My story so far

maroonmango211

My name's Billy and I'm a 24 ( 25 in just over a month!!) mom of two wonderful kidlets. I've never been stick thin, I weighed between 140-150 lbs in high school and was very active (life guard training, hockey, walked everywhere). I had my first born at 19 my highest pregnancy weight was 198 and afterwards it took me only 3 months to drop back to 155. I was definitely not as active in terms of sports but I still walked everywhere, just add on the stroller! I never counted calories, worried about eating junk on the weekends or made a huge effort to make sure I was active for at least half hour a day. BUT I grew up with a family that ate extremely well and I would always choose fruit over chocolate, or home made whole wheat crackers my grandfather baked over chips, that was just life for me.

I had my daughter just over 2 years ago, my pregnancy weight went to 194, and came with many back problems that kind of get in the way now. I lost the first 20 lbs almost overnight, and breastfeeding helped with another 10, leaving me around 165 by the end of September that 2010. That November my SO went away for work for a month and a half, the stress wasn't great but I chose the time alone to really work on getting fit. I did a fruit and veg cleanse for 10 days (which included one mean with a large serving of lean protein as well as a serving of grains/starch). I also started doing 45 min of cardio a day, usually zumba for ps3, followed by 15 of strength then 10 specifically just on abs. I was at 150 by the time he got back and even over the christmas holidays maintained a very healthy diet and by end of January weighed in at 144lbs (the lowest I could remember since I started using a home scale).

Unfortunately the novelty of eating healthy meals and keeping as active as possible was wearing on my SO as well as his increase in smoking (a habit of mine as well we both recently quit though) made it difficult for me to feel motivated to continue, especially when it felt like I was 'forcing' an unwanted lifestyle change on him. So old habits started climbing back into the daily routine, and due to busy lifestyle we were eating worse than ever. We were happy but we also were gaining weight. This April I weighed in at 171 at when I felt the worst, and decided to make a change. Instead of shocking my system and starting off with a very restricted cleanse and a full on work out every day attitude I started small. In the beginning I told myself that twice a week we were going to walk to the store/bank and back, I would do yoga at least twice a week as well. I also promised myself that no matter what my vegegable intake for supper (the hardest meal of the day to do well for since SO is home and loves his mashed potatoes) would be at least double the size of my grains/starch serving.

To me this felt like barely a change at all, I was worried it wasn't going to do anything and I would be unmotivated. Quite the oposite. Since then I've gone down to 156lbs have started eating much better again, granted there still are treats and nono's, I do yoga every day, we walk almost everywhere again and I've been doing the 30 day shred every day (but Sunday) as well. Its been tough and even now my SO is getting jealous of my motivation and he's jumped on the wagon to good health. I found this site when I was looking for a calorie checker since we eat mostly fresh foods and they don't have an info box on a package.

I am so excited to be here, and already what I've seen is motivating. Can't wait to continue my fitness and health work among all you inspirational people.