My Weight Loss Journey

Disclaimer: if you make it through the end of this post, you deserve a medal. And you have my undying gratitude.

 

I was always the chubby kid. Even though I was pretty active and played multiple sports, from childhood to high school, I’ve always been overweight. I’ve never really been excited with how my body ever looked. I can’t remember one single time this was true. Not one.

 

Not really sure what I’m doing, but it’s highly amusing!

OMG the cheeks!

Am I a sailor? I’m not sure.

 

I’ve done plenty of dieting throughout the years. I’ve tried Atkins (which worked well but wasn’t a maintainable lifestyle) and Weight Watchers (which was OK but too much math for me). I’ve lost 50 lb here or 20 lb there but without fail I would gain it back.

I’m about to admit to an embarrassing fact. At my heaviest, around Feb 2012, I weighed in at 240 lb. That’s almost double what my “acceptable” weight would be for my height. Horrifying. I don’t remember what my “a ha” moment was, but I knew it needed to stop. We bought an elliptical to use in the basement (since gym fees to the YMCA were too much and we don’t like gyms anyway-too embarrassing). I also started using MyFitnessPal and counting calories. Nothing fancy.

We started eating better and eating out less. I wanted to lose weight for my best friend’s wedding at the Mystic Aquarium in July 2012. I had a long way to go, but whatever I was able to lose by then would be better than nothing. I don’t actually remember what I was able to lose by the time of the wedding (I feel like it was around 15 lb) but I know they had to fix my bridesmaid’s dress to make it smaller to fit me, so I felt that was a huge step. As was wearing a dress!!

 

I got to pet PENGUINS!!

 

During this time, in late June 2012, the elliptical broke. When I say broke, I mean that it wouldn’t change resistance. I still could have used it but it wouldn’t have been very challenging. I had heard a lot of friends talking about C25K and how they were able to run when they never thought they could. I thought I’d give it a shot.

Right around the time I started, my company said that it would sponsor entry into the local CVS Downtown 5K for anyone wanting to run/walk. My C25K program wasn’t going to be finished, but I’d be close, so I decided to register and I would walk it if I had to. I was doing really well, progressing right along as I should, when I noticed a soreness in my right hip. I’d experienced practically anything there was to feel when I started running (shin splints, sore knees, etc) so I figured it was just one more thing I’d have to fight through to get to the other side. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

After about a week of pain, (mostly after running, not during) I went out for my programmed run and was getting close to home when all of a sudden I was completely hobbled and could barely walk. I somehow managed to limp my way home from two streets over in our neighborhood. I didn’t have an iPhone then, so had no way to contact Tara.

When I got home, I could barely get up the stairs, couldn’t walk down the hall, couldn’t do much of anything! I thought I’d just take some Advil, throw some ice on it and get some rest and maybe it’d feel better in the morning. Nope. Negative Ghost Rider. I woke up in even more pain, which I didn’t think possible.

I decided it was pretty bad, so I asked Tara to take me to the ER because I knew I’d done something serious. I asked her to take me to work first though, because I wanted to set up an out of office and let my guys know I’d be out (our reps can be very needy). Sometimes I feel too much obligation, but I’d also only been at this job for around 6 months when this happened and wanted them to see me in person to know how hobbled I really was.

Anyway, after a quick pit stop to the office, we headed over to the hospital. Luckily there wasn’t much of a wait, which was nice. After looking around Dr. Google, I was certain I had a stress fracture and when the doctor examined me he thought I might. They sent me off for an X-ray and then referred me to an ortho. I actually had to ASK them for a pair of crutches because I couldn’t walk (which is weird to me that I had to ask for them).

I called the ortho the second they released me and I was outside. I had to wait for Tara to come back and pick me up anyway so I figured it would kill the time. I couldn’t get in there until the following Monday so I had the whole weekend chilling at home, not being able to do anything. This was unfortunate for Tara because we had JUST adopted two kittens the weekend before it happened and they were little hellions as babies! Poor, poor Tara had to do everything for a loooong time. I think I was on crutches around 4 weeks or so and limping long after that.

 

Flynn thought it was fun to play with my crutches. Please ignore the messy basement and focus on the cute cat.

 

Anyway, after I met with the ortho and he examined me we scheduled an MRI to confirm because the X-ray didn’t show a fracture of any kind. I had the MRI done and they didn’t find a fracture that way either, so he diagnosed it as a severe strain. They did, however, find I had 2 cysts on my ovary, so that ended up turning into a visit to another imaging center to have an ultrasound for those. Luckily, they were nothing to be concerned about and I was good to go.

During this time I had PT exercises to do, which I wasn’t great about. I admit it. I was good for a few weeks and then kind of let it slide more than I should have. I couldn’t walk without a limp until around mid January 2013.

While I was out of commission, I ended up seeing a video for DDP Yoga. It was a dude named Arthur who was on braces to walk and couldn’t even stand up straight without pain. He did this yoga program and eating plan and ended up losing a ton of weight…but he could also RUN! I was so inspired by him that I ended up ordering the yoga program, not so much for the weight loss, but the yoga itself. I thought maybe yoga would help me be more flexible and aid with the pain of walking.

I had gained some weight back during this time, so when we started measuring and taking “before” pics for the program I weighed in at 226 (still down 14 lb at least). I found the program tough. It’s not a “relaxing” type of yoga. We were constantly moving from position to position with very little rest, if any. I found myself becoming more flexible and the eating plan wasn’t too bad either. We didn’t go past level 1 (levels 2 and 3 were gluten and/or dairy free) so I didn’t find it terribly difficult to maintain. It was just basically clean eating, not a ton of sugar/white flour, etc.

Each month, we take measurements of key areas. We chose to do chest, waist, hips, arms and thighs. We note what our weight is at that time (although I weigh myself daily). I weigh myself daily simply because I want to see how my body progresses throughout a day/week/month. I still weigh myself every morning and every night. I find it interesting to develop a pattern from it. I’m a geek.

Long story short, I’m about halfway to my goal loss of 110 lb. I was aiming for 150 lb for my goal weight, but after looking at my height and whatnot, decided I might as well “go for it” to reach 130 lb for a goal weight because then I’d be in the “healthy BMI range”. I figured if I was aiming for that high of a loss, 20 more pounds wouldn’t be that hard! I’m a little crazy like that.

I’ve decided I need to be held more accountable. I’ve been slipping lately. I tend to be an emotional eater (which I’m trying to work on) and when I get injured, like lately, I tend to get depressed. I’ve gained a couple of pounds over the last few weeks and don’t want to start going backwards again. I started using MyFitnessPal more regularly again and am working on figuring out what I’m capable of doing without aggravating my injury.

Since I made this decision, I figured why not make myself accountable to complete strangers on the web (LOL!). Seriously though, I’m going to start posting every Friday about what my weight was that week and if I’m up or down and how I’m doing/feeling.

I hope you’ll stick with me on this journey, just as I hope to stick to it myself.

 

Columbus Day weekend 2012

Around Xmas 2012

July 2013

 

August 2013

 

 

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