Hello

ivybaylen

Hello, my name is Ivy Baylen....I will soon be 53 years young in a couple of weeks. I'm a mother to 6 children and a grandmother to 6 grand children....for those of you who do not know me nor of my journey, I'm willing to share it with you today. I have always been a skinny child and even growing up into adulthood, through my childbearing years I was always skinny. My nick name was "Bag of Bones!" I could eat anything I wanted, any amount I wanted, at any time of the day I wanted and not gain a pound. In fact, my metabolism was so fast that I could burn calories sitting still. At age 47 my body was starting to go through the change of life...menopause. At first I didn't notice the pounds slowly creeping onto my body...Then my clothes started to get tighter and not fitting quite right....I went from a size 7 dress or pants and med. shirts/blouse to a 9, then 10,12,14, and before I knew it I was a size 16/16W and in XXLG shirts/blouses. I was feeling sick and tired all the time, I was sluggish and had no energy. Just to simply climb our small staircase of our apartment to get to my bedroom felt like my heart was going to pound out of my chest. So I went to our family doctor for a complete physical and everything including blood work looked good except that I was 205lbs and my blood pressure was through the roof! I was told by my doctor that I had to at least lose 65lbs to get the blood pressure down or she was going to have to put me on blood pressure meds. For the time being she told me that I could take baby aspirin and sleep on my left side to bring the blood pressure down, but I needed to get the weight off. Well, at first I was in denial that this was even happening to me. I chose to ignore it until In November 2012 when I had to get a dress for my daughter Melissa's wedding. I was measured for a beautiful dress, but now I was a size 18.....I was so horrified with the number that I argued with the clerk about the size of the dress they were trying to order for me, that I wound need alterations to be added to the cost of the bill because the dress would be a little big. I was a size 16, not 18. Well, when that dress came in days before the wedding and I was fitted once again, it wasn't a little big on me at all, in fact it was tight! I was embarrassed ....There was no time or money for alterations.....so, I pretty much starved myself during those days leading up to the wedding and wore a girdle and tummy control pantyhose. In March of 2013 I was called to go on the mission field to Romania to work with orphan children.....I was to be working a summer camp there in July for two weeks at the Camp of the Good Sheppard. I had every excuse under the sun of why I couldn't serve God in this manner....one of my many excuses was that I wasn't in shape for this kind of a mission....well. I'm happy to say that God had other plans for me and "greater is He that is in me." I started to eat clean (only whole foods), drink plenty of water, eliminate the soda and junk food out of my diet. I still wasn't exercising, but only going about my daily routines of work. By the time July rolled around I was 174lbs....I lost 31lbs in 4 months just from changing my diet alone. I maintained the loss until the holidays rolled around.....I put back 15lbs...I was so discouraged, but still determined to get the fat off and started looking into some exercise programs I could do at home, because I didn't have the funds to pay for a Gym membership, nor the time to go. Then a good friend of mine, Tony Edwards contacted me and invited me into my first TD Nation 90 Day Challenge group in January 2014.......Our fitness family here was an answer to prayer. I was excepted, helped, encouraged, and loved by the people in this group...What a blessing to me. I then down loaded mfp to tack my food and calorie intake and still looking for a form of exercise at the time I saw the infomercials about the T25 program with Shaun T, but still was to broke to purchase it......So, I started to look on line at some barter sites and putting it out there "ISO any cd programs with Shaun T" in it......I purchased Rockin Body with Shaun T for $5.00. it was the best 5:00 I spent ever....The change in my diet coupled with the exercise program the fat began to melt away....Next, a friend from church gave me her program of Hip Hop Abs.....also Shaun T.....I totally loved it.....I lost a little over 26 additional pounds making it a total of 57lbs since I had started. In March 2014, I asked my husband for the T25 program for my birthday present and he got me the complete set that even included the Gamma disks. Following the 2nd 90 Days of the TD Nation Summer slim down challenge.....I didn't just reach my goal I exceeded it. I lost a total of 85lbs on my journey to good health and I am currently 120lbs and wear a size 6 and a size sm. shirts/ blouses. And the teeny tiny staircase in our apartment, well I run up and down them....in fact I ran a half marathon in August and my time was amazing for my first run ever. I also ran a full marathon recently on Nov. 16th and completed that 26.2 mile run in 5.5 hrs. I did this with God's help, my family, my friends and with TD Nation! Thank you for being here for me and for all of us! My Favorite program is the T25 program of course, and Insanity Max:30!

If anybody would like to join me, my link is ivy.tdnation.com