Success: 2 Years in the making

TL;DR-I started eating right, weight lifting and lost 66 lbs. (Still going strong too, heh pun intended) Lots of progression pictures. Yes, some involve me in my underroos. *You've been warned* ---Pictures are at the bottom!

My journey first started in 2007 when I was preparing to marry my ex husband. I thought, “OH *kitten*! I’m 204 lbs and I need to drop this weight for the wedding!”. So off I went to an endocrinologist that my Mother said would prescribe weight loss pills. Because pills were so much easier than learning how to drop the weight healthily and figure out how to treat my body.

Well, it worked. I lost 40ish lbs and got married. Then the weight started creeping slowly back on. I would take those pills for another 2 years before enough was enough. It was giving me bladder issues, my heart was starting to beat irregularly and it turns out you’re only supposed to be on them FOR 6 MONTHS AT A TIME!! Neat.

Come 2012 I was at an all time high. My husband was treating me poorly, I decided to move out for a week to give him space and to think about what he needed to be happy—when I discovered on his computer at work (we worked together at the time and his email was unlocked and on the screen) that he had had an affair…for 2.5 years. Mostly emotional but they met up in Seattle that year before he and I renewed our wedding vows in Las Vegas…a trip he told me was because he needed to take photos (returning with a photo of where he had proposed was the real knife to the gut upon further remembering).

I moved out and into a house with a friend. I ate my feelings. I wanted to die. My person, my love, my whole world for so many years told this other woman that I was awful, hideous and mean. I started to believe it and ate even more. Being that I had terrible self-esteem, stubborn as hell (and didn’t know any better) I gave him a second chance when he begged me to come back. I knew my friends didn’t support this decision but I wanted to try to make things work with my husband. The man I had pledged my life to those few short years ago in 2008. So in October 2012, when the scale said 217 lbs…enough was enough.

I wanted to be healthy, to love myself. For a few months, things with my husband were pretty good. I started to make earnest changes in my life, working out 3-5 times a week with a cardio and weight lifting routine. Being consistent saw the weight slowly come off and by January I had lost 18 lbs.

That’s when I stumbled across a post on myfitnesspal in their weight loss success stories forum. This woman had gone from 200 lbs to a lean and muscular 155 all through a heavy weight lifting routine. I was stunned and immediately began researching everything I could. Soon bodybuilding.com was a regular website I’d go to to learn proper form and read articles regarding motivation and nutrition. The weight started coming off even faster. I was lifting 3 days a week (I’ll share my routine in another post) and doing cardio for 20-30 minutes before I lifted. On my non lifting days I did 60 minutes of cardio (usually stair master or treadmill on an incline).

In March of 2013 I started Jamie Eason’s Livefit. The switch from 3 days a week to gradually bumping up to 5 days a week was intense! The nutrition portion was a challenge but I kept at it. My tastes started to change. I didn’t really care for mixed drinks anymore if I drank any alcohol. In January I had also contracted the worst sickness of my adult life and managed to give up smoking cigarettes for good. My lungs were doing better and I felt fantastic whenever I would get on the stair master.

After Livefit, I discovered Nia Shanks. She is my guru and my sherpa that has truly guided me in the simplest and sanest ways to where I am now. I started with her Beautiful Badass program and was hooked. Compound lifts and reasonable, sustainable changes.

Come July I had lost a total of 43 lbs. Then the plateau began. I was still happy as pie and was still working out regularly but the weight wasn’t budging. I started to really evaluate what I was putting in my body and make a few changes. The thing was though…I didn’t care about the scale all that much…all I wanted was to build strength. I started her Train to be Awesome program and really started to notice the changes in my physique.

The new year passed, I wasn’t being super diligent with food over Christmas but I wasn’t overdoing it either. I was up a few pounds but enough to really start looking more at what I was putting into my body. It wasn’t until I started looking at WHY I was eating the things I was eating that really helped me bust through the plateau for the second time.

Comfort.

I was eating my feelings and my feelings were all over the place because I was unhappy with my life. I was more active than ever and had found something to add to my life in ways that I never thought possible. In the morning I would walk into the gym at my office and say “Good Morning Ladies!” to my weights and machines. Since there was no one in there, I wasn’t looked at like a friggin’ crazy person. My husband was an ectomorph and able to eat whatever the hell he wanted. He didn’t like that I was trying to lose weight and would constantly ask me “Are you trying to get skinny so you’ll leave me?”. I wanted to be happy and while he was supportive…it was only to an extent. He wanted his ‘hot garbage’ buddy to eat fast food with and smoke pot with a couple times a week and I was tired of that lifestyle and was consuming large amounts of lean protein, vegetables and doing ‘meal prep’ for the week.

I needed out.

We parted ways but lived together for a few awkward months. While his tongue was barbed and he often took his depression out on me, we had some good times and a part of me will always love him…we both needed to move on. I swallowed my pride and moved back in with my wonderful parents. After having left right at 18 to move in with my ex, it was humbling to be moving back at 29..a couple weeks away from 30. That’s when the weight really came off…being back home.

My mother never kept junk in the house when we were kids and that’s something she still does today. I’d buy chicken, meat and veggies and she’d do the same. I really started paying attention to the amounts of macros (protein, fats, carbs) I was consuming. The articles from bodybuilding.com started to make a resurgence in my daily reading and it was just so much easier to stay on track. When I would eat at home with my parents, I’d help my mother make beautiful salads and there was almost always a side vegetable. My Mom would always ask if I wanted bread or a starch and it was easy to decline. I felt like I had more energy when I avoided grains and treated them like treats. In August I finished the 15 week Muscle Sculpt program by Nia and had lost another 5 lbs bringing me to 165. Yes! I had lost 7 lbs in the month of July!!

It's now December and I'm down to 150.6 lbs!! Down 22 lbs since June. Wearing a size 6 in some things and 8 in others. My original goal was to be 160 lbs and a size 10! So stoked to have surpassed my goal and eager to go on to another.

I did it by lifting weights, interval running, eating less refined carbs and more lean protein, having a couple cheat meals (not days) and searching out happiness in myself--which I've found. I'm actually HAPPY. Life is damned good and it keeps on getting better.

My next goal is to compete in a bikini competition in May of 2015. I’ll most likely have another 20-30 lbs to lose but I’m going to be going about this in the smartest way I can muster. Patience, self-love, rational thought, reasonable goals and my friends to support me. If I don't make it by May, that'll be fine but I've got my eyes locked in on competing someday.

It’s been an incredible trip so far and it’s only bound to get more exciting and challenging from here on out.

I can honestly say, I’m looking forward to it.

Now for the pictures!!



June 2012, July 2013, May 2014, August 2014, October 2014, November 2014



October 2012, December 2013, May 2014, October 29, 2014



January 2013 and December 2014



January, June, August, November and December of 2014