So I’ve been trying to lose weight since I had Charlie… which was almost 8 years ago. It’s been hard, but I finally managed to do it this past year.
I’ve gone through various phases where I work out really hard, and I eat a little healthier than normal, but nothing really seemed to stick.
My problem is that I’m a snacky kind of person. Our kitchen is literally in the middle of my house which means I’m constantly walking through it to get from one room to another. And I love snacks. And I love delicious things. And I have no control over myself if you put a basket of chips with salsa and queso in front of me.
Several years back right before I got pregnant with my first child Owen, I managed to lose 30 pounds. Instead of my usual afternoon nap after I got home from a long day of teaching, I decided to start walking on the treadmill. I would even wear ankle weights under my pants while at school so I was secretly getting in a little bit of a workout while chasing around my kindergarten class. I gained a little weight with Owen’s pregnancy but lost it all almost immediately. I thought I was just super lucky or whatever. Turns out my thyroid blew a gasket and there was actually something medically wrong with me. I had an overactive thyroid which meant rapid weight loss which was great. But it was also accompanied by a resting heart rate of 120 bpm, dizziness, and other not so fun symptoms. After a radioactive treatment I now have hypothyroidism which does the opposite and if not medicated correctly can make it difficult to lose weight. Anyways, I kind of blamed that for a while for why I wasn’t losing weight.
This past year, I finally decided to get serious about my health and stopped blaming my thyroid for what was really my unhealthy eating habits. I was introduced to a free app called My Fitness Pal. I put in my goal weight, and the app gave me a daily calorie goal to stay under. Ya’ll… it gave me 1200 calories. 1200 calories felt like nothing. By the first couple of meals, I was already out of calories before dinnertime ever arrived. It was rough. I started having to make some tough decisions with what I allowed myself to eat. I had to start thinking about food as “fuel” and not just delicious things I wanted to shove into my mouth. Did I want to eat my calories for the day or waste drinking them by having that 150 calorie can of Dr. Pepper? The first couple of weeks were really hard and I didn’t feel like the scale was reflecting my hard work.
The nice thing about the app though is if you work out, you can earn some more calories for the day. And since I like my food, working out has become almost a daily habit. We have a walking trail literally right when you walk out my front door and cross the street. I was already walking my dogs about a mile every other day if not more frequently because we have a puppy and she needed to burn some of that naughty puppy energy. I started walking them one mile, and then would go on another mile by myself after dropping them back at the house. Eventually I figured since I could walk 2 miles, I’d run at least part of that. So, I started running half a mile, then walking the dogs the other mile. I am not a runner and have never really enjoyed running, but slowly over time I would add on more walking and running to my routine. Now after almost a year I can run 3 miles without stopping. The dogs still get their mile walk in of course.
After several weeks, the scale did start to show some results and the hard food choices and daily exercising became more of a habit than a daunting task. I lost 28 pounds in 6 months and am fitting into my “someday” clothes that I’ve been holding onto for years. It has not been easy, but eating healthier and working out more has become easier every day.
I am not a person who enjoys lifting weights or really going to the gym in general, but some of the workouts that I do enjoy are walking or running. I do like doing the rowing machine at our house as long as I’m watching a show and forgetting I’m actually working out. There’s a super fun cardio dance class at the gym that I do genuinely enjoy. I have also taken over the yard work at our house and the rental property. I like to save money, but also you can burn a ton of calories mowing and weed eating. Workouts that result in a task being accomplished like yard work or any other similar type of workout that feels productive are my favorite kind.
Now I do have my cheat days here and there, because let’s be honest… life would kind of suck without a few sprinkled in here and there. Dr. Peppers do make their way into my hand once in a while because sometimes unsweet tea just doesn’t cut it. Overall once I made healthier eating and regular workouts more frequent, they became habits. If you are struggling to lose weight like I was, I hope that the app can help you like it did me. You just have to do it. If I can do it, you can too!
