beach 2012 vs summer 2015

If you've ready my post "How my fitness journey manifested..literally" then you know how important visual reminders were in my journey to weight loss. The icing on the cake was the unexpected loss of my father, who was always a beacon of health and physical fitness along with the fact that so many of my now forty and over friends were getting health diagnosis that could be prevented based on changes in our lifestyle. I realized that myself, my family and my friends were all blessed with perfectly functioning bodies and our choices alone were the reasons that we fell ill, again I had to change. I had to change because I wanted to be on the beach with my husband in something other than a muu muu, I wanted my confidence back and above all I had to change for myself.

I begin logging my calories faithfully on My Fitness Pal as well as planning and preparing my meals for the week. As I sought out healthy meals I realized that my version of healthy eating wasn't cutting it. In the past I added a lot of fat in the form of cheese and butters to my food and I thought Subway was the equivalent of clean eating!  I begin experimenting with recipes using cauliflower and a wide array of vegetables. The more I applied my cooking skills to healthy food not only did the scale begin to go down but my family enjoyed my healthy alternatives to high fat foods like oven fried chicken and cauliflower mashed potatoes.

In regards to fitness I tracked each workout on my Polar Heart rate monitor which I love, it keeps me honest in tracking the calories I burn working out. In addition, I performed a combination of exercises including weight training, zumba, stationary equipment and classes. I'll be the first to admit that I have no loyalty to any particular type of exercise, I crave variety! In my opinion, the most important thing is moving your body daily. I committed to that by getting in at least ten minutes of fitness per day, reserving my ten minute commitment for days when I had no desire to workout.

February 2015 to July 2015 (smallest bikini I've owned)!

I've had road blocks and if I'm honest most of them are due to the fact that I didn't want my weight loss endeavors to completely stop me from living life. I still workout when we go on vacation, but I indulge in food and cocktails as well. Knowing that a single cocktail could equal more than half of my daily calorie intake totally accounts for some of the frustration I've experienced with weight loss because I still enjoy an occasional drink or three with the hubs at home and while on vacation!  That has got to be limited to special occasions if I'm serious about weight loss. In comparison to my twenties you can clearly see that weight loss over 40 is quite different than my hour a day commitment from years past. I'm more committed than ever to get into a healthy range for my height, which for me is below 170lbs. As I make that commitment I'm fully aware that I'm going to have to be very disciplined in between two upcoming vacations. My husband and I have planned a vacation to the Bahamas in January to celebrate our birthdays and in May we will travel to France and Copenhagen. Knowing that I like to "indulge" means I'm going to have to stick to my guns, eat well and continuing moving in order to drop another twenty pounds and become the coveted "after". My mottos is "self control is like a muscle, the more you use it the stronger it gets". So I'm going to have to take a mighty dose of my own medicine to continuing seeing results and the way I see it, I'm worth it!

Please join me on my way down the scale, weight loss is better with friends!