Thank you!!! Long post... please hang in there with me!

Hello!

Thank you all for your awesome responses on my last post. I was a little ashamed to say anything and almost decided not to... but I absolutely want this blog to show the true struggles of weight loss/maintenance and thought not only could it be helpful for me... but maybe it will help someone else who's struggling, too!

It's weird to say... but growing up overweight, I some how knew that I would lose the weight, exercise... and be the healthy person that was waiting inside! I hoped to be a great example for my family and that they would be proud of me for doing this for myself.

But as a teenager, my main goal was to be "skinny"!! High school wasn't so great for me - I was teased constantly! All I wanted to do was to be pretty and "skinny" so they'd leave me alone! and that would be "it", ya know? All of my problems would be solved and life would be peachy-keen!

WRONG!

There are so many aspects to weight loss and then weight maintenance! I had no idea of the emotional impact that would come along with it. There was transitioning from the big girl to the skinny girl, the loose skin that came with major weight loss that will never firm up and be there unless I have surgery, thinking if I had a cookie or something I was really craving I was being "bad" and therefore, ended up eating everything in sight after, etc, etc... I'm not gonna lie, it was/is a tough road! I have learned A LOT over the past ten years of my journey and in a way, I'm thankful for every step I had to take. It's an every day commitment...

Here's a couple of pics of me... close to my heaviest point...right after high school
All of that to say, I know there are set backs and this probably won't be the last! I'm not perfect - I never will be and life shouldn't have to be that way!

I got an email from one of my favorite bloggers that was awesome and totally made my morning! In it she said this, "Hating yourself is not productive; doing something about it is"... That was the main thing I learned from my "journey". The harder I am on myself - the worse shape I'm in... it's emotionally and physically draining! I struggle with this the most... and sometimes feel SO lost on how to change it. What do you do to turn the negative tapes off? I try to... and then they creep RIGHT back in!

So, as for this "plan" I referred to...there really isn't one! I don't think that being completely restrictive on myself is going to help things along. That usually ends up backfiring and making it worse. I'm trying to be really simple with my food...not worrying about making elaborate meals, just stuff that's easy to put together... whatever sounds good at the time! I am trying to cut back on sugar, though. When my eating was out of control... I was having two desserts a day... cookies in the afternoon, big bowls of ice cream at night. Not small, portioned desserts... and all I was craving was sugar and starches... so for me, if I really want something, I'll have it... but other than that, trying to stay away from it is the best choice for me right now! I usually have desserts on the weekend... so i have that to look forward to :)

On the work out front, I have decided to finally use Jillian's 30 Day Shred as it is intended. I have used it here and there and threw in whatever level sounded good... and when I took my 2 week work out hiatus, I thought a good challenge would get me started again. My husband has not had a great work out schedule since March... AND I knew this would be a great opportunity for our best friend, Lisa - who has lost 50 pounds and is doing AMAZING... to start a new challenge of her own! In fact, she will be doing some guest blogging on her Shred experience! :)

Here's gorgeous Lisa...
Here is Lisa, our friend Liz and me (Mandy)

Along with Shredding, I will be adding in some extra strength training - I love lifting heavier weight way too much to stop for 30 days... and also some extra cardio!

Today was a rest day... will be up tomorrow for Day 5 of Level 1 and some Upper Body work!

Sorry for this monster post! I hope it made SOME sense!

Last thing... Megan is having a great Chobani yogurt giveaway! I'd love to win this myself... so don't go check it out... haha :)

Just for laughs... I will leave you with a picture of our "first born child"... Pepe Le Pew... he has this thing with laying in my flip flops... I finally caught a couple of pictures of it :)


Okay... I'm out of here for the night! Thank you to anyone who could stick through all of that :)