Time to share MY story.....

So I began this little endeaver approximately 6 months ago however I have been dieting on and off for the last 14 years or so. I have been an excersise-o-holic for the same amount of time. I LIVE to excersise. Before I had kids I would do 2 workouts a day totaling anywhere between 2-6 hours a day(I would work out before and after work). I have never really had an eating problem..Do I like to eat?? Of course I do, but I was never one to overeat. I could never really understand why my weight fluctuated so much.

8 years ago I became pregnant with my first child and I gained a whopping 65lbs!!! I couldn't believe it. Luckily I lost 30 right away but shortly after I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease. My Dr. explained to me that I have had this condition my entire life and this was the main reason for my weight fluctuations. I learned what I should be eating and began to lose weight. I got down to my pre pregnancy size and got married. 2 months later I found out I was expecting my second child. This time I knew what I was dealing with. I worked out until the day before I had him and I only gained 20 lbs which I lost very quickly after having him. I returned to the gym 3 weeks after having him and started to get into the best shape of my life. I decided to train for a half marathon. During training I fractured my left leg in 2 places about 8 weeks before my big race, but if you know me you know I am crazy so I didnt let it stop me..I continued weight training and I rode a recumbant bike. I ran my half and finished(it tooke me almost 2.5 hours but I finished....and ended up back in my boot for 3 weeks). It was one of my greatest accomplishments.
2 months later I was extremely sick. Went to see my GI dr for some tests. She called me back in and sent me to see a surgeon.
I met with the surgeon and she told me that I needed to have a portion of my small intestine removed.

On July 7,2010 I went in and had a small bowel resection. A surgery that was supposed to take about 3 hours took 6. They removed 2 feet of my small intestine, a meckel's diverticulum(only 10% of the population has this) and my appendix. I lost an extreme amount of blood and almost died. I spent a week in the hospital and then went home. Well after a week home I became violently ill and got eushed to the hospital. After a day of extensive testing i was diagnosed with appendicitis which was not possible since it had been removed. My mother called my surgeon and she had me transferred to her hospital. I spent another 10 days in the hospital going through all kinds of testing and biopsies...they couldn't figure it out and I just wanted to go home! So I did..and about 4 weeks later I went back to the dr to get cleared to go back to work and to start a new medication that was supposed to help my crohns..however my ct scan showed that there was something going on and the surgeon called me in..she told me I needed surgery ASAP...seriously??? So the next morning I went back in to the hospital and had a 17cm blind loop of intestine removed. They told me I might never be able to have kids again...All I wanted was to get my life back to normal. I had lost almost 50 lbs during all these hospital stays but quickly gained it back due to the high dose of prednisone I was on for 3 months!
In September 2010 I started REMICADE treatments every 8 weeks and in November I found out I was pregnant. I only gained 22 lbs with this little munchkin however it was a very difficult pregnancy with my crohn's. I was in and out of the hospital with various complications.
Fast Forward to August 2012. My daughter was about to turn 1 and I wanted my body back! I was sick of what Crohn's was doing to my body. Everything I ate made me sick but I was still gaining weight due to malabsorption and my body thinking I wasnt getting proper nutrition. I was getting depressed. So instead of getting down on myself I decided to do something about it! I had done some research on OPTIFAST which is a medically supervised diet. I discussed it with my primary care doctor as well as my GI and we all agreed that it might actually work for me. I am on the OPTIFAST modified fast. I have 3 shakes(purchased through the program and 100% nutritionally balanced), a small piece of fruit, 6 oz of lean protein and 3 servings of veggies. I am also allowed to have 50 extra calories a day and must drink a minimum of 64 oz of water. They encourage you to workout but because the caloric intake is so low they limit your workouts to 45-60 minutes 4x a week(I do 60-90 minutes at least 5 days a week). Well since August I am happy to say that I have lost 63.3lbs and I am feeling better than I have in years. I am officially done with my program as of this Thursday and I am moving on to the Master's program for maintenance. I still have about 21.7 lbs that I want to lose so they will let me continue on the plan until I am 10 lbs away. I am back to running and I am currently up to 6 miles at about an 8-9 minute pace. I also love strength training and have started to train a few of my friends. I find it fun and exciting coming up with new workouts and sharing them with others. I have also recently begun going out of my comfort zone and taking a dance jam class at the gym(so not my style) and I absolutely love it!!!

So all in all that is my story and I was a little nervous sharing it but I am glad I did. Know that you can do anything that you set your mind to! The first step is the hardest but I promise you will not regret your decision. Hard work pays off and I am proud to say that I am proof of that!! People ask how I do it considering I am a wife, mother of 3 and I work full time, but it is extremely important to make time for yourself. I have a very supportive husband and we have a great routine and I am so grateful to him for allowing me the time to get healthy. I want to be around for a long time.

PS I would have put up some pics but I can't do it from work, but you can see some on my profile if you are interested.

SW:218
CW:155
GW:135
UGW:128